March's Mini Book Reviews Part 1

I really enjoyed writing the smaller reviews a couple weeks ago.  Therefore, I have decided to continue this series, which I stole from Vivatramp (check her out, she's awesome!).  So, here are mini reviews of the books I have read so far in March!

On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche

☆☆☆

04MAR14

163 pages

     This was the first book I read for school this month.  This is actually my second time reading this book for philosophy class and I have to say, it gets better with repetition.  I find Nietzsche's writing style very difficult to understand as he buries his opinions below layers of sarcasm and contrary opinions.  However, with this reading, I think I managed to unpack the words enough to have a decent understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy.  In On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche attempts to discover the origin of human morality.  It grows into a discussion of the differences between master and slave morality which you can think of as predator and prey morality.  Nietzsche, after claiming that humans have grown out of the master morality and accepted the morality of the slaves, advocates for a new system of morals outlining all of the faults and advantages of the other two moralities.  I found the essay to provide and interesting perspective on the world, however, I would only recommend it if you are willing to analyze some difficult writing.

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

☆☆☆☆☆

06MAR14

448 pages

     Rotters is a coming of age story mixed with horror and suspense.  It follows the life of Joey Crouch who moves in with his father, whom he has never met, after the accidental death of his mom. Joey quickly becomes the subject of torment at his new high school, it doesn't help that his father, Harnett, lives in a three room shack devoid of furniture, a shower, or food. Oh, and he's a grave-robber!  This is the setting for the crazy adventure which is Rotters.

     I cannot put into words how much I loved this novel.  Everything was foreshadowed brilliantly.  I knew certain aspects of the story had to happen thanks to the foreshadowing, but the way the events actually unfolded was unique and surprising.  On top of that, the character development was superb.  I'm not fantastic at picturing characters in my head but Rotters was so vivid and intriguing that I literally had a movie running through my mind.  The best part was that while reading, my image of Joey grew and changed along with the character.  I never thought a book about grave-robbers could be so moving and memorable.  If you have a strong stomach, as there are graphic descriptions of corpses, rotting bodies, and way to many rats, I would highly suggest picking up this novel!

Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl

☆☆☆☆

06MAR14

81 pages

     During my reading of Rotters, I needed a second novel to calm my over-active imagination before bed, so I picked up this childhood favorite.  If you don't know the story of this children's novel, three chicken farmers, annoyed at the consistent stealing of Mr Fox plot to kill Mr Fox and his family.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Dahl's storytelling.  Mathilda and The Witches have always been some of my favorite novels and after being reintroduced to Dahl's world, I cannot wait to pick them up again!

Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

☆☆☆☆

08MAR14

56 pages

     While incredibly short, this play is so accessible and ageless that you would never guess that it was written at the same time as Shakespeare!  Dr Faustus follows the tragic figure of Faust, a German doctor so invested in the pursuit of knowledge and power that he willingly sells his soul to the Devil. This is a story I have seen retold multiple times in modern novels and it was interesting to read a more classic retelling.  There were quite a few of these now commonplace ideas, like the good angel vs the evil angel and the seven deadly sins, in Marlowe's novel and I enjoyed looking at these ideas from a different perspective.

     I had to read Dr Faustus for class this month, but I would suggest it to anyone who enjoys mythical retellings.  The language is easily acceptable to the modern reader despite being written in the late 1500s and I think this is the type of story everyone should read as it has become ingrained in our culture.

What have you read so far this month?

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf

Pages: 275

Rating: 5/5

     From the master of literary reportage whose acclaimed books include Shah of Shahs, The Emperor, and The Shadow of the Sun, an intimate account of his first youthful forays beyond the Iron Curtain.
     Just out of university in 1955, Kapuscinski told his editor that he'd like to go abroad.  Dreaming no farther than Czechoslovakia, the young reporter found himself sent to India.  Wide-eyed and captivated, he would discover in those days his life's work - to understand and describe the world in its remotest reaches, in all its multiplicity.  From the rituals of sunrise at Persepolis to the incongruity of Louis Armstrong performing before a stone-faced crowd in Khartoum, Kapuscinski gives us the non-Western world as he first say it, though still-virginal Western eyes.
     The companion on his travels, a volume of Herodotus, a gift from his first boss.  Whether he was in China, Poland, Iran or the Congo, it was the "father of history" - and, as Kapuscinski would realize, of globalism - who helped the young correspondent to make sense of the events, to find the story where it did not obviously exist.  It is this great forerunner's spirit - both supremely worldly and innately Occidental - that would continue to whet Kapuscinski's ravenous appetite for discovering the broader world and that has made him our own indispensable companion on any leg of that perpetual journey.

In Travels with Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski explains his intimate relationship with the ancient Greek writer Herodotus.  When Kapuscinski embarked upon his first trip overseas, his boss handed him a copy of Herodotus's Histories.  When shocked and overwhelmed by India, Kapuscinski retreats into Herodotus's writings.  In this historic text, Kapuscinski finds a deep appreciation for the world.  Herodotus, alive in 400 BCE, wished to write down the history of all people regardless of pertinence.  He gave the Persians and Greeks the same amount of care and attention as the Scythians and Phoenicians.  Kapuscinski, inspired by Herodotus's view and dedication to history bring the book, and the reader, along with him to various nations and provides thoughtful insight on the passage of time, history, and people.  Full of quotes from Herodotus's Histories, Travels with Herodotus is both a memoir and great introduction to the ancient work.

This became one of my favorite books ever within the first 50 pages.  I actually picked up other books and set this book down simply because I didn't want it to end.  Travels with Herodotus did a great job of weaving different cultures and time periods together to take the reader on basically a whirlwind tour of the ancient Mediterranean and various places Kapuscinski has visited.  I really loved seen the common trends between each population.  I find the similarities between people and cultures really interesting so this book captured my interest right from the start and never let go.  I actually plan to go out and buy this book as soon as I can because I know I will want to reread this book multiple times.  If you like memoirs, history or culture I would definitely suggest checking out this book!

Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure by Amanda Adams

Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure by Amanda Adams

Publisher:  Greystone Books

Pages: 192

Rating: 5/5

     The first women archaeologists were Victorian era adventurers who felt most at home when farthest from in.  Canvas tents were their domains, hot Middle Eastern deserts their gardens of inquiry and labor. Thanks to them, prevailing ideas about feminine nature - soft, nurturing submissive - were upended. Ladies of the Field tells the story of seven remarkable women, each a pioneering archaeologist, each headstrong, smart and courageous who burst into what was then a very young science.  Amanda Adams takes us with them as they hack away at underbrush under a blazing sun, battle swarms of biting bugs, travel on camel-back for weeks on end, and feel the excitement of unearthing history at an archaeological site. Adams also reveals the dreams of these extraordinary women, their love of the field, their passion for holding the past in their hands, their fascination with human origins and their utter disregard for convention. (from Shelfari)

Whenever I have been asked what I want to be when I grow up, I have always answered archaeologist.  Something about the adventure and monotony of archaeology attracted my attention as a toddler and remains to this day.  So when I saw this book at my local library, I had to pick it up.  Before this book, I didn't know of any female archaeologists but now I know of 7 amazing ones.  In Ladies of the Field, Adams does a fantastic job of outlining these women's archaeological accomplishments as well as their lives.  The seven female archaeologist examined in that novel are Amelia Edwards, Jane Dieulafoy, Zelia Nuttall, Gertrude Bell, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy Garrod.  For each woman, Adams tells of their life-long struggles, romantic interests, career paths, education, opposition to typical female stereotypes, and, of course, their contribution to archaeology.  While it was definitely interesting to learn about the contributions these women have made to history, it was more inspiring than informative.  Reading about how these women overcame Victorian stereotypes to follow their passion has inspired me to continue to aspire for a career in this field.  If you're looking for some female empowerment I would definitely recommend this book.  I know the stories of these women will be a source of inspiration for me.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 360 pgs
Rating: 5/5

The maze was only the beginning...
     Solving the maze was supposed to be the end.  No more puzzles.  No more variables.  And no more running.  Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.
     Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is now a wasteland.  Government has disintegrated - and with it, order - and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal.
     The Gladers are far from done running.  Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with with another trial.  They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks.  And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
     Thomas can only wonder - does he hold the secret to freedom somewhere in his mind?  Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

If you don't know The Scorch Trials is the second book in the Maze Runner series so if you haven't read the first book, I may spoil a little.  If you want to read my review of the first book, The Maze Runner, click here.

I really liked this book.  Just like the first, it is a nonstop adventure, but I found this installment much less predictable which was a nice surprise.  It actually scared the crap out of me a couple times.  I found it to be much more realistic which just helped the terror factor.  The Maze Runner is set in the maze, a world completely controlled by WICKED, but The Scorch Trials are set in the actual apocalyptic world in a ruined city.  This takes away any separation between the reader and the characters that I felt in the first novel.  Plus, in the Maze most of the characters were unknown to the reader allowing them to care less about the deaths, but now that the pack has been whittled down to about 20 and it's harder to be separate from their misfortune.  

The Flare infected Cranks are terrifying.  I thought the grievers were scary, but now there is a human element.  I don't know why, but human monsters that have lost their humanity are always the scariest monster.  What was interesting is while the Cranks returned to their bestial state, they still retained their intelligence to a certain extent.  They could talk and plan an attack, they definitely weren't zombies.  That being said, the nose man scared the CRAP out of me.  After I read that I had such a problem turning off the lights and trying to sleep. Even last night, approximately a month after reading that part, I was so scared thinking about it I couldn't turn off the lights!  

If you can’t tell, this installment was a lot harsher, scarier and therefore more interesting to me than the first.  Thomas now knows what's going on and is thinking about why and what he should be doing about it, questions that lead to a much better story in my opinion.  Also, I loved the additions of Brenda and Jorge, Aris, and Group B.  Both groups brought new elements to the story.  Now there are conflicting emotions and goals among all the characters and the reader is forced to look outside Thomas views and the Glader’s goals.

The one thing I didn't really like about the book was the romance.  Now, I can love romance, but I don't think it has a place in a story when there are much larger problems present and that's how I felt reading The Scorch Trials at certain points.  For example (semi-spoiler), when Teresa disappears in the beginning, that is all Thomas can think about not the multitude of bodies hanging from the ceiling!!! Thomas, I'm much more interested in your memories about WICKED than your maybe relationship.  However, this is just my personal opinion and dislikes, if you don't mind a little side tracking, there's a good story there, I just thought it was a little annoying how occupied his thoughts were of her not the boys around him.

All in all, it was a good read.  I finished it in a few days, though there was a month of rest between those days. I'm still deeply interested in WICKED's motives and future plans so the next book is now sitting on my bed waiting for me. The Death Cure, here I come!

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Publisher : Random House
Pages :  509
Rating: 5/5

A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles and genres, David Mitchell  combines flat-out adventure, and Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco and Philip K. Dick.  The result is a brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

No, that summery doesn't draw me in either, but it was on the back of my book so I'll include it. However, I will attempt to do better. Cloud Atlas is an amazing anthology written by one person, so not an anthology at all....it's six stories that fit together like Russian nesting dolls (are they Russian...). Basically, you get half of a story five times then a whole story then the end of the 5 stories backwards to the way they were initially presented. Make any sense? No? Well, the first half and the last half are the same story. Get it now? If not I don't know how to tell you. I can say I've never seen another book formatted this way but I really liked it. It was easier to see how the stories tied into one another and it felt like you were uncovering the stories as the characters were. My memory was the only problem, by the time I was reading the ends of the stories; I had forgotten what happened in the beginning! However, a few quick rereads put everything back in to perspective.

The range of stories told in Cloud Atlas is amazing. Everything from mystery to romance to sci-fi included in just 500 pages! There is easily something for everyone, just look at the scope of these six stories and tell me you’re not interested in any of them.

1. Adam Ewig is crossing the Pacific with a doctor who collects human teeth and a runaway stowaway in his cabin.  
2.  Robert Frobisher was never one for subtle.  He falls in and out of love easily and struggles through life while composing his life's work.  
3.  Luisa Ray, aspiring serious reporter, cannot believe she's stumbled upon such a story but people start to get hurt and she starts to wonder if she's next!
4.  Timothy Cavendish just wanted to escape the gangsters trying to kill him and now he's trapped in a nursing home with a torture-happy nurse.
5.  Somni-451 lived the same life day in and day out slowing working her way toward freedom from the Papa Song Corporation.  She lives, completely unaware of reality until someone breaks her out.  
6.  Zachry has lived a normal on the big island with his fellow Vallymen, the canbalistic Kona and his goats until a woman Prescient arrives and asks to be lead to the home of the devil.

This is one of the most influential books I have read this year. I will admit that I saw the movie first but trust me when I say they are not the same story. For me, the movie was more focused on the connections to others, romance and growth via the actors and their parts and the book was stories of people standing against the will to power. The "will to power" is a philosophical concept created by Friedrich Nietzsche. The cliff-notes version is that all of mans actions are based out of a desire for power and a desire to reach the highest possible position in your life. Nietzsche makes a very persuasive and agreeable argument for this pessimistic idea. Cloud Atlas does its best to show that will to power is not a necessity in a human. All six main characters embody this idea and send a powerful message of belief. Belief in free will, in humanity, and in each other which is something I find hard to believe in. As at unwilling believer in the worst it was great to read something so hopeful. If you ever feel stuck in a rut I would suggest giving Cloud Atlas a try.

 "Fantasy. Lunacy.  All revolutions are, until 

 they happen, then they are historical 

 inevitabilities."

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Publisher : Knopf

Pages : 183

Series : N/A

Rating: 5/5

     Nick’s just seen the girl who dumped him walk in with a new guy.  What else can he do but ask the strange girl next to him to be his new girlfriend for the next five minutes?

     Norah would do anything to avoid conversation with the not not-friend girl who dumped Nick…and to get over the Evil Ex whom Norah never really totally dumped.  What else can she do but answer Nick’s question by making out with him?

      With one electric, unexpected kiss, the five-minute couple of Nick and Norah set off on an uncharted adventure called the “first date” that will turn into an infinite night of falling in and out (and in and out, and maybe in and maybe out) of love.  Theirs is a first date of music, laughter, heartache, confusion, passion, taxi driver wisdom, and a jacket named Salvatore.  And of course a killer soundtrack.

     As Nick and Norah wander through the middle-of-the-night mystic maze of Manhattan, they share the kind of night you never want to end, where every minute counts and every moment flickers between love and disaster.

I LOVED AND DEVOURED THIS BOOK! I started it last night around midnight and couldn’t stop. I loved everything about this book.  Everything, from the queer band members to Caroline’s drunken state to Tris’s nice but not attitude.

I think what I loved the most was that it was a love story but it wasn’t predictable.  And finding that is really hard for someone who has watched every romantic comedy on Netflix.  I find that whenever I read or watch a romance I can always tell when the inevitable fall apart then come together is going to be and I couldn’t predict that in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.

This book has been on my shelf for years now and I’m so glad I finally picked it up.  Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is the only book I’ve ever read where I just wanted to reread it over and over and over again.  Don’t let this book pass you buy.

The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

Raise your hand if you have read The Hunger Games.  Keep your hand up if you consider yourself a big fan of Suzanne Collins.  Okay, now keep your hand up if you have heard of The Underland Chronicles.  I bet you put your hand down and that isn’t right.

Before I go any further I suppose I should include what The Underland Chronicles is about.  But instead of trying to write a synopsis myself which will leave you confused I’ll just give you the synopsis on the back of the first book in the Underland Chronicles, Gregor the Overlander:

     When eleven-year old Gregor follows his little sister through a grate in the laundry room of their New York City apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland beneath the city. There, humans live uneasily beside giant spiders, bats, cockroaches, and rats – but the fragile peace is about to fall apart.
     Gregor wants no part of a conflict between these creepy creatures. He just wants to find his way home. But when he discovers that a strange prophecy foretells a role for him in the Underland’s uncertain future, he realizes it might be the only way to solve the biggest mystery of his life. Little does he know his quest will change him – and the Underland – forever.

For those of you who don’t know, The Underland Chronicles is a series Suzanne Collins wrote way before The Hunger Games. Yet you can still tell that it is the same author. The Underland Chronicles deals with many of the same issues and has the same themes that are present in the Hunger Games.  Gregor (protagonist of The Underland Chronicles) and Katniss both struggle with what they must do.  Gregor must become a warrior and Katniss is slated to be the picture girl of the rebellion.  Both do their fated jobs in the end, but with a sense of unease and dislike.

The most common theme in both of these series is tendencies of humans.  More specifically the human tendency to fall into historical patterns and believe that the best way get rid of your enemy is to kill them.  

1.       Historical Patterns

      ·         At the end of the Hunger Games, District 13 decides to have another Hunger Games, but this    

             time using Capitol kids. 

      ·         In The Underland Chronicles the humans can’t get over past differences with the rats and so they   

             are always on the brink of war.

2.       Killing Your Enemy

       ·         The Capitol believes that the best way to keep the Districts from rebelling is to kill two teenagers 

              from each District once a year.

      ·         The humans are known to the other animals as Killers because whenever they have a problem 

             there solution is to kill it.

Don’t let the giant bugs and slightly younger characters scare you away from reading this series.  You will be surprised at the level of intensity found in the later books.  I promise you that if you liked the Hunger Games you will like the Underland Chronicles.

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Publisher : Disney Hyperion

Pages : 447

Series : The Kane Chronicles Book Two

Rating: 5/5

     Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister, Sadie, have been in trouble.  As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command; but the devious gods haven't given them time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, a training ground for young magicians.  And now their most threatening enemy yet - the Chaos snake, Apophis - is rising.  If they don't prevent him from breaking free in a few days time, the world will end.  In other words, it's a typical week for the Kane family.
     To have any chance of battling the forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god, Ra.  But that would be a feat more difficult than any magician has ever accomplished.  First they have to search the world for the Cook of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant it's spells.  Oh - and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is, exactly?
     Narrated by two different wisecracking voices, featuring a large cast of new and unforgettable characters, and with adventures spanning the globe, this second installment of the Kane Chronicles is nothing short of a thrill ride.

If you haven’t read The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! It is amazing and hilarious and the book that precedes this one so if you haven’t read that, don’t read this and go by The Red Pyramid.

The Throne of Fire starts a couple months after The Red Pyramid ended and the calling card for new recruits worked.  The Brooklyn House is now full of kids training just in time for the impending threat of Chaos.  Carter is informed by Horus, the Egyptian god who possessed Carter’s body in The Red Pyramid, that in order to keep Chaos from breaking out of prison they needed Ra and to get Ra they must find the Book of Ra and travel through the Duat. So accompanied by their new friends Jaz, Walt and Bes along with some older friends, Anubis, Bast, Amos and Khufu, the set out on a new adventure.

I laughed out loud to my empty room more times than I can count during this book.  It was hilarious! I don’t know if Sadie and I have the same sense of humor but I was always looking forward to her narration.  Sadie always has the perfect comeback and is a great smart ass.  The fact that Bes was a dwarf god who killed things but looking ugly didn’t hurt the hilarity.

I know that the main attraction I find for Rick Riordan’s books is the mythological facts imbedded in the story.  History and mythology in particular is my favorite thing so finding it in a book is amazing.  The Egyptian mythology is perfect in both The Throne of Fire and The Red Pyramid. Although they do change the myths to become more age-appropriate because I’ve read many Egyptian myths and some are extremely weird and hardcore.  However, in The Throne of Fire, I especially loved how the story of Isis stealing Ra’s secret name was interwoven with The Throne of Fire and the importance secret names was given.  Also who doesn’t want a hot Anubis, god of death and funerals, showing up randomly?

The new characters in The Throne of Fire were great additions to the family.  Jaz, Walt and expecially Bes had great chemistry and fit into the story so well I can’t imagine them not in The Red Pyramid.  Although I didn’t really appreciate the little love triangle going on, but I won’t say who the people in the triangle are…it’s a bit of a spoiler.

All in all, I loved this book.  I can’t wait for the next book to come out. It’s also left me with an urge to go put kohl eyeliner on my eyes and practice my hieroglyphs.

Sleepless by Thomas Fahy

Sleepless by Thomas Fahy

Publisher : Simon and Schuster

Pages : 209

Series : N/A

Rating :
Beginning : 2/5
Ending : 5/5

     Someone else will die soon, she tells herself.  Someone else will die, and I'll be responsible.  A few days after the first time you walk in your sleep, you kill someone.

     Emma Montgomery is having trouble sleeping.  Every time she falls asleep, she sees horrible, gruesome things in her dreams - and when she wakes up, she isn't where she was when she fell asleep.  And she's not alone.   Her friends are starting to have the nightmares too.

     And that's when the murders start.

     First one kid dies in a car crash, his breaks mysteriously cut.  Then another girl washed up dead on the beach.  The deaths match the nightmares, and Emma and her friends must confront the awful truth - something is making them kill in their sleep.  Now they're in a race against time to keep themselves awake and figure out what's going on - before someone else turns up dead.

Isn’t the cover amazing! It caught my eye right away and I couldn’t wait to dive into the story.  But, in the end, I was disappointed with many aspects of the book but in love with other parts.

I’ve found that most horror novels I read start off horribly.  They’re incredibly boring and I have to force myself to read the book.  Sleepless was no exception.  Even right now trying to write this review, I can’t remember what the first half of the book was about.  I just read it.  I did soak up the main details and the important plot points but nothing else really mattered I just wanted something scary to happen.  Also, I was not a fan of the way the novel switched between telling the present and telling the past and the dreams.  I found it to be choppy and confusing.

That being said, the last half of the book was amazing.  It was scary with great twists, everything that should be in a good horror novel.  Best of all it was very fast paced nothing that was unneeded happened.  Also Fahy’s descriptive writing which I had found long and annoying in the beginning was greatly appreciated during the ending because it brought the story to life.

Even though, it took me a day to read the first 100 pages and an hour to read the last 100, I did enjoy the novel.  The ending was enough to redeem the book in my opinion. What do you guys think did you like the book?

The Mediator: Shadowland by Meg Cabot

The Mediator: Shadowland by Meg Cabot

Published: 2005

Publisher: Avon Books (Harper Collins)

Pages: 287

Series: Book 1 in The Mediator

Rating:

5/5

"There's a hot guy in Suzannah Simon's bedroom. Too bad he's a ghost.

Suze is a mediator - a liaison between the living and the dead.  In other words, she sees dead people.  And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living.  But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help.  Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of spectral visitations.

But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy.  There's a ghost with revenge on her mind...and Suze happens to be in the way."

 I can now completely understand why so many people love this book and the series The Mediator.  Meg Cabot does a great job telling the story with truly compelling characters that I would love to meet.  Just take away the whole seeing ghosts thing. I couldn’t put this book down. I read it outside in the sun and didn’t even realize I’d gotten badly sun burnt. Ah well.

I, for one, can appreciate the setting of this book. It is set in a Northern California town called Carmel and the main character Suze, goes to school in a mission.  I live in Northern California and have been to Carmel more than once so I could really connect with the setting.  Also the mission was described true to what missions in California actually look like. Also the fog in the morning which burns off by noon is exactly how everyday is in north California.  Details like that showed me that Meg Cabot really knew what she was writing about.

I also loved the characters.  Suze was just perfectly feisty and independent but she still loved the fact that she fit in and was being invited places. Plus I loved that if a ghost doesn’t cooperate the first thing she does is punch them.  Jesse was perfect!  Okay, he did stalk her a little which is creepy but besides that, he is adorable.  And he’s really really sexy. And the banter between Suze and Jesse is just so cute and you know they want to jump each other.  Heather, the ghost who wants revenge, was also great. At times I really felt for her.  I could understand why she wanted revenge and how she had got to be so crazy. Plus all the other characters, Father Dom, CeeCee, Adam and Doc, were great and normal.  Plus the cuteness that radiates from Doc is amazing. I wish he was my little brother.

If you’re looking for a cute summer read with some ghosts thrown in read Shadowland.  Even though they do go to school, the beach is present and school work is put in the background.  I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Especially to learn what will happen between Jesse and Suze.

Elixir by Hilary Duff

Elixir by Hilary Duff

Release Date : October 12th, 2010

Publisher : Simon and Schuster

Pages : 327

Series : Book 1

Rating : 5/5

"A soulmate for life...or death.

Seventeen-year old Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life.  The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent politician, she has become a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a world that allows her to travel to many exotic places.  But after Clea's father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea begins to notice eerie, shadowy images in her photos of a strange and beautiful young man - a man she has never seen before.

When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him.  As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father's disappearance, and they discover the centuries-old truth behind their intense bond.  Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives-and their futures."

Now, the first thing I have to say is that I LOVED Hilary Duff as a child.  I idolized her and wanted to look and be her, so when I found out she had written a book I HAD to have it.  After I bought it I put off reading it for months because I didn’t want to be disappointed by it.  But I finally picked it up and LOVED IT!  I loved the characters and how it was able to be, in a sense, paranormal without any paranormal monsters.  I also loved the idea of the two groups fighting for control over the elixir of life.

Clea, the main character, is a strong teen who can’t get over her father’s death.  Her father is the one who introduced her to photography, which quickly became her career choice.  Clea is driven to find out everything she can about her father’s disappearance.  She is also very stubborn and once she has an idea it is difficult to put it out.

Ben and Rayna, Clea’s best friends, are adorable.  Rayna is infatuated with the idea of a soul mate.  Whenever she meets a new guy she falls head over heels for him and believes he is her soul mate.  Ben is the sweetest guy in the world.  He is, of course, in love with Clea who can only see Sage in her field of vision.  There are so many times in this book when I just want to give Ben a HUGE bear hug.

Sage, I never trusted.  He’s introduced as a dark, creepy man who shows up in Clea’s pictures and I never really got over it.  At the end of the book, I did have a great deal of respect for him, but I never wanted Clea and Sage to become a couple.

All in all, I thought the plot was a reveal of old ideas, succubus and the elixir of life, presented in exciting new ways.  I’m thoroughly impressed with Hilary’s debut novel and I’m looking forward to the upcoming sequel.

This book is part of my "Off The Shelf" book challenge.

Living Hell by Catherine Jinks

Living Hell by Catherine Jinks

Release Date : April 2010

Publisher : Graphia

Age Group : Young Adult

Pages : 256

Source : Barnes and Noble

Rating : 5/5

"The smell was the first thing we noticed.  It was a terrible smell that made us all cough: a smell with another stench overlaying it.
     Then we saw Firmus standing by the door.     He pointed.     "Something is trying to get in," he rasped.

What happens when a single moment changes everything?  For seventeen-year-old Cheney, life on earth exists only in history books.  He and more than one thousand other people have known life only aboard the spacecraft Plexus: self-contained, systematic, and serene.  But that was before the radiation wave.
Now Plexus has suddenly turned on them, becoming a terrifying and unrecognizable force.  As the crew dwindles under attack, Cheeny and his friends need to fight back before the ship that's nurtured them for so long becomes responsible for their destruction."

Cheney has lived aboard the spaceship Plexus his entire life.  Plexus is a ship sent out to find a habitual planet for the human race to survive on.  Every four years his shift goes into an incubation period while another set of people wake up and run the ship.  Cheney has no memory of Earth; he is a shifter, meaning he was born during one of the four year periods.  He has lived on this ship all his life and only knows of Earth through books and simulations.  Plexus has been running smoothly for around 30 years but then they run into a cloud of radiation they can’t possibly avoid.   Once the ship travels through this radiation it starts to come alive.  The whole ship turns itself into an animal with the humans inside like the bacteria in our intestines.  The humans and the ship seem to be in harmony for a couple minutes but soon the ship turns on the humans and starts to kill them.

Cheney’s character grows and matures throughout this book.  When the book starts Cheney is at a birthday party.  All he is thinking about is how annoying the boy he is a “big brother” too and how to catch the eye of his long-time crush.  But when Plexus becomes an animal Cheney suddenly finds himself in charge of protecting a group of children.

Because of this book Catherine Jinks is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  I have read Evil Genius and Genius Squad by her and while I liked them, I found them to have a very slow pace.  Living Hell was very different it was fast paced and squeezed into fewer pages.  The writing was action-packed and the plot was thrilling and solid.  If you have tried Catherine’s books before and found that you liked them but they were too slow for you, I would definitely urge you to give this stand alone novel a try.  I would also suggest this book if you were looking for a good sci-fi/horror book.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Release Date: April 10th, 2008
Publisher: Razor Bill
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 320
Source: Barnes and Noble
Buy the Book: Amazon

Rating: 5/5

"It's the song everyone's singing.  And it's about her! But for Audrey, becoming famous overnight equals total, life-changing disaster."

After Audrey breaks up with her boyfriend Evan, lead singer of the Do-Gooders, she is surprised to hear them play a great song called Audrey, Wait! at their concert later that night.  Suddenly the song is worldwide with the Do-Gooders touring in Japan.  Girls start to show up at the ice-cream store Audrey works at asking for autographs.  Evan has written a song about their break-up launching Audrey into the land of celebrity.  Audrey's phone is ringing off the hook, her email gets thousands of hits a day, and the paparazzi is paying for photos of her.


Audrey just wants the fame to go away.  She is stuck doing her schoolwork in the office everyday. The principal thinks she causes too much of a distraction in class. But Audrey's best friend, Victoria, wants to take advantage of this new found fame.  She wants Audrey to use her fame to obtain free tickets to concerts, make-up and a car.


On top of the fame, Audrey is developing a love interest in her co-worker James.  Victoria says they would be perfect, but Jame's shyness makes Audrey unsure.  Also if they started going out the tabloids would explode.  It doesn't help that Victoria and Jonah, Audrey's best friends, are the perfect couple.


Many of the books about fame are told from the point of view of the lead singer of actor.  This story is told by a normal person who just happened to date a singer.  It's a completely different take on the fame that surrounds everyone.  Audrey was thrown into a new crazy world and is just trying to stay herself.


At the start of every chapter there is a lyric to a song.  I wanted to look up all of these songs.  I wanted to be able to sing along with Audrey when she was blasting music in her bedroom.  And now that I have finished this book, I just want to dance around my room with the music so loud I can't hear my own voice


I absolutely loved this debut by Robin Benway and I'm really looking forward to reading more books by her.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

Chime by Franny Billingsley
Release Date: March 17th, 2011
Publisher: Dial Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 361
Source: My library
Buy the Book: Amazon

Rating: 5/5

"Briony has a secret.  She believes her secret killed her stepmother, destroyed her twin sister's ming, and threatens all the children in the Swampsea.  She yearns to be rid of her terrible secret, but risks being hanged if she tells a soul.  That's what happens to witches: They're hanged by the neck until dead. 

Then Eldric arrives - Eldric with his golden mane and lion eyes and electric energy - and he refuses to believe anything dark about Briony.  But he wonders what's been buried beneath her self-hatred, hidden in Rose's mangled thoughts, and whispered about by the Old Ones.  And Briony wonders how Eldric can make her want to cry.

Especially when everyone knows that witches can't cry.

A wild, haunting mystery and romance that is as beautifully written as it is captivating."

Chime is a young adult, paranormal, historical, romance with a style of writing I have never encountered before.  This story is set in a small English village right before the industrial revolution.  The characters range from mortals to the witches, brownies and Bogey Man in the forest.  This book personifies the movement from the old thinking of witches, magic and religion into the new age of machines and humans.

 The book cover for Chime has to be given massive props.  I am a cover whore.  In my brain if the publisher couldn't bother to make a great cover than the book can't be that good right?  Well this cover is gorgeous.  It perfectly captures the old time ness about the book but still has a hint of paranormal that is just perfect!

Leaving the cover to be glorious, the writing drew me in from the very beginning. Granted, I was a little lost in the descriptive sentences but once I slowed down, I loved it.  Have you ever read a historical fiction book but never felt that it was set in a different era because the writing was the same?  You won't have that problem with this book.  The tone, dialect and diction chosen by the author is perfect for when the book is set.

Briony's character reminds me of a broken girl dealing with drugs in a more contemporary book.  Except her drug is the fact that she's a witch.  She is secretive and doesn't trust anyone. She's been raised to hate herself and convinced she is a witch by her late stepmother.  She is certain that every tragedy that befell her family is her own fault.  You get the feeling that she wants to change but is uncertain she can.  She definitely filled my need for a can-do girl.  She never sits around for an answer.  She creates her own story and doesn't need anyone else.

Eldric is my new, fictional love.  He is the typical gentlemen of the era.  The boy who always can get the girls to swoon.  He treats Rose and Briony like they are ladies.  He is charming but has his bad boy moments as well.  The most amazing thing about Eldric is the way he can get people to open up. 

Rose, Briony's twin sister, is the one who never fits in.  Briony blames herself for a terrible accient that happened to Rose when they were younger.  Rose screams when something is wrong and is very repetitive.  I found her strangeness compelling and I wanted to know everything about her.  I was very happy to find out she is much more clever then I first thought.

This book, even though it wraps up perfectly, left me wanting another.  The writing and characters were so perfect that I never wanted to leave.  I wanted to live in Swampsea with Eldric, Rose and Briony for the rest of my life.  Chime is a must read!  Go to your local bookstore and pick it up as soon as you can.