Lizreader's Blog

All I can say is that for a sequel this is SO much better than the first book! In fact, I really like this book because of character development, new characters that are introduced, and the plotting is so well done! So many twists and turns I did not see coming. What a treat of a book!

An interesting read looking at the dialogue between Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. It was interesting to note how Johnson perceived this war during his presidency, and after everything realized how much of a mistake it was. For an academic read it was certainly engaging.

I remember liking this book at first, then it just dropped off and nothing happened...I never finished it.

Actual rating: 3.5 starsI was probably one of the only people in my class to like reading this book, then again a lot of the other students in my class have not encountered a lot of scholars who are steeped in post-modernist thinking (like I have). I liked how Tsing looked at the idea of "Friction" in the global environment, and it was an interesting read.

I've meant to review this book awhile back, unfortunately I did write a review but my computer malfunctioned and I did not save it. So, now I am going to write my review on this book. I went into reading this book with a bit of trepidation because a lot of people were referring to it as an "Adult Twilight" and I don't like it when those kind of comparisons are made. First of all there were many things I did like about this book:1) Historical connectionsI love history, and I love that the main character was a professor and scholar. It is really unique to see smart characters in urban fantasy, especially scholars and what not. At least, I don't see it that often.2) Dianna BishopIs a great female character because one, she's smart. Two, she's interesting to learn about. Three, she can take care of herself. (However, there are parts in this book where she isn't at her best, and it's not a character trait but a writing problem I have).3) Matthew ClairmontOh boy...that's all I can say. Move over Lestat. (And if people are annoyed that he does yoga, I don't mind liberties with vampires. At least he isn't sparkly and he still drinks human blood by the way, and animal blood too). 4) The characters, besides the main characters that is. I think Mrs. Harkness has a penchant for writing great secondary characters, and even main characters that you get invested in. It's not easy for me to like all the characters in the book, and I did. Even the baddies. 5) This book is really well researched, and I like that the author is mixing history and science. It's awesome!However, there were parts of this book I did not like. The love story, although I liked it...was really heavy in the second part of the book and not as well integrated as it is in the sequel. At times the second part of the book borderlined on problematic for its sappiness and for it's "Twilight-esque" problems of going too fast in such a short period. In the beginning, the story took its time and I liked it quite a bit (the sequel is much, MUCH better with this the plotting is tighter). That's pretty much the reason it gets a three in the end, for the rushed second half of the book. However, YOU SHOULD read the SEQUEL. It's WAY, WAY better than the first book and I don't say that lightly since most of the time the sequel is worst than the first book. Not in this case.

Oh wow...I have mixed feelings about this particular book.First off, this book is incredibly fun for me to read, since I was able to geek out with all the references (in many places I squealed in delight from Monty Python to John Hughes films). I loved all the 80's and pop culture references. Also, one of the main protagonists is from Vancouver, B.C, Canada! How cool is that! However, as much fun as the premise in this book is...I do have some things to say about this book. This book has been getting a lot of attention for it's references and for people to geek out to. In a lot of ways, many things mentioned in this book I grew up with from Zork (one of the first video games I ever played, by the way). To watching John Hughes films, Star Wars, as well as Monty Python (and wooing the love interest with Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" made me laugh so hard). However, the references can only carry a book so far. You see the problem for me with "Ready Player One" is the fact that it relies on the references so much to make up for a spotty plotting and characterization. The main protagonist Wade, but known online as Parzival, for me is not a really well developed character because although in the virtual world he goes through a lot of changes, his physical self in the real world does not. At the end, we are lead to believe that he has changed, but in reality he is no different than the first page of his life. It is kind of sad really. He makes friends, but they are online. In this sort of book, I have to keep the online personalities different from the reality, which isn't always easy to do.The plotting was spotty because for the first 1/3 of the book it is good, a long exposition to get the world set up but then it starts to move. However, in the middle part of the book is where the plotting goes down hill. In the beginning the character of Wade sets out on this quest to find the hidden Easter Egg of Holiday, who is the creator of the OASIS world (a virtual reality world of gaming, shopping, and pretty much a universe to be whatever you want to be). He's died and left his will for a OASIS user to fine, hardcare users known as "Gunters" have chatrooms and follow Holiday's guide to try and find his inheritance. It's like "Willy Wonka" meets "The Matrix" as one reviewer puts it, which I can see why they say that. The middle of the book suffers from a terribly integrated love story with the character of Art3mis (pronounced Artemis if you can't read computer speak). Anyways, the quest part of the story we are led to believe is important and should be continued, but in the second part of the book the relationship between Parzival (Wade) and Art3mis is not only not well integrated into the novel it takes away from the importance of this quest for Wade to complete. It isn't the best written romance because it isn't integrated all that well into the story, which is where this book losses a lot of points in my book. There is also a section of the book where it does not connect very well. At one part something happens, and then something completely random happens only to find out later "oh this is not random at all," so in a lot of ways it is info-dumping a part of the story that could have been better integrated. It was a bit of a shock because at one part you know what is going on, and then out of nowhere he is taken this evil corporation and is an indentured servant. What? Anyways, I think that could have been better integrated into the whole plot line a bit more seamlessly. The last third of the book is what you expect from a quest/adventure kind of story, it is packed with action and the resolution is not all that unexpected. The characters I liked the most were Aech (pronounced as the letter H), Art3mis (Samantha), and Og...who was a friend of Holiday's and co-founder of the company and developer of OASIS. I thought they all had a good amount of growth, compared to Wade that is. The other part that bothered me about this book was the set up of the world where everybody pretty much relied on OASIS in their lives, and the world went to hell because people did not participate. As a political science major, this will never happen because not everyone will get involved in a virtual world--even if the world itself is going down the drain. People will figure these problems out, and will not let it go to waste. It doesn't seem entirely realistic in my mind, and something I wish the author took into consideration. My final thoughts are although I had a lot of fun reading this book for the 80's and pop cultural references, it was a big let down when it came to some of the characters and the integration of certain events in the story that ruined it for me. It's still a fun read, but I expected a bit more from the screenwriter who wrote "Fan Boys" where that was not only a fun movie to watch, but it also was sweet too. He can write a better romance than he did in this book.

Seeing as the first book I read by Libba Bray was "The Diviners," which was not her first published novel I can see where she has certainly evolved as a writer. For one, "The Diviners" is absolutely wickedly written and "A Great and Terrible Beauty," although well-written is not at the same level. The plotting is good, but compared to "The Diviners" a little bit more simplistic, even though this is a start of a series. A girl finds out that she has a great power, and what must she do with it? It's not really all that new, but it is a fun read. I am not entirely sure if I will continue the series or not. It's still a fun, breezy read. Although, I do enjoy "The Diviners" more.

Seeing as the first book I read by Libba Bray was "The Diviners," which was not her first published novel I can see where she has certainly evolved as a writer. For one, "The Diviners" is absolutely wickedly written and "A Great and Terrible Beauty," although well-written is not at the same level. The plotting is good, but compared to "The Diviners" a little bit more simplistic, even though this is a start of a series. A girl finds out that she has a great power, and what must she do with it? It's not really all that new, but it is a fun read. I am not entirely sure if I will continue the series or not. It's still a fun, breezy read. Although, I do enjoy "The Diviners" more.

This is an interesting book looking at the travel of one t-shirt sold at a Walgreens in the U.S. I had to read this book for my Globalization Debate class, and I can honestly say it was one of the better readings so far. It introduces the reader to the real world travels of a t-shirt from where the cotton was picked from (Lubbock, Texas), where the cotton was shipped and spun into yarn and made into a t-shirt (Shanghai, China), sent back to the U.S for the print, and then where t-shirts and other apparel go when the Salvation Army and Goodwill have too much. I liked how Rivoli wrote the entire book, where she accounted for the stories that are not always told to give the people she writes about a sense of agency. At the same time, she is still very realistic about what is going on in the world with globalization and the international market place. If I have anything that is negative to say about this book is that she is idealistic in her views, but sometimes that can be very refreshing.

Holy smokes this book came out of left field for me. You see I haven't read anything by Libba Bray before this book. Truth be told, nothing she wrote before this interested in me and I am glad that I waited to read this mammoth of a book. Anyways, onto the review."The Diviners" by Libba Bray is centered around the character of Evie O'Neil (Evangeline her full name) and after getting a local well to do fellow in trouble in her hometown in Ohio. She is shipped off to her uncle in Manhattan to wait it out till the steam blows over. However, not everything is as it seems seeing as Evie has something she is hiding. Upon her arrival to New York City, Evie is hoping to make a name for herself seeing as she believes she is too big for her small town in Ohio, and the first mistake she makes is meeting a wolfish rogue pickpocket named Sam. However, Evie is not going to let that Sam ruin her time in New York and continues on to see her Uncle Will, a professor of the supernatural and the owner of "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies" (well that is the name everyone knows it by) and his assistant Jericho. Once she is settled in Evie loves the city when she can spend time with her friend Mabel and meets a Ziegler girl, Theta and her piano "brother" Henry. Soon though the time in New York comes across a series of horrendous...and strange murders. Evie's uncle is pulled into the investigation, along with her uncle and wants to help him out. However, nothing is as it seems in the City that never sleeps seeing as not only is Evie has something to hide, but so does everyone else.This book is a monster at almost six hundred pages. That being said, it went by extremely quickly for me because this book was pure fun! I loved the characters from Evie, Theta, Will, Memphis, Henry, Mabel, Jericho, Uncle Will, and the pickpocket Sam. Excellently plotted and although you do know a few things ahead of time, there are still a few things that do surprise you in the end. This book is a first in a series and I can't wait for the next book. I absolutely adored this book for its lingo, for it's references to Friedrich Nietzsche, and for so many other awesome things about this book. I adored this book and it could possibly become one of my favorite series of all time, depending on how the other books are that is. Highly recommend for anyone who likes alternative histories, New York in the 1920's, and a whole lot of supernatural/paranormal fun.

First off all, I should say that I read this entire book while listening to Feist (The Bad in Each Other from her Metals album) and strangely enough it went along very well with the book. Anyways, I just wanted to say that before I get to the meat of my review."Harmonic Feedback" by Tara Kelly is a book I really wish got a lot more attention that it has now. Ms. Kelly wrote about characters who are realistic, not perfect, but are also entirely sympathetic and you can be empathetic towards them as well. I really liked Justin and Drea, and Naomi as well. I liked how the characters you might not like, Naomi for instance I ended up liking in a weird sort of way. In terms of what I thought of Drea with Asbergers and ADHD, I like that those sorts of characters are getting written about since some people do have to deal with these things on an every day basis, and I like that the characters can stand up for themselves and be written about in an intelligent manner. Too many times when I read about characters who have a disorder the author writes about them as unintelligent and it bothers me since I know quite a few people who have mental or neurological disorders and they write them like they are children. Not Ms. Kelly thank goodness, who writes Drea realistically. I've been on a kick with books involving music, and although music took a back seat in this novel and not as much as some of the other books I have read I fully enjoyed the descriptions with how Drea related to music and seeing it in colors. I also really liked that this took place in Bellingham, WA, since I have stopped there a few times when my family and I drove up to Vancouver for vacation or before I went to school there for a year abroad (there was a really good cafe with an awesome BLT there in the historic downtown). I happen to like the Northwest a great deal.If there were any problems I did have it was with the English class weirdly enough. For a junior year English class doing weekly journals and reading "Go Ask Alice" doesn't seem entirely realistic. However, considering the subject matter of the book maybe it was placed there for a good reason. Still, it doesn't seem like a realistic book to read...more along the lines of Shakespeare, Harper Lee, Vonnegut, or Atwood. Anyways, it was the only detail that bugged me about the entire novel.This is a quick, and easy read. However, although there were a lot of things that happened in this book and I liked it...I felt it wasn't an emotional read for me. However, it isn't easy to make me cry, but this was a good book.

First off all, I should say that I read this entire book while listening to Feist (The Bad in Each Other from her Metals album) and strangely enough it went along very well with the book. Anyways, I just wanted to say that before I get to the meat of my review."Harmonic Feedback" by Tara Kelly is a book I really wish got a lot more attention that it has now. Ms. Kelly wrote about characters who are realistic, not perfect, but are also entirely sympathetic and you can be empathetic towards them as well. I really liked Justin and Drea, and Naomi as well. I liked how the characters you might not like, Naomi for instance I ended up liking in a weird sort of way. In terms of what I thought of Drea with Asbergers and ADHD, I like that those sorts of characters are getting written about since some people do have to deal with these things on an every day basis, and I like that the characters can stand up for themselves and be written about in an intelligent manner. Too many times when I read about characters who have a disorder the author writes about them as unintelligent and it bothers me since I know quite a few people who have mental or neurological disorders and they write them like they are children. Not Ms. Kelly thank goodness, who writes Drea realistically. I've been on a kick with books involving music, and although music took a back seat in this novel and not as much as some of the other books I have read I fully enjoyed the descriptions with how Drea related to music and seeing it in colors. I also really liked that this took place in Bellingham, WA, since I have stopped there a few times when my family and I drove up to Vancouver for vacation or before I went to school there for a year abroad (there was a really good cafe with an awesome BLT there in the historic downtown). I happen to like the Northwest a great deal.If there were any problems I did have it was with the English class weirdly enough. For a junior year English class doing weekly journals and reading "Go Ask Alice" doesn't seem entirely realistic. However, considering the subject matter of the book maybe it was placed there for a good reason. Still, it doesn't seem like a realistic book to read...more along the lines of Shakespeare, Harper Lee, Vonnegut, or Atwood. Anyways, it was the only detail that bugged me about the entire novel.This is a quick, and easy read. However, although there were a lot of things that happened in this book and I liked it...I felt it wasn't an emotional read for me. However, it isn't easy to make me cry, but this was a good book.

Real rating: 2.75It is really hard for me to review this book because in some ways I really do like it, but in other ways I really do not. I'll start with what I do like about this book: the music. I love music integrated into books because I am a big fan of music. I like the bands she chose to reference and how the main lead character of Jacob Tolan and what he thinks about music. In fact, as a character he was my favorite character because he was fully developed and an interesting lead. I liked the growth I saw in him from the beginning of the book to the end.I also liked a lot of the references from literary to philosophy, as well as the social issues that were covered as well with the protesting and everything. As a political science major I approve. However, as much as I did like some aspects of this book there were a lot of things I didn't like. I wasn't really pulled into the story that well. In fact, I ended up putting this book down quite a bit, and ended up rereading a book instead. I thought I would feel a lot of things when I read this book, but after reading "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Greene and "If I Stay" and "Where She Went" by Gayle Foreman I didn't feel much. I mean there were a lot of heavy issues in this book, but I think one reason why I couldn't get into this book was because of the main character and our narrator. I couldn't connect with her at all, and in a lot of ways I didn't like her attitude at all. Actually, I didn't really like how the whole "parent's suck" thing came into this book. I understand in each character's situations they were not the best with a divorce and an abandonment, but I really think that good parent relationships are important to focus on as well. I mean I know people deal with these kinds of things, but not every family is so dysfunctional where the parent's do not give a care about their kids. I also didn't really like how a lot of the swearing was thrown in all the time. I get teenagers swear and stuff, but when you write books make sure you have a really good reason to throw around the "f" word all the time. It gets annoying, and sometimes I wonder what is the point?At the end of the day, I really expected more from this book, but by the time I finished it I felt a bit more underwhelmed. It might just be me.

When I read this book as a kid because let's face it I would not read this book as an adult because I don't want to waste my time on it. I did not like this book at all. I wasn't sure what the appeal was? I could understand people wanted creepier stories, but read Neil Gaiman if you want creepy and funny stories. I did not like any of the characters, the humor was not that funny, and honestly how did this series get so popular when I was a kid? I just don't know.

I really don't think I can add a lot to what others are saying about this book. I was a bit worried at first since how much hype has surrounded this book. Traditionally hype and I for books don't really get along (Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Graceling among others) except in some cases (Unwind, The Mistborn Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and If I Stay to name a few). So, I began with some trepidation and had borrowed it from my school library, which I was surprised to see that they had a copy to begin with. Anyways, it's safe to say that I understand where the hype is coming from. It's a tremendous work that really makes you feel everything. There is humor, there is sadness, there is warmth, and there is family, there is friendship, and there is love. To me, I don't really like reading a lot of cancer books because it is a subject that is pretty close to my heart because I know so many people in my life who have had to deal with it. This book does not pretend to approach it lightly, but instead deals with it in a mature and spirited manner. The characters are fully realized individuals, and I feel like I would know them in real life. Augustus...there are no words that can describe how I feel right now. The plotting was well executed...if a little unsurprising since honestly considering what kind of book this is. Anyways, this is an excellent book, and I wholly recommend it to anyone.

Well...that wasn't what I hoped it would be.First off all, I did see the movie and I really liked it. I thought it was well constructed, good dialogue, great overall performances, and really (really) funny. I thought the book would be the same way, if not better. I have heard comparisons as the adult "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," which I have also read and seen the movie for. As opposed to "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" I did like the book, but I liked the movie more. In this instance, I liked the movie a whole lot more than the book. Why?First off all, in the movie the characters were more interesting than they were in the book. Pat's dad (played by the fabulous Robert De Niro) was a good character, although not always perfect. In the book, Pat's father is deplorable and uninteresting. He pretty much shoves off his son and does not want to help him after he comes back from the neural health hospital. He doesn't even care in most cases even if the Philadelphia Eagles win. In the movie, at least, his father did want to help him, although he had his own way to go about doing it. Although, I'm not sure where they got the idea about the bookkeeping or starting a restaurant from, or about the dance contest becoming a contest instead of a showcase with teenage girls. Also in the movie the mom likes football too, but Pat's mom in the book does not. They also based the entire movie in Philadelphia than just New Jersey. I thought that the character of Pat seemed really immature given his age. I know that he is supposed to be mentally ill, but not all mentally ill people think like children. It's a terrible stereotype and it doesn't help the reader stay engaged with the character. In the movie, his character seemed slightly more intelligent than he did in the book. I also thought that Tiffany in the book was really hard to relate too till the very end of the book were everything is revealed. In the movie they spread it out, so I can feel for her character a lot better. I also thought that Tiffany's story wasn't well told in the book, it was told a lot better in the movie. I also didn't think this book was as funny as I hoped it would be. The movie was laugh out loud funny, and I never once found myself laughing at all when I read this book. What I don't understand is how in the world the movie got optioned based on this book? Whoever was the screenwriter did a phenomenal job to turn a mediocre book into such a great movie. This is one of those (few) times that the movie is WAY better than the book. I felt dissapointed because I wanted that same humor, emotion, dialogue, and intelligence that the movie had. This book left a lot to be desired, and the writing wasn't all that good to begin with. Too bad, the actual book has the potential to be a classic but comes up really short. At least the movie adaptation makes up for what this book lacks.