Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Abraham Lincoln's life was a well documented one. The man became the president of the United States and one of only four presidents assassinated while in office. He's become the stuff of history legends, but what if there was more legend than we ever knew?
Seth Grahame-Smith's book gives it's readers a big "what if" to the all the stuff we already know. He threw a giant wrench into everything we thought we knew about the dead president and weaved in a fantastic underside to the times the spotlight was not shining on the President.
This was one of the more fun books I've read in a long time. It's pages turn quickly as you yearn to find out what happens next and can he slay them all? We all know how the story ends, a bullet in the head in a theatre, but was that all there was or is that when the fun really began for our fallen President?
***** out of ***** (5) stars!!! Loved it and you will too.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Finally Something worth it's weight!
I've been hearing about the Hunger games for over a year now, but just wouldn't read it. It wasn't out of spite, it was because I'm too old to wait and wait for these books to come out. So I decided I would read this trilogy once all the books were out. I wanted to amazed and thrilled and I wanted to read it as fast as I could without waiting a year for the next book to come out. So when Mockingjay came out this summer I knew my time had come. I loaded up all three books on my NOOK and hunkered down for the long haul. And I say this with complete honesty, these were the best books I've read all year. Suzanne Collins deserves every round of applause and every single dime she was paid for writing these books. They were fantastic, and I don't say that often about books I've read. But this trilogy is a worthy one and I now eagerly await the movie versions promised to us in 2012.
We meet our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, on the first page of the books and she's immediately got you. You may not be sure why but you just know you're going to be cheering for her in something. The world in which Katniss lives is equally as interesting. It's a futuristic version of America, post war and total destruction called Panem. Conditions are bad, people are poor, government is bad and Katniss is about to be thrown into the worst part of it. When her younger sister Prim is chosen as a contestant (or sacrifice) for the Hunger Games, Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place. And that one decision changes everything she knows.
There are 12 districts in Panem and each year a boy and a girl are chosen from each district to compete in the Hunger games, a to the death competition of survival and brute force. There can be only one survivor of these games and the one who does will live the remainder of their days in comfort with all their needs taken care of, sounds great. . . . if you're the one to survive what the government of Panem throws at you.
I'm not going to go into any more detail because I don't want to be a spoiler and these are three books I think everyone needs to experience, young and old. I even got my husband (who likes almost nothing that I do) to read them. He too was enthralled by them and kept asking me questions about what was coming. Do you remember when you read HP for the first time and you couldn't wait to find out how each book ended and then how it all ended, well you can get that feeling again reading these books. It is truly worth you time and money if you don't have the time, find it, and if you don't have the money borrow them from someone. . . you won't regret it.
Teen book crack gives this ********** out of ***** (there just aren't enough stars)
We meet our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, on the first page of the books and she's immediately got you. You may not be sure why but you just know you're going to be cheering for her in something. The world in which Katniss lives is equally as interesting. It's a futuristic version of America, post war and total destruction called Panem. Conditions are bad, people are poor, government is bad and Katniss is about to be thrown into the worst part of it. When her younger sister Prim is chosen as a contestant (or sacrifice) for the Hunger Games, Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place. And that one decision changes everything she knows.
There are 12 districts in Panem and each year a boy and a girl are chosen from each district to compete in the Hunger games, a to the death competition of survival and brute force. There can be only one survivor of these games and the one who does will live the remainder of their days in comfort with all their needs taken care of, sounds great. . . . if you're the one to survive what the government of Panem throws at you.
I'm not going to go into any more detail because I don't want to be a spoiler and these are three books I think everyone needs to experience, young and old. I even got my husband (who likes almost nothing that I do) to read them. He too was enthralled by them and kept asking me questions about what was coming. Do you remember when you read HP for the first time and you couldn't wait to find out how each book ended and then how it all ended, well you can get that feeling again reading these books. It is truly worth you time and money if you don't have the time, find it, and if you don't have the money borrow them from someone. . . you won't regret it.
Teen book crack gives this ********** out of ***** (there just aren't enough stars)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Not Another Teen Book . . . .This Time
'Columbine' by Dave Cullen
I realize I've promised teen books, but as a grown up I feel the need every now and then to read an adult book, no not adult as in erotica, adult as in grown up, something of a bit more substance. Don't get me wrong I love the teen books, but for this post we're going to veer to more mature matter. Don't be fooled by the authors last name, he's no vampire Cullen, but he will stun you with his writing. I was absolutely enthralled by his latest book 'Columbine'. It came out this past spring around the tenth anniversary of of the tragic shooting. Now I don't normally read nonfiction, maybe once or twice a year I'll give one a go, but for me nonfiction usually falls flat and the stories usually have a little too much down time to be a real page turner. I was proven very very wrong when I began Dave Cullen's book.
He could have easily painted the faces of the two killers (Eric and Dylan) as complete monsters or just purely the evil. Instead Cullen spent years crafting this book and his efforts get you into the minds of the two boys. You find out what led them to cause this complete devastation to the town of Columbine. He had access to the their journals and websites that have been kept quiet to the public for some time.
The two boys responsible for this, Eric and Dylan, are chronicled over the pages of the book, from the first weapon purchased to the wool they both pulled over the eyes of friends and family. Before reading this I could only think, how could their parents not have seen what was going on? But now I realize that the true sociopath that Eric was caused his family to see no difference in his behavior, he was slightly popular, did okay in school, had friends and a part time job. Dylan on the other hand seemed to be a lonely kid who yearned for acceptance and he unfortunately found that with Eric. Dylan was smart and had a crush on a girl, all seemingly normal teenage stuff, until it went tragic.
Cullen also gives accounts of what happened on the inside that day. His countless interviews with survivors (teachers and students alike) provided a candid and horrifying portrait of what it must have felt like to have your school under siege by two teenage terrorists. The first hand accounts are touching and paint the picture well of those students and teachers who risked their lives more than once to help or save someone inside.
After finishing this book, I realize they were lucky to have so many survive this slaughter. If plans would have unfolded as Eric and Dylan wanted there would have been far less people walking out of that building. They intended to blow up the main exit of the school, so that when it all started and people started to flee they would be blown up right when they thought they'd made it out.
I found this to be one of the best written non fiction books I've ever read. It was engaging and horrifying and despite the fact that I knew how it ended I still couldn't wait to turn the page. I warn you though, there are some graphic scenes in it and if you don't have the stomach to read some violence then you may want to avoid this account of murder. But if you can stomach it, I believe once you've finished you will agree it's one of the most compelling books you'll ever read.
Teen Book Crack gives it ***** out of ***** !!!!!!
I realize I've promised teen books, but as a grown up I feel the need every now and then to read an adult book, no not adult as in erotica, adult as in grown up, something of a bit more substance. Don't get me wrong I love the teen books, but for this post we're going to veer to more mature matter. Don't be fooled by the authors last name, he's no vampire Cullen, but he will stun you with his writing. I was absolutely enthralled by his latest book 'Columbine'. It came out this past spring around the tenth anniversary of of the tragic shooting. Now I don't normally read nonfiction, maybe once or twice a year I'll give one a go, but for me nonfiction usually falls flat and the stories usually have a little too much down time to be a real page turner. I was proven very very wrong when I began Dave Cullen's book.
He could have easily painted the faces of the two killers (Eric and Dylan) as complete monsters or just purely the evil. Instead Cullen spent years crafting this book and his efforts get you into the minds of the two boys. You find out what led them to cause this complete devastation to the town of Columbine. He had access to the their journals and websites that have been kept quiet to the public for some time.
The two boys responsible for this, Eric and Dylan, are chronicled over the pages of the book, from the first weapon purchased to the wool they both pulled over the eyes of friends and family. Before reading this I could only think, how could their parents not have seen what was going on? But now I realize that the true sociopath that Eric was caused his family to see no difference in his behavior, he was slightly popular, did okay in school, had friends and a part time job. Dylan on the other hand seemed to be a lonely kid who yearned for acceptance and he unfortunately found that with Eric. Dylan was smart and had a crush on a girl, all seemingly normal teenage stuff, until it went tragic.
Cullen also gives accounts of what happened on the inside that day. His countless interviews with survivors (teachers and students alike) provided a candid and horrifying portrait of what it must have felt like to have your school under siege by two teenage terrorists. The first hand accounts are touching and paint the picture well of those students and teachers who risked their lives more than once to help or save someone inside.
After finishing this book, I realize they were lucky to have so many survive this slaughter. If plans would have unfolded as Eric and Dylan wanted there would have been far less people walking out of that building. They intended to blow up the main exit of the school, so that when it all started and people started to flee they would be blown up right when they thought they'd made it out.
I found this to be one of the best written non fiction books I've ever read. It was engaging and horrifying and despite the fact that I knew how it ended I still couldn't wait to turn the page. I warn you though, there are some graphic scenes in it and if you don't have the stomach to read some violence then you may want to avoid this account of murder. But if you can stomach it, I believe once you've finished you will agree it's one of the most compelling books you'll ever read.
Teen Book Crack gives it ***** out of ***** !!!!!!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Ruined by Paula Morris
'Ruined' has a cover that makes you want to jump right into the pages, and the summary on the jacket does the same. How could you go wrong when the books about the mystical side of the historic and tradition rich New Orleans. This book promises ghosts, voodoo, curses and hauntings. It promises these things yet gives them too you far too late. I kept reading and reading hoping to get to the good stuff but it truly didn't show up until the last 75 pages. The main character Rebecca is a teenager forced to move to New Orleans to live with her 'Aunt' whom she's only met once. She's a New Yorker who wants very little to do with the traditions of a city like New Orleans. She doesn't believe in the voodoo and curses that are talked about constantly. That is until she meets a ghost in the local cemetery and she's the only person who can see her. Okay, so here's the point where I thought "yes, here we go, now we're gonna get the good stuff." I was wrong. 225 pages of words that didn't bring the excitement I was hoping for. Morris tiptoes around what should be the best part of the book, the ghost and why can Rebecca see her and no one else can. I kept reading and reading and reading. Finally at the last 75 or so pages we're satisfied and get some good stuff, but frankly there's a lot of pages of stuff we just didn't need. I'm more than disturbed to find that author is a teacher of creative writing at a university. This should mean she's a master at structure, form and plots. But she really makes me question the University system. The book was, for the most part boring and long winded. The end was great but there was way too many pages of stuff that just wasn't good. Teen Book Crack suggests that maybe you walk by this beautiful cover and grab something else.
** stars out of *****
** stars out of *****
Saturday, October 3, 2009
'Crash Into Me' by Albert Borris
I know people don't like to admit what I'm about to admit but I bought this book for it's cover. It jumped out at me and when I read the dust jacket I was hooked. There aren't that many teen books narrated by boys, this is mostly a girls market but this one had the potential to stand out. Finally teen girls could read a book that wasn't about dragons or basketball but life, from the voice of the great unknown, a boy.
'Crash Into Me' centers around four main characters, two boys and two girls. They all meet online in a chat room. All are from different areas and different backgrounds. They only have one thing in common, they all want to commit suicide. So they create a pact, a gruesome one. They will go on a road trip, each picking one place of someone famous they admire who committed suicide and visit the place of their death, at the end of the trip they will commit suicide together in Death Valley California. I know morbid right? Why on earth does anyone want to read about four misfits who all have designs on self inflicted death. Well, it could have been great if done better, but honestly at the end of the book instead of feeling for the characters and wishing them well I was hoping they'd think up a great way to go and off themselves. Now I realize that since this is a teen book it shouldn't glorify suicide, but the book itself does that on it's own. The author picks cult heroes of suicide for his characters to visit, Kurt Cobain, and Ernest Hemingway etc. He picked the coolest of the cool, the manly man who shot himself with an Abercrombie and Fitch pistol and the grunge rock god of the 90's. If he wasn't intending to glorify suicide he did a very poor job of it.
The four teenagers had the potential to be great characters giving teens something to look at and say "hey I know how that feels." There's the lesbian who's afraid to come out to her rigid family, the son who doesn't live up to his fathers dreams for him, a boy who blames himself for the death of his older brother, and the girl who didn't know how to cope after a break up. You want to like these kids but they fall flat amongst the bickering and complaining. You fall out of love with the kids you should be rooting for to not off themselves. This book may speak to some but I'm not sure this is one for the masses, there will not be any underground cult following for these four. And so one more time I learn the lesson. . . you cannot judge a book by it's cover cause this one just falls short.
Teen Book Crack gives it ** out of ***** stars :(
'Crash Into Me' centers around four main characters, two boys and two girls. They all meet online in a chat room. All are from different areas and different backgrounds. They only have one thing in common, they all want to commit suicide. So they create a pact, a gruesome one. They will go on a road trip, each picking one place of someone famous they admire who committed suicide and visit the place of their death, at the end of the trip they will commit suicide together in Death Valley California. I know morbid right? Why on earth does anyone want to read about four misfits who all have designs on self inflicted death. Well, it could have been great if done better, but honestly at the end of the book instead of feeling for the characters and wishing them well I was hoping they'd think up a great way to go and off themselves. Now I realize that since this is a teen book it shouldn't glorify suicide, but the book itself does that on it's own. The author picks cult heroes of suicide for his characters to visit, Kurt Cobain, and Ernest Hemingway etc. He picked the coolest of the cool, the manly man who shot himself with an Abercrombie and Fitch pistol and the grunge rock god of the 90's. If he wasn't intending to glorify suicide he did a very poor job of it.
The four teenagers had the potential to be great characters giving teens something to look at and say "hey I know how that feels." There's the lesbian who's afraid to come out to her rigid family, the son who doesn't live up to his fathers dreams for him, a boy who blames himself for the death of his older brother, and the girl who didn't know how to cope after a break up. You want to like these kids but they fall flat amongst the bickering and complaining. You fall out of love with the kids you should be rooting for to not off themselves. This book may speak to some but I'm not sure this is one for the masses, there will not be any underground cult following for these four. And so one more time I learn the lesson. . . you cannot judge a book by it's cover cause this one just falls short.
Teen Book Crack gives it ** out of ***** stars :(
Friday, October 2, 2009
We'll Start with One I liked . . .
'Meridian' by Amber Kizer
I'm going to start out with one I like first, cause there's plenty of crap out there, but I want to give one of my favorite new reads now, then slaughter the rest later.
'Meridian' is a quirky out of place teenager but not just your average Joe outcast, she's different and it turns out she's special, not eat the paste special, but impressive special. The problem is Meridian doesn't know that. She thinks she's nuts, animals die around her, people stare at her, she's always in pain or sick and she doesn't know why and neither do the doctors and shrinks she goes to. She's about to turn 16 and things start happening. A car crashes into a group of kids from her school while she is near by and somehow she feels like she's been hit too. She's wondering what the hell is going on when all of sudden she's being forced into her dad's car and given a set of directions that she is to explicitly follow. She's being shipped away to her great aunts house in the outskirts of Colorado, to live with a women she's never even met.
Her journey is long and hard. She really doesn't know what is going on or who she is to trust. When she finally completes her journey worn out and beat up she learns that she's a Fenestra. She is the window for souls to pass through before they die. And it's become clear why things come to her to die, not die because of her. The only problem is she has to learn how to do it without killing herself and before her Great Aunt dies. Great Aunt Meridian needs to pass on the tricks of the trade sort of speak, Fenestra's are a dying breed and Meridian needs to learn and learn fast. And to quote a colleague of mine, "and then there was this guy".
Kizer writes with Wit and compassion and really nails the character of Meridian. You instantly identify with her in a she could be my best friend sort of way. Every character in the book is someone you know from her Great Aunt Meridian who is every ones grandma or off beat aunt, to the handsome boy who you just fell in love with, to the evil preacher of the local religious movement who your pretty sure you'd poke out his eyes out with a hot poker. It's a great book you can fall right into and turn pages faster than you think. She sets it up beautifully for more to come and I hope it does.
The teen book crack gives it a ****1/2 out of ***** stars.
I'm going to start out with one I like first, cause there's plenty of crap out there, but I want to give one of my favorite new reads now, then slaughter the rest later.
'Meridian' is a quirky out of place teenager but not just your average Joe outcast, she's different and it turns out she's special, not eat the paste special, but impressive special. The problem is Meridian doesn't know that. She thinks she's nuts, animals die around her, people stare at her, she's always in pain or sick and she doesn't know why and neither do the doctors and shrinks she goes to. She's about to turn 16 and things start happening. A car crashes into a group of kids from her school while she is near by and somehow she feels like she's been hit too. She's wondering what the hell is going on when all of sudden she's being forced into her dad's car and given a set of directions that she is to explicitly follow. She's being shipped away to her great aunts house in the outskirts of Colorado, to live with a women she's never even met.
Her journey is long and hard. She really doesn't know what is going on or who she is to trust. When she finally completes her journey worn out and beat up she learns that she's a Fenestra. She is the window for souls to pass through before they die. And it's become clear why things come to her to die, not die because of her. The only problem is she has to learn how to do it without killing herself and before her Great Aunt dies. Great Aunt Meridian needs to pass on the tricks of the trade sort of speak, Fenestra's are a dying breed and Meridian needs to learn and learn fast. And to quote a colleague of mine, "and then there was this guy".
Kizer writes with Wit and compassion and really nails the character of Meridian. You instantly identify with her in a she could be my best friend sort of way. Every character in the book is someone you know from her Great Aunt Meridian who is every ones grandma or off beat aunt, to the handsome boy who you just fell in love with, to the evil preacher of the local religious movement who your pretty sure you'd poke out his eyes out with a hot poker. It's a great book you can fall right into and turn pages faster than you think. She sets it up beautifully for more to come and I hope it does.
The teen book crack gives it a ****1/2 out of ***** stars.
It all started with Harry Potter
It all began in the late 90's with Harry Potter. We all started reading kids books, Harry sucked us right in. Worlds of mystery and adventure knocked the lid off of stuffy uptight fiction for grown ups. Then cam the 'Twilight' series with it's throngs of adults lined up to see if Jacob or Edward was going to win. But it's all over now, no more Harry Potter stories to whisk us away, no more endless romantic plots of Bella and Edward, no more teen bravado standoffs between vampire and werewolf to keep us going. Well guess what, there's an entire section of books in the bookstore filled with these fantastic plot lines. I call it the Teen Crack section. I frequent it, I read as many as I can. It's all I read. I did take a short pause to read Dan Browns new book, but other than that grown up books are pretty low on my list. Now I realize that I'm supposed to like adult books, and that I am reading to increase my intelligence and widen my horizons. Frankly, I want to escape into thin plot lines and easy characters, books that get to the point in less than 300 pages. I'm a busy person, I have a full time job, a husband and a son. So I need something that is quick, not too complex and most importantly good. It may sound like I'm trashing teen books or categorizing them with chick lit, dismissing them as frivolous fun, but I'm not, I love them, I'm a whore for the drama, the teen angst, the first loves and bad dates, the witches and vampires who yearn to be good. I'm not ashamed to be 32 and a reader of the teen crack. So if you too are looking for some good teen crack, something to get you through the day I'm your gal, I'll lead you in the right direction. I'm a dealer of the teen crack.:) So stay tuned if you want the skinny on the good teen stuff.
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