just a few and a little

Updates and explanation, that is.

To explain: The whole being AWOL thing isn't because we're giving up on this or reviewing. I've been asked that a few times and I'm just clearing things up. My reasoning for my lack of presence is partially--and ironically--because of summer reading. The books I have to read are tedious, boring, and demand most of my attention. Plus, I fear that if I pick up another book, I'll keep picking up books after that and never get around to giving in to the dark presence that is summer reading. The test(s) are in four days and I'm only half-way through my first book (of two). This is, to say the least, abnormal for me, usually I'm done at least 5 days before the tests. =)

So that's part of the reasoning. My absence is primarily do to that, but I have to give credit also to the fact that I'm slack, lazy, and always procrastinating. I've put off writing my review for How To Build a House by Dana Reinhardt (a fantastic book, btw) for months. Now I've almost forgotten the specifics and my review will probably be lame. Eh, what can you do? Oh, wait, I know. Review a book right after you read it. Alas, this probably will not happen in the near future with school starting and writing other things before certain dates in January and all other busy stuff that may involve getting a job. But I will try.

To update: I'm hoping to keep the contest bar updated better than I have, so please, please, please let me know if you're hosting a contest of any sort or you know about one that isn't already listed in the sidebar. The easiest way for me to recieve the information (prize, how to enter, link to the post about it, link to your blog--I occasionally forget the urls--the end date, and anything else you think I should add in) is through email (plentyofpaper234@aol.com). You can send a message to me on myspace (link to our page in the blog roll), but I prefer email.

Also, the poll feature of our blog is hard to keep up if we don't have anything to ask. If you have a suggestion, please let us know in an email what it is. The last couple months have been late because we haven't been able to think up a question, but we want to keep it going. I think it's interesting to know what our readers think, what they like, and what they read. So please, if you have an idea, suggest it. We would be forevor indebted to you (okay, maybe not forever. There is an expiration date, I'm just not sure how long it'll last).

Thanks so much,

Heather

The Elite by Jennifer Banash

When Casey McCloy steps into The Bramford, she's overwhelmed by the sophistication and elegance of it all. Fresh from the Midwest [a town called Normal, fittingly], she's moved to New York City to live with her grandmother and attend the prestigious Meadowlark Academy. Here, all that matters is who you know. The designer to know is Zac Posen. The girl to know is Madison Macallister: popular, pretty, and platinum blond. She's not just Casey's new classmate and neighbor; she's an icon. So Casey aims to get in with Madison and her gorgeous gal pals from the start. As the reigning queen of coolness, Madison is capable of destroying reputations with one well-timed whisper. Better to be on her good side.

After a haute makeover from her new frenemy Madison, Casey is wearing [some of] the right clothes, saying [on occasion] the right things, and meeting the right people. Including Drew, the boy-about-town Madison thinks belongs to her and her alone...

When I first picked up this book, I was expecting to be awed or disappointed. I wasn't anticipating an odd combination of the both. But, for reviewing purposes, I'll point out both bad and good.

I was disappointed that this was what I expected it to be. The Elite was yet another story of a poor girl from the Midwest in a rich neighborhood in the northeast, going to an elite school that her family had to pull strings for her to even get into, and trying to befriend the richest, most popular, and nastiest girl she can find. Casey was yet another girl who was smart back home, but isn't now that she's moved to a new state, with new classmates, and new rules. She had a crush on the rich frenemy's not-boyfriend, and he liked her back. He was different from all those other guys. She was different from all those other girls. It had all the elements needed to be yet another one of those books--the ones I typically try to avoid. I could have run off a checklist and it would have met if not all then 99% of the criteria to be one of them.

This, I think, was the error. Having such a well-known plot won't bring recognition. I'm sure in a few months or a year, I'd forget I even read this book if it wouldn't be sitting on the top shelf of my bookcase. Even then, it's packed so tightly between more memorable books with more original plot lines that it might slip through the cracks and be lost to my memory forever.

But then, it also had some of the criteria needed for a good book, or at least one with potential, and maybe, I will remember it months or years from now. Jennifer Banash's style of writing was slightly different from the a-typical YA novel, using phrases, even if rare, that brought out the light behind the pages. And the characters have more depth than usual, each of them with a story. You even start to feel something for the girl you want to hate, which is an element key to a good story. If you don't like the characters, you can't like the book. But telling the individual stories of Madison, Sophie, Pheobe, Drew, and Casey, Jennifer Banash made a good decision. I liked to hear about their families, and how they really felt about everything. It made them more real and less of the typical mold that they fit. The only character I didn't think deserved any feeling at all (whether it be hatred or sympathy or something in the middle) was Casey. She was annoyingly self-conscious, a kiss-up, too clueless for her own good, and easily manipulated. I felt like she got what she deserved in Madison's horrid treatment of her. She wasn't anything more than the mold.

The most annoying thing about The Elite, though, was not the plot, was not Casey, and had nothing to do with the actual story. When reading it, I thought it surely must be a well-edited ARC, since the only other option is a poorly-edited finished novel. There were many mistakes I noted, the most obvious of which is the confusion of the school's name. I assume the correct title is Meadowlark, as that is what it's called on the back of the book, Casey says it's Meadow...something, and I counted 17 of those spellings, but I also counted 8 misspellings that name the school Meadlowlark, with an l. That is just one of many errors that I came across. [If you're reading this, Ms. Banash, I would be happy to point out every error that I actually marked so that they can be fixed for the next printing. I feel I have a very successful career as an editor, as I'm a total grammar freak--I've been called a Super Rambo Grammar Nazi, in fact, but don't ask me what that means.]

While there were many aspects of The Elite I didn't enjoy, I still feel like the next book in the series, In Too Deep, is one to look forward to, as most series only get better with time. This novel has potential, I guarantee, and I definitely wouldn't tell someone not to read it. I wouldn't tell anyone to jump up an buy it this instant, either, though. I give the first book in what seems to be a possibly promising series, just a 3.5, nothing too harsh, nothing to kind.

Heather

(a positive review from me can be expected soon, which I'm sure some of you will be waiting for, as my last few reviews have been mostly negative)

Hacking Harvard- Robin Wasserman

Eric Roth, Max Kim, and Isaac Schwarzbaum have been hacking for, more or less, their entire lives. Always fairly little things- taking down teachers, bullies, people who deserve it. The trio fervently insists that their misdeeds are not 'pranks', but it's hard to find another word for the things that Max, Eric, and Schwarz do. Jokes, involving break-ins and a lot of computers. Small things.

Until Max is offered a position at a hacking company that pays in stocks. Until his father threatens to cut him off and leave him penniless if he doesn't follow the path that's been laid out for him since his father's college days. Until Max makes a bet. Until the trio embarks on a mission to take down America's most acclaimed, competitive university.

Eric, Max, and Schwarz are hacking into Harvard. They'll play the system, step by step, until the biggest slacker in their school is holding a thick envelope edged in crimson.

Only, Lex, our narrarator, is kind of in the way.

Hacking Harvard is a very good book.

The writing is exceptional. Lex's voice is a very strong one, even in those scenes in which she seems to be nothing more than an omniscient narrarator. That's actually one of the many interesting facets of this novel- it's told in first person, but Lex is absent for the vast majority of the story. The prose is also very elegantly spun, while still managing to be humorous. The writing definitely made me want to read more- all!- of Robin Wasserman's other books.

The concept was so original, too. It was actually the first thing that sold me on this book, the writing being the second.

And third?

The characters.

As a major and long time nerd-lover, a book about three guys who HACK into an Ivy League school is, no lie, seriously appealing to me.
And the three of them were excellent.

Schwarz, the prodigy who is adorable. Not my crush of the novel by a long-shot (he has a Playboy fixtation but is scared of normal girls), but very lovable. He lets Max and Eric and the girl he's crushing on boss him around to no end, and he's a sixteen-year-old Harvard freshman. He promotes many feelings of 'aww'.

Max, the relatively reckless ringleader (Wow, that alliteration was completely unintentional. That is scary), with the out-there schemes and great sense of humor. He's the least nerdy-acting of them all, which proudly defies the whole smart-asian-guy stereotype. (Eric and Schwarz are Jewish).

Finally, there's Eric. Oh, Eric. Eric, the righteous moral compass who wears tee-shirts to advertise his causes and sticks to the Hacker's Code at all costs. He takes Lex to a planetarium on a non-date. He's wonderful.

Lex is cool, too, at least towards the end of the novel.

The only problem with this novel is a bit of under-developement. In the beginning chapters, Max and Eric are both given colorful family situations, but, save for the looming threat of Max's father's financial cut-off and a few appearences by Eric's younger sister, they fade away completely as the novel progresses. There is also the fascinating Alice Morgenthal, who went insane after receiving rejection letters from every college she applied to and had some sort of thing with Eric. Her story is so poignant and interesting, and yet it's totally neglected. I would have loved to see more of her in the novel.

Regardless, this is an awesome book. The ending, in particular, is satisfying without tying everything up in a big red bow. Depsite Lex's early allusions to several children's stories, it's no fairy tale. (thank the lord).

Also, an awesome fact that was, strangely enough, absent in the 'About the Author'? Robin Wasserman WENT TO HARVARD.

Can we say amazing?
We can indeed.

4.5 stars for Hacking Harvard!

-Caroline

Alpha Dog by Jennifer Ziegler

Seventeen-year old Katie isn’t used to being in control. She lets everybody boss her around. Her mother drives her crazy with her constant criticism and advice, and her boyfriend of two years just destroyed her whole world by dumping her on her birthday. Yeah, he's just such a nice guy, especially since the reason he dumped her is because he was already cheating on her.

It’s just as well that Katie’s headed to a summer program at the University of Texas in Austin–at least there, she can get over Chuck at her own pace. But Austin holds its own challenges–like Christine, a cooler-than-thou roommate whose rocker boyfriend is permanently camped out on the couch. Along with all his rocker band-mates. They never seem to leave, and they're always eating Katie's food.

Christine drags Katie to the city pound to check out a potential pet, being that she totally loves wiener dogs. It’s Katie, though who ends up falling in love with a pair of brown doggie eyes. Before she can think it through, she’s standing out on the curb with her adorable new dog, Seamus.

There’s only one problem: Seamus is a holy terror. He chews up the apartment, barks maniacally, terrorizes their landlady’s cat, and seems destined to keep Elevator Guy, the cutest guy in their building, far away. Soon enough, Katie is being threatened by her landlady to be evicted, and by her roommate, who hates Seamus after he tears up the apartment.

Finally, Katie takes Seamus in for obedience training, where she’s told, “You have to be the alpha dog.”

The alpha dog. The head of the pack. Katie has never wielded much power before, but she finds that being top dog can be addictive. Soon she’s acting the alpha dog in every phase of her life, standing up to Christine and her boyfriend, taking control of her own life and actually talking to and nothing will ever be the same.

I have to say that I fully appreciate winning this copy from the late Page Flipper's blog because, while not my favorite book ever, it was rather entertaining. The writing was clever and captivating--even when the plot and characters weren't. I haven't read Jennifer Ziegler's other novel, How Not To Be Popular, but the concept seemed much more appealing to me when I first heard about either of these books. The concept behind Alpha Dog is a weak plot with morals. That's it. There's nothing about it that may appeal to any reader when first picked up (unless, of course, you are a huge dog-lover) but once you start reading, the writing makes up for that.

Alpha Dog was one of those stories with characters that you don't particularly like, and a plot that isn't the best, but you can't take your head out of. I don't know what it is with characters named Katie but I just have a problem with them (see my review for Perfect You). This specific Katie had too many problems with self-esteem, let people boss her around too much, and made everything a bigger deal than it was.

I'm kind of getting tired of the typical low self-esteem main character of books. I'd like to see something more original (I, myself, am guilty of this, so I don't mean this to be harsh) because most readers, while they may relate to the main character, won't really like her. I don't mean that I would prefer her to be a perfect snob, but Katie just conforms to whatever someone wants her to. She lets Christine take over the apartment, she lets the guys in the band eat her food and sleep on her couch, and she lets her mother treat her like a five-year-old. Not to mention she lets her boyfriend of two years walk all over her and then gets very, very upset when he breaks up with her after cheating.

That is too much of a self-esteem issue.

And I realize that was the center for the plot. Taking charge. Becoming the alpha dog in her own life, but that's what I think made it so weak. If having those issues makes a character weak, they're going to make a plot weak. It was a good message, and a good life lesson, but I don't think it needed to be the main point of the plot.

There were some good parts to Alpha Dog, though! I feel like I need to point those out so as not to put you too down on this book.

Jennifer Ziegler is a great writer. There had to be something to suck me in, right? Well, that was it. Like I said before, I haven't read How Not To Be Popular, so I have not other judging standpoints, but I was impressed with Alpha Dog. She took the opportunity to be a writer when it arose. She's not the best I've read, but this was her first novel. Not every author starts out as great as they can be. And from what I've read of reviews for HNTBP this is the case with her.

There were many times when I thought she found the perfect line, or the best word to fit into a situation.

And then, there was Matt. Matt was the perfect addition to the novel, as I think he saved it from being lost to my memory forever. He had depth, a past, complexity. He, I think, was the most developed character of the whole story--and the most vulnerable. At times, he appeared to be a Knight in Shining Armor, and others, you didn't know what to make of him. But as he moved in next door to Katie and Christine, Katie kept running into him in the elevator. Hence, Elevator Guy.

Unfortunately, this was his name for over half the book. She didn't even know his actual name was Matt until a little over halfway when Christine through a party. And then he was sort of absent for a while, and came back later--and somehow as a big part of the story? I think Jennifer Ziegler worked too hard to try to squeeze him in the end when it should have been effortless to work him into the whole story. He fits with Katie. They have chemistry. Why wait till the end to show it?

Though it may not seem like it, I did enjoy this book. I think that if you're a dog lover, you should definitely pick it up, and if not, then put it on your list for later. You may find you like it--a lot.

3.5 cups of java for this one.

Heather

moving from the sidebar to the center!--Contests Around the Blogosphere!

Our main contest creator is The Story Siren, who at the moment has 3, count 'em, THREE contests going on.

The first is her monthly contest. All you have to do to enter the monthly contests each month is comment on the Author Tales posts every Thursday, simple as that. The second is her COLOSSAL 20,000 hits contest (can you believe it? 20,000 hits!). To see the information for this contest, just go to this post. All you have to do is fill out a survey!

But the third (and the best) is a Mega, ENORMOUS contest to celebrate the new book in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn. There are tons of prizes for this one, so head on over here. There are tons of ways to gain extra entries, so go on and get started!

The Book Muncher is also having an amazing contest to win three books. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, When It Happens by Susane Colasanti, and This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. One winner will recieve all three of these. To enter, click here.

Do you want to win a copy of The Elite by Jennifer Banash? Well you can either stop by Reviewer X's blog or Harmony Book Reviews, because they're both giving away two copies each! But guess what. Harmony Book Reviews is also giving away two copies of mixed cds of songs that inspired the writing of The Elite. Wanna enter to win at Reviewer X? Then go to this post. To enter at Harmony Book Reviews, go here.

Last but not least is a birthday celebration contest over at And Another Book Read. Tasha is giving away 2, maybe 3 books. Go ahead and enter! It's real easy.

Remember, we're always updating our sidebar with new contests, so check back there frequently. All of these are still there for easy access to links and end dates.

Heather

One Small Step by P.B. Kerr (thanks to Chelsea for the book)

It's 1969, and thirteen-year-old Scott is doing all the things that normal boys do--and also flying airplanes with his Air Force flight-instructor father. When Scott successfully crash-lands a training plane (that he wasn't even supposed to be flying), NASA recruits him for their secret space program. NASA is planning a test flight with chimps before the real lunar landing, but when one chimp must be dismissed, they need a quick substitute--and who better than a boy aviator who can fly a jet at age 13? Just as long as he can keep it a secret from his overprotective mother.

Soon Scott is on his way to the NASA training facility, after having weeks worth of tests to make sure he's healthy enough for it. There he discovers just how clever the chimps are--able to control the flight simulators like regular astronauts. They're more like humans than he'd ever have imagined, so why, then, did one of them go crazy? Is there something about his mission and the way they treat the chimps that NASA isn't telling him? If so, he's going to find out.

Before long, he's up in space with two chimps for company, only communicating with them through sign language. He's going to stay in orbit while the two of them go down in the Lunar Module to land on the moon, and then they'll, hopefully, fly back home. But there's something he's not telling NASA, now.

This book was astoundingly well-written, for being told in a thirteen-year-old's perspective. It was almost unbelievable at some points, but then I began thinking...Maybe this is retrospective and he's writing this at an older age. And then, that's completely believable and incredible.

The whole story was simplisticly written, but that is a good thing, since it was already complicated with technical terms. I guess writing a book about NASA comes with a territory, and those technical terms are needed. I even learned a few things I didn't know.

Okay, so I'm not doing a very good job with describing this book or why I liked it, but I can tell you that I did. There was something about it that amazed me. It took me forever to read, because I was so busy when I was, but it never once became a tedious task. I enjoyed picking up this novel and finding out more about space missions, and following Scott as he makes his way to the moon. It was a good book to read before bed.

And I especially enjoyed the way the chapters were titled. First, it starts of counting down from ten, like counting down till blastoff. After that, it started counting the days that he was in space. But I really loved how it counted down. That was very clever.

The only thing I can pinpoint that I didn't like was how the epilogue was like a giant, red, neat Christmas bow, tying up the package. Everything was so resolved and perfectly polished. The whole epilogue felt like the conclusion to an essay. State the thesis. Recount your points. Have a concluding sentence. I've only ever once before encountered an ending to a book that felt that much like the final paragraph of one of my english class essays. And I sure didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. I mean, I don't want a huge cliffhanger, but sticking me inside a perfectly wrapped package and slapping a bow on it keeps me from feeling like the characters were real. It's like, if that's their end, then they don't have actual lives and therefore never really existed. I'd like to think the characters I'm reading about are real people, even if I know it's not true.So basically, I can sum it all up by giving this book a 4 out of 5 cups of coffe. A really extravagant cup of coffee with tons of hard-to-pronounce ingredients that end up being counterproductive as the coffee turns out to be a little below par. That's the kind I'm talking about.

Heather

(sorry about the bad review, I just can't seem to make it good.)

Hiatus Tour Contest Winner!

So I know I said I would announce the winner yesterday, but it took longer to tally up the entries than I thought it would. But I finished that up this morning (before the festivities of the fourth begin) and the winner is...

Anilee!!!!

So email us your address Anilee, and we'll try to get your copy of How To Be Bad sent out sometime next week.

If you don't send an email within the next two days, and don't reply to a message we send you (or comment), then we'll pick another winner. But that probably won't happen. Thanks for entering, everybody! We had tons of entries. It was a huge success for our first contest (besides all the glitches, of course).

We'll be having another one soon to win a copy of Farworld: Water Keep by J. Scott Savage. I just hope it runs better than this one =).

Off to read on the dock,

Heather