Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Ten of the Year!

It's a pretty straight forward prompt today ... but not necessarily an easy one!

Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

I gave these books five stars:

Noggin by John Corey Whaley: He got a body transplant!
Donner Dinner Party by Nathan Hale: gruesome tale told in a fun graphic novel way
Prodigy by Marie Lu: the second of this awesome dystopian
Death Sworn by Leah Cypess: falling in love with an assassin of course.
Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi: The end of series. Sad and awesome!
Champion by Marie Lu: Ditto!
The Distance Between Us by Kasie West: a perfect contemporary YA. Loved!
Dangerous by Shannon Hale: very fun mash up of genres

I gave a lot of books four stars, but I choose these two to round out my ten:

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton: an intriguing sort of darkish tale
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: the book everyone is talking about!

What have been your favorite books so far this year? Link up over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Book Review Discussion: Shucked by Megg Jensen

Book: Shucked by Megg Jensen
Genre: YA Contemporary
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Fun
From: Ebook from Amazon or somewhere. I can't remember!

Short Synopsis: I picked this one up on a whim because it sounded sort of like the book I'm trying to write.... which of course made me curious. It's about a girl who has to spend the school year (in my book it's the summer) on a farm with her grandparents. She is not happy because she is used to gallivanting around the world with her archaeologist mom, but now her mom has been assigned something dangerous, so she has left Tabitha with her grandma. Tabitha feels very new at the whole teenager high school thing, so she has learn so much stuff... including how to flirt and how to be a cheerleader and how to not be too rough on people with her taekwondo skills. Also, math. But, besides all that, she learns some shocking things about one of her teachers, and that her mom is up to something other than what she's been letting on, and somehow Tabitha gets all mixed up in everything!

My Response: It's a cute fun story. I saw many resemblances to what I'm trying to write, but also to what Kathy is writing too! It was sort of a mash up of the premises of our two books. How weird is that? So it was fun to read and to learn what I liked that this author did and what I didn't like. It has it's problems but for the most part, it was fun to read and I enjoyed it!

Bottom line: Fun!

Let's Talk About: Plot. I think this story has some issues with the plot thing. Some stuff just didn't make sense or was too, you know, weird. And I know the story I'm working on has the same sort of issues. But for me, plot is such a slippery sort of thing! What makes it good? What makes it bad? Is plot only for people with wild imaginations? Or can plot be more a simple subtle thing? What's your take on plot?

Other Reviews:

It’s a rocket-paced read full of outlandish, comedic coincidences that make it easy to keep turning pages. From Lehua Parker

And while the plot started off fantastic, even if a bit far-fetched, it quickly takes a turn for just plain OUT THERE. From For Love and Books

Tabitha’s voice is hilarious and she carries the story. ..... However, the book suffered some identity issues. From Kristen S. Walker

Currently: Coming Home

CURRENTLY

(Written on Saturday evening, our last day on vacation. Coming home tomorrow, back to reality.)

Listening: Random playlists on my iPod.

Watching: At this very moment, we are sitting in a hotel in Las Vegas (well, technically Henderson) waiting for Ghost Adventures to start so we can see the Whaley House, which we just visited in San Diego, being featured. We excited! We want to hear all the stories!

Reading: I've read quite a bit on this vacation. Currently, I'm in the middle of The False Princess for book club. But I loved reading the latest from Kasie West, On the Fence, which comes out in July.

Writing: Not doing well here. Still working on editing the Nano project. I go in spurts. I'm hoping to have a big spurt this coming week!

Blogging: Survived Armchair BEA. I was pretty active for the first part of the week, but then had to get ready and then leave for vacation the second part. I didn't visit many blogs, sadly. Maybe I'll catch up to a few.

Eating: Oh my word, eating on vacation as been terrible and wonderful! We've had British, Italian, French, Mexican, Greek, Japanese and Chinese! And lots of American hamburgers too! And fudge from Old Town!

Crafting: What? Crafting? What's that?

Miscellaneous Vacation Notes:

• We survived a day in Disneyland. I could never do three or five days like most people do. But we kept track of the rides we rode... it came to 20 which meant it cost us $5 a ride. Worth it? Or no?
• San Diego is an awesome city. We love that place!
• We visited the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. That was awesome too.
• We saw Edge of Tomorrow instead of The Fault in Our Stars.
• We walked on the beach only for a minute.
• We spent a day at the zoo. Love the zoo there.
• Las Vegas is HOT. San Diego is PERFECT!
• There's some really weird shiny things in the middle of the desert. They will blind you. Just outside of Las Vegas. Be warned if you are driving that direction.
• Using Airbnb.com was great again! Nice apartment in the Old Town neighborhood! Better than hotels.

Well, enough of what I've been doing. What have you all been up to?

Panoramic view from Cabrillo National Monument

Our apartment for the week.

The back of the haunted Whaley House.

Eating Dole Whip at Disneyland.

On the beach.

Old Town San Diego

Sunset in Las Vegas

Fountains at the Belagio

Becoming a soldier at the Mormon Battalion Center

The baby panda is getting big!

The shiny things in the desert!

Book Review Discussion: An Ocean Atween Us by Angela Morrison

Book: An Ocean Atween us by Angela Morrison
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: ebook bought from Amazon

Short Synopsis: This is the story of young Will Glover who works as a coal miner in Scotland in the 1800s. As the book opens, he has just realized he's in love with Lucie and he makes big plans to ask her to marry him. But then, that very day in fact, his father decides to set sail across to Canada, to Nova Scotia (New Scotland... something I just learned from this book!) to make his fortune, and of course, take the whole family with him. Will is devastated. But he goes anyway, and hopes to come back for Lucie.

My Response: Based on the ancestors of the author (her great great great grandmother's big brother to be specific) I found this to be a fun look into the past of what could have been the story of many of our families. It's written in very heavy Scottish brogue which takes some getting used to, but I found it to be very endearing and I actually ended up quite loving it. I could hear that accent in my head and what's better than a Scottish accent? Not much I tell you. The story is a simple one but still holds much emotion and excitement. I found it so hard to believe that a kid this young (14 to 15 years old) would be doing the things (and wanting the things, like to get married already!) that this kid does. I guess that's how it was back then? And people aged so fast doing this hard work!

Bottom Line: I really enjoyed it. Fun family tale.

Let's Talk About: Do you have family stories of your ancestors? Have you written them down, in any form at all? I love how this author has taken a family story and embellished it, given it emotion and characters and richness, and turned it into a novel. I love that! I'd love to do the same thing to my family stories some day! What family story would you love to turn into a novel?

Movie Review: Xmen: Days of Future Past

Movie: Xmen: Days of Future Past
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy
Rating: PG13
My Rating: Two thumbs up

I'm a late bloomer regarding the Xmen thing. I think I missed the first several movies but then caught up to them on DVD. But the last few I've been right there when they came out! This one sort of slipped under my radar until my sister came to visit and said, hey, we should see Xmen! I thought, yeah, we should actually!

This one is about how the guys of current Xmen days are facing a huge problem. The bad guys have taken Mystique's DNA and created a weapon out of it. The only way they can think to stop this is to go back in time at the moment when she (Mystique) kills the bad guy and stop her. You'd think killing the bad guy would be good, but no, it sets in motion the events that cause her to be captured whereupon her DNA is stolen!

Well, the only guy that can handle the going back in time procedure is Logan aka. Wolverine. So, he does...and we suddenly find ourselves in the awesome 70s when Charles has lost his power and is a drunken recluse being tending by Beast. It's very sad, but Wolverine convinces him to help and off they go to stop Mystique.

Of course it's not easy and stuff happens and it by the end, all your nails will be bitten off! Yep. Intense! And that dumb old Magneto messes everything up like usual, even though in the future (or the current?) he is trying to help.

So, yes, of course I loved it! The action was AWESOME! And everything else. I love Beast. And I'm intrigued by Warpath. We need more of him, okay? And, ah, they are all so cool. Oh, and a new character... Quicksilver! I think he's new anyway? Yes? No? Anyway... he was the BEST! There is scene... just... yes... so so good!

Here's the trailer for those interested:

Book Review Discussion: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

Book: The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Book Club (not mine, my mom's!), Supporting Local Authors
From: Bought it!

Short Synopsis: A young mother living in a dump in Cambodia wants to figure out how to make her sick baby better. When she realizes the ornery rent collector knows how to read, she begs her to give her lessons. She feels the ability to read will better both her life and the life of her baby. In the process of the reading lessons, she not only learns to define literature, but she learns the back ground of the rent collector herself and it's not at all what she imagines in the beginning.

My Response: A very profound look at what's important in life. Is it where you live? What you own? Or is it what you know? Or maybe what you've experienced? I enjoyed this look into a lifestyle so different from my own. I also enjoyed the look into the history, the terrible history, of the Khmer Rouge... stuff I remember hearing about when I was a kid, but never really understood. Not that I understand it now, except that it's not a good thing.

Side note: The author came to my mom's book club and told the story about how this book came to be. His son was working for the Cambodian Children's Fund and wanted to do a documentary film on them. But he ended up finding this woman and her family and filmed them instead. It went on to win a bunch of awards. The author was so moved by this family, that he decided to write their story. The book is fiction, with most of the story of the rent collector made up, but the family it's about is real. There are even pictures included!

Bottom line: I really enjoyed this one!

Let's Talk About: One of the interesting things the author discussed when he came was how they have tried and tried to hep this family get out of the dump, but no matter what they do to help, they just keep on living there and doing what they know best.. how to pick garbage and scrape out a living at it. We talked about the "teach a man to fish" thing, but it seems it just doesn't work.  What a frustrating thing this is! What do you think?

Other Reviews:

This story is eye-opening, intellectual, heartbreaking, and inspirational. From Sincerely Stacie

The Rent Collector has such a great message about hope and happiness amid struggles and trials. From I Am a Reader

I will savor this book, the characters, the message and my personal thoughts about life’s perspective. From Bookworm's Dinner

My heart was so moved by this tender story. A triumph rising out of tragedy and hope out of despair. From Swinging on Small Hinges

Reading Recap for May 2014

It's been a weird reading month. I don't know how else to explain it. Just weird.

Here's what I read for May:

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: The story of a girl who starves herself nearly to death and how she sort of manages to pull out of it.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: Four cousins spend the summers on the private island owned by their grandpa and one summer, something happened.

Signed, Skye Harper by Carol Lynch Williams: A girl and her grandma set out on a road trip to rescue the mom, but things don't go as planned.

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright: What life is like living in a dump in Cambodia and one woman's courage to change her fate.

The Hitler Dilemma by Carolyn Twede Frank: This boy has to join the German army and fight for Hitler, even though his morals say it's wrong.

An Ocean Atween Us by Angela Morrison: The story of William Glover and how he ends comings to Canada from Scotland and get a mine of his own, and a family too.

Favorites of the month: We Were Liars and The Rent Collector.

Plans for June:

• Read The False Princess for book club.
• Read Drift for a blog tour
• Finish Words of Radiance
• And I'm really not sure what else right now! How's that for committing?