What I read in July

I hate when life is all like, NOPE you don't get to read, you have things to do (moving, dating, life, oh my)!  It's just the pits.  That said, I finally popped my audiobook cherry and now this is me:

I'm still powering through my reading challenges and I feel like I'm getting no where fast with them.  I felt like I made a lot more progress than I actually did.  Whatever, reading is reading (or listening now) and at least I'm attempting.. and I'll probably finish reading my challenge books, even after the dates for the challenges pass.  Apparently, my reading fiendishness doesn't compare to my fellow fiends.  Ok then.

On to the reviews, shall we?

Rating scale:

1/5 - Hated it, didn't finish.
2/5 - Tolerated it on principle to finish, didn't like it.
3/5 - Eh, didn't love it, didn't hate it.  Had some good parts/kept me interested/finished it on principle.
4/5 - I liked it.
5/5 - I LURVED it and I'd read it again.

Skimmers, stick with the bold text (TL;DR* parts).



The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 4.5/5

4.5 because I'm not sure I would reread it, but I enjoyed this book to the max.  I saw the movie years ago and didn't remember the twist at the end.  I personally felt like Charlie was possibly a bit autistic or had a touch of Asperger's.  I wasn't sure.  It could have just been innocence, but sometimes the way his thoughts were indicated something bigger.  I really wanted to find out who the stranger was he was writing to and maybe I just missed it.  I think Chobosky did a good job of typing up all the loose ends, even if the ending felt a bit rushed.

Also, am I the only person in the universe who happened to miss the "I did drugs/drank in high school" bus?  

TL;DR: A coming-of-age story of a boy in high school who reads a lot (right up our alley) and writes letters to deal with his high school angst, which is pretty interesting.


Wonder by R.J. Palacio 4.5/5
4.5 because I'm not sure I would reread it, but I really enjoyed this one.  This was also my very first audiobook, which was enjoyable.  I didn't expect the different perspectives, but I it was a relief when they finally came since I was getting tired of the main character's perspective.  I personally would have preferred the main character be given a chapter between each of the other perspectives, but that's personal preference.  I started to miss the voice of the main character after an extended period of time from everyone else's viewpoint.  I felt  like we were never going to get a good description, so that was semi-frustrating, but I got over it.

There probably would have been more feels for me had I been reading this instead of listening.  There was one point I felt myself starting to tear up, but I was running and I felt like my vision needed to be maintained.

TL;DR: 1. Kids are horrible.  I was probably a horrible kid.  2.  This book gave me feelz.  3.  Can I have an astronaut helmet for bad zit days?



The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson  1/5

I wanted to kill myself listening to this.  I felt like the story was being told by a 100 year old man and he was just drawing it out for as long as possible.  Similar to how I started to feel towards HIMYM when it was boring.  JUST GET TO THE DAMN POINT!  I didn't feel entertained by this book.  I felt like the history of each character that came into the picture was completely unnecessary.
Additionally, the audio version that I got, the narrator's voice for the other characters was completely obnoxious.  Just grated my nerves over and over and over.  With that and the feelings of agitation that the book invoked in me, I finally decided to call it quits somewhere in chapter 10.  I don't even care how the book ends, I hope they all die, except for the elephant, because they were so obnoxious.

TL;DR: Don't read this unless you can tolerate long narratives and story lines for characters that won't add anything to the story every chapter.


Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen  5/5
I wanted to sit down and devour this book in one sitting, but just wasn't able to make/find the time.  I was instantly drawn into Sydney's life and wanted to know what was going to happen.  Also, Teh Mom and I have a pretty rough relationship, so I can get behind the literal mama drama.   I figured that the creepy part of this book would end up way worse than it actually did, so that was good.  Then again, this is a YA book, so that would probably be a majority of the reasoning why things didn't go as badly as I anticipated.

I enjoyed the budding love and teenage angst, which wasn't overly angsty.  Sometimes, a girl just need some sappy love that doesn't get tainted by the real world.

TL;DR:  A good YA read that isn't overly angsty with just enough drama to keep you interested topped with a few sprinkles of romance.

In Progress:

Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
New Stories from the South 2001 by various (Shannon Ravenel)
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
Redeployment by Phil Klay

I know it seems a bit extreme to be in the middle of 5 books, but it's how I roll.
I know that I'm going to struggle with some books (Redeployment/Guantanamo) so I have to spend some time in other books to break it up.  I get very wrapped up in the worlds I emerge in (tv shows/movies/books/etc), so I know that if I'm reading a dark book, I'll be in a dark mood.  If I watch a sappy movie, I'll be in a sappy mood.  I've yet to decide if that's a good or bad aspect about myself, but I've come to accept it over the years.

On Deck:
Any of these that I haven't already read


*TL;DR = too long, don't read