Book Two of 100

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng                                                                             1/12/15

        This book was a welcome relief to read. After Anne Rice's formal characters, it was an easy, casual read. Much shorter in length, this one went very quickly and I was finished in only two shifts. I have begun to measure books in how many shifts it takes me to finish them. My job allows for a lot of reading time and I take advantage of the quiet at night.

        Everything I Never Told You was not what I initially thought it would be by the time I finished it. I make it a habit to not read the synopsis or reviews on the back cover before I've made my own opinion. This time it served me well. Celeste forms a story of tragic loss and the aftermath of suicide. She goes easily back and forth from the main story line to the characters individual and shared back stories. She does not leave any vital character undeveloped and does not hide their flaws. She shows the raw emotion and realistic consequences of not only Lydia's choices but all of the charaters choices and how they impact the entire story, She does not shy away from controversial issues like racism, sexual orientation, parenting and remains true to the characters.

      Personally, this book made me more than appreciate my own mother and step-father for letting me be exactly who I am and accepting that I am capable of making my own decisions with my life. While my mother and I don't agree on everything, she does not push me to be someone I clearly am not. I have learned as much from what they did raising me as what they did not do. As much as I've been through growing up, it has made me who I am today and that's what I am so grateful for.

     If you don't want to have to think about still current national issues, this book may not be for you. But if you are anything like me, this book is more than just a story of loss. I think everyone can relate to the overbearing mother, trying to please everyone and getting nowhere. So many discussion topics I wouldn't have enough time to talk about everything. Celeste does it with such ease in less than 300 pages and it was a joy to read.

Now to wait for the library to reopen.

Thanks for reading,
Stephanie :-)

Day 1: Read 100 books in one year

Two Books Down, 98 To Go.                                                                                                     1/12/15


            Ok, so this one was a little slow going but I have a feeling Sunday nights will be my Blog nights. I started this challenge of with one book I was excited to see on the list: Price Lestat by Anne Rice. From a young age when my fathers' mother gave me a whole stack of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books, I have know the names Lestat, Akasha, Jessie, and Marius. It's been a while since I've read her books but it was like I never put them down. Needless to say, this was already a favorite before I read it. 

          Mrs. Rice did not disappoint.  She has not lost a step since her last Vampire Chronicles novel. It did take me a while to get through due to the vocabulary. The era and characters are so formal speaking and traditional that reading required a slower pace to understand what was going on. That aside, it was a great read for those who are familiar with Anne Rice's other vampire novels. If you aren't familiar with the characters, it's not unreadable, but you lose some of the back story of especially Lestat and Jessie and Maharet. 

         For me there is an exploration of other ancients in the story line and much back history of the Talamasca and the who, what, and why' s behind it's creation and continued exisitence. Prince Lestat did not only give more of the well known characters but also brought in mortals and a huge new character. All these new angles are vital to the plot and inevitable conclusion of the novel without ending the story line and leaving room for future additions to the ever-popular Vampire Chronicles. There will always be an allure of those night-walkers and Anne Rice is more than adept at giving the readers what they want.

Prep time :)

Prep Time                                                                                                                                  12-12-14

So I guess I'm starting a blog....

This is purely for entertainment purposes and if you don't agree, that's fine. I am getting the 100 books from Amazon.com's Best Books of 2014. I plan to read through the entire list by the time next years' list is published. I have no experience writing a blog and my general writing experience extends to a couple of community college courses (which I passed by the way). And while I try to edit as best I can, please forgive any examples of poor writing you might come across whilst reading (if anyone happens to read this).

OK, so here goes...

I started by printing Amazon.com's Best Books of 2014 list and taking a look at what I will be reading for the next year. I plan to check with my library first to see what they have that I can check out. After that I plan to use Amazon.com's online used book market. 

In the days up to January first I will go down the list and mark which ones I can get from the library and which ones I will have to buy, I have a feeling I will have to purchase most of the list so I might need to get a larger bookcase as my three shelf one is already overflowing ha ha ha.

I guess you might want to know a little about me as I expect some of my writings might stray from the direct topic. I am 27, single and living in southwest Iowa in a town of roughly 4,000 people. My job allows me to read (or watch t.v. shows on my laptop) for the majority of my shift. I have two cats at home, Nibbler and Sweet Pea aka Mama. I am quite a bookworm and enjoy reading paper books and do not own an e-reader. Something about the conversion to digital books rubs me the wrong way I suppose. 

I believe this is all for now, more to come :)

Stephanie