Dancing with Ana by Nicole Barker

ISBN-13: 9780615288529
Publisher: The Golden Road Press
Published: 2009
170 pgs



Life suppose to be good for Beth and her three best friends - Rachel, Melanie and Jenny, but deep in their hearts they knew they would have more confidence and feel happier if they could look like fellow schoolmate, Christine McCady as she is beautiful and has a perfect figure. So they came up with a plan: they would starve themselves to make them look good.

In the beginning, the girls are very determined with the plan and they supported one another but after a while, all the girls dropped out of the diet plan after they got sidetracked by other stuff except Beth. To make things worse, Beth is coping with his parents' separation after Beth's father has left the family for a younger administrative staff in his company. She felt betrayed but most of all, she is angry that her father did not make the time and effort in visiting them. No one knew her misery except Jeremy, a boy whom she knew since young. Jeremy likes her but he is unsure of her feelings towards him, while on the other side Beth is confused over her relationship with Jeremy because she is attracted to her best friend for the first time.

Beth later became more obsessed over her weight and she starved herself further despite she has lost some weight and is starting to feel unwell due to the extreme measures she took. Jeremy began to see the change in her but is it too late to stop Beth? And most importantly, is Beth willing to help herself and accept for who she is?

Dancing with Ana is a book about friendship and issues which teenagers are facing today - anorexia and self-mutilation, and I think this book is not only a must-read for all teenagers (especially teenaged girls) but to parents as well. As we know, the media often link beauty with models with a perfect body and this has led many young girls (and/or women) thinking that one is beautiful if she has a thin body, which is not the case. In Beth's case, I viewed it that though she is secretly hoping to be like Christine, her other reason for starving herself is her way of coping the stress and venting her frustration and annoyance due to her father's negligence towards them. I could feel her loneliness and helplessness and I wished she had talked to someone else regarding her problems earlier.

Self-multilation is another issue which we should be concerned about and in this story, one of Beth's friends, Rachel, has this saddening experience due to her family problem and though I read about her happy relationship with her boyfriend towards the end, there is not much mention of the relationship with her mother and whether or not if their problem are resolved. As this story focus more on Beth, perhaps this is the reason why there are little explanations on the other characters but I just could not help wondering about them.

Nicole Barker has written a great thought-provoking story about friendship, despair and acceptance, and I hope this book would help the young adults to understand more about anorexia and self-multilation and hopefully they would get the message that these would not only affect and cause misery to themselves but to the loved ones around them.

Many thanks to the author for sending this book to me for review.

Other reviews:
A Few of My Favorite Things
Bloody Bad
Bookworming in the 21st Century
Booktumbling
Celebrate Life with Bargains
Dark Diva Reviews
Kay's Bookshelf
Libby's Literary Library
Life Happens While Books Are Waiting
Merry Weather
Miss Remmers' Reviews
Missy's Book Nook
Morbid Romantic
Tales of a Book Addict
The Maiden's Court
Trisha's Book Blog
Witch Baby's Journey
(Let me know if I missed yours.)

All About Friends

I have received a few awards over the past few weeks and I have to say I am so happy and honoured to know these lovely ladies and call them as friends! Without further ado, let me introduce them to you:

Ceri from Not in the Pink (Zombie Chicken Award)

Alice from Hello, My Name is Alice (The Circle of Friends Award)

Andreea from Passionate Booklover (Let's Be Friends Award)

I love visiting Ceri's blog because she always has something interesting to say, aside from her wonderful book recommendations. Alice is one of my earliest blogger friends (and not to mention my top commenter) so I am always happy to receive any comment from her. She loves photography and I always enjoy viewing her pictures. Andreea's blog is a fairly new-to-me blog (I have to thank Sandy for mentioning her blog or else I would have missed it!) and I love reading her opinions on books.

Thank you, ladies, for the awards and most of all for our friendship!

Wordless Wednesday

Berlin, Germany

Cover Attraction - August 19

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

I love beautiful, and interesting, cover art so every Wednesday I post my 'Cover Attraction' for the week along with a synopsis of the book. Everyone is welcome to stop by and, if they'd like, post a link to their favorite weekly book cover.

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My find this week is Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran. I only found the UK cover when I visited the bookstore yesterday so I bought it. Anyway, I think both covers are gorgeous! What do you think of these covers?

US Cover

UK Cover

Synopsis:

The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony’s revengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome; only two– the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander–survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian’s sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.

The fateful tale of Selene and Alexander is brought brilliantly to life in Cleopatra’s Daughter. Recounted in Selene’s youthful and engaging voice, it introduces a compelling cast of historical characters: Octavia, the emperor Octavian’s kind and compassionate sister, abandoned by Marc Antony for Cleopatra; Livia, Octavian's bitter and jealous wife; Marcellus, Octavian’s handsome, flirtatious nephew and heir apparent; Tiberius, Livia’s sardonic son and Marcellus’s great rival for power; and Juba, Octavian’s watchful aide, whose honored position at court has far-reaching effects on the lives of the young Egyptian royals.

Selene’s narrative is animated by the concerns of a young girl in any time and place–the possibility of finding love, the pullof friendship and family, and the pursuit of her unique interests and talents. While coping with the loss of both her family and her ancestral kingdom, Selene must find a path around the dangers of a foreign land. Her accounts of life in Rome are filled with historical details that vividly capture both the glories and horrors of the times. She dines with the empire’s most illustrious poets and politicians, witnesses the creation of the Pantheon, and navigates the colorful, crowded marketplaces of the city where Roman-style justice is meted out with merciless authority.

Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and most tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of the past, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart.

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To find out more or participate, go to The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Winners of The White Queen Giveaway

Thanks to Random.org, I have two winners for The White Queen giveaway and they are:

Ceri of Not in the Pink

and

Molly of My Cozy Book Nook

Congratulations, Ceri and Molly!

I will be emailing you for your snail mail address and Wiredset will be sending out the books to you.

Thanks to all who participated!

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Here's my teaser for today:

Never in her life had she felt guilt when it came to food, or eating. The fact that she was feeling it now, and strongly, was a little disturbing.

(Pg 42, Dancing with Ana by Nicole Barker)

Musing Mondays: Movies

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about movies …

How do you react to movies made of your favourite books (or even not-so-favourite books)? Do you look forward to seeing them, or avoid them? Do you like to have read the book before seeing the movie?

I rarely watch movies, not because I do not like them but I can hardly find the time with my work, family and all! However, I do visit the cinemas once in a while and I am choosy over the movies I want to watch because it would be a waste of time and money if I did not do a little 'research' prior to watching (I google a little about the movie and read the reviews from papers and magazines). Sometimes, it would be a movie my husband wanted to watch and I will go along to keep him company (ended up I loved Iron Man, all the Batman and Spiderman sequels and a few others that I could not think of at the moment).

So what do I feel about movies made of the books I read? Generally, I welcome them! I think it is a great way in influencing the non-readers into reading the books after watching the film adaptations, but personally I am also worried that they would not live up to the expectations as we did in books. And another thing is, you would not get the details as much as you read the book so that is another issue I believe we all have with film adaptations.

Here are a list of some of the books I read before and after watching the movies:

• My Sister's Keeper (book first, movie to look forward to)
• The Twilight Saga (books first, movies second)
• The Harry Potter series (movies first, books second)
• The Lord of the Rings series (movies first, books to look forward to)
• The Devil Wears Prada (movie first, book in my TBR pile)
• P.S. I Love You (book first, movie to look forward to)
• The Kite Runner (book first, movie to look forward to)
• The Other Boleyn Girl (book first, movies second)
• Revolutionary Road (book first, movie to look forward to)
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (book first, movie to look forward to)
• Atonement (book first, movie second)

I am sure there are a few others but my memory has failed me so I am thinking the above list will do.

What about you?