Bookshipper

Saturday, March 17, 2012

IN MY MAILBOX for week ending March 17, 2012

Another week is over - wow! it goes so quickly. The good news? its almost spring.....in the meantime, here is what came into my house this week. This has been an incredibly rough week so I am so grateful for all these wonderful items!

As you know, I love free, free, free and I was lucky enough to get a coupon for a full size Vaseline container - here it is:

Now, for the books:

FROM ABEBOOKS:

The Rock Star in Seat 3A by Jill Kargman

Amazon

Beauty by Lisa Daily

BY THE AUTHOR (FOR REVIEW):

Hollywood in Heels by Charity Gaye Finnestad

Amazon

FROM NETGALLEY:

Surrey State of Affairs by Ceri Radford

Amazon

Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth

Amazon

Monday, March 12, 2012

REVIEW for Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters

Thank you, thank you to author Meredith Zeitlin for so kindly sending me a copy of her book.

TITLE: Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters

AUTHOR: Meredith Zeitlin

GENRE: YA

RATING: 4 Stars

First of all, I have to say that I loved the cover - not sure why, but I found it perfect for the storyline.

Now, for the book itself. I loved it. This is exactly the type of YA that I adore reading. We meet our main character Kelsey who has decided that this school year is going "to be the one". She is going to re invente herself to become THAT person - the one that everyone loves, especially her crush since birth.

Of course, life gets in the way and what follows is a hilariously touching story about Kelsey trying to "fit" her life into what she thinks it should be, all the while realizing that will is about what you make it and embracing who you are - for your own sake. Life lessons abound, but the author has incorporated them in a beautiful story that made reading this book a true joy.

Friday, March 9, 2012

IN MY MAILBOX for week ending March 10, 2012

Here is what came into my house this week (great, great book week finally!)

From NetGalley:

The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

Amazon

Getting Over Mr. Right by Chrissie Manby

Amazon

From the author (for review):

Ten Healthy Teas by Valerie B. Lull

Amazon

From Abe Books:

Does this Baby Make me Look Straight? by Dan Bucatinsky

Amazon

Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

From the Publisher (for review):

Farewell Titanic by Charles Pellegrino (here I go with the Titanic books!)

Amazon

Never Say Never by Ricki Lake

Amazon

Shadow of the Titanic by Andrew Wilson

Amazon

Sunday, March 4, 2012

REVIEW for Lovetorn

Thank you, thank HarperCollins Canada for sending me a copy of this book.

TITLE: Lovetorn

AUTHOR: Kavita Daswani

GENRE: YA

RATING; 3.5 Stars

http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/Lovetorn-Kavita-Daswani?isbn=9780061673115&HCHP=TB_Lovetorn

Okay, writing a review for this book is going to be more difficult than I thought. There were parts of this book that I loved and others that left me a little dry. The other issue I had with the book was that I was hoping for a little bit more humor.

The storyline is engaging, as we meet Shalini who is just coming into the US to live with her immediate family - from India. Needless to say, the "culture shock" is huge and is explored very well and with sensitivity by the author. Of course, this main focus also offers up a myriad of golden opportunities for some wonderful dialogue and exchanges were we can clearly see just how different the two cultures are.

I also like that this novel focuses heavily on family - which means a depressed mom a dad who is somewhat clueless and a boyfriend left behind (arranged marriage).

What did not work as well for me is, as mentioned, the lack of humor throughout the storyline. I don't know why I was hoping for more, except to say that I wanted Shalini to have some fun, to be a young girl falling in love.

Friday, March 2, 2012

IN MY MAILBOX for week ending March 3, 2012

Another quiet week - book wise anyway! But I did get a very, very funny book as well as some great magazines.

From Abe books:

I Have Iraq in My Shoe, a Memoir by Gretchen Berg

Amazon

I also met with my friend Cindy from Cindy'sLoveof Books who gave me a great selection of magazines (thanks Cindy!) :)

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

REVIEW for Dollars & Uncommon Sense

Thank you to the Cadence Group for sending me a copy of this book.

TITLE:         Dollars & Uncommon Sense

AUTHOR:     Steve Repak

GENRE:        Finance

RATING;      4 Stars

Dollars & Uncommon Sense was a good read, but a scary one! Why? Because the entire tone of the book basically makes you feel as though you are in some kind of financial boot camp and can't get out. This actually, for someone like me, is perfect. Without even looking at the author's pedrigree or even the cover of the book, I would have been able to tell you that the author had some kind of army training.

This book is all about taking no prisoners and it's all about saving, saving and saving.
What I really liked about this book is that it makes you feel hopeful - that you can save regardless of when you started doing it. Some of the figures are kind of depressing, but the author makes some excellent points - starting with - pay yourself, pay yourself and pay yourself.

Writing is nononsense and the terms are easy to understand. There is some information that I found more pertinent for my own life, but that's normal when reading this type of book.
Overall, I liked this book even if i absolutely HATED the cover.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

REVIEW for The Pregnancy Project

Thank you to the wonderful Simon & Schuster Canada for sending me this book!

TITLE:               The Pregnancy Project

AUTHOR:          Gaby Rodriguez

GENRE:             Memoir

RATING;           2 Stars

http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Pregnancy-Project/Gaby-Rodriguez/9781442446243

I really wanted to like this book. Why? Well, for one thing, I thought the premise was extemely interesting and I also felt as though this was a story that needed to be told. Finally, I wanted to delve into the mind of the author to try to better understand the mindset.

While this book was certainly not horrible, it was, for the most part, extremely slow going. The first 1/3 of the book is about the 'why', which could have been interesting, if it were not for the somewhat disjointed writing style. The author goes into intense detail about her own childhoold (and that of her mother) and while I knew that I should have been connecting, I simply wasn't. As I mentioned, I know that this was due in part to the writing, which felt dry and monotone. There was very little emotion and the pace was slooowwwww.

The book does pick up around the time the author starts talking 'specifics' about the project, but even at this point, I wasn't getting the emotional feelings that I should have been getting, or more specifically, I wasn't feeling anything coming at me from the author (or the retelling of the story).
This book should have been full of ups and downs, tears, anger and even things like friendship, support, etc. considering the very delicate subject matter. Instead, I found this book to be flat. Did not work for me.

Friday, February 24, 2012

IN MY MAILBOX for week ending February 25, 2012

Here is what came into my house this week.

From Abe books:

My Life in Black and White by Natasha Friend

Amazon

From the Publisher (for review):

Chaos by Nalo Hopkinson

Amazon
I also received this great make up box - actually containing 2 nail polish colors (a gorgeous red and a gorgeous gold) as well as cuticle oil (which I did not even know they made). This was a promotion from Julep and it cost only $1.00 (including free shipping). These colors are beautiful and I even love the wrapping it came in (complete with a little piece of chocolate).

Sunday, February 19, 2012

REVIEW for The Boy Project

Thank you to Nikole at Scholastic Canada for giving me a copy of this wonderful book.

TITLE:                    The Boy Project

AUTHOR:                Kami Kinard

GENRE:                   YA

RATING:                  4 Stars

This book is cute, cute, cute! I loved reading it. I don't normally read middle school books (which is what I consider this book to be) because the main character, Kate, is a 13 year old. However, I was intrigued by the premise and ended up loving the storyline.

Kate is a brainiac and she is highly frustrated because, at the ripe old age of 13, she has not yet been kissed. So, she devises a science project aimed at basically, figuring out boys - and how to get their attention. In the process, she may win the science competition and get unlimited texting as a reward.

I kept thinking about the Sheldon character on The Big Bang Theory TV show who would have basically approached this type of project in exactly the same manner had he been a 13 year old! Armed with graphs, scientific observations and, of course, day to day events, Kate attempts to put it all together and make it work. Of course, love, lust, teenage angst cannot be "scientifically" assessed, which means that this book also ends up being quite funny.

I loved the fact that the author is sensitive to what it is to be young and to try to fit in, especially in this day and age (with bullying) but the storyline is also touching and very realistic (at least minus the science experiments).

I truly loved this book.