As a reminder, here is how I rate my books:

• (★★★★★): Loved it
• (★★★★): Really liked it
• (★★★): Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it
• (★★): Barely finished it

Another few notes: I will warn if there are any spoilers with (start spoiler) and (end spoiler) so you know when to stop reading and pick up again if you don’t want to ruin the book for yourself. Update: I will no longer be going out of my way to watch adaptions, but will continue to mention them and their general critiques (from Rotten Tomatoes) in my reviews.

Please forgive my gaps between the books, I was reading the Percy Jackson series at this time, as well!

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Classics, fiction, dystopia

GoodReads rating:  3.91 / 5 (2,305,000 ratings)

Medium used: Audio book and e-reader (borrowed from library via OverDrive)

Date started/ finished: 6/2 – 10/2

Summary: Once the overworked animals reclaim the farm from the lording humans, they try to make their own way as their own rulers.

Thoughts: Wow! I really liked this book. It’s short and feels extremely relevant in today’s political climate.

Other adaptations: The 1954 animated version fared better than the live action 1999 version, but neither would be classified as “must-sees” by critics nor audiences.

The Firm by John Grisham

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Fiction, (legal) thriller, mystery

GoodReads rating:  4.00 / 5 (519,000 ratings)

Medium used: Audio book and e-reader (borrowed from library via OverDrive)

Date started/ finished: 13/2 – 4/3

Summary: Mitch McDeere is hired out of college to an unassuming law firm in sleepy Memphis, Tennessee with amazing benefits. Only when he realizes that half a dozen of his coworkers at this small law firm have died in the last decade in mysterious accidents… what is the firm up to?

Thoughts: My only complaint is that it dragged a bit at parts and feel it could have been maybe 3/4 of the length it was and still been as effective. Other than that, it was greatly entertaining and had me on the edge of my seat.

Other adaptations: Apparently, one complaint about the 1993 movie starring Tom Cruise is that it’s too long, too! Otherwise, gets an average rating from audiences.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Young adult, fiction

GoodReads rating: 4.54 / 5 (280,000 ratings)

Medium used: Hardback book purchased new from Antigone Books (Tucson, Arizona)

Date started/ finished: 8/2 – 5/3

Summary: “Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends.” When she witnesses the unrighteous murder of her best friend and makes national headlines, she is torn between maintaining the “normal” facade at her school, or compromising her friendships and safety by speaking out.

Thoughts: I wish they built a bit more background on the prep school side of Starr’s life, I feel it was a bit underdeveloped for being so featured as a plot point in online summaries. Other than that, it felt really fresh and like something that could actually happen (and probably has). From the unfollowing-on-Tumblr-for-posting-policial-protest drama (I’ve been there) to the different faces we put on around others in adolescence, it was all so real.

Other adaptations: The 2018 film is loved by views and critics alike, I think I’ll have to see this one!

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Rating: ★★★★

Genre: Young adult, mystery

GoodReads rating:  4.23 / 5 (20,900 ratings)

Medium used: Bought via Amazon Kindle app

Date started/ finished: 5/3 – 12/3

Summary: When young girl Mattie is found dead and her sister Sadie is missing, Sadie’s track to revenge is followed in the form of a podcast from her sleepy hometown of Cold Creek.

Thoughts: First thing’s first, big warning for sexual assault and pedophilia themes in this book. I know a lot of fellow book bloggers found this story to be a bit heavy but for me it’s what makes it so effective. I really loved the format of the writing from multiple points of view and hear it’s best consumed in the form of an audiobook. This is a great young adult mystery that has more mature themes and feel transcends the somewhat juvenile themes I often find in young adult novels.

Have you read any of these? Which did you enjoy most?

Photo by Radu Marcusu.

The title says it all. I’m going to share with you a few songs that remind me of my younger days in chronological order, from age 9 or so when I got my first CD player to age 17 when my music taste actually started to develop to what it is today.

I first got a CD player when I was around nine years old from my friend Kristi and my dad would make me mix CDs with everything from classic rock to Broadway musicals. I would also buy other CDs like Disney soundtracks and Disney artists Hilary Duff. Here is what you would find on my CD player…

• “Stick to the Status Quo” by High School Musical Cast: This was the first CD I remember getting along with my CD player for my birthday one year as far as I can remember. I loved High School Musical and listened to it actively until I was in my late teens. Hell, I have nothing against it today, I still bop (to the top) from time to time.
• “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• “High Flying Adored” by Evita Broadway Cast: When I got my CD player, my dad would make me mixes that included quite a few Broadway songs from Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and Cats. We have actually seen Evita live a few times together as well, one when I was quite young (twelve, maybe) and one right before I got hired at the theater I worked at for four years.
• “To the Moon & Back” by Savage Garden
• “The Trail We Blaze” by Elton John: If you can’t tell, I listened to a lot of soundtracks. This was from The Road to El Dorado.
• “No One” by Aly & AJ
• “Metamorphosis” by Hilary Duff
• “Behind These Hazel Eyes” by Kelly Clarkson
• “Dead Serious” by ZOEgirl: Weird Christian pop, don’t judge me too hard for this one.
• All sorts of Kidz Bop

After a while it became a faff to carry around all my CDs and the player itself, so my dad got me an MP3 player not unlike this one. When I wanted to get a song we didn’t own, my dad would check the lyrics (that means I didn’t get to listen to terribly mainstream music until high school) and buy the MP3 file from Walmart. Here is what you would find on thatMP3 player…

• “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day: My generation’s first introduction to modern rock. That, or…
• “In the End” by Linkin Park: I vividly remember hearing this in the Hard Rock Cafe in Maui for the first time. R.I.P. Chester.
• “Complicated” by Avril Levigne
• “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence: An emo classic.

The MP3 player and it’s whopping 1GB storage wasn’t around too long until my dad suggested that I think about getting a music device that would last. With that, 13-year-old me decided to save money to buy an iPod classic 80GB. Including the case, it cost me exactly $266 and I used it most every single day until 2015 at age 20 when I made things more simple and put my music on my phone. For the most part, I don’t listen to these artists regularly (or at all) anymore. There were a handful of other bands that I listened to a few songs regularly, but these bands were ones I listened to the most and in some cases saw live in high school. Here is what you would find on my iPod…

• “Deep Down” by Saosin: This was probably the first band I liked a lot, at least enough to buy a shirt!
• “Worth Dying For” by Rise Against: My longest lasting love, along with Senses Fail. My love for these two bands far transcend puberty and they are one of the few bands I still listen too regularly.
• “Ali for Cody” by Senses Fail
• “Miss Murder” by AFI: Like Rise Against and Senses Fail, and probably many others on this list, I got into AFI from Guitar Hero III. This song was the first “screamy” song I heard and that, too, opened a door to new genres and artists.
• “If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn” by Sleeping with Sirens: For some of these I can’t help but laugh and cringe at how bad the music is and how much I was obsessed with it.
• “Spellbound” by Lacuna Coil
• “Take Me to Infinity” by Breathe Carolina: I still bop to this album very regularly, but I’m not as obsessed as I used to be.
• “Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles” by The Fall of Troy
• “Wasting Time” by Four Year Strong: They opened for Rise Against when I saw them the first time!
• “The New National Anthem” by Pierce the Veil: I saw them live more times than I care to admit…
• “Arms of Sorrow” by Killswitch Engage
• “Misery Business” by Paramore: I’m not a big fan of Paramore all around, but they have a handful of really good songs.

Did you bop to any of these?

Photo by Surya Urs.

For this wrap-up, I bring you a very special edition of what I’ve been reading.

As a young adult (13/14), I loved the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. But after the first movie came out, I was devastated and kind of came off the series and moved more towards The Hunger Games.

For this post, as it’s a series, I will not be including the author, genre (they’re all fantasy, fiction, young adult) or medium used (I have the books with the first four in paperback and the last one in hardback) and I will not be shy with spoilers.

After all these years, I’ve kept the books and decided to re-read them as an adult nearly ten years later. Here’s how it went…

The Lightning Thief

Rating: ★★★★

GoodReads rating:  4.24 / 5

Date started/ finished: 8/2 – 12/2

Summary: Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson discovers the Greek gods are alive and well… and he is the son of Poseidon and the subject of a prophecy that could bring an end to Olympus. When Zeus’s master bolt gets stolen, Percy is the main suspect as the only child of the Big Three (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon). To clear his name, Percy, daughter of Athena Annabeth and satyr Grover go on a quest to retrieve the master bolt. Their quest has them running into all sorts of monsters, gods, and ends in the Underworld where they find Hades’s Helm of darkness has been stolen, too. The thief turned out to be Luke, a spiteful son of Hermes, under the orders of the rising Titan Kronos.

Thoughts: To be honest, the book wasn’t as good as I remember it. I found the pacing a bit preposterous in the first half of the book and the plot was a little unbelievable for a twelve-year-old. I didn’t feel the challenges in this book were appropriate for the age of the characters. I can forgive a certain amount of luck in young adult novels, but this one really pushed it. How am I expected to believe a twelve year old who has only just discovered his powers beats monsters that past heroes like Hercules did without training? For that, I would have given it 3.5 stars, but added an extra half star for nostalgic purposes.

Other adaptations: Where do we begin? First, the cast. I actually approve of making the characters a bit older because, as I mentioned, nobody is believing a twelve year old can defeat such monsters. But if you’re going to make the movie characters older, make the cast the same age as well (the main cast was supposed to be 16 in the first film but the actors were in their early 20s). I know a lot of people made a fuss about Annabeth not being blonde and Grover being black, but it was their performance that really bothered me. Annabeth really flat-lined, I often forgot she was even there. And Grover was a bit too cool for my liking, in the books, he’s painted as nervous and awkward. Luke, Percy’s mom and Gabe were all casted tremendously. All in all, not completely unforgivable. Now, the plot. My biggest bone to pick: why was there no mention of Kronos?! The series is based on the rise of the Titans and was well set up in the book, but without the mention of Kronos in the first film, it’s almost redundant. The omission of Ares was also a big mistake as he was also central to the plot to steal the bolt. There were a lot of other little changes that really added up… In the film, the quest is driven by their search for magic pearls that reveal their path to the Underworld, where in the book, they just make their way from New York to Los Angeles and happily stumble upon monsters along the way. In the film, a lot of the gods are dressed in togas and act all-powerful when in the book, they’re more often described as normal people in normal clothes. I was also really bothered the way they portrayed the Underworld as hell when in the book it was explained that there were different sections of the Underworld depending on how you lived your life. Other small omissions like the Oracle (I know this comes in the second movie but as it’s so important throughout the series, why wait?), Annabeth’s magic Yankee cap, and no character background (nothing on Grover’s quest to find Pan or Annabeth’s mortal family, which do become important in later books) also add up to make this film a complete flop.

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