What Does the Bookworm Say? Review Writing Process

Yeah this is a week late but I went out of town last weekend and just didn't get around to writing this post before I left. In my opinion, posting it a week late is better than not posting it at all. If you want to read what my friends already wrote about their review writing process you can check that out at Nite Lite Book Reviews and The Reader's Antidote! 

The way I write reviews now is leaps and bounds different than how I wrote them when I first starting blogging (gasp!) five years ago! When I first started blogging I would read a book as fast as I could and then I would write the review maybe a few weeks later. The problem with that method is 1. I read the book so fast I didn't give myself a chance to enjoy or even process what was happening.  2. After waiting a few weeks to write the review, and reading so many book in between, I would forget all the characters names and basically everything that happened in the book. 

Now, as a more experienced blogger, I know that my reviewing process starts when I start reading page one. As a reader and a reviewer with a full time job, my time is precious and I pay especially close attention to the first one hundred pages. Every book I read is given the same chance and that chance is to grab my attention in the first one hundred pages.  I feel like after one hundred pages I can get a good feel and grasp on the plot and the characters. This is also when I decide if I will DFN (did not finish) a book or not. If I decide to continue with the book and finish it (which is the case with most books) then right after I pass one hundred pages, I write an evaluation based on those one hundred pages. This gives me a chance to write down my initial thoughts of the book before I forget. I also write down the names of the major players. Then I finish the book as usual. When I write my review I have my initial thoughts down on paper which makes writing a full review much easier because I am able to remember more of the book. 

Often, when I read a book that I love, I have a hard time saying exactly what I loved about it. So usually in books reviews where I just say that I loved it, I also write a summary of the book. I don't always write a summary because that's what the synopsis is for and I always include the book's synopsis from Goodreads. But sometimes there is more to that synopsis so (sometimes) I like to write a summary. I really go back and forth with this and sometimes I feel like writing one and sometimes I don't. It depends on the book and my mood. 

My format is pretty simple. I like to say right off the bat, in the first paragraph whether I liked the book or not. Then I sometimes give a summary or not. Then I go straight into my one hundred page evaluation and copy it straight off the page from when I wrote it down because this is my true initial reaction before reading the remainder of the book. After the one hundred page evaluation I get into the meat of my review and at that point I'm reviewing the book as a whole. Characters, plot, atmosphere and ending. In the last paragraph I say again what I said in the first paragraph of whether or not I liked the book. 

I find that writing a review is a lot like writing a paper in college just a much shorter version. In the beginning you have your introduction and your hypothesis. In the body you prove your hypothesis and in the conclusion restate your hypothesis and wrap it up. That's exactly how I approach writing a book review. 

Wow that was long. I hope you got to the end! If you did, what do you think about having a review writing process? Have a topic you want us to discussion in a future edition of What Does the Bookworm Say? Let me know in the comments! 

Insurgent Teaser Trailer

Of course, I heard that the teaser trailer for Insurgent dropped on Tuesday and while I was somewhat excited I wasn't chomping at the bit to watch it right away. Why? Because Insurgent was my least favorite book in the series. So if you haven't seen it, watch below:

In my opinion, we don't really get any kind of look at the movie.  I'm pretty sure this is just a fear landscape. While it looks pretty awesome, we're not getting a glimpse at the plot or any of the other characters that are still alive. Hello? Where's Four? Or even Christina or Caleb? To me, this trailer is a little disappointing.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date:July 08, 2014
Source: Purchased
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it’s been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply — but that almost seems beside the point now.

Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her — Neal is always a little upset with Georgie — but she doesn’t expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.
That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts . . .

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?

My thoughts:

100 page evaluation: I like the book so far even though I definitely don't like it as much as Rowell's other books.  It took me a little while to get into it partly because it's a little slow in the beginning and partly because I don't like when girls have guys names. And the main character's name is Georgie. She's also not a very like able character. So far she is very selfish and she only thinks about herself and her career. I'm hoping that by talking to Neal in the past that she can change some of her ways and think about the needs of her husband and their children.

My thoughts after one hundred pages weren't all that different after I finished the book. Landline was still a pretty good read just not up to the level and enjoyment of Rowell's other books. I appreciated that Landline was a nice change-up compared to all the other YA books that I normally read because it tackled the subject of a marriage that was on the brink of failure which is not something that I normally read.

My problems with the book are actually just problems with the characters themselves. Georgie is the type of girl that I wouldn't really like in real life and I definitely would not be friends with her. She's the type of girl who is usually only friends with guys. As a married woman she has this inappropriate and unreasonable friendship with a guy/co-worker. Throughout the entire book I was thinking to myself that she needed to do her husband a favor and put some major boundaries on her relationship with Seth. Georgie was so selfish throughout the whole book and couldn't even see that her husband had basically given up his life and career to raise their children while she focused on her own career. So I could definitely see why Neil was on the edge of leaving her.

Throughout the whole book, Neil was my favorite character. He was supportive and he tried his best to be understanding. I was totally on Neil's side the whole time and I just wanted to punch Georgie in the face.  But overall the book was pretty good and it ended with closure. If you're a fan of Rainbow Rowell I definitely recommend Landline just know that it's not up to par with her previous novels.

Waiting on Wednesday (133)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: A Reunion of Ghosts
Author: Judith Claire Mitchell
Hitting the Shelves: March 24, 2015

A compulsively readable literary masterpiece, A Reunion of Ghosts is the shared confessional of three sisters who have decided to kill themselves at the end of the 20th century, honoring the dark legacy that has haunted their extraordinary family for decades

How do three sisters write a single suicide note?

In the waning days of 1999, the Alter sisters—Lady, Vee, and Delph—finalize their plans to end their lives. Their reasons are not theirs alone; they are the last in a long line of Alters who have killed themselves, beginning with their great-grandmother, the wife of a Jewish Nobel Prize-winning chemist who developed the first poison gas used in World War I and the lethal agent used in Third Reich gas chambers. The chemist himself, their son Richard, and Richard’s children all followed suit.

The childless sisters also define themselves by their own bad luck. Lady, the oldest, never really resumed living after her divorce. Vee is facing cancer’s return. And Delph, the youngest, is resigned to a spinster’s life of stifled dreams. But despite their pain they love each other fiercely, and share a darkly brilliant sense of humor.

As they gather in the ancestral Upper West Side apartment to close the circle of the Alter curse, an epic story about four generations of one family—inspired in part by the troubled life of German-Jewish Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of chlorine gas—unfolds. A Reunion of Ghosts is a magnificent tale of fate and blood, sin and absolution; partly a memoir of sisters unified by a singular burden, partly an unflinching eulogy of those who have gone before, and above all a profound commentary on the events of the 20th century.

Why I want this: That cover is absolutely stunning! This book just sounds so amazing! 

Waiting on Wednesday (132)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating. This is one of my favorite memes because not only is my TBR pile so much bigger at the end of the night but also the covers are always amazing!

Title: Of Things Gone Astray
Author: Janina Matthewson
Hitting the Shelves: February 03, 2015

Mrs Featherby had been having pleasant dreams until she woke to discover the front of her house had vanished overnight …
On a seemingly normal morning in London, a group of people all lose something dear to them, something dear but peculiar: the front of their house, their piano keys, their sense of direction, their place of work.
Meanwhile, Jake, a young boy whose father brings him to London following his mother’s sudden death in an earthquake, finds himself strangely attracted to other people’s lost things. But little does he realize that his most valuable possession, his relationship with his dad, is slipping away from him.
Of Things Gone Astray is a magical fable about modern life and values. Perfect for fans of Andrew Kaufman and Cecelia Ahern.

Why I want this: OMG that cover is absolutely fabulous! This past year I have really been trying to add some more adult fiction books into my reading and I have been enjoying what I've read immensely! Of Things Gone Astray sounds very engrossing and definitely on my must read list for next year!

Review: Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Title: Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Author: Jamie Ford
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: January 27, 2009
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

My Thoughts:

I love historical fiction and I really wish I took the time to read a lot more of it. I had the opportunity to read Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet because it was chosen as one of our book club reads! It’s a story that takes place in the eighties when the main character is getting older and it takes place, in flash backs, to WWII when the main character is a child navigating the world as a Chinese American with a Japanese American girlfriend.

Henry is about twelve years old in the early 1940’s and goes to a private school where he is picked on simply because he is Asian. There is a huge prejudice against the Japanese at this time because of Pearl Harbor and even though Henry is Chinese he is still lumped into the same group as the Japanese and bullied all the same. Henry soon meets Keiko, a Japanese American girl his age and they become fast friends. But soon the persecution of the Japanese becomes strong in Seattle and her family is forced in an internment camp. Even though they are determined to keep in touch and keep their friendship alive, it become inevitable that they can no longer keep their communications going.

I loved the characters in Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. They were so real and believable. Since this story is definitely character driven most of the time, great characters are essential. I also believe that a Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl who are the only two Asians in their school would create a strong bond and stick together. I also love how this story explored what it means to be American and another nationality. Are you one more than the other and when is it time to become one more than the other. I found the dichotomy between Henry and his parents interesting and how they pushed him to be as American as he could be but wouldn't afford Keiko the same luxuries.  I could only imagine that WWII was a very difficult time to live through.

I loved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for the sheer fact that it shed light on a topic that Americans like to forget. Although it was a little slow in the beginning, I would definitely recommend it to history lovers.

Stacking the Shelves: October 2014 Book Haul!

Hey there! Welcome to this week's Stacking the Shelves! This awesome meme is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and we get to show each other the books we acquired this week whether bought, from the library or for review!

Over the past couple of months I haven't been buying too many books, usually only when I get a couple from Barnes & Noble and even then I only buy one book. But at the very end of September it was my birthday so I got gift cards and then my library had a sale and I went to the friends of the library bookshop and I just went a little crazy! Needless to say I got a lot of books so lets jump right in.

Blood of my Blood by Barry Lyga

Afterparty by Ann Redisch Stampler

Bliss by Lauren Myracle

Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce

Trickster's Queen by Tamora Pierce

The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Horns by Joe Hill

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

As you can see I've picked up a lot of older books that have now been turned into movies. I really want to go back and read the book and then watch the movie again and kind of do something with them on my blog. We'll see; it's still in the works.  Have a great weekend bookworms and happy reading!