Friday Finds

Friday Finds is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Speaking of which, you really should be reading her blog. Check it out! I've got three books that I added to my wish list this week...

The first addition is The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry. I have read so many good reviews of this book that I finally had to add it to my list earlier this week. Here's the synopsis:

When Lucinda Chapdelaine was a small child, her parents left for the royal ball and never returned. Ever since, Lucinda has been stuck in perpetual servitude at her evil aunt’s jewelry store. Then, on the very same day, a mysterious visitor and an even more bizarre piece of jewelry both enter the shop, setting in motion a string of twists and turns that will forever alter Lucinda’s path. In this magical story filled with delightful surprises, Lucinda will dance at the royal ball, fall under the Amaranth Witch’s spell, avenge her parents’ death, and maybe—just maybe—capture the heart of a prince.

My second find this week is The Makedown by Gitty Daneshvari. I read a review today by Luanne at A Bookworm's World and decided I had to read this. Who doesn't like a good laugh? Here's the synopsis:

Anna Norton used to be fat. Correction: Anna Norton used to be a fat, nerdy, overeater with low self esteem. When she moves from suburban Ohio to Manhattan at age 23, her life does a total 180. With guidance from her boss, an unlikely Fairy Godmother in the form of a chic caterer and excellent cook, Anna loses all the weight and--though still not quite Kate Moss--finally drops her inferiority complex, brushes the crumbs off her skirt, and enters the world of feeling good, looking good, and...finally having sex.

When Anna meets Ben, the man of her dreams (and of every other person's dreams who isn't blind) she almost can't believe she is dating the Ken Doll. Deep down, she is still the chubby nerd who wrote in a diary called Hello Fatty. But not everything is perfect; her hot boyfriend is a huge flirt, and every leggy blond who crosses his path is a threat to Anna. She just can't escape the feeling that Ben is way out of her league and that everyone thinks she is dating up and he's dating down. It gets so bad, she decides she will do anything to make these women go away.

Enter the Makedown. The reverse makeover. As Anna was made up, so will Ben be made down. Where she went from shabby to chic, he will go from prince to frog. Anna will sabotage his hotness for the sake of her own sanity, and to bring this man into more of what she considers her own league. Enter Nair to induce premature balding, Sears catalogs to inspire bad dressing, and secret additions of cream to her cooking and SKOR bars in granola bar wrappers to induce weight gain. Hilarity ensues, but in the end, Anna must find out if Ben's makedown will save their relationship, or end it.

My last find for the week is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. Somehow, I never really heard much about this book until I read a review at Paperback Frenzy today. It really sounds like a book I'd enjoy (particularly thanks to Julie's review)! Here's the synopsis:

Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.

With echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca, Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis.

So what are your finds this Friday??

Thursday Thunks

I just found out about this meme today, thanks to Kristina of Kristina's Favorites, so I thought I'd participate in this week's edition of Thursday Thunks:

We pick a subject, and your job is to interpret it anyway you want. Write about it on your blog... simple as that. Maybe you can interpret it as a picture - we don't care! Please only leave a link if you have written a Thursday Thunks post. Please mention us in your post, and link back to the blog here. Don't forget to go visit the other participants' blogs. Read and comment about all their Thursday Thunks! Thats what all this is about afterall, isn't it? We'll have so much fun and become lifelong friends....

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the color carnation pink and the number 54321.

1. The last flight of stairs you walked up/down - were they carpeted? Yep

2. Green or purple grapes? Green... Purple/red grapes have bitter skin that makes me cringe.

3. Do you like Peeps? Not particularly

4. The smell of Vicks - like it? No!

5. Do you put decorative cling-ons on your windows for different holidays? I used to when I was little, but not anymore. (Of course, at first I was thinking Star Trek Clingons when I read that, lol.)

6. Finish the sentence - I spent too much money on lunch .

7. Which celebrity should be flown into outer space or placed on a desert island? Only one?? How about Sean Penn... Or Tom Cruise... Or Barbra Striesand

8. Would you support schools changing the "open" time? Such as 10am - 5pm, for example? I don't know, it never really bothered me when I was growing up and now I don't have kids so it doesn't matter much to me now, either.

9. Do you go fishing? Not on a regular basis, but I have been fishing in the past.

10. What question should we ask next week? If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you, and why?

Be sure to check out the site and other people's posts as well!!

© Melissa Owens of Melissa's Bookshelf

REVIEW: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Science Fiction

Pub. Date: 2008, Henry Holt and Co.
Format: Hardcover, 266 pages
Source/FTC Disclosure: I borrowed my copy of this book from the library. I was in no way compensated for this review and my opinions are my own.

Who is Jenna Fox?

Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she's still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. Is she really the same girl she sees on the screen?

Little by little, Jenna begins to remember. Along with the memories come questions--questions no one wants to answer for her. What really happened after the accident?

MY THOUGHTS

Well, it's no wonder that no one wants to answer Jenna's questions... It brings up a pretty big ethical discussion--is what Jenna's parents did to save her right? Moral? Human? Really loving? From the start of the novel, I thought it was pretty clear what had likely happened to Jenna Fox after her accident. Not down to the letter, but I had an idea--especially after some discussion that Jenna had with one of her classmates in the special charter school she was attending.

The discussion of medical ethics and bioethics is a big part of this book. The idea of Bio Gel is fascinating, if not entirely believable, but hey, this is a book set in the future, down the road from where we are now. OK, I hate giving away anything about the plot, but with this book it's rather hard not to. Pearson writes an incredible story--it's another one that grabbed me from the first page and kept me turning pages until I finished it. And another thing I loved about this book is the thinking that it provokes regarding said ethical issues. The ending (even before the epilogue) certainly provokes questions of the ethical nature of what has been done to Jenna and could be done to others.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this book. It was generally well-written, with a slightly different format instead of the usual chapter 1, 2, etc. The portrayal of Jenna is believable, though there are times when I wonder how she understands some complicated concepts but has to review definitions of simple words. I suppose that's Pearson's way of stressing what is really going on in Jenna's mind as she rediscovers herself. I've also never been in a coma for a year, so I have no idea what it would be like to try to function again after so long. Pearson also does a great job with the other characters in the story--you really get a sense of what they're like. I love how she frequently focused on what people's eyes say, as opposed to what may be coming out of their mouths. There may be a "sci-fi" feel to the story, but there's so much more to it than that--it's a study of identity, self-discovery, bioethics, relationships. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

 

Other reviews of The Adoration of Jenna Fox:

Readergirlz ~ Book Addiction ~ Em's Bookshelf
The Page Flipper ~ Maw Books Blog ~ Just One More Page
Ms. Yingling Reads ~ Reading Keeps You Sane ~ Reviewer X
Mrs. Hill's Book Blog ~ And Another Book Read...

Liv's Book Reviews ~ The Book Muncher ~ Presenting Lenore
The Chick Manifesto ~ 50 for Jen ~ Life In The Thumb

"Waiting On" Wednesday

" Waiting on" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, assuming you've read my review of The Hunger Games from earlier today, is it any surprise that Catching Fire is now at the top of my W.O.W. list? Too bad it's not being released until SEPTEMBER 8!!! Oh well, I managed to wait for the last few Harry Potter books in between their releases, so I'm sure I can wait for this one. I'm a big girl. :-)

And even though I was less than impressed by Mary Higgins Clark's last mystery, I'm looking forward to her next one, due out April 6th: Just Take My Heart.




What are you waiting on this Wednesday??

REVIEW: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games #1
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Pub. Date: October 2008, Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover, 374 pages
Source/FTC Disclosure: I purchased my copy of this book. I was in no way compensated for this review and my opinions are my own.

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before--and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

MY THOUGHTS

What can I possibly say about The Hunger Games that hasn't already been said by other reviewers out there? I will say that when I first heard of the book, I was a little skeptical, but after reading review after review that gave nothing but praise, I finally decided I had to read it. I picked up my copy last week and finally started into it Monday. Sadly, work interfered with my reading, but despite that I finished it last night. I can honestly say it was probably the best book I've read so far in 2009. It certainly puts a new spin on Reality TV!!

I loved pretty much everything about the book--the way it was written, the characters' names and development, Collins' descriptive portrayal of the people and places, and lastly, the way this first book was wrapped up. Oh my, does it leave you hanging, dying to read the next book! This was another of those books where I felt like I was almost involved in the story firsthand. My heart pounded anxiously as Katniss met various challenges during the Games. I felt like I really knew her and Peeta, the two "tributes" from District 12. The plotting was just great, too. Books like these make me wonder how I will ever come up with something so creative to write about, myself! It's not as if all of Collins' ideas were unique, but put them all together and you have a captivating, adrenaline-pumping, and all-round incredible story.

I could not stop thinking about this book after I read it. Just the possibility of what we could become is mind-blowing; we'd be going backwards and forwards at the same time if we ever ended up like Panem and its Districts. Last night, I was even telling my husband and my parents about this book, even though I knew there was not the least likelihood that any of them would ever read it. I seriously cannot WAIT for the next book, Catching Fire, to be released in September. I'm already planning to add Suzanne Collins' other books to my TBR list.

 

Other reviews of The Hunger Games:

My Friend Amy ~ The Book Muncher ~ 1330v
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? ~ As usual, I need more bookshelves
My Favorite Author ~ The Chick Manifesto
The Book Reader ~ The Book Vault ~ Readergirlz
Ms. Yingling Reads ~ Wrighty's Reads ~ Becky's Book Reviews
Presenting Lenore ~ Ink and Paper ~ In Search Of Giants
Page 247 ~ Melody's Read Corner ~ At Home With Books
Bookluver - Carol's Reviews ~ Serendipity
Diary of An Eccentric ~ Devourer of Books ~ The Little Bookworm
Beth Fish Reads ~ Stephanie's Written Word
And Another Book Read... ~ Pop Culture Junkie