2015 Reading: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (13 books)

I listened to these straight through on my way to work or any car ride that would take longer than 20 minutes. All 13. I originally started them because I had seen the movie and I heard that Tim Curry read the audiobooks and then I just wanted to know more about them. It's very seldom that you get a young children's novel (or set of novels) that have no happy endings in them at all. (I'm fond of Summer of My German Soldier and Jacob Have I Loved as well.)

I really enjoyed listening to them. I can honestly say that there were parts that made me laugh out loud and other parts that made me grip the steering wheel in anger.

This brings my total up to 44 for the year so far and I'm in the middle of another that I hope to finish before New Year's. Better than I was thinking. Still worse than last year.

2015 Reading: Shattered Mirror

This was another one of those books that was on my shelf that I still had not read. I knew it would be a fast read so I went ahead and powered through it. I've read this author before and I know she was a young girl at the time she wrote this and I can't help noticing that it's a little obvious. I liked her other book Demon in My View, but I was much younger when I read it. I guess tastes do change as you get older. Or something.

Another one of those teen angst vampire/witch dangerous romance books. Teenage hunter witch ends up falling for vampire dude, angst and despair. The end. Blah. I don't care. This is one of the books that might fall victim to my next library purge since I think just once is enough. I mean, it was a good book, but it's not something memorable that I'm going to think of fondly ad reread for nostalgia purposes. We'll see.

On to the next.

2015 Reading: The Book of David

FINALLY! An anonymous book that doesn't end in the main character dying!!!! The whole time I was reading this book I kept waiting for something to happen. Maybe his father would beat him to death, maybe his football friend would, maybe he would commit suicide because he just couldn't handle having to hide anymore. But at last, a happy ending for one of these journal-type books.

I really enjoy this series of books and I wish there were more. I know that when I started with Go Ask Alice oh so many years ago, it was really what got me started with my love of books about teenager drug addicts. I don't really know what that says about me as a person, but I don't really care either. They are quick and easy to read, but they also have that something extra. I don't usually like diary type books, but they don't really read like most of the others, either.

This makes number 30 of the year, which is not exactly what I hoped for, but I've been really lazy this year. On to the next one, I suppose.

2015 Reading: Letting Ana Go

I don't know what it is, but I LOVE books about teen angst (especially surrounded by drugs for some reason). These Anonymous diary-style books are so entertaining without taking up much time in my reading schedule.

THIS ONE, however, really started to piss me off. The subject of anorexia is something that I am not familiar with personally (and if you look at me, you'll KNOW that's true) but it's something that I've thought about quite a bit (not to try it, but just as a subject of intrigue and concern). I just don't get it. I understand looking in the mirror and not liking what you see. I do it all the time. But to begin to see ribs and various other bones poking out, hollowed cheeks, and sunken eyes and STILL manage to have the mindset that you are fat is just mind-boggling to me.

Not to mention that the main character of the book started out at a whopping 128... If I LOST 128 lbs. I would STILL be overweight for my age, height, and bone structure. And she wanted to lost MORE?!

Seriously. Mind-boggling.

I had to get a big bowl of ice cream after I finished reading this book.

And I enjoyed every single bite.

2015 Reading: You're Never Weird On the Internet (Almsot)

I have been waiting for my library to process this book FOREVER! It finally arrived and I literally tore through it in a day. It was quirky and funny, with just the right amount of nerd.

There are so many things that I never knew about Felicia that were really interesting to find out. Plus, she tells some of the best stories. Having watched her in shows and interviews and her vlog, as well as other videos and stuff that she's done with other people, you can tell that this whole book is in her voice and it's like she's talking to you over a cup of very caffeinated coffee.

2015 Reading: The Nursing Home Murder

In an effort to read more of the books that I actually own rather than piling up book after book from the library, I decided to finish this book (because it's part of an omnibus). I am still very much enjoying this series, and it even inspired me to entertain the notion of perhaps getting into other British mystery books (maybe Agatha Christie will be next).

The one thing that I have to really say about these books, other than how witty they are (in a very dry sense) and that when I read them I mentally have Benedict Cumberbatch's voice narrating in my head. So, that's a plus.

The plots for these books are pretty much the same, there's a murder and Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn interviews that various characters who all have their quirks and then at the very end, he saves the day and solves the mystery, the end. Not much in the way of substance and each book doesn't really read into the next with a discernible over arching plot, but it's a good filler between books.

2015 Reading: Hidden

I don't really know what made me put this book on my list but I'm glad I did. I have no idea why I like books about young people struggling with their sexual identity and coming to terms with prejudice and first loves, but boy do I.

The first person narrative of this book was very entertaining, I feel. The thought process of the young man while he's going through these very hard times (being sent to a facility to "fix" him, homophobic parents, being all alone on the run to save his own sanity) is incredibly funny yet still shows the heartbreak of everything.

It ends on the biggest cliffhanger in the world and I am kind of both happy and sad about that. I want to know if he finds his mother. I need to know if he saves his boyfriend from being sent back to that horrible hospital with its rapist orderlies and painful, illegal medical procedures. Ugh, I need to know more.

There was one of those little sections in that back where they give discussion topics about the book and ask the author questions and he said that there was no plans to make another book in the story but I really wish that he would.

Now that I have finished that and returned all my previous books to the library, it's time for me to really crack down on trying to read books from my own collection. I've got a lot of unread books on my shelf and I'm going to start working on them right now.

2015 Reading: Emergent

I finished this book some time ago, I've just been busy/lazy (and yes, that is possible at the same time) and I forgot to blog about it. This was a fine conclusion to the series. I like the open ending and the fact that everything remains up in the air NOT even in a good position, but literally could go either way. Clones are running around rampant, except some that are going back to being slaves, humans are the bad guys except when their not... It's just as confusing as real life and I kinda like that concept right now. Maybe it was the frame of mins I was in while I was reading the book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I started reading a few books after this one and I ended up discarding most of them. I finally started another one and I hope to have it done within the next few days but I never know when I'll be in the mood to just sit down and immerse myself in a book.

Hopefully soon.

2015 Reading: Beta

I knew of the author from her Gingerbread series, but these were new and I figured I ouwld get the library to order them so I could try them out. Turned out to be a pretty good idea.

I didn't LOVE the book, but it did keep me interested and I have the second book all ready to go.

This story line has been done before. Several times.

Clone realizes it is its own person and DOES have feelings and wants to be released from the slavery that its creators have put it in. Rebellion. Feelings. Love interest. Danger. Shocking ending.

Meh.

2015 Reading: Dexter is Dead

I did not know this book existed! I thought that Dexter's Final Cut would be the last one! I was so excited when I saw this, I immediately checked it out and put it before all of the other books I had originally lined up to read next.

Ugh, I forgot how much I love Dexter's sassy inner monologue. There are some things that I know I've forgotten about the book series since it's been a while since I read the last one, but I got the hang of it eventually. I sometimes wish that the TV show had taken the same route as the books because, in some ways, I think that would have been a far more interesting track. I would love to see how the characters developed on the screen as they did in the book: Doakes with no arms or legs, LaGuerta dead WAY sooner, Brain surviving and being a part of Dexter's life, the kids becoming tiny serial killers... It would have been interesting, to say the least.

And now I'm sad. I knew that this was going to be the last book and, I mean, come on, the title says it all "DEXTER IS DEAD" but part of me still didn't want to believe that was the way it was going to happen. I don't want him to be dead. I mean, he and Brian finally got to hang out a little more and bond and kill people together and their Dark Passengers finally met and it was beautiful and I had the biggest smile on my face and IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!

I need him to come back.

One thing that I think I said about Dexter in my (ill-fated) vlog, or maybe I just thought about it in my head and never said it out loud, was that book!Dexter is a true psychopath. It was very obvious by the way he was very willing to give up his kids to Deb without really a second thought and all he was concerned about was his survival. Now, show!Dexter was merely a man-made (re: Harry-made) sociopath who was raised in a very unhealthy way. Show!Dexter had feelings! He cared about people other than himself and therefore was not beyond help. HARRY was the one who thought so and led him to the life of killing successfully. A little bit of therapy (which he should have had anyway considering the way in which he was found after his mother's death) and he would have been a high functioning member of society. Harry repeatedly told Dexter that he was a sociopath until he finally believed it to be true, but he wasn't. Show!Dexter cared about his family, his kids, his sister. He loved Rita and eventually Hannah... He experienced fear, pride, sorrow. All things that psychopaths and even sociopaths do not experience.

Book!Dexter was a killer by nature. Show!Dexter was a killer by nurture.

2015 Reading: The Lovely Bones

I had seen this movie for the first time a couple of years ago and I remember thinking it was absolutely magnificent. I loved everything about it; the setting, the look of the movie, and ESPECIALLY the fact that Stanley Tucci was the weird pedo-creepy neighbour.

This, I think, is the perfect telling of what happens to the survivors of people when they die. Thoughts are so fleeting sometimes and they can run from one thing to another very quickly, but after a tragedy, they always seem to always return to the sadness if just for a little while.

The times that Susie is watching is with each character are the times that they are thinking of her. That's why she flits from person to person and stays with them a certain amount of time. By the end of the book, she spends less and less time on Earth because her family and friends are finally starting to move on. It's all very beautiful when you think about it as well as being incredibly sad, but I guess that's the way life is sometimes.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm very glad that I read it because it explained some of the things that I really didn't understand in the movie (namely, the "heaven" scenes in the gazebo that just went over my head when I was watching it).

Onward!

2015 Reading: One Man Guy

This book was kinda cute. I personally thought that the characters were a little too young, but then maybe that's just because when I was 14 I had NO clue what the hell was going on. I was a late bloomer, okay? There are things I STILL don't know.

The one thing that I have to complain about (well, not really complain per se, but it's just an irk I had), was the emphasis on the nationality of the main character. Was it really necessary to the story to go on and on about him being Armenian? Did it really enrich the story? For me, no. I would have been just fine if that part had been left out.

Other than that, I thought that the characters were good and the writing was excellent and I reall enjoyed the story. It made me smile.

2015 Reading: Twisted

I DEVOURED this book.

I started reading it on my lunch break at work and the next thing I knew, I was 50 pages in. Then I came home and basically swallowed the rest.

This book was funny and heartbreaking and dark and I loved it.

There's something about stream of consciousness narration that makes things seems real. I know that it denotes an unreliable narrator and you only get to see one side of things that are going on, but I loved being in this kid's head.

And it didn't end all rainbows and puppies and shit. It just ended. Life was not suddenly better all around for everyone, but there was hope and then nothing. It left it open to whatever and I really liked that.

This author has done that before with me. I really enjoyed Speak and this was sort of in the same vein, only a lot funnier and more outgoing.

2015 Reading: Confessions of Son of Sam

I have been terrible at reading this year so far. I find myself ordering books and picking out books that I think are going to be awesome and that I am going to love, but then when I actually begin reading them, I lose interest right away and then they sit there while I watch NetFlix.

However, I stuck with this one and actually finished it. Probably because serial killers. 'Nuff said.

I had never really read in depth about David Berkowitz before. Sure I had read some of the case files about his victims and the nature of the crimes, but never about the man himself. This was a very nice change from that. Especially since it was written by someone who was in contact with him. There are several conversations transcribed verbatim within the book and I really enjoy that. I love getting in depth about people and their state of mind. Since this was written from the transcripts right after he was arrested and during his trial, the events are still fresh and the way he describes everything is very much in the moment instead of a remembrance from years after the fact.

It was fascinating to read about how David (because we're on a first name basis) tried to blame insanity and demons for his wanting to kill people and everyone wanted to believe that except for one psychologist. It's funny how no one ever wants to believe that sane people are capable of things like murder. They always want something else to blame because if an otherwise rational person can commit atrocities like that, then they fear that they are also capable and some people just don't like to think about that.

This was a very interesting read and I would definitely like to read more books like this in the future.

2015 Reading: The Prose Edda

This was just a really short little read in between things. I've been reading a bunch of books about Norse Mythology (I didn't credit any of them in the 2015 reading because I mostly skimmed them for the good bits and by 'good bits' I mean the parts about Loki) and this one is said to be the end-all-be-all of the tales of the gods.

Some of it can be a little confusing. I wish there were a timeline I could follow just straight forward instead of different tales that go over multiple time periods in one story, but that might be a bit much to ask for when thinking about Mythology. I like hearing about the things the gods did and the shenanigans they got themselves into by being stupid. It was a fun read.

I don't really know what I am going to read next, but I have some ideas.

2015 Reading: The Fermata

So, I think this book came up as a recommendation when I finished reading Crash. And now I know why.

The description immediately caught my attention and I knew it would be right up my alley. I also knew that it would be hell to get. I had to inter-library loan it from a college in Alabama because NO ONE had it.

This man has problems. However, I can't say that I wouldn't do some of the things he does if given the opportunity. Plus, you have to admit, he could have done a lot worse with this unique power of his. I don't even known what I would do if I had the ability to stop time. I like to think that the novelty of seeing people naked would wear off after a while and get kind of boring. Not for this guy, though.

This book took forever to finish because I finally got put on full-time at work and I am attempting to start exercising.

I don't know what's coming next, but we'll see.

2015 Reading: The Hacker Series (4 books)

Yet another set of books that is a blatant rip-off of Fifty Shades of Grey, which was just a Twilight fanfic to begin.

Why does everyone in these types of book have to have the most stupid and tragic back story possible? There's always death and rape and stuff and no one is happy. At least with 50 Shades, she was just borderline asexual, but then you had Edward/Christian who was abused and shit.

Then again, people who were happy and had nothing wrong with their childhoods might possible see how very not okay the relationships in these books are. Seriously. None of this is healthy.

Same plot is same. Billionaire asshole wants to control the life of naive fucktard with low self image and mental faculties. With sex. Lots and lots of sex. Too much sex. Because apparently a turned-on female is completely incapable to rational thought until she gets the D. There are people out to get one or both of them for some stupid reason or another and then they fight and have more sex and get married after knowing each other for less than a month.

The end.

Oh no wait, there's going to be more.

Crap.

2015 Reading: Shake the Devil Off

This book was a suggestion from a friend/coworker of mine who I recently learned likes stories of killers and kidnappers almost as mush as I do. Almost...

Despite the ramblings on about New Orleans and Katrina (they were not the only ones to get damage, goddamnit!!!) this book was interesting. I like that they put most of the focus on his tours of the military, sometimes with locations that coincided with those of the Marines in Generation Kill which I also enjoyed reading. PTSD is a serious thing and when people try to ignore it and blame other things, then they are only fooling themselves.

Zach's suffering, great enough to kill and cut up his girlfriend then jump off a building, was intense. Even the people who knew him said they saw the signs yet no one did a thing about it. It's amazing what people will ignore whe it has nothing to do with them directly.

All in all, good book. Thanks Kelly.

2015 Reading: Enter A Murderer

I really love the main detective's sense of humor. He's harsh and inappropriately insensitive, but he's also really funny and goofy at points. I recently purchased the first 9 books and I look forward to getting through all of them.

2015 Reading: A Man Lay Dead

So, there is a story to why I started reading this series that's sort of like if Agatha Christie wrote Sherlock Holmes books...

Benedict Cumberbatch.

I set about getting any and all books that he read aloud for the audio books and there are three of them from this series. I ended up liking the stories as well as the voice telling them, so I decided to read them in order.

Before I found out there are 32 of them...

But, I still decided to press on and this was the first one.

The writing can be a little hard to follow in some places because they tend to introduce a whole bunch of characters at the same time, and also because the post WWI British dialogue can be a little daunting to someone from the states, but other than that I do enjoy the books.

The main character is almost as rude as Sherlock, but makes more jokes and actually has feelings most of the time.

I look forward to reading more of them.

2015 Reading: The Amityville Horror

I enjoyed this book. It was like half fiction and half non-fiction. Sort of like that book I read about The Ken and Barbie Killers. A little fun book to read on the side that's also historical an fantastical.

This one was supposed to be part of my attempt to read the books that I already own and still have yet to read, but then as soon as I was done with this, I went straight for a library book because I am awesome like that.

I have to admit that for about three seconds, I was worried that I might be creeped out to sleep in the dark, but then I remembered that I am a grown up and that would be stupid.

2015 Reading: Walks With Men

Okay, I know that I am not keeping up with any of this and I am ready WAY slower than I did last year, but... *sigh* yeah, I have no excuse. I'm just lazy.

Let's try to catch up.

This book had NO PLOT WHATSOEVER... Like, at all.

There's a chick who has an affair with a dude, breaks up with him, marries him, and then he leaves (disappears actually) and gives her everything. The End.

What?!

2015 Reading: 32AA

This girl blames her small boobs in all the bad things that happen in her life.

Ugh. 

The end.

2015 Reading: Dirty Secret

Officially, this book is called Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding, but you can see how that would be a mouthful to say all the time.

It is no secret that I love all of those hoarder shows that they play on TV (being I not-so-secretly enjoy other people's pain, especially stupid people), and this book was just up my alley. I know that compulsive hoarding is a medical condition (I suspected I was in the early stages when I was younger) but it is still one of the more ridiculous and laughable ones sometimes. I know it's not funny for the people who have it, but still... Don't judge me.

I liked this book. So much so that I put it in my recommendation display at the library in which I work.

On a completely different note, I have decided to not read the rest of the the Dollanger Family series (Flowers in the Attic, etc.) because I find that I just don't care any more. Plus, I made a promise that I would read the books I actually own and have been sitting on my shelves unread for years. So there.

2015 Reading: Crossfire Series

Jesus Christ.

Okay, you know everything bad I ever said about 50 Shades? I am officially taking it ALL back. OFFICIALLY.

Because the Crossfire series, which apparently I am not even done with yet, ugh, is the biggest pile of garbage I have ever put into my eyeballs!

Everyone in these books needs serious psychological help. ALL OF THEM.

Like, the main guy killed a man.

...in cold blood...

And the chick was all like "Oh, you really DO care about me! You poor dear, let me take care of you..." and then they go on having WAY too much sex while NOT talking about their problems, rather just letting them build up until they blow up at one another and then have very not healthy "make-up sex" in addition to the too much sex they are already having.

None of this is okay. None of this is good. I don't think it's possible to have THAT MUCH sex back to back to back. Chaffing is not fun, people,

Good God, even I was getting sore from reading these books.

2015 Reading: Petals on the Wind

I have no idea why I even bothered to read this book. I also don't know why I went ahead and ordered the third one in the series. I don't know what it is about this series, but I kind of just love hearing about the pain of the family and seeing the older girl (now the ONLY girl, spoiler) make such BAD decisions.

On to the next one, I suppose. Eventually.

2015 Reading: Dirty Daddy

I love Bob Saget. I think he is hilarious and witty and I could actually just listen to him forever.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be: crude humor, a little bit of insight, and  sexy stories about John Stamos.