Neil Patrick Harris ; Choose Your Own Autobiography Review

 I rate books by three main categories, an extra category if the book deserves a special category for some reason, and the overall enjoyment factor.

 

Disclaimer ; This book was sent to me for free for an honest review. 

 

The Cover

I really really liked this cover. It really did remind me of the old choose-your-own adventure books, but with NPH on the cover! Very nice!

The Story

Now, I'm not a HUGE reader of non-fiction. I don't avoid it by any means, and I really enjoy some non-fiction. The choose-your-own aspect is what sold me on this book, and I wasn't disappointed. I might anger some people when I say I haven't seen all the many NPH shows. Apart from Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, I don't know that I've ever really seen him in anything. That doesn't mean I wasn't a fan. I thought he was a great host, and father. Nonetheless I was nervous because a lot of times autobiographies fall short for me. They get boring.

Not this one. The choose-your-own is so great. I laughed out loud reading this book. It tells his own life story, but you can also read some pretend alternate life stories and I can't really explain it, but it's so interesting. So it is sort of fiction and non-fiction at the same time. I was very pleasantly surprised with this book.

The Characters

Can you tell by my rating criteria that I usually read fiction? Anyway, the main character (NPH) is pretty realistic, and I really loved his progression throughout the story. 

Overall

This book was fantastic, it was cute, humorous, and you could choose where it went. I think I read every option, and I was so happy with every one of them. This book is so well thought out and enjoyable. Growing up on R.L. Stine's choose your own horror story books this was really nostalgic for me. 

5/5 

Bookish Tattoos ; Permanent Literary Love

  This post came to mind because for the longest time I've had tattoos planned for almost my whole body. Since I am in college to be a high school teacher obviously these are more often fever dreams. However, I fully intend on getting what I can, while I can. I'll preface this by saying that I know tattoos aren't everyone's thing and I get that, but discriminatory or rude comments won't be tolerated.

   I will be getting a tattoo this winter (hopefully) and it will be literary themed (there will be pictures) and I think I'll keep it a surprise until I get it. It is from a fantasy series, and that is all the hint you'll get. I am getting sort of sister tattoos with one of my best friends so it is going to be a lot of fun!
Anyway I wanted to share five of my favourite literary tattoos from around the web! (I made myself pick five different tattoos from five different books, or else it would have all been from the same book!)

The Raven

So obviously I had to put this here. I'm insanely jealous of whoever has this spectacular tattoo. Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite all time people, and the raven is one of my favorite all time symbols (no lie as I type this there is a fake Halloween raven right next to the computer). This art is beautiful! I would put a click through if I could find the artists/owners website but I cant find it! So sorry. For all of these pictures, if I could find artist info or anything you will be able to click on the title and go to the website. 

Game Of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire

There are a LOT of really great GoT tattoos, don't get me wrong. This choice was hard. Dany is my favorite character, yes even after ADWD. I just really love how this looks. If I ever got a GoT inspired tattoo (which I have thought about) it would be Valar Morghulis, however, if I was brave, I would be honored to have the lovely Dany on me forever. Khaleesi for life! 

 
 Lord of the Rings

Not gonna lie, when I found out the artist of this beautiful piece lived in my state my immediate thought was "find him". This is so crazy beautiful! The Balrog, the orcs, and the ever menacing eye of Sauron look crazy real. I'm so impressed. There are some really great LotR tattoos. This one takes the cake for me.

The Great Gatsby

Now. clicking the title linky will actually take you to a photoset of 15 Great Gatsby tattoos, which are all marvelous. This one is my favourite! The menacing eyes, whos meaning is highly disputed. The Great Gatsby is a great read, and a short one for those who aren't into reading so much.  

Where the Wild Things Are

Need I say more? My childhood in a tattoo. This tattoo is simple and cute, and I am envious. I thought this sweet little tattoo was a great way to end this brief journey of literary art. Is it not?

Reading Slump!

  So this is a super boring, and unnecessary post about my absence. I did forewarn about it. It was my birthday on Saturday (WOOHOO!) and then I had an exam today, have another exam tomorrow, and a lot of reading to catch up on. My sincerest apologies. I'll return with a quality post tomorrow!

~Rockett

NaNoWriMo Prep 2014!

There hasn't been a year (since I've been an active writer) that I haven't done NaNoWriMo. I have even dabbled in Camp NaNo in the past. November is fast approaching and I thought I might have some tips and such for potential NaNo novelists.

   I'll preface this by saying everyones writing style and technique is different. NaNo is great for me because I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer. I always have been. I go into writing with a simple this is what I'm writing, this is how it starts, this is how it ends idea. Of course going in that way theres lots of plot holes, inconsistencies, and the like. I'm just not the kind of person that can do, and follow outlines. That being said, getting the first draft done and written is the goal.


      Tip # 1; Don't forget this is not a month for you to write a best-selling novel. It is a month for you to get your idea down. Write the first draft. You might hate it, you might like it, but you can definitely feel proud of yourself when your done.

    Tip #2 ; Outlines. As stated above, I'm not a big fan of outlines,they don't work for me. But they work for lots of people! Here is a very basic plot outline that's great just to get you thinking about the plot, which is the most important part of the story. Here is a more detailed plot outline, which I will admit I have never used and frightens me.

   Tip #3 ; Friends. Almost everyone hits a rut around the middle of the second week. It's tough to break. The way I've always done it is Word Wars. Word Wars are when you and a fellow NaNo novelists or group of NaNo novelists set a period of time and you all write at once, the goal being to get the highest word count in that frame of time. It might seem silly, but it really honestly helps. I've only ever known one other person who did NaNo, so it was always myself and her. Talk to people on the NaNo site! You're more than welcome to add me on the NaNo website, link here, (or click the linky on the right side) and I'd love to Word War with you and talk about writing!

   Tip #4 ; DO NOT EDIT. Some people are perfectly fine not editing as they write, I'm not one of them. When I say DO NOT EDIT, I don't mean spelling and grammar, by all means fix spelling and grammar. But you need to avoid trying to fix plot holes, or change scenes. It will take you off of your goal which is write the 50k (or more) words. Unless of course (like me) you are using NaNo to write a second draft, in which case you will be doing quite a lot of editing.



   Tip #5 ; Breaks. It is easy to push yourself. You have to push yourself at least a little bit to accomplish NaNo, but if you push yourself too hard, your novel could suffer. Everyone wants to hit their goal, but it's important that you come first. Take a break, if the daily word count is a lot, split it up, if you're becoming irritated by your own novelings, grab a snack and catch up on some (or a lot) of TV. I can't stress enough how getting stressed about NaNo is not good. It's supposed to be something fun overall, that you can feel proud of at the end of the month. So push yourself, but treat yourself just as well.


  Good luck to all you NaNo novelists, I hope to hear from some of you, and I hope you all surpass your goals!

Autumn Book Recommendations!

October is my favourite month, with my birthday fast approaching (October 25th FYI) and Halloween around the corner what's not to love. It's starting to get chilly (at least where I am) and I love to wrap up in front of a heater and get reading.
  To me Autumn is a more serious reading month, thrillers, horror, drama, less light-hearted stuff. So below are five books I would highly recommend for Autumn (or anytime reading).


   The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman ; As you know if you've seen any recent post on this blog I just finished the Graveyard book and I loved it. I think it was great for Halloween time. It wasn't super serious, but it was haunting, and enchanting and magical. If you don't know what its about, it follows a young boy called Nobody Owens who is raised by the patrons of a local graveyard (enticed yet?).


   Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs ; I read this book soon after it came out and I loved it. The pictures in it really sell the book. It's creepy and fantastical and I don't want to spoil anything, but it's about a young man who finds an island full of peculiar children.

    Anything Stephen King ; I'm not going to lie, I haven't read much Stephen King, there sure is a lot to read. The ones I have read and would recommend are The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and Full Dark No Stars. Enough said? Any Stephen King is great for Halloween. 

    The Evernight Trilogy by Claudia Grey ; if it's still a trilogy? I thinks there's a spinoff but I haven't read it. I read the Evernight books during the Twilight craze so I can't say if they hold up, but I can say I thoroughly enjoyed them (the first two) and would highly recommend the trilogy (or just the first two). Evernight follows a girl who goes to boarding school and soon finds out her school is full of supernatural. Romance and angst ensue. Classic teen supernatural romance. Would recommend (the first two)

   Complete Poems and Stories of Edgar Allan Poe ; I grew up reading and being inspired by Poe. He is the namesake for my URL. And I'm sure everyone has at least read one of his stories. They are so original and dark and Poe writes so very well. I wrote every biography in school that was assigned about Edgar Allan Poe and I think he's just fascinating. I had to put him in here.

   In conclusion, read whatever your heart desires this Autumn! But if you're looking for something maybe try one, or all, of these? Also want to apologize for formatting and lack of links and images. I'm on my IPad right now. October is a busy month. Promise I'll clean everything up tomorrow.

~Rockett
 

The Graveyard Book Book Review!

    It took me a while to finally write this review, and I'm pretty excited to write it! When I write reviews I get to think about the book a little longer, and that's always fun. The book I'm reviewing today I read for #FrightFall. It is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. What an introduction to Neil Gaiman! It's the first book I've read by him (apart from half of The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and I'm eager to pick up others!!

  I rate books by three main categories, an extra category if the book deserves a special category for some reason, and the overall enjoyment factor.

The Cover

There are a couple different covers for this book. I have the one listed above, because I like it a bit more than the general one. Also there are other books by Neil Gaiman that have this same cover scheme, and I'm a sucker for that. I just really like how this cover looks. 

The Story

My lord, did I love this story! I haven't seen the Jungle Book in a VERY long time, but I feel like I could figure it out having read the Graveyard Book. The Graveyard Book was so enchanting. I loved Nobody Owens, he was so innocent. It was very different than a lot of books I read now a days. He wasn't a hormonal teenager, he was a boy, growing up in a graveyard. I adored this story so much. There are such lovable characters. 

The story covers mystery, and coming of age, and supernatural elements, and it works so well. I heard great things about this book, and it truly lived up to them. The pictures in this book only added to it! I'm not 100% sure all versions have pictures? I'm unsure, but my version did and I loved getting to the pictures at the chapter title pages. It was so cool being able to see some of the things visualized. Just 100% on story, so very good. 

The Characters

I fell in love with Nobody Owens immediately, as well as his caretaker Silas. He is so innocent, and even though Silas seems detached to everything, you can tell he really truly cares about Bod and that was wonderful to read about. Scarlett was interesting, although I have a hard time seeing why she was really in the book, I'm sure I'm missing something, and there are a few reasons i understand. 

The man Jack, and later the Jack of all Trades are a very interesting and captivating antagonist. Every character in this story was interesting. The Sneer, the Owens family, Liza Hempstock. It was handled so well. 

Overall

This book was beautiful, refreshing and made me eager to read it. The atmosphere Gaiman built in this story is captivating and ingenious. I will not soon forget this book, it's adoring characters, or its endearing message. Well done, Neil Gaiman.

(5/5)

Summer House With Swimming Pool Review!

  As you know if you've looked at any of my posts, I've been procrastinating posting my Graveyard Book review, because I don't think I've formed a complete opinion yet. Expect that tomorrow! Today I have a review for a book that did take me a little while to read, Summer House With Swimming Pool by Herman Koch.

     I rate books by three main categories, an extra category if the book deserves a special category for some reason, and the overall enjoyment factor.

     I do need to provide a disclaimer ; This book has been sent to me by Blogging For Books

for an honest review.

  The Cover

             I really like the cover of this book. The reason I do judge based on the cover is I think the book can say a lot about the book. And I think everyone can agree we tend to be drawn to books with attractive covers. Needless to say, I would have been drawn to this book by the cover. The cover makes sense with the story and is inticing.

The Story

The story in this book is something like I've never read before. It's told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, which I always think is interesting. Dr. Marc Schlosser  was a celebrity doctor who was being suspected of malpractice that ended in the death of one of his celebrity clients. We see Dr. Schlosser before and after this incident. It's an interesting view on the doctor, he is very cynical towards his clients. 

The book is very tense, and written very well. It was a little slow for me. There wasn't a lot of action, it was primarily told through thoughts, if that makes sense. It's not a bad thing, the story itself wasn't really slow, it was just hard for me in particular to get into.

The Characters

Whew. Well, every character in this book is pretty unlikable in one way or another. That is refreshing though, in an era where every book tries to make every character desirable. The narrator is intriguing, although he is pretty psychotic. Crazy characters keep me reading, what can I say? There's no lack in character development by Herman Koch here.

Overall

This book was enjoyable, if a little slow. The characters and plot were something different than I've read in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Koch is a master of the written language, his prose is wonderful, and his characters kept me reading for more.

(4.25/5)

A Thrift Store Book Haul

Disclaimer ; I went to the Goodwill in search of books about Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire, because they seem to be expensive and I needed print resources for a thesis paper. There weren't any. However, there were these. (also, look how cute my favourite cat is)

Thus begins a list of 13 books purchased for $17 ($2 Hardcover, $1 Paperback)

Jurassic Park ; Michael Crichton

Anyone You Want Me to Be ; John E. Douglas

Steve and Me ; Terri Irwin  

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon ; Stephen King

Me Talk Pretty One Day ; David Sedaris

Middlesex ; Jeffrey Eugenides

The Girl With the Dragon Tatto ; Stieg Larsson

The Road ; Cormac McCarthy

For Whom the Bell Tolls ; Ernest Hemingway

The Aenid ; Virgil

Hole in My Life ; Jack Gantos

Monster ; Walter Dean Myers

Mythology ; Edith Hamilton

Yay, endscreen. Featuring once again my favourite Columbus boy.

October Book Photo Challenge 10/6 - 10/12

   I know, I've been horrible about keeping this up, but life is really getting to me. I have a lot of posts I need to make up, I'll be trying to do that today. Hold on to your horses. Anyway, I apologize, as I've said in some other posts, but I'm having car issues, life crisis, etc. The highlight of this week was setting the high score for trivia on the Applebees table game. Get at me. Any way on to the photo challenge (sorry about the quality and such, I'm trying.)

10/6 ; Book and Candle

Everyone should honestly read this book, it's very very good!!!

10/7 ; Comfy Book

Is this cheating?

10/8 ; Vampires, Oh My!

Never actually read this, but didn't want to pick Twilight (would have picked Twilight <3)

10/9 ; Currently Reading

Ugh, I've been reading Red Rising forever, I'm so bad at reading.

10/10 ; Love this quote 

"Through me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people is lost.   Justice incited my sublime Creator; Created my divine Omnipotence, The highest Wisdom and the primal Love. Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last. All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"  - Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Canto III

10/11 ; Obsessed with this book

Cough cough.

10/12 ; Given this as a gift

Matthew Quick is really nice guys!

Books Dealing With Mental Illness;

     I was going to post my review of the Graveyard Book today, and then apologize for being absent (but for real, sorry I was absent. My car broke down on the interstate on my way home from college, and I've been dealing with that and blah blah blah) and then I remembered, today is Mental Health Awareness day. I'm a strong believer in informing everyone about the legitimacy and actuality of mental illness. I've dealt with mental illness first and second hand since I was very young, and I feel it's very important to recognize these issues.
    What better way to promote mental health awareness on a book blog than make a list of my favourite books that tackle mental illnesses.



 1.)   The Perks of Being a Wallflower ; Obvious choice. Charlie, the protagonist, is suffering from depression and possibly PTSD. And we see Charlie following the suicide of his close friend trying to piece his life back together. I really liked this book, I thought Charlie was vulnerable, and funny. It was really heart-warming and I would recommend it.

2.)  The Silver Linings Playbook ; Now, I had the opportunity to meet Matthew Quick, and hear him talk about this book, what it meant to him, where he drew inspiration from, and how dreamy Bradley Cooper was in person (just as dreamy as you'd wish). Matthew Quick did a great job dealing with a lot of tough subjects in the book. It follows Pat Peoples who is just released from the mental hospital. He meets Tiffany, who is similarly unstable, and a widow. It's a very real and human story, and the movie is great as well.

3.) Willow ; I read Willow at a time in my life where I could relate very much to the main character. I have always found that comforting. Willow deals primarily with self-harm and depression. I know that is triggering for some people, so if you have a trigger for self-harm, please avoid this book. However, this book really helped me. Willow made a big mistake and since then her life has been spiraling down. We see her find hope, and light, and at least for me I had a little hope for myself at the end of the novel.


 4.) Speak ; Speak follows a young girl after being date-raped. She is basically stunned into silence. It's heartbreaking. Again, I understand this can be a trigger for some people, so please know your limits before you read. You could probably classify the behavior expressed as PTSD and depression.

5.) Bud, Not Buddy ; I read this book in the third grade, and I'm so glad I pulled it from the shelf. It deals with abuse. Bud is a ten year old orphan during the Great Depression. He deals with abusive foster parents before leaving on his own to find his dad. This book is just fantastic. It is written for a younger age group (if I'm remembering properly) but this book is just SO GOOD. I would recommend this book to everyone, and thinking about it is making me want to re-read it.

  Below I'll link to some other books, that I've read, am reading, or have heard of that deal with mental illness, that either I don't want to particularly rant about, or that I personally might not have liked (but other people have). If I'm not 100% correct on some of these tags, I'm sorry!


The Virgin Suicides ; Depression, Suicide

Thirteen Reasons Why ; Suicide

It's Kind of A Funny Story ; Depression, Self-Harm, Suicide, Stress

Fight Club ; Split Personality, Depression

The Program ; Suicide, Depression

The Impossible Knife of Memory ; PTSD

Girl, Interrupted ;  Self-Harm, Depression, Suicide

#FrightFall Wrap-up!!

      Fright Fall read-a-thon was a moderate success for me. A couple stressful days meant less reading and a few book arrivals changed my TBR, but overall I'm content with what I've done, and I did have a lot of fun!
     On to the TBR!
     The first books I finished this week were two graphic novels.
     

       Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe by Dalibor Talajic and Cullen Bunn. 
       And
       The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
     
       They were both very good, and very pretty. If you're into superheroes, or graphic novels in general, I would recommend them.

      Then, in the first change in my TBR I read.
 
   
     Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
       

    There will be a review of this on my goodreads, and maybe possibly on here too.


    Then I finally got to;

    The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

    This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. LOVE.

    And I got halfway through The Leftovers, but I wont count that.

   So I didn't meet my TBR goal, even close, but considering the week I've had, I'm pretty okay with what I did!. I read four great books! And I'm very excited about read-a-thons in the future.

October Book Photo Challenge 10/1 - 10/5

 Welcome to the beginning of a photo journey through my books.

  October 1; Thriller, Thriller Night.

   These two books came to mind first. I have a hard time classifying thriller, but Patrick Bateman for sure, right? 

  October 2 ; This book put a spell on me.

    Sigh. Need I say more?

    October 3 ; Book(s) I've been meaning to read

    This doesn't even make a dent on my TBR pile...

    October 4 ; Most recent buy

   Read this already, would recommend! Very interesting.

  October 5; Well worn read

  

    Jack London = My childhood! 

What a day!

Well, I had every intention of posting the beginning of the October book photo challenge as well as a #frightfall update today, however I truly didn't have the time.

It's 10:06 pm as I write this and honest to god I haven't read a single page in my book today. I got up at 7, went to the house I'm dog sitting at and took care of the dog. Then I went to college where I found out my first class was cancelled. With two hours to blow I returned to my car to find I had locked my keys inside. So, in a parking lot full of hopeful students I had to get on the ground and dig my spare out from under my trunk. 

Then I called my cousin to see if I could go over there between classes (I live 25 minutes away, he lives 5). So I had lunch there which was nice, and wound up walking their dogs. 

Then I went to class. Then I came home, went back to the dog I dogsit, came back home. I sat down for a couple minutes and wound up falling asleep for multiple hours.

I would say I was upset, because i wanted to read, but it was a stressful day and watching TV was nice. And tomorrow I have homework and a concert to play. *sighs* I'd mostly like to cancel on the concert, but I shan't.

Hope everyone's day is a little better then mine was. 

If it wasn't, here's a picture of my dog in a child swing. 

Also, I'm posting this from my IPad since I can't be bothered to move to my laptop. I apologize for formatting or grammar issues (damn autocorrect) 

~Rockett

#FrightFall update and October book photo challenge?

Whew, Two days done for the Read-A-Thon and I'm pretty proud of my progress. My TBR did change a little (of course) as Horrorstor came in the mail on Monday. I was keen to read it since I saw people at BEA get it. So I read and finished that book yesterday. A review will be posted on Goodreads for sure, and maybe here as well, overall I would recommend it. I also blew through two graphic novels; The Killing Joke (a Joker backstory type deal) which I probably wont review unless people want, it was very good and I really really enjoyed it. I also read Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, a collection of four comic books where Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe. It was enjoyable, but I definitely won't review it.

As for the rest of the week, I picked up The Graveyard Book yesterday and am very excited to read it. I'm also half way through Red Rising, and I really want to finish it, although I'm not sure I can count that as reading a book since I started it halfway through. After I read the Graveyard book I think I'll replace The Imperfectionists with Summer House With Swimming Pool as I was sent it for review.
So theres those updates, hopefully it wasn't too boring.

Onto the next point of business, October book photo challenges! I've never done any sort of photo challenge, but I always really like seeing other peoples (primarily on Tumblr). But I found one, that I'll post below, that I'd like to participate in. Of course I think posting once a day just a picture of a book is a lot, so I think I'll post every other/third day. It makes sense to me. Feel free to participate of course!

Happy Reading!

~Rockett