Books read in January

[orangerful]

This was an off month for me because I *started* a lot of books and either didn't read them fast enough and had to return them (so they will show up on the list later on) or they were huge disappointments so I didn't technically *finish* them. And then there was another book that I enjoyed but it's not really a "sit and read" kind of book so it might get returned and picked up later.

Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! by Tom Angleberger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The bar has been set VERY high for all future Star Wars novelizations. This isn't just a straight retelling of what you saw on the screen, this is clearly a labor of love. Angleberger is a fan and it shows. This reminded me of the radio dramas, with lots of extra bits of story and ideas that you can only include because of the format. The inclusion of the storyboard sketches and McQuarrie artwork makes this a must have for Star Wars fans of all ages. It is a book a child could read on their own, but it would be even more fun to snuggle up and read together with a friend, a sibling, or parent.



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Cock-a-Doodle-Doo-Bop! by Michael Ian Black

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This would be a really fun book for a storytime if you feel comfortable scatting in front of a group and could get all the instruments or sound effects to play. It would actually make a fun little play. It wasn't as good as some of Black's other picture books, but definitely cute. I could see this being a hit as a family read aloud.



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Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Stopped on page 125, just not feeling it. I really enjoyed listening to Jesse Eisenberg on NPR a few months ago reading selections from the book, but sitting down to read it, even knowing how Eisenberg sounds, I just wasn't thrilled or amused enough to keep reading. I might like listening to it if Eisenberg reads it, but I've got too many other books right now to keep trying to get through this one.



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The Complete Chi's Sweet Home, Part 1 by Kanata Konami

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So cute !! We had watched some of the anime so it was fun to read the whole story. Chi is definitely every kitten ever. Must read for anyone with a cat!



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The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well, if it says anything about this book - I had to stop reading last night because it was getting late and I was starting to fall asleep but as soon as I woke up this morning, I felt compelled to finish it.

I don't want to give too much away, other reviews have said it better. This is a children's story, but in the classic vein of Grimm's Fairy Tales and the "be careful what you wish for" dark fable that stays with you. Give it to a kid who likes those kinds of darker stories...

If you liked the movie Labyrinth or the book A Monster Calls or The Rest of Us Just Live Here, I think you will enjoy this book as it tackles similar themes.



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The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey




I was really enjoying this book until the stupid "going to be a love triangle later" moment. It's the end of the world, she is fighting to survive in a Earth that has been taken over by aliens, ALIENS THAT HAVE KIDNAPPED HER BROTHER...but oh this boy has puppy dog eyes and I want to make out with him and now I'm so embarrassed that he might have seen my body when he was patching up my gunshot wounds. BLAH! I kinda rage!quit this one. Might come back after the request list goes away so I can try to finish it because it was really good until then.



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Fox Tossing, Firework Boxing, and Other Curious Pastimes from the Far Corners of History by Edward Brooke-Hitching




Fun book to pick up and flip through, though I want to read some other books now and let this one sit for a bit. You can only read so much about how awful humans were to animals before you need a break (while bear baiting bothered me a lot, the "baby boxing" at the Naval Academy amused me to no end...I'm a bad person)



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Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Oh interesting, my son has been reading Angleberger's Origami Yoda books (which were fun, in a midgrade way; I read the first one, maybe the first two?), but I didn't realize he'd now written an actual canonical Star Wars novelization.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the Origami Yoda books (though I need to finish the series, I stopped at Princess Labelmaker). I was very impressed with his novelization. I just got the 'Empire' book on my desk, this one is written by Adam Gidwitz who did 'A Tale Dark and Grimm', which I also loved. First I need to finish the Princess Leia book on my desk!

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

ALIENS THAT HAVE KIDNAPPED HER BROTHER...but oh this boy has puppy dog eyes and I want to make out with him and now I'm so embarrassed that he might have seen my body when he was patching up my gunshot wounds. BLAH! I kinda rage!quit this one.

I understand that completely - that kind of love triangle stuff gets pretty irritating DXXX

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

It just felt so **FORCED**! Like, I could almost see the note from the publishers saying "you know what's big right now besides YA trilogies? YA trilogies with LOVE TRIANGLES!"

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I heard a lot of horrible reviews for The Fifth Wave film adaptation that just came out, mostly with how boring and bland and predictable the romantic plot was, so it's not surprising that the book also had it featured. I don't understand why most YA books have pointless romance interjected into it, especially love triangles. It's become a popular trend now and it's just so....not the thing most people like or want to see in a story. Particularly when there are so many other things happening that could be focused on. I mean, when you have an alien invasion and apocalyptic world, why would you place an unnecessary love triangle/romance plot that adds nothing to the characters? Seriously, just stop, YA writers and filmmakers. :/

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Divergent (the movies, but the books too, I suppose) is so refreshing because it has a solid m/f relationship and zero silly love triangle.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Sylvia read the 'Divergent' books and I got slightly spoiled for them so now I can't bring myself to read them LOL. Plus, I think I'm set for my YA dystopias now, especially when any sorting is involved.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wonder if it was part of the book originally or if it was *ahem* encouraged by the publishers. My one friend read a galley of a YA book a few years ago, it was a stand alone story but when the book finally was published, it was suddenly a trilogy and the ending had been changed. So now I don't trust that any of these "trilogy with romance" books actually started out that way.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that's what happened with The Hunger Games. Katniss wasn't supposed to have a romance with anyone, her relationships with Peeta and Gale were originally strictly platonic (which would have been better, IMO, since they would have only played up the "romance" angle for the Capitol and propaganda when needed, but remained close friends otherwise throughout the entire series, sort of subverting the whole concept in a way), but the publishers forced the author to do one for real because apparently it would attract more of the target audience and sell more. And that's actually kind of insulting, really, to assume that teenagers, especially teen girls, wouldn't be interested in books unless it had contrived romances. And the fact that it's a popular trend now in order for books to get recognized is just, well, tiring.

Never mind that there is a whole other issue of the problem where certain publishers will actually request authors to change their LGBTQ characters straight or else their work will never sell....

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

ARGH! I HAD NOT HEARD THAT!! I'm sure Suzanne Collins was very diplomatic when she spoke about this stuff, since it pays her bills but how frustrating for her. She has a very teeny tiny romance in the 'Gregor the Overlander' series, but the lead is a boy and the target audience was younger than Hunger Games so it was more that "first crush" kind of feel.

The "romances" in Hunger Games always bothered me, especially when the movies came out and really used it to sell stuff. BLAH!

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

The "romances" in Hunger Games always bothered me, especially when the movies came out and really used it to sell stuff. BLAH!

Same. It was really ironic that the media was practically mirroring exactly what the Capitol was doing with the characters in the books/movies, as in focusing on the romance angle instead of the actual plot of what was happening with these characters. Like, no, let's not talk about the war that is going on and characters dying and Katniss having massive PTSD and her being the face of the revolution, let's further discuss the pointless "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale" and who she should ultimately choose in the end nonsense. Ugh.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

It was really ironic that the media was practically mirroring exactly what the Capitol was doing

Speaking of mirroring The Capital, how about this $150 Katniess cowl on the Official Hunger Games Store? (https://shop.thehungergames.movie/) I mean...seriously? This just misses the whole point of everything. :(

[icecoldrain.livejournal.com]

The Complete Chi's Sweet Home sounds so cute! I thought the same thing about The 5th Wave, except I also felt like I was watching paint dry. The love triangle was so out of place that I don't even know where to begin lmao.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

If you can find the "Chi's Sweet Home" anime streaming, it's totally worth watching. I think the episodes are like 5 minutes or something ridiculous. Adorable cute potato chips

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Whoa...lot of books there! I will admit I'm only just getting back into reading book-books (fanfic has long been my thing - and still is, in some respects) and I have a lot to catch up on!

*HUGS*

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I didn't finish 3 of them, one of them is a picture book and the other two are children's novels LOL. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I have the first 3 tomes of Chi's Sweet Home. It's cute. :-)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I've put in purchase requests for the other two at the library! The first volume is circulating really well (though the copy I checked out had a printing error! It was missing about 50 pages! Hoping it was just mine and not the whole batch.)

[interchanges.livejournal.com]

I've heard similar comments about The 5th Wave from those who read it. The first time I saw the trailer I thought, "oh cool, she's trying to rescue her brother from aliens" and then I saw the scenes where they stuffed in a romantic plotline and I was like really???

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much what happened while I was reading...and I was a good halfway through the book! I felt so betrayed by the writer!

[night-owl-9.livejournal.com]

Oooh The Nest sounds really intriguing.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest - the reason I picked it up was because one reviewer described it as "classic fairy fuckery" and I was like "HOW CAN I NOT READ THIS!"

It is a really quick read, I highly recommend it!

[mimoiikit143.livejournal.com]

Ugh!!! I hate it when YA authors decide to take the love triangle route and ruin the potential of what couldve been a really great book. I love romance, I do but when it delineates the plot from everything then I just rage quit and write really long angry reviews lmao. Also so many people are giving The Fifth Wave movie bad reviews for being bland and being "ANOTHER YA FILM yada yada" kinda makes me sad because I adore Chloe Moretz but man she needs to choose better films.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

IT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL! I was so pleasantly surprised when I started reading it, especially since it had a somewhat strong female lead and I knew a LOT of middle grade boys were reading it...and then that happened and she kept talking about how muscles and body and I was like "nooooooo!!! NOW THE BOYS THINK GIRLS ARE LIKE THIS NOO!"

[lisabella.livejournal.com]

Loved 5th Wave and the next book in the sequel. I can't wait for the last book to come out! I don't even remember any romantic stuff so it must not have bothered me too much.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I think I just have a low tolerance for that stuff. I put in a purchase request for the audiobook so I'm thinking it might be a good one to listen to, I can zone out during any romance stuff LOL.

[lisabella.livejournal.com]

Ha! I hear you. I skim smoochy stuff when I read regular books. I just don't care! I've got the third book on hold so I think I might have to go back and reread 1 and 2. I'm constantly mixing up The 5th Wave with Partials, for some reason.

[verdande-mi.livejournal.com]

Yes to everything re The 5th wave! I finished it, but only to make another count on my reading project! I did get more into it as it neared the end (it did get better in my opinion), but the whole romance plot was just not something for me...

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Well, that is encouraging. I do plan on going back to it later, at least I will be prepared to skim any romantic subplots.

[twissie.livejournal.com]

The Nest sounds so good!