Looking for Alaska by John Green

I stumbled upon this book after reading another by the same author, An Abundance of Katherines. I really enjoyed Green's writing style in that book, and he did not disappoint in this novel either.

Looking for Alaska is a very interesting YA book. The story, and the title, centers around a girl named Alaska Young. The novel is narrated by Miles, who is dubbed Pudge upon his first day at his new boarding school (due to the fact that he is in fact as skinny as a twig), Culver Creek. He has decided to go to boarding school because he is tired of his life back home with his parents, where he is friendless and adventure-less and he has gone to seek "a Great Perhaps." (Interesting thing about Pudge, he memorizes people's last words. The quote above comes from Francoise Rabelais whose last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps". This quote makes him want to do something with his life.)

Pudge meets his new group of friends immediately at Culver Creek. There is Colonel, who is his roommate; Alaska, who become the center of his world; Tukami, who also has a thing for Alaska but becomes a good friend to Pudge; and Lara, the would-be-kinda-was-but-not-really girlfriend Pudge has for about 23 hours. The book focuses on the effect Alaska has on these group of people, particularly on Pudge who falls hard for her, even without being with her.

This interesting part of this book is the way that it is formatted. Instead of chapters, the book is broken down into a count down of days. For the majority of the book I was under the firm assumption that the countdown was leading to the ultimate prank they were going to pull. They discuss and engage in pranks previously, so it is safe to assume. However, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. The countdown is to something much more prolific, something that changes the lives of this group of friends forever.

I enjoyed this book very much. It has a very interesting plot and the writing style sucks you in and you want to know what happened. It was hard to put down because I was drawn into the search for answers just like the main characters. It is a quick read, not overly strenuous, but you do walk away with some cool quotes, verified by the author, so I thought that was cool.

I really liked how the author explored the dynamic of the different relationships within a group of friends. Anyone who had a reliable, steady group of friends versus having a close friend or two, understands that the group relationship can sometimes take on a whole new meaning when something little changes, and that there are several different relationships at play in the larger one. The author dissects this in a way that is interesting that makes the characters realize just what a large impact one person can have on several people, even people who are outside that circle of friends.

Alaska's character, in particular, I found fascinating. She is both a very strong female and very vulnerable little girl at times. These mood swings have large effects and consequences that leave you wanting to be inside her head to understand. The author wrote her with just the right air of mystery about her; it will drive you insane and fascinate you at the same time, just like it did Pudge.

Overall, this was a great book. I even liked how it ended.

The cover is pretty cool and has symbolism. Of course, if I explain the symbolism it gives away too much of the plot, so trust me, it is cool and has symbolism. :)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I first heard about this book about three years ago. I was taking an open literature course where we were required to read seven books in a month and then meet one Friday night and Saturday and discuss the books. One of my classmates read this and gave one of the best book talks I had ever witnessed. I had also heard good things about it from my other friends. When I saw that it was being made into a movie, I figured it was a good time to read it.

This book was fascinating. While it wasn't a quick, can't-put-it down read, I was constantly drawn to it. It is remarkably well written, with a unique plot line and writing style that captures your attention without over-straining your emotions.

It is a story of Pi Patel, a young adult who become stranded at sea after the ship he and his family were aboard sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Pi's family was moving from India to Canada. They had previously run the Pondicherry Zoo, so their decision to move also resulted in them having to find new homes for all the animals, which resulted in the animals being aboard the ship with them. While all of the humans and most of the animals perished in the sinking of the ship, Pi survives along with a Royal Bengal Tiger, an orangutan, and a hyena. These four very unlikely shipmates all end up on a life boat together, stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, trying to survive.

While I am not usually one to read survival stories and thoroughly enjoy them, I really liked this book. It was unique in the sense that not only did Pi have the elements and fate to contend with, he also had a Bengal Tiger (named Richard Parker, which is explained in the novel) to take care of. While most of us would think "Damn the tiger, my existence is of far greater importance", the fact that Pi did not do that is what makes this story so very unique. The humanity he shows this animal, first out of fear, then out of necessity, and eventually out of love, clearly demonstrates his inner character and is what helps to attach you to the main character and really want to know how his terrible plight ends up.

The way the author describes the highs and lows of Pi's struggle are fascinating. While in movies we see castaways and they are always focused on the horizon or fishing, an intrinsically motivated instinct, here in the book we get inside Pi's head and see what he notices, such as how beautiful the schools of fish around him are or how both beautiful and deadly the sunrise in the morning can be. The author's addition of these little details is what makes the book so good and keeps you reading.

Another aspect of this book I found particularly interesting was the inclusion of religions. Before the sinking of the ship and during his life in India, Pi Patel was a deeply religious individual. He was not only Hindu, but also Catholic and Muslim. If your head is spinning in confusion, it ought to be. These religions are all different, and under normal circumstances are irreconcilable. One cannot be all three at once; they contradict each other. But Pi's explanation is so simple and straight forward, I had to have some respect for him. His simple answer was "I want to love God". Such a simple answer breaks down the walls between religions and helps one remember what their true purposes are supposed to be. Then, throughout his struggle at sea, we see his faith as something he cannot let go of, even when his hope has begun to dim immensely. While I am not one to normally attach myself to the religious aspects of books and analyze them, I thought it was clever how this was added.

While I did say it was not a "can't put it down" read, I don't want there to be any confusion as to how interesting the book is. The book is fascinating, but not in an upheaval of emotion kind of way. I imagine the author wrote it in the style that he did to reflect the situation he was writing about. The book is interesting in the capturing of different details of the life of Pi as he is stranded at sea. Our attention is captured by all the little things that are noticed that we would not normally think about when we think castaway. This gives the book an interesting, yet relaxed feeling, as though we were on the boat with Pi, existing and noticing at the same time. We are interested, but we are not crazy mad with intrigue. We are appreciative. Then, when the strange instances occur, which there are a few, the writing style directly resembles that. The pace becomes quicker, the words more poignant, so that we get the same emotional feel as the character we are reading about. The writing style is quite fascinating in that sense. In the final scenes, when Pi is recounting his tale to the investigators who are treating him as though those 277 days lost at sea have fried his brain, we feel the same impatience and anger that Pi feels. This novel is truly written in an interesting way that draws the reader in and helps to mimic the emotions in the novel through its writing style.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is not a difficult read, but it is not a quick read. It is a nice, relaxed read. I would recommend it to anyone. I plan on seeing the movie, but I will most likely be disappointed, let's be honest.

As for the cover, I actually borrowed this book from my library in the form of an e-book on my Kindle, so I didn't really have a cover to look at. I chose the cover that I did because I thought it was interesting and reflected some key aspects of the book.


Check out the trailer here

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Any one who knows me, which is actually a very limited number of people, knows that Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors. She writes about realistic teen issues in a way that does not sugar coat anything and gives a hard core, true insight into many of them. So, when her latest book came out, I was very eager to read it.

This book centers around three teens, all connected (this to be explained later) by various incidents in their lives. First we have Mikayla. She is seventeen and madly in love with Dylan. Their love is that passionate, first teen love. They are all about each other and all over each other. In a very predictable way, Mikayla ends up becoming pregnant. She must decide what to do with the baby and then deal with the effects this decision will have on her relationships.

Next up is Shane. Shane is a homosexual teenage male. He has to deal with his sexual orientation on top of having a four year old sister who is diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, meaning her body is  slowly deteriorating. We follow Shane's story as he deals with the illness of his sister and finally finding love.

Finally, we have Harley. Harley is a fourteen year old girl who is dealing with her dad getting remarried. She is also dealing with coming of age and getting attention from boys. Naturally, she is attracting the wrong type of boy and ends up passing out and being raped by her "boyfriend" Lucas.

Now, if my descriptions of these characters and their problems seem a little bland and detached, it is because that is exactly how I feel. Normally, I find Hopkins' works so riveting and get so emotionally invested in her characters that I have, on more than one occasion, cried at the end of her novels. But this one, I just didn't care. If I hadn't had this book on loan from the library, I probably would have set it down and walked away from it for a while. I just didn't feel that character development, that need to connect to the character, to empathize, to care. To me it was like people watching at the mall. You are observing, slightly interested, but in the end you really don't care about them.

I did find out, upon reading the ending note, that this is a companion novel to her first adult (and no, not in a fifty shades kind of way) novel Triangles. Though I have had this book over a year (shush Katherine Elizabeth!), I have not read it. I am wondering if I had read Triangles first whether or not I would have been able to connect to the characters in Tilt better. I say this because one of the annoying things about this book is that it hints at the parental issues affecting the character's decisions, but doesn't clarify what those issues are. So, I was annoyed at that the whole time. But, it is through the adults in the novel that the characters are connected. I am intrigued to decipher these connections, so I will be reading Triangles soon.

So all in all, I did not love this book. I didn't even really like it. I did not take much way from it, and do not feel as though I was affected by it at all. It just was.

Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E.L. James

So, after a year of hearing about these books, I decided I had to know what everyone was talking about. I read all three books this summer, and well....

I am going to get straight to the point. I don't really get what the big deal is. I am not entirely sure why these books have topped so many others in sales (including my beloved Harry Potter series which makes me want to buy mass copies just to set the world straight again). The plot was predictable, especially if you knew that it was a fanfic of Twilight, since it was essentially the same plot. Truth be told, I didn't hate it, but I found it to be far from the literary genius I was told it was.

Meet Ana Steele. Quite, shy, naturally beautiful girl book nerd. She gets roped into helping her best friend out with a favor when she is sick. She goes to interview Mr. Christian Grey for the university's student newspaper. Turns out he is hot, really hot. She is infatuated by/with him from the start, but clearly believes he is out of her league.

Meet Christian Grey. Ridiculously successful CEO, who upon meeting her, is instantly obsessed with Ana. He is your classic "beat the expected odds" adopted child. His birth mother was crack whore and he was rescued by a doctor after they found him locked in the apartment with her dead body when he was four. So, that is kind of a spoiler, but not really. It becomes very obvious he is messed up psychologically when you find out about his red room of pain.... (Note, before anyone who is into S&M gets all soap-boxy on me, I am not saying that lifestyle choice means you are psychologically messed up. Christian admits to it, and in fact, that is the reason for the title of the book.)

Okay, also not a spoiler since every person who picks up these books is, at least at this point in their publication, well aware that there is some interesting sex going on in this book. Actually, I am not sure that interesting is the proper adjective here. Perhaps it is because I have been desensitized by the television, pay cable, and the Internet, but the sex in this book, while far beyond my personal comfort level, wasn't all that bizarre to me. The contract, yeah, that was weird. I also think that since I knew there was kinkiness in the book before I read it, I found it less shocking. In fact, I picked up the book expecting much stranger things, the way people were talking about it. Is it weird sex? Yeah. It is a power struggle dynamic in strange relationship thing I don't really get? Yeah. But in all honesty, it could have been much worse. I think stranger things happen in college than in this book, but what do I know...I went to a state school.

So, while I didn't hate it, I definitely had some major issues with it. Like the frequency of sex. Now, it is my personal belief that unless you are a porn star acting in a underdeveloped plot, relationship issues cannot simply be sexed away. While a good tumble in the sheets may make you forget why you are mad at someone temporarily, the issue still arises. Well, Christian Grey needs to fix all problems by screwing Ana's brains out (or whipping them, flogging them, corking them in?). So, all these women who are like "I wish I had a relationship like them....I wish my significant other loved me like Christian loves Ana....", if this is your true desire, simply remove your backbone and be willing to cave into his every carnal desire. I mean, you don't really need one in a relationship like that anyway. You're on your back most of the time and when you are not, he can prop you up with the chains and handcuffs.

It is my belief that the reasons these books have reached the popularity level they have are as follows:

1. People were told not to read them because they were immoral.
2. Christian Grey is rich, handsome, and is willing to change EVERYTHING about himself to make Ana happy. I am pretty sure that is what every woman wants.
3. There are many unhappily married women out there.

So, all in all, like I said, I didn't hate them. I actually found the email exchanges between the characters really cute and witty at times. Those, actually, seemed like the most realistic aspects of the relationship to me. But, I have once again learned my lesson. If there are screaming fan girls telling me how good a book is based solely on the lead male character, I should beware. Damn you Twilight fans, you got me again!

As for the covers, they are kind of neat. Simplistic, highlighting the event that is most focused on in that particular book; and by event, I clearly mean sexual encounter. Are these books worth a read? Hard to say. I personally would buy Harry Potter and read it all over again. After all this time? Always.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

So, for the first time in months I was able to sit and read a book in one day. It was the perfect way to spend this rainy Sunday, and I must say, this book was a good choice. It was dark and glum, just as the day was.

I originally had set my radar on this book after finishing its prequel, Wicked Lovely, a year ago. I had tried to inter-library loan it, but something happened and it never arrived. With all the craziness that is my life, I forgot about it. Then, one of my students that I talk about books with regularly was reading it and I once again put it on my list.

This book is part of a companion series by Melissa Marr, and though I loved her first book immensely, and I love her writing style, I did not LOVE this book. I liked it, but it lacked something for me....

The premise of this book centers around Leslie. Leslie's life has recently sunken to all new lows. Her mom up and abandoned her family, her dad has become a drunk, and her brother is into hardcore drugs. Her brother is into hardcore drugs so deeply that he is willing to do unspeakable things to settle his debt with his dealers, including selling his sister's body.

So, with all this awfulness in her life, Leslie is looking for an escape, and outlet to focus her fear and sadness. She decides to get a tattoo. Unfortunately for her, her tattoo artist is a halfbreed faery of the Dark Court. The tattoo she chooses isn't ordinary tribal art, it is part of an ink exchange spell. It binds her with the king of the Dark Court. He uses this connection with her to feed the faeries of his court who get their nourishment off the negative emotions (fear, rage, jealous, pain) of others, humans and faeries alike. She basically turns in to a conduit, absorbing all the emotions around her and funneling to him, who in turns absorbs them and then distributes them among his followers. With her being damaged as she has been, it only adds to the intoxicating effects, literally taking weeks from her. She exists in a doped like stupor, essentially becoming an addict just like her family members.

What I liked about this book it the interesting aspect of the inclusion of several different types of faery lore into one. The author takes years of lore and all aspects, the good and bad, and creates this world where they coexist through the novels. Her descriptions of the different types of fey are unique and vivid. I also appreciate the time she took into researching tattoos. The details included added to the realism of the reasoning, method, and escape Leslie sought through this means.

What I didn't like is that I felt the climax was lame. She chooses to fight, but not in the strong female protagonist way the author had portrayed Leslie's counterpart in her first novel. It seemed as though Leslie's decision to overcome was more of a whim than a struggle.

I also felt there was a lack of resolution. The ending, including the epilogue, left too many unanswered questions about the background of some of the other characters that were introduced. Perhaps I will be enlightened by the next book in the set, but I can say I am not nearly as anxious to read that one.

I must say, though, I found the cover to be intriguing. The tattoo the author had designed for this novel is also a fantastic piece of artwork, really representing the character in which is linked. Overall this book wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as I thought the premise could be....

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

I know it has been a while since I posted, and though I have read nine or ten books between this and the last post, I had to write about this book immediately.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Ellen Hopkins' works, they are all fabulous. She writes in poetic form, using multiple formations and perspectives. All her works are edgy, gritty, and blunt. Her first book, Crank, was written about her daughter's dive into meth and the consequences it had on her and her family. The majority of her books are YA, but she has recently delved into adult fiction as well.

The purpose behind this little biography is to support this statement: Once again, Hopkins has taken a hard hitting teenage (and adult, really) problem (striving to be perfect) and developed it into such an intertwining story that it makes you look at things from a whole new perspective.


This book is told from the perspective of four different teens whose lives are all intertwined. (For those of you who may be afraid of getting lost with four narrators, you won't. Hopkins develops each character's voice so indepthly that the switch between personalities is seamless and easy to follow). The one thing connecting all of them is the pressure to fit into other people's idea of what perfection is. As each of them struggles with trying to be who they are meant to be while meeting the expectations that others place on them, we get a shocking view of the kind of pressure put on people by outside influences and how deeply these influences can root themselves into our subconscious and motivate our day to day interactions.

First, you have Cara. Cara, on the outside, is your poster child of success. She gets great grades, accepted to Stanford, athletic and comes from an influential family. But, underneath all that pressure to be perfect, she is dealing with her brother's attempted suicide (that she is forbidden by her mother to mention) and her concept of what love is. She faces the rebuke of the world when her facade come crashing down via cyberbulling and mass texting. Through this she is forced to confront other people's notions of what she should be and what will actually make her happy.

Then, you have Sean. Sean is your high school athlete A-lister. He is the best of the best and works hard to be there. What he can't earn with workouts and a strict diet, he supplements with a cycle of steroids. But, despite the physical benefit of the cycle (bulking up), he now has to deal with all those nasty side effects. Top that with losing the girl he planned his whole life around (Cara) and we see what a monster the pressure to be the best can produce.

Kendra is striving to be a model. She's pretty, popular, just smart enough to get by, and determined. The only thing holding her back from being on the runway? The "bump" in her nose and those few extra pounds. She can easily fix those things with a rich step dad willing to pay for surgery and a prescription from her agent to help her forget about how hungry she really is. The questions for her becomes what parts, physical and emotional, of herself is she willing to give up to achieve her goal? And, when she reaches perfection, will someone finally love her?

Lastly we have Andre. Andre grew up privileged, and has every opportunity he needs to be successful. The only thing is, he doesn't know what he wants to do. When you come from a family that worked hard to overcome racial stereotypes and be successful, wanting to follow your heart and dreams doesn't exactly sync up to their expectations.

These four teens battle who they want to be with who every expects them to be in story that lines all the stories up to make you realize the world is really not as big as we would think it is, and that everyone has something going on it their lives.


*Special note - This book is a companion to her previous work Impulse. In that work you meet Cara's brother and realize what a toll his parents' expectations took on him...