Book 44 of 52 and reflections on the year

 I cannot believe this year is almost over. So much has happened, a lot has changed and so many great things have been brought into my life. I am now married to the love of my life, I have a new niece and nephew, I am getting closer to finishing school and because of that I had the opportunity to work at an amazing place, I am finally getting some of my health issues taken care of (even though the side effects have sucked). I managed to keep up with my reading and I believe I am still on track with the 52 books in 52 weeks, and somehow managed to begin learning about 5 new craft mediums.
Among all the great things that have happened there have also been some losses. I've had to say goodbye to an amazing woman who I never really got to know as well as I would have liked, I lost a cat I have known most of my life and a dog who I loved dearly. I also lost the first kitten I have fostered in a long time. I've taken a few risks and played it safe on many occasions. My knowledge, book collection and neurosis have all grown.. the good and bad in those are debatable. It has been one hell of a year and its not quite over yet.

My nephew Riley Phoenix

My husband with our niece, Holly Nola

RIP Wally Man

Lori, Carl and Carol (Carol, you will be missed greatly)

RIP Bubba

RIP Pixel, I only had six days to love you

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just finished reading All Together Dead, the 7th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I am still really enjoying the series but I felt like a lot of this book was all filler material. There were a lot of major events that took place but the rest probably wouldn't have been missed if it had been left out.  

Book 43 of 52

One of my favorite authors is Ellen Hopkins... she may not write science fiction or fantasy but I have always loved her writing and story lines. She writes all of her stories in verse which makes it easy to read a very long book in only a couple of days. Fallout, her latest book, was amazing.

Book 42 of 52

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare took me forever and a day to read. The Mortal Instruments is a wonderful series and I am enjoying it a lot but it is very slow moving at times. With my busy schedule I just don't have the time to really sit down and fall into a book and it is even harder to do when the book is so slow. The characters are awesome and the world they live in is beautiful. I look forward to continuing with the series but I'm hoping for a little more action in the coming books.

Book 41 of 52

The final installment of the Hunger Games, Mockingjay, was just as amazing as the first two in the trilogy. I was worried when I began reading it because I couldn't help but wonder if Collins would still have the same amount of shock factor that she put into the first two books. But I was not disappointed. There were just as many moments for me when I dropped my jaw, got goosebumps/chills, or became completely immobile for a minute while trying to take it all in. Collins has created a world so unbelievable that you can barely wrap your mind around it and yet it feels like something that could maybe happen one day. Like Plutarch says in Mockingjay... "But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction."
It seems it may only be a matter of time before the human race takes things a step too far.
I have a million more things I need to say but since I just completed the book like 10 minutes ago... I still have some reflecting to do.

Book 40 of 52

I have been slacking really badly on my book reviews. I finished book 40 over a week ago and have finished another book in the meantime as well.

I am enjoying the Mortal Instruments series, it is a bit slow moving at times but is a great story. I wish I had written this before finishing the 41st book because I can't think about anything else right now. Maybe I will come back in a day or so to finish up this review.

Book 39 of 52

Its been about a week or so since I finished City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare but I have been way too busy to sit down and write this. I enjoyed this book but it was a bit slow moving. There was not a lot of action and way too little suspense. The world Clare created is very detailed and extremely interesting. The characters are all very distinct and well developed and easy to love. I felt a lot of Harry Potter influence while reading.

Book 38 of 52

Blue Noon is the last book in an excellent trilogy. I enjoyed this series very much, right up until the very end, I mean....What is the point of saving the world if you can't be with the one you love?

Scott Westerfeld writes young adult fiction that is geared toward females and one thing about his writing that I admire is the fact that he knows what it takes to captivate a teen girl when she reading... the love interest. As a young girl no matter what genre you prefer to read, it all comes down to the relationship that is presented. And it doesn't change as you get older... I'm 25 and I still look for romance in my books. The problem with some male authors is that they just don't realize how important it is for us to have that element. I have always been pleased with the relationships that Scott creates. As women, it is all too easy to fall in love with the male lead in any story, the fact that he is fictional makes him even more appealing, and Scott seems to understand that.

But I never expected that Westerfeld would end on such a depressing note with this series. When you love seeing a couple together in a book, you never imagine that the author won't allow them to be together (unless of course you are reading Shakespeare.)  Though the plots and overall idea of the Midnighters was very interesting, I had banked a lot on Jonathan and Jessica's relationship, as well as Rex and Melissa's. These two pairs were completely different from each other but made each of the characters "existence" so much easier to bear. For every amazing aspect of their world there were at least two more bad elements to deal with.

Besides all the "lovey dovey" (as Michael would put it) stuff another major facet of these books was the powers that each of the Midnighter's wielded. Dess is a polymath and even though her explanations of the extreme mathematical processes made my head spin, she also got me started on some weird behaviors... like counting long words to see how many letters are in them as well as calculating certain numbers I come across to see if they are darkling-friendly. I can't help but laugh at myself when I catch myself doing these things.
Jonathan's power was definitely the most appealing to me. Technically it isn't flying but a lack of gravity that makes it so he can jump very high and stay in the air longer than you would expect. The funny thing is, when i dream of flying, it is exactly how Scott describes Jonathan's ability in the books.
Even in the last book I still didn't feel as though Jessica's ability was emphasized enough. She was supposed to be such an integral part of the book, needed by the other Midnighters, fully despised by the darklings and yet she seemed to just blur into the background. The only thing that made her stand out was her relationship with Jonathan.
I adored Rex's character but his power was nothing too exciting for me. Melissa for me was the opposite, her ability is what made her special not so much her personality. And of course the way they needed each other just made them both more interesting. Being together since they were so young gave them a very strong connection.