The Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

The Book: The Truth that’s in Me

The Author: Julie Berry

The Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 2013

The Acquiring: Was sent to me as a Goodreads Giveaway, First Reads

My Thoughts: I received this book via a First Reads Giveaway. I was hesitant at first because I was unsure of the whole process since this was my first giveaway that I had received. I am very grateful that this was the first book that was sent to me.

The book is written in a Cormac McCarthy The Road sort of style of writing. The Chapters are short and the book moves very fast, somewhat non linear and very mysterious with deep emotions. I am really hesitant to make that comparison because McCarthy is a grand master at what he does so I feel like I may be setting it up for failure but I’m not sure who else to explain it. You just have to keep in mind while reading that it’s a YA novel and written to those standards.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The Book: Hollow City

The Author: Ransom RIggs

The Publisher: Quirks Books, 2014

The Acquiring: Bought at Atlantic SuperStore for 40% off

My Thoughts: This is the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children which I’ve heard of but never read. Sometimes I do these things…

The author’s first name is Ransom, which I had not realized before right now. Yes! I love it. I hope it’s his real name  One day if I have children of my own, I wish to name my child an equally as awesome name.

At the beginning of the book, there is a series of photos of weirdly unusual children. They are photos of the characters. My first reaction was maybe the writer is horrible at character descriptions which caused me to prejudge his writing.. in a negative way. I was wrong, once I’d read about a particular character, I simply returned to the pictures to compare my imagination to.. I guess.. the writer’s imagination, and they were pretty much exactly how I pictured them. So LESSON LEARNED: don’t judge a book’s ability by the pictures in the beginning.   

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The Book: Stardust

The Author: Neil Gaiman

The Publisher: William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

The Acquiring: Bought at Chapters for full price (something I rarely do) 16.50$

My Thoughts: I must confess, this was my first Neil Gaiman book. I know what you’re thinking… where have I been living all my life… I’ve been asking it to myself since I finished reading the first chapter in this book and I just do not have a good answer to that question. I tell myself and others that I’m not really into fantasy novels but that’s just a lie I like to tell them (and myself) so people don’t see me for the nerd I really am.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Author: Douglas Adams

The Publisher: Pan Books, 2009

The Acquiring: Bought at Chapters in the Bargain Books section for 5.99$

My Thoughts: I’m not sure why I chose this book in particular to become the first review on my blog ever…. maybe I have a subconscious death wish?

I read some of the reviews on Goodreads and boy, some people sure do love their Douglas Adams…. and venomously defend his honour, ripping apart any reader who dares besmirch his novels.  

I really wanted to LOVE this book, much like I really wanted to LOVE Sam Robert’s Band’s new album…. (sigh)… but I don’t.