Yes, I'm Still Here...

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in awhile (life has been crazy), but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading. Sadly, though, I haven't been reading as much as I'd like because my job, sort of,...took over my life for awhile. I'm slowly coming back around, though, and gaining some ground for myself again. This weekend was the first real reading time I've had for myself in...WAY too long. (And, just so you know, I wallowed in it. Unashamedly and most happily, too! In fact, I stayed curled up in my bed reading until noon today! It was glorious!)

In order to really enjoy my precious reading time, though, I had to have just the right match for the weekend. I didn't want a collection of stories (which is what I read previously because my reading time was so limited), and I didn't want...well, it's hard to describe. I didn't really know what I wanted, but I knew what I didn't want. I do believe certain kinds of books attract us at different times. I just didn't know how true this was until this past week when I began looking for a book to start before I went in to my weekend.

You see, no matter what I read for pleasure, I couldn't get my work brain to shut-up. I have been so immersed in my job, I couldn't get my mind to turn off from it. I picked up three different books to try to start them and, while I'm sure they were probably perfectly good books, they did not pull me in enough to give my work brain a break. My mind kept drifting back to my job. This is not a good thing. Too much work and not enough pleasure reading makes me a dull girl...and a cranky one.

But then,...I found a book that was just what I wanted, and I could finish it in a weekend! :)

Every Day by David Leviathan proved to be the remedy for my overactive mind. I loved it. While it is listed as a young adult book and the main character is sixteen, it has a lot of deep meaning that I feel would be lost on most young adults. It is written with the wisdom of someone who has lived many lives.

You see, the main character, "A", wakes up as someone different every day. It is all he has ever known, and he doesn't know what he is or why he is this way. He has learned to live the way he does and tries to disturb people's lives as little as possible while he is them for just one day. He learns a great deal, he knows humans well and reads them well, and his life is like one big lesson in humanity until one day...he becomes a boy who has a girlfriend. There is a spark. Something different. A connection to another human being he has never felt before. And, thus, the conflict begins...

It's a very interesting story, quite enjoyable, and with a perspective that is very unique. It's about something more than a teenage boy liking a girl. Much more. It's about trust and knowing who you are and understanding the most important thing about yourself and about others.

I liked the book enough that when I was done with it, I found there was a prequel, of sorts, on my Kindle. It was just a novella (45 pages), but I wasn't quite ready to let go of A yet, so I read that, too. I'm glad I did.

I really liked the concept of the book. I read the notes in the back afterwards where Leviathan talked about pitching the idea for the book to his friends. Come to find out, Leviathan is friends with John Green (who I blogged about previously) and Green had teased him that if he didn't write the story, Green would. It's just a good story,...and a good lesson.

I liked it. I just...really liked it. I'm sitting here now, smiling about it. I've moved on to another book already, but I still have fond memories of A in my heart. :)



There are some good quotes in this book, but here is one of my favorites:

A Tale of Two Johns

I happily admit...I am a John Cusack fan. I think I always have been. I know, for a fact, I have been since the first time I saw him in the 1985 movie "Better Off Dead." Yes, yes, I know he was in movies before and after that one - wonderful movies - John Cusack movies,...but I fell in love with him from that one. 

I've had Cusack on my mind recently because of a certain author that I feel writes books with Cusack in mind. I mean, honestly, I don't think there's a better way to to tell you what his books 'feel' like than to say you should just imagine a young Cusack in the lead role.

The author I'm talking about is also named John. John Green.

I recently wrote a review on The Fault In Our Stars by Green, but I didn't mention that I imagined Cusack in the lead role because it was only one book. Now, however, I've read my second John Green novel, Paper Towns, and I'm definitely dreaming of Cusack. 

John Green's novels are young adult novels and, while I'm not a young adult anymore, I certainly enjoy the romp of remembering that age on occasion. It's always nice when authors write novels for young people about teenagers who have depth and honesty and think about something other than how many 'selfie' pictures they can post on social media. Amid all the 'girl drama' books I see cluttering up libraries and school book fairs these days, Green's novels are a breath of fresh air.

In both The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns, I recognize people (past and present) that I like...and don't like. Green's main characters are easy to relate to and easy to cheer for. If we'd gone to high school together, we'd have been friends. Weird friends, yes - but friends just the same. (Weird friends are the best, after all. Who wants normal? ;) )

Green's characters are sincere, quirky, witty, smart, and fabulously flawed. Like I said, a perfect 1980s John Cusack movie. Is there a better recommendation than that? 

I'm going to take a break from Green to read a couple of other books, but I already have Looking For Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines on my 'to read later' list. 

"That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste." 

~ John Green, Paper Towns

Need A Good Cry?

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

I avoid books that make me cry. I just...don't care to go there. That isn't to say I don't read books that have sad parts, even depressing parts sometimes, but - as a rule - I try to stay away from books I think will just absolutely break my heart. 

A couple of weeks ago, I began seeing quotes pop up on Facebook for a book titled The Fault In Our Stars. I liked the quotes I saw, so I looked the book up. I quickly found that it was a young adult book and the narrator is a sixteen-year-old girl with cancer. I immediately scratched it off my "maybe I want to read it" list. I knew my heart could not take reading that book.

A couple of days ago, however, I just couldn't get some of the quotes I'd seen for the book out of my head. I looked the book up on Amazon and found I could download it on my Kindle Fire for $3.99. At that price, it was hard for me to pass up. I didn't want to buy it, though, if I wasn't going to really read it. I finally decided I would make it my first read over my Thanksgiving break from school, so I would have time to read another book or two after it to ease the heartache I felt sure the book would give me.

I downloaded the book on Friday night, and I finished it this morning. I even 'scheduled' the crying I knew would come. When I was about seventy percent done with the book, I could tell I was going to start getting emotional. I stopped reading last night and decided to finish the book this morning when I would be all alone in my house, and no one would question my tears, or ask me to explain, or wonder what the book touched off in me that would send me in to sobs.

And that is exactly what I did - bawled my eyes out for a bit. (It's OK, though, I was overdue for a good cry.) And if you think I'm giving anything away by saying that, you'd be wrong.  

Am I recommending the book? Oh, absolutely. It may have a couple of sad parts, but it has happy parts, too - along with great sarcasm and intelligence. I can't resist a book with good banter between characters. This one has a good bit of that. I promise you will smile and laugh and smirk more than anything else.

While the book is listed as "young adult," I will let you know it has some mature language in it here and there. It is appropriate (and not gratuitous), in my opinion, given the ages of the main characters and the fact that they are having to deal with some serious life issues. That being said, I wouldn't recommend it to one of my sixth graders, but I think it would be good for older teenagers. Amazon lists it as age appropriate for fourteen and up.

The book isn't long, only 318 pages in the hardcover edition. It packs a good punch, though, and makes you think,...which is exactly what a good book should do. I liked the book, and I am glad I read it. I am especially glad I read it before it becomes a movie, which is currently in the works. 

Nothing ruins a good book like a movie...

Will and Halt will always have my heart!

Bibliophiles have a habit of falling in love with characters. Have I mentioned this? My daughters always thought this was crazy...until it happened to them, of course. ;-)

I assure you that both Will and Halt are worthy of my love...and yours. They are the kind of guys that middle school boys want to be like and middle school girls can admire. (I know you're thinking, "Wait. Ummm, middle school?") Actually, every man should want to be like them and every woman should want to admire them...but the Ranger's Apprentice series is written for middle school students.

Now, before you jump ship or think the series is only for middle school students, hear me out...

Once upon a time there was a twelve-year-old boy who hated to read. There was only one series that he liked. Well, needless to say, when this boy 'who hated reading' told me that I just had to read The Ranger's Apprentice series, I did exactly that. I was hooked and in love long before I got to the end of the first book! With each book in the series, I kept thinking there was no way the author could continue to make the next one as good as the one before it - but he does! While there isn't one single book that I could pick as my "most favorite" (because I love them all), I am a little sentimental. Like a first love, I am partial to the first book The Ruins of Gorlan where I met Will and Halt for the first time. You know, when we were all a little younger, a little more naive, and a little less weary from our battles and travels and adventures.

There are "officially" eleven books in the series, and I say "officially" because I fell in love with the first ten - which completes the story line. The author, John Flanagan, came out with another book The Lost Stories which is composed of ten short stories that let you know what eventually happened to all the characters. I own that book, but haven't had the courage to read it yet. I am aware that it tells how they lived out the rest of lives which, like all of us, means their lives eventually ended. I like keeping them alive for now. (Don't laugh, I have a friend of mine who feels exactly the same way and, no, she isn't a middle school student. :)

If you read it and you are an adult, I don't need to prepare you for what you're going to read. Just enjoy! If you give it as a gift to a reluctant middle school/high school reader, tell them to be patient through the first couple of chapters. Tell them they shouldn't let the names of the bad guy or the towns/countries throw them in the beginning. They'll get the hang of it, I promise. (By the way, the author wrote these books from stories he wrote for his son when he was young because his son didn't like to read.)

A note about any book series: A series has to be really good for me to invest my time. I don't like reading a series until it is completed, when I can help it. Once I start one, I like to read straight through without reading anything else in between. I do not recommend series very often, but I do highly recommend this one.