Tag Archives: 30 Days of Books

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 30!

Phew, it’s the last day of 30 Days of Books and sadly… I’m glad! Updating every single day was a bit too much (good to know for the future) and too many of the topics seemed similar and I felt like I was just getting to repetitive! I’m still glad I did it, but also kind of glad I’m done 🙂

What I’m reading right now…

Jellicoe Road by Melinda Marchetta

I have heard SO MANY good things about this book! I’m just over 100 pages in and it’s still a little slow, but I was reassured that it gets so much better, so happily forging on 🙂 I look forward to getting more into the story!!

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 29

Saddest character death…

Well, well, well. Isn’t this the biggest spoiler question out there! Okay, I’ll try to make this as least spoiler-y as possible!

First: Any of the good guys who died in the Harry Potter series. I got so attached to those characters so especially towards the end, I was in tears when they got killed off!

Second: (It’s not really a spoiler since it’s a main theme of book) Mia’s family in If I Stay. It wasn’t so much their death that was upsetting since it happened at the very beginning of the story, but throughout the book we get their backstory and anecdotes about what awesome people they were and how happy their family was. The flashbacks to me are the heartbreaking part!

Third: **** THIS IS THE SPOILER **** From Frostbite from the Vampire Academy series, so if you haven’t read it, STOP READING NOW!

I literally gasped when Mason died. I was so sad!!!! I was completely shocked and taken by surprise and was so upset by it. I think that’s probably one of the biggest surprises I’ve had as far as character deaths go.

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 27 & 28

Another busy couple of days, so time to play catch up again!

30 Days of Books: Day 27

If a book contains _____, I will always read it…

That’s actually a really hard one or next to impossible if I take it literally because “always” is a pretty strong word! I guess loosely speaking, if a book contains a dystopian/alternate future world I will always read it. I think the first book I ever read like that was The Giver (seen in many other posts) and I was instantly fascinated! I love the possibility of all the changes that can occur in the future and building alternate worlds and realities that are so imaginiative yet so real at the same time. I can’t say I’dalwayspick up these books, but if that’s the basis, chances are I’ll give it a shot!!

30 Days of Books: Day 28

A book you couldn’t put down…

Ooh that’s several! I’ll just make a list because that’s a lot of explanations:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Any of the Harry Potter books (duh)
If I Stay/Where She Went (my new favorite series!)
Any of the “In Death” series by JD Robb
Delirium/Pandemonium
Wither
The Maze Runner/The Scorch Trials
The Hunger Games

And oh wait, I’m just listing my favorites again, so that’ll wrap it up 🙂

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 25 & 26

Another 30 Days of Books bundle! Too busy yesterday since I went to the Cubs game (they actually won! Whoo hoo!) so we get a 2 for 1 deal today.

30 Days of Books: Day #25

Any 5 Books from Your TBR stack…

Yahoo! Free for all 🙂 Here are some that I’m super looking forward to reading. Since I made a list a little while ago for TTT of the ones that I have on my TBR list that I don’t have in my possession but I need them. Badly! And yes… They’re all YA books 🙂

1. The Sky is Everywhere- I’ve seen this around in so many places in the blogosphere… Looks like I need to read this one… Soon!

2. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight – Also one I’ve heard so many good things about. I like the title a lot too 🙂

3. Under the Never Sky – Tell me things about this one! I’ve been interested, but I want to hear some reactions as well. Looks like GoodReads readers love it.

4. Graceling – This is one I don’t think I would have picked out for myself, but so many people are hooked on this series that I need to read it!

5. City of Bones – Yep, same with this one

30 Days of Books: Day #26

A book you liked reading until the end…

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
Body Movers by Stephanie Bond

Those are the two I can think of off hand that I enjoyed and then the end came and I was like, Huh? With Tomorrow, I was kind of so-so with it, on the higher side of liking it, but then at the end, it just suddenly dropped off. It didn’t feel so much of a cliffhanger as it did, “Whoops we forgot to put an ending here”. Then Body Movers was just a tad outside of my expectations, but that was one of the reveals at the end that I just felt like it came out of nowhere and we weren’t really lead up to any clues for it. I just didn’t like who they chose in the end. Oh well!

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 22, 23, 24

Okay, so time for some quick catch up with 30 Days of Books! I’ve just been so busy that I haven’t had time to really take the time to think of these answers and write them down, so just a quick jot of days 22/23/24.

30 Days of Books: Day #22

Favorite non-romantic/non-sexual relationship…

I’ve been trying to go for variety as much as I can, but is it any surprise that my favorites are going to come from my favorite books? Nope. So I’m going with two, because they’re both very different types of friendships:

1. Harry Potter & Ron Weasley: Best friends who have grown up so much together and will always have each other’s backs
2. Stephanie Plum & Lula: It’s a two woman comedy team, neither of which who should probably be armed or hunting down dangerous criminals!

30 Days of Books: Day #23

Favorite mythical place in a book…

Another non-surprise here… Hogwarts! God, I want to go there so badly! Anyone want to take a trip to HP world in Florida anytime soon? Getting to visit a real-life (okay, so it’s still fake… I’d pretend it was real) Hogwarts? What a dream come true!

30 Days of Books: Day #22

Best quotation from a novel…

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” – Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

This has to be the most inspiration quote I’ve ever seen. Despite everything that was happening to Anne Frank (the story of which we all know), somehow she still believes that people are truly good deep down. I don’t think anyone can really disagree how powerful that thought is given the situation in which it was written.

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 21

30 Days of Books: Day #21

Favorite romantic/sexual relationship…

Shoooot, that’s definitely Eve Dallas & Roarke from the In Death series by JD Robb. JD Rob – for those of you who don’t know – is a pen name for Nora Roberts, so it’s easy to see how mystery quickly turns into romance and back into mystery again.

It’s not even the sexual side of it (although they do have some pretty steamy scenes!) but essentially their chemistry and banter that makes them my favorite relationship.

Both Eve and Roarke grew up with horrific pasts, stemmed off of parents who were abusive and neglectant. Roarke took the crooked path and lived outside of the law in Ireland before making his millions and become an upstanding citizen of NYC (although with his skills and money, he’s able to still take some no-so-legal shortcuts). Eve reacted to her past quite the opposite – since the law didn’t help her as a child, she vowed to become the law to prevent it from happening to others and she worked her way up to Lieutenant as one of the best cops in the city.

Their differences have them at each other’s throats at times, but it makes for a great pair because they both help each other see things from a different perspective. Eve’s mostly all business, but Roarke tends to bring out her softer side which usually only he sees. I love their little banter back and forth since Roarke usually tries to take things likely and joke, sometimes poking fun at Eve and I think it’s adorable. He tends to pull her out of a bad mood with jokes and charm and even she doesn’t realize what he’s doing or how he does it.

Parts of it I don’t even know how to explain, but as different as they are, they somehow just fit together perfectly. I think Nora/”JD” writes an excellent pair here and I really enjoy following their relationship. Oh, and I did I mention the steamy love scenes? Because yeah… There are a lot!

Plus, there are TONS of books in the series (I just finished Midnight in Death, which is #7.5 and you can check out that little review here) so I’ve got plenty more to look forward to!

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 20

30 Days of Books: Day #20

Favorite kiss…

Though there are tons of great kisses out there (and the first one that actually came to mind was Bella & Jacob’s big moment in Eclipse where she kisses him to keep him from leaving and putting himself in danger. It was actually surprisingly pretty close to my top choice)!

But after thinking about it a bit, I chose Lena & Alex from Delirium.

So I started Googling to try to find that perfect quote that was like, “Yes! This is my favorite kiss in all of literature!” And… I couldn’t find it. Is it even out there? There were a couple that I found, but none of that monumental kiss – that moment that everyone was waiting for.

Even still, I stand by my choice because I absolutely love their chemistry and the tension that builds up between them before that first kiss. It’s the chemistry, the forbidden aspect, and all the emotion behind it that somehow totally captivated me. Anyway, here’s one of the quotes I could find:

“Are you sure that being like everybody else will make you happy?” “I don’t know any other way.” “Let me show you.” And then we’re kissing. Or at least, I think we’re kissing—I’ve only seen it done a couple of times, quick closed-mouth pecks at weddings or on formal occasions. But this isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen, or imagined, or even dreamed: this is like music or dancing but better than both.”

See? That one just wasn’t monumental enough.

“This is what I want. This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted. Everything else—every single second of every single day that has come before this very moment, this kiss—has meant nothing.”

And that’s better. But it’s more the tone throughout the whole book that really does it for me and Lauren’s beautiful writing!

If anyone can find the quote I’m probably looking for, let me know!! 🙂

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 19

30 Days of Books: Day #19

Favorite book cover…

In all honesty…. The Harry Potter covers are pretty cool and informative at the same time… Just sayin…

But you don’t want to hear about those! Okay, I’m picking a few because I like them for different reasons.

Firstly – Numbers by Rachel Ward. This was the cover from when I first saw it and I was like WHOA. The red eye is pretty creepy and the fact that it’s the only thing on the cover pretty much it a little unsettling. You know you’re in for a wild and creepy ride. And I liked how they used the numbers to fill in all of the empty space here and also to shape the eye. I wish I had liked the book better, but I am still interested in reading on because the end was kind of a surprise! I had to choose this one though because it’s always stuck out at me.

YA covers in general.
There are tons of really sweet YA covers out there and if I listed all the ones I thought were cool, it’d be way too long of a post. Unfortunately, I haven’t read most of the awesome ones that are floating out there. There are so many that are just visually striking that I’ve wanted to check out based on cover alone (sometimes I do judge by their covers! I know you’re not supposed to do that…) and I’m keeping it short so I’m just going to sum up with that!

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 18

Happy Monday! Or… unhappy Monday. I know I didn’t want to come back to work this morning! Mostly because of sleep. But alas, I break up the work day with another episode of 30 Days of Books.

30 Days of Books: Day #18

Best beginning of a book…

Hmm, this is actually a really hard one. I think I’d have to go with either Ceremony In Death or Vengeance In Death by JD Robb. Her books always catch me right in the first chapter and I’m immediately hooked! These two were ones that I started and needed to race through because I’m just dying to finish.

Jun

30 Days of Books: Day 16 & 17

Okay, bloggers. I was just going to do three days in one tomorrow, but let’s face it… I can’t NOT blog all weekend! So I’m smacking days 16 and 17 together tonight and more goodies to follow tomorrow.

30 Days of Books: Day #16

Your “comfort” book.

I guess I’d consider a comfort book a book that I can go back to and read over and over again, still getting all those warm fuzzies and getting a nice feeling of contentment during and after reading. So in that case, the only things I can come up with are the usual suspects: Good old Harry Potter and Stephanie Plum.

I’d actually say HP even more so because I’ve actually lost track of how many times I read the series and now that there are movies, it’s even easier to enjoy. In fact, for part of Father’s Day today, we watched HP & the Chamber of Secrets from the HP box set that we bought my dad for this past Christmas. How much more comforting can you get!?

30 Days of Books: Day #17

The most hilarious book you’ve read.

Oooh that’s a tricky one. Of course we’ve got good old stand-by Stephanie Plum for this one too, but I’ll throw two more out there that I literally laughed out loud for:

1. The Spellman Series by Lisa Lutz: First book being The Spellman Files – A family business of private investigators that can’t even quit the habit long enough to stop spying on each other. Throw in a sarcastic and former-delinquent (well, mostly former) narrator and an usual style of writing and I was laughing the whole way.

2. The Princess Bride by William Goldman – This really was every bit as good as the movie, and maybe even better. When I finished my review for this book not too long ago, I mentioned how I was so glad that Goldman is actually credited for the screen play on IMDb.com, so I can only assume that meant he actually wrote it. There were direct lines from the book into the movie which are actually some of my favorite quotes so I was glad they were so similar! I loved all the humor from both.