Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Top Ten Books of 2013...So Far

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I haven't participated in quite a while, so I'm excited to take part this week!
This week's topic is top ten books of 2013 so far, so here are mine, NOT in order!
1. The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

2. Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

3. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

4. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

6. Every Day by David Levithan

7. Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

8. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

9. The Hobbit graphic novel by JRR Tolkien & Chuck Dixon

10. Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Monday, June 24, 2013

Review: Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Publish date: 2012
Source: Purchased
Format: ebook
Length: 325 pages
"Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying.

Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.
" (Goodreads)

I wanted to love this book. The premise sounds amazing--female pilot, twin brothers, what could go wrong? Plus I loved Jennifer Echols's novel, Going Too Far (but not Forget You). I thought I would love Such a Rush, but sadly, I didn't.

I spent the entire book annoyed with everything that Echols piled onto Leah. She lived in a trailer park, had mommy issues, had no money, and just assumed that everyone was judging her because of all that. It seemed like her actions just reinforced the stereotypes that she thought everyone made about her. And I was a bit surprised at some of Molly's friends comments about Leah--do people actually say/think things like that?

Speaking of Molly, she was really confusing. Most of the time, I had no idea if she and Leah actually liked each other. Honestly, I was just not a fan of any of the characters in Such a Rush. Alec was boring and underdeveloped and Grayson's motivation for certain actions made no sense. The characters as a whole just were not up to par for me.

Like I said, I love the idea of this book and just wish it was better executed. I know a lot of people loved it, but it just wasn't the right book for me.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

ALA 2013

Will I see you at the ALA Annual Convention in Chicago next week? I will be there Thursday evening to Monday morning and would love to meet you! So far my only pre-conference plans are attending YALSA's Ten Years of Teens' Top Ten on Friday morning. I will probably spend most of my time in the exhibit hall after that and possibly attending a few sessions. Let me know if there's anything I shouldn't miss! I am really looking forward to my first ALA convention, especially now that I have been taking MLIS classes for over a year now.

In the next couple weeks, I plan to get back to regular posting on the blog, mainly reviews and top tens and of course a recap of ALA. Books I will be reviewing are:

Feed by M.T. Anderson (audio)
The Hobbit graphic novel
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth
Every Day by David Leviathan
Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt
Exposed by Kimberly Marcus
The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols


Good to be back!