Dear Fahrenheit 451

It's official, I love this book.

Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian's Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to the Books in Her Life is such a cute idea and Annie Spence definitely delivered!! This book consists of letters Annie has written to books, whether they be happy or sad letters, each book she picks up is getting one. Some of them are life long favorites but have to retire because their spine is obliterated. Some of them hadn't been checked out, or even picked up, in over five years. Some of them may help improve your life. Some books are instant hits and some are total flops. But one thing is certain, Annie knows what she's talking about. 

I loved that she has spent so much time around books and she understands working with books is HARD. Many people are only looking for the book because the movie trailer just came out, um newsflash THE BOOK IS ALWAYS BETTER.

But honestly, I found myself laughing throughout this entire book.

Some of the funniest parts to me:

-One in three men will say their favorite book is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

-Going to a party and making The Great Gatsby references to the bookshelf you're talking to

-Running to the kids section when life gets too real

Utmost respect from me to you Annie, you wrote a great great book and I will highly recommend this to everyone I know! Big shout out to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for granting my wish and providing me with this wonderful read!

Mark your calendars, Dear Fahrenheit 451 hits shelves September 26!

Looking for some of the books mentioned in Dear Fahrenheit 451?
Twilight Saga
In Cold Blood
Room
Divergent Trilogy
The Hunger Games Trilog

More Than This

I spent all week reading this book, only to be left with the same questions I had to start with! This book is definitely out of my normal genre, but it was WONDERFULLY written. However, I don't know that I liked it. Usually when a book pisses me off, I still love it. But for this one I was just confused the majority of the time.

In the beginning, Seth thought he has woken up in hell; his own private hell where he relives memories before his death. He knows he's dead, but why is he in his old house with no one but himself? So then, two others show up Tomasz and Regine. They had spotted him a few days earlier but didn't know what to make of him, that is until he started running their direction when The Driver was after them. The Driver needs them, he is supposed to be taking care of the bodies, but somehow these three have gotten out.

This is when Regine begins explaining what they know and what they think is happening. This revelation made me think, "Oh, okay. So they're in cyber limbo." You know, when you've died, but haven't quite died because you have some greater business to finish. So they're trapped between reality and online. Online being the finish line.... or so I thought.

Turns out, the whole world has gone online and the world they are currently living in, just the three of them, is reality. But reality was abandoned when life got too hard and people decided to alter their memories to a happier outcome. Which makes Seth wonder if he can alternate between the two lives. Maybe he can log in online and hangout with his real friends and Tomasz and Regine can pull him back out into reality.

But of course that's where the book ends.

Overall, I enjoyed More Than This more than I expected. 

Yet, it wasn't at all what I had expected.

Looking for other books by Patrick Ness?
The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1)

Spotlight: The Way It Hurts

Guess who teamed up with Sourcebooks Fire to do another giveaway! They have also graciously provided this exclusive excerpt of The Way It Hurts by Patty Blount! Read through it and the giveaway details will be listed below. :)

1. Ride Out was hard rock, not pop. So yeah, we didn't attract mainstream fans, but the fans we did have were vocal and loyal. I grinned when I saw the latest comment from some chick calling herself BroadwayBaby17. She hated our stuff. Said our sound was just noise and what words she could make out in our lyrics were misogynistic and disrespectful. Like we gave a fuck. I didn't know why she bothered to click any of it, but she did and then tried to give us shit about it that she claimed was feedback. I had to admit, she knew technique, but if her scene was Broadway, there was no way she'd ever get what Nick, Sam, and I were trying to do with Ride Out. I mean, anyone who went to a Metallica show expecting Michael Buble is bound to be disappointed, right?

And vice versa.

Sure enough, BroadwayBaby17 wiped the floor with our latest cover.

BroadwayBaby17: Someone explain to me why growling into a microphone is considered talent 'cause I'm just not seeing it. (Can't hear anything right now either. LOL.)

BroadwayBaby17: OMG, these lyrics are so incredibly sexist! Someone tell these guys girls aren't really impressed by your "pogo sticks" *barfs*

BroadwayBaby17: Boom, boom, boom. That's all this band does is play percussion like it's sex. *sighs* Sex and drums, drums and sex. BORING.

Another user named Ride_On747 crawled up BroadwayBaby17's ass: Beotch, go back to drama club and leave metal to the boyz! These guys rock!

Thank you, Ride_On747! He was a huge fan of ours. Neither user had a photograph in their profile, so I don't know if they were male or female. It was kind of obvious that BroadwayBaby17 was a girl because of the way she always harped on us. Our lyrics were sexist, our beat too primal, and our sound was too noisy.

Whatever.

But Ride_On747 was always there to take BroadwayBaby17 down a peg. I grinned and sent the brother a mental high five. Don't like us; don't listen. Easy.

I logged in using my personal account FretGuy99. This was mine; I didn't post band stuff from that account. The band's account was Ride_Out. I liked keeping them separate. We all had the password, but it was usually Sam or me doing most of the band's postings.

Looked like he'd just posted.

Ride_Out: Hey, BB! You ever shredded a guitar? You ever cut loose with a metal scream? You ever play any original stuff at all? Until you can say yes to any of those questions, you got no right telling us we suck so _|_.

Oh, crap! He'd given her the Internet version of the middle finger.

BroadwayBaby17: OMG, so mature. If you can't take criticism, get off the forums. This is a place for serious artists.

Okay, time for me to make an appearance.

FretGuy99: BroadwayBaby17, you only think people like you are artists. You're elitist. You can't respect anyone who takes a different view.

BroadwayBaby17: Not elitist. Just telling it like it is. Dude, don't suck up to Ride_Out. take my advice and study classical guitar before you ruin your chances of being original.

My phone buzzed. Dude, I am going to rip this chick a new one for the trash she's talking about us.

I texted back. Relax. Let her dig her own grave.

FretGuy99: I have studied classical guitar. I can play lead or rhythm. I can strum chords, and I'm hella good at fingerpicking. I can play it all, baby. Just because I want to play metal doesn't mean I have no talent. So shut up about shit you don't know anything about and go shopping or something.

BroadwayBaby17: And there's the sexism! I didn't say anything about you having no talent. I just don't like Ride Out.

FretGuy99: Then why the hell are you on a heavy metal forum? Go back to the show tunes forum!

My phone buzzed. The shopping bit was clutch dude. LMAO!

I shrugged. She had it coming.

Sam changed the subject. Nick wants us 2C North's play tonight. Said we'd B there. 7 PM.

Hell. I raked my hair off my face. Sitting through some boring school play for a school I didn't even attend was just about the worst way to spend a Friday night. But it was for Nick, so yeah - I'd go. Nick and Sam were more than just guys in the band. They were my brothers. Not a lot I wouldn't do for either of them.

OKAY GIVEAWAY TIME!

I have one copy to giveaway to one lucky reader!
To enter:

-Follow my instagram page: a_readers_diary

-Like the graphic and tag at least one friend who might be interested

-For a second entry, screenshot and share the photo of The Way It Hurts on your instagram page with a shout out to A Reader's Diary!

For those of you who don't have an IG, email me at jessicalynn1784@gmail.com saying that you would like to enter!

Giveaway is now closed!
Winner is Katherine (ig: bookish_kat)!!

These Heroic, Happy Dead

For some reason, I've been on a short story kick lately and this one did not disappoint.

These Heroic, Happy Dead is a collection of short stories of the war. Soldiers reminiscing about the old days, the days they had everything figured out, the days they can never forget. The feel of the book is that once you've fought for your country, it's hard to live a normal life. I don't want to say it's depressing, but it's a depressing book. It caught me off guard because many of these stories have open endings. For example, my favorite story was To the Lake. The ending leaves so much unanswered, but we can only assume what the ending actually was. 

Honestly, the title lets you know this book will be full of death, and it truly is. However, the short stories make death much easier to swallow. Another fun thing I noticed while reading, some of the short stories overlap. There are recurring characters that really helped with the understanding of the story. I highly recommend These Heroic, Happy Dead!

If you liked this and want to read something similar, check out The Things They Carried!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

So Bree Tanner made a brief appearance in Eclipse, book three of the Twilight Saga. We know her name, but why? Why do we know the name of a girl that appeared for less than 3 pages? Because Stephenie Meyer had something more for her in mind. 

In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, we learn a little bit about the girl behind the vampire. We also learn a little bit more about the epic fight scene starting the Cullen Clan, Jacob's werewolf tribe, and the Volturi. But where does Bree fit into the big picture? She's part of Victoria's army of newborns. Their leader, Riley, has convinced them that they will do ANYTHING for her. They will fight the "yellow-eyed vampires" and they will know which ones when they see the pet human they keep. This book was basically a story of lies, deceit, and angry. But mostly, just death.

Now I may be a little biased because, lets be real, Twihard speaking. But I think this book really was a nice addition to the Twilight Saga. However, we didn't really need it. I think if this book would have come out as an Eclipse 3.5 and is read before Breaking Dawn, it may be of more use. 

Looking for the rest of the series?

The Twilight Saga

Midnight Sun

One Death, Nine Stories

At age 19, Kevin Nicholas is found dead from an apparent suicide, just like his daddy.

His death affected family, friends, and classmates.

What could be so terrible that a 19 year old wants to take his own life?

His death, but more importantly, his life is told through the eyes of nine people. They considered him a friend, a lover, a brother. He was an alter boy. He was mischievous. He was Captain of the Cross-Country team. He was a boyfriend, not a good one but he was. He was a leader. He was a business major. He was full of secrets, darkness, but most of all he was damaged. 

Being a psychology student, reading about Kev and his life really made me angry. He needed help and no one noticed. They offered help after his dad died, but never when he had a bad day. No one could believe Kevin killed himself, but it was so obvious that he wanted to. When someone takes their own life it affects everyone around them, sometimes people they don't even know.

 That being said, suicide is a big deal and is making its way into the news more often, most recently Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. I bring that up because his death affected so many people. He felt alone in a world that adored him and that should be an eye opener to society. 

Reading through this book made me realize that unless you are directly affected by suicide, the topic is off the table. Most people don't want to talk about the issue because if they don't then maybe it's not as bad. I connected most with Candy. Not because she also referred to herself as damaged, but because her first love is now dead. If you have EVER been in love, you know your first love will always mean something to you. A few years ago, my very first boyfriend committed suicide as well, along with countless others from my high school. It's hard, especially when that boy isn't exactly embraced by their community. The point is, people are not going to get help. They are not going to reach out. They already feel alone. So make sure you hug your friends and let them know that you understand. Ask them how they're doing. I promise it will help them in the long run.

Looking for authors in this anthology?
Ellen Hopkins (Crank Trilogy + more)

Before I Let Go

Let me start by saying this is not anything like This Is Where It Ends.

That being said, I still loved it. 

Before I Let Go hits on so many important issues, such as sexuality, suicide, and mental illness (bipolar disorder specifically). I love that Marieke Nijkamp doesn't shy away from topics like this and instead embraces them.

So I'm sure you want to hear about the book now.

Corey got a call that no one ever want to receive, her best friend is dead. Suicide. 

Kyra struggled with bipolar disorder and was often called "freak", "outsider", and was completely misunderstood. All of Lost Creek avoided her after her diagnosis. Everyone except for Corey, because they needed each other. Corey wanted her best friend to fit it and be accepted, but also relished during Kyra's episodes because it meant she got to be normal for a few days. 

Kyra's episodes were bad. The would go AWOL for days at a time. She would enter a trance where all she could do was paint. She used art as a coping mechanism on her bad days. 

Once Corey moved out of Lost, Kyra's bad days got worse. But the town didn't know that. They believed she was telling the future through her art work. They believed that they had finally found a place for Kyra and loved what she gave them. But they didn't love her, they didn't care about her... They cared about her art and what it did to bring the town the hope they so desperately needed.

So why was Corey so hellbent on finding out what really happened?

Because Kyra needed her to know. 

Kyra needed to show her the life she built.

Kyra needed her to know she was scared.

Kyra needed to get out of Lost Creek, and she knew this was the only way to do it.

It's a dark read with an almost cult like feel to it. I enjoyed every second of it, which was actually only a few hours of reading time. If you liked her first book, you will probably enjoy this one too! 

I cannot thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire enough for sending me this advanced readers copy!

Mark your calendars, Before I Let Go hits shelves January 2, 2018!

Looking for other books by Marieke Nijkamp?
This is Where it Ends

Even If We Break

At the End of Everything