The Classics Club May Question: What Are You Reading?

It's a bit of a classics check in this month! Here's the question (found over at the main blog here):

Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).

So... I'm thinking this post is going to be all about my failing this challenge! Yes. It's sad, but true.

First of all, I've been working on Vanity Fair since the read along started in.... what?... February? It's because shiny, newer books keep popping up! And books that I need/amsupposedto review! So, I can't really blame the book, because the book is fine, really. The read is not that hard, but it is... different. And the other books are, well, easier. You see. Gah, I'm determined to finish it! And it just so happens that I'm done with all the other books, at the moment! So maybe I'll read some VF tonight... maybe. Or at least a chapter.

As for what I'm looking forward to reading from my classics list. Well. I look at my list and I'm not getting very excited about anything. Maybe I need to revamp my whole list? Maybe, I'm just in a mood, you know? Dang. I need to be at least excited about my list!!

And then, there's the fact that I've hardly read any classics so far this year! Um, don't I have to read like 10 a year to accomplish the goal? I think so. 

Yeah. I'm pretty much failing at this at the moment. Maybe I can redeem myself at some point. But I don't see it happening for awhile.

How's the classic reading going for the rest of you classic clubbers?

Top Ten Tuesday: Light and Fun

They are so fluffy!!!

Top Ten Light and Fluffy Books

1. Anything by Janette Rallison like My Fair Godmother
2. Anything by Sydney Salter like My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters
3. Dante's Girl by Courtney Cole and probably anything else by her (I've only  read the one.)
4. Fairy tale books by Jessica Day George like Princess of the Midnight Ball.
5. My Ridiculous Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite
6. Stephanie Perkins books I think, yes. You know, like Anna and the French Kiss and such! :)
7. Anne of Green Gables books of course!
8. Pretty much all of Meg Cabot's books, like The Princess Diaries. Love those.
9. Wimpy Kids books! Those are so much fun!
10. Shannon Hale's Austenland books. Fun stuff!

Wow, I seriously need to read more light and fluffy because I totally had to wrack my brain for this list!

I looked at Goodreads lists to get some ideas and can I just say, I'm amazed at what people listed as light and fluffy and fun?! Wow.

Which leads me to wonder what you all will come up with! :) Be sure to check out all the links over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Book Review: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Book: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Genre: YA
Rating:★★★☆ ☆
For: Review and Supporting Local Authors
From: ARC borrowed from co-worker

This was an interesting story about a music prodigy. Lucy has been playing in piano competitions nearly her whole life, but about 8 months before the events of the book, she up and quit. Through flashbacks we get the details of that story. It's sad.

And now, she is faced with what to do next. Does she start playing again? Does she even want to? Will her mom and grandpa even let her? Will it mess up her brother who is also a musical genius?

All these questions start coming to a head when her brother gets a new teacher. A young, hip, handsome one. Lucy is very much drawn to him and he helps her to start figuring out where she stands on all this.

I enjoyed the story, for the most part. Some of it got a little detailed into the piano thing and the life of these prodigies. Interesting,  but sometimes not. I did love the music discussion though, and how music moves us and is so powerful.

The strange and somewhat disturbing bit about this book is the attraction this girl has for this much older teacher. I mean, I get having a crush and all, but it goes a little beyond that. And in fact, it goes right to the edge of something not too good. I was a bit squirmy! I don't know, it was just strange.

What I did love is that at the back, there's a playlist of all the songs mentioned in the book. I actually looked some up, because there were several that I'm not familiar with. That was pretty fun.

Anyway, this book follows the tendancy for this author to write about deep subjects,  but I would have to say it's not one of my favorites of hers.

Bottom line: I liked it okay.

Other Reviews:

I like how Zarr shows a possible next chapter for the child prodigy who chooses to quit in a conscious defiance of her family and her peers. Beyond the guts of starting out a novel with a character in that position, Zarr certainly has the chops to dig Lucy out of that situation, and I think she accomplished that with aplomb. From Book Harbinger

As a piece of writing, The Lucy Variations is very impressive. Every scene, every character, every subplot worked to enhance the whole. From YA Romantics

Her characters always, always find a way to get under my skin. Sigh. So why didn’t that happen with The Lucy Variations? When I wanted to feel connected, I felt unconcerned. From The Readventurer

The Lucy Variations is about figuring out who you are (as distinct from your family) and what you love. It's beautifully written, with complex characters and realistic interactions. From Jen Robinson's Book Page


Lucy wishes that people were as familiar with the third movement of Beethoven's 5th as they are with the first. That's one of the songs she lists on her playlist. Here, I share it with you:

Movie Review: Jurassic Park 3D

Movie: Jurassic Park 3D
Genre: Science Fiction
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
Rating: PG-13
My Rating: Two thumbs up

Ever since I heard they were going to bring back this movie in 3D for the 20th anniversary celebration, I thought, cool! I want to see that!

Then I forgot about it until this past weekend when I heard them say on the radio how so very awesome it was, so it was my quest to actually get out and see it.

Yes, I'm pretty much good with the 3D thing! I know so many people who hate it, or pooh pooh it or refuse to even try it, but I think it's fun. It gave me headaches back in the old days (a few years ago) but now, it doesn't bother me at all, and believe me, I tend to have motion sickness issues!

Anyway, what I'm saying is, I guess this review is pointless if you refuse to try the 3D thing! But I say, TRY IT! You might like it!

I love this movie. All the many thousands (well tens) of times I've seen it, it never fails to make me bite my finger nails and have me on the edge of my seat. I've always thought the dinosaurs were plenty scary looking, or cool looking (depending on the variety) and not at all fake-ish.

But then again, I'm probably quite easy to please.

For those who have NEVER even seen the movie, it's about a guy who creates a theme park that features real live dinosaurs he's cloned from blood found in fossilized mosquitoes. Cool, yes? And it is so cool. Until a rouge employee decides to sabotage the whole thing and suddenly, everything goes wrong.. really really wrong.

The kids in this movie are amazing! I am blown away every time I see it by their acting abilities. Wow. Wonder what they are up to these days.

But I think, besides the acting, and the story, and special effects, I think the best thing about this movie is the music. Hands down on of the best scores out there. Thank you John Williams.


Bottom line: I love this movie. If you've never seen it, go. If you want to try 3D, go. It's awesome what they've done with it.

Book Review: TRUE by Erin McCarthy

Book: TRUE by Erin McCarthy
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Review
From: NetGalley (released May 7, 2013)

Something about the description for this book caught my eye and so I accepted a copy from NetGalley to review. After a page I thought, hmmm.... not sure if this book is for me! But, of course, I kept reading and was sucked into the story despite that first impression.

Yes, this book is categorized into the fairly new marketing niche we are calling New Adult. My understanding is that this means it features characters in college, out on their own, and discovering all sorts of things about life. But I think that it is also assumed that books falling into this category will be full of all things sex related and all will be well and okay.... including fairly graphic "almost" rape scenes.

So my review of this book is one of those mixed ones. On one hand, I enjoyed the characters and became invested in their story and what would happen and how it would all turn out. The girl was a good sort of girl who felt the need to venture on a new path. She falls for the bad boy, a boy that in reality, she discovers, is a pretty good kid. He has his own issues, dealing with his mom and his brothers and all sorts of deep life issues. This part, I liked.

On the other hand, there was just too much stuff (sex, drugs, abuse, drinking, etc.) included for me to really "like" this book. Yes, I was uncomfortable reading it. And while I've read many uncomfortable books that I ended up loving and learning form, this one I think does not fit that category for me. This one was just blatantly out there. And I picked this one up to "read now" because I was in a major mood for romance, but the actual romance was only a small part, which was very frustrating for me.

And so, basically, if this is an indication of what this new New Adult thing is going to be, I'm not sure I'm on board! And it bugs me because I think that this niche for books would be a good one really, in theory. I just think it doesn't have to be ALL about the sex, you know?

I know this is quite the hotly debated topic around the book blogosphere, so there you have my take. What do you think?

Granted, I will most likely give these books (meaning NA) more chances. I think there's a few more waiting on my Kindle. And I know I've already read a few that would fit nicely in this category had it existed for them. For instance Markus Zusak's I Am the Messenger is a perfect example. And you know how I feel about that book! So, I guess we'll see before I totally brush them off. (While I love YA with all my heart, maybe I'll find I'm "too old" for NA!)

So bottom line: I enjoyed the actually story and the characters (3 stars worth I suppose!) but the execution and method was not to my taste. (I also think had I been more up on this author's previous books, I could have predicted this final outcome!)

By the way for those interested, this appears to be the first of a series similar to the Perfect Chemistry one where the next book follows the brother's story. I like that actually. Cool.

Other Reviews: 

True shows accepting and living the hand that you’ve been dealt in life while finding friendship, love and connection with someone completely opposite. From Readers Confession

BUT my most favorite thing in the story were the tattoos... I was so touch with that... It makes me want to cry... From Books Mystify

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable read. I should have expected it, coming from McCarthy but I'm still a little leery of the New Adult category as a whole. From The Book Swarm

On the surface this novel seems to be rather similar to many of the New Adult books I’ve read in the past year. But True is different. The characters have a lot of depth. The plot has twists and turns. From WhY.A.Not

Utah Book Month 2013 Sign Ups!

 Calling all Utah book bloggers and authors, and anyone else that wants to participate!

We are gearing up for our annual Utah Book Month celebration happening in August.

Here's all the info from over at the official Utah Book Month blog:

Some things to know:

• The celebration will take place during the month of August. 
• You can sign up to participate however much or little you want. 
• Everyone is welcome to participate, whether you live in Utah or not, but remember you'll be reviewing and spotlighting Utah authors, books and bloggers.
• If you want to do a spotlight on a Utah author or blogger, you can choose to do that however you want... whether it be a formal interview or an informal Q and A, or simply spotlight them from information you find yourself on their website... or some other creative way you come up with. 
• We will assign you the blogger and/or author you'll be highlighting (you can make your preferences known in the sign up form below.)
• We hope to wrap up the celebration with an In Real Life party, just like we did last year. Plan now!
• To stay up to date with what's happening, be sure to follow the blog and our Twitter: @UtahBooks

If you'd like to sign up, go ahead and fill out this form. Thanks!!

April 2013 Reading Wrap Up

I really enjoyed this month's books! What a bunch of different things I ended up consuming! This really hasn't been a bad month considering I hardly read the last week. I was on such a roll there for a bit, and then came to a screeching halt. I'm working on getting the momentum back this week!

Anyway, here's what I read this month:

Pivot Point by Kasie West: Addison has to use her ability to see the consequences of choices in order to pick who she will live with, her mom or her dad.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: Karou unravels many mysterious things about her strange upbringing, which leads her to a discovery she never saw coming.

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa: The continuing story of Ally and her quest to find a cure to the plague that has taken over her world

Diary of a Single Mormon Female by Aleesa Sutton: Diary entries from the author detailing her desire to some day get married.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: Ed has to decipher the clues on the cards he starts getting in the mail which leads him to help out random people in his town.

Doppelganger by Milda Harris: Citrus discovers that she has been copied and her life has been taken over!

Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham: Franny wants to become an actress, but it's a hard, frustrating, and sometimes funny, endeavor.

True by Erin McCarthy: Rory starts dating bad boy Tyler and finds out that he might not be so very bad after all.

Favorites of the bunch: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Pivot Point and of course I Am the Messenger.

Plans for May:

• maybe possibly re-read 1984 for book club
• finish Quintana of Charyn
• maybe possibly finish Vanity Fair!! :)
• read some things for Once Upon a Time like:
• Hood
• Everbound
• read some more NetGalley books like:
• Transparent
• The Rose Thorn
• read The Lucy Variations which also comes out this month

What's on your list?