Tuesday 22 November 2011

White Lies and Barefaced Truths

Finished this book in 3 hours. It was short and sweet. There was never a boring moment in this book. When you read the first chapter of this book, you immediately think 'typical.' While that may be true, but if you keep reading further, you will automatically notice that this book is not your typical book. What sets this book apart is the main character. Cat is sincere and caring. She puts everyone else first than herself. Her caring nature and how her fourteen year old self handled the boy situation really made me read further. It was Catherine's, aka Cat, personality that made me want to find out what  happens next.
This book is great if you want a relaxing and quick read in the evening. It's short and gets to the point. You also are exposed to many different types of characters in this story and many different emotions. It's not an emotional coaster ride, but a fun and enjoyable ride. The author, Cathy Hopkins, will make you question yourself which is better, lying or telling the truth. Each one has its repercussions and each one can lead to a path of disaster. In the end, it's up to you to decide whether honesty is the best or not hurting someone's feelings and losing a friendship, if the truth can lead to that.
I recommend reading this book because this can happen to anyone, even you. And who know where White Lies and Barefaced Truths will lead you.

Monday 21 November 2011

Imagine-Lis

Our imagination and beliefs give us the power that nothing else can give us. We have the power to change whatever we desire. All it takes is a little imagination and the willpower to make that change and you have a power that surpasses all.

Imaginalis by J.M. Matteis brings us a story about a girl named Mehera who believed in the Imaginalis story with all her heart that it allowed her to enter the world of Imaginalis. She meets all her favorite characters and also the great author who wrote the book, but there is someone who wants to steal her belief and destroy Imaginalis. It is now up to Mehera to save Imaginalis and the belief that keeps Imaginalis and the characters alive.

I loved Mehera's character because no matter what comes in her way, her faith in Imaginalis stayed strong. Nothing stopped her from loving it so much. She also has a lot of strength and courage. It's no wonder that Prince Imagos loves her. The plot in this story was also fabulous because woven inside this story is another story, so we experience two stories and a possible look inside the Imaginalis books that do not exist in our world. I also loved all the quotes in the story too. The quotes, in this book, bring the whole story together. I also believe that everyone's life is an adventure and that some just happen to make it inside the pages of a book. It's a great belief to harbor in our hearts, and also another great belief is BELIEVING and HAVING FAITH. Those two are also great mottoes to live by.

J.M. Matteis brings us a story that is full of imagination and adventure that will leave us wanting to build The Unbelievable Bridge and cross it just like Mehera did.

Friday 4 November 2011

The Lonely Hearts Club

Lonely Hearts Club is a must read for those people whose hearts have been broken.
From the beginning, I love Penny's attitude. I love how she can get over guys and move on with her life. I love how she can be herself and still be and act normal after her heartbreak. Penny sets a good example for girls. She teaches us not to mope around over guys who are not worth it. She teaches us to move on and get over him through forging friendships because there are plenty of good guys in this world.
Penny's character is all original and unique. How many girls make a club out of their heart being broken? I don't know any girl who has done this exact thing. Most girls just get over guys knowing she can find someone better, or they get over the guy by the help of their friends. Penny stays strong and true to her beliefs throughout the novel. She never wavers nor does she disappoint the members in the novel. Penny's personality is what most girls dream of. Strong, confident, loyal, and funny. She is the kind of friend we all want.
Time comes in our lives when we can't sit back and take things. We have to make a stand whether our Principal or other males like it or not. We even have to make a stand to those girls who enjoy laughing and mocking other girls who they think are on a lower level than them. Penny did just that and led the way for many girls. She stood up for what she thought was right and helped many girls in the story. Many girls in the story found real love and made many friends through The Lonely Hearts Club. Penny is one the reasons I stayed glued to the pages of this book.
I think that Penny's ability and desire to forge friendships and help others is awesome. She sends a good message. Be yourself. You don't have to be this magazine perfect girl to score a great guy. And to not let any guy get in the way of their happiness because we all worth every bit of happiness we aim for and achieve.
This is one club we all need to make a stop at.

Sunday 16 October 2011

The TeaShop Girls

I want to be a member of the Teashop Girls. Annie is the greatest friend ever. She also has a lot of enthusiasm and passion for tea. I know I will be looking for Laura Schaefer's next novel, The Secret Ingredient. I just hope it continues with Annie's life, possibly in High School.
This story is about Annie who loves her Steeping Leaf shop. It isn't hers. It's her grandmothers. She practically lives there throughout the story. Anyways, the SL is at the verge of shutting down because not a lot of customers come to have tea, so Annie comes with creative ways to get the place hot and popular. In the end, things work out. I'll let you read the book to find out. I won't give too much away.
I knew this story was going to start to grow on me because Annie has two great friends, Genna and Zo. I also want friends like them too. I do have great friends. Can't say I don't. But this book is a must read for friend and tea lovers.
This book also has great clippings related to tea, recipes, tea party ideas, facts about tea from different places, and discussion questions. It really is a blend of different tastes.
I can't find one bad thing to say about this book because I enjoyed it 100% percent. I also liked the writing.  It was simple and too the point. It was easy to understand and fun at the same time with the other things the author corporated. I highly recommend this book. I give it 5 out of 5. 5 Star rating.

Saturday 8 October 2011

New Idea

I decided to write about the books I did not enjoy too, so He's So Not Worth It is the first one on that list. Let me know what you think about it, OK.

He's So Not Worth It

For me, the title applies to the way I feel about the book. I got to page 65 and realized I was completely bored. This book  was a waste of time for me. I thought that it could have been better maybe if the girl who was recording everything was telling the story. Now that would have been interesting and would have kept my interest. On that note, I loved what the girl who wrote down facts had to say. I would love it if the author wrote a story telling it from her point of view, but other than that. It was slow and mainly I didn't care about the characters. I'm a picky reader. Not very many books catch my interest, so this one was added to that list. There might be people out there who likes stories like this, but I'm just not one of them. This book was so not worth it for me.

Saturday 1 October 2011

Eighth Grade Bites

Vlad aka Vladimir Todd grows up like any normal human boy would his age. Going to school. Having friends. Crushes. But whats sets Vlad apart form the others is the fact that he's part vampire, part human. Vlad's mother was a human and his dad was a vampire. Both died in a fire, and now Vlad is raised by his aunt, who was a nurse to his mother, and lives a nice quiet life on blood bags. All this changes when Otis enters Bathory Junior High. He looks suspicious and Vlad does not like him. Vlad suspects that he just might be the killer of his favorite English teacher, Mr. Craig, because Vlad found Mr. Otis's top hat and a strange symbol inside Mr. Craig's house. This freaks out Vlad and he starts to hate Mr. Otis. Who is Mr. Otis and what happens to Vlad when he discovers more secrets about his family and Mr. Otis? You will have to read the book to find out.
Vlad is strange for a vampire and a human. He has the best of both worlds. He feeds on blood and normal food at the same time. Nelly puts blood inside Vlad's food almost everyday. He lives outside in the sun because his mother was a human, and his best friend Henry is not scared of him. Although, he struggles alot since he has a crush and he can't quite fully commit to it since he is part vampire. Nevertheless, he does try to ask her out and he does succeed at the end. However, the tension with him being a vampire still brews somewhere in the darkness as Vlad struggles to live a normal life as well as his vampire life because he can't fully enjoy one or both of them.
Heather Brewer doesn't create a vampire love story. She adds adolescence/pre-teen themes in here too. This story is not like your other vampire stories. This story is told in third person point of view with the main character being a boy who wants to live a normal life, but at the same time preserving his identity as a vampire too. With each turning page, we are introduced with more tension and suspense. Heather Brewer writes a simple, yet complex and mysterious story about Vladimir Todd who is ordinary yet more extraordinary than any other. Even though he thinks that eighth grade bites.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Avalon High

I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book. First of all, I loved the King Arthur tale that was woven into this story. How Will is really reincarnated as King Arthur and Ellie is well I won't tell you that, it would ruin everything. The secrets behind the characters in this story is amazing. I absolutely love how Meg Cabot built this story keeping the tale of King Arthur true and the story's pace going well along with it too. It just matched perfectly, and instead of giving the story a sad or some other type of ending. She gave a good one and one that went well with the story too.
Will keeps true to personality of King Arthur. He is a valedictorian, Quarterback of the football team, and well loved by his family and peers. He lives the perfect life. Not only that, he is extremely kind and thoughtful, but Will's life is turned  upside when Ellie enters Avalon High. He finds himself being able to talk to Ellie more often than he ever did. He is able to see how he doesn't want to do the things his father is wanting him to do. He is able to look more closely at life and deal with his problems well too. Will finds himself unable to keep away from Ellie. He is able to talk to her about things he can't share with others. Will is unlike the others, yet so much like them that its scary.
I cannot begin to tell you how much you should read this book now. This is one book that you will finish in a day if you love romantic, medieval mixed with the modern world type of stories. Also the film doesn't even hold a grain against the book. The book is 101% better than the movie. Avalon High is going to give you a high that will leave you floating on top of cloud nine.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Generation Dead

I cried at the end of this book. I cried heavily. I couldn't stop either. The fact that Adam said I love you just before he passed away (and then came back to life) got me all worked up.

It was a pretty typical story with the jocks being all airhead and stuffy with one slight difference. Adam who is a part of the football team. He was different because he loved Phoebe who is a goth, and not many football players go for girls like Phoebe. Phoebe is pale who loves anything related to death, sorrow, and darkness. What gets interesting is that Adam has the hots for her. He is always with her. This story at the end brings Phoebe and Adam together with sadness and death. Both characters are interesting in their own ways and you would have to read the book to get a more in depth look at the relationship between Phoebe and Adam.

Death plays a deep role in the book. The fact that the death of Adam might bring Adam and Phoebe together plays a huge role towards the end of the book, but it leaves us hanging at the end. We will have to read Kiss of Life to see what happens to Adam and Phoebe. This story is interesting because love is bringing certain teenagers back from the dead. They aren't quite living but they aren't dead either. As these teenagers are coming back to life, there are some people who oppose the idea that the dead are coming back to life. This issue leads to some unrest. These people who come back from the dead live their undead lives either being hated or loved. Some are getting burned and dying the second time and those that die the second time remain dead(I don't want to give too much away because then it would defeat the purpose of reading the book).  The author, Daniel Waters, writes a story that gets deep inside our souls and helps us ask ourselves what death really means. Does death mean a new beginning or is it the end of everything?

Friday 29 July 2011

Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger

Emily is real strange. She's a girl who loves darkness, spying, cats, writing in her diary, coding, skateboarding, and playing her guitar. It's kind of strange combination of hobbies for a girl like Emilie. She is anything but boring. Maybe anti-social, but not boring. She doesn't like humans. Real strange for a human right? Emily is really clever for her age.  Maybe too clever for her age. To manage a cloning, duplication as the book worded, on her own and not to mention making her golem is something. Boy, she really can be dangerous and a handful. I found the character interesting and spunky especially for her age. At first, I was blown away with the character. I thought, "wow, what a girl. I kind of wish I was like her." Well not the black wearing, boring, skateboarding kind, but the keep away from humans kind, but then again life would be boring without people, right? Then when the duplication experiment succeeds, she finds her evil twin too much to handle. Then she starts living in a sewer in fear that her evil twin would kill her and that is the evil twins intention anyways, but that threw me off the rocker. I lost a little interest once she started to cower out of fear. I found that the real Emily should have come up with a clever plan to get herself out of this one instead of hiding. I understand that the hiding thing is important, but it lasted too long in the book. I was kind of expecting more, but in the end I was happy that she was able to get rid of the evil twin and move away since she had caused a lot of trouble in the new town already. Overall the character did bring everything to a good ending, so I'm happy.

I found the plot half way through the book boring because I wanted the real Emily to come up with a good plan instead of hiding from her evil twin. I expected more from this story since Emily was interesting. The beginning was great. I loved knowing everything about Emily and wished I could do some of the things she could do, but the plot became too boring for after she runs away from her evil twin. The hiding thing lasted way too long, and that made the plot slow down alittle, but then it picked up after Venus Fang Fang started to train so I wasn't too disinterested in the story. Nevertheless, the plot does need work in the book, but it ended well so I don't have too many complaints.

This book is worth reading because Emily, the real Emily, will leave you with more than just her evil twin. This book will leave you awestruck, laughing and pondering way after you are done with Emily the Strange Stranger and Stranger. Perhaps, you might walk away with wanting to be a skateboarding, black wearing, trap making, diary writing, and guitar playing Emily the Strange.

Saturday 23 July 2011

Isabel taking Wing

Isabel shows us that taking wing isn't always about stepping outside of the boundaries but taking responsibility especially when people need it the most. She reminds us that anyone can do anything. You don't have to worry about whether you're a boy or a girl. Freedom and adventure is something anyone can have whether you're a boy or a girl. 

Isabel grows up with an older sister, a younger sister, a couple of maids, and a father. Isabel did not like living the life of a girl. She did not like staying at home, sewing(forgot what term the book used), and doing the household choirs. Isabel dreamed of freedom and adventure. She wanted to go out and do the things boys do, so one day she goes to the Theatre with one of the maids she had befriended. Isabel becomes awestruck with acting and the Theatre. She daydreams about being on stage. But when her father hears about her late night adventures, he sends her off to live with her aunt, Aunt de Vere, who is her mother's sister. On her way, she gets robbed and the driver is killed. She's left alone in the forest. Then there in the forest she discovers the actors from the Theatre, so she travels with them. There she finds out that the life of acting is not her life, so she goes back home. The actors drop her off at her Aunt De Vere's mansion. And the surprising thing is that becomes very happy. There she learns about the uses of herbs and how a girls life doesn't have to about sewing and choirs. It can be more fulfilling and she also learns just how much strength female's can have.

Annie Dalton writes a splendid novel about a girl living in the late sixteenth century and how they lived their lives. She recreates the desire that the girls from that century might have had and puts all those desires into Isabel. A girl who wants a little bit more freedom and a desire to her life to the fullest without worrying about the fact that she is a girl. Annie Dalton creates a character that takes wing and brings everyone along for a ride.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Hush!

Rarely do I ever find a book where I enjoy it part of the way and get bored half way through, then get excited towards the end. Those excitement waves in books takes the readers on a roller coaster ride where the readers stops somewhere where in the middle and falls flat on their rears. The reader looks around and asks, what just happened? This is one of those books. The author takes the reader on an excitement roller coaster ride and she drops them off somewhere. That's how I felt when I finished the book.
This book starts out with Melkorka at her home in Eire. She is an Irish princess who thus far has lead a life of luxury and happiness. Her parents had given her and her sisters the happiness most children in her time didn't get. Then one day when her father hears that they are going to be attacked by Vikings, he sends Melkorka and her younger sister, Bridget, off to a place of safety but on their way the the sisters gets kidnapped. This begins Melkorka's life of silence and the ordeals she has to go through to survive on her own.
I found her writing enriching and wholesome. Some of the images and references she makes to her being pregnant was wonderful. She also makes nice references to how her being hush has actually gotten her far in life, and led her to leading a nice adventure in life where things could have been worse for her if she had talked, but since she remained quiet things turned out well for her. Her being quiet and beautiful lead her to being loved by a nice man who then, in the authors note, made her become his slave because his wife did not approve of their relationship. Things got worse for her when he heard her talking too, but I won't say too much since I don't know who has read this book, but the information is available online.
Melkorka's silence and obedience leads her to having a comfortable life as a slave. She also has a good heart and the ability to show her goodness through her good nature.We learn that there are times when we should be silent. It is not good to be silent all the time, but it should be incorporated in life. Donna Jo Napoli writes a book where she teaches the readers that 'Silence is Golden.'

Sunday 12 June 2011

Into the Woods

Somehow twisting up fairy tales into a whole new braid never gets old especially when the braid involves a mixture of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Hansel and Gretel, A bit of the Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White. Lyn Gardner writes a fictional story with action, mystery, a little bit of romance, and adventure leaving the readers thinking what other fairy tales does the author have in store for them when they are reading the book. Lyn Gardner takes the fairy tales and blends them together into a fictional story that readers will not say, “not another fairy tale”

The story opens up with the Storm, middle sister, and Aurora, older sister, living with their parents and enjoying a semi-happy life. Aurora does most of the housework since their mother really never does anything but sleep, look at herself in the mirror, and eat chocolate truffles in bed. Zella, mother, is truly a neglectful mother. She has never been a mother to her children. Their father is always studying and going out on expeditions. The girls mother dies during labor leaving the family behind with another girl. She also leaves Storm with a pipe saying, “Look after it, Storm...It’s not a trinket. Whatever you do, don’t let it fall into the wrong hands.” After their mother passed away, the girls father never changed. He still went about his routine and never thought to look once at his daughters. The girls asked him one day what they should name their baby sister and he said name her anything. Never giving what he said a thought, the girls named their baby sister, Anything. Soon their father embarks on another expedition leaving the three girls behind by themselves. For some time, things went smoothly. Everything was great and Any was growing up fine too, but one day Dr. DeWilde enters Eden End, their home, and he’s not here to be their guardian. He’s here for the Pipe. The pipe that Storm’s mother told her to not let it fall into anyone’s hands. This starts the adventure with more fairy tales and also we start asking ourselves just how sweet and safe our home is.

Storm is a brave and tenacious girl who loves being outdoors and staying active. She is completely unlike her sister, Aurora. Aurora loves to stay home, cook and clean. And Any is a brilliant child. She taught herself how to read before Aurora could teach her. Aurora is constantly challenged in the story. She has to constantly step outside of her comfort zone if she wants to save Any and bring her back from Dr. DeWilde. Storm, on the other hand, has to take the lead and do the dangerous things, but she doesn’t mind it because it makes her feel important. It seems like the roles are switched when the adventure begins. Storm takes the lead many times and Aurora sits back; even though, Aurora is the older sister and should be taking the lead. Nevertheless, the bonds between the sisters get stronger once they realize just how important their relationship is with each other.

Storm and Aurora are plunged into one dangerous thing after another. Lyn Gardner also writes vivid descriptions to create the whole picture while keeping the writing style simple yet challenging with the length of the book for the children. She adds dimensions to the plot and a brilliant twist at the end of the story. The author shows us how important the bond between sisters are especially when no guardian is present in their lives.

Into the Woods stays true to its name. The girls are plunged into the woods after Dr. DeWilde who shows up at Eden End. Lyn Gardner writes an action, adventure novel giving the fairy tales a twist that will have the readers reading well into the night.

Friday 10 June 2011

Wish I knew!

I have a question for you all. Does anyone read my blog? If you do, let me know what you think about it and how you feel about it at Chandkatukda85@gmail.com. This will give me motivation as to whether I should write more frequently knowing I have readers.


P.S. Please don't say I should write regardless of whether I have readers or not. I say this its because I want to know whose reading my blog and what you think of it.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Green Witch

It's been a long time since I picked up a book that has left me wanting to buy it now and read it until I am not alive. Green, a girl who has lost her family in a fire, lives alone where every seems to grow with her touch. People come to her to tell her their stories and she writes them down giving each story their own flavor with the garden she grows. From the start, one can tell that she carries a huge weight in her heart. She feels responsible for what has happened to her sister, but she manages to move forward with the stories she hears and continues to write because people are coming to her to relieve their burden. She also knows that she has a position in the village as a writer. She knows that people acknowledge and want her to be there. She knows that she is known in the village as a writer. Over time, Green grows into a character with strength and love. The strength and love she did not have before. The strength and love she lost when she lost her family. Readers will tattoo Green in their heart and let the love of stories grow with her.

There is very little dialogue in this story. Some dialogue that is there is in italics, which I find strange because it adds eeriness to the story. Its as if the conversation has taken place in their mind, but we all know that the conversation has taken place orally. Alice Hoffman keeps her writing simple yet adds depth and clarity along with challenges that teens I know will love. The story is in first person yet readers will feel as if she's telling her story in third person. Alice Hoffman takes story telling to a whole different height. The height that old writers use to take.

Green Witch is written not in chapters, but parts I would say that is full emotional depth. Readers will submerge themselves in elements and colors that will change the readers lives.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Evermore

Evermore was one book that I wanted to put down, but could not because I wanted to know what happened next. The writing was not that bad, but the main character, Ever, was annoying. I just wanted to get inside the book, shake her and tell her get a grip. You lived. Your sister needs to move on and Damen is the best thing that has happened well besides her aunt. I wanted to tell her to embrace what she has right now and to cherish it, but Ever is bent on playing woe is me part. I may sound insensitive while saying that, but the truth is Ever seems to finds faults in everything she does. Ever seems to want to shut herself out of her life because she has these powers. Her psychic powers. She should consider that a gift and help other people with it instead of shunning it out. I am deeply troubled with Ever and her actions. I hope she improves in the books to come.
I also found the beginning of the book a little slow. It took 3/4 of the book to get to the exciting part where we find out Damen is an immortal. The story definitely needs work and some action has to come in halfway through the book, but what I did was I just stuck to the book and read it. Then once I got passed the 3/4 mark. The story picks up and now I get to see some action, so the thing is readers will have to force themselves to stick to the book until they don't find out Damen is an immortal.
I won't say the writing is bad. Alyson noel goes into great detail in providing the scene for the party and details of the house. Her book is not heavily on dialogue. It is there, but the there are descriptions and she does showing instead of telling. So I would say pick this book up if you have the tolerance to deal with Ever like I did.

Friday 4 March 2011

Welcome to the World Uncorporation

Guess what? You will meet people who will not want to work with you. People who refuse to say yes you can do this but I need you to do this. Nope! They want to fill their pockets, so they will find ways to make you pay so they can go home and buy a BMW while you ride that raggedy old Nissan or whatever.
I met such a man today who refused to cooperate with me. He said, "you could do the study abroad program or go to a university in US to study Japanese." I made some proposals, but refused all of them. It's not my problem that you don't have a professor to teach Japanese. They're job is to give me what I want because I am paying them to teach me. Seriously if it wasn't for students, teachers would not exist. On top of that, he treats me like crap.
"I don't think you're understanding me. You will either have to do study abroad or study at a university here." That is not how you answer to students. He couldn't be any nicer. There are better ways to say no than to say that and say no. If he wanted to say no, then why waste my time and make me wait just to say no.
I didn't say anything when I left. I just left his office saying I need time to think about it. Oh and by the way, when I left his office, he said I should get a rich uncle to pay for my education.
Now after hearing all that, can you guess how I'm feeling?

Saturday 22 January 2011

School Starts

I started school back. And this week was good. It went by fast and I got to see alot of people from last semester too. There are also some new faces too, but some do seem friendly. It those that laugh at the professor that I won't associate with. Kind of rude, don't you think?

I"m trying out something new on my blogger too. I will also keep you all updated on my life too. Not that much though. I wouldn't want stalkers. But I will say some things like this. I don't know who follows me, but those who do I'm sure you would be curious as to what I do and what I'm like.

I have already so much homework to do. I have all this reading from each class and assignments to do with it. Geez, these teachers sure don't give us a break. But we can't blame them. Since we did get a week more of break. And I didn't have a hard time adjusting to school either. I was ready to tackle it with all my strength and go back to my classes. I'm usually always prepared for class. I never have adjusting. It's the studying and reading textbooks that I have a hard time with.

Oh well, I'll keep you all posted later. Right now I go study. Later, everyone.