Abducted by a dead brother, a fallen angel, and the Scottish!

I have challenged myself to read 111 books this year and so far I am off to a really good start! Yesterday I finished 3 books (go me!!!) which puts my total at 7 but I know I'll finish another 3 at least before January is over so I know I'll be in really good shape. As with any resolution I know that the momentum tends to taper off after a while so I'm trying to get ahead of the game before that happens.
Out of the 3 I finished yesterday, not one of them really thrilled me to where I would have a lot to say about it so I'm just going to give you a little taste of each one.

First you have The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood. I wanted to read this one after my sister forced me to watch the movie at gun point.

Okay Okay maybe there was no gun involved. But she had to have used some form of a Jedi mind trick to get me to agree to that right?

Anyway, knowing that the movie was based off a book left me with a feeling that a lot more is probably explained in the book and that is why I was kind of curious. But I was wrong. Although the book is very different in the set up and time line than the movie and a few things are explained a little bit further, in the end it was just a book. It didn't really dazzle me. Even though I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend the book to a fellow reader, if someone came to me who was already wanting to read I would say "Yeah, that book was alright."

The other book that I finished yesterday was the YA novel Hush Hush by Becca Fitzgerald. The best thing about this book is that the title kept making me think of my absolute favorite Paula Abdul song Rush Rush...

RUSH RUSH

Hurry Hurry Lover Come To Me

RUSH RUSH

I Wanna See You I Wanna See You Get Free With Me...

Is anyone else picturing the Rebel Without a Cause video she did with Keanu Reeves during his Bill & Ted days!?!

Anyway, back to the book, oh my God I HATED this book soooooooo much. My friends Mandy and Tracy loved it and I thought the cover was beautiful so I was really excited to read it but it was awful!!!

I should be fair. I guess it really comes down to what kind of guys you find sexy. Now, I've never been the type to fall for the bad boys. Sure, there is something intriguing about them in the beginning. The danger, the seduction, their ability to throw you up against a wall and just start.... whoa Courtney you are entering into dangerous territory, this is a family friendly blog, get a hold of yourself.

Oh. Yeah. Sorry. What was I talking about again? Oh, right, I didn't like the book.
Personally, I find that I can be lured in by a bad boy but deep down I know it is because I want to see that softer side that he doesn't show to the rest of the world. So, you might like this book if you are the type of girl who is attracted to guys that make you feel like you are in danger, rather then protected, objectified rather then adored, reckless rather then trust worthy, fearing for your life when you are with him rather then being swept off your feet. I felt that the main love interest was cocky and arrogant, I couldn't figure out what was so special about the main character, and the best friend was self-centered and disappointing. The writing itself felt amateurish and requires for the reader to suspend their beliefs before the story has even earned it.




And last but not least, I also read the graphic novel The Exile by Diana Gabaldon. I was looking forward to reading this one because I read the full novel it is based off a couple of years ago and loved it. Jamie Fraser...mmm...now there is love interest I can lust after!!! The original novel follows the perspective of a girl who goes back in time and falls in love with Jamie Fraser who is the nephew of the leader of a Scottish clan. The graphic novel however, follows the story from Jamie's perspective. Which is how they took an 800 page novel and condensed it into a 200 page graphic novel. The story was a little confusing because it doesn't go into all the explanation about the different Scottish clans and the hierarchy system that the novel does explain. And it has been long enough that I don't remember all that stuff either. The other thing that made the graphic novel a little confusing was that a lot of the men in the drawings looked the same and since there is very little dialog it was hard to keep track of who each person was. The pictures were beautiful however and it left me with a desire to re-read the full novel sometime in the near future.




This week I will be reading Huck Finn by Mark Twain and re-reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I also just got my first Courtney Crumrin graphic novel in the mail today so I'll be reading that this weekend as well.