[Review] Year of Yes

Shonda Rhimes's "Year of Yes" was recommended in an entrepreneur group I'm in last year. I saw it on the shelf at my library last week and decided that since I'm working on visibility this year, that it may well be time to read about an introvert learning to be visible. It's a really interesting read and I'm definitely finding a lot of the things she mentioned true.

[Review] Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Robin Sloan's "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore came onto my radar over the summer with some Facebook friends remarking about the fascinating beliefs meme of Codex Vitae which was inspired by the book, which I find interesting as well, but i had other books to read. I wandered around my library and picked it up last week to read and finished it in a couple of days. The narrator who works the overnight shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore has a geeky quality like Magic Ex Libris's Isaac Vainio and a team of geeky friends who help him solve the mystery surrounding the bookstore. It's a fascinating intersection of history, Literature and computers that surrounds the book. :)

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: Update #1 (11:20AM) - Rin Chupeco's The Girl from the Well Review

It's now about 11:20AM and I've finished the short book I wanted to start, The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco. This book is horror, specifically Japanese-American paranormal and the first book in a series.
It tells several stories overlapping stories: a story about an onryuu -- a vengeful ghost who can't move on -- The Girl from the Well. A Japanese-American boy with a terrible secret from his childhood and his American cousin who gets tied up in it.
I am a huge fan of Japanese horror and this ties up nicely all my favorite parts from the movies and games I've played on the subject, weaving the mythology right into the story.

[FICTION] IF I STAY BY GAYLE FORMAN

If I Stay by Gayle Forman is a YA novel about having to make the ultimate choice after tragedy.

After a tragic car accident, Mia spends one day in an out-of-body experience telling her story through flashbacks to her past as she considers the choice she has to make: if she stays.

While it’s marketed a bit to Twilight fans on the cover, that’s not the impression I find fits with it. Looking at the other books inside the cover that are marketed as “other books you may like” to me the one that this fits best along with is Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer, which is one of my favorite YA novels of all time because it grapples with identity, hope, family, and difficult situations.

I enjoyed this book because the pacing is well-done and I have a weakspot for flashback fiction, but what I like in this book, is the fact that between the flashbacks and the narration, there is the underlying theme of family of choice: that family doesn’t have to be your immediate family and it can include friends and other loved ones as well. The other thing that drew me was the role music plays throughout the storyline’s flashbacks from Mia’s passion for cello to different aspects of her life where music is central to her family and her relationships.