Q&A with Dina Silver, author of One Pink Line

Author: Dina Silver
Goodreads Rating: 4.27
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pages: 260


Because this post is a special one, its going to go a little differently than before. For this post, the wonderful Dina Silver has agreed not only to a question and answer but also to giveaway a copy of One Pink Line. I personally won a copy of One Pink Line and that was how I found this book (that I loved) and author(who I also love). I have a shorter review of the book posted here rather than the usual longer post as well as the synopses.


Goodreads Synopses:


Can the love of a lifetime be forever changed by one pink line? Dina Silver’s tender, absorbing novel, One Pink Line, is the warmhearted, wry story of love, loss and family, as seen through the prism of one singular, spirited young couple who find themselves in a predicament that changes the course of their lives, and those closest to them. With heart, humor and compassion, this debut work of women’s fiction is certain to stir anyone who relishes a good laugh, can stand a good cry, and, above all believes in the redemptive power of love.  


My Review:


I really enjoyed this book because it has all the best things in Chicklit; young romance, babies, children, pregnancy, girlfriends and mothers. I had few complaints about the book, and my only one was too much detail about insignificant characters, other then that it was fun and flirty, and a lot of fun as you started to connect the dots as the story of Grace and the story of Sydney unfolds. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun girly story. (Because with that much pink on the cover you can't get any more girly.)


Q&A with Dina Silver after the jump!

The Host

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Goodreads rating: 3.87/5

My rating: 4/5

Pages: 619

Reviewed by: Amy 

Synopsis:

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

Review after the jump!

The 19th Wife

Author: David Ebershoff

Goodreads rating: 3.58

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Pages: 514 

I'm not too sure why I decided that I wanted to read this book. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that I have a Mormon cousin and the fact that I used to watch Big Love. I think the other part of it was pure curiosity of Polygamy and the relationships. It was a slow, but fascinating read at times, other times I just wanted it to be over.

Synopses from Goodreads.com

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’sThe 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense. It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.

Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith. 

My review after the jump!

Alone

Author: Lisa Gardner

Goodreads Rating: 3.82

My Rating: 3/5

Pages: 480

This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I only just got around to reading it. This book is considered to be part of the Detective DD Warren Series, although, she hardly played a role in this book. I wasn't blown away by this book, but I didn't hate it either.

Synopses from Goodreads.com:

Alone . . . Massachusetts State Trooper Bobby Dodge watches a tense hostage standoff unfold through the scope of his sniper rifle. Just across the street, in wealthy Back Bay, Boston, an armed man has barricaded himself with his wife and child. The man’s finger tightens on the trigger and Dodge has only a split second to react . . . and forever pay the consequences.

Alone . . . that’s where the nightmare began for cool, beautiful, and dangerously sexy Catherine Rose Gagnon. Twenty-five years ago, she was buried underground during a month-long nightmare of abduction and abuse. Now her husband has just been killed. Her father-in-law, the powerful Judge Gagnon, blames Catherine for his son’s death . . . and for the series of unexplained illnesses that have sent her own young son repeatedly to the hospital.

Alone . . . a madman survived solitary confinement in a maximum security prison where he’d done hard time for the most sadistic of crimes. Now he walks the streets a free man, invisible, anonymous . . . and filled with an unquenchable rage for vengeance. What brings them together is a moment of violence—but what connects them is a passion far deeper and much more dangerous. For a killer is loose who’s woven such an intricate web of evil that no one is above suspicion, no one is beyond harm, and no one will see death coming until it has them cornered, helpless, and alone.

Review after the jump.

Virals

Author: Kathy Reichs
Goodreads Rating: 3.86
My Rating: 3.75/5
Pages: 454


I love the TV show Bones and so I decided to try out Kathy Reichs' books on Temperance and what not. I listened to one of the books that Bones is based on but because I love the show, the book wasn't the same. So when I found out about Virals I decided to give Reichs another shot with her Young Adult series based on Tempe's niece.


Synopses from Goodreads.com


Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of the Bones novels and hit TV show), is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage "sci-philes" who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. 

As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer's scent. 

Fortunately, they are now more than friends they're a pack. They are Virals.


Review after the jump!

Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver
Goodreads Rating: 4.05
My Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Pages: 441


I picked up this book because my mom brought home the second book to this trilogy. I got this one from the library and those of you who follow my side pages, you'll notice this has been on my currently reading page for quite some time. Since this book is about a Cure for Love, I figured no better time to post this than on Valentines Day.


Synopses from Goodreads.com:


Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. 

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.


My review after the jump!

Why brick and mortar stores are better

It is no secret that I grew up in a bookstore. When the going got tough I could always count on being able to sit in the aisles with a good book. I would spend hours of my summers sitting in the air conditioning leaning against uncomfortable metal bays while my mother and sister worked hard to buy me the books that I couldn't read during the day.

 My sister started to work at Barnes and Noble in 1997, I was 5 at the time, two years later my mom started to work there and she's worked there ever since. When I was in elementary and middle school, I was a "junior bookseller"and would help my mom shelve books and answer questions from customers who seemed to think the (visibly) 9 year old worked there. I didn't mind though, I helped them find books, and when I didn't know what they were asking for, I ran to find my mother or an available computer for me to look up with they wanted. Every so often another bookseller would help me out.

This was how I spent most of my summers until I was around 13 and that was just because I was 13 and evil. I loved those days that I spent wrapping presents during the holidays or reading in a corner, and before you start accusing my mother and sister of child labor, know that I liked what I was doing and I was paid for my work with the latest Bailey School Kids book or an A-Z Mystery.

I am ashamed to admit that this summer, when they announced that Borders was going out of business, I was giddy that all of these books were going to be so cheap. I loved reading and I loved books, but what I didn't realize was what it would mean for brick and mortar stores like Barnes and Noble. It is no secret that a large number of people do their shopping online, not just for electronics but for books as well. As people look to get their books from online because its cheaper to do it that way then to go into the store and use gas and have to pay someone to put the book in their hand.

Bookstores offer a great experience. You get to be surrounded by books and people that love books just as much as you do. Bookstores offer something that, online stores can't; the chance to hold the book in your hands and feel it and see other parts of the book. I know plenty of people that like to read the end of the book first or read a chapter from the middle of the book before purchasing it.

That being said, I still want to open my own bookstore. When I went into Pittsburgh last month, I don't think I saw a single chain bookstore, and that gave me hope that someday I might be able to open up my own shop and survive.

Open City - Abandoned

Author: Teju Cole
Goodreads Rating: 3.62
My Rating: 1/5 Stars
Pages: 259


I won this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads. I often enter for random books, but I don't even remember entering to read this one. This book was really really far out of my comfort zone, and maybe that is why I couldn't even finish it. I tried to get into the book, but within 12 pages, I just kept getting irritated. My good friend suggested that I give it a chapter, but reading another 9 pages would have been too much for me.


Synopses from Goodreads.com:


Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. 

But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.


My Review:


Since I have no spoilers or potential for spoilers I felt no need to hide this post behind a jump. 


For some people reading a stream of consciousness would be cool, and interesting, and it certainly sounds like it would be but for me that is not it. It would appear that Cole has some very interesting points and ideas as he writes his book, but I couldn't get past the lack of a plot (Really, its just about a guy walking around the city thinking) and the lack of dialogue. I can understand setting the scene, but what I don't understand is how talking about birds and them flying makes sense. I also couldn't get past the lack of quotation marks, I have read books that don't have quotation marks, My Friend Leonard didn't have any, but at least there were line breaks to indicate a change in someone talking, or a description of what was going on within the scene of the dialogue. In Open City, Cole spends half a page on a conversation, but it is one straight paragraph talking about the nurse-maid, the marathon runners and the conversation itself. 


That was where I stopped reading. Clearly, I went too far out of my comfort zone with this book. Hopefully someone at the library can get some good use out of this book.

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files Book 2)

Author: Jim Butcher 
Goodreads rating: 3.96 
My rating: 4.5/5 
Pages: 342 
Reviewed by: Amy 

Synopsis: 
Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn't been able to dredge up any kind of work—magical or mundane. 

But just when it looks like he can't afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise. 


A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses—and the first two don't count... 

Review after the jump:

11/22/63

Author: Stephen King
Goodreads Rating: 4.33
My Rating: 4/5
Pages: 849


This book was impossibly long, but I did enjoy it. While I enjoyed it, it was frustrating at times. I was drawn to this book because of the idea of changing history and I've also never read a Stephen King book before. I got frustrated with the length at times, feeling it was unnecessary, but in the end, every word mattered. For being suck a long book, it was really easy to read, and quick too which surprised me.


Synopses from Goodreads.com

November 22nd, 1963 was a rapid-fire sequence of indelible moments: Shots ring out; a president slumped over; a race to the Dallas hospital; an announcement, blood still fresh on the First Lady's dress. But what if President John F. Kennedy didn't have to die; if somehow his assassin could have been thwarted? For Maine schoolteacher Jake Epping, those hypothetical what if's become real possibilities when he walks through a portal to the past. Without special skills and still unfamiliar with his new/old surroundings, he struggles to discover a way to change the history he left. Like its Under the Dome predecessor, Stephen King's 960-page novel shows that this master of suspense is back at the top of his game.


More after the jump.