Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by: E L James

Fifty Shades of Grey by: E L James

Publisher: Vintage

528 pages

Genre: Steamy Romance

Summary: Anastasia Steele, soon to be college graduate, has to interview a young entrepreneur by the name of Christian Grey. The meeting, although interesting, doesn’t go that smoothly. They run into each other later and their “relationship” begins. Ana discovers that Christian, although rich, has some very dark secrets. She must decide to follow his rules and give in to his controlling personality, or let go.

Review: I have no idea where to begin with this review. I have mixed feelings about this book. I can tell you that out of curiosity I ended up reading all three of them. I wasn’t even going to read this book because of the reviews I have read that say how horrible it is to women. But I gave in because some of my friends kept telling me that I needed to give it a try. I don’t regret reading them, although they shouldn’t be as popular as they are.

These are not the best well written books. I also want to note that I can kind of see the similarities between Twilight and how some people call this Twilight for adults. Read this book if you want a raunchy story and a quick thoughtless read, if you know this before starting the book then you won’t be disappointed.

Just like I’m sure you have heard about in the news, this book is very sexually graphic. This book isn’t for the faint of heart or the person who doesn’t like a lot of sex in their books. Although this doesn’t really bother me when reading I can say two things about this book in particular. One, some of the scenes were a little too intense for me and was a little too kinky and domineering. Second, there was so much sex that at times I would skim over those passages just to get to the plot of the story (the plot in the second and third books are better and actually interesting and exciting, the first one is more of an introduction type book).

 Now let’s focus on Mr. Grey himself. Does he treat women like slaves? Yes. Does he have to be in control in the bedroom? Yes. Sometimes are his actions nauseating? Certainly. On the other hand, Mr. Grey is one messed up guy. The reader won’t find out how completely messed up he is until book three, and this may be one of the problems people have with this book. I’m not saying that what he does is okay just because he had a really bad childhood that wasn’t his fault, but it helps us understand his actions a little better. It was hard for me to like Christian, although he sounds like he would look pretty hot, that is all he really has going for him, oh and maybe that he is a billionaire. He does get better though and by book three I actually really like his character. He has his moments in the first two books where you can't help but swoon after him, but it isn't until the third book when you can stop hating him so much.

Ana is up next. I’m going to say that I am not a huge fan of her in this book. She comes off as spineless and annoying. I will tell you that she gets better in the other two books but you have to make it through the first one to find out. I ended up reading the next two books out of curiosity.

If you are looking for quick steamy summer read, then check this book out. If you make it through the first one you will want to read the other two, which I guarantee are better than the first. If anything I couldn’t put these books down no matter how bad they may be.

Rating: 3/5

Review: Bitterblue by: Kristin Cashore

Bitterblue by: Kristin Cashore (2012)

Publisher: Dial Books

547 pages

Genre: YA Fantasy

Summary:  This book takes place 10 years after Graceling when Bitterblue first took the crown when her dad was murdered. Her dad, King Leck, hade a Grace which included mind control. During his reign over the kingdom he abused, killed, tortured and more to the citizens of his kingdom. Bitterblue is trying to restore order in her kingdom and finally give people they peace they need. She encounters many hardships while trying to discover the truth of her father’s reign and become the queen she was always meant to be.

Review: I really enjoyed this book, but I still feel like it could have been better, but that may because I had to wait 3 years since Fire came out and my expectations may have been too high.

There are many people that say this is a stand-alone novel and you don’t have to read Graceling to be able to follow what is happening, but I slightly disagree. Although you can follow what is going on in the book I think you would enjoy it more and understand it more if you read Graceling first. It has been a couple of years since I read Graceling and it was frustrating at times when I had to wait to get things explained to me because I couldn’t remember what happened in Graceling. In the end it helps to have read Graceling first.

 I enjoyed reading about Bitterblue’s struggle to become a good Queen after her horrible father. I found her character to be frustrating, loving, caring, funny, and exciting. I enjoyed following her midnight excursions out in her city outside of the confines of her castle. I also found all of the different puzzles she has to figure out to be entertaining, because as the reader you will be trying to put together the puzzle pieces on your own and hoping to solve the puzzle before Bitterblue. There were good surprises, although some of it was pretty easy to find out before they happen.

There are only two things that I had a real problem with. One was that was that this book wasn’t as full of adventures and battles, but I like books that have a lot of action. I also want to give you a heads up that this isn’t really a romance book either. Although Bitterblue does have her first relationship it isn’t an integral part of the book. I don’t need there to be a lot of relationship stuff in my books but I do enjoy more than this book gives you. On the other hand you get to see a strong young woman grow it into a Queen, and it is always nice to have young adult novels with strong female characters that don’t need a man or anyone else to tell them what to do. After years of just doing what everyone tells her to do Bitterblue finally starts taking control of her own life and gets a handle on running the kingdom.

My favorite part about the book is that they incorporate and bring back the characters from Graceling and Fire. The book wouldn’t have been as good without the presence of Katsa and Poe and their all around awesomeness.

It is definitely worth your time to read this book; especially if you are a fan of Kristin Cashore’s other novels.

Rating: 4/5

Funny

I found this on Pinterest. I enjoyed it so much that I had to post it on my blog. :)

Library Loot #1

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

My Library Loot 

The Big Burn by: Jeanette Ingold

This one I just found sitting on the shelf and it intrigued me. It is based of a true story of the forest fires in 1910. 

Demonglass by: Rachel Hawkins

I read the first book in this series and it was a pretty good light read so I figured I would finally give the sequel a shot.

The Marriage Plot by: Jeffrey Eugenides

I have heard many great things about this book.

The Submission by: Amy Waldman

This book takes place two years after 9/11. A contest is being held to figure out what the memorial should be for the towers.

Summer Sisters by: Judy Blume

I decided to take a chance and see how her adult books are.

Fifty Shades of Grey by: E. L. James (e-book from the library)

I wasn't going to read this book because it doesn't sound like my cup tea, but I have either heard amazing or horrible things about this book and I want to find out for myself.

Review: Basket Case by: Carl Hiaasen

Basket Case by: Carl Hiaasen (2002)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

378 pages

Genre: Mystery/Comedy

Summary:  Jack Tagger writes obituaries for a Florida daily. He comes across the death of Jimmy, a well-known singer from the band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies. Jack believes there was foul play involved in his death. In an attempt to get out of writing obituaries and to have his name on the front page of the newspaper again he investigates Jimmy’s death. Crazy characters and adventures ensue.

Review: I currently edit obituaries at the local daily paper and as a joke a friend of mine gave me this book to read. I have never read anything by Carl Hiaasen before so I was a little unsure about the book. As it turns out, the book was a good read.

Hiaasen writes a good mystery filled with humor. I was laughing throughout the entire book. It reminded me of the books about Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich, which are some of my favorite books. The characters in this book are full of clever one-liners. Jack is an unforgettable main character. His time writing obits has made him overly cautious about death. He is always comparing his age to different famous people that passed away at his age and how they died.

The overall plot at times seemed a little bit ridiculous, but it made the book all that more funny. I read it as more of a comedy with a little bit of a murder mystery thrown in. At times I felt like it took a while for the plot to move forward, spending too much time on the characters and not enough on the death of the famous Jimmy.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the information given about the politics of newspapers. It does a good job at giving the reader some insight on how much newspapers have changed in the past few years. I think Hiaasen did a good job at describing how the newspaper industry works.

 If you are a journalism major or a fan of the Stephenie Plum novels then I recommend this book to you. It is a quick read, will give you many laughs, and makes you think.

Rating: 3.5/5

Four Common Editing Mistakes

Over the last several years I have written numerous papers, had an internship where I edited books, read and edited many of my friends’ papers for class, and I currently work at a newspaper where I edit milestones and obituaries.

Yesterday my maid of honor sent me my bridal shower invitations to read over before she ordered them. Sure enough I found a couple of errors and realized that perhaps my first blog post about writing advice should be about the common editing errors I have seen over the years. I have included the top four mistakes that I continually see being made over and over again and how you can fix them. (Yes I make these mistakes too.) You never want to send someone a book to look over that is riddled with errors or turn in a college term paper with spelling mistakes. Take the time and make sure your writing is error free.

Spelling Errors

One of the most common mistakes I see when editing are spelling errors. I believe that most of these mistakes come from the use of Spell Check. It is a great tool to have and cuts down on some editing time, but Spell Check doesn’t know the context of what you are writing and may steer you in the wrong direction.

If you spell a word correctly bur perhaps it isn’t the correct word to use in the context of what you are writing about, Spell Check won’t pick up on that.

Example: I defiantly remember putting my keys on the counter. Correct word: definitely (I spell this word incorrect a lot and for some reason spell check always wants me to use defiantly instead of definitely and unless you are paying close attention you won’t notice the difference.)

Example: I need to by a new pair of shoes. Correct word: buy (If you type a simple error like that Spell Check isn’t going to catch it because by is also a word.)

Advice: Don’t just use Spell Check. Make sure you re-read your paper after you have used Spell Check. Spell Check is a great tool, but only when it accompanies a real person looking over your paper. It is even better if you have someone else look at your paper too. You may miss something because you are familiar with the work. A fresh pair of eyes may catch something you have missed. Also, don’t just have your friend look for spelling errors, any of these mistakes in this blog post will have a better chance at getting caught if someone else reads over your paper/book.

There vs. Their vs. They’re

Okay, I now you are all probably thinking that you learned which “there” to use in grade school, but I see this mistake a lot, even when reading over college papers. So here is a quick reference guide if you ever need it.

There

Use there when referring to a place and to indicate the existence of something.

Examples:

The grocery store is over there.

I live right there in that house.

There are a lot of cars in the parking lot today.

Their

Use their to indicate possession.

Examples:

We should go over to Tom and Jane’s house. Their house is always so clean.

Their book collection is extensive.

They’re

They’re is a contraction of the words they and are, so use they’re when you are saying they are.

Example:

They’re having a picnic today at the park. We should join them.

Advice: If you are using any of these words in your paper read through the sentence one more time. This error is something that shouldn’t be happening. We all slip up occasionally, but remember, we learned this in grade school.

*Also be aware of using the words your and you’re.

Apostrophe Misuse

Apostrophes are used for contractions and possessives. I see most apostrophe errors in possessives but I see the biggest one in the contraction it’s.

Possessives

Form the possessive of a singular noun by adding ‘s

Example: Mike’s bike, the child’s coloring book

Form the possessive of a plural noun by adding an apostrophe after the final letter if it is an s or by adding ‘s if the final letter is not an s.

Example: The students’ desks, the children’s toys

Contractions

The apostrophe is used to indicate the omitted letters in a contraction. The problem I see most in this instance is it’s/its confusion.

It’s is a contraction for it is, it is NOT a possessive. Its is the possessive for it.

Example: “It’s a wise dog that scratches its own fleas.”

Advice: When in doubt use it is instead of the contraction and read the sentence carefully.

Fragments

A fragment is an incomplete sentence because it can’t stand by itself. These can get complicated so I’m just going to give you the basics.

Luckily Word usually points out if you have a fragment in your paper, but not a lot of people know why it is a fragment or how to fix it. Here are three easy components to look for.

1.      Subject: person, place, or thing performing or doing the action,
2.       Verb: the action 
3.    A complete idea: the reader isn’t left waiting for another word.

     Example: Paper thrown everywhere. Correct: Paper was thrown everywhere.

     Example: During the stressful chemistry test. Correct: She cried during the stressful chemistry test.

     Advice: Always ask yourself if you think you have a fragment, “Is this a complete idea?”

     For more information on fragments and other grammar issues visit http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/sentence-fragments-grammar.aspx

     I use this website if I have a grammar question. I find it very helpful.

Review: The Book Thief by: Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by: Markus Zusak (2005)

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

550 pages

Genre: YA 

Summary:  Liesel is a book thief in a very dangerous time, Nazi Germany, 1939. It all began when her brother died and she stole her first book. She falls in love with books and the power of words. The novel will guide you through her time as a child and the challenges she faces growing up in Nazi Germany. One of the biggest challenges, Liesel’s foster family decides to hide a Jew in their basement.

Review: Read it. This book is all around an amazing read. It pulls on your heart strings and won’t let go even after you have finished reading. I know this book came out a few years ago, but because it got so much hype in the media I was nervous to give it a try. Just because a lot of people are buying a book and it is popular, doesn’t mean it is all that good. So when I started up this blog I decided that it was about time I read this book and then I will be able to share my opinion about it just like everyone else. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Let’s start with the narrator. The narrator is not Liesel, but Death. I don’t think I have ever really read a book before where Death is the narrator. At first I was a little concerned, but then I realized that what other narrator could you have besides Death for this story? There was so much death during World War II.  I find this book different from all of the other ones out there about World War II because of the narrator. You get to see the war from a different side, one that is creative and really shines light on the number of deaths because of World War II. To say the very least, Death’s narration was interesting.

Every character in this book was intriguing. I wanted to know what happened to them, and the author does a great job at bringing the reader a sense of closure once you get to the end of the book. I don’t think I can ever forget these characters from Liesel to Rudy, it is almost as if they are real and a part of my life, that is how much this book connects with your emotions.

This book is unique, breathtaking, intriguing, happy, sad, and everything in between. This review is not even  doing this book justice. If you haven’t read this book yet because you are skeptical like I was, don’t, just pick it up and take a chance. The worst thing that could happen, you hate it and waste a few hours of your life. The best thing that could happen, you read an amazing book that makes you see things differently and understand the power of words.

Rating: 5/5