11/11/11
11/9/11
Upcoming Book Review: The Language Of Flowers
A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
11/4/11
11/3/11
Outfit of the Day
Liz from Late Afternoon
Unfortunately this outfit is a bit of a splurge. But hey being a DIVA is worth it!
11/2/11
Upcoming Book Release
One of my fav authors Sophie Kinsella (of Confessions of a Shopaholic fame...duh!), is back with a new book. I've Got Your Number will be released on February 14, 2012
I've lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It's been in Magnus's family for three generations. And now, the very same day his parents are coming, I've lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate Poppy. Stay positive!!
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry the ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her 'happy ever after' begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring but in the panic that followed, she has now lost her phone. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
Well, perfect except the phone's owner, businessman Sam Roxton doesn't agree. He wants his phone back and doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life.What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other's lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents... she soon realises that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.
Book Review: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: YA; Science Fiction
Release Date: September 14, 2008
Pages: 272
Summary:
If there really are only seven original plots in the world, it's odd that boy meets girl is always mentioned, and society goes bad and attacks the good guy never is. Yet we have Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, The House of the Scorpion—and now, following a long tradition of Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games. Collins hasn't tied her future to a specific date, or weighted it down with too much finger wagging. Rather less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, hers is a gripping story set in a postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death.Katniss, from what was once Appalachia, offers to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, but after this ultimate sacrifice, she is entirely focused on survival at any cost. It is her teammate, Peeta, who recognizes the importance of holding on to one's humanity in such inhuman circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that Katniss, like a new Theseus, is cold, calculating and still likable. She has the attributes to be a winner, where Peeta has the grace to be a good loser.It's no accident that these games are presented as pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism, overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem—which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent—may have created the Games, but mindless television is the real danger, the means by which society pacifies its citizens and punishes those who fail to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous today, date the book? It might, but for now, it makes this the right book at the right time. What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed with grooming, we'll talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet, she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch. Katniss struggles to win not only the Games but the inherent contest for audience approval. Because this is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved, and what is left unanswered is the central question. Has she sacrificed too much? We know what she has given up to survive, but not whether the price was too high. Readers will wait eagerly to learn more.
Review:
So I've decided NOT to do a review on this book. I will let the movie trailer do the talking. ( I promise you will get chills)
11/1/11
Outfit of the Day
Book Review: When She Woke
Author: Hillary Jordan
Genre: Science Fiction; Mystery
Release Date: October 4,2011
Pages: 243
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Summary:
Hannah Payne's life has been devoted to church and family. But after she's convicted of murder, she awakens in a new body to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes--criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime--is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.
Review:
Originality, Originality, Originality. Someone please call Steven Spielberg ASAP! I need the visuals for this book RIGHT NOW!
*Deep breath* Now that I got that out the way....
Hannah is what many consider deeply religious, some may even call her a radical Christian. After falling in love with a married man, Hannah wakes up and finds herself in the one place she never expected--jail. Not only is she incarcerated, but she is also a "Red." Due to overpopulation in prisons the government decided to give criminals a virus that will change their entire bodies a different color. The criminals are then released into the general public (cruel and unusual punishment.) The color depicts the nature of their crime (yellow=misdemeanor, red=murder, purple=child molester). Hannah's crime? Abortion. After a horrible STD left millions of women barren, the government decided abortion equates murder and declared it illegal in many states. Once Hannah is released from jail, she finds herself alone and the object of hate crimes for the first time in her life. This new predicament forces Hannah to face reality and make life altering decisions on her own.
I enjoyed When She Woke for several different reasons. On the surface When She Woke appears to be just another Sci-fi novel, but you soon discover it's so much more. When She Woke deals with many sensitive subjects that most fiction authors shy away from. Racism, religious based morals VS. personal morale decision, and what happens when the government crosses the thin line between politics and religion. I also enjoyed the personal growth journey Hannah is forced to take within such a small amount of time.
I recommend When She Woke to anyone that is sick of the same old same old. This book will take you on an emotional journey and will leave you with several discussion questions. If you are part of a book club I highly recommend When She Woke as your November read.
November Book List
The Hunger Games Trilogy:
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
The Language of Flowers:
A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
Perfect Peace:
The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have
Fake Perfect Me:
Isabella Reynolds has the perfect life ... or does she? Maybe there is a grand illusion behind all the glamour.
Isabella Reynolds seems to have it all--the former Southern belle with big dreams is the head of her own skin care company and is the self-proclaimed queen of all things beautiful in New York City. Then her world comes crashing down, and she is stripped of everything she loves--her man, the Italian litigator ''Saint'' Santo; her company, and even her beloved dog, Potato. With her penchant for bingeing and purging, how can she turn her life around when she still feels the need to maintain her ''perfect'' facade?
Fake Perfect Me, author Cari Kamm's heart-warming--and often heartwrenching--tale of a successful New Yorker and her inner circle, offers an inside look at a world of excess. Isabella Reynolds may seem unlike anyone you've ever known, but at her core, she's instantly recognizable. Her trials and tribulations, her ups and downs, are much the same as anyone's. Her world may have a high price tag, but its true value comes from its losses and lesson... to love one's self.
When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.
Isabella Reynolds has the perfect life ... or does she? Maybe there is a grand illusion behind all the glamour.
Isabella Reynolds seems to have it all--the former Southern belle with big dreams is the head of her own skin care company and is the self-proclaimed queen of all things beautiful in New York City. Then her world comes crashing down, and she is stripped of everything she loves--her man, the Italian litigator ''Saint'' Santo; her company, and even her beloved dog, Potato. With her penchant for bingeing and purging, how can she turn her life around when she still feels the need to maintain her ''perfect'' facade?
Fake Perfect Me, author Cari Kamm's heart-warming--and often heartwrenching--tale of a successful New Yorker and her inner circle, offers an inside look at a world of excess. Isabella Reynolds may seem unlike anyone you've ever known, but at her core, she's instantly recognizable. Her trials and tribulations, her ups and downs, are much the same as anyone's. Her world may have a high price tag, but its true value comes from its losses and lesson... to love one's self.
10/28/11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)