Second Glance- Jodi Picoult

I'm still trying to get through Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. It doesn't really help that I haven't really had time to read and get into it, but it's kinda boring. It's also kind of confusing because it switches back and forth between characters so much that I still don't know who everyone is. There are two guys that I can't ever differentiate from, the guy who lost his wife in a tragic accident, and the guy who keeps trying to kill himself. They might be the same person but you can't tell because there is only a paragraph to a page written about them at a time. And some of the things in the book are just wierd, for example there is this boy who is allergic to the sun. He gets burned even being inside, so they have to cover the windows and stuff. And he's nocturnal. So he goes out and skateboards at like three o'clock in the morning. I don't know I think the book might get good once I understand it, but right now it's just too confusing and odd for me.

Second Glance- Jodi Picoult

I just started reading Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. So far I'm not really sure about it. It's kind of wierd. There's a guy named Ross, who lost the love of his life Aimee in a car crash. And he's kinda messed up. He tries to commit suicide a lot, but for some reason he never succeeds. The first line of the book is, "Ross Wakeman succeeded the first time he killed himself, but not the second or third. He's been struck by lightning, which should have literally boiled his insides. He's been mugged, and shot in the back, which also should have killed him. And lastly, he's driven his car off a bridge, and none of this had killed him. So I don't really know if I like the book yet because I don't understand it. So I'll have to get back to you on this one.

Laguna Cove

I'm still reading Laguna Cove by Alyson Noel. It has gotten a little more interesting since the last time I blogged about it. It's also kind of frustrating though because every chapter is told from either Anne, Jade, Lola, or Ellie's viewpoint. So it gets confusing. It's also frustrating because the story is supposed to be mostly about Anne and her transition to a new school, and fitting in there. The book has gotten better in that Anne has finally made friends with Jade, Lola, and Chris. Ellie is still really cold and reading about her is annoying. She's a really hard character to get into because I feel like she's really unrealistic. I mean the author makes all of her characters out to be too perfect. But Ellie is the worst. She's made out to look like a model, be an amazing surfer, and have perfect grades. No one is that flawless. It's a hard book to get into, and for me it's impossible to relate to the stuff going on. I wouldn't really recommend this one unfortunately.

Laguna Cove--Alyson Noel

I just started reading Laguna Cove, Briana was reading it and it sounded good. It is about this girl named Anne who moves to Laguna Cove to live with her dad. Her parents just got divorced because her mom cheated on her dad. She was a really good diver at her old school so she is really mad when she finds out her new school doesn't have a dive team. The other characters so far in the book are Ellie, Jake, and Chris. Ellie is a really good surfer, and she's really competitive. She gets a lot of pressure from her dad to be pretty much perfect. Jake works for Anne's dad and he kind of looks out for Anne. And then there's Chris, who is really cute and a really good surfer. I like this book so far, but it kind of starts out slow. I'm not super interested in it yet. To be continued I guess...

This Is Just to Say

I'll be the first to admit I was really skeptical about reading a poetry book. So I picked This Is Just to Say because it was really short and I thought I would just be able to read it and be done. But I actually ended up kind of liking it. It's split into two parts, the first is poems of apologies to people, and the second is the responses to these apologies. The poems were written by the kids of Mrs. Merz's class in a school in New York. I liked the poems because they were all so different. There's one about dodge ball, but then there is also one about how hard it is for a boy to live up to his mother's expectations. There was also a poem to an unknown boy from a girl named Raneesha, and the response was from one of Raneesha's friends and it said how awesome she was and I thought that was really cute. My favorite poem and response was The Black Spot. The Black Spot is by a girl named Alyssa to her sister Carrie, and she is just saying sorry for stabbing her sister with a pencil. The lead left a little black scar in her palm. I liked it because of Carrie's response, it says, "Roses are red, violets are blue, I am still really pissed off at you."

The Mediator Series

I just finished the rest of the Mediator series books. They were so good! I read them really fast because once I started reading them I just didn't want to stop. The third, and fourth books were a little bit slower but the last two were really really good. The sixth, and last, book was my favorite. It really tied everything up nicely. And the ending was really unexpected, but it was the perfect end to the series. I really liked to read about a girl my age because I felt like I could relate to a lot of the stuff she's talking about, and I can understand the mistakes she makes because I've made some of them myself. It's also cool to see how much Suze grows up in the series. She starts out a total tomboy, she likes to fight and she isn't really into boys much, and she doesn't like the mall. But by the end of the series she's a lot more feminine and it seems like she finds herself and is way more comfortable with who she is. I also like that even though there's a lot of action, but it's also a kind-of love story. Anyways, to wrap it all up, girls, read this series!

The Mediator Series

I'm currently reading The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot. I have finished the first one Shadowland, and the second one Ninth Key, and I'm currently reading Reunion. So far I really really like these books! It's nice to get to read something funny after reading these stories about murder in class. The Mediator Series is about a girl named Susannah, "Suze" who can talk to dead people. She can also see and touch them. Her job is to get them to wherever they're supposed to to go next, and to figure out why they haven't already gone there. Then there's also the cute ghost Jesse, who lives in Suze's room. The series is also about Suze growing up and the sometimes not-so-smart things she does, which I can relate to. These books are really fun and fast to read and I like them a lot. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone looking for something light and fun to read.

No One You Know and Pledged

Over spring break I got sick, lucky me I know, but some good did come out of it I guess. I finished the two books I've been reading that were kinda slower reads. The first was a book called No One You Know by Michelle Richmond. I'm just gonna come right out and tell you, it was a snore-fest. The story itself looked really good, it had a good plot, and the librarian at school told me she really liked it. It's about a girl named Ellie whose sister Lila is murdered. The police never figured out who Lila's killer was but it always haunted Ellie. So the story is really about Ellie's search for the killer, but then there is all these weird math facts and stuff that really slow down the reading. Lila was a brilliant mathematician so Ellie looks through Lila's old math journal for clues. That's when the book gets really really boring for a while. Not to mention I didn't really get into the story until over halfway through it. So all in all I wouldn't recommend this book, unless you really like math and you want a lot of math in the story. Or else you'll end up skipping a whole bunch of paragraphs like I did.
The other book I finished was Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. It was actually a pretty good book, it has four different girls perspectives on sorority life. My only complaint was that the sections about each girl were really short and then it moved on to the next girl, so it took me a while to remember which character was which. Also, there were these essay-like things every once in a while that explained things about sororities and fraternities and those were kind of boring. But if you're thinking about being in a sorority it's a very informational book, if not a bit dramatic. I would recommend this one for sure.

p.s. There was pretty much no worthwhile quotes in either of these books. Bummer...

A Journal for Jordan/Pledged:The Secret Life of Sororities

I finally had time to finish A Journal for Jordan! I have to say, even though I already knew the end of the book, I definitely wasn't prepared for how sad it was. The end is a little bit frustrating at times because the author doesn't really provide a lot of resolution, but I guess it makes sense because she still doesn't have closure from Charles' death. Even with the sad ending I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something meaningful, that's also a great story.
I just started reading a new book that is also pretty interesting, if not a little bit inappropriate for school. It's called Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins. The author went undercover at a college in the south, which she calls State U to protect the sororities. She talks about the things that go on behind the closed doors of the sororities, behind the scenes kinds of things. Some of the things in the book aren't exactly school appropriate but the author doesn't generally dwell on them, and most of the book is about the relationships in the sororities, not the bad things some of the girls do. So far it's a pretty good book and I would recommend it, especially if you are thinking about joining a sorority someday.

A Journal for Jordan (continued)

I am still currently reading A Journal for Jordan. I haven't had much time to read unfortunately but I'm almost done. I really like how the book transitions so smoothly. Much of the book talks about the 6 years of the complicated relationship between Dana and Charles. But then it switches over to talking about Charles' duties in the military. And I thought that, being a girly-girl who knows nothing about the military, would get bored reading about it. But Dana explains things in a more simple way that I can comprehend.
I still strongly recommend this book, although it is a bit sad in some parts. The book is sometimes a slower read, because of the small details the author puts in. Although I think the details make the story so much more interesting, and also helps you to really understand the characters and their development. And even though I already know how the story ends, I want to keep reading, because the storyline has truly grabbed my attention.

Favorite Quote- "Things may not always be easy or pleasant for you, that's life, but always pay your respect for the way people lived and what they stood for. It's the honorable thing to do."

A Journal for Jordan

I'm currently reading A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy. So far, surprisingly, it is surpassing my expectations. I was a little bit bummed at first when I picked up this book, being the only non-fiction book that looked decent I could find, I wasn't super excited to read it. The title and inside covers of the book tell you that the book is a journal by a soldier in Iraq, for his son Jordan, which is slightly misleading. The book is actually a series of letters from Jordan's mom Dana, ( the author) to Jordan, containing quotes and such from Jordan's father Charles' journal. Dana writes these letters to her son when he is only ten months old, just after his father died, so that he may read them later. She writes about what her life was like before Charles came into it, and how he completely changed her life. Dana also writes about Charles' childhood, so that Jordan can truly understand the kind of person his father was and why, because his father will never be around for him to see. So a book that I thought was going to be some body's life story, totally boring, actually turned out to be a love story, with lots of life lessons, and a good read! I would definitely recommend this book to others, so far it's good!

Favorite quote: "Life would be boring if we were all the same. Appreciate people for who they are and learn from their differences."