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Welcome to The Mind of a (Book)Worm ! Sophie and I created this as a method of starting a book club without having to read the same books,...

Sunday, November 22, 2015

A New Me

Hello, guys!! So this book I read in two days. I didn't even realize it only took that amount of time, it felt like a week! Ah, it was super good, too! This review is for Every Day by David Levithan. Previous to this I had read Will Grayson, Will Grayson co-authored with John Green, but I don't think I've read anything else by him. Anywho, I had picked this book up after having a bad day so I bought it 'cause I wanted to treat myself.

Here's a summary:
Every day a new person. Every day A must learn how to adjust to the new body it is placed in. A's soul travels body to body every day. One day A spends a day in the body of a boy named Justin. This day A finds her. A finds Rhiannon. And nothing is the same again. It's hard because A knows but she doesn't know. A wants to put roots down now. It's hard travelling day by day, nothing constant.

Okay, I don't know what else to say in the overview without giving too much away so I'm going to leave it there. This was super interesting to read. It is hard to describe A because the soul travels to a new body irregardless of gender but always around the same age. I flew through this though and it was well written. I enjoyed the many bits of wisdom A had to offer because of it's unique point of view on life. I felt that although A kept moving around in different situations I could still relate to some of the things A felt.

One thing I always wondered was how Rhiannon felt the entire time. It must have been odd to have someone come up to you and say that they change bodies every day. I suppose I won't have to wonder too much because good ol' David Levithan wrote Another Day which is a companion to it written in her point of view. I want to read it but I don't know what I'll think. I hope it's as good.

Okay, I'll keep it short and sweet! Happy reading!
Sophie :)

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Beth: TBR Jars - The Joys & Horrors

tbr jar
Today's post is going to be about TBR jars: the joys and the horrors!
Before I got Goodreads, I had no idea about 'TBR' in general.
If you didn't know, TBR stands for To Be Read, and it is basically books you'd like to read in the future, whether that be next week or next year.
You may be thinking "if I can have it all on Goodreads, why on earth do I need a jar too?"
Well, firstly, let me explain what a TBR jar is.
It's basically a jar filled with slips of paper which have the names of books you want to read on them.
I've had a TBR jar for quite a while now, and I can definitely see the benefits and the downsides of having one. I'm going to list them below!
Benefits
  • Being controlled with your spending. It is pretty hard to resist purchasing books, but having the excitement of picking a book from your TBR jar helps you do this.
  • The excitement. Whenver you need to buy a new book (if you haven't got one to read next), then you dig in to pick a new read.
  • They look so pretty, and they're really creative.
  • There's loads of great ideas for them, some of which I'll tell you about below.
Downsides
  • They're not very portable. It would be slightly weird to carry around a glass jar full of your favorite book names.
  • You have to find a jar. Okay, this isn't the hardest, but it does require some effort.
  • It takes a while to write them all out, especially if you have a long TBR list.
Ideas
  • Plain paper or lined paper: Best if you want to be quick!
  • Patterened & colored paper: To be extra pretty.
  • Oragami: Specifically paper stars, can be really nice.
  • Watercolor or painted paper, also really pretty!
  • Decorate your jar, with either stickers, paper cut outs or glass paint.
As you can see from the featured photo in this post, my massive TBR jar is no where near full. I'm going to be filling it with watercolor and plain paper strips.
Thanks for reading!
-Beth
May your shelves (and TBR jar) overflow with books!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Olly

Hi! Almost caught up on all my reviews! I've been a very busy reader lately. I read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon recently. Yeah that took about two days to get through. Honestly it was soo good that I ripped through it like it was confetti. I won this book through a giveaway on Instagram, thanks to @tarks_books. (She is a wonderful user, go check her out!) This book is also nominated as one of the best YA books of the year on Goodreads as well as best debut author.

Here's a summary:
Madeline Wittier is sick. Not actually sick but she could be at any second. Anything could trigger it. She has a rare disease which basically makes her allergic. To the entire world. And she's perfectly happy. It's all she's known for the seventeen years of her life that has gone by as she listlessly lives life in her pristine, white house with her mother and her day nurse, Carla. Madeline is content with life - there is nothing she can do to change it, until she sees the moving truck next door. One look is all it took. Oliver and Madeline click. He shows her the world from his perspective. There is no turning back.

This book was wonderful. It is full of literary references and awesome drawings and sketches and diagrams. They are honestly so cool. I love how Madeline challenges her world. Okay I don't mind that it took Oliver to show her what it was like but I think it would've been equally as cool if she befriended a girl. I mean, who doesn't love a kick-a female character, am I right? Anyway, I flew through the pages. This was an especially quick read after I finished Mosquitoland (there's review for that one, check two previous posts). I know this probably sounds repetitive but honestly Madeline is super funny and poignant. I loved Carla. She was so sweet and she wasn't afraid to do the right thing.

I would be lying if I said there wasn't a plot twist though. It definitely takes you by surprise but I'm especially glad it happened. My only real kind of beef I had with this book was toward the end. I didn't really see how feasible that what happened would actually happen. The plot twist was super out of the blue. You don't really see it coming until the two or three pages before it happens. I had a slight inkling it would happen but I still had that bit of doubt in me.

Since I talked about the cover art in the three previous posts, I figured why not for this one, too. It truly catches the eye and is extremely detailed. Yoon's husband, David, drew all of the art for the novel and it truly is intricate and well representative of the novel. The design enhances the novel and I loved the drawings that were in the novel. It made me relate to Madeline more. I could definitely see myself doing things that she did if I was bored and couldn't leave the house. Ever.

This was one of those books I would read over and over again. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a surprise and a quick read!

Happy reading!
Sophie

Beauty Queens and Red Lollipops

Hi, guys! Going for a third post of the night. I have been super behind on these, but I promise I will do my best trying to keep up in the following months. It has been and continues to be super busy with school and work so bear with me here! This review is for Dumplin' by Julie Murphy. I had heard a lot about how fabulous this book is and it was even chosen as a book for the September OwlCrate box dubbed Leading Ladies. Intrigued and very trusting of the world of Bookstagram, I picked this up whilst in Chicago on a college tour. (How could I not stop by a book store while visiting? There are so many I couldn't pass up the opportunity to support locally!!) Anyway, I just finished the last few words in that hilarious, sweet book.

Here's my version of an overview:
Willowdean Dickson is a fierce fat girl and she doesn't give a hoot what others think of her. Sure she may be a heavy girl but hey, that doesn't mean she should not be one single bit proud of who she is. Her mother, former Miss Blue Bonnet in her tiny town of Clover City, is thin and still fits in the dress she won in years ago. Willowdean is compatriots with the wonderful and sassy Ellen Dryver and it seems that nothing could really go wrong. Until Willowdean meets the gorgeous Bo from Holy Cross. They work together at the local fast food restaurant and it seems that maybe Bo may be looking for more than just friends. This turns Will's life upside down and causes her to question who she really is. Her insecurities rise to the surface and in a defiant act to prove - to whom, she isn't sure - that she is Willowdean and she is fabulous, she enters the coveted pageant with an unlikely gang to stir up the twiggy so-called perfect images of beauty.

I loved Willowdean. She was hilarious and her insecurities are something that everyone can relate to. Okay that being said, she did frustrate me a little bit at the beginning but she was such a good character overall that I can't help but root for her. I love that she wasn't afraid to be who she was and that s=nothing seemed to stop her. But the version of herself that she thought she was turns out to be someone completely different but that's okay. We must accept our true selves for others to want to accept them too. Her story is funny like Mim's but not in the same way. In Mim's story, it's a bit of a cynical outlook but I like how Willowdean tries so hard to be positive but knows that we can't always be happy with ourselves. We all look at ourselves in the mirror and what we see is totally different than what others perceive. One of my favorite quotes from the book is about faking confidence. She acknowledges how hard it is to put on that facade and that it's okay not to fake it. Sometimes asking for help is the best we can do for ourselves.

I also was in love with this cover design, too.  It was perfect for what the whole story was about and I loved the back of it even more (I snapped a pic of it and posted it on our Instagram. You can check it out there if you'd like. I love the Dumplin' pose too. It's sassy but also very sweet and it fills you with confidence. At least that's how I feel about it. There's something to be said for those who work it and can command a room just by walking in. It's kind of enchanting and whatever they do, they do it with so much confidence that those around them just are enraptured with them.

Anyway, it was a very lovely read from Julie Murphy. I hope to read her first novel Side Effects May Very soon! I need to get my hands on a copy!

Happy reading and enjoy your weekend!
Sophie

I am Mim Malone

Hello! I was recently asked to read Mosqitoland by David Arnold by my boss and I FREAKING LOVE IT. It was one of the best books I have read in all of my reading career. I could not help but laugh and cry and smile the entire time I read this.

A quick synopsis here:
Mary Iris Malone, better known as Mim, has been dragged from her beloved Ashland, Ohio to Mississippi by her father and his new-found wife. Her parents recently split and her father dropped Breaking News on her head then dragged her to Mississippi to start a new, "perfect" family. Her mom remains in Ohio but moves to Cleveland. When Mim catches word that her beautiful, Brit mother is sick someone and in need she hops a Greyhound bus north, toward her mom and toward her past. Through the detours and the odd ball characters that board the bus, Mim rides anxiously, awaiting the moment for her reunion with her mother so that she can be there when it is most needed.

First off, Mim is HILARIOUS. Oh my gosh, she made me laugh so hard sometimes. The way she perceives life and the way she analogizes it is hilarious. The story is splashed with letters to an Isabel, providing an outlet for Mim to tell her story to another person and as a sort of journal/stress reliever. I love the way everything comes full circle in the end. There are definitely some moments that horrified me but I loved the way Mim's character was sassy and didn't take crap from anyone. She is Mim Malone and she is not okay. But that's okay. Admitting that we're not okay is the first step toward trying to get better. We need to acknowledge that we can't do it all on our own sometimes and that we need help. There are many life lessons that I learned from Mim, too. This was a very quotable book.

Like this right here. I mean, she is so funny but she finds herself throughout this trip. I'm just going to have to let this book marinate a little bit. (Yeah that was a reference, read the book if you want to understand it!!)

David Arnold is some sort of writing god I swear. He is already one of my favorite authors. I hope he continues to write because honestly, this is definitely one of my favorites. It has you on edge the entire time. This book is also nominated to be one of the best YA books of the year on Goodreads. So if you're have an account there, you should definitely check it out.

Happy reading!
Sophie

Becoming a Chameleon

Hi!! I also forgot to blog about this one too. I read this over the summer and I loved it and it was super cute. Sophie Kinsella's Finding Audrey was a beautiful read and super sweet. It was a very cute premise and I'm glad I had picked it up at Costco.

What the book was about:
Audrey used to be in school. She used to have a few close friends. She used to go out and go to the store with her mum and hang out with her friends. But now, she can't even make eye contact with other people. She wears dark sunglasses that cover her eyes and make her feel safe and she lets people see her when she wants them to. She stays at home and sometimes if she has an episode, she has to hide away in  her room. Then one day, her brother brings his friend, Linus, over for a gaming team. And Audrey kind of freaks out. Okay, really freaks out. But that's okay because she can only let him in if she wants to. Linus starts to become something more than just a gaming teammate to Audrey's brother and more of a friend to Audrey. With him, she feels almost... normal.

So I picked this book up at a Costco because I felt like I couldn't possibly leave without purchasing a cheap book. I mean, come on - 40% discount? Yes, please! Anyway, the cover was beautiful, too. (Hey, you can't tell me you haven't judged a book by its cover before, can you? If you say yes, you're lying.)
Is that not the cutest cover design? It's very fitting for it, too! Anyway, I loved the character development of Audrey and of her brother. At first her brother (bless him, I can't remember his name) seems like a typical teenage guy but he eventually develops into a nice young man. Audrey's own tendencies reminded me of how it's hard to open up to new people in our lives, especially after we've been hurt so badly by those we thought we were our friends. From what we as readers get from Kinsella, all we know is that she was bullied so badly by her "friends" that she got social anxiety so bad that she doesn't leave her flat much. At first I was a bit irked that we didn't know exactly what happened, but in the end I realized that not know made the book stronger. It doesn't matter what happened, it matters that it happened and now Audrey has to deal with the consequences of other people's actions. We need to remember that people are fragile and that we need to be kind like Linus and extend our hands to those struggling with things like this.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box. Happy reading!
Sophie

Thursday, November 5, 2015

I've never been a binge-reader...until now...

Hey y'all!

So, a few days ago, I contently finished Room by Emma Donoghue. I've been wanting to read it for a while, hearing the news of the upcoming film adaptation of the book starring Brie Larson as Ma. I can't watch the trailer without getting choked up!

So, how was this book? Is it really worth seeing the movie?

The answer is yes. Yes yes yes yes.

A quick synopsis of Room: The story is told by Jack, a five year old boy and his mother, whom we only know as Ma. Jack and Ma are confined to a eleven-by-eleven shed they call "Room". Room is all Jack knows, all because he's never stepped foot outside of it. The story takes a dramatic turn when Ma makes a proposal- and Jack doesn't know how he feels about it.

Oh my sprinkles. This book was impossible to put down. I read it in less than three days. I'm in love with Room beyond words. Donoghue portrays life through a five year old's eyes fabulously. I'm currently writing a novel told from the perspective of a nine year old girl, and even that's hard! She makes it seem as though a little boy sat down at the computer and wrote it. She gives Jack such personality- it's impossible not to fall in love with him.

Donoghue shows the unbreakable bond between Ma and Jack without even saying it. Ma never once tells Jack that she loves him- and it's not necessary. Donoghue vividly shows the immense amount of love Ma has for Jack between the lines. Room is merely centered around the bond the pair holds, and it's tear jerking.

In conclusion, Room is a masterpiece of it's own, flecked with it's own originality and character. Donoghue is a literary saint when it comes to writing a novel in a tricky perspective. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good drama with suspense, and not to mention a book that will hit you right in the feels.

Yours,
Rylie


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

NaNoWriMo: How To Write a Novel

Hey guys!

I would firstly like to say a massive sorry to Sophie for not being around more. Yes, we're all busy, but that's no excuse.

So, I'm back! With a post about NaNoWriMo, which I'm sure many of you have heard of.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's an online based November project, for anyone to join.

The overall goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, or 30,000 words if you're in the YA NaNoWriMo.

Now, writing is not for every person, but it's not for every bookworm either...yes, we all love reading, and I'm sure many of us have written a little something at some point, but it takes a LOT to write 50,000 words in a month, that equals 1.6k every day.

But sometimes, it's a challenge that we need. And in the end, it doesn't matter if you don't finish on time, because YOU have still achieved something massive, something amazing. You have written a 250 page novel. And that is certainly something to boast about.

And if you think your novel is a load of crap? That's fine! There's no one there to read or judge your book, unless you want them to. Plus, if it really IS crap (which I'm sure it isn't) it's all practice. There are many years of NaNoWriMo to come, so if you don't manage to write a full novel this year, it's fine. If you do, you deserve an enormous pat on the back! Congrats!

Before I finish off, I want you all to know, this is my first year participating in NaNoWriMo, so I am a complete greenie. But from what I've gathered, all we need to complete this challenge is coffee (or tea, tea drinkers, we can DO THIS.), comfy clothes, a hell of a lot of stamina and just enough time (doesn't have to be a lot, but having a lot can definitely help).

At the end of this, guys, at the end of this torture. We are going to be authors. Remember that. Let it sink in.

And write.

-Beth