Category Archives: Books

Airhead

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Book: Airhead by Meg Cabot

Pages: 340/Hardcover

My Thoughts: I love Meg Cabot, and I thought I’d read Airhead.  The title (and cover) intrigued me.  It’s about Emerson Watts, who dies after a tv falls on her.  Her brain gets transplanted into Nikki Howard, a teen supermodel.  Nikki just happened to have an aneurysm burst or whatever around the same time that the t.v. fell on Emerson, hence the brain transplant.  Emerson is a nerdy tomboy, and especially loves video games, which she always played with her best friend Christopher. 

It took Emerson a while to realize that her brain was transplanted in Nikki, since we see Emerson in the hospital right after the accident, and then the next thing we know, she’s awake, and everyone’s acting really vague.  It isn’t until Lulu (Nikki’s best friend) comes by and gets her out of the hospital that we discover Emerson’s brain is in Nikki’s body. 

Yeah, that part was a little strange, but I swear it’s not as convoluted as it sounds.  We don’t know exactly what’s going on, and then we go on this weird journey where Emerson clearly doesn’t want to be in Nikki’s body, but in order for her parents to not pay the $2 million in bills that are the result of the transplant, she has to keep up with Nikki’s contracts and endorsements. 

“Nikki’s” forgetfulness is explained as amnesia from hitting her head, and it was slightly entertaining to see Emerson in a supermodel’s body.  It was a pretty fast read, and I certainly liked Emerson.  But…while I like Meg Cabot, this definitely is my least favorite book I’ve read.  Mostly because of the whole brain transplant thing- it was definitely weird, especially with the huge contrast between Emerson and Nikki.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5.  Like I said, the brain transplant thing was weird, but I really did like Emerson.  And the ending is rather abrupt too, which made me wonder what was going to happen.

Cybele’s Secret

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Book: Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier

Pages: 432/Hardcover

What Did I Think? Cybele’s Secret is the 2nd book in the Wildwood Series.  In this book, we follow Paula and her father in Istanbul, as they try to buy an ancient pagan artifact, Cybele’s Gift.  Paula ends up going back to the Other Kingdom, with her bodyguard, Stoyan, and Duarte Aguilar, a pirate, and another who bid on Cybele’s Gift. 

I loved the detail, which really made the book come to life.  But it took me most of the book to actually get interested in it, the Other Kingdom making it’s grand appearance towards the end.  It was only hinted at for most of the book. 

I didn’t like it as much as Wildwood Dancing- it was missing some of the charm that Wildwood Dancing had.  Plus, Stoyan and Duarte were clearly set up as romantic interests for Paula, though it was fairly obvious that it was Stoyan that Paula would end up with. 

Paula’s sister Tati, who went to the Other Kingdom in Wildwood Dancing, made a few appearances in Cybele’s Secret.  Tati had her own quest to fulfill, which would allow her to see her sisters.  She only sees Paula, so if Tati does visit her sisters, it’s likely to be in any sequels.

Rating: 2 out of 5.  I didn’t like it as much as Wildwood Dancing, but I did like the detail Marillier put into it.

The Joy Of Cooking (The 75th Anniversary One)

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Book And Author: The Joy Of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, Marion rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker

Pages/Format: 1132/Hardcover

What I Thought: There were things I liked and didn’t like about this cookbook.

What didn’t I like?  For one, the length.  I get it’s meant to be the guide to cooking, but goodness!  It’s a long book, complete with a nutrition guide, a section for entertaining, a section of different menus, plus a bunch more at the end.  Examples of those include  keeping and storing food, canning, freezing, and knowing your ingredients.  Scattered throughout the book are little sections about stuff, like a section about tea, different kinds of pie, and different kinds of cakes.

The format of the recipes was odd, but something I could get used to.  Here’s the general idea of the format: ingredients, recipe, ingredients, recipe.  That’s how I tend to cook, so that’s why I could get used to it.  But at the same time, I’m slightly worried about skipping over something.  Another annoying (and very distracting) aspect of the format is the references to other pages.  Example: Pie.  The pie crusts have their own section, so you refer to that, and then proceed as normal for the rest of the recipe.  The cakes are a good example too, because the glazes and icings are in a different chapter.  Also, some recipes direct you to read different guides.  Example: some of the pie recipes direct you to read about fruit pies and rolling pastry dough.

Again, I get it’s supposed to be the ultimate guide to cooking or whatever, but found that going back and forth between two different pages distracting.  As for directing people to different things to read before making whatever recipe, it’s probably good for beginners, but for me, I found it distracting.  Had I moved away from the dessert section, and gone to make, say, pasta or soup, my opinion might be different.

So what did I actually like then?  There really are a lot of recipes- according to the front cover, 4500 of them!  This accounts for a good chunk of the length, and I do like that they’re thorough, and try to be somewhat definitive.  The few recipes I tried were really good, and I really did like how the recipes themselves were formatted.  Generally speaking, I liked how it was organized, but I felt like it could’ve been slightly better.  With multiple recipes on a page, I felt like they could have found a better way to make each recipe stand out.

Rating: 3 out of 5.  The recipes were good, but I found certain things to be really distracting, which downgraded the rating.

Ready For Another Session!

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I have a very vague idea for my August novel, so I’m just going to write and see what happens.  It’ll be fun, I think, as long as I don’t get bored or anything.  Even if I do get bored, I have a list of back-ups.  And this month, we get to be a part of cabins, which seem to be a more toned down form of the NaNo forums. 

I’m currently at 3,888 words, and I’m having no problem keeping things moving.  I doubt it’ll last very long, but if I can keep up this pace, I should be good for the rest of the week!

And Pottermore!  I got in!  On the first day!  I checked it sometime after midnight, and the clue was up, so I figured it out and got my registration email, and validated!  Now I’m waiting for the welcome email, which will come sometime this summer.  I can’t believe I finally got my letter to Hogwarts!  I’ve seen some sneak peaks of Pottermore, and it looks amazing!  I’m seriously excited about Pottermore!  I even did a happy dance after registering, and I did another one after I validated!  I’m pretty sure I’ll be talking it about it once I get my welcome letter.  I’m really excited, can you tell by all the exclamation points?  I even love my username, which is SpiritCharm15, so if anyone’s going to be doing Pottermore at some point, look me up!

I think that’s it, so have a great day!

Vampire Academy

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Book: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Pages: 332/Paperback

My Thoughts: It was really lackluster.  I loved the storyline itself, but didn’t like a lot of the characters, especially the 2 main characters, Rose and Lissa.

Lissa is a Morai princess, and is a mortal vampire with a very strong bond to the earth’s magic.  She needs to be protected from the Strigoi, who are your stereotypical vampire.  This is where Rose steps in.  She has both human and vampire blood, which makes her a Dhampir.

The Morai seemed more like glorified witches than actual vampires, because heaven forbid they become like the all-evil Strigoi.  I felt like Mead didn’t think through the Morai/Strigoi/Dhampir very well at all.  For a book set in a vampire school, you forget about the students being vampires (or the Dhampir, who protect the Morai).  I like the idea of different kinds of vampires, and one group being more powerful.  I also like the idea of the Strigoi hunting the Morai.  However, the execution of it fell flat for me- almost like Mead didn’t think it all the way through. 

As for the actual characters, Rose isn’t likeable at all, and seems to be more interested in getting drunk and making out with random guys.  Plus, she has a tendency to get into fights, and seems to be very petty.  I wasn’t impressed with the other characters either.

The writing was horrible!  The transitions were horrible, and Mead kept alluding to some event that led Lissa and Rose leaving school, which we didn’t find out about until the last third of the book.  The book was more telling then showing.  An accurate description would be that it’s like a teen telling you a story, which, in a way, is true. 

Then there’s the fact that it was really boring…there really wasn’t enough action to keep me interested, and sadly, the last 30 to 40 pages were the most interesting of the whole book.  It’s too bad that it took nearly 300 pages to get so interesting…only for it to end.

Rating: 2 out of 5.  It seriously sounds like a teen wrote it, and it definitely could have used a lot of work before being published.

Wildwood Dancing

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Book: Wildwood Dancing by Julliet Marillier

Pages and Format: 403/Hardcover

My Thoughts: Wildwood Dancing is about 5 sisters living in Transylvania, at the castle Piscul Draculi.  We have Jena, who is the second oldest, her oldest sister Tati, and her 3 younger sisters, Paula, Iulia and Stela.  Jena’s best friend is her frog Gogu, who she found in the woods.  Every Full Moon, the sisters go through a portal to the Other Kingdom, where they dance and talk with all of the different creatures of the magical realm. 

However, when their father falls ill, and travels to another town to get better, their cousin Cezar arrives to help oversee the castle.  Things quickly go downhill as Cezar takes over many of the responsibilities that were left to Tati and Jena, and goes on a hunt to get rid of the forest where the Other Kingdom is.

Honestly, I didn’t like Cezar at all, and it turned out, I had good reason not to like him.  His older brother “drowned” when Cezar, Jena, and Costi (Cezar’s brother) and Cezar did nothing to save him.  It turns out the witch of the forest saved Costi, and turned him into a frog…who happened to be named Gogu.

I also found Jena to be somewhat unlikeable too, especially with all her fights with Cezar about how she was in charge of the castle while her father was gone and could manage just fine without Cezar’s help.  She whined and complained about how she was responsible and in charge, and yet she didn’t seem to be very good at running the household in her father’s absence. 

I loved the setting, and the descriptions of the forest and area were amazing!  It started off slow, and then everything picked up. 

I liked Gogu/Costi, as well as Jena’s younger sisters, and I wished that the 3 younger sisters had more of an appearance.  She drew on the mythology and folklore of Transylvania, and she wove in elements of the frog prince as well.  The cover art is really pretty, and it definitely went well with the title of the book, and the whole Other Kingdom element of the book.

Rating: It gets a 3 out of 5, because Cezar and Jena were annoying, and I hated the fact that the family troubles were attributed to a witch, but there were a lot of other things that I really liked.

Mischief Managed: Happy Birthday Harry Potter!

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Today is Harry Potter’s birthday (and J.K. Rowling, in case anyone is wondering).  The boy wizard himself is 31!  I wanted to give that a quick mention, as well as the fact that 1 million lucky people get to see Pottermore early!  I’m pretty excited about Pottermore, and I can’t wait until it’s open to everyone.  I think I might try and get the early access.  Whether I actually get it is another story, but since I have a lot of time on my hands, I figure I might as well try.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite moments from both the books and the movies, in no particular order.

  • Seeing Hogwarts for the first time (Movie: SS)
  • Hermione punching Draco (PoA: awesome in the book, even more awesome in the movie!)
  • Fred and George leaving Hogwarts with a bang (OoTP: awesome in the book, but they could’ve left with more of a bang in the movie)
  • “Harry, you’re a wizard.” (SS: one of the most memorable lines of the entire series)
  • “Not my daughter, you bitch!” (DH: also one of the most memorable lines from the whole series)
  • Harry, Ron, and Hermione meeting for the first time (SS)
  • Harry’s First Visit to Diagon Alley (SS- the book version was a lot better than the movie version)
  • The first quidditch match (SS)
  • The 7 Harry’s (DH- funny in the book, funnier in the movie)
  • Snape’s memories (DH- this made me cry)
  • Draco being turned into a ferret (GoF- funny in the book, just as funny in the movie)
  • Hermione, Ron and Harry taking on a troll (SS)

Have a great day!

More Random Thoughts About Harry Potter

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I’ve come up with a few more thoughts about Harry Potter, so enjoy!

  • We know that Hogwarts students can’t do magic over summer breaks.  But what about when students first get their letter and later on, their wands.  Does the Trace start once they say they’re going to Hogwarts, or does it start at some later point?  I would imagine that it would have to start at some later point, because they aren’t actually students yet and are more likely to use accidental magic, so therefore, it would make no sense for them to have the trace.  And that actually brings us to our next point…
  • Why do the first years have to take the boats, while all the second years and above have to take the carriages?  I bet there are some really interesting theories out there, but I don’t really have my own thoughts.  The only thing I can think of is the first point.  Is that why the first years take the boat to Hogwarts, so that the the Trace can be put on them?  That makes the most sense, because once it’s cast, it’s there until it breaks when the witch or wizard turns 17.
  • Speaking of the trace, how does it work at Hogwarts?  I’m guessing it’s completely ignored, because there doesn’t seem to be a way to remove it.  And besides, they’re learning how to use their magic, so to monitor magical activity at Hogwarts is stupid.  And what about the use of magic on the Hogwarts Express?  Magic is used pretty freely on the train, so I’m assuming that the train is overlooked by the ministry.  Either that, or it’s considered to be an extension of Hogwarts.  In relation to Hermione practicing some spells before her 1st year, and everything I’ve already said, it’s likely students about to start at Hogwarts aren’t monitored.
  • Sorting students into their houses: How exactly is it determined what house each student goes into?  Personality traits and who the person is are clear factors, if you look at the song from Sorcerer’s Stone.  And choice is also a factor, because Harry said he didn’t want to go into Slytherin, even though that’s where the Hat wanted to put Harry.  But I find it hard to believe that each year is equally sorted into each house.  So does the sorting hat also take into account where other students have been sorted?  Like, would someone who has the clear traits of a Ravenclaw end up in Hufflepuff because there aren’t enough students in Hufflepuff?  Does it even matter if there are a few more students in one or two houses?  Unfortunately, my thoughts aren’t as nicely put as they are in this blog post, but I agree with it.

I think that wraps up this installment of random thoughts about Harry Potter, but I’m sure I’ll come up with more.

Pretty Little Liars

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Book: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Pages And Format: 286/Paperback

What I Thought: This is the first book in the series.  The series is about 4 girls, Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily, who used to be best friends.  After the disappearance of their friend Alison, the group falls apart, and they’re no longer friends.  Three years later, the 4 girls start getting texts and emails from the mysterious A, who knows secrets that only Alison knew.  There are also references to something known as the “Jenna thing,” which is probably revealed in one of the later books. 

Alison, however, is found buried in the backyard of the house she lived in, and the book ends with a text from A, saying that she’s still here, and knows everything.

I first heard about the books when I caught one of the episodes on tv, but didn’t give it another thought until recently, when I saw a commercial for the show.  I’m definitely intrigued with the series, and I really want to know who A is, what really happened to her, and what the Jenna thing is all about.

Rating: I give it a 4 out of 5.  I love the mystery and intrigue set up in the book, plus, it’s a really fast read.

April Shadows

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Book: April Shadows by V.C. Andrews

Pages and Format: 406/Hardcover

My Thoughts: This was a hard book to get into.  Having read The Flowers In The Attic series and My Sweet Audrina, I really wanted to give some of her other books a try. 

We have April, who’s the main character in this series.  The first 2 or 3 chapters were really boring- it was all about April talking about how her dad changed from this really good dad into this awful, horrible person.  Surprise, surprise, he had a brain tumor or something, and died from it.  Then her mom kills herself, so April is left in the care of her older sister Brenda.  April, however, ends up living with her uncle Palaver.  He, very predictably, dies, and we’re left wondering what will happen with April.  Her sister drops out of college to play professional basketball, so April is supposed to go stay with one of her cousins until Brenda gets back from her trip.

It was pretty disappointing, which I think in part is because this is written by a ghost-writer, and didn’t really have the same charm that Flowers In The Attic did.  There was a certain amount of suspense, and I kept waiting for something to evil to happen…and it never did.  It definitely felt like something was lurking in the shadows, and unfortunately, that something didn’t materialize in this book.

My Rating: It gets a 2 out of 5.  It was just okay, and I’m not sure I want to give this particular series anymore of my time.