Chronicle's Happy HAUL-iday Giveaway!

Chronicle Books is having a giveaway, check it out here.

Basically, you just make out a list of $500 worth of Chronicle books to be entered!  Here's my list:

Oh My! I am so excited!!  Make sure to leave a comment on here because the winner's blog will have one commenter be a winner as well!! Good Luck!

Happy Reading!

Review: Snow in July by Heather Barbieri

Snow in July - Heather Barbieri
Paperback 258 Pages
Published by Soho Press, 2005
Bought at Library Book Sale

All of Erin's life, her older sister has eclipsed her, stolen her boyfriends, and commanded the family's attention with one meteoric crisis or another.  Meghan was always smarter, prettier, more daring and dynamic.  As a child, she could charm her way out o any situation, usually leaving Erin to shoulder the lame for their various transgressions.  But Meghan has been gone for years, and now Erin is eager to leave Butte behind her, too: to go east to art school or west to Los Angeles to become a jewelry designer - anywhere, so long as it's far from Butte, Montana.  Then Meghan, a single mother with a six-year-old daughter and an infant, unexpectedly returns, again expecting Erin and their mother to solve her problems.  But this time there are other people involved, no easy solution to those problems, and no one else to blame.

Meghan, still beautiful and magnetic, is now addicted to men, danger and drugs.  She is the worlds "most frequent flier".  Little Teensy and baby Si-Si are lonely and endangered.  Teensy, especially, has been affected by her mother's neglect and she clings to Erin, desperately craving the intimacy and affection that has been denied her.  When Meghan's attempts to stay clean falter, the responsibility for the children becomes Erin's.  But how much can she be expected to sacrifice for her nieces' well-being?  Can she find fulfillment and happiness, even in Butte?
                                         Review from GoodReads

My Review:

This was a heartbreaking book about a family that suffers through addiction with a loved one.  I'm obsessed with shows like "Intervention" and other addiction documentaries, so this book was right down my alley.  I really liked Erin's character, and often times felt extremely bad for her.  It is hard to have to deal with an addict, let alone have to raise their children for them.  She was able to see through her sister, and was constantly trying to get their mother to understand.

I felt for Erin's sister, Meghan as well, because there were traumatic events in her life that made her think the only way to be happy was through men, drugs, and alcohol.  I just wish that every single person that thought this way could just wake up.  I know that sounds naive, but I can't help it, maybe it is just because that is not how I see things.

I wasn't very surprised by the ending, but I am glad it ended the way that it did.  The storyline flowed well and I really enjoyed the writing style.

Recommendation:
I would recommend this book to anyone that has ever dealt with an addict, and to those who haven't, as it is an eye-opening experience.

4 out of 5 stars

Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday (8)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event held by MizB at Should Be Reading.  I love this event, and love giving a little teaser to my readers.  This can either suck you in to reading the book I'm reading, or make you realize that you don't want to read it! 

The rules are simple:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• ***Please do not include spoilers!***    ((Be sure what you post doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the read for the next guy!))
• Share title & author so that other TT followers can add the book to their TBR pile if they like your teaser!
• Always be sure to check out the host's blog and leave a link to your TT post!

My Teaser

"I would be a bloated, bald, grumpy, slit-eyed monster consuming takeout pizza and sweet fizzy drinks.  And after all that I would still have cancer cells merrily reproducing by the minute, dividing and conquering the parts that were left: what remained of my unPromethean liver, my brain, my spinal cord, my throat."

From:

The Household Guide to Dying - Debra Adelaide

Happy Reading!

Holiday Readathon Update!

I'm a little more than disappointed in myself!  I really thought this would be a good weekend for this, but ---- LIFE happened...UGH.  Anyway, in the little bit of free time that I did have, I managed to read 101 pages, so I am going to make my donation (hopefully tomorrow).  I decided that the best way to donate and help out is to the Salvation Army.  I figured since I'm such a slacker, instead of doing just .10 per page I would double it because I didn't make as much time as I'd originally hoped.  So, tomorrow I'm going to head over to one of the stores by my house that has the bell ringers for the Salvation Army and I'm going to slip a $20 in there.  

I hope the rest of you that participated did better than me.  Let me know how y'all did and where you're donating!

Happy Reading!

Review: Hope Burned - Brent LaPorte

Hope Burned - Brent LaPorte

E-book from NetGalley

Published by ECW Press - October 2010

GoodReads Review:

A father sits down to write a letter to his son explaining why his hands are covered in blood.  He journeys back through his childhood on the farm, through the captivity, torture, and brutality that he suffered from the men he just killed - his father and his grandfather.  A reflection on a solitary landscape, this bleak yet move family tragedy details three generations of abuse, where the birth of a newborn forces the question, Is it better to live or die?

My Review:

I really have mixed feelings about this book.  I was completely thrown off by there not being chapters or anything.  I understand that it was supposed to be written like a letter from a father to son, but it was so lengthy that at times I felt like it should have just been in a standard story format (if there is such a thing).  

While I did complain a little about the format of the story, I also liked it.  I feel like writing is one of the greatest ways to get out feelings and emotions, and this story just proved that further.  I wish that "Tom" didn't have to go through all of those things in his life, but the sad fact of the matter is -- thousands of people struggle with physical abuse each day.  It takes a lot for someone to write something on such a touchy/"taboo" topic.  At times I just became enraged at Tom's father and couldn't understand how you could not love the boy you created.  

I did fall in love with most of the characters in the book that Tom meets after he flees the farm.  All in all I really thought that this was going to be a heartwarming story by the end of it (even though I knew that the narrator was writing the letter to his son after having just killed his father and grandfather).  I know that might sound naive, but I kind of thought it would end well for everyone.  This was a very heartbreaking story, with an incredible twist at the end.  I am still a little shocked (after two days) at the ending.  I never saw that coming!  

Recommendation:

I would recommend this only to people that would be in the mood for it.  It is a dark story, and not one that you could just pick up and start reading.  You would really have to be in the right frame of mind for this book.   I enjoyed it, even though there were parts that made me cringe/cry/angry/annoyed...

3 out of 5 stars

Happy Reading!

Follow Friday! (8)

Follow Friday and Book Blogger Hop are weekly events hosted by Parajunkee and Crazy for Books respectively. I absolutely love, love, love both of these weekly events!! It is a great way to promote your blog, as well as find some great blogs to follow! Hurry back to their sites, follow them, and let the hopping and following begin!

This week's question comes from Marce who blogs at Tea Time With Marce:

"What very popular and hyped book in the blogosphere did you NOT enjoy and how did you feel about posting your review?"

 

My Answer

 

Honestly, I cannot think of a book that was super hyped about that I didn't enjoy reviewing.  There have been books in the past that I've read that were hyped about that I didn't think were that great, but that was before I started blogging.  I'm not sure if P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern was really popular when it came out or not, but I absolutely hated that book.  It was a struggle to get through, and the little mini-review that I did write on here wasn't very flattering to the author.  I believe I actually started the post with "P.S. I HATE YOU."

I try to be completely honest and fair with my reviews, so it is hard for me sometimes if I am struggling with a book.  I've also realized that I'm pretty easy to please with books, so if I can't get through it, then it must be bad.

Have you had to post a negative review before?

 

Happy Reading!

 



Holiday Readathon

I am so super excited about this readathon!  It is taking place here December 2nd-5th!  It is for a great cause too!!  Just head over to Who Ru Blog and sign up.  You are to pledge any dollar amount you would like per page that you think you will read over the four day period.  Then, you will make your donation to a local charity of your choice!  

I am going to be donating $0.10 per page read over the next four days!  I hope you will join us!  

Happy Reading!

BrandiHeather

The BCC's "Big Read List"

I found this on Bookalicio.us and thought it was super fun!  If you choose to participate, post the link in my comments section so I can see yours too!

“Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here, in their The Big Read list. Instructions: Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt.” In italics are ones I didn’t finish or hope to read soon.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter Series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nighteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Ubervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Correlli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm- George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson
74. Noted from a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Inferno – Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emilie Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepiece
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Robinston Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So I have read 21 of the 100. How did you do?

Happy Reading!

BrandiHeather