Hello everyone! I've missed some weeks so it seems like I have a lot of catching up to do. Since my last Salon I've finished the following booksI enjoyed A Piece of Cake so much I'm giving it away to one lucky person. Just visit my review and leave a comment. I'm picking the person to mail it to tomorrow or Tuesday. Shadow of the Wind was another great read as well. I was disappointed in the $64 Tomato and really did not like The Awakening at all.
CURRENTLY READING:
Decipher: Stel Pavlou. For a book that looked very exciting so far it has been bogged down in unnecessary detail making it slow and tedious to read. Basically the city of Atlantis has been discovered and has been sending us warnings for 12,000 years about the destruction of the world. We have one week left to figure out what it is trying to tell us. Should be a nail biter. Right now I'm using it to keep my coffee table from getting water marks. I'm about 150 in and I think the idea has such potential that I'm going to keep going.
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:
The Cinema Murder by E. Phillips Oppenheim. I literally just download this from Librivox so I just wanted to mentioned that I will be starting this soon. I am still slowing working my way through the Innocence of Father Brown. I think I have a small crush on the narrator. His voice puts me to sleep in seconds.
WHAT I BOUGHT THIS WEEK (what showed up from PaperBack Swap and can you tell I hit up Goodwill?)
I joined the New Classics Challenge, Summer Reading Thing 2008, and A Daring Book Challenge. Directly below this post is a list of all the books I need to finish before the year is over. It is pretty long but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I also have no problem substituting new books as I find them and I'm also OK with not finishing a challenge (although I do try my best to finish each one). Sometimes I just come across a really good book I want to read and it doesn't fit into any of my challenges. If that means a challenge doesn't get completed...for me that is fine.
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For me it is now back to stripping the wood work in my kitchen. For my next break I'll be visiting other Salons. Happy Sunday!
one more books for the classics challenge
two books for suspense and thriller
* = do not NEED to finish, I have enought alternates to cover the challenge but it was on my original list
I need to find some cross overs. I'll never finish and didn't include challenges that ended in January or Febuary. Funny, this won't stop me from joining challenges though. Most of the fun is in seeing how far along I can get and seeing how many books I can get to cross over.
Deb from the A Novel Challenge yahoo group posted a link to this list of Entertainment Weekly's list of new classics, what they call the best reads from 1983 to 2008. I loved the list - many of my recent favorites are on it so I'm intrigued
to see what some of the ones I haven't read yet will be like.
So the challenge rules are:
1) Copy the list (which I have pasted here, just in case that link ever disappears) and bold the titles that you have already read.
2) Choose at least 6 other books from the list , read and review them between 1 August 2008 and 31 January 2009.
2) Come back here and post links to your reviews.
3) In January 2009, cast your vote for which one of the 100 books on the list is your favorite (and write a post on why). The winning book will be sent to a lucky winner chosen by the scientific method favored here in the blogosphere, i.e. names in a hat. Other contests are very probable too, I have some ideas, but they need planning.
4) Have fun! :-)
There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.I couldn't believe this was a true story by the time it I was finished. It was simply too horrific at times to have actually happened. This girl should be dead, she should be imprisoned...but she isn't...she is a lawyer and a functional member of society!
Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.
And that’s when things got interesting….
You have in your hands the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years—maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once—when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake’s troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.
Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake’s unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster.
Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and “angels”—a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotal moments—she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.
A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take.
Who: The Summer Reading Thing 2008 (or SRT 08) is for anyone who’s up for a reading challenge. All age groups are welcome.
What: A summer reading challenge for everyone. Set your goals and track your progress. No goal is too small; no ambition too great. Feeling overwhelmed? Make your list small or use the same list from any other reading challenge (like this one).
Make changes to your list as needed as desired. Finish early? Add more books (or
not). Change your mind on a title? Drop it. No pressure, no minimums.
Post a short review on your blog of at least one of the books you read during the challenge. If you like to do reviews, you can post one for each of the books you read. Please keep the reviews family friendly. I'll set up a Mr. Linky where you can link to your reviews. (Don't have a blog? Keep reading.)
When: Friday, June 2oth through Sunday, September 21st, 2008.
Where: The blogosphere. Join up using this Mr. Linky. Post your summer reading list on your blog and backlink here. If you don't have a blog, you can use the one I created last year for this very purpose. Simply e-mail your list and reviews to her and she'll post and link you up, making you eligible for prizes.
Why: To promote literacy around the world. Yeh, right. Because we need a reason not to feel guilty when we choose to read instead of mop the floor.
How: Make your list and post it on your blog. Then link to your post using the sign-up Mr. Linky. As you read your books, post a review on your blog and link to the review post using the review Mr. Linky. At the end of the challenge, post a wrap-up and link to the wrap-up Mr. Linky (coming in September).
Prizes: Prizes will be books (new or gently read) or book related items. (If you're an author or publisher and you want to provide a prize, send me an e-mail.) I'll give away one prize each week. To be eligible for prizes, you must have signed up on the Mr. Linky here. Beginning July 20th, you must also have posted one review using the Mr. Linky here. Due to shipping costs, you must live in the U.S. or Canada to win a prize. (Sorry.)
Spread the word: Let your blog readers know about SRT 08 so they can join the fun with you! Grab the button and use it on your blog. The larger image (top of post) is 400 px. The smaller image (below) is 220 px and will fit the standard Blogger sidebar. The image in my sidebar is 185px, for smaller sidebars, like mine. Please link your button back to this post.
Note: You can join Summer Reading Thing 2008 at any time.
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.This book was awesome! I had been wanting to read it for awhile now, and finally got around to it. It was worth the wait. Not only is it well written, but the story is engrossing. I stayed up until four one morning to finish it. I got hooked and couldn't bear to not know what happened. The main character Daniel is lovable, though he does has his faults and he is surrounded by many people all with very different personalities. They mesh together wonderfully. The action starts immediately and keeps moving until the very last page.
Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids.I waited a long time for this book. I had it on my wishlist at paperback swap. I was number 1 (finally) and then somehow accidentally moved it to my reminder list and got shifted to spot 24. So I waited some more. Perhaps that explains my disappointment with this book. Or maybe reading about someone gardening just isn't is funny as or as entertaining as I thought it would be. The book had its moments and it was decent overall, I was just expecting something far greater. I'd heard raves about this book. It came recommended from so many different people online...it had to be good. It was fair. It was a decent book. That's it. Just OK, not bad, not great, just OK. The best part of the book to me is still the review on the front cover from the New York Times Book Review "Gardening as Extreme Sport." I will also say the the section of Superchuck the groundhog is pretty funny. This book just didn't do it for me, it may do it for you. I wouldn't say stay away from it, it just wasn't all I was hoping it would be.
When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a cost-benefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.
A combo of two suggestions by: Heidi and by litlove
Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (ot, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?
Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a cloak of invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.What an absolutely fun read. I can see why kids love this series. If I was a kid I would be reading it over and over again. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I'm looking forward to picking up book II (Chamber of Secrets). Rowling has a wonderful imagination. I was constantly amazed at what she thought of and was always looking forward to what she would think of next. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series just to see how creative she gets. To have such an imagination must be amazing! I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about picking up Harry Potter. Worried it wouldn't live up to all the "hub bub". Needless worry. It was a fast, fun, delightful read.
But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him...if Harry can survive the encounter.
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites control the minds of their hosts, sending them to their destruction.I'm torn with how to write the review for this book. One one hand I really loved it, on the other hand sometimes it bored me to tears. The book was incredibly fascinating, in small doses. Zimmer has a knack for writing so that you can easily understand what he is saying. BUT, I have a background in science. I teach biology. I am naturally interested in his subject matter and have prior knowledge on a lot of what he was writing about (especially details about how the immune system works). I'm not sure how much someone without a science background would would struggle to enjoy the book having to first understand all the science in it. I think that as long as you realize that you may need to do a little work to understand this book go ahead and pick it up. Plan to read it in short segments over a long period of time. There are only so many parasitic infections you can take at one time. If you are easily grossed out, squeamish, don't like worms, or enjoy science leave this book for someone else.
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites are masters of chemical warfare and camouflage, able to cloak themselves with their hosts' own molecules.
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE parasites steer the course of evolution, where the majority of species are parasites.
WELCOME TO EARTH.
For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and in the darkest shadows of science. Yet these creatures are among the world's most successful and sophisticated organisms. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer deftly balances the scientific and the disgusting as he takes readers on a fantastic voyage. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the fetid parasite haven of southern Sudan, Zimmer graphically brings to life how parasites can change DNA, rewire the brain, make men more distrustful and women more outgoing, and turn hosts into the living dead.
This thorough, gracefully written book brings parasites out into the open and uncovers what they can teach us about the most fundamental survival tactics in the universe.
Author: Colin FalconerArrestingly beautiful and fiercely intelligent, Cleopatra VII of Egypt was barely more than a teenager when she inherited the richest empire in the world--one that stretched from the scorching deserts of lower Egypt to the shining Mediterranean metropolis of Alexandria, with its famed libraries, storehouses, and treasuries. Imperiled at every turn by court conspiracies and Roman treachery, the young queen was forced to flee Alexandria and live in exile while a foreign army overran her city and her own siblings plotted her downfall. With nothing to lose, Cleopatra brazenly sought a partnership with the only man who could secure Egypt's safety: Julius Caesar, a wily politician and battle-hardened general with a weakness for women. The result was a passionate love affair that scandalized Rome and thrust Cleopatra into the glittering but deadly world of imperial intrigue and warfare-- a world that she would mesmerize and manipulate even after Caesar was gone.This novel was OK. It was well written and interesting. I did not know much about the history of Cleopatra so I did find it informative (realizing that the autor I'm sure took liberties to make the story more exciting). After awhile it just became very repetitive, which maybe her story was. Cleopatra gets it trouble, she gets out of it, barely...only to find herself in trouble again. Until finally she found herself in trouble she could not get out of. The end.
At the height of her power and fame, Cleopatra fell in love with Caesar's protégé and successor, Marc Antony, a handsome general known as much for his drunken hedonism as for his victories in battle. Brash, irresistible, and fatally unreliable, Antony's once-strong hold on the Roman Empire was slipping fast, and with it slipped Cleopatra's fortunes. When the tide had finally, irrevocably turned against her, the proud queen plotted a last, spectacular maneuver that was to save her children, her empire, and her place in the pantheon of gods.
Colin Falconer's bold, sensuous prose takes the reader inside the walls of Alexandria's great palaces and into Cleopatra's very heart, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman who thrived and triumphed in a world ruled by men. This is the story of a legendary woman's most glorious time, a story that blazes through thousands of years of history to capture the imagination of readers today.
They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since it was first published, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.I read this book in one sitting. It was that good. I started this afternoon and finished this evening. It is fiction, but it makes you wonder how much of it is actually true. I haven't researched O'Brien or read any of his other works so I don't know if he actually served in Vietnam. I was enthralled by this book, by the stories he told. For a few hours I had a small glimpse into what it may have been like at some points in time, for some men in Vietnam. The capacity for horror, love and coping that O'Brien is able to convey is amazing. I'm considering picking up some of his other books to see if they are as good as this one.
My hometown was a conservative little spot on the prairie, a place where tradition counted, and it was easy to imagine people sitting around a table down at the old Gobbler Cafe on Main Street, coffee cups poised, the conversation slowly zeroing in on the young O'Brien kid, how the damned sissy had taken off for Canada. At night, when I couldn't sleep, I'd sometimes carry on fierce arguments with those people. I'd be screaming at them, telling them how much I detested their blind, thoughtless, automatic acquiescence to it all, their simpleminded patriotism, their prideful ignorance, their love-it-or-leave-it platitudes, how they were sending me off to fight a war they didn't understand and didn't want to understand. I held them responsible. By God, yes, I did. All of them--I held them personally and individually responsible--the polyestered Kiwanis boys, the merchants and farmers, the pious churchgoers, the chatty housewives, the PTA, and the Lions club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the fine upstanding gentry out at the country club. They didn't know the Bao Dai from the man in the moon. They didn't know history. They didn't know the first thing about Diem's tyranny, or the nature of Vietnamese nationalism, or the long colonialism or the French--this was all too damned complicated, it required some reading--but no matter, it was a war to stop the Communists, plain and simple, which was how they liked things, and you were a treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts about killing or dying for plain and simple reasons.Wow.
My favorite from these was Uglies. I'm happy to say I enjoyed them all and there are none that I would list as not liking.
I, Mona Lisa gave me a check for
Yelena is a survivor. Kidnapped as a child, held prisoner as a teen, then released to act as a poison taster, she is now a student of magic. But these magic skills place her in imminent danger, and with an execution order on her head, she has no choice but to escape to Sitia, the land of her birth.Magic, romance, adventure, empowered women, mystery, suspense...there is a little of everything I enjoy all wrapped up in one nice book. This is the second book out of three. The first book Poison Study I really liked as well and I will be reading the third book Fire Study Soon.
But nothing in Sitia is familiar. As she struggles to understand where she belongs and how to control her powers, a rogue magician emerges--and Yelena catches his eye. Suddenly she is embroiled in a situation not of her making. And once again her magical abilities will either save her life...or be her downfall.
Here are some award winners I have sitting on my shelf now. I'll narrow it down soon. I wanted to sign up before I forgot.
"My name is Lisa di Antonio Gherardini, though to acquaintance, I am known simply as Madonna Lisa. My story begins not with my birth but a murder, committed the year before I was born."What I enjoyed about this story is how Kalogridis is able to blend common figures from history (daVinci for example), common works of art and architecture and weave them into a story. This is probably why I enjoy historical fiction overall. Kalogridis has taken the figure the painting the Mona Lisa and has created a story around her. It was fantastic. I was able to imagine living in that time period and wearing the clothes, venturing out to the market or fearing the plague. It was a little long and wandered at times or it would have earned a higher rating.
Florence, April 1478: The handsome Giuliano de' Medici is brutally assassinated in Florence's magnificent Duomo. The shock of the murder ripples throughout the great city, from the most renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to a wealthy wool merchant and his extraordinarily beautiful daughter, Madonna Lisa.
More than a decade later, Florence falls under the dark spell of the preacher Savonarola, a fanatic who burns paintings and books as easily as he sends men to their deaths. Lisa, now grown into an alluring woman, captures the heart of Giuliano's nephew and namesake. But when Guiliano, her love, meets a tragic end, Lisa must gather all her courage and cunning to untangle a sinister web of illicit love, treachery, and dangerous secrets that threatens her life.
Set against the drama of 15th Century Florence, I, Mona Lisa is painted in many layers of fact and fiction, with each intricately drawn twist told through the captivating voice of Mona Lisa herself.
Suggested by: Superfastreader:
Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?
The first word that came to my mind was escape. I often find myself escaping in books. I don't find that to be true with movies. They are both entertaining but there is just something about a book that I can escape with. I guess with a book you run your own show, you can stop and start when you want, think over things, go back and reread. With a movie, it is meant to be watched in one sitting. No going back, stopping and thinking. You're forced to experience it as it was set forth by the producer/director etc. With a book you have more room to move in your mind. Your imagination can run wild.
I'm curious to hear what others have to say.
I actually finished up with a little time to spare so hopefully I'll be able to add a few extras to the list. Unfortunately, I did not consider keeping my original list completely intact so some of my first intentions have disappeared. Others have not!
Booker Prize
1. 1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 4.2.08 REVIEW
2. 2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 5.12.08 REVIEW
Gold Dagger Award
3. 1993 Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell 3.16.08 REVIEW
National Book Award
1990 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
4. 2003 Three Junes by Julia Glass 8.5.07
5. 2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers 11. 26.07 REVIEW
Pulitzer Prize
6. 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 1.26.08 REVIEW
PEN/Faulkner Award
7. 2002 Bel Canto by Patchett 4.30.08 REVIEW
PEN/Hemingway
1988 The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
Newbery Award
8. 1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry completed REVIEW
Bram Stoker Award
9. 1992 The Blood of the Lamb by Thomas F. Monteleone 2.2.08 REVIEW
World Fantasy Award
1989 Koko by Peter Straub
British Children's Book of the Year
10. 2007 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) 3.20.08 REVIEW
There were three books I originally set out to read and did not. There was Sophie's Choice, which I will still be reading for The Decades Challenge. Koko is the second. I'm still interested in reading it. It is VERY long but still looks very good. I went to pick up the Book of Ruth the other night and after reading the back and some reviews I decided i would rather stick sharp objects in my eyes than read this book. It sounds so depressing and miserable. I have no idea what motivated me to add it to my list the fist time. Probably the fact the I owned it.
My Favorite Books from this Challenge? This is tough there were some really good one. I would have to pick
With the Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Flowers for Algernon coming in close behind.
Those I didn't like so much from this Challenge?
I was also disappointed in Middlesex but not nearly the way I hated House of the Spirits.
BOOK AWARDS READING CHALLENGE
Welcome to the Classics Challenge 2008
Classics: We love them, we hate them, now we are going to challenge ourselves to reading more of them. Because there are so many different types of classics, different genres are acceptable and encouraged--for example, novels, short story collections, non-fiction, poetry, essays--I'm open for other suggestions!RULES (keep reading for the bonus):
- OPTION 1: Read FIVE classics.
- OPTION 2: Read FIVE classics from at least THREE different countries
- OPTION 3: Read FIVE classics with any combination of at least THREE different countries and TWO different genres (see above for genres).
- Cross-posting with other challenges is allowed (and encouraged!); Audiobooks are fine; books must be finished after July 1st to count for the challenge although re-reads are acceptable.
- Lists don't have to be set in stone; you can change your selections at any time.
- Have Fun. Oh ya...there will be a drawing for a prize or two. To be entered you must complete any one of the above options. You do NOT need a blog to participate.
Am I going to define what a classic is? Nope! There are lots of definitions offered on the Internet, but essentially we all have different opinions so don't stress too much--and see the bonus below.
BONUS!!
As you can see, I'm requiring FIVE classics for six months. For the sixth book, I would like the participants to offer suggestions for books that may not be considered classics but that you think should be or books that you think will be a classic one day. Leave your suggestions in the comments below. I'll compile a list of the suggestions and you choose a book from the list and make that your sixth read. I realize this means you may have to wait to make your list if you choose to participate in the bonus round, but I'm hoping this is a modern twist on the old classics challenge.
For example, I am going to suggest The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro.
SIGN UPS...COMING SOON
Alright, let's do it this way... At the beginning of June I will put up the official Mr. Linky. By then, hopefully there will be a decent sized "should be/will be" classics list for participants to choose their sixth book. I hope I hope I hope at the beginning of June there aren't just the suggestions of The Handmaid's Tale and Remains of the Day. Won't I feel silly? ;) If you don't want to do the bonus (shame on you!!), please check back at the beginning of June to officially join. Feel free to leave a comment below, though, if you are interested!
Thanks to everyone for your interest! I've been an avid challenge participant for almost a year and I'm thrilled to finally have the guts to host my own. Thank you to everyone who has given me support and suggestions along the way!
Finally: Happy Reading!
This is just my start for now. I need to read your posts and get some recommendations. I also need to think about my recommendation for the sixth book.
I completed the Book Awards Reading Challenge 12/12. I'll be posting a wrap up soon.
I joined the 1% Well Read Challenge and I'm continuing the Series Challenge with Season 2!
"Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?"
Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.
Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….I'll admit it...I read the manual. I've just seen my sister and husband break too many things or goof them up by simply not reading the directions. Its so simple. It tells you how to do it. You just start at the beginning and go step by step. That is why they are included. It just seems easier to follow them to then to guess at how to do it or do it wrong.
Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?
Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?
Anything at all?
