Seminole County Public Library discussion

From June 1, 2013 through August 1, 2013, you can submit up to 5 reviews here in order to be entered into the Goodreads Reviews Mega Book Buck Drawing. Simply type your review into the comment field below and hit the "post" button.

The winner will receive 10 book bucks, redeemable at the Friends of the Library Book store at the Central Branch in Casselberry or the Friends of the Library book carts at the East, North, Northwest and West Branches.

the color purple by alice walker
** spoiler alert ** the color purple is about a family of african americans post slavery. it centers around 2 sister and their journey thru life. celie's life is full of struggles from abuse from her stepdad to her husband, then later falling in love with her husband's girlfriend. nettie escapes before getting abused by celie's husband and follows celie's 2 children and their family to africa to be missionaries. with shug's help, celie is able to stand up to her husband albert and leave him. she opens a business sewing pants. at the end, she is reunited with her sister nettie and her children, adam and olivia.

I loved this book! The characters were well developed. I felt sorry for both of the main characters. It portrays how citizens in small town southern American communities interact with each other and how one person's decisions can trigger events that will change other lives. The transitions back and forth from past to present were handled smoothly. I couldn't put this book down and read it in one day.

the divide by l.j. smith
this book was awesome. i was sad they canceled the show so i read the first three books and i was disappointed on the lack of an ending. when she decided to write the books again she pushes the limits of the circles relationship. the beat part is it always keeps you guessing.

chosen at nightfall

I've loved this series from the very beginning and i am sad to see it go; however, the ending was very well written. the author tied together the missing pieces but at the same time she left room to wonder. i recommend this series to anyone one of any age. it has lots of lessons we learn in everyday life with a supernatural swist.

school spirits

amazing book! this book is a spinoff of the series hex hall. its about a girl finding herself and trying to be normal. i can't wait for the next book. the characters are so well developed they practically leap off the page. i love the relationships. only thing i must know is where is the sister?!?! ad this story grows i plan to be a part of it.

Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst
This is a Bible based self help book geared mostly towards Mothers. I found the book to be very well written and I could relate to most of the issues the author presented in the book. I appreciate the fact that she used lots of scriptural references and I am hoping to implement some of her advice when I find myself facing some 'unglued' moments.

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
This is the first book in Janet's Lizzy and Diesel series. I found this to be entertaining but nothing to celebrate. The main character reminds me of the main character of her Plum series books a little too much and the whole supernatural theme of the story was not of my liking. The writing style is funny and light and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a quick easy read to entertain during a weekend or vacation.

Happy Herbivore Abroad by Lindsay Nixon
This is part travelogue and part cookbook featuring vegan cooking from around the world. I love travel literature and found the book to be both educational and fun to read. The recipes look totally do-able for me and I enjoyed reading how the author adapted the food she saw in her travels to a plant based diet. I look forward to trying Lindsay's recipes soon.

The Good Life by Trip Lee
This rapper turned pastor has written what I believe to be a very accessable Christian Theological book. The writing style is very modern and 'urban', perhaps helping a younger crowd to see the value in a book like this. I enjoyed how Trip Lee illustrated his idea of what a good life is and how it is juxtaposed from the life of many modern day Americans.

Redeeming Love by Francicne Rivers
This is a wonderfully written novel which takes the reading through the many paths of the main character Angel. This book can be upsetting and heart warming all in one and I found it very difficult to put down. While I am not always a fan of historical fiction, I found this book to be so interesting and I can only attribute the authors illustrative writing style and ability to portray the journey of this fallen soul.

Why Can't I Be You

This is the story of a girl that takes on an entirely new persona when a stranger mistakes her for a long last friend. It sounds like a weird concept, as she is conning a wonderful, loving group of people, but I will admit that I laughed, I cried, and I felt like a better person when I finished reading. This book reminds you that you have to be the person you want to be, not who you think everyone else is expecting.

The Walking Dead, Compendium 1
definitely different from the tv show. mostly the same characters. it starts out with rick and shane trying to arrest a suspect. the suspect shoots rick. rick goes into a coma. he wakes up in the hospital and discovers there are zombies everywhere. he has no idea that the zombie apocalypse has happened. he runs from the hospital to his home to see if his wife, lori, and son, carl, are ok. his house is abandoned and destroyed by looters. later on he goes to atlanta because everyone is supposed to be there per governments orders but the city is overrun with zombies. he gets rescued my glenn and taken back to glenns camp where, suprise, lori and carl are there with ricks best friend shane. the story follows the camp and their trials and tribulations of trying to stay alive in a the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
the story is a quick read. it looks intimidating being over 1000 pages but it flows well and keeps your interest. some of the pages of the zombies eating people is gross so if you have a weak stomach dont read it!! the characters are for the most part relatable and likable. cant wait to get the compendium 2 to see what happens next!!!

UnEnchanted
this story is a cross between twilight and beautiful creatures. Mina is a clumsy brown haired brown eyes liner girl. she has 1 friend and a crush on an unattainable rich boy. she discovers she is cursed and she decides to break the family curse. I like that it was from different peoples point of views. it kinds ends like oh my goodness. I was a little mad at getting tricked but it was a relatively smooth read.

A Midsummer Night's Death by K M Peton

This is an old book, pub. 1978, about a teen at boarding school. I read it because I wanted to see what this author is like, because she also wrote the Flambards series, and because it's a thin book, so I thought it would be an easy read.
This book is interesting, and is a good portrayal of how passionate and conflicted teens are about everything (I had forgotten what it felt like). A death at the school causes the kids to speculate about what really happened and why, and to take certain actions based on their speculations (right or wrong). It also involves rock climbing. It's a little difficult to read because the style is a old-fashioned, but it is worth it in the end. There is another book by this author with the same main character, Jonathan Meredith, called Prove Yourself a Hero. After reading this book, I think it might be worth reading the Flambards series.

Corie Universe Feeder
what a waste of .99!! i hated how it was written. some chapters were 1 word; routine, some chapters were 1 sided conversations, there were incomplete sentences. the story hopped around like an adhd child!!! just horrible!! if i could give it 0 stars i would!!

My Sister's Keeper
holy garbage with the ending!! i liked the story and it would have gotten 5 stars if the ending was different. i like how each chapter is from a different character's point of view giving insight to the same event thru someone else's eyes and brain. just a horrible ending. i wonder what she was thinking when she decided to end it that way?

Shiver
if you don't like twilight, don't read this book. if you do like twilight, then read this book. but read it with an open mind. after reading some of the reviews about it being a jake version of twilight, i decided to read it without comparing it to twilight. the book is from grace's point of view and sam's point of view so i like that. you get to see what the other person is thinking when in the same situation. the book flowed well. i can't wait to read book 2.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (who is really J K Rowling)
A 455-page adult mystery that got good reviews, that I read to see if Rowling's magic plays well in another genre. It doesn't. This book is too long and has too many characters, almost none of whom are likable. By page 376 I kind of lost track of how to tell apart Lucy, Leda, and Lula, to say nothing of the ten or so other characters mentioned on the pages immediately before and after. The story is not very engaging, the pacing is slow, and there is almost no dramatic tension. The main character, Strike, is a down and out detective who might develop into someone you would want to read about, maybe two or three books down the line. I had a hard time finishing this book,and I really didn't need the fake bio about the author at the end.

Sticks and Stones by Emily Bazelon

This is a non-fiction book about bullying, from the sides of both the perpetrator and the victim. The author has gathered lots of anecdotal information, and followed a few actual situations and schools across time. She suggests that parental intervention often makes the situation worse, and so does punishing the perpetrator as the sole intervention. She concludes that the best solution to bullying is to change the culture so that bullying is seen as unacceptable - and there are some schools that have been successful at doing this. The book is a good read, and it did increase my understanding of both sides of bullying.

Suite Française
The history of this book and its author is much more interesting than the book itself, which I found difficult to finish. The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was Jewish and actually lived through the events described in her book. Unfortunately, she only finished two parts of her planned 5-part novel, as she was arrested and taken to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942.
The book describes the mass exodus of Parisians as the Germans advance on the city, and then, in Part 2, the occupation of a small village, when the citizens had to share their homes with the enemy. I can only give the book 3 stars, as the first part was tedious to get through, with too few likeable characters and too many characters to keep track of. However, anyone interested in this time period might want to read it anyway, as it is regarded as an excellent portrayal of one aspect of World War II.

One of the better books I've read recently, this is a 5-star book for me. It is about a lighthouse keeper and his wife, stationed on an isolated island. A boat washes up with a dead man and a living baby in it. The wife has lost 3 babies due to miscarriage and stillbirth; she convinces her husband that they should keep the baby! The book is well written, with good character development--I sympathized with all of the major characters. It examines right and wrong, the choices we make and their sometimes devastating consequences.

The Goodreads Reviews Mega Book Buck drawing was held today, 8/1/13. We wrote down numbers from 2-22, corresponding to the message numbers on this discussion board (though we excluded the numbers for any reviews that went past 5 for a single person) and drew one of the numbers at random.

Message #2 by Stephanie for her review of the Color Purple by Alice Walker was the winning entry.
Congratulations, Stephanie!

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing and participated in Summer Reading for 2013! :)

yay!! thank you!! i needed a new tea cup!!its perfect!! my son enjoys the chalk sticks. i will be shopping soon for my new books from the book store!! thank you again!!

Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney

Laurel and her husband have been separated for ten years out of their eleven year marriage. The story is about the reconciliation for the couple and how they and the people around them deal with it.

I enjoyed this book but it was not one of Mary Jo Puntey's best. I liked the concept of the book, but I think some parts of the relationship for this couple were too easy. I would have liked to see more emotion on both sides. The plot was very enjoyable. This one is hard for me to review. I enjoyed it, but it was not very strong. This is a very fun series. I would have also liked to see some more complex scenes between Kirkland and his wife. It is worth reading especially if you want a fun summer read.

One of my rereads is “The Vampire Lestat” because it takes the reader back to a time where things were much simpler. To look at the character Lastat the reader gets to walk in his footsteps chapter by chapter. You go from his life in the present to his life in the past. He tells a story of love and passion for some of the things in his life. For example, he has such love for his mother, but for the rest of his family he really could care less for them. Then there is his beloved friend Nikki whom he talks about a lot throughout the first several chapters. Lastat is both complicated and interesting. When I read this book, I am drawn into it because I love the descriptions of the people and places in the past. "The Vampire Lastat" is a must read for anyone who loves a good vampire novel.
When reading a novel such as “The Vampire Lastat”, a person can be drawn into it because Anne Rice writes such a beautiful dark tale about how this tortured vampire becomes a famous rock star practically overnight. His past is both sad and destructive as a human, but once he becomes a vampire his life changes forever in both a good and bad way. He becomes extremely wealthy because he inherits money from his vampire sire that kills himself by fire. This situation leaves Lastat feeling the burden of being so alone and lost in the world. Not knowing who he is, or what he is. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a dark vampire story.