The Book Thief Movie Trailer!

The official trailer for the movie adaptation of The Book Thief has been released! It looks amazing so far! What are your thoughts??

Review: The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer

Summary: After decades of hiding, the evil Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty is back with a vengeance.

Alex and Conner Bailey have not been back to the magical Land of Stories since their adventures in The Wishing Spell ended. But one night, they learn the famed Enchantress has kidnapped their mother! Against the will of their grandmother, the twins must find their own way into the Land of Stories to rescue their mother and save the fairy tale world from the greatest threat it's ever faced.

Kim's Review: When I read the first Land of Stories book, I was completely obsessed with Chris Colfer. Not so much a year later though, and so I was looking forward to reading one of his novels without bias.

I thought this book was good. The story was pretty interesting even though it's a children's novel, and I did care about the characters. However, the writing could've been better. There were a few things that annoyed me, like how he almost always describes Alex and Connor as the same person: "The twins felt sad/The twins woke up before sunrise/etc." Colfer hardly, if ever, tells you how one of the twins is specifically feeling. I suppose they say some twins are ~connected~ and what not, but it's like these two never had their own feelings or opinions.

This book takes place in a fairy-tale world, which I've sort of grown out of over the years. For a children's book, though, I thought the plot was intriguing (even if I skimmed over a few pages). I probably would have given it five stars if I were in the target demographic and not as critical to the actual writing. :)

3.5/5 stars!

Review: Cracked by K.M. Walton

Summary: Victor hates his life. He has no friends, gets beaten up at school, and his parents are always criticizing him. Tired of feeling miserable, Victor takes a bottle of his mother’s sleeping pills—only to wake up in the hospital.

Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. That makes him feel better, at least a little. But it doesn’t stop Bull’s grandfather from getting drunk and hitting him. So Bull tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.

When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, there’s no way to escape each other or their problems. Which means things are going to get worse—much worse—before they get better.

Kim's Review: Cracked is told from two POVs - Victor, a boy who is bullied at school and has parents who don't care about him, and Bull, the boy who bullies Victor. I loved reading from the bully's point of view, getting more insight to his character, and seeing how his home life leads to him bullying Victor. 

In this book, both of the characters end up in a psychiatric ward - and are roommates. Through the five days they spend together there, they learn more about each other and discover that they both have their own issues at home.

K.M. Walton does an amazing job at making the plot realistic, especially at the end. Not everything is happily ever after, and I liked that. The reason this book earned only four stars instead of five was because I feel like Walton could have done a better job at writing the characters's emotions about their suicide attempt/accidents, because a lot of the time it seems like they (mostly Victor) was only concerned with their love interests and not what had happened to them.

Unless you are triggered by suicide or abuse, I would recommend this book. It's a pretty quick read - I finished it in a few hours - and offers insight into not only the victims but also the bullies themselves.

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Review: And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Summary: Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. 

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. 

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Kim's Review: This is the second of Hosseini's books that I've read, the first being A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I have yet to be disappointed. My favorite thing about this book (and Splendid Suns) is that it's multi-generational - chapters are written from many different POVs over around seven decades. It was interesting to see all the characters come together and how their plots interweaved. It did get confusing, keeping up with all the characters, but I didn't feel like my loss of a little bit of knowledge detracted from my overall understanding of the book.

I also love Hosseini's ability to write amazing, strong women. I really felt for the characters and could sympathize with them as I read about their lives. This is an adult book (I swear I'll get back to reviewing YA soon!), so the content is heavier, but it's not as emotionally taxing as A Thousand Splendid Suns.

All in all, I really loved this book. I feel like everyone should read one of Hosseini's books at some point, because they have made me think and change my outlook on life. I have The Kite Runner sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be read, but I think I'll take a break and go for a lighter novel first. :)

Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Summary: While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, a baffling cipher found near the body. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

The stakes are raised when Langdon uncovers a startling link: the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. Langdon suspects they are on the hunt for a breathtaking historical secret, one that has proven through the centuries to be as enlightening as it is dangerous. In a frantic race through Paris, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu find themselves matching wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to anticipate their every move. Unless they can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle, the Priory’s secret—and an explosive ancient truth—will be lost forever.

Kim's Review: I bought this book solely because a) I knew it was/had been popular, and b) because the hardcover was a mere eighty-six cents at the thrift store. When I picked up this book, I expected to read something resembling the Sherlock Holmes stories. In that aspect, I was pretty satisfied. It is an interesting story, but the cons seem to outweigh the pros on this one. 

By the time I'd gotten to the hundredth page, I was already looking forward to finishing it - and not in a good way, in the "I just want to know how it ends so I can start reading this book my grandma lent me" way. I got annoyed with the writing far too quickly considering how long this book is. Dan Brown seems to think that all of his readers are idiots and simply cannot comprehend the information given to them or draw their own conclusions. Every little detail is pointed out and stated by the characters either out loud or in their thoughts, and it just felt unnecessary because I was easily able to draw my own conclusion and get the same result a few paragraphs ago. Everything is spelled out; it's like Brown tells you what to feel about the situation instead of letting you feel what comes naturally. It got irritating after a while and felt really condescending.

And Brown isn't the literary genius he seems to think he is. Have you ever heard of the writing rule "show, don't tell?" Apparently, Brown has not - again, everything is spelled out for the reader. The writing is simple, and okay at best.

Another thing that annoyed me was the lack of character development in the main character, Robert Langdon. I never learned anything about his personality, and if anything was mentioned at all, it must have been in passing because I surely don't remember it. Then again, the entire book only takes place over one day, so I'm not sure how much his character could develop in that time. It did seem like Sophie, his "sidekick," and the other minor characters developed more than he did.

I wasn't crazy about the ending either. I can't really say much without spoiling it, but the end of the last chapter...ugh. There was nothing to elude that those events were going to happen throughout the entire novel, and then all of a sudden it happens and it's like, what? Where did that come from? (I'm aware of how vague that sounds and I apologize, but I'm trying my best to avoid spoilers).

This book was interesting, but it was a little too long considering something huge only happens every 200 pages or so. I believe there's a prequel to this, but I won't be reading it.

Review: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Summary: Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Kim's Review: Tina Fey is probably one of my top ten favorite people on the planet. I spent my entire Easter break last spring marathoning 30 Rock, and ended up watching the last episode right before we had to leave for Easter mass. Needless to say, I was sobbing on the way to church. 

This book is hilarious. Books hardly make me laugh out loud, but this one did on almost every other page. I've never laughed so hard at a novel. Fey's sense of humor is so unique, and I loved being able to learn more about her life. The last chapter was really inspiring to me - the timing of my reading it couldn't have been better. It was a little strange.

I absolutely loved this book. I feel like it's one of those novels that I'm going to keep pulling off of my bookshelf and just reading certain parts for either advice or just for laughs. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Tina and her work!