Follow Friday #29

Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison of Alison Can Read.

This weeks question is:

What is the longest book you've read? What are your favorite 600+ page reads?

Answer: The longest book that I have read is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which is 766 pages. The only other books I have read over 600 pages are Harry Potter 4, 6 and 7 and also Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from the Twilight Saga. I can't remember any more at this time, although there probably is.

Book Review #109 - Let it Snow by Various Authors

The weather outside is frightful, but these stories are delightful! When a huge blizzard (that doesn't show signs of stopping) hits, Gracetown is completely snowed in. But even though it's cold outside, things are heating up inside, proving that the holiday season is magical when it comes to love. In three wonderfully (and hilariously!) interconnected tales.

My Rating: 4/5

This book contains three short stories.

The Jubilee Express by Maureen Johnson. I never fully came to like Jubilee. I did like this story though. It was also very funny.

The second story was A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green. This was my favourite of the three. It had funny, likeable characters that get themselves in the weirdest situations.

The third story was A Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle. This is actually the first time I have read any of this authors work. I am definitely going to read her other books. I loved the inclusion of the pig.

I probably would have given this book 5 stars had I read it around christmas, although Christmas in Australia is the total opposite as portrayed in the book.

Book Review #108 - Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

My Rating: 4/5

This book was beautifully written, especially given the difficult subject matter.

Although I felt distanced from the characters I didn't with their feelings.

Surprisingly this book wasn't sad, it was more about the strength that the New Yorkers showed throughout the terror of that day, and the love that they have not only for the towers but for their city.

I would have liked this book to have been longer, but I enjoyed it anyway. I will definitely be reading more of David Levithan's work.

Book Review #107 - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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 that 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 this powerful novel, an utterly believeable 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.

My Rating: 5/5

I had watched the movie based on this book a number of years ago. Because of this, I don't think I got 100% out of the book but I still enjoyed it enough to rate it five stars. The book is definitely better than the movie, although the movie stays pretty loyal to the book.

This is the first book I have read by Laurie Halse Anderson, although I have heard alot of good things about her novels, and I definitely intend to read her other works.

This is a very character driven novel told through the eyes of the protagonist Melinda. I found I could relate to Melinda alot more than I could any other book I have ever read.