Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

From the American Library Association's website:  "Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society."

 --- GIVEAWAY ---

I am appalled at some of the books that make this list each year.  I understand that every book is not for every reader, but the decision to read or not read a book should be up to the individual, or at the very least, the parents of impressionable children.  Whenever I think about banned books, I'm always reminded of that scene in Donnie Darko, at the PTA meeting, when that hag of a teacher, Kitty Farmer, tries to get Graham Greene's The Destructors banned from the curriculum.  This same woman believed that Graham Greene was the actor who played "Pa" on Bonanza.  (That was Lorne Greene, in case you weren't aware.)  Idiocy like that is why no one else should be able to dictate what me or anyone else is allowed to read.

I looked over the list of most frequently challenged books for the last decade or so, and I saw that The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was often on the list each year.  The reasons why this novel was challenged so often per the ALA's website are as follows:  anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group.  Not only is this a frequently-challenged book, but it's also on its way to the big-screen, with some big names attached to it.  I was intrigued, so I decided to read it myself and pick up an extra copy for this giveaway.  You can find my review here.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  And I hope you'll celebrate the freedom to read by visiting the rest of the stops in this giveaway hop!

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Labels: banned books, giveaways, the perks of being a wallflower

TGIF #10

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads!  In this weekly feature, Ginger poses a question to her followers and then asks everyone to link up at the end of the post, sharing their responses.

This Friday's Question:

Reading Challenges: Did you sign up for any this year? How has your progression been? 

I'm relatively new to this whole logging-what-you're-reading thing.  I only joined Goodreads at the end of last year, and I only started this blog in May of this year.  But I did commit to two challenges.

On Goodreads, I challenged myself to read 100 books this year. I started out with a goal of 25, but I quickly realized that this was probably the amount I could read in a single quarter, so I quadrupled my target sometime in March or April. And as you can see, I am only four books shy of my objective, and it is only the end of September. Of course, this is due in part to my discovery of audiobooks. Best. Invention. Ever. Seriously, I get to read while I'm working!

That was pretty much my only challenge for the year, until I stumbled upon the Fall Challenge 2011 in one of my groups on GR. It encompasses all types of books, so I'm really hoping to knock out some of my TBR with it. Here's a sampling of the books required to complete the challenge:

1. Back to School - Read a book that is set in a school, such as boarding school or college. The majority of the novel must be set AT school.
2. Autumn Colors - Read a book with a cover that is predominately red, orange, yellow, or brown.
3. Male Protagonist - Read a book written from a male POV.

This challenge, created for the YA Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club by Jenny of The Mimosa Stimulus, is turning out to be really fun.  I'm reading books that I've had on my TBR for awhile but probably wouldn't have read for a very long time if it weren't for this challenge.  So far, I've completed three of the nine objectives for this challenge, and I just started a fourth last night.  So, it's going pretty well.

Next year, I plan to participate in several more challenges.  I was easing myself into them this year, but I'm going to be much more enthusiastic with them next year.  :D

How are you managing your challenges?  Have you already completed any?

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Labels: reading challenges, tgif

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Title:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author:  Stephen Chbosky
Series:  n/a
Publisher:  MTV Books and Pocket Books
Publication Date:  February 1, 1999
Links:  Amazon | Goodreads
Rating: 

From Goodreads:

Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt.

Review:

Wow. I must have exclaimed, “Oh, Charlie!” at least twenty times through the course of this novel. I’m not usually a big fan of contemporary novels, young adult or otherwise, but I really connected with this book. Maybe it’s because I was a bit of a wallflower myself when I was younger. Maybe because I’ve always been a reader, much like Charlie. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed this novel, and it’s made me rather thoughtful and reflective these last few days.

Charlie’s tale is poignant and intense at times, but it also has moments of light-heartedness and frivolity. It was a much more realistic portrayal of the average teenager’s life than a lot of other stories out there. This was a story based on truth and brutal honesty, and yet it was surprisingly easy for me to read.

The characters in this narrative are not the one-dimensional characters that you typically find in a contemporary novel. They have real problems and real hopes, and they’re all doing what they have to survive high school. Charlie is naïve and likeable and immediately easy to sympathize with. He candidly expresses the happenings in his life to some unknown individual in the form of letters, and he makes it seem as if this is the most normal thing in the world. He’s peculiar and he’s aware of it, but he makes the best of the hand life has dealt him.

I love that although I knew where the story was going, it wasn’t predictable in how it achieved its end. And what an ending. Wow. Did not anticipate that. The story itself was good, but it was made that much better by that ending. It made it all so much more real. And harder to digest.

And with that, I’ll leave you to wonder and hopefully consider reading this book. If you’re not interested enough just yet, maybe a free copy would help? I’ll be giving away a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower as part of the Banned Books Week hop, which runs from 9/24 to 10/1. So check back on Saturday to enter!

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Labels: banned books, reviews, the perks of being a wallflower

Audiobook Review: Eona, The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Title:  Eona, The Last Dragoneye
Author:  Alison Goodman
Series:  Eon
Publisher:  Brilliance Audio
Publication Date:  April 19, 2011
Links:  Audible | Goodreads
Rating: 

From Goodreads:

Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon’s army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona’s power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the self-styled “Emperor” Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power—and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans...

Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama and romance, its unforgettable fight scenes, and surprises, is the conclusion to an epic only Alison Goodman could create.

Review:

The first Dragoneye novel ended with a whirlwind intensity and brought about so much change in the kingdom, one has to wonder how they’ll ever recover. The second book, and the conclusion to the series, explains just how that is to come about. Where EON built the story and world of the Dragoneyes, EONA serves to completely tear that world apart…and hopefully build something new and better with the pieces.

This story was so full of action and adventure; it was hard to make myself turn the audiobook off when it was necessary…like at bedtime. I was so invested in the book – which at 637 pages made the audio a whopping 18 hours and 41 minutes long (WORTH EVERY SECOND) – and, though the title gives you some idea of how this whole thing is going to go down, I never found the story predictable. In fact, I think EONA is even better than EON, which is saying a lot because I really liked EON.

One of the things that struck me about EON was the lack of a love interest for Eona. But I could understand the absence of one, considering the chaos already surrounding Eona. So, consider me pleasantly surprised to find Eona has not one but two potential love interests in the second book. Normally, I’m not a fan of the love triangle because it’s never done realistically and because it’s overdone. But I ate up the romance in Eona. Hungrily. Greedily. Especially one particular scene that heated up rather unexpectedly. Because the emotions are realistic and the reactions are human.

A great writer can take any scenario and make it work…make it real. Alison Goodman has taken this story and made it hers. She made every situation thrilling, and I was left breathless for the majority of the book.

Nancy Wu, the narrator, has yet again done a beautiful job of bringing this novel to life. Her portrayal of each character was awe-inspiring; so much power and emotion obviously went into her narration. I hope I have the opportunity to hear her narrate more novels in the future.

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Labels: audiobooks, eon, reviews

Audiobook Review: Eon, Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

Title:  Eon, Dragoneye Reborn
Author:  Alison Goodman
Series:  Eon
Publisher:  Brilliance Audio
Publication Date:  December 28, 2008
Links:  Audible | Goodreads
Rating: 

From Goodreads:

Twelve-year-old Eon has been in training for years. His intensive study of Dragon Magic, based on East Asian astrology, involves two kinds of skills: sword-work and magical aptitude. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye – an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune.

But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a boy for the chance to become a Dragoneye. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; if anyone discovers she has been hiding in plain sight, her death is assured. When Eon’s secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a deadly struggle for the Imperial throne.

Eon must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic...and her life.

Review:

I had been told that Eon was a great fantasy novel, but that it was mostly history and back-story for the first half of the book and didn’t get really good until the second half. If you don’t like a rich history and spectacular world-building, then this is probably true for you. I’m not reading YA novels for an intense history lesson, and I don’t know if it is the result of the fabulous narrator (Nancy Wu), but I didn’t find the first half (or any other part, for that matter) at all tedious or unnecessary to the story. Quite the opposite, actually. Miss Wu’s performance was captivating.

That’s not to say that the book itself can’t stand on its own. This story is ripe with adventure, betrayal, and magic. Once the action starts, so much happens in such a small span of time. I was often parched while listening to this book, as my mouth was constantly hanging open in a state of awe. Eon is intense and clever and everything I want in a high-fantasy novel.

If the story itself won’t keep you entertained, the characters sure will. What a motley crew Eona has surrounded herself with. Eona is far from simple, but her allies in this exploit all lead some rather interesting lives, as well.

The descriptive elements in this novel are beyond reproach. Not only are you able to perfectly envision each character’s physical appearance, but also the emotions they wear on their faces and the secrets in their hearts. The depiction of the dragons and their movements and gestures are unequivocally realistic; if there was a dragon in the room with me right now, I bet he’d react and emote in just the way the author describes.

Eon is brilliantly written and beautifully told. This novel was such a fantastic adventure and Eona is a truly unique heroine. If you enjoy a kick-a$$ girl-on-a-mission story, this book is right up your alley.

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Labels: audiobooks, eon, reviews