Book Review - Sisterhood Everlasting

Author: Ann Brashares

Rating: 5/5

Series: Eh, not exactly

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.

Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

I'm not good at ending things. It's not just that I get attached/addicted/committed to a television show or a routine or a ritual, I like feeling as if the "thing" is helping me understand myself. 

That's kind of how I am with book series. I like getting to know my characters. I don't want to just appreciate them, I want to actually love them.

So when I realized Brashares wrote this fifth follow-up to her beloved Traveling Pants series (and if by some ridiculous reason you don't know about these books - especially if you are a teenage girl - click on that link immediately), I naturally had to read it. It took me longer to get my hands on  it - unlike my usual self, I know - but I finally succeeded and read it in a couple of long car rides this weekend (mind you I wasn't driving, but sitting safely in the backseat). 

I've read some reviews that people have left about this 5th book. Some said that the unexpected plot was "too much." Some said that it felt like some kind of farce. Some said they didn't WANT to know what happened to these girls after the fourth book (and to that I say: POOP YOU!! Don't read it if you don't care). Some said they felt like the girls hadn't grown up enough since the last book took place ten years ago.

But I loved it. Sure, I wanted to scream and throw things at Brashares for one big reason, but I won't spoil it. However, I can't imagine a more beautiful ending - and beginning - for my favorite group of gals. And by the end of the book, I easily saw how they had indeed grown up, without losing their cores - the things that made them each so very different and special but also so perfect for each other.

Brashares has a way of writing that feels like she takes the thoughts of others and writes them down, and somehow they are much more beautiful than we realized. 

One big difference that reflects the "older tone" of this book compared to the series is the non-summery feel. Each Traveling Pants book is the perfect summer read...partially because they take place in the summer. This book covers the other side of the year....mostly the winter. I think that's pretty symbolic, don't you?

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte.

"That in itself is a tremendous thing."

-E.B. White

xo

rebekah 

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IMM (9)

Hey guys! This week I have a video for my IMM. Actually... I have 2 haul videos from this week! I will link both of the videos down below. I meant to take a picture too, but forgot, and now all the books are back and school and not with me! So sorry about that!

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'brien

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Pretties, Specials, Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

I will have pictures as well next week for those who don't want to watch the videos!

Thanks for stopping by! What was in your mailbox this week?

Taylor

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TGIF (2): Book I would Recommend to a Friend

Hey guys! Today I am doing a TGIF post hosted by Ginger over at GReads.

Today's question: Which book from the last 10 you've read would you recommend to a friend?

Hmm.. This is a tough one. I've read a lot of good ones lately! But I think I would recommend I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I truly enjoyed this one. If you want to see my full review, you can check it out here. But here was my short and quick "main idea" of the review:

I'll Be There could be considered your typical middle-high class girl meets poor boy, and they fall in love kind of story- but it isn't. All I can say is that if you are looking for a truly beautiful albeit heart wrenching at times story, PLEASE pick this one up to read. I was amazed. 

 

-Taylor

Yowza, I agree - tough one. For the majority of my friends, I would recommend Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Published over 10 years ago, the award-winning novel is a quick, witty, sad, and honest story about a regular girl with a big burden, all while juggling the pressures of her lonely first year of high school. And while I often tire of the drawn-out clichés in YA books and movies (even though I also secretly love many...Mean Girls, hello), Anderson hit that "awkwardness" right on the head while keeping true to the themes. The main character is funny and flawed, but so real.

-Rebekah

Have you read either of these books? What did you think? What would you recommend?

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Review: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Reviewer: Taylor

Title: Article 5

Author: Kristen Simmons

Published: January 31, 2012

Source: Publisher

Series: yes- 1st book

Pages: 362

Rating: 4/5

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

 You can either check out my video review (which is my first one ever... so it may be a tad scattered) or the written review below! Or both!

 The Main Idea: Article 5 is a gripping dystopian filled with fleeing from the government, action packed pages, and learning to find one's old and true self. One definitely worth picking up and reading. 

 Things I liked:

1. Page-turner: This book was SUCH a page turner. I was always wanting to know what was going to happen next, if they were going to get caught, or if anything would heat up between Ember and Chase. There is the perfect amount of action. Not too much where you just feel worn out by reading it, but definitely enough to keep you always guessing and intrigued.

2. Rawness: I felt that Chase's character was so complex. But in a good way. Going off and joining in the FBR had not been an easy experience, and it had definitely affected who he was. During their journey, he and Ember were both trying to find at least some part of the old Chase. Sometimes, there would be a breakthrough, but then he would just as easily turn back into the gruff, different Chase. I loved the journey (that will undoubtedly continue through the next books) of Chase trying to find himself, and He and Ember trying to piece together any semblance of what they were like before.

3. Road trip: Sure, it definitely wasn't your typical road-trip book. However, they technically were still on a road trip. I liked this because the setting was always changing; there were always new characters you didn't know if you could trust or not. This definitely was an added element to the book for me.

Things I didn't like:

Ember's attitude: Yes, Ember has been through a heck of a lot. They took her mom, she was abused in the rehabilitation home, and now she is journeying with the boy she used to know.  But, why do girls in books always think that they can figure things out on their own and that they need no one else's help. There was one scene in the book where Ember decided she didn't need Chase anymore, and she runs away. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. You don't have to like someone- fine. I understand. But to go off in the wilderness on  your own with no supplies, no sense of direction, and no safety? That is dumb. However, in the end, it of course made for a great action sequence!

Definitely a great, new dystopian series in the making!

Taylor

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Waiting on Wednesday

Hosted by Breaking the Spine.


No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel

Publication Date: Feb 2, 2012

In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years- across oceans, deserts, and mountains-but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator-the girl, grown into a young mother-must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future. A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, No One Is Here Except All Of Us explores how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths. It marks the arrival of a major new literary talent. 


Hello fellow earthlings. Rebekah here.

I've kind of been in my own world lately - that always happens to me between semesters.

I just decided to re-watch the entire Lost series when I went to visit my sister last week (I got her season one for her birthday-i'm enjoying it as well hehe). It's still so good.

Back to my point (I promise there is one). A big theme in Lost is starting over with a clean slate. I mean, they're trapped on an island completely shut off from the rest of the world fighting polar bears and crazy monsters and freaky island people (if you haven't watched the show, don't be put off by this). They're surviving. Don't have time to worry about who they were - they are who they choose to be now.

This upcoming book seems like it will focus a great deal on that same aspect of "starting over." Set during the onset of WWII, a group of people forget their pasts and create their own future in order to escape the reality of war. I'm so curious to see what kind of characters this will hold. Not sure what genre this belongs in, but I'm excited that I'll get a chance to read this from an upcoming "big talent."


Sorry this is a late in the day posting. Just kind of decided last minute.

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