Book Review: All The Light We Cannot See

I am fortunate enough to have found and joined a book club that started at the beginning of the year. It's the first one I have ever been a part of and I'm so excited about it. Usually, I'll read something and want to discuss it with others and instead have to settle for devouring reviews (or, you know, writing my own. . .). 

Our first book was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Spoiler Alert: this story is phenomenal.

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Book Review: Big Little Lies

I'm just going to give it away: Big Little Lies is a great, fun read. 

I was a little disappointed in my first book of 2015 so it was extra exciting to update my Goodreads with this one. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is another one of those books that has been gracing Best Of lists and there apparently will be a limited television series based on it starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman (verdict: SO EXCITED! TV was the way to go, it'll play out much better on a week-to-week basis than if it were a movie).

via Amazon

In the interest of complete honesty: is Big Little Lies some great, moving piece, some literary art? No - not to me, anyway. But I had so much fun reading it: the characters are great (and relatable - I can name a Madeline, a Celeste, a Renata in my every day life without hesitation), the storyline is interesting, the themes are easy to pick up on without being shoved in one's face. . . I really cannot ask for more in a novel.

Book Review: The Girl With All The Gifts

Although I didn't get any Amazon gift cards for Christmas, I did receive cash and I sure did beebop over to Giant Eagle to purchase a gift card for myself. Fuel perks and books? Win.

I loaded up my Kindle with a handful of books and decided that I'd get one more new one in and save the rest as items toward my goal of 100 books read in 2015.

Based on recommendations by a few girlfriends, I went with The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. 

source | True Story: I had a little thrill when I saw the Joss Whedon quote. Worlds colliding!

Despite what my husband thinks (and, apparently, as my book reviews might suggest), I do not read solely YA novels. I love them, yes, but I do not exclude other books outside of this category. That having been said, I do not know if I would have found The Girl With All the Gifts on my own. It's dark and there's a pretty heavy scientfic presence.

Note: this book is awfully hard to review without spoilers - I found myself typing, saying "oh shit," and consequently deleting quite often. I think I managed to complete the post successfully, however if you find the review lacking substance, this is why. Also, for what it's worth, the reviews on Goodreads are fairly unedited regarding spoilers - I recommend looking it up on Amazon instead. 

Book Review: BZRK

As a huge fan of Michael Grant's Gone series, I was pretty excited to discover BZRK. 

As I mentioned in my last review, I'm pretty terrible with summaries, so let's leave it to the experts at Amazon:

Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind. Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human. This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It's victory. . .or madness.

BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose? How far would you go to win? 

via Goodreads

When one is a fan of YA, as I am, it is almost impossible not to run into an almost disappointingly easy to read writing style, a tone that is simplified for its targeted audience* - take note, folks: that is not the case here.

Book Review: We Were Liars

For as long as I can remember, I've been an avid reader. I embody almost every stereotype about a bookworm: begging to stay awake for "just one more chapter", laying by the window with the streetlamp to keep reading when my previous request was denied, burning through The Baby Sitter's Club books and moving on to my mom's Danielle Steel collection in elementary school, garnering the most Accelerated Reader points in middle school, being a regular at the library and having to have a dedicated library tote big enough for all of my books in high school. . .the works. One of my friends calls me Gretchen Grundler, from Recess; Jon calls me Twilight Sparkle.

image via Disney Wikia

When we moved into our new place, I had a vision for a small space near the front of our apartment and conveyed it to Jon, who agreed it was perfect - thus, my reading nook was born. 

#ApartmentLife : My Reading Nook. On the opposite wall is a bookcase (although, admittedly, I'm a Kindle girl these days).

All of this to say: I like to read.