Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

Published February 25th 2016 by Macmillans Kids UK

96 pages (including an excerpt of another story)

Goodreads Summary: ‘Everybody likes everything these days. The whole world is a nerd.’
‘Are you mad because other people like Star Wars? Are you mad because people like me like Star Wars?’
‘Maybe.’

If you broke Elena’s heart, Star Wars would spill out. So when she decides to queue outside her local cinema to see the new movie, she’s expecting a celebration with crowds of people who love Han, Luke and Leia just as much as she does. What she’s not expecting is to be last in a line of only three people; to have to pee into a collectible Star Wars soda cup behind a dumpster or to meet that unlikely someone who just might truly understand the way she feels. Kindred Spirits is an engaging short story by Rainbow Rowell, author of the bestselling Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On, and is part of a handful of selected short reads specially produced for World Book Day.

Review: I wasn’t always a Star Wars fan.  Not until I was in middle school and the “new” trilogy started to come out.  I saw The Force Awakens with my Star Wars nerd husband and really enjoyed it for the most part while he had more qualms about it because it felt too much like A New Hope for him.  Anyways… I love Rainbow Rowell so I was really excited to read this short story that she wrote for World Book Day.  Since it wasn’t going to be available in the US, I preordered it from Book Depository.

The story was only 59 pages so it was really short and didn’t take long to read at all.  The main character, Elena, was so cute.  The people that she meets while waiting in line days before the premiere of The Force Awakens are interesting characters.  There were some really funny parts.  I loved how Elena’s mom kept driving by the line to check on her and see if she wanted to go home.  Nothing like mother’s not completely understanding one’s dedication to one’s fandom.  The end had me really wanting to read more about Elena.  That’s again what I don’t like about short stories.  I end up wanting more but not able to get it.  Overall, this was a cute, fun little story.

4 Stars

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Published March 27th 2012 by Plume (first published April 14th 2011)

323 Pages

Goodreads Summary: “Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . ” From the award-winning author of Eleanor & Park, Fangirl, andLandline comes a hilarious and heartfelt novel about love in the workplace.

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

Review: This is the 3^rd Rainbow Rowell book I have read now.  I knew I loved her after reading my first, Eleanor & Park.  Fangirl was good but didn’t blow me away.  So I was prepared to like Attachments, but I wasn’t prepared to absolutely 100% love it.  And I did!  Attachments pushed E&P out of my #1 Rainbow Rowell spot.  There were so many things I loved about this book.  The characters felt so real.  Lincoln is a 28 year old living with his mother, finally getting a job after spending the last 10 months getting multiple college degrees.  He hates his new job and feels like a creeper but can’t stop reading the emails between Beth and Jennifer.  Even though he has never met them and doesn’t know what they look like, he finds himself falling for Beth.  Meanwhile, Beth is stuck in a seemingly dead end relationship that everyone but she can see.  She has seen Lincoln around the office without knowing who he is and nicknames him her cute guy.  Ahh I could go on and on and on about this book.  It is so cute!  But there are also some deeper moments for all three characters that really add depth to the book.  I devoured this book.  If it weren’t for work and needing sleep I would have finished it the same day I started reading it.  I really enjoyed breaking away from reading about teenagers for a bit and moving forward a decade.  One of my favorite things about this book was all of the fantastic ‘90s references!  It was set in 1999 and their newspaper was prepping for Y2K.  Beth is a movie reviewer so we would get to see all of the titles of the movies she reviewed for the paper.  And just other references of pop culture thrown into everyday conversation between the characters.  I will definitely be recommending this book to anyone I know and I look forward to reading it again in the future.

WWW Wednesday – November 4, 2015

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words.
Each week we answer the following three questions:
-What have you recently finished reading?
-What are you currently reading?
-What are you reading next?

I have finished some great ones since my last WWW Wednesday post two weeks ago.  My reading slump is officially over!  I’ve been listening to audiobooks all day long at work so even though both of these Outlander audiobooks are long, I’ve been finishing about one per week.  I finally finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and it was fantastic!  I am going to be a very impatient person until the sequel is released.  I also started and finished my October OwlCrate book which was A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis.  I really liked it, especially towards the last half of the book when things really picked up!  I would love to see more of both Grace and Dr. Thornhollow.

In my October #OTSPSecretSister package, she sent me the book I needed to complete my Rainbow Rowell collection.  And not only that but she had it signed and personalized!  As soon as I finished AMSD I absolutely had to start Attachments.  I am less than 100 pages away from finishing it and I am completely in love with it.  It’s even pushing to the top and bumping E&P out of my #1 Rainbow Rowell book spot.  I’ll definitely be finishing it later today.  And now that I am caught up on the Outlander audiobooks (I only wanted to listen to the ones I have physically read for a recap before starting book 5), I decided to listen to Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  It’s one of my favorites and I haven’t read it in SO long.  This one is super long so it will probably take me a week and a half at least.

When I finish Attachments later today I will be moving on to Paperweight by Meg Haston (which was my September book from my #OTSPSecretSister).  I am really looking forward to it!  After Paperweight will be Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, and then See Me by Nicholas Sparks.  It’s a good thing that I made an extras list for this month’s TBR because I am blowing through my list rather quickly.

What have you been reading lately?

Autumn Book Tag

Hey guys!  I saw Ashley do this fun post and I had to do it since Autumn is my favorite season.

What is your favorite thing about Autumn?
I have so many favorite things when it comes to Autumn since it is my favorite season. Those things include the leaves changing, the crisp fall days, Halloween, Thanksgiving, pumpkins, fall apples, etc. Pretty much everything that has to do with fall, I love!
What book reminds you of your school days?
Hmm that’s a good question. I guess I don’t really have one in particular. I read a lot when I was growing up between books for school and books for fun. But in 4th grade, our class did a read-along of Save Queen of Sheba and I have loved that book ever since.

What book cover reminds you of Autumn?

What is your favorite horror or Halloween story?
The first book I remember reading that really gave me the creeps was The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver. I remember reading it late at night and being scared to turn off the lights to go to bed.

What is your favorite horror or Halloween film?
One of my all-time favorite horror movies is Scream. I’ve lost track of how many times I have watched that movie and all of the sequels. My all-time favorite Halloween movie is without a doubt, Hocus Pocus! It isn’t Halloween without a screening of my favorite witches.

What Fall book release are you most looking forward to?
Definitely Winter by Marissa Meyer! I never thought I would have liked The Lunar Chronicles because Cinder is a cyborg and I wasn’t really into that. But I picked it up on a whim once at Target and devoured it as well as Scarlet and Cress. Each book has gotten progressively better so I can’t wait to see what happens in Winter!

What Autumn movie release are you most anticipating?
I think it’s safe to say that any book lover is looking forward to my most anticipated fall movie release…. Mockingjay Part 2… Are you really surprised?

What are three books you plan to read this Autumn?
I have three new releases that I am dying to get to that I have recently acquired. I am not going include the two pre-orders that haven’t been released yet.
 

And there you have it!  I tag anyone who loves Autumn!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Published May 12th 2015 by St. Martin’s Griffin (first published January 1st 2013)

464 Pages

Goodreads Summary: In Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life-and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Review: This was my second Rainbow Rowell book.  I LOVED Eleanor & Park so I was really looking forward to reading more from Rowell.  I did like this book a lot but my main irritation was the main character, Cath.  She had some social anxieties and while that itself wasn’t what bothered me (as I have social anxieties of my own), she seemed to be constantly whining about it.  She didn’t do anything really to try and get over these issues.  One thing that really bugged me was when her professor gave her the chance to re-do her final writing assignment and she kept putting it off until finally deciding to not do it at all.  I wish like hell I had been given chances to re-do things in college, it just seems incredibly stupid not to take that chance.  On the other hand, when it came to the issues with her mother, I totally felt for her.  I would not have been able to forgive my mother if she had left me either.  I don’t really quite understand how Wren could have just forgotten about what their mother had put them all through by leaving.  Now, I think my favorite part of this book was Levi.  He was such a lovable character!  He’s like the perfect guy and Cath was very lucky that he was into her.  All the things I didn’t like about this book were completely made up for with Levi’s character and personality.

4/5 Stars