The Bursting Bookshelf

So Follow my Blog Friday is a meme held by Parajunkee and it's where you answer the weekly question and then link yourself and you go and check out other blogs of your interest.

Q: Keeping with the Spirit of Giving this season, what book do you think EVERYONE should read and if you could, you would buy it for all of your family and friends?

Easy- Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I have already given it to friends and convinced them to buy copies. If you haven't read it yet, you are missing out on a great book.

Review:
When I got offered a review copy of this book, I was a little skeptical about it, but I decided to give it a chance. When I actually read it, I was very pleasantly surprised about how interesting and well written the book was. In fact, I ended up reading the book in a single day because I couldn't put it down.

The cover of the book was not one of my favourite aspects of the book. My biggest complaint was that 50 Cent's name was larger than the title. I do however, like the way the colours were incorporated into the title and Butterball's sweater. The font of the title was rough, showing Butterball's past was not smooth sailing. I like how having Butterball leaning up against the words gave the reader a more accurate mental image while reading the book.

The characters of this story were surprisingly deep in characteristics. Butterball was both the the protagonist and the antagonist of this book. He went through huge amounts of growth during the period of this novel, but he started out as a bully; he was his own problem. Butterball's problems stemmed with the fact that he didn't have a good relationship with his father and he didn't have much of a creative outlet, and to add to all of it, he was forced to move from the action of the big city and his friends to a quieter area and a school with few friends. His father, who he looked up to and respected, was a very poor influence, adding to Butterball's issues. His mother was one of his only positive influences, she turned her life around and was finding happiness. Liz was Butterball's counselor and his other good influence, talking to him constantly to find out what made him tick.

Though this book was a celebrity book, which I generally stay away from, I found this one to be very insightful into the bully's mind and home life. I liked the honesty that went into the writing, how Curtis (50 Cent) was able to feed from his own past to give the story and writing life and build a stronger book. With the aid of his co-author Laura Moser, the writing was a great aspect of this novel. It carried the description needed to make the story memorable. The story was told through Butterball's point of view, but the interesting aspect was that a lot of the twists were revealed through his counseling sessions with Liz, giving another layer of depth to the importance of his growth throughout the course of the book.

Overall, I give Playground a 4/5 for being a good book with a lot of insight into it's topic matter. I would recommend this book to any fan of 50 Cent or anyone who wants a good redemption story.

 
 
From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.

Review:
After finishing the latest Pretty Little Liars book, I decided I had to begin Sara's other series, The Lying Game. I went into the book with fairly high expectations after reading the Pretty Little Liars books, but I simply found that this book did not live up to her legacy as much as I had hoped it would. The premise was fairly good, maybe over done, but good sounding nonetheless. When the premise was brought to life by the book however, it just did not deliver. The characters were alright, I did not find them to be standouts, but they were enjoyable enough to read. The best part of the book for me was the point of view it was told in; from the point of view of the dead twin, Sutton, who watches over Emma, the live one, but cannot interact with her. It was so different from anything else I have ever read, it really added to the quality of the story. The story was slow to begin with, but as I said, the point of view added to the enjoyment. The story did pick up around halfway through, getting better and better as it went, almost a snowball effect. I would recommend this book to fans of Sara Shepard's who want a light, quick read. I give this book a 3.5/5 for being a good start to a series, one that I will be continuing in hopes of more action later on.

In My Mailbox is a weekly feature done by The Story Siren.

For Review:


Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (THANKS TO HARPERCOLLINS CANADA)
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (THANKS TO HARPERCOLLINS CANADA)

Okay everyone, now is our time to shine! Meghan's round is up and it's up to you guys to get her to the second round of the Heroine Tourney. Click here to vote for Meghan. Voting ends tonight, so be sure do vote soon!