I Loathe, I Like, I Love

I cannot believe that today marks the beginning of a new year. I'm sure many of you are experiencing similar feelings about 2013. Time truly flies by so fast, does it not?

For me, 2012 was the year of the YA books. I have been introduced to so many different characters and authors. Here are the first annual "I Love, I Like, I Loathe" awards for AM Station!

NOTE: Not all these books came out in 2012, but I that is the year in which I read them.

The Dynamic Duo Award for Best Movie/Book Goes To: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I still remember where I was when I read this book for the first time. It was in January or February and I was at back-to-back basketball games that my siblings were playing in. I was so engrossed in the book that I could not lift my eyes from it's pages!

(PG14 for heavy content, brief violence, language, and some sexual content)

The Most Amazing/Disappointing Award Goes To: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I read this book this past August and was extremely impressed by Green's ability to capture real life circumstances. This book was heartbreakingly beautiful. However, the book contained unnecessary sexual content, making it unable for me to give it a full five stars.

(PG14 for mature subject content and sexual content)

The Heartbreaker Award Goes To: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I finished this book a few weeks ago and was so touched by it. I shed a good deal of tears over this one. The characters in this book are some of the most intriguing I have ever meet. Seriously. In fact, they are too good to be without a long review, so more on them later! Anyway, this story literally broke my heart with everything that transpired in its pages.

(PG14 for mature subject content)

The Disappointing End to a Series Goes To: Reached by Ally Condie

Matched was amazing. Crossed was ok; at the very least tolerable. I was barely even into the first few chapters when I couldn't take it any more. I tried and tried to keep reading, but I found myself reading and re-reading each word. Each page I read felt like two. I was very disappointed, to say the least.

(Rating is NA because I didn't finish it)

The Highest Expectations 2012 Award Goes To: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

After Delirium ended in such a cliff hanger fashion, I was DYING to read Pandemonium!! Though I wasn't as impressed with Pandemonium, (it kind of dragged in some parts) it was such a exciting read. Ugh, and the ending was WAY more of a cliff hanger that Delirium. ALEX!!!!!!!

(PG14 for mature subject content and brief sexual content)

The I Loathe Award for Worst Book I've Read Goes To: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Part of the reason why I disliked this book/series was probably because my expectations were so high. I thought that though the plot was good, but the characters and their actions didn't seem very realistic and I didn't care about them very much. There also didn't seem to be a whole lot of character development.

(PG13 for the first book, PG14 for books 2 and 3)

The I Like Award for Most Ok Book I've Read Goes To: Tiger's Destiny by Colleen Houck

The Tiger Saga was the first YA series I read, recommended to me by Jen Wagner, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Since then, I've read better written books, but these are still a fun read. That being said, this book lacked a certain pizazz. In my opinion, the characters didn't react the way real people would have when facing certain situations. Another reason why I wasn't very impressed could also be because my expectations were so high following the previous books in the series.

(PG12-- As a side note, the series is great for older preteens to younger teens, but also a great adult read.)

The I Love Award for Best Book I've Read Goes To:

*drum roll please*

Divergent by Veronica Roth!

Since I have already written a review of this novel, there is little left to say. But this was seriously one of the best books I've ever read. There are so many lessons to be drawn from this story. The characters were so real and and relatable. The plot was amazing and there were so many surprises within Divergent's pages! Almost needless to say, I can't wait for the last book in the series to come out in Fall 2013!!

(PG13 for a mild romance, mature subject content, and brief language)

Happy New Year, everyone!! I would love to hear your favorite book/books of this past year!!

(Pictures from Google images)

Help Yourself to The Help!

Book: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Rating: PG14 for heavy content, brief violence, language, and some sexual content.

I read an “oh-so-true” blog post a few weeks ago by the brilliant Faith Hough (http://faithehough.blogspot.com/) about how there are three kinds of books: the bad ones, the good ones, and the great ones. She wrote that the good ones make up most of what we read, but when we read the great ones, they make us writers just want to move away from our computers and notebooks because we feel we will never write anything that good.

My thoughts exactly when I read Kathryn Stockett’s The Help.

    If I was asked to describe my feelings for The Help in one word, it would be “Wow.” Wow, wow, wow, wow, WOW. Yes, it’s that good. In fact, so good that Harry Potter has been officially bumped down to number two on my best books ever list. I have lost count of the number of times I have read this book.

    The thing about The Help is that it makes you want to get lost in its world-- even though it's world is a very dangerous place. The Help takes place in the early-mid 60’s in the anti-black town of Jackson, Mississippi. The story alternates between three narrators; the sweet Aibileen Clark, who’s raised sixteen white children; the sassy Minny Jackson, who’s known for her cooking and mouth, a dangerous combination for a black maid in Jackson, and ambitious writer Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. Usually, I’m not a huge fan of books where the narrator changes with each chapter; Nicholas Sparks’ The Last Song or some of Rick Riordan’s books were impossible for me to get through. But I think the changing narrators is what made my experience with The Help so enjoyable.

           The story begins with Aibileen’s narration. Aibileen’s son was recently killed and she talks about not feeling so accepting of white people any more. Aibileen is such a real character with such real struggles and strengths. She is definitely a mother hen type of women, and I guess she’d have to be, after raising sixteen kids. She’s on her seventeenth; another white child of a racist mother.

            Actually, mostly everyone in Jackson is racist. Even, I noted, the black people are racist.

As I read through Minny’s chapters, I noticed how she so fiercely believed in small things, like not being anything but civil (and sometimes less than that) to white women, but believed in equal treatment. For me, this was kind of ironic, but in no means a negative point in the story. Minny, who is definitely one of my all-time favorite characters, is very ignorant at some points in the novel, but I saw how she was hurting, and that drew her to me. The same thing goes with Aibileen-- she had been hurt so deeply by the world. And I just wanted to get on my phone and call her and have a five hour conversation with her. Goodness, I love that woman.

Oh, and Skeeter. She’s trying so hard to make it in a male-dominated writing world, but her mother keeps getting in her way. Skeeter has graduated from college and moved back in with her parents, and the only thing her mom cares about is Skeeter getting married. My heart ached for Skeeter as she and her mother fought. As she struggled to write something meaningful, something she could publish. As she wished for love in the hateful town of Jackson.

These three completely different women. All from different backgrounds, shaped from different circumstances. All united with one goal. (Which I'm not going to tell you, because you NEED to read this book and see for yourself!)

Everything about this book was sheer wonderfulness. I have gone back to read it so many times with a notebook, pen, and highlighter in hand. Kathryn Stockett’s imagery is amazing, her dialogue, superb, and, of course, her characters-- well, I just want to take all my favorite people in that novel out to lunch, for goodness’ sakes!! Unfortunately, of course, The Help is purely fictional. Dang. But you know you’ve written a good book, I think, when your fans tell you that your characters are their best friends. I hope one day I shall be so blest to write a book like The Help.

Favorite Line: “Babies like fat. Like to bury they face up in you armpit and go to sleep. They like big fat legs too. This I know.” -- Aibileen, page 2

(Just one-- I wish I could post the whole book, but, alas, I have my own novel to work on.)

ALSO-- the movie! The Help movie is not nearly as good as the book-- what is?-- but definitely worth seeing once you finish the book!