Monday, February 13, 2012

I Was Totally Tagged Bloggers!

I was tagged! How devastatingly exciting!
Oh I do love these questionnaires, being tagged makes me feel so giddy! Another Thanks to A Little Shelf of Heaven who tagged me, now I have these lovely questions for to read. Click on the blue blog title to go to the blog. My questions for the people I have tagged are at the bottom of these questions and are different.


The Rules:
  1. You must post the rules.
  2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
  3. Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.
  4. Let them know you've tagged them!
Questions:

  1. If you could live in any book universe, which would it be? Why?



~ That is really difficult because most books I read I fall in love with the main characters universe. Another universe that involves handsome immortal men and magic! But if I had to choose one, I would go with Bewitching Season (Leland Sisters #1) by Doyle, Marissa. Completely loved those two novels, I devoured them, magic and balls, mischief, taffeta and sateen gowns with layers upon layers of lace, curled to perfection hair and corsets,  handsome men and possibly a love affair? All wrapped tight, sealed with a silk red bow and mystery. What was the question again?


  1. Which ten books can you not live without?


~ Only 10, seriously? I couldn't live without my library of books, life would be so dreadfully boorish.

1.) Holy Bible. Mock, un-follow my blog, leave crass insults as a comment, degrade me as a fearful person it will not, I guarantee 100%, effect my beliefs. The greatest gift a person can ever give is the gift of God's word, this was given to my brother by his youth pastor, whom became my youth pastor later, and my brother gave it to me. At the lowest moment in my life, at the heart of my darkest sin I never lost my faith and I never will. Because once you open the book, once you step foot in a church, once you truly listen and open your eyes you'll see. He was always the truth. He was always real.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.
2.) The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Doyle, Arthur Conan. The best detective stories out there. I would be content locked away in a castle's dungeon if I had this thick book to keep me company.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.
3.) The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter by, Potter Beatrix My favorite illustrator, Colin Thompson coming vastly second, Potter as the smoothest strokes in her cute cuddly creatures, and she spins a tale that even as an adult I fawn over. Miraculous.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.

 4.) The flash Of Lightening Behind The Mountain by Charles Bukowski. This man has mastered his art, has taken it and mangled it with his very own personal way of creating poetry, by far my favorite poet.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.
5.) The Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History by Various Authors. Picked up at the gift shop of Prudence Crandall's school I adore this little book. Interesting fact: bet you didn't know she was a great, great, great, great, great aunt of mine. I love my country and plan to be a history Professor when I get older and this little book will be required reading material for my students. If people do not take the time to acknowledge their past than do not be an irritant when it repeats itself. Who is a person if they do not know where they come from? Every person's life deserves to be remembered, no matter how simple they may seem.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.
6.) Veterans of Foreign Wars: This Is America My Country. This book details America's start, the first settlers, the pilgrims, the 13 colonies, the rise for independence, the gaining of independence, the indians, both world wars, and various other wars and other details that make up America. A brilliant research novel I am constantly going to.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page.
7.) Beachcombing at Miramar by Richard Bode. I love the beach, it is a place where I believe I left part of my soul, drifting along with the waves. My childhood - up until I was in third grade - consisted of Disney Land every Friday with my brother and parents, Hunnington Beach every Saturday morning - where I was always forced to wash the sand out of every toy, bathing suit, wet suit, boogie board and surfboard, even though my brother was the one who wore the wet suit and surfed regularly - and Knott's with my Grandparents and my cousins. The very best of my childhood lies in those places, this book reminds me of every trip.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover and Misc. page with scribbles in the margins.
8.) Mary Poppins In the Park by Travers, P.L. I loved Mary Poppins this book is so giddy and with such eloquent illustrations, such detail and rich writing. A good hearted, clean children's read.
In order from left to right.
Front Cover, Misc. page, and Back Cover.
9 & 10.) Anna, Grandpa, and the Big Storm by Stevens, Carla. This book makes me cry, because the Grandpa in this story is my Grandpa. He would have done this, every word is little piece of him. He is my world, no one has ever looked at me the way he does, his brown eyes shining bright, a smile on his bristled beard face. I was never happier or complete than when I was with him.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Bach, Richard. This book was originally my mothers, she says that is it is a sweet love story where Bach master transforming inaudible objects into a living breath, feeling thing that can and does fall in love. Written for adults, but can be read to children, I highly recommend this short fantastic read, it still has particulates of beach sand stuck between almost every page.
In order from left to right.
Front Covers, Livingston Seagull Misc. page, and Anna, Grandpa Misc. page.

2.)What makes you pick up a book? The cover, the title? Does your mood affect your choices?

~ Yes my mood does effect the way I choose my books. If I am in the mood for a thriller I will go straight to the mystery section that lines the back wall of my library, if I just want a mushy teen book, I'll go to the young adult section. Then I scan the book title, because I can only see the spines I generally go by the script the title is written in, if I like the title then I check out the front cover and finally the summary to see if I like the plot.
Have you ever heard a song that made you think of a scene from a book? Explain.

What is your favorite poem? Why?
~  German by Charles Bukowski:

being the German kid in the 20's in Los Angeles
was difficult.
there was much anti-German feeling then,
a carry-over from World War 1.
gangs of kids chased me through the neighborhood
yelling, 'Hieneie! Hieneie! Hienie!'
they never caught me.
I was like a cat.
I knew all the paths through brush and alleys.
I scaled 6-foot back fences in a flash and was off through
backyards and around blocks
and onto garage roofs and other hiding places.
then too, they didn't really want to catch me.
they were afraid I might bayonet them
or gouge out their eyes.

this went on for about 18 months
then all of a sudden it seemed to stop.
I was more or less accepted(but never really)
which was all right with me.
those sons-of-bitches were Americans,
they and their parents had been born here.
they had names like Jones and Sullivan and 
Baker.
they were pale and often fat with runny
noses and big belt buckles.
I decided never to become an American.
my hero was Baron Manfred von Richthofen
the German air ace;
he'd shot down 80 of their best
and there was nothing they could do about
that now.
their parents didn't like my parents
(I didn't either) and
I decided when I got big I'd go live in some place
like Iceland,
never open my door to anybody and live on my
luck, live with a beautiful wife and a bunch of wild
animals:
which is, more or less, what happened.

Who is your favorite musician/band at the moment?
 ~ Ray Lamontagne, his song Jolene is amazing.

Do you like fanfics? Why or why not?
~ Yeah why not, I think it's interesting and flattering to the author to see what  other people do with their idea, I even have a fanfic account: http://www.fanfiction.net/~annabellefleur

What is your biggest book pet-peeve? Explain.
Bad writing. When a person doesn't take the time to re-proof or re-read their works.

Have you ever fallen head-over-heels in love with a book, so that you cannot stop thinking about it? Which one?
I can't say I have, and if I have, I can't remember the experience.

Do you have a favorite reading 'spot'? Explain!
The beach, I plug my earbuds in turn up a sort of  music that matches the books flow and tan. It is really quite soothing. 

 If you could choose one book character to come out of their world and into ours, who would it be?
Damien Salvator the poor man never catches a break. I wish they would let him fall in love with someone who loves him just as desperately back.

My Questions:

1.) Favorite author, why?
2.) Favorite childhood book, or fairytale?
3.) Favorite Poet? Why?
4.) What book would you want to jump into and become the main character of?
5.) Favorite childhood memory?
6.) Why did you start blogging, what do you want to accomplish?
7.) Favorite place to be? (i.e.- the beach, circus, bedroom, family gathering, park, woods, etc.)
8.) Favorite movie? Why did you like it?
9.) Favorite Season? Why?
10.) Favorite book?

My Tags:

1. Anna @ annareads (check out her new blog design while your there.)
2. Morgan @ BLT
3. Lois D. Brown & Life of Lois
6. Arielle Y. @ Chimneys and Magic
7. A beautiful feather @ A Beautiful Feather
9. Mary BookHounds @ Book Hounds
11. Magical Day Dream @ Magical Day Dream
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Always a Witch (Witch #2):

"What will you do now?"
Jessica smiles at me, a full real smile
"I intend to live," she says quietly
"I suggest you do the same."
~MacCollough, Carolyn
Says Jasmine to Tasmin.
My rating: 4 1/2 out of 5
To save her family she must take a life.
But is Tasmin willing to go to such extremes? What if it was the only way to save Gabriel? How far is Tasmin willing to push her moral boundaries to save all those she loves?
A truly spellbinding read that was detailed and invigorating. A darkly spun tale that define's dark magic in a whole other light. I was captivated by Tasmin's strength, her willingness to put herself into daring and morally trying situations all in order to protect her family. 
MacCollough wove two different eras together, molding each with thick, rough, and darkly deliberate stroked details. She spared no efforts in capturing the very essence of the late 1800's. I was thoroughly transfixed with her tale.
The ending was truly and utterly stunning.

The story picks up right where it left off. A wedding is in the winds for Tasmin's sister Rowena but something else linger with the breeze, something dreadfully dark. When the sudden appearance of a young man sends the Greene's Hedgerow household into a whirl spin and it's family members reeling with the threat of their family lines complete destruction it is once again up to Tasmin to save the day. And to do this she has to Travel again, back to a time when he only way of coming back to her present has yet to be created.
Tasmin is left with no other choice but to go back in time to the late 1800's, where she must confront the very man who presently haunts her dreams. With the discovery that Tasmin's to copy another witches power holds only temporary effects she has no other choice but to travel back in time with only her power and the power to freeze people with one touch, having already lost the ability she gained the first time she and Gabriel Traveled back in time, the ability to throw fire from her finger tips. But, Tasmin fears, will that power to freeze people stay with her long enough for Tasmin to use it to her advantage, or when she truly needs it will it disappear?
The decision is made and with the reluctant help of her sister Tasmin lands, quite literally, right smack in the middle of New York City, materializing out of thin air in front of two doe eyed Talentless kids. Using the money Rowena gave Tasmin she buys a fruit pie from a local cart woman and starts asking anybody she can if they've ever heard of a family called the Greene's. Her luck, however is sour and so curious, Tasmin enters a Pub where she meets a man name Horace who offers her work as a Ladies maid to no other than Lady Jessica Knight. Tasmin considers this offer and accepts thinking that if she can't find her own family than she might as well keep an eye on their enemy. 
My writing process.
 I write every review in long-hand cursive.
Most of the time with a cup of tea and my Mickey Mouse pen.
As Tasmin starts her first day she realizes that Lady Jessica has secrets of her own, these secrets leads Tasmin to help Jessica sneak out of her house to meet her lover at a circus where a charming elephant drink tea, where a crow turns into a girl that turns out to be a woman name Isobel Greene, and where at the back gate Jessica gives Tasmin a cameo watch.
The night is far from over yet and w/ a determined Tasmin she finds that the Knights has secrets that run so deep that ooze so black that they seem to have taken the form of dark shadows. After Tasmin follows Rosie, a house maid, into a secret passageway she discovers something far more terrible than she bargained for. Alistair has finally decided to call upon the Knight house, after which appearance everything around her begins to unravel. 
Rosie shows her true greedy hunger, Liam give Tasmin a glimpse 'experiments' and what he is truly capable of, even worse though Tasmin is faced with a choice,  a choice that has the power to leave her forever emotionally crippled.
The next morning Tasmin wakes to find an angry Rosie glaring down at her, and an old friend, one who knows Tasmin's real name. Gabriel apparently hadn't taken well to the idea of being 'ditched' because just as Tasmin comes into the Piano room, baring fresh tea for Jessica she sees him.
Tasmin and Gabriel together flee to the Greene's pig farm but what they expect to find is nothing of what they receive. Darkness unfolds, and death follows, Tasmin in the middle of it all is forced to make another choice, one that will haunt her until her death. 
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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday Morning Mailbox: I



I: Sunday, 12th February, 2012

Received From: Local Library Sale.
Price paid: 2 Dollars.
Book Titles: See Below Info.
Book Format: 3 Hardcovers, 1 Paperback.


Front Cover





Night Train to Lisbon by Grayson, Emily:
Set in the 1930's when the world was at it's most suspicious, most devious, and always fretfully paranoid of each, a couple comes to realize that without love life is just a dull.
Carson Weatherell is going to Europe, curtsey of her aunt and uncle, traveling all the way from America into the very heart of America's opposition.
Chapter One.
When a serious illness has her contemplating her dreadful return home to her Connecticut country side Carson couldn't be more desolate. Then comes the train ride, and soon follows the handsome scientist Alec Breve from Britain. They meet and soon are thrust into a deep and plunging love affair. Shattered only when Carson relieves the worst, Alec may or may not be a spy for Germany, he suggests he be turned over to the officials'. The only way to do this is by betrayal, a betrayal so cutting that that their are two victim's in the end. Carson, crestfallen and deeply afflicted with her deep growing love for Alec debates endlessly on whether she should do as her uncle asks and trap Alec or prove his innocence to him. But what if he latter is wrongly sought, what if Alec is a spy and Carson convicted just along side him for treason. How far does one truly go for love.

Front Cover
One Sunday Morning by Ephron, Amy:
Four women see something they ought not to, what they see is downright scandalous, would cause heartbreak and ruination of a fellow 'acquaintance' of there's. The four women see Lizzie Carswell elite socialite married beauty leaving a hotel with a young man who is not her husband, Billy Holmes. The women at once decide they never saw a thing and stick to that pact. Until someone slips up, until someone breaks.
Chapter One.
Nothing is set is stone in the 1920's and the world seems to be set off tilt, especially for the flappers of New York. In this novel Lizzie and Billie are accused of something disastrously  dangerous, flirtatiously witty and with rhythmic prose at its core and delightfully intriguing through it all.
The 1920's is by far one of my favorite era's, where the women were brash, wore slit skirts that showed far too much skin and drank Martini's like Soda Pop, back when life was lavish and ciggies were oblivious harmless fun. I cannot wait to read this book, and am so overjoyed to have it part of my library!
Front Cover

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Parker, Dorothy:
A woman who holds her head high, is terse and curt with her crass wit and stunning portrayal of the 20th century. I was over-the-moon when I found this lovely, and fondly read book, with a ripped cover, worn spin, yellow tinged pages and bent into submission I just had to have it. 
Chapter/Story One
I am a wide and large fan of vintage. My closet consists of waist high skirts, kitten heels, and pelted starched shirts. Strings of various strands of various lengths of pearls, a golden daisy glass perfume bottle, and a unique wooden one, both purchased at ravishing antique store for a total of 70 dollars.
A full collection of a marvelous woman's works, poetry that sinks into my like a warm hot chocolate, deeply depressed Dorothy manages to morph her botched suicide attempt into bitter witty banter, she regards her men the way men regard their women and holds nothing in. Her emotions and dark mind mangles the words to bend to her wishes and I find that utterly intoxicating.
Front Cover

Bandbox by Mallon, Thomas:
During the time when all the world wanted was fashion, ciggies, vodka cocktails, and jazz the Bandbox was there to deliver. 
Chapter One
The Bandbox is a sultry magazine that is the go to, mag for everything that was 'in' in the 1920's. Run by 'Joe' Harris the newspapers staff range from criminal fanatics, lovesick vaudeville pup's, sexy determined copy-boys, and the every elusive flappers. When the magazine fights for its survival there is now, low Joe will go to, to return it to its once glamours height.This novel completes a task that is hard to accomplish, it, in vivid rich strokes captures the very core of New York's Jazz Age with hilarious witty retort this book is sure to be a page-turner for me.
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Day 06 – A Book That Makes You Sad:

A sad book: Easy Peeze-y Lemon Squeeze-y.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour. 
I read this during a time in my life when I was so low I could hardly breathe sometimes. This books was so deeply sorrowful that I felt as if I were drowning in it. Written from a teenage perspective only made me relate further to the book which in turn made it even that much more painful to read. I believe after I finished the novel I was left numb for nearly a weak, subdued in part by my own turmoil and awakened by the stories. I fully believe that, what makes a great story is that after you finish reading it, you carry the words, the essence of it, with you days after. Never have I read a story of loss that was so eloquently illustrated by words than with Hold Still. Caitlin finds a journal, the journal of her best friend, the journal of a suicide victim. In this journal Ingrid reveals to Caitlin why she did what she did, what she suffered from and how she felt so trapped, death was her only escape. With this journal Caitlin begins to discover Ingrid all over again, and she ultimately realizes that Ingrid may have died but she never truly left. 

To see this book's full review click on the pink link: Hold Still

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Friday, February 10, 2012

A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
The last child to be born in Macbeth's castle. Originally named Cawdor Castle, the castle is somewhat of a natural landmark as it was the featured castle in Shakespeare's Macbeth. But what was it originally, why would Shakespeare base a play on it. This beautifully written, stunningly harsh and fluid novel tells of a child's avant-garde lifestyle growing up in such a historic house. 
Liza Campbell, descended from the Thane of Cawdor watched and reported her life, through the life and death of her strict grandfather, through the finical ruination her father erected after his fathers death, and through his affairs, wasteful spendings and the very closure of the castle. From the outside her life and that of her siblings where regarded as fairytale, but the intimacy of her family was thwarted by the sheer weight of it all. She spares no details, digging in the historical background of the castle and how her family came to own - and eventually lose - control over it. 
When her grandfather - Thane of Cawdor - her father inherited everything, as Liza explains clearly, her father was not the sort of person to run a large estate such as Cawdor castle and because of it he slowly slipped into lunacy. Her mother upper-class born and bread society lady suffers under the weight her husbands affairs, of their finical ruin and in the end divorces him. 
Liza Campbell Dancing.
Liza gives her reads the exactitude of how it was to be raised underneath the oppression of upper-class society, as diamonds cut they as children were expected to be seen not heard, to be compliance to elders, to be respectful and prompt at all hours, to be honorable and because of such, wistful, they were expected to be elegant and knowledgeable so that if an elder asked for your opinion you did not disgrace your family name in any sort of way. 
The book was so thick with eloquent detailing that I found myself immersed in her life, I felt her desire for her father approval, her mothers love and both her parents attendance to her, I felt her sorrow after losing her father, the hint of pride while explaining the historical background of he heritage. She made the book breath with its roughness, its exemplary behaviorism's, the way her dry witted humor seem to scream, 'I have found a way to disregard the expected pleasantries you have placed over me,' and the way she shoved her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood into the face of those who restricted what she could and would not be able to do.
Truly a wonderful portrayal of a life that was damaged, and an inside look into inner workings of the upper-class, it gave new meaning to never judging people for how they look or what they're last name is. Absolutely a brilliant read that had me flipping pages through the entire third person narrative of Liza Campbell.
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Day 05 – A Book That Makes You Happy

A Happy Book: Hard.


Beach combing at Miramar: The Quest For An Authentic Life by Richard Bode, has to be one of those books that you just have to read. I read this book after my mother gave it to me. With her scribbles in the sidelines and the spine dent from use I found that this book was utterly awe-worthy. It took me three days, where my Californian weather came out to play: on the first day it rained outside so hard that there isn't a page in the first thirty pages of that book now that doesn't have a raindrop on it, on the second day the fog was so thick that I felt like I was in the mountains instead of my nearly always dry dessert, on the third day the sun shined so hot that I tanned while finishing this book. The weather changes seemed to go along with the sections in the book. 
A man nearing his elder age retires from an all consuming stressful job that brought him no pleasure, receives a divorce from his wife, and relocates away from his modernist wealthy lifestyle to a hunt on a beach. Every day the man wakes, he searches for treasures the seas bring him, he contemplates his past, the mistakes he feels he'd made, and how they all were necessary to bring him right where he is today. There is a perpetual sorrow in his voice when he looks back on his children and all the moments in there lives that he missed, but at the same time there is a ever enlightening blissful happiness when he talks of the ocean that there was not a moment in the book when I wasn't truly happy with his rhythmic lyrical writings.
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Day 04 – Favorite Book Of Your Favorite Series:

Fav. book of fav. series: Simple.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
Rage by Kessler, Jackie Morse
It is a very rare occasion indeed when I find the need to rate a book the highest score possible. Few novels have actually captured my full attention so complexly, has never created a world so vivid with the harsh realities of our modern day world, that it left me no option than to give it five stars. The author spent some large amounts of time editing, proof-reading while also making sure the integrity of the books underlying purpose was not mistaken. Kessler made she her words were curt, terse, and frank. And you know me, give me a novel such as this that holds such powerful emotion in every verse, and I crumble into mush.
Without out doubt the one of the most powerful novels I've read. With her stark realism, her in-depth reasoning behind such a tragedy and the composure that Kessler manages to portray in her main character Missy.
Missy is just a normal, high school kid, with parents that are too busy with there careers to notice her existence, and with a sister whose desperate need to climb that social hierarchy ladder sickens Missy to no end. Then finally it seems this girl with a shell as hard as a diamond has caught herself a break. Her football star of an ex-boyfriend, whom after seeing the horrific inter-lacing scars of her cutting dumps her, invites her personally to a party in the front of his nasty 'possy' she has nothing else to do but go. Right? Especially since the said ex-boyfriend has been strangely nice to her lately, stopping his friends even from calling her 'cutter-slut'. Despite her internal clock ticking rhythmically along with the phrase of 'the party is a bad idea', Missy goes anyway, her desire to have some fun outweighing the dread she feels.
As it turns out, Missy should have defiantly stayed home. When a cruel joke leads Missy to slit her wrists a little too deep this time than normal, Missy thinks she's done for. Until she remembers him. The man with the sword! His words coaxing her to her knees, the drum of her heat-beat slowing as her life slowly ebbs away and onto her white carpeted bedroom-floor. 
The day before a man came to her doorstep and gave her a beautiful sword that seemed to radiate power, control, strength, and most important a rage so potent it has the capability to destroy entire civilization and that is just what it wants to do, unless Missy can finally find the control she's always lacked, always sought after but never fully grasped in her palms.
"Thou art the Red Rider." Yeah, okay I'm not going to believe some man who shows up on my doorstep proclaiming to be death, a man who gives me an ancient sword, and says I am to go out in the world as a rider of the apocalypse. Was he insane? 
But, lying on her bedroom floor Missy realizes that the sword, her sword is calling to her, urging her forward through the drowning waters of her fading life. Finally just as her vision fades black the swords hilt falls into the palm of her hand. The next day Missy wakes up, she alive. It is not until the next day of school that she realizes why she so desperately needed to cut so deep. And the harsh realism is enough to send her over the edge, possibly taking her student body with her as fits of rage leek out of her and into them. Missy must gain control before she truly dies, because it is only the sword that saved her from her fate, and in a world parallel to hers the rules are very simple: except your position as a rider of the apocalypse, or submit to death.

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Day 03 – Your Favorite Series:

Favorite Series: Difficult.
I would have to say without doubt: Riders of the Apocalypse, I devoured both novels Hunger, and Rage, and am adamantly waiting on the third. Each book is written in such a stark realism that I was in awe by the writings of   her words struck out at me, it demanded my attention and I listened. When the books were finally over I felt saddened because I desperately wanted more.
A compelling series that takes the reader of a whirlwind of our modern day society's conflicts, that young teens face. Kessler does a stunning job portraying the average adolescent who suffers from an eating disorder or a person who suffers from Manic Depression Self-Harm, often referred to as 'cutting, burning, or scratching oneself'. Kessler also throughs in a mix of paranormal activity, such as the myth of the riders of the apocalypse which in itself would have made a wondrous read but thrown together with the background story of each teens suffering, Kessler exposes, rather brutally and without shame the world some teens today live with everyday. 
Hunger is the story of a girl named Lisabeth Lewis who starves herself because the way she looks horrifies her. Her basement is an exercise room and her routine is shocking. Every calorie she puts in her mouth is categorized, she then burns off every one, over-exercising, over-exerting herself until she is physically exhausted. Her mother doesn't notice a thing, always perfectly made-up, always thin with her pencil skirt, only makes Lisabeth shrivel further into her world of hunger. And if that were not enough to make a compellingly haunting book, in comes death. After a terrible night Lisabeth opens her front door after a knock and find a handsome man shrouded in black, he hands her a set of bronze ancient looking scales and pronounces Lisabeth the Black Rider, one of four of the Rider's of the Apocalypse. She receives a handsome stead and is told to go out into the world where famine calls to her. But previous famine's have old enemies, and the red rider is not one for pleasantries. Lisabeth must fight the very essence of War, curb her desire to succumb to her hunger, deal with the emotional weight of the world's famine and make a decision that could haunt her for the rest of her life.
Rage was mesmerizing, incredibly intoxicating and stripped down to the barest of human's skins. A stark and blunt look into the life of a teenage girl named Missy who cuts herself, never too deep to kill herself, but enough to allow the badness to seep out of her through her blood. After Missy attends a party and a horrifying picture revealing her scars to the entire world is leaked out onto the internet Missy is overcome with rage and pain. When she goes home that night she doesn't notice the white stead, or the the handsome man playing guitar but soon enough she will. Because this time when Missy cuts, she cuts too deep, and barely has enough time to reach the sword given before the party when the same handsome man playing guitar pronounced her the Red Rider. Missy has to find the control she only could find while cutting and apply it to her new job, she must come to terms with her deadly addiction and curb her anger, least she kill the entire high school student body.
To see Hunger's full book review click on the pink link: Hunger (Riders of the Apocalypse #1)
To see Rage's full book review click on the pink link: Rage (Riders of the Apocalypse #2)

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A Great And Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1):

My rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
This book was a work I humbly tip my hat off to.  A thrilling murder mystery, a Victorian boarding school that gives new meaning to a haunted gothic mansion, a love affair with the formidable Gypsy boy, and a very serious, entirely scandalous gossiping group of girls who sneak out in the middle of the night to drink communion wine in a cave. How dreadfully exhilarating this novel was, I completely devoured it every word of it.
Gemma Doyle has the unfortunate gift to see the future, this gift leads her to see her mother's death. Sent from her beloved India to the traditionalist starched fabrics of the proper Victorian ladies, Gemma is forced into Spence, a gothic mansion with dastardly secrets hidden in every part of the boarding school. Gemma is not long attending the school when she has vision leading her to a secret dairy, snubbed by the students and left to reveal in the fact that someone is watching her.
Repressed by the fallacies surrounding Victorian society, the very girls who snubbed Gemma are now immersed in her whirlwind of dark visions, nightly dairy reads, and eventually the discovery of the horrid reason behind the burning of East Wing. When the four friends, Felicity, Pippa, Ann, Gemma realize that Gemma has the power to travel to a distant dimension that is parallel to their own their inner child's nature is released and soon the power the four of them find their is too much to just simply let go of. Night after night, as they descend or travel to this darkly intoxicating world Gemma begins to realize that their is a price to holding onto magic. A sacrifice that has to be made, one that Mary Dowd was unfortunate to discover years before in the East Wing.
Gemma Doyle is thrust into a world of spell-binding magic, forbidden dark love, thick ties to a secret society called the Order, family secrets streaked in blood, the desire for friendship that could very well lead to the destruction of her, all lied together with the politeness, and niceties of the Victorian Era, bodice an all!
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

How To Live Forever:

"In a quiet street of tall trees
there is a library with a thousand rooms...
When the library is closed and the night watchman has
fallen asleep in his big armchair,
the shelves come to life."
~ Colin Thompson, How To Live Forever.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Colin Thompson is a master of his genre. His illustrations, so vividly soaked in every color imaginable, his stories mangled with a uniqueness so potent I hardly have words to describe it. I was fully contempt staring at this book for a good three solid minutes - after reading it. Every page held secrets, every book he drew whispered in its vibrance. For I am a large fan of the weirdly grotesque, and Colin Thompson delivered! Not only did I re-read the book twice more after the first reading because I was so transfixed by its eccentric nature, but I was elated that his book How To Live Forever was hauntingly unfamiliar. I'd never read a children's book with a plot such as his before and I absolutely love when I am surprised by something new.
The books are alive their whisper when the night guard sleeps. The largest library in the world holds every book in the world and they're ready to start talking. When the doors close, sealing the last remaining night guard in for his graveyard shift, when the lights dim, when the silence echos off the exquisite grand moldings of this outlandish library cuts through the air just right you can hear it. The shifts as the books come alive, the music wafting from a Beethoven's concerto pamphlet, stairs connect every shelf, and a very new sort of mystic light comes over the library. The stories of the books play out in windowed bliss behind the books, and its characters come out to play; if only for a little while.
It was on a normal average day when a boy chased his cat who chased a mouse into a crack near a filling cabinet. The boy resided in a cookbook with a strangely always serious sister and his parents, the boy that night found a card. This card would teach him the very value of life and spontaneously make him make a choice that effects his livelihood.
A book was missing. That is what the card lead Brian to find out, when he followed its index number to the spot, on the shelf, in the designated area the book was to be. But the book was gone, a thick layer of dust marking its spot and illustrating just how long the book had been missing for. How To Live Forever would never be read by tourists with polkadot fanny packs, bystanders would not gaze at it in contemplation and then replace it back on the shelf,  scholars would not use it for knowledge, the book was gone and nobody had even noticed.
Well that settled it then! Brian went back to his cookbook in the Q section and forgot all about the book, right? Wrong. Who would do that? Especially when the book had such a title. Brian sets out on a grand adventure, asking every one if they'd seen the book, checking every shelf, vigorously and then later dubiously skimming through every one of the thousands of rooms, holding Cowboy novels of Butch Cassidy, memoirs of peoples lives, through the worn spines of the classics and what have you.
Peter then comes across four old men, each four standing on one leg, each as straight and solid as statues, only three awake.  These men couldn't possibly know of the book! But they did, and Peter before he knew what he was getting himself into followed one old man through a Chinese garden that took his breathe away and to a pale small child, his body as young as Peter, his wistful child's soul long lost through the bitter taste of the livelihood he's lead. This boy had read the book, this boy had became immortal, he had grown old inside while his loved ones grown old on the outside.
"To live forever is to not live at all." so says the Ancient Child to Peter. Peter walked through the garden taking in the Ancient Child's words, of his sorrow and while sitting on the bank of the river Peter had finally made up his mind. He wouldn't read the book.
I had promised my mother's kindergarten class that I would read them a book because of how they did on there Spanish test with me, this was the chosen book. Read as they laid down for there afternoon nap they were transfixed by the colors of the illustrations and when the story was finished and one student only remained awake he proclaimed 'That was a good book Miss Anna, I really liked that book.'
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See Jane Run:

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars.  Recommendation: Eh, it wouldn't kill you to read this.  The Intrigue: So listen, let's say you weren...