Weekly Reads: Carry On

Carry On is the most recent book that Rainbow Rowell has written. It is the story is fan-fic'd in her story, Fangirl. I read this book over a year ago, and didn't get around to blogging about it. I recommend this book over and over to teens and adults at my library. Love story, fantasy, intrigue, magic, what more could you want?

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:


Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.

Weekly Reads: Kindred Spirits

Kindred Spirits is a short story written by Rainbow Rowell for World Book Night in the UK. Emily was kind enough to gift me a copy and I devoured it. It was amazing, and left me wanting MORE! When can Rainbow and I be besties? That needs to happen asap.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

If you broke Elena's heart, Star Wars would spill out. So when she decides to queue outside her local cinema to see the new movie, she's expecting a celebration with crowds of people who love Han, Luke and Leia just as much as she does. What she's not expecting is to be last in a line of only three people; to have to pee into a collectible Star Wars soda cup behind a dumpster or to meet that unlikely someone who just might truly understand the way she feels. Kindred Spirits is an engaging short story by Rainbow Rowell, author of the bestselling Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On, and is part of a handful of selected short reads specially produced for World Book Day.

Weekly Reads: Landline

Landline is the newest book by one of my favorite authors, Rainbow Rowell. In Landline, she is going back to where she started with an adult novel (Eleanor & Park and Fangirl were two of my favorite books of 2013, and are YA books). I received an ARC of this book for review and had to hold off from reading it asap, as I wanted to read it at the same time as my co-worker to discuss. And then I went and jumped the gun anyway. Oops.

I wasn't as immediately wrapped up in this story as I have been with some of her other books. But to be fair, while I was reading Fangirl, I didn't want to stop reading because I actually felt like I was a part of their world and didn't want the spell to break, and I realize that's pretty darn rare.

This book will definitely resonate with couples that have been together for a long time, and above all is a really great love story.

Also, there were pugs. Did I mention there were pugs??  Because OMG PUGS. She didn't even need to include pugs for me to like the story, but she did anyway. This is true author/reader kinship, for sure.

Read it. Now.

My rating: 4.5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems besides the point now.

Maybe that was always besides the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

Weekly Reads: Attachments

While waiting ever so patiently not at all patiently for my library to obtain Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, I took it upon myself to pick up an older book of hers to feed my author crush, Attachments.

In Attachments, Lincoln O'Neill is the IT guy/internet "watchman" at the Tribune newspaper.  He works crazy overnight hours, and his primary task is to read emails flagged by the systems watchdog, and hand out warnings to staff members.  Beth and Jennifer's personal email exchanges show up a lot, but for some reason he never gives them a warning.  He actually likes reading their messages.  And before too long, he finds himself falling for Beth.  Beth, who has a boyfriend.  Whom he's never actually met.  Pick up this book for a quirky tale of potential romance.  And for God's sake, pick up the rest of Rainbow Rowell's books too, while you're at it.

My rating:  4/5 stars.

Weekly Reads: Fangirl

One of the best (if not the best, if I'm being totally honest) books that I've read in 2013 is Eleanor & Park.  A relatively unknown author to me, produced a novel that was putting young adult obsessives in a tizzy over it's amazingness.  Two of my reading "twins" asked if I had read it, shortly after it's release, and when I hadn't yet, they both demanded I check it out immediately.  When your reading twins recommend a book IMMEDIATELY, you drop everything and pick it up.  They were right.  As usual. Thanks reading twins.  (Wait, does that mean that we're triplets?  They're both gingers too.  Perhaps they're actually long lost twins/sisters.  Will investigate further after writing this post.)

Eleanor and Park is set in the 1980s, which for a child of the 80s makes this pretty awesome right off of the bat.  It's an unconventional first love story, but so so so much more than just that.  It's raw, and beautiful, and just so very real.  I devoured it.

So when I found out that Rainbow Rowell (also, her name?  Amazing.  I feel like we'd be besties.  She just lives down in Omaha.  BRB making Rainbow my bestie!) had another book coming out this fall, I immediately put in a purchase request at my library.

Dear Library,
Please grant my Fangirl purchase request ASAP, as the book is being published September 10th, and I need it in my hands, ASAP.
Sincerely, Your devoted employee and obsessive YA fan


A summary from goodreads:

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?