The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hello, hello, hello from Disney,

Today my review is on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

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This was a charming little book. It was funny and whimsical. It was such a quick read. It's actually quite genius. Everything we do will eventually be erased because Earth will be no more. Not so much the aliens. It's almost like before climate change was a thing Adams knew that it was coming. If you want a light read this is the book for you. There is a lot of clever commentary on humans. And it's a classic! A book you have to read at least once. At first it's a little confusing but then things clear up. It's just a ridiculous kind of book. I gave it 5 out of 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

How I Came to Sparkle Again

Hello, hello, hello!

Today's review is on How I Came to Sparkle Again by Kaya McLaren.

Jill Anthony spent her young adulthood in the ski town of Sparkle, Colorado.  But more than a decade has passed since she left when, only weeks after a very late miscarriage, she finds her husband in bed with another woman, she flees Austin, Texas for the town she knows:  Sparkle. Lisa Carlucci wakes up one morning after another night of meaningless sex, looks in the mirror and realizes that she no longer wants to treat her body like a Holiday Inn. She’s going to hold out for love.  The only problem is, love might come in the form of her ski bum best friend, who lives next door with his ski bum friends in a trailer known as “the Kennel.” Cassie Jones, at age ten, has lost her mother to cancer and no longer believes in anything anymore.  She knows her father is desperately worried about her, and she constantly looks for messages from her deceased mother through the heart-shaped rocks they once collected in the streams and hills of Sparkle. 

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This also fits into my 2015 challenge under "A book you own but have never read".

After this I only have one more "H" to finish that letter.

Okay, as for my review. I read this book when I wasn't feeling so great and thought I could use some more sparkle in my life. BUT this book was about how the protagonist, Jill, ended back in the town Sparkle....Ugh. Not exactly what I was looking for. It was an okay story. It was cheesy and kind of cute. It was so typical and predictable. The relationship between Cassie and Jill is the best part of the book. I also found the story behind Jill heartbreaking. I thought it would be super heartwarming. It fell flat. Some of the dialogue and movements seemed forced. There were also too many characters to keep track of. Half of this book was great and half of it was juvenile. I gave it 3 out of 4 stars,

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

Horns

Heyo!

Today's post is dedicated to the novel Horns by Joe Hill. (Which is Stephen King's son...Joe King)

At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real. Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. But Merrin's death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . . Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge. . . . It's time the devil had his due. . . .

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I just want to begin with that this was one of Joe Hill's earlier novels and therefore he had not hit his peak of writing. This book was littered with Biblical references which was one of the best parts of the book. It reminded you what the book was about. Overall, there wasn't much action. There was an awful lot downtime and wandering. This book was almost worth reading for the last few chapters which really....finally brought the book together and told you what the heck was going on. Most of the time it was just a bunch of random information that had nothing to do with the plot. Although the last few chapters were good, the book just ended and felt unfinished. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I have high hopes for Mr. Hill though for upcoming books.

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

The Handmaid's Tale

Hey there!

Next up is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This was from one of my book clubs on Goodreads. Every once and a while I have a book and happen to not be reading anything when my book club starts a book.

And hooray! It fits! Oh how I can't wait to finish HEDGEHOGS so I can post pictures of mine!

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I really liked this book. I'm a fan of the whole dystopian society books. I'd prefer they don't come true but our world parallels so closely with some of these books. This is another book that I can see happening. Women are stripped of their rights and have specific jobs, similar to The Giver. You were given the world through the eyes of a girl who is low on the social totem pole, so it's okay that you don't know everything about everyone. But the girl tries to pry her fingers into everyone's business to give the reader (hopefully you) most of the picture. I'm usually against flashbacks and I wasn't for them in this book either. They tend to muddle things up and I don't know where or when I'm seeing or why.The names of the handmaids were genius I thought. At times it does tend to push a lot of faith in your face but not in a bad way. It almost shows you that too much faith can be bad. And of course, the ending...of course it couldn't end any other way. Now, this book came out in 1985, the year after Big Brother was supposed to have take over society in yet another dystopian society...coincidence...I think not! I think Atwood was waiting to see if 1984 came true and if not she pounced on the dystopian train and made her own possible scenario for our future. I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but after writing my review I'm leaning more towards the 3 out of 5 stars. 

Happy reading!

Mackenzie

P.S. If you don't have a Goodreads account, I suggest you get one. It is a great way to keep track of the books you are reading. And you can set goals for yourself. I'll talk about that in my next post!

Click here to create your own account!

The Happiness Project

I finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin earlier today. Yay, finally!

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So before I started reading this book my sister told me she didn't like this book and to make sure that I am happy as I'm reading this. I can't really judge that statement since I suppose I was relatively happy when I was reading it, so just a warning. There were a few sections of the book that I can't relate to yet, ex. marriage, children, but it was still interesting to read. This is a book that I will definitely go back and read over and over so I can milk every piece of advice out of it. Also, if you don't want to start your own happiness project there are definitely a lot of simple easy tips that you can use on a daily basis that will take up a minimal amount of time. Overall, I thought it was a fairly good book, and to state the obvious, especially if you want to find happiness or appreciate appreciate the happiness you already have.

I will be starting a happiness project but not until June, and I will blog about it, so if you want you can follow me to that one as soon as it starts.

I am now reading Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima, the final book for my literature class.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

The Hobbit

So as I said in my last post I would review the books I read. So I decided to start on HEDGEHOG. So far I have, drum roll please:
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So far so good. We'll make it eventually.
So as for my review for The Hobbit, there are so many things I could say about it. But first and foremost what an excellent book. This was one of the rare times I saw the movie before I read the book ( a crime in my mind) and of course, as in most cases, the book was better. The book is perfect for anyone who wants a quick fantasy read. Usually, there was a lot of action to keep the reader's attention which is great because I don't have a very long attention span. There were some parts in the book that made me question it but those were few and far between. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it so I'll keep my mouth shut. But this should definitely be on a list of books to read at least once, especially if you are a fantasy fan. It's even suitable for children over seven-ish. The language wasn't hard and it didn't go into gory details during battles. But anyway, great job Tolkien.
Also, a funny story about finishing The Hobbit. I'm taking a literature class and after a long day I have it at 4:30. So, at this point I'm still deperately trying to finish reading. So, my teacher is talking about the book for class and I'm pretending that The Hobbit is the class book. Finally, I finished withing the first ten minutes of class and could go about listening to the class discussion.
Well, I'm off to do some reading before going off into dreamland, so onto my next book which has no part in HEDGEHOG, The Funniest Cop Stories Ever by Scott Baker and Tom Philbin.
Ta-ta for now! And happy reading!
Mackenzie