Book Review: Bossypants - Tina Fey

Bossypants - Tina Fey

In her acceptance speech for Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Tina Fey announced that she was proud to make her home in "the 'not-real America'."  It is perhaps that healthy sense of incongruity that makes the head writer, executive producer and star of NBC's Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock such a cogent observer of the contemporary scene.  Bossypants, her entertaining new memoir, shows that strangeness has been her constant companion.  Fey's stories about her childhood in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania are only appetizers for LOL forays into her college disasters, honeymoon catastrophes, and Saturday Night Live shenanigans.  Most funny read of the month; the best possible weekend update.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

I love Tina Fey.  I loved her on SNL, as a writer and in the show.  I also loved 30 Rock.  It was great to hear how she got to where was is today.  I loved hearing about her early jobs, her honeymoon and her husband's fear of flying.  I would definitely get another memoir of hers.

Book Review: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R.R. Martin

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R.R. Martin

Taking place nearly a century before the events of A Game of Thrones,  A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms compiles the first three official prequel novellas to George R.R. Martin's ongoing masterwork, A Song of Ice and Fire. These never-before-collected adventures recount an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living consciousness.

3/5 stars (liked it)

This book contains three short stories dealing with a Hedge Knight named Ser Duncan and a small boy named Egg (Aegon Targaryen).  My favorite story is the first one where these two meet. The second story is okay but the third one is good.  I loved the illustrations in this book almost as much as the book itself.

Book Review: The Magicians - Lev Grossman

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York.  There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze -- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery.  But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would.  After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning.  But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I didn't really like Quentin, I thought he was a bit dull, whinny and mopey.  I did like the other characters though.  This book spans his whole college education.  While most of his college times are fairly normal and boring it isn't until he graduates and is living in the real world that things pick up.  There we meet an old character Penny.  He brings them an adventure to the land of Fillory, which is a place that is in a book series.  Quentin has been obsessed with the books.  I almost think this book could have just started after Quentin and the others graduated and they spend more time on their adventure.

Book Review: Yes Please - Amy Poehler

Yes Please - Amy Poehler

In Amy Poehler's highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big  juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious.  Powered by Amy's charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice, Yes Please is a book full of words to live by.

4/5 stars (really liked it)

I decided to listen to the audio book instead of reading this since it is read by Amy Poehler herself.  I'm so glad I did, I don't think the book would have been as great without her voice and some other celebrity voices.  Sometimes I felt like I was listening to a radio show instead of a book.  She's funny and serious all at the same time.  I loved Amy before and now I love her even more.

Book Review: When She Woke - Hillary Jordan

When She Woke - Hillary Jordan

Hannah Payne's life has been devoted to church and family.  But after she's convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life.  She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes--criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime--is a sinister form of entertainment.  Hannah is a Red for a crime of murder.  The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.

A powerful re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can.  In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love.

2/5 stars (It was ok)

I had higher hopes for this book.  But Hannah was not too likable.  She refuses to name the father of her unborn baby to protect him because of his position in the church and his marital status. He had an affair with her for two years and blatantly said he would NEVER leaver his wife for Hannah.  She also never told him that she was pregnant.  She also refuses to name the man who gave her the abortion because he was kind to her.  Therefore not giving those two names added 6 more years to her 10 year sentence as a Chrome.  She goes from her 30 days in prison to a religious halfway house where the people running it are horrible.  The only interesting thing that happens there is she meets another Red named Kayla.  I would have much rather have this book be about Kayla.  She is more likable and interesting.  From that point on the book just goes down hill.  

Book Review: The Burning World - Isaac Marion

The Burning World - Isaac Marion

R is recovering from death.

He's learning how to breathe, how to speak, how to be human, one clumsy step at a time.  He doesn't remember his old life and he doesn't want to.  He's building a new one with Julie.

But his old life remembers him.  The plague has another host far more dangerous than the Dead.  It's coming to return the world to the good old days of stability and control and the strong eating the weak, and stopping it will require a frightening journey into the surreal wastelands of America--and the shadowy basement of R's mind.

3/5 stars (liked it)
I loved the first book, I liked the sequel.  Although I really wish we could have found out what R's full name was.  This book involved flashbacks to R's life before he became a zombie.  He finds out he's not the person he wants to be and fights the memories.  We also learn a little bit about Julie.  New characters are introduced too.  I can't wait to read the last one.

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch.  Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier.  Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life.  Clay is one of them.  If he listens, he'll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide.  He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

3/5 stars (liked it)
I felt sorry for Hannah and Clay.  The snowball effect caused Hannah to kill herself.  Many people contributed to her life and making it worse.  From people starting rumors to people not really seeing her.  It's a very compelling book and I couldn't put it down just to see who the next person on her list was and what they had done.  Especially Clay since he's one of the people.  The very last person on the tape really surprised me.  Although we know Hannah is dead, we still root for her to not kill herself.