quotes Elisquared likes


"Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself."— John Green

6.10.2014

Top Ten Tuesday (41)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. They'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!
Each week they will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of their bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on their post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share.  If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. 
The topic this week is:
Top Ten Five Books I've Read So Far This Year
(I have not read enough books at all this year.  Bad, bad Eli!)


 
Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu

Some secrets are too good to keep. 
Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat.  
Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend. 
Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe. 
Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own. 
But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

The Secret Diamond Sisters by Michelle Madow

Savannah. Courtney. Peyton. 
The three sisters grew up not knowing their father and not quite catching a break. But it looks like their luck is about to change when they find out the secret identity of their long-lost dad—a billionaire Las Vegas hotel owner who wants them to come live in a gorgeous penthouse hotel suite. Suddenly the Strip's most exclusive clubs are all-access, and with an unlimited credit card each, it should be easier than ever to fit right in. But in a town full of secrets and illusion, fitting in is nothing compared to finding out the truth about their past.

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Time is slipping away.... 
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything. 
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race. 
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place? 
Victoria Scott's breathtaking novel grabs readers by the throat and doesn't let go. 

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. 
But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
Does one need four fully-grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully-grown guests?  
Sophronia's first year at school has certainly been rousing.  First, her finishing school is training her to be a spy (won't Mumsy be surprised!).  Secondly, she gets mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and has a cheese pie thrown at her. 
Now, as Sophronia sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a school trip to London than at first appears...
Vampires, werewolves, and humans are all after the prototype Sophronia recovered, which has the potential to alter human and supernatural travel. 
Sophronia must try to uncover who is behind a dangerous plot to control the prototype... as well as survive the London season with a full dance card. 

So as you can see, I don't have ten books to choose from.  This is because I have only read seven books so far this year.  It is horrible, I know.  I'm trying to rectify this, but it is slow goings.  BUT these five books that I've suggested above are excellent, and well worth a read.

Happy reading my lovely followers!  Let me know in the comments some of the books you've read this year, and don't forget to stop by The Broke and the Bookish to see the rest of the lists!

6.05.2014

Visual Inspirations - Noggin by John Corey Whaley



Pictures/Art/Photographs all help me see the books I'm reading.  Often, while I'm online, I stumble upon images that remind me of the book.  These visuals add layers to the stories, and can be used to offer hints to the plot.  So I've decided to put out "Visual Inspirations" in order to spark readers' interests in those books that I love.  Please feel free to join in; hopefully you'll get some new books to read in the process!

This is slowly becoming one of my favorite books of 2014.  To celebrate this I give you inspiration this week from:

Noggin by John Corey Whaley


Oh I wonder what this could all mean?

Check the book out at your local bookstore or local library.  It is a great book, full of humor and the search for what it means to be alive (but in a totally non-pretentious way, promise!).

6.04.2014

Waiting on Wednesday (83)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we seriously can’t wait for.

Here's my pick for the week, that I seriously can't wait for:



by Rin Chupeco
Publication Date: August 5, 2014


You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night. 

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out. 

The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.




I am a weenie when it comes to scary things: books, movies, the dark...etc.  But for some reason, and I think it's that her motivation for killing is revenge on child killers, I really want to read this book.  I know that there will be a great mystery and good murder (uh, that's an oxymoron, but oh well), and I want it in my grubby mitts already!!

What book are you waiting for?

6.03.2014

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan (Review)

Title: Love is the Higher Law
Author(s): David Levithan
Edition: Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 25, 2009
Source: Owned
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - Inkwood Books













The Summary


First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.

My Opinion


I am a huge fan of David Levithan.  He writes beautiful stories, capturing the human experience with the utmost care and craft.  But none of his books come close to Love is the Higher Law.  This book is heartbreaking and raw, examining one of the worst events in American history, September 11th, through the eyes of three different teens.  Tragically beautiful, this is a book that needs to be included in Young Adult library collections, and classroom libraries.


Levithan picks an appropriate tool to navigate such a hard topic.  Using three different perspectives shapes the book in a concrete way.  The three teens, Claire, Jasper, and Peter, each experience the events of 9/11 differently.  Claire is at school when the planes hit, and she rushes to her brother's elementary school to be with him.  Meanwhile, Peter is waiting at the Tower Records a couple blocks down from the Towers, and feels the impact from the explosions.  And through the whole incident, Jasper is asleep, hungover from a party the night before, and just waking to see the aftermath.  With these three different experiences, characters stories build one within the other as the story progresses.

What I always love about Levithan's writing is the lyrical quality to his dialogue and the beautifully descriptive scenes.  Both transport you into the lives and feelings of his characters; Love is the Higher Law is no exception.  I actually feel that the book is anchored so well in the human experience that it transcends above the physical events, and not in a way that does disservice to the memory of those who were killed.  But this transcendence does allow readers who may not remember 9/11, (they may have been too young, or not even American), to travel with the characters, experiencing the emotions that people felt and still feel.  Overall, Love is the Higher Law is a look on how a human being, in this case three teens, faced with such a horrific event deal with the aftermath.

For a book centralized around such an intense and deeply personal event, being a sensitive and delicate authors is imperative.  For most Americans, September 11th is a scar on the face of our country, one which will last forever.  To write about it takes an author of a high caliber, as well as an author who isn't on the outside of the events looking in.  Levithan lives in New York, and was on of the thousands of people affected by 9/11.  This personal involvement is felt within every word.  Love is the Higher Law is a powerful story about survival, grief, friendship, and life.  But above all it is a book about love.

Extras

Check out David Levithan reading an excerpt of Love is the Higher Law


Part One


Part Two

Here is a really great interview with David Levithan about Love is the Higher Law from the ladies over at Book Divas.

Final Rating


Book Cover: 5/5
Book Title: 5/5
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Writing: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Overall: 48/50: A

Top Ten Tuesday (40)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. They'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!
Each week they will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of their bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on their post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share.  If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.
The topic this week is: 
Top Ten Books That Should Be In Your Beach Bag
(WOOH SUMMER!)


 
Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu

Some secrets are too good to keep. 
Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat.  
Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend. 
Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe. 
Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own. 
But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Listen — Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t.
Now he’s alive again. 
Simple as that. 
The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but he can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he’s still 16 and everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she’s not his girlfriend anymore? That’s a bit fuzzy too. 
Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, then there are going to be a few more scars. 
Oh well, you only live twice. 
The Secret Diamond Sisters by Michelle Madow

Savannah. Courtney. Peyton. 
The three sisters grew up not knowing their father and not quite catching a break. But it looks like their luck is about to change when they find out the secret identity of their long-lost dad—a billionaire Las Vegas hotel owner who wants them to come live in a gorgeous penthouse hotel suite. Suddenly the Strip's most exclusive clubs are all-access, and with an unlimited credit card each, it should be easier than ever to fit right in. But in a town full of secrets and illusion, fitting in is nothing compared to finding out the truth about their past.
Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Time is slipping away.... 
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything. 
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race. 
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place? 
Victoria Scott's breathtaking novel grabs readers by the throat and doesn't let go. 
Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler

What happens when the person you’re becoming isn’t the one your family wants you to be? 
When Aaron Hartzler was little, he couldn’t wait for the The Rapture: that moment when Jesus would come down from the clouds to whisk him and his family up to heaven. But as he turns sixteen, Aaron grows more curious about all the things his family forsakes for the Lord. He begins to realize he doesn’t want Jesus to come back just yet—not before he has his first kiss, sees his first movie, or stars in the school play. 
Whether he’s sneaking out, making out, or playing hymns with a hangover, Aaron learns a few lessons that can’t be found in the Bible. He discovers that the girl of your dreams can just as easily be the boy of your dreams, and the tricky part about believing is that no one can do it for you. 
In this funny and heartfelt coming-of-age memoir, debut author Aaron Hartzler recalls his teenage journey from devoted to doubtful, and the search to find his own truth without losing the fundamentalist family who loves him. 
Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge 
Paige Turner has just moved to New York with her family, and she's having some trouble adjusting to the big city. In the pages of her sketchbook, she tries to make sense of her new life, including trying out her secret identity: artist. As she makes friends and starts to explore the city, she slowly brings her secret identity out into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding. 
Laura Lee Gulledge crafts stories and panels with images that are thought-provoking, funny, and emotionally resonant. Teens struggling to find their place can see themselves in Paige's honest, heartfelt story.
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.
But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know? 
Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling. 
What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe. 
My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die! 
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. 
Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met. 
A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too. 
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. 
But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

Each of the books on this list are amazing, and ones that I have enjoyed immensely!  You should all be running to grab your own copies to read while you're chilling on the beach or relaxing by the pool this summer!

Happy Summer my lovely readers!  Let me know in the comments some of your Beach Bag books, and don't forget to stop by The Broke and the Bookish to see the rest of the lists!

5.21.2014

Waiting on Wednesday (82)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we seriously can’t wait for.

Here's my pick for the week, that I seriously can't wait for:



Publication Date: October 21, 2014



A time traveler accidentally brings a boy from the past into the 23rd century, only to discover he’s already in love with her future self and is keeping his own set of secrets.


Uh, while this is a tiny summary for a book, it has got me hooked for sure!!!  I love time travel, I like the whole idea of it, I like the consequences that can happen, and I certainly like the possibilities it has.  Add that to the romance in the book, and I am sold!  can;t wait until October!  (If any of you lovely people in the book world get an ARC, I would love if you could send it my way once you're done! ^_^)

What book are you waiting for?


5.14.2014

Waiting on Wednesday (81)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we seriously can’t wait for.

Here's my pick for the week, that I seriously can't wait for:



Publication Date: September 16, 2014


When Cate Benson was twelve, her sister died. 

Two hours after the funeral, they picked up Violet’s replacement, and it was like nothing had ever happened. Because Cate’s parents are among those who decided to grant their children a sort of immortality—by cloning them at birth. So this new Violet has the same smile. The same laugh. That same perfect face. Thanks to advancements in mind-uploading technology, she even has all the same memories as the girl she replaced. 

She also might have murdered the most popular girl in school. 

Or at least, that’s what the paparazzi and crazy anti-cloning protesters want everyone to think: that clones are violent, unpredictable monsters. Cate is used to hearing all that, though. She’s used to standing up for her sister too, and she’s determined to prove her innocence now—at whatever the cost. But the deeper she digs for the truth, the further Cate's carefully-constructed life begins to unravel, unveiling a world filled with copies and lies, where nothing and no one—not even her sister— is completely what they seem. 

In a pulse pounding debut, Stefanie Gaither takes readers on a nail-biting ride through a future that looks frighteningly similar to our own time and asks: how far are you willing to go to keep your family together?


This sounds so very cool.  I like the sci-fi aspect of it, and clones have always fascinated me.  I could see our society going in this kind of direction one day.  There are so many leaps in medical advancements, that why wouldn't you want to be able to "never die"?  It is an interesting concept, and I'm excited to see how it reads!

What book are you waiting for?


Falling in Love with English Boys (Review)

Title: Falling in Love with English Boys
Author(s): Melissa Jensen
Edition: Paperback, 293 pages
Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: December 23, 2010
Source: Borrowed from library
Buy: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository - Inkwood Books














The Summary


Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer-no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something-anything-to do in London while her (s)mother's off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her-and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat's only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival-the uber-hot descendant of Katherine-and things start looking up . . .

My Opinion


I loved Melissa Jensen's sophomore book, The Fine Art of Truth or Dare, so I wanted to get my hands on her debut novel, Falling Love with English Boys.  It was just as quirky, funny, and well-written as her other book, and one of my new favorites!


The story takes place in both modern London and 1800s London, revolving around two girls: Cat and Katherine.  Cat has been transplanted by her mother to London in order to finish a research project her mom conducting on Katherine's family, The Percivals, a family that is part of the Ton of Regency England.  While researching, Cat's mom comes across Katherine's diary, and gives it to Cat to read.  Paralleling Cat's own blog posts, Katherine's life seems very similar to Cat's own: an absent father, a nosey mother, some awesome friends, and boy troubles.  As Cat reads more she realizes that while she and Katherine are separated by centuries, their experiences are the same.

The writing really shines in the book.  Someone could separate Cat's and Katherine's stories out and have two complete books, that is how well crafted the characters and details were.  I like this particular distinction, as it really helps focus the reader into the time period.  If either world was too close in tone and word choice, it would make the book disjointed.  But while the stories could be separated, the similarities between the two lives creates a harmony.  It sounds funny, but trust me it works. 

The characters also shine.  I love Cat; she's a great mix of snarky, smart, flirty, and naive, just the kind of teenager I enjoy.  Along with the three girls she befriends, the awesome just grows.  Of course, Will, the Percival of the modern century, is just the type of swooney English boy us American girls fall for.  Each character from the modern century really made an impact to the plot.  While this may be the case for Cat and Company, I didn't really connect with any other characters in the 1800s except for Katherine herself.  The other characters, while important to her story, where not as interesting.  But this is most likely a personal preference, as I don't enjoy very many historical fictions.

Overall, this book is full of humor, romance, and friendship, while also posing a great example that humanity, even across time, share common threads.  A fun read for sumer, you won't regret picking up Melissa Jensen's Falling in Love with English Boys.


Extras


Check out Melissa Jensen's second book, and my review of, The Fine Art of Truth or Dare!



Final Rating


Book Cover: 4/5
Book Title: 4/5
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Writing: 9/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall: 44/50: B+
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