Bout of Books Challenge - Book in Pictures!

This is a Bout of Books challenge hosted by The Book Monsters. Today's challenge is to describe a book you have recently read in pictures. I chose You: A Novel by Caroline Kepnes. I can't even tell you how much I loved this book. If you want to read my full review, click here.

How is everyone doing with the read-a-thon? Does this make you want to read the book?

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, where we show off books we recently added to our TBR list or books we recently purchased, borrowed, etc.

Since I had two Amazon gift cards burning a hole in my pocket, I wanted to share a few of the titles I purchased.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Chocolate Temptation by Laura Florand
Sun-Kissed by Laura Florand
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Infinity + One by Amy Harmon
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Blubber by Judy Blume

Whew! I think that may be enough books to hold me. For a couple of weeks anyway.

Have you found any good books this week?

BOOK REVIEW: You: A Novel

This is a book review for You: A Novel by Caroline Kepnes. I am using this book for my New to You Challenge (this was a debut novel from a new author) hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup.

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card. There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting. As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

Here is my one regret with this book: it has been on my Kindle since November and I waited until now to read it. What was I thinking? This book is told from the point of view of Joe, a clerk at a local bookstore who becomes obsessed with a customer and apparently has a history of stalking behaviors. Besides teaching me that every single bookstore clerk is probably judging me for what I choose to buy, this book made me crazy paranoid about paying with a credit card anywhere. Most of us are pretty free with social media, right? It's kind of amazing the information Joe was able to get from Facebook and Twitter alone. I'll be honest: for about one chapter,  I was rooting for Joe. Yeah, I know, I know. He's a stalker. But he didn't seem like that at first. This book also made me so glad I am not single anymore. Really, if I wasn't in Joe's head, I would never know that he was an obsessive stalker. He acts perfect. He's smart, he's nice to Beck's friends even when they aren't nice to him, he put up with her constantly breaking off dates with him. This book was edge of your seat suspenseful. I will not give away any spoilers for the ending, but OH. MY. GOD. 

I know we are only in January of 2015, but this may make the list of top books for the year. There is a reason I finished this book in a day. I managed to drag myself away for things like taking out the trash, feeding my dog, and taking a shower. My dog was very happy I didn't neglect her dinner. But I did neglect sweeping and mopping for this book. Those things aren't that important, right?

Oh and found out from the author on Twitter there is a sequel coming out in September called Love. WHEEEEEEEE!!!! I can't tell you the happy dance I did when I found that out!

As if it isn't completely obvious, I am giving this book a 5/5. This is my first perfect 5 star book of the year!

Bout of Books Synopsis Challenge!

This is a Bout of Books challenge hosted by Lulofangirl. The rules are simple: Create your own synopsis in 3-5 sentences of a book you have read or plan to read during the read-a-thon!

I am doing my synopsis for You: A Novel by Caroline Klepnes. I finished this book yesterday and just to warn you, I may spend the next twelve months gushing about this book. I have a reading hangover from staying up late to finish it. 

Here is my brief synopsis:

Beck is a beautiful, but oblivious writer.  Joe is an obsessive bookstore clerk.

Joe uses social media and google to find out everything he can about Beck.

Joe worms his way into writer's life

He is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way.

This was such a fun challenge! Did anyone else participate in this challenge? How is everyone's read-a-thon going?

BOOK REVIEW: Blue Asylum

This is a book review for Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall. I am using this book for my TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader.

Amid the mayhem of the Civil War, Virginia plantation wife Iris Dunleavy is put on trial and convicted of madness. It is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent away to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good, compliant woman. Iris knows, though, that her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on notions of justice, cruelty, and property. On this remote Florida island, cut off by swamps and seas and military blockades, Iris meets a wonderful collection of residents--some seemingly sane, some wrongly convinced they are crazy, some charmingly odd, some dangerously unstable. Which of these is Ambrose Weller, the war-haunted Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris.

The institution calls itself modern, but Iris is skeptical of its methods, particularly the dreaded "water treatment." She must escape, but she has found new hope and love with Ambrose. Can she take him with her? If they make it out, will the war have left anything for them to make a life from, back home? 

This book was not what I expected. I expected a story about an insane asylum filled with disturbed patients and evil staff members. Yes, there were a few staff members that were truly evil. But the doctor who ran the place was simply misguided. I hated that he assumed all women were crazy and hysterical and he was so able to dismiss them. But I had to remind myself the time period in which this book took place. During the time of the Civil War, just about everyone (women included) thought women were inferior. I appreciated the author's description from the doctor's POV because it allowed me to really understand his thoughts and motives. He truly thought he was helping these women and he was confused when Iris accused him of torture from the "water treatment." I liked Iris and the fact that she was calm, steady, and intelligent. She tried to keep her emotions in check, mainly because she knew the men around her would use them against her. 

Even thought I liked the premise, I still found myself struggling to connect with the books and the characters fully. I am not sure if it was the pacing or the fact that there was so much going on in the book. The author told different chapters from a lot of characters' POV: there was Iris, the doctor, Ambrose (the patient Iris falls in love with), Wendell (the doctor's son), and Mary (the doctor's wife). There were also times when the author would focus on some small detail of something happening at the asylum, but she would also tell what some of the patients were thinking about it. It just added to my confusion and lack of emotion towards the characters. It was hard to care fully about characters that I didn't even really have a chance to get to know. The ending also struck me as a little too convenient and neat. There were still a lot of unanswered questions. 

In the end, I thought the book was just okay. It wasn't one that I just couldn't put down. I give this book a 3/5.

BOOK REVIEW: After Birth

This is a book review for After Birth by Elisa Albert. I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The publication date is scheduled for February 17 of this year.

A year has passed since Ari gave birth to Walker, though it went so badly that she has trouble calling it a "birth." When Mina, who is nine months pregnant, moves to town, Ari sees the possibility of a new friend, despite her habit of mistrusting women. Soon they become best friends, navigating new motherhood together. This book follows three months of Ari's life as she struggles to find her place as a new mom.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it would be one I would have to quit before finishing. The writing style threw me off a bit. It's kind of a summary and the author bounces back and forth between the now of Ari taking care of her new baby and the past of her pregnancy and birth, along with her other various flashbacks. Also the author does not use quotes in this book. There were parts of it where I couldn't tell if it was something Ari was actually saying or what she was thinking. But I am so glad I pushed through and read this book.

The author is funny and scary and incredibly honest. Now I will admit that I don't have kids (yet) so it is impossible for me to say whether it was realistic or not. But I have known friends with kids and they have indicated some conflicting feelings regarding childbirth and motherhood. Ari is angry all the time and this anger leads her to discuss issues that most authors shy away from. She talks about the anxiety, loneliness, sadness, and struggle of becoming a new mother. Things aren't always pie in the sky fantastic after having a baby and this author does not shy away from that. One of the things she is most angry about is the way she gave birth to Walker. She doesn't even feel it was a true birth. She talks about an emergency C-section that she feels wasn't really needed. So because she doesn't give birth in the traditional way, she feels slighted and like she was denied something important to her. This affects how she interacts with the baby and with her husband. Her poor husband Paul, who has no clue how to handle his wife's postpartum emotions and has no idea why she keeps dwelling on the birth. He thinks that since the baby is healthy and everything worked out, she should let it go. She thinks that because she was cut open, she didn't actually give birth and she worries how this will affect the baby.

I love her relationship with Mina. It gives Ari something to focus on, it gives her some adult conversation so she isn't alone all day. She also becomes somewhat of an expert on breastfeeding, which she loves. Ari feels she screwed up with the birth, but she was able to make up for that by being a natural at breastfeeding. At one point, she becomes a wet nurse to Mina's child because Mina is having such a hard time breastfeeding. This part did seem unusual, but I kind of get it. The author emphasized just how unwilling some women are to use formula because of pressure. Mina's doctor advised her to use formula because her son was losing weight. However, according to Mina, the doctor (and even her midwife) never assisted Mina with her breastfeeding troubles or gave her any tips at all. So when Ari offers to do it for her, she considers her a lifesaver. And Ari feels like a failure in so many ways that she revels in the one thing she can do better than her friend.

This was such a great book. Here are a few quotes that I found especially powerful:

"Who can say I'm not a good mother? Who can say I don't read the subject headings in the books? The How to Care for Your Child if There Is Absolutely No One with Any Primal Knowledge Around to Guide You guides. What to Expect When There Is No Received Wisdom Whatsoever."

"The joke being that I'm not as lithe as before I fabricated and surgically evacuated a new human being, fuck you very much."

"He was born on a Tuesday after a long day of labor, but I did not "give" birth to him. He was not "given"birth. The great privilege. Instead, the knife."

"Was the baby difficult because the mother was having a difficult time, or was the mother having a difficult time because the baby was difficult?"

"If the world interferes with him, with what is loving and open and funny in him, I will rear up in full roar. I will break the world's neck with a swipe of my mighty paw, no warning. Anything fucks with this kid, I will fucking kill it."

Such a good read. I highly recommend it. I give the book a 4/5.

BOOK REVIEW: Sweetness #9

This is a book review for Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark. I am using this book for the New to You Reading Challenge hosted by Herding Cats and Burning Soup. This was the debut novel of a brand new author. 

It's 1973, and David Leveraux has landed his dream job as a Flavorist-in-Training, working in the secretive industry where chemists create the flavors for everything from the cherry in your can of soda to the butter on your popcorn. While testing a new artificial sweetener--"Sweetness #9"--he notices unusual side-effects in the laboratory rats and monkeys: anxiety, obesity, mutism, and a generalized dissatisfaction with life. David tries to blow the whistle, but he swallows it instead. Years later, Sweetness #9 is America's most popular sweetener--and David's family is changing. His wife is gaining weight, his son has stopped using verbs, and his daughter suffers from a generalized dissatisfaction with life. Is Sweetness #9 to blame, along with David's failure to stop it? Or are these just symptoms of the American condition?

I started reading this book for the Bout of Books. I know I said one of my goals was to only read books I enjoyed, but I guess that went out the window for this one. The premise was really interesting and the book started out well enough. But then it just kind of went downhill. By the time I realized how little I was enjoying the book, I felt like I had put too much time into it to mark it as DNF. It was just one of those books I felt I had to finish. Here were the positives: I enjoyed reading about David's marriage to Betty and their attempts to have a baby. The descriptions of him at the lab testing the animals was also interesting, if not a bit dry. Then it started to resemble a nonfiction book. A boring nonfiction book. I actually had to double check the genre on Goodreads. This book actually had footnotes! I hate footnotes even in nonfiction books. They distract from the story. But why did the author feel the need to place footnotes in this fiction novel? The author would go back and forth between talking about his family and talking about his work at the lab. His work at the lab would also be intermingled with actual historical events, which is why I had to make sure this was fiction.

I liked the character of David in the beginning. He thought he was doing good and he genuinely tried to make to right when he discovered the possible side effects of Sweetness #9. Then he gets forced out of the company and suddenly I hate him. His wife and children spend decades using that sweetener all the time and yet he never, ever tells them about the possible side effects. This is despite the fact that every single member of his family (himself included) are experiencing those same side effects. When his daughter begins to question it, he even tries to shut her down and tell her there is nothing wrong with the sweetener. After his concern with the side effects in the beginning, I really did not get that decision. 

I give this book a 2/5.