Review: Zali Luna by Emma Jamvold

Title: Zali Luna: Movie Star
Author: Emma Jamvold
Publisher: Self
Release Date: January 28, 2015
Acquired Via: Author
Sixteen-year-old school girl Zali Luna has just been cast in her first Very Big Movie. But while going to Sydney and working with her gorgeous, world famous co-star Oliver Lamond is a dream come, Zali also has a very big problem. She's pretty sure that she's the only sixteen-year-old girl in the world who hasn't been kissed, and soon she's going to have to kiss Oliver on screen. Zali's determined to get some kissing practice in before the big day, but there's her malicious rival, child star Emma Small to contend with, and then there's Harry, who may have feelings for Zali that go deeper than just friendship.

My Review

Like any teenage girl, Zali Luna is ecstatic when she lands the leading role in a movie. She travels to Australia for an exotic movie shoot, and stars opposite the heartthrob actor Oliver Lamond. Life couldn't be any better, except for one tiny little problem. At sixteen years-old, Zali has never been kissed. She doesn't want her first kiss to be an onscreen embarrassment with hunky Oliver. What if her snarky co-star Emma Small uses Zali's inexperience to steal her leading part? Zali needs to get kissed fast, but she doesn't have many viable options. She even manages to screw up the budding friendship with Harry, the cute driver in charge of taking care of Zali's every need. As taping progresses and Zali gets closer and closer to her on-screen first kiss, Zali learns some valuable lessons about life, friendship, and love.

Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Title: Gone Girl
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publisher: Crown (Random House)
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
Marriage can be a real killer. One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet? With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

My Review

On the day of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne discovers that his wife Amy is missing. Told in alternating points of view, a stressed and frazzled Nick depicts quite the different story about his marriage than Amy’s telling diary entries. While Nick’s story is told mostly in the present (flashing back to explain bits and pieces of his wife’s relationship with his dying mother and woman-hating father), Amy’s diary starts in the past and moves to catch up to the present day action. As the story unfolds, the reader learns quite a bit of history about the less-than-perfect marriage through both unreliable narrators. When the police get involved and find evidence of foul play, it is up to the reader to discover what happened to Amy and decide whether or not Nick is involved.

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Spoilers)

Title: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release Date: June 18, 2013
Acquired Via: Personal Collection
#1 New York Times Bestseller in hardcover.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse where she once lived, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

A groundbreaking work as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out.

You can read Kayla's review of the book HERE.

My Review (Spoilers Below)

An unnamed narrator visits his childhood home and is flooded with magical memories his adult mind can no longer rationalize. Like Mary Poppins or Nanny McPhee, the Hempstock women take the narrator under their wing and open his mind to mysterious possibilities. Mrs. Hempstock reads minds. Old Mrs. Hempstock vanquishes evil forces. Eleven-year-old Lettie Hempstock believes the pond in her farm’s backyard is an ocean.

Bibliophilia, Please Blogoversary 3: Day 1

Once again, and quite surprisingly, we are passing another annual benchmark here at Bibliophilia, Please. From what started as a one (wo)man lovefest for Kevin Hearne and the great YA Kayla stumbled upon in 2011 has evolved into two well-educated, eloquent, and magnificent women sharing and reviewing the books they love. And then, of course, there is Kayla. (Will is, unfortunately, still missing.)

Be sure to stop back by each day to see how 2014 was for Janelle, Amber, and Kayla; enter the giveaway on Wednesday; and maybe see a special guest post from an up-and-coming author.

Janelle

2014 was a busy year for me. I graduated college and became the first person in my immediate family to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree. I sent my 13-year-old to Europe for three weeks. I had back surgery, then starting working from home full-time. I attended a writing conference and pitched agents my YA contemporary novel. I published two poems, one in an anthology that now sits proudly on my bookshelf, swished in between books by my favorite authors. I started my website, discovered Tumblr, and uploaded YouTube videos (although I have to admit I watch more than I make). I started back to school, working my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

I also joined Bibliophilia, Please because reading books has always been a constant part in my life. This year I read an eclectic mix of mostly young adult books. Grasshopper Jungle (I thought it was about THORNY grasshoppers), Code Name Verity, and The Truth about Alice all came as recommendations from my writing conference. My YA novel contains a gay character so I read Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Two Boys Kissing to learn more about gay and transgender characters. I read award finalists and winners like The Surrender Tree, Speak, and Brown Girl Dreaming. I even read non-fiction like The Opposite of Loneliness and The Port Chicago 50. For school I read Esperanza Rising, The Raft, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

I think The Truth About Alice and Speak were two of my favorites because they were about such emotional topics. The Truth About Alice is a must read for my 13-year-old son before he's allowed on any date (including a dance), and I already forced him to sit through the movie Speak (starring a young Kristen Stewart and based on the book). I think those were the two stories that had the most impact on me personally and really made me stop and think about what goes on in life.

I am very excited to see what 2015 brings. Reading and writing are such a large part of my life and I am so honored to share my thoughts and feelings on those topics here with you.

Review: Breeding Ground by Joquena Lomelino

Title: Breeding Ground (Breeding Ground Saga #1)
Author: Joquena Lomelino
Publisher: Self
Release Date: April 28, 2014
Acquired Via: Author
Lenora was just a normal teenage girl who never really cared much about her parents’ work as scientists. Everything changed the day they died in a mysterious explosion. Now Lenora is alone with no time to grieve because her own life is being threatened. Whatever her parents were working on there are people willing to kill for it, and they don’t believe that Lenora has no idea what it is.

Shot up and facing certain death, Lenora is rescued by a strange seductive man who explains her parents’ top secret research to expose aliens living on Earth. An elixir reveals snake-like aliens disguised as humans are taking over the planet, and Lenora must decide if she can depend upon the stranger who violated her trust. Armed with sarcasm, her parents’ research, and an ally she loathes, Lenora must continue her parents’ work to expose the alien threat and save the Earth before it’s too late.

My Review

Days before her 18th birthday, Lenora Gates ignores her parents’ wish to meet them after school for an important message. Instead, she hangs out with her friend Rachel, who just discovered she is pregnant. When Lenora returns to Rachel’s house after a movie, Rachel’s mom delivers devastating news. Lenora’s parents died in an accidental explosion.

Debut Author Giveaway Hop #2 (INT)

Hello again, giveaway hoppers! Thank you to the lovely ladies, Mary at Book Hounds and Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, for hosting this hop. I mean, what could be more fun that featuring newly published authors and their books that we loved?

What You Can Win

Earlier this week (because I'm a procrastinator), I asked the other ladies of Bibliophilia, Please which books were their favorite debut reads of 2014. Amber is my reading twin the majority of the time, so her picks were the same as mine. Janelle's choice was one that I enjoyed as well. And here they are:

Amber's Picks



Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) by Pierce Brown
January 28, 2014
Pierce Brown’s relentlessly entertaining debut channels the excitement of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”

“I live for you,” I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies . . . even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.



My Review

Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Square Fish (Macmillan)
Release Date: October 22, 1999
Acquired Via: Library
The first ten lies they tell you in high school.

"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.

My Review

Melinda starts ninth grade as an outcast. She called the cops at a party over the summer and now none of her friends will speak to her, ignoring her on the bus and in the hall between classes. Her ex-best friend Rachel hangs out with the foreign exchange students, leaving Melinda with no one to sit with at lunch except Heather, the new girl from Ohio.

Review: The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin

Title: The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Author: Steve Sheinkin
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan)
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Acquired Via: Library
An astonishing civil rights story from Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin.

On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.

This is a fascinating story of the prejudice that faced black men and women in America's armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.

My Review

The Port Chicago 50 is the story of 50 African-American men accused of mutiny by the Navy during World War II. Prior to the Civil Rights movement, these men pioneered the desegregation of the military, demanding safe working conditions for African-American soldiers. At the time, African-American were the only soldiers given the menial but dangerous job of loading live bombs onto Navy ships headed to war. Not allowed at sea themselves, these men were pushed to load ammunition faster, with no training on weapons safety or potential hazards. When an explosion erupted at the pier, the Port Chicago 50 refused to return to work and risk their lives until the Navy adopted universal safety measures. In response, the Navy court-martialed the Port Chicago 50 for mutiny. The Navy’s punishment for a mutiny conviction during wartime was death.