THE PSYCHOLOGY CORNER | Conviction | Juan Martinez

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Okay. Lets just appreciate the fact that I have come back. I know I have been gone since July of 2016 and that year is over. But in my defence I was applying to university, in addition scumming to the demands of the IB. Also my motivation was like ded. But I am here now thanks TO THIS FAB book!! I'm excited to write this and I hope you all continue to stay and read on because this is so intriguing.

Ignore Masterchef on the tv in the background of the first photo, I just wanted to get the picture taken and I didn't think of location at all.

Before I go into the review, I don't know if y'all remember that I was starting a new thing on my blog called 'The Psychology Corner' but I mentioned it in my last post. Basically where I take books related to psychology in some way, where I could then discuss the nature of those books in my reviews on this blog with theories, possible studies and more. Don't be alarmed, I will still do my regular book reviews. Its just I wanted to start this since I am going into a Psychology major.

This is a snippet of the goodreads synopsis:

Juan Martinez, the fiery prosecutor who convicted notorious murderess Jodi Arias for the disturbing killing of Travis Alexander, speaks for the first time about the shocking investigation and sensational trial that captivated the nation.

Through two trials, America watched with baited breath as Juan Martinez fought relentlessly to convict Jodi Arias of Murder One for viciously stabbing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander to death. What emerged was a story wrought with sex, manipulation, and deceit that stunned the public at every turn. Arias, always playing the wronged and innocent woman, changed her story continually as her bizarre behavior surrounding the crime and its aftermath came to light. Unwavering, Arias and her defense team continued to play off the salacious details of the case, until she was finally found guilty and—controversially—sentenced to life behind bar

This was reaLLY GOOD! Especially if you're like me; into crime stuff. No joke, I've watched a bunch of crime documentaries, in particular ones about murderers and sociopaths. I just can't stop. (i'm not crazy) If you are into criminology, psychology; specifically sociocultural psych, this is really interesting and you will be hookED! I had watched clips and interviews about Jodi Arias and the whole trial and tribulations that went with her and her crimes. Additionally, there was a Dr. Phil segment on the trial with Juan - the author - who is formally a (fantastic) prosecutor.

The book itself is a stand alone, recount (memoir ish) thing that recounts the days of the crime, trial and aftermath. The book is in chronological order so the narrative arch is structured by the time period of the evens. For example, the day Mr Martinez got a phone call about Travis's found body and so on.

With anything like this, you have to understand that an innocent man lost his life due to an alleged motive of jealousy. I feel for Travis and his family because if you look into the case or read the book, Travis suffered so much. Honestly, I am still shook from the events that occurred on June the 4th. Clearly Jodi did it, she admits to it whether thats after two lies and a 'self defence' claim, she did this. This is not a trial trying to prove she is guilty but one that she is, not to mention the evidence against her is overwhelming.

Coming from a psychological perspective, I think it's important to addressees Arias's deceit and lies. 

The deceit that Jodi carries with her throughout the trial is so interesting to me. In the book Juan mentions a time where he watched an interview early on in the trial where Jodi was answering that she couldn't possibly see a jury finding her guilty because she didn't commit the crime. She looked so believable! I watched the same interview later on Youtube and I am actually shook how real and sincere she looks. As if everything out of her mouth was genuine truth. Little did everyone know she was indeed the one that killed Travis Alexander. At this time she was spinning the second story that a man and a woman were the ones responsible for his death, not her. That brings me into her changing her story not once or twice but THREE TIMES. In any juries eyes that has to put a line between her truth and lies because what can you believe out of her mouth after that.

There is a lot in the book that we learn about Jodi's childhood and whether she was an ordinary girl. We learn that she has always been 'weird' - meaning that she was out of the norm and unexplainable since childhood. I've exaggerated that just a little but if there is anything you take from this, it's that she was unusual. This brings me into nature vs nurture, in hindsight were her crimes an act of biological disposition or throughout her life. In my opinion it's neither. I don't really think we should blame her genes or her rough upbringing but herself. Jodi is a special kind of evil. People kill for many reasons. I sometimes wonder truly why Jodi allowed it to get his far for her. 

I gave this book four stars. I actually read this last year (in 2016) sometime in December but have only had the time to post this review now. To be honest, I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't watched almost everything on Youtube about it already. Nonetheless this was still so good! Just nothing that I would be too memorable as this was a trail and after it you just move on. I was so hooked on this crime/trial but like any trial, after time you have to just move on. I am really glad Juan decided to write this and I hope he's currently happy and solving the world.

Don't worry! I won't be gone any longer, I've got another review coming up (I say this all the time but I swear I'm on top of it this time!). oH AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

p.s

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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? | Mindy Kaling

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It's funny.

This is really funny.

Like I said before in my Yes Please by Amy Poehler review, this is not a memoir or 'how to' on being funny. I lied on my Yes Please review when I said that it was my first memoir because technically this is my first but I didn't finish it and I finished Yes Please before this one. 

The only reason I put this book down for like 4 MONTHS(!!??!?!?) was because I got bored... Mindy actually mentions right in the beginning of her book that, and I quote "If you're reading this book every night for months, something is not right." BUT MINDY IT'S NOT YOU OR THE BOOK, it' me being an annoying croissant and unable to commit to reading adult books. Condolences. 

Another thing I would like to mention before I actually get into this is that I took the top picture of the book last year and it is super saturated because I was in the phase where I thought saturating everything looked wonderful, when it really didn't!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is an Humour, Memoir written by Mindy Kaling. Mindy give us a journey of her life and how she grew up and writes about her family, friends, boys, growing up and tops it all off with fantastic humour. This is an adult book and maybe that is why I wasn't 'hooked' (not that this is a story book with a plot) but also because I am not yet an adult that has to do adult things, I mention this exact issue in my Yes Please by Amy Poehler review as well.

Did I enjoy this more that Amy Poehler's book? I mean I think it's only right if I compare the memoirs.. not the people. !!! Don't compare Mindy to Amy. You might as well just be saying 'Parks and Recreation or The Mindy Project' which is stupid because both shows are hilarious! I gave both books 3/5 stars.

The writing was easy to follow and read, she threw in a few jokes here and there that got me giggling. I feel as though Mindy brought us more into her early life and her life overall whereas Amy passed through her early life quite fast and had a really long pit stop at the beginning of her career, improve acting, SNL and basically her acting debut, however Amy did give more 'life advice' whereas Mindy not so much. Both books had pictures however if you go look at my Yes Please by Amy Poehler review (I will stop saying this now) you will see that her book it slightly lengthier and filled with colour, whereas Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me is written like a normal book with printed pictures that are black and white. Not to mention Yes Please is quite heavy for a book and this one weighed what you'd expect it to, like a normal novel. 

The storyline or in this case the timeline of the book is mostly Mindy and her life, she starts from the childhood and she addressing many different things but not much of The Mindy Project and not a lot of the book is dedicated to her career and how she 'made it' (if you will). Which is the complete opposite to Yes Please by Amy Poehler, this is because Amy spends more of her book (that has 300+ pages whereas this has 200+ pages) addressing her career and what she did and how she 'made it' and like I said a few times already you can go read all about that in that review here.

You also might know Mindy as Kelly Kapoor on The Office (another national treasure) but I'm more familiar with Mindy from her own produced show called The Mindy Project. Now, lets talk 'The Mindy Project', if you don't already watch this show. What are you doing? Like, what are you doing? It is one of my favourite shows alongside: Friends, Parks and Rec, Greys Anatomy, L&O SVU and Orange Is The New Black.

Mindy is a very lovely person and it was very heartwarming to read all she had to say about her close friends, work acquaintances, her family and her career. I think the most I laughed was at a page, quite close to the beginning where she titles it 'Alternate Titles for This Book' and let me just say some of the ones she mentions are so funny I almost died. Mindy also has a second book coming out this year in September called Why Not Me? . I hopefully will read that as well when it comes out because this was a nice read to be frank. It was heartwarming and delightful. 

I would give this as a lovely present for my mum or my aunts because I'm sure they would like it and if you ever need to give someone a preset (last minute or not) this is a really good one! This is really good to give around the holidays or birthdays as it's a good size read and people will really appreciate it. 

I would highly recommend reading this if you're contemplating, because it is good. Another thing I would like to say is that both memoirs (Yes Please and IEHOWM?) are more steered towards adults as both writers are adults looking back at their lives and both memoirs are written by Mindy and Amy who are adults; it has more of an adult feel to the book. Nevertheless it was lovely reading this! 

p.s

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The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer #1 | Michelle Hodkin

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hey ho! 

It's almost my birthday and I'm very excited to get a bunch of stuff I don't need. I'm also very excited to get The Retribution of Mara Dyer (#3) in the main around November-ish and it's gonna be a signed copy cause Michelle Hodkin said she was signing all pre-orders so if you want one go....go pre-order one noW!

I also started this book a few days before the Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon and when the read-a-thon started I only had a hundred or so pages left of this book so I finished this in the read-a-thon which was super fun. I also started and read some other fantastic books. More on that later. 

These covers are breathtaking! 

Well this was a very interesting read. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a young-adult /paranormal/ psychological thriller. I've actually spent the last four years avoiding books like this because I used to read loads of them back in the day (4 years ago), hard times. I used to read books like: Hush Hush, Beautiful Creatures, Fallen The Dark Divine etc, and I realised that I was a stupid little 'baiseur' and I was reading crappy-cliche-badly written books and I need to sort my goddamn priorities out. So I stopped. So the first time I heard about this I was all: Oh god not again, je ne peux pas continuew a lire cette connerie. 

'Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. 

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.
 
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.'

I did very much enjoy it and I will not ever be re-reading this, thankyou. 

I don't know whether to accept this book because ffs there is sexism and as a feminist I just, WHY!!!! I know there are people who hate this book ; it may be very cliche for people and I totally understand I mean I could have gone either way. Like I said before I stopped reading books like this because of 'this'. Putting that aside for this review I did enjoy this but I did not love it nor will I ever read it again. There are many reasons why I gave this book three stars and there is not enough of my sanity to explain why. 

I've seen this book contrasted with 50 shades of grey (without the sex) and yeah I see it. How are people giving this book a full five star rating? I mean how are you guys so oblivious? I would give you some examples to talk about but frankly I just finished writing an English lit essay and I rather not. 

To generalise this book messed with my head so bad. I need to also stress that this may trigger. This book deals with blood/abuse//post-trauma/anxiety/bruising etc and it may cause post-traumatic flashbacks or self-harm and I don't want anyone to get hurt, physically or mentally (｡^‿^｡). 

I personally suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and at times I did have to put this book down but I did finish it. The book is a psychological thriller but it's passive, it eases you into the mystery. It's not fast-pace or action packed but it messes with you for sure. When I was reading it I felt like I was going insane. Michelle Hodkin knows how to mess you up! My only reaction was 'WHAT THE F IS GOING ON?'

It's weird talking about this book because I like it and then I hate it. Bittersweet? I haven't read a book like this in a while. The writing style wasn't unique at first I thought it was written by a thirteen year old girl with a slightly large vocabulary. I then got used to the writing style, nothing special but it was refreshing. The book itself is a mystery and that was the element I adored, it was such a good page turner. Not to mention the book made me laugh a lot. Always a plus. I think I could let it slide (I hear screaming) I'm so sorry it's just I can't say I hate it because I don't, apparently it gets better, oh dear god I hope it does. 

I want to finish reading the series because (1) I already have the second book and I've pre-ordered the third, (2) It's a mystery! I can't just s t o p. 

The characters are alright nothing special. Noah though. Yeah I do like him and I hate that I do. I feel as though if he wasn't in this book it would just be depression, depression, depression and that's why Noah and Mara cancel each other out/help each other. The main character: Mara Dyer, I really do like her. Although she is very.....Anastasia Steele. Like she can't tell people (men) to F THE HELL OFF! But then again in a public situation with a guy I'm head over heels with I don't think I could either, but after the night I'd go home sleep on it and think about it and then ditch his ugly ass. 

What is even happening in this book? I'll read the second one and then I shall be back. 

The DUFF | Kody Keplinger

Wow! A realistic teen contemporary with a realistic heroine with realistic friends and a somewhat realistic family/life. For once I'm actually mind blown! 

After searching and searching for this goddamn book I caved and ordered it online. Once it came in the mail and read it in less than a day, probably four hours to be exact. It's such a fast pace book and a great page turner! You just can't get enough and you have to know what happens next. When I say 'fast pace' I don't mean filled with action, rather 'too good to not finish.' 

I highly, highly recommend this as a 'pick me up' if you need a good book to fan over after reading something like Clockwork Princess or Noughts and Crosses. 

Bianca Piper despises Wesley Rush, the school man-whore who sleep with everyone and everything. One night when she's forced by her friends to go to a party Wesley in return, insults and hurts her by calling her the DUFF. The designated ugly, fat friend. Although Bianca's home life isn't getting any better and when her parents are on the verge of divorce and everything in her world seems to be falling apart she finds an escape. Sex with Wesley Rush. 

This is a young adult, contemporary/humour. It's very funny. I actually laughed/cried.

Oh also just to put this out there, this book has hella sexy times and when I said that it was very realistic I didn't mean that the majority of teenagers go around boning each other and thats why it's realistic. I meant that everything besides the sex in this book was also worth mentioning (again not saying that every family is like the main character in this book) and the way Kody Keplinger chose to handle family issues and being 'The Designated Ugly Fat Friend' and juggling school was very much relatable to many people. I also do know that some teenagers look to sex as a distraction from their everyday lives which is a big part of the premiss of this book.

Don't want to bore anyone but:
Only 16% of teens have had sex by the age of fifteen,
48% of those aged seventeen,
61% of eighteen year olds and 71% of nineteen year olds.
Although teens are waiting longer to have sex than they did in the recent past years. 

There is nothing wrong with not have had any of this at any age! Everyone has experiences at different ages and stages of their lives, everyone develops differently. There is nothing wrong with never have had your first kiss whether your 11 or 27! 

Also don't feel like because everyone else is doing it you have to do it as well (sounds cliche but seriously!) It's better to wait for someone worth it. 

Now to the actual topic of the sex in this book, I read one of Kody Keplinger's blog posts where she remarked that most people bashed the book because of the sex scenes. Before I confuse anyone, I'm gonna put it out there now that I didn't mind the sex scenes at all (it's not at all anything like fanfic!), they weren't graphic to the point where you're shielding you're eyes. I'm not gonna lie here and say to you that teenagers don't have sex because there is no denying that they do. I'm also not too sure why sex in literature is taboo for some people when its part of human nature. 

As a feminist I'm proud that Kody Keplinger didn't write Bianca as some sappy school girl who can't stick up for herself and her morals. There are times in this book where Bianca stops thing from going to far when she doesn't want them to or when she doesn't let others bring her down because she's bigger than that. I understand when insults are thrown at you they hurt and the majority of writers would write a character as Bianca Piper as a wimp. Thankfully, Keplinger chooses to reinforce that you don't EVER have to make yourself look good or fix yourself for a guy or anyone for that matter! and that truthfully we are all 'the DUFF'. 

I believe as women we should be able to stick together; stand up for each other and what not a better way to reinforce this to the younger generation then through young adult literature as books are apart of so many lives. There are teenagers who read to escape from everything else in their lives. Sorry to go on a tangent but did you all see Emma Watson's he-for-she speech at the UN? ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Here is the link. Worth checking out if you haven't already! 

I know this isn't much of a proper review but more of a rant/me-going-off-on a tangent but another thing I love about this book are the refreshing characters. One of the main parts of this book that didn't make it one of those stories where the girl has no friends or they all bully her; making it super cliche (and no I do not endorse bullying what-so ever!). 

In this book Bianca's friends (Casey and Jessica) are my favourite characters because they are so great and what f.r.i.e.n.d.s should really be. They pick her up instead of pushing her to the side and not giving a damn. Bonus, they are drop dead hilarious.