-Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Wise words from Rick Riordan.
-Elisa, The Bitter Kingdom
This book is so good! I'm loving it :) Ashtyn and Derek are great protags.
I'm really excited about starting this book! I have a slight thing for sports books. I really love books where girls play sports (especially if they are on a boys team). I blame the fact that we watched Quarterback Princess a lot when I was younger. I really hope this book lives up to my excitement.
So they made a movie out of Geography Club by Brent Hartinger. It's been a while since I read it, but it seems different from the book. I'm still hopeful that it's good portrayal of the book.
-Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
The audiobook narrator is phenomenal. Zuzana's voice is my favorite.
So, in my real life, I'm a trial lawyer. I prosecute people who rape children and commit murder, and engage that sort of anti-social criminal behavior. Because of that, I'm pretty familiar (actually, extremely familiar) with the rules of evidence.
This post is for the purpose of talking about the rule against hearsay. I don't want to get all boring and legalish and stuff, but basically, the rule of hearsay provides that stuff that is said outside of court (i.e., to a witness who wants to repeat it in court) is sufficiently unreliable that it won't be allowed in court in front of the finder of fact (i.e., jury) unless it fits into an exception that gives it something that we call indicia of reliability. For our purposes, I'm just going to talk about regular old hearsay.
So, hearsay is what happens when some disgruntled author calls someone a troll on an outside website without having any actual evidence to back up that statement. And then, asking other people who haven't seen the evidence and who really don't know anything about what has actually transpired, to rely on their opinion that the person is a troll. Or a bully. Or whatever. That's relying on hearsay to make decisions about someone. It's certainly permissible (after all, life is not a courtroom, and the rules of evidence don't apply in the universe).
But.
It's unreliable. Think of a game of telephone for a moment. That's what this is. It's one big, long game of telephone, but unlike in the big, long game of telephone, the person who is passing the secret message on to the next person is not a disinterested party. They have an interest in twisting the words and in obscuring the facts.
from Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller
Rose Under Fire is a brilliant book. The writing is beautiful. The research is so impeccable. I think that Code Name Verity was a more interesting reading experience because we as readers had to sort out was was true. That isn't to say that Rose Under Fire wasn't a good book. It was well-written but it was much more straightforward. Rose's story is a collection of so many other stories that she witnessed. She survived and is getting out the message about how horrific the concentration camps truly were. What struck me most about this book was how the girls came together at the concentration camp. They still found ways to help each other and care for each other despite the horrors they were witnessing. There were many stories that aren't usually told that were delved into in this book. I cried through most of the end. I hope that this book and Code Name Verity both find themselves in classrooms for both their historical narrative and for being so beautifully written.
I loved this book! Terrill does a great job of foreshadowing and letting the reader discover things a little bit before they read them. The love triangle between Mariana/Em, Finn, and James was brilliant. It was so original and heartrending. The time travel rules for this book were explained well. I liked that ending wasn't spelled out exactly. It made me want to find other people who had finished the book so we could talk about our theories for book 2. Speaking of, I'm really not sure how there could be a book 2, but I will definitely read it.
This book was so much fun. The world was so intriguing. I really liked how the gods were integrated into the story (and that they weren't the usual ones we see). I liked Kyra as a character. Her relationships with her friends were well done. I know that there are no sequel plans, but I would love a companion novel of one of the other cities under the gods' rule.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley to review.
I received this book from Netgalley for review.
Loved it! The fantasy world Carson created has Spanish influences which was awesome. Elisa is a great protagonist. She's smart, resourceful, and easy to root for. I can't wait to see where the story goes next.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review.
