Brianna P
I absolutely loved this retelling of Cinderella. It was so creative and intriguing. I actually felt worse for Cinder than I do for the original Cinderella. Maybe it's just the context of Cinder's life. I mean even though she learns something exciting about herself, it's not a completely happy ending because she still has to escape her current predicament. I look forward to Meyer's retelling of the other fairy tales.
I absolutely loved this book. It made me feel so many different emotions. In a few ways I could relate with Charlie. I was somewhat the same way in high school. I never openly went and made friends, the friendships just kind of happened.
I felt sad when we finally learn what happened to Charlie when he was younger when his aunt Helen was still alive. I was glad when things changed for Charlie in good ways. I loved reading along as Charlie tried things for the first time; some being more interesting than others.
This is a book I would definitely recommend to teenagers and even young adults.
I liked this book. Anastasia Steele clearly has some issues of her own. I mean I don't think I could've started my sex life off on such rough terms. But hey she liked it. It's very obvious that Christian Grey is messed up. I mean he likes to have all this kinky sex stuff, but doesn't want to be touched. He just has serious issues. I don't even know how Anastasia dealt with it, but I guess she would since Grey is her first. Some parts of this story confused me because I just don't see why Ana didn't run for the hills. But then I had to remind myself that Ana is not me, and I am not Ana. For some reason the end made me cry. I guess I'm a little emotional today, but I just couldn't stop crying once she realized how bad he was hurting her and how fucked up he was. I guess I just felt bad for her. I probably would have gave this book 5 stars if it didn't end with her crawling into bed hugging a balloon. I just couldn't deal. I mean I know the balloon had a significance to her, but who hugs balloons when they're sad. I think maybe Grey could have bought Ana a stuffed airplane, you know something soft and cuddly, and I probably would have respected this ending more. But I was just like grow up Ana and stop hugging balloons.
I really enjoyed this book the second time around. The first time I listened to it on auudiobook and I just didn't pick up a bunch of little things like I did this time. Although this time, not only did Maven get on my nerves, but so did Mare. She was so blind to Maven's true intentions but had the nerve to tell other people they were being blind to what was going on around them. But all in all, I loved it and can't wait to read Glass Sword
“When the officer approached the window, he said ‘Papers' and before he could finish, I shouted, ‘Scissors! I win,' and drove off.”
That line was hilarious. I could never imagine saying anything like that to a police officer. The book was somewhat interesting. I didn't really like the ending though. I guess I expected just a little more.
I loved this book. In it we continue to learn more and more about the Moroi, Strigoi and Dhampirs. I like how Richelle Mead weaves in what happened in the last book, which definitely helped being that I read the first book last year and had forgotten some of the details that were important to this book. I think the Moroi using offensive magic is pretty cool. It seemed like the way things should have always been and a much better way to help protect the Moroi from extinction. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
I found this book very interesting. It was intriguing to see one incident from everyone else's point of view. It is crazy how words can get mixed up and mistaken for someone saying something entirely different. Also, it's a shock to realize how people react before they actually know what is happening. The book mainly relates to the Trayvon Martin shooting.
In this book Tariq Johnson, a black teenager, is shot by Jack, a white adult. Tariq's point of view is never shown because (of course) he is dead. It was a shocker to me that Jack's point of view was not voiced in the book. All that was said of him was a few things he said to his friend, Tom Arlen, and what Tom Arlen thought of Jack. We never really get to know what was going through Jack's mind when he shot Tariq, all we and the characters in this book can do is make up our own speculations.
Speculations, however, seems to be what leads Tariq to his death. Everyone assumed certain things about Tariq. A shop owner calls after Tariq. Another guy assumes that Tariq has stolen from the store, while also assuming he is a part of gang because of his attire and interaction with one of the gang members. The guy tries to stop Tariq, in which makes the gang members surround the two thinking they are going to fight. In turn, this makes Jack think that they are trying to jump the white guy. So, he shots Tariq.
This book shows how confusing it can be trying to figure out what actually happened at an incident, especially when one person dies at the incident. Assumptions takes this story through twists and turns as people try to figure out what type of person Tariq really was.
I found it astonishing that no one really considered what type of person Jack could be. The main question that I had through the whole novel was, “Does the type of person you are, really justify your death?” This in turn made me think of so many other topics like the death penalty.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It's been a long time since a book has made me think of something that is actually a question that has no right or wrong answer because the answer depends on the person. Just the same, how people describe you when you're not around depends more on they're feelings towards you than anything you may or may have not done.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. You have a freelance hitman, Calum, that accepts a job for an organization. He usually doesn't like to do work for an organization because he doesn't like to be tied to them. When Calum accepts the job to kill Lewis Winter, everybody involved in the slightest way life changes. I love how the characters in this novel were involved with the aftermath of Lewis Winter's death. Some of the characters I felt really bad for, while others I just thought they kind of brought it on themselves.
If you like gritty noir, I would definitely recommend this book to you. It is an easy, enjoyable read. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy.
OMG!!!! I absolutely loved this book. It was the best one in the whole series so far. I loved the conflict between America and Maxon. I had all kinds of emotions while reading this book. For a moment I was so scared that Maxon was going to marry Kriss instead of America. I just can't believe all the shocking things that happened. I grew to love some of the characters that I hated in the last two books, and vice versa. It was so sad that Celeste and Queen Amberly died. I was not so heart broken by the King's death because of how he treated America and the selection process as a whole. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves love stories.
Loved it! It definitely was not what I was expecting. I don't know how I would feel if The Selection was a real thing in America. I think I would participate for the fun of it and to get away from home, but like America I don't think I would actually win. I like how America and Maxon's relationship started. Even though she wants to be with Aspen so bad, I think her and Maxon would be perfect for each other. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
While this way a very good character sketch, I didn't really feel any way about this novella. Holly slept around and had a very unrealistic view of life. However everyone has dreams, but Holly just had no sense of where she was headed in life. All she knew was she wanted to live wherever she felt was home, a place similar to how she feels when she's at Tiffany's. I guess my problem with this short story is that I couldn't connect with Holly's life nor the narrator's feeling towards Holly. I just couldn't get into the story that much, but the writing of it is wonderful and for its time it displays very risque behavior for a female in the 1940s. If not for Capote's wonderful character sketch and insight into a city and time period portraying what was acceptable and unacceptable in such a bold, sassy Holly, I probably would've gave this novella only 1 star.
I absolutely loved this book. I liked the idea of vampires trying to become mainstream and drinking synthetic blood. I was surprised by the whole mystery of the book. The whole time it really did seem like Jason was killing those girls. I didn't expect the killer of those women to be who it was. I was sometimes kind of thinking it was Sam, but he had dropped Sookie off the night her gran was killed. Overall this was a very interesting book and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I liked Perry more than I did Aria. She was very annoying to me until the part where they reach Marron's. I was feeling like the book should have been more focused on Perry instead of Aria. The book was pretty average until about the last 80 pages. That's really when the book picked up for me and I ended up finishing it in like an hour. One thing I didn't like about this book was the lack of explanation for things I felt like where important. For example, The Aether and The Unity. I would really like to know exactly what the Aether is and where it comes from. I would also like to know what the Unity actually was. I am determined to read the second book in the series though because of the ending of this one.
I loved this book more than I thought I would. I found it interesting how Neville was surviving in a world all alone with vampires coming at night. I liked how the book began, but I didn't like the ending too well. I have seen the movie that is based off this book and I must say that I liked the movie way better because I feel like it has a better ending.
It was interesting how Neville figured out what was going on with the vampires even though he was really no doctor like in the movies.
I couldn't imagine life where there were no books. I love to read. I liked the concept of the book, yet I just felt like some events in the book were not explained enough. Once I finished the book, I was left with why and how questions. I didn't quite understand the importance of the girl or the wife. The wife was a very confusing person.
Maybe one day, I'll have to reread this book as a buddy read. I just might not have the same insight and understanding of this book as someone else might or as two people thinking together would.
Horrible. The main character, Dianna Trowl, got exactly what she wanted just because she wore a dress that was different from the other debutantes. Boring! She never once had any complications because she married someone she just met. Just seemed too unrealistic for my taste and I read fantasy novels, but at least I feel like those can possibly happen. Good thing this was a free book that I acquired.
Review originally featured on Quiet or Loud? The Mind of a Young Lady: https://bookreadersthoughts.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/and-the-mountains-echoed-by-khaled-hosseini/
This is the first book I have read by Khaled Hosseini. I have heard that his book The Kite Runner is a very good book. In And the Mountains Echoed, every chapter is narrated by a different person, and each is a first-person narration. The time period is this book span over many years with the book sometimes going back in time (usually some years before the chapter that preceded it). This book also took place in many different locations, such as Paris in France, Kabul in Afghanistan, California in the United States and Tinos in Greece. I liked the theme of family that was presented in this book. When this book starts a father is telling a story of a father losing his favorite child to his children on the way to do a job. A story in which well eventually become true to them in a different way from the family in their father's story. The father has his two children with him, Abdullah and Pari, even though Abdullah was supposed to stay at home. The father ends up selling Pari to a wealthy family by the name of Wahdati, which breaks Abdullah's heart because he has lost his sister.
Why did the father sell Pari? How does this affect Abdullah's family ? Will Abdullah ever see Pari again? How will Pari's presence affect Nila and Suleiman Wahdati? And are they prepared for parenthood?
When it came to reading this book I was very hooked for the first 4 chapters. After those chapters, the book really dragged for me. I started this book as part of a group read in January, but I didn't finish it with the rest of the group. I ended up finishing this book in March. The ending was pretty amazing, so I guess he saved the best stories for last. There were a lot of things I didn't understand. It seemed like every character's story had a sad part to it and it made me a little insensitive to some characters because I was expecting a sad story. However, I did like that every chapter was from a different point of view. It made some stories that involved more than one character a little more understanding, and makes you able to understand why some of the things happened the way they did.
I would probably read more books by this author because when I looked at reviews for this book, many people said his other books are way better than this one. Therefore, I still have some faith in Khaled Hosseini. Also, this book wasn't that bad of a read to make me not read anything else by him.
I would probably encourage others to read this book, but those people would have to be people that have already read a book by Khaled Hosseini. I wouldn't want this book to be the book they based their decision of him as an author on. It is a good book, but I wouldn't to highly recommend a book that I sat aside for about 2 months before actually finishing it.
I was on the edge between giving this 3 or 4 stars.