Author Spotlight: Ally Carter

    Today, I wanted to introduce a new section to my blog: Author Spotlights. I want to try and do these at least once a month. Basically, I'll be talking about specific authors that I love, whether recently discovered or having read their books for years.

    I will be starting off with one of my favorite authors in YA literature today, Ally Carter. 

    Carter is the author of three separate YA series: the Gallagher Girls series, the Heist Society series, and the Embassy Row series. I began reading Carter's books in late 2008 or so, and ever since I have loved each and every one. I was thirteen at the time and going through a CIA and FBI loving stage. I wanted anything having to do with spies or anyone undercover, and I found exactly that in Carter's books. 

    Her first series, Gallagher Girls, is all about a school that trains teenage girls to become the next generation of spies and world leaders. When I thought I couldn't love Carter's books anymore, she came out with Heist Society, which follows a team of teen thieves who, in Robin Hood-esque style, thieve for good. It's amazing. Then, this past year, she came out with the first in a new series, Embassy Row, which is about a young girl living on Embassy Row among ambassadors and children from all around the world. 

 

    The first books I read by Carter were the Gallagher Girl books. I read the first two quickly, and I remember waiting for the third to come out. Here's the thing about Carter's books, though: I binge read them. They are fairly short novels, and after waiting over a year for each new installment, I always manage to read through the new book within a day or two. This means waiting prolonged periods of time, reading for a day or two, and then waiting even more prolonged periods of times. For years I did this, as I followed the Gallagher Girls series. The Heist Society allowed for a bit less waiting, however, because even though it wasn't the same characters or story, it still meant more amazing characters and plots from Carter. 

    I love the Heist Society and Embassy Row books nearly as much as I love the Gallagher Girls series, but I don't think anything will ever replace the amazing feeling I get while reading the Gallagher Girls series. I grew up with them. I literally shared my junior high and high school experience with these characters. It was a heart-breaking moment when this series ended, especially since the last book, which chronicles the girls' last semester of senior year, came out just after I had graduated high school and was about to move to Seattle for my first year of college. It seemed fitting that their last chronicled adventure happened the same year I graduated. It felt like the perfect ending to the series and to my high school years. 

    These books are the perfect mix of light and dark, funny and serious, fun and dangerous. I highly recommend them for anyone who wants a book to fly through on a weekend off, for anyone who loves spies, thieves, or foreign affairs, and for anyone who loves books with widely diverse and eclectic groups of characters. 

    These books are also, in my opinion, the perfect books for those between the ages of 11-13 who are wanting to start reading outside of the kid's section. I know that these books made my transition from kid's book to YA books much easier, and they hold a very special place in my heart for that exact reason. 

    Have you read any of Ally Carter's books? Do you have a favorite? Let me know in the comments below! 

    If you haven't read any of her books, I highly recommend any of them. Read them all. Go splurge and buy yourselves one of these 10 amazing books. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

        Your Pemberley Reader,

              Acacia

An Out of Control Bibliophile

    Confession time...

    My name is Acacia, and I have a book-buying problem.

    Now, for a long time, my book-buying habits were not that bad. Before the age of sixteen, I got money from birthdays, parents, and holidays, that was about it. My transportation was also dependent on my parents willingness to drive me to the bookstore. Any books I got, I usually read right away or relatively soon after getting them. The number of books I had owned for years and had never read was very small.

    However, at the age of sixteen, a problem began to grow. I had my license, which meant I could drive myself to the book store whenever I wanted, for however long I wanted. I also had a tutoring job and was still receiving good chunks of money here and there from my parents. I also was managing to get hundreds of dollars in giftcards for holidays and birthdays. All of this resulted in the creation of a book-buying monster.

    I buy books at a rate that should not be allowed. I go to the bookstore for one specific book and walk out with three others I had no intention of buying. I purposefully set aside money not for food, but for books. In high school, this problem grew, but was not quite as problematic as it is now. In 2012, I read 100 books (a goal which I was very proud to have finished at the time). I don't know how many books I bought that year, but it was a lot. I read 100 books, and didn't even make a dent in my growing TBR pile.

    When I started college, my parents gave me a bi-weekly allowance so that I would have money to go do things with friends and not have to worry about finances while at school. About a third of this goes into my savings for a rainy day, another third for food and activities with friends, and the last third for books. The problem: while at college, I manage to read far less than I ever did high school. So, I buy a lot of books while I'm at school, but I have no time to read them.

    Over the years, all of this has resulted in a growing TBR pile that I have, as of late, been feeling the weight of. I have been forced to admit that I have a problem, and I am going to take this time to list the ways in which I will be eradicating myself of it.

    So, here are the ways in which I am going to slowly, but surely, take down the monster that has become my TBR pile.

1) Getting rid of books. 
    Oh, how this hurts to even talk about. I don't get rid of books. I love owning my own personal library. Even if I never reread my books, I love keeping them after I've read them. Who knows, one day I may decide to reread it or lend it out and I will be so happy to still have it. However, I have books that I have owned for years, but have never read. These are the books that I bought at the age of 15 or 16 with every intention of reading them, but they just kept getting pushing farther and farther down the TBR pile. So, as of the end of June, I have resolved to go through and get rid of a good chunk of these books. I think this will help me feel much better about the size of my TBR pile.

2) No more binge buying books. 
    Any time I decide on buying a book, I will be buying just that, one book. One step at a time, one book at a time.

3) Buy a book, read that book. 
    From now on (or at least until my TBR pile has been made much, much, much smaller), if I buy a book, I must immediately read that book. See, I often buys books, but then take years to read them. Now, if I buy one, it will immediately be read and never even see the TBR pile. This way, the TBR pile does not grow.

4) Read at least a classic a month. 
    A good chunk of my TBR pile is made up of classics. I love classics, but I don't read as many as I should, both as an English major and as someone who owns so many of them. So, to assure that these are being read, I will read at least one classic per month.

5) Read two, buy one.
    So, to tackle the TBR pile for good, I will be implementing this new rule: For every two books I read off of my TBR, I may buy one book. So, I will read two books, buy one, read the book I buy, read two more books from my TBR pile, buy a book, read that book, on and on and on. I think this will allow me to get through my TBR pile without feeling constricted to it. It will also allow me to keep buying books, but not add to my TBR pile.

    With these rules in place, I am hoping to take down the looming monster that my TBR pile has become. Summer is coming up soon, which means I will be able to read a lot more than I do while in school and tackle the TBR pile faster.

    I'm feeling confident that this will work, and I will let you all know how it's going in a few months. Hopefully by then my TBR pile will be much, much smaller than it is now.

        Your Pemberley Reader,

              Acacia

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

    Synopsis: Todd Hewitt is a month away from leaving boyhood behind in a town made up entirely of men. The women were all killed, years ago, by a virus that also cursed the men with what the town calls Noise. Plagued by this Noise, which makes every thought you think an audible one for the rest of the world to hear, the silence Todd finds in the woods outside of town is kind of a big deal. When the secret of the silence comes out, as everything eventually does with Noise, Todd is forced to run away as the town comes for him. Running for their lives, Todd, a new friend, and his dog find a world that will make Todd question everything he has ever been told.

    Review: I have mixed feelings about this one. I've heard such good things about this series, and so I was excited to pick it up. However, I’m afraid it may have been over-hyped for me.

    First, it took me some time to get into this world. The language threw me off at first, because it wasn’t what I was expecting. Todd is uneducated, and this comes across in his narration. Words are misspelled often, and the narration reads like how you would expect a young uneducated boy to speak. Once I got used to this, it was fine, but I think it made the story a bit hard to get into at first.

    Second, once I did get into this world, I was quickly disappointed by the lack of knowledge given to the reader. There were times in which Todd would find things out, things that were crucial to the story, but that he would not share with the reader. This annoyed me to no end. If you’re going to put readers into an unknown world, please do not keep relevant information longer than you have to. It perhaps would not have been that bad, except for when readers are told the truth of things, it seems so anticlimactic. When I was told the big “plot twist” at one of the final confrontations, I was unimpressed. Why was this something I could not have been told earlier? This was a problem multiple times throughout the book.

    Third, you may have noticed I said “one of the final confrontations.” Towards the end of the book, it seems like the characters just can't catch a break. By the end, you're left with a feeling of horror, because literally nothing good comes out of the last 50 pages or so of the book. It was one thing after another, and though I’m all for putting your characters through horrible situations, this was just excessive.

    Fourth, there is a character, that no matter how many encounters, no matter how many fights, and no matter how badly he seems to be hurt, will simply not die. It’s ridiculous. I swear, the amount of times this dude came back into the story after being nearly slaughtered was just plain absurd.

    With all of this being said, I did find myself enjoying parts of the book. I wanted to know more about the world and the characters. Finding out the truth of the situation is the driving force that kept me reading. This will probably be what leads me to buy the next book, as so much of what was set up to be answered in this book was not answered.

    I give points for the story idea, which was not what I expected when I started, and that actually had some underlying conflicts that I hope will be explored further in the rest of the series.

    It was worth the read, though some of the major aspects of the book annoyed me. I plan on eventually getting the second book, but if many of my complaints are still present in the second, I don’t know if I will be picking up the third.

I would recommend this book for those who like science fiction or thrillers.

Rating:

2.5 out of 5 Cups of Tea

        Your Pemberley Reader,
              Acacia