Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan Summary (from thepublisher's website, because the thing on the back of the book is really, really long): NAOMI AND ELY ARE BEST FRIENDS. Naomi loves and is inlove with Ely, and Ely loves Naomi, but prefers to be inlove with boys. So they create their "No Kiss List" of people neither of them is allowed to kiss. And this works fine - until Bruce. Bruce is Naomi's boyfriend, so there's no reason to put him on the List. But Ely kissedBruce even though he is boring. The result: a rift of universal proportions and the potential end of "Naomi and Ely: the institution." Can these best friends come back together again? Review: I know what you're thinking... you're thinking I'm going to say I hated it and you're expecting me to find a half dozen things I didn't like it.
Guess what people? You're wrong. I quite liked it!It was really, really funny and well written, with interesting characters. I actually read most of this when I'd first woken up, before I even turned on the light, which shows how involved I was in it, reading in half-light. It's a very good read for when you're in a crabby mood and feel like you can't find anything to read.
The one thing is, the book used pictures for some of the words, like instead of saying spider, there'd randomly be a tiny picture of a spider, and that threw me off a bit (aka, I stared the page for a good thirty seconds trying to figure out what the heck it was...). But you get used to that after a while, and it's they were mostly when Naomi was the narrator.That brings me back to another thing I did like, the switch in narrators. There were at least six different narrators, but each of them had their own unique voice, so that you could tell exactly who was telling you what was happening. And it wasn't confusing at all like that can so easily be.
Conclusion: A very good read, good for a crabby mood. I'd recommend this to older readers, though, as there is some mature content. Not much swearing, though, which is cool. Four roses.
Tweaked by Katherine Holubitsky Summary (from thepublisher's website): Sixteen-year-old Gordie Jessup is a good kid but he’s living a nightmare. His eighteen-year-old brother Chase’s two-year addiction to crystal meth has left their family emotionally and financially drained. And just when Gordie thinks he can no longer stand the manipulating, the lying and the stealing, things get even worse. Chase is arrested for aggravated assault, released on bail and sent home to his family. But his dealers are after him and Chase appeals to Gordie for help. Gordie, disgusted with his brother and fully aware that it’s a gamble, risks everything he has in the hope of bringing his family some peace.
Review: There aren't a lot of good books about drug addiction. Well, I shouldn't say that, because there more than likely are a lot, I've just not come across them. Personally, I haven't come across any that take a deep, true look at what dealing with a relative is really like. It's not pretty, it's not easy, and it's not sugar-coated in the least, and I admire the author so much for that. At the same time, though, it doesn't read like a public service announcement. It's emotional and truthful and real.
Gordie is such a good character who was so interesting to read. He isn't perfect, he doesn't always think or do the right things, but he reads like a real seventeen year old boy who's in the hard situation of having a meth addicted sibling. Besides Gordie, the other characters are very well-developed. His parents, the girl he likes, the smaller characters such as the members of the band he was a part of, his boss, even a storekeeper in a pawn shop whose name we never even learned showed depth. The only one who didn't show as much depth as all the others was Chase, and that was realistic of the intensity of his addiction.
I'm trying to think of bad things about the book and failing miserably. The only part that I didn't love was that it took me a little while to get into it, but I was in a weird mood and I think I may have not slept, so that was probably me.
Conclusion: Read it, read it, read it! This is such a good book about such a hard subject, written very very well, and it's definitely worth picking up. Four roses!!
5 roses: Phenomenal, one of the best books ever, incredible, can't find anything wrong with it. Probably the only one I've encountered would be Harry Potter, but I'm gonna keep looking anyways.
4 ½ roses: Really, really, really great, almost perfect, but not quite, and still a hard rating to get.
4 roses: Very good, top-notch, loved it. This is normally the highest rating I'll give.
3 ½ roses: Still quite good, I'd recommend it, and probably read it again, but there were some things I didn't like.
3 roses: Decent, not the best, but not the worst. There were probably somethings that bugged me but I still like it.
2 ½ roses: I wouldn't read it again, but it wasn't terrible. I probably had some issues.
2 roses: Not something I'd read again and I probably had a lot of problems with it.
1 ½ roses: Why did I read this?
1 rose: I probably flung it across the room in frustration at some point. Not very good at all.
½ rose: Not even worth the paper it's written on.
O roses: I could see burning this.
I am trying to rely less on my (currently still new) rating system and be more descriptive inwhy I gave it that rating, but it's a bit of a process. Feel free to leave a comment about any rating I give a book.
I'm bored and I'm sort of procrastination writing reviews. I'm horrible, bite me.
Anyways, I got to thinking, and I decided that, first of all, I'm going to do all reviews in purple, with extra stuff in this pretty pink-y colour, throw in some green, in post titles. I like the idea of taking colours from the banner and background to use in the rest of the blog, and blue because I love blue.
The other new thing I'm going to do is use a rating system, like how some people do out of five stars and such. Me being me, I'm going to use:
I'm taking this idea from Shalonda at Shalonda's Blog, because it's a really cool idea. (The pictures aren't that great, sorry, and you can kinda see my feet in them... and frig I set the date stamp wrong)
So anyways, I have...
Nine Goosebumps books, one Goosebumps Series 2000, one Ghosts of Fear Street, twelve Fear Street books, and one other R. L. Stine book.
Then I have...
Two baby-sitters club books and eleven Baby-sitter's Little Sister books.
And then...
Nine Nancy Drew books. (When I saw them at the library sale, I felt sorry for them. I have a stuffed blue elephant and Lefty for the same reason...)
Then...
Nine Christopher Pike books (What's with all the nines?)
And finally, some random older books, just to give you an idea of what I own.
Also in these ones, you can see part of how messy my room is, and a pair of socks I got for Christmas. :P
So that's all for now. :) I'm cleaning again today, but I should get reading and get a review up soon. Current book is Tweaked by Katherine Holubitsky.
The prize is the great book Across the Pond by Storyheart (my review of that will be up on the fifteenth.)AND it'll be signed. Isn't that just awesome?
So here's what you have to do to enter.
+1 entry Comment with your name and some way I can reach you, preferably an email address. +1 entry Following me, +2 if you're already a follower. +1 entry Blog about the contest and leave me a link (sidebar is fine) +2 entries Storyheart came up with this and I love it. Tell me what the English would call any two of these things (no googling): Eggplant, Chips, Wrench, Muffler, Sidewalk, Elevator, Suspenders, Zucchini, Cookies, and Windsheild.
And that's it!! Don't forget to tell me what all you do in your comment. Contest ends... in three weeks, so 11:59pm Sunday the 22nd, (GMT- 6 hours, which is my time zone). Good luck!
Edit: I'm not getting alot of entries, so I'm extending it another week, til the 22nd.
Note on the cover picture: The book has like a dozen covers, but I got the movie tie-in version from my library, so that's the one I'm using here.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Summary (from the back of the book): Nick's just seen the girl who dumped him walk in with a new guy. What else can he do but ask the strange girl necxt to him to be his new girlfrien for the next five minutes?
Norah would do anything to avoid conversations with the not not-friend girl who dumped Nick... and to get over the Evil Ex whom Norah never really totally dumped. What else can she do but answer Nick's question by making out with him?
With one electric, unexpected kiss, the five-minute couple of Nick and Norah set off on an uncharted adventure called the "first date" that will turn into an infinite night of falling in and out (and in and out, and maybe in and maybe out) of love. Theirs is a first date of music, laughter, heartache, confusion, passion, taxi cab wisdom, and a jacket named Salvatore. And of course a killer soundtrack.
As Nick and Norah wander through the middle-of-the-night mystic maze of Manhattan, they share the kind of night you want to never end, where every minute counts and every moment flickers between love and disaster.
Review: I loved it!! I absolutely loved it!! And I'm trying really hard not to use a ton of explanation marks. I thought it was cute and fun and quirky and interesting and just really, really good. I loved the switch back and forth between Nick and Norah's voices, they were both such interesting narrators. And a couple of the side characters, Dev in particular, I just loved because they were so crazy and great. The authors also described Manhatten so perfectly, just the way that makes you want to visit, move to New York just to see the places they mention. Beautifully described is the music, too, the atmosphere of the clubs and things they spend the night in. I just loved it, period.
And the Yugo. Any book with a Yugo named Jessie is going to find a permanent place on my favourites list.
A little warning, though, there is a ton of swearing. On one page I counted twenty-five f-words. Yeah, you read that right, twenty-five f-bombs on one page - and it was a short page, beginning of a chapter page. Now, personally, swearing mostly amuses me. I don't swear, but you curse at me, I'll probably just laugh at how goofy you sound. (Do NOT go cuss in my chatbox, though, that will NOT amuse me.) But the cursing may offend some people. My opinion is that's the way eighteen and nineteen year olds talk. That's life. It's realistic. Deal with it.
Conclusion: Gosh, this one was good. That's really all that needs to be said.
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
