Week 12 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hi everyone! Sorry in the delay in getting the blog out (and yes, I know I am notoriously late!). I won’t make excuses other than pure blah going on in my life right now. But hey we are all dealing with something or another….

I’m still going strong on my challenge and hope everyone is doing well with their challenges as well!

Last week I received a category that I wasn’t too keen on, A Satirical Book. I chose to read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The best way that I can describe my review is in the following manner: Modern Art. When some people look at Modern Art, they think “Wow, that’s really amazing and moving!”. While others think “This is Art???”. I’m afraid I have too much Grecian appreciation in me so I fall into the later category.

This book was exactly like that. You either love this type of book or you don’t. Satire must just not be my thing because reading this book was like watching an episode of Gomer Pyle: USMC. I don’t mind funny but I don’t like stupid funny. Nothing wrong if you personally do but it was a personal chore to get through this book.

It had it’s moments of hilarity. The hospital scenes did leave me literally laughing out loud. However, there wasn’t enough of that to go around to redeem the book.

Do any of you like satire or have read Catch-22? Do/Did you enjoy it? I’m curious to find out your thoughts.

My Overall Rating – 2 stars out of 5 (the extra star was for the hospital scenes alone)

With that in mind, my random generator threw me some love and gave me the category A Book That’s Guaranteed To Bring You Joy. With the language, I figured I could read a book that I have read before. However, I decided to keep to my promise as best I could when the category allows and chose to read a book I haven’t read before. I chose one by an author (person) that brings me great joy. This week I will be reading:

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

Week 11 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hello Everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying some beautiful budding spring weather and recovering from the lost hour of sleep. I know it takes me a while to adjust to the time change. Many cups of coffee are devoured…..

Last week I read Cinder by Marissa Meyer for the category A Book Based on a Fairy Tale. When looking for a book on Goodreads, this appeared to be the number one book to read for this type of category. I don’t always roll with the popular kids so to speak but I figured with this one being listed as Science Fiction, I would give it a go.

Let me say how happy I am to have read this book. It was really amazing and even more impressive that it was the author’s first book. I would say it was very loosely based on the fairy tale of Cinderella. I think it could be said that the book was run past Cinderella really quickly and some hints survived in Cinder. It was a wonderful science fiction book that can be enjoyed by anyone who loves that genre. I know it is technically in the Young Adult section and while totally appropriate for young adults, it honestly could be just Science Fiction. I think Young Adult is the hot market right now for books so many publishers are labeling books that way to generate more sales. Not a bad marketing scheme but I just don’t want potential readers to be put off by the Young Adult label.

I enjoyed this book from page one until the very last page. It is book one in a series but it does stand alone ok. I definitely will be checking out the rest of the series as soon as I can however. The story has me in it’s grasp. I highly recommend you check this book out for yourself.

My Overall Rating – 4.5 stars out of 5

This week my random generator threw me for a whirl. I received the category A Satirical Book. When searching for potential books to read, I was surprised at some of the selections listed as satire. I even double checked the definition of satire to make sure I understood it. I will be honest that most of the books on the list that I had read are not my favorite. I just don’t think it’s a category that I overwhelmingly enjoy. However, I chose to read a book that is considered a classic and it’s always nice to check those off one’s reading list. I will be reading:

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

Week 10 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hi guys and welcome to my blog being back on track! Again, my deepest apologies for the lateness of my posting. Hopefully everything will be smooth sailing here on out. Can you believe it is already week 10!?! Time flies when you are having fun…..and getting old. I like to think they are synonymous.

Last week, I received an unlucky draw in my category random generator. Finding A Book that is Published in 2016 this early on with my goal to always use the local library was impossible. Unfortunately, my local library is several months behind when it comes to new books. However, I am very fortunate to have found the book that I did at the bookstore. I chose to read Leonard by William Shatner.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a die-hard Trekkie. I have 2 Star Trek tattoo’s. Star Trek has shaped who I am as a person and the way in which I view the world. You remember that saying “I learned everything I needed to know in Kindergarten”. Well, for me, replace Kindergarten with Star Trek.

I mourned the loss of Gene Roddenberry, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy like they were my family. My heart breaks that they are no longer with us. I knew this book would be a difficult but necessary book to read.

It is clear that Shatner is still grieving and I’m afraid that it will never stop for him while he is on this planet. I have read other books by Shatner, both fiction and non, and here he was at his most raw and honest. This made the book slightly erratic but viewed in the context of overwhelming grief, it makes sense. I didn’t realize that these two “brothers” and best friends were estranged at the end. Shatner doesn’t know why or what happened and I believe him. He feels remorse of the highest order at not only the loss but the loss of contact with him.

I believe that is why Shatner was so real in this book. He realizes his own mortality is creeping up on him and he is trying to make amends with people in his life. This book was his attempt to make amends with Leonard.

This book truly was a heart breaker. However, it left a lesson just like so many Star Trek episodes and movies did. Always tell the people you love that you love them. Try to rebuild any broken bridges. Do this while you still have the chance.

My Overall Rating – 4.5 stars out of 5

This week my category is A Book Based on a Fairy Tale. I am picking a popular choice and one that I have been meaning to read for some time. I will be reading:

How are you doing now that we are on Week 10?

As always, Stay Nerdy My Friends

And Live Long and Prosper,

-BJ

Week 9 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Long time no see! I apologize for the lateness of this blog post but I was experiencing some technical difficulties. However, you will get two blog posts today to make up for it! Even while I was experiencing said earlier difficulties, I am still on track with my challenge and have completed my books as I normally would.

If you will remember for week 8, I was given the category A Book Set during Christmas. I chose to read Landline by Rainbow Rowell for this particular category. I have heard a lot of buzz surrounding one of her other books, Fangirl, so I looked forward to reading a novel written by her.

My first inclination about the book is that it was categorized wrong in my library. They had it listed as Young Adult (14+) fiction. This book is so far removed from being Young Adult. The theme surrounds a career minded woman who is having trouble balancing work-life relationships with her husband and her children. I don’t know about you but at age 14, I would have been snoring because it is not relatable or relevant to the young adult mind.

The book started out well and I was interested in the main characters right away. However, as the book progressed, it felt like a record got stuck on the turntable. The entire middle felt like one big repeat and repeat and repeat. The supernatural element that this book has was never resolved. You have no idea why it happened and the book ended without it being anything important at all. It became a total anti-climatic Hallmark movie type of book. I just didn’t care about what the characters were doing or how their lives were going to end up.

I’m not sure I will give her other books a try because I’m afraid the same type of thing will happen. The author has talent but she hasn’t quite grasped how to wield it yet. Some people may love this book if they are looking for something cookie-cutter to read. I just wanted something more.

My Overall Rating – 2 stars out of 5

My random number generator threw me for a loop this week and made it impossible for me to utilize the library (I tried!) for my book selection. I was given the category A Book that is Published in 2016. Since it is still quite early in the year, my library had no books published this year. I checked their entire new releases section and browsed their online catalog. Nada! So, I went to my local bookstore and found a book perfect for me that was released in 2016. I might have had to pay for it but I didn’t mind for this particular book. For week 9, I read:

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

Week 8 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hi Guys! Hope everyone had a great week of reading and are still going strong on your challenges!

I have heard it said that you should leave the past in the past. While both equally easy to discount and be words to live by, I found out a bit of that wisdom last week in my reading choice.

I had the category A Book From Your Childhood and I chose to read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. As a child, I adored this book and series. My mind was opened to the possibilities of traveling through space. My heart was with Meg (the co-main protagonist) as she struggled trying to be a square peg in a world made for round holes. I related to that so much. I believe I read this book first when I was probably around 8. I would say it is juvenile fiction intended for the 7-10 age range.

With that age range in mind, it seems odd to me now as an adult reader that it was packed full of anti-communist propaganda and religious undertones. I suppose it could be seen as a sign of the times the United States was living in 1963 when this was first published. However, it still seems wrong for this to be included in a children’s story. I definitely read this book with a new set of eyes and I almost wish I hadn’t. I wish it could have lived in the past and I could remember it fondly. Now, I’m torn as to how I feel. Brainwashing children isn’t high up on my list of desirable qualities.

My Overall Rating – 2 stars out of 5

My question is have you ever read a book that you once loved and found it not so wonderful upon reading it again? Let me know if you have as I would love to hear about it!

This week I received the category A Book Set During Christmas, which is another left over category from last year. This one was tough because it seems you have 3 options: Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, A kid’s story, or a Hallmark movie type of book (blah!!!!). However, I did find one that interested me because I have heard a lot of hype about this author. I will be reading:

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

 

 

Week 7 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hello everyone! Sorry in the slight delay in getting this blog ready but it was a very busy weekend. My husband turned the big 4-0 on Monday so I had to prepare to roll him over the proverbial hill! Happy to report that he made the trip safely!

If you remember last week, I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline for the category left over from last year: A Book with a Number in the Title. What an amazing adventure I went on last week! Universally, this novel appears to be well loved and I can see exactly why.

This book is a book for us. By us, I mean the ones who grew up during the pioneer stage of video games. By us, I mean the kids who were just a little bit different than “normal”. By us, I mean the 80’s kid. You can’t turn a page without tripping over nostalgia. You can’t turn a page without being slapped in the face with a reference. You can’t turn a page without being flooded by your own memories. I was born in 1980. I remember going next door to my friends house who had an Atari 2600 and playing countless hours of gaming fun. I remember getting my very own NES and sitting in front of a console tv until my eyes were blurry. John Hughes was the voice of my inner angst and the music. Ah, the music! This all came back to me in this book.

It’s not a book that is easily described as I feel that it needs to be individually experienced. Everybody will take something away from it. I was both equally terrified and immensely excited about this novel. Was it a perfect book? No. Is it now my favorite book? No. However, it’s pretty high on the list. My two minor dings to the armor are it’s predictability and lack of details at the end i.e. an epilogue. My husband has to remind me often that not everyone enjoys a Chinese Opera film, meaning something completely unexpected happening. I enjoy an author who takes a risk and as such with me knowing how it would end was a bit of a bummer. Also, I wanted more details to help the ending be as good as the beginning. Again, these two points are me being nit picky. I still highly recommend this book. In fact, my husband is reading it now.

I understand that this novel is being made into a movie. I’m iffy about that because it will be extremely difficult to do and to do the book justice. We shall see! For now, I’m out of quarters and Game Over.

My Overall Rating – 4.75 stars out of 5

This week, I randomly generated another category leftover from last year, A Book from your Childhood. I had several possibilities as I have always been an avid reader as far back as I can remember. I chose something that I haven’t read in ages but was one of my favorites growing up. I will be reading:

 

What are you reading this week?

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

Week 6 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Wow! This week seemed to fly by so quickly! Welcome back to my blog and to Week 6 of the reading challenge. I know several of you read some amazing books this week and I can’t wait to read your thoughts about them!

Last week, I read The King of Ys: Roma Mater for the category The First Book You See in A Bookstore. I have to admit that I had a good belly laugh with my book choice this past week. Not the book itself but the title. I live in the south so I couldn’t help but think how many passed up this book thinking it was about roma tomatoes or roma maters LOL Please excuse me for finding this hilarious but I can just imagine some of the people in this area thinking it might be about growing a crop of roma maters…..

As for the book itself, it was an absolute pleasure to read! You know the saying that so in so has your name written all over it, then this book had mine. It had everything that I love. Even though it is listed as fantasy, it read as historical fiction. That’s because a lot of it was indeed historically accurate. Roman history happens to be my jam and this book was full of it, even if it was a later period than I personally study the most. It also weaved religion into the very fiber of the story. It had historically accurate ones such as Mithraism, Celtic and Christianity. However, it really came alive with it’s own made up religion that hints at many different traditions. It was interesting to read about how each person’s beliefs shaped how they viewed the world and what was happening. As a cultural anthropologist nut, this is the stuff that I love to read about.

I very much enjoyed getting a book that I could “chew” on and not be an easy read. This is definitely a book that demands your attention. My only slight fault of it being that it is a first book in a series and thus doesn’t have a stand alone quality about it. I am now going to have to track down the rest of the books in this series because I really want to see how everything eventually plays out. It also had a bit of a sluggish start but it’s a very trivial point against it. Once you get though it, it makes sense for it to start the way it does. If you enjoy Roman history, this is a book that you will savor. I highly recommend it!

My Overall Rating – 4.5 stars out of 5

This week I was given a category that I had left over from last year unfinished. I was super excited that my random generator landed on it because I actually own the book that I had in mind to read. I received it in a Loot Crate last year. My category is A Book with a Number in the Title. I will be reading:

Happy Reading and Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hi Guys! I hope everyone has had a pleasant past week and was able to read some great books. Still going strong on your 2016 Challenge? I hope that you are!

If you will remember, I had the category A Book Written By a Celebrity for last week and I chose to read Betty White’s If you ask me (and of course you won’t). I mentioned the potential of this being a really non-interesting category and I hoped that by picking written by the amazing Betty White that that possibility could be avoided.

Turns out I was wrong……

Now I realize that it is sacrilege to criticize anything that Betty White does, believe me I do. However, this really wasn’t a book at all.

I expected it to be an autobiography of some sort, which is one of my favorite categories to read, but I’m not sure how to describe this “book”. It was a mix between reading facebook type posts and a reader’s digest version of a story. The layout was a subject and then a subset of that subject with 1 – 5(very rare length) pages about each subset. It had zero cohesion and no meat at all to the matter. I know she was 89 years old when she wrote this book and that she is an amazing, interesting person but this was just one that I had wished I had never picked up. If I had not spread the pages out over 5 days, which is what I usually do for my other challenge books (M-F), it would have took me a hour tops to finish the entire book. As I said, it severely lacked substance of any kind.

I still love you Betty White but I don’t think I can read any more of your books. Sorry!

My Overall Rating – 2 stars out of 5

My random generator threw me for a bit of a loop this week. It gave me the category The First Book You See in a Bookstore. As you guys know, I try to always utilize my local library for my challenge books if possible but I couldn’t figure out how I was going to do that this time. Then I remembered! My local library has their own “mini” bookstore where they sell some books. This fulfilled my category without me having to shell out a great deal of money (for a potential book that I would not enjoy having) and I was still able to give my local library some love. I will be honest, the first book I picked up was a book 2 in some series so I put it back because who starts with book 2! However, the second random one I grabbed wasn’t. Bonus: I probably would have picked this up to read myself based on the back cover. Here’s hoping for a good book this week. I will be reading:

What are you reading this week?

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

Week 4 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting. My husband was kind enough to share the plague with me. The last few days I have been laying in bed surrounded by waded tissues and empty Dayquil packages. At least Netflix was there in my time of woe!

Anyway, Last week I read The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas for the category A Book Translated to English. It was a classic that I have been wanting to check off my list for some time. I assume that most people have seen multiple films regarding the Three Musketeers like I have. What amazes me is how unfaithful they are to the actual book itself. You would think you would have a book full of daring sword fights and romantic intrigue. In actuality, the book does have this but in a different way.

In reading the introduction to the book, I learned that Alexandre Dumas was actually a famous playwright before he became an author. This is important because when reading the book with this in mind, you can see his talent for “setting the stage”. His daring swordplay in the book was the dialogue between the characters more than actual fighting. If any of you out there are authors, you know how hard it is to write good and meaningful dialogue. Monsieur Dumas does this brilliantly. There isn’t as much fast-paced action as would might expect based on cinematic representations. They spent more time talking about doing the thing than actually doing the thing. I actually very much enjoyed this nuance because the characters really do come alive.

I would also love to point out that he writes a good villain. Being that she is a woman in a more “gentle” time, makes it even more intriguing. The book was a great choice because this book is truly French at its very soul. I highly recommend giving this book a read because it is different than what you expect and I can see why it’s a beloved classic!

My Overall Rating – 4 stars out of 5

The category randomly selected this week is A Book Written By A Celebrity. This could be a potential groan of a category but I think I chose a book that will prevent that from being the case. I will be reading this week:

Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ

 

Week 3 of 2016 Reading Challenge

Hello everyone and welcome to week #3 of the reading challenge!

Last week, I had the category A Graphic Novel and I chose to read Starchild Awakenings by James Owen. I do read graphic novels and comic books quite regularly but this was one that I had not heard of before. Apparently, it’s obscure and published in a time when this medium wasn’t as popular as it is today. When researching what to read for this week, I had several possibilities that I wanted to finally sit down and read but none of those were in or carried by my local library. So, I found this one browsing the aisle and the art and the premise seemed very promising.

I wish I could tell you that it was a hidden gem. I wish I could tell you how much I enjoyed it. I wish. However, this was just a struggle to get through. I should have known this because the fellow writing the introduction (not the author) gives you a flow chart, if you will, of the characters because he even said it was hard to determine who the narrator was at any given time and to remember who was who. Not exactly what one would expect in an introduction. He was right.

The narrator switched so fast and with reckless abandon that you were always asking who and what in your head. The characters got jumbled and tossed and thrown around so much that I suffered mental whiplash trying to keep up. The premise of the story, a modern yet set in the past fairy tale, actually had so much potential. This could have been great given the right pacing and voice. Instead, it was just awful. I think he was trying too hard to be like Gaiman and ended up falling flat, as one does when you try to be somebody else.

The artwork was pretty good and done by the author. Sounds harsh, but maybe he should just draw and not write.

My Overall Rating – 1 Star out of 5 (the 1 star for the attempt at a good plot and the artwork).

This coming week my random generator gave me the category A Book Translated to English. I consider myself to be a generally well read person but somehow I have never got around to reading this classic. I will be reading:

Until next time, Stay Nerdy My Friends!

-BJ