Book Review: "If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)"

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) is, apparently, Betty White's sixth book. (This was news to me - I only know because she mentioned the others in the foreword. Well, now I know what I need to try and track down!) God bless her for being so dedicated to her craft. And I must say, this book gives some insight into the world of this wonderful lady. The book is comprised of a series of short stories from different facets of Betty's life on all sorts of different topics, but it seems that her favorites to talk about are her husband Allen (who she still speaks so fondly of that it's almost heartbreaking) and about animals. Soooooo much about animals. I always knew there was something about Betty that just made her inherently lovable to me; I think I found the key to what it is. ;) It seems most of my favorite people are all animal people! But it's definitely news to me just how *much* of an animal person Betty is, and I love it. I love all her stories, and could listen to her all day. A hueg 5 star rating, and here's hoping I can find her other books and that they're as enjoyable as this one was!

Book Review: "Hollywood Is Like High School With Money"

When you hear the name of the author Zoey Dean, it's quite likely that the first thing you'd think of would be the A List series. (It's also quite easy to dismiss her as an author if basing her off of said-series.) I would just like to say that Hollywood Is Like High School With Money is nothing like that. No, this story is vibrant, fresh, and it pops. You connect with the characters. You KNOW it probably won't end well, and you root for the underdog anyway, even when she's doing wrong. But most of all, Zoey has finally broke out of her mold of teen books. She's writing for a slightly older demographic, and the effort shows in spades. Yes, there's still nods of the head towards those teen books here and there throughout, but mostly, it is written intentionally for an older audience, and is a million times more enjoyable. It also offers a very candid, honest view at the world of being a personal assistant to someone important (which is impressive for still technically being classified as fiction), and that it's not all fun and games and brushing elbows with the rich and famous. The title of this book rings true in many ways over, and is felt reverberating throughout the entire story.

I absolutely LOVED this book and would re-read it again and again. A big 5 stars to you!

Book Review: "Posh and Prejudice (Diary of a Chav #2)"

The second installment of the Diary of a Chav series, Posh and Prejudice, had a tall order to live up to for being able to even hold a candle to the original...and it delivers. It's consistently funny, deals with realistic problem, and - unlike many of its rivals on the teen book market - has a far more realistic outcome than most. Not to mention, I've grown quite attached to miss Shiraz quite quickly. It's not every day that the main character in a teen novel is quite so vibrant and naturally lovable. Big bonus points for this, and for keeping it consistent from the first book to the next.

The storyline deals with themes such as the difficulties of secondary school, failed relationships, discrimination against the working classes, feeling trapped and wanting a way out of what everyone else around you just blindly accepts as their destiny, etc. The ending of the book totally sidelined me; I did NOT see that coming. But it leaves the door wide open for interesting things to happen in the next book. :)

Unfortunately for me, it'll probably be quite a while before I get a chance to read the rest of the books in this series, as not only does my local library not carry them, but NONE of the libraries in the county have any of the others. :-\ So unless someone can hook me up with the others, I have no idea how long it'll take...which really bums me out, because I've been enjoying these more than just about any other books I've read this whole year. Oh well, what can you do, right? Anyhow, I give this book another huge 5 star rating. :)

Book Review: "Diary of a Chav"

Well now! Diary of a Chav by Grace Dent turned out to be an extremely refreshing change of pace from most of the books I've been reading lately! Spoken like a true Brit, the entirety of this book is written in very much legitimate Brit-speak...none of your prim and proper stuff 'round here! This is more along the lines how real British people speak...or at least, judging by all the ones I've ever been friends with. (And there have been many over the years.) A lot of this book might go right over the tops of a lot of Americans' heads given all the slang (despite a nice glossary in the back), but it just felt natural to me reading it; probably thanks in part to all the Brits I've known in my lifetime, it just feels like talking to any one of them. And I love it.

As the title implies, the book is written in the style of a diary of the main character, Shiraz. It basically follows one year in the life of trials and tribulations (often overdramatically so, as is usually the way of most teenagers) of a typical lower-class 15 year old girl, which always turns out to be completely hilarious, no matter what it is that's gone on with her. It also shows some personal growth on the part of the main character over the course of this particular year, which is good to see, because in many teen books, the main characters often end up no better off than they were in the first place where the book started.

I really love the style of this, and was overjoyed to find out there's an entire series of these! If they're all this good, they may be my new favorite thing of the moment. This seems to be the first series to *really* grab me this much since the Secrets Of My Hollywood Life series earlier this year. Big five stars!

Book Review: "So Super Starry"

For a book with a title like So Super Starry, one would assume it to be about Hollywood starlets or the like. Especially with the photos on the cover. So please explain how, exactly, we end up with a very British book about posh, pampered, overly-sheltered English kids who live in their own little private community away from the rest of the world, and the only defining factor between all of them is wealth?

Of course, being a teen book, it's got all the usual ingredients: the main character who feels just a little bit different from everyone else, the popular kids, the outcasts, the bitches, the love interests, etc. In this particular go-round, the main character falls for one of the popular kids/bitch's brother, who has a reputation, blah blah blah. And because he comes from money, everyone makes a big deal out of what this girl ought to be doing to impress him, rather than the old addage of to thine own self be true. Yes, it ends up winning out in the end, but the entire book, it seems, is SO superficial that it's disgusting. Even the main character knows this, and yet it remains the same. Yes, I realize there are people in the world who really live like this, but this story seems to be more a study into the psychology of the superficial than it does a love story between people from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Not to mention, the author's style of writing is so very dry. This was really strange for me, because usually I pounce all over anything that's British, but this....I don't know. I struggled to even make it through the whole book because it kept losing my interest. As such, I feel that I'm being generous by even rating it a 3 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: "The Karma Club"

Just about everybody has at least some grasp on the concept of how karma works: that whatever you do and put out into the universe, good or bad, will come back on you tenfold. Thus is the basis of The Karma Club by Jessica Brody. After a group of three friends have all been scorned by their significant others, they form a club in which to exact revenge on the perpetrators, all in the name of karma. The idea is that they're helping to lighten karma's load by speeding up the karmic process a little and exacting punishments themselves. What they fail to recognize is that for the negative energies they put into the revenge tactics, they're only bringing bad karma unto themselves.

This book is loaded with typical high school drama, but there's enough humor in it to make up for that fact and then some. (Their revenge tactics are pretty damn creative...) I found it quite enjoyable, and rate it a full 5 out of 5 stars. :)