Julia Reviews "Bossypants" by Tina Fey

Title/Author: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Publisher/Year Published: April 1st 2011 by AudioGO
How I got this book: I checked out the audiobook from the library
Why I read this book: Two of the people I work with independently recommended that I read it... actually listen to it.
Rating: 4 stars

I never was a big SNL fan. Not really anyway. But the years that had all of those strong women, including Tina Fey, had me tuning in quite a bit. When she did the whole Sarah Palin thing before the last presidential election, I was tuning more. I enjoyed Mean Girls and whenever I see 30 Rock, I end up stopping to watch. Thus, when I heard Tina Fey had wrote a memoir, I was all over that.

I heard about it from someone at work who told me to get the Audiobook because Tina reads it. I am glad I did. It was quite entertaining to listen to her emote the way that I am assuming she wrote it.

Tina covers a wide array of times in her life: from growing up not-blonde to being in crazy college situations to being a mom. I absolutely loved when she talked about how she learned about what it meant to be a women and that the most substantial of her information came from Tampon commercials.

I loved hearing about her time at SNL and how she developed 30 Rock. So many interesting tidbits. They really made my commute so much more interesting!

I could sit here and quote pretty much this whole thing to you, but the summary of it is, Ms Fey has lived quite a life and has quite a bit of words of wisdom. She coveys these words to us in a fun and entertaining way.

The Goodreads College Group is reading Bossypants for the month of August! So hop on over and check it out! (We are also reading Across the Universe which you will remember from our author interview).

So overall 4 big stars for me! Entertaining and hilarious with a nice dose of world wisdom :)

PS: This cover freaks me out. Another plus for the audio book version!

Top Ten Underrated Books

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Hey guys, Kelly here. I'm excited for this week's Top Ten Tuesday because I feel like we can get some great recommendations out of it! We're tackling:

Top Ten Underrated Books

1. Anya Seton's books - best. author. EVER. She is a historical author from the 40s and 50s, but I really do feel that most readers would enjoy her books. Avalon is my personal favorite.
   
   
2. Carolyn MacCullough's books - when I had to write book reports in a psychology class my senior year of high school about books that had deep psychological issues, I used Carolyn MacCullough's books every time. They are all excellent and I heartily recommend Stealing Henry.
   
   
3. Falling Angels - this lesser known Tracy Chevalier book still has me gushing two years after I read it. Experience said gushing here!
   
   
4. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - now I do realize that this books has practically exploded with popularity in the YA blogging world, but what surprises me most is that is hasn't spread much beyond that.
   
   
5. Bill Bryson's books - I just wish I could tell everyone about Bill Bryson. His memoirs help quell the insatiable travel bug within me and his humor is perfect.
   
   
6. Anna McPartlin's books - I'm no expert in contemporary romance in the slightest, but I love Anna McPartlin. She is an Irish writer and most of her books deal with death, but they still manage to be fun and cute (that sounds horrible, but really, it's not). I'd recommend Pack Up the Moon.
   
   
7. Dreamland - not one of Sarah Dessen's better known books, Dreamland deals with some pretty tough issues (abuse, drugs, runaways), which is exactly why I think more people should read it!
   

I hate not finishing one of these lists, but that's really all I have. I wasn't too sure about putting some books on the lists, what I may consider underrated/unknown may not be to someone else. Also...I'm finally on summer vacation and have been feeling a bit lazy :) Anyways, be sure to link up and visit some other TTTs! 


CHECK OUT FUTURE TTT HERE!

Jen Reviews "Along For The Ride" by Sarah Dessen

Along For The Ride by Sarah Dessen

Published: 2009, Speak (Penguin Group)
Source: Purchased myself
Rating: 5 stars

Summary:

Ever since her parents' divorce, Auden has been unable to sleep.  She's built a routine that gets her through each night; but when the opportunity comes for her to spend her summer at the beach with her father and his new family, she jumps at the chance to break out of her rut.

Life at the beach proves more challenging than Auden expects.  In addition to trying to figure out how she fits into her father's new life, she also has to navigate the girls at work with their gossip and friendship and crushes.  And then there's Eli, a fellow insomniac who becomes her nocturnal tour guide.  With and endless supply of long summer nights between them, almost anything can happen... (from back cover).

Review:


What can I say?  I love Sarah Dessen's books.  They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.  I love how the title always fits in perfectly with the storyline.  I love the 'morals' of the story.  I love the character's unique names.  I love how Dessen has characters from her previous books make appearances (they only show up briefly though) in her newer books.  Sometimes the characters only show up so quickly you may read over it before you realize it.  Jason from The Truth About Forever makes a few appearances in this book

Auden grew up too fast.  Her parents always treated her like an adult (even when she was three) and never really like a child.  She's missed out on a big part of childhood because of this.  Auden never did things like play hide-and-seek, spin around in a circle until you make yourself dizzy, play with dolls, or even learn how to ride a bike.  Things that are considered to be a rite of passage in childhood, Auden never took part in.

This leads to my favorite part of the book:  the quest.  What do you do at 2 am when you can't sleep?  Go on an adventure and try to reclaim your youth.  Never been bowling or participated in a food fight?  This is the summer for it!

Auden and Eli bond over the fact that they both can't sleep at night.  They bot avoid sleep for different reasons.  They spend their nights together by running errands and eating pie.  If I have trouble sleeping I'll watch a movie or read a few chapters in a book or have a small snack.  If I really can't sleep I'll go for a run (luckily my gym is open 24 hours).


Along For The Ride was no exception to my love of Sarah Dessen books.  It is full of everything I love about her writing.  I thought Auden was easy to relate to. 


Question: Inspired by Auden's quest is there anything from your adolescence that you never did but you wished you did?

Natanya Reviews Room by Emma Donoghue

Title/Author: Room by Emma Donoghue
Publisher/Date: Little, Brown and Company, 2010
Where I got it: Amazon, for my Kindle
Why I read it: It’s been on my to-read list since last fall, when I kept hearing about it everywhere, and it sounded really interesting

From Goodreads:
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him.

So first of all, the above synopsis is actually only half of the one posted on Goodreads because I feel that the full synopsis gives away too much of the book. If you’re going to read this, you should go into it not knowing much more than the premise. So don’t read the back, and don’t read the full summaries on Goodreads or Amazon.

Anyway, on to the review:

My expectations for Room were very high, but at the same time I was a little worried about a novel with a 5-year-old narrator. While this was partly what attracted me to the book, I thought it might be difficult to both convey enough information and still have the narrator really seem 5 years old. But ultimately, I think that Donoghue handled this wonderfully. Jack is a superb narrator and I do not think that this novel could have been told from any other point of view. His perspective is so unique, and while he may be a bit more descriptive than the average child, I did not have a problem believing that he was so young. Certain aspects of the novel do seem oversimplified, though: some things work out too easily, and others just aren’t as complicated as they should be. But I don’t think there is very much that Donoghue could have done to explain these while staying in Jack’s perspective; Jack couldn’t understand everything that was going on—and indeed, much of the novel focuses on Jack’s totally skewed perception of the world, resulting from growing up in the Room and from what his Ma told him. It’s heartbreaking but very interesting to see how Jack perceives the world. To that end, I loved how much detail Donoghue included regarding Jack’s perceptions and the various aspects of the world that he did not know or did not understand. I think she thought of many things that I would have never considered, like the fact that at age five Jack has never worn shoes before because there is no reason to within the confines of the Room.

I did find the middle of the book kind of boring. While I didn’t have any trouble getting through it, that chunk of the book just doesn’t stand out to me. And in fact, while I enjoyed Jack’s narration and reading everything that happens to him and his Ma, I guess I was expecting more. I can’t say that I was really disappointed, but I will say that I didn't love Room as much as I expected to, nor was it the emotional roller coaster I anticipated (I feel like it moved too quickly to be extremely emotional). I really, really wanted to love this book. I wanted it to shred me up then piece me back together. But my expectations were too high. It was very interesting and compelling, with a fascinating premise, and I do consider it a worthwhile read, but it was not quite what I expected.

3.75 slightly hesitant stars (it was hard enough to get myself to drop this below 4, but I just don’t feel like it really was a 4…)

Blog Tour: The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness + Giveaway

Book/Author: The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness by Ned Zeman
Published: August 4, 2011/ Gotham
Where I got this book: received for review by TLC Book Tours (Thanks!)
Rating: 3 stars

Brief Summary: A journalist faces his toughest assignment yet: profiling himself. Zeman recounts his struggle with clinical depression in this high- octane, brutally funny memoir about mood disorders, memory, shock treatment therapy and the quest to get back to normal.

My thoughts: I've said this before about reviewing memoirs... how can I possibly judge something that a person experienced? This is not a product of someone's imagination, these are the true events of Ned Zeman's life. Admittedly, I had some trouble getting into the book at first, as I felt there was a bit too much focus on the people he profiled at his job as a contributor to Vanity Fair. However, as Zeman began falling into the dark, twisted world of the clinically depressed and started experimenting with different medications, I found myself quickly sucked into the story. After many failed attempts with mood altering drugs, he turned to the controversial ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, also known as electroshock therapy) and once again the story got a whole lot more interesting.

ECT pretty much did exactly what it sounds like it should do to a person's brain. Ned began to forget things but continued to go through the emotional ups and downs as his brain was subjected to the scheduled brain frying sessions. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, there was a humor present in Zeman's rehashing of events. He was able to poke fun at himself and the sad state of his sanity which is something I give him a lot of credit for. He went through so much crap and found himself feeling desperate enough to try anything that might help him. As a Psychology minor, reading about other people's downfalls and learning about the way the mind works has always been an interest of mine. I was very impressed with the way Ned's friends formed a support group for him in order to make sure he was getting to his appointments and taking care of the things he might forget because of the amnesia. Things could have turned out much different for Ned had he not had such an awesome group of people who cared about him.

I think that I could have done without a lot of the info in Part 1 of the book, but overall I found The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness to be an entertaining and informative story about how depression can completely take over a person's life, and the ways in which it can affect those around you. I'm actually quite interested to learn how he was able to recover enough to remember details and write this book. ECT sounds like such a horrible procedure, I'm surprised that he's not a vegetable by now!

+Giveaway!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours, 1 lucky reader can enter to win a copy of The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness. Click HERE to enter!  Contest will end at midnight (EST) on Tuesday, August 9. US/Canada residents only, please. Good luck!

Top Ten Trends I'd Like To See More/Less Of - Top Ten Tuesday With Julia

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Hey everyone. This is Julia here with this week’s Top Ten Tuesday:

Top Ten Trends You Would Like to See More or Less of

More
1. Steampunk
This genre is super interesting to me. I picked up Soulless on a whim off the new arrivals shelf back in college and thought that this was an interesting time period to read about. Couple that with the awesome new Sherlock Holmes movies and I just want to read anything that I can get my hands on. Though admittedly I have not read too much into this yet, I like where this is going. Especially if it means I get to have more to chose from.

2. Dystopian
I've always enjoyed dystopian novels. I think the trend recently has been trending high, and maybe it is about to crash, but I've enjoyed what I have read so far. And I like having options to chose something next :)

3. Audiobooks
I like the trend that is happening that is making Audiobooks more popular! When audiobooks are read with awesome voice talent, it just brings the story to life in a whole new way. I especially enjoy when the authors read something and they can give the book the life that they wanted it to be. Also, rec for the crowd? Tina Fey's Bossypants. She reads it herself and it makes it highly entertaining. (Also they are reading it at The College Students Group over at Goodreads!)

Less
1. VAMPIRES
I am so sick of seeing vampires everywhere. SO. SICK. They seem like they are dominating the paranormal market! Look at this Google Graph showing the trend of the word vampire in books. Arg! It just keeps going up. Now, this isn't to say that I had vampire novels. If I am going to read it though, you need to give me a new twist. I've read Twilight and didnt care for it too much so ... yeah.

2. Covers that are trying to capitalize off the Twilight phenomenon


That's all I really have to say.

3. Series Books
Don't get me wrong. I love a good series. But seriously. Every once in a while I'd like to read a book and know that the last page I turn is actually the last page I turn. It seems like there has been just an upswing of series books lately. It is just a trend I am not excited for. Seriously. Look at this Most Popular Books in 2011. I think maybe 5 don't have "Xth in the Blah Series"

More or Less
1. Supernatural creature books trying to capitalize off of the Twilight phenomenon.
I feel like the Supernatural crazy is a good and bad thing. It seems like it is saturating the market (well the YA market anyway) but I don't know if it is a bad thing. Maybe a little bit more to wade through to get to the good ones? I don't know. I am glad it is not all vampires though, so at least people have a variety of creatures to choose from. So I am sick of it, but at the same time enjoy that it is bringing more variety into the supernatural market.

2. eBooks
I love the digitalization of books. I really enjoy being able to carry tomes, which I would not dare carry on airplanes before, along with me on my nook. But the prices and the turf wars and all the publishing bull just kills me. 14 loans of an eBook at a library before you have to buy a new license? Awesome... (this was only one publisher but still.) Get your head out of your ... butt and get with the times!


Click here to check out upcoming Top Ten Tuesday topics.

Book Tour: Reign of Madness + giveaway

Title: Reign of Madness
Author: Lynn Cullen
Published: Putnam, 4 August 2011
Rating:★★★★

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for a copy of the book and hosting the book tour!

Just for a moment, imagine that you are a queen. The queen of Spain, perhaps. You follow a line of legendary rulers, but that's not what you are remembered for. All you get is "the Mad" attached to the back of your name. You are known for having supposedly gone insane after your husband dies and being locked away in a castle for some fifty years. Not much of a fairy tale, right? This is precisely what happened to Juana of Castile, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Though known to history as Juana the Mad, she certainly did not start her life this way. Juana was the third child of Ferdinand and Isabella and lived a privileged life in what has evolved to modern day Spain. Reign of Madness portrays her as a bright and inquisitive girl, and interestingly enough, alludes to a fictional romance between herself and the son of Christopher Columbus. Juana is eventually married off to Philip of Burgundy at age sixteen with no choice in the matter, a practice not new to princesses of the day. Her marriage seems to start off well, but Philip quickly evolves into a jealous and violent man.

When Juana's mother and older siblings eventually die, she is left as Queen of Castile. Both her father and husband, greedy for power, betray her and spread the rumor that she is insane. Juana is locked away for the rest of her life. She is still known as the Queen, but she has no power, duties, or importance.

While we don't get to read about much of her imprisonment, this is not the important part. Lynn Cullen, along with most historians, disagrees with the title 'Juana the Mad' and simply attribute it to the Juana's manipulation by the men in her life. Cullen tries to convey to us a young Juana who was stabbed in the back by those she should have trusted most.  Overall, the book well represents customs at court, the politics of the day, and the life of this often forgotten and tragic queen. A definite pick-up for historical fiction lovers!

Giveaway!
Once again, thanks to the lovely folks at TLC Books tours, one of you now has the chance to win a copy of Reign of Madness! US/Canada residents only, please. Enter here, you have until August 10th!