10. Percy Jackson: The Ultimate Guide

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide

I like books like this, little guides as companions to a series I like. This one was fun and short and had some cute little side pieces, including a tour of the Underworld by Nico di Angelo, which I liked.

But the thing that bothered me, and this is just me being a writer, is that all the information about the Greek gods, especially, was written in past tense. It read very strangely. It should have been in the present-tense.

That's a silly thing to have an issue with, huh?

Otherwise, it's a nice companion to the series.

3. Paper Towns, John Green

Paper Towns, John Green

I've had this one sitting around for a long time now, since before the book was released. I have no good reason for not reading it before now. But my reason for reading it now is that one of my friends is a huge John Green fan and I told her I'd give her this ARC but I wanted to read it before I sent it off to her. So I read it on an airplane ride.

I liked it well enough.

It's through the POV of a guy, which is a nice change from what I normally read. And he's been in love with the girl next door his entire life. She -- Margo -- is spontaneous, flighty, and prone to running off for days at a time on one of her adventures. Her parents, apparently, just put up with it.

So the plot of the book is that she does it again, but this time she involves our protagonist. First by getting him involved in a late-night escapade and later by leaving (perhaps unintentional) clues for him to follow her on her great adventure. The book concludes with a great road trip, and I found that part the most enjoyable.

I didn't mind the characters, except perhaps for Margo. The entire book was so centered around her without her even being a central character. I kind of just wanted to hit him upside the head and say hey, look, she's not worth it. Live your own life.

4. Every Boy's Got One, Meg Cabot

Every Boy's Got One, Meg Cabot

I got this in a book swap with my Every Girl Blog girls.

I'm a Meg Cabot fan, really, but I guess I like her YA stuff better. (Princess Diaries, Avalon High, All-American Girl, etc.) Maybe it's because I feel like her chick-lit characters are unlikeable. Or immature. I'm not sure, but usually when I read one of her 1st person POV chick-lit novels, by about halfway through, I am completely over the heroine.

In this case, the entire story was told through journal entries and email exchanges. They weren't all just the heroine and someone else. We see a lot of emails exchanged between other characters, even lesser characters.

The plot is that the heroine's best friend is eloping to Italy with her boyfriend because their parents (neither set) approve of them getting married. The fiance brings his best man, and naturally, our heroine hates our hero at first glance. Seriously, even before they knew who each other is.

I guess my problem lately with chick-lit is how neatly everything gets wrapped up in the end. It was completely predictable. I could have written it. In fact, I am writing chick-lit right now, and I want to try and keep myself from falling into this kind of predictable formulaic trap.

5. What I Did For Love, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

What I Did For Love, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I have finally discovered a contemporary romance author whom I like. I have problems with a lot of the romance genre because I'm NOT reading books for the sex. No, seriously. I like engaging, funny, romantic, clever plots. I like being entertained. I like that romantic comedy feeling, the kind I can get from similar movies. But I prefer reading. That's why I tend to stick to one Regency romance author - [author: Julia Quinn] - and why I tend to stray from other books in the genre. I prefer chick-lit a lot, though sometimes I feel like it's even more childish than YA romance.

Anyway, this is my third Susan Elizabeth Phillips book, and I have greatly enjoyed each one of them. This one takes place in the Hollywood scene, where a former child star is searching for work that means something and struggling through a divorce and the remarrying of her ex-husband. Then she runs into her former co-star, the one who pretty much ruined their TV show by drinking and drugs and not showing up for work, etc.

So what happens? She needs a good relationship to make her personal career life look better and get out of the paparazzi's eyes and he needs something that would help advance the career he finally seems to care about. Naturally, this means a lot of laughs, misunderstanding, and, of course, sparks flying.

I'm going to keep reading her. She's one of the few romance novelists I've found who actually has a grasp on good writing. And I appreciate that.

6. Twitterature, Alexander Aciman

Twitterature, Alexander Aciman

This book is a great idea. Seriously.

These two college freshman took all the great works of literature and condensed them into about 20 tweets, all 140 characters or less. The result, at times, is pretty funny.

However, there was excessive swearing and sexual innuendo and most of it was done in tweets for books that didn't need it. I can understand using it in, say, Dracula or Catcher in the Rye -- those types. However, this was clearly done just for "humor" and "shock value." I don't understand why using swear words every other word is funny.

I would have liked this book a whole lot more if it had been hilarious without falling back on the idea that cursing is funny. There's really little need for Jane Austen characters to be using the f-word and such. Same with Harry Potter. There are other ways to make people laugh. Make it funny because it's funny, not because you have to rely on shocking people.

7. The New York Regional Singles Mormon Halloween Dance, Elna Baker

The New York Regional Singles Mormon Halloween Dance, Elna Baker

I saw this one in the bookstore where I work and, since I have a whole bookshelf of Mormon books, but nothing humorous like this memoir, I figured what the heck. Elna Baker is hilarious. I just finished watching a video on her website of one of her stand-up acts and, while it's one of the same stories that she tells in the book, it was hilarious to listen to her tell it.

Seriously though, if you want to laugh AND roll your eyes sometimes at the ridiculousness of it all, check this book out. It made me LOL a lot.

2. The Everafter, Amy Huntley

The Everafter, Amy Huntley

some spoilers!

I picked up this book because, like my current novel-in-progress, it is a Young Adult read about the afterlife. I was curious and, at the end, thankful that it really is nothing at all like my take on the whole situation.

In a nutshell, Maddy is dead. And she is in Is, as she calls it, kind of a formless void. Once she starts getting the hang of being there, she finds things that, in her life, she once lost. A bracelet, physics homework, her keys, cafeteria peas ... and each of these ...more I picked up this book because, like my current novel-in-progress, it is a Young Adult read about the afterlife. I was curious and, at the end, thankful that it really is nothing at all like my take on the whole situation.

In a nutshell, Maddy is dead. And she is in Is, as she calls it, kind of a formless void. Once she starts getting the hang of being there, she finds things that, in her life, she once lost. A bracelet, physics homework, her keys, cafeteria peas ... and each of these lost things transports her to that moment in her life. She relives it.

What was interesting to me about this novel is the way Huntley envisioned this afterlife as timeless. And also in the way that Maddy only got to see things that have happened, not that will after she died.

I'll admit I kind of saw the ending coming. At least, I suspected it. And yet I didn't think there was enough of a build-up to get there. It felt like one plot point was a very clear red herring whereas the true plot point wasn't fleshed out enough. It was like, well sure, of course, but you didn't do it well enough.

I don't know. I really did enjoy the book. I only hope that people sob at the end of my afterlife novel the way I did at the end of this :)