Book Review: Story of a Girl

So I hate the official book reviews they made us do in school, but since my own story is, uh, on hiatus until farther notice (I am actually still in the research stage, apparently, as I keep getting stuck), I will review books (the ones I finish reading) on this site. Just with my opinion, nothing formal. So the first book is...

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Synopsis (courtesy of barnesandnoble.com): When she is caught in the backseat of a car with her older brother's best friend - Deanna Lambert's teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of "school slut," she longs to escape a life defined by her past.

The Good: This is a very well-written story (though not as good as Ally Carter's books), and surprisingly redeeming. I wasn't sure I'd like it but decided to read it anyways, and it kept getting better and better. Deanna's family is just really screwed up and it makes for sad but realistic reading, but I liked the ending.

The Bad: Not too much "bad" in this book. I will warn that there's quite a bit of language, but I found the characters to be relatable.

note: apparently this blog does not recognize "relatable", although dictionary.com does. Why is this adjective coming up as if it's misspelled??

8 Best Books in 2008

I'm going to revise my previous list and just make it comprised of 8 best books I found in 2008... because really I only discovered 8 exceptional books last year (two of which I completely forgot about in the last post! ) These are listed in the order I discovered them, not the order in which I liked them best:

1. True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglass
2. More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglass
3. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
4. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
5. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
6. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
7. I'd Tell You I Love You but Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
8. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

6 Best Books I Found in 2008

Here are the 6 best books I discovered in 2008:

1. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
2. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
3. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
4. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
5. I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
6. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

I have 4 out of 6 of these books. Can you guess which ones?

For good measure, here are some other good books (well-written, * means it contains adult content) I also read.

7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold*
9. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult*
10. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

I own 2 out of those 4. Can you guess which ones those are?

Note: I have read more good books than that, but those are the ones that stand out. The Shadow Children Series (Among the Hidden is book 1) are overall really good. I have read all but the last two.

Word Count

I have developed a good habit of writing 15 minutes each day, except for the last two days, which I made up by my 45 minute story time tonight... and I finally typed it all out! (I had been hand writing it, because most of the time I just prefer that.) I am at a total of... 2,381 words! Needless to say, I am both shocked and thrilled.

Progress

So finally I set a goal to write at least 15 minutes each day, no matter what I wrote or when. So far I did that Sunday, and managed to last night and today already. I missed Monday because of play practice. The writing is really bad but, well... it's a first draft. I'm just excited to be actually writing something again.

Coldness

It is so freaking COLD here! I heard -24 wind chill. Of course universities don't cancel even when all the schools around them do.

Since this is storyworld I will try to keep up on my story. So how is it going? Um, yeah... I wrote last Sunday night and that's all. I got the character's schedules finished, then wrote a few lines. Progress for me, but.. it's not very much. Hopefully this weekend... I should have plenty of time.

New Blog

I created a new blog since there are several blogs I visit like this one. I will still use my xanga - http://www.xanga.com/storyworld.