Sunday, February 27, 2011

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Review

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green and David Levithan
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | David's website | John's website | John's Twitter | David's Facebook page | John's Youtube channel  <-- most important of all the links!

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans.


This book is fricking awesome. It's really hard for me to hold back and not write "OMG, lovelovelove !!!11!!!!11!, <333 YOU HAVE TO READ! best book evaaaaaah!11!!! <3333" over and over again. But I'll try to write a review that makes sense. Not that you don't get the message from my crazy rambling, but I want to do this properly. 

The story is told in double narratives by two Will Graysons (John Green writes the straight Will Grayson's, properly written, odd numbered chapters. David Levithan writes the gay Will Grayson's, without any capital letters, even numbered chapters.) with very different lives. The straight Will Grayson tries to live his life without drawing any attention to him. He's friends with Tiny Cooper, who's not the world's largest person nor the world's gayest person, but "the world's largest person who is really, really gay" and "the world's gayest person who is really, really large". And he does not want to live his life without being unnoticed. In fact, he's putting up an big autobiographical high school musical. The other Will Grayson lives together with his single mom and has only one good thing in his life, the online friendship with the stranger Isaac. 

One night the two Will Graysons meet in a porn shop, a place where no one of them thought they would ever find themselves being. And after that meeting, their life takes unexpected turns.

One thing that not many books make me do is laugh. Like really laugh out loud. But this book, oh God. Reading on my lessons was really hard since I could any minute possible burst out in a non controllable laugh and get caught for reading. And on the metro on my way home people stared at me like I was some kind of psyco. This book is hilarious.

 I read this 300 paged book in one (school!) day, which is really unusual. But I just couldn't stop reading. It's an amazingly hilarious book about finding yourself and accepting what you find. I highly recommend this for everyone, girls, boys, teens, adults. Just read it, please. 

DFTBA!
If you're confused by these five little letters that make an awesome combination, you should watch John and his brother Hank's youtube videos. Or go to this link. And now while we're here in this non official review spot, I would just want to remind you that when you read this book, don't skip the acknowledgments in the end. Just as the rest of the book, they're awesome.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Featured in Behind the Blog at The Babbling Bookworm

Alyssa at The Babbling Book Worm has this awesome feature in which you get to know different book bloggers a little better. I was featured in it a few days ago, so if you'd like to read the interview click here.

You should really visit her blog and follow, she's a relly good blogger!

A little side note here in this post. I know I haven't blogged in a while, but we've had 4 exams this week! We even have a rule at our school which says that we can't have more than 3 exams a week, but obviously no of the teachers respects that. So I've been busy with studying. School goes before the blog, sorry. But next week we in Sweden have this thing called "Sports Break", which means no school for one week, and therefore more blogging! Hooray!

2011 dystropians I'm dying to read!

2009 was the year of the vampires. 2010 was the year of the angels. And 2011? It is the year of the dystropians!

I personally love dystropians and am really pumped for this year. Lots of wonderful new dystropians will be released so I decided to try to sort down my list to 6 books that I'm really looking forward to! Some of them are already released, some are not. But everyone are/was released in 2011.

(And yes, I do know that this post is really similar to Brent's from The Naughty Book Kitties post. But I planned to write this a long time before he posted his. So, no. I'm not copying him or something.)

All the links go to Goodreads.


Release: April 5th
Oh my god, you guys. The fourth part of Gone. I'm really excited! I haven't read the third part yet, though. But I bought it yesterday! If you've read my reviews of Gone and Hunger, you know that I'd literally marry these books. That's how much I love them.

Release: May 3rd
To be honest I don't know much about this book, more than that bloggers are going crazy over it and the cover is gorgeous. Reasons enough to include it in this list, right?


Already Released!
This book sounds so awesome! Horrible, but awesome. Being tattooed with the letters XVI on your sixteenth birthday, which means that any guy who want to can do whatever he wants to you sexwise. Again, horrible, but the book sounds awesome!

Release: March 22nd
Holy shit what a cover! The model, the colours, the font, the dress .. Everything looks amazing! If I had a cover of the week kind of feature, this cover would be featured. Every. Fricking. Week!


Already Released!
"'My name is Kyle Straker. And I don't exist anymore.' 
So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded onto old audiotapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax, but perhaps they contain the history of a past world....If what the tapes say is true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. 
And if everything we know is a lie, does that mean that we are, too?"
Awesome blurb, or what?

Already Released!
This book both looks and sounds awesome. Like, trying to live without water? Hell no! I would go crazy!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Carlyles - review

The Carlyles (Gossip Girl: the Carlyles # 1)
by Cecily von Ziegesar
Rating : 4/5

Website | Goodreads

Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen were tha reigning princesses of the Upper East Side.

Until now.

In Gossip Girl, Tha Carlylwa the inimitable Gossip Girl introduces the most fabulous sixteen year-old triplets to ever inhabit the Upper East Side. When the Waldorfs move from their apartment at the end of Don't You Forget About Me, the Carlyle triplets Owen, Baby and Avery move in. In the new titles of the Gossip Girl series, we will follow the Carlyles, plus three other teenagers living in gorgeous apartments, attending the most exclusive private schools - the familiar Constance Billiard School for Girls and St. Jude's School for Boys - and treating New York's Upper East Side as their personal playground. Welcome to the new era.

Lucky for you, Gossip Girl is there to wisper all their juicy secrets ...

I haven't read the original Gossip Girl books, but I've watched the TV show. So from what I know about the TV series, Gossip Girl the Carlyles and the original Gossip Girl are pretty similar. You get all the drama, love and backstabbing. And of course Gossip Girl is there to tell us all about it. The stories are even set in the same places. The only things new are the characters.

Owen, Avery and Baby are triplets. They've just moved from Nantucked to the most luxurious part of Manhattan. Avery is ready to do whatever it takes to be popular, but after an incident in a high brand fashion store with the school's most popular girl watching, her attempts crash with her popularity status.

Baby hates it in Manhattan. And she's ready to do whatever it takes to get out of there, back to her boyfriend in Nantucket. Owen is a womanizer, a real player. He's barely ever had any real friends since he's always been busy with all the girls. But last summer he met a girl he just can't get out of his mind. A girl that he's probably never going to meet again, because the only thing he knows about her is her name, Kat. And that she's the only one he wants.

I thought that this would only be a decent read, but I really, really enjoyed it. The drama was wonderful, the pranks amazingly cruel. I felt sorry for Avery the whole time and got mad every time the bad girls were planning something new. I just couldn't stop reading to find out what would happen next. 

Overall this was a very fin light read with a lot of drama. If you like the Gossip Girl TV series I imagine you would like this. At least I did.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

New House of Night novella!

A few days ago I found out about a new House of Night book, a novella about the sword master Dragon and his mate Anastasia. It's being released July 12th this year, which means something to read while we wait for the next big HoN book, Destined, which is released this November.

Be sure to add this one to your to be read lists!

Dragons Oath by P.C. and Kristin Cast

Thursday, February 17, 2011

New Layout (but it's not finished yet)

Yes, I've made a new layout for my blog. Though it's not really finished yet, I have to fix a few small things. Per example the header, it probably looks really weird compared with the background to you. I kind of forgot that I wasn't the only one visiting my blog, and that there's a lot more people who do it, with lots of different screen sizes. But I'll fix it tomorrow, don't really have time today.

But none of this really matter, does it? Since most of the people visiting do it from the google reader .. =P

Booking Through Thursday - Romantic

What's the most romantic book you've ever read? 


(Mind you, I don't mean the hard-core stuff you hide in plain wrappers under your mattress. I mean True Love, Romance, deeply emotional, heart-tugging, and that stuff.)


And secondly, did you like it? Is it your usual kind of reading, or did it take you by surprise?


I don't read much romance novels. I like them, but they're usually not my favorite read. But I do read a lot of paranormal romance, so my lame answer for this question has to be Twilight. I know, lame.

Btw, I ordered Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins a few days ago, and that one's kind of romantic, right? :)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

3 Good Valentines Day reads

Happy Valentine's Day peeps! I hope that all you lucky people have a wonderful evening with your loved one and give all us usually happy singles but today depressed loners a thought. I myself will be spending the night in bed reading Before I Fall. Anybody know if there's some hawt guy in it? Since if so, he's going to be my Valentine! Imaginary boys are the best ones, right? They don't break up with you, don't smell bad and they do whatever you want them to do!

Here's my list of good books to read at Valentines Day. Since they either contain a super cute boy who I would love to date, or a super romantic love story that I would love to experience. Well, just books I'd like to read on Valentine's Day.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn
I love this book! It's only about 200 pages and the story is set over only one night. But this book is filled with so much awesomeness! It's a fast paced story about Nick and Norah who meet at a club and develops a wicked relationship as they move around the dark streets of New York.

Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson
When I was younger Jacqueline Wilson was one of my favorite author. I had read almost everyone of her books and loved them. One of my favorite Wilson books is Kiss. Even though I think it's for younger people I hope many of you will enjoy it. It's a lighter read with a deep message.

Angel (aka Angel Burn) by L.A. Weatherly
Let's finish this list off with a paranormal romance. I totally love Alex and Willow's love story. I've reviewed this book on my blog (click here to read the review) but I just had to bring this one up again. It's beautiful. Unfortunately the release date for the next book, Angel Fire, has been moved to october this year, but for such an awesome book the wait is definitely worth it.

Btw, as you may notice I've changed my 5 good to 3 good. I felt like listing five different books made the posts too long. So I've shortened it. Hope you like the new way!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award

Hello guys! Since I'm super tired and very lazy I'm not going to post a review today as I had planned. First I thought that I would just spend the day in my bed playing Super Mario Galaxy all day. But then I quickly logged onto our computer and found a comment telling me that I got a Stylish Blogger Award, so hey, there's going to be a post on my blog today after all!



The award is from Kelly at The Bookscape Report. Thank you, I'm really honored!

What you have to do when you've won this award:
  • Thank the person who gave the award
  • Post 7 random things about yourself
  • Give the award to 15 other blogs
  • Contact the bloggers and let them know they've won!

7 Random things about myself:

  1. I talk swedish, finnish and english. I've also been studying french for about two and a half years.
  2. I'm addicted to the game Minesweeper
  3. My all time favorite tv show is The Big Bang Theory. Watch it, it's hilarious!
  4. I spend way too much time watching youtube videos. One of my favorite youtubers are Hank and John Green (yes, the author) who post videos together on the vlogbrothers channel. You should watch them as well. They're hilarious. As well.
  5. I play the piano. And I love it.
  6. We're currently rebuilding our house, so all of my belongings are packed into moving boxes we store in our living room. The only of my things I can use right now are about a 20-ish of my books, my wii and television, my The Big Bang Theory season 1 dvds, one suitcase of clothes and a note book and a pen. Fun, isn't it?
  7. Muse is the best of all bands that has ever existed. End of story.
As for the people I'm going to give this to ... I'm giving it to all of you! Yeah, you heard right. You all deserve a Stylish Blogger Award! Congratulations! I know this is kind of lame and lazy. But hey, I am lame and lazy! So please if you have the time, do one of these. I'd love if you link your post in the comments, I like spending my time reading these kind of things. (No, I'm not weird.)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Booking Through Thursday - Ground Floor

There’s something wonderful about getting in on the ground floor of an author’s career–about being one of the first people to read and admire them, before they became famous best-sellers.

Which authors have you been lucky enough to discover at the very beginning of their careers?

And, if you’ve never had that chance, which author do you WISH you’d been able to discover at the very beginning?

Unfortunately, I haven't had the luck to discover any authors at the beginnings of their careers, none that I can think of anyway. Before I got into the internet book community I usually bought books that were really big and bought the whole series of it when the last book was released. Why, I don't know. But I think it was because when I knew all the books in the series has gotten praise I would love it as well. And I wouldn't have to wait for the sequel.

But one author I'd really like to have discovered in the beginning is J.K. Rowling. The author of the Harry Potter books, you probably know who I am talking about. I was about six years old when my dad and I started to read Harry Potter together as a bed time story, it was in 2001. Then we read the first four books together and then when the fifth was translated into swedish I read that one by myself. And all the three last books as well. Already by that time the books were my all time favorites, but I was too young to become a fan girl. 

So I think that's what this is about. I would have liked to be a little older when the books were released so I could get more involved. (I was barely one year when the first one came out, lol). I would want to have been there in the beginning, be craving for the next book to come out, be excited about the movies (one left, yay!), be involved in the online communities and be camping outside a bookstore until midnight when they released the last Harry Potter book! Can't someone write a series that become as loved and gets a following as big as the Harry Potter books, just so I can experience all this, please?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Noteworthy blog posts (2)

Hello, it's me, with another Noteworthy Blog Posts post again. Sharing some posts I've read and really liked. This time, I chose five different posts to share with you guys this time, hope you enjoy!


An awesome post about not finishing books by Word for Teens. I don't usually quit book, I want to give them a chance to grow better. Sometimes I'm really happy that I finished it (Like Syren by Angie Sage, hated the first 200 pages and it took me more than two weeks to get through them. Seriously. But then the last 400ish pages of the book were A M A Z I N G!!) and sometimes I just think it was a waste of time. The last book I didn't finish was And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer, I just couldn't bare the style of the writing. But I'm having a really hard time deciding which Goodreads shelf it should be on .. I haven't finished it, so it shouldn't be on read. Right?

Names in books are important. I've actually picked up books or passed down them just because of the name of the main character. I'm a sucker for characters with the same name as I, Olivia. (Btw, this year there will be many book releases with characters named Olivia. Unusually much.) A great post about character names by Lisa Desproches.

No NBP (yes, that's the shortening of Noteworthy Blog Posts) is complete without an e-reader post, right? An actually really good one by Bree Meets Books.

I myself don't like book blogs that only consist of memes and a couple of reviews every now and then. I participate in two memes, Booking Through Thursday and IMM. That's enough for my blog, though I don't mind blogs doing more memes than that if they have a lot other content than just that. If you want to read a good blog post with thought on memes, you can go to Maggie's Bookshelf.

You don't read?...do you? by Jess Hearts Books. I've never met people who are surprised by me reading books. In school I always walk around with a book, even if I don't get to read at the class I'm going to. I don't know why, I just do. And it's not like I don't have any friends or anything and sit alone reading at every break (although I wouldn't mind that). And when I meet new people it usually comes up in some point of our conversations. So everybody know that I read. People are more surprised by my playing video games. Since I'm not walking around with my wii or playstation 3 games in school, ha!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

January 2011

Hello lovely readers! Now that one month of 2011 is behind us I thought that I would make a recap of what I've read and reviewed in this month. I've only blogged for one month (one month anniversary yesterday, yeey!) and I'm loving it! January has been a good reading month (but I've already finished 12% of my challenge to read 70 books this year!) School has started again and I've been one week on a skiing vacation (I was sick, so I only skied one day. But I'm happy with just sitting inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book).

Books I've read this month (9):
Gone - Michael Grant
Hunger - Michael Grant
Här ligger jag och blöder - Jenny Jägerfeldt   (I haven't reviewed this since I've decided not to review books only available in Swedish)
Specials - Scott Westerfeld
Angel - L.A. Weatherly 
Awakened - P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Jonas - Eden Maguire
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown   (I haven't reviewed this cause I won't review adult books on my blog)
Fallen - Lauren Kate   (Review coming soon! I have a special type of review in mind for this one, but haven't had time to do it yet due to lots of extra student council meeting the last couple of days)


Favorite books this month:
Tough one! I really loved Gone and Hunger, Angel and Awakened. Can't decide between these ones!


Reading right now and will read next:
Right now I'm reading The Awakening and The Struggle by L.J. Smith (Liking it so far, though I can't stop comparing it to the tv series!)
I'll soon begin reading Before I FAll by Lauren Oliver. I bought it today, broke my book buying ban for the hundredth time.


Expectations for February:
School will begin for real this month. We're going to have lots of tests and homework. We're planning a big event for Valentines Day with the student council, so lots of my free time will go to meetings and planning. Even though I'll have a lot less free time I'll try to find as much time for reading as I did in January. I'll also try and catch up on all the tv series I'm following, and work on a new layout for my blog!! :D *overexcited*


Hope you've had an awesome month and that the next will be more awesome than ever!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Jonas - Review

Jonas (Beautiful Dead #1)
by Eden Maguire                                                                                                
My rating: 1/5 


Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Pheonix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the death of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances.

Rumors of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shoch and loss. Darina, Pheonix's grief-stricken girlfriend, in on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those who are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head! And then one day Pheonix appears to Darina.

Ecstatic to be reunited, he tells her about the Beautiful Dead. Souls limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a wrong linked to their death and bring about justice. Beautiful, superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a "death mark" - a small tattoo of angel's wings. Pheonix tells her that the sound of invisible wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to earth. Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona, and impossibly, her beloved Pheonix, right the wrong likned to their deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set free?

It was the plot (and the cover, to be honest) that made me pick up this book. I was hoping for an epic story of love, angels and horror. But unfortunately, I didn't get that. I really love the idea for this series, and it could have been really good! But it wasn't.

All the characters were boring. Flat. It feels like the author was like "Okay, so I've got this good idea. But damn it, I can't write a book without characters!" The were all kind of predictable and without any personalities. If I had to describe them, everyone would get the same description! They were all the same.

The writing was not of my taste either. It was too choppy and short. Like; she did that, and then that and then that. Not much variation or "playing with words".

I don't like giving books bad ratings, because I know that somewhere there is an author who has worked her but off to write it. But you can't love every book and this one just didn't suit my taste. Maybe someone else will like it, but I don't. Sorry.

The Hunger Games movie!

Last Tuesday I read a tweet about the now official release date of The Hunger Games movie, and I actually jumped up from my bed and started screaming. I'm super duper excited! I love when they make movies about books I like (even though they never are as good as the book). The Hunger Games is one of my favorite books ever, and I really hope that they make the movie awesome.

The release date is set on March 23rd 2012, can we wait that long?





They've recently hired a casting director and the discussions about who should get the main parts have been ongoing for a long time. A few actors claims that they've read the script. I personally would want unknown actors to have the parts. Then it would be more like "oh, there's Katniss" and not "oh, there's this and that actor who plays Katniss". Kind of like they did in Twilight and Harry Potter, hehe. Would you want known or unknown actors to have the parts? Do you have any actors that you think would be perfect as any of the characters?

Read more:

An article of potential Peetas and Katnisses
The Director Gary Ross talks about the movie's rating
The issues with making The Hunger Games a PG-13 movie
A list of actors that could play the parts. Not my favorite ones, many of them are to old :/ I would really love Deborah Ann Woll as the Awox girl though!