The Sunday Post: Advice Needed

 

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme created by the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It is a way to recap posts and talk about what is coming in the future. Check out the website Caffeinated Book review here for more information: http://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/the-sunday-post-meme

SCROLL DOWN TO “WHAT’S GOING ON”- I NEED ADVICE

Here are my Posts from this week:

• In the Afterlight by Alexndra Bracken
• Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
• Paper  Towns Trailer Discussion

Wow, I didn’t realize how much I posted this week! With the snow and everything I just stayed indoors, so I had a lot of time on my hands. It won’t always be like this, but I do like how this array of post is a variety. Some reviews, some features, some tags.

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Upcoming Posts

Here are reviews I need to get done (hopefully this week)

• Fairest
• Sea of Monsters
• Titan’s Curse
• Battle of the Labyrinth

Other Posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday: Characters you want to check up on (SUPER excited for this guys!)
• Exploring My Bookshelves
• Springtime Tag

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What’s Going On

• Everything is so busy right now! I hate not being able to post on here as much as I would like. Right now I could really use some advice on how to keep on with the blog. Any tips on editorial calendars or scheduling or anything. Seriously, any input would help so much because I’m in a stuck position right now!

 

If you have any advice, please leave a comment below! Also, I’m looking to improve, so if you have any ideas let me know down below as well. What posts should I have more or less of? More review? More discussions? Everything is helpful! Thank you all so much for sticking it out with me as I try to figure everything out!

Paper Towns Trailer Discussion

So last Thursday, the Paper Towns trailer came out. I was super excited to see a glimpse of this movie and see how it was done. Since then, I have probably watched it a good ten times. Sometimes it pops up as an ad on Youtube and instead of skipping it, I sit there for two minutes and watch it agaon. The obession is real. In this post, I’m going to be going through my thoughts of the trailer. Before we dive into everything, here is a link to the trailer, so you can either watch it for the first time or see the thing I talk about –> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGiHm5WMLk  

You should know that I am a huge fan of book-to-movie adaptaions. The key word in that phrase is adaptation. People often get very mad about things that are changed, but they  have to realize this is someone’s adaptation of the book. I personally enjoy these movies because I like seeing the character come to life, and some changes don’t bother me. I’m more bothered when major plot points are changed that cause other things to get messed up *cough cough Percy Jackson movie*.

The first thing we hear in this trailer is Q’s voice saying how Margo is his miracle. I was so happy to hear this at first, because it’s one of those lines that come almost directly from the book. I catch this several times during the trailer, and it makes me jump up and down. Often, when these types of movies have scripts where many lines are based msotly on the book (Example: Catching Fire) and I find that they turn out better. You know the book was studied and they tried to incorporate as many things as possible.

WHY IS EVERYONE HATING ON MARGO! I’ll be the first to admit, Cara doesn’t fit the physical description that well. Book Margo was more unnatracive, and I see so many people complaing about how Cara isn’t a good Margo at all. However, it’s important to cast someone who really capture’s the character’s essence. Cara just has this carefree look and attitude that matches Margo completely, and as soon as I saw her in the trailer as Margo, she was the perfect fit. I understand not everyone agrees with this because I seem to have the odd opinion. Nat Wolff is Q, so no complaining there. The rest of the crew looks pretty awesome as well.

The whole part where you see their night adventure, look awesome. Everything is what the book said from what I can see. I know that she only has nine tasks in the movie, but they couldn’t do the SeaWorld one, which I’m okay with. I’m not sure what the other task is, so if anyone knows, please comment! Anyways, my favorite quote as of right now from this movie comes from these scenes.

“I can feel my heart beating through my chest.” – Q

“That’s how you should feel your whole life.” – Margo

This was the part I fell in love with the trailer. It captured the characters perfectly. I am very excited to see more of this in the movie.

Finally, we get to the part of the trailer where Margo has disappeared. I enjoyed seeing how they have some of the clues, and I am super excited to see the adventure to find Margo. Pretty much the best road trip in a young adult book.

Welll that’s pretty much my thoughts on the first trailer. I’m excited for this movie! If you have anything to add, please comment it down below. I’m adding one more thing, but I’m scared it might be too spoilery, so don’t read on if you haven’t read the book!

 

SPOILERY SECTION AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BOOK

I was going through the comments on the trailer, and I see everyone talking about how it is “just another dumb love story.” I kind of laughed to myself, because in the end, this book does not turn out as the love story people expect. One thing I am looking forward to is seeing Q realize all these things about Margo and how he doesn’t know that much about her.

 

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Author: Morgan Matson   

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published On: May 4, 2014

Genre: Contemporary

I’m not sure if I will be able to capture the perfection of this book with words, but I’ll try. For those of you who haven’t read Since You’ve Been Gone, this review may have some spoilers, so I would suggest reading it and then coming back. However, I will leave those of you who haven’t read the book with a short summary.

Emily wasn’t the bold type. She didn’t go to parties and wore the same sort of outfit. That is until she met Sloane. With Sloane at her side pushing her to do things, Emily was a new and improved version of herself. They were the best kind of best friends. The summer they had planned out was going to be epic, until Sloane disappears. No calls. No texts. The only thing she left behind was a list of crazy adventures for Emily. Some were easier, some were harder, but they all pushed Emily to things she normally wouldn’t do. As Emily goes the summer checking things off the list in hopes of finding Sloane, she meets amazing people and has great experiences. Maybe the summer wouldn’t turn out as bad as Emily thought.

I wanted to wait until Summer to read this, but I couldn’t. The concept was very appealing to me and it looked like a super fun contemporary. This book has humor, adventure, friendship, and even some romance. Reading it puts you into this extreme state of happiness. (If you can’t tell I really loved it) Enough with the gushing, let’s talk about the book.

The main thing I enjoyed about this book was the characters. I loved how close Emily, Frank, Dawn, and Collins grew over the summer. They were all helping with the list and had some amazing experiences together. You could see them grow closer and closer each chapter. A prime example of the developing friendship is Frank and Emily. They meet and Emily doesn’t really feel comfortable around him at all. But with each running session we seem them warm up to each other more, and then we have then staying up all night just talking. That scene on the beach was their true icebreaker. I guess you learn a lot about someone when you stay up all night with them. Since You’ve Been Gone had one of my favorite aspects when it comes to relationships: a budding friendship. When I read romances, my favorite thing is watching the two become friends. I do not care for love at first sight or anything. This book was great at it, and they didn’t even get together until the very end.

Another thing about this book that made it stand out was the extra things. The playlists and the constant flashbacks were great. We don’t meet Sloane really until the end, but we already know so much about her character just from Emily’s memories. Speaking of the end, I was really scared we wouldn’t get Sloane. I don’t know why I was thinking it, but I was so scared that they would never really find Sloane, but just a letter that explained what happened.

Overall, this was a pretty predictable book, but still very enjoyable. We knew Frank and Emily would get together, and we knew that when Frank went to New Jersey it was to break up with Lisa. However, it’s still entertaining to watch characters that don’t know what is going on. One of the best scenes is when Frank and Emily are in the car driving to Sloane, and it is just pure awkwardness. The last time they were together, Emily ran away from him (literally). In the end, they finally talk and everything turns out.

This was a super fun contemporary, and it makes me want to read more summer books! Winter is finally over and now I want to read all kinds of cute little romances! This was actually my first Morgan Matson boo. I’ve heard that this is her best of the three, but I still think I want to read her other books. Has anyone read them, and do you think I should?

 

In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

Author: Alexandra Bracken    

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Release Date: October 28, 2014

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

I’m not sure how this post got lost in my other ones, but it’s here now! In the Afterlight is the third and final installment of the Darkest Minds trilogy. If you haven’t read this series yet, I recommend not reading this review, as it will have major spoilers. By the way, you should seriously pick up this trilogy, you will not be disappointed.

 

Before I get down to the details, I just want to say that this book was overall fantastic. Unlike the other books, this one definitely has more emotions as the characters get to the end of their story and things get serious. I love the way we see everyone develop throughout this series. Alexandra Bracken is great at adding dimensions to her characters, and truly making them feel real.

 

In the Afterlight is very different from the other books in series because we are in the same setting for three-quarters of the book. This makes the beginning a bit slow and at times the plot drags. But at the same time, this is how the characters feel as well. They want to get out of headquarters and do something, but they can’t. Things really pick up when they invade the first camp. After this, the book is continuing action of some sort.

 

One thing that I could not wrap my head around during this book was how they much they still trust Clancey. They have him riding in the car and I’m on edge because I really think that Clancey is going to make them wreck or something. At times, they would just send Cole up there to feed him and it just freaks me out. Stop putting so much faith into Clancey, you know he’s up to something. Surely enough, the entire book he is controlling Ruby and no one even knows it. I knew he was doing something and no one did anything. In the end, I know he ends up in his worst nightmare with him out of control and his memories erased. I actually thought that when his mom shot at him, she killed him, and I was happy. Unfortunately, he survived and the rest was history.

 

Ruby and Liam had a pretty rocky relationship throughout this book. Miscommunication will do that to a couple. They had all these sweet moments, but then they would just start fighting again. Ruby reacted horribly when she saw the note and then they fought about how to save the kids. On top of that, Ruby and Cole were like connected to each other’s hip and would not tell Liam anything. But in the end, everything between them turned out alright, which I was so thankful for.

 

Speaking of the end, this book has to have one of the most satisfying endings ever. Seriously, it’s like a step below Harry Potter. Alexandra Bracken tied every string up with a nice little bow. The time from where Ruby went into Thurmond again and the last page of the book is my favorite part of the whole series. I loved how it was a full circle and that we started with Ruby in Thurmond, and ended with her there. We were able to see how confident she was and how she freed everyone. Everything after Liam finding her in Thurmond was pure emotion. I loved seeing her reunite with her Grandmas and fix her parents. Everything was perfect. This book did a great job at tying up all the loose ends.

 

I could go on and on about the things I loved in this book, but you would be reading forever. Here is a short list of some of my favorite scenes.

• Zu coming back and doing that awesome interview.
• Learning about Chubs and Vida.
• The pep talk Vida gives to Zu.
• Liam and Ruby in the pantry together

I can’t believe I’m done with this trilogy. I am super glad I went back and to read The Darkest Minds, or I would have missed this great series.

The Book Choosing Ceremony: Candor

Candor: quality of being open; frankness

People in Candor value the truth and honesty. They are known to say whatever comes to their mind and don’t care how it sounds. These people are not easily offended and don’t want to be lied to. Candor believes the world would be better if there was no dishonesty.

Faction Manifesto

• Dishonesty is rampant. Dishonesty is temporary. Dishonesty makes evil possible.
• Dishonesty leads to suspicion. Suspicion leads to conflict. Honesty leads to peace.
• Truth makes us transparent. Truth makes us strong. Truth makes us in extricable.

Physical Appearance: Black and White

Symbol: Scales

Rival: Amity

Leader: No elected leader, but JAck Kang acts as a represetnative.

BOOK I CHOSE

This was an easy choice because truth is even in the title of this book. Nothing but the Truth deals with honesty and freedom a lot. I personally didn’t like this book at all, but it was the first one that came to mind for some reason!

Picking a particular book about truth is very hard. There are many books where Characters learn the truth about something such as Cath learning thr truth about College or Percy discovering the gods, but those didn’t really fit into this category as well. I decided to pick individual characters that had similar attributes to Candor people.

CHARACTER I CHOSE

Chubs from The Darkest Minds

This was the very first peson that came to me when I saw honesty. Chubs is cosntantly saying thigns without filtering them through his brain. This causes some characters to get mad at him, even though they know he wasn’t trying to be harsh. While reading this book I even thought about how Chubs was like this, and reminded of Christina in Divergent. He just says what comes to mind, which is sometimes good, but most of the time causes some problems.

 

Some other characters I thought about were…

• Johanna Mason from Catching Fire: I love her as a character because of her frankness. She is very funny and definitely speaks the truth.
• Augustus Waters from TFIOS: He is very honest about his feelings for Hazel, and is constantly telling her about his affection for her. Not many ya charatcers are like this, so I thought he was a good example.

 

The Book Choosing Ceremony: Amity

Amity: a friendly relationship; cooperation

The Amity faction values the virtue of peace. They have a high appreciation for the arts and pursue happy, peaceful lifes. They like to laugh nd have fun. People in Amity believe that aggression is to blame for world problems. There rival faction is Candor

Faction Manifesto

Conversations of Peace 

• TRUST
• SELF-SUFFICIENCY
• FORGIVENESS
• KINDNESS
• INVOLVMENT

These are things that people in Amity strive for.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Often seen wearing bright colors such as yellows and reds.

LEADER: No official leader, but they chose Johanna as a representative. They make all of their decisions togethwe with compromise.

 

WHAT BOOK(S) DID I CHOOSE:

SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE 

I just had to choose this book because it has this tone about it. Sloane is super chill and laid back and wears all these vintage clothes. She is a perfect amiy person. This book in general is just super fun and makes you laugh. While Emily does conquer her fears, she has fun doing so. Since You’ve Been Gone is agreat book about friendship, and I think that is what Amity is all about.

 

 

 

 

 

IF I STAY

Now this choice may surprise you, but I think this book has a few amity traits. Every character has a huge amount of music appreciation, and it is a big part of the book. They all want music to be apart of their lives. The parents are a weird form of amity to me. No they don’t skip around wearing yellow and red and strumming fiddle, but they have their own version. They were outgoing and laid back, and followed their music dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Book Choosing Ceremony + Update

I had some pretty great plans for this week. I knew Insurgent was coming out this weekend, and I wanted to do something, so I created the Book Choosing Ceremony. Basically, I was going to have a designated faction and place books and characters into it. This was supposed to start yesterday, but due to a computer update, I lost my document. However, I won’t let a computer issue stop me, and even though the schedule is messed up, I will still be doing this. Right now I am looking at this…

Wednesday: Amity

Thursday: Candor

Friday: Erudite

Saturday: Abnegation

Sunday: Dauntless

Each day, I will have a post that has so information of the selected faction. Then, I ‘m just going to sort some books and characters from other books into this faction. Obviously I can’t do Divergent characters, as that would be cheating. Some will definitely be a bit harder, especially trying to find books that match. There are many “divergent” books that don’t belong in exactly one faction, but I’m going to try and make it work. I wish this could’ve have been posted the way I planned, but there are always obstacles. Below I have some other news for the blog this week.

You have probably noticed but I haven’t posted a review in awhile. Luckily for you, I have tons coming out.

• In the AFterlight (I honestly don’t know why I haven’t posted this yet?)
• Fairest by Marissa Meyer
• Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
• Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Yeah, I’ve kind of been reading streak. Look for this reviews throughout the week!

Winter by Marissa Meyer Cover Reveal

I don’t get on the internet for one deay, and I miss something as big as this! Some of you might have seen that the cover for Winter was finally released the other day, and let me just tell you, it’s gorgeous.

I was really excited for this one, because I knew it would feature an apple because it’s Snow White, but I was wondering how they would do it. The apple is a lot brighter than I expected, but I love the way it has this glowing and shining effect. I had always loved the covers for The Lunar Chronicles, because they really symbolize the story. I’m thinking the white sparks around the apple has something to do with Winter’s powers. I’m not sure, I just know I really love the cover. I honestly don’t know if I could pick an all time favorite of the four, because I love them all, but I think this one and Cress are just breathtakingly beautiful.

So what are your thoughts on the cover? Does it make you even more excited like it does for me? I finished Fairest the other day (review to come) and I just need this book! Fall is so far away!!!

Bookishly Ever After

Recently while on Goodreads, I came across an upcoming book that i just had to share with you guys. It is called Bookishly Ever After and it is the debut book from author Isabel Bandeira. Here is the goodreads, and it should show you why I am so excited to read this.

“In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. But when Phoebe finds out that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines and win Dev’s heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?”

Guys. It’s a book about a girl who likes books. Not just any books, but straight up ya books. Do you see the amazingness of this idea? I have been wanting more books centered around book obsessing characters after I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I love how much more I am able to relate to character like these. Another thing that caught my attention is a the story line. A guy has a crush of Phoebe (our main character) and she turns to her favorite heroines for advice. I am super excited to see how the author shows this through the book.

Now the depressing part…it doesn’t come out until December! I don’t care though, because I am super happy that there is a book like this being made. I think that Rainbow Rowell’s success with Fangirl may inspire others to write about characters we booklovers can relate to. Hopefully, because I need more books like this and Fangirl!

 

Top Ten Books for People Who Like Realistic Problems

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they give a certain topic or question and you have to try to list your top ten. This week was left very open-ended and we got to pick what we wanted to do. The prompt was Top Ten Books for Readers who like ____. I decided to do realistic books that had characters dealing with real world problems and social issues. This will probably have some different books that I haven’t really talked about before.

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: This is really a gripping book that deals with major issues in our world today. I’m not going to say what the issue is, because I don’t want to spoil anyone. This is a very emotional type book, not exactly a crying book, but a book where you really feel for the main character. Anderson also has other great books dealing with dark topics such as Wintergirls.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: I know, this book is everywhere and many people think it is overrated (not myself), but you can’t deny that these teens deal with huge issues. Yes it’s a love story, but it is also a cancer story and shows a bit of what people go through. It shows some of the physical obstacles, but it really shows how these people live knowing that they have a limited amount of time here.

3. Petey by Ben Mikaelson: This is follows the story of a man growing through life with cerebral palsy as he lives in a mental institute. It is incredibly moving just to see the things he has to go through.

4. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys: This is more of a historical fiction book, but it shows the life of a girl after her family was taken by Soviet officers. I really like historical fiction, and this is definitely a great one to check out. We may not experiencethis as much today, but this used to be someone’s reality.

5. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell: These two are both subjects of bullying, and even though it isn’t what the whole story is about, it definitely is important. Also, Eleanor just lives a hard life especially in her house and deals with many problems people today deal with.

6. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven: The two characters in this book deal with so many issues that people do today. They both think of suicide and don’t think they deserve to live. Not only is this a major theme in this book, but bullying and dealing with death are also very present.

7. Looking for Alaska by John Green: This book is also laced with real world problems, and Alaska deals with a lot of them. She is stuck in this place that she can’t exactly get out of.

8. The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez: This is actually a memoir that a girl wrote, but it deals with teen pregnancy. Gaby does a school project where she pretends to be pregnant. She shows the comments made about her and how her life is wasted, and her project tells people how we need to stop the stereotyping.

Okay so this next two, I actually have not read, but I know the deal with some real problems. I hope to read these one day, but here they are for now.

9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 

10. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 

I really enjoyed doing this post. I wouldn’t be opposed to making more like these but with different categories in the future. What do you guys think?