Jenn

This book was very difficult to rate, as some stories deserved 5 stars (Five Peas from the Same Pod, The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl) while others deserved only 1-2 stars.

My opinion of Hans Christian Andersen also ranged from brilliant to cracked.

So...

But overall, I think that I would get this book for my kids/godchildren. We would just perhaps read our favorite stories and skip some of the other ones.

This was pretty funny and fairly realistic, although I wouldn't have put up with some of the stuff she did for as long as she did. Overall, a nice, light, fluffy read.

I remember loving this story as a kid. Re-reading it was not a let-down, as some childhood favorites can be when read when you are older.

Lenski's writing was great for portraying the mood and feel of a time and place. I enjoyed the moral outlook of the Boyer family and greatly enjoyed all of the illustrations.

This should probably be a “classic” for everyone to have to read to their kids. I think it is right up there with the “Little House on the Prairie” series.

I think I'm definitely becoming a fan of Rick Riordan's stories. :)

I give this book points for being unique, but that's about it.

It was creepy, and not in a good way. The entire time I was reading it, I was saying to myself, “This is creepy and I don't like it.” However, I did force myself to read the entire book, instead of giving up after the first 15 pages like I wanted to do.

Much of the problem I had was that it was just creepy. Not scary-creepy or interesting-creepy, which may have held my attention. Not enough to give me nightmares or anything, but just to feel disturbed. Which, I suppose is a credit to the author, but it was an unpleasant experience for me.

Towards the end of the book, the action picked up and it became more interesting, but not enough (in my opinion) to redeem the book. It also seems that it is setting up for a sequel, but I don't know that I will read the sequel. Perhaps it will be less creepy and more interesting, now that I know what's going on.

So, that's my 2 cents. If you want to read something unique and out of the box and don't mind creepy, go ahead and pick up this book. You may like it a lot more than I did. After all, it's a New York Times Bestseller, right?

The way this book is written, you get sucked into Ana and James' world right from the beginning. It's very easy to lose yourself in their lives, even if you don't necessarily agree with the choices that they make.

I like the fact that the situation is portrayed very realistically; messy the way real life is. It is not preachy or judgmental, but allows the reader to see the situations and relationships play out and come to their own opinions and conclusions.

While they each had flaws, I think it is a testimony to the author's narrative ability to present them in a way that they are sympathetic characters. The book gives the reader room to think about the situation, instead of being lead through the plot blindly.

I think it is also realistic that sometimes it takes an outside event, like Finn entering their lives, to expose problems within a relationship. And, in a way, it is a needed catalyst in Ana and James' life.

Overall, it was an interesting and thought-provoking read.

I received this book for free as an Advanced Reading Copy through Goodreads' First Reads program. It is currently available for purchase.

I truly liked this book, and I loved Kenzie's attitude and feelings toward her child. It was a refreshing perspective. I liked the opportunity to get to know, at least a little bit, the flavor of living in this area of Spain.

I think that if I had the opportunity to travel there myself, I would be able to relate more to Kenzie's experiences and would like the book that much more.

One of the good things about this book is also one of the frustrating things about the book – there is so much which is left unsaid. Perhaps it's a cultural thing, or perhaps it's a literary thing, so that we can flesh out the backstories and futures of the characters for ourselves.

Personally, I always want to know a little more. What is the fate of the characters beyond the ending of the book?

This is a solid 3 stars, and I know I'm kind of miserly with my ratings, but I think that I really did more “like” this book than “really like” the book. I'm glad I read it, it was entertaining, the characters are likeable, yet there was something that held me apart from them at the same time.

A good beach-book, summer time fluffy reading, for sure.

This is my second John Green book, and I think I kind of love him as an author. :)

Colin is great, and not a little bit unlike me, with the whole prodigy-but-maybe-not-genius-strictly-speaking thing going on. :) I also liked that Colin wasn't a complete nerd. We prodigies can be interesting, too.

The footnotes and appendix were another level of awesomeness.

This is definitely a book to put on my “to buy” list.

I loved this book. It was creative and I could completely see myself doing this. I loved that all the traveling – wasn't easy. It was messy and boring and scary at times, but that's how real life is.

This book made me miss some of my friends, whom I haven't seen for a long time. It made me want to get out there into the world and live. Perhaps I'm a bit more like Aunt Peg than Ginny, but I've got to hand it to Ginny – she kept Aunt Peg's rules when there is NO WAY I could have done this trip without a camera and a journal or something!

Can you really get a place to stay at a hostel for only 3 Euro/night???

This not just a “children's book”. It's for anyone who likes cuteness, and illustrations, and ghosts... This book explores different looks for the “traditional” ghost, and let me tell you... they are ADORABLE! And incredibly creative! There's just the right amount of pop culture references, yet not so many that would “date” the book.

Nevermind the godchild, I'm going to be re-reading this book many times to come! I can't even pick a favorite ghost – there are too many ones that I love! I do know which one my godchild's father would like best, though... :) But, I'm not going to tell... I think I'll have him read the book and see if we agree on which one is his favorite. :)

If these ghosts came in sticker-format, or as prints, I'd have them on everything. A llama-ghost on my phone... Ghost portraits on the living room wall...

This is one book that I don't really want to put on the bookshelf... I'd rather have it on the counter so anyone stopping by can pick it up and fall in love, just as I have.

Disclaimer: Just so you know, I'd be raving about this book even if I hadn't received a free copy from Random House, but... I did. Thank you, Goodreads First Reads! :)

This is one of those books that is between categories. Somewhere between a 3-star (ok) and a 4-star (really liked it). I enjoyed it. It gave an interesting perspective. But I think that Sam could have questioned things a bit more. I didn't feel her emotions the way that I thought I should feel the emotions of a girl in her circumstances, even if what she was feeling was numbness. So, the story, while good, and while the read is worthwhile, I just felt that it needed a bit more passion.

This book took me a little while to get into. I liked the very beginning, when he was describing his military experience, because I could relate. But then when he started recalling his youth and first interactions with the Marchmain family, I got a little lost in the references to 20th century British culture.

And, to be honest, Charles' days of drinking with Sebastian were not very engaging to me. They seemed as empty and frivolous as they were.

I also kept thinking about how this book, while it lacked in the over-the-top excitement that characterizes much of the storytelling, TV shows, and movies of the current age, it excels in painting a picture of ordinary life.

The parts of the book where the characters were discussing the Catholic faith were particularly interesting and insightful, and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

I kinda of, sort of liked this book. It was a decent read, but I was hoping for so much more from Shelby. It could have been a great book, but instead of coming to any great revelation or greater interior integrity – and just after her big speech which makes me think that she might actually have gotten it – she lapses into a relativistic point of view, which makes the whole journey of the book seems like a bunch of frivolous nothing. sigh

There is some hope, though, for the relationships in her life in the end.

And some of the messages about loving and obeying her father are good and she does try her best to be a good daughter. So, the book isn't a total flop for me.

Just not sure that I would be recommending it to anyone.

This is a book that is really easy to get into. You are feeling it, right there with Eddie. But, thankfully, the author doesn't turn a difficult situation into a roses-and-rainbows ending. Because life is messy, and rarely are all loose ends tied up and perfect.

I read Butter in one sitting. I binged on it, I guess you could say. I've never had Butter's experience, but I understand his difficult relationship with food from the other side of things. I had so much sympathy for him and I get where he was coming from with his plan. If I could have been one of Butter's friends, I think I would have been Tucker. I would have kept trying to fight for him to want to fight for himself and believe in himself. Or the Professor.

Cute, witty, adorable, great illustrations... I loved, loved, loved this book!

While his story is interesting as written, there was so much in there that was just ... misguided thinking or .... sigh I can see why he ended up doing what he did and thinking that he was correct in doing so. And it makes me sad. I have empathy for him, but I do not agree with him.

Probably the one section that sums up his point of view in this book is, “But human beings must be allowed to change their minds about what they believe to be true and good. Otherwise, we are mere robots.”

Um, no. That's relativism. If there's an objective truth, then it's true for all time. The truth doesn't change even if you are surrounded by tons of people who are failing to live out the truth and are being scandals and hypocrites. Even if 90% of the people are doing this. It doesn't make the truth untrue. It's merely sad.

This is another book that I really, really wanted to love, but ... didn't. I liked it, but it didn't grab me. I felt that Macy drifted into situations and didn't really take ownership of them. Towards the end of the book, she was coming out of her shell a bit, but unfortunately the story ends before we can see her really come into her own.

This book was interesting and I liked it, although it didn't grab me the way that The Hunger Games or Divergent did. I get that it's a series and that there needs to be establishment of the world and the characters, and it did pick up toward the end.

I am looking forward to the next book.

This was rather a quiet and thoughtful book, and surprisingly evocative, for children's literature. I like that it gives you space to think about the characters and put yourself in their shoes to flesh out their experience, rather than to tell you exactly how they are feeling at every moment.

Not only were there plenty of color photos of the food (very important), but there were so many recipes that looked delicious. In spite of this being a “healthy” cookbook.

If that weren't enough to make you go out and get a copy, here's something unique about this book that makes me LOVE it:

There are tons of recipes FOR ONE PERSON!

Yay! Single me can finally cook something and not have a billion pounds of leftovers!

Thank you, Gwyneth!

I liked the structure of this book. It was unique and refreshing. It was a little difficult at times, holding all the characters and their relationships in your head to be able to understand the story, especially as the point of view changed every few pages. I was tempted to make a chart or something on a white board. That aside, it was fun to be able to see situations and interactions from multiple points of view.

The poems/prose on the black pages were particularly interesting, with the way the outlying words created either a summary of the message, or a counterpoint to it.

I didn't realize until after I had started reading this that it was a companion book to Triangles. Perhaps, I would have understood the interactions better if I had read that one first.

The teen characters were believable, although I think the concentration of major negative events was too high. But I can forgive a certain lack of realism for the sake of a story. :) I was particularly proud of Mikayla and the decisions that she made.

The emotional responses of the teens seemed a little... off. Not by much, but it almost felt that they were a little removed from their own circumstances.

Overall, there's a lot of sex and drugs, etc. I'm not sure if morally/spiritually this is the best book for someone to read, but it did serve it's entertainment purpose. While it was over 500 pages long, I read it between lunch and dinner. :)

I picked up this book because I recall really liking Steinbeck's other novels from high school. It had said that it was going to examine pagan,
Christian and other themes within the context of a man's relationship to the land.

Well, it kind of did, but then it kind of didn't also. What was said by each character seems to be more of a caricature of each respective viewpoint, rather than a lived belief. Joseph, who supposedly had some spiritual connection to the land, didn't appear to understand exactly what was the nature of this connection, and similarly the religious aspect of the book seems similarly confused. Things just kind of happen, with no suggestion of truth being found in any one of the belief systems. They could all be equally valid or equally false.

From the beginning of the novel, it seems to set itself up as a tragedy, as the Indians foretell to Joseph of the droughts that periodically plague the land, and how he arrogantly tells them that they will not come again, now that he in inhabiting the land. We get the same sense of foreboding when we learn more about the character of his brother Benjy.

Despite these foreshadowings, Steinbeck has created a character that, while I can't identify with his beliefs, I still root for him and hope that somehow his optimism will by borne out by the narrative. The book is slow in pace and heavy with description, but this didn't detract from it's readability.

The biggest flaw of the story was that after it was over, I was still left with the question: what was the point?

While still enjoyable, I found this book to be weaker than the previous 3 books. We don't really see Artemis excelling in the area over which she is goddess. She seems to stumble upon a victory in the labyrinth, but is not really shown to have great hunting skills. Then again, she's only 13. Maybe she'll improve over time. :)