Friday, November 28, 2008

Books to Adore

So, there are some books that I really do need to read (I know you shouldn't need things and all, but come on, they're books...that's an okay thing to 'need,' right?) Here they are (at least the first round)-I thought it was a good way to spend the day after Thanksgiving--and if you have relatives visiting you can give them ideas for holiday gifts :P:


Books I Love Part I
Libri Amo Uno*

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee
Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby


You've Got Blackmail by Rachel Wright
What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook**
Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz


Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
One Lonely Degree by C.K. Kelly Martin
Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes


Part II will be coming soon....possible even next week :D


*I have bad Latin translations...my teachers would be ashamed at my very literal 'hey that's 'books' in the plural and that's 'I love' so...' ;) **fyi, this shows up as 'What Would Alice Do?' on Tower Books so if you look there for your books, look under 'Eillen Cook' for the book

If you saw this earlier-I did repost...I'm trying to figure out tables and such :)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Teen Idol~Meg Cabot


Still haven't figured out why some blogs (my own included, sadly) cause problems for my computer...But I've found a computer to borrow to get these posts, well, posted.

Teen Idol is another of Meg Cabot's YA-But-Not-Princess-Diaries. Jenny Greenley is Miss
Perfect, always solving everyone's problems and never causing any of her own. She's so
good at problem solving, in fact, that she's the school newspaper's secret advice
columnist. But things are turned a bit sideways when one of the world's biggest movie
stars, 19-year-old Luke Stryker (famous for a sart on a very 7th Heaven-y show) comes
to town to 'research' a role--and Jenny's in charge of keeping his identity secret.

Jenny seemed a good bit like Sam from All American Girl and Ellie from what I've
listened to of Avalon High (I got the audio book from the library)... not a carbon copy
or anything but...the unassuming girl that seems to have that power/confidence/knowledge
just under the surface waiting for a few words/actions/whatever from the choice character.
Maybe not. Maybe they just read the same way.

I did like the book though-which yes, I know doesn't exactly make sense given that I
didn't like Sam in AAG and I see her and Jenny as so similar...go figure. It wasn't a
book to think about after you've read it, but it was a fun, quick, light read. Something
cute to read while you're studying and can't take serious books-that kind of book.

Again, though, there was a secondary character that I found myself more interested in than
the main character (this time it was Geri Lynn). And maybe I'm wrong but I've never
heard of/been in a Latin class that was conducted all in Latin...so that bugged me ;)

Overall, if you want a book that touches on subjects of popularity, bullying, fame,
dating, breaking up, and probably a few others all in something you can read in a day or
two, then I do recommend Teen Idol.

7/10


(I'm going to try resetting my layout later-once I can save my coding and all that-to see if I can get back to having full access to this lovely book blog o' mine without screwing up my computer so I can get all review-y again!)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

just me trying something

I can't access this blog properly (or view or post to my Myspace one at all) from *my* computer so I'm posting from another computer to see if that somehow remedies things...

Because otherwise I have no idea :( (Nothing else seems to be wrong with my computer or its internet access at all...it just hates my book blogs all of a sudden).
Blogger & my Myspace blog don't work for me (I can't get the Myspace blog to load at all-the profile will but not the blog-and my Blog won't load and I can't click the 'sign in' link from other pages but can go to blogger.com directly)

Uh-oh?

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula ~ Marta Acosta

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula
Pocket Star Books
(January 29, 2008)
384 pages
$6.99
Amazon

A little bit of Buffy meets Twilight meets Rebecca* meets Ecce Romani** meets Veronica Mars meets Bourne Identity*** meets a whole lot of an original, new tale.

I got this book on one of the first few days of October and then my whole life went kaboom for a while so it took me a while to read it (not because of the book at all) and I can't wish more that I wasn't able to get a review up by Halloween.

I'm not really sure how to summarize this book without getting spoliery, so I'm going to say what I like about it first: I love that (main character) Milagro De Los Santos has a job (as a writer) that she can logically keep with the changing setting and hectic events of the novel--I hate books where the girls have lives they've worked for and then it's just over; there were great descriptions throughout the book but they never got distracting (which descriptions can sometimes do).

Some other things I also loved: the funny/snarky dialogue (sometimes internal sometimes not), it didn't cross the line into being corny and reminded me, actually, of Veronica Mars; there were some killer similes (I was stupid and didn't mark any but I'll try to find some for an example); and the chapter titles were hilarious (ex: 'to snooze, perchance to hallucinate' & 'the icing on the sin cake'); & I loved the secondary characters who all had their own little quirks and personalities which made you love each of them individually.

A few things I had problems with: I still never figured out the flip flops and tube socks thing; what seemed like the same sentence nuerous times about Tessie; a part in the ending that maybe came a little too easily (but it was minor). I think that's all.

And more thing, this might be listed (some places) as a 'vampire romance' but what I really loved most about it was that it wasn't just another 'yay!vampire...yay!sex' book. There was romance in the book and there were vampires (in a way that I'm 99.999995% sure they've never been in any other book) but for 98% of the book I at least wasn't sure who ultimately was going to end up being the lead male character for the next book (there are 3 so far).


and because reviews do need some sort of a summary:


Despite her Fancy University (F.U.) degree, Milagro de los Santos isn’t having much success at life. She can barely pay the rent and all of her boyfriends are as frivolous as beach reads. Then, at a party in honor of her successful ex-boyfriend, she meets the unusually attractive, quirky Oswald Grant.

Who knew that her passionate kiss with Oswald would result in serious illness, a craving for raw meat, and an aversion to sunlight? Well, her ambitious ex knew, and after he attempts to kidnap Milagro, she must hide out with Oswald’s snobby family at their country estate to recover and learn the truth about their mysterious “genetic condition.”

When Oswald and his family are threatened, Milagro uses her wits, her wiles, and a whacky scheme to bring down the power-hungry creeps who refuse to let the undead live in peace. (via author's site)

amd my rating: 10/10

*I just got that vibe for some reason--the Hitchcock movie more than the book
**my Latin textbook-I can explain :)
***it was the least blow-y up spy movie I could think of

and thank you to Marta Acosta for sending me the book :) (and here I was worried about what to do if I didn't like the book..guess that didn't matter ;) Sorry it took me so long)


*is Blogger acting funky for anyone else?*

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