The put-down-list grows

What you don’t see on this blog is me putting down books. Right now it feels like I’m putting down books all. the. time. I don’t think I post very bad reviews anymore. I used to when I started out, but now I just don’t have the will or energy to post about books I don’t like anymore. I rather tell people about what I liked reading than what I didn’t.

I have to say that I’m really missing BYU library and their never ending supply of LDS fiction right about now. This is my put-it-down-for-bad-content reading journal for the past two months. Usually, I’d just let these little notes R.I.P on my computer, but I am so frustrated by having such a hard time finding good and clean fiction that I need to vent somewhere. My hubby is sick of hearing about it.

I think the fact that I have a book blog contributes to this frustration. Each good book that I read is like a little jewel I get to share with the world. I get to make it shiny and show it off. I really put a lot of care and research into the books that I read. I want high quality story-telling, decent writing (beautiful prose is a nice treat), and a decently clean read. I will admit that there is not a hard and fast rule for content. The Dead and Gone by Susan Beth Peffer was a very dark book and I really enjoyed it. I am not a Serial Killer was pretty gory and I really liked it also. In some cases a book comes down to personal preference, a lot of the books below are the case.


Sing me to Sleep by Angela Morrison
Didn’t finish because I couldn’t stand the sappy romance. Sometimes these types of books really bug me because while it is technically not smutty it is just as emotionally manipulative and unrealistic as regular-fare national market romance novel. Once the main-character and her romantic interest make-out all the other details of the setting and story plot line deteriorated until I couldn’t read any further. I have to admit I didn’t read that much further after their first kiss because the story became more focused on the main character finding her new crush/boyfriend to kiss behind pillars that to sing at competition. The story may have improved or not gotten worse after that. Sadly, I don’t read for the make-out sessions but for the plot line and couldn’t read further. I know lots of people enjoyed reading this novel. I guess I really despise romance that is physical attraction heavy.




Last Summer of the Death Warrior
When 2 out of the 3 woman introduced in the first 50 pages ended up being sluts in the worst sense of the word, I decided to quit while I was ahead. This was just after general conference and that may have influenced my decision not to read books that contained negative portrayals of women. The main-character is trying to investigate the death of his sister. He's convinced that the police are not looking into the suspicious deatils of her death and he's trying to find the truth. A long the way he ends up in a orphanage and meets a young man there who is about to die of cancer. This young man keeps bugging him and trying to be his friend.








Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Got 150 pages in and there was a really gory violence scene and the action was only going to ratchet up from there. Violence usually doesn’t bother me, but this was just gross and it really didn’t have strong enough redeeming qualities to make me want to finish it. The characterization was good I guess in a stylistic sense, but I just couldn’t relate to the characters. Their world-view and morals was so different from mine that I couldn’t sympathize with their decisions or actions at all. The book takes a very dark view of human nature, as the main-characters are in a poverty stricken society where people will sell body parts for cash, but also cut off each others fingers, steal, and let other members of their crew die just to get out. It was a well-written book, but really not the one for me.






These is my words by Nancy Turner S
This book was given to me as a gift so I thought I would try it out. I knew people at BYU who read and enjoyed it so maybe it wouldn’t that bad. Wrong! So very beautiful but so very violent and distressing. I could slowly feel myself growing more and more numb the further I read. I had to stop to preserve my conscience. I didn’t even get half-way through. Good-bye to another book. Sniff.


The could be bad so I don’t want to chance it list:
Finnikin of the Rock
The librarian raved about this one, and it looks so good. Then I read the intro and the prologue.

Immediate impression: This is going to be an allegorical retelling of the holocaust in a fantasy setting.
Visceral gut reaction to reading further: don’t want to go there.
Head says: Really I don’t want to be the type of person who stops reading books all the time.
Viseral gut says: still don’t want to go there…
Head says: I’m going to analyze this thing to death with this set up. I’m going to try and figure out what characters are the Nazi’s and how the government compares with Hitler’s fascist regime.
Gut says: so not fun.
Head: but maybe it will be good?
Gut: not interested. If I want to know more about the horror of the holocaust I’ll go read a real history book and retellings by actual survivors. I’m a big, grown up history major now. I can find information if I want it. In fact, putting the holocaust in a fantasy setting feels sort of insulting and disrespectful.
Head: you’re over-reacting a little.
Gut: I know, but still…
Head: Yeah, doesn’t seem very right…
Gut and head: we’re not going to like this book.

Graceling and Fire by Kristen Cashore
The librarian and the kids at the school were raving about this one! I had read the first few pages of Graceling by now and wasn’t really interested. Secret girl assassin on a job to kill someone isn’t someone I immediately identify with, as I don’t like people who kill other people. Especially, not those that do it for a living, obviously by the end of the book she’s going to get out of her killing-people problem with great personal cost and danger. Sounds really predictable and not very interesting.

But they were just so excited about it, and so I brought it home. Husband— mad reader that he is finishes both books in one day— says, “You won’t like them.”
So, after a little more discussion I decided he was right. There was content in the book that would bug me and make me put it down anyway. So I took them straight back without reading them. Arggggg!

First Impressions: Counting Stars by Michele Paige Holmes

Counting Stars By Michele Paige Holmes.

Jane was hoping for a date---maybe even a boyfriend. What she wasn't expecting was Paul Bryant's completely original and sincere pick-up line: Hi. I'm Paul. I have terminal cancer. My wife was killed in a car accident, and I'm looking for a woman to raise my children.It was never Jane's plan to fall in love with a dying man and his two infants. But her seemingly simple decision to date someone outside her faith leads to one complication after another. With the stakes this high, is choosing to help Paul a choice to be alone forever?And how can Paul feel so confident that this woman---who's never managed to keep a checking account for more than six months---should be the one to raise his children?How can something that seems so unbelievably insane feel so completely right?Sometimes love is found in the least likely places, and the greatest blessings are discovered while counting stars. (back liner of book)

Alright, I totally adored this book. I haven’t been liking a whole lot of romance novels lately, but this book was so awesome! I picked up the book and couldn’t put it down. I love how the conflict is so fantastic, yet still so real and relatable. The main character is easy to identify with, and completely charming. I love how the author shows that she is a romantic diehard through and through. I also love her sister! She’s classic. All the characters are wonderful in this story. I also love that the creepy side love interest character totally becomes fleshed out and interesting at the end. Something I really didn’t expect. I totally rooted for this book when I heard it was nominated for the Whitney award. I really wanted this great book to win because I loved it so much! So, I was delighted to find out that Counting Stars took the Whitney award home this year. I highly recommend this sweet and well-written book to all. I can’t wait to read the sequel.

Author's blog: http://www.michelepaigeholmes.com/

Blogger's Note: This post concludes the First Impression series. I don't have anymore, so I'll try to add new interesting things on Fridays. Thanks!

First Impressions: Sheep's Clothing by Josi S. Kilpack

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Sheep’s_Clothing
By Josi Kilpack

Kate is a good mother, who has a lot of work on her plate with six children. She is determined to be a wonderful mother, who nurtures and takes care of her family. Yet, she can’t seem to figure out how to relate to her teenage daughter Jessie. They struggle to communicate and show one another how much they care. Jessie pours out her negative feelings to a friend she met on the Internet, and finds sympathy and support. Her friend introduces Jessie to her cousin Colton, and they begin to chat as often as they can. Jessie sneaks into her family office at odd times, isolates herself from her old friends, and progressively falls deeper into the trap set by an experienced Internet predator. When Jessie’s parents find her missing with a note on her pillow they don’t know where she has gone, or if they will see her again.

I loved this book! I finished it as soon as I could because I had to find out what happened. I was so creeped out by how realistically this guy manipulated Jessie. I also love how the characterizations in this book are so real. I love how the author makes Jessie’s problems real, and that she isn’t just a cardboard cut out teenager. You can sympathize with her viewpoint. It doesn’t have the cliché teen rebellion feel to it that gets rehashed over and over. I also love that you get to see the trials that Kate is going through. The reader understands her motivations and realizes that she is not a perfect mother, but loves her family so much. Over all, the book was really well written and touched on an important and pertinent topic. I highly recommend it.
This book has also been nominated for a Whitney Award.

Author Website: http://www.josiskilpack.comAuthor Blog: http://www.josikilpack.blogspot.com/

First Impressions: Desire of our Hearts by Sariah S. Wilson

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

The Desire of our Hearts by Sariah Wilson
This story is a fictional account of Alma’s experience in the court of King Noah. He falls in love with a girl named Sam, who refuses to like him, but he decides he will win her over anyway.
This is really terrible, but I have to be honest about how I felt about his book. I read it for 15 min. and hated it. I enjoy romance novels, but some romance novels are just…over the top. This was over the top in a bad way. How do I begin? My cynicism kicked in when the line, "then he saw her" appeared. He is in love already and we don’t even know what this person looks like! That annoyed me because I don’t believe in love at first sight. The love was too magical and too instant. He hadn’t even said one word to her. Later Alma has to confront Amulon because he tries to carry the girl Alma loves to his chambers and rape her. In this confrontation Alma totally comes off looking weak. He makes a threat that is empty, and then uses the “you’ll regret it later” speech to get him to cooperate. Alma doesn’t convincingly show that he has power over Amulon in my opinion, which makes his character incredibly weak. Yet he’s supposed to be the most favored in King Noah court? Then to add to that annoyance the girl cries in Alma’s arms after he rescues her, and then she agrees to let him walk her home! So, I’m not convinced that Alma’s rescue equals total trust on the part of a girl who almost got dragged off by another evil priest of Noah so recently. It was so fake and contrived just for the romance of it that I couldn’t read another instant and put it down.
The author’s prose is fine and she tried hard to set up a nice setting with lost of nice description, but she just couldn’t sell me on Alma’s character or the romance. In spite of my bad first impression it has been nominated for a Whitney finalist for 2007 in the Romance/Woman’s Fiction.

Author’s website: http://www.sixldswriters.blogspot.com/
Author’s blog: http://www.sariahswilson.com/

Here is a link to several favorable reviews on Desert Book:

http://deseretbook.com/store/reviews?sku=4991910

First Impressions: Mummy's the Word by Kerry Blair

Mummy’s the Word By Kerry Blair


Samantha Shade has a opportunity to prove to herself, her uncle, and her coworkers that she can be a successful private eye. Her uncle is ready to close down his private detective business unless she can show that she is ready to turn it over. She continues the business with the normal calls to spy on cheating husbands, and missing persons. Then an eccentric aristocrat asks her to guard a special artifact at a dinner party. The artifact is stolen right under Samantha’s and her team’s nose. This case may mean her dreams for Nightshade detective agency are at an end. Samantha is determined to find the artifact and return it to its original owner, so that she can keep the agency running.

I adored this book! I finished it, and liked to pick it up each day. It is so quirky and funny. I love the main character, and all the side characters for that matter. They are all unique, eccentric, intriguing. Sometimes, I felt the main character Samantha was too weak, or that she did unrealistic things, but the story is still charming and delightful to read. As a fellow student of Latin I loved all the classical myth allusions and the Latin phrases that popped up, which only made me like the book more

Author Website: http://www.kerryblair.com/

My favorite essay of hers over at Six LDS Writers and a Frog Blog: http://sixldswriters.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

You have to scroll down to find it. I couldn't figure out how to just get an individual post, though I know that it is possible somehow. It's called "Do Drop in For a Spell." If only I could as biwitching as Ardena Leer.

First Impressions

80 Miles to Nowhere by Melissa Aylstock.

I probably picked up this book three times, but I didn’t put it down because I didn’t like it. I could never find it on the library shelf again because it was always checked out. Alas. The story is about a young man, whose car breaks down in the middle of the Salt Flats in Utah. He calls a towing company, and decides to bunk in with the tow truck driver and his friends until he can fix his car in the podunk town of Mona. While on the flats he discovers some dog tags buried in the sand. Little does he know that someone else is looking for these dog tags and starts to track him down.
Something that I really loved about his book was the fact that the voice was so unique and different from most LDS fiction. After you read a lot of LDS books they all start to sound the same. The voices all start to blend together and there is very little stylistic difference. This was more true in the past then now. I remember a time when Chris Heimerdinger was the only one that had an incredibly unique and strong individual voice among LDS fiction. Even now, I think he is the most distinctive. Anyway, this author made me feel like I was hanging out with my younger brother again when he was in his obsessed with cars stage. She really showed the characters by adding careful details instead of skipping over them in order to get to the “real” story. I loved that about this book. For that reason alone I would pick it up again. Not only that, but the hook of the story really interested me. Who is this guy who is trying to find these dog tags? And what is going to happen when he does?

80 Miles to nowhere is Melissa Aylstock's second book check out her website for the inspiration for the book, and a radio interview.

website: http://www.melissaaylstock.com/

First Impressions

First Impressions

On Second Thought Robinson Wells

This book starts out with Walt Stewart being dumped by his girlfriend who decided to marry his roommate instead of him. Walt runs far and fast away from his past and automatically takes a job offer to go to a small town named Alamitos in New Mexico. Here he discovers the charm and frustrations of small town life. A romance develops between him and a woman named Clara. Clara is an astronomy student working at the observatory outside of town. The observatory is strongly disliked in the town because the land was once used for cattle ranging, small town politics and prejudice make work hard for Clara and baffle Walt. Mysterious events, and mishaps are regularly occurring on the observatory premises. Some of them may even threaten the Astronomy workers. Walt sets out to keep Clara safe and discovers a secret that leads to a murder attempt on his life.

This book is hilarious. I picked it up more than once when I was looking for something good to read. This wasn’t a book that I absolutely had to finish because I had to find out what happened. Yet, I liked the characters, the setting, and the quirky humor of the small town environment. The book is a little random at times, but still the story telling is charming. A fun romantic comedy with a little bit of suspense on the side.

Author's Website:http://www.robisonwells.com/

Wells also blogs on the Six LDS Writer's and a Frog blog.

First Impressions

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Tempest Tossed by Josi Kilpack?
This book immediately drew me in I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know what happened next and how the problems presented in this book would be resolved. This book is about Janet a single career mother, who is on her third divorce. She has a young son named Josh that she loves and tries to take care of the best she can. In the course of the book the reader watches Janet spiral downward in the clutches of a prescription drug addiction. She meets and falls in love with a wonderful man named Terry. Terry discovers that Janet has a drug problem and tries hard to protect Josh, but in the end all of Janet’s lying leads him to feel betrayed and used. Eventually Janet ends up in a rehab clinic and is faced with the choice of starting anew or retaining her old habits.
This was an awesome book. It was hard to like the main character, Janet, because she was such a snob, but you really did empathize with her plight. For the sake of her son and her new husband Terry, you wanted her to have a happily ever after. I love how this book has such a strong message on the atonement and how we need to forgive those we love when they hurt and betray us. I would recommend this book to everyone, though readers should be aware that it is a little bit depressing. I’ve been a fan of Josi’s books for a year or so now. I really enjoy her style. Go out and read her books!
Author’s website: http://www.josiskilpack.com/index.html
Author’s blog: http://www.josikilpack.blogspot.com/

First Impressions: Tangled Roots

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Tangled Roots by G.G. Vandergriff

I ended up finishing this book and picking it up day after day. The main plot involves a two woman Alex, and Bertie, who have started a genealogy company. This company doesn’t focus merely on charts and tables, but on how a family history creates reality for present day descendents. The main character Alex is called in by a psychologist friend who asks her to come help in the case of a girl, who is in her hospital institution for doing drugs. She refused to talk and so do her parents, so she wants Alex to find out about the history of these people so they can help the girl to open up. Alex doesn’t find the immediate family willing to speak to her, but the grandmother helps them. She tells them about the mysterious, unsolved death of her father, which was complicated by the fact that his inheritance was of no small amount. The farther Alex searches the more inconsistencies and unexpected things she starts to find. As, she is searching up this family’s secrets people start following her, and her mother is kidnapped.

I really loved this book! The story stayed with me long after I finished reading for the day, and the next day I would be so excited that I got to read it again. I initially picked it up because it had a nice cover, but the mystery and intricacies of the family history in this book fascinated me. It wasn’t a normal run of the mill mystery story and the ending actually surprised me! I never would have guessed what the ending would turn out to be and that was delightful. The book is the third in a series and so I didn’t understand the main character’s love triangle plot very well, but it was understandable enough. So I found this book to be an awesome read and would recommend it to genealogist and mystery lovers alike.

Link to Author’s Website: http://www.ggvandagriff.com/

Read about how this book is literally a miracle! (such an awesome story!)
Link:http://www.ggvandagriff.com/GG_Vandagriff_Author/Archives.html (scroll down to article called the case of the forgotten manuscript)

First Impressions

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Lost Without You by Annette Lyon
This book I think passed the hour test four times. So I was really interested in it for a while. The book is the story about a college girl, who breaks up with her boyfriend Christopher. Only to find out that he has bi-polar and sometimes goes suicidal and crazy when he goes off his meds. She is relieved that she found this out and stays away from him after that. The second plot line revolves around a handsome cop that seems to always find her in interesting predicaments. They feel a compelling attraction for one another and date until she finds out that he was a widower. She then has a major crisis over whether or not she can marry him now. She wants to be the only love of the man she marries, but knows that he loved his first wife. She confused about what she should choose and when Christopher begins to harass her she isn’t sure what to do.

So you can see I initially liked this book, but I mostly didn’t finish it when she started getting all angsty over the whole widower thing. I mean it is a valid concern, but the whole thing seemed so fake to me. I’m not sure why, but I really couldn’t relate to the characters situation anymore. It seemed that it took her way too long to get over this problem. She even stops seeing him over it. Plus, I was much more interested in the Christopher plot line. I got bored so I eventually picked up another book to try out and never felt compelled to pick this one up again. So I guess the characters really didn’t interest or stick with me that much.
Annette Lyon blog Link:http://blog.annettelyon.com/

She also has a very nice web page: http://www.annettelyon.com/

First Impressions

First Impressions This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Though Love’s Trials by Julie Coulter Bellon
This book passed the hour experiment twice, so the first time I read it I like it enough to pick it up a second time. The story starts with a prologue, which introduces Emma, who wants to have a baby badly and is excited to find out that she is pregnant. She worries a little bit about telling her husband, Paul, because he has expressed no interest in having children and instead wants to save up for a yacht and a bunch of worldly things. She tells him about the pregnancy when he comes home for their anniversary. Paul is angry and tells her that she should get an abortion and she has to choose between the baby and him. The first chapter starts with the Paul in the midst of running a successful law business and Emma apparently has divorced him and moved to Utah and became a member of the LDS church. Then he offers a partnership to a younger member of the law firm, Kenneth King. Paul hands over some files for the Kenneth to deliver to his ex-wife in Salt Lake. Then suddenly Paul is found dead in his office, and Kenneth finds himself in some sticky situations and realizes that people are after the files that his now dead employer handed off to him.
Thus starts the plot of this book. Why didn’t I read more, when the plot arch sounds promising and exciting? I was too interested in the conflict that the prologue brought up. I really wanted to see the couple work things out or at least watch things fall apart. I was way too interested in Paul’s character. I wanted to understand his motivations and wanted to see him have some depth. I really wanted to see his love for his wife battle with his selfishness, but that whole conflict was cut off and ended by the time I got to the first chapter. That just left me annoyed with Paul because he ended up being a shallow cardboard cutout, and an over the top cliché. Then there is the fact that the chances for seeing his character develop more died with the fact that he was murdered in his office. Then Kenneth who took over just really didn’t interest me. He had a dubious and interesting background story over a dead fiancée, but the conflict just didn’t interest me anymore. Then there was the fact that it took him forever to make the connection between the files and the death and so the suspense was slower pace than I wanted. To add on top of these things the prose writing didn’t impress me spectacularly. So, I decided to move on to something that I knew I would like more and didn’t have to wade through pages to enjoy the story.
Julie Bellon writes a blog at Six LDS Writer and a Frog blog.
Here is her website: http://www.juliebellon.com/