I've Moved!

As of July 3, 2013, I have changed blog location! You can now find me blogging on my new blog, The Giant Pencil. Click the link below to view.

http://thegiantpencil.blogspot.com

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Booked Dates: Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter!!!
Do you like the picture? It's not mine, unfortunately. I just did a search on "Happy Easter" and it came up. But it's cute nonetheless, no? I wish I could claim it as my own, but I'm not blessed with creativity and photography skills like some people.

Any, once again, Happy Easter! Easter is, like St. Patrick's Day, a religious holiday. It's funny because more people know that Easter is a religious holiday, but very few people know the same about our favorite Irish holiday.

Easter to me seems very similar to Halloween. You get a whole bunch of candy and stuff for both holidays and you use baskets to hold it all. But, then again, there are a lot of did fences between the two. During Halloween, everyone dresses up and wanders around at night to get candy from strangers while during Easter, you (usually) hunt around the yard/park/house for eggs during the day without knowing if your actually going to get candy or not (unless your hunting with REAL eggs).

When I was a kid, we would always hide plastic eggs around the house (hey, it's a lot cleaner than crawling through the mud!) and fill them with candy. I really never saw the point in looking for real eggs; I don't even LIKE the taste of eggs. See, with plastic ones, I always get something that I like; gummy worms, chocolate, nothing...(when we ran out of stuff to put in the eggs because I ate too much of it XD) 

Painting eggs is a paint too. I would always stain my shirt :( Not fun. 

Easter, I think, is turning into a commercial holiday. But, hey, if I get a day off for it, I'm not complaining! 

Next Book Blog: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Book Blog: Eon

Rating:4 Stars I decided to try writing this review in portions again (but published all at once). So I'm sorry if it gets a little confusing; it's the only thing I can think of doing to get all of my thoughts about this book in one review.

3/25/13

The cover is probably one of the more interesting covers I have seen. The Chinese(?) characters, the talons, it's all pretty cool. But the eye in the "O" is kinda creepy. I'm not exactly sue of what to make of it. Like, I don't really know what it's showing.

Pages 1-60

I'm a little confused about the whole Dragoneye thing, but I hope I will understand as I read on. The large amount of content that needs to be explained is a little concerning; I'm not sure if the author is going to be able to get to it all. But I'll just have to wait and see.

Pages 61-130


"'Mirror Dragoneye?' I repeated? 'But I'm just a candidate.' 'Yes, there was some resistance in the Dragoneye Council due to your youth and inexperience, but after much debate they have recognized your position.' She paused, her wide mouth quirking up for a second. 'You are now Coascendant Dragoneye with Lord Ido.' I stared at her. 'Coascendant Dragoneye? But I'm just a candidate...'

Okay, we get it. Eon (I'm just going to refer to Eon/a as Eon, since switching in between names is confusing) is just a candidate. No need to tell me twice. This has been the first thing in this book that has bugged me. You'd think that the author, the editor, SOMEONE, would have caught that!

3/26/13

Pages 131-200

I don't know why, but Eon's conversation with Lady Jila about friendship made me really annoyed. I think it's because, in a way, she used Lady Jila to compliment her own character.

Pages 200-300

Why is it that Eon starts crying when he can't read the book? It's almost like accepting defeat when there is still (OBVIOUSLY) hope. He gives up too easily.

How many times am I going to have to say this? DO NOT DRINK THE MYSTERIOUS LIQUID!!! You'd think that with so many enemies, Eon and Brannon would be more on guard about what they eat and drink. Especially since they are getting it from a servant. It doesn't matter if they say it comes from a friend, if you have determined enemies they will find a way to get to that drink and to you.

3/27/13

Pages 301-End

Now with the book finished, I have mixed feelings. I found that the journey from the Rat Dragon Hall back to the castle was very confusing. Half of the time, there was so much fighting (or whatever was going on), I couldn't understand what they were doing, where they were doing it, and why. But after all of that confusion, the events that unfolded were mind-blowing. And to find out that the Mirror Dragon was a female! But the very end was a little disappointing. The cliffhanger fell a little flat for me. I think it could have been executed better. It didn't leave me screaming "I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS OR ELSe!!!!" But, oh well.

What I really felt was missing from this book was background development. I don't know if it's because I was lazy reading, but Eon's past is still confusing. And there are similarities with Mulan! The Chinese basis in both, the "boy is actually a girl" situation, it all shows similarities to Disney's Mulan. I know that it's hard to be original these days, but I fel the urge to point it out since it was so obvious. I defiantly think that this book was interesting enough, holding my attention. I recommend it!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Book Blog: Starters

Rating:2 Stars Like usual, I'd like to talk about the cover. It has to be one of the creepiest beautiful cover I've ever seen. Her eyes look like they're staring into my soul, especially with that one blue eye.

At first, it really bugged me that her eyes were two different colors. But now I know it was suppose to be like the drawing Michael made of her. What I don't understand is why. Why did Michael draw her like that? What compelled him to make her eyes two different colors, other than for the artistic factor? There had to be something that made him do that, but it wasn't explained in the book.

And then there's that quote, made by the coauthor of Beautiful Creatures. Whenever Hunger Games is mentioned, I get suspicious. Why would fans of Hunger Games like this book? Is it because....THE AUTHOR'S A COPYCAT?!

Let's get to the story, shall we?

The Spore Wars

In the beginning, Callie makes this big deal about the spores and how they killed her parents, yada yada  , yada. And I guess there was this war where people released these spores on their enemy. But, besides the few times it was mentioned, I didn't hear anything about it at all. Our protagonist makes this big deal about it all, but nothing comes out of it. Why did the author create this war and the spores if they're not even that important? I feel like that should have been.

Similarities to The Hunger Games Trilogy and Uglies

Turns out there are similarities to other books! Let's compare.



Hunger Games/Starters
The main character is a poor female/the main character is a poor female
Prim is the younger, weaker sibling/Tyler is the younger, weaker sibling
Katniss makes a sacrifice for Prim/Callie makes a sacrifice for Tyler
Katniss helps Peeta regain his memories/Callie helps Blake regain his memories

I'm not saying that Hunger Games is 100% original because it's not. But it's a comparison that people can relate to.

The author's ripped off Uglies too. You know the band-bounce thing? To me, it seemed strangely similar to bungee jackets, don't you think?

Lack of detail

The style of writing reminded me a lot of Ally Condie. There's was barely any detail of the character's emotion, facial expression, or how the characters do anything. For example, when someone (I forgot the person's name, that's how bad the book is. It's forgettable) told the guard to grab Callie. He grabbed her of course, by her arms, but there wasn't a description of what Callie did. Did she just stand there and allow herself to be taken, or did she put up a struggle? I guess I'll never know BECAUSE THE BOOK DIDN'T TELL ME!!!


***
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Book Blog: The Graceling

Rating:5 Stars
So, you guys might have already seen my post on Fire, but not on the first book, The Graceling! I realized that I only posted the review for it on Goodreads, so I thought it'd only be fair if I posted it here too.

---

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

That was so amazingly better than I expected it to be. Lately, I've been reading a bunch of books that I thought were pretty good, but, after reading this book, it would be like comparing a rock to a diamond. The diamond, of course, would be this book. Evertime I picked up this book, I found myself gasping in surprise because the author would throw in something that I was absolutely not expecting. And, besides the fact that the book is obviously fiction, the book's characters and their relationship with each other seemed VERY realistic.

One of my favorite....things about this book is that Katsa didn't end up marrying Prince Po in the end. Now, I'm sure that some of you are going to find this odd. I confess that I was practically screaming at this book (in my head, I don't want people to know that I'm crazy) because I really, really, really wanted them to get married. But they didn't. And, shortly after finishing the book, I realized that it was better that way. I felt that its not in Katsa's nature to marry someone; she said herself that she would not plan on it. And the fact that Cashore made her character stick to that is very admirable.

Whenever I write reviews, I always try my best to make it as negative as possible. Because, lets face it, it's easier to love something (in most cases) than to hate something. There are plenty of people who would be willing to give only praise to the book. And that's not going to help the author. But Cashire made it very hard for me to find something bad to say about the book. The one little complaint that I can think of off the top of my head is Prince Po's name. I know that Prince Po is named after some tree that turns silver and gold blah blah blah. But I hear Po and I think that he's some soft gentle guy. Or that he looks like a panda (I went to a zoo and there was a panda named Po). Po just doesn't seem manly enough though!

For anyone of you people who have not picked up this book and at least attempted to read it, DO IT NOW! Or I will personally come to your house and force you to read it (don't ask me how, I have my ways. [insert evil laugh])!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Book Blog: The Book Thief

Rating:5 Stars
Oh dear. What a scary cover.

That's what my friend thought, at least. And I think I'm going to have to agree with her. The letters in the title ARE pretty weird. And small. Why must the title be so small?!

I hate historical fiction, or even anything historical in fact. I find it very bland and by the time I found out this was placed in World War 2, it was too late.

The beginning was a little hard for me to understand at first (and very discouraging). I had to look up the narrator because I thought that he was the colors (I misread the first page), but then realized it was death. Lame, I know, but I get it now!

But, holy crap. This has to be the best historical fiction I have ever read. It read well and had plenty of wit and even humor in it (which is surprising because all of the World War 2 books I've read in my life were very depressing. I guess it's because this book was about the Germans and not so much about the Jewish). Another part of the book that I liked was the bits of German that was slipped into the story. I learned some German without even knowing it! And the little illustrations that showed up every once in a while we're cute too. Don't worry for those of you who haven't read the book yet; it's not like the "little kids" books. It's part of the story.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Now, prior to reading, I had read a different review that said that the book didn't have a happy ending. And it didn't. But I was kind of expecting an ending that made me cry puddles on the floor, which I guess I would have if it was for one thing.

The author spoiled the ending.

Or perhaps it's death that spoiled it? Either way, the creator of the story spoils the ending of the book through the story to supposedly lessen the pain/shock when you read about the bombing and the deaths of Papa, Mamma, and Rudy (not to mention the numerous other characters). That's great and all, but I would have liked it a lot more if those parts were taken out. It's been a long time since I've cried over a book and I was really hoping for a real tear-jerker from this one.

But the epilogue...wasn't all that great. I usually consider the epilogue to be the true ending of the book because its (usually) the last thing the reader reads before the book is tossed aside for another to take its place. I'm glad for the bit explaining about what happens to Max and everyone else, but the last sentence was weak. Looking back on it, I wish that the author just left the whole epilogue out to leave the read wondering. Sometimes those are the best kind of books. Like in The Fault in Our Stars's Imperial Affliction and its incomplete ending. It left the characters hanging which led to the whole trip to.....I can't even remember which country they traveled to. But it's not important. What's important is that books like THAT are great because of the love/hate relationship the reader feels with the book. If a book can make you feel that way, then it must be a fantastic book.

But I guess we can't have it all, can we?

---

I'd read it again. AND EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT AT LEAST ONCE!!!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Booked Days: St. Patrick's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!



In honor of this highly respected and well-known holiday, I will write in this blog in green instead of black. 

Just kidding. I mean, not about the green font part. I'm still going to type the whole thing in green which I find REALLY annoying. I hate reading stuff in different colored fonts, but I don't want any of you guys pinching my blog. If that's possible.

The real reason why I'm writing a blog post about this particular day is because I felt like I cheated you readers (anyone out there?) with my short book blog about Fire by Kristin Cashore. But I was going nuts and that's how it came out. Plus, today is a "holiday". Has anyone out there ever wondered why St. Patrick's Day is celebrated? It's been an annual tradition my whole life, and I just went along with it, never questioning the reason why I had to wear a color that I looked absolutely HORRIBLE in just to stop people from grabbing at me with their fingers. When I actually sat down to think about it (well, alright. I didn't sit down to think about it. I was standing at the time), here's what I came up with.

---

There's this guy called Saint Patrick. He's from Ireland. And he lived on a clover patch. Everyday, since Patrick didn't have any friends, he sat in the clover patch counting how many leaves the clovers had. He sat in that clover patch for such a long time that his skin and clothes turned permanently green. But Patrick was okay with that because then no one would bother him in his clover patch. 

Now, of course Patrick had a family. His dad happened to be some rich guy in Ireland and, seeing that his son was green, pulled some strings and proclaimed that Patrick's birthday (March 17) would be St. Patrick's Day. On this day, everyone had to wear something green, like his son, so that Patrick wouldn't feel so lonely being green. But people didn't care about this new holiday and refused to wear green. Patrick's father became angry and began thinking of a way to punish them. He wasn't a very strong man and didn't want to confront a man (or woman) in a fist fight. Which is why he decided to pinch people. Thus the holiday.

---

Or so I thought! St. Patrick's Day is actually a religious holiday. Patrick was born in Roman Britain, not even Ireland! But he was kidnapped by the Irish and made into a slave. He eventually escaped captivity, but went back to Ireland as a bishop. The shamrock was used Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish people. And I was wrong about his father being some wealthy Irish man; his father was a deacon.

But get this; the original color associated with Saint Patrick was blue. BLUE! I look perfectly good in blue. But for some reason or another, they decided to change it to green, probably because of the shamrock. Oh well.

Here's something that I found really interesting when I was researching the real history of St. Patrick's Day.



This is a picture of the Chicago River dyed green. I found this absolutely hilarious! A whole river dyed green....wow. I wonder if they still do that. You'd think that it would cause some kind of problem, like it would pollute the water or dye the sides of the river green. 

Book Blog: Fire by Kristin Cashore

Rating: 5 Stars

My life is over. I can't go on. 
FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE COVER OF THIS GIFT FROM THE HEAVENS!!!
LIke most beginnings, this book had a bit of a rough start, but by the time I finished it...
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN TO ME??!?!?!?!?!
I thought I was going to hate this book. It seemed too similar to Cashore's Graceling, and I couldn't stop ranting about it to every person that I saw. But I didn't pay attention to detail and kept getting slapped in the face with each surpise in the plot. And at first I really didn't like Brigan because his thoughts towards Fire changed too quickly, but the chemistry between the two of them felt so REAL....I forgive the author. Fire is perfection (because she's so beautiful), but is still like a real person. She isn't invincible (because she lost two of her fingers from frost bite and she still can get scars from being attacked) which makes me love her even more. I completely forgot my disappointment of Fire not being a boy.

Just read the frickin' book. Or I'll force you to.


Edit: 3/30/13

Alright, I've calmed down. Now I'll actually tell you the true review EXCLUSIVELY ON THIS BLOG! The book wasnt that great, especially in the beginning. Cashore pretty much wrote The Graceling with different characters in a different setting. And, truthfully, I hated the book in the beginning. I hate it when authors try to pass off a sequel when it's actually a bunch of crap. And she's pretty persistent with the same author's message as her first book.

But Cashore must have a Grace herself, perhaps one like Leck's. By the time I reached the end, no of the crappy stuff seemed to matter anymore because I THOUGHT THE ENDING WAS REALLY GOOD!!! But I've woken up from the daze her words had me in to tell you that the book should actually have been rated with 3 1/2 stars instead of 5. I'm not saying this to discourage you from reading the book because I still honestly think that the ending was pretty good, but the book wasn't as fantastic as I described it.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Book Blog: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Rating: 1 Star
Whenever I start a review, I like to draw attention to the front and back cover. From a distance, I thought the cover was absolutely gorgeous. The title was nice and big for me to read easily, and there was some kind of sparkly thing underneath it. But looking closer, I realized that the sparkly thing was a jewel with a face on it. And then the cover didn't looks to beautiful.

Then, I looked at the quotes. There was one by Tamora Pierce, Veronica Roth, and Cinda Williams Chima, all authors that I respect very much. Because of this I thought, "Why not? They liked the book, so it must be good."

Boy, was I wrong.

The book begins with a girl named Elisa and her throwing a fit about how fat she is and how her sister hates her, boo hoo hoo.

"'I am a sausage,' I gasp."

But, alright. Elisa's fat. So what? It's not like she's overeating right?

"When he sees me, the kitchen master grins beneath a flour-dusted mustache and shoves a plate at me. The pastry on it is flaky and golden, dusted with ground pistachios and glazed with honey. My mouth waters. I tell him I need two."

...I guess I'm wrong again. She's grief eating. Even the kitchen master knows it! How else would he know to give her food every time she goes into the kitchen? You'd think that if she's going to have such a cow about being fat, she'd at least stop stuffing herself when she gets mopey. Elisa is  defiantly NOT an admirable person and not relatable AT ALL. It would have been different if she was trying to drop some of the weight, but I guess she's not that kind of person.

But I guess the author wanted her to be skinny, so she had her walk through the desert and TA DA! she's skinny. And it isn't until she looses the fat when people start thinking she's attractive. Like Alejandro!

 "His eyes travel the length of my body from my feet to my head, lingering on my chest."

What's the message that I get there? You're not attractive until your skinny? He never looked at her like that before!

Stupidity is a huge part of this book. Elisa can't suck it up and pee in her pants, so she leaves her hiding spot only to be caught by the enemy! And when she escapes she has no idea where she's going and stupidly soaks her clothes. The only way she survived was because of a stone in her belly button that tickled her tummy when she was going the right way. So much for being heroic.

Speaking of being heroic, the author tries to convince the reader that Elisa is a hero by having other characters telling her so.

"'It will be a great boon to the people of Joya to know that their queen is not only the bearer, but a legendary hero in her own right.'"

I'm not buying it. Sorry. The fight scenes are way to short and way too convenient for the characters. I find it very hard to believe that Elisa is swift enough to grab the knife out of the conde's boots and threaten him with it. I also can't believe that the conde was stupid enough to let her get that close. And it's very, very convenient that Lord Hecotr just so happens to walk in right in time to help Elisa.

Whenever I conclude a book review, I usually tell you to try out the book if you want. But not this time. I think this book was awful. DO NOT READ IT!!!


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Book Blog: Beautiful Creatures/Beautiful Darkness

Rating: 4 Stars/2 Stars
Yeah, this is a little awkward. I started writing this post a while ago, but never finished it. And then, when I remembered to come back, I had already finished reading Beautiful Creatures, some other books unrelated to the series, and have started Beautiful Darkness.

So here I am with an unfinished blog post and a book that just happens to be the sequal to it. What do I do? I decide to do a combined book blog post for the two books! Lets start out with Beautiful Creatures, shall we?

2/15/13

That's right! I'm reading Beautiful Creatures, the book that had a movie made out of it. The cover on the right it the one that I have, unfortunately. I would have liked the original cover better, but this was all that was available. But that's not important.

I just started reading this yesterday, the day that the movie came out. What I have problems with is when I watch movies that are made out of books that I've read. The movies are always at least slightly different from the book. But it always irritates me a little because the book (or even the movie) is always better than the other.

I know that some changes are necessary. Otherwise, the movie might be five hours long! But when the whole plot is twisted and turned until it is unrecognizable, that's when I really dislike the movie. But, more often than not, that is not the case. And I'm really hoping that Beautiful Creatures isn't going to be like that. But if I were to watch the movie right at this moment, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Y'know, since I haven't even read the first one-hundred pages. That's the thing about the book; the first, I don't know, forty-five pages are all development. There really isn't anything going on.

2/16/13

Disregard what I previously said about the book. There's quiet a bit going on now. If you haven't read up to the first 150 pages, stop reading now.

I'm so proud of Ethan! I love how he doesn't care about what other people think, and he asks Lena out to the movies!!!!!!! Ethan keeps saying that they're not dating, but I think they will. I really hope so...because that would be super cute! But Ethan should get his own car first. The whole borrowing-Link's-car isn't going to work out if Ethan has to keep driving places, especially with Lena. Because, let's face it, although Link might be supportive for Ethan and his decisions, his other "friends" (aka, the people that make him "popular") probably won't.

What I really want to know is what's up with the locket. Ethan and Lena keep on having this vision things, but I really don't see the point in it. Yeah, they're getting a very interesting history lesson, but how is that going to impact them? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

3/5/13

So, obviously I've finished Beautiful Creatures AND watched the movie at this point. Let me just say that the movie was COMPLETELY different from the book's storyline. Not that that's bad or anything; I watched the movie when I was halfway done with the book, so I still enjoyed the movie ending.

But now I'd like to talk a little bit about Beautiful Darkness. Right now, I'm at about page  200, and let me be one of the first to say that.....it's not all that great. DON'T HURT ME!!! The beginning seemed to be very similar to the first book, not so much what is happening in the story, but what ISN'T happening. Half of the time, I'm reading and I'm asking myself, "What's the point in all this? Why does Ethan keep chasing Lena? Why is Lena hanging out with SPOILER ALERT! Riley when she knows that Riley is bad? WHY DOESN'T ETHAN JUST BREAK UP WITH LENA SO HE CAN LIVE A NORMAL LIFE AND NOT DEAL WITH LENA'S MESS-UPS?!" I blame love. If there wasn't love, then these characters would be making better decisions. I get that Lena's super depressed about Macon's death, but that doesn't mean that she's got to go all crazy and treat her boyfriend like crap.
I guess Lena feels that Macon's death was her fault. But let's face it; Lena should become a Light Caster. I'm sure that's what she wanted (originally at least. Now I don't even know what she wants to be). And if she "claimed herself" as a light caster, then all the dark relatives would die, right? So that means Macon would have died anyway! And she would have "killed" him anyway!!! SO SHE SHOULD JUST GET OVER HERSELF!!!
...I'm not finished with the book (or this blog post) yet, but I'm going to publish it anyway and edit it later. What do you guys think about Beautiful Creatures/Darkness?
3/6/13
I just don't think that I can feel anything from Lena and Ethan's relationship anymore. Ethan is chasing a girl that doesn't want to be chased or found. I can feel the bond between John and Ethan to be stronger, so maybe it would be best if Ethan and Lena broke it off and Lena gets together with John. And then Ethan can get together with Liv! I want to hurry up an finish this. I think the books stupid (sorry Beautiful Creatures lovers!) But that might just be because I tend not to like sequels.