Guess Who? Contest

So I've decided to gain a few extra entries and spread the word about this cool contest. You can read about it here:
http://www.abook-loversreview.com/2010/03/guess-who-ya-tween-author-challenge.html

I think it's pretty cool. I've also entered. The grand prize is HUGE! So, good luck.

I don't have much else to say for now. I'll have my YA and Adult list up soon.
Coming up:
Book Talks on Vampire Academy, The Summoning, and House of Night

Today's Update:
Glass Houses: 146
The War of the Worlds: 52

Up Next:
The Luxe
Suggestion

Book requests are appreciated!

Books I've Read

As promised, here is the list of books I've read: (The numbers in (0) are my ratings)

Children's:

Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo (4)

The Tiger Rising (3)

The Tale of Desperaux (5)

The Magician's Elephant (4)

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (5)

Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House on the Prairie

Farmer Boy

On the Banks of Plum Creek

By the Shores of Silver Lake

The Long Winter

Little Town on the Prairie

These Happy Golden Years

The First Four Years

The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Horse and His Boy

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume

Fudge-a-mania

Double Fudge

Super Fudge

The Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snickets (Too lazy to type the individual names)

A Dog's Life - Ann M. Martin (5)

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Water Horse - Dick King-Smith

The Report Card - Andrew Clements

Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Louis Sachar

Thunder from the Sea - Joan Hiatt Harlow (3)

Star in the Storm

White Star - Marty Crisp

The One Left Behind - Willo Davis Roberts (4)

Falcon and the Carousel of Time - Luli Gray

Timespinners

Meet the Austins - Madeleine L'Engle

The Moon by Night

The Young Unicorn

A Ring of Endless Light (5)

Troubling a Star (4)

Coraline - Neil Gaiman (4)

Kira-kira - Cynthia Kadohata (0)

Among the Hidden - Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Imposters

Among the Betrayed

Among the Barons

Among the Brave

Among the Enemy

Among the Free

Found

Sent

Running Out of Time (3)

Escape from Memory (3)

The House on the Gulf (3)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

The Last Straw

The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan (3)

The Sea of Monsters (3)

The Titan's Curse (4)

The Battle of the Labyrinth (4)

The Last Olympian (5)

May Bird and the Ever After - Jodi Lynn Anderson (4)

May Bird Among the Stars (4)

May Bird, Warrior Princess (4)

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

Matilda

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell
The Unfinished Angel - Sharon Creech (4.5)

Eleven - Lauren Myracle

Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

Things Not Seen - Andrew Clements (4)

Ida B - Katherine Hannigan (5)

If You Give a Pig a Pancake - Laura Joffe Numeroff (5)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (5)

So B. It - Sarah Weeks (5)

The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau (3)

The People Of Sparks (3)

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs - Jon Scieszka

Will have to post YA and Adult list tomorrow. It's much longer than this and I forgot some books for this one. Bye!

Marvelous Monday

Okay, so sorry about yesterday. I lied. After I posted, we had to leave (I was at my grandparents house) and I wasn't able to go on the computer when I got home. So, here I am, on Monday morning. And I have TONS to announce.

HoN FANS!!!!

The first chapter of Burned was released TODAY! Be sure to check out houseofnightseries.com! Click on Burned, at the bottom of the page. It was WOW! I couldn't believe it. The first chapter is pretty good. I NEED to read it when it comes out. I'll make a post about HoN later. But for those of you who are caught up, ENJOY!

For those of you who liked Darkest Powers (Kelley Armstrong):

The Reckoning is released in 8! days. The first eight chapters are available here: http://www.harperteen.com/contests/kelleyarmstrong/

And the next chapter will be posted on Thursday. The book will be released April 6, 2010. It's pretty good, so I would recommend it.

Vampire Academy fans:

The first chapter of Spirit Bound was posted: http://richellemead.com/excerpt/excerpt11.htm

What else?

Oh, yeah. Blue Bloods fans: Cover for Misguided Angel here: http://shelf-life.ew.com/2010/03/24/exclusive-first-look-at-melissa-de-la-cruz’s-misguided-angel-cover/

Not much else. Well, not much else that I can remember. Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins) comes out 8-24-10. Dark Flame (Alyson Noel) 6-22-10. The Reckoning 4-06-10. Burned 4-27-10. Spirit Bound 5-18-10. Misguided Angel 10-05-10. Last Sacrifice (Richelle Mead) 12-14-10. More dates and info to come. I'll definitely be looking into 2010 authors. And hopefully I'll get some reading done over Spring Break. My goal: 10 books. Watch me meet that goal. I should probably be posting every day next week. Slowly I'll get ten books finished. Just watch me. But, for now, my update:
Impulse: 498
Glass Houses: 45
The War of the Worlds: 32

I plan on reading:
Willow by Julia Hoban
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn

Hopefully BEFORE Spring Break. Yay! :)
Maybe I'll be able to finish a good portion of my +1000 (and growing) books to read list.
(And if you have books to recommend to me, PLEASE leave a comment. Will post my READ list next. ;] )

Book Talk Sunday - Twilight

So, since I'm so bored right now and will probably not have time during the week, I've decided to keep on posting today. Every entry will be about a different book. As I have promised, Twilight is my next topic. I read this book in late 2008. Since, I've read it about three or four times. I thought it was great - at first. I don't know what happened, but I like to think that I have moved on. To me, the Twilight series is overrated. Bella is about the weakest character I've ever read about. She's a follower. she has no individuality. At first, she relies on Edward. Then he leaves her and - what do you know? - she totally takes advantage of Jacob. Poor guy. Being used by such an inconsiderate person. Horrible. Edward is too overprotective and selfish. Need I go on?
So I'm annoyed. The characters. The vampires aren't too convincing, let alone interesting. I've read better love stories, vampire and not.
But, hey, if you like it, whatever. I used to like it too. I did like the movie New Moon, though. Probably the one and only movie that might be better than the book. I'll probably watch Eclipse. It'll annoy me, but I want to see how these people are translating the book into movie.

Official Eclipse trailer:



So I want to see the movie. Don't think I don't. I just don't love the books. They're okay. But that's all you'll get from me. Onto my next post!

This Week's Playlist

So, I've decided. What the heck? Why not add a few songs to my Reader's blog. No point in making a whole new blog. I don't have as much to say about music as I do about books. Also, I find that many songs can be used perfectly for some books. So this week's playlist:

Explanation:
It's a Beautiful Day: It could kind of go with anything. Most books have that kind of moment. Like - everything is okay. It's a beautiful day.
I'm With You: I think this could go with The Passion, the last book in the Dark Visions series by L.J. Smith. It's more towards the end, and I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't read it. If you have though *SPOILER ALERT!!!* it's for that part where Kaitlyn was in the isolation tank and Gabriel stays in contact with her so that she doesn't go crazy.
This is War: I think this song could go with brave New World, but only because of the one line: It's a brave new world, from the last to the first. But I also think this song could go with Animal Farm because of: A warning to the people. The good and the evil. This is war.
Resistance: This song could go with 1984 by George Orwell. It mentions the "Thought Police". Also, it seems to be talking about the love affair between Winston and Julia. If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean.
Show me What I'm Looking For: I think this could go for many different books. From many different perspectives. Of course, my memory has chosen this moment to fail me. I'll update this later when I'm able to think of substantial examples.
Uprising: This one could also go for Animal Farm. There was another one it could go for. But, as I said before, my memory is failing. I can't remember.
Face Down: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen. (Don't you just love that title?). Both are all about being abused by a boyfriend. Amazing book.
The Hand that Feeds: So, this could go for a few different books. It could go for Animal (a little bit), any book about rebellion. But mostly, I just wanted to point out the part about the Crusades. This song is all about going against what you've been told. To stand up and "bite the hand that feeds".

So there you go. Next week I'll probably have a few more songs to share and three to five more books finished. Next week's book: Twilight. Check it out. You'll probably be surprised. Or maybe not. Who knows?

From the Beginning

Okay. So it's not Friday. Life has been too busy. Haven't been able to read much either until yesterday. Today's update:
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins: 215
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine: 34
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells: 18

I just finished:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm by George Orwell

But I'm not going to talk about any of those books for a while.
I've decided to start at the beginning.

So, I've been reading (and loved reading) for as long as I could remember. Unfortunately, I can only remember so much. the good thing is that, for some reason, I can remember practically everything when it comes to books. Hurray!
The book that really opened my eyes, and my memories, is Marley and Me by John Grogan. I first read this book in fourth grade. I have read it countless times since then. I don't remember many of the books I read before that, but then again, I was only nine. After that, though, books became a necessity. I've also recently discovered that if I don't read for a while, I tend to stress out. Books just relax me like that. The good thing is that I always have my iPod for a substitute. Not as effective, but pretty good (I happen to love music, too. But I won't start a blog about that. At least, not for now.).
So, let me get back on topic:
Marley and Me by John Grogan
It is my FAVORITE book of all time, and I've read hundreds of books. I love how the book is written, for one thing. I like how real it is. I love dogs and Marley really touched my heart. I loved how there seemed to be REAL emotion behind everything. You could almost feel how real it was. I personally love sad stories. Love an unfinished ending. It leaves room for thinking. For reviewing what you've read and guessing how it turned out after that. I happen not to like happy endings as much as sad or unfinished ones. Happy endings, to me, seem as if they just stop living. Like, all of a sudden, nothing bad ever happens. Something bad will always happen in life. That's just how it is. Happy endings seem to go against that. Plus, it takes away suspense, drama, action. It leaves the reader as if something good was missing. So, the ending of Marley and Me, well, it wasn't exactly sad, but it had unlimited possibilities. That's what I liked about it.
It's a great book, for those of you who haven't read it. The movie is pretty good, though, of course, not as great as the book.
I would suggest reading the adult version, not the children's version. The adult version is more real and believable to me. The children's version is insulting, but I guess it's more appropriate for a nine-year-old. Oops. I didn't know that back then. Oh well. It introduced me into the amazing world of books. The world of YA and adult books. I really don't care anymore. If it seems interesting, I WILL read it. I really just don't care.
So, that's today's book: Marley and Me by John Grogan. I hope you read it and love it. See ya peoples!

Favorite quote: "Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if you can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all."

(It's not really from the book. In the copy I have, there's a letter and this is the last sentence.)

Introduction

Hey peoples! This post isn't about a book.
I will be posting (hopefully) every Friday. Sometimes, I will be able to post on other days, but for the most part, Fridays will be my posting days.
My posts will basically be about the book, what I liked/ didn't liked. My favorite quotes and stuff like that.
Posts will probably contain spoilers, so I'll warn you before I start going too in depth about the book.
If you want to request a book to me, or just comment on things I said or haven't said, just leave a comment.
Have a good day!