Breakathon Readathon Review: Seriously, I'm Kidding

This popped up in my reading list in an unexpected manner. I needed a break from The Hunger Games (which isn't to say I don't still love them - I guess I just needed some time to absorb the plot twists) and this book provided exactly what I needed. On a similar vein to reading Tina Fey's autobiography and the Daily Show's book, Ellen's was an excellent read. Along with the other two books, I feel like Ellen's voice was easily able to shine through the text of the book, and I happily devoted a few hours to reading and enjoying. It features a combination of stories from her life (which you take with a grain of salt) to imaginary letters to mall cops about how it really wasn't her fault she broke the vase in Pottery Barn, to imaginary conversations between someone named Suzie and a Psychic ("Do you want some more water?" "Yes, thank you!" "I knew that already.") to practical advice on how to become a billionaire ("1. Make lots of money, 2. Don't spend it"). I loved reading it, and, with its short chapters it'd be easy to pick up again and read a few pages in the future.

Likelihood will reread: 90% (like I said, bits and pieces)
Likelihood will recommend to others: 95% (if they like this sort of book)

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Total page count: 2180

Breakathon Readathon Review: Catching Fire

I was right when I set out to list which books I wanted to read during this break to include the sequels to The Hunger Games. Everything I had heard about the books were that they were riveting, addicting, and fast-paced. Somehow, I have continued to underestimate them. I won't make that mistake again. I guess I just get suspicious and mistrustful of the quality of books. This is in no way a stab at modern writers or a statement in support of the Good Old Days or anything (because who am I, at age 22, to know anything about the good old days of anything except perhaps classic Nickelodeon lineups?) Anyway... Catching Fire was surprising to me for many reasons. One, that it didn't seem to go the way I was thinking it would, that I was even more confused by the end of it (imagine if books gave you answers instead of answering the old questions! Crazy, right?) and lastly, that it was even more addicting than the first. Mom and Mike can attest to the fact that, immediately upon finishing it, I leapt up out of my seat and ran to grab the next, and last, book of the trilogy.

Likelihood of rereading: 100% (There is simply too much I must have missed the first time round!)
Likelihood of recommending it to others: 100% (though I would warn that addiction to the series will probably result in some weird dreams.)

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Page total: 1939

Breakathon Readathon Review: Earth (The Book)

This was a diverting read, and an excellent change of pace after all of the fiction I have been reading. I don't have much to say about it, other than that I was totally engrossed in Jon Stewart's humor the entire time. It was witty, off-beat, and just self-detrimental enough (of humans as a race, as opposed to only of himself) to keep me giggling away on my couch all afternoon. The premise of the book is that it is a visitor's guide to Earth, so that aliens, when they come to Earth long after we have totally destroyed it, can get a sense for what was - who lived here? What did they do? What did they like? How did they work? You know - everything we've been trying to figure out about our ancestors and potential aliens alike... but in convenient travel guide format. There was a brief introduction to just about everything - from religion, to culture, to land masses, to major scientists of the last three hundred years.

Likelihood I'll reread: 50% (probably just portions when I am bored)
Likelihood I'll recommend to others: 35% (if the topic is raised)

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Page count: 1549

Breakathon Readathon Review: The Last Little Blue Envelope

As anyone who has read the first book, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, will know… the ending goes a tad, well, unresolved. I was cautious about beginning this book – not because I didn’t want to read it, but because I wasn’t sure that Maureen Johnson would be able to send me back on that magnificent journey that I had embarked on in the first book, and it was very important to me that I be able to embark on that voyage, but any hesitation I had was entirely misguided. Not only was it everything I hoped it to be, it was better. It was a beautiful journey, even the second time around. I laughed, I cried (literally – I did cry), and I happily was swept off on Ginny’s journey again, this time a few months after the first book took place. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t… I’m just going to leave it at Holy sneezeballs, Batman, this book was freaking amazing, and move forward.

Likelihood I will reread: 100%

Likelihood I will recommend it to others: 100%

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Page count: 1293

Breakathon Readathon Review: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Maureen Johnson is made of magic and win. I’m pretty sure this is fact.

Given my history of travel, especially solo travel, this story struck a very personal chord within me. The story is about this girl named Ginny, who at the beginning of the book learns of her aunt’s death and is given a bundle of blue envelopes from her. The first letter instructs her to book a flight to London – to leave behind all forms of communication and follow the instructions to the letter (hah – see what I did there?). She ends up travelling all over Europe – to Amsterdam, Greece, Italy, Scotland, France, and Denmark – makes friends, and completes little tasks along the way (such as finding her aunt’s old friends, who end up teaching her a variety of lessons.) Most of you will remember my own personal trip around Europe a few years ago. My personal experiences in Europe that summer, and from other trips there over the years, made me really identify with the narrator. It reminded me of how much I loved to travel, especially alone, and while I followed Ginny’s travels throughout the book, to many places I have been (the exceptions would be Amsterdam, Rome, and Greece) I craved those places again. I think Maureen Johnson was able to paint a very interesting, realistic picture of a young girl travelling alone and discovering herself, and who her aunt really was, along the way.

Likelihood I will reread: 100%

Likelihood I will recommend it to others: 100%


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Page count: 541 
(I only read 70 pages of this book, to finish it, during the readathon)

Breakathon Readathon Review: The Hunger Games

So I sat down to start this book a few days ago when I was all set to start babysitting, but had twenty minutes to kill and a hankering for a coffee from Starbucks. I went to Starbucks (where they have started to recognize me...), got my coffee, sat down in a cozy armchair, and set an alarm. (I have learned to set alarms!) When my alarm went off, alerting me that it was time to leave  I was fifteen pages in and scowling. No! I didn't want to go babysit! I wanted to keep reading! Finally, when I had this free afternoon with which to do absolutely nothing (and having previously done some serious 'damage' to the Christmas knits), I put my cozy slippers on and went to town. Well, I easily read 75% of the book in one sitting (with the exception of a break to bake some Christmas cookies) and I have to say that the book was everything it promised to be. It's tough nowadays to pull that off, I think. There is so much overdone in any genre of fiction, and so I was very pleasantly surprised to find this book was both original and a story well-told. I was worried about two things, primarily. One, that the writing style wouldn't be great (because, well, look at how popular Twilight is, despite Meyer's style) and two, that it wouldn't be graphic enough. It's a Young Adult book - and I worried that it would be toned down. (Kind of like how I can't really forgive several of the Harry Potter movies for their PG ratings.) The story of the book is graphic (it's about a competition of 24 people fighting to the death - it kind of has to be!) In any case, both of my fears were never realized, as it is both extremely well-written and doesn't spare us the gory details. To be clear, I don't relish in violence or extremely vivid detail... I just prefer that the author do justice to their story. The last thing I have to say about the book is that the story itself was a lot more self-sufficient than I thought it would be. It left just enough of an inconclusive conclusion at the very end of the book to make me want to start off immediately and go buy the next one (or, let's face it, the next two. I won't be put in this position again!) but it wrapped up the individual story of the book very well. Kudos to Suzanne Collins!

Likelihood I will reread: 100%
Likelihood I will recommend to others: 100% (as I have already done so)

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Page count: 855

Breakathon Readathon Review: An Abundance of Katherines

I’ll be honest, it took me most of the book to properly get into the story - I was probably on page 150 (of 215) and that’s when I found that I didn’t want to leave the story! I love John Green’s voice, his characters, his sense of story and how he seems to know the best way a story should be told, but it was a little hard to follow for one specific reason: the interruptions. Let me explain - the premise of the story is that the main character, Colin, has only dated girls whose name is Katherine. He has just graduated from high school and has recently been dumped by Katherine XIX. To get some space and to try and get over her, he and his friend Hassan take off on a road trip and end up in Tennessee, where they befriend a girl named Lindsey, and her mother, Hollis, who offers them a job if they just stick around for a few weeks during their summer break. Colin is a bit of a prodigy, stuck in the idea that he has failed (in that he hasn’t met his parents’ crazy expectations that he do things like memorize 25 Latin verb conjugations a day, etc.) and he embarks on developing a mathematical formula that predicts the length of a relationship depending on all kinds of variables. Interspersed between the boys’ story in Tennessee is the history of Colin’s relationships with the Katherines (which vary from camp flings, to elementary school hand-holding, to full-blown nearly year-long relationships), and to be honest, the interruption was hard to get used to (because they’re, well, interruptions.) That said, I enjoyed the story itself, thought the characters were well-developed, the voices of the main characters distinct (which was important, because I’ve noticed that John Green tends to leave off the he said/she saids a lot!)

Likelihood I’ll read it again: 25% (Once seems to have done it well for me, but who knows?)

Likelihood I’ll recommend it to others: 30% 

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Page count: 471