Justin Cronin

So while I was gone I did do a little reading.... okay so maybe like 1500 pages of Justin Cronin. I really didn't mean too read the whole thing. Both whole things. 

They was really good. I was amazed. I don't usually like post-apocolyptic stuff, but this was mesmerizing. It did get a little heavy in The Twelve with all the shooting and tanks and guns and stuff, but it was tempered with some other stuff too. The Passage was really the better of the two books. There seemed to be more emotion and description and feeling. There was also more mystery. I was still wondering what Amy was going to do... what her purpose was. I liked imagining how things would be "after" people. I learned a lot about what might be needed to survive a vampire virus: guns, food, a basement, and lights. 

The premise sounds pretty lame, but it worked here. A crazy virus spreads quickly across the US making everyone either dead, or a vampire. These are not just regular vampires, but more animal like beasts with no control over their appetite. There are pockets of people that survive, which is described in The Passage, and then in The Twelve, those different pockets of survivors combine and then fight against the twelve original vampires.

I will definitely read the third in the series The City of Mirrors when it comes out in May 2014.

On a different note... I'm done with school and I can now read what ever I want for hours on end without having to do homework. I am also going to spend more time writing. Finally!

I Like Big......

Did you think I was going to say butts?

Ha!  It says 'big books'!!
Can I get a t-shirt with this on it?

A Couple of Weeks Off

I hate to say it, but I have to take a break from reading. I've got too much on my plate. I graduate in 4 weeks and I've got 2 papers and 1 group project, Thanksgiving, and bookfair. There just isn't enough time. I am crazy anxious and reading is not going well anyway. I'm too worked up to sit still and read. All the books don't seem like they can hold my attention because I am so worried about other stuff.

That is no way to read.

I love reading and if I try to hard to squeeze in reading, it makes it unenjoyable.

So until then, I might be a little quiet so that I can focus and get my shit done.

I will be back by December 7th at the latest, the day my last assignment is due.

Please excuse me while I cogitate copiously.

Scholastic Book Fair

My book fair starts Tuesday!!

I got it all set up today at school and so totally should have taken a picture. It is gorgeous. I'll take one Tues. am before the kids come in and wreck it.

There's been a lot of discussion in my school district about whose job it is to run the book fair. Some of the older and lazier librarians refuse to put on the fair since it is not in their job description. It requires extra time, lost of heavy lifting and usually the closing of the library for a week.

I'm totally cool with it and you want to know why? Because it freaking makes the kids happy.

Scholastic also gives us half the profit in new Scholastic books. Who could say no to that? Definitely not me.

The most exciting part of the book fair is that the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Third Wheel comes out on Tuesday. Easiest way to start a riot in an elementary school library is to start displaying the new Wimpy Kid book. My trusty UPS man will deliver boxes full of the new book first thing Tues. am.

Do you have goosebumps? I do.

Bram Stoker's Birthday

It seems as if every book website and blog is saying something about Bram Stoker's 165th birthday, so I thought I'd chime in as well.

To start my story you have to remember way back to 1992 and this movie.

It was a really big deal when Bram Stoker's Dracula was turned into a movie starring Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Gary Oldman. It was HUGE. I was a junior in high school and everyone went to see it.
I can't remember what I thought of the movie when I saw it the first time except that it made me want to  read the book. It was the very first time I read a gothic Victorian novel and I've been in love ever since.
Yes it was confusing, but it was also mesmerizing. The diary format made it easier to read for a first time gothic novel reader. I have read almost every other gothic novel since. So while the movie has faded in my memory the book never will.
I recently stumbled across this book, The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker, which will be released on Christmas Eve this year. The link will take you to the table of contents and a sample.
It's already in my shopping cart.

Happy Birthday Mr. Stoker.

This was on my list for November and I did indeed read it.

It was freaking awesome.

So cute, so innocent, so romantic. It was very Jane Austeny with all the groups of young people who needed to marry, some for money, and some just for love. There were mix-ups and traded partners and accepted and denied marriage proposals. Oh and don't forget the big fancy castle that crumbles into the sea. Everything in the end is summed up perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after.
It was a perfect Sunday afternoon read. I would even read it again, and again.

Highly enjoyable.

I have to also say that I tried Claudine and Colette. There must be something lost in translation because it just seems to be missing something. There is too much dialogue and the phrasing seems off. There isn't enough description and just in the first few pages there are too many characters.
This one will be going right back on the shelf until I can read it in the original French. (And yes I can read French, I just have a hard time speaking French),

On to the next one.

Cloud Atlas Finished

So I finished the book last night.... it was good, but it didn't have a tidy ending like I wanted. It just kind of leaves off and makes you think. Since I read it on my Kindle I couldn't flip back and forth between the stories to help me interpret things. It's way too hard on a Kindle. There was some cool stuff happening that was a little stressful for me while reading it. Just when the story gets good it always switches to another story which is frustrating and then when the story comes back around I had forgotten some of the characters which was also frustrating. It was making me very anxious.

I did find one very useful line in the book,

"Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw."

Ohhh I love that. It describes almost perfectly why I read. That quote is why I will love this book forever, because I know someone else out there knows what it's like in my mind.

In summary a great book, but read it in print so you can hop back and forth easily.
I want to go back and re-read this reading whole stories at a time, and not jumping back and forth. It definitely needs a second reading for full understanding.

I'll see the movie when it's on Amazon.