Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

First, a reminder to enter my blogiversary giveaway.

Title: Shatter Me 
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: YA (dystopia)
Why I read it/how I found it: I followed Tahereh Mafi's blog, and heard about it there.

Description:

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans on her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Review:

Have you ever read a book and thought, dang it, why can't I write like that? That's Shatter Me. The prose was beautifully crafted. I'd heard about the strike-outs before, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them, but even when the first one came up I didn't need to get used to it. It was a natural extension of the story and Juliette's character. I also really enjoyed the characters in this book. I can't say that Juliette will make it into my favorite protagonists of all time, but I do appreciate what she went through and the layers that Mafi put on her. She has anger, feelings of abandonment, loneliness, but she's always trying to do the right thing. For me, that's a crucial part of me liking a character--I'm all for the good guys. The love interest, Adam, was awesome--tough but caring. He turned out totally different than what I'd been expecting when first introduced. As for Juliette and Adam's relationship, I did have trouble buying the fact that they supposedly knew each other before, they both liked each other, but never spoke. They were sitting along the same chain fence for six years without any friends but never talked to each other? I didn't buy that part of it, but the rest I could get into. Mafi really knows how to write sexual tension. Whew! As for the villain, Warner, he was an interesting, twisted character. I really didn't like him, but in the good way that you're supposed to not like a villain. The few other characters, James and Kenji, I also really liked, with their own unique personality. This book has a lot of great action, and it's always moving through with hardly ever a slow moment. The ending though, I'm not sure how I'm liking it yet. I'll have to see how it gets incorporated into the next book to see if the plot development works or not.

Other information: There are two more books to this trilogy, currently untitled. Shatter Me has been optioned for film by Twentieth Century Fox. You can find Tahereh Mafi's website here.

On a non-book review note, Happy New Year! May 2012 be an awesome year for all of you.

And a song with Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt (in case you haven't heard it yet):

Top Ten Books I'm Glad I Picked Up in 2011

First, have you entered my blogiversary giveaway? You should.

Now, here's a list of my top ten books that I'm so glad I picked up this past year.

1. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

 Last year, I entered college and got into this mindset that I was too busy to read. Or, at least read things outside of my classes. I hardly read anything for fun. Then, a girl in one of my classes suggested this book to me. And I'm so glad that I picked it up. I remembered how much I loved reading, and how fun it was to lose yourself in a book. Paranormalcy re-vamped my love for reading with its characters and humor.

2. Divergent by Veronica Roth

I thought I was done with dystopian books for a while. But then I picked up Divergent, and man, I'm glad I did! I remembered how creative people can be and that I really do enjoy a good dystopian novel.

3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Before, I was never crazy about contemporary. But Anna and the French Kiss was just too much fun, and this book has made me more open to the genre to show that I can really love any type of book as long as it hooks me.

4. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

This book was so interesting and so intriguing, it had me getting shivers down my spine. I loved the complexity of Mara's character and I'm just so glad I got a chance to read it.

5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

An awesome, thought-provoking read that made me think so differently about my actions. I loved this book.

6. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

I'm glad I finally picked up the first series by Suzanne Collins, because the themes in her books are rare to find, and I feel that they are so important to read about. Plus, the awesome story doesn't hurt it at all, either.

7. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

This was an awesome book to escape into, and had such a great creep factor.

8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

 I used to be afraid to read this book because I thought it would be too graphic for me. But I'm glad that I picked it up because it talked about an important and hard issue to bring up, but at the same time, it felt safe.

9. White Cat by Holly Black

I loved the interest in this book, the unique world-building, and the characters. It was a lot of fun to get sucked into this book.

10. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Ah, Wilde. So witty, and yet in this piece, so dark. This was an amazing look into vanity and sin, I'm glad I finally picked it up.

What are some of the books you're glad you picked up during 2011?

Blogiversary Giveaway!

Like the new look? Exactly one year ago today I was bored, home from my first semester of college, and thought hey, why not start a blog? So I did. And in my less-than advanced skill on the computer, I settled for the layout I had the past year figuring it'd only be for a little bit. And man, am I glad that finally after a year it is gone!

Anyway, you're probably here for the giveaway to celebrate with me my past year of blogging. What will I be giving away? Well, how would you like one of these:

 Signed by this lady:

This is Ally Condie, the author of Crossed in case you didn't know.

Aha, now I have your interest, don't I?

All you have to do is fill out this form. Before you go skipping along to it, I will let you know that you get extra entries for following this blog, following my new blog A Writer's Guide to The Hunger Games, and/or following me on twitter.

The contest will be closed next Thursday on January 5, 2012 (wow, we're going to be in 2012!).

Dream Team: Gilmore Girls Edition

A few months ago, I made this post about who from NBC's The Office I'd pick for the jobs that go into making a book happen. This post is the same idea, only this time using the character's from Gilmore Girls.

Jess Mariano as my CP. He published his own book on a small press, and he knows his stuff. Besides Paris, he was the one who could keep up with Rory when she talked books. He'd give amazing feedback.

Paris Geller as my agent. She gets whatever she wants. She might be intimidating, but that's why she'd be awesome with getting me the best deal. The insanity with dealing with her would be worth it in the end. I think.

Rory Gilmore as my editor. She already has background as an editor on the show, too, and she's always constructive with her criticism but supportive as well.

Olivia (one of the most obscure characters, I know, but she was still in the series) as the cover designer. She's the one character who's most artistic and I think she would be able to make an amazing design for the cover.

Richard Gilmore in charge of marketing. He knows business, and as he showed in the episode with Rory's mock business group, he knows how to appeal to younger audiences, too.

This is my dream team according to the cast of Gilmore Girls. I think I would be quite satisfied with this crew.

I have a childish habit

I've been writing forever. Or at least what my nineteen years feels like forever is (which, to some people like my mother, isn't so long to them). But, for as long as I've had the ability to put pencil to paper and form words, I've written. And so of course, as a kid, I didn't know proper terms like manuscript. I just wrote stories, that's what I called them, that's what everyone else called them.

Now, ten years later, and I still fight back to write or say "story" when I refer to my own work. But I'd rather say "my story" instead of "my book" or "my manuscript." I don't know what it is. I want to be grown-up and professional, out of my self-illustrated cover and table of contents smudged in pencil and into real shiny covers and formatting. But I can't let go of my stories. Maybe it's habit, and maybe it's something else. Maybe it's holding on to the excitement and thrill I got as a kid writing down the people and places in my head. It may also be that I've always focused on the actual story and not the writing (which, of course I learned a few years ago is actually important).

Now that this is out in the open I just might keep on referring to FORGET ME NOT as my story. Because despite everything I know now, it's really that child-like excitement that keeps me writing.

(And for kicks, here's a picture from my childhood)

Me and my brothers. First day of 3rd grade for me. 

The Red Ryder BB Gun

I hope you all are doing well. I just got over the flu (blech) so I've been a little out of it the past few days. But I'm just glad I came down with it before Christmas and not during.

Last night, my family and I watched the classic movie, A Christmas Story. It's one of those movies that we just have to watch every year. I think it's funny watching it in the retrospect of a more adult-like person now and reminiscing more than being the kid. And last night, I reminisced on my own Red Ryder BB Gun.

Well, not an actual one of those, of course. But the one present that I want so badly I would have done nearly anything to get it. For me, my ultimate Christmas gift would have been a kitten. I knew my parents would never give me a cat, but hey, Santa was the one giving gifts at Christmas, not the parents. I knew if I were really good, I'd wake up on Christmas and under the tree there'd be a cute little kitten under the tree sleeping in the early hours of the morning. My mom told me that Santa wouldn't get me a cat because he also knew what my parents didn't want me to get. But I believed so much that I'd get a kitten. This happened for several years until I realized just how accurate my mom was in that Santa wouldn't get me a cat because my parents didn't want one. I'd pretty much given up.

Then I went into middle school. And uh, yeah, I guess you can imagine the type of 'tude I got. My dad was puzzled about it, but thought that maybe if I got a cat like I'd always wanted, I'd be loving to the cat, and therefore more loving to my family (they were really the only ones who got the 'tude from me). So, after many months, he finally convinced my mom to get me a cat. I didn't wake up on Christmas to a kitten sleeping under the tree, I had to wait until January to pick one out, but it was still considered one of my Christmas presents.

And so after many, many years, I finally got my own Red Ryder BB Gun.

What Christmas present was your Red Ryder BB Gun? Have you given anyone the present they wanted more than anything?

Some Lesser-Known Christmas Songs

If you're anything like me, around the halfway point between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you're going CRAZY because of all the same Christmas songs playing again and again and again, the same tune and words just with different voices and arrangement, or that same popular song played on the radio fifty times a day (how many times am I expected to hear Taylor Swift whining as usual about her freaking boy issues during Christmas?!)...

First, I really do like Christmas music. But the situation above makes things a little tiresome for me about this time. That's why I want to introduce you to some Christmas songs you might not know, and if you do, your ears probably haven't been boxed in by them yet.

This one is my all-time favorite (and this original version specifically). Mary's Boy Child by Harry Belafonte. I have so many childhood memories of listening to this song during Christmas and marveling about how miraculous Christmas is.

I was raised on The Beach Boy's Christmas Album. This is one of their songs, Little Saint Nick. I LOVE dancing to this and decorating the tree:

And, for a last one, Christmastime by Hilary Weeks. This one is so cozy and makes me think of all the amazing things that Christmas is:

On a completely unrelated note, I would like to proudly declare that I have not yet been put under torture submission to hear any of Justin Bieber's Christmas songs. It's a beautiful, wonderful feeling to be free of such horrid pop culture.