Officially Switched to Wordpress

Okay, everyone! This is no longer the site of my blog. You can find my active blog at:

http://www.booksandbooksand.wordpress.com

Have a good day!

The Blog Will Be Moving

Hello book readers!

A few months ago I started this blog and sort of ran with it. I loved it then and I still love it now. Don’t worry! This isn’t a break up letter or something. But it is a notification of a giant change to happen relatively soon.

I love Blogger. I mean: I love it, but that love is partially due to the fact that I haven’t used any other blogging platform (Tumblr doesn’t count) in great excess. There are a lot of people who love, love, love Wordpress, so I decided to go on and see what all the hullabaloo is about… and it’s certainly earned. I think you guys probably know where I’m going with this.

The blog is moving on over to Wordpress sometime in the near future. Probably the next few days depending on time vs. things I need to do. It won’t change anything too much for you, but it will make things a heck of a lot easier for me, so I hope you’re all right with dealing with my indecisiveness for now.

If you’re following via Feedburner (RSS), not to worry, you’re already good to go. If, however, you’re following through Blogger or just visiting the website it’s a little different for you. (Should you choose to read still, that is. And I hope you do!) I’ll include some links below that you can visit.

Thank you guys for being so patient with me and this situation in general. I’m currently in the process of getting everything all set up over on Wordpress so that when I do officially move it’s as quick and painless as possible.

The blog can be located at booksandbooksand.wordpress.com. Right now it shows as private (because I’m still tweaking it), but will be available soon.

Click here to go to the new blog. (Not currently open for viewers.)
Click here to view the blog feed.
Click here to subscribe via Email. This will carry over to the new blog.

Again, thanks for the patience and hopefully understanding the change. Perhaps I’ll explain it further in a bit.

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started/hosted by The Story Siren in which bloggers share the books they buy, borrow, and receive. Click here to learn more!

To college student, Katie Brandt, ‘Home for the Holidays’ sounds like hell. When her parents separated, their holiday traditions shattered like a dropped ornament. What could be worse than celebrating Christmas with her suddenly single mom and mom’s new boyfriend?

Alex Walker, an engaged 20-year-old, dreads going home for his own reasons. He has a daunting task ahead of him and wishes he could skip the holidays altogether. So when a friend of a friend needs a ride north, Alex finds that having beautiful Katie seated by his side proves to be just the distraction he needs.

A simple ride home for Christmas turns into a nightmare when light snow rages into a full-scale blizzard. Katie and Alex find themselves stranded, and a vacant cabin becomes a haven from the storm.
Under different circumstances, time alone with Alex would be the ultimate Christmas gift, but Katie knows Alex is engaged and she must hide her growing attraction.

However, Alex harbors a secret that just might change this holiday from the worst Christmas ever, to the best.

It was an impulsive decision to get this. I had seen it on Goodreads but didn't think too much about it, but then I saw someone talking about it on their blog and decided to give it a shot. This will be my first encounter with the "New Adult" genre, so that's interesting. We'll see.

(I just wanted to add that I've read other books that would probably be considered New Adult, but this is my first time reading something with that specific title.)

Review: Dash and Lily's Book of Dares - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Opening Sentence: "Imagine this: You're in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelves."
Author Website (Cohn and Levithan) | Goodreads | Amazon

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Oh me, oh my. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares was so adorable and I can’t believe it took me so long to read it. I really feel like this book is under hyped. Sure, if you’re an avid reader or already a Cohn and/or Levithan fan you’ve surely heard of it, but that’s not enough for something I enjoyed so dearly. (Okay, fine I’m being biased. I just really think the knowledge of this book should be spread more and into a wider audience.)

I don’t know why, but before I started reading I was expecting this book to be really cutesy and sort of… unrealistic like a holiday made-for-TV movie. While it is cute it doesn’t overdo it. In fact, I think it’s a good balance of cute with everything else. And the writing is wonderful. I’ve found that sometimes when there’s more than one author you can plainly distinguish who wrote what, and not in a good way. That’s not a problem at all in this book. The author’s voices morphed together and everything flowed wonderfully.

And the characters… oh, man, the characters. I don’t think there’s one character in this book I didn’t like. Obviously there’s characters that I was like “Oh, my god, go away!” over, but it was so well done that they were fantastically dislikable. (Yeah, I know.) And as for the characters I did like, they were fantastic too. The characters are so well written in this book it’s insane. You have your snarky people, your smartasses, hyper people, wise people, chill people, crazy people… et cetera.

Can I give a special shout out to Sophia for being so freaking awesome? The way she was being described by people in the book you wouldn’t expect it, but she was unerringly wise and I dug it. I also want to mention the WashingtonSquareMommies, who were too crazy to handle and made the story more interesting. I hate them, but they’re great.

In case you didn’t notice: I really loved this book. In fact, I’m currently thinking about buying it and making it a tradition to read it every holiday season. I had never really read anything with a plot quite like this, so it was a breath of fresh air. And even if I start finding more books with the same type of plot I will always come back to Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares… because it was my first. (Hah, coooorny!)

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: Messenger - Lois Lowry

Opening Sentence: "Matty was impatient to have the supper preparations over and done with."
Author Website | Goodreads | Amazon

For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man, known for his special sight. Village was a place that welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. Matty has been invaluable as a messenger. Now he must make one last journey through the treacherous forest with his only weapon, a power he unexpectedly discovers within himself.

Okay, so here we go. I was going to try not to compare this book to the first two in the series, but it’s so hard considering they’re connected. The books are all in the same series, sure, but I feel like they’re in different subcategories from one another. They’re all dystopian, but the first one (The Giver) is more realistic than the second one, (Gathering Blue), which ushers in more magical elements, and then Messenger is some sort of full-blown fantasy.

I’m still trying to understand the magical elements. There were so few magical things happening in The Giver that when Gathering Blue started taking on that tone I was a little surprised. Now, Messenger has gone full on fantasy with people who have special “talents”, forests that fight back (no, really), and the ability to sell off the most precious intangibles individuals have.

Alas, I don’t understand it, but perhaps that’s a good thing. No one in the story understood how any of this could happen, but they flowed with it. It brought me closer to the characters because I felt like I was just as clueless as everyone else. How does someone sell his or her “deepest self”? No idea, but apparently it’s possible.

I love the story of Village. It’s wonderful grounds for a story on morals. Once upon a time the people of Village fled from their cruel, unfair, et cetera cities and found themselves in a Utopia dedicated to kindness and helping people with anything and everything they may need. Village was a safe place where you could go to start over and be happy. But something started to happen. The happy people saw what they had and decided they wanted more. So they got crazy, sold a bunch of stuff, and the forest freaked out and started killing people. The End.

But of course that’s not the end. The story of Village and Forest is just one part of Matty’s story. His happens to be one I appreciate more than Kira’s (Gathering Blue) or even Jonas’s (The Giver). I’ve been staring at my ceiling for, like, ten minutes trying to figure out how to explain how much I love Matty’s character. He was once something of a menace, but in this book he grew so much. He always had a very caring personality, but it quadrupled and I don’t think he even realized it. He was always thinking about using his gift to help people without batting an eyelash at how it would inconvenience him. God, I love Matty.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It totally made up for whatever Gathering Blue was lacking and it made me pretty excited to read the last book in the quartet. You should totes (totes?) read it… or don’t. (Your loss!)

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday (2): New-to-Me Authors of 2012

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish to facilitate list sharing. This week's topic:

Top 10 New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2012:

(In no real order)

1. John Green: I know. I know… I'm so late to everything. I read Looking for Alaska in January and loved it, then started reading his other books. It's weird because I watched his videos occasionally. I just didn't read his novels. Oh, well. Better late than never, right? (I just noticed I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson in mid-2011. Oopsies.)
2. Stephanie Perkins: I discovered the wonderfulness that is Anna and the French Kiss because I needed something to read while on vacation. I LOOOVED it and really want to get my paws on more stuff by Miss Perkins. (I read Lola and the Boy Next Door, too. By “more stuff” I mean the third book in the companionship.)

3. Laurie Halse Anderson: I actually think I read Speak when I was in my early teens, but I can’t remember so on the list Laurie Halse Anderson goes. I read Wintergirls (finally!) not too long ago and loved it. So good.
4. Gayle Forman: Oh, Mia. Oh, Adam! Oh, oh, oh.
5. Sarah Ockler: I saw Twenty Boy Summer at the library and picked it up because I thought the cover was interesting. I haven’t read anything more by Sarah Ockler, but I’m definitely planning on it.
6. Nina LaCour: I know Nina LaCour’s first novel was Hold Still but I was introduced to her by The Disenchantments and then I read Hold Still. Both are very good books that I absolutely recommend.

7. Lauren Oliver: I heard people talk and talk and talk about Before I Fall until I finally cracked and just read the book. I liked it and am planning on reading her Delirium series sometime in the near-ish future.
8. Jay Asher: My sister-in-law kept talking about Thirteen Reasons Why being suchanamazingbook!, so of course I obtained a copy and got reading.
9. Cassandra Clare: If you read my blog you know how recently I started reading Cassandra Clare’s work. And also how much I like Clockwork Angel.
10. Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games. That’s all.

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs

Opening Sentence: "I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."
Author Website | Goodreads | Amazon

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

I was so attracted to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children from the get-go, even before I had an inkling as to what it’s about. Vintage photos and a novel together? YA and photography as one? Yes, absolutely! I had never heard of anything like it and that made it all the more appealing. (Let me know if you know of anything similarly awesome.)

Even after I read the jacket on the book I hadn’t the faintest what to expect from this novel. I was let off thinking maybe the peculiar children were dangerous and, I don’t know, murderous or something. I was steeling myself for something much darker than what I ultimately read. Don’t get me wrong! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and am absolutely planning to read the next one when it comes out.

I’ve always thought it’s probably pretty difficult to create something with both “horror” aspects and children and not make the children either extremely helpless or super evil. I guess when you have eighty-year-old children it’s a different story, because Ransom Riggs seems to have succeeded in the venture. The children in Miss Peregrine’s home have been alive for years, but look and act like children still. Even so, they were brave and mature when they needed to be and, in the case of the older kids (I’m talking teenagers as opposed to younger kids), had no problem stepping up to the plate when the events in the story became more challenging. It would have been so easy for Riggs to claim that in all the years these people have been alive they haven’t matured at all, but he didn’t and I’m so grateful for it.

The main character, Jacob, did some growing up himself and had to make rather difficult decisions along the way. His character development was wonderful. In a way this story was slightly “coming-of-age” because he started out as an irritable and scared teenager who, by the end, was stronger, wiser, and ready to face life, whatever it may throw at him… in other words: more of an adult.

Okay, so now what? The story ended on a cliffhanger that leaves just about anything open to happen in the next book. I saw somewhere Ransom Riggs said the next book will be out some time in 2013, so you’d better believe I’m going to jump on it when it surfaces. As for the first installment, I was terrifically impressed and happy that I read it (and liked it). Riggs’s writing style is unique, funny, and gripping and I’m beyond excited to read other novel by him. Until then, I hope to have this one sitting on my bookshelf sometime in the near future.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started/hosted by The Story Siren in which bloggers share the books they buy, borrow, and receive. Click here to learn more!

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2. The Innocents (The Innocents #1) by Lili Peloquin
3. Possession (Possession #1) by Elana Johnson
4. City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2) by Cassandra Clare
5. Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie
6. The Diviners (The Diviners #1) by Libba Bray
7. Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle
8. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
9. iZombie, Vol. 1: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson

I somehow managed to pick up a ton of books that belong to several different series. It was totally unintentional, but then again, so was picking up more than just The Diviners. I always feel compelled to grab as much as I can hold when I'm at the library. I'm sure I would have brought home more had the library not been closing.

Review: City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

Opening Sentence: "'You've got to be kidding me,' the bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest."
Author Website | Goodreads | Amazon

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

I had just finished Clockwork Angel and was anxious to continue with that series when I saw the film trailer for City of Bones and got excited to read the book. I’m a late starter when it comes to book series, obviously. (I didn’t read the Twilight Saga until Twilight was a movie, and I’m admittedly still working on the Harry Potter books.)

I wasn’t sure how I’d like the book because there’s a lot of talk about The Infernal Devices being better than The Mortal Instruments, but it was fine. I liked the story in City of Bones. It was engaging and kept me going, though I don’t think there was anything that was really “wow!” about it. (Well, maybe a couple things…. There’s a “spoilers” section at the bottom of the post.) It wasn’t predictable, but I wasn’t surprised by very much that happened. I said, “I should have guessed that.” more than once while I was reading. Also, this isn’t a comparison between Clockwork Angel and City of Bones, but did anyone else notice some small similarities between the two in terms of characters and such? Are all Shadowhunter love interests programmed to be cocky, sarcastic, and prone to innuendos?

I love Cassandra Clare’s writing style. She’s brilliant at effortlessly sliding in humor to an otherwise heavy book. Her characters tend to be witty and strong (even in their weaknesses) and I’ve noticed they never have severely one-track minds as some fictional characters sometimes do. “But Lisa! Isn’t it human to focus on one thing?” Uh, yeah, it is… but it’s also human to have other things going on inside your head. No one is ever so enveloped in something that everything else falls away completely. We have front burners and back burners, middle burners et cetera. Clary is thinking about her mom’s disappearance, but also Simon, Jace, Luke, her true identity, and just life in general.

ETA: I was looking over the synopsis on a few websites and I was taken by one thing. I feel like every description of this book talks about how much of a jerk Jace is, but I honestly don't feel like he deserves the bad rap people are giving him. We all have our moments, and though Jace is conceited and very sure of himself I don't feel like it's so bad that he starts seeming unlikable. Perhaps I need to continue reading the books to see it more? I don't know.

All in all it was well worth the read and I’m super stoked to continue on and see what on Earth is going on in this series.

Spoilers here: click to show/hide

Oh, my god. Hold on just a minute. Clary and Jace are siblings?! For real or is this some weird manipulative gesture by Valentine that’s causing a whole bunch of trouble? (Don’t answer any of those questions, please.) I’m not sure how I feel about this particular plot twist. It was completely unexpected and confusing. I’m a tad upset about it because I really liked the idea of Jace and Clary being a thing, but at the same time it opens a lot of possibilities for them to have a great brother/sister relationship, and that appeals to me. She kissed her brother though… like passionately kissed him, and that’s a little awkward. I’m not going to lie.
Perhaps this leaves an opening for Simon? Simon is totally in love with Clary, but it takes two to tango. And while I do think Clary is realizing how good of a choice Simon is (allegedly) she’s not quiet there enough to make it a relationship.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Top Ten Tuesday (1): Please and Thank You, Santa

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish to facilitate list sharing. This week's topic:

Top 10 Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me:

(In no real order)

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
2. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
3. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (and other books by her that I don't have yet!)
4. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
5. Hold Still by Nina LaCour
6. Looking for Alaska by John Green
7. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
9. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
10. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started/hosted by The Story Siren in which bloggers share the books they buy, borrow, and receive. Click here to learn more!

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

I got a digital copy of Every Day by David Levithan a couple days ago. I actually wasn't too interested until my sister's book club chose it to be read this month. I haven't started it yet, but it sounds pretty interesting, so we'll see.