Grabbed this from A Literary Odyssey, kind of fun since my brain is shot from finals.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack:
Sometimes, but not normally. If I do snack it's probably candy. I do go to a coffeeshop in Iowa City called T-Spoons and they have excellent cookies, so if I read there I'll get a cookie and some English tea.

What is your favourite drink while reading?
Tea, as I said previously. Otherwise water.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I mark most of my books, especially literary fiction or nonfiction. This is the main reason I don't check books out from the library very often.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I love bookmarks and try to use them as often as I can. If I don't have a bookmark I'll usually rip a piece of paper out of a notebook or use a napkin until I get home with a bookmark. My favorite bookmark is from Barnes and Noble and it has a painting of Virginia Woolf on it.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both?
I love to write nonfiction but I probably read more fiction. I think this is a recent development though, because when I look over the books I read before I started blogging more than half of them were nonfiction. I'm starting to get into it again.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
I always try to read to the end of the chapter, it really throws me off if I have to start in the middle. That being said, I read on the bus quite a bit and I can't really help where I have to stop there. Sometimes I'll get off the bus and finish the chapter though, especially if it's just a few more pages.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
I will not throw anything (usually) but I do talk when I read. I'll make grunting noises, or laugh, or shout at the author or characters in the book.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
Rarely. I've never been a big fan of that.

What are you currently reading?
I am still reading Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick and Scrolling Forward by David Levy.

What is the last book you bought?
I think it was Catching Fire.

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?
I used to only read one book at a time, but with school I've gotten into the habit of reading two or three at a time and I actually enjoy it more. I find I finish books faster because I don't get bored as easily.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
I always read at night before bed, but I prefer to read during the day. As for a place to read, I usually read in my bed but I'd like to get a nice comfy chair to read in instead because reading in bed has a tendency to hurt my back.

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?
I like series a lot, but I read more stand alones. I probably prefer stand alones.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
I recommend Notes From No Man's Land by Eula Biss to anyone and everyone with the ability to read.

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)
I don't organize at all right now. It's too hard when I have to move everything around all the time. Maybe someday when I have a library in my house I'll come up with a system.

Let me know if you fill this out!

5 Exclusive Lanterns

VIA «Design kilometre»

The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young is a tough book to read. It's the story of Dani, a young girl who babysits a little boy named Alex, and he is just the cutest thing ever. Alex is such a sweet kid and Dani genuinely loves him and enjoys being a part of his life, even though his mom (who Dani calls Mrs. Alex) takes advantage of Dani and is someone who bothered me from the very beginning of the book. But then some stuff starts to change for Dani and her mind begins to betray her. She finds herself having violent thoughts, vivid imaginings where she will stab Alex with a large kitchen knife.

At first, she tries to just shake off the thoughts but they continue, and the longer they go on, the more vivid and violent they become. Then Dani starts having similar thoughts in other areas of her life, around other people. She imagines saying horrid things to and about her best friend, her mom, doing cruel and horrible things to her new boyfriend, doing embarrassing things to her teachers and more. The thoughts get so vivid and are so strong that she looks around in a panic, desperately trying to determine whether or not it actually happened.

Dani tries talking to both her best friend and her mom about what's happening, but neither are very receptive to Dani and neither are able, or really even willing to offer the help she needs. Awkward conversations and willful ignorance... Finally, not knowing what else to do, Dani confesses her thoughts to Alex's mom, hoping that she will finally stop nagging her to keep babysitting. Immediately, Mrs. Alex goes upstairs and calls the police.

And here is where this book really started to become the mind-changer that it is. This is a book that forced me to reevaluate some of my assumptions and the lines that I've drawn. I have a tendency to view much of my world in black and white. I understand that there is a lot of gray area in the world. I get it. I do. But, I am also willing to admit that I refuse to see a lot of that gray area. Child abuse, rape etc are things that I have a firm black and white view on. So is child endangerment and the rights of a mother to protect her child. BUT, and here is where this book starts to really hit home, the mother in this book, who thought she was doing what was best for her son, did not handle it well. What she ends up doing, by calling the police is opening up a can of worms that is going to change everything and might possibly destroy lives.

One of the police officers who comes to pick up Dani from Mrs. Alex's house is a really great guy. He's concerned about Dani and he takes the time to talk to her, to really figure out what is going on with her and he tells her mom she needs to be seeing a therapist. The other cop however, is the type with a huge chip on his shoulder, the belief that he is better than everyone else, and that the rich kids (Dani) are never actually accountable for their actions. He takes these feelings home with him, and passes them along to his son, a kid at Dani's school. This cop is one of the worst characters in the novel and every single scene with him in it made my skin crawl. He talks to his son about teenage girls in a horribly inappropriate way, discussing their bodies and physical attributes. Talking about a teen girl's bra size when you are 16 is crass but not a big deal. But being 45 and talking about a 16 year old's bra size to your 16 year old son?! Creepy, inappropriate and wrong.

His son, Malcolm takes his dad's opinions about the case (stuff he overhears, because cops are bot supposed to talk about this stuff at all) and he starts spreading news around, targeting Dani, although for a long time he doesn't use her name. This creates a lot of unrest and chaos and it becomes dangerous for Dani. People start making threats and a private vigilante group comes to town to try and 'pick up where the law left off'. This scared me a little bit. While reading this book, you are firmly on Dani's side. It's so obvious that she doesn't want or welcome these thoughts, that she is desperate to get rid of them and beyond terrified that she is somehow going to act on them. But the members of the community don't get to hear that, and by the time anyone might say something about it, they are too far gone to want to listen anymore.

I read this book, and realized that those people might have been me. Not the vigilante group (although, it scared me to realize that in some circumstances, I might have agreed more strongly with them) but with the people in general who believed that she was a monster. Having access to Dani's thoughts changed things for me, made me realize that there are some instances where a black and white view of the world is dangerous and isn't always to be welcomed. It's part of human nature, this tendency to judge before being sure of all our facts and this is a book that makes you really stop to think.

Dani faces such challenges and it's really heartbreaking to watch her. She is terrified. She has no idea what is going on, why her mind suddenly feels like it no longer belongs to her and she is genuinely afraid she is going to hurt someone, and she wants to do whatever it takes to prevent that.

I don't want to really spoil this part for readers, because I think it's important for the reader to discover some of this along with Dani, but as you can gather from the synopsis, Dani finds herself struggling with a mental illness. This is one of the most complete pictures of Dani's particular illness that I've ever read. I graduated with a degree in Psychology and this is a disorder I studied during my undergrad. I get really frustrated when I read a book that paints an incomplete or incorrect picture of a mental illness, but this one was marvelously written. I want to hug the therapist that Dani ends up going to see. I'm still not sure what exactly I want to do with my Psychology degree, but if I were to take it into counseling, that is the type of therapist I hope I could be.

Watching Dani learn to live with her illness, learn to cope with the changes in her life broke my heart at the same time it was so empowering. She is such a fabulous character. I just wanted to hug her for so much of the novel because she really is lost and scared. Your mind is supposed to be the one thing that is fully yours, fully under your control. What are you supposed to do if your mind turns on you, becomes a thing you fear?

The Babysitter Murders is a book that will challenge you and your perceptions, that will help you grow as a person and as a thinker and it's one that is going to tear at your heart. It's also a book that begs discussion, the needs to be talked about. So, if you finish, and you need someone to talk to, you know where to find me.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. On moderation
2. On the Cannibals

Favorite Quotations:
"True victory lies in your role in the conflict, not in coming through safely: it consists in the honour of battling bravely battling through." (On the Cannibals)

"I wish everyone would write only what he knows--not in this matter only but in all others. A man may well have detailed knowledge or experience of the nature of one particular river or stream, yet about all the others he knows only what everyone else does; but in order to trot out his little scrap of knowledge he will write a book on the whole physics! From this vice many inconveniences arise." (On the Cannibals)

General Thoughts:
On the Cannibals is frequently taught in nonfiction writing classes, or at least it is at Iowa, which is why it makes me think not so much about the essay itself as nonfiction writing. That last quote in my favorite quotations about writing what you know, I think that is my biggest takeaway from this essay. Montaigne is really interested in judgement and the the human tendency to think there is only one way to do something. Your way. Culture to culture we all do things a little differently and it's easy to think of the world only in your terms. I think part of what essays do is help the writer recognize the way he or she does something while still pushing their boundaries and looking at how others might do it.

So then how do you write about your experience in another culture and still acknowledge that you are not an expert on that culture? This seems to be a huge problem in travel writing. The best travel writing, I usually feel, is either completely inward or completely social. In the inward variety the author really doesn't experience much but rather writes about the displacement of being in another culture and ruminates on that. The more social kind involves the writer talking to people of that culture but acknowledging his or her outsider status and understanding.

I am struggling with this quote a little bit because it doesn't acknowledge the writer's ability to go seek out first hand knowledge from an expert. Maybe I'm struggling because I become annoyed by people who do very little research and try to pass themselves off as experts. Part of the reason I love John McPhee is he always acknowledges how stupid he is on a given topic, even if he knows more than the average person. This seems like an extremely important aspect of essay writing--no wonder I'm pulling it from Montaigne.

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This week's challenge was to tell us about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have you wanted to read it? And, why haven't you read it yet?

Thirty-six geeks participated and there were lots of excuses explanations for the books gathering dust on TBR shelves or waiting patiently to be snatched up and read:

• Book Sexy admits to being "a compulsive book buyer" and lists The Nautical Chart by Arturo Pèrez-Reverte (current shelf life: 1 year, 1 month), The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann is a different kind of mystery story altogether (current shelf life: 4-6 months), and Mellon: An American Life by David Cannadine (current shelf life: 1 year, 5 months) as books that are calling out to be read.
• Elena from All Booked Up (a first time geeker - welcome!) writes: "I've got almost too many books to chose from to answer this question. Enough so that I've made a list of the books and posted it to try and prune it down." But she did pick one book which she's had since 2005 - Diana Gabaldon's Breath of Snow and Ashes. The delay in reading this book? She need's to re-read the sequel first!
• Deanna from Kitsch Slapped admits to a tendency to hoard. She writes: "I think sometimes my desire to own, the reality of time to read, and the love of books have given me a false sense of security when I buy books. It’s as if when I grab a book, clutch it to my bosom, and greedily pay for it, I loose all sense of reality… I cling to the fantasy of Someday." Deanna got a bit philosophical in her post and shares her world view: "If it doesn’t matter to me how much time has passed between when the book is written & when the book is read, how can it matter how much time passes between when you bought a book & when you read it?" I couldn't agree more!
• Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric has put off reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for over a year and a half (after having bought it for $7 "in a rather dirty, unorganized book/old junk shop"). After putting it aside a couple of times, she finally picked it up right before this week's Weekly Geeks challenge posted...and is happily cruising right through it. Awesome, Trisha!!!
• Missy at Missy's Book Nook tends to forget about books unless they are shelved directly in her line of sight and she doesn't have to bend down to get to them. This explains why Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood has been collecting dust on the bottom shelf of her bookcase for two years.

Terrence Malick: The Tree of Life

Everyone loves a recluse, especially when they pop out of the woodwork with masterpieces such asBadlandsandThe New Worldevery seven-years or so. Terrence Malick's latest, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, sets to be just as beautiful, poetic and complex as his previous films and early buzz has Malick tipped to take home the top prize, 32-years after his first Palme d'Or nomination forDays Of Heaven.
Julia Leigh: Sleeping Beauty

Oscar-winning director Jane Campion presents this erotic retelling of the classic fairytale. Australian beauty Emily Browning swaps the samurai sword and school girl outfit ofSucker Punchto play a college student drawn into a mysterious, hidden world of prostitution. Written and directed by Australian novelist Julia Leigh, this is a triumph of female filmmaking and the poignant, beautifully crafted story should appeal to the A-List jury.
Nicolas Winding Refn: Drive

The black sheep, or black Cadillac rather, of the finalists isDrive; an action movie with art house sensibilities. It stars international film festival favourite Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman and discovers a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong. It doesn't sound like the usual Palme d'Or fare, which is exactly why it might work. It also stars Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston and Oscar Isaac.
Lars Von Trier: Melancholia

Von Trier blew everyone away with his sexually graphic and emotionally horrific filmAntichristat last year's Cannes, which divided critics and audiences alike. His latest and eighth Palme d'Or nominated filmMelancholialooks to be a safer bet with Kristen Dunst and renowned French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg starring as sisters who find their relationship challenged as a nearby planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Pedro Almodóvar: La Piel que Habito (The Skin that I Inhabit)

Bizarre. That's the first word that springs to mind when watching excerpts from acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's latest about a plastic surgeon (Antonio Banderas) on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. Part horror, part thriller, all parts dramatic, this is one of the more left-field, artistic offerings amongst the 20 finalists.

Takashi Miike: Ichemei (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai)

The prolific and controversial Japanese filmmaker's newbie will be the first 3D feature to compete in Cannes and is a re-imagining of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 filmHarakiri. With over 70 titles to his name, Miike's films range from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly, with this being his first to screen at the famous festival. It's an outside chance to take home any of the major prizes since its biggest coup was getting selected for competition in the first place.
Out of competition films to keep an eye on throughout the course of the festival are Australian serial-killer dramaSnowtown, the controversial Princess Diana documentaryUnlawful Killingand Oscar-winner Gus Van Sant's latestRestless, starring talented Aussie actress Mia Wasikowka. The Cannes film festival wraps on May 22. In the meantime, I suggest you check out theRestlesstrailer below because, put simply, it looks amazing.

VIA That Cannes-do spirit

It's week two of Award Winning Wednesday! Be sure to stick around until the end of this post so that you can add your Award Winning Reviews to the linky at the bottom!!

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I seem to be reading a lot of books lately that really challenge my perceptions of the world, and make me reevaluate how I judge things. Stolen by Lucy Christopher is very definitely one of those novels.

I had heard enough about this book, and read enough reviews to know that Ty, our kidnapper is a very sympathetic character. So, I knew that was coming. But I didn't think I would be as... moved as most of the people who have read this book. I knew I'd find some sympathy for him, because it's intentionally written that way, but I figured I'd say, Oh, poor sympathetic bastard. And leave it at that. I'd perhaps understand Ty better, but would still firmly believe he belonged locked up. I mean, seriously. He drugged a 16 year old girl in an airport and dragged her off to live in the absolute barren deserts of Australia. What a catch, right?

I have a tendency to place certain things into 'boxes'. Like child abuse. It's wrong. No exceptions. Special place in hell for those who hurt children. Infidelity is another absolute for me. For me personally, I have no respect for cheaters and know that it's not something I could ever come back from in a relationship. Kidnapping or abduction has always, always been firmly in that area too. It's bad. You don't do it. And if you do do it, you deserve whatever nasty punishments the 'law' decides to slam you with. So I wasn't expecting to care about Ty. He's a kidnapper. Not only did he take her from the airport, he has also been following her for 6 years. 6 years! That is insane! And creepy! And scary. And stalkerish. And creepy. Definitely creepy.

The book is written as if Gemma is writing a letter to Ty. You know, given the nature of the letter, that Gemma is now home. But you don't know how she got there, why or how Ty let her go, if she escaped, if she's writing him in prison, or if he got away. And because Gemma is writing the story of how she saw things happen, we also don't yet know where Gemma wants him to be.

Because we are learning about Ty through Gemma's voice in her letter, the way she feels about him at any given moment in her memories greatly colors her representation of him, which means it colors the way we see him. But mixed in with that is also the knowledge of how Gemma feels later, as she is writing the letter and so the flashes of vulnerability from Ty are included in the story. This creates a layer to the story I've never experienced before. As a reader, we can see both versions of Ty at once. The Ty that has so terrified Gemma, because he has taken her away from everything she knows, trapped her in a place miles away from anything and told her he is never going to let her leave. But we also see the Ty that is kind and compassionate and genuinely believes that Gemma will be happy here, and that he is saving her. It confuses Gemma. And we see that too.

In the beginning, I understood that Ty was a sympathetic captor, that he wasn't evil, but I was still against him overall. I was still all for him going to prison and rotting for a long time, for Gemma being saved and all that heroic stuff. And when we learn that Ty has been obsessed with Gemma since she was 10 years old, it only reinforced that idea. Sure, he's had a tough life, but he still needs to be locked up.

But somewhere along the way, I started to soften towards Ty. And I didn't even notice. Honestly. I went from assuming I was going to be really happy if/when he ended up being put away for years to terrified that Gemma and Ty were no longer going to be able to stay together. I knew that she got away from him, but when I saw it coming, when I realized how it was going to happen, I kept thinking hoping that there was going to be another way. That their split up was only temporary, that Ty would be able to stay on the desert homestead until Gemma could find her way back to him.

And then I had to stop reading for a moment. I had to stop so that I could process this. I am not sympathetic to villains. Ever. Really. Especially in a contemporary novel. Because that's like real life. And in real life, the bad guys belong in jail. I'm all about the justice system. If you commit a crime, you pay the price and accept the consequences. Period. End of discussion. So why on earth was I sitting there, reading, hoping against hope that he ends up safe?! It really shook me. To the point that I had a really long conversation with my best friend, who knows me better than anyone else. And when I told her about how I was feeling at the end of the book, her reaction was almost comical. I could see the shock in her eyes. Ashley does not express a desire for the villain to be freed from consequences. Ashley does not hope that the bad guy will be able to see the good girl one more time. Ashley does not think that perhaps the bad guy has some redeeming qualities, even while he is being bad...

But... Ashley did.

And I'm still reeling a little here. It's hard to read a book that shocks and ruptures your solid foundations. I don't think this book is going to make my sympathize for every abductor in prison or awaiting trial or capture. I'm not suddenly going to become an advocate for these people, because I still genuinely believe that what they have done is absolutely wrong. But, I never once thought I would be able to sympathize with someone like that. I never once thought I would find myself on their side, even if it is only in a book. It's made me take a deeper look at myself and it's made me wonder what else I might be persuaded to feel differently about if I were to read a book that handles to topic well enough. (Actually, I just finished another book that shook me even more than this one did and I'm pretty sure has left lasting changes on how I'm going to view my world... Review for that one will be here in July)

So, this is a book that I recommend with every part of myself. There is something about this book that forces you to reexamine your world, that will make you question what you believe in. Ty is a very sympathetic character, but Gemma is the real heart of the story. She is so strong. She tries to escape, tries to adapt and survive and she does. Gemma is a wonderfully strong character, a character that didn't ask for any of this but rises admirably to the challenges she dealt. I felt for Ty, understood him more than I thought possible, but I loved Gemma. Loved her voice, her strength, her ability to think and reason and analyze herself and her thoughts during seemingly impossible situations.

Please. Read this book. I can't imagine that anyone who reads this book will not be touched or changed in some way.

Don't forget to link your reviews! If you've written a review of a Newbery or Printz honor or award winner since May 31st, add your link here!:)

I would classify myself as a walker. I love walking long distances, five miles are so, just to see that I can walk that far. Sometimes in the blazing heat I ask myself why I do it, and I want to return home, but I press on. Walking is the perfect way for me to escape from the world and the people who are around me, and it makes me a happier person. I love listening to music when I walk, and I frequently listen to book podcasts, but I had never listened to an audiobook until this summer. I really had no interest in them either, but I knew that my new job (the one I just started this week) was very iPod friendly and I figured I might as well try to get some reading done while I'm at work! So I got my first audiobook to try out, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. I listened to it mostly while I was walking, although sometimes while I was driving, and I actually really enjoyed the whole experience. I'll review the book at a later date, for now I just want to talk about audiobooks for those who love them and for those who are unsure if they want to try them out.

I decided to go with the Bill Bryson book because he narrates it himself. This was attractive to me because I love going to readings to hear authors read their work. It was a really good fit and I'm glad I started out with an author narration. Eventually perhaps I'll move on to a different narrator. One of the main reasons I've stayed away from audiobooks until this point is that I really dislike being read to. I find it extremely hard to follow and feel like I lose a lot of information. When I came away from Bill Bryson's book I didn't feel that way at all, but perhaps that is because it's all about Des Moines, Iowa, which is where I am from so I was very interested in it. I like to think that's not the only reason though. It seems like what I really dislike is being read to badly, because then it's easy to drift off and think about something else. An engaging narrator can hold my interest and make the audiobook feel more like a friend telling me a story at lunch than like a person reading to me.

The place I actually most enjoyed listening to the audiobook was in the car, which surprised me. When I'm walking I have a tendency to think about anything that is bothering me and it's a more reflective practice than driving. In the car I really have nothing to focus on but the road so it's easier for me to lose myself in an audiobook. I think this will be the case with my job as well, because it's a lot of repetitive tasks and I think I might really enjoy listening to an audiobook for awhile to get me away from how mundane everything I'm doing is.

Do you listen to audiobooks? Why or why not? What do you like about them or dislike about them? Where do you listen to them?

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis was my absolute most anticipated release for 2012. I saw the cover on Goodreads and left that window open for days so that I could stare at the cover and quietly covet this book in the comfort of my own home. And then Misty and I started talking about Fairy Tale Fortnight part duex and she was just as crazy excited about this book as I was. And I can't tell you how happy I am that not only did we both manage to get our hands on a copy to review for FTF, but Alethea also participated in the greatness that is FTF. (Check out her awesome giveaway pack!)

I haven't been reading anything lately for a lot of reasons, but I read this book in a day and was reminded why I love reading so much. This wasn't a perfect book, but it was just so delightfully... delightful that I can't stop smiling every time I think about it.

Seriously. There was so much fairy tale awesome packed into one book! I mean, really. From the very first chapter you stumble into so many different allusions and hints and blatant discussions of so many different fairy tales, some well known, some not so well known, that it fair to made my heart sing.

Before I get into more of what I thought of the book, I wanted to make one point. There is a lot in this book that could potentially be annoying or aggravating to some. During last years Fortnight, I posted about Why I Always Forgive My Fairy Tales. And that applies very much to this story here. There are parts of the story that are predictable, parts of the story that happened too fast or too symmetrically to be fully realistic or believable (magic numbers 3 and 7 pop up a lot in this story). But I didn't care. Because it's a fairy tale and that automatically means I will love it just for existing, just for being what it is.

Sunday is our main character and she loves stories and words and writing (girl after mine own heart, no?) She always carries with her a magical diary (a name day gift from her Fairy Godmother) that never runs out of pages. But Sunday generally sticks to the past because what she writes has a tendency to come true and she recognizes that this sort of power is not something to be played with. (And how refreshing is it to have a young character that nevertheless understands responsibility and the importance of power).

Sunday has a large and varied family and I loved that there was so much importance placed on family and relationships in this story. The characters aren't perfect and some of them make poor decisions or let old hurts fester, but there is still this deep bond, this strong assurance of love and affection and loyalty that runs through the entire family and I loved that this was a family, not without their problems, but that was still warm and loving.

There were some moments when I felt that the author was trying just a little too hard to be mysterious and keep us from figuring out the secrets too soon. It made the passages confusing rather than intriguing and I thought it to be a bit overdone. But even with that and the previous warning aside, this was pretty much the perfect book for me to read right now. It was delightfully fun and I spent almost the entire time reading this book with a smile on my face. It's pretty clear from where the book went and how it ended that the author is hoping to write sequels with the other Woodcutter sisters (not to mention that she said it in her interview) . And that's totally fine by me! Monsueir et Madame Publishers, if you choose to publish more of Kontis's Woodcutter family drama, you've got a guaranteed reader right here.

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But I Love Him by Amanda Grace is a novel that really caught my attention. It's a story about an abusive relationship, which we've been seeing a lot of lately, but the telling of the story is something completely different than what I've seen before. The story is told in reverse chronology. It starts exactly one year after the day they met, with Connor doing some serious damage to Ann and walking out of their apartment, leaving Ann beaten and bloody, trying to decide if this is the moment he's gone too far and it takes us back in time, ending with how they met.

I was really intrigued by the idea of the reverse chronology, but was unsure how it would actually work. But it does. The book is basically told in a series of individual stories, snapshots of various days in their relationship, both good and bad. We see the nice things Connor does to show Ann he loves her and then we see the problem of the day before he was making up for. And interspersed throughout these stories of the past, the present day is still happening and every so often, we get another chapter, get to see more of what is happening now. Ann is bleeding on the floor, surrounding by the pieces of her heart (literally and figuratively, since the image on the cover is completely relevant to the book) and she recognizes that she needs to make some decisions about her life.

Because of the way the story was told, I didn't connect to it the way I have to others and most of the book lacked the urgency of a novel with this subject matter. I was never afraid that Connor was going to go too far, because he already had. And I was never worried about what he might do to her, because we had already seen the after, before we got to the before. But the layout of the book was brilliance. Grace mentioned that she wrote this book because people have a tendency to judge the victims of domestic abuse — why don't you just leave? How could you put up with that? Why didn't you just walk away when he hit you? How could you not see that he's such a jerk? and she took that away from us. We can't pick the place we would have walked away if we are seeing it from the end, because we don't know what's happened yet.

I also don't know that I fully believed the actual nature of their relationship. Connor is domineering and controlling and gets really angry a lot but for some reason, I was never nervous for her physically. Which is weird, considering she starts the book completely battered. But Connor went from a single punch or slap to an all out beating and that just doesn't really seem... normal, I guess.

But, in my opinion, the strongest part of this book was the emotional state of Ann. Even when nothing else was completely believable, I felt very strongly, several times, that Ann's reflections on her life and her self were spot on. She gave us insight into what it's like to be in a situation like that, her thoughts broke my heart more than a few times as she sat on the floor of her apartment, trying to make a choice that will determine the course of the rest of her life. I don't normally use quotes in my review, but there is one line that shows how she's thinking and feeling as well as what thousands of others in her situation had to have felt when they become introspective-

It happened in pieces, tiny little turning points. I'll never figure out when it all turned, because it wasn't a single moment. It doesn't matter how many times I look back, how many times I try to figure it out. There is no before and after. Just a year of choices.

This isn't the best book around an abusive relationship I've ever read, but it is incredibly unique and I feel that it is one that has a good message and intent, even if the full impact isn't quite there, I do think that it's a novel that deserves to be read. I think that this is a novel that everyone will view differently. All books are colored by our own personal experiences, but I feel like this one is very much one that will change drastically based around your life experiences. I haven't known very many people who have been through something like this so I don't know how it relates to someone who has, but even if it's not the strongest example of this story line, it is one that you should watch for. I know I'm interested to see if there will be more by the Grace nomer of Mandy Hubbard.

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger is a book the surprised me. It's honesty a book I didn't think I would enjoy. I decided to give it a chance, because I hadn't expected to like The Duff, but was very pleasantly surprised. And, while there were definitely things about this book that bothered me, or didn't sit well with me, for the most part, I did enjoy it.

Keplinger is a strong writer. So far she is 2 for 2 — delivering books that I didn't expect much from and surprising me with how well they are written, and how entertaining the story is. Keplinger does a great job writing heroines that many people will find themselves understanding, relating too, and connecting with. Lissa has her doubts, her insecurities and her desires and, for the most part, I liked her a lot.

There are two male leads — Cash and Randy, and both bring something unique to the story. I had some issues with Randy from the beginning, but I didn't like how his character was treated. I never really loved his character, but I felt like there was some unexplained, drastic character switching mid-way through the novel that wasn't really... set up as well as it could have been. Cash, however, is awesome. And you know that things are gonna get interesting between them. Oh, and also — he reads and recommends obscure Greek plays. Win!

As for the story itself, I had a bit of a hard time with how caviler this book was in its treatment of teen sex. I know that teenagers have sex, but this book makes it seem like every single character is having sex and, that the few who don't, are really weird and strange and behind the times smart for waiting until it really is right for them. It also offers some super crappy justification for continuing to have sex. Like one character, who genuinely does not enjoy having sex, but she keeps it up and pretends to like it, because it makes her boyfriend happy. This bothers me. I know that there are going to be teen girls out there, who are sexually active in this way. But I don't think it's positive. If it's something you do not enjoy, then you do not have to keep doing it! Seriously.

More teenage girls NEED to know that. They NEED to know that if they don't want to, or are not ready to have sex, then SO WHAT?! It's OK. It is ok, and they have the RIGHT to control who they allow that level of intimacy with. Considering the topic, I really wish that the book had made more of a statement about this, considering (IMO) a huge reason for this book was to make a point. Lissa's boyfriend pressures her to have sex. You get a sense of it from the very beginning of the book. And while he is ultimately labeled a dickhead and it is mentioned that trying to coerce a girl into having sex to stay in a relationship or to prove she loves you is wrong, it's not given all that much attention, and isn't really addressed. It's more like a passing thought when really, there are so many girls who need to hear that, need to believe and understand that it's not okay for a guy to try and force that.

I'm really torn on this one, because, while I did like it, it's honestly not one that I would really recommend to teenage girls. No matter how well written the book is, it does make light of a subject I think is incredibly important and serious. It's something that is already treated far too lightly by our entire society. And honestly, teenagers don't need another book that says it's about learning to get a handle on your own sexuality and being comfortable with whatever is right for you, but that actually shows a lot of relationships contrary to that and portrays them positively. Talk about mixed signals.

So, I doubt I will be rushing to supply this book to the teen girls in my life, but I do think that there are a lot of people who will love this one without reservations, especially the older crowd. Me personally, I don't like books that trivialize important topics, and I think Shut Out has a tendency to slip into that gray area a few times.

So, if I'm being honest, I liked this book. Quite a lot actually. And a large part of why I liked it so much, is because I didn't expect to like it, so it was definitely a very pleasant surprise. But Keplinger is a talented writer, and I will continue to read more from her. Now I just wish Keplinger would write a book that doesn't go out of its way to tackle the Oooh! Controversy! surrounding sex in YA. If she keeps going with it, sorry... But it's gonna look like agendizing and trying to hard.

The Innovative Park in Australia

The new project of mixed use located in the north of Sydney, with the budget in 400 million dollars, urged to "plant trees and shrubs" in business. Developed by architects GHD, Innovative park Gore Hill is the newest building object Lindsay Bennelong Developments before which it's necessary to connect a problem ecological stability to business innovations.
Project Gore Hill will be the first technological business park received five stars AGBA and rating Green Star in Australia. In located on the former areas of studios ABC in Gore Hill, on the bottom part of northern coast of Sydney, business park, the area in 4.6 hectares, provides convenient places for offices, and as spaces under retail shops and the entertaining centers — including a separate site for retail trade in plaza-style, a zone of municipal departments, motor shows, the aqua-center, and also foot and bicycle paths.

The Australian Innovative Project

“Project of a glass cube so typical for given area is not pleasant to us”, main architect GHD Nando Nicotra speaks. “From the very beginning of the project we wished to create the unique building corresponding to aesthetic ideals, and have decided, that it's necessary to concentrate attention to appearance of a building”.
The given project, example of modern innovative architecture, also is realization of various innovations on ecological stability — including repeated capture of superseded heat, effective system of lifts and a central air “chilled beam”. It guarantees that the project will receive a five-stars rating and will set the tendency of new level of requirements to the future industrial and commercial projects. At present works on district to start building in January, 2009 are conducted.

VIA «The Gore Hill Park (Sydney)»