Scrappy Little Nobody: Anna Kendrick (A book written by a musician)

This was my first foray into the world of memoirs, and I think I liked it. I'll admit that it took me a long time to get into it. A memoir, at least this memoir, is like reading someone's journal. They edit the journal and only include the stories they think are important, but you're nonetheless reading someone's journal.

A friend told me the other day that having to listen to someone's dreams from the previous night is the worst thing you can do to a person. All dreams are are "had to be there" moments. And I feel this is very true for Kendrick's life. Most of the stories are "had to be there" stories, and clearly, I wasn't there. I chuckled at a few of her tales, but for the most part, I kept asking myself, "Why am I reading this?" or "Why was it necessary to include this story?"

This is a very minor complaint, but I was also bummed that she didn't include anything from The Last Five Years which is my favorite of her works that I've seen. When I decided to read the book, I was excited to hear her take on that musical, but she didn't really give her take on anything she was in, which I guess makes sense because that's not the point I guess?

Which does lead me to another question: What is the point of this memoir? Is it supposed to lead to some earth shattering revelation in it's readers? Are we supposed to feel good about ourselves in the end because now we know that Anna Kendrick is a completely normal, down-to-earth human being? Are we just supposed to laugh a few times? Is there a lesson? Or is it just pointless? I'd like to hear from Kendrick herself as to why she wrote the book. Was it just another way for her to make money, or did she have a grander purpose in writing? Perhaps she has said as much somewhere, and if so, please direct me there. I'm very curious.

It took me two weeks to get through this, not because it was long but because I had to convince myself to keep going every time I thought about it. And that's because, again, I didn't understand why I was reading it. I was reading someone's reflection on their life, and this person is only 33, so really, she hasn't lived much life. Maybe I'm missing the entire point of memoirs (very possible as this is my first). I won't give up on the genre because there are a lot of people I want to read a memoir about. Anna Kendrick just isn't one of those people. I chose to read this because I needed to fulfill a category for my reading challenge: a book written by a musician, and someone suggested this. 

The book itself was well-written and had some fun pictures sporadically placed throughout, which was a nice addition. Aside from having to convince myself to keep reading, it was a very easy read. It just wasn't a fun read, as I thought it would be.

My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel: Kitty Curran (A "choose-your-own-adventure" book)

This was actually a terrible book. I tried to convince myself that it was good for what it was: a choose-your-own-adventure romance book, but even with that in mind, it was bad.

Someone in my reading challenge Goodreads group recommended this to fulfill the CYOA, and I thought it sounded interesting! It wasn't.

I thought it would be fun to read a CYOA book meant for adults, because I remember liking those as a kid. Every time you read the book, you could get a completely different story, and the same is true for this one. I followed two different paths, just to see, but each were no good.

It's hard because I'm sure a lot of the plot was written to fit the theme of the book, but what plot there was sorely lacked creativity and originality. The author tried to throw in curve balls and plot twists, but none of then flew for me.

The writing also lacked quite a bit for me. It was difficult to get through and hard to get involved in the story, which is no fun, especially when I'm playing a part in how the story goes.

It's written in third-person which helps add to the CYOA aspect, and I think I decided that I like that point of view. It is a challenge, though, when the "you" of the book is just a terrible and poorly written character. That takes away from the reading quite a bit. None of the characters are developed at all, but again, I suppose that has something to do with making this book a CYOA.

I definitely would not recommend this book, and I definitely will not read it again.

Dance Upon the Air: Nora Roberts (A book about someone with a superpower)

I don't typically like Nora Roberts' books with magic, but this one was pretty cute. Nell is a very strong and independent character, and it was fun to follow her journey learning magic. Perhaps this is due to my love of all things Harry Potter, but throughout the book I longed for more vivid portrayals of the magic being cast. I felt very disappointed in the lack of magic in a book about magic.

Anyway, Nell and Zach were a nice couple, and they had a pleasant courtship. I enjoyed Nell's break into the world starting her business and restarting her life.

I thought the way Roberts used an old friend from Nell's past life to bring back her husband was an interesting way to spoil her disguise and give away her location.

The villain is a very good one. It starts just as Evan, but (as I'm reading the next books) it becomes much more, hiding in Evan, which is very interesting.

I'm using this one as my book about someone with a superpower because I really enjoyed the process of Nell discovering who she was and what she had, and the process in which she learns how to use her magic is fresh and new.

Love in the Time of Cholera: Gabriel García Márquez (a book with "love" in the title)

I struggled a lot (and am still struggling) with what to write as my review of this book. I read several reviews to get an idea of what people around me thought of the book, and got all ranges, so I decided I could be honest. It made me laugh to see the wide variety of reviews, ranging from "a dazzling romance" to "a rape story." I understood where the author of the second was coming from, but I could not relate the dazzling romance reviewer. It is so far from a dazzling romance, in my opinion.

I can admit that Marquez has a beautiful way of writing and weaving a story, even one as horrible as this one. While I cannot appreciate the story, I can appreciate the writing. I'm encouraged to read another of his, probably [book:One Hundred Years of Solitude|320] because many people said this was their favorite.

The writing was great. The characters were horrible. I agree with someone who said Juvenal Urbino was their favorite character, but he dies in the first chapter, which makes the rest of the book rather hard. Fermina Daza isn't necessarily a horrible character, but she isn't a fun one. She didn't have any depth to me. Her story, or her life, is wrapped around the two men who spent their life trying to please her. She makes that a rather difficult thing to achieve. She strikes me as a foolish, whimsical girl too caught up in herself and her dreams.

Florentino Ariza. Where do I even start with him? He is absolutely despicable. There is not even an inkling of admiration in me for him. Our first encounter is of him professing his undying love for a newly widowed woman who is obviously grieving, and he does not get any better.

My first issue with him is that he (like many other men in literature) has no reason to love Fermina Daza as much as he does. He sees her and immediately becomes obsessed. He does everything in his power to make her love him, just because she looks pretty, I guess. I find that one of the most annoying cliches or tropes there can be in literature or movies. Guy sees girl, guy never speaks to girl but becomes obsessed anyway because of her beauty. Guy does whatever he can to make girl fall in love, and when she inevitably doesn't he acts like the world is this cruel and unfair place and his life is now ruined.

Anyway. After she marries someone else, his life because a pursuit of physical pleasure. The back of my book describes this well: "... he whiles away the years in 622 affairs - yet he reserves his heart for Fermina." What. How is that reserving your heart? 622 is an absurd amount. Oh, and let's not forget that one of these affairs is with a 14 year old girl. When he's in his 70s. Then when he and Fermina Daza do finally fall in love (which is a whole different issue I have with this silly tale), he has the nerve to tell her "I remained a virgin for you." YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES.

Yeah, so they do end up together, after 50 some years, and I guess that is supposed to mean that true love cannot be erased by love, but I shake my head at that. It seems to me that Fermina Daza just takes pity on him and lets him have what he's wanted all this time.

Needless to say, I did not like this book. Maybe if I spend more time thinking about it, and perhaps continue to read other reviews or scholarly articles, I might grow to understand the beauty in this book, but for now, I am content to never read or speak of it again.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before: Jenny Han (Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: A book made into a movie you've already seen)

This was one of those rare occasions where I watched a movie, loved it, found out it was a book first and had to read the book. Sometimes that works. This time, not so much.

It was hard to enjoy this book after loving the movie so much. They are so different it's hard to compare them. I'll try to judge this simply as a book without letting the movie cloud my judgment, but I'll probably fail.

It took me a while to get into the book. I can't really explain it, but the writing was dull and slow. It was very monotonous, and I felt like the characters didn't have any depth. Things were slow to pick up, but Han kept writing, which seemed like she was only writing to fill pages. It got better when the story started picking up again, but that took too long.

I didn't like any of the characters, actually. They were all quite mean and nasty to each other and to themselves, even (especially) in the family. Margot leaves for college, and when she comes back, she acts as though she can't be bothered to stoop to the level of her family, and while I get that college changes people, based on the tight-knit family of the beginning, Margot's change shouldn't have been that drastic.

Peter was just a brat the entire time. Even when they started dating officially, he was still kind of a jerk. And the same can be said for Lara Jean. They weren't really ever nice to each other and it was annoying to have to read that. Plus, their fake relationship doesn't give me enough evidence to believe the real relationship. They don't seem to act like they truly like each other, until all of the sudden, they do, and they're dating for real.

I also thought the character of Josh was very weak and uninspired. His actions throughout the book don't make any sense and just confusing because there's nothing that would justify or explain what he does and how he behaves, and it makes Josh a nuisance instead of the lovable best friend he's supposed to be.

I'm reading the second book now (mainly because I heard they're making that into a movie too), and I'm hoping for some better plot and stronger characters, but we'll see!