Review: Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti

It's sophomore year, and Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, hopefully, her first real boyfriend. But after popular Derek asks her out, things get complicated. Not only do her parents unexpectedly separate, but Marisa has a fight with her best friend, and Derek, the love of her life, delivers a shocking disappointment. The only things keeping Marisa together are the podcasts from the anonymous DJ, who seems to totally understand Marisa. But she doesn't know who he is . . . or maybe she does.

I knew by the time that I finished the first chapter that I wasn’t going to love this book. This is because Marisa used the word “like” about a hundred times. And this book was about a teenage girl with an anxiety problem. How original. Marisa has what she thinks is an abnormally normal life but I think if you removed the anxiety element of Marisa’s story, it would be pretty boring. The depression she occasionally suffers is about the only thing in her life that makes her different from most other teenage girls though I believe Susane Colasanti accurately captured the urgent feelings that teenage girls get while they try to make it through this turbulent period of life and while I kind of liked Marisa, I didn’t love her. Or want to root for her. I did like a few of the other characters and I didn't have any issue with Colasanti's style. I felt this was an average YA novel that left me unaffected by reading it.

Best Book of April 2010

Obviously, since I haven't reviewed many of the books I read in April, I haven't yet discussed this one so I shall do this review now, instead of later. The spoiler danger is minimal so all are welcome.

Review: Shelter Me by Juliette Fay

Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.

As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, over-manicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.

As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

I have to admit that I bought this book because of the cover. I love this cover! Every time I saw it at our local Target store I would look at it longingly. I finally decided to buy it and I am so glad that I did.

This is a heart warming story about Janie’s journey during her first year of widowhood. Her husband died in an accident and she finds herself struggling to get through each day. In steps her family and friends, all wonderfully quirky characters, to help her out. Janie’s wit, sarcasm, and honesty had me laughing out loud so many times. I felt her grief and anger and yes, even shed a few tears for (with?) her. This story made me stop and think about how life can change in an instant and how help often comes from unexpected places. Haven’t we all wondered what we would do if we lost someone near and dear to us? Juliette Fay has filled this story with so much love, humor and compassion. There is even a love story with a happy ending for those romance lovers out there.

This is truly a wonderful first novel by this author. I give it an A.

Review: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures
 
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

Here's a great way to start this review: I HATED the ending. So much so that this book was almost a wallbanger. Yeah, it was that frustrating. And it wasn't an ending like Atonement where the author yanks the rug out from under you but it pissed me off just the same. But. Once I finished the book, I went on Trussoni's website and saw that there will be a sequel called Angelopolis. Ooh. Then I calmed down. Actually, she's writing a series of these books and the rights to Angelology has already been bought by a major movie studio. That is definitely a no-brainer since angels are all the rage these days.

So, I HATED the ending for a little while but now just have some issues with it. I thought that the ending was a bit rushed; there was a ton of explanation, inspection, and action leading up to the conclusion, barreling towards it actually, and then BAM! Bad things happen and that was that. I felt so cheated! The conclusion was predictable too and while that's not really a good thing, knowing that there will be a sequel makes what happened pretty necessary. 

I may as well mention too that I found Evangeline to be even more frustrating than the ending. I've been trying to think of another character I've read that was more clueless than she but I'm coming up empty. Evangeline had been witness to much of the backstory and she still couldn't piece things together without lots of help. I was a little bit proud of her at the end but just a little. After all, she did let her father put her in a convent without protest. I'm sorry, but I would not be a good nun. And not just because of the obvious reason :) Neither was Evangeline - she falls for the first man she meets outside her family or the convent that catches her attention.

Speaking of the backstory, a big chunk of the middle of this book is a flashback covering about four years during WWII but the actual progression of the plot speeds through only two days. When I finished Angelology, I felt that the book did indeed stretch two days into years but conversely, the flashback seemed much shorter even though it covered four years. It took me a while to get absorbed in the story - and I did, halfway through the flashback - and by two-thirds of the way through Angelology, the plot really gets rolling. Unfortunately, it gets rolling into its ending. 

I haven't read many reviews of Angelology but I'm sure it's been compared to The Da Vinci Code. Possibly The Historian too and those are both legitimate comparisons because Trussoni definitely did her homework for Angelology; as with The Da Vinci Code and The Historian, there's just enough factual and true history to make the reader wonder how much of what she writes about is true. Using Abigail Rockefeller as a central figure without ever presenting her directly was a clever idea and it worked - I looked her up. I bet the MoMA is loving this book.

I will definitely be reading Angelopolis whenever it comes out since I have to know what happens. She better pick up the story right after Angelology ends or I might be throwing a book that day. I originally gave Angelology a B- but have since changed it to a C. I was intrigued yet disappointed with this book and that little part of my brain that HAS TO KNOW what's going to happen isn't going to let go anytime soon. That has to count for something, right?

Can I Get a Drumroll, Please?

It's finally May first and here I am, as promised! Taking these last three weeks off has really made a difference in my perspective of things. I was also able to finish painting my bathroom - something I will never ever do again in this lifetime. I'm excited about what will be happening here in the near future - I've got some new ideas and am going to be making some positive changes. But the biggest news is...

There's a new person on my block! (Yeah, I was a big NKOTB fan back in the day.) A little while back, I asked my friend, Jane, if she would like to join me here on my blog. I was totally expecting her to blow it off but to my surprise she said YES. We met a few years ago and discovered that we have the same great taste in what we like to read and have been sharing books ever since. Look for her to start slowly but hopefully be able to contribute more this fall. I'm tickled to have her add her two cents. Maybe we should get a jar?

Now, let's talk about what'll be going on here. Actually, most of that is still in the planning stages so maybe this should be about what's not going to go on here.

Um, what?

OK. I recently read that awesome post by Rebecca over at Dirty Sexy Books about the good and bad habits of bloggers. (If you're a blogger with a problem with your blog, read that post. It definitely helped me.) We book bloggers are not a perfect lot; we make mistakes. I've written reviews where I've ripped the writer a new one. I've piled on the spoilers like they were sprinkles, whipped cream, and the cherry on a sundae. I'm absolutely guilty of being an irregular blogger - three/four posts one week, nothing for a month. No wonder I'm unsatisfied with things as they are!

I started this blog to serve as my book diary. I never expected that other people would be interested and I can't tell you how stunned I was when I got my first comment. I'm sure my husband still remembers that day. Maybe even the neighbors. When a perfect stranger reads what you wrote about what you thought of something and doesn't think you're an idiot, it can kind of blow your mind. (Consider my mind blown.) Almost two years later, I've had three authors show up here. Three actual human beings have made their presence known on my blog!

Get over yourself already, Jen. Jeez.

Right. So this blog, which has had many facelifts and several name changes, has become a little obsession of mine and I've decided that I actually want it to succeed. *gasp* To this end, I have thought of some objectives/rules/guidelines that I (and Jane) plan to follow:

1. Post more regularly. This is the one that will be the most difficult for me. I had thought to hope that I'll be able to post reviews of most of the books I read, which is A LOT. That's certainly pushing it because my average month of reading consists of around a book a day. I can't actually read one book every day since I do have a life and other obligations and I certainly can't write that many reviews or I'd burn out inside a month. If I read the amount of April (so far it's 13) every month, reviewing each book would be doable but the thirteen book rate is rare for me. What sounded most reasonable is to do the ones I find most interesting and which I would have the most to say about. Hopefully that will be more often than not.

2. No more spoilers. Or at the very least, hide the little buggers. I recently regained the use of my jump break function, halleleujah. It required some finesse and cursing on my part as I had to tweak my template code but they're back and they will help. I've already been working on this spoiler issue; in a fairly recent email conversation with someone I met through a book trading site, I kinda got smacked in the face with her not being able to each too much of my blog because of all the spoilers. It's not her fault and I'm glad she brought it to my attention. I'm thinking any reviewer that writes in an off-the-cuff style like me has that problem of filtering and lord knows I suck at proofreading (just ask my college professors and besides, I was a bio major. Hello!) so I end up with what seems at the time to be a perfectly good review but on a later revisit, I get embarrassed by the obvious lack of editing. I'm trying to change my ways so please be patient :)

3. Work on getting some style. I had pretty supportive parents growing up and my family always praised me for being so smart and doing so well in school. Most days, I don't feel like I'm all that smart and when I'm writing, I tend to doubt myself. I also tend to get stuck inside my own head and miss a lot of what's right in front of me and as a result, it makes me think more literally than figuratively. Then I get stuck in this term-paper mode, which is never good in this platform even if I do manage to come up with provable arguments. Who wants to read term papers on paranormal romance novels? How dry and tasteless would that be? Yuck. So I'll be working on my inner voice and translating that into what I write, trying to keep the term paper flavor to a minimum.

4. Author-friendly features could be added in posts. This means links to author websites (or my author linkage page), possibly some quotes, and tags may start to pop up in my posts. I may try to link the reviews to other places like LibraryThing and Goodreads too.

5. Possible name change? As I mentioned earlier, this blog has had several names: What I'm Reading; My Book Addiction; So Many Books, So Little Time. That last one is obviously the current one but I'm not loving it and I've been thinking for a while now that I may go ahead and use the title of this blog as the URL. I don't want to do that until I have THE name since, hey, it costs money to do that so...We'll see. If that does happen, I will make sure that as much as possible notice is given before any drastic changes.

When I announced the hiatus, my brain decided it was ready to write again. I really do wish that the little devil on my shoulder would shut up :) This hiatus was a good thing (too much Martha Stewart on the tube lately?) but I'm glad it's over. Time to get back to work. On Saturday morning I'll be heading to a book sale at the public library where we lived for two years and I'm really excited about it which means it will probably be a bust. A girl can hope, can't she? After that, I'll be writing the review for Angelology and possibly Waiting for You (time permitting) so stay tuned please. I plan to review in order of reading. Hope you think they're worth your time to read them. See you soon!