bookgasm

Ok, so the book club thing I started and never did anything about coz I went to Europe in the middle of the month?

Well, new plan.

I'm going to do the reviews and discussions on here, much easier, and I'm going to offer a number of books to review because .. well I read alot, and some people want to read YA type deals and some don't.

This month I will read and review the following books:

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson

Yes, I'm years behind on this one, I've tried to read it a couple of times but this time, I'm determined to read this before the movie comes out, so I've got 2 weeks.

• Crossed - Ally Condie

This is a YA novel, and is the follow up to Matched. Touted as the next Hunger Games, it's some easy clean reading. Matched was ok, though I read a similar book called XVI by Julia Karr which I thought was WAY BETTER!

• Re:Union - Eric Liu

An indy sci-fi short for the price of FREE on Amazon.

Hopefully I stick with this one :p

To Rate Books ... or not to rate books ...

So, as you should well know, being a reader of this blog and all, I love to read.

I think I’m addicted to it, the hubs will attest to that no doubt.

And maybe I bring this on myself, because I refuse to read book reviews, but sometimes, I think I would like to see books have ratings.

For movies, PG-13 = one F BOMB. Nudity, sex, violence can equate to an R rating.

In music, questionable lyrics come with PARENTAL ADVISORY WARNINGS.

Books have the freedom that movies and music don’t have.

Sometimes I know exactly what I’m about to read, and I accept I’ve chosen to read it.

But most times, a synopsis will only tell you so much, and 60 pages in, the throbbing and thrusting sneaks up on you.

I’m not a prude, not even close, but sometimes it would be nice if someone slapped a warning on a book or even a polite FYI to warn me about the heaving and cleaving, you know ?

bookgasm

Book club people ....

Here is the link for our book club and the name of our club (THANKS MIMS!) is ...wait for it ...

bookgasm

stories that blow your mind

So if you want to participate in this exercise of literary camaraderie, click the link and join.

Alright my book club people ....

I put it out there last month that I wanted to do an online book club.
I got a number of emails and FB comments, and since I didnt have EVERYONEs email addresses, thought I would stick the September book on the blog.

The book is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

It won't be released for a couple of weeks, and since I prefer not to read reviews, I'm not going to post one.

Remember, if you are keen to join my book club, shoot your email address to daynakaranga@gmail.com so you can get the email updates on the book of the month.

If I Stay and Where She Went

AUTHOR: Gayle Foreman

For all 3 of you who read my blog, you'll know I have a fondness for books.

If you're my husband, you might call it an obsession, whatever, "TOMAYTOES, TOMAHTOES".

If I Stay and Where She Went are books I've read a couple of times and really, I love them.

If I Stay is a story about a girl named Mia who plays the Cello. Her family is in a brutal accident, and throughout the entire story she's in a coma, going over her life, deciding if she wants to stay alive or let go.

DEEP RIGHT?

Where She Went is written 5 years later from the point of view of her boyfriend Adam in If I Stay.

It's a good conclusion to the first book, but writing about it will give the entire thing away, and well if I do that, you wont read it will you ?

And then I'll have no-one to talk about it too.

RECOMMENDATION: Read it and be moved.

RATING: A delish dinner at Carrabba's, my favourite, for both.They're a bit emotional, but if you need a cry, give it a go.

Any-one want to start an online book club ?

Harry Potter - The End :(

I saw the final Harry Potter over the weekend, tear.

I remember the first time I read a Harry Potter book. I was visiting my friend at the beach for the weekend and decided I wanted something to read while I got my tan on, and picked up her little brothers book, which just happened to be the Chamber of Secrets. I wasn’t looking for much, something mindless to read for a few hours, but was quickly drawn in. I ended up reading the whole book that day, and was hooked!

I was a little bit apprehensive going to see the movie so soon, I knew it would be the end, but I wasn't sure if I was ready for it yet. Alas, I had to do it, I hate reviews (weird huh?) and wanted to see it before I was tempted to ask anyone I knew what their thoughts on the movie were.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was all I hoped it would be.
I cried when Severus Snape died, and got choked up when he told Harry to take his tears. The way the film makers imagined his memories of Harry’s mum, so heartbreaking.

I wanted to slap Bellatrix Lestrange more than a couple of times, and cheered when Mama Weasley called her a biarch and gave her what’s up.

I was proud of Neville Longbottom, for his strength and his growth. I cheered along with the rest of the audience at the cinema for his big moment, I almost stood up and jumped at the screen to give him a high five!

There is so much to love in this movie, and after 10 years, it’s some pretty nice closure.

Yup, I’m a big geek, Harry Potter is awesome! See it, read it, love it!

Divergent - Veronica Roth

dys.to.pia noun \(ˌ)dis-ˈtō-pē-ə\

1. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.

I read this book Saturday night on a recommendation from the hubbies work friend.

My usual manner in selecting books is to see read the title, look at the cost, and finally but not necessarily important, I look at the cover.

In recent weeks, thanks to my friend Abs, I've started taking into account the review stars.

Anything less than a 4 star gets ignored.

So it was with Divergent.

248 customer reviews on Amazon with an overall ranking of 4.5 stars (this was not a FREE book, or a 99c book )

This book is written in first person prose, similar to Hunger Games, it's direct, often harsh and exactly the way I like it.

It's written from the perspective of a 16 year old girl in a world where, at that same age, you have to make a choice that affects your entire future.

She has to choose the faction she will live with for the rest of her life, without truly knowing what her life will become. Choosing a faction that is different to the one you are from, will alienate you from your family, as the motto everyone lives by is "faction before family".

There are 5 factions to choose from, based on specific virtues each individual decides will be their guidance in life.

Abnegation - Selfless

Candor - Honesty

Erudite - Knowledge

Amity - Harmony

Dauntless - Fearless

This is book one in the dystopian triology Divergent.

There is violence, death, espionage, treason, self discovery, mind trickery, all the gritty things you need to read about in a day.

RECOMMENDATION: Read it, love it.

RATING: Four cupcakes, delish.

Catching Set Fire To The Rain

Catching Fire is book two in the Hunger Games trilogy.

Its an awesome book, read it.

I'm not writing a review on it, but I'm going to point out some valuable life lessons you can learn from reading this book.

• Just when you think life can't get any worse, it does
• If you don't want to deal with life, get drunk and throw up
• Kill or be killed

These are also valuable lessons you learn in any action movie, but from a book narrated by a 17 year old girl, it's intense.

Read this, pure genius!

Pre-review Surrender

This is a book pre-review.
This is another one of my TOP RATED FREE BOOKS from Amazon.
I don't need to read RATINGS or SYNOPSIS on books, books are like people, you CAN judge a book by its cover as I will demonstrate in this post.

I havent read this book but I'm sure I know what its all about.

Its quite obvious to all I'm sure, this is a book about farting.

It's clearly a book about a man's struggle (SURRENDER) with a fart (WIND) that seems to be stuck.

Man that will give you a sore gut.

Now I know you think that my pictures are the quality book covers but they aren't the real covers.

Here is the real cover.

As you can see from the jealousy on the guy on the left's face, he is the clenched-cheek one with the stuck fart. I think the guy on the right let one slip, right as this painting was done. He's concerned the girl in front of him is about to smell it, sneaky guy.

Yup, that is definitely what this book is about ... Farts are funny, so maybe I will read it.

Hunger Games .. bloody marvellous

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins is genius.

I read this book last year on my trip to NZ not really thinking anything of it. I was surprised at how quickly it had sucked me in.
This is the type of book that makes me ponder, momentarily, on what I would do if I was faced with a life or death situation. I like to think I'm pretty bad ass, I've imagined smashing a zombie in the face with a sledge hammer if it tried to chase after me to eat me, but I could not fathom being in this situation. What is the situation you ask ? Well, that would require me explaining what this book is about, so read on ...

The jist of the story is that kids have to kill kids, on a reality show.
Katniss, our heroine, is the shiz, really she is. She's a bit broken, a bit twisted and bloody awesome. She's had to hunt and gather to feed her sister, her mother and herself, in a world where self reliance is criminal.
When her younger sister is chosen to go into murderous child killing sport, she volunteers to be proxy for her sister.
It's a gnarly story, with insane situations, I'm definitely going to write about these books more, however, this is more about my intense like for some of my favourite characters in the books.

Jennifer Lawrence has been cast in the movie as Katniss, the promo pics look really good, I'm pretty happy with the choice (because my opinion matters).

Cinna, Katniss Games clothing designer, one of my favs, is being played by Lenny Kravitz. PERFECT! This casting  I am STOKED about.

♫♪ Don't go, and put a bullet in your head, just turn your life around instead ♪♫ Sing it Lenny, sing it!

Donald Sutherland is going to be President Snow. Nice, I'm going to love hating you, feel the venom.

Read this book!
RATING: A whole cake.

Dear Cupid

In an effort to save money (my 99c kindle books are breaking the bank a little) I decided to "purchase" some of the FREE kindle books available on Amazon.
Dear Cupid was listed in the top 10 the other day, so I decided I would read it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

What I love about "ROMANCE" novels, are the cheesy ways they describe sex.
Here is an example (DON'T GET TURNED ON).

"Just when she thought herself beyond reason, he sheathed himself for protection, pinning her soft body beneath his hard planes"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Free Kindle Romance Novels = Hours of entertainment.

If you're into hard planes, give this a whirl!

RATING: One heart shaped cookie with pink frosting, good while you eat it, a bit of a sore gut after its done.