Thursday, January 28, 2010

Another Challenge

This is another challenge I will be participating in this year. I love YA books, so this will be a no brainer for me. This challenge is hosted by J Kaye's Book Blog and anyone is welcome to join.

Here's the details:

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.
--Non-Bloggers: Post your list of books in the comment section of the wrap-up post.

2. There are four levels:

--The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.
--Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels. (This is the one I plan on doing)
--Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.
--Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.

3. Audio, eBooks, re-reads all count.

4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.

5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.6. When you sign up under Mr. Linky, put the direct link to your post where your Young Adult novels will be listed. Include the URL so that other viewers can find this fun challenge. If you’d prefer to put your list in the sidebar of your blog, please leave your viewers the link to the sign up page. Again, so viewers can join the challenge too.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Why?

I'm really having trouble figuring out why some of my posts retain the spaces I have used in them, and others do not. Can anyone explain this to me? Grrrrr!

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event to celebrate what we are reading for the week as well as books completed the previous week. Feel free to pile on a little extra.If you'd like to join in this weekly event, please include a link to this post. That way others can find it and join in. You can see the latest here: http://tinyurl.com/ykzaquo
I am a day late on this, so I apologize.
Read Freaky Friday and Fire last week (you can see their reviews on my blog)
Currently Reading:
  • The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
  • Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  • Tales of Madness by Edgar Allen Poe
Upcoming Reading Plans:
  • Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
  • The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
  • The Unquiet Bones by Melvin R. Starr
  • Heart of Stone by C.E. Murphy
  • To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Friday, January 22, 2010

Role Reversal

Rating: 5/5

Review: This was such a fun book! Quite different from the movies that were based on it, but in a good way. It was also timeless. It would certainly be relatable to kids today. There was plenty of humor, and it was even a little inspirational. There's also some great lessons to be learned here, like to not take things for granted and to be true to yourself, and ma knows best. Also, little brothers aren't really so bad after all. Haha!

Book Description: Annabel Andrews is tired of her mother telling her what to do. She's tired of being told to do her homework, clean up her room, and be nice to her little brother, Ape Face. If she were an adult, she could do anything she wanted, like watch tv all day and eat marshmallows for breakfast.

One Friday morning, Annabel's wish comes true when she wakes up and realizes she's turned into her mother! But after a major washing machine mishap, losing Ape Face, and a terrible teacher's conference, Annabel starts to suspect that being an adult isn't as much fun as it seems.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Beautiful Monsters


Rating: 5/5
Review: I was hesitant about this book for some reason. I suppose it's because I liked Graceling so much and wondered why the author decided to write another book that didn't have my favorite characters in it. I was so very wrong. This book was more enchanting, enthralling, and exciting. The protagonist, Fire, was a joy to read about. Cashore's ability to take her reader's to a fantasy world where colorful monsters exist just astounds me. I was completely consumed by this book, and I practically missed an entire day while reading it. I can't wait to see what else my new favorite author will create next.
Book Description: She is the last of her kind...
It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her.
Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised Graceling has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read Graceling to love Fire. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge- The Raven by Edgar Allen poe

Rating: 5/5

Review: It's the ultimate in spookiness. I loved it. In fact, I am actually reading a small collection of Poe's work, entitled, Tales of Madness. In The Raven, the man seems to have been driven mad by the loss of his Lenore. I'm not very good at interpreting poems, but there are words and phrases featured that give it a profound effect. Like, "Night's Plutonian Shore", and "ominous bird of yore". It should be read out loud by candle light, with the wind howling outside the windows, and lightening illuminating the sky. That's the kind of spookiness The Raven invokes within me.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Hello Mr. Crazy


Rating: 3.5/5
Review: It took me a while to get into this one, but it could have just been my mood. There is a strong sense of foreboding the moment the island is introduced. It seems to be a sinister place, shrouded in mystery and horror. There are prisoners there who have done some terrible things. Things you don't even want to know about. A female patient has supposedly escaped, and Teddy has been sent to find her. Or has he? All of a sudden, you are flipping the pages, anxious to find out the truth. What's really going on here? What's really happening on Shutter Island? I was completely blown away by the answer.
Book Description: The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple-murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

New Year, New Challenges

Well, I've never posted a challenge on here before, but I'm really liking the sound of the one I just entered. It's The Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge. You can find it here:
http://www.gilmoregirlschallenge.blogspot.com/

I plan on doing the Lorelai challenge, which is 10 books from at least four different categories.

Here are the books I plan on reading:

Classics:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe


Children's/YA:
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol

Modern Classics:
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Non-Fiction:
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Other:
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

We'll see how well I do. I tried to be realistic, since I don't always do too well with classics.