Review: The English American by Alison Larkin

Title: The English American

Author: Alison Larkin

Pages: 336

Source: Library

Rating: 7/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: "I think everyone should be adopted."

Summary (From back of book):

Twenty-eight-year-old Pippa Dunn is a cheerfully awkward fish out of water -- an untidy redheaded bundle of energy in a posh, buttoned-up London neighborhood. She has always loved her adoptive English parents and sister, Charlotte, while knowing that she was adopted -- or, as her parents tell her, "You were chosen, darling." But not knowing where she truly comes from, Pippa starts to wonder ... who are her birth parents? Are they ebullient and creative, like Pippa? Are they rich and charismatic? Is she a long-lost Kennedy daughter?

When she learns that her mother is a free-spirited redhead (like Pippa!) living in Georgia and that her father is a politically inclined businessman in Washington, D.C., Pippa takes the plunge and crosses the pond to discover her roots. She is soon caught between two opposing cultures, two sets of parents, and two completely different men. Pippa is about to learn the real meaning of "nature versus nurture," of "culture clash" -- and of the full richness (and chaos) of her identity as an English American.

My Two Cents:

This book started out a little worrisome to me. There was just something about it that didn't catch me quite right, and I was worried that that would be the case for the book's entirety. Luckily, something just seemed to click into place about 40 pages in, and then I finished the book rather quickly.

I absolutely adored Pippa. She was smart, funny and entirely herself, regardless of the way others thought she should act. She reminded me a lot of a grown-up Anne of Green Gables or Pippi Longstocking (Not just because of the red hair!) because she just did and said whatever she felt like doing or saying instead of conforming to the conventions that everyone else did. I felt very connected to her as a character, also, and I cared about what happened to her.

Larkin's writing is good, but there's nothing really special about it. It's clear and easy-to-read. This is a book that could be powered through in a few hours, if the reader were so inclined.

The one thing I wasn't very fond of in this book was that Pippa's birth parents were just so out there it was almost a little hard to believe them. I know that Larkin was trying to show that Pippa realizes that her "real" parents are the ones who raised her for 28 years, so there had to be something "wrong" with the birth parents, but there was just a little too much villainization (Is that a word?) of the birth parents for my liking. I almost would've preferred to see that the birth parents were just *normal* people who welcomed Pippa into the fold of their lives.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think anyone who likes books about the "odd duck" child in a family, or who was the "odd duck" in a family, could relate to and enjoy this book.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?: June 28, 2010

Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme whereby bloggers share their reading for the past week.

This week, I read:
The English American by Alison Larkin
Riddle of Berlin by Cym Lowell

This week, I reviewed (Click on the title to read my review):
 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5) by Richelle Mead
Don't Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel

This week, I'm reading:
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

This week, I hope to begin reading:
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie
Ni'il, the Awakening by James Boyle
Glimmerglass (Faeriewalker #1) by Jenna Black

What are you reading this week?

Show Me 5 Saturday: Don't Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel

From That's A Novel Idea and Find Your Next Book Here



1 book I read: Don't Die, My Love by Lurlene

2 words that describe the book: Teen drama


3 settings where it took place or characters you met:

Setting: Waterton, Indiana

Julie Ellis is a teenager who is desperately in love with the star of the football team and who sees nothing but great things ahead of her. She has problems with her mom trying to get her to look at colleges when all she wants to do is find out where her boyfriend plans to go and then make her decision. When Luke finds out he has leukemia, though, her world is turned upside-down.



Luke Muldenhower is the star of the Waterton Warriors football team with a promising college career and a great girlfriend. He's been in love with Julie since they were kids, and he loves reminding her in little ways how much he loves her. After finishing a season that has left him with a flu he can't really shake, Luke goes to the doctor, expecting to be given a prescription and sent on his way to prepare for his senior year and a bid at the championships. It's not that simple, though, and Luke must come to terms with his own fate.


4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

I liked that this book was a lot like slipping on a well-worn pair of jeans: I remembered it from the moment I opened the front cover. McDaniel's books stick with you well past adolescence because they pack that emotional punch that's so memorable.

I didn't like how stereotypical a teenager Julie was. Sure, she had to be universal and appeal to her readers, but Julie was just too snippy with her mom a lot of the time for my liking.

I liked how quick of a read this was. It's only 250 pages and a really easy read, so I was able to finish it in a couple of hours. It gave me a nice feeling of accomplishment even though I was a little less than satisfied with how the book lived up to my memories of it.

I disliked that this book was all about packing an emotional punch and not really about drawing any sort of believable characters. I just didn't really feel that much for anyone in the book. Perhaps it's because I'm remembering basically bawling my eyes out when I first read this book (When I was about 10 years old, I believe), and my re-read will never live up to that feeling. But, I've run into some really great young adult literature recently that packs an emotional punch while still appealing to the adult readers. Young adult literature really has come a long way since the mid-90s.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm giving the book 3 stars. It just didn't sit well with me this time around, and part of that could be because I've got about 15 years between my first read and this one. That's a lot of living and emotional maturity. I can see where young girls would still be affected by this one, but I think it may not be as well-received by today's readers as it was when it first was published because of the increase in sophistication of young adult literature.


The Whys and Wheres: Library - I picked it up because I read it so many years ago and still think of it from time to time, so I wanted to see if it lives up to my expectations.

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

Review: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5) by Richelle Mead

Title: Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy #5)

Author: Richelle Mead

Pages: 489

Source: Library

Rating: 8/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: "There's a big difference between death threats and love letters -- even if the person writing the death threats still claims to actually love you."

Summary (From book flap):

After a long and heartbreaking journey to Siberia, Dimitri's birthplace, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's -- and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir. It's graduation, and the girls can't wait for their real lives outside of the academy's cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose's heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he has silenced her ... forever.

But Rose can't forget what she learned on her journey -- whispers of a magic too impossible and terrifying to comprehend. A magic inextricably tied to Lissa that could hold the answer to all of Rose's prayers, but not without devastating consequences. Now Rose will have to decide what -- and who -- matters most to her. And in the end, is true love really worth the price?

My Two Cents:

This is, overall, the best young adult vampire series I have read. It's well-written, the world is rich and the characters aren't just a bunch of spoiled, whiny teenagers. However, this is my least favorite book in the series so far.

When last we left Rose, she thought she had killed her love Dimitri, who was turned Strigoi (The worst kind of vampire). But, he wasn't dead. This book picks back up at St. Vladimir's with Rose reading another of Dimitri's notes to her in which he tells her she is fair game as soon as she leaves the academy's gates.

The main action of this book really takes place within the first 150 pages. After that, it's just a lot of walking around and talking and a lot of Rose getting upset. It's still a pretty solid book, but it just does not live up to the other four books in the series. Sure, there's a pretty good twist at the end that leaves plenty of material for the final book, but it just wasn't what I had hoped it would be.

Even though this installment was a bit disappointing, I still would recommend this series to anyone who likes vampire literature. If you've read Twilight and think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, please, do yourself a favor and read this series instead. You'll never know what hit you. 

Review: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Title: Jude the Obscure

Author: Thomas Hardy

Pages: 444

Source: Personal copy

Rating: 8/10

Challenges: Read 'n' Review Challenge

First Sentence: "The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry."

Summary (From back of book):

Jude Fawley, the stone-mason, whose academic ambitions are thwarted by poverty and the indifference of the authorities at Christminster, appears to find fulfillment in his relationship with Sue Bridehead. Both of them have fled from previous marriages, and together they share a 'two-in-oneness' rarely matched. Ironically, when tragedy strikes it is Sue, the modern, emancipated thinker -- the last and greatest of Hardy's heroines, ranking with Emma Bovary and Anna Karenin -- who is unequal to the challenge.

Its literary qualities apart, Jude the Obscure is also a rich source of social history, accurately reflecting within its pages the encroachment of the modern, developing world on the rural traditions of England.

My Two Cents:

While this book was still good, it is my least-favorite Hardy to-date (I've read all the major Hardy's except The Mayor of Casterbridge). I think a lot of the problem I had with this was that it was so meandering most of the time -- It covered such a HUGE span of time and it took forever for Hardy to really get down to the meat of the matter. I think it would have been better if he had just focused on Jude's bid for Christminster and then showed a little of what happened after his rejection or something.


I really liked Jude as a character. I felt sorry for him through the entire book, mostly because I knew that his big dreams could come to no positive end. You have to expect, when reading Hardy, that anyone who has a dream but no money will come within sight of achieving that goal, but never quite make it. And Jude works hard, independently, to gain entry to Christminster (A fictionalized Oxford), but fails because he has neither the money or the social standing to recommend him to the dons.

I wasn't, actually, terribly fond of Sue, nor was I really impressed with her as the heroine. Sure, she bucks the tradition of rural England and runs off with Jude while she's still technically married -- One source of all the "scandal" when this book was first published -- but she just seemed kind of blah to me. She had no real spark or life that I could grab onto and say, "Yes, this is a great heroine."

Even though Hardy was a pretty critical social writer in his time and often dealt with the plight of the lower classes, this is his most socially critical work that I've read. This book, although slow at times, never failed to provide me with a rich commentary on the social mores of Jude's world. If nothing else, this book is important for that picture of a world gone by.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?: June 21, 2010

Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a weekly bookish meme whereby bloggers share their reading for the past week.

It was a slow reading week for me this week between work and getting my house ready for a cook-out on Sunday. I still managed to finish a book, though!

This week, I read:
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

This week, I reviewed (Click on the title to read my review):
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This week, I'm reading:
The English American by Alison Larkin

This week, I hope to begin reading:
The Essays: A Selection by Michel de Montaigne
The Riddle of Berlin by Cym Lowell

What are you reading this week? 

BBAW: My Nomination Post

I've seen a lot of posts over the last several months talking about Book Blogger Appreciation Week, so when I saw Jenners' post about how she's joining up, I was intrigued.

BBAW is one of those things that, I think, every book blogger needs to tackle at least once, much like Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon. Of course, having never experienced a BBAW myself, I can't really tell anyone why they should participate, other than I see a lot of people talking positively about it.

In looking through the posts on the BBAW site, I saw that bloggers are being asked to nominate themselves for awards this year, and link up to the post which condenses their five nomination entries.

Since I started my blog back in December, I decided to nominate myself for Best New Book Blog, a category which I'm sure will be full of awesome new bloggers. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

So, here are my five posts for my entry, which I think best represent what I've done with my blog thus far:

1. A post most of you probably haven't read (From when my blog was a wee, itty-bitty tadpole) where I try to figure out which War and Peace character I loathed the least

2. A review of one of my favorite reads of 2010, complete with a Twilight rant, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

3. My favorite read of all time: The Great Gatsby

4. How Eric Van Lustbader's Last Snow sort of helped me overcome James Patterson Syndrome

5. One of my longest reviews (It should be, it took me seven weeks to read the book!), Gone With the Wind