Serendipity Reviews

In My Mailbox August 1

Wow. I just looked at that date, and guess what? I only have 4 DAYS until school! EEEEEEK! At least I have band 2nd period, at least 1 friend on the same team (finally :P) Oh well, at least I'm armed with plenty of books to read. I always have more time to read, too. :)

And now for my haul!

The received: None

From the library:

Girlfriend Material: I can't believe this was at the library! I saw it and I almost did a happy dance. Not something I usually do in public (you can't tell but that sentence was laced with sarcasm. Engorged with it, I would venture to say :P).

The Year of Secret Assignments: I'm rereading this for Sara's DBR B-day challenge. It's absolutely fantastic, by the way! Review should be up soon :)

Carbon Diaries 2015: Also for Sara's challenge. I didn't expect this to be there, either. But my library is fantastic (well, most of the time :P) about keeping up on the latest teen reads, and we also had a lot of UK books there too. So that's good :) The cover made me a bit skeptical but then I read some of it, and it looks great.

The bought:

Other Side of the Island: This looks awesome, but creepy. "Earth Mother is always watching." GAH! How Big Brother (no, not as in the show you UK people are obsessed with ;D What IS that show, anyways?) *shivers* But I'm starting to love dystopic fiction like this, so a good part of my requiem. And I'm lovin' this cover. Something about snow globes on books catch my attention- like Elsewhere. I guess it's just that I'm attracted to shiny objects :P

Heaven Looks A Lot Like the Mall: For some reason, I LOVE books written in verse like this. They're always so fantastic, and I don't even like poetry much otherwise. This one is also Elsewhere-esque (plot AND the cover, you'll notice!).

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So now you know what I got, what about you?

xoxo, Megs (thanks to Margo for the nickyname :D)

All American Girl Review

It's pretty late, but I HAVE to write reviews for books immediately after I finish them sooooo... here it is! (It probably doesn't help that I'm hyped up on coffee and coca cola, huh?)

Title: All American Girl
Author: Meg Cabot
Publisher: HarperCollins, first published 2002
MSRP (Paperback, USA): $7.99
Pages: 416 (sounds like lot but it's one of those tiny compact PB's)
Rating: * * */5

Description, courtesy of Amazon: While waiting for her ride home from an after-school art class, Samantha Madison, a sophomore at John Adams Preparatory School in Washington, DC, inadvertently saves the President's life by jumping on the back of a would-be assassin. Suddenly, she is a celebrity, invited to the White House for dinner, named the teen ambassador to the U.N., and revered by her fellow classmates. Yet, even her new star status doesn't allow her to get what she really wants-a date with her sister's boyfriend, Jack. Hoping to make him jealous, she asks out the President's son. The plan backfires, but Samantha discovers who she really is in the process. Cabot uses vision as a metaphor for how a budding artist grows to "see" herself and others more clearly.

Something about this book didn't really work for me. I really love Meg Cabot's writing, how ditzy and fun it is, but this was a little disappointing to me.

Samantha wasn't someone I liked much. She was kind of... depressing. She walks around acting like she is just SO much more intelligent, creative, and generally BETTER than the rest of the world- she "mourns for her generation, whose main concern is what will happen on 'Friends' this week," as she says in the book (first of all, what does the girl got against my fave TV show? :P). She dyed all her clothes black to show it, too (gah!). That REALLY bothered me- she just drove me absolutely crazy sometimes with her whining! But, thinking back, it was probably written that way purposefully so she realizes at the end how pompous she's being. (Still...)

Actually, my favorite character in the book was, for some reason, surprisingly her sister Lucy. I don't know why- probably for the same reason my favorite character in Peace, Love and Baby Ducks was Peyton, for how crazy they are :)

So let's do a checklist on this book:

Is the plot ridiculously far fetched? Definitely.
Is the main character pretty dang annoying? Yup.
Is it a well written read anyways? Yes to the well written. It DID have excellent subplots, and (advance warning: I'm about to sound like one of those annoying old people who look for "lessons" in the books their kids read- GAH) had meaningful lessons. I was also really glad that she finally realized- to a certain degree, at least- how ridiculous she was being.

So overall, not Meg Cabot's best work, and not something top-recommended by me, but still a funny, interesting-enough read.

Serendipity Reviews' First Giveaway!

Heylo everyone! Today is a long awaited day (well, for me it is :P) on which the first giveaway hosted by ME is starting! The prize is...

This lovely paperback copy of Marlene Perez's brand new August 2009 book, The Comeback!

One lucky person will win the copy of this brand new book

It's international (so many of you are from the UK and all, it's only fair :D)

Last chance to enter is August 20, when the winner will be chosen.

********** How to enter:

How to enter: For a single entry, become a follower, and leave a comment with your:

NAME
COUNTRY
EMAIL ADDRESS

1 entry: Become a follower (this is REQUIRED. Anything for extra entries is NOT required, it just gives you more of a chance :))

2 entries: Post a link on your blog (sidebar)

3 entries: Blog about the contest- the more the merrier :)

For the extra entries, include in your entry the link to your blog so I can see the post and/or link, and say thanks, confirm your entry :) Also, to add you to my blogroll.

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Good luck, and thanks for entering!

P.S. If you don't want to leave your email on a public comment, or have trouble commenting on this post, email me at: meggymegmeg96@yahoo.com . You can also email me with questions, comments, or just to say hi, since I love email :D Well, not of the spam variety :D

xoxo, Meggin

Sweethearts Review

Title: Sweethearts

Author: Sara Zarr

Publisher: Little, Brown Teens (2008)

MSRP (Hardback, USA): $16.99

Pages: 217

Rating: * * * */ 5

Sweethearts is a bittersweet novel about Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick. Both social outcasts, Jennifer and Cameron were each other's only best friend in childhood. Their love was something rare- more than just physical. No relationship would ever be enough for what they felt. (Eep, I sound so sappy, don't I?) More than just sweethearts.

But then, one day in fifth grade, Cameron disappears, and Jennifer is led to believe he is dead. Why else would he not call or visit her?

Then, in Jennifer's senior year of high school, he reappears in her life. But Jennifer is a different person than she was- now known as Jenna Vaughn, she's pretty, popular and dating. Everything Jennifer wanted to be but couldn't be. But now that Cam is back in her life, can they be sweethearts again?

(Wow, that was pretty good, considering it's so late and I had to wing that description :D)

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My mascara is all smudgy now. I managed not to cry until the end, but then... I just couldn't help it. Bittersweet endings are always what get me :_)

So, let's break it down, shall we?

The characters: Ms. Zarr created a truly wonderful character with Jenna. Personally, I just couldn't, like, get into her like you have to the characters in a book. But that's just me. She had just the right tone- well, most of the time. Sometimes she came off a little too, "Poor me". But you could tell she really loved Cam, but she loved Ethan, her boyfriend, too- just in different ways. The emotions and relationships between the characters were rich, deep, complicated, and really satisfying to read about. You could feel everything they felt, all the love, hurt, pain, joy- that's immeasurably important in a book.
I did, however, feel like Cam was a bit too underdeveloped. He just seemed so... PERFECT.

The plot: SUCH an original, fantastic plot! And I was so glad that Ms. Zarr didn't cop out on the ending. That would have been so easy to do in the situation (I'm trying to be vague so as not to spoil the plot), but she gave it a bittersweet ending- like I said, the best kind :) However, it was a bit vague. So many things were left without answers- what happened with Jenna and Ethan? What about Cameron? Some people might not be satisfied with it, and walk away feeling let down. Not me, but that's just a warning for you. But don't let it keep you from reading the book!
Also, I loved how it handled so many issues, and how gracefully Zarr handled them. It covered everything from eating disorders to abuse to first love to breakups to religion and back again, all without being too graphic and obvious about it. That's not something you see much in books.

The writing: Oh, wonderful writing. It's written in a way that you feel like you are Jenna, and like you do love Cam but you love Ethan too, and don't even know if you can be with Cam. It describes the emotions in detail without getting boring, and it's fresh and original.

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A wonderful, touching (usually I don't use words like that to describe books. It's 11:10- oooh! Make a wish in a minute!- and I can't think of anything better) book, I definitely recommend it if you don't have trouble with endings that aren't so perfect.

By the way, I'm LOVING this cover! Great lettering font, with the bubble letters, great color scheme, and the cookie is mesmerizing- LOL. That's mainly what made me pick it up in the first place- other than the fact that I REALLY want to read Once Was Lost, which comes out in October, by this author and I'd heard she's great. Which is correct!

I'm Published! Sort of

Weeeeeellll, the title is kinda misleading. No, I didn't get any of my works published :) I DID however, get a false identity as an author :) I got this from Sara, who got it from Margo, who got it from the recesses of her mind :) I thought it sounded fun, so here it is, steps courtesy of Sara:

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

If I were an author, this would be my debut book cover:

I really like this one :) You can actually read it since I used Picnik :) The name is Keena Donelson

I've been trying to redo my photo on photoshop. I hate it, it makes my hands hurt and it's so complicated :( GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Curse you, Photoshop! *Tortured whisper-yell* Curse... you...

Ahem. *pats hair* Just kidding :) Not about Photoshop making me mad, but about the freakout.

Anyways. :D

I know my cover doesn't look that good, but this was my first experience with Photoshop. Now you see why I had Sara make me a button for the ABCA challenge :)

UPDATE: I changed the cover, redid the whole process. I'm going to use Picnik instead, since Margo helped me with how to do it :) Thanks BTW! (Keena Donelson: Pinpoint)

P.S. Sorry I've been posting so much over the summer! I don't have anything else to do, so I have to force my jabberings on y'all :)

P.P.S. Haha, I'm SO addicted to Picnik now :P

Arrrr... Erm Yeah That's My Piraty Talk :) I Won An Award, Basically :D

Yes yes, I know, Margo does it better :) But I DO win for longest blog post title! *WOOT!* :)

SO basically, Sara gave me this absolutely adorable button for participating in her e-treasure hunt:

Don'tcha just LOVE the little guy on the upper left?! :D

Yeah, I didn't win, but still :) Oh, by the way, congrats to Sasha and Jean (aka Beanie) for completing it first!

Theme Thursday #1: Adorkable

Haha, I know it's a lamo name, I'll change it when I get a better one, with an ounce of creativity :) So Theme Thursday is something I came up with last week, I read a post by Alice from Read Into This! called Geek Display, and it gave me an idea: every Thursday I'll get a bunch of books with the same theme, per my readers request ( email me at meggymegmeg96@yahoo.com is you have any themes you want for next week, I'm totally blanking!), and then you'll have new books you know about in a category you love reading about! *Wooo!!*

So for this first Theme Thursday I'm doing geek books. Yes, I totally stole this theme from Allison- Sorry, Allison! You get a virtual cookie for putting up with the theme, ok? ;)