I kind of took a chance on this–mostly picked it up due to all the buzz surrounding it. I’ve previously read Green’s Looking for Alaska and didn’t love it, but I had hope for The Fault in Our Stars. I’m so glad I decided to read it because I ADORE this book.

The subject matter is pretty bleak. Hazel and Augustus are brought together by their mutual experiences with cancer. I really don’t want to spoil the story, so just allow me to repeat: I cried no fewer than nine times during the duration of my reading. The story is about love, life, death, hope…it’s just beautiful and it made me feel SO MANY FEELINGS and I just didn’t want to say goodbye to the characters after I finished the novel.

My only criticism: the majority of the teen characters, especially Hazel and Augustus, suffer from what I (and many others) think of as Dawson’s Creek Syndrome. They speak way too elevated for their ages (to the point of being unrealistic dialogue). I just kind of shrugged it off and went with it. They’re pretty witty, as characters go, and at times I forgot that they were supposed to be teenagers. All that aside, the writing itself is excellent and the characters are ones that I cared deeply about.

A good book can entertain or amuse you, but a great book will stay with you after you’ve turned the final page. The Fault in Our Stars is a great book.

ugh, this book. The thing I took away is the idea that teenagers are some twisted mofos.

Nothing is about the meaning and meaninglessness that we feel as humans. That’s pretty much the entire story. How the author gets there, however, is disturbing and–at times–straight-up sick. I felt really uncomfortable reading this book, but not in a ‘wow, what an amazing message’ kind of way. By the time I finished, I wanted to wrap myself in a blanket and sit in a corner, rocking back and forth and muttering to myself. The book is *that* troubling. I think I only finished it because it’s pretty short (227 pages)–if it had been much longer, I might have left it unfinished.

I think we all know that humans are capable of very depraved acts, but it’s that much more troubling when those acts are committed by teens or children. I can’t say that I recommend this book because I just found it really depressing and soul-sucking. The author’s point hit home; I just didn’t like the manner in which it was revealed to me.

Trigger warnings: violence against animals, violence between children/teens.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, the book has a very solid message–about how some of us feel like ‘aliens’ in the world–in other words, outcasts who don’t belong. I dig that message. On the other hand, the prose was very flat for me. This was a quick read not because the writing was so great, but because it’s really more of a novella (a slim 150 pages) and because the chapters are SO short. Seriously, some chapters are one sentence long. Like this:

Sometimes, this is a whole chapter.

Or this:

Here’s a deep, profound statement that is SO deep and SO profound that no other words are necessary in this particular chapter.

(That last sentence was longer than many of the chapters in this book.)

I kept reading because I wanted to see if the author would turn the story into a true science fiction tale (which she really doesn’t). I will say that the ending was probably my favorite part of the book. I can’t say that I enjoyed the characters much, if at all. Mal is kind of relatable most of the time but other times he just annoyed me because he is so stinking emo. I was sad that his dad deserted the family and his mom was an alcoholic, but…I don’t know. I didn’t care about his character as much as I should have.

To sum it up, I think the book had the potential to be better than it is and I was left disappointed.

I was kind of perplexed by the basis of the plot–how could scientists not even suspect the potential consequences of a meteor hitting the moon? I get it, that type of oversight is what makes the whole plot possible, but it just seemed too easy to say, ‘oh, the scientists underestimated the impact.’ Anyway, I just decided to go with it and consider the possibility. The result is a real horror story, actually–tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mass casualties. This story speaks to most people’s primal fears about the truly uncontrollable aspects of our lives.

As a narrator, Miranda kind of irritated me at first, but I think that might have been intentional. At the book’s start, she is a typical teenager–whiny and fairly self-centered the majority of the time–but as the story progresses, she turns into quite a mature, responsible survivor. Eventually, I appreciated her character and wanted things to turn out okay for her and her family in the end.

Speaking of which, the ending fell a *little* flat for me. It wasn’t corny, but it felt a little too tidy. Put simply, I feel that more of the main characters should have died; realistically, that’s probably what would have happened. But overall, I enjoyed the book and have already bought the other two books in the trilogy (which, to my surprise, turned out to be companion books rather than true sequels; however, I’ll still be reading them both).

I’ve read and liked Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why, so I was intrigued when I heard about The Future of Us. The premise is really clever–what if you signed on to AOL in 1996, only to find yourself looking at your Facebook profile 15 years in the future?

If Goodreads allowed us to give half stars, I would have given this 3.5 out of 5. This is such a cute book! I loved all the 90s references–AOL, Windows 95, scrunchies, VCRs…the list goes on. As with many novels that have some time travel element, the details get kind of dicey here and there. But overall, I found The Future of Us really fun and sweet. The ending is pretty ambiguous but I think it fits the story.

Lastly, I’m kind of surprised at the scathing reviews for this on Goodreads. Seriously, the book is not that awful! It’s not my favorite, but it’s hardly a waste of time either. In fact, if you want a nice, lighthearted YA read, I recommend this.

I’m kind of glad I’ve seen the movie version of The Shining because I already know how the story ends. I’m still reading the book and it’s interesting, but for some reason I keep falling asleep whenever I try to read it! It’s really annoying. It doesn’t matter if I read at night or during the day, either. So weird. I’m going to finish reading the book, but at this rate, it’s going to take me a while.

I had to work on Saturday but it was a pleasant, short shift. So I’m off tomorrow, which is really nice. Even though I don’t love working Saturdays, I do like having the following Monday off (good way to avoid a Case of the Mondays, you understand).

M and I had a case of spring cleaning (or winter cleaning, I suppose) earlier today. We cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and counters–it looks so much nicer in there now! And I feel even better about having done that because right now I’m watching Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC and it’s freaking me out. I don’t know why I’m so addicted to these trainwreck shows. I have no reasons. I always feel terrible for the hoarders and their families, especially when they acknowledge that they have a disorder but they don’t know how to overcome it…it’s so sad.

Anyway, I plan on being very lazy on my day off tomorrow because that is what I do. I’ll probably spend a good part of the day doing some secret knitting and watching a lot of Netflix + Amazon Instant Video. Such is the life of a semi-hermit!

My first thought was to say Diana Gabaldon, but then I would feel guilty because I still haven’t read her latest Outlander novel. (I’m not a good fan lately!) Also, I met her back in 2007 and, in my starstruck state, couldn’t manage more than “I LOVE YOUR BOOKS I’M SO EXCITED TO MEET YOUUUU!!!” So yeah. Not sure I would do well in an interview with her.

Actually, I think I’d like to interview Anita Shreve because I adore her books and I find her writing style very inspiring. There’s a distinctly dark quality to her novels and I get the sense that she’s gone through a lot of pain in her life. I don’t expect that she would talk about that with a complete stranger, but I would like to hear about her writing process.

Since I seem to do pretty well when I set these challenges for myself, I’m going to set another one for 2012. This time, I’m going to pick a list of books that for whatever reason, I haven’t read yet but I really want to read them in 2012. Here’s the list, in no particular order.

Reading Goals for 2012

1. 1984 by George Orwell – I confess, I started this once but didn’t finish it. I think I got a little bored about halfway through. I’m determined to finish it since it’s a classic and I feel like I’m missing out by not having finished it.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Yes, another classic that I’ve never read. I’m sort of embarrassed to admit that but I hope to change that in 2012!
3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – Are you starting to see a pattern here? See above!
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – Maybe I should just call 2012 the Year of Reading Classics, haha. Actually, this is another one that I started but didn’t get very far with, but I think I’m going to enjoy it a lot.
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – I watched the movie several years ago and it was really great, so I’m sure the book is that much better.
6. The Stand by Stephen King – I’ve seen the miniseries and enjoyed it quite a bit (despite the cheesy special effects), but I’ve heard some amazing things about the book. Apparently, many consider this to be King’s magnum opus, so I’m really excited about reading it. It’s quite a long novel, but I think I’m up to the challenge.
7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Of all the books on my list, this is one of the most recent books but one that has very positive reviews. I did attempt to read this a few years ago but didn’t get very far, so I’m going to give it another try.
8. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – This is one that I’m still unsure about, but it’s had such a tremendous response and almost universally good reactions. I think this one might surprise me.
9. The Passage by Justin Cronin – If I don’t read this in 2012, I’ll probably never read it. I do want to find out if it’s as good as so many people say.
10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – Yes, it’s another classic that I haven’t read! Of all the books on this list, I feel like I’m the least likely to read this one just because I have this impression in my mind that it’s going to be tougher to read. So I’m not making any guarantees on this one, but I will try.

It’ll be really interesting to see which books from this list I’ll succeed in finishing. In the past several months, I’ve really embraced the library book and along with it, the concept of abandoning a book if I’m just not enjoying it. So many of these are classics, but I won’t hesitate to give up on them if I find them boring! My limit is usually 75 pages or so (50 pages if it’s really bad) before I give up on a book.

Do note, however, that it’s very formulaic: dystopian YA, teenage girl, love interest, etc. But that’s what I like, so…yeah. It’s an interesting mix, though–kind of like The Hunger Games meets The Matrix meets Inception…if that makes sense.

It took me a few chapters to get into the flow, but once the story picked up, it became a real page-turner and I stayed up a bit too late to finish it. There’s one part toward the end that felt a little hokey and slowed the narrative for me, but other than that, I don’t have many complaints. In fact, I really appreciated the presence of strong female characters (and some that are pretty badass in general). Lastly, I was surprised that the author ‘went there’ toward the end–I don’t want to post any spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that! I plan on reading the sequel when it comes out.

Also, the book surprised me somewhat–early on, I thought the story was going to wind up being super predictable and lame, but it kind of veered off into this unexpected territory and that was nice. Also, the plot became pretty suspenseful at times, to the point where I really didn’t want to put the book down because I had to see how it would end. So that was nice, too.

oh, and sorry to bring up Twilight again, but Mara Dyer has some pretty steamy scenes in comparison. There’s a lot of innuendo and raunchiness at times, which I was kind of surprised about because this book is recommended for 14+, but as an adult, I found it entertaining. I’ll be reading the sequel once it is released.