100 books in 2012

11. College Girl by Patricia Weitz

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:11:00 -0500

So I gave this book 3 stars on goodreads, but I’m not sure how close to that I feel that it deserves. Maybe more like 2.5. This was just a walking through the library and it caught my eye pick. I read the jacket description and I’ll be honest I think I thought it’d be more like The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which I really liked. It’s not like that. I kept reading it hoping that the main character would finally stop being annoying, but she just never did. Which was disappointing because what was the point of the story then? There was no resolution to this character.

I understand not every character is going to grow into what I want them to be. But as long as the character goes through everything to come out one way or the other showing that they were affected some way. It felt like the author thought she was taking this character somewhere, like all these events were affecting her even if it wasn’t for the better, but it really didn’t. So it was just ineffectual.

The saving grace to this book was the writing. It kept me turning the page because I assumed that with how well it was written that it would finish the natural progression of the story, but it felt almost like the author couldn’t find out where she wanted to take the character, made an ending and just stopped it so it could be over. But it was written well and kept me interested. That’s pretty much why I couldn’t come up with how many stars I wanted to give it.

10. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:43:00 -0500

This was another book that I’ve been eyeing for a while but even at used book prices I just couldn’t commit to reading it. So I borrowed it from the library for my Nook. It actually turned out better than I expected!

I guess with a phrase like Particular Sadness being in the title I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was a bit maudlin. It made me feel weird because of this as in it affected me outside of reading the book, even though I have nothing to bother me right now. There was also a kind of sci-fi element to this that I was not expecting AT ALL, not the girl being able to feel people’s feelings in the food they make either. Something else that I won’t mention because it gives away a plot that’s not mentioned anywhere in the book jacket description. So that was surprising and kind of came out of nowhere to be honest. Luckily this book was so out of the ordinary that it didn’t make me hate that, which I would have if it had been more of what I expected.

Maybe this book gave me such a weird feeling from it that when that came up I just kept going along with it. But I can definitely see how it would throw others off and make them not enjoy this book. I personally give it 4 stars but I know others on goodreads did not enjoy this as much. So I’m probably the exception, so I’m not sure I’d suggest it for others without a warning of being prepared for it to throw weird stuff at you.

9. Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy by John Le Carré

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:23:00 -0500

I chose this book because I wanted to see the movie that’s out right now with Gary Oldman. I always try to read the book first if the movie is based on a book. This book has been around for so long and so many people love it, I assumed I would as well.

Unfortunately this is another book I had to force myself to finish. Maybe the movie can be made more interesting or maybe I’ve just grown up in a world where spy stories are shown/read much more exciting than this. It mostly just seemed like they were reading a bunch of files and that’s how the case was solved. There was one exciting part in trying to steal one of the files, but otherwise it was a lot of conversations and reading. Not so exciting in book form. I’m curious how they would make that exciting in a movie because I don’t really wanna watch people read files. It’s made me think twice about going to see the movie. I understand this is a well loved novel, but it was just very boring to me.

I’m not gonna lie, that made me feel kinda dumb, cause I’m not sure what I missed that other people loved so much. :/

8. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:12:00 -0500

I had been wanting to read this book for a while, but before I settled my debt with the library I was having to buy all my books. So I mostly went to thrift stores or used book stores and tried to get books as cheap as possible. I had been on the search for this for a while and finally found 2 of the books, so when I decided to do this whole 100 books in a year thing, I definitely had this on my list.

Apparently this author started out online writing Harry Potter fan fiction, so if you are thinking of picking up this book, keep that in mind. It’s a YA book. It’s really well written though and a very interesting story. I’ve read on goodreads that a few people felt like it was too close to Harry Potter as far as base story. Once I read those reviews I did have to agree but it wasn’t so much that it bothered me or kept me from finishing it. And I actually finished this one pretty fast, which to me means that it’s a good book because I didn’t have to force myself to finish it. I went super fast and wanted to keep turning the page to see where it’d go next.

I really loved it, I loved the characters, the story, all of it. Even the characters that annoyed me, they were still written well into the story and you always have characters that are annoying. I wasn’t a fan of the twist between the two main characters at the end, but with this being a series I’m hoping that’s fixed as the story goes on.

While I wouldn’t give this a full five stars (it’s just gotta be exceptional for me to do that) but definitely a 4 star book and doesn’t feel like a YA book. Or I didn’t feel like an old person reading a teen book anyway. Will definitely continue this series!

7. Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:47:00 -0500

So in order to help save some money I took advantage of our library’s canned food drive. For every can you brought in you got a $1 off your late fees. I owed A LOT of $ in late fees, so after taking a big box of cans (seriously, I owed so much it’s very embarrassing), I was able to start borrowing books from the library again. All that to explain that I was so excited to get library books again I went crazy and picked this book by looking at the new releases section and choosing the book by its cover. I’m known to do that and usually it works out pretty well for me. This time it did not.

I really hated this book. Like 1 star, it was crazy bad. I can’t really explain why I didn’t like it because that would give away a major plot point but it was so bad. I was so excited because the little dog on the cover was so cute and I love stories with animals. I am even a fan of chick lit (knowing that it’s chick lit and generally pretty poorly written because you know exactly what’s going to happen within like the first chapter) and I didn’t like this book. The characters were written poorly, I either liked them and then they’d do something so out of character that it was ridiculous or they started out so ridiculous when they’d have a moment of being a better person/character it was so contrived that it made it ridiculous for them to change like that.

Just - skip it. Please. Save yourself.

6. What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:12:00 -0500

So Malcolm Gladwell’s been writing articles for a while now and this book is a collection of his previous articles (I think there might be a few new ones in there) but as I have never read any of those articles they were all new to me. I’ve read Freakonomics in the past and loved the facts that were brought up in that book and Malcolm Gladwell’s writing is similar to the essays written in those books. At least this book is. I’ve read Outliers in the past and that followed more of one central theme, where in this one, each chapter was a new essay/article.

Not all of them were winners, there were a few I had to really push through because I just wasn’t interested in the subject matter, but there were enough that were interesting enough that that only occurred every few chapters. I think you have to really be into the way that Malcolm Gladwell writes and presents seemingly mundane topics, but if you can get into it, it’s very interesting and well written.

I personally give this book 4 stars and have a few other of his books on my want to read list. A lot of interesting topics; my favorites were the mustard essay, the Dog Whisperer essay and the haircolor essay. If not all the topics interest you, then I’d suggest treating it like a magazine and just read the ones that sound interesting to you. Because the ones that I was not interested in the topic were SO SLOW to read.

5. Burn Notice: The Fix by Tod Goldberg

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:35:00 -0500

So normally I don’t like to read books based off TV series because it just always reads as fan fiction and I’m not into fan fiction really. But I picked up the first book written by this author a while back and he apparently works pretty closely with the show creator in writing these books and I think that really helps. It’s honestly like reading the TV show.

If you’re not a fan of Burn Notice, then you probably wouldn’t like this book. But if you are, I definitely suggest reading these books because they’re simple, fast reads that are great if you’ve gone through a marathon watch and there are no new episodes to watch. I did like the first one released better, that one I’d give 4 stars, this one, I give 3 stars. There were way too many side characters introduced in this book; it was kind of hard to keep up with it sometimes. But still enjoyable if you’re a fan of the show.

4. Matched by Ally Condie

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:29:00 -0500

This was a book I got for Christmas in 2010 (I also asked for it, because it was on a list of good YA reads in Entertainment Weekly). I’ve had it all this time and never read it until now. Side note: I didn’t know what I wanted to read next. So I picked my 3 top choices, put them in front of my dog, Zoe, and she licked two of them. So I then held up the 2 she licked and she licked one. I left them held up to give her time in case she changed her mind, but she was not interested in licking the other one. This was an alright and fast read, so I think this method works!

This is a YA novel, set in a dystopian future. It follows a girl who has happily lived her life in the control of her government. Things happen around her that make her start to question this controlled life and if she has choice and all. Just before Christmas I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I really enjoyed that book. Because they’re both set in similar worlds it was hard not to compare the two. I have to say that Delirium wins. It was a bit more disturbing and stressful to read. By stressful I mean more action filled. I actually worried/feared that world more. Although I do like the way Ally Condie writes compared to Lauren Oliver. Her writing felt more like it wasn’t just for YA reading; she just seems like a better writer.

When I finished Delirium I immediately got on the computer to find out how to get the next book in the series (it’s not out yet). I thought I’d want to read the next book for Matched right away as well, but it wasn’t ended as excitingly or it’s not something that I feel I need to know right now. So I’ll probably wait til I can get it from the library or something. I don’t want to spend money on this series.

Not a terrible read, but not the best thing I’ve read. I’d give it a low 3 stars. The writing style really saved it for me.

3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:16:00 -0500

I received this book for Christmas this year (I asked for it) and am so glad I did. I didn’t really know much about her, except for her role of Kelly on The Office and that she’s a writer for that show. This book is a set of essays about her life growing up, things she likes/enjoys, and other things she’s noticed/thought about.

I’ve read some reviews where people felt like she got kind of un-focused towards the end of the book, but I don’t really think she did. Yeah, the first 2/3rds of the book is about her growing up and her journey to where she is now, but by that point, she’s brought us to that part of her life. What else is she supposed to talk about? I think she did a good job of just putting fun/random things in. The only time I felt like there was something missing was the end of the part where she talks about her time as a guest writer for SNL. She talks about how nice Amy Poehler is and she mentions that Amy wanted to go on a late night walk with her thru NYC. Then that was it. That chapter ends. Which wasn’t consistent with everything else written because she shares so much in the book. It was so abrupt, I actually went back to see if my copy was missing pages.

Otherwise, it was a great and really funny book. There were so many stories from her childhood that I saw my upbringing mirroring it. It’s nice to know there were other sheltered girls out there too that were perfectly fine with being sheltered. If you pretty much wanna know what I was like growing up, it’s eerily similar to hers. Which is eery, but fine by me because she’s a cool chick. A fun, fast read that I do recommend.

2. The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick (aka @nerdist)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:54:16 -0500

So this book is TOTALLY not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be essays on nerdly type things. It’s actually a self-help book and the thing is I might not have read it if I had known that beforehand. But I’m glad I didn’t know that, because it was honestly a really great book!

Last year when I thought I was losing my job, I freaked out and started reading a bunch of self-help books to get myself out of my funk and figure out what I wanted to do with myself. So I read many self-help books and I’ve read a few good ones, but more bad ones than good ones. I would not put this in the bad column at all. The way everything is laid out is definitely fun (even for non-D&Ders like myself) and it’s all sound/realistic advice. That’s one of my biggest complaints with self-help, is they want me to do something that’s outside of my comfort zone. This book wants that, but not in a crazy way. It slowly builds you up to stuff, not just throw crazy ideas at you.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with this book and even though I borrowed it from the library (before my fine caught up with me! But I’m paying it back!), I’m thinking I’ll buy this book. Onto my 3rd book!

1. Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:07:59 -0500

So my first book of 2012 was Robopocalypse. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It started out way too slow for my liking. I give books about 2 chapters or 30 pages before I give up on them. Maybe that’s not fair, but I’ve got too much to read! Anyway, once this book finally got going, it did get better. If you know me, you know one of my fears is machines becoming self-aware and taking over the world. Maybe it’s from watching too many scary machine movies when I was younger. They scare me. So maybe I shouldn’t have read this book at night. Because the part where the girl’s Baby Talks A Lot (or whatever she’s called) actually comes alive and threatens her and her brother? FREAKED ME OUT.

The rest of the machines weren’t AS scary, mainly because they were robots/machines created for the book. But it was still enjoyable and not a bad way to start off the 100 books.

2012 goal: Read 100 books in one year

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:35:00 -0500

I try to set various goals for myself each year. Some of them have worked out (I’m now 8 half-marathons in!) and some haven’t (after bruising my tailbone I gave up Roller Derby dreams). I decided my goal for 2012 would be to read 100 books. Which averages out to about 2 books a week. I’m a pretty fast reader, so I’m not terribly worried about it.

Just some general rules I’ve laid out for myself: Books on tape don’t count, short books (less than 100 pages) don’t count, and books I’ve already read DO count (mainly b/c I want to re-read some books this year and for some movies coming out - Hello Hunger Games!). I’m going to keep up with my list here. Go 2012!

Also, if you have suggestions for books I should read, leave a comment! I’m open to pretty much anything, in fact I can’t think of something I really wouldn’t be into reading.