Thoughts: Anna and the French Kiss

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Year: 2010
Length: 372 pages
First Lines: "Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amélie and Moulin Rouge.  The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, although I have no ideas what the function of either actually is.  Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, and a lot of kings names Louis."


I read Anna and the French Kiss during the read-a-thon in October.  I LOVED it!  Love.  Love. Love.  It just makes me happy!  Seriously.  I can't even explain it.  Just go read it immediately!

And because the previous sentences did not actually explain anything, here is a brief description from Goodreads:

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

Thoughts: Divergent

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Year: 2011
Length: 487 pages
First Lines: "There is one mirror in my house.  It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.  Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair."


I went to Chicago for the first time this year and loved it!  I think my newly discovered appreciation for the city added a little something extra to my reading Divergent.  I suspect that the dystopian Chicago of the future intrigued me more than it would have had I not been there fairly recently.

I actually read Divergent at the end of October.  I must admit, I'm a little hazy on the details now.  All of the typical aspects of young adult dystopian novels were present.  I did enjoy reading Divergent.  It entertained me and then I moved on, I guess. 

I suppose Tris's bravery is the one thing that has stuck with me.  I am not sure I could make some of the decisions that this character makes throughout the book.  Side note: The tween girl inside me also liked Tris's relationship with Four.  Naturally, this is a trilogy and I do plan on reading the other books.

Many readers must like it because Divergent was chosen as the Favorite Book of 2011 and the Best Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy book in the 2011  Goodreads Choice Awards. 

Here is the description from Goodreads:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

Saturday Sentiment

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

Marcel Proust