Review: The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

The Stone Girl

Alyssa B. Sheinmel
Genre: YA

Expected Publication: August 28, 2012

Publisher: Random House Children's Books

ISBN: 0375870806

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Description:

She feels like a creature out of a fairy tale; a girl who discovers that her bones are really made out of stone, that her skin is really as thin as glass, that her hair is brittle as straw, that her tears have dried up so that she cries only salt. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t hurt when she presses hard enough to begin bleeding: it doesn’t hurt, because she’s not real anymore.

Sethie Weiss is hungry, a mean, angry kind of hunger that feels like a piece of glass in her belly. She’s managed to get down to 111 pounds and knows that with a little more hard work—a few more meals skipped, a few more snacks vomited away—she can force the number on the scale even lower. She will work on her body the same way she worked to get her perfect grades, to finish her college applications early, to get her first kiss from Shaw, the boy she loves, the boy who isn’t quite her boyfriend.

Sethie will not allow herself one slip, not one bad day, not one break in concentration. Her body is there for her to work on when everything and everyone else—her best friend, her schoolwork, and Shaw—are gone.

Review:

Rating:

This book is a pass. It reads as though it glorifies eating disorders. A character saying every girl goes through that stage, which just isn’t true. Somewhat reads as a how too manual while no graphic details are given it does cover a character being obsessed with her weight and vomiting, restricting calories and being happy about it. This is the nature of eating disorders. It did accurately portray a person so deep in the disease that nothing else matters. The ending leaves much more to be desired. No real fall out ever comes from her dramatic weight loss which may send the wrong message to some. 

While you are reading this book you keep waiting for the other foot to drop and something to happen it just never does. It is written very monotone with nothing to pull the reader into the story. This is one book to pass on. 

*The Book Blogging Beauties  received a copy of this book from  Random House Children's Books  in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We were not compensated for this review.

Getting Married And Other Mistakes by Barbara Slate

Getting Married and Other Mistakes

Barbara Slate

Genre: Chick Lit, Graphic Novel

Publication Date: June 12, 2012

Publisher: Other Press

ISBN:1590515358

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Description:

After having been a good girl and following her mother’s advice to snag a husband before she became a twenty-something spinster, Barbara Slate realized that her Mr. Right was actually Mr. Wrong and that she was living her life according to everyone’s rules but her own. After twelve years of an unblissful marriage, she made her escape.
   Now this accomplished comic artist lets it all out in a savagely funny and emotionally honest fictional narrative. Jo, her stand-in protagonist, is a successful wedding photographer (of all things) who has been dumped by her husband and desperately needs to get on with her life. She follows her friends’ advice to get laid, see a shrink, go out more, and live a little. Nothing works. Eventually she realizes that she must stop listening to what everybody else tells her and follow her own voice instead.
   Jo’s struggle with female guilt and her quest for self-awareness, told in a series of hilarious panels, is the perfect book for any woman needing to take back control of her life, or remembering when she did.

Review

Rating:

Super cute comic book for adult women. The stories in it are funny and many will be able to relate. It is the kind of book you can throw in your purse and read when you just have a few mins though you will probably read it in one sitting.

*The Book Blogging Beauties received a copy of this book for review from Other Press. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We were not compensated for this review.

Review: Paula Takes A Risk by Randi M. Sherman

Paula Takes A Risk

Randi M. Sherman

Genre: Chick Lit

Publication Date: January 30, 2012

Publisher: Friesan Press

ISBN: 1770971564

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Description:

After thirty-four years of just letting life happen to her, Paula Tenenbaum’s mundane existence was suddenly interrupted. It was bad enough to be fired from her job because she was “average”, but on that same day, her boyfriend also dumped her for being “un-dynamic.” Somehow, someway Paula needed to make a change. But before she could figure out what her first step should be, her scheming neighbor Larry tapped into her silent desperation and dreams and challenged everything that she believed about herself.
At first Paula was skeptical and scared, but quickly, she realized that she had nothing to lose, as she donned the persona of the successful, and vibrant individual that she had always dreamed of being, navigating thru business, colorful personalities and the people that she had idolized from afar.
Written with sharp humor, and huge personality, Paula Takes A Risk is the hilarious story about the metamorphosis of Paula Tenenbaum, who naively enters into an adventure that changes her life. This is a story certain to strike a chord in anyone who secretly desires change, but is afraid to make it.

Review

Rating:

First the pluses, this book is a quick easy read. That's really the only upside. Overall the book was lacking substance. To use the authors words the book was as undynamic as Paula. Paula the main character lacks any substance she just follows others, she loses her job and boyfriend in the same day only to fall for another mans scheme. To me it just made her look weak. Maybe if there was more to the story it reads like someone's brief overview of what happened there are no real details to it. No meat to the story.

*The Book Blogging Beauties received a copy of this book for review from Friesen Press. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We were not compensated for this review.

Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

Chomp

Carl Hiaasen

Release Date: March 27, 2012

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 0375868429

Description:

Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an animal wrangler, so he's grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard. The critters he can handle.  His father is the unpredictable one.

 When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called "Expedition Survival!", Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show's boneheaded star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts. And Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out.
 They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . .

It's anyone's guess who will actually survive "Expedition Survival". . . 

Review:

Rating:

Roger says: It was a decent book but some things were out of order. Wahoo's dad gets a job to train animals to act like wild animals for a TV show and them he gets a job to actually go catch wild animals for the show. They go to Wal-mart to buy supplies and they found a girl from Wahoo's school living in the parking lot. 

Mom says: Written like a typical Hiaasen book. The cover is colorful and grabs kids attention. The story has enough going on to keep the kids reading but not to much as to overwhelm the reader. The mom in this story is overseas for work during this time leaving Wahoo with his dad. In need of a job he accepts one with a reality show. The shows star Derek Badger is full of himself and thinks he can do more than he really can. 

This is one to get when it is released March 27, 2012

*The Book Blogging Beauties  received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley & Knopf Books for Young Readers. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We are dedicated to providing our HONEST opinion about books etc. We were not compensated for this review.