March Review

March 31, 2012

Oh, my goodness. It's March 31st! The end of the month kind of snuck up on me. Anyway, it's time for my review for the month. I didn't get much reading done this month with so much stuff going on , but I did get some in.

The first book of the month was Blood Red Road by Moira Young. The story I thought was really good, think Mad Max, but with a girl. It is a futuristic/dystopian book. I would say yes, awesome book, but I can't because the lack of proper punctuations and horrible spelling (that was done intentionally) drove me batty. I'm on the fence with this book.








Up next was Article 5 by Kristen Simmons. This was another dystopian read. There was no explanation of how things got to where they were at. There was no character build up. The big shocker at the end, wasn't that surprising at all. And the blatant liberal push in the book made me dislike it. The severity of the religion in this book is that of Muslim, but the author slapped it into what is Bible based. There was no mention of Christianity however. It's not to read.






The Red Tent by Anita Diamnt was third up this month. I didn't see what the big fuss was over. This is the supposed story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob from the book of Genesis. I knew the story from studying it and so going into this book, this story just bugged me. It altered everything that is known and made all the characters bitter, unforgiving. There was nothing redeeming about anyone in this book. Not to read.







The last book I was able to finish this month was Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin. It was such a sweet story! Oogy was rescued as a puppy from the brink of death by some cops who took him to a 24 hour animal ER. Oogy, as a puppy had been used as a bait dog to train other dogs how to kill for fighting. The people of the emergency clinic helped Oogy and he was able to find a home with the author and his family. The love for Oogy this family has and the love Oogy has for his family is heart warming. You can't help but go, Awww! It's to read!





March has not been a good month for me book wise. Only 1 1/2 books I liked out of 4! I'm now up to 14 books for the year with 61 more to go. Averaged out that is only 7.6 books a month for the next 8 months! :-)

Countdown

March 29, 2012




Can I just say, I can't wait!

The Hunger Games: Movie

March 27, 2012

Ok, this isn't a book review, but a review of a movie based on a book. I will not spoil the movie, so no fears if you haven't seen it.

I saw The Hunger Games this weekend and I just have to say, it was really good! It is one of the better book to movie adaptations I've seen! It doesn't hurt that Suzanne Collins helped with the screen play.

With her behind the scenes, I think it helped to get what she had in mind while she was writing the book. It was interesting seeing a couple of added scenes. I thought it really added to the story and brought across her ideas on the screen flawlessly and in a way you couldn't have seen it in the book.

There has been a lot of discussions about the violence in the movie, but I have to say, that in the book as it was written, it wasn't graphic. It wasn't blood, blood, and more blood. It was shown, when it had to be and it wasn't glorified. I think it was well done, especially for a PG-13 movie. They could have been brutal about it, but they didn't and I'm glad about that.

I thought all the actors were spot on. I was very pleased with that. There were a few times when I couldn't help but compare the movie to the book going, "But what about this?...Why didn't they do this?... Aw, they left that out?" Over all though, I liked it a lot! The graphics were good. The sets were amazing! And they captured the capitol and the districts just right.

I say, go see it. It's a very good film.

And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

March 19, 2012


Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin, is a book that just makes you go, AWWWWWW!!! I fell in love with Oogy. He's a dog that you just want to take home and hug.

This is a biography of a dog named Oogy, who was used as a bait dog, to train fighting dogs how to attack. Against all odds, this dog pulled through and was adopted into a family that just wanted to love him and take care of him after his rough start.

It has many touching moments and some pretty funny moments as well. I also saw it as, this dog has gone through so much, but still has a smile on his face and love to share, why can't I in the hard times. It also make you want to hug your own pet closer and give them some extra love.

I really enjoyed this book and I have to say it is a to read!

I also want to add that this book was also helpful to me with my dog. With all the different type of surgeries Oogy went through, it was helpful in gaining knowledge for a similar surgery my dog just went through and gave me ideas on how to help my doggy get through his healing with a little more comfort.

Book Love

March 14, 2012

I just saw this picture and had to share. The love of books is everywhere, and I'm happy about it.

The Red Tent

March 13, 2012


The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, it took me a while to get through this compared to my previous reads. I've heard about this book off and on for a little while. It's been out for about 15 years now. It's not what I expected.

The Red Tent is a fictional story of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob/ Israel and Leah from the book Genesis in the Bible. With it being from such a well known source, I had thought it would have stuck to it as well as it could for a work of fiction. Alas, it did not. Instead of this story being of forgiveness or anything uplifting, it was full of bitter, angry people who did not rely on God, but only of the lesser gods, most known to Egypt of the time or of the Canaanite people. It just left me scratching my head.

Dinah is not mentioned much in the Bible, expect for being Leah's daughter and the victim of rape at the hands of a prince and her brothers defended her honor in a very brutal way by killing the guy who raped her and every man in the city. Jacob then took his family and moved from that place.

So there is a lot of unknowns in the story of Dinah and Anita Diamant filled it in with her imagination. She took what we know from the Bible and changed it completely. They turned what is known from the passages and made it into a joke between the characters. The marriage between Leah and Jacob being an example. In the Bible, he was furious he was given the wrong sister in marriage, but in the book, he and Leah laughed over it and plotted that he should be mad about it as a joke.

The rivalry between Rachel and Leah was downplayed and made it seem like it was a fun time to be sisters and wives to the same guy. There is much that I learned from the Bible of these stories, it was hard to enjoy reading this book with out thinking, no, that is not it. The last part of the book is all fiction with what the author wrote on what happened to Dinah. We do see Joseph after being in Egypt and assisting the Pharaoh, but he is a unforgiving and bitter of the past.

I honestly did not see any redeeming character in any of these people. Mad, bitter, hostile, hurt, angry. If you are going to read this book, don't go in thinking of what you know, go in thinking that this is a book with only the names similar to what you know and nothing else.

The writing is ok. It was all written from Dinah perspective. It was more of a giant word picture then anything. There is not much conversation that goes on in the book. You mainly read that in the conversation between Jacob and Leah, this is what they would talk about. I could not connect with this book.

I say not to read.

Article 5

March 9, 2012


Ok, I just finished Article 5 by Kristen Simmons yesterday. I needed a day to process before I posted. This may turn into a political/ religious rant, so bare with me.

The book started off with promise, well, at least from reading the jacket of it. A lot of the main cities have been abandoned or just bombed the heck out of. The Bill of Rights is no longer used. Instead, there is a Moral Statute in place Ok, so far it's a good set up to a good dystopian read.

I am older then the target audience for this read by 10 years. So, I'm a little more politically knowledgeable in some areas, then the audience it is geared for and it rubbed me the wrong way.

But before I get into that, the writing is ok. I wouldn't call it stellar, because the choppiness of the story with Ember's flashbacks took away the flow of the story. Ember is the main character in Article 5. She is a 17 year old girl, who lives with her single mom. You only get to see a little bit of her life before the Moral Militia takes her and her mom off for being Article 5 violators. Ember is separated from her mom and sent on a reform school for girls, per the law under the new Moral Statues.

America has just come out of a war on our soil, with a lot of people over seas who don't like us (no big surprise there), however, while reading you just get a brief mentions of it. You have no idea what really happened, who attacked, nothing. You also have no idea, how the person who is president became so, or how the laws became what they did. There are so many gaps that left me goings, what about....?

All Ember wants to do is find her mom and go into hiding. She tries several different times to escape from the reform school, only to be punished. On one of her final attempts, the MM, who were patrolling the area found her and hauled her off to the shack, where the severe punishment was going to be dealt out. However, she is rescued by her former boyfriend, Chase. Who had been drafted into the MM. The MM is now what was the police system and military system, now combined. From here, it is Chase and Ember's journy to get to safety and to find her mom as fugitives.

That was the basic jist of the book. Now what got me thinking on this book, is well, first the religion in it. There isn't much in it, as in the characters are not. However, in the book, there is a Church of America now. Modesty reins supreme. However, every time I read it, I couldn't help but feel it was the muslim religion, just coated over with the Bible. Plus, the nonconformity to the Church of America was punishable. If you are Jewish, it was punishable. The strict nature of it, down to the fact that women were not protected from abuse from their husbands or family. Everything is going towards the fault of women. Women are punished for being "loose". Divorce is now against the law. Everything about it screamed muslim, but it's not since the Bible is there. It seemed like a bash on Christianity.

Now from the political side, it seemed like a major bash on conservatism. Everything that is considered good, was taken to the extremes and turned bad. The complete control of the people by the goverment is something the conservatives are against, but here it they have taken over completely. With the heavy push right off the bat, I couldn't help feel that the author is liberal and trying to push her views in the book. Religious and conservative people are trying to control us and this is what could happen.

The book just seemed off in so many ways and it ended predictably. I say it's not to read.

Blood Red Road

March 5, 2012


I just finished reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young. It's part of the series Dust Lands. This is one cover for the book, there is also different cover, for the paper back book and it's red with white lettering, if anyone is confused.

Anyway, well. I guess I'll start off with what bugged me about this book first. There is no quotation marks at all in this book and the spelling killed me! It is written in the voice of Saba, the main character of the book. She is 18 years old and lives in a basic wasteland in the future. She speaks with what you would call a southern hick accent. Hearing it is one thing, reading it is a whole other barrel of monkeys. Most of the book is written phonically. Now, don't get me wrong, reading by phonics is wonderful, it's how I learned to read, but writing in it for others to read, wow! It took me a while to get passed it to enjoy the story.

An example: " He'll of thought about it, you can bet on it. He's watched us fix it fer five year now. Ever since I found him fell outta the nest an his ma nowhere to been seen. Pa warn't too happy to see me bring a crow babby home. He told me some fool consider crows bring death, but I was set on rearin him by hand and one I set my mind on somethin I stick with it."

It was a bit much and took away from the story in my mind.

Ok, those were my gripes, on to the good.

The story of Blood Red Road was actually good. I enjoyed it. Think Mad Max, but with with a girl in the main roll. The world as we know it is gone. There is a large sandsea, a lot of the area is a barren waste land with patches of paradise (greenery). Anything that is left of our cities are just empty shells where stray cats wander.

Saba is the twin sister to Lugh. He is the older of the two. They have a little sister named Emmi and they live with their Pa. Their mother died in childbirth to Emmi. Saba and Lugh have a close relationship. Saba doesn't care for Emmi at all. They live in a place where their mother died. There father doesn't want to move on, but Lugh is ready to explore and find out what is beyond where they have lived.

One day, a massive dust storm comes and following it are riders. They speak to Lugh and Saba after and upon finding out the information they are needing, they take Lugh. The riders kill their father and leave Saba and Emmi alone. Saba during the grab, promises Lugh, that she will find him.

The story follows Saba's journey to find her brother, while trying to ditch her sister, which never works. She has the help of a highly intelligent crow named Nero. She also makes friends along the way when she is captured and forced into slavery as a cage fighter, more of a futuristic gladiator in a very hostile arena.

I'm very torn on this book. The story is good, and for that I would say it is a to read, but the lack of punctuations and horrible spelling I want to say not to read. Take it as you will!!

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