May Favorites

May was a month of chaos and blessings for me. I graduated from my Master's program and also had a whopping total of two deaths in my circle of acquaintances/family.Yet, I was still able to acquire new experiences and favorites that will forever stand out when I think of 2013.

Random Life Experience: After graduating, my mother and I departed from Pittsburgh on our way home via airplane. What was supposed to be a routine trip turned into a nightmare and ultimately led to the bizarrest adventure I've ever had while traveling.......and that's saying something since I've traveled in foreign countries by myself without knowing a lick of the local language and never had any huge mishaps. Put on standby in Chicago, My mother and I along with two random gentlemen were forced to deplane once we touched down in Branson, Missouri.

You're probably thinking Branson, Missouri?!?! Where the heck is that?!...honestly had I not been forced off a plane in the middle of this destitute city I'd be asking the same thing (no offense to anyone from here). Sadly, I can't give you geographic specifics due to being in a state of shock at the time of this event, but I can tell you under better circumstances, I would've probably enjoyed the peace and quiet of the city and the rustic landscape. Hiwever, I can only offer you the general observation that it had houses that looked like the set from Disney's High School Musical when they showed Troy's house.

After being deplaned, we were all given instructions to make our OWN way to Tulsa, Oklahoma if we wanted to get a flight home since the Branson Airport had no flights in or out for TWO WHOLE DAYS........insert seriously pissed face here......When we all found this out, you can only imagine how we felt. At this point, things got really interesting.

Disclaimer: Growing up, my parents often taught my siblings and I the golden rules of interacting with strangers. These rules included a) Never talking to strangers  b) Never eat anything from them and c) NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GET INTO A CAR WITH THEM. Looking at these rules you can only guess how scary and surreal it was for me to actually have to get in the car with two men that I didn't know (Even though my mom was there with me) and riding for about 3+ hours from Branson to Tulsa. While both the men were gentlemen and we were all united in our anger at the airline, I sort of had a what the flip moment where I had to question my mother's sanity doing the beginning of this imprmptu road trip.

Thankfully, we made it to Tulsa and got a new flight home the next morning and arrived all in one piece. The most amazing thing out of the whole trip was the fact that we were literally just miles away from where the tornado in Oklahoma hit. The four of us were literally joking about getting hit by some type of storm as we drove through the countryside and watched the sky turn from clear blue to steel gray before our eyes. At this time none of us imagined that there was an actual tornado reeking havoc so you can only imagine how my mother and I felt seeing the aftermath of devastation throughout Oklahoma. All I can say is I am BEYOND grateful that God let us make it home safely.

Favorite Album: As usual, I am tardy to the party and just got my copy of the 2011 masterpiece that is Megalithic Symphony, which is AWOLNATION's first studio album. Thanks to Amazon having it's bi-weekly sale on mp3 albums, I was able to get this album for a mere $5. I love the sound of this band. Unlike last month's favorite album (i.e., Fall Out Boy's Save Rock And Roll) AWOLNATION's sound gives off more of a rock vibe than a pop one. This album has minimum screaming and is perfect for us pseudo-rockers who are master's of the air guitar. Some song's like "Kill Your Heros" and "Sail" are a bit explicit in the deliverance of their messages, but overall the album is a conglomerate of upbeat non-threatening songs. I would definitely recommend this album to anybody who enjoys a good guitar solo.

Favorite Book: I finally got to crack open Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, which is one of the books from my Birthday Book Haul. This book is a part of the fantasy genre of young adult fiction. The main aspect of the book deals with time traveling and a long ago foretold prophecy. When I tell you that this book is amazing, I mean that it is literally knock your socks off, laugh out loud ah-maz-ing.This book was so good that I had to scrounge together money to buy the sequel, Sapphire Blue for my Kindle at the crack of dawn just because I didn't want the feeling of reading this series to end. I plan to post a review of tthese two books soon however, I wanted to share this as my absolute favorite book for May. Gier's book is brimming with freshness, crazy plot twist, witty humor, and unbelievable characters. It's a must for all YA lovers.

Personal Challenge: I have recently decided that I need to gain more knowledge about African and African-American Literature (i.e. my chosen area of graduate study). Therefore, I have deemed that this summer I will try my best to read at least one African or African-American themed book a week. To start off my reading, during the last week of May I read the play, A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and watched the 1961 movie adaptation. Also, I was able to finish So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba. I will be posting a movie and play review for Hansberry's book however, I didn't have much to say for Ba's book so I won't bore you all with a review for that one. If you would like to here my general thought's for Ba's book, you can look at my goodread review.

Once again, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and reading some good books. Please feel free to post your TBR piles int he comment section.

Cheers!

Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 7.0 Wrap-Up

This week has been pure CHAOS!

I knew going into this Read-A-Thon that I would not be able to read a huge amount of books. Yet, I did want to try to accomplish reading at least five books by the end of the challenge. Starting my week off with a bang, I finished The DUFF by Kody Keplinger on Monday and promptly reviewed it. Sadly, this was my only reading accomplishment for the week.

Set to read four more books, my plans were interrupted by life, school, and fate. Deaths in my extended family and friend circle along with an airline screw up that landed me in the middle of nowhere and caused me and my family to scramble to drive hours out of our way caused me to put reading on hold. Add to this the fact that I suffered from the minor hiccup of falling into a reading slump on Wednesday and you can see why I was unable to read as much as I wanted.

Yet, with all the bad events that happened, I did end up being able to tick two major accomplishments off my list. I would like to proudly announce that I now hold a Masters from Carnegie Mellon's Literary and Cultural Studies Program. Also, I have successfully spent a year living alone without a roommate in a city that I had never visited before August of last year....and yes I am aware that I have packaged this blog as a book and movie review website HOWEVER, I am sooo excited about these two things I just had to shout them from the heavens \(^0^)/....even in cyber space

Even though I haven't finished any other books this week, I have started Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This book so far has been overwhelmingly good. I've always enjoyed Adichie's writing style, but this book is just beyond what I expected. The subject content covers everything from childhood love to feminism to issues that immigrants in America face daily. Not to mention the book is a blend of chick lit and serious literature. I seriously can't wait to review this book. I would definitely recommend that anyone who can to get this book you most definitely won't regret this choice.

Bout of Books 7.0 Read-A-Thon Progress For Last THREE Days

My reading progress has recently been tapered by two events, one foreseen and one unforeseen.

In a previous post, I stated that I would be graduating this week and that my chances to read would be lessened by the arrival of my family. True to form, this hypothesis came to fruition and I was unable to fully sit down and focus enough to read. Add to this the fact that I fell into a random reading slump and these last couple of days have been the pits.

I first started off Tuesday trying to finish Divorce Islamic Style since I only had about 80 pages to go, but I was unable to do so due to my growing resentment at one of the characters constant berating of others who were not Muslim in each of her chapters. After this, I tried to read The Golem and the Jinni, but couldn't really get in sync with the plot enough to become invested in the book. Finally, I decided to just give up all reading and spend time packing my apartment and picking my family up at the airport. Once all this was done I figured maybe it wasn't really an actual slump I was in, but the choice of books I was reading that was leading me to want to stop reading.

With this realization, I decided to switch up my TBR list for the Read-A-Thon and put aside Divorce Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  instead. Boy! Was this THE best thing that I could've done. I recently had to reread Adichie's Purple Hibiscus for my Global Literature class and was excited to learn that this author was set to release another novel this year.
Islamic Style and The Golem and the Jinni and read Americanah by

Americanah is a book about two individuals, Ifemelu, a Nigerian blogger who has lived in America for thirteen years after immigrating and Obinze, a wealthy Nigerian business man who still lives in Nigeria. As adolescents, Ifemelu and Obinze were sweethearts. Attending secondary school and university together, the two believed that they would one day get married. However, this does not happen and eventually the two lose contact with each other and start separate lives. Set to return home to Nigeria after her hiatus in America, Ifemelu decides to reconnect with Obinze. Unfortunately, he is married now and this is a tad bit problematic. The overall novel follows the two lovers as they fall in love as children and later cross paths as adults.

I'm really enjoying Adichie's book thus far and can't wait to review it. Hopefully, I will finish it by Sunday. Since I fell so far behind in my reading schedule, I think that I will knock a book off my overall Read-A-Thon goal and just aim for finishing four by Sunday.

I hope everybody else is making great strides in their TBR/Read-A-Thon goals. Happy Reading!

TBR List For Read-A-Thon:

1. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

2. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

3. So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba

4. Where'd You Go Bernedette by Maria Semple

5. I've Got Your Number by  Sophie Kinsella*

Overall Progress:

Number of Books I've read Finished: 1

Book Goal :4

Total Number of Pages I've Read Tuesday: 10

Total Number of Pages I've Read Wednesday: 25

Total Number of Pages I've Read Thursday: 89

 *Random Quick Read

Bout of Books 7.0 Read-A-Thon Progress #1

I'm excited to announce that I have finished one book off my list and am waaaay ahead of schedule for my five book reading goal for this week. I put a book review for The DUFF by Kody Keplinger earlier and will be continuing to read and report as the week goes on.

Cheers!

TBR List For Read-A-Thon:

1. The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

2. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

3. So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba

4. Where'd You Go Bernedette by Maria Semple

5. Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lokhous 

Overall Progress:

Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 1
Books: 5

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger Book Review

 I gave this book 5 stars.

Kody Keplinger's novel, The DUFF is the type of book you could read at any age and connect to. The main character, Bianca is a tough as nails girl who's heart has been hardened by the pains of love. Adamant about never falling in love again, she chooses to enter into an "enemies with benefits" relationship with Wesley, the notorious womanizer of her high school who has problems of his own. Together the two teenagers work through their problems in the form of..ahem...advanced cardio for the grown and sexy. <spoiler>However,  even with their preconceived rules of "no feelings" being involved, Bianca and Wesley learn the hard way that love can infiltrate your heart when you least expect it no matter how hard you plan.</spoiler>

Keplinger's characters are well developed and likable. Even though Bianca does come off as cynical at times, the reader gets shown that her feelings of anger and frustration are justified. The way that this character antagonizes over being "the duff" a.k.a the designated ugly fat friend, is something that is especially well portrayed by the author and made into a relatable point for anyone who chooses to read this book due to the fact that most people have felt like the dud of their circle of friends at one point of their life or another.

On the flip side, Wesley's character while clearly placed into the cliched role of being resident bad boy is endearing opposed to annoying. Even when he makes Bianca feel ashamed of herself by calling her the duff, it's apparent that his character is battling his own set of demons and does so only as a knee-jerk reaction to his pain.

Keplinger's choice to use cliched roles in her work is balanced off by the fact that her storyline is solid. Never does the reader feel as if they are being rushed off into a tidy conclusion. Instead, the author paces the story so that her audience can get the full benefit of watching the character's lives come undone and then slowly pieced back together again. Both Bianca and Wesley's character are funny, interesting, and sarcastic enough to keep readers entertained and willing to stick wound to finish Keplinger's story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is in need of a good chick-lit book or who just loves a good novel about bad boys and strong opinionated female leads. Yet, I would caution against letting younger readers begin this book being that it is meant for a <b>mature</b> audience due to explicit sex scenes throughout the novel.

Sweet Sweet Freedom/Bout of Books Reading Goals

I am happy to announce that....I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH MY FIRST YEAR OF GRAD SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!...insert ecstatic shouts of joy here and an uncoordinated impromptu break dance.... I would like to thank all my followers who were patient with my inconsistencies in posting as I wrapped up my school work. I greatly appreciate all of your support in this part of my educational journey and promise to give my all to blogging now that school's out.

Now....

Since I am currently participating in the Bout of Books Book-A-Thon and want to read a little bit everyday, I thought it would be nice to have written goals set for what books I want to finish this week. I haven't exactly set up an exact list of books that I want to get read this week, but I do have a few books that I want to read for this month in general. These books include:



The Duff by Kody Keplinger: This is a book about a girl named, Bianca Piper who is seventeen and designated as the "ugly, fat friend" in her circle by her local high school jerk-wad, Wesley. The story basically follows Bianca as she embarks into a love/hate relationship with Wesley as she seeks comfort from personal drama in her life. This book is really popular amongst the BookTube community and comes highly recommended so, I'm excited to read it.



The Golem And The Jinni by Helene Wecker: Wecker's books is one that I picked up from my local bookstore and it seems to be a part-fairy tale/part-immigration story. The Golem is a mystical Jewish creature that comes from clay and in this story happens to take the form of a woman named Chava. Likewise, the Jinni is an Arabic mythological creature that is a well known figure in literature (think Gene from Aladdin). In Wecker's novel, the Jinni is named Ahmad. From the blurb, it would seem that Chava and Ahmad meet and fall in love. I've been looking forward to this novel as well so I'm pretty stocked to have a go at it.



Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: I recently put this book into my TBR pile for April and was unable to start it do to time constraints and paper deadlines for school however, I reaaally want to start this book this week. The story line is well known throughout the BookTube community, but basically, Bernadette is a woman that goes missing on a family vacation and it is left up to her daughter, Bee to find her. Using clues that her mother left behind, Bee  sets out to find her mother.




So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba: This book is a book that I anticipated reading for my Global Literature class, but never got around to doing so. The story follows Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese woman whose husband takes a second wife and subsequently leaves her and her children to fend for themselves. The story is written in a letter/diary form and is short (about 90 pages). Issues that are prevalent in the novel include adultery, betrayal, and social issues that come from polygamous marriages.



Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous: I picked this book up on a whim from the library. The story follows Christian, a man who is skilled in acquiring languages and is therefore chosen to infiltrate a supposed ring of Muslim terrorist in Rome, Italy. Christian is forced to change his name and his identity and become a part of this group to determine who is the ring leader. Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Safia, a married Egyptian immigrant who is unhappy in her marriage and with the lack of chances that she as a Muslim woman has in general.




Hopefully, I can finish these five novels by NEXT Sunday. I'm really excited for the Bout of Books Book-A-Thon book challenge since this is going to be my first one. I hope everyone is doing well and making massive strides in their TBR piles.

Happy Reading,

Cheers!