Posts

Showing posts from December, 2013

Eat, Brains, Love

Image
Jake and Amanda go to the same high school. Jake awoke this morning feeling sick. Maybe it was the book report that he had to turn in or maybe it was because he has turned into a zombie and just devoured half of his friends and classmates. Jake awakes to find Amanda by his side. Amanda has also turned into a zombie. Now they are on the run form the government. One of the references this book is compared to is Warm Bodies by Issac Marion. I read Warm Bodies and loved that book. So I can rightfully say that this book is no Warm Bodies. Not even close. The relationship between Jake and Amanda was strictly friends if you could call it that. It was really like close acquaintances. Not that I think I would have believed any romantic intentions between Jake and Amanda. I really liked the story as Jake and Amanda felt real still to me then just undead zombies. Cass while a good psychic I did expect more from her. I thought she was suppose to be this big strong threat to Jake and Amanda. In

Relic

Image
I chose this book to read as it sounded very promising and intriguing. However looks can be deceiving. While I did like the idea of the story, I found the characters dull and the story boring (lacking in any action). The story was all over the place without really any good explanation. For example, Eva is racing along in the cold wilderness as part of the testing and when she reaches the rest point one of her biggest competitors and suppose love interest, Jasper has already arrived. Eva wonders how he arrived before her as she never saw him once while she was racing hundreds of miles in the snow. Yet she drops it without a second thought. Really?! Then a mysterious man comes to Eva's aid but his identity is not revealed until later. Oh and there is the world that Eva is living in. It is suppose to be the new modern age in Finland but there is no concrete explanation as to why or how the people got there. The artifacts are to be a great discovery but Eva finds a picture of a balle

Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness

Image
Book Summary The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless tunnel hundreds of feet under Massachusetts Bay to do a nearly impossible job-with deadly results In the 1990s, Boston built a sophisticated waste treatment plant on Deer Island that was poised to show the country how to deal with environmental catastrophe. The city had been dumping barely treated sewage into its harbor, coating the seafloor with a layer of "black mayonnaise." Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as "beach whistles." But before the plant could start operating, a team of divers had to make a perilous journey to the end of a 10-mile tunnel-devoid of light and air-to complete the construction. Five went in; two never came out. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents, award-winning reporter Neil Swidey re-creates the tragedy and its aftermath in an action-packed narrative. The climax comes when the

Poor Little Dead Girls

Image
Sadie has gotten a dream come true. She has received a full paid scholarship to Keating. Keating has had some of the most important students attend the school including the President's children. When Sadie arrives, she realizes that she is an outsider. Luckily she has one friend at Keating. Her friend, Jessica. Sadie learns that Keating has a deep, dark secret. A secret society. Sadie has been recruited. This book made me think of the movie "The Skulls" starring Paul Walker, R.I.P. Only this book was not as dark as the movie. This book is more of the PG to PG-13 version for the young adults. This targeted reader group will enjoy this book. I don't know if the author planned it this way but if she did then she did a good job. She make me not like any of the members of the secret society. I found them off putting and only caring about themselves. There really was no "sister or brotherhood" Unless you count that you become a drone and do not ask questions

The Last Winter of Dani Lancing

Image
Book Summary Twenty years ago, college student Dani Lancing was kidnapped and brutally murdered. The killer was never found, and the case has long gone cold. Her parents, Patty and Jim, were utterly devastated, their marriage destroyed. While Jim fell apart, Patty was consumed by the unsolved case. She abandoned her journalism career and her marriage to spend every waking hour searching and plotting. She keeps contact with Tom, Dani's childhood sweetheart, who has become a detective intent on solving murders like Dani's. When he finds a lead that seems ironclad, he brings Patty in on it. After years of dead ends, her obsession is rekindled, and she will do anything for revenge, even become a killer herself-dragging her whole family into the nightmare once again, as lies and secrets are uncovered. My review I picked up a copy of this book because the book cover caught my eye. Then I read the back cover and was like ok I am ready to read this book. It sounds like someth

The Flight of the Griffin Blog Tour

Image
About the Author: Born in England, C.M. Gray spent most of his youth growing up in the Essex countryside. A beautiful part of England, close to the Suffolk border, but he was born with the need to expand his horizons, so as soon as he could get a passport at the age of just seventeen he packed a backpack and went exploring! A slightly risky decision, and one his parents were not too taken with, yet a number of years later he is still traveling…. but with a slightly larger bag. Over the years, C.M. Gray has been lucky enough to live and travel in many many parts of the world, met some incredible people and experienced some amazing places. In fact, he has now lived for more years outside of England than he ever spent living there – It is, after all, a very big and exciting world! During his journey he worked and trained as a carpenter and a house restorer… picked more types of fruit over the years than he knew existed - from grapes in France to avocados in Isr

Unraveling: Hanging Onto Faith Through the End of a Christian Marriage

Image
Luckily I have a good, happy marriage. Been married for ten years. I would not say it has been smooth sailing the whole time but nothing that my husband and I have not been able to overcome together. However my sister just recently went through a nasty divorce. Her ex lives locally in the same town so everyone still has to deal with him as my sister and her ex had a son together. This is a book that I am going to give her to read. Not that I did not read it as everyone is not perfect and we can all use help in our lives. I thought that Elizabeth did a good job of sharing advice without being too critical. She does not get into details about her prior marriage but instead focuses on what she learned after her marriage ended. Which is good advice. I liked that at the end of each chapter, the author gave "a prayer" "a next good step" and "a way forward".

Escaping Home

Image
Escaping Home is the third book in this series. I would not recommend jumping into this series without having read the first two books, Going Home and Surviving Home. Not reading these books in chronological order will have you missing the character development and close relationship to Jess, Sarge, Morgan, his family, and the others. I feel like this his a very important part of this series... the characters. Otherwise this is just another series about people trying to survive but the author makes this series more realistic then some that I have read. I had a good time following Morgan, Jess, Sarge, and the rest of the characters. It I ever was stranded I would want to be with someone like Morgan. He could survive for a long time if his was the last person on Earth. I thought that the swearing was down in this book. Not that I was offended with any of the language. The ending was good.

Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic

Image
Desmond Pucket has one goal and that is to go to Crabshell Pier and ride the amusement park ride "Mountain Full of Monsters". First Desmond has to survive junior high. Desmond is the school prankster. The principal, Mr. Needles knows Desmond on a personal note. Desmond's latest prank has earned him a three strike chance. He has three chances left to try and show he can be a model student or Desmond can forget about the Mountain Full of Monsters. Ha-ha, Desmond reminds me of a mixture of Dennis the Menace and Macaulay Culkin from Home Alone. I am sure all of the teachers, especially Mr. Needles are counting down the days until Desmond either flunks school for good or graduates to high school. All of his pranks were genius. I can say this as I was not a victim of any of them. My favorite pranks were the one when Desmond was helping with the AV Club as Phantom of the Opera and scared the whole class with the video of staring at the dot on the middle of the screen a

Recipes for a Sacred Life: True Stories and a Few Miracles

Image
If this book had not been sent to me in the hopes of my reviewing it then I probably would never have read it. I don't want to say that this book is not in my standard wheel house of books as I have expanded my book collection on what I will read but still this is not the book I would have first chosen. However I found myself drawn to this book and thus am happy I did take a chance on it. I know this book is probably meant to be read and savored in little bits with each lesson to be reflected on but I read this book as a memoir with reading all of the lessons. Now that I have, I can go back and re-read the lessons one by one. Rivvy shares some good lessons that everyone can use in their lives. The stories were good as well.

The Geek's Guide to Dating

Image
If you are a geek in any form of the work either by appearance or at heart then you will enjoy this book. Even if you are not looking for someone. I am a geek in the form of a computer gamer. I have played some video games but my heart really belongs with computer games like Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, Civilization, and World of Warcraft.   So as I was reading this book I could relate to references that the author was making on the different persona, how to approach and interact with your date, and what each type of geek can bring to the table with their special abilities. For example me being a gamer: Our strengths are: Dedicated and loyal but we are also seekers of novelty. Because a computer game can get old quickly without our patches or expansions. We are constantly questing and leveling up, a competitive instinct that suits the thrill of the chase in the dating world. Our weaknesses are: We have a tendency to conflate girls IRL with our virtual damsels in

The Wobbit, a parody

Image
Anyone who is anyone has seen the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie and read the books. I love a good parody. I mean it is so easy now to do a parody of a movie or song. The MTV Video Movie Awards has been doing it for years and so has the Harvard Lampoon. However I have to say that I have never heard of the Harvard Lampoon until I read this book or I should say tried to read this book. I was really looking forward to the non-stop laughter but I seemed to be missing my funny bone. I hardly laughed at all, despite all the references to celebrities, directors, actors, and Peter Jackson. What I found is that I lacked any interest in Billy and most of the Little People. Thus I struggled to stay with this book. I did try really hard to wan to like this book and finish it. But lets be honest, we all know how the story ends. You can enjoy all the supporting actors all you want but if the main talent is not up to par then the outcome is only so, so.

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a wonderous treasure of a read

Image
Spourt is a lay hen. All she does is lay eggs. Her spot in the coop gives her a good view of the barnyard. She can see all the other animals. She is envious of the other chickens and their babies. Spourt dreams of having a baby of her own. However that is not possible as the farmer's wife takes all her eggs. So Spourt becomes uninterested in laying anymore eggs. Thus in the process, she becomes too weak. She is to be culled. By a miracle, Spourt survives with the help of a duck named Straggler. Spourt gets shunned by the other farm animals. Spourt finds herself in the briar. There she finds a nest with an egg. The mother is no where to be found. Spourt lays on the egg and finds a sense of belonging. I absolutely loved Spourt. She is one fierce hen. She won me over from the first moment I met her. She will always have a place in my heart and bookshelf. I could so get behind Spourt as I used to raise chickens. We also had ducks and turkeys. So I am familiar with farm life.