Molly Reviews: It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Title: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Author: Ned Vizzini

Pages: 444

Publishing Company: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 078685197X

My Rating:    

Synopsis: Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life-which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job-Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy.
At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away. The stress becomes unbearable and Craig stops eating and sleeping-until, one night, he nearly kills himself. 
Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, isolated from the crushing pressures of school and friends, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.
Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness. For a novel about depression, it's definitely a funny story.

Review: This book was really funny. I'm sure that when you read the synopsis, you wouldn't find it that amusing but Ned Vizzini was a pretty comical guy.
The book is written in several parts. The different parts organize how Craig is feeling, how he became depressed, and his stay in the hospital. As you read the book you learn everything you need to know right off the bat and it was certainly refreshing. I don't have too much to say about this book except that it was a quick read and it was highly entertaining. If you're looking for something quick and funny to read I highly suggest this book.

Sorry, for the crappy review. I just don't have much to say about this one.
Talk to y'all soon.
Molly

Sarah Reviews: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Pages: 225
Publishing Company: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 9780385741262
My Rating:    
Synopsis:
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE

Review:
Wow. This book was definitely not what I expected. It is not a light, fluffy contemporary. There is tons of mystery, suspense, and a dark feel to this story. This book is about Cadence's attempt to find out what happened during summer 15. Her family spends each summer on their island and she spends time with her cousins and their friend Gat. However, summer 15 she has an accident and the majority of the book is about her trying to figure out what happened. 

What I loved about this story was the complexity of the characters and how they lived by putting on a facade for others. How the family needed to always seem and act a certain way to others is something I feel like a lot of people can relate to. Cadence struggles with this in her family and the dynamic there is interesting to see unfold and the tension between everyone. 

I think the liars were a really interesting group and would have loved to learn more about them before summer 15 and how they got the name the "liars". I never seemed to trust Gat though. Something about him didn't sit right with me and I'm just itching to know more about his life outside of the summers spent on the island. I loved how they all had different lessons/mottos they shared with each other. Cadence's saying, "do the think you were always afraid to do" is actually something I love by, but not the extremes as her...more like about being confident and whatnot.

E. Lockhart's writing style somehow manages to make the story seem longer than it actually is. I would feel like I had been reading so much yet only 5 pages had been read. Mostly, the ending has an insane twist that made me rethink the whole book but also make the story make completely sense...I know it's complicated but this book really makes you think and keeps you on your toes.

Also, this is the Booksplosion book of the month for June. There will be a live show on July 2nd on PolandbananasBOOKS so check it out!

Peace. Love. Read On.
xoxo Sarah

Molly's July TBR

Hey ya'll!
I'm back with this month's TBR! I'm going to be flying to Indiana in a couple of weeks for a camp program thingy. So hopefully I'll be able to read a lot on the flight. Otherwise, I don't have too much going on so hopefully I'll be able to get some reading in. 

1. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin - Since I didn't get to read this one last month and it was on my list, I decided to just transfer it onto this one. Now, instead of it being at the bottom of my list, it'll be on the top! :)

2. Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan - Sarah and I will be going to Scotland with the band next month so I was just planning on marathoning PJO on the plane ride to/from but eh why not just read this one now?



3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I love Rainbow Rowell and I'm excited to give this book a go because I've heard such great things about it.

4. The Maze Runner by James Dashner - The movie is coming out soon and I've been meaning to read this for a long time. I hope it's as good as everyone says it is.

5. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan - Another book I've been meaning to read for a LONG time. I couldn't find it for a while but I have since relocated it so yayyy.

I think that's a pretty solid month. I'm super pumped :).
I'll talk to you guys later! Hope you have a good July!
Molly

Molly's June 2014 Wrap Up!

Hey y'all!
So the month of June is coming to a close and that means it's time for a monthly wrap up! I've read more this month than I have all year to be completely serious. I finished four books this month and I was planning to read five but I'm satisfied with amount that I've read. All of these books have been on my TBR list for a while and I'm glad that I finally read them. The only book that was on my June TBR that I didn't read was Game of Thrones which is completely okay. I enjoyed all of the books and I'll have all of the reviews linked below! I hope July is just as good of a month as this one was!

1. The Time Traveler's Wife
2. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour
3. It's Kind of a Funny Story
4. Anna and the French Kiss (review coming soon)

Talk to you guys soon!
Molly :)

Lending Out Books

Hey everyone! Sarah here! Recently, my friend and I decided to do a book swap. We both have been recommending books to each other for ages and thought it would be fun to swap. This got my thinking about how anxious I get when I lend out my precious books. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of books that I love and want others to read and love them too, but I'm not a library. I just don't want them reading my copy...IT MAKES ME NERVOUS!!! 

I don't know about you guys, but my books are very special to me. I like to keep them in decent condition. No screwed up binding, rips, folds, tears, food stains, etc. When I give people my books, I don't know what they are going to do with it. Will it come back in one piece? Who knows? UGH! I also feel very anxious, like I need it back ASAP or I can't function. One time I lent my friend this book to read and I got it back a year later. If she had lost it...well...*pounds fist into hand*. 

Over the years, I have not taken awesome care of books. My Twilight pages have been dog eared in places I like and my copy of Beastly is throughly worn out. Since then, I try to treat my books with utmost care and lend my books to people I can trust will not damage them, lose them, and will return them promptly and in one piece. I even have made some rules:

1. No dog earing pages
2. Do not read near large amounts of food, water, or other liquids
3. Do not rip any pages
4. Return it ASAP
5. Don't bring it anywhere you might lose it
6. Do not fold back the cover
7. Do not drop it
8. If hardcover, don't lose the jacket
9. Don't lend it to anyone else
10. Enjoy it!!! :)

Do you guys have any book lending anxiety? Any book lending horror stories? Please tell me I'm not alone in this...

Peace. Love. Read On.

xoxo Sarah

Molly Reviews: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

Author: Morgan Matson

Pages: 344

Publishing Company: Simon & Schuster Books for Young People

Publication Date: May 10, 2010

ISBN: 14169906666

My Rating:    

Synopsis: Amy Curry is not looking forward to her summer. Her mother decided to move across the country and now it's Amy's responsibility to get their car from California to Connecticut. The only problem is, since her father died in a car accident, she isn't ready to get behind the wheel. Enter Roger. An old family friend, he also has to make the cross-country trip - and has plenty of baggage of his own. The road home may be unfamiliar - especially with their friendship venturing into uncharted territory - but together, Amy and Roger will figure out how to map their way.

Review: This book was the most adorable thing I have ever read. I've been having some serious wanderlust recently and this book definitely didn't help! Amy and Roger have to get Amy's car from California to Connecticut and they decide to take a completely different route than they originally planned. The book includes pictures and playlists and other little tokens, such as receipts, scattered throughout it. I thought it was really cute how Morgan Matson actually went on the trip herself so all the pictures that were in the novel were actually hers.
One thing I definitely loved about this book was how it wasn't really a book about romance. There wasn't any real action between the two protagonists until there were about 40 pages left in the book. This book was more about Amy coming to terms with her father's death and putting herself back out into the world. I really think this book is amazing and I highly recommend it! This book is definitely one of my new favorites :).
Be sure to let me know what you guys think of it!!

Love, Molly

SARAH'S BOOK CON ADVENTURES!!!

Bookcon 2014 can only be described as a beautiful disaster. It was crazy, hectic, energetic and a blast! I was a little dissapointed but overall, I really enjoyed myself. Let's get to the break down.

My friend and I got to the convention center around 8 and there was already a line outside waiting for autograph tickets. We freaked out, rushed inside, registered and quickly went outside to get in line. We waited for not even 5 minutes when they told us they ran out of tickets for Cassandra Clare. Sadness. We sadly got out of line and as we went into the building I SAW THE BOOKTUBERS! I freaked out, but actually. Finally seeing the booktubers I loved and admired was insane! We went up to them and Jesse (JessetheReader) gave us booksplosion bookmarks. SCORE! Then I took a picture with Ariel (arielbissett) and Liz (elizziebooks), with whom I talked about booksplosion and the rise of booktube. She was so nice to talk to. Then I took a picture with Kat (katytastic) and Christine (polandbananasBOOKS). Christine is one of my fave booktubers and I was actually shaking. They were super nice and despite the sad start to the morning, I considered my day already successful just after meeting them. LOOK AT THEM!!! AAAHHH!

We then waited in line to enter the center when it opened at 9. The first thing we did was wait in line to meet Julie Kagawa, one of my friend's favorite authors. She was signing ebooks of The Forever Song. Awesome-sauce! After that we wanted to head over to the Bloomsbury booth and were dismayed to find that almost half the convention center was closed off unless you had a BEA badge. W.T.F!!!! I was super frustrated and annoyed. In the tiny section they shoved us into, the booths barely gave out books and most you had to purchase. UGH! Don't even get me started about the lines...

At 11 we went to the Alexandra Bracken signing. I was ecstatic to meet her and brought my copy of The Darkest Minds from home. When we got there, the line was INSANE! And I mean insane. We were probably seconds away from a fight breaking out. After a huge mosh pit and a few minutes of confusion, my friends was able to talk to the people and get us into the line. Phew! We waited in line for about an hour but it was sooo worth it! Because there were so many people, she wasn't taking pictures or personalizing. However, I had her sign The Darkest Minds, got a new hardcover of Never Fade (a signed one ;)), and this cool postcard. Alex was super nice and I was so happy to meet her. Later, we also met Alex London (author of Proxy) whose line was not hectic. I never read Proxy but heard good things about it. He was also amazingly nice and I got a nice signed copy of his new book, Guardian.

The next highlight of our day was the booktuber meet up. It was awesome! I met even more amazing booktubers (and some I already met... #noshame) who were fantastic and super nice! After that, the excitement of the day was beginning to wind down. We did some wandering after that. The panel lines were insane and our phones were dying, so we called it a day.
 
Bookcon was such a crazy experience, but I can't wait to do it again next year!!! :)

Peace. Love. Read On.
xoxo Sarah