Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for plays] 

The pair are in Sydney where tonight they will attend the premiere for their new film Water For Elephants.
A little upstaged? Witherspoon and Pattinson smile for the cameras next to the elephant before looking at it in bemusement
Pattinson, dressed casually in jeans and a brown shirt, and Witherspoon, who wrapped up in skinny jeans and a thick woollen polo neck jumper, were joined by the film's director Francis Lawrence but were then surprised as they were joined by a mystery guest - an Indian elephant.
Their new friend left them in giggles as she had a little accident on the pavement.
You do it: Witherspoon gives Pattinson some more biscuits to keep the elephant happy
Despite working with an elephant while making the film, Pattinson seemed reluctant to feed the guest star, as Witherspoon handed him some biscuits.
And despite shying away, the Twilight star claimed that working with animals was one of the main reasons he took the role in the film, which is based on the book by Sara Gruen.
Speaking at the press conference he said: 'Francis Lawrence said he wanted to have a meeting and he took me out to the elephant sanctuary where Tai [who plays Rosie the elephant] lives and I saw her doing a handstand and stayed there for about four hours playing catch with her.
You're at the wrong end: Witherspoon and onlookers laugh as Pattinson gets a surprise
'I would literally throw a ball and she would catch it in her trunk and throw it back to me, and I was like, "OK, even if this movie is the worst movie ever made, I get to work with this elephant for three or four months. I'm definitely doing it".'
Witherspoon also spoke about her 'incredible experience' preparing for her role in the film in which she plays circus performer Marlena.
She said: 'I got to train with Ty the elephant for three months. I went to circus school to learn how to do trapeze and acrobatics. It was a unique experience but it was also daunting and scary.'
Chic and simple: Reese looked casual but glamorous in skinny blue jeans, Louboutin heels and a black polo neck jumper
The pair flew straight to Sydney from London where they had attended the premiere in Westfield Shopping Centre in west London.
They also found time to make an appearance on the Graham Norton Show where they both admitted they had fallen in love with Ty.
Witherspoon said: 'She is amazing, thoughtful and communicative', while Pattinson added: 'I genuinely thought we had a real bond, a little something going on.'
A giggle with Graham: Witherspoon and Pattinson burst out laughing as they were interviewed by Norton for his weekly chat show
source: dailymail

VIA Who invited the elephant? Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon upstaged by wrinkly star at Sydney premiere

Everyone, help me welcome Sierra to the blog today! She has an absolutely wonderful memory to share with everyone today! Help me make her feel welcome!

My name is Sierra, and I blog on Yearning_To_Read. I've been blogging for almost a year now; I started Yearning To Read back in June 2010. It has been an amazing experience, and I feel so priveleged to be a part of a project like this. My blog first started out as a way to review good books (okay, and some bad, too) and have fun with it. Now it has turned into much more: I write about vintage books that I buy, poems, and quotes that I love; and in January I added something new: giveaways, so far my favorite aspect of blogging. I love giving books: What a great way to do it!

About me: I'm a 17-year-old senior in highschool and I've been homeschooled since preschool. I LOVE it. LOVE LOVE LOVE. It has allowed me to study everything that I would study in a public school, but it also gives me a greater freedom to focus on what I love: literature, writing, foreign language, and Photography. It has been a journey, full of adventures. AND... my mom is the best teacher.:) I live in San Diego, CA, which is one of the best places to live. Someday I hope to travel to new ends of the world, but I want to always have a home to come back to in San Diego. I've beed a reading maniac since I was 7, and I've been writing novels (yes, novels) since I was 8. Not that they were any good, of course, but it's the thought that counts, right? I still write all the time... the stories come and come and come relentlessly. I hope to someday be a published author. It's been my goal for 9 years and counting — I'd say that's pretty promising!

And now, for my memory.

It was Easter Sunday, 2008, after church. It's funny, how some days start as one thing, with you having a goal for the day, an idea of what it's going to look like. And then, it all changes. Drastically. Funny what books can do to you in a day.

The day before, I had picked up Inkheart. I'd bought it a while before, with its published companion Inkspell. I'd heard it was good from a friend; the movie was coming out; I had a giftcard. How could I lose?
But anyway, back to the story:

I remember lunch at our house, with our friends. I brought Inkheart to the table with me and had it under my leg. (This is the first time I remember doing this.) Between bites, I'd reach down and feel the cover, the grooves and bumps on it which were (and still are) Meggie's fingers, the gold coins from Treasure Island, the lizzard from the desert, the castle from the fairytales. I wanted to read it; I wanted to be captured in the story and transported.
After lunch, I helped clean up a bit, but I was itching. Itching for the story beyond the covers. The second I was free, I ran upstairs and into my room, where I stayed. I opened the book. And read.

For 6 hours.

Now, let's get something straight here: I'm not a fast reader. I got a total of about 250 pages done in those six hours. I took two breaks. But the rest of the time, I was hooked. I remember it vividly, the first time I read that journey and was immersed. I remember starting by sitting on my bed; that soon got stuffy and uncomfortable, after so much food. Then I sat between my desk and my footboard, legs up, book on my knees. That, too, eventually became uncomfortable. My legs cramped and it was getting hot in the room. (Or was that Dustfinger's fire, leaping out of the pages to catch me?) Then I went outside to the patio, where I read some more. I sat on a reclining chair and my body soaked up the spring sunshine and fresh air — and all the while my mind was soaking up the intense story that isInkheart. My mind was lost in a fantastic world that becomes a part of the reader.

I finished Inkheart two days later. Then, I started Inkspell.

In no way was I prepared for what lay on those pages, in that ink. I'd experienced a ride with Inkheart — but with Inkspell... I don't know. Something was different. Mentally, emotionally. It played with my emotions like Dustfinger plays with his fire, like Mo plays with his words.
In the end... let's just say that not very many other books make me sob. (I am a usual crier, yes, but not a usual sobber.) If a book gets me so emotionally that I cry really hard, it usually ends up on my favorites shelf. It means more to me than most books because it moved me more. It was just so when I finished Inkspell. I was sitting on the couch (I think it was the Thursday after Easter Sunday) and my sister was sitting across from me, reading one of the Madeleine L'Engle books. And as I lay there, reading the last few chapters, sniffling and wiping tears away and burying my head in my arms, she kept staring at me strangely, wondering what the heck could have changed my emotions so drastically.

(Are you wanting to know as well? I advise you read the book. 'Twill be worth it, I promise.)

And that is my memory. My vivid, lovely memory. I remember all the emotions, the sights and smells. In fact, the smell of the Inkbooks are still some of my favorites to date. Oh, and did I read Inkdeath ? Yes, yes I did. I remember longing for it, and when it came in the mail I was proud to know that I was one of the first people to ever hold it in my hands. And I LOVED the book.

This memory is particularly special to me, for a few reasons. Not only were these some of the very first books that I became emotionally attached to, but they were also some of the first fantasy books I'd ever read. They got me hooked on the genre, and they are still an example of what great fantasy is. Since that week I've read Inkheart 3 times total, Inkspell twice total (and the end several times — it makes me cry every single time), and Inkdeath once. Each time I read the first two, those memories come back, swiftly and vividly. It's strange — the books that talk about books catching memories between their pages are the books that have caught the most memories for me.

And they are memories I will always cherish and will never forget.

Thank you so much Sierra, for sharing your memories with us! This sounds like an incredibly important read for you. I remember these life changing reading experiences in my own life, and am so happy that you shared yours with us!

Readers, remember that if you would like to be a Memory Monday guest, in my blog for more information!

I do like a nice book cover, but I don't give them nearly as much thought as Jana at the Broke and Bookish so my list won't be as in-depth or interesting as hers. Mine aren't in any order either because I'm just putting them in as I think of them basically.

There were times when I was reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova where I just couldn't help but stop reading and look at the cover. This is truly one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. I love the darkness of the background and how the image changes for you as you read the book and find out more about the story. The text is great as well, kind of a mix between old and new, which is something the book plays with a lot. Also, I know this isn't part of the cover and I don't know what the books that have been released look like, but on my ARC the binding is gold and looks quite nice on my shelf.

One of the most effective ways to sell books is probably to have them cover out instead of binding out. If it wasn't for that, I never would have seen The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell this weekend. I was attracted to this cover because of the bright colors, fun font style, and the mystery about why she's covering her face with a picture of her dad. I picked up the book and read the back cover, thought it looked interesting so I opened it up to find it was a graphic novel! I was really excited to find a graphic novel in memoir form because I loved Persepolis so I bought it right away.

This cover is really simple and white, with a great brightly covered image that totally sums up the message of this book. It looks comicy, but still empowering. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson is probably one of my favorite covers from books I've read this summer. Every time I see the librarian with her cape I smile and I realized something a little different about the picture every time I look at it. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that those were books she was flying out of.

I think part of the reason I read Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick was that every time I looked at it I said "Pretty!" I love Sunflowers and Vincent Van Gogh's art and I think it was really effective to do a close up of one painting rather than try to fill the cover with an entire painting. The white text allows the image to speak for itself, and those who know Van Gogh will be immediately attracted just by recognition. Plus I just love green and yellow.

I buy children's books all the time even though I have no children and I'm not a teacher nor do I want to be one. Part of it started when I was a reading tutor and it's just kind of carried on since then. One day I'll have kids to share some of these beautiful children's books with and one I can't wait to share is The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. This was a staff pick at a store once and the artwork is just beautiful. I was attracted by the little red haired boy who sticks out amongst the green and blue of the natural scene behind him.

I still haven't read Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman but every time I walk by the cover I get the urge to start it. It is so simple, most of his covers are, but it just looks interesting. The image reminds of a children's reference book about dinosaurs with all of the labels on it. I love dinosaurs so I'm attracted to that. And I like how the author's name and the title are the same size and sandwich the image.

I just had to add one more children's book to this list. Boris and Bella, authored by Carolyn Crimi and illustrated but Gris Grimly is just a great cover. It's Tim Burton-esque and creepy. Normally when you see a male and female name on a book you assume they are in love, but this is not the case with Boris and Bella. We can tell from the image that these ghouls obviously do not like each other. I also like the purple and black for a creepier story like this one, plus the text fits perfectly.

I haven't read Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart yet, but I intend to soon because the book sounds great to me. I love this cover because it combines and simple colorless photograph with a tiffany blue colored box for text, and then the box is topped with a bow like one from Tiffany would be. I just think that was a really cute idea and I love the simple color scheme of this book.

I read this book a week ago and I think it has a pretty neat cover. This cover of Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman really embodies Rita's personality. The orange and green are bright and fun, which is just like her attitude. I also like the map at the top of the cover that shows all the different places she goes to and how she's constantly traveling back and forth. Plus I like that they used a photograph for a travel narrative because it let's you feel like you're in on their trip a little bit.

My last cover is the 50th Anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's beautiful. The color scheme is really unique, you don't see that deep, wine red on books very often, and it let's the green of the tree really pop. I have the older lavender version right now and I have been lusting after this book ever since I saw it. I also love the text they use on this cover, a slanted print that looks almost like a child's handwriting.

I actually learned a lot about myself by doing this, I appears that I'm really attracted to colors or white covers with a single image on them. Who knew! What are you attracted to in covers?

A couple of week ago Ron stopped by to talk to us about what makes a good graphic novel. It seems like a lot of you out there agreed with Ron's thoughts and some of you were looking for a good place to start with graphic novels. Ron compiled a great list of some of his all time favorites. I've read about half of these and I can vouch to their greatness!

Boiling the medium down to just a few recommendations is…impossible, but I’ll do my best to provide an interesting and diverse list. Even so, superhero comics will comprise a healthy portion of the list because they are so integral to the medium. I’ll also try to mix ongoing series with singular, one-shot works. Away we go—

Watchmen/The Dark Knight Returns

These two works are closely linked despite being vastly different when it comes to content. Watchmen is the arch-comic, the comic of comics, not only because of its brilliance, but it’s also a comic about comics. This is something the movie didn’t adequately capture. Writer Alan Moore spins a “Golden Age” story out of control, warping it into a self-reflexive mirror to the superhero genre, and artist Dave Gibbons subverts classical style, yet doesn’t seem like a carbon copy of it. This is a perfect comic.

In The Dark Knight Returns, Writer/Artist Frank Miller redeems a laughable Batman by infusing him with eighties pop-culture sensibility. The story sees Bruce Wayne as an old man, forced to once again become Batman in order to stop a brutal crime wave in Gotham City. The work, while whitewashed in eighties action movie veneer (Miller’s Wayne owes more to Clint Eastwood than Adam West), also explores the enduring nature of the character and his relationship to other heroes in the DC universe. It’s a rip-roaring read, but it’s also Miller at his cleverest—there’s a density to the work that he rarely has been able to recapture.

(Further reading: [Moore] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I & II; From Hell; [Miller] Batman: Year One; Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 2; Sin City.)

Criminal

Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers, and this is the reason why. Criminal pulls on the pulp origins of early comics as well as film noir and blends it into one outstanding package: contemporary but timeless stories about the criminal underworld. The tropes may feel familiar, but a good story, especially a crime story, isn’t “predictable” so much as it is inevitable. If there’s one thing this series has in spades it’s that sinking feeling.

(Further reading: Captain America; Sleeper; The Immortal Iron Fist; Gotham Central.)

Asterios Polyp

This is one of the most formally experimental pieces that I’ve ever read. Writer/Artist David Mazzuchielli uses everything at his disposal to construct a fascinating character study of a dead-beat architect named Asterios. It’s a vibrant book, story-and-art-wise, with each character constructed in interesting colors and character-specific fonts. It’s simply a pleasure to behold.

(Further reading: City of Glass.)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
This is an amazing work, something you’d lend to non-comics to get them hooked on the medium. It plays simply at first, but unfolds beautifully, each chapter adding a layer of complexity to the story. The art is outstanding, too, and lends to the credibility of the story itself, about a death in the family and so much more. The story will resonate with any reader, and that’s the highest praise I can give it.
(Further reading: Dykes to Watch Out For.)

Daredevil Volume 2 #16-19, 26-50, 56-81

This run of issues comprises Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on the book, a run that is simply outstanding. The most common phrase associated with the series is that, “Daredevil spends as much time out of his costume as he does in it,” which is a simple way of saying that the run is unusual within the genre. It’s more than that, though. Bendis’ characters speak in dialogue closer to David Mamet’s theater aesthetic than “word balloon banter,” and he fractures the timeline brilliantly to deal with heavy thematic concerns about the real power that a hero holds. Maleev’s art is also outstanding. He brings gritty realism to the book, and employs specifically cinematic techniques to convey the story. It’s a terrifically exciting body of work.

(Further reading: Powers; New Avengers; Ultimate Spider-Man.)

Scalped

This book is similar to Criminal (I could see them shelved together, yes), but offers a unique slant on the crime genre. Instead of portraying the underbelly of a city, Scalped digs into an Indian reservation in the Dakotas in which a sleazy FBI agent tries desperately to bring down the corrupt man who runs the rez, Lincoln Red Crow. The best part of the series is that it doesn’t pull any punches, everything writer Jason Aaron throws at the reader means something, and either pushes the plot forward dramatically or tells the reader something important about a character. The stakes in this book are incredibly high.

(Further reading: The Other Side; Wolverine: Weapon X.)

As I said, great list! Be sure to check out Ron's previous post and his blog Entertainment Etc.

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Songbird by Angela Fristoe is a book that I am very conflicted about. With a beginning like this book has, it should have been Amazing! So why, now that I'm finished do I feel a little more meh? Let me 'xplain.

Songbird begins when Dani is 6 years old and she watches her alcoholic father shoot her 16 year old brother, Jace, in the park. Jace is her hero, her savior in a violent, abusive home. The first four pages of this book, FOUR PAGES, made me cry. Do you know what it takes to make someone cry within the first four pages?! Amazing skill, that's what.

By page five, I'm completely invested in this story, completely invested in Dani and completely hurting and rooting for her. But then... I sort of detached from the story. By the description of the book, I expected the story to focus on Dani coming to terms with the death of her brother, the imprisonment of her father and a mother turned alcoholic, and all the baggage that accompanies this. I also expected music to play a huge role in Dani's life, considering that the title of the book is Songbird.

But, this is not what I got. Dani spent years bouncing between foster homes before finally setting in with her current 'parents'. Here, in this new home, she finally has a sense of stability, she has a best friend she trusts completely, who she knows will never do anything to hurt her and will always protect her (much like long-dead Jace) and she is finally feeling okay. Dani is still insecure, which is natural. Everyone she's ever truly loved has either been taken from her, or chosen to leave her behind. She's worried that her foster parents won't want a relationship after she turns 18 and she's terrified that if she tells Reece, (the best friend) that she has loved him, been in love with him forever that it will change things and she will lose him as a friend.

With all that emotional pain, all that drama, do you know what the primary focus of the story was? Reece. Yup. Reece. I've made no secret of the fact that books that revolve almost completely around the romance are not really my thing. I don't read many, and when I do, I have to be in a very specific mood. So I was quite disappointed to realize with all that potential, all those possibilities, Fristoe decided to make Dani's biggest problem her friendship and potential relationship with Reece. And, I thought that Dani handled it horribly! Admittedly, Reece could have done much better as well, but I thought Dani was incredibly selfish throughout a vast majority of the novel. You'll know exactly what I mean when you read the book.

Another thing that really bothered me about this book was the addition of the threatening phone calls Dani begins to receive. (Not a real spoiler — it mentions this in the synopsis). The whole thing felt really contrived, really unlikely and simply a plot twist to further the Dani/Reece drama. The moment felt very 'Jump the Shark ' (Wikipedia knows!) and I kind of rolled my eyes a bit. Definitely a WTF moment.

I was also disappointed at the lack of music in the story. The title and synopsis make it sound like music plays a huge part in Dani's life. We are told it's important to her, but we are never really shown that. There were a few references to the notebooks Dani carried with her to include her song lyrics in and how important they were to her, as well as 2, maybe 3 instances where we read these lyrics and that's about it. No more mention of music, even though it's supposed to be something that defines her.

However, even with these things that disappointed me, my overall feelings about this book are positive. I genuinely enjoyed reading the book and learning about Dani. Interspersed throughout the story are a series of flashbacks, giving us more insight into Dani's past. We see what happens with her father before his capture by police, how her mother slips farther and farther into her addiction to cope with what life she has left, what happens in the foster home where she met Colin (which would add way to much to a review to get into.; p) and so much more. We learn so much about Dani and her relationships with others and how they formed through these flashbacks, and other than that amazingly powerful opening chapter, they were the highlight of the book for me.

The times when we were able to learn more about Dani and how she is learning to deal with the terrible hand life has dealt to her were the highlights of the story for me, and the reason why I say that overall, even with several things that I found to be bothersome, this is definitely a book I'm glad I read and it is one that I would recommend to others, although I would want to discuss it with them first.

*Disclaimer: Book received for a fair and honest review through the Teen Book Scene tours.

VIA An Evening with Amon Amarth in Times Square

I went to Daydreams, the comic book store in Iowa City a few weeks ago to ask for some really great comic books. The guy at the counter didn't wait a second to put a copy of The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye in my hands. I was intrigued-- I'm not a humongous zombie fan, although lately I've become more interested in how zombies represent humankind. This appears to be of interest to Robert Kirkman as well because in his introduction to the book because he says what he 's going for is not "goofy characters and tongue in cheek antics" but rather to "show us how messed up we are." And he does a great job of doing that.

Rick Grimes, a Kentucky cop, wakes up in the hospital after a gun wound to find that the hospital is completely empty. Or at least that is what it appears until opens the door to the cafeteria and finds the floor covered with zombies. He runs out of the hospital to find there are zombies everywhere, and returns to his house to find it abandoned. He then goes out on a search for his wife and son who could quite possibly be dead. The beginning of this story was gripping and I was turning the pages so fast to find out if he would find his family again, or if he would be taken over by zombies.

The comic book gets a little sour towards the middle though. This comic book doesn't have the most sincere dialogue around the middle parts. There is a lot of shouting and anger, but it all felt very stiff to me which made the whole experience of the comic book a little dull. Towards the end the characters talk about their life before the zombies and how they envision life in this new world, and that is when the book really starts picking up. The dialogue stays at this mature level for the rest of the comic book, and by the end I wanted to jump up from the bench I was sitting on to go get the next book and find out what happens next.

Overall this is interesting idea and I'm interested to see how it plays out. The artwork is fabulous, grayscale, and really detail oriented. I hope the mature dialogue carries through to the next book because there are so many ideas that could be explored if only the writing was a little stronger.

I'm giving Volume 1 a C.

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Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John is one of the books I was most looking forward to in 2012. So when I invited Antony to take part in Just Contemporary and he sent me an ARC, to say I was ecstatic is an understatement.

I am going to warn you in advance that this review is all over the place and it's long. Although my feeling are overall positive, they range from surprised to shocked to disappointed to confused to annoyed to thrilled to amazed to Seriously? to pleased and pretty much everywhere in between. So.

To be perfectly honest, a part of me is devastated that I didn't love this book the way that I absolutely adored Five Flavors of Dumb. This doesn't mean I didn't like it, but this book lacked a certain authenticity in everything except the religion talk. Which makes that a great place to start.

I was surprised when I started reading this book to realize just how much religion plays a part in the story. I don't know how I missed it, because the title includes the words 'thou' and 'shalt' and the main character is on a book tour for the book he wrote called Hallelujah. So, I was instantly wary. Because, for a lot of reasons, that I'm pretty sure I don't need to numerate, books with really strong religious themes are not always my favorite and, in my experience, they aren't always done very well. But for me, this was actually the best part of the book. Rather than being a book about RELIGION it is more a book about a boy who happens to be religious. He believes in God, says his prayers, wants to see other people happy and he also questions his faith and beliefs. As someone who has been religious my whole life, this was incredibly refreshing to me. Here we have a mostly normal teenage boy, who is religious and it isn't this huge thing or problem or issue or whatever. It just was.

And Antony gets the full Ashley stamp of brilliance, because he managed to talk about religion a lot (Luke is on a book tour through Christian book stores) but he never, not once, came across as preachy to me. There were morals to the story, and life lessons learned but none of them were strictly brought about because of a religious lesson. They were normal. And it was amazing. Here is a book with religion in the summary that didn't turn into either an excuse to hate on religion and demonstrate its utter evil OR a 300+page Sunday School lesson. There are a lot of people and a lot of teens who go to church every Sunday. It an important but normal part of their lives. It's nice to have a book that gives us a religious character and handles it well. So, serious awesome points to Antony for that. Seriously.

However, I had a really hard time with just about every character in this story. Luke is supposed to be on tour for his book and his older brother, Matt, is brought along to act as his chauffeur. But Matt decides to bring along his girlfriend, Alex, and her little sister, Fran, who happens to be Luke's ex-best friend and major crush. Awkward. Fran has changed physically a lot in the past year, and Luke interprets this to mean that everything he knows about Fran has changed. And since she is a large part of the reason he's questioning a lot of his decisions (including his faith) and feeling disconnected from his life. So the author of this inspirational best-selling Christian self-help novel finds himself feeling... less than charitable as their road trip advances.

I found myself really frustrated with these characters. Luke's disinterest in his own life, his naivete and his complete and total self-centeredness were incredibly frustrating to read. Not that he didn't grow as a character, because he did and by the end of the book I was absolutely rooting for him. But it was a struggle getting me there. Fran has made some drastic physical changes — outrageous hair, piercings, tattoos, drinking etc. All things that usually signal a cry for help. But all Luke can see is that his best friend is suddenly different and he feels so wounded. When he talks to her, even when he thinks he is being so magnanimous and gracious, he's judgmental and feels as if her problems are all about him. Again, he grows as a character but it's a bit rocky in the beginning.

Matt was probably my least favorite character (although undeveloped Alex isn't far behind.) He is supposed to be in charge of organizing Luke's schedule and getting him places on time. Instead, he regularly took long detours, made decisions about where they would stop without saying anything about it to Luke and there were a few times he outrighted lied to him. While it's very true that Luke needed to lighten up a bit, Matt's behavior drove me nuts. He ignored phone calls from Luke's publicist, used the emergency credit card too often and ignored Luke's distress without even trying to alleviate it. Pretty much every time he did anything, Matt frustrated me. You understand him and his motivations better by the end of the book too, but he still never really grew on me.

Fran was an interesting character and probably my favorite of the bunch. Aside from Luke, she has the most depth and personality and meaning, but even then, I felt her main purpose in the story was to bring balance and understanding to Luke and give him the motivation, reason and environment necessary to invite growth and change. Luke has some depth as a character (for good or bad) without Fran, but Fran had very little without Luke. She was the next best developed character overall, and I felt for her, I really did, but not enough.

The book also include excerpts from Hallelujah, Luke's books, and they are seriously laugh out loud funny. Written as Bible passages, full of 'and he spake' and 'thus sayeth' and 'art thou' they are basically stories of inspiration and hope and insight. Some are funny, some are motivating, and some are a little more tinged with despair, but each were placed perfectly throughout the book to build and move the story forward. These were a fabulous addition, one that added a lot of depth and feeling to the story that would have otherwise been missing.

I do have one other confession about this book, lest you think I was totally disappointed. I have been in a bit of a reading slump lately. And when I'm in this kind of mood, I read very slow, I start and stop books frequently, and I have to kind of force whatever book I'm reading. This has absolutely nothing to do with the book I'm reading, and everything to do with my personal mood. And even though I really and truly did enjoy this book, I am 99% positive that if I had read it when I was more in the mood to read, I would have really loved the book. It's definitely one that I'm going to reread. Maybe I'll even reread it soon, so that if my feelings change drastically, like I think they could, I can rereview the book closer to its April release date. Who knows.

What I do know, is that even not being as enamored of this book as I was of Dumb, it is definitely a book worth reading and it's one that I've already been talking about and recommending. I think this book has a lot to offer and Antony John is going to be firmly stuck on my favorite authors list for a long time. It's a story about life and love and second chances, about friendship, looking beyond the surface and being true to yourself. It's a story that makes you laugh, but one that also makes you think. And while it's not necessarily a story for everyone, it is a story that I believe is important. It's a book that is going to stick with me and even though they weren't my favorite, I have a feeling these characters aren't going to get out of my head for a long time

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

is all about my favorite kind of novel: the gothic romance. What makes this novel special though is that it pokes fun at the gothic romance but is still enjoyable for a gothic lover like myself. Our heroine is 17 year-old Catherine Morland, lover of great gothic thrillers. She is visiting Bath with friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen, which is where she makes friends with Isabella Thorpe and finds the two love interests of the novel, Henry Tilney and John Thorpe. The Tilney family invites Catherine to stay with them at their home, Northanger Abbey. Catherine expects Northanger Abbey to be like the great ancient and dark abbeys in the books she reads. She is easily persuaded by Henry Tilney that the home actually does inhabit all the creepiness she expects. She convinces herself that General Tilney had a hand in his wife's death and searches her room and the rest of the abbey for any clue that will tell her the truth. She spends sleepless nights wondering and letting her fears get the best of her. Of course there is a wild storm outside to accompany all of this. Henry makes Catherine realize that she is ridiculous, and that life and art do not always inspire each other. Gothic novels are meant to be thrilling because they are a diversion from life.

This novel is definitely a coming of age story, which I enjoyed a great deal. It's very different from the other novels I have read by Austen because it mainly about Catherine and not the other characters, although they do move along her story. Catherine is so naive and I felt myself cringing at some of her thoughts. She is completely oblivious to the fact that John Thorpe is courting her and to Isabella Thorpe's bitchy motives. The novel is written in such a way that you can see all the stupid things Catherine thinks but it is obvious that she doesn't know they are stupid. It's not all her fault though, obviously she is young and John Thorpe does not help matters. He plays with the Tilney's minds and leads them to think very different things about Catherine than are actually true.

I liked this one. I felt like it dealt a great deal with perception, which is a common theme in many of Austen's novels. My favorite part was the way the ride home from Northanger Abbey looks so different from the ride there because she realizes that everything she saw on the way there was a working of her imagination. I sympathized with Catherine when she began to realize that everything she thought about the world is... wrong. Don't you hate that? The novel ended a little too tidy for me, but that is a common complaint with Austen.

Pub. Date: February 2008 (Reissue)
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 256pp

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In Too Deep by Amanda Grace was one of those books that got my inner reader all a-flutter the very first time I heard about it. It's no secret that I'm in love with Contemporary, or that the books dealing with those real tough issues are almost always my favorite. And here was a book about a girl who lets everyone in school believe that Mr. Big Man On Campus raped her at a party. Umm... Yes please! I haven't had much time to read lately, but I made time for this one. And oh my goodness, let me tell you — Wow. Was this book worth it.

Sam was such a hard character for me to read about, because I personally had a hard time putting myself in her shoes. So I spent a vast majority of the book flopping between wanting to slap some sense into Sam and feeling so sorry for her and wanting to hug her and help her make life better. But most of the time, the urge to slap her won. Because Sam doesn't have a strong sense of self, doesn't have confidence in herself or her abilities and because of this, she allows other people to make her decisions for her. I hate to say it, but she's really a rather weak character. She falls into the easiest course of action and just allows it to take her where it will. So, when she gets to school and starts to learn that everyone believes Carter to be a rapist, she doesn't speak up and quell the rumors, because she doesn't know how, and is terrified of even the idea of needing to announce something like that, and then others who feel wronged by Carter (like the girl he dumped because she wouldn't have sex & the girl he dumped because she did) tell Sam that she's doing the right thing — Carter deserves this comeuppance & there is only a week left until graduation when he can leave all of this behind.

But actions have consequences, and even choosing to do nothing is a choice.

It doesn't take long before the lie spirals out of control and Sam loses the ability to hold onto it. Her life is falling apart. She's being threatened by the Jocks at school, cheered on by the girls who think Carter is a jerk and comforted by her best friend (now boyfriend, yes?!!!), watching Carter lose his firm confidence and more, and she is feeling completely confused and overwhelmingly guilty.

I think, for the most part, Sam is a good person. But, like most teenagers, she is a little confused about her place in life, and is trying to determine where she fits. But she places far too much weight on what other people think and I don't think she ever really allowed herself to be herself, meaning she's about to graduate high school with no idea who she really is or what she stands for. And when you don't have a clear and definitive idea of who you are, you allow other people to mold you & their influence becomes far stronger over you than your own moral compass.

There are a lot of nuances to this book, a lot of layers that allow us to see how Sam grew to be who she is. Her mom walked out on them when Sam was just a baby, her father is the Sheriff and far more authoritative than loving, and she's got some deeper feelings for the best friend/boy next door that she agonizes over, etc. We learn a lot about Sam, and I really liked that the incident was not the only part of this story. We really learn a lot about Sam and you really get the sense that she could be a real person, that you probably know or have known a teenager very similar to her.

This is a book that has firmly found its strength in reality. I honestly believe that a situation like the one that plays out in this book could happen in real life, and I don't actually think it's that hard to imagine. But it does lead me to the best part of this book, which is the ending.

I want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to Ms. Grace for not being afraid of her ending and for allowing her story to take it's characters to the natural and honest conclusion without cheating us into a happily ever after. I've read far too many books that take a hugely honest and emotional story that could do so much for its readers and then leaves us with a beautifully crafted "happy place" for each and every character. A warning to those of you who enjoy unrealistically happy endings — This is not that book.

You cannot have a character who willingly participates in the destruction of another human being's life and not expect there to be consequences. Sam didn't want to hurt anyone. She didn't set out to ruin Carter, but she did stand by and watch while it happened, knowing that she could easily have fixed things for herself and for Carter had she simply opened her mouth and been honest. But instead, she sits back, allows other people to convince her that he deserves it (because that makes it "ok" for her to take the 'easy' way out) and watches while Carter's life falls to pieces.

This is a book that I think needs to be widely read. Because it teaches us a lesson that people, especially teenagers, NEED to hear. Your actions and choices DO matter. The MAKE a difference. And staying silent about something important? That IS a choice and it WILL have an impact. You ARE responsible for the result and you DO have to accept the consequences for that choice.

I can't stress enough how honest this book felt, how true to life, how real. This isn't a story where one magical speechifying moment is enough to fix all the damage that has been done, and the book is going to leave you feeling shaken. But Sam learns from her mistake. She begins to grow as a person and find her own self. And what more to ask for in a book than honesty, growth and emotion.

I don't know how to recommend this book more highly. There were things I didn't love about the book, things that weren't perfect. But the tone of the story and the ability of Ms. Grace to be honest with her readers and leave us in a place both dark and hopeful while still being true to her characters and the situation she's created more than makes up for any faults within the story. And the lessons learned in this book are lessons that every needs to learn.

Please. Read this book. And, if you have teenagers living at your house, have a copy at home.

*Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This week's list at The Broke and Bookish is most dislikable characters. Let's start the hate fest!

1. Penelope from The Luxe Series. Oh boy, I loathe her. This is more like what character to you love to hate. She's so conniving and creatively wretched you kind of have to give her props. She's also a spoiled brat though, and she thinks what is best for herself is what is best for everyone, and that makes her awful.
2. Armadale from Armadale (the one they actually call Armadale throughout the book). The professor I had for this book would argue with me about this, but I just can't stand Armadale. He's so immature, indecisive, and oblivious to the world around him. I found his character really difficult to sympathize with, which is probably why I supported most of the villains in the book.
3. Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment. I read this book and high school and found it really difficult to get through because I didn't like Raskolnikov. I don't think you're really supposed to like him but maybe you're supposed to sympathize with him. One of my friends said to me, "Well how would you react if you murdered someone?" I didn't really have an answer, it was hard to place myself in his shoes.
4. Howard Roark from The Fountainhead. This is another book I read in high school and didn't really care for. Howard Roark just had no personality in my opinion. He is so focused on his vision that he misses out on the world. I could see the genius in a person like that but I don't think it's someone I want to spend 500 pages getting to know.
5. Luke from The Lightning Thief series. Luke! I'm only through the second book but I was (spoiler alert!) so disappointed at the end of the first book when Luke turns so bad. I thought he was such a nice guy. I don't think Riordan plays up his badness enough though, I wish he made him much worse than he is now.
6. Robert Audley from Lady Audley's Secret. Robert is just an annoying little pansy playing detective. I think Lady Audley could have wooped his ass. "Oh I miss my friend," "Oh I think I'm in love with my uncle's wife," blah, blah, blah. Go read your French novels and sulk on your own time.
7. Orlando from Orlando. Maybe the reason I didn't really like Orlando the book is because I didn't really care for Orlando the character. Male or Female, Orlando is incredibly self centered and a bit unaware of him/herself.
8. Truman Capote in Mockingbird (Harper Lee Biography). Okay, I'm not saying I hate Truman Capote, but in Mockingbird the picture painted of him is not so nice. Harper Lee helped him a lot with In Cold Blood and he basically took his manuscript and ran, leaving her a measly dedication at the beginning of the book. Can you say ugh?!
9. Paul Gauguin in Sunflowers. Another real person, but for 8 and 9 I'm not trying to be mean about the real people, I'm just calling it like I see it from the book. Gauguin was pretty mean to Van Gogh in Sunflowers and I'm not sure how much of it is known or based on fact, but yowza. Gauguin seemed like quite a pig to me, trying to steal other guy's ladies and all.
10. Miss Minchin from A Little Princess. Miss Minchin is so mean! She is the ultimate boarding school tyrant and all she cares about his money. You kind of have to hate her.

So who do you hate?

The BBC has been investigating the trade, and the routes from Syria through Turkey and Lebanon to Europe.

The Smuggler

It has taken many calls and a lot of coaxing to get a man we are calling "Mohammed" to meet us. He is originally from Damascus but now plies his trade in the Bekaa valley on the border between Syria and Lebanon. He's 21 but looks much younger in his T-shirt, skinny jeans and black suede shoes. As we sit in an apartment in central Beirut I have to lean forward to hear the softly spoken young man describe how he began smuggling looted antiquities from Syria. "There's three friends in Aleppo we deal with, these people move from Aleppo all the way to the border here and pay a taxi driver to sneak it in." He specialised in smaller items which would be easier to move on - but he says even that has become too risky. "We tried our best to get the items which had most value, earrings, rings, small statues, stone heads," he says.

He made a good profit but bigger players with better connections "sold pieces worth $500,000, some for $1m", he says. When I ask who's making the money and controlling the trade in Syria his gentle voice takes on a flinty tone: "IS are the main people doing it. They are the ones in control of this business, they stole from the museums especially in Aleppo," he says. "I know for a fact these militants had connections overseas and they talked ahead of time and they shipped overseas using their connections abroad." Mohammed is still involved in cross-border trade, but no longer in antiquities. "Anyone caught with it gets severe punishment," he says. "They accuse you of being IS."

The Go-between

To sell looted antiquities you need a middle-man, like "Ahmed". Originally from eastern Syria, he is based in a town in southern Turkey - he doesn't want me to specify which one as he doesn't want the police to know. As a Turkish-speaker he is popular with Syrian smugglers, who ask if he can move goods on to local dealers. When I speak to him via Skype he shows me a blanket next to him filled with artefacts - statues of animals and human figures, glasses, vases and coins. They were dug up in the last few months. "They come from the east of Syria, from Raqqa, all the areas controlled by ISIS (Islamic State)," he says. Islamic State plays an active part in controlling the trade, he tells me. Anyone wanting to excavate has to get permission from IS inspectors, who monitor the finds and destroy any human figures, which are seen as idolatrous (those Ahmed is showing me have slipped through the net). IS takes 20% as tax. "They tax everything," he says.

The main trade is in stoneworks, statues and gold, and it can be extremely lucrative. "I have seen one piece sold for $1.1m," he says. "It was a piece from the year 8500BC." He gently handles each artefact as he brings it closer to the webcam to give me a better view. He has had to pay a sizeable bond to the smugglers to get this material and he doesn't want to lose any of it. The final destination is Western Europe, he says. "Turkish merchants sell it to dealers in Europe. They call them, send pictures... people from Europe come to check the goods and take them away." Ahmed will have to return the looted artefacts to his Syrian contacts, as I am clearly not buying them, but he won't be returning to his homeland. "If I went back I'd be killed," he says.

The Dealer

It's an unremarkable tourist shop in the centre of Beirut. Inside the glass cases are ancient oil lamps, rings and glassware but the shop owner, a laconic man in his late 40s, has an unusual selling tactic - he says much of it is fake. However, he assures me he does have genuine pieces from the Hellenic and Byzantine periods, around 1,000 years old. I'm interested what other items he can get, mosaics for example? I had been advised by archaeologists that mosaics would almost certainly be looted - at the moment, that would mean most likely from Syria. He asks which kind I want. Faces, animals, geometric designs? "If you're serious we can have a serious negotiation... there is always a way," he promises. When I ask if it's legal he smiles as he tells me the only way to legally ship these items is with official documentation from a museum saying they have been cleared for export.

If it was only a small mosaic I wanted, I could take the chance and try to smuggle it out myself but he warns it's a serious decision, as I could get caught. For a fee he can have them shipped to the UK but it will cost me many thousands of pounds. We shake hands as I leave and he gives me his business card. It has only taken 10 minutes to be offered illicit antiquities. Arthur Brand, an investigator who helps recover stolen antiquities isn't surprised, it chimes with his experience in Lebanon. "I've been there several times and at times and it really is amazing," he tells me from his base in Amsterdam. "The illicit trade is run as a professional business with offices and business cards and you can buy antiquities from Lebanon, but also from countries like Syria, Iraq." The link between smugglers and dealers is the dirty secret the art world doesn't want to admit to, he says.

The Cop

He could easily pass for the star of an Arabic cop show but Lt Col Nicholas Saad is a real policeman, head of Lebanon's bureau of international theft. In his office, filled with certificates from the FBI and Scotland Yard, he shows me photos of huge Roman busts seized in a recent raid in Lebanon. We go up to the roof of his police station, where out to the east, beyond the mountains, is the border with Syria. This is where refugees pour into the country and are exploited by the smuggling gangs.

"The refugees come in big numbers and the gangs put things between the belongings of the refugees," he explains. Since the conflict in Syria he has noticed a significant increase in the smuggling of looted artefacts, "especially from the Islamic parts, Raqqa (the base) of the Islamic State", he adds. His team has seized hundreds of Syrian artefacts. "We have the archaeology expert that said they're very valuable from the Roman period, from the Greek period, years before Christ," he says. But there isn't a market for them in Lebanon. "Lebanon is a transit station, it's one of the the doors that goes to Europe. The real money is made in Europe."

The Treasure

Inside the Beirut National museum are treasures from the cradle of civilisation - Hellenic, Roman and Byzantine statues, busts and sarcophagi 3,000 years old. Hidden away from the public in a store room below the main galleries, seized looted antiquities wait to be returned to Syria. My guide is Dr Assaad Seif, an archaeologist and head of excavations at the directorate general of antiquities in Beirut. He rings a bell and a wrought iron door is unlocked. Inside are scores of items - pottery, stonework - but the most valuable items are sealed away in a warehouse. "We have huge funeral sculptures, representing men and women used to seal the tombs, from Palmyra," he says.

Most of the seized items are from excavations rather than thefts from museums. The looters target warehouses at ancient sites like Palmyra, a Unesco world heritage site. "The warehouses at archaeological sites have objects they know are not listed or catalogued yet, and they think it could be easier to sell them," he says. "The Palmyra objects had value for people in Syria... it gives a kind of identity," he says. Although reluctant to put a price on any of the bigger items, after some coaxing he relents. "We have a dozen objects that would sell for $1m each on the open market." I understand why they keep them out of sight of curious foreign visitors.

The Destination 

It has taken days to get through to Dr Maamoun Abdulkarim, the archaeologist in charge of Syria's dept of antiquities in Damascus. When I do reach him, he's angry. "The sites under the control of ISIS, in these areas we have a disaster, a lot of problems. IS attack all things just for the money," he says. "It is our memory, our identity, for the government, the opposition, for all Syria." It's impossible to stop the looting but he is adamant more could be done to crack down on the trade. "We are sure through all the sources a lot of objects go from Syria to Europe, in Switzerland, in Germany, in UK - and Gulf countries like Dubai and Qatar," he says.

It was a common refrain. Everyone from the Lebanese police to Mohammed the smuggler and Ahmed the go-between said the main market was Europe. In the UK there have been no prosecutions or arrests for selling looted Syrian artefacts but Vernon Rapley, who ran the Metropolitan Police's art and antiquities squad for almost a decade, says too much shouldn't be read into this. "I'm quite confident that there have been seizures of material like this," he confidently states, as we stroll around his new workplace, the Victoria and Albert museum, where he is director of security.

Rapley still liaises closely with his former police unit and he is certain that artefacts from Syria are being sold here. He wants the trade in these antiquities to become "socially repugnant and unacceptable" so that in the future, he says, "we don't have interior decorators looking for these things to decorate people's houses".

Author: Simon Cox | Source: BBC News Website [February 17, 2015]

Tara Kelly is the author of Harmonic Feedback (which I loved) and the just-barely-released Amplified which I have not yet read but am dying to). I knew I had to ask Tara to participate after how much I loved Harmonic Feedback so I am thrilled to have this interview with her to post for you! You can see more of Tara at her website — The Tara Tracks

Why write Contemporary? What is it about the genre that draws you?

It's funny because I grew up reading a lot of horror, but I also had a soft spot for realistic contemp books. The book that made me fall in love with reading as a child was Anne of Green Gables. I found the heroine so relatable--I loved how stubborn she was, how she didn't just fall over the minute a cute boy talked to her, how she was strong, independent, and not afraid to be herself in a time when women were expected to follow a certain path. Drea in Harmonic Feedback was inspired by her in some ways, I think. What draws me in most about the contemporary genre is relatability. I like reading about characters who could've been me or someone I knew. As a teen these books made me feel less alone. Sometimes the stories took me to a place I wished I could be. Sometimes they inspired me to try something new or be more tolerant of others. It's amazing how you end up relating to a character you never expected to connect with.

So, why do I write it? It's the genre that calls to me. I think some of the most powerful stories come out of the real world. A teen who fights their way out of a really bad situation with their own strength (no superpowers or angels in shining armor to bail them out). A tragic, but realistic event that tests real and flawed human beings to their limits. I'm all for escape and 'other' realities (hello, I'm a huge Buffy fan), but I think it's important for teens to read stories about what CAN happen too. Stories that feature other teens in similar situations.

Do you have any interest/desire/ideas for a book outside the Realistic/Contemporary genre?

Well, the book I'm working on right now falls into the psychological-thriller/horror category. It's quite a bit different than the coming-of-age stories I've written so far. But it's set in the real world... and it's something that CAN happen, which I find kind of scary. I always found thrillers that can happen the most frightening. I'm pretty excited about this book--even if it's shaping up to be the most intense/difficult story I've written yet.

You talk about it some in your author's note, but what inspired Harmonic Feedback? What made it the story you had to write?

My younger brother is on the spectrum, and due to that I've been fascinated with autism since I was quite young. I remember doing a 7th grade research project on it and presenting it to the class--I got an A+:) I also have friends on the spectrum (mostly mild AS, like Drea) Nobody on the spectrum I know is defined by their diagnosis. They aren't walking boxes of symptoms--in fact, they're all quite different from each other. My brother is talkative, social, and outgoing, for example. Not something you picture when you think of 'autism'. The one commonality they have is they've had problems with socializing. A lot of them felt different their whole lives, but never understood why. Drea popped in my head one day, and she had quite a bit to say. I think she's kind of a mix of all the people I've known, including myself, who have had trouble making friends or were judged based on a 'label'. But Harmonic Feedback wasn't just about Drea. I've known quite a few people like Naomi, and I've known a couple Justins. I wanted to see what happened when you gave three completely different people a shared passion. How would they shape and change each other?

Music plays a huge role in the lives of the main characters in both of your novels. What role has music played in your own life?

Music has had a starring role in my life since I can remember. Both of my parents are musicians--my mom is this insanely talented piano prodigy (she was playing entire songs at 2, I'm not kidding), and my dad has been playing guitar since he was quite young. I don't think a day went by where my mom didn't play piano. Sometimes they'd have jam sessions in the living room for hours. Oddly enough, I had no interest in playing an instrument until high school. In fact, my piano lessons went so poorly (I never wanted to practice) my parents were convinced I hadn't inherited the musical gene. But that wasn't actually the problem. The problem was they pushed me toward the wrong instrument. I'm first and foremost a guitarist, although these days I love to play everything. In the last five years I've developed a deep love for the piano... and I'm currently wishing I knew how to play the violin. On top of all that, I'm a huge music FAN. I simply cannot write or create art without great music.

If you could ask one thing of your readers, before or after they read your book(s), what would it be?

Who is your favorite/least favorite character and why? I'm always fascinated by how readers react to and interpret my characters.

Do you have a favorite novel? A book that you read and recommend over and over again? (or more than one?:) )

Anne of Green Gables. It's a classic and a story I don't think I'll ever grow tired of... which is saying a lot since I'm more of a dark, gritty kind of girl.

What's next from you? Anything you are working on that you can share with us?

Like I said above, I'm currently working on a thriller. Not ready to share the details yet, but I'm hoping I'll be able to share a bit more in the near future:)

Thank you so much Tara! I can't wait to see what you come up with next and will definitely be stalking the internets to see about this psychological thriller! And I agree, those are the most terrifying because they are the most real!

Copyright by Eva & Bernard
IN TOWN, LOOKING LIKE YOU’RE ON VACATION EVA&BERNARD S/S 2012
In their new Spring/Summer 2012 collection Berlin based fashion label Eva & Bernard meant to focus on the ›easy‹ side of ›Easy Tailoring‹, their coined motto; to employ a less severe approach in the design process and to choose cheerful, lighthearted colors. the styles were designed to express cool effortlessness and show generous volume. the designers have been looking at images of old rural Spanish houses and architecture, and their modern renditions in places like Santa Monica in LA. the arch shape employed in them and the beautiful pastel colors of pink, light blue and ecru attracted Eva’s and Bernard’s attention, and they wanted to translate all these moods into the new collection for S/S 2012.
Silk plays a lead role in the collection, which offers as well a great variety of fine cotton, viscose, jersey, cupro, linen, ramie and knitted cashmere. All fabrics were sourced in Switzerland and Italy, where the collection is produced. the blue color, which was missing from previous collections, is at the core of the new one, with texture and tone variations. Around the blue the designers gathered up such colors as peach, pink, orange, bronze, grey black and white. This season the brand offers leather accessories for the first time!
EVA & BERNARD

VIA Eva & Bernard Spring/Summer 2012 Women’s Collection

Variant by Robison Wells is an interesting book, one that I still haven't decided quite how I feel about yet. It's a strange book made even stranger by the twists at the end, but I'm not totally sure it was... enough to make me reasonably suspend my disbelief and buy into the story. But overall, the reading experience itself was positive. Let me see if I can explain this better...

Variant starts with Benson on his way to a private school. He applied for a scholarship to escape the foster care system he's been (painfully) bounced through for years and he hopes that this is finally going to be a place where he can belong, make friends and not feel like a burden. But when he gets there, the school is seriously wonky and nothing makes sense. Almost immediately, he is wishing he could leave but it's impossible. No one ever gets out. The longer he stays at this school, the more confused he gets and the more he wants to leave. But everyone is telling him that he needs to stop thinking about life outside the school and settle in. But while there are things that are appealing about the school (ahem, Jane) he can't get over his discomfort and he still sits and plots his escape. And then, something happens, he sees something that changes everything and now he knows that he needs to get out of here. And he's going to need help. But the thing is, now that he's seen what he's seen, he doesn't know who to trust. And it's awfully hard to get a group together if you can't trust anyone.

I was really disturbed by almost every character in this book. The kids at the school have split themselves into three gangs. There is much explanation for this in the book, but basically it's a survival and safety thing. Of the three gangs, The Society is the one I found most disturbing. Each kid has a job at the school and The Society is in charge of security contracts. And they like it. In a school where detention means death, these guys gloat and smirk as they dole out punishments. It's a perfect illustration that power corrupts and I found it seriously disturbing. How can any human being gloat while doling out a punishment that to their knowledge equals death. *shudder*

Benson spends the whole book basically marking time while looking for a way out. I could definitely relate to that, because I can't imagine myself being sent to a place like this, that is essentially a prison (with no outside contact at all) and just being content to stay. I do get why most of the kids are relatively content — Trying to escape is punishable by detention, which they are all pretty sure equals death. But I can't imagine living like that.

For most of the book, I was really enjoying myself. I wasn't loving it, but I did really enjoy it and I was super interested in what this big twist that everyone kept talking about was going to be. And then it happened. And I was left feeling a little bit like, WTF?! I will say that I absolutely did not see it coming. And if you claim you did see it coming, then I will either think you are lying to seem cooler than everyone else or you have a seriously twisted thought process... And, while I liked that I didn't see this twist coming, liked that I didn't have most of the story figured out a few steps ahead of the book, I am also not sure I actually liked the twist and I'm left feeling a little bit like, seriously? Seriously?! You went there?! Really? That's what you decided to do?!

So, the jury is still out on this one. I liked the book, the writing was engaging and interesting and kept me guessing, but overall, I'm not sure I loved the story. I will also say that the ending definitely sets up for a sequel and that the sequel could take the story in a lot of different directions, some of which I think I would really like, some that I would not. So I'll definitely be excited to grab the sequel when it comes out (because if it doesn't, that's going to be seriously lame) and I'm really interested to see how this story plays out.

I finally read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

after hearing nothing but praise of it for the past year. And the praise is deserved, because this graphic memoir is Awesome with a capital A. Alison Bechdel's story is one of growing up with a family who doesn't always appear to be what they are. Her clean home was full of antiques her father collected that made it appear to be a different time period inside than it was outside the door. Her parents were married by rarely spoke to each other, her mother spent most of her time acting in plays, and her father spent most of his time entertaining adolescent boys. Alison finds out about her father's homosexuality when she comes out in college as a lesbian. This creates a bond between them that is strange and hard to explain, but Bechdel succeeds in creating a story that helps make you sympathize with everyone in it, even with their flaws.

The drawing is fairly simple but as an almost photographic quality to it. The way she places objects and fills rooms with so many specific pieces gives it a snapshot feel. I love how she had boxes to point out things in the photos you might not see, or to give you a better understanding of what was going on. I also like how the story is Bechdel's own memoir, her internal story, but sometimes the dialogue contradicts that story. It's just another way of showing how unreliable memory can be, or how my memory is different from your memory. Bechdel is also completely honest about herself. She admits that she wanted to get a rise out of her parents by coming out as a lesbian, and that she was disappointed when she didn't even though her primary concern should have been her deeply depressed mother.

This is a great graphic memoir that deals with a difficult and confusing subject. It's different from other coming out stories because it not only deals with Bechdel's own discovery of her sexuality but with the discovery of her father's hidden sexuality. It's also a story of how easy it is to not know the members of your own family. At one point in the story Bechdel illustrates how everyone in the house was in a different room doing a completely different thing. I know my family does this all the time, and I'm sure most families do. Does anyone care what is going on outside of their room? Probably not.

I give this graphic memoir an A.

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I was introduced to the lovely Mary Elizabeth Braddon when I read her novel Lady Audley's Secret last semester. I was interested in her first novel that I decided to take a classic all about sensation fiction just so I could read more books by her. And I'm glad I did, because I found Aurora Floyd to be vastly superior to Braddon's first novel. While Lady Audley's Secret is fabulous because of its strange characters and intense plot, Aurora Floyd won for me because of its concentration on minor characters. I also felt the plot wasn't wrapped up as quickly as the plot in Lady Audley's Secret. Aurora Floyd is about a woman whose name is, you guessed it Aurora Floyd. She pursues and is pursued by a clean soldier, but after she is rejected by him for her inability to share a dark secret she moves on and finds a new love interest. While this is simple enough, Aurora is still haunted by her secret which she refuses to share with anyone.

Aurora is a complicated character. She is beautiful, though not conventional. She is honest, but secretive. She is charitable and caring, which makes it difficult for the reader to suspect her of any wrongdoing. But then, what is her secret? She also has a love for gambling and horses, which makes her challenging as a Victorian woman. So basically, Aurora is a woman to love. And I fell in love with her very quickly. My love for her pushed me to the end of novel, because obviously I had to find out what her secret was. A word of caution, DON'T read the back of the book if you get the Oxford World's Classics version. It will ruin it for you.

Another aspect of this novel I loved was the used of, as mentioned before, minor characters. This novel truly plays with servants and makes them threatening to the seemingly powerful masters. I loved how Braddon made this characters evil yet somewhat understandable... similar to Lucy Audley in Lady Audley's Secret. They might have bad motives, but they're basically just a product of their environment. Check out this passage:

"Why is it that the dependants in a household are so feverishly inquisitive about the doings and sayings, the manners and customs, the joys and sorrows, of those who employ them? Is it that, having abnegated for themselves all active share in life, they take an unhealthy interest in those who are in the thick of the strife? Is it because, being cut off in a great measure by the nature of their employment from family ties and family pleasures, they feel a malicious delight in all family trials and vexations, and the ever-recurring breezes which disturb the domestic atmosphere? Remember this, husands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, when you quarrel. Your servants enjoy the fun." (177)

This novel earned an A.

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The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle was a book that I should have loved. It's Contemporary, it's about loss and grief and a girl trying to come to terms with that, and it should be full of emotion and emotional conflict.

And that right there is why I think I'm conflicted. I should have loved this one. It should have been full of emotion. But, at least for me, it wasn't. And I didn't. That's not to say I didn't like it. I did. There was nothing... wrong with the book, but it just didn't connect for me.

For some reason, I've always been drawn to this type of book. Books where the main character is forced to deal with a lot, often more than they should logically or emotionally be able to handle, and then we watch as they struggle through it and grow even stronger because of it. I could go on and on about the books I've read with this theme. They are mostly contemporary, but I've found that pretty much all of my favorite fantasy novels contain this same theme. It's such a powerful theme for me to read about.

I just didn't really... feel it with this book. None of the emotions really felt genuine to me. Laurel just lost her parents and her younger brother in a car accident. If I were to lose even one family member, I would be devastated. I remember what it was like when my grandpa died. I was a mess & I cried. All the time. If I come across a picture of him unexpectedly, my eyes STILL smart a bit. I can't imagine how much worse it would be if I were to lose everyone at once.

Initially, the emotions were there for me. Laurel was devastated. She blames herself, plays the what-if game over and over and over and she blocks a lot of it out — withdrawing from the pain mentally & forcing it away so she doesn't break down. But then she goes back to school, and OMG what if this boy likes me?! Wait... WHAT?! I'm really sorry... But I've been a teenage girl. I was a teenage girl about 4 years ago. And I don't know one single person, girl or boy, teenage or otherwise who would actually care that a random boy they kinda thought was cute might want to ask them to prom. Me personally, I might have thought about it, for about two seconds, but I would not have obsessed over it.

There were times when the pain Laurel was feeling was almost an afterthought. It's really hard for me to say here that her grief and emotion didn't seem genuine, because everyone really does grieve differently. But I just didn't buy it. It just didn't seem... real to me.

I am also going to admit right now that this has got to be the worst inclusion of a love-triangle into a story EVER. I don't particularly like love-triangles, especially since it's almost always really clear who they will end up with, & the added love interest just feels like drama to be dramatic. But here, where the novel is supposed to be about learning to get back into your life, and deal with your grief? To play the love-triangle card? Please stop...

I also do have to admit that I am not an animal person... Laurel is. So there is a lot of animal talk in this book, and that is something that I just don't really connect with, so I lost that connection with Laurel too. Mentions of pets and things are fine but the amount of time spent in this story with animals was, I am sure, for Laurel very healing. And I'm sure that many animal lovers out there will feel that too. For me, I was just kind of bored with all the animal stuff. But that one's on me, not so much the author or characters.

Overall, the way I feel about this is that if you read a lot of this style book already, it's probably not going to be anything that really stands out to you. It's a good book, but at least for me, there was nothing particularly remarkable about it. I do think, that if you don't read a lot of books dealing with this level of grief and emotional trauma, I can easily see this being a book that might really move you. So, if you don't normally read books like this, give it a shot. It might be the book that sparks a desire to read more like it.

Astrid is British. She plays bass. She's seventeen with one year left of high school. She fights with her parents. She has a sweet hairdo. She is dreaming about her imaginary friends.

When I picked up Suburban Glamour

I thought it would just be about a punk high school girl, which it is, but it's also a fantasy story which I wasn't expecting at all. Astrid's dreams are becoming reality, and it seems like the creatures from her dreams are dangerous. The only thing distracting her from them is this new store in town run by a punk New Yorker named Aubrey who Astrid wants to be like in every possible way. Well there is that, and the fact that everyone around her is telling her what to do, telling her to figure out what she wants to be, and telling her to stop concentrating so much on her music and focus more reality (Wow I've never experienced anything like that before!).

I might be a little biased in my love of this comic book. After all, Astrid reminds me a lot of myself in high school, and actually a lot like myself right now. But then again I'm not a huge fan of fantasy and still loved the fantasy aspect of this book. Whenever life gets hard we wish for something else, thinking it would be easier, and this is precisely what Astrid experiences except she is actually offered a different life and has to decide if she wants to take it or not. Truly fitting for a story about a seventeen-year-old, because that is the age when you have to make so many choices. Where you will go to college, what you want to do with your life, and who you want to be.

The artwork kinds of harkens back to the Blondie comic strip. Not exactly, but the way things are placed and outlined kind of reminds me of that. The images are cleaner than the comic strip though, and light is played with a lot in this book. It seems to be moving in order of morning to night, but that actually threw me off a little bit with time. I thought all of this was happening in consecutive days, but towards the end of the book I realized this was not the case.

I'm going to give Suburban Glamour an A.

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Background on my guest reviewer: John is my 9 year old son. After several years of reading problems due to his ADD, John was a very reluctant reader. Reading was always difficult for him and whenever he was asked to read, he would get upset and shut down. Then one day, I happened to discover the Horrid Henry books. They hadn't been released in the States yet, but I believe I found an excerpt online. I showed it to John, who showed a bit of reluctance at first. Then I read the few pages aloud to him. And he was instantly drawn in to Horrid Henry's world! Ok, now back to John's review!

This is my review of Horrid Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb

. Horrid Henry is rude, impolite, and thinks that the pranks he pulls are funny. He thinks only of himself. Henry has a little brother named Perfect Peter. Peter is perfect. He is very polite and isn't selfish.

Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb

is made up of four stories. I'm going to tell you about my favorite story:Henry Reads a Book.

Horrid Henry's class is going to have a reading competition. Whoever reads the most books wins a trip to a brand new amusement park. Henry gets excited when he hears this and asks if comic books count. His teacher, Miss Battle-Axe shouts "NO!" I don't understand why comic books don't count; they are books afterall! Oh, and they also have to write a book report for every book they read.

Henry plans to start reading as soon as he gets home. Instead, he reads comics (not allowed!), watches TV and plays a computer game. Suddenly, it is the end of the competition and Henry hasn't read one SINGLE book! He tries to steal Perfect Peter's books from him but can't. He goes to his room and thinks he can just write down the names of all the books in his room, but remembers he has to write a report for all the books he reads. Miss Battle-Axe would recognize the books and would know that Henry didn't read them. So he makes up the titles of books and adds them to his list.

The next day at school, the winner is announced. It is Clever Clare! She read 28 books! Henry is so mad! Then, Miss Battle Axe notices that Clare accidentally wrote one book down twice! There is now a tie between Clever Clare and Horrid Henry, so they both win tickets. The tickets are to Book World (this doesn't sound like a very exciting amusement park to me, Mom, but you'd probably like it!). The story ends with Henry screaming "ARRRGGGHH!!" So, even though Henry wins the tickets, he sort of also learns a lesson about lying about the books he read. The prize is one that Clare will like because she loves books, but it's punishment for Henry because he doesn't like to read.

I then asked John why he liked the Horrid Henry books:

I like the Horrid Henry books because it has nice people in it as well as Horrid Henry. It reminds me of me and my little brother, Justin. (I ask, which character are you in the book? His response: I am Perfect Peter and Justin is Horrid Henry. I always act polite, and Justin is not.) I like the Horrid Henry books because they are chapter books that are easy to read. They make me laugh! And Horrid Henry does do some mean things, but at the end of each story he usually learns his lesson! I want to read the rest of the Horrid Henry books and hope my library at school will get them. I think my friends will like them too. Besides Henry and Peter, there are some other characters with funny names like Moody Margaret, Rude Ralph, and Beefy Bart. I think the names are funny but it's good because they also describe that person!

I just want to wrap up by reiterating what John said about why the Horrid Henry books are so fabulous. Children are drawn to Horrid Henry because he is bad, but don't think that the Horrid Henry books promote or encourage bad behavior. They don't..Horrid Henry in some manner does get punished or suffer repercussions for his actions. In addition, the illustrations are humorous and at a level that early readers can comprehend. I found that while my son loves to read these to himself, they are best experienced if read aloud!

To learn more about the other Horrid Henry books, please visit Horrid Henry's Facebook page! Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing John copies of the Horrid Henry books!