What have I been doing when I wasn't blogging? (Take#3)

Take#3 

(click on image for take#2)

I went on a Courtney Summers marathon. 

I downloaded three of her book... Here are two of the three reviewed..(for now).

This one I've been wanting to read for ages, since I saw it on Goodreads. Finally I found an ecopy and devoured it. It was very engaging, specifically the protagonist who is the complete opposite of your everyday heroine one gets all chummy with.

Story: 

Parker Fadley was Miss Popular once upon a time. She was a straight A student, grade A bitch, SUPER popular, cheer leading captain, dated the most popular boy in school..basically she had it all. And suddenly she didn't. The books tells the story of what happened in fragments, and her path to recovery. During the story she is stuck up and has made a goal of alienating people from her life. Did I mention, she is a total bitch to every character in the book, except her puppy Bailey.

I just didn't get what her problem was. So I read the book and found out. It was a good read, I enjoyed. But it was a super short one, less than 150 pages. The ending was concluding but too quick, it made the book so concise. I wish there was more to it, it wasn't a satisfactory one, it still left me wondering why Parker Fadley (heroine) was such a total bitch. I wasn't convinced, I guess I needed to spend more time with her.

This is the second one I gobbled up in 3 hours. This one was twice the size of Cracked up to Be. It obviously had me hooked, because I've never finished a book in one sitting. There were several powercuts n between, but I read it till my laptop battery nearly died.

Story: 

Regina Afton, opens the book with a dramatic monologue of the drunken night that made everything go wrong. Everybody but Regina got drunk and was put under the ultimate test of her social life. Popularity means EVERYTHING at school. So when Regina gets dropped out and becomes the new prey for the gang of obnoxious teen bullies life becomes miserable. Its bad enough she has eating disorders and bruises to cover, books at the pool and meat in your locker just adds to miseries. This story as opposed to Cracked up to Be was longer, and indulged in the nightmare that Regina survived. After reading this, suicide because of bullying and peer pressure made SO much sense. Courtney seems to be picking up, touchy everyday topics and putting it out there brutally. Her heroines are never perfect and never nice, their flaws aren't stupid and easy to and can't be fixed by some good ol' lip action.

When I had a brief affair with high school drama, I always thought about why people never wrote about the popular girls- I mean everyone has a story to tell. The looser-to-winner ones were so cliche and tiresome. And Voila- Some Girls Are. 

All of the characters are so unbelievably stuck up, so stuck up that I wish they would just kill themselves already. But sadly no one did. Everybody just leads damages lives...

A very absorbing read, that kept me going for the end despite the tedious length I had to cover. The ending just like Cracked up to Be was so abrupt yet final. Like you wish the author would put me out of my misery already and wham there it is the end! No soft corners, just there..it isn't delved upon unlike all the misery..*sigh*..

If you haven't :

read Courtney Summers

think bullying and popularity are exaggerated issues of easy to deal with

want to read about the popular people's stories

Go for it! 

What have I been doing when I wasn't blogging? (#2)

Take#2

(click on image for take#1)

This I borrowed many light years ago from the local library, because its Douglas Adams. But I didn't get round to reading it until a few weeks ago. It was hilarious, not as brilliant as the Hitchhiker's Guide. It was imaginative piece of science fiction but not great. If i had to give it stars I would give it 2 for imagination and humor.


Story: A ultra- luxurious and a very technological advanced spaceship has been designed by the Leovinus Greatest Genius in the Universe. The job of constructing was giving to the Blerontin Government, instead of the Yassacans (who are by the way the best engineers on this side of the universe) due to some complications. The Blerontin people in turn employed the Amalgamated Unmarried Teenage Mothers' Construction Unit.As though that wasn't bad enough, they even compromised on budget and cut corners because the expenses were way too high. This has consequences- Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure(EMF) and other maladies. The book traces the journey the ship takes to earth, picks up a bunch of earthlings, cruises around a bit, then to the Yassacans planet, to earth again and back to Belrontin. It consists of crazy humor, bizarre characters and logic, super cool gadgets and lots of weird happy endings. Oh, apparently the author Terry Jones, wrote it in the nude! 

         

What have I been doing, when I wasn't blogging? (#1)

What have I been doing is short feature that is going to tell you what I have been upto instead of blogging. 

I was originally going to make it one post. Surprisingly it turned out to be very long, so I decided to make it a series of posts. 

Take#1 

This, I won a copy of in a giveaway. I have this habit of pushing books that I own down the TBR shelf. They go right at the end, since I own them. But I picked it up, because I was looking for a hardback to do some art and convert into a clutch. Crazy I know! It took me forever to even consider damaging a book for vanity. *sigh*. But its recycling, especially if its a book I don't like. Except turns out I did enjoy the book even though it was not my genre of tea.

Story: 
This was the second in a series of 5 (so far). I read this one without reading the prequel. The story goes something like this, Ethan Wate is in love with Lena Duchaness, it appears that they started their fling in the previous book. In this one, Ethan has been accustomed to the fact that she is a dark Caster, creature from the underworld. In fact, I think the whole town of Gatlin, where the novel's been set seems to be comfortable with the thought of a dark world, another dimension existing beneath their feet.
Anyway, Lena's on a very important stage of her life in the Caster world, choosing to be Light or Dark. In the process she undergoes emotional dilemma accepting her powers and taking in the funeral of her uncle (whom she was close to). During phase emo, she gets distant from her lover boy- Ethan despite the psychic connections they share. 
He is madly in love with her and goes on an Alice in Wonderland style quest for her with his best friend Link, and a English girl who is not who she appears to be- Olivia. Together they set out to look for Lena, who has runaway with a dangerous vampire hybrid creature into dangerous of course! Involved in the book are various characters with supernatural abilities like spirit calling, divination, persuasion and so on..


I was having a reading block, before I picked up this novel. I started reading with the sole purpose of cutting up this book, because it was pretty but didn't sound like my thing. But as I got into it, I ended up spending days absorbed in the books. I also admire the fact that two authors could work together on one series and bring their combined idea together. It was different from when a single author spends days writing out an imaginative piece. 

--x--

Take#2

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