Candy's Raves (and Rants)

My only complaint about the Complete Alpha Dreamer is that it was the most addictive anthology I’ve ever read. Each and every story left me wanting more from each author. The stories are diverse, interesting, and most of all, fun to read.

There is probably something in this book for everyone, and for most people, a whole lot! There is time travel, space opera, alternate realities, life on the moon, and even on the future of preventing terrorism. Did I mention even a little bit of fantasy starring Sherlock Holmes?

Truthfully, I didn’t realize how long this book was when I sat down to read it. Every story is a page turner, and I went from one to the next. 527 pages of amazing stories.

I loved this book and am ready for more!

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Book count for 2011: 1

How many short stories can truly say that they cover trillions of years, even from a limited perspective? Even fewer can say that they’ve done it in an interesting, fun, and all together different fashion. 329 is one of those that have done this tremendous task and has done it well!

329 starts at the beginning of time. Well, actually, it starts .000001 seconds AFTER the absolute beginning of time, but I think the beginning of time is close enough. 329 is a love story of sorts, with the main character being 4 times 10 to the 36th power. As one of only 10 to the 93rd power protons in the universe, 4 times 10 to the 36th leads a pretty interesting life.

It all starts when he meets, bonds, and falls in love with 329. Unfortunately, after a scant 718 million years they are separated. 329 is the story of 4 times 10 to the 36th power life after 329 and his search for her.

Is the story funny? No, not really. Is it exciting? I wouldn’t say so, no. However it is extremely well written and includes situations that will be very familiar to everyone. This story is highly recommend for lovers of science, or science fiction, or for anyone who knows what it is like to be separated from a loved one.

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Being 16 is hard, even if you are the most popular, pretty, out-going girl in the school. And it is especially hard when you are taller than the other kids, shy, and in a strange country. The latter is the situation that Molly Lenzfeld finds herself in, in this book.

The story takes place in 1989, two weeks after the toppling of the Berlin Wall. It is a type of coming of age story, as well as a tale of how one can find themselves in the strangest of places. What starts off as a mission to visit her dead mother’s childhood home becomes so much more. Heart ache, loneliness, and a desire to fit into a world that doesn’t seem to have a place for her are all mirrored in the stark, distrustful backdrop of an East Berlin coming to terms with the changes history has bestowed upon it.

Holly-Jane Rahlens has written a wonderful story that will be hard for anyone to put down. The entire story takes place over only 4 hours in one person’s life, but the affect it had on me has lasted much longer. This is a Must Read for girls 16 and up, and any adult that remembers how hard adolescence can be but also the joys that came with it.

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What is a vow? In olden days, vows were promises that were never broken. Knights made them to their lords, lords to their kings, and kings to their peoples. But is their more to chivalry than just being able to keep your promises? How important is courtesy? Sir Gawain the True takes a look at one knight’s lesson in just what it means not only to be a knight but to also be a friend.

The book combines several legends into one complete tale. The story is broken up into very easy to read chapters that each tell a logical part of the events. If you are looking for a book to read to a classroom, or perhaps at bedtime, this book would be great for either purpose.

I loved how the author cut the violence out of the book without taking away anything from the story. I have always found long, wordy fight scenes took away from a good story. Apparently the author thought the same, and the story of Sir Gawain the True is much better for it! Additionally, the illustrations by Aaron Renier add a lot of flavor and humor to the book, with just enough detail to expand the story without drawing attention away from it.

Overall this is a great book with a lot of meaning to it. It makes a great introduction to the Arthurian Legends while at the same time being humorous and carrying a great lesson for kids.

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Someone (I don’t remember who, thanks to whomever it was!) recommended this book to me and I grabbed a copy of it. I will admit I was a bit hesitant. I read half of Eat Pray Love, which it kind of sounded like. I really didn’t like that book, at all, not one bit.

This was similar, for sure, but also a little more realistic for the rest of us in the world that cannot take a year off and go off to points unknown. The author visits places she can drive to, during her off times at work or on the weekends. She visits with places she might actually be able to eat food from on a regular basis.

I loved the premise of this book. Understanding where your food comes. The good, the bad and the really ugly. I loved her bit about the olives. As a fellow olive freak, I feel her. The roughest part to read was the beef farm, but well, I mean, it happens and it was an important step in her journal. But it was tough.

I’m not sure if she really freed herself from anything and I’m not sure I would call this self help. So, if you’re reading this to lose weight, you’re reading the wrong book. But if you’re reading to learn about the author’s journey, you’re reading the right one. I really enjoyed that part of it.

I also liked that the author kept it real. There’s no BS in here that I saw. She isn’t perfect, she doesn’t know it all, she screws up. It also made me really think about where the food that I choose to eat comes from.

This book is great for those that love memoirs and for those that like to read foodie books. Well done!

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Book count for 2011: 39

I received this book free for review. I actually picked this one out myself because I’m kind of a fan of the Georgia Nicholson series by this same author. It was released today, so grab a copy if you like this author. I didn’t even know she had a new series out, so I was excited to get the opportunity to review it.

For those of you that are fans of the Georgia series, you can expect much of the same. In fact, a lot of the same. It follows pretty closely the same formula, including a funny (ish) pet, wacky dances and weird friends. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. It’s good because you kind of know what to expect, but bad because I’m so familiar with the characters in the other series that it’s kind of a “yeah yeah yeah” type of thing. I’m sure if I put some time in it, I could even match them up… so Cain is this series’ Robbie… etc.

For those of you that never read this author… there’s a glossary in the back of the book. You are going to need it. There’s lots of fun made up words and lots of teenage angst. It’s silly, there’s no real point to it. You spend your time alternatively laughing and wanting to reach through the pages and grab one of the characters and smack them until they shut the heck up already. It’s definitely YA and it’s definitely one of the stupidest books you’ll read this year. But you just can’t stop reading it.

I have no idea why I keep reading these books by this author, I’ll be honest. They are ridiculous. But they are just so funny and endearing that you have to keep going. I can see she’s trying to build her cast of characters for future books in this series, so I’m giving it four stars just for simply making me laugh a whole lot. The craziness just keeps going with this author and well, I kinda like that.

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Book count for 2011: 38

A good friend of mine is giving away a copy of this book. Stop by and enter to win, but hurry, looks like you just have a few days left to enter! I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds interested and I am digging the cover art! You can sigh up via THIS LINK.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a big fan of this series of books. I’ve been following this author for a while – heck, before she even had books, I was a fan of her online work. It should be no surprise that I loved this series.

I read most of the entries a couple of years ago when they were first online, but I love that she’s taken them, given us some background, edited them and put them together in a cohesive collection.

The basics are that she writes about the birth and success of a rock band. Trevor (*swoon*), the lead singer and Mitchell, the guitar guy are the main characters. The depth of the characters always impresses me. Susan doesn’t write, she creates. She has created some beautiful deep characters in a light and funny way that makes it so that I don’t even really realize how much I know about them.

The stories themselves… well, they are what we’ve learned to expect from Susan. Fun, light, deep, intriguing and everything in between.

I highly recommend this series to those that enjoy a fun read and to those of us that still carry around a little bit of the 80s and 90s in our hearts.

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Book count for 2011: 37

My book club chose this book and I will admit that I wasn’t all that sure about it. It looked kind of… well… weird. I hadn’t even heard of HeLa before. My husband, the Science teacher was so ashamed. I kind of am too because this was absolutely fantastic!

The history on the Lacks family and how Henrietta was just in the right place with the right doctor at the right time is just amazing. I wasn’t expecting it. I even enjoyed the story of the Lacks today and how they are coping with having such an important family member.

With so many medical advances, it’s interesting to me that one woman helped make those advances possible. While this book was part memoir (the author doesn’t talk about himself, but enough that I felt like I was on a journey with him) and part biography, it’s heartwarming.

The author’s writing style was fabulous, her ability to explain complex scientific terms and conditions and condense them down to something that every one can follow is admirable.

I recommend this to science geeks, yes, but more importantly to those about everyone. It really did have a little bit for everyone.

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Book count for 2011: 36

Last month, this book showed up in my mailbox along with some others and I kept it to the side because (okay, honest here) I liked the cover. I had read a bit of the author here and there, but the cover art kind of grabbed me. So there, you know I judge books by their covers. So, it went into the “maybe read one day” stack.

A week ago, I was going through the stack and I picked this book up and then flipped it over as I was looking through them. Then I caught the name “Beauchamp”. You see, that is MY last name. Which, of course, meant that I had to read it immediately. I do wish I kept envelopes because I kind of want to know who sent it and if they giggled too.

The book itself is really well written. The writing flows very well, and the grammar is superb. It’s very steady writing, there’s nothing here that’s going to send you screaming for a dictionary. I love that the author took time to give us some good background on the Beauchamp Family while still building her story. It didn’t feel as though it was an aside, just a natural progression.

My only real complaint is that the ending was rushed a bit. She tried to tie everything up in one or two chapters and it was just too many loose ends, in my opinion. I would have rather there not been so many to tie up or perhaps leave a few for the next book.

I also kind of fell in love with the people and places in North Hampton, where the vast majority of the book takes place. It was so vividly described and so well done that I could have sworn I visited there one time.

I recommend this book for those that enjoy a good book with light paranormal elements, a little tiny bit of romance and a dash of mythology. Well worth the read!

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Book count for 2011: 35