Abducted by Feature and Follow 2.17.2012

*** ENTER MY GIVEAWAY OF A DAVID LEVITHAN NOVEL!!! HERE!!! ***

I just got back from singing some karaoke at a local bar here in town, and I figured what better time to hop around on some blogs before going to bed! And in case anyone is curious, I sang my go to classic song, Jump by Kris Kross, and then sang Little Black Back Pack by Stroke 9. I had never sang Black Back Pack before and I was shaking sooooooo incredibly bad! That is probably why I have the energy to write this blog before passing out!

It is time for another Feature and Follow hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read


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This weeks question is...

I like unique names for characters and am looking forward to coming up with some when I start writing. What's the most unique character name you've come across?

I love unique character names but off the top of my head it is hard to think of some! So, I'm going to go with...

I LOVE the character of Odd Thomas from the series of the same name by Dean Koontz. Not only does he have a unique name, but he is a completely original and charming character! I can't wait until the movie comes out because I know it is going to be amazing!!!

I love when authors create first names that don't sound unusual when you are reading them, but when you stop and think about it the names really aren't that common. I mean I don't know anyone with the name of Odd in real life, but when reading the series it never took me out of the book when I read over his name. 

I have read quite a few science fiction and fantasy books where the names are so strange I couldn't even pronounce them! I ultimately will just make up my own nick names for the characters and call them that because it is just so much easier for me.

There is one more unusual character name that I LOVE, but unfortunately I haven't read the books yet. And that is Ford Prefect in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series!

I haven't read the series (although I own all of them and I absolutely will read them this year), I have seen the movie. Mos Def plays him in the 2005 film adaptation and he was hysterical! Once I heard his name in the movie, for some reason, I just fell in love! 

I tried to use the name Ford for the love interest in the project I attempted for NaNoWriMo last November.  But that project never really saw completion. As soon as I do write something worthy of the name, however, I am totally using it!!!

Okay, I have some tidying up to do before I sleep so I really better go. But have a great Friday!

Abducted by Marly's Ghost

It is now time for my third post in my...

Levithan Love-a-thon!!!

(you can also check out my reviews of The Lover's Dictionary and Are We There Yet?)

***DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY LEVITHAN LOVE-A-THON GIVEAWAY!!! JUST CLICK ON MR. LEVITHAN'S PICTURE ABOVE AND BE TAKEN TO THE LINK TO ENTER!!!***

Marly's Ghost is a retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, but with a Valentine's Day spin. David Levithan filled the story with his own romantic and beautiful style. God, he is such a fantastic writer! The more I read his books the more I never ever want to have him read anything I ever write because I would die of embarrassment! 

Ben is the main character in the story (aka E"Ben"ezer), and he is grieving the loss of his longtime girlfriend Marly. Marly and Ben met when they were ten and became a couple when they were thirteen. However, they only got to spend three short years together before Marly died of cancer. 

The story picks up on the first Valentine's Day after Marly's death, and we find Ben to be cold and distant from all of his friends and family. Marly's death has affected him greatly and he can't seem to get past it, nor does he want to. In the original story, Ebenezer is just this grouchy old man. But Levithan does an amazing job of portraying Ben in such a way that in spite of how cruel he can be, you feel for him and how much pain he is in.

Marly's ghost comes to Ben and basically says that because Ben can't let her go, she cannot rest in peace. Then the three ghosts come. You know which three ghosts I'm talking about; The Ghost of Love Past, Love Present and Love still to come. They remind Ben of what he had with Marly, show him the truth of how he is hurting the people around him, and show him what will happen to him in the future if he continues down this past of isolation.

I loved all the ways that Levithan mixed his writing with the original work of Dickens. One of my favorite parts in the original is when a young Ebenezer's love, Belle, his breaking off their relationship because she feels he in unsatisfied with her. Levithan did an amazing job of having that conversation play out with the same tone and feeling, but instead of her saying "You would now, never choose to love someone who is poor" she says to him "You would now, never choose to love someone who is dying."

However, I will say that there were a few lines that were too close to the original and therefore felt odd and strange in the modern setting. But other than that, I truly LOVED this book! It had such beautiful writing and I loved the way that Levithan included all the original characters in their own special way. My favorite, was of course Tiny Tim, who in this novel became Tiny and Tim, a young gay couple that are just starting their relationship. 

I loved this book so much that I couldn't put it down. If you aren't a huge fan of the original story, I'm not sure how much you would appreciate this book. But seeing on how I LOVE the original story, I was completely absorbed in this version of it. I'd give Marly's Ghost an abduction rating of... 

Abducted by Levithan Love-a-thon GIVEAWAY!!!

I have decided that I am having so much fun reading the works of David Levithan that it is time to spread the love!

So, I'm hosting a giveaway, but I'm going to keep it as simple as possible.

The giveaway will start today (February 14th) and run through February 28th. The winner will be announced on the last day of my Levithan Love-a-thon, February 29th.

Simply fill out the form below and you will be entered. And if you follow my blog, that will get you an extra entry!

On, February 28th I will announce the winner and send them an email. They will have 48 hours to get back to me with their information and their selection of novel. After 48 hours, if I haven't heard from them I will pick another winner at random.

Once the winner has been determined they will get to choose which one of the 5 David Levithan novels I read for my Levithan Love-a-thon they would like for themselves.

The Lover's Dictionary 

Are We There Yet?

Marly's Ghost

Every You, Every Me

Boy Meets Boy

Good Luck!!!

Abducted by The Name of the Star

My dear friend Kate sent me the audio version of The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson for Christmas and I just finished it last week!

The story centers around a young girl named Rory who moves to London from New Orleans to attend a boarding school. Rory is instantly a character that pretty much any one could relate to. She definitely has her own "fish out of water" moments, but she braves them all brilliantly and manages to make friends and find her own place in the school.

At the same time someone is terrorizing the streets with his own brand of Jack the Ripper inspired murders. Before she knows it, Rory is thrust into the investigation and is fighting for her life and the life of those around her.

I had never read Maureen Johnson before, but I have been meaning to. I do read a lot of YA and I'm a huge fan of authors like John Green and Holly Black, and they all seem to be friends. I've seen her books on so many of the blogs that I follow and was very happy to finally get my shot at reading her work. And now, I can easily say that I am fully converted! Johnson's writing was funny and honest.

I have always loved movies and shows that are based on Jack the Ripper so when I heard that his story played a major part in this story I was excited to read it! Johnson did not disappoint! As I said earlier, I had the audio version of this book and I was listening to it in my car. I'm not going to lie, there were some moments that when I was driving around quite late at night, I found rather chilling. Sure the book had its moments of being really funny, and a couple of kissing scenes were rather steamy, but mostly it was a full on ghost story! Which I was not expecting, but I did greatly appreciate!

I also loved all the characters. Rory was charming from the get go, with plenty of stories of her crazy family. And since this is a boarding school we got to meet a lot of her classmates and friends a long the way. My only real complaint was that we didn't get to see more of the character Jazza towards the end of the book. Jazza is Rory's roommate and they form a strong friendship from the beginning of the book. As chaos ensues we see less and less of Jazza. Don't get me wrong, the character isn't completely dropped and when you read the book you will see that everything that happens is for a reason, I'm just saying it was...unfortunate. She is a great friend to Rory so I hope she continues to play a part in the series.

That is the other thing! I did not know when I was reading this that it was going to be a series! YAY!!! I mean, this book works perfectly on its own. There is no doubt about that. Like I said, I had no idea it was going to be part of a trilogy. If someone had told me earlier I must have completely forgot. I didn't find out until I sat down to write this post. The ending of The Name of the Star absolutely lends itself to be a continuing story, but at the end of the novel there is still a sense of completion. If this book was not going to be part of a series, I would be okay. I would be disappointed, but not devastated.

I'm just excited that the story will move on because, call me crazy, but I really really really want something to happen between Rory and Stephen! I don't even know if that is something that has crossed Johnson's mind yet or not! I'm just saying I'd like for it to happen, it would make me very happy!

In this story Rory is seeing her classmate, Jerome, and Stephen is one of the "special" local cops investigating the murders. Stephen has had a rough past, so when we meet him he is kind of on the cold side and all professional. Towards the end he does start to come out of his shell around Rory, and I think she could be the best one to step in and warm his heart right up!

The Name of the Star was an enjoyable read and I can't wait to come back for more.

I will give it an abduction rating of...

Abducted by a Feature & Follow

It has been FOREVER since I have done a blog hop, but a lot of my friends have been doing them lately, so I figured; Hey, why not!?! Also, I am soooooooo close to getting over 100 followers and it would be awesome to finally break that barrier!

Let me start by giving a special shout out to the feature blog:

The BookChowDown is a really cute blog, so congrats to her for being a feature! She also mentioned that she thinks she was the one who submitted the question for the week. That's exciting! I know I submitted a question once, but now I don't quite remember what it was. Hmm...


Anyway, the question for the week was:

Q: What would your prefer: reading your favorite book over and over again until you got sick of it OR reading 100s of mediocre books? And why? 

 

Well, as I have mentioned on my blog, time and time again, my favorite book is The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. I think, at last count, I have 10 different copies of this book. All with different covers and different art work. There is even a Hebrew edition on ebay that I have my eye on, but I haven't actually bought it yet. Because as my friends keep reminding me, I don't actually speak Hebrew.

But anyway, even though it is my favorite book, and even though I do try to re-read it once a year. I still think I would rather read 100s of mediocre books, than read my one book over and over again to the point that I was sick of it. The Chronicles of Narnia is such a magical series, and I would never want the Silver Chair to loose that magical quality for me. 

I hope everyone has a great time jumping around on the blog hop! If you decide to follow my blog, please leave me a comment letting me know so that I can return the favor! 

 HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!  

Abducted by Are We There Yet?

Today is the second Wednesday in February and it is time for my second entry in my...

Levithan Love-a-thon!!!

I explained in the last post that David Levithan writes a lot of his stories as Valentine's Day gifts, so that is why I've declared February my Levithan Love-a-thon month and I will be posting a review on a different one of his books each Wednesday. Last week I reread The Lover's Dictionary, but this week I read Are We There Yet?

This book was nothing like what I thought it was going to be. Let me share the blurb on the back of the book for you...

"Elijah and Danny don't think they have anything in common except their parents. Danny thinks Elijah is a lazy, slacking, clueless dreamer who doesn't know how to make a living. Elijah thinks Danny is a workaholic, stuck-up, soulless drone who doesn't know how to make a life. Yes, they're brothers. But they really can't stand each other. 
Then their parents trick them into taking a trip to Italy together. Nine days of escape. Nine days of somewhere else. 
Elijah and Danny aren't sure it's going to work. Until they each meet a girl - the same girl. Julia. And nothing will ever be the same again.

Welcome to David Levithan's mixed-up, turned-around, never-what-you-expect-world of brothers, Italy, and love - a place where everything unsaid carries the same weight as everything said, where lifelong histories can turn in the course of a minute, and where two brothers always have a chance...if they can only figure out what it is."

So, I knew that the book was going to involve brothers going to Italy, but I thought that the girl Julia was going to play a bigger part of the story. First of all, Julia doesn't even come into the story until page 78 which is almost exactly a third of the way through the book. Mostly the book was about the relationship between the brothers.

The relationship between Elijah and Danny reminded me so much of my relationship with my sisters that it was scary! They love each other but they have also grown apart. I love my sister, I truly do, but there is a wall between us.

"Elijah's problem, in Danny's mind, is that he has no sense of what it takes to make a living.

Danny's problem, in Elijah's mind, is that he has no sense of what it takes to make a life."

When I read that line, I had chills.

 my sister and I at the U2 concert 2 and a half years ago

Siblings are interesting creatures, aren't they? No one can love you the way they can, and no one can hurt you  as easily as they can. And it is hard to explain that to people because they always ask "Well, what did she say? What did she do?" But siblings don't have to do anything!

"If you live with someone all your life, you can tell when you are annoying them. Their face just shuts down. Their words sound almost mechanical, because they are reining in all the other emotions. I think I'd also know if I made Danny happy, but I never make him happy. Ever." 

One thing that Levithan was great at was keeping a true balance throughout the story. Even though, I saw more of myself in the Elijah character, I was never against Danny. I understood completely where both brothers were coming from and I felt and rooted for each of them. And I'm not going to lie, the last page got me chocked up...just a little.

The other amazing thing about this book was that every sentence read like poetry. My neighbors probably think I've been spending the last few days talking to myself, because I couldn't help but read the pages out loud. The language and tone of the book just flows off the pages. You know how when you try to just read a poem in your head it doesn't sound as lyrical as when you read it out loud? That is how I felt about this book. I started reading it at my parents house during the Superbowl and was kind of like "yeah, okay." But, then I came home and started reading it out loud, and I fell in love.

Although I may not have been completely absorbed in the book, I still really loved it! I think it is perfect for everyone out there that has siblings. Especially when those relationships may have been strained. I'd give it an abduction rating of...

Abducted by The Lover's Dictionary

In the last two years, I have been introduced to the writing of David Levithan, and he has come to be one of my favorite authors of all time. I love that he challenges the way a story is told, for himself and for his readers. 

One thing I have learned about Levithan that really makes me love him, is why he writes the majority of his stories. In a lot of the interviews for him that I have read, he talks about the fact that most of the time he starts out writing stories only with the intention to give them out as Valentine's Day gifts for his friends and family. And it is only with their love and encouragement that he goes on to the develop the stories into full novels. 

Seriously, how completely charming is that!?!

Upon learning this, I have since made it my mission in life to read everything he has written! And what is a better time to start then February, the month of Valentine's Day!?!

I am officially declaring February as the month for a...

Levithan Love-a-thon!!!

Every Wednesday I will be posting a new review for each of his books that I am going to read this month. I have set aside The Lover's Dictionary, Are We There Yet?, Marley's Ghost, Every You Every Me, and Boy Meets Boy. 

And it all starts today with The Lover's Dictionary!

God, I love this book! I started reading it today, which means that it counts towards my goals of books to read this year and pages to read this year, but also one day reads and rereads!

When I first marked this book as "currently reading" on my blog this morning my friend Steph commented; "You're rereading this already?" And all I could think was; "Well, yeah! Why not? And hey, July was 7th months ago!!!" 

The Lover's Dictionary is David Levithan's first adult novel (he usually writes Young Adult) and is written in the format of a dictionary. Levithan selects specific words for each letter and uses their definitions to share a piece of the puzzle that makes up relationships.

What I love about this book is that it is honest. It is honest about the big romantic gestures and it is honest about those small more intimate moments. There are moments when the narrator is deliriously happy, but other moments when we find him fearful and angry. Everything is right there, all contained within these 200 pages! I love it!

I gave this book away at my book club's book exchange at Christmas (and I am so glad that Tracy got it and loved it!) and I already bought another copy to give to yet another friend of mine that I know will appreciate it. I think I might make that a tradition, every time I reread this one I'll have to buy a copy to give to yet another friend. I will never loan this book out, I will always just make sure they have their own copy to read. 

-- Okay, wait a second. Breath, Courtney, breath!!! You might be crossing the line to where you are getting too excited and building the book up way too much. You might start scaring people away! Take a step back and reel yourself in! --

...yeah...*shrugs*...I mean this book was alright...you'd probably like it...you know...whatever...

Originally when I rated this book I only gave it a four because I was unsatisfied with the end. But upon my rereading of it, I can see that I actually just mis-interpreted it. So this time around The Lover's Dictionary get's an abduction rating of...