Book Review: Bright Young Things (Series) - Anna Godbersen

Bright Young Things - Anna Godbersen

I liked this book, and the rest of this series.

This is an historical era YA story. It brings you back to the jazz age, to the pleasure age, to the prohibition. Anna Godbersen does a great job of bringing you to this time without detailing the politics and the war; through the observations of naive, innocent young girls, you get to see the consequences of the pleasure era through them.

There is a lot of hopeful romance, a lot of squabbles, a lot of high society tricks.  I like high-society snubbery as it was meant to be; subtle and done by pretty little vixens that get their medicine in the end.

Following 3 very different young ladies, you are strung along their ambitions and feel their innocence dying, and watch each lady evolve. This evolution makes the end of the series, the last book, the hardest and most fun to read.

Pick it up! I highly recommend it!

2013: Re-Vamped

I hope you brought in 2013 with a good party dance!

I've re-vamped the blog a little. Sadly, there are no actual vamps.  Blogger doesn't have any vampire-esque backgrounds, boo.

Maybe I'll make one. But then that takes time away from reading about vampires. Mmmm, hard choice.

I don't want to know IRL Non-Fiction about my Fiction!

Here's a book nerds problem.

The Mortal Instruments series is a series I began just after I read Twilight. This was about 3 or 4? years ago when I hopped the YA train. It's a track I haven't hopped off since - there is just that wicked boom of books and too many stories to explore.

The Mortal Instruments, and the other series by Cassie Clare, The Infernal Devices, are a series I love to pick up when the new book comes out and follow along the story. It is very entertaining, I can easily get lost in this world, it's a good balance between realistic and fantasy, I am hooked by the characters, and it is basically a never-ending story of fun.

Because of this blind-love, I can forgive Grade B writing, predictability, strange love connections, and what have you. I haven't recommended this series to many people because there isn't even 1 particular element to this story that stands out above the rest in the YA landslide.  I just love it.

I did just love it.

Here is my problem.

I've learned too much about the author. Normally, fan people love to learn about their favourite fiction characters by researching the non-fiction person (celebrity).  That usually makes them deeper in love.

Not me.

The more I love a fictional character, the FURTHER I want to be away from the celebrity that represents this. Be it an actor or an author, I fear this - learning any dishonorable traits, qualities, standpoints, etc about the celebrity can change, warp and/or taint the image I have of my perfect fictional character.

For example; Ron Weasley. My favourite character in Harry Potter. I love Ron's lack of confidence, his bravery, his difficulty dealing with emotions, his volitileness, his gingerness. It's awesome. He's awesome.  The person who represents Ron in the movies is Rupert Grint.  He seems to be a pretty cool guy. While I'll enjoy pictures of Rupert people send me, I won't see him as Mr.Grint, but as Ron. I only WANT to see him as Ron.  I don't CARE what other projects he's doing, what his dog name is, or who he's dating. Because the more I know about Rupert, the less Ron he becomes.
And we just can't have that.
I like Ron. I want to know Ron.  If Rupert does something awful, like rapes kittens, well then my image of Ron will be so afflicted by Rupert... I can't look at that face anymore.

Cassandra Clare. She was just an author to me. I knew she is close to her fan base, feeds us a lot of stuff, joins us in squealing about the lovey relationships, she's very central to the whole  thing. However, I don't want to get involved because everybody has skeletons in the closet, don't they? Secrets. The problem with secrets on the internet is that they never go away. Never. So when you've got a history, it will come back to bite you.
It bit her.
It bit me.

Rumour has it - (and it'll forever remain rumour to me) that Clare was a large fanfiction writer in the Harry Potter fandom. That's cool, I used to love to read HP fanfiction (even wrote some myself! awful things, they were).  But there was a lot of cyber bullying, a lot of weird stalking, over the line creepiness, accusations, plagurism, etc. A quick search brings all that up. There are hate blogs and hate letters and hate hate hate against Clare. Not because she's a famous author, not because her writing is less than stellar, but HOW she became famous. That irks me.  It irks me that she could have been involved even the slightest to cyberbullying and plagurism.  I'm sure most of it is exaggeration, which is why it remains Rumour to me.


But this little bit has put me off just a slight. That sucks. THat sucks for me. I stopped following her on twitter, tumblr, etc, because I don't want to see her suffer, nor do I want to see the drama.

She's an author of a fantastic series for me, and I want to support her by buying these books when they come out, collecting the things that mean something to me, and seeing her movies come to life. That's how I'll be her fan. That's where I'm happy being a fan.

I'm sorry for her getting any abuse or critics at any time, that sucks. That's life.  I'm sure the good outweighs the bad in the end.

I don't want to know. I don't want anything to change my crazy perfect love-blind vision at my favourite characters, fictional or not.

Name my babies! - Nono #1

Post Sequencing : Name my babies! - A series of names I consider calling my 'own' while I daydream during the day.


I shouldn't, but I like this name:  Leonardo

I thought my parents didn't understand the consequences of naming me Raphael. How inconsiderate of me to  want to name a boy I have 'Leonardo'.
But it's a great name, no?
Maybe I subconsciously want a team of 4 kick ass boys that could defend me during the zombie apocalypse.

iTumblr now

http://raratumbls.tumblr.com/

Lovelaughread always gets me into these fun and silly internet thingys!

Incoming pictures of;
Books,
Polar Bears,
My pet fish,
..and other things.

Conversation about Books

Today's musing: do you keep your books pristine or abuse them (folding pages, writing in, hi-lighting, doodling, etc.)?

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26 SepRara ‏@rarabesh

@-------- Used, but not abused. Loved, but not worn out. Each break on the spine reminds me of each time I read and re-read a story.

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26 Sep

@rarabesh I love your poetic response <3

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I tend to look at my books as my collection. Collection in the same way someone would collect action figures, and keep them in a box for value. My books, my collection, has a very high value to me. In this way, I prefer to keep them as clean as possible - I want to have them forever. I'll never sell off or put a monetary value to them, and to me they'll all be priceless. 

Having said that, I like looking at a section of worn books (my Anne Rice paperback novels) and see the multitude of cracks in the spine and just know I had read them over and over and kept them in arms reach throughout a time. There might possibly be a chocolate or a candy stain, but that's alright, because it's MY stain. It is MY book and it's okay for ME to mess up MY book. 

I have a book, Bitten - By Kelley Armstrong. It is tragic how battered this book is. I would be upset, however!; I've lent this book to about 5 different girls and got them all hooked on a fabbbulous series. So, even though it pains me a little to see an unfamiliar stain, and that someone had dog-eared the book to keep place, it shows how enjoyed the story was. Would I buy another Bitten to look good on my shelf? No.  Had I lent the latest of her books out and it came back battered - yes, yes I would have. 

I like to go 'treasure hunting' (thrift store hopping) to find hardcover editions of books/series I discovered too late. Harry Potter, for example, I had discovered when my grandmother bought my brother the softcover of Philosphers Stone.  As I caught up to new released, I would buy the hardcover, and I've been digging for perfect looking hardcovers to complete the series.  Likewise, I've been searching for AGES for a hardcover of City of Bones/City of Ashes.

I love to collect books of stories I've read. There are very few, in fact, I think only 3 books total that are on my shelf that I haven't read - yet. This gives me the missing motivation to read them so I can confidently say EVERY book on my shelf has been read and enjoyed by me.

What do you think?

xox

R

Book Review: Fathomless - Jackson Pearce

Fathomless - Jackson Pearce

I drowned in this book.

If I was a twin, and this book was an 'angel', I'd be an ocean girl right now.

I don't know how to put my feelings of this book into a coherent paragraph that flows point to point.  So, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to word-vomit wearing my fan-girl outfit. There are spoilers, btw.

I enjoyed the multiple-personality of Nadia. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but it was a great way to showcase the difference between a human with a soul, and something that's not 'human'. While Nadia/Lo shared the same skin, hair, eyes, and toes, there was a distinct difference between them. You could 'hear' it in their voice.  You could see it in their actions. And if I were to over-analyze the differences, I might therein see what Miss Pearce thinks the difference of a human to a non-human would be.

For example: Nadia is embarrassed when Celia sees her naked. Nadia will wear the towel/dress Celia offers her.  Lo doesn't care.  That difference of proprietary is significant to Nadia being a human and Lo letting go of her soul.

Another example: Nadia fights with her life to remember her past. Lo wants to forget, accept life as it is, and look toward the beautiful ocean and the angels that will bring her beyond.

What I really like, is that Lo isn't completely devoid of her humanity. While it's in her nature/instinct to kill, she doesn't want to but moreover; she CHOOSES not to. She CHOOSES at a point to save a life, as LO. As this non-human personality.

This makes me believe that perhaps, Nadia/Lo hasn't completely lost her soul, if that is where her humanity is kept. If she did lose her soul, then the humanity part must be part of something else that isn't so easily forgotten; and that part might be the key to bring down the antagonists.


I enjoyed the constant ebb and flow (get it) of water illusions in the book. I, too, feel drawn to the big blue waters, and I quickly got lost in the feelings of gargantuan power the oceans can have over a person. I loved it.

The nuances that connect the twisted fairytales books - While each of her previous books (Sisters Red, Sweetly) can be stand alone stories, each of these 3 stories are connected in the same universe. Miss Pearce connects and weaves them together like a subtle spiderweb. If you aren't diligent, you could miss it. I'm going to re-read all 3 books again until I can catch every connection.


From all this random fangirl word vomit, I loved this book, I continue to love Jackson Pearce, and I am already experiencing readers-frustration (a la sexual frustration) waiting for her next book; COLD SPELL.


Time to go for a swim...