Beth’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2013)

Beth’s comments from the Too Busy To Read group.

First love. Star-crossed misfits.

I expected a little bit more sass. Like John Green-style sass.

I was also taken bit surprise by the messed up home-life of Eleanor. Not to say that it was unbelievable, because it was, and I know this happens more than we know. Just that I wasn't expecting it from the descriptions I read before I dove in. I loved Park's world.

I had heard a lot of good things about this one going in and I didn't really get what people liked about it until it was over. I felt like this book was all about synergy: the whole was greater than the sum of the individual parts.

How about the reveal of the author of the notes on her bookcover?! Wowser. Made so much sense, yet I don't know how I didn't see it--probably because we had another perfect suspect in front of us in the locker room all the time.

I loved the portrayal of college life, how awkward/socially anxious Cather was, the grief of the cooling of her friendship with her twin/best friend and her dilemmas over the boys in her life and the roommate lifestyle. I tolerated the doses of the fan fiction ("canon" and "MagiCath"). Actually, I was waiting for these to be over so I could get to the "real life" Cath stuff.

I appreciated Cath's initial reaction to being accused of plagiarism by her writing prof, because so many kids her age would react thusly. BUT, I did want her to defend/explain herself a little better so that the teacher actually understood, instead of just throwing a tantrum and saying, "You just don't understand." By the end, I could not empathize with why she was resisting writing her final short story and was considering taking the F on it. I just felt like something is better than nothing, even if it is half-assed. I was pretty surprised when she finally sucked it up and did it.

Fangirl had a couple sides to it: the awkward first year of college, the fantasy-loving fan-fiction writing, and the first love/boy confusion.

What did you identify most with?

Leading up to this book, I had heard a lot of buzz about how much people HATED it. Truthfully, I didn't hate it at all. I was about 90% through (I read on a Kindle, thus the awareness of a percent), before I realized why people were saying that. I don't want to hit spoilers quite yet on here. But yes, the ending was tough.

The more I think about it though, I can't come up with a better alternate ending. I'm going to cut Veronica Roth a break. I think she planned this book and constructed it with the other two.

Allegiant was not my favorite of the trilogy. I didn't like the voice-switching between Tris and Tobias, though I understand the depth it afforded. I think I liked the action of Insurgent the best and the character-building of Divergent. We rooted for Tris in Divergent, sighed with frustration about her in Insurgent. I appreciated her in Allegiant, especially with her mistrust of Nita. I think we saw her wisdom a few times in this book though.

It was a little exhausting how angsty Tris would get sometimes and how stubborn she could be, especially when Tobias was just trying to be sweet/caring/loving. I was forgiving of that though, because she does recognize her weaknesses (not good enough to be Abnegation). I think her impulsivity/moodiness is just human and real. We all are like that sometimes.

It is definitely of the Dystopia genre like the Hunger Games. In all, I really enjoyed this series and found the love-scenes/sparks/chemistry between the protagonists to be far sexier than Hunger Games. However, I have much more affection for the characters of the Hunger Games. I love Four, but I love all of the HG characters even more, even the Katniss who is indecisive (I never minded her like that).

This book scared the piss out of me, even though I loved it and would recommend it in a heartbeat (though not under the age of middle schoolers). I can honestly say that the narrative voice was the last thing I was thinking of as I read terrified, racing to the end so that I wouldn't be kept up by nightmares!

I was really intrigued by the interactions between Auggie and other kids at school. I could see the friendships that were developed as very realistic, the bullying that went on as very realistic and Auggie's behaviors/postures/reactions as very realistic. However, I could also imagine more Julians and that things could have gone unbearably wrong.

Auggie talked about the way people looked at him--he either wanted no one to look at him or he wanted the genuine smiles (not the shiny ones). It makes sense that he would want either no attention or nothing special. I wonder though, if he would ever get that on the first look.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
In Darkness by Nick Lake
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Balance by Nik Wallenda

Loved this book. Thought the Shakespeare twist was clever. When it comes to cancer, human flaws/choices/actions have nothing to do with anything. It's just pure crap luck.

I'm Beth. I teach high school English as a Second Language full-time and I'm working on [another] Master's in Library Science part-time. I also work as a reference assistant at the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a non-circulating children's book library at UW-Madison. Frankly, I'm exhausted.