The Opposite Book Tag!

I was tagged by Izzy over at The Reading Izzy to do the Opposite Book Tag! Thanks so much sweetie and be sure to go over to her page and check out her answers!

First book in your collection and the last one you bought

My first book that I really remember was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  My mother read it to my brother and I when we were probably 6 and 5 respectively. She would read passages to us at night and get us to practice our reading skills by doing the same.  I remember my brother getting sick of the process quickly but I loved it.

My most recently bought book was House of Korba by C.L. Stone, which is part of The Ghost Bird series. I have no shame.  I'm a total fangirl over the series and I can't believe I have to wait until APRIL for the next book to come out.

A cheap book and an expensive book

I get a lot of books for free but I really did enjoy Demons at Deadnight by A&E Kirk. I got it for free for my kindle and absolutely adored it.  I apparently now have this thing for reverse harems where there is one female protagonist and a lot of male ones.  Is that weird?

As for expensive books, I would have to go with one of my college textbooks that I still use fairly often, so it applies right? It was about $200 when I first bought it which is flipping ridiculous. Environmental Land Use Planning and Management by John Randolph is a lot of book but it talks about how people screw up (Atlanta, Los Angeles...I'm looking at you) by not planning for large populations.  It's why Georgia keeps trying to get water from Alabama and Tennessee....anywho...

A book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist

Look how attractive that male protagonist is. Hounded by Kevin Hearne is definitely a guy's book with no romance, lots of sarcasm and snark and a healthy amount of killing things that need some killing.  It was sort of refreshing to not have the complications of a relationship in a book.

The book I chose for my female protagonist is The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.  It is the first one in the Slains series and was a wonderful read.  Do you ever run into an author that you will read whatever they write because you have never had a bad experience with their stories?  That is Kearsley for me.  Her novels are time slip stories, mostly set in England or with English protagonists.  They really are lovely and have beautiful covers.

A book you read fast and one that took you long to read

Angelfall by Susan Ee maybe took me 4 hours to read and that was while doing other stuff. I speed read too much and it bothers me but sometimes, I just can't help it.

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy took me months to finish and I absolutely dreaded some sections.  I wouldn't let a book beat me though, especially a classic.  I'm really too stubborn for my own good.  Some parts though just went on and on and I could never figure out how much they really related to the plot.

Pretty cover and an ugly cover

Susanna Kearsley really has some of the prettiest covers and The Firebird has to be one of my favorite covers of all time. It is the second and final book in the Slains series but goes to Russia instead of spending lots of time in England. Love love love love love the cover.  

I hated the cover of Haunted on Bourbon Street by Deanna Chase.  It is an adult book that looks like it came straight from Sabrina.  The cover doesn't really match the book at all and I personally don't like cartoons for covers.

A national book and an international one

I have the problem of being American which means a lot of my books are considered national books so I'm sort of turning into a regional book.  Big Fish was written by sort of a local hero for some, Daniel Wallace.  People around here know him and think he is a great guy.  When Big Fish came out, people's reaction was something along the lines of "Yeah, that's about right."

International books, I should have used Tolstoy for this one.  I'll have to go with Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.  It is one of my favorite stories and Broadway musicals.  The book is wonderful as well and it brings the characters to life, just as much as on the stage.  And it's spooky as hell which I love.

A thin book and a thick one

My thinnest book that isn't a novella is probably The Moviegoer by Walker Percy.  It's a somewhat drab cover but I enjoyed this book.  I think it is relevant to the modern generation just as much as it was in the 1960's.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is probably the longest book I have that isn't a textbook or an anthology.  It is over a 1000 pages and is one of the few fantasy books that kept me occupied for more than a week.  The longest book in my collection is over 2800 pages and is an anthology of American literature.

Fiction and Non-fiction book

Cry Baby Hollow by Aimee Love is sort of an urban fantasy in the woods, if that makes sense.  I really don't like the cover because it doesn't make sense contextually in the book but I loved the book itself. 

For non-fiction, The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell is a really cool read.  A college professor sat in a 1 square meter plot of earth and observed the world around him every day for a full year.  He would spend an hour there and watch everything change. Makes me wish I was a tenured professor and I could do something like that.

Very romantic book and an action book

I have to be traditional for the romantic book.  North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell is one of the most perfect romances ever.  Watch the miniseries or read the book but I guarantee that you will fall in love with Mr. Thornton.  He is better than Mr. Darcy and Rhett Butler and that's a lot coming from a Southern girl.

My action book will be...American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  This book is pretty much all action and trying to fight for something.  I frequently wanted to shake Shadow, the male protagonist, silly but it is a crazy book to read.  

A book that made you happy and a book that made you sad

Austenland by Susan Hale is such a cute book. It made me happy for the fact that the main character ended up happy.  She has a wonderful memorable romance with a great guy. This is a book that you can live vicariously through.  The movie was also good.

This category should have been books made into movies for me because for one that made me sad, I've picked P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern.  I cried like a baby through the book and it was lucky that I watched the movie on my own because I was an absolute mess.

So those are my books for the Opposite books tag! I feel like a lot of them were kind of cheesy but I like cheesy books sometimes.  That was a lot of fun since it got me to dig through my bookshelves and remember old books :-)  I am tagging these authors to do it as well:

Jess at My Reading Dress

Erin at The Hardcover Lover

and Sandee at Book Ramblings of A Whimsical Reader

Book Review: Redemption by Donna Augustine (The Alchemy Series #4)

The grand finale...

One of the reasons that I have mentioned for really liking this series is because it ends.  Sometimes, you read this dystopian stuff and it ends up being a crap ending because nobody knows what to do with the heroes when it is all over.  Should you kill them? Should you have them walk into the sunset?  Redemption is a conclusion and a beginning.  The characters have a lot of work to do in their future but you aren't worried about them anymore.

Let's talk about that cover.

This is the only cover from this series that I didn't like. That's not to say that it isn't a pretty cover but it feels like a cop out. If I were the publisher or writer, I would have had that same blonde model on it but just in a different capacity.  

That tree has a lot to do with the plot of the last book, probably being Burrom's tree. (Even though that was a maple and this one looks distinctly oakey) But that girl has been on all of the others and she could have fit on this one too.  This cover gives no real hints about the 4th book, but rather shows the grayness that I imagine when the post-apocalyptic world is described. It's a good cover. It just doesn't match at all.

Moving on.

I got so angry with Cormac at the beginning of this book.  I mean, he leaves Jo in the middle of this angry impossible world.  But it is true to who he is as a character.  He is willing to sacrifice (and on occasion, force others to sacrifice) for their own good and for the greater good of others.  I believe that he never gave Jo anything she couldn't handle and it forced her to grow up which she desperately needed to do.

Jo was a selfish girl and only really looked out for herself.  She throws grand pity parties and is horribly flawed. She drinks too much. She acts out and has an attitude.  But you know what? Cormac loves her anyways and that is beautiful.

The way I feel about you doesn't come with a set of restrictions. There are no rules that say if you do this or you don't do that, I won't care anymore. This is just an aspect of who you are and I love you for the entirety of you, not for the different pieces I can pull out.

That quote practically makes the book for me.  That's how love is! It isn't instant most of the time and it isn't easy.  You have to take the good and the bad of the person and accept them for who they are. Cormac does that perfectly and it takes Jo a while to wise up.

Cormac is protective and domineering but that's what Jo needs in so many ways.  He is the rock that she doesn't want to lean on. He is strong for her when she is tired of pretending to be Super Woman.

This book isn't, of course, just about their romance.  The Senator has finally mobilized and battle to end things is near.  Jo comes to the realization that something has to give.  A change has to come in order for things to balance out.  She recognizes that she has to be their champion and the one that fights for all of the people that are left.  She takes so much responsibility for what has happened and she is the one that fixes it.

The ending of this book is wonderful as already stated.  It is not a happy ending.  It is not a nice redeemed world wrapped up in a pretty pink bow.  There is still a lot of work to do to repair all of the damage that has been wrought.  But there is peace.  There is a sense of everything being ok.  You get the sense that this is what these characters were created to do.  They weren't created for drama or angst.  They were made to save the world.

So despite the problems that the series has, I still rate it all as 5/5 stars overall.  I'm sad to part with Jo, Cormac and Burrom but I still believe that if the world was to end as we know it, this is how I would want it to go.