Antisocial by Jillian Blake

Antisocial
by Jillian Blake

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BookExcerpt

Release date: May 16, 2017
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Mystery, YA
Hardback pages: 256
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
If I seem a little wired or high strung or just plain off, don't worry. I'm not nuts. I just have a tendency to over thing every single thing that comes my way, ever.

What if your greatest secrets became public? For the students at Alexandria Prep, a series of hacks leads to a scandalous firestorm—and the students are left wondering whose private photos and messages will be exposed next. It’s Pretty Little Liars meets WikiLeaks.


Senior spring at Alexandria Prep was supposed to be for sleeping through class and partying with friends. But for Anna Soler, it’s going to be a lonely road. She's just been dumped by her gorgeous basketball star boyfriend—with no explanation. Anna's closest friends, the real ones she abandoned while dating him, are ignoring her. The endearing boy she’s always had a complicated friendship with is almost too sympathetic.

But suddenly Anna isn’t the only one whose life has been upended. Someone is determined to knock the kings and queens of the school off their thrones: one by one, their phones get hacked and their personal messages and photos are leaked. At first it's funny—people love watching the dirty private lives of those they envy become all too public.

Then the hacks escalate. Dark secrets are exposed, and lives are shattered. Chaos erupts at school. As Anna tries to save those she cares about most and to protect her own secrets, she begins to understand the reality of our always-connected lives:

Sometimes we share too much.

My two-bits:

Very timely book in regards to the impact of the internet and social media amongst teens these days. The question of personas offline and online resonates throughout the book.

Also, thoughts on the fragility of friendship.

This is a book that generates lots of discussion.

References to modern pop culture icons that makes the story relatable - like Game of Thrones :-)

The mystery of whodunnit kept me guessing to the end which makes for a fast read.

Got me thinking of internet footprints. Being mindful and cautious is something to consider with any kind of public posts.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of tour

Lovely Books and Things - 5.13.17

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)


~*~
Due to the current U.S. political climate, this week had me in a dystopia mood. I was attracted to dystopia and feminism related books at the bookstore.

Currently reading: Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt

I had to put it aside last weekend to read Libra by Don Delillo for book club coming up this coming Monday.

Libra took me the whole week to get through. Not really a pleasant experience, but had to do it. And now, I know more about Lee Harvey Oswald.

MAY is Zombie Awareness Month per the Zombie Research Society (here). I normally like to devote the month or at least a week for all zombies. But, this year finds my schedule busy with other things. I do plan on throwing in at least one zombie book this month - Revived by Ernesto Pavan. Also, might catch up on watching a couple of the Resident Evil films.

~*~
Bought:

The Book of Joan
by Lidia Yuknavitch
-Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
THE NPR review (here) caught my attention to read this one.

The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
-Feminism, Dystopia
Amazon | Goodreads
I read this awhile ago, but got sucked into watching the updated tv series version starring Elisabeth Moss. I do not have time to binge it. But will be watching at least one a day. Gives the shivers but worth watching. I plan to re-read this after watching the series. This tv tie-in version includes a new introduction by Margaret Atwood.

Men Explain Things to Me
by Rebecca Solnit
-Feminism, Essay
Amazon | Goodreads
RECOMMENDED to me while at the film event at Diesel bookstore mentioned below.


For Review:

Modern Persuasion
by Sara Marks
-Contemporary Romance, Jane Austen
courtesy of author -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
GONNA set up a Jane Austen themed week at the end of the month.

North Haven
by Sarah Moriarty
-Women's Fiction
courtesy of Amazon Kindle First -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
PICKED this because I liked the sound of jumping into a novel set in Maine during the summer. Sibling rivalry ensues.


AND watched: in theatre

Dean (2016)
Director/Writer: Demetri Martin
Starring: Asif Ali, Jesaiah Baer, Kathrine Barnes
Release: June 2, 2017
-Comedy, Drama | imdb | my rating: 5
A comedy about loss, grief and the redemptive power of love, Dean is an NY illustrator who falls hard for an LA woman while trying to prevent his father from selling the family home in the wake of his mother's death.

THE audience was treated to a Q&A with the director/writer/actor/comedian/illustrator, Demetri Martin. Loved listening to this multi-talented creator. Found out that he will be back in SF in the Fall when he goes on a comedy tour. Another of his illustrated books will be released in September. And he is working on a book of short stories. Wheeee!


AND watched: at Diesel bookstore in Larkspur

50/50 (2016)
Rethinking the Past, Present, and Future of Women in Power
Creater: Tiffany Shlain
Writers: Karen Everett, Arne Johnson, Jennifer Traig
-Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
50/50 gives the 10,000 year history of women + power - from setbacks and uprisings, to the bigger context of where we are today. Using her signature, cinematic-thought-essay style, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of The Webby Awards Tiffany Shlain brings us on an electric ride to explore, where are we really on the greater arc of history of women and power? And what's it going to take to get to a #5050 world - not just politics and board rooms, but truly shifting the gender balance to be better for everyone.

Find out details and watch the 20 minute film free (here).

THE film viewing was part of...

50/50 Day - May 10
11,000+ Events
All 50 states
65+ countries
One film
Millions of perspectives on one topic:
#GettingTo5050
May 10th was the first annual 50/50 Day, with thousands of organizations, companies, schools, museums, libraries and homes — anywhere people already gather — in a global conversation about what it will take to get to a more gender-balanced world in all sectors of society: business, politics, culture, home, and more. There were over 500 million impression online from video views, press and on social media. Watch a 2 minute trailer about 50/50 Day (here).

SO inspiring and wonderful source for ideas on what people can do to make a difference.

I am marking my calendar to participate next year - join in, too!


Currently flipping through: from the library

A Colorful Way of Living:
How to Be More, Create More, Do More the Vera Bradley Way
by Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (cofounder of Vera Bradley)
-Biography, Business
Amazon | Goodreads
SPOTTED this at Happy.Pretty.Sweet and HAD to check it out. Fascinating thoughts on the front and back end of this business with photos and colorful whimsical pages (like the bags).

side note: Love looking at the beautiful colorful Vera Bradley bags, but have not yet pulled the trigger to get one.


~*~
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

:-)

Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou

Mom & Me & Mom
by Maya Angelou

Find out more about this book and author:
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Published: 2013
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Feminism, Memoir
Hardback pages: 224
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Frequently, I have been asked how I got to be this way.

The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother.

For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.

Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.

My two-bits:

I was delighted to listen to the audio version of this narrated by the author. Her words pack a punch in the telling although in a gentle and subtle way.

Although off to a rocky start, the relationship between Maya and her mother grows into its own kind of relationship. One that shapes and affects each other throughout their lives.

It was amazing to listen to all that Maya went through in this book. After a bit of googling about her, I found that her life continued to present more trials for her to endure and conquer until her death.

What a woman!

~*~
* part of Our Shared Shelf Book Club (here)

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

Dry
by Augusten Burroughs

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Published: 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Memoir
Hardback pages: 320
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
Sometimes when you work in advertising you'll get a product that's really garbage and you have to make it seem fantastic, something that is essential to the continued quality of life.

From the bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Dry―the hilarious, moving, and no less bizarre account of what happened next.

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs. You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the subway, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in advertising. Regular. Ordinary. But when the ordinary person had to drinks, Augusten was circling the drain by having twelve; when the ordinary person went home at midnight, Augusten never went home at all. Loud, distracting ties, automated wake-up calls, and cologne on the tongue could only hide so much for so long. At the request (well, it wasn't really a request) of his employers, Augusten landed in rehab, where his dreams of group therapy with Robert Downey, Jr., are immediately dashed by the grim reality of fluorescent lighting and paper hospital slippers. But when Augusten is forced to examine himself, something actually starts to click, and that's when he finds himself in the worst trouble of all. Because when his thirty days are up, he has to return to his same drunken Manhattan life―and live it sober. What follows is a memoir that's as moving as it is funny, as heartbreaking as it is real. Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power.

My two-bits:

I listened to the audio version of this which was narrated by the author. In general, I prefer to listen to Augusten reading his works rather than reading them. It comes through more vibrantly.

This story continues Augusten's life after what is covered in his first book.

Thoughts on alcoholism, addictions and going through treatment and recovery are emphasized in this book along with his wit and humor.

Reading about Augusten's struggles and growth include learning bits about life and living.

Happy Release: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen narrated by Alison Larkin

Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
narrated by Alison Larkin
-Audiobook, Classic, Romance
Released: February 2017
Award-winning narrator and internationally acclaimed writer/comedienne, Alison Larkin brings her signature wit to this hugely entertaining audio production of Jane Austen's first novel, Northanger Abbey, followed by The History of England, a short, delightfully satirical piece that Austen wrote when she was just 15 years old.

In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, a clergyman's daughter, longs for the kind of romantic adventures she has read about in her favorite Gothic novels. After spending a season mingling with fashionable high society in Bath, she is invited to stay at Northanger Abbey where nothing is what it seems.

In The History of England, the teenage Jane Austen pokes fun at the historians of the day who pretended to be objective when they clearly were not, and wrote about the kings and queens of England with less respect (and more wit) than a British newspaper.

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by Alison Larkin
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Although I live, write and narrate audiobooks in the part of New England that Norman Rockwell made famous, I go back to see my family in Old England as often as I can.

Mum and Dad live in a small village in Sussex, less than hour away from where Jane Austen lived and wrote. While fashions may change and technology gallops on apace, human nature remains the same.

I went to school with girls who were very like Catherine Morland, Isabella Thorpe and Lydia Bennett. During the holidays I endured the company of many a Mrs Bennett and Mr Collins. And although I’ve been pursued by my share of Mr Wickhams and once fell in love with someone a bit like Mr Darcy, I know I’d be much better suited to Mr Knightley, who has yet to show up. But I digress.

Narrating the novels of Jane Austen for a new American audience has been a delight. Like going back to the England I left 25 years ago - without having to stand in line at security.

In addition to Emma- the 200th anniversary audio edition, we had released Persuasion and Poems and Pride and Prejudice and Songs from Regency England and I wanted to find some previously unrecorded writing to add to the end of Northanger Abbey. Here’s how it happened.

On a lightning visit to England last year, my English parents and I were visiting Chawton House Museum, where Jane Austen lived and wrote.

After walking around for a very happy hour, dressed in period costume, while taking a ‘turn’ in the garden, Mum and I were marveling at the size of Jane Austen’s writing desk when my Dad, came dashing out of the book shop with high enthusiasm. 

“Got it!” Dad says.

“Got what?”

“Why don't you add The History of England to the end of Northanger Abbey! Jane Austen wrote it when she was 15 and it’s terribly funny!”

And so I did.

~end

© 2017. All rights reserved.

About the narrator:

“I understood what Larkin was doing. Raised in England by adoptive parents, Alison Larkin was actually born in America. She herself is a comic writer and performer – and she approaches Austen as a satirist – she has genuine theatrical skill – sustained comic creations. The voice reveals all.” —David Denby, The New Yorker

Alison Larkin is an internationally acclaimed comedienne, an award winning audiobook narrator and the bestselling author of The English American, an autobiographical novel about an adopted English woman who finds her birth parents in the United States. Other award-winning audio productions from Alison Larkin Presents include Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with a short excerpt from the Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, Peter Pan and The Inconsiderate Waiter and the first two-actor production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon | Goodreads
Website | Blog
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by Alison Larkin
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