Review: DEAD[ish]

DEAD[ish] by Naomi Kramer

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



Initially intriguing, but I couldn't get past all of the profanity. And I am not a prude!



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Review: Bossypants

Bossypants by Tina Fey

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I like Tina Fey, but her book just doesn't do it for me.



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A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Lee Dugard

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In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.

For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived. A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.



This was really hard to listen to. I am deathly afraid that something will happen to one of my kids, and this did nothing to assuage my fears.  

Throughout the book, my one overriding, eloquent thought was "holy shit."  

Initially, I couldn't believe that Dugard was narrating the audiobook version; it must have been painful enough to write it all down.  But really, who else could have done it justice?  A professional voice artist wouldn't have captured her "voice," nor would she have been able to evoke the same sense of horror.

I can't even begin to imagine how terrifying Dugard's life was.  It scares the ever-loving daylights out of me to think of my children in her situation.  Excuse me while I hide them away from the rest of the world.

Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster

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This is the story of how a haughty former sorority girl went from having a household income of almost a quarter-million dollars to being evicted from a ghetto apartment... It's a modern Greek tragedy, as defined by Roger Dunkle in The Classical Origins of Western Culture: a story in which "the central character, called a tragic protagonist or hero, suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected."

In other words? The bitch had it coming.





I'm really glad that this wasn't my first Jen Lancaster book, as I doubt I would have read any of her other works.  I loved Such a Pretty Fat, so I purchased this, her first book.

It was just too over-the-top for me.

I will, however, continue to read her books; she's generally pretty funny.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The mysterious Jay Gatsby embodies the American notion that it is possible to redefine oneself and persuade the world to accept that definition. 

Gatsby's youthful neighbor, Nick Carraway, fascinated with the display of enormous wealth in which Gatsby revels, finds himself swept up in the lavish lifestyle of Long Island society during the Jazz Age. 

Considered Fitzgerald's best work, The Great Gatsby is a mystical, timeless story of integrity and cruelty, vision and despair.





I was completely underwhelmed by this book; thank goodness it was short. The best part was listening to Anthony Heald narrate in this audiobook version.

Agent 6 (Leo Demidov #3), by Tom Rob Smith

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How far would you go to solve a crime against your family?

It is 1965. Leo Demidov, a former secret police agent, is forbidden to travel with his wife and daughters from Moscow to New York. They are part of a "Peace Tour," meant to foster closer relations between the two Cold War enemies. On the tour, Leo's family is caught up in a conspiracy and betrayal that ends in tragedy. In the horrible aftermath, Leo demands one thing: that he be allowed to investigate and find the attacker that struck at the heart of his family on foreign soil. From the highest levels of the Soviet government, he is told No, that is impossible. Leo is haunted by the question: what happened in New York?

In a surprising, epic story that spans decades and continents—from 1950s Moscow to 1960s America to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s—Leo's long pursuit of justice will force him to confront everything he ever thought he knew about his country, his family, and himself.



Damn you, Tom Rob Smith!  I can't believe you did that.  I mean, COME ON.  Was that really necessary?  You had me sobbing like a baby.

An excellent, fitting end to the Leo Demidov series.

The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay

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"I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk."

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.




OMG, you guys.

Add this to my list of Top Ten Books EVER.  I wanted to know everything that happened, but I didn't want it to end!  I'm pretty sure that I went through every possible emotion while I was reading this book.

Fear, longing, love, lust, hate, pity.  You name it; I felt it.  I was a sobbing mess during many chapters.  Especially closer to the end when you find out what really happened to Nastya.

Nastya.  My heart hurts for her.

Sure, she's melodramatic, but what teenager isn't?  (And really, if you're reading an angsty Young Adult novel, it's to be expected.)  She makes some bad choices, even when she thinks she's making the right ones.  Especially when she thinks she's making the right ones.  Piece by piece, we learn what happened to Nastya to make her act the way she does.



Katja Millay gives enough information to satisfy your curiosity and leaves you begging for more.

And speaking of begging...

Josh Bennett.

Josh.  Freaking.  Bennett.

S-W-O-O-N

He's had a rough life, too (naturally!).  No family.  No friends, with the exception of the affable Drew.  No hope...

Until the day that Nastya walks into his garage.

They don't fall in love immediately, which is a nice change of pace from your usual YA romances.  But their relationship is so sweet, so snarky, and so surreal that it's okay; half the fun is the tension and uncertainty between the two.


When I finished this book, I cried and cried.  Happy tears.  Sad tears.  Why-isn't-there-a-sequel tears.  I want more, Katja Millay!

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