Review: Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Narrated by Ethan Hawke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really did not enjoy this. I struggled on what to rate it, parts of it were ok, and part of it were just plain weird.  I'm ok with the realm of the weird.  I spent much of my childhood and teen years reading about vampires and aliens, well before Twilight came around.  I've read some weird stuff, but I think it was just way to strange for my liking. It reminding me so much of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, where you aren't really sure if the main character is really experiencing the things happening to him in the book or its all in his head but he really believes its happening. I'm just not a fan of these types of books where the plot is a metaphor or analogy for something else and you are left to puzzle out the deeper meaning and find the symbolism.

This book has been around a long time so I'm not going to try to over analyze it.  The story follows Billy Pilgrim during his life, but mainly during his time as a soldier in WWII.  While in Germany, Billy obtains the ability to time travel.  At some point on one of his time journeys, he gets abducted by aliens from Tralfamadore where he has some interesting experiences, most with a porn star named Montana Wildhack.  In his older years he wants to tell everyone about Tralfamadore, but most people just think he's crazy.  Much of the book is disjointed because he's always jumping around to different points of his life.  There are some fairly obscene parts of the book, so I can see why people would want it censored, especially given the time it was published.  Even in today's world, people would still find it offensive.  I just shook my head and kept going.

Having looked a little deeper into the history of Dresden and Kurt Vonnegut, some of the things he describes in the book actually happened, so it is a bit of an autobiographical tale and I understand it a little more.  I read an old interview he did on and based on the transcript, his books were a form of therapy for him.  Billy Pilgrim was inspired by a real man who died in Dresden, who he felt never should have been a soldier.  I can kind of imagine that Vonnegut came up with some of this stuff as a coping mechanism during his time as a POW as a way to survive.  Maybe not the exact sci-fi content of Slaughterhouse-Five, but perhaps some of it or atleast he escaped into his head.

I respect Vonnegut's work here and what he went through. The audio narration was great, and its under 8 hours. This just wasn't for me. I think the genre blending of autobiography, historical fiction, sci-fi, and satire just was too much . I really did appreciate the 10 minute interview with Vonnegut himself at the end of the audiobook with an attorney friend of his about the book and his inspiration for Billy Pilgrim.  I wish that part was longer.

Had I not been working through the Popsugar Reading Challenge, I don't think I ever would have picked this up.  I'm glad I finally got to it.  I want to get to more classics or iconic books that I haven't read that I feel like I should.  This takes care of a book mentioned in another book.  This was mentioned in the first few pages of Beautiful Creatures (by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl), which I read a while ago.

Review: CLICK'D by Tamara Ireland Stone

CLICK'D by Tamara Ireland Stone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be available on September 5th for purchase.

I read this book in a day, that should tell you something. I really loved the messages this book conveyed about empowering young girls to code and participate in technology disciplines. As someone who studied engineering and who was one of 13 girls out of 80 in my Electrical Engineering major in college that really spoke to me. I've spent most of my professional career involved in software development so I really enjoyed seeing a young girl so inspired to do good with her code.

My only real issue with the book was that a middle school teen had access to all of this personal identifiable information, which is a cyber security risk that she could do anything with or some cyber criminal could do something with but her mentor and teacher never said anything about it. I think the author did an OK job addressing that issue, but I think I because of my experience in the technology risk area I'm being a little over critical.  I just wish her mentor would have had her mask the data or said something about it since she was always in the database looking at it.  Again, probably too much for a middle grade reader, but its what I do all day and having access to all of her user's phone numbers and account information is something a 7th grader really shouldn't have access to.  Knowing their favorite color and what kind of pizza they like is fine, but the other stuff is probably is too much info in my opinion, again probably too critical and technical based on my profession.  

Overall I really enjoyed the story. I couldn't put it down. I really loved Ally. I connected with her as a girl who liked "nerdy" stuff and who played soccer. I saw so much of myself in her. The story is about Ally and the "game" she created at CodeGirls, a coding camp for girls over the summer. The purpose of her game Click'd is to find new friends based on a series of questions in a quiz you answer, much like an online dating profile. She even goes so far as to say that she studies those types of apps to create her own to make sure her data was matching people based on their likes and dislikes. She wanted people to make new friends or atleast talk to people that they otherwise would have never found before. She soon comes to find out that one of her best friends in real life is upset because her in real life friends are no longer on the top if her leaderboard and that isn't fun for her. Ally also finds a major bug in her app and tries to fix it on her own without help from her computer teacher and mentor for the Games for Good competition she's hoping to win. She finds an unlikely ally in her long time nemesis Nathan, who like Ally is also entered in the competition. Ally just wants people to find and click with people they otherwise wouldn't have ever talked to before, bringing smiles to peoples faces as they spark new friendships. Her app causes alot of turmoil and Ally isn't sure she can fix it.

I think this story has a lot of great messages about friendship and loyalty, being driven to succeed, learning from your mistakes, and how technology especially mobile technology has really changed how we interact as a society. I really liked how in the end Ally's game brought people together the way she'd hoped and that she learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. I would highly recommend this for the middle grade crowd, especially girls interested in the technology fields.

Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. This is a very fun, middle grade, fantasy read that follows main character Prosperity Oceanus Redding, quite a name I know. Prosper comes from a very affluent New England family, but it turns out the Redding's family fortune is due to a demonic contract their ancestor Honor Redding made long ago with a fiend we come to know as Alastor. The Redding clan isn't sure if Prosper or his twin Prue is possessed by the fiend who has been dormant for some time, but Alastor makes his presence known and Prosper finds himself in the middle of an age old curse surrounded by witches and other nasty creatures he never knew existed.

Alastor has reawaken an is focused two things, 1. Destroying the Redding Family and 2. Escaping Prosper's body so he can regain his power and return "downstairs" to the fiend realm and take his rightful place as ruler. To do so he has to convince Prosper to make yet another contract, and allow Alastor to destroy the Redding's and all of the success they've had since Honor Redding made and broke the original contract made with Alastor. Prosper is a hard kid to convince, but with Alastor gaining control over his body and controlling him like a puppet antics ensue and poor Prosper wants nothing but to protect his family, even if they aren't very nice. Prosper has to figure out who to trust, all while Al is whispering in his ear and zapping his strength. There are quite a few plot twists and kept me guessing. I can't wait to see what happens next.

I loved the setting of the book, it is set mainly in Salem and a nearby town that is named after the Reddings. I've been to Salem and I've always been interested in the lore and history of the area. Bracken did a great job capturing the feel of the area and the tourist traps that the natives to Salem have to deal with come Halloween and probably the rest of the year.

I'll definitely be purchasing a copy for my son to read, I think he'll really love this.  As a mom of an avid reader, I've taken to screening books I think he will like because you just never know these days.  He reads well above his grade level, so I'm always trying to find stuff that is age appropriate that I think he will like. I read a lot of young Adult Books, and there have been plenty of them that should have been New Adult because of the explicit content.  I don't tend to read middle grade because, well most of it is pretty juvenile for my tastes, but this was great.  The pace was perfect, and the content was interesting and I just really like the characters.

BLOG TOUR: Beard in Mind by Penny Reid

Beard in Mind, an all new standalone in the bestselling, romantic comedy Winston Brothers Series by Penny Reid, is available NOW!  

 

All is fair in love and auto maintenance. 

  

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually. 

Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket. 

  

Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever. 

She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She won’t shake hands with or touch another person, but has no problems cuddling with a dog. And her damn parrot speaks only in curse words. 

  

Beau wants her gone. He wants her out of his auto shop, out of Tennessee, and out of his life. 

  

The only problem is, learning why this porcupine wears her coat of spikes opens a Pandora’s box of complexity—exquisite, tempting, heartbreaking complexity—and Beau Winston soon discovers being nice and accommodating might mean losing what matters most. 

Excerpt:   

  

She’d taken the sofa, in her own house, and given me the bed. That didn’t make a lick of sense. 

I crouched next to her, threading my fingers into the silky hair at her temples. “Honey.” 

“Mmm.” 

I bent to whisper, “Shelly.” 

“Hmm?” 

“I’m going to carry you to your bed. I’ll take the sofa.” 

“Mmm.” 

I grinned at her soft noises, at the untroubled expression on her face, and how her brow—even in sleep—still looked regal and stern. 

Sliding my arms under her legs and shoulder, I picked her up. And, unfortunately, that woke her up. 

She jerked in my arms. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m taking you to the bed.” 

“Don’t do that.” 

“I don’t mind, I’ll take the sofa.” Our mouths were just inches apart, and hers was distracting. 

She squirmed. “Put me down.” 

Sighing unhappily, I did. I set her on her feet next to the couch. The blanket pooled at her feet and I stepped back to give her some space. It was dark, but I could see her just fine, and that meant I had to force my eyes to remain above her neck. The woman was wearing two pathetic scraps of fabric as pajamas. A thin little tank top and shorts. That’s it. 

I set my jaw and turned to the side, waiting for her to walk past. 

“Where are you?” 

I glanced at her and realized she couldn’t see at all. She didn’t have a hand out, but the way her eyes were moving about the room gave away her blindness. 

“I’m here.” I didn’t touch her, because if I did, I wouldn’t want to stop. 

Shelly turned her head in my direction and took a deep breath. Still she didn’t reach for me. I didn’t know the specifics of what to expect after her Friday session, but I recalled Dr. West saying something about Shelly doing self-guided ERP exercises over this week. 

“Can you see?” She licked her lips, her voice sandpapery. “Because I can’t see at all. It’s so dark.” 

“I can see.” Unbidden, my eyes dropped to her body, to the swell of her breasts, the panel of bare stomach, the curve of her hips. Pinpricks of heat raised over my skin and I curled my hands into fists. 

She shuffled forward and I caught her before she bumped into me, setting my hands gently at her waist. 

“Let me take you to your room.” My voice was rough, for obvious reasons. 

Saying nothing, she brought her hand to my forearm, her body gently colliding with mine. And then her hand on my arm slid up my bicep to my shoulder. 

“Shelly.” I was running out of breath. 

“I like this.” 

“What?” 

“Touching you.” 

Oh fuck. 

I held still and endured her hands moving over my body, down the front of my shirt, stopping at the hem, then pushing it up. 

“Take this off.” 

I did. I pulled the T-shirt over my head and let it drop to the floor. 

We stood there, facing each other in the dark, not touching. Despite the session on Friday and the progress that had been made, I realized she wasn’t quite there yet. Dr. West was right, Friday was just a step, the first step. Shelly wasn’t able to initiate contact. Not yet. 

Her hands balled into fists and she swayed forward, her breath struggling little puffs. 

If anything was going to happen tonight, I had to initiate it. I had to be the one to touch first. 

God, how I wanted her. How I wanted her above me, beneath me, surrounding me. But how could I? 

“I know why I hesitate,” her voice was breathless, “but why do you hesitate?” 

“Lots of reasons.” 

“Give me one.” 

“I don’t want to you use you.” 

“I wish you would.” 

That pulled a laugh from me, just a small relief from the mounting tension. My eyes moved over her body, an undeniable impulse to devour the sight of her, her legs, stomach, chest, then up her neck to her lips. 

“You asked me on Saturday if sex was a big deal for me, or if it was you. The answer is both.” 

She held very still, and I got the sense she was holding her breath, straining to listen. 

“You are a big deal to me. I don’t want a fling. I don’t want a flirtation. I want promises.” 

“What can I promise you?” 

That you’ll love me. That I’ll be your priority. 

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. A spike of anxiety that she might leave me like this had me acting without forethought. I lifted my hands to her waist again and immediately, her fingertips skimmed over skin of my lower stomach in response, making my muscles tense in hot anticipation. She grew more assertive as she caressed my sides, abdomen, ribs, chest, shoulders, and then back down. 

Shelly stepped closer, a hint of thrilling contact between her breasts and my torso, and all the words and worries melted from my mind, died on my tongue, suffocated by the feel of her body, and the possibility of this moment. 

Her finger hooked in the waistband of my jeans. “Take these off.” Her hand turned, her fingers and palm cupping me over my zipper. 

Instinctively, I pressed myself into her touch even as I grabbed her wrist. 

“Beau, I promise—” 

She didn’t get to speak, because I kissed her, hard and wild, unbuttoning and unzipping my fly with one hand and bringing her palm inside my boxers with the other. 

  

  

  

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Meet Penny Reid:  

 

Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja. 

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