Month: November 2015

5 Thoughts on Mockingjay Part 2

Posted November 27, 2015 in Film Reviews / 9 Comments

Last weekend I went to see the final film in the Hunger Games trilogy (which had it’s last movie split into 2 films as has become customary for YA book to movie adaptations since the Harry Potter films started the trend). I had a LOT of expectations (especially since 2 tickets cost $27 for a matinee!), as there are so many intense plot twists and dramatic irony in the last act of the Mockingjay novel. The second half of the novel also has the death that hit me the hardest in the series (RIP Finnick). Now that I’ve had some […]

Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski | ARC Review

Posted November 23, 2015 in Books, Challenges, Reviews / 7 Comments

Boyfriend Book Reviews is a feature where my book-loving boyfriend, Max, reads and reviews YA that I either haven’t yet read or is outside of my current TBR. If you want a thorough and thoughtful perspective on a guy’s take on YA, keep reading! “They soon reached the flag stone path leading to Deep Well House. They could see the white paper hanging from the front door, but it was only when they were a foot away they could read what had been written. It was a single word scrawled in a childlike script: HIDE.” -114 I wanted to like […]

The Gift of Fear: Non-fiction that can save your life

Posted November 18, 2015 in Features, Guy in the Pages / 7 Comments

Since graduating from college, I don’t read nearly as much nonfiction as I used to. While the break from monotonous texts in exchange for all of the fiction I want has been great, it also means I’ve been missing out on critical, thought provoking reads that I was often exposed to in college. Max is a recent college graduate in psychology and for his birthday earlier this year asked me to gift him with a non-fiction book that he had read excerpts from in his upper level psychology classes: The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. This text is […]

You Won’t Catch Me Extending My Stay Anytime Soon

Posted November 16, 2015 in Reviews / 4 Comments

Hotel Ruby was another coveted addition to my collection thanks to ALA this summer in San Francisco. I had heard some buzz about the book prior to the event, and the cover was absolutely stunning. When I found out that Suzanne Young was going to be signing ARCs of either Hotel Ruby or her “The Program” books, I knew I wanted to opt for Hotel Ruby because it has a total Tower of Terror Vibe to it from the synopsis (I am a huge fan of the Tower of Terror ride at the Disney resorts, and I love the haunting […]

November, November: the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year

Posted November 8, 2015 in Features / 11 Comments

November may be my new favorite month. This year, November’s brought with it the first hints of fall (the weather has literally dipped twenty degrees over the course of two weeks) new holiday traditions, and a return to a state of calmness in my life. At the end of August I experienced some major life changes, and have moved to a new town, started a new job, and gone on an epic vacation in the course of the past two months. This has led to a decrease in posting and reading, but an increase in amazing life-changing opportunities. However, mid […]

Nantucket Red by Leila Howland | Review

Posted November 4, 2015 in Books, Reviews / 4 Comments

My Review There’s something about Leila Howland’s writing that makes it compulsively readable among the huge selection of YA contemporaries on the market today. I think it’s due to a combination of the dreamy, beachy setting of Nantucket along with her willingness to go just a little farther than other YA authors in her heavier content, from sex to grief to bullying. There’s a rawness around Cricket’s experiences that makes the narrative hit home a little more without compromising its status as a fun, beachy read. The first thing that I, (and many other reviewers, I’m sure), have to bring […]