Just One Year (Just One Day #2), by Gayle Forman

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Equal parts romance, coming-of-age-tale, mystery and travel romp (with settings that span from England’s Stratford upon Avon to Paris to Amsterdam to India’s Bollywood) Just One Day and Just One Year show how in looking for someone else, you just might wind up finding yourself. 

After spending an amazing day and night together in Paris, Just One Year is Willem's story, picking up where Just One Day ended. His story of their year of quiet longing and near-misses is a perfect counterpoint to Allyson's own as Willem undergoes a transformative journey, questioning his path, finding love, and ultimately, redefining himself.





I have been waiting for Just One Year from the moment that I finished Just One Day.  The latter completely blew me away and I couldn't wait for Willem's POV of their time apart and their reconnection.

So imagine my surprise at the disillusionment I felt throughout the novel.  Do you see the description above?  Where it says "picking up where Just One Day ended"?  Guess what I was expecting.  FOR THIS BOOK TO PICK UP WHERE THE PREVIOUS ONE LEFT OFF.

Guess what I got?  NOT THAT.

Allyson's story in JOD was empowering and full of self-discovery.  Willem's story in JOY was all wallowing in self-pity and shacking up with other girls while he was oh-so-in-love with "Lulu."  And I just didn't buy it.

Maybe I would have felt differently if there had been more interaction between the two protagonists.  But I kept anticipating their reunion (picking up where the last one left off!!!) and felt nothing but anxiety and disappointment with each chapter.

WTF, Gayle Forman?  Your previous works have left me bleary-eyed from too much crying, but were always worth the heartfail.  This?  Bleary-eyed from near-boredom.  Had I known that I wouldn't get a whole book--or at least part of a book--with Willem and Allyson together, I'm not sure I would have read it.  And I'm really glad that I borrowed this from the library instead of purchasing it; I would have rated it lower if I had spent any money on this sequel.  As it is, three stars is being generous.

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths #1), by K.A. Tucker

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Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgivable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.




This was a good book and a good start to a new series.  I don't normally read series until they're complete, but I loved this cover and the description, so I plunged in.  And I liked it.  Unfortunately, I don't like it enough to continue with the next book.

There isn't a whole lot to distinguish Ten Tiny Breaths from other New Adult books: stereotypical characters; tragic pasts; and insta-love.

The writing is good and it's a quick read, but it's very cookie-cutter.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Don't Get Too Comfortable, by David Rakoff

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Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems 

David Rakoff takes us on a bitingly funny grand tour of our culture of excess. Whether he is contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings populism of Hooters Air; working as a cabana boy at a South Beach hotel; or traveling to a private island off the coast of Belize to watch a soft-core video shoot—where he is provided with his very own personal manservant—rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly skewered. 

Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. 

Simultaneously a Wildean satire and a plea for a little human decency, Don’t Get Too Comfortable shows that far from being bobos in paradise, we’re in a special circle of gilded-age hell.




I don't get the hype surrounding the likes of David Rakoff and David Sedaris.  I don't find either one charming, or witty, or funny.  I read this book as part of a challenge and have no desire to read any of his other works.

If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't), by Betty White

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It-girl Betty White delivers a hilarious, slyly profound take on love, life, celebrity, and everything in between.

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity.  

If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford (true) to her beauty regimen ("I have no idea what color my hair is and I never intend to find out") to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live despite her having declined the hosting job three times already.

Featuring all-new material, with a focus on the past fifteen years of her life, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and to the point--just like Betty White.




I love Betty White.  I think she is a brilliant comedienne and one of the most down-to-earth celebrities in Hollywood.  But I didn't love this book.

I don't really know what the point of the book is supposed to be, so I came away from it thinking nothing more than "Huh, okay."  In fact, I'm scratching my head and wondering why this book was written and published.  I didn't learn anything that I didn't know before.

Wait!  That's not true.

I didn't know that she was born and raised in Los Angeles: I'm still convinced that she's from St. Olaf.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple

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Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears.

It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. 

A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.




Well, crap. I purchased this book with my Audible credit after I read several glowing reviews from friends and other Goodreads members. It's satirical! Laugh-out-loud funny! One of the best of 2013!

*sigh*

I have to disagree. There were a handful of funny moments and several wry eye-rolls, but nothing that would send me into fits of laughter. Maybe it wasn't supposed to? But since it's written by the same woman who wrote for Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen, I expected awesomely snarky comments.

I didn't like any of the characters, though I did love the voice-over artist. She had a great voice and really captured the characters' personalities.

The book was decent until about halfway through.  At that point, I almost quit. The only reason I kept going? I bought it, dammit!

I was quite unsatisfied with the ending: it was all wrapped up too nicely. Part of the satire? Probably, but at that point I just wanted to be done so I could move on to something else.

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

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January 24th - After you've had it, there isn't even life without drugs...

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life. 

Read her diary.   
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.

For thirty-five years, the acclaimed, bestselling first-person account of a teenage girl's harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. As powerful -- and as timely -- today as ever, Go Ask Alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction.




I knew going in that "Anonymous" didn't actually write the diary entries; that Beatrice Sparks misrepresented herself and the book's origin.  So I read it as a fictional novel.

There is NO way that a teenager speaks this way.  Even if I hadn't known that this wasn't a true story, that would have been a dead giveaway.

Maybe it was controversial and shocking for its time, but there are much better books published now.  If you want to read a compelling novel about drug abuse, try Ellen Hopkins' Crank trilogy, a fictionalized account of her daughter's experience.

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles

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Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles’s crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.



The main character, Gene, was whiny and annoying. I'm not sure why this is a classic.

The narrator of the audiobook was very breathy, which was quite distracting. I kept waiting for him to take his next breath. 

The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides

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The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters' breathtaking appearance on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate and fragile lives disappear.




I'm not sure why this is part of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It was just "meh" for me.

One For The Money (Stephanie Plum #1), by Janet Evanovich

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Welcome to colorful Trenton, New Jersey, and the wild and wonderful world of Stephanie Plum. In One for the Money, rookie "apprehension agent" Plum may be a bit wet behind the ears, but nobody's gonna take it easy on her; especially her first skip, an ex-cop and murder suspect named Morelli.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because I actually finished it and didn't toss it aside.

I knew going in that this book was published in 1994, so I expected some outdated references. I laughed out loud at the reminder of wireless land-line phones with pull-up antennae and "car" phones. Ah, the good ol' days when you got 20 minutes a month and each additional minute cost $1 (as my father used to constantly remind me). But the Spandex biker shorts? Ugh. How many outfits did she wear in this book? I swear that 60% of them involved Spandex and t-shirts.

:: shudder ::

What I mostly took away from the book was the ridiculous machismo. I really don't get the whole "I know he may be a murderer, but he's really hot, so it's okay to flirt with him" thing. The main character -- Stephanie Plum -- was not nearly as outraged at the violence against women she was seeing and experiencing as she should be. And how on earth does someone who's been a bounty hunter for all of two days keep running into the person she's tracking? Meanwhile, the cops and previous bounty hunters have no idea where to look. Honestly? She's kind of an idiot.

There was too much going on in terms of the "mystery" and the ending was anti-climactic. It was almost as though Evanovich decided that it would be a good time for the book to come to a close, so voila! Here is all of the information on the bad guys. Case closed. Resume flirting.

Thankfully this book was a quick read.

Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1), by E.L. James

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I am finally writing my review of James' 50 Shades trilogy, after having posted this elsewhere on-line.

I have very strong feelings about this series. Bear with me and take what I say with a grain of salt.

50SG started as Master of the Universe (MotU) in the Twilight fanfiction community. It was a decent fic. Not great, but also not terrible like some of the drivel out there. There wasn't a lot of character development, but it didn't matter because everyone knew who Edward, Bella, and the other characters were. The sex scenes weren't as hot as one of the other popular BDSM fics (tarasueme's The Submissive trilogy), but it was a surprisingly compelling read. And for a Twific, that's fine. It doesn't have to be a well-written story, because a lot is already assumed by the readers.

What I have a problem with, since MotU became 50SG:

• Twilight fanfic (or any fandom's fic) is written BY people who love the series FOR people who love the series. A series that was written by Stephanie Meyer. She owns the Intellectual Property. Illegal? Maybe not. Ethical? I don't think so. 
• This whole pull-to-publish phenomenon--while not exclusive to the Twi fandom--has caused a split in the community. While I realize this doesn't matter to people outside of the fandom, it has affected a lot of people. 
• James made very few changes in a work that was previously posted on-line. For free. Which you can still download today, rather than pay $30.
• The writing is juvenile. It's fine in fanfic, but as a published book? No. Just no.
• James portrays BDSM in a negative light, with Bella/Ana talking about how she can change Edward/Christian and bring him out of the darkness. BDSM is about sexual pleasure; it's not this awful, painful experience that's going to drag you down into hell.
• We are introduced to two Doms: 1) Edward/Christian, who was abused as a child and has mommy issues that cause him to play with subs who LOOK LIKE HIS MOTHER; and 2) Mrs. Robinson, a PEDOPHILE who started a D/s relationship with a FIFTEEN-year-old BOY. A boy who was acting out because he was abused and needed professional help. If it had been a middle-aged man taking on an abused fifteen-year-old girl as a sexual submissive, dude would have been arrested and branded a sex offender. 
• BDSM is used as an excuse for Edward/Christian to be a domineering, controlling asshole. And Bella/Ana just accepts this.
• A 21-year-old college graduate without an e-mail address? Really?
• Edward/Christian buys the company that Bella/Ana goes to work for so he can keep an eye on her. Really? Really?
• Edward/Christian is a 27-year-old billionaire who never seems to do any actual work. Entrepreneurs and C-level executives work all.the.time in real life.
• The term "mommy porn" is ridiculous. Porn is porn. You know what I think mommy porn is? A hot guy to watch my kids and clean my house while I go to the spa.

I'll stop. I could go on and on and on.

On a positive note (you didn't think there would be one, did you?), I have to give the book credit for bringing female sexuality to the mainstream. Yay for women embracing their own desires!

A Child Called "It" (Dave Pelzer #1), by Dave Pelzer

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This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.


Good lord. For such a harrowing topic, you would think that you'd feel some sort of emotion when reading this book. Everything is written with a clinical slant: "mom did this and then this. then the next day, mom..." over and over again, throughout the entire book. It's supposed to be from the point of view of an abused child, but the voice is way too adult and therefore comes across too business-like.

I don't really understand the point of this book. It's a recap of all sorts of horrible abuse, but that's about it. No understanding as to what made is mother turn into an abuser, nor why his father ignored the situation.

It's a shame that this was so poorly written. It could have been very compelling.

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

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Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you - Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters."

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy - and humor.



I'm not quite sure why this is considered one of the best books ever written. It was good. I enjoyed reading it. But I can't say that it blew me away and my life is forever changed.