Book #35 - Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs was recommended to me by my boss. Not because she had read it, but because she read about it and its entire chapter devoted to "Saved by the Bell." A whole section on Bayside and Bayside alone? Sign me up.

I like non-fiction books where the chapters are episodic. It's much easier to read, and you don't feel like you need to keep reading because something just got good. I like books like that too, but sometimes it's nice to step away from the paperback.

I felt like I could've read this book in college for a class. Klosterman's observations on mass media and its impact were not only thorough, but they also included sound arguments and insightful comments. And best of all, it was FUNNY. How could a discussion on your hatred of John Cusack (not as a person, but his characters) not be funny? Obviously the SBTB chapter was my favorite, but I also enjoyed his account of traveling with a Guns 'N Roses tribute band.

I think the review on Amazon sums it best: "There's quite a bit of intelligent analysis and thought-provoking insight packed into the pages of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which is a little surprising considering how darn stupid most of Klosterman's subject matter actually is." Pick it up if you want to be intellectually stimulated and entertained at the same time.

Book #34 - Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

I have been a fan of Gossip Girl the TV series since it first began airing a few years ago. So when I saw that young adult novels were a part of this challenge, I knew I had to read the novel that inspired one of my favorite guilt pleasures.

The book is very different from the show -- the main characters are pretty similar, but their family lives are a little bit different. I was shocked at how graphic and inappropriate the novels were, especially for a young adult book. However, I guess that makes sense, taking into consideration the content on the show.

It was an entertaining, easy read. von Ziegesar creates characters that are as intriguing on the page as they are on the screen. Blair is devious and you hate to love her. Serena is mysterious and you are left wanting to know more and more about her. The male characters fall a little flat in the novel -- Nate, Chuck and Dan are much more interesting on the series, but they still serve their purpose in the book: to cause drama between all of the girls.

I'm looking forward to reading more of the Gossip Girl books. If the characters get into only half of the trouble they do in the series, I'll be in for a good time, for sure. XOXO, you know you love it -- I definitely do.

Book #33 - The Host by Stephanie Meyer

I'm probably like every other Twilight fan in American who read The Host in hopes that it would be similar to the beloved Edward/Bella saga. Although it was nothing like Twilight, I still enjoyed this novel by Stephanie Meyer.

The Host is a novel about aliens taking over civilization, or more specifically, taking over all the human bodies on the planet. Melanie, the main character, is one of the last surviving humans; at the beginning of the novel she's captured and an alien soul is implanted into her body. However, she is what's called a resistant host, and her human mind/soul is not completed erased when Wanderer (the alien soul) takes control. For the first part of the novel, we follow the internal struggle between Melanie and Wanderer; she can't understand why this host is so troublesome, when every other one she's inhabited has never caused such headaches.

While trying to solve her problems with her resistant host, Wanderer is persuaded by Melanie to leave alien civilization to search for a hideout in the dessert that her Uncle Jeb told her about at a child, and what could now be the home to her soul mate Jared and her younger brother Jamie. Once the pair finds the hideout, we follow Wanderer's struggle to be accepted by the remaining humans and to try and coexist with them without getting killed.

The writing of The Host was not much better than the Twilight series. It was still very lengthy with a lot of superfluous information. The book could have been 200 pages shorter and still told the same story. Shoddy writing considered, Meyer did write an entertaining novel. I'm glad I didn't give up on this book after the first 100 pages (because trust me, I thought about it). The plot caused me to think about what life would be like if everyone I loved were gone, but it appeared as if they were still here. The daily emotional torment that Melanie and the remaining humans endured seemed to be too much at times -- hoping that they would be reunited by some stroke of luck or fate.

But like all good pieces of entertainment, I was happy to know that when I put down the book, there would be no aliens and I could go back to my life as it was, after that mini-escape into science fiction.