Friday Fill-In (24)

Friday Fill-Ins is a fun meme that's hosted by Janet at the Friday Fill-In blog. Just fill in your answers!

1. Family all lives too far away. I need to remedy that.

2. It costs a lot of money to travel back and forth.

3. I love a three day weekend! ahhhh.

4. Pasta always makes a good meal.

5. I've got the three day weekend jitters.

6. Apparently there's some huge hurricane coming!: wth!!!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quiet evening of reading, tomorrow my plans include watching that old movie Gidget! and Sunday, I want to relax and sleep in!

Clover by CLAMP

Title: Clover
Author: CLAMP
ISBN: 9781595821966
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Page #: 508
Source: From My Library

Summary:
"Kazuhiko is a young, but already deeply wounded, black-ops agent of a baroque, retro-tech world - pulled out of retirement to escort Sue, a mysterious waif, to a destination she alone knows. Sue and Kazuhiko have never met... yet she knows him, having grown up since the age of four with her only human contact being two distant voices: that of her elderly 'grandma' - Kazuhiko's commander, General Ko; and that of Kazuhiko's dead girlfriend, the beautiful singer Ora.

And Sue has been kept in that cage all these years because of what she is, and what the Clover Leaf Project found her to be: a military top secret... and the most dangerous person in the world."
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First Lines:

"'Forget it. I'm a civilian now. There's no reason to work for the government.' 'Oh, but there is. When you were court-martialed, how many times to you think we pulled strings for you?' 'I never asked for any favors.'"
Pages 6 & 7
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Review:

I'm just gonna say this upfront: I don't think I'm very good at reading manga. It's not the back to front reading... it's not the left to right reading... I think it's something about the way the stories are told in most manga. It could also have something to do with character names I can't ever remember and ambiguous drawings of characters. I always end up having to check earlier images to make sure they're the same person.

So... all that's on me. I don't want that to affect my review of this book, but I honestly don't think I can help that. The one word I would use to describe my reading of this book was "confused." I understand having a bit of intrigue to start out - something to get the reader involved. But there was something about the way this book went about it that made me really wonder what in the heck was going on.

I spent the first hundred pages or so waiting to see what kind of story was going to come out of all of this. Turns out that the story completes itself in the first two "books" - it's an omnibus, so it's all in there. basically the story ends. And then it goes backwards and explains who all the characters were that you read about. It was almost backwards in that way.

I was shocked when I finished this book and realized that this was the entire story. I was really expecting to hear that there were 15 more books or something to complete the story... but no. This was it. The confusing mess that I was wading through was the entire thing. I was a little disappointed when I learned that.

I know there are probably tons of people who are thinking I'm insane now. This was their favorite manga of all time or something. Now, on the positive side of this thing - the artwork was beautiful. I especially loved the color inserts. Just beautiful. I also really enjoyed the whole steampunk aspect of the book. That gave it a lot of edge, for sure.

If you're a lover of this book, I apologize for this review. It just didn't work for me, even if I did love the art. I' say you should got ahead and give it a try though - it certainly didn't take very long to read (even though it was 500 pages). I hope you like it better than I did!
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Other Blog Reviews:

Anime Princess
Candied Hearts
Kuriousity

Giveaway Winner!!

The time is upon us to to announce the winner of the Stamped copy of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins! Thank you all for participating and I wish I had a copy to give each of you. But then I'd be super-broke.

And the winner is...

Andrea from

Loud Words and Sounds

Congrats and I've sent you an email to get your mailing address. Please respond within 48 hours or I will be chosing someone else.

Aren't giveaways so much fun?!

Breaking Up is Hard To Do by Various Authors

Title: Breaking Up is Hard To Do
Authors: Niki Burnham, Terri Clark, Ellen Hopkins, Lynda Sandoval
ISBN: 9780547014999
Publisher: Graphia
Page #: 300
Source: From My Library

Summary:
"First Love - the joy, the excitement, the tingles - nothing can compare.

Then it ends.
The sheer pain of it all - nothing can compare to that either. How can the human body endure so much? Will you ever get over it?
Luckily, the body can and you will, and here are four stories describing how.

Extraordinary authors Niki Burnham (Royally Jacked), Terri Clark (Sleepless), Ellen Hopkins (Impulse, Crank), and Lynda Sandoval (Who's Your Daddy?) give us four tales of falling out of love. From Toby, who loses his girl because he's afraid of sex, to Mia who has to get over the heartache of falling for a straight girl, to Dee, who discovers too late that it was a cruel joke, not love, and Lisa, who gets dumped because she's not pretty enough, each story shows the resilience of the human heart with a little humor, a little pain, and lots of truth.

Falling in love is amazing. Getting dumped sucks. Reading about someone else going through it - perfect."
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First Lines:

"I am, without a doubt, the luckiest guy int he entire West Rollins High School junior class. Here's why:
1. I almost have the 'rents talked into ponying up half the cost of a car."
Page 1 from Last Stand by Niki Burnham
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Review:

You know, I'm not sure what made me pick this book up. I've been reading more short stories lately, so perhaps that was it. It took me a long time to decide to get to it because it seems like stories about couples breaking up would be really depressing. Luckily, these authors did a great job pulling in the humor and the friendships from wrecked relationships.

One thing I was shocked by (a little, just because it was unexpected) in these stories was the huge focus on sex. I mean, I do realize that it's a big part of relationships today... and please pardon my old fashioned sensibilities... but there were times when I just wanted to scream at the characters. It was like the one thing some of those relationships revolved around. All this is not to say that it's not appropriate - not at all. In fact, I think it would do good for many teens to read about it. I just got frustrated at the focus.

I think my favorite story was the second one - Don't Mind Me by Terri Clark. I think this was the case because it seemed like it was less about the relationship and more about the dynamics of that particular school. It was really well put together and I ended up really rooting for some of those characters.

The story by Ellen Hopkins, Just Plain Lisa, was a little weird for me to read. I've never read anything in verse before, so this was my first taste of it. Honestly, it wasn't written any differently. It's almost more to do with the formatting of the text on the page, isn't it? If you've read this short story, please let me know if it's typical in terms of novels in verse. If that's the case, perhaps I'm missing the point of it. It was a good story, yeah... just the format threw me off.

And the last story Party Foul was pretty heartbreaking. I mean, it's a really good story... and it was one of my favorites... but what happens is just so emotional. Also, I'm sorry to say that the ending isn't all that realistic. I mean, things just don't happen that way in the real world - no matter how much we really wish they did.

I think this is a good grouping of stories that deal with a hard issue. Teens will absolutely identify with the characters in each of the stories. I'll be recommending it to people looking for romance stories - because, really, that's what they are at their core.
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Other Blog Review:

Library Girl Reads
YA Books and More
I didn't see a lot of reviews for this book. It's a few years old, but if you've reviewed it, let me know so I can link ya. Thanks!

Waiting on Wednesday (24)

"Waiting on Wednesday" is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Here's what I'm waiting on this week:
Invisible Things
by Jenny Davidson
To be released: November 23, 2010

Summary from Baker and Taylor:
"In an alternate 1930s Europe, sixteen-year-old Sophie and Mikael, now more than a friend, investigate her parents' death, setting off a chain of events that unravels everything she thought she knew about her family, and involving them in international intrigue and the development of the atomic bomb."

Doesn't this sound wonderful?? I love historical fiction that's a mystery as well. I have high hopes for this one. Dunno how I feel about the cover, though. Hopefully it makes sense with the story. :).