Books Archives - Page 21 of 50 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

By Brookelorren on August 22, 2019June 19, 2019Leave a Comment

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi deals with a teenage girl in the year following the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. It is a story that can act as a warning of what can happen when we don’t treat people like… people. I thought it was a good book.

I purchased the special Target edition with bonus chapters, so I’ll comment about that as well.

Shirin is a sophomore in high school who grew up in America, but whose parents had immigrated from Iran. She chose to wear a headscarf, even though it caused trouble for her with her classmates. She also seems to have a huge chip on her shoulder, although she doesn’t realize it. You can’t particularly blame her, not when people give her one glance and assume she’s a terrorist or is weird. When Ocean James, a boy who is assigned as her biology partner, befriends her and later becomes something more, they both develop as people, and eventually, the community starts to come around as well.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea was entertaining. Shirin has a distinctive voice and you have to feel for her. Over time, you also start to see where she’s going wrong (although to be fair, the people around her aren’t saints either). I thought she was well done and realistic.

Themes

A huge theme in this story is how hatred can hurt yourself and the people that you care about. People looked at Shirin and automatically assumed that she hated America, or was a terrorist, or there was something wrong with her. As a result, they hurt their community when they tried to intimidate Ocean in an attempt to get him to break up with her. I guess I can’t say how because I don’t want to give away spoilers.

At the same time, Shirin hurt herself when she defaulted to hate for the people around her. Sure, a lot of the people in the school were jerks. Still, she hurt herself by shutting herself off. She said herself:

I could no longer distinguish people from monsters.
p. 110

It eventually worked itself out, but both she and the community had a lot to learn before they got to that point.

The Romance Aspect

While this is a story about teen romance, it’s really more about other things. Shirin pushes Ocean away for most of the story, even though she likes him. Even though he tells her repeatedly that he doesn’t care what other people think, she worries about how people will react to them being together. There is some kissing, but as the majority of the book is spent with Shirin trying to stay out of a relationship, there’s not too much of it. Still, first love is definitely one of the subplots of the story.

Bonus Chapters

The special edition that I bought came with bonus chapters told about Ocean’s reaction to meeting Shirin. It was interesting to see things from his point of view: his thoughts about his home life, sports, and what he thought of her for the first time. As of this writing, you can still buy it on Target’s web site. I thought the bonus chapters were interesting, but they don’t really provide more information than you already know after reading the book.

Final Thoughts

While I liked the book overall, I did think that the people’s hatred seemed exaggerated for that era. To be fair, I lived in Italy during the time that this story would have taken place, so I wasn’t really in the middle of American life at the time, but it didn’t feel like this from my perspective. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t pockets of places like this school where the people were jerks, I just don’t think it was the norm. At any rate, if people were only mildly bigoted, it wouldn’t have made such an entertaining story.

If you’re interested in a sweet love story between two people of different cultures, where they have to deal with a lot of bigotry, you might want to try A Very Large Expanse of Sea. I thought it was pretty good.

Ghost Fire

By Brookelorren on August 19, 2019August 18, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently read Ghost Fire by Wilbur Smith with Tom Harper (thank you to Bookish First and Simon and Schuster for the Advanced Reader Copy). Even though it was the first Wilbur Smith book I read, evidently, he’s written a lot of books. I really liked the book and would read more books by this author in the future.

Theo and Courtney grow up in India in the mid 1700s. Courtney is something of a wild child, and Theo always looks out for her. Until the death of their parents tears them apart. They spend the next several years growing into adulthood, without each other. Both of them go through a lot of adventures and travel the world, unaware of what the other is doing.

What I Liked

One of the things I liked about Ghost Fire was its historical accuracy. I’m a student of history, so I actually figured out ahead of time what one of the things the characters would have to go through would be (they were in Calcutta in 1756… I won’t give it away if you don’t know). Although I was expecting this event to occur, I didn’t know how it would affect the characters. Courtney and Theo were also affected by the French and Indian War. The book really emphasized to me how interconnected a world we live in. Even in the 1700s, something happening in Europe would affect both India and North America.

I also liked the characters. Courtney makes her own choices, even though it tends to go against the societal norms of the day. Although Theo doesn’t agree with them, towards the end of the book, he begins to accept them. Theo grows as a person too, from a cautious boy whose sister pushes him into doing things to a man who is willing to risk his life for the sake of others.

I’ve seen some comments that the book was misogynistic towards Courtney; however, I think the book reflects society’s attitudes well for the time period.

Other Things to Note

Ghost Fire is not a YA book even though the main characters are young adults for most of the book. Back in the 1750s, young adults often lived as adults, and the book reflects that. The vocabulary is more like that of an adult book as well (as in SAT-type words, military jargon, and Indian vocabulary) Trigger warnings you might want to be aware of: there’s an attempted rape and there’s widespread racism.

While I did enjoy Ghost Fire, I think it missed an opportunity with the ending (although in order to avoid spoilers I can’t say how). I wasn’t disappointed with the ending; I just thought there were a couple of things that would have made it more awesome. Nevertheless, if Wilbur Smith wrote more books about these two, I’d read them. This book doesn’t come out until September 3rd but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – G

By Brookelorren on August 18, 2019August 17, 2019Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe that I’m already up to the letter G in the ABC Book Challenge. It was started by Thrifty Bibliophile (as far as I can tell), although I first found it over at Me, Myself, and Books. Every week between now and the end of the year, I will be going through my Goodreads books and finding books that start with the letter of the week, highlighting the books that I liked, find interesting, or am looking forward to.

One book that I hope to get the chance to read is Kiersten White’s book, The Guinevere Deception, which is coming out this November. I still haven’t read anything other than a short story by this author, but I hope to fix that sometime in the future.

I’m reading Ghost Fire right now, and it’s pretty good. I bought it with some of the points I’ve been getting over at Bookish First. I’m sure this book will end up on some of my Top Ten Tuesday lists at some point. I had never heard of Wilbur Smith before, but evidently he’s written a lot of books. I might want to read more of them at some point.

The letter G must be the letter of ghosts, because another G book for today is Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare. I really enjoyed following Jem from the past to the present in this collection of short stories. It makes me more excited for Chain of Gold, which they postponed to March 3rd of next year. There are already three books I want to read that come out on that day.

It’s been a couple years since I read A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Will we ever read Winds of Winter, let alone A Dream of Spring? I suspect that if Mr. Martin doesn’t finish it in his lifetime, a ghostwriter will take whatever draft he’s on and finish it for him.

As I’m writing my own book, I can see how it can take a while to write a book… but these are really taking a long time.

Well, those are the books I wanted to highlight that start with the letter G. There aren’t that many this week, but there should be more H books next week.

What Cats Do Book Tag

By Brookelorren on August 17, 2019August 16, 20192 Comments

Hello! Today I’m doing the “What Cats Do” book tag. I first found it over at Golden Books Girl, but it was started by Melting Pots and Other Calamities.

If you want to do this tag, here are the rules (they’re pretty standard):

If you do this tag please credit Kate@ meltingpotsandothercalamities
Answer the questions
And tag as many people as you like!

PURR- AS CATS DO THIS WHEN THEY’RE HAPPY OR RELAXED, WHAT IS THE BOOK THAT MAKES YOU HAPPIEST OR RELAXED?

I’m sure a lot of books could fit this description, but I’ll start with Start Here, a book I recently read that made me (mostly) feel happy and relaxed. How could you not be happy while sailing in the middle of the summer?

SLEEP- WHAT IS A BOOK THAT PUT YOU TO SLEEP OR WAS JUST BORING?

I know this is a really unpopular opinion, but Circe didn’t seem to have the overarching plot to me. Or at least, the stakes didn’t seem that high. Sure, the writing is beautiful, but… it just didn’t do much for me. Maybe it was the audiobook.

TWITCH WHILE DREAMING- HAVE YOU EVER DREAMT OF A BOOK YOU READ?

I’ve dreamt of more than one book I’ve read, but the book I’m editing now started out as a dream about Day and June from Legend. I dream about characters when I’m writing fanfics about them too.

SEEMS TO PLAY NICE…UNTIL THE CLAWS ARE OUT- WHICH BOOK HAD THE BIGGEST PLOT TWIST(S)?

I’ve read a lot of books with plot twists… but I didn’t expect THAT ENDING when I read The Wicked King! If you read it, you know what I’m talking about. Now I’m impatiently waiting for The Queen of Nothing!

CUDDLES- WHICH BOOK CHARACTER WOULD YOU GIVE A HUG TO?

I know I already (kinda) gave this answer out already, but I really want to give little Daniel a hug at the beginning of the Legend graphic novel. And tell him it will be okay. I think. I haven’t read Rebel yet.

CATNIP- WHAT’S A BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAVE WARM AND FUZZY FEELS?

Summer Days and Summer Nights is one of those books that gives you warm and fuzzy feels. I thought about rereading it this summer, but there were just too many other books to read.

CAT BREEDS- WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE BOOKS?

Well, I already mentioned Legend twice… one of my favorite books this year was Sky Without Stars though. I won’t be listing this book or the author elsewhere, so we’ll go with that.

THE VET’S OFFICE- YOUR LEAST FAVORITE BOOK:

I can’t really think of a least favorite book. There was a book I read last year that was a chore to read, but I can’t remember the title right now.

BEING IN PLACES THEY SHOULDN’T- LEAST FAVORITE CLICHÉ:

Probably the girl with a bad-boy boyfriend that she thinks she can redeem.

FINAL QUESTION: THE GOOD OLD CARDBOARD BOX- MOST UNDERRATED BOOK SERIES.

This seemed like a difficult question at first, because the most underrated books I know of aren’t series. But Enchantée is part of a trilogy, so I’m going to list that book. The second book in the series isn’t supposed to come out until next July, but since a trilogy is planned, I’ll count it.

So that’s the What Cats Do book tag. Some of these questions were tricky! If you’d like to do the tag, please do! I’d love to see what you come up with if you decide to do it.

Killing Patton

By Brookelorren on August 15, 2019August 14, 20194 Comments

I recently read Killing Patton, one of the books in Bill O’Reilly’s Killing series. These books always talk about the death of the main person in the book’s title. They also say a lot about the times in which the book was set. George Patton’s death was one that I’ve seen the history channel talk about before, and it seemed interesting.

Prior to reading this book, I didn’t know a lot about Patton, other than he was a famous general. I also knew he was buried in Luxembourg, because I saw his grave when I went on vacation in Germany. World War II happened before my parents were even born. It’s one of those world events that is slowly receding into the mists of history. This book provides a lot of insight into that war. The section covering Patton’s death is a very small fraction of this book.

Killing Patton, in addition to discussing the general’s military genius and his insensitivity towards people with PTSD (back then known as “shell shock”) talks about other aspects of the war as well. It discusses some of the battles that led to victory in Europe, Hitler’s demise, and some of the horrific things that happened to people in the concentration camps (even after their release). It even talks a little bit about Stalin and why the Russians celebrate New Years’ with Christmas trees, even to this day.

The style of this book is similar to the other Killing books, with a close third person perspective. It sticks to the facts, while trying to bring the story to life.

If you’re interested in George Patton, World War II, or enjoy Bill O’Reilly’s other Killing books, you might want to read Killing Patton. If you’re already an expert on the European theater during World War II, this book might not bring any new information. It’s also a book solely about Patton’s death and it’s associated conspiracy theories. If you’re looking for a book that pushes conspiracy theories, O’Reilly’s books are not for you. I enjoyed it, and maybe you will as well.

The Raven Boys

By Brookelorren on August 14, 2019August 13, 20192 Comments

I finally got around to reading The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater! You know those authors that every week (usually right around Tuesday) you get a reminder that you have to read one of their books? Well, Maggie Stiefvater was one of them, and The Raven Boys is the book that everybody associates with her. So when I found out that there was a Raven Cycle readalong, I had to get involved. I wasn’t disappointed.

Blue is a non-clairvoyant girl in a family of clairvoyants. She does have a gift for making it easier for the other ladies in her family to be able to see into the spirit world more strongly. Her family isn’t wealthy, and she works a couple of jobs to help out.

She’s also been told that the first boy she falls in love with and kisses will die.

Also in her town is one of those stuffy-stuck up private schools for rich boys. The one in her town is Aglionby Academy. The boys absolutely rankle her when she has to help them at the restaurant where she works. So when a boy shows up and asks if she’d go talk to a friend of his (both from the Academy) she gets really upset. They don’t really hit it off on the right foot.

Until they realize that she actually has something in common with this particular group of boys. They’re in the process of going on this supernatural treasure hunt.

They’re not the only people going on this treasure hunt. And the other person searching doesn’t want to play nice. You’ll just have to read the book to find out more.

The Raven Boys is a great friendship book. Despite being from Aglionby, these particular boys aren’t stuck up or snobby. They allow her into their group, even though she’s neither a boy nor wealthy. The four boys themselves care about each other too. Additionally, these boys aren’t just caricatures… they all have little quirks, things they like, etc. that make them seem like real people.

At the end of book one, you don’t find out who Blue is going to kiss or who’s going to die, but you’ll want to read the next book to find out anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

Conclusion: read the book. Especially if you’re into the paranormal, great friendships, and cool settings with fairly small towns set near the forest. I’m glad I finally got the chance to read it.

Book Characters I’d Love to Be Besties With (TTT)

By Brookelorren on August 12, 2019October 5, 201934 Comments

Another Tuesday, another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!). Today we’re going to talk about book characters I’d love to be besties with. For the purposes of this little thought experiment, I’m just going to pretend that I’m the same age as any of the other characters. That’s part of the fun of reading, anyway, to pretend that you are living someone else’s life!

Alina Starkov – Shadow and Bone

Alina seems to have a good heart. She just wanted to live a simple life, maybe with her childhood friend, Mal, but that’s not how things were for a while. I think she’d make a good friend who wasn’t arrogant or pretentious or anything.

Clary Fray – The Mortal Instruments

I wouldn’t want to detract from her friendship with Simon, of course, but Clary would probably make a pretty good friend. Certainly life wouldn’t be boring! Maybe she’d sketch pictures of some of my book characters. I don’t know if she plays D&D or not, but if she doesn’t, Simon and I might be able to drag her into joining a campaign.

Violetta Amouteru – The Young Elites

Much as I have sympathy for her sister Adelina, I don’t think she’d make a very good best friend. However, Violetta deserves a million points for loyalty for sticking by her sister even when she’s not exactly being the nicest person. Loyalty is always a good thing to have in a friend.

Scarlett Dragna – Caraval

Part of me thinks that maybe Scarlett’s sister Tella would be the more interesting friend, but she might present more drama than it would be worth. But Scarlett would be a good friend, and like Violetta, she’s likely to be loyal. Then again, if Scarlett was my best friend, Tella would probably end up dragging us both on adventures, giving us the best of both worlds.

Cyra Noavek – Carve the Mark

While I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with Cyra’s brother, Cyra could probably have used a friend. She’s thoughtful, and if you ever got into trouble, she could kick your enemy’s butt.

Dimple Shah – When Dimple Met Rishi

Today’s list seems to have a lot in common with last May’s Top Ten Tuesday “Characters that Remind Me of Myself” but I guess that can’t be helped. Dimple Shah would make a good friend though. We could talk about computer code and study for all those computer science tests together.

Taylor Nicholson – Start Here

Taylor would probably make a very interesting friend: after all, she’s willing to take a sailboat from Ohio all the way to the tip of the Florida Keys! I don’t know a lot about sailing (although I had to learn in college) but I’m sure that going on an adventure like this would be a lot of fun. She probably would want to get out and explore other places as well.

Free – Into the Hollow

It just says something good about your character when your dad isn’t really that responsible but you’re willing to do what you need to in order to take care of your younger brother. Despite the difficult circumstances Free grew up with, she still turned out to be a pretty good person. I bet she’d make a pretty good friend as well.

Camille Durbonne – Enchantée

Camille is another person who you can tell would make a good friend because of the way she cares about her family (we’ll just forget about her dirt-bag brother). She’s also curious and is interested in the latest technology, like hot air balloons. If I was transported to pre-revolutionary France and ran into a hot air balloon, I’d probably think they were fascinating as well.

Gin – Crow Flight

Gin from Crow Flight would make an interesting friend. First, she’s into computer programming, so we’d have something to talk about. She’s also pretty smart to have figured out the whole thing with the crows (no spoilers here). Anyway, you couldn’t do worse than to have a friend who’s smart and into computers.

So there are some book characters that I think would make good friends. Who did you put this week? Next week we’re going to talk about my favorite tropes.

Crown of Coral and Pearl

By Brookelorren on August 12, 2019August 12, 2019Leave a Comment

I recently had the opportunity to read Mara Rutherford’s debut, Crown of Coral and Pearl. Thank you Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the opportunity! This is a book with a unique setting and an interesting premise. Although, for me, it started out a little slow, the last 2/3rds of the book kept me enthralled and I wanted to read more! I definitely want to read the sequel when it comes out.

Nor and Zadie are born at sea to a people who live their entire lives at sea: at gunpoint. The only way they’ll ever be able to set foot on land is if they are deemed to be the most beautiful girl in a generation and are sent to land to marry the prince. As a child, Nor dreamed of going, but a scar that she received on her cheek dashed those hopes.

Her identical twin sister, on the other hand… doesn’t have that scar… but she’d rather stay at sea and marry her boyfriend. We have a mess on our hands here!

Eventually, Nor actually does got (impersonating Zadie), but once she gets to the palace and meets Ceren, her husband-to-be, things aren’t exactly as she’d hope them to be. Not only is Ceren a jerk, there’s also some political intrigue going on, that we find out more about as the story progresses.

The Setting

One of the things that stand out to me the most in Crown of Coral and Pearl is the setting. I don’t know if I’ve read any book before where the main characters live at sea their whole lives, never to set foot on land. It makes a completely different culture than I’m used to. This is different than a story that takes place on a ship, because they swim or take a boat between houseboats, and frequently jump in the water to dive for oysters. The setting of the palace, once we get there, is also fairly unique, but I won’t describe it here and ruin the surprise.

The Story

I also enjoyed the story, although it started out slow for me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the isolation of the community itself, and the silly mindset that came with the people there, that beauty was really the only thing that mattered in a girl. The book picked up considerably when Nor, disguised as Zadie, reaches the palace. I enjoyed her interactions with the people there more than I did at sea. And the end! It was incredible. I already added the next book, Kingdom of Sea and Stone, to my Goodreads TBR.

Conclusion

With its unique setting and premise, Mara Rutherford’s debut, Crown of Coral and Pearl, is worth checking out. Even though the beginning started off a little slow, the last part of the book was exciting, and the next book should be just as good!

ABC Book Challenge – F

By Brookelorren on August 11, 2019August 12, 20192 Comments

Hello again! It’s another week, and time for another letter of the alphabet. Today’s edition of the ABC Book Challenge is brought to you by the letter F! I originally found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but it was originally started (as far as I can tell) by the Thrifty Bibliophile! There are actually a lot of books that I love or want to read starting with the letter F. Here are some of them:

With the start of school just around the corner, now’s a good time to read Fangirl, if you haven’t already. Cath is a fanfiction writer who, at the beginning of the book, is starting her first year at the university.

I absolutely loved Flame in the Mist! The sequel wasn’t quite as good, but I enjoyed that one as well. This one deserves a reread at some point (although with so many books, so little time, who knows when).

I’m looking forward to reading The Fountains of Silence, which is a book set in Franco’s Spain! I ended up using my points over at Bookish First in order to get a copy of the ARC. This is one of the six books I want to read that come out on October 1st, so I’m glad I’ll get to read it early!

One of the wonderful things about reading a lot of books is… you read a lot of books. One of the downsides is… you start to forget that you read some of these amazing books. I read Four Dead Queens as soon as it came out, and I loved it. I don’t talk about it as much any more, but it came out earlier this year and it was really good.

I haven’t read as many nonfiction books recently, but Freakonomics was a book I read quite a long time ago, and it was really interesting.

Frequency by Christopher Krovatin is a book that I really enjoyed, but it never got a lot of marketing dollars, so I think a lot of people haven’t heard about it. Sadly, there are a lot of books like this.

So those are some of the F books that I either really liked or are on my TBR and I really want to read. There aren’t very many G books on my list, so next week might be a little sparse.

The Netflix Book Tag

By Brookelorren on August 10, 2019August 9, 20194 Comments

Hello! I was tagged by Sioban’s Novelties to do the Netflix book tag! I don’t watch a lot of movies, but this is all about books, and the questions are really interesting. As far as I can tell, it was created by A Darker Shade of Whitney over on YouTube. So here are my answers:

Recently Watched | The Last Book You Finished

I just finished A Court of Wings and Ruin last night! I would have liked to have taken a couple more days (I got it on Audiobook and it was due back at the library). I was tired as anything but had to finish it, so I put it on 2x speed. I really need to only request one audiobook from the library at a time, because I had two that came in at the same time and it was just too much. But I did finish this book, and it was pretty good.

Top Picks | A Book That Has Been Recommended to You Based on What You’ve Previously Read

Naughts and Crosses was a Goodreads recommendation based on the fact that I liked The Midnight Star. It’s on my summer TBR, so we’ll see if Goodreads was accurate in this one.

Recently Added | The Last Book You Purchased

I had to check my Amazon.com account for this one. I thought it might be Veronica Roth’s The Chosen Ones (which doesn’t come out until next May but I just pre-ordered) but it just happens to be Kim Chance’s Keeper, which went on sale for $.99. It was still on sale yesterday; it might still be on sale today, but I don’t know.

Popular on Netflix | Books That Everyone Knows (Two You’ve Read, and Two You Have No Interest in Reading)

These are currently two books that are at the top of Goodreads’ YA Novels of 2019 list, and I’ve read them both.

Again, I checked the Goodreads’ lists for books that have been popular in the last couple of years. Children of Blood and Bone was just okay for me (although it was well written), and I’m not really a big fan of superheroes, even though I love Leigh Bardugo’s books.

Comedies | A Funny Book

This category was difficult for me, because although I read a lot of books that have some funny moments in them, I don’t really read books that are supposed to be funny. But Sandhya Menon’s books do tend to have some comedy in them, so I’ll go with There’s Something About Sweetie for this category.

Dramas | A Character Who Is a Drama Queen/King

I guess you could say that there’s a lot of drama going on around The Thousandth Floor. Although I’m not sure you could pick one character for that nomination. Avery: “Oh, I’m in love with my stepbrother and my best friend seems to have a thing for him!” Leda: “I need to spy on Atlas because I need to find out if he’s seeing someone else!” Drama is this book’s middle name.

Animated | A Book with Cartoons on the Cover

Does a book count as a book if it’s only available on Audiobook? I don’t know, but I’m going to put it here anyway. Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World was the last book I read (listened to) with an obviously cartoonish cover. My boy and I listened to it when we had car rides together.

Watch It Again | A Book or Series You Want to Reread

I adored Sky Without Stars and I hope to read it again, probably before the next book in the series comes out.

Documentaries | A Nonfiction Book You’d Recommend to Everyone

This one is another tricky category. We all have different interests, so how could I recommend one book? I absolutely adored The Fourth Turning, but does that mean that everybody will? Probably not. I went with Glenn Beck’s Addicted to Outrage because it’s one of those books that people should read. There’s such animosity towards each other these days, and I think if we could find things to agree with each other on rather than try to provoke “the other side” then maybe we could get stuff done? A lot of people have problems with Glenn Beck as a person but just because someone doesn’t like the messenger doesn’t mean the message isn’t good.

Action and Adventure | An Action-Packed Book or Series

The Mortal Instruments series has a lot of action within.

New Releases | A Book That Just Came Out or Will Be Coming Out Soon That You Can’t Wait to Read

October 1st is a huge release date for me. I’m getting three pre-orders on that day, including Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. There’s also Rebel (which I normally feature but I wanted some variety today) and The End and Other Beginnings by Veronica Roth. Oh, and I also have three ARCs to read that are releasing on the same date (at least I get to read those earlier, but it’s making my reviews difficult to schedule).

Tag, You’re It!

If you liked this tag and would like to do it yourself, consider yourself tagged! If you decide to do it, would you send a link to me so I can see what you have to say?