Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy - Sonya Sones

"Stop pretending.
Right this minute.
I'm your sister.
Don't you tell me you don't know me.

When her older sister has a shocking and unexpected mental breakdown, Cookie embarks on a fierce emotional journey to keep her own sanity, deal with friends who shun her, and find new love. Sones's powerful poems explore the chilling landscape of mental illness, revealing glimmers of beauty and of hope along the way.
Inspired by the author's true story."

It only took be about 20 minutes to read this book, and throughout those 20 minutes, I both enjoyed and disliked this book. I feel that Sonya Sones did an amazing job of explaining what Cookie felt as her older sister snapped and had to go into a medical institution, but I didn't like that there was really no character development. This book is so short that you can't really get a feel for the characters, until the book ultimately ends.. I absolutely adored the way this book was written, leaving out many of the details and only telling the main details and leaving the bulk of the book to the reader's imagination. However, some of the branches of this book aren't explored. Around the middle of this book you find out about a kind-of love interest that Cookie has, but that supporting character isn't explored and only shows up once, leaving the reader confused as to why the character was introduced in the first place. It doesn't make sense to me that Sones would introduce a character that could have major influence over Cookie's character development and then not bring them up again. Another thing that I disliked about this book was the way it ended, I wanted to read more and I wanted to see how the events progressed. I don't know if there is a sequel to this book, but if there is, I'd love to pick it up and see if any of these things are explored more. Overall, I'd give this book a 2/5, and I would recommend it to people 10 and up.

Stone Butch Blues -- Leslie Fienberg

Stone Butch Blues – Leslie Fienberg

               

Very emotional and devastating. This book tells of the cruel world behind transsexual eyes. You experience the horrors of being a homosexual in the 1950’s. How the police raped them how everything was their fault. Very emotional. It contain drugs, bars, sex so I recommend to a mature audience of 16+ J

Rating J

Grading scale

ü Hüdfagghoutin’ – This book has got to be kidding me. Was the author high when (s) he wrote this?!? I can’t think of another word to describe this horrid piece of work other than Hüdfagghoutin’!

‽ Questlimation Mark – This book made me think “What the heck?!?” It’s not the worst thing but it’s defiantly not the best. I have no idea what the book is supposed to be telling me. I wouldn’t recommend it. It bored me out of my freaking mind!!

J Smiley Face – This was an awesome book. I enjoyed reading it and I would love to read it again. The story was fabulous and I’ll recommend it to people.

⓮ Fourteen – This is the highest rating I will give a book. It’s only reserved for my absolute favorite books. If it gets a Fourteen then you know you HAVE to read it. I absolutely couldn’t take my eyes off the book until it was done. I probably stayed up all night and day to finish. This is a book that I’ll be reading many times in the future. It touched my heart in a way that can only be described as magic and I fell in love with one or more of the characters. I will insist on people reading this book and hope that someday I will marry it. 

Sweep Sundays – Eclipse – Cate Tiernan

Sweep Sundays – Eclipse – Cate Tiernan

This book’s point of view is between Morgan and Alisa Soto. They join forces with Hunter and Daniel to combat the Dark Wave. What will happen when the dark wave is threatening to take them out and the only way to stop it is by killing a blood witch?

`KT

Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austin

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austin

 

To be honest I could not get into this book.  I couldn’t understand  the writing because it was so old. And because I couldn’t understand it, I couldn’t get into to it and I got bored very easily. I got half way through and there was no love story forming. So maybe one day I’ll stick through it. If anyone can explain in modern writing what happened I will marry you.

Rating: ‽

Grading scale

ü Hüdfagghoutin’ – This book has got to be kidding me. Was the author high when (s) he wrote this?!? I can’t think of another word to describe this horrid piece of work other than Hüdfagghoutin’!

‽ Questlimation Mark – This book made me think “What the heck?!?” It’s not the worst thing but it’s defiantly not the best. I have no idea what the book is supposed to be telling me. I wouldn’t recommend it. It bored me out of my freaking mind!!

J Smiley Face – This was an awesome book. I enjoyed reading it and I would love to read it again. The story was fabulous and I’ll recommend it to people.

⓮ Fourteen – This is the highest rating I will give a book. It’s only reserved for my absolute favorite books. If it gets a Fourteen then you know you HAVE to read it. I absolutely couldn’t take my eyes off the book until it was done. I probably stayed up all night and day to finish. This is a book that I’ll be reading many times in the future. It touched my heart in a way that can only be described as magic and I fell in love with one or more of the characters. I will insist on people reading this book and hope that someday I will marry it. 

The Hunger Games - Susanne Collins

Summary: in future North America, where rules of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen year old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

Review: When I first glanced at this book, I skimmed right over it. At the time, I didn't like the cover art, nor did I understand it. After reading this book, however, I understand the design and I really like it's layout. I would rate this book a 4.5/5 because, although I finished this book in about two days, it felt like something was missing from it.

The characters in this book mesh so well, it's almost like you're fighting the battles, both real and internal, with them. Suzanne Collins has really outdone herself in reference to the backstory between the Capital (the government) and the districts, and the personal histories that go along with each character. While explaining these complicated relationships, I didn't feel that she took away from the plot or the main idea of the story at all, and that's what's so great about this book.

My favorite character in this book would have to be a tie between Haymitch and Peeta. They're both such great characters! It's hard to pick just one. Haymitch is such a complex character, and I don't want to say too much without giving anything away, but I really feel like he tried to do what was best. He was a really good teacher to both Katniss and Peeta, although sometimes his methods were a bit odd, he taught them a lot. As for Peeta... Well, he's got this whole tortured good guy thing going on and I really feel like he challenges Gale by being the exact opposite.

Please, read this trilogy especially if you like fast paced action books. It's amazing and you definitely won't regret it!

-Leah

Sweep Sundays – Origins – Cate Tiernan

Sweep Sundays – Origins – Cate Tiernan

Hunter found a book while he was in Canada and it is a memoir of one of Morgan’s ancestor’s. it tells the story of how she fell in love, had her heart broken, and created the first dark wave for revenge.

-KT

In My Mailbox

Polls!

Hey guys! This is just a little update on what we've done with the blog. We've added a 'Polls' page. Please, check it out! We worked really hard on it and would like to know what you think about it. Please leave comments below telling us what you think about this new gadget. It'd also be really cool if you would answer the poll question. We'd love to hear from you.
--Leah

Sweep Sundays – Seeker – Cate Tiernan

Sweep Sundays – Seeker – Cate Tiernan

This book is from Hunter’s perspective. My dream book J and it sucked because Leah gave me Strife and Seeker at the same time and I had to promise her that I would read strife first L I hate you.

So Hunter is on the hunt for his parents. When he finds them he finds death and dark magick. And then he cheats on Morgan. How nice J

-Kay