New page

I added a new page. The Quotes page. You should check it out.
Oh, and by the way. There are absolutely no major spoilers in it. That way you can read my excerpt and then read the book and nothing will be spoiled for you.
Enjoy!

The Shadow Club by Neal Shusterman (Great)

I was a bit worried from the official description of The Shadow Club that it wouldn't really get interesting, but I was wrong. It definitely was good, and I'm glad I read it.  I only just now understood the cover, since it looks really weird.  Here it is:



I'm sorry, the cover's a bit blurry, but what can you do?Anyway, if you also don't get the cover after reading it, I'll give you some hints: Tyler, the lighthouse, that night, Tyler's dangerous problem. I hope that helped clear it up.

Here's my description. Jared has always been second best at track. He always gets the silver medal because of the awful Austin Pace. But Jared isn't the only second best; there are others: the second best swimmer, basketball player, singer, brain. All of the second- bests band together to form The Shadow Club to get revenge on all the unbeatables. It starts out as just harmless pranks, but even when they stop messing with the unbeatables, the pranks keep on coming, getting more dangerous as they go.

I really liked this book. It had a nice balance to it. Some dramatic things, some funny things, and acouple heart breaking things. Neal Shusterman is the author of it, which automatically means that it's stellar.

I would recommend reading it. It's not a very long read, but it's good all the same.

It has a sequel, The Shadow Club Rising, that I'm curently reading. I'll tell you guys about it soon.

I'm a bit behind on books, but I'll post with Double Identity and The Shadow Club Rising as soon as possible.

Hope you all have a nice President's Day weekend. 

Update!

Hi everyone!
I wanted to point out that I just updated my Coming Soon page. It now has all of the books, that I'm aware of, that  are coming out and that I'm planning on reading. Tell me if there's any books that you want to add or any dates/ titles that you know more about than I do. Hope you guys find this page helpful, especially if you're one of the people who like reading the book as soon as it's out.

A Door into the Woods by James Dashner (Good)

Hi! I'm early this week for the first time ever!
The last book I read was A Door into the Woods.  James Dashner wrote this, along with The Maze Runner Series and the 13th Reality Series.  Most people haven't heard about this series, the Jimmy Fincher series, because it isn't very well known. (It took a little while for me to find.)  In any case, I liked the book.  Here's the cover:

I really liked this cover because of all the little details that are on it.  I don't want to ruin any surprises, so I won't mention any of them. But, I would suggest finding them after you read the PERSONAL description of the door.  I know that doesn't make any sense right now, but it will!

Here's my description: Jimmy Fincher is just an ordinary, extremely southern kid from Georgia who likes to do ordinary things like climb trees.  That is, until he sees a woman get killed and then gets kidnapped.  Jimmy learns that the world's not what it seems.  Then he gets advice from people that he thought he knew well and from people who are a bit on the crazy side on what to do about the bad guys (characters such as Monster and Raspy).  The only thing that anyone agrees on is that the door in the woods is important, very important.

Now, my review.  I really liked it.  The whole book had this feel about it; I'm not sure what to call it, but it sounded funny and at the same time sort of intense.  Whatever you call it, it sounded good.  It was written really, really southernly, though.  It was so southern that, being mildly southern, I would have been slightly offended if James Dashner wasn't actually from Georgia.  The only bad thing about it? Jimmy cried a lot in the beginning. I know that's probably what we would all do in that situation, but it was still a bit annoying.

I would definitely recomend reading it.  It was definitely interesting.

So, that is my book review for The Door into the Woods.  I hope you liked it. Have a nice week.

Birthmarked by Caragh M O'Brien (Good)

Hi everybody! I finished Birthmarked early this week and it was...interesting. Personally, I think that it is a more girl-oriented book than what I normally read. (I'm putting that out there for all you guys.) But, then again, I think any book with a more sophisticated love scheme is a girl's book, even if that's not what it's all about.  Here's the cover:

Birthmarked is about a girl, Gaia, who is the midwife for a village and has to give three babies per month to the advanced society of the Enclave.  She happily serves until she hears that her prisoner parents are about to be executed.  The only way to save them would be to break into the Enclave and orchestrate a prison-break.  The problems? Sgt. Grey, who seems to be going out of his way to "help" Gaia; a mysterious black oven; an intervention to a cruel execution that could lead Gaia into deeper trouble; a secret code; and the knowledge of something that might change everything: the birthmarks.

This book builds on itself so much that I can't really give you any hints of the really good stuff.  I can say that a love interest builds between Gaia and another character and almost all of the characters have at least one juicy secret.

The book is the first in a trilogy, and I'm planning on reading the rest of the series after I finish the rest of the books I got for Christmas. 

My only problem with the book was that (mild SPOILER ALERT) the time in the prison was way too long.  Usually when the character's captured in a book, I think that the time before they figure out a way out is a bit short (Black Water, Fablehaven:Keys to the Demon Prison, Ranger's Apprentice, 13th Reality: The Blade of Shattered Hope, Tunnels, The Death Cure, Gone, and probably a couple other books I can't remember right now). Usually the author just skips a little so that it doesn't seem boring; the author of Birthmarked did skip a little, but it still ended up seeming really long.  (It's pretty impressive to get me to think that that part of the story is too long; that might have been on purpose but still.)  SPOILER ALERT OFF

In any case, I liked the book and hope you read it as well.  I finished A Door in the Woods last night and will post on that soon. 

Oh, and by the way, the books that showed as examples above are really good, and I would suggest you to read them along with the rest of the books in their series. In case you don't want to risk seeing a spoiler by accident, here: Pendragon: Black Water, Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, Ranger's Apprentice, 13th Reality: The Blade of Shattered Hope, Tunnels, The Death Cure, and Gone.

That's all for this week.  Have fun watching the Superbowl!

Downsiders by Neal Shusterman (Really Good)

Sorry that I'm a bit late this week.  It's been  pretty hectic.  Anyway, back to Downsiders. 
I read this book because I absolutely LOVE all of the books by Neal Shusterman (especially Full Tilt, Bruiser, Everfound, Unwind, and The Schwa was Here). This was a really good book, not as good as some of his book but still pretty amazing.  The cover:

For future references, the book has another cover with the title and author in a circle, but I didn't put that one on this post because it had "a novel" on it. (That's my biggest pet peeve.  Look at the cover and you know it's a novel!)

The story goes like this: There's a society under the feet of New York City.  They've gotten about well enough on their own, but Talon wants to go to the Topside so much that it hurts.  He meets Lindsay, a Topsider, by a chance run in and, later, things start crashing down around them, literally.  A simple truth that could destroy everything that all of the Downsiders' lives, a broken-in-half home, a sick sister, and an execution wait within these pages, all you have to do is start reading.

Overall, I really liked this book.  He should have slowed down during the pipe part, and gone quicker during the very beginning, but it was a wonderful book.  I would definetely suggest you to read it.

I'm about halfway through Birthmarked  and I have to say that it is amazing so far.  I'll post on it next week!

The Outcasts by John Flanagan (Great)

I read the first book in the semi-new series, The Brotherband Chronicles.  This is a sequeling series to The Ranger's Apprentice and the short story collection: The Lost Stories.  Those were links to my reviews of those books by the way.  The books before have no mention in this new series.  Just the general setting of the series are the same.  Here's the cover:

This book is about a half Skandian, half Aurlen boy.  He is an outcast because of his mixed race and because he is smart in a land that values strength.  The boy, Hal, is old enough for Brotherband training, which is a competition of sorts/ school where boys learn how to sail, navigate, work as a team, etc. Hal's brotherband has to compete with two others in a bunch of risky, interesting contests.  A lot of things happen that "rocks the boat" (and no that is not supposed to be a bad pun) and everything gets complicated...

The book ended on a cliffhanger, which I absolutely hate!  I really enjoyed this book. I would suggest reading it.  My advice: the sailing terminology at the beginning of the book is really unnecessary, so you can skip reading it if you want to.  It just gave me a headache reading it, and I didn't think it helped me a lot.

I hope you decide to read it.  I'll write again once I finish reading the book I'm on: Downsiders by Neal Shusterman.

Happy Reading!

The Lost Stories by John Flanagan (Really Good)

I read a "short" story Ranger's Apprentice collection.  If you didn't see my review of the Ranger's Apprentice series click here!  I just want to tell you that this book's "short" stories are about 100 pages long each.  I was worried that all of them would be really short and boring, but they weren't. Here's the cover:

These stories have all of the characters we know and love-Will, Halt, Horace, etc.  The author made most of these stories a little after the last Ranger's Apprentice book had left off, but there were still a few in the complete past and some in the middle of the series.  It clears some questions that readers had asked John Flanagan and tells you exactly what happened with Will and Alyss. 

This book is not nesecary to read by any means, but I liked the book and would suggest reading it.  You should definetly not read it if you haven't read the other books in the series; you would be completely lost. 

I just finished reading The Brotherband Chronicles: The Outcasts also by John Flanagan.  I'll post about it soon, probably as soon as I finish writting this. 

I hope you have all had a good week.  Happy Friday!

The Third Kane Book Update

Hi! The title and cover for the final Kane Chronicles book was announced recently.  It's called, "The Serpent's Shadow.  Here's the cover:

Since it wasn't common knowledge, I thought I would tell you guys.  I can't wait for it to come out.  I mean, look at that cover!  It's coming out May 1, 2012.  I'll keep you updated on what's going on when I find out something else.

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (Awesome)

I read this book for Battle of the Books.  To tell you the truth, I had already decided that I didn't want to read it because of the title/cover.  This book is living proof that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.  And in case you were wondering: Yes, I did love the book.  Yes, it was funny.  Yes, I did go to the library and read all the rest of the books in the series.  And, yes, I will also review those.  Here is the cover:

There is no way to review this book without it sounding cheesy, so I think I'll give a quick overview of the first chapter and then go to the general book description.

The beginning of the book starts with the main character, Alcatraz Smedry, being tried to an altar about to be sacrificed.  Then he has a "flashback" and the story starts.  At the beginnning of almost every chapter Alcatraz says (the book's first person) something really funny: why he is a bad person, his opinion on fishsticks, how he thinks it's funny that now you have to read the whole rest of the book to find out what happened with the altar, etc.

Alcatraz Smedry has a very rare and special talent- for breaking things.  When his long-lost grandpa arrives to take him home, he realizes that he lost his inheritence- a bag of sand.  In a dangerous mission to get it back, they will have to go to- the downtown library.  Alcatraz learns there that the librarians are trying to take over the world and influence the cultures of the world.  After all, they already have the Hushlands (Americas, Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa).

This is one of the funniest books that I have read in a long time.  Not only is it funny, but it also has a gripping plot (a weird one at that).  I would definitely recomend this book to anyone, don't let the title/cover/description scare you away.  If you don't believe me, go to a libray and read the first couple of pages, you'll love it.

I've already read the rest of the series, all that's out.  I'll review them shortly.

Happy Reading!