The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for June, 2010

Happy Teaser Tuesday friends. You all know the rules. Open your current read, pick a couple of sentences to tease us, without spoilers. You also know I cheat and find really good ones. This week’s tease comes from The Center of the Universe: A Memoir by Nancy Bachrach.

Pg 87 “Dear Nantucket Dockmaster,

We can’t come in July
And here’s the reason why.
My Captain has just died.

            Sincerely, 
            Mrs. Hornstein
PS: Please return my twenty-five-dollar deposit“

What are you reading???

Jessica Darling is a senior, and more ready that ever to get out of Pineville. She’s narrowed down her choices for colleges, with Columbia being the top choice. Now she just has to get through the rest of the school year, stay away from the drama and slide by. But it doesn’t quite work like that. She gets in a quitting mood and gets away from everything she knows. She gets a boyfriend *gasp* but realizes they’re really not on the same page. And of course, Marcus Flutie is hanging in the rafters waiting, watching, judging, but not really saying much. All the has to do is get through this year, and get excepted into Columbia!

I absolutely loved this book. The first one was good, but I was afraid I wasn’t going to love the series like I had hoped for. The second one did it for me. I seriously laughed out loud at parts of this book. Jessica is a great character. She is extremely funny, witty and smart. She is the kind of girl I wish I would have been in school, not waited until I got older to pop out of my shell.

When I read, I try to get in tune with the character. At times, it was easy to get inside Jessica Darling’s head. She likes to write, she’s funny, that stuff I got. The part that was hard for me was while I am reading this book about a senior in high school, I know that she graduated high school a few years before me (September 11 references), so I felt like although I am reading about a high schooler, I felt like I am reading the story of someone older than me. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense, it was hard getting out

I am really looking forward to following the next few years of Jessica’s life. I read an interview with author, Megan McCafferty who says that in this series, we follow a whole decade of Jessica. I am eager to see where she goes with her life and what she becomes. I like closure! I am also biting my nails, not sure what is going to happen with her love life. She finally gets what she wants and it is going to be taken away from her, to the complete opposite side of the country.

I give Second Helpings 5 bookmarks.

Jessica Darling Series:
Sloppy Firsts

This week’s Teaser Tuesday comes to us from Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty. I am not consistent with this weekly meme. It juts depends if something jumps out at me while I am reading. This week, it definitely did.

Pg44: “I don’t even like babies. I have a very low tolerance for people who sit in their own defecation.”

LOL I felt the same at one point in my life, plus I just like the word defecation

What are you guys reading this week?

Last year, my first year of blogging, I sat on the edges and watched Book Blogger Appreciation Week unfold. This year, I am jumping in head first.

This year, BBAW is September 13-17 and this year, you can nominate yourself! I have heard that there are many unhappy campers about nominating yourself. I personally don’t feel like it’s a pat on the back. To me, it’s more of a “I didn’t get a nomination last year and don’t want to miss out again this year.” I think that’s reasonable.

There are a number of categories this year. I am entering into two of them.

The first is Best Young Adult Book Blog. The posts I am entering are my reviews on:
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Invitation Only by Kate Brian
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
Tangled by Carolyn Mackler
Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

I am not going to lie, while adding those posts, in my head I was an announcer at an awards show. I need a life!

Before this year, I had an eclectic reading life. I would read Chick Lit, YA, Murder Mystery etc. This year, 23 of 43 books I have read have been YA. Because of that, I consider it to be a semi-YA book blog, and that’s the reason I entered it into the BBAW awards.

However, the very first book I ever reviewed and the book that sparked by love of reading back up was Jane Eyre. I guess that in itself makes my tastes eclectic, going from books that revolve around high school cheerleaders/spies to one of the most classic books in history.

Good thing there is also a Best Eclectic Book Blog section. I’ll let the judges determine what suits me best For this section, I am adding:
sTORI Telling by Tori Spelling
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
Death by Sudoku by Kaye Morgan
Season of Water and Ice by Donald Lystra
Mania by Craig Larsen

The Eclectic selection was much tougher than the YA selection. I have read such a hodge-podge of books this year, I wanted to get a little of everything in. I think I did a clean sweep across the board.

Check out the link to the BBAW website, enter yourself, get involved! I have met so many awesome people through book blogging and can’t wait to see who is standing out this year.

Are you entering? Send me the link to your post! I only have one shelf of TBR books and definitely need to start stockpiling!

Unbelievable is an amazing title for this book. The secrets keep coming out about the girls in Rosewood. But the secrets are nothing compared to Hanna being hospitalized after being intentionally hit by an SUV when she figured out who A was. As she starts to recover, she tries to remember what happened to her and who A really is. The girls get another helper as they try to figure out who the killer is and who A is, or if they are the same people. Miss Mona also starts getting text messages, but remember don’t believe everything you hear.

Yes, this book will give you a little closure. You will find out wh A is and who killed Ali. They may or may not be the same person

Wowza! I really didn’t expect to love this series as much as I am. I thought it would be cute, definitely not as suspenseful and a page turner as it is turning out to be. After reading the first one and loving it as much as I did, I didn’t imagine loving the rest as much. And this one is the best!

I will say, I will most likely have withdrawals after reading these four books in such a short period of time. I have so many TBR books on my shelf though that I am going to practice restraint and not get the rest of the series yet. Hopefully I can stay away from Borders!

After the 3rd book, I had an idea of who A was. It was a pretty intense hunch, but when I got into the 4th book, my hunch changed directions. Turned out my original hunch was correct. I love being right!

I give Unbelievable 5 bookmarks!

Pretty Little Liars Series:
1. Pretty Little Liars
2. Flawless
3. Perfect