Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Dear Readers,

If you haven't figured it out by my reviews allow me to let you in on a secret.
I love reading.
Books probably take up and insane amount of room in this already cramped noggin. I love reading. I am happy reading almost anything but I am a sucker for reading about reading. Nothing relates to me more than a nerdier character who loves to read. That is exactly what you will find in Fangirl.
This may sound mean and I hate sounding mean in my reviews, but I cannot tell you that this book is amazing. Of course I loved it. I couldn't put it down. I laughter at many parts and my eyes stung at many too. But I cannot tell you that it is one of the best books I have ever read.
Let me launch into an explanation before those you haven't read it decide not to and those who have want to kill me for my blunt statement.
First off the book is young adult. I give credit to young adult authors. All of them. Even those who write stupid vampire paranormal romance shit. Writing is hard. Coming up with a world and filling all from your own mind is difficult. I like writing. I have written two novels. I doubt they will ever be published, but I understand the problems and difficulties when it comes to writing. The only qualm I have with young adult fiction though is that is meant for young adults. I love reading it and I have no doubt that I would love writing it, but it is not challenging. I guess that is the point right. When I read young adult books I tear through looking for something complicate the plot or the characters and I hardly ever find it. Some outstanding YA books exist, but most of them contain flat characters with uninteresting plots that are usually a love stories with cheesy and common lines and predictable ends. And yet through all of my problems and sort of hatred YA is my guilt pleasure. I read the books with lust and happiness and once I reach the end I am usually filled with emptiness and longing for something more substantial. It is like eating you favorite candy bar when what you really need is steak. You love the candy bar and it tasted really good when you ate it, but after your stomach still rumbles and the sugar begins to taste flat on your tongue.
The characters in this book were so relatable it was scary. The whole book was to way for me. It takes place in Lincoln, Nebraska the place I was born and grew up. Now that I live in the big city of Chicago the small boring state is a distant memory, but the book mentioned things I had almost forgotten and pulled back those memories. The main character is a girl named Cather. She is a hug fan of a made up fantasy series. The series the author created so closely resembles Harry Potter it is comical. Hopefully that was the intent. Cather writes fan-fiction about this "Simon Snow" series. If you have never read fan-fiction I would highly recommend it. I would start with Twilight shit. Some of them have potential sure, but most have so many grammar and spelling errors that reading them is a challenge with only the reward of knowing there are people more stupid than you out there. Cather is not like one of those fan-fiction writers though. She is good. She has a following. She is also going to college to become an actual fiction writer, so I give her some props. Even though she is fictional she is more an actual writer than I am. Cather begins the story as unsure freshman who is not confident in her abilities, looks, or thoughts. I guess over all it is coming of age story. A writer finding her voice. Relateable and lovable.
While reading it I was sure that this book was a main course. I was almost full to the brim, but once I reached the ending I found out that it was just an appetizer. Now I am hungry for more, and I can't decide if I need another candy bar or some steak this time. I enjoyed the book. I will go as far as saying I loved some of it, but that is for the references to my home-state and how relatable to main character was. Oh and the exerts of the fake fan-fiction were wonderful. There is a book you should write Rainbow Rowell. The gay wizard book. I want to read that one. Overall good book. Read it if you want to. If you are nerd I am sure you will enjoy it, I know I did. So read it or don't the choice is yours.
Lindsey
(P.S. I don't mean to offend those who loved it or the author although she will never read this review I was just being honest. It was good but it wasn't great. I don't set myself as a gudge above everyone. Sometimes though readers you need to be better than YA fiction. You need some challenge and you won't find it here.)
(P.P.S. I apologize for all of my awful food analogies. I am getting kind of hungry.)

The Ender Quintet by Orson Scott Card

Dear Readers,
I might have written a review on these first two books before, but now that I have read the last two and finished the series I thought it would be better to write a review of the series in its entirety.
Here is the link my review solely of Ender's Game. http://ilurvebooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/enders-game-by-orson-scott-card.html. If you haven't read that book do it. If you think that science fiction isn't your thing and it sounds boring do it anyway. It is honestly one of my favorite books and it changed my opinion of science fiction completely.
The Ender Quintet deals with the story of Ender Wiggin himself. Ender's Game, the first book, is about his lost childhood. At the age of five a boy named Andrew Wiggin  was taken from his family and sent to battle school. Battle school prepared the smartest and brightest young minds on Earth for command positions latter in life. After the Earth was attacked twice by an alien species known as the buggers humans began to take precautionary measures. These precautionary measures went too far when the adult who taught Ender tricked him into destroying the bugger's home planet by making him think he was playing a simulation.
After the final war on the alien race Ender leaves Earth to colonize a far off planet. On this planet he finds the sole remaining bugger. The last hive queen. The hive queen tells Ender their story through communicating mind to mind. Ender writes the story and publishes it. With that act he became the first Speaker of the Dead and created a some what religion.
The next three books in the series take place three thousand years after the first. Ender and his sister Valentine use light speed travel to jump from planet to planet so Ender can speak the dead of many others besides the hive queen. Because of the light speed travel Ender and Valentine are only in their thirties three thousand years after their birth. In the beginning of the second book Ender and Valentine are on the planet where Valentine finally found love. She is married with children. Ender is called to speak the death of a Xenobiologer on a planet thirty light years away. Ender leaves and Valentine stays.
On this new planet Ender finds more than just a strange death to unravel. The young girl who called for Ender years before is now older with children and an abusive husband. Humans are not the only ones on the planet. There is an alien species called Pequininos, nicknamed Piggies, that lived on the planet before the human colony. In their genes the Piggies contain a disease that is deadly to humans. The disease is necessary for the functions of the piggies life. 
Noviha, the now woman, studies this disease. Her parents found the way to save the humans from it. Her and her family are closely tied with not only the disease, but also the piggies. The man Ender was called to speak the death of was Noviha's segregate father. He was murdered by the piggies, but he death was not what is seemed to be. Noviha figured out on of the reason for it, and she was determined to keep it from his son and her lover Libo. It was all for not because Libo died in the same way as his father. 
When Ender reaches the planet everything is changed. The reason for the deaths are revealed. The planet rebels. The disease gets smarter. And the hive queen is introduced into the world again. 
Because of the rebellion and the disease the planet is scheduled to be destroyed. The rest of the books follow to lives of the people on the planet. Valentine and her family leave their home to help with the problems on the planet. Noviha and her children adopt Ender into their family. The bugger, piggies, and humans all begin to work together to prevent the destruction of their planet. 
From beginning to end I loved this series. In the first book you grow to love the characters and then you are able to grow up with them. I can not more highly recommend these books. Not only is plot riveting the themes are wonderful. Humanity is strong through out all of the books. All I can say it read them. They are wonderful. 
Lindsey