Banned Book Week.....2015's most Challenged Books

Welcome to Banned Book Week....
It's during this week that we celebrate the Freadom to read. All to often now a days books and library materials are challenged due to their content. Honestly I think that this happens way to frequently. Here is the list of the American Library Associations top ten most challenged books of 2015:



1) Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
2) Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
3) I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
4) Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
5) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
6) The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7) Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
8) Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
9) Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
10)Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

Some of these challenges seem petty and trivial. For more information of these books and several others visit the American Library Associations Website! 

Look what's in my letter box NOW!!!!

Ahhhh....what a glorious way to start my week. On Monday my Book of the Month Club selection arrived. I also was able to download the audiobook of my selection. My September choice was The Couple Next Door. Which seems like the perfect mystery. You can find the synopsis of the book in one of my previous posts. 

As you guys know I only subscribe to one other book service; Scribd. It's a digital service, and has been a lifesaver. However, I noticed an ad on Facebook to get your first selection (from BOTM) for 5$. So I could not pass it up. I am enrolled in the month to month package; which is priced at 16.99$. I think this is a pretty good deal; assuming that all the books are hardcover and you are getting free shipping via UPS. 

Think about it like this...the average hard cover is about 25 to 30 dollars. And shipping can run anywhere from 5 to 7 dollars (depending on the book seller). I have decided to try it for two months. That way I can get a feel for the selections and can really give a good and complete review of each selection I recieve. 

Also...Book of the Month is still offering that 5$ deal on Facebook. If you want to try it just email me at thebookbabe84@gmail.com with your Facebook information and I will send you the link to the advert (just in case you don't see it).

There's nothing better than Book Mail!

The fall season is pretty much in full swing...football has officially started and long awaited books are being released. This week I recieved my U.K. Paperback copy of Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas...

Empire of Storms is the fifty book of the Throne of Glass series. I can not believe its been over a year since the last release. I can not wait to see what Aelin gets into. And I am very curious about what will happen with Dorian and Chaol. If you have not read these you should...great world building and amazing action. Here is a synopsis of the book:

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those don't.

As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

Aelin's journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down? 

Bookbabe Reviews: Fallen by Lauren Kate

                                  

Fallen Angels and an Earth Shattering Love: The Bookbabe Reviews  Fallen by Lauren Kate 

Let me start off as saying this is not my first attempt at reading this book. I originally purchased it in 2012 and attempted to read it. I gave up about fifty pages in because I simply could not get in to the book. The prologue was interesting but after that I was pretty much lost. I got bored. Well....fast forward to 2016 and to the downloading of the audio book from Dover Public Library and viola.....I am completely done the first book in the Fallen series. 

Fallen was exactly what I expected and I thought that I could almost predict the ending; I mean,, come on, we've all read these types of YA novels and they almost always follow the same formula. Girl falls for mysterious guy, guy tries to resist girl, he is hiding a secret...yada yada yada. We have all been there. However, Fallen was a bit different. This was the first series of I had read involving Angels; and I was pleasantly surprised. Kate weaved a good tale of forbidden love  and lost. Also, she kept it interesting by putting our main characters in a very interesting environment: a reform school. Who knew that a school full of delinquents could be so fun to read about. 

Luce and Daniel are probably going to become some of my favorite couples in a YA series. This is for several reasons: 1) Daniel seems to be a hopeless romantic (he reminds me of Darcy from P&P but without the snooty attitude); 2) Luce seems to be able to handle herself; she knows what she wants and seems to be okay with fighting to stay with Daniel. It also does not hurt that both of them are extremely relatable and likable. Also,  Luce is not the typical female love interest you would expect in a YA novel. She is not clingy or whiny and she sticks up for herself. You could say Luce is the anti-Bella (as in Bella Swan from Twilight). 

One of my favorite scenes from the book involves a bit of a plot twist; in which, someone they all trusted decides that Luce has to die because, frankly, she is a destruction for Daniel in the fight against another Fallen angel. I can honestly say that I am extremely happy to have read it. I can not wait to start Torment. I gave Fallen 4/5 Stars on Goodreads.com.

Favorite Quotes:

"The classes here are soulless, worse they'll strip you of your soul. Of the eighty kids in this place, I'd say we've only got about three remaining souls."

"Trust is a careless pursuit at best. At worst, it's a good way to get yourself killed."

"You - you wouldn't hurt me?" "Of course I would....you're the human equivalent of a migraine"

Hello Autumn....May you be filled for amazing Lit!

Who does not love autumn....it's a season I always get so excited for. I can't wait to light pumpkin candles, watch football (Go Packers), attend bonfires, wear comfy UGGs and sweaters and curl up with fanastic books. I hope to read about 16 books this Fall. I know that's a lot! But I think I can get it done. Here's my list....

                        My Top Four

And here are the rest:

5) End of Watch by Stephen King 

6) Conversion by Katherine Howe

7) In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

8) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell **

9) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

10) The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith**

11) Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

12) Strange Clouds by Cheketa Tinsley

13) God's of Guilt by Michael Connelly

14) Eragon by Christopher Paolini

15) Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

16) Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

(Books marked ** have already been finished. Just awaiting review!)

Have you guys read any of these? What did you think? Feel free to recommend a book and leave a comment! 

Sweet Summer Reads....

The summer of 2016 has by far been my best and most bookish summer to date. I came in at 17 books read ;)! Four more than I read last year!!!! While most of them where great, eight books really stood out. Here they are:

1)1984 by George Orwell

2) Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

3) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

4) The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward

5) The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 

6) A.D. 30 by Ted Dekker

7) The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

8) A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

You can find my no spoiler reviews of these books here on my blog. How many books did you read this summer? What books would you recommend for me to read is fall? Please feel free to leave a comment. Happy Reading 🤓

Currently Reading....Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

My first Fall Read:

I know a few of you have read this one....This has been on my list for a while. Glad to be getting to it now. Reminds me so much of my first years of college when I had really started Fangirling Harry Potter 😂....If you've read it let me know what you think!

Bookbabe Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

                                    

She was great at Magic; she is even better at mysteries: The Bookbabe Reviews The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (AKA  J.K. Rowling) 

Summer 2016 seems to be the summer of crime and mysteries; at least when it comes to my reading list. It all started with my binge reading of the Mickey Haller series (by Michael Connelly) and then I started the Bill Hodges series (by Stephen King). Then I made the decision to read the Cormoran Strike trilogy written by Robert Galbraith. 

When I first started the book I was not exactly sure how I was going to feel about it. I was really worried that one of my favorite authors was going to fall flat when it came to writing mysteries. After all, J.K. Rowling had spent most of her writing career devoted to the Harry Potter series. And this is most likely why she choose to write the novels under a pen name. She wanted a fresh start, writing within a new fictional genre. However, that did not make this first book any less magical. Rowling proved that she can break out of the mold and redefine herself as a writer that can write about a little more than magic. 

In The Cuckoo's Calling we meet private Detective Cormoran Strike; he is rough around the edges, a hard man. He is a also broke. Strike can not afford the assistant that is currently working for him and so he ends up taking a case that he thinks will only lead to dead ends. Especially since it seems that the death he is investigating was ruled a suicide shortly before he got  involved. The death/suicide he is investigating is that on Lula Landry. Landry was a model, and a media darling. Everyone in England seems to know everything about her. The only people that seem to be out of the loop is her family. Months before her death she seemed to be distancing herself from her beloved brother. Who is the person that contacted Strike to investigate the death. Of course, Strike uncovers that Landry's death was definitely a murder. And there are a lot of suspects, with a lot of reasons to kill her.

I really thought I had the killer pegged; but boy was I wrong. Rowling really got me. I was shocked. I have read a few mysteries this year and this one was definitely one of my favorites. Strike is nothing like Michael Connelly's characters (Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller); and ya'll know I love Connelly's stuff. I really can not wait to finish The Silkworm; which I am currently reading. 

My favorite scene of the novel happens when Strike confronts the killer. He outlines for the killer how things happen; and how he did it and why he did it. And also confronts him with another crime that he has committed that only someone else close to Landry and the family could have known about. I gave The Cuckoo's Calling 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Quotes I loved:

"Looking like a rake with two plastic tangerines tied to it"

"..Have you meant his girlfriend? Talk about a beard...I think she's got one"

"Its that wounded-poet crap, that soul-pain shit, that too-much-of-a-tortured-genuis-to-wash bollocks. Brush your teeth, you little bastard. You're not fucking Byron."

   

Book Review: Revival by Stephen King

                                       

Its not the kind of Revival: My review of Stephen King's Revival

King is one of those authors who I can not seem to get enough of. In fact, I have read three of his books this summer. Revival had been on my TBR for a few months. This book was not at all what I expected. It was not at all what I thought it would be. I was a little disappointed because it was very anti-climatic. 

Revival revolves around the life of Jamie and his relationship with his former Pastor. Charles Jacobs; who has been casting a shadow over Jamie's life seen the day they first meant at Jamie's boyhood home. Charles Jacob seems like a nice man, though he is a little odd. He has an attraction to electricity and loves to give the kids at the church lessons and lectures on the subject. He even goes so far as to weave Christian theology into it the lessons. Jacob's seems harmless until his young wife and son are killed in a car accident. 

After that everything changes, and he loses his faith; and during his final sermon at the town church Jamie seems to lose his faith as well. The sermon is so bad, so full of grief, that Jacob's is fired and forced out of town. 

Jamie does not think he will ever meet or see Jacob's again, until years later, when he is traveling with a band. Getting high on heroin and living rough does he meeting Jacob's at a fair. Jacob's is using electricity to create stunning portraits of young and attractive women. However, it is discovered, that being a subject of one of these photos might cause you some trouble.

It is during this chance meeting that Jacob's convinces Jamie to allow him to "cure" him of his drug addiction. Jamie will do anything to get his life back and does not think that it could hurt, or that their would be any real side effects. Oh, how wrong he was. 

Jamie has one or two weird incidents, but does not connect them to his "cure". Its not until much later in the book that he connects it all to Jacob's. Who, seems to have regained his faith, and is now "healing" afflicted people at tent revivals. 

My favorite scene of the book was at the end, when suddenly it all clicks into place. Jamie accepts that he is the key to this mystery and while scared he knows he has to face the darkness thats coming.

Revival was a great book, with a creepy villain, and the tale was will weaved. However, something was missing. We only got a small look at the evil that lurked behind Jacob's greatest experiment. I think it would be very easy for King to open this can of worms again. Maybe the ending is just a foreshadowing to another novel. I sure hope so because I want to know about "mother".

I gave Revival 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Quotes I loved:

"When you want to feel better, call something a piece of shit. It usually works."

"There's no proof of these after life destinations; no backbone of science; there is only the bald assurance, coupled with our powerful need to believe that it all makes sense...Religion is the theological equivalent of a quick-buck insurance scam, where you pay in your premium year after year, and then, when you need the benefits you paid for..so religiously, you discover the company that took your money, does not, in fact, exist."

"Question: Death, where is thy sting? Answer: Every-fucking-where."

"I thought he was fuckin' dead. All the coke he snorted, he should be."

"That's how you know you're home, I think, no matter how far you've gone from it or how long you've been in some other place. Home is where they want you to stay longer."

"Sometimes death is natural, a mercy that puts an end to suffering. But all too often it comes   as an assassin, full of senseless cruelty and lacking and vestige of compassion"

Litsy.....a place to grow your TBR...and make friends!

So....have you heard there is like a tinder for books? It's called Litsy! It's one of the best things I have discovered this year. Litsy is an app that helps readers connect with one another. The app is similar to Instagram in that you can post photos of the books your reading. You can post quotes, blurbs and (small) reviews! This is great for me because I love to create meme's of quotes for the books I just finished. 

Also the app has helped me choose which books to read next and has made my TBR bigger. I have found that the users of this app take their books very seriously and give very honest reviews! 

The best feature of the app is the My Litfluence...it's pretty awesome. You increase your Litfluence as people like your post, comment or follow you. So far I have only 75 or so followers. A number I hope to see grow by Jan of 2017! Litsy is a must have on any book lover's phone. If your using Litsy please post your username in the comments. You can follow me there as TheBookbabeblog84 ! 

🍁......My Fall Wishlist....🍂

Sometimes a girl just have to have a few books to buy to make the next few months exciting! Of course, I have more than enough books. But here are the top for books I can't wait to buy....

Synopsis:

Sometimes I believe the baby will never stop crying.

Sixteen-year-old Amanda Verner fears she is losing her mind. When her family move from their small mountain cabin to the vast prairie, Amanda hopes she can leave her haunting memories behind: of her sickly Ma giving birth to a terribly afflicted baby; of the cabin fever that claimed Amanda's sanity; of the boy who she has been meeting in secret. . .
But the Verners arrive on the prairie to find their new home soaked in blood. So much blood. And Amanda has heard stories - about men becoming unhinged and killing their families, about the land being tainted by wickedness.

With guilty secrets weighing down on her, Amanda can't be sure if the true evil lies in the land, or within her soul . . .

Synopsis: 

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
     In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
     Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

Synopsis: 

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. 
 
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. 
 
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”  
 
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
 
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
 

Synopsis:

Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America, compiled by the "New York Times "bestselling author of "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane "and "Conversion" 
From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, "The Penguin Book of Witches" is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft. 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

*all descriptions came from Google Books*

My first Book of the Month Club Selection!

Here is the synopsis:

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all--a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.
     Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years.
     What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family--a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.