Teaser Tuesday 11/16

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page, and BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This teaser is from the book Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde: 

"I clam up when I'm upset. But realizing that didn't exactly fix it. I just sat the, stony, watching the lights flicker off and then on again. Listening to the clatter of the metal wheels on the tracks. Feeling the rocking that is pure subway, that just doesn't feel like any other transportation in the world." -page 80

The book is okay...yet I'm not sure I really like it. I love Catherine Ryan Hyde's books (Pay It Forward, Chasing Windmills and more), yet this one is not one of the better ones...For a summary, check out this post from The Library Lurker. I entered the (now closed) contest and that is how I got the book! =)

Review #3

• Title:  The Heart Is Not a Size
• Author:  Beth Kephart
• Percentage: 80%

• Summary:  (from front flap) Georgia knows what it means to keep a secret. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid....Or are they? When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters' village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten  both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she's always known. Beth Kephart paints a world filled with emotion, longing, and the hot Mexican sun.
• Plot Line:  I thought that the plot of this book was unbalanced and kind of weak. Basically (this may be a spoiler, so CAUTION!!!), Riley is anorexic because she feels she can't be seen as "average" in her mother's eyes. But she doesn't like her mom, so why would it matter- I don't know. And that was the main conflict throughout the entire book. Georgia didn't want Riley to hate her because she points out that Riley has a problem, yet isn't that what friends are for? They are supposed to help you (in my opinion). But Georgia doesn't and she isn't there when the worst hits. In a nutshell, that is the plot. I felt like the Mexico scene and the work there was much more interesting that the "main conflict" and that made it less enjoyable. Also, from the first page you are introduced to the opportunity of going to Juarez for community service work and that, for me, felt like what the book was riding on. Yet when they finally get to Mexico, the book is halfway over! And then it starts getting really good as it continues, and then it ends as Riley hits open a pinata and magically everything is better and resolved. The climax of the story is toward its end on the last page, but it was rather disappointing since it was so sudden and the book has just started to get intriguing.
• Characters: While the plot-line was weak, the characters were better. The main character, Georgia, was actually not all that interesting. Her life was interesting and she has a few problems (i.e. panic attacks, anxiety...), but I think the author relied too heavily on the problems and the story to define the character and bring out personality. All the people in great novels have really interesting lives and personalities, however Georgia was, eh, average, thus making the book, eh, average. The other characters were a lot better, and I enjoyed them, yet it did not make up for Georgia. I'm not saying I hated the book, but it was not as much of a pleasure to read than others I've recently read.

• Ratings:  (1-5 stars)
• Suspense:  3 stars
• Vocab:  4 1/2 stars
• Quality:  3 1/2 stars
• Attention-Keeping Ability:  4 stars
• Excitement and Exhilaration:  3 1/2 stars
• Uniqueness and Originality:  4 stars
• Overall Rating: 3 3/4 stars

• Overall:  The Heart Is Not a Size was all right. I would only recommend it if you have read everything except the bottom few books on your "to-be-read" list. Be sure to have a good book to follow-up with or else you may fall into a book-slump (a condition in which a reader has read a not-so-great book and has nothing left to read, therefore creating a time period of longing for a really great book). Well, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't good either. Read it if you want to, but otherwise, I'd check it out from the library in the future.

Teaser Tuesday 11/2

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page, and BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This teaser is from the book Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee:

page 99

" 'I'll keep that in mind,' I replied. I smiled and dragged my eyes up to meet his. I had no clue what flirting was, but I hoped it was some involuntary-response kind of thing, like migration or mating calls. I climbed out of the big, clunky car and watched Kyle ease up the street."

This book is one I just finished and is on my to-be-reviewed pile. Next up is... The Other Side of the Island (Allegra Goodman), The Heart is Not a Size (Beth Kehpart), and then this great novel. I will say that Artichoke's Heart is a really pleasurable book! More reviews to come soon....

And a shout-out to Sheri:  Happy Birthday!! =)