Bought, Won, and To Review

I'm starting this up because I'm always behind on reviews and this way you have some idea what is going on.

Bought

Went to Half Priced Books yesterday and picked up:

This is the sequel to Eyes like Stars which I read last year and I'm curios to see where the story goes, read the summery here.

This has been on my to-read pile for awhile, summery here.

Another one that has been on my to-read list for awhile, summery here.

Won

This are my wins from Netgallery and Goodread's giveaways, that I haven't read yet.

Netgallery:

 Summery

Summery

Goodread's Giveaways:

Summery


To Review

I have exactly 143 books on my shelf to review, but the one I'll probably get to next is from netgallery:

 I really enjoyed this one and recommend you pick it up when it comes out, summery here.

Solid

Summery:
Teens who discover they were secretly genetically altered before birth are brought together at a classified site where they forge new friendships, find love, develop "super-abilities," and even unearth a conspiracy.

Review:
 I was given an e-book/kindle copy of this book by the author and since reading it in November I've had a lot of time to think about it and try to think up a good review. Unfortunately I can't seem to so we are just going to go with a list of good and bad things about this book.

First the good:

#1- An interesting summery that makes me want to read it

#2- Some cute moments

#3- Some Mystery

#4- It kind of makes me want to read the next one

Now the bad:

#1- A ugly cover

#2- Too simple a plot, I figured out things way ahead of time

#3- Not enough depth to the characters

#4- Stupid names

So over all not the worst, but I really wouldn't recommended it. But I have to thank the author for sending me a copy.

Attached

Summery:
 In this groundbreaking book, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Levine and psychologist Heller reveal how an understanding of attachment theory--the most advanced relationship science in existence today--can help readers find and sustain love.

 Review:
 This book was interesting and it changes the way you look at people. Like that you guy you liked who pushed you away? He is the avoidant type. Or that girl who scares all her boyfriends away by being so clingy? She's the anxious type. It shows you in very easy to follow scenarios all three attachment types anxious, secure or avoidant and how they can relate to the people you know. My problem with this book was the fact that after awhile the scenarios got repetitive and boring. Also the fact that they wanted you to write in the book to take the tests to determine you're type and I'm sorry I can't write in books, you could grab paper and do the tests but I ussally don't have paper with me while reading. So over all a pretty good book that allows you to examine the relationships around you.

I received this book through Goodread's Firstreads program.

Just Arrived

My latest FirstReads win on Goodreads, firstreads is just publishers and authors giving away books to stir up intrest and get reviews you can find them by clicking on Goodreads's Giveaway button (inside the explore tab). I need to finish the book I'm currently reading and then will be starting on Attached and hopefully get a review up shortly after that, hopefully.

Wolf: The Journey Home

 Summery:
 In this fictionalized account of real events, a female wolf named Marta, along with her young family, sets out on an epic journey to return to their home hunting grounds in Montana after they are mistakenly relocated by a group of naturalists. Told believably from Marta’s point of view, the story takes the reader deep into a wolf's world, as Marta's determination to protect her pups and find their way home takes her on adventures that are by turns heart warming, perilous, and ultimately tragic.

Review: SPOILERS!
This isn't a happy story so if your looking for a touchy, feely book about wolves skip this one. Unlike Julie of the Wolves in which most of the wolves have a happy ending almost none of these wolves do. Our wolf family gets shot, injured, hit by cars, starves to death, and put down for preying on livestock. But some how this book is still good. We bond with our wolves, we cheer when they make a kill, and we want to cry when something happens to one of them. So if you are welling to deal with all that and more this is the wolf book for you.

Ashes

Summery:
It could happen tomorrow . . .

An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.

Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

Review:
Let me sum up how this book went for me:
Good, really getting into it...
Very good 4 or 5 star book....
Loving this book....
What the heck just happened?
Did we switch authors?
What the heck!!!!!

Let me explain, the first half of this book rocked, we had an awesome main character, good supporting characters, and an interesting plot that just made you want to know more. Then about half way through a dramatic event happens (sorry no spoilers) and the story stops and restarts 3 days later leaving us knowing very little about what happened and we only get to find out what happens through bits and pieces. And the author's style, along with the story line, just changes so dramatically that you are thrown out of the groove of story telling. 

So I loved it and then was ticked off by it but it still managed to pull off 3 stars, so I'm going to have to pick up the sequel when it comes out and hope it's like the first half of Ashes.

The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance

Summery:
 A vegan-turned-hunter reignites the connection between humans and our food sources and continues the dialog begun by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver

As a boy, Tovar Cerulli spent his summers fishing trout and hunting bullfrogs. While still in high school, he began to experiment with vegetarianism and by the age of 20, he was a vegan. Ten years later, in the face of declining health, he would find himself picking up a rifle and heading into the woods.

Through his personal quest, Tovar Cerulli bridges disparate worldviews and questions moral certainties, challenging both the behavior of many hunters and the illusion of blamelessness maintained by many vegetarians. Are fishing and hunting barbaric, murderous anachronisms? Or can they be respectful ways for humans to connect to nature? How harmless is vegetarianism? Can sustenance hunters and vegetarians be motivated by similar values and instincts?

In this time of intensifying concern over ecological degradation, how do we make peace with the fact that, even in growing organic vegetables, life is sustained by death? Drawing on personal anecdotes, philosophy, history, and religion, Cerulli shows how America’s overly sanitized habits of consumption and disconnection with our food have resulted in so many of the health and environmental crises we now face.

Review:

 Honesty I don't know how to feel about this book. Some parts had a really good flow and brought up interesting ideas, in others it repeated its self and at times you didn't realize what was happening until afterwords because of the weird way it was worded.

So it's a good idea for a book and some parts work really well, but the majority I just wanted to skip and really wish where cut out or redone.

Received from NetGallary.