Dismantlement by Jennifer McMahon

I finished "Dismantled" by Jennifer McMahon quicker than I though I would. It was very well written, and I truly just wanted to rush through it and find out all the bits and pieces of the story. I was completely fooled by the end of the book. There I was, proud of myself for figuring it out, and then the final twist was tossed in and I was thrown for a loop. For being a random pick out at Target, it was superb.
I have to say the parts with Emma's "invisible friend" were very creepy, and they added this whole other dimension to the story. The talk of Suz's ghost being around and causing all the problems for the group gave it a supernatural feeling, but knowing that the author was trying to mess with the reader's mind, I figured there was going to be some crazy plot twist (which there was). But having Emma actually feel and see and smell "Danner," without it being a plot twist, was the creepiest part. And to find out at the end that "Danner" is apparently the ghost of an unborn shild was equally as disturbing.
I felt bad for Tess and Henry, neither of them wanted to cage the other, and neither of them knew how to tell the other the whole truth of how they even started as a couple and as a family. If they'd been honest throughout their relationship, I think they could have worked better together during the "current" part of the book.
The Compassionate Dismantlers idea was completely engrossing. Though the theory is well based (that you can't fully understand something until you take it apart), their practices were a bit much. Instead of merely taking things apart they shattered things and people and then completely destroyed them. Suz lured them into her path of destruction and then lead them astray and forced them to ruin lives, buildings, anything they touched. They were all lucky they never got caught, since almost of all of their acts of dismantlement were incredibly illegal.
Not that any of these people are real or anything... It was just a really good story so I just want to keep gushing about it!
I'm not at home now, so I don't have my next book picked out. I might try Boy Toy though, so I'll keep you posted.

My Book List Update

I've never really listed the books I plan to read in the future... meaning the dozens of books I buy and put on a list to read and then never do. I've already written them down on a piece of paper, but I'll type up maybe 10 or 15 of them here. Maybe this will force me to read some of the books I'm not all that excited about.
Now, you ask, why would I buy books I'm not excited about? Well, because there are some books that have been recommended to me, or that I'm the last person on earth to read (sorry Harry Potter), or that I know are supposed to be good and well written books but just aren't appealing to me. However, I am able to get past my likes or dislikes and at least admit when I book I've read has been a good book, even if I didn't enjoy it myself.
SO here's the list of upcoming books, possibly won't be read in this order:
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
Dork Whore by Iris Bahr
Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Footfree & Fancyloose by Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain
Gone by Michael Grant
Redwall by Brian Jacques
All Souls by Michael Patrick MacDonald

I'll try and stick to the list, however a few books are coming out soon that I am really excited about, and I will probably drop everything and read them as soon as they are in my hands... Really, it just can't be helped!

Still reading "Dismantled." An update will come when I'm further into it.

Nothing Less Than Astonishing

I finally finished "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing" today, honestly, it was incredible. It was only Volume 1 though, so I've got to go out and get Vol 2 if it's in paperback yet. I like when books in a series all match on my book shelf. If you haven't read this book, I seriously recommend it; it has everything a quality book should have. It's smart, beautifully written, at times humorous, but above all, it makes the reader think about some really difficult topics. I'm most looking forward to what happens with Dr. Trefusis in the next volumes, besides Bono, he seems to be the most level-headed person in Octavian's irregular life.
Now I am starting "Dismantled" by Jennifer McMahon. This happens to be on my bookshelf because I was wondering around Target one day and decided to check out their pretty limited book selection. I bought this one in particular because it's about a group of former friends who went astray after some terrible accident, and now something tragic is making them relive the past... oddly enough, I like this kind of book. Usually this sort of story line is done in way too typical a manner, but hopefully this one actually keeps me guessing.
I'll keep you posted.

Survey from hayleyghoover

Here's a survey from HayleyGHoover's blog. My answers probably aren't as fantastic as they could be because I am very, very hungry right now and just really want some lunch. This is not helped by my boyfriend sitting down next to me with a sandwich. Grr.

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Sarah Dessen (9 books), Kevin Brooks (7 books) & Deb Caletti (6 books)

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen & Dracula by Bram Stoker (and, for some reason, Twilight)

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not really, since when do surveys have proper grammar anyways?

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Dexter from This Lullaby, Adam from Before I Die, & Sebastian from The Nature of Jade (Yes, all these characters are teenagers and I'm 23... I should probably start reading books with male characters my own age now)

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen gets read about once a year, as does The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti. The Catcher in the Rye and Love Story have both been read 3 times (I think)

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
When I was ten? Probably the Rosy Cole books by Sheila Greenwald

7. What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
The Time Traveler's Wife. Everyone said I would love it and so on, and I read it and the guy, Henry, just had no appealing qualities as a person. So he can time travel, ok, that doesn't make him nice or funny or smart. He was a slutty drunk until he met Clare. And the only things Clare liked about him, were attributes he developed because of her. Henry reminded me of Edward.

8. What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Graceling by Kristin Cashore, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I'm currently reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which is already going to make the "best books" list

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Paper Towns, I think it would reach the most people

10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I mostly dislike movies that have come from books, but I would love to see what boy would play Dexter in This Lullaby

11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Dracula already was, and the movie was not so hot, so if we could make it so that never happened, that would be good... Keanu

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I can't say I've ever had a weird dream involving any of those things, not that I don't have weird dreams, just not about those topics.

13. What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
I'm gonna go with the Twilight series, and then close my eyes and pray I don't get struck with lightning for admitting to reading them all.

14. What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. It's very well written, just very difficult to read because it alternates chapters of the story and chapters of learning about various philosophers, and I have difficulties going back and forth between things like that. I do recommend it though, because Sophie's story is very nice.
Lolita was very hard to read to, not because of the writing or the topic, but because for some reason it took me about a year to read it on and off, and I still don't know why.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream many times, and while the play itself is not obscure, the performance the Theater Co at my college did of it, definitely was.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I do enjoy the Russians, but maybe it's because I haven't read much French?

17. Roth or Updike?
I've only read bits of both, so... tie?

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Definitely a David Sedaris fan, but I haven't read any Dave Eggers, yet.

19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
I do love Shakespeare, but after my college British Lit class, I do find Chaucer quite amusing

20. Austen or Eliot?
Austen for sure

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I own tons and tons of books I will never get through, and then I buy more tons of books. There will always be gaps.

22. What is your favorite novel?
The Great Gatsby has been a favorite since freshman year of high school, Dracula is definitely at the top as well, and 1984 also makes the cut.

23. Play?
The Glass Menagerie, for no other reason than the memories I have from reading it in class always make me smile.

24. Poem?
TS Eliot "The Wasteland" and many by EE Cummings

25. Essay?
Not a genre I have a favorite in

26. Work of nonfiction?
I love reading autobiographies and memoirs, I'd have to say Smashed by Koren Zailckas, or even the book my dad wrote on John Ruskin for his doctorate because it is so very "my dad"

27. Who is your favorite writer?
I'm going to have to be a 13 year old girl for this and say Sarah Dessen.

28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Since I don't have the mass following that HayleyGHoover does, I think I can say Stephenie Meyer and still escape with my life.

29. What is your desert island book?
Hmm.. something long that will distract me.. Let's go with Atlas Shrugged.

30. And... what are you reading right now?
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by MT Anderson, The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle, and some stories in Geektastic

Book 30 and sort of 31

"Stealing Heaven" by Elizabeth Scott was a very good Summer read. I kept getting angry while reading it because Danielle's mother made no sense by dragging her daughter into a life of crime, knowing that everyone gets caught at some point. Every time they actually referred to her as Danielle I'd get confused because I mostly though of her as the other names she had to go by so no one knew who she really was.
The boy was very adorable, and it was funny to read the second book in a row to have a cute cop boy in it. It was nice that he and even Allison showed her what friendships and relationships have the potential to become.
It was sort of obvious that her mother was going to be seriously sick from the very start of when she started coughing. "Going Too Far" did a better job of making cancer be more of a surprise than this book did. While it's always sad to read a book that involves a serious illness, I think it's better and more heart-wrenching when it comes as a shock.
Anyways, after I finished that book I started "Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd." It's a compilation of short stories and comics from some of the "nerdiest" authors around. John Green is one of them, and his story was very good. I only read about half of the stories, because honestly, I am not that much of a geek. I don't know anything about Star Trekk or computer games or comic books. And those are the things these stories were talking about. I am more into nerdy TV shows (Buffy, Alias, Roswell), and classic novels (& all other novels) and biographies of random people. I could read all day long. I can't play video games for more than an hour.
So after finding "Geektastic" just a little too on the geeky side for me (I just had no idea what some of the stories were referencing.... sadly), I started MT Anderson's "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing" (Vol. 1). So far I really like it, I am not that far into it, but so far it just wraps you up into Octavian's world, and the way it is written you can tell that Octavian never questioned anything for most of his early years, and this only makes you as the reader question things more. Definitely intriguing and I think I'll read through it pretty quickly when I have some more time to do so.
Tonight's about fun though, since it's Saturday, so I'm gonna get back to having some.

Onto book 30

I finished "Going too Far" last night, and was actually very pleased with it. The whole time I was reading it I was guessing at the two main characters' secrets, and I didn't guess either one correctly. Jennifer Echols pulled off a somewhat typical storyline in a very unique way. I liked how she put Meg and Officer After together in a way that would force them to talk to each other and sort of uncover the other's secrets.
Now I am onto Elizabeth Scott's "Stealing Heaven," which is so far a pretty good read. I don't know how Scott writes so many books, every time I go to B&N there's another one! I am only a few chapters into it, so I don't have much to say about it, other than that I already correctly predicted one of the "plot twists," so hopefully the rest of it isn't so easy to pick up on.

50 books a year

So last year I did completer my "50 Books in One Year" challenge.. which was inspired by "italktosnakes" of Youtube. I am also doing the same challenge this year. I got a late start and only read about 9 books by July, and then read about 20 books in July to catch up. Now I am on roughly my 30th book of the year, "going too far" by Jennifer Echols. So far it's pretty interesting, it's doing the typical style of slowly revealing the truth about a character & all that... but the way they are setting it up is different.
I just finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" the other day, and I have to say I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as everyone said I would. Henry just wasn't appealing... he wasn't particularly charming, witty, nice, and so on. He was just sort of there, and then of course sometimes he wasn't. He was mostly a jerk in the "present time" when he was an alcoholic and just slept with a bunch of women and wasn't very nice to any of them. The only thing Clare liked about Henry was Clare. She's what made him likable. It reminded me of John Green ("vlogbrothers" on Youtube) and what he said about Edward Cullen from Twilight... that he's just a vessel for you (the reader) to put your thoughts and feelings etc into, basically he is what you want him to be, without actually having any good personality qualities on his own.
I've been keeping a sort of book report diary on all the books I've read since the beginning of the Summer, which has kept me up with my writing and it's been nice to write by hand and not on a computer. Two of my favorite books that I've read this year are "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and "Graceling" by Kristin Cashore. Both books have very strong and independent female lead characters and both have sequels coming out this fall, which I am very excited. I recommend both books to anyone who likes a little adventure in their YA fiction.