Review: Why not me? by Mindy Kaling

Rate:

5/5

Goodreads Description:

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

In “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling gives her tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, (“Your natural hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn’t the land of appropriate–this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a dark-skinned woman’s traditional hair color is honey blonde.”) “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had matching bangs.”) In “Unlikely Leading Lady,” she muses on America’s fixation with the weight of actresses, (“Most women we see onscreen are either so thin that they’re walking clavicles or so huge that their only scenes involve them breaking furniture.”) And in “Soup Snakes,” Kaling spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close friend, B.J. Novak (“I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell.”)

Mindy turns the anxieties, the glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who’s ever been at a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who’ve never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks about meeting Bradley Cooper

Review:

 I absolutely loved this book!

It was funny it was relatable it was so Mindy!

I love her I loved her book. 

I am usually not one for memoir books but im so glad I got this one from blogging for books. 

I liked how she talks about simple things, like her thoughts on some people, her experiences in hollywood and all that stuff that people could only truly guess about ! What I really want to check out now is the audiobook and of course her first book xD It is now a must have for my shelf

Recommend it?

Yus!

Topic Tuesday: Reading Challenge

Episode 14: Reading challenges

So as the end of the year approaches, I am going to talk about reading challenges, what I read, which books I liked the most, the least, my next goal and yeah... All that good stuff.

Goal:

So this year is the first year that I set myself a reading goal and since this year I decided to really and truly focus on my blog, I set myself for 52 books. One book a week since I do one review a week (Sometimes more though) I decided that one book a week sounds good for a challenge.

For the books I will mention below, I will link the review, if it's published already (I have about 50 unpublished- scheduled reviews) and I will mention a bit about that book, just so the post is not so dry. Also, in the BOTTOM 5, it doesnt exactly mean the book was overall bad. but there was something about it that made ME not like the book

All the books where tough to put u.u

I actually went past that and read 81 this year!!!! (December 22)

So my top 10 books that I read/ re-read this year areeee

1. The One of a Kind Cat Book - Ciye Cho

Oh this book was so colorful and adorable and SO freaking creative! It couldnt not make it onto my list ! I seriously recommend it for any and all cat lovers

2. Winter - Marissa Meyer (REVIEW)

I mean... Its Marissa Meyer, anything by her is fantastic along with Kelly Oram, the book was everything it needed to be

3. Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (REVIEW)

I remember how excited I was when I got it in the mail, and the book, from the very first chapter, I was HOOKED!

4. The Raft - S. A. Booden

THIS BOOK HAD SUCH A PLOT TWIST! Before the plot twist I was like okay, this book is pretty darn good, then BAM! The book became legendary in my eyes xD

5. Why not me?- Mindy Kailing (REVIEW)

Oh how I love Mindy after her book! Sure she was already great but her book is simply so funny and releatable and down to earth and awesome.

6. The Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot

It's the end to the Princess Diaries, we grew up with them, okay maybe not the end but... ITS THE WEDDING! And it was AMAZING

7. The Martian - Andy Weir (REVIEW)

Seriously one of my favorite books now, the book is so funny and so addictive, sure, the movie was good but the BOOK was out of this world

bada ttsk!

Plus ! I got to interview the author (READ INTERVIEW HERE)and it was honestly one of the best blogging moments of the year! ONE 

8. The Avery Shaw Experiment - Kelly Oram (REVIEW)

Anything by Kelly Oram will always make it on my list, this book was adorable!

9. Ten Girls to Watch - Charity Shumway

I LOVED this book! This is the type of book one needs to read after a break up, total "chick- lit" some might say but it is also about learning to appreciate yourself and value yourself

10. Isla and the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins

This book broke my heart into a million pieces (Almost sure I said that in the review as well) before it fixed it right and happy. I loved the Anna and the French Kiss series and *sighs* I just loved this book.

My bottom 5 books areeeeeee

1. Life and Death - Stephanie Meyer

Okay, that ending? No. Just.. NO. That was cruel and uncalled for and the fact that more books wont come along for us to get used to the new characters kinda made me hate the book... Not HATE but its a bottom 5 book

2. Last Year's Mistake - Gina Ciocca

The main character was just crazy annoying. She got on my nerves so badly I just could no even finish the book >.> I tried for the longest time!

3. The Hunger but Maily Death Games - Bratniss Everclean

As much as this book was a parody, it was just unreadable for me

4. Never Always Sometimes - Adi Alsaid

Okay so the book was good, AMAZING really, Alsaid has yet to disappoint me with a plot or story telling it's well written and everything. But this time it was for PERSONAL reasons that the ending of this book destroyed me in a way that was just too real to my personal life and I HATED IT, like I got to much into the character and so their ending was not something I wanted, I wanted a different ending. To be honest, if you are thinking about this book, I say you need to go for it, do not be turned of by me having been destroyed by it.

5. Fifty Shames of Earl Grey - Fanny Merkin (REVIEW)

Just... No... Horrible for me, horrible. It was too much

For next year, I going to set my goal to 60 because even though I read 81 this year, I don't want to feel the pressure to go over that or get that again this year, I want to slowly work my way to that.

Also, this year, for every book I read, I would out a dollar in a jar and with that money I will be buying myself COMIC CON TICKETS! Aw yeah !

Saturday B.S.: Francesca Burke

Saturday Blogger Special

Episode 11: Francesca Burke

This week I get to introduce Francesca from Indifferent Ignorance to some of you :D

She has recently starting book reviewing so lets welcome her in the way we bookworms do best !

Let's go ahead and start and find out more about her :D

Name: Francesca Burke

Picture of you: 

 (I like to maintain an air of mystery…)

Where can we stalk you?

       Facebook:

  Facebook.com/IndifferentIgnorance or Facebook.com/FrancescasWords

  Twitter: 

@ToBeQuiteFrank

    Blog:

  http://indifferentignorance.com

   Instagram:

  @francescagotconceited

  Other:

  FrancescasWords.tumblr.com or francescagotablog.tumblr.com; francescaburke.etsy.com, tobequitefrank.deviantart.com

How long have you been blogging about books and normally?

I started Indifferent Ignorance in 2009, mostly talking about my favourite band and stuff in the news that I thought was funny or stupid. I mentioned books here and there, but I started reviewing books this summer, for my Patreon page. I felt that asking for pledges every month or whenever I finished a bit of art was unfair, so instead people can pledge to donate every time I review a book.

One genre you would not review?

One of the other reasons I chose book reviews as my Patreon ‘thing’ because I missed really getting stuck into novels and wanted to get through my book list, so I’d be hesitant to review, say, a factual piece or textbook. That being said, there are a lot of hilarious fact books out there, so I’d consider travel journals and the like.

How would you describe your blogging style?

Rude bordering on inappropriate, funny (I hope) and slightly eccentric. I make up most posts as I go along, so there’s a lot that start with something I want to discuss, then I’ll get sidetracked and moan about the US presidential election or something…

V: I was going to use another image where it was "it happens" with a shrug BUT, lets appreciate tiny Nick Hoult

Current read?

Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Favorite part about blogging?

YELLING AT THE INTERNET. Telling the Internet to piss off somewhere else if it doesn’t like my little corner… also, my readers. Mostly my readers.

Top 5 TBR books

Bible of the Dead, The Scorpio Races, Frankenstein, #GirlBoss, anything by Gabriel García Marquez.

V: Frankenstein is supposed to be a GREAT book, that SHOULD be on my TBR

One random thing about you

My dog Fred is watching me write this, his eyes boring holes into my soul, because he knows I know it’s dinnertime.

Thoughts on book trailers

I don’t watch that many; I’m usually underwhelmed. I love good film trailers, and a lot of book trailers just don’t have the same sense of urgency or excitement. That being said, most book publishers don’t work in the film industry… I’ll always be excited to see a trailer for a book I’m looking forward to, but I think the medium as a whole needs more Hollywood and less reliance on dodgy graphics (hire me).

V; I LOVE good film trailers, sometimes they can be even better than the movie !

Favorite superhero and/or princess

I’m not big into superhero stuff, but the Fabulous Killjoys will forever own my heart. Failing that (since they were really more vigilantes/terrorists than actual superhuman heroes), Loki. My favourite princess is probably Mia Thermopolis.

If you could go on an all-expense paid trip somewhere, where would you go?

I know a lot of people who are in or going to New Zealand; I’d love to go there. Or do a road trip across America. Or go interrailing across Europe. So everywhere. Also today I watched the first British astronaut propelled into space – a trip to the stars sounds pretty cool.

Favorite book character and why?

Oh god. Hermione Granger, Annabeth Chase (actually, all the Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus girls), Laila from A Thousand Splendid Suns... Matilda Wormwood, maybe. All of those girls/women are smart, independent and maintain their integrity in horrific circumstances; with the exception of Laila, I’d love to be them all for a day.

Most reread book?

Probably the Harry Potter series. I reread it every couple of years these days, but I first read Philosopher’s Stone at six or seven and went back over the first four or five books obsessively as a child.

Anything you wish to add can go here, anything at all.

Thank you very much for the interview! You made me realise how many books are on my to-read list…

You are VERY welcome, in a true bookworm way xD there is always a BUNCH of books to be read!

I want to thank Francesca for the interview and again, let's welcome her to the book community and check out her pages, all the links are mentioned above :D

I really hope to continue seeing your reviews in the future :D

Review: The Heir by Kiera Cass

Rate:

4/5

Goodreads Description:

Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.

But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.

Review:

This review will have a million gifs to express my feelings

OH MY GOD EADLYN !

Eadlyn is so freaking bratty and annoying in my opinion.

This  whole review might seem like I hated the book but dont be fooled... I only hated Eadlyn, loved everything else.

Half of the time I thought "how did Maxon and America manage to have such a shit child"

Eadlyn spends a great deal of her time complaining about how no one gets her and she didn't ask for it and how it sucks and the selection is so freaking ineffective... IT SEEMS LIKE IT WORKED FOR EVERYONE BEFORE YOU!

Then the guys get there....

When she makes the first elimination, she was such a bejhgfisfe I usually someone root for characters to be meanish... But damn, Eadlyn was just being a brat!

When they start telling her and calling her out on her shit she is so surprised and like 

Im just sitting and reading the book trying not to punch it

I have seriously never hated a character so much

"Why did you give it a 4 then?!"

Everything else made it worth it , when she starts having out with Kile or Henri it makes it all worth it.

You start to get the feeling that Eadlyn is starting to realize she is a shit child. I have hope for her, hope that she will stop being a shit child.

I also have my favorite but I have a feeling that it might be too obvious and that it won't be it. Also... That ending destroyed me!

Okay so onto actual thought about this book.

It was still good, I finished it in 2 days, I hated Eadlyn every step of the way, but it was still good

Recommend it?

Yes but you could live without it, don't expect it to be fluffy like America's story

Topic Tuesday: Giveaways

Episode 13: Giveaways

 

 

So I have held a couple of giveaways in the past and ive decided to go ahead and talk about them a little bit if you have never done on and are thinking about holding one.

 

What can you give away?

Anything your heart desires as long as it's legal. So no, you can't give away alcohol to minors, or drugs or distribute an ebook that you bought once and want to keep sharing it.

I have given away Mockingjay posters in the past, movie tickets, books, an author offered an ecopy to a winner, notebooks, currently considering giving away my old copy of THG movie. It all depends on what you want to do and want to give away for people :D Its free stuff, people appreciate free stuff xD

 

What do I use for giveaways to keep them fair?

The best way to keep track of entries and to choose a winner at the end fairly, is by using rafflecopter. I am not being sponsored to say that rafflecopter is the best way to hold giveaways in MY personal opinion. You can put the entries that are valid, they are all in one spot, ends at the exact same time for everyone, no need to stay awake till 12 your time to post the end of a giveaway. At the end of the giveaway, you can also log on to pick a winner and rafflecopter uses random.org to pick a random entry. You can then check that whatever entry the made is done correctly and is valid. If not, you can disqualify the person.

 

Disqualified!

So in rafflecopter it will tell you who the person is and what they entered, and what I like to do is check that in fact they did it. If they say they followed my instagram, I go and check, if they say they tweeted something, I check. If an entry is invalid, I disqualify the person and choose another one. Some people decide to go ahead and block people that have lied on their entries or deleted their entries before time. I just ignore them and move on to the next person. Its not a big deal to me as long as I check and they don't win what they don't deserve.

 

What do you put as entries?

Anything really, within reason. If an author is helping me with the giveaway, I like to put them in there. So if author A wants me to put their newsletters or following on social media, I put that as an option as well as my own. I like to make them easy. Twitter following, optional twitter posting, following on instagram. Many of these people are already following, and they simply have to put their info. I also like to ask questions, out of personal curiosity, like what country/state they are from and they get an entry from that. If it is an instagram giveaway, I do make it REQUIERED that they follow one of my instagram pages. I would never include that they have to buy anything from me or give me a shoutout or anything like that. It just doesn't seem right TO ME!

 

Extra Entries?

What I mean by that is that people could post like a tweet about the giveaway or an instagram image every day and submit it for extra entries. That's something that could be done, that some people like to do for a greater chance at winning. All up to you.

 

Why are they good?

There is no solid answer for this. Some people do it to gain followers, others do it for the feel of sharing, others do it to get rid of things they don't want and some even do it to bring awareness to something. Everyone that holds a giveaway can do it for a number of different reasons :D

 

 

 

So yeah, that was that, I enjoy giveaway, to ask some questions and see all the different answers, it makes me feel appreciated in a certain way.

Saturday B.S.: Logan Ashley LeDuc

Saturday Blogger Special

Episode 10: Logan Ashley LeDuc

So this week we welcome a friend , Logan ! I actually met Logan back when there was a lovely little blog called The Book Elves (cute huh) until everyone decided to focus on their personal blogs and so Logans amazing new blog was born! Lets find out more about her!

Hi!  Okay, here goes!

Name: 
Logan Ashley LeDuc

Picture of you: 

Where can we stalk you?

-Facebook
 https://www.facebook.com/logan.leduc

-Twitter
 www.twitter.com/loganashley

-Blog
 www.loganashleyleduc.com

-Goodreads
 https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27779994-logan-leduc

-Instagram
 www.instagram.com/thebookelves

 How long have you been blogging?

I've been blogging for years. I had my own website years ago (I can't even remember the name of it!) But I would write reviews and be really nasty about them. I don't think anyone ever read them, thankfully, but I closed the site and got busy with 'middle school stuff' as I used to call it. That was back when I was 14 or so. I'm now 21 and (hopefully) much more appreciative of the effort and hard work that goes into the books/subscription boxes I review.

 How did you come up with your blog name?

It's my name! I use the site for my writing/personal updates as well and figured it'd be easy to find.

About how many books do you own?

I own over 800 books, and have only read about half of them.

V: thats insane!

Serious goals though

 One book you wish ended differently?

I really wish Allegiant had ended differently. I dunno, I always felt like the ending was unnecessary and just a way to shock the reader - if you've read it I'm sure you understand. Haha.

V: *gasp* I don't know what you mean

  #bookshelftruth how do your bookshelves look RIGHT NOW! No fixing them 

 Top 5 TBR books

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Adhieh, Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman, Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley, and These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.

 Favorite book genre and why?

I'm a HUGE fan of Historical Fiction mostly because I like things that are at least partially true. That makes it all seem so much more real to me. If just the events happening around these characters that never existed is all that's true, it makes me fall in love with it so much more.

V: Huh, never thought of them that way :o, totes gotta read one now with that mind set

 Any blogging tips for new reviewers?

Don't give up! Get on all forms of social media and learn the power of a hashtag. It's amazing how much more people can find you if you tag your photo/post. Also, chat with other people who post similar things! Don't comment, "great post, follow me?" because that really upsets the original poster and makes them think you're just looking for follows. If you post something like, "Interesting take on this book. I felt that the characters were.....blahblahblah. I wrote my own review on it, you should check it out!" That way they know that you read what they wrote and they can go to your page and see how you felt about it too. Plus, it's a great way to make friends!

V: It truly is! 

 Favorite stand alone book?

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

 Was there a book that made you want to start blogging? Which one was it?

Not really, thought it was just an easier way to organize my reviews and get them out to as many people as possible outside of Goodreads, so I just went for it!

 Favorite book character and why?

Luna Lovegood, for the fact that she is so incredibly comfortable being herself and she is just an all-around kind-hearted person and is always looking to help and do what's right while still staying true to herself.

 Most reread book?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which I have read 78 times. :D

V: THATS SO FREAKING INSANE!!!!

 How do you choose your next read?

Totally random - if I see someone post about a book, I might just go for it, or I might just pick one off my shelf at random.

 Least favorite book character? Why.

Dolores Jane Umbridge. Need I say more.

 Top 3 favorite book covers? 

 Thank You so much for being here today Logan, it was a pleasure to have you here. 
Readers, feel free to go and check out Logan's sites, she's a VERY active bookworm and I know you LOVE her !

Review: Winter by Marissa Meyer

Rate:

5/5

Goodreads Description:

 Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

Review:

 I.... OMG! I cant even with this book... 

I honestly don't know what to say without actually spoiling anything. 

There is so much happening in this book. 

This book is where it all goes down and everything is falling apart and everyone is breaking and cracking and... It's chaos all over. 

Not going to lie, when I got the book and I started reading it, I skipped ahead to find out what would happen, but in my defense it was all very brief so I still wouldn't majorly spoil it for myself. This book had my emotions all over the place! I actually teared up more than once !!

One thing that killed me in this book was Thorne and Cress! I NEED MORE!

I need more of my cutiepies!

Its still one of the best books in the series, hands down, they just kept getting better for me. Now all I need is Stars Above and my life will be complete. And probably over at the same time.

Recommend it?

YES! It will not dissapoint !