Review: The Accidental Activist by Alon Shalev

Description:
David meets Goliath in the law courts of England in the 1990's. The advent of the Internet is leveling the playing field as a multinational corporation tries to silence two young political activists in a riveting court case that captivates the political and business world's attention.
 
The company will try anything (sex, espionage, bribery and coercion) to stop or win this case. In fighting the corporation, a self-absorbed computer programmer discovers romance and a way to change the world one mega-pixel at a time.
 
Details:
Paperback, 272 pages
Published October 1st 2010 by Three Clover Press
ISBN: 0981955355 (ISBN13: 9780981955353)
 
Review:
I have been asked to review this as part of the Virtual Authors Book Tours event.  I read the description of The Accidental Activist and felt it would be an amazing read.  I had no idea how right I would be!
 
You will quickly love the characters.  Matt is certainly idealistic, naïve, and a nice guy.  Suzie is spunky, driven, and passionate.  Combined they form an awesome team of activists!  You will love the prologue—it is so funny! 
 
The Accidental Activist is humorous, fun, and exciting to read.  It took me quite by surprise how entertaining this was to read.  I would easily read 40 pages without much effort!  It was easy to invest in the story and care about what happened.  I really want to know what happened in the case that this book is based on!
 
I finished The Accidental Activist and hugged it and sighed a breath of relief and satisfaction.  It is an excellently well-crafted book of epic proportions.  Do yourself a favor and read this book!
 

5 Trees: This book is no accident!

Stop by tomorrow for a GIVEAWAY and guest post  by Alon Shalev!

Now…

Get to reading,

Richard

*This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review*

Review: Without Tess by Marcella Pixley

Description:
Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf  in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.



Details:
ebook, 288 pages
Published October 11th 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN:1429969822 (ISBN13: 9781429969826)



Review:
I approached this book all wrong.  I made fast assumptions about it, and misjudged it.  I almost didn’t finish it because of my assumptions, but continued reading and finished it.

You must realize before starting this book how difficult it will be to read.  I had no idea how sad and monstrous reading this would be.  Mental illness is no joke.  Just prepare yourself: Pixley is real.  There’s a no-holds-barred approach to telling Lizzie’s story.  You’ve been warned.

I felt sorry for Lizzie.  Both as the compliant preteen flashback Lizzie and the moody depressed teenage Lizzie, her character makes you feel and understand to some extent what mental illness can do to someone.  The feelings of being ashamed, hating, loving all became vivid.  Her love for her sister is fathomless, knows no bounds.  The turning point, when she’s able to let go, I didn’t cry, but it’s just awesome.

Pixley did an amazing job writing this story.  The ending was beautiful.  The growth in the characters was poignant.  Without Tess left me feeling breathless and lightheaded.

4 Tress: Without Tess your life is missing something.

Get to reading,
Richard

*This book was provided to me by the publishers through netGalley*

WoW (10): Hexed by Kevin Hearne

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly blog-hop hosted by Breaking the Spine that features books we are eagerly awaiting!

This week’s pick:

Hexed by Kevin Hearne


About the book:
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
 
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.
   

Why I’m Waiting:

Having just finished Hounded a few days ago (review to post on Nov. 10) on a huge high, I immediately looked up Hexed at my local library…and they DON’T have it!  AHHHH!  I’m going to have to buy it!?!?! WHAT?  Yes, Hounded was that good and I can’t wait to read Hexed!  Hounded was totally freaking awesome and I must know what happens next!  And, besides, who doesn’t love a little butt-kicking anyway?

Now…

Get to reading,
Richard

Review: All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Description:
In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

Details:
Compact Disc, 8 discs
Published September 27th 2011 by Macmillan Audio (first published September 6th 2011)
ISBN: 1427213585 (ISBN13: 9781427213587)
series: Birthright #1
(Goodreads)

Review:
In a sea of dismal dystopians, All These Things I’ve Done shines as a beacon that there is hope in all the despair.  I first heard about this when I saw the trailer on someone’s blog:

And I had to read it.  And then I entered to win the audiobook, and WON!

Though Zevin doesn’t use the term “dystopian” to describe her book, we have the setting of a mismanaged world, natural resources quickly being depleted, nothing new being manufactured.  Alcohol is legal, chocolate and coffee are not.  What?  I couldn’t quite figure the logic behind that one. But, hey, I went with it, and it provided an interesting backdrop for a non-dystopian dystopian.

I didn’t always like Anya, but I could understand her.  Could relate to her and why she did things the way she did.  It would not be easy to be her.  And you felt it was hard.  She is 16 and managing her family.  I felt sorry for her having to grow up so quick.  She whined a little too much, though.

The description of this book doesn’t do it justice.  It is much more beautiful and tragic.  I’m still trying to figure out why whomever wrote it only focused on the first like, forth of the book.  So much happens, and nothing happens.  Life happens.  Anya is forced to grow up even more than she already has.  She has to make hard choices, adult choices, and live with the consequences, for better or worse.  This is hard to write without spoiling it!

This doesn’t quite fit in one genre.  There’s romance, some mystery, a little suspense, and of course a whole lot of YA drama.  My least favorite part of any book is usually the drama.  But I liked it in All These Things I’ve Done. It was necessary to tell the story.

The ending, holy crap, the ending.  It left me whirling like on a chocolate high!

And there’s more books to come in the series!  Yay!

This was a fantastic story with characters that are as deep as the ocean.  If you’ve ever thought about reading this, do it!  You won’t be disappointed!

4 Trees: Make sure this on the list of things you did!

Get to reading,
Richard