DragonFreak's Den

Welcome to my Den!

Here's my rating key.

1/2 = Time waster
* = Why did I read it?
*1/2 = Could be better.
** = Not the best book I've read
**1/2= OK, I guess.
*** = Somewhat good.
*** 1/2 = Good.
**** = This is great.
**** 1/2 = This is awesome.
***** = This is greatly awesome.

January
1. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
2. The Divide by Elizabeth Kay
3. The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney
4. Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud
5. Back to the Divide by Elizabeth Kay
6. Jinx on the Divide by Elizabeth Kay
7. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
8. The Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
9. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson
10. The Gift by James Patterson. (Can't find right touchstone)

February
11. The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
12. Get off the Unicorn by Anne McCaffrey
13. Fair Blows the Wind by Louis L'Amour
14. Magyk by Angie Sage
15. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
16. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
17. Flyte by Angie Sage
18. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

March
19. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
20. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
21. Physik by Angie Sage
22. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
23. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
24. The Drift House by Dale Peck
25. School's Out Forever by James Patterson
26. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
27. The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
28. Saving the World and other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

April
29. Firedrake by Richard Knaak
30. The Final Warning by James Patterson
31. Max by James Patterson
32. Icedragon by Richard Knaak
33. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
34. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
35. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

May
36. Animal Farm by George Orwell
37. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
38. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
39. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey
40. 20 Years Later by Emma Newman
41. In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells
42. A Game of Thrones by George Martin
43. The Lark and Wren by Mercedes Lackey

June
44. The Robin and the Kestrel by Mercedes Lackey
45. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
46. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
47. Dark of the Moon by John Sandford
48. Powers that Be by Anne McCaffrey
49. The Lake House by James Patterson

July
50. Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher
51. Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher
52. When the Wind Blows by James Patterson
53. Escape From Zobadak by Brad Gallagher
54. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
55. A Clash of Kings by George Martin

August
56. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
57. The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan
58. Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz

September
59. This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin
60. Fang by James Patterson

October

November

December

END OF 2011

And here is my list of popularity based on each month. At the end of each month I'll list the best and worst books and at the end of the year, I'll announce my best and worst book of 2011. If there is no terribly bad books for that month, the bottom three will be the worst unless it the book really deserves to be good.

For the regular 12 months, I'll list them from the best book of that month to the third best book of that month. The same with the worst book of that month.

And at the end of 2011, I'll caculate the top 12 books. Now I suddenly decided that when rating the best and worst books, the actual ratings go out the window. Why? Because sometimes how you view a book changes as you change, and maybe a book wasn't as good as some, but it deserves much more praise than some. Does that make sense? As long as it makes sense to me, I guess that's all that matters, right?

January
1. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
2. Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stoud
3. Jinx on the Divide by Elizabeth Kay
4. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
5. The Gift by James Patterson
6. Back to the Divide by Elizabeth Kay
7. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson
8. The Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
9. The Divide by Elizabeth Kay
10. The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney

February
1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2. The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
3. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
4. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
5. Get off the Unicorn by Anne McCaffrey
6. Flyte by Angie Sage
7. Magyk by Angie Sage
8. Fair Blows the Wind by Louis L'Amour

March
1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
3. The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
4. School's Out Forever by James Patterson
5. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
6. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
7. The Drift House by Dale Peck
8. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
9. Physik by Angie Sage
10. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

April
1. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
2. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
3. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
4. Icedragon by Richard Knaak
5. The Final Warning by James Patterson
6. Firedrake by Richard Knaak
7. Max by James Patterson

May
1. A Game of Thrones by George Martin
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell
3. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey
4. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
5. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
6. 20 Years Later by Emma Newman
7. The Lark and Wren by Merced Lackey
8. In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells

June
1. The Lake House by James Patterson
2. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
3. Dark of the Moon by John Sandford
4. The Robin and Kestrel by Mercedes Lackey
5. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
6. Powers That Be by Anne McCaffrey

July
1. A Clash of Kings by George Martin.
2. Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
3. Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher
4. When the Wind Blows by James Patterson
5. Escape From Zobadak by Brad Gallagher
6. Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher

August
1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
2. Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
3. The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

September
1. This Is Your Brain of Music by Daniel J. Levitin
2. Fang by James Patterson

October

November

December

END OF 2011

Best Book of 2011
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.

1.

Worst Book of 2011
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.

1.

FINISHED: Book 28: Saving the World and other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

Review:

Everything boils down to here. This time either Maximum Ride saves the world, or dies trying. When Max and Fang decide to go to Dr. Martinez’s house to get her chip taken out, which she thinks is tracking her and is causing her Voice in her head to keep talking to her, which is driving her absolutely crazy. A couple of months ago, Max saved her daughter Ella from a group of rowdy boys attempting to hurt her. When the chip gets removed, the Voice is still there and her left arm is useless.

Meanwhile, Iggy, The Gasman, Nudge, and Angel are hiding from everybody else, but not for long. New enemies come to get them that are more powerful than the Erasers. They are called Flyboys, and they are a robotic version of the Erasers. They get captured and sent back to the cursed School, where they learn that all genetic experiments are being “retired” or put to death, and Max’s flock are the last ones left.

When Fang and Max find them, Jeb tells them that almost everything that happened was a dream and a test. They escape bringing Ari, Jeb’s father and one of their mortal enemies, with them. Fang doesn’t like that and tells Max that either Ari goes, or he does. Max doesn’t let go Ari, so Fang splits up bringing Iggy and The Gasman with him, while Nudge, Angel, Ari, and Total stays with Max. Now both Fang and Max is trying to take down Itex separately, and what they find out is that Itex’s leaders are going to commit a mass genocide attack that will wipe out more than half of the world’s population so there will be a perfect Earth.

I really, really enjoy this series. But you know that already. I’m taking off half a star for a cliché section of the plot. Also, can you recommend me any good James Patterson books ideally not part of a series, just stand-alone books? Thanks!

Rating: Three Stars ***

Wow, that's one very organized den! I look forward to reading your ratings and all, nice job.

Hi DragonFreak. I've been wondering what you've been reading.

I have no urge to read Patterson's mysteries but was wondering about trying the Maximum Ride series. Good to know you're enjoying it.

>3 MrsLee: Thanks! In real life, I’m the most disorganized person I know. Funny, huh?

>4 sandragon: I’ve enjoyed what you’ve read too. I especially loved those short stories you read. I think that was you. My favorite was the one called I Hate Dragons. I thought that was freaking hilarious, and so did my friends and little sister.

Now from the big bundle of fantasy books that I’ve read I decided to start two books: Firedrake by Richard Knaak, The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (book 1 of the Wheel of Time series), and continuing with James Patterson in my book class with The Final Warning.

I don’t see myself finishing anymore books for March, so I’m going to post my favorite and worst books of March 2011.

Best:

3. All Maximum Ride books by James Patterson– Action, humor, mutations, mad scientists, sarcasm on every sentence, this series was made for me. I haven’t read any book that made me laugh so much since any of the Rick Riordan books. In fact, these books remind me of them in so many ways.

2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – Officially the weirdest book I have ever read. This “brave new world” is the most perfect unperfect book that I heard of. Very unusual.

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read. I like it that Golding hints that essentially, all of mankind is evil, which I agree to, because if we would be all made to love, there would be world peace and no more wars or weapons of mass destruction.

Worst:

3. All Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage – I rated this high at first hoping it would get better, but it never did. And at book 3, I was done. I have the other books on my wishlist, but they can’t be any lower.

2. The Pearl by John Steinbeck – OK, this wasn’t a bad book. In fact, I think I was way too hard on it. But this month was pretty good, making this not as good. Definitely will not be in my top 12 worst books of 2011.

1. The Time Machine by H G Wells - I suppose maybe at one time it was a good book. Maybe it still is, but for me, it didn’t work. The book was too short, too uneventful, very boring, uncreative, and totally forgettable. Won’t think about this book again.

ETA: I'm so waiting for March to end to see whether I won anything from ER. I really want this book Jamrach's Menagerie, or The President's Vampire mainly because the main character is named Nathaniel like me. I think I have the right touchstone for the latter.

So I’m halfway in Firedrake by Richard Knaak, and I just realized that I have never read a book about humans slaying evil dragons. I’ve seen some movies on it, but never books. Wait, that can’t be right. Seriously? Let me think to myself.

Let me see. Not that one, at least not yet. According to humans, they don’t exist. Possibly, but that’s not the point of the story. They would be dead, worthless, and lost without them. For them worthless; and them lost. Actually yes, but not because they are evil

Nope, I have never read a true dragon slaying book. I like to think of them as not evil as…good. But I’m enjoying it nevertheless. Plus one of the characters is named…Green Dragon, and he’s…well a green dragon and one of the Dragon Kings.

Also, I haven’t even touched The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. In fact, I’m looking at it right now, and he hates me, because I’ve been neglecting him. I’m sorry, but when I found out that there is 13 or 14 books in The Wheel of Time series and all of them are 750 pages and over, that kind of freaked me out. But I’ll read you…not tonight, because I have things to do, but maybe tomorrow…but definitely this weekend, OK? Good. Thank you!!

Yes, I do talk to my books a lot. I’m not crazy, I’m just significantly different.

The Hero and the Crown has an incredibly evil dragon.

ETA: And hunting of same.

You have not read The Hobbit?

>8 MerryMary: That book does indeed...

>9 MrsLee: Of course I've read The Hobbit. Ah, I forgot. Well that's the only one then. I was thinking of whole series, instead of small sections when I was thinking to myself.

FINISHED: Book 29: Firedrake by Richard Knaak

Review:

Cabe Bedlam is part of a world called The Dragonrealms that are overruled by vicious, tyrant Dragon Kings that control their land and make all the human citizens have no freedom. Cabe is no ordinary human, he’s the grandson of the great Nathan Bedlam and the son of the horrible Arzan Bedlam. Nathan defeated the Purple Dragon king with Arzan’s powerful weapon the Horned Blade, which is destined to kill any and all dragons or firedrakes with ease. But in the process, Nathan dies with the Purple Dragon. Now many years later, Cabe must fulfill the destiny that Nathan failed to do, while avoiding his father, all the Dragon Kings, the Shade, with the help of the Gryphon and Gwen.

I noticed I’m the first to review this book on LT. Usually I’m the 587th to review it, but not this time. Even though this book is mostly about dragon slaying, I enjoyed it very much. The fantasy is perfect for me and the plot is alright. And I’m interested in reading the next book Icedragon, so that’s a plus.

Rating: Three Stars ***

FINISHED: Book 30: The Final Warning by James Patterson

Review:

Max and his flock’s lives are going pretty good at the moment. They just defeated Itex singlehandedly, and Max discovered his true parents. Now, the U.S. is very curious about them, and want to study them and hope that they can help them.

The end result, the flock travels to Antarctica to help out with the growing problem of global warming. And even though they seem safe, they aren’t. Somebody is out to get them for the goal of destroying the world.

I am not too keen on the whole Global Warming thing. I have my opinions, Maximum Ride books, and then two more books to go after that. Then when I’m done with that, I don’t know exactly which book to read in my book class before the teacher decides not to do James Patterson books anymore.none I’m going to share. This is definitely the worst book in the series so far, not by much, because all of them are pretty much equal. I love the humor Patterson puts in the books, especially the subtle humor that usually requires background knowledge to get fully, especially when it comes to the sections of Fang’s blog. I have one more book in the series before I run out of available

Rating: Three Stars ***

I was reading the newest Reader’s Digest, and there’s this section of stupid questions people asked librarians. Here are some of them:

“I’m looking for a book, but I only know the title, not the author. It’s called Dante’s Inferno”

“Do you have Shakespeare in English and not in the language it was originally written?”

So I decided to look for other stupid book questions, and here’s what I got.

"Can you help me find a book about the real meaning of Christmas? Nothing religious though." Uh....okay!

Patron: "How much does it cost?"
Librarian: "Books are free to borrow"
Patron: "No, I want to buy a copy. I've looked everywhere"
Librarian:"Have you tried the book shop next door?"
Patron: "No"

"I'm looking for the autobiography of ____, but I'm not sure who wrote it."

Patron: "When does the library close?"
Me: "The library is 24 hours."
Patron: "Just answer my question, ma'am."

Teen patron: I need info on the holocaust.
Librarian: We have a lot of information on the Holocaust available. What specifically do you need?
Teen patron: Info. On. The. Holocaust.

Mother: My son has a report due tomorrow and he has to read a biography about a Viking.
Me: Well, I know we have a good biography about Leif Ericson.
Mother: No, I mean old Vikings, not the football players.

Woman comes bustling in, carrying five books rubber-banded together. Stares at me for a moment, and then says, "Where do I put these?"
I reply, "There's a book drop in the hallway, just outside the door. It'll be on your left."
She scowls, turns around, and disappears into the hallway for a few seconds.
Then she comes back and thrusts the still-banded books at me and spits, "They don't fit," before exiting the building.

Of course, I’m guilty of asking stupid questions, but usually none as simple as these.

Those are great!

I once phoned the London library and asked the lady to read me the last page of a Mary Roberts Rhinehart book because mine was missing. The lady was happy to do it.

>14 nhlsecord: Thanks. I'm a big fan of dumb questions, probably because I ask so many of them. For fun, my sister and I will annoy the h(eck) out of my parents. Oh, good times, good times.

I know a guy who, when he was a kid, would ask "why" continually when I was trying to explain something until we were almost down to the atoms of a subject. Exhausting!

That was back in the day when I actually could remember things well enough to answer;}

I always tried to answer in such a way that we would end up going in a circle until my kids got tired of the game.

I have a feeling that's what Troy was doing to me :)

>16 nhlsecord:-18 Like this conversation?

Sister: Why is science so important?
Me: Because without science there will be no intelligent people in the world.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because science is the basis of all knowledge.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because science explains almost everything.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because it covers almost everything like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Zoology.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because that’s pretty much the definition of science.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because that’s what the Greek’s figured out. (Now I’m BSing)
Sister: Why?
Me: Because the Greeks believed that everything can be figure by using science and math?
Sister: Why?
Me: Because the Greeks were smarter than you are.
Sister: Why?
Me: Because they know why science is so important.
Sister: Why?

And something else that repeats a lot is thinking of a word and making a connection with that word, then making a connection with that word as so forth. Like this: I’m thinking of Skittles. Skittles remind me of rainbows. Rainbows remind me of colors. Colors: Crayons. Crayons: Art. Then uncommon colors. Then the color Chartreuse (green). Lime. Sprite. Lemon. Candy. Skittles.

I think this is highly ironic. So this other day, I watched a movie called It’s Kind of a Funny Story for the first time. And it was awesome. It’s about this teen that has everything and seems to have things under control, but in reality, he’s a depressed, stressed person. And after almost committing suicide, he checks himself in for help, and gets sent to the Adult Psychiatric Ward where he finds the most interesting people. Well, I didn’t know it is a book called, well, It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. How did I know? Well in the born/died column, at the very end of born, that’s what it shows. But you know, I feel kind of sorry for the main character Craig. I mean, he pukes whenever he is overly stressed, he father’s putting too much pressure on him, and his best friend is a jerk. In fact, he had a flashback or two about how horrible his friend is. I love the flashbacks. Like this one. There’s this girl who he has a crush on. Well Craig, his friend Aaron, and the girl Nia were all together and Aaron gives Nia a “flirt punch” and then Craig explains how that leads up to holding hands (picture of Aaron and Nia holding hands), then that leads to kissing (picture of them kissing), and then, sex (picture of a totally white screen), but he doesn’t like to imagine that one.

I love it when seemingly unrelated events get connected like that. So I just had to share that.

I also enjoyed that movie It's Kind of a Funny Story. It's a good representation of depression and how hard it is to understand that apparently well grounded people have such problems with depression. I have some experience with these people and the wards they stay in so I felt right at home in the movie.

I agree with you. In fact, I think that's the reason for it's existence. There was this quote in there. Did it go like: "If you're not busy growing, you're busy dying"? Anyway, that is very true.

Yes, I like to keep myself open for what I call "newth".

What is "newth"?

I'm so glad you asked ;) Like young things are youth, new things are newth.
Silly, eh?

Not really. I'm actually usually 5-7 months behind everything "new", mostly because I usually don't like new things, I'm usually in the past or distant future, almost never in the the prest or near future.

But you are still picking up new ideas, right? from whatever you're doing. That's what I mean.

Yeah, I'm never running out of good and new ideas. I see what you mean. That's even more not silly, since I can see almost everybody do that. Nothing anybody does is silly, unless the intention is to be silly.

OK, so in the last time I posted anything I’ve read about…zero pages. Seriously I haven’t exactly read since Sunday at noon. I’m pretty embarrassed. But in my defense, I was severely distracted. You see, my friend showed me this very old game called Zork. It’s a game from like the 80’s where you type in commands and hope you win. No graphics, no sound, so I wonder why now I’m totally addicted to it. It’s bad. I complete three games.

So I’ve added two new books to my library. You see, this library was expanding and getting rid of some books, so they were being discarded and giving out for free. Any leftover books will be thrown out. Sad face. This library had better books to throw out than the library at my old home. You see, every elementary student gets to pick out a discarded book every time they go the school/city library. Ummm…my brother picks out interesting books. The worst was a horse fact book…expect it wasn’t for little kids………….

Anyway, the two books I got was In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells. I kind of swore to myself after I read The Time Machine I will never read another Wells book again. But this one looks so good. So I’m giving him a second chance. But of course, The Time Machine looked pretty good too.

The other one I picked out was The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. I saw this book on Morphy’s thread, so I decided to get it, because, after all, it’s free. I forgot what it was about or everybody’s opinions, so I’ll check it out.

Then the April ER seems pretty good. I requested three books. The first is 20 Years Later by Emma Newman. It’s a post-apocalyptic book, and you know how much I love my chaos and destruction. The second is Greed by Ron L. Hubbard. It’s a short story with another far-future setting of Earth. Seems interesting. But what I want the most is The Inheritance by Robin Hobb. It’s a collection of short stories, which now, I’m really in the mood for. There was already a review for it, and I love the ideas of the stories in it.

Well that’s all, and make mental pictures of you slapping me in the face and saying “Get off that stupid game a read, for God’s sake”. Seriously. Do it. Maybe I’ll get the mental links.

I really liked The Hero and the Crown, but the details are squiffy now so I couldn't tell you why I liked it so much. But Robin McKinley has become one of my favorite authors. I'll have to reread it. Hope you enjoy it.

And I'm envious of you being able to request The Inheritance. I would have liked to request it since Hobbs is a favorite of several GDers and I've been thinking of giving her books a try, but it's not available for Canadians. Ah well.

>30 sandragon: Oh, you're a Canadian. Hi neighbor!

You know, I'm going to have to look at Robin Hobb's books to see other works. I never have heard of her, but I'm willing to try something new!

I am wondering if the Ron L. Hubbard, author of Greed mentioned above, is the same as L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology? I wonder if you have run into other books about this "cult" or "religion"? I'll be interested in reading what you think of Greed.

>32 maggie1944: I'm not sure. But greed is on my list of the top-5 worst things about humans. I'll tell you what I think of it if I win it.

FINISHED: Book 31: Max by James Patterson

Review:

After almost getting shot by a sniper when performing a show for the Coalition to Stop the Madness (CSM), Max and her flock go to Mexico city to perform another performance to warn people about global warming from the much polluted city. There, Max meets another enemy named Mr. Chu, another power freak who wants Max to join him. Max says no and makes a bad enemy of Mr. Chu.

And it’s not long after that when Max’s mom Dr. Martinez gets kidnapped somewhere around the coast of Hawaii. Now Max must get her new mother back before anything bad happens to them, while trying to stop the next eco-disaster.

OK, this series is now officially going downhill in a very bad way. I mean, it was really good in book 3, and I would actually be pretty satisfied if it stopped there. But then in book 4, Patterson actually mentioned global warming, that was his first mistake. And now in this one, it got worse. Like now everything is getting repeated over and over and over again. It’s the same old, same old. Almost becoming too cliché. Personally, I’m kind of glad I ran out Maximum Ride books.

Rating: Two and a Half Stars **1/2

Yours is a thread I'll check again and again.

>29 DragonFreak:. I hated The Time Machine, too, although I was disturbed by it as well as being bored and unimpressed with the ending. I love The Hero and the Crown, highly recommend it, and very related and even more beloved is Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword.

>31 DragonFreak:. I also really enjoyed Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders Trilogy

>35 stayjay: Hi! I haven't seen you around at all. You're relatively new here, right? Hmm...started on the 30th of January of this year. Well welcome! Also thanks!

The main problem with The Time Machine is because it's boring. Disburbance I can handled most often, but I agree that I was also unimpressed. But I have to give credit to the book on the high levels of sci-fi, especially in the first one or three chapters.

I'm up for new reads. I want to constantly expand my boundry of reading, although it most likely has to be fantasy or science fiction, otherwise it would be just too real. I see that many people love The Hero and the Crown, so once I get done with the books Eye of the World and Icedragon, I might have to start ont that next.

I really don't know much about Robin Hobb, but looking at her few books, they look great.

Yup! Very new. Still figuring things out...

Have just added Firedrake to my to-read list - you liked it well enough to read the second?

>37 stayjay: Yes. I usually commit myself to a whole series after I start the first book, no matter how horrible the first one may be. But I mentioned that I usually do not read true dragon slaying books, in fact I don't read them at all, except for this one and The Hobbit, as MrsLee pointed out, so it was different and pretty good. The main character's grandfather was named Nathan, which is my name, so who can hate a book with your name in it? That's why I read The Bartimaeus Trilogy after all.

ETA: I'm pretty new too. It took me a long time to figure things out too.

DragonFreak, I wonder if you would like The Gameplayers of Zan by M.A. Foster. It is one of my favourite books, I have read it 3 times, and I have leant it and had to buy it again about 3 times too.

It's about Earth in the future, the government had tried to invent a kind of superhuman to fight their wars, but what they came up with was a race of smallish people, geniuses, and odd. They weren't warriors so the government gave them (on a very crowded planet Earth) a reservation of their own to govern themselves. The Ler developed their own society and a fascinating game which was, of course, much more than a game.

Hey, that does sound interesting. Really interesting. I'm putting that on my Wishlist under "High". Thanks for showing me that! If you have anymore recommendations, please tell me!

Oh, I'm full of recommendations! I'll try not to overwhelm you. Have you read the Greek Myths? You might like them. Also, you might like the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. Start with Warrior's Apprentice and then the rest in order of writing. No dragons, just a very persuasive fellow who bites off more than everybody else can chew.

And I will thank YOU for introducing me to The Hunger Games. Tomorrow, after a long wait, I will pick up book 2 from the library and declare a reading holiday.

By the way, if I might be nosy, how old are you Nathan?

OK, I'll take a gander at those later. Right now, I'm exhaustive and drowsy. Oops, I just fell asleep for five minutes. I sincerely hope you love The Hunger Games, and after you read those, I highly recommend Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, which is the same author of The Hunger Games. I personally think they are better. The only problem I have is that the main character is somewhere like 11 or 12, much too young and acts too old.

ETA: I'm 19 years old. I think I'm a minority of age, but I can act mature when I want to.

It's always handy to be able to act mature when you want to ;) It's a rare skill.

When I was reading Lord of the Flies, I mentioned to the people in the 75 group challenge before I made this thread that I had a theory called The Theory of Adults that states that few people actually truely becomes adults. It's one of my longer theories, and I have many, but if you want to hear it, you can.

Sure I'd like to hear it. Why not email it to me?

I'll just post it here. My theory of Adults or as I said in the tread I got it from, Theory of Children:

I believe that very few people actually become "Adults", even if they're age is 18, 23, 49, 86, or 127. That's my theory, but in order for that to make sense, you must learn my diffinition of "Adults". My definition of a adult is: A person who acts the exact opposite of a stereotypical child from ages 3-7 mentally. That's pretty self-explanitory, right? I also have a definition for "adults" who do act like children from ages 3-7: Grown-Ups. Seriously. Grown-Ups are grown up kids. I know it's a childish term, but it fits my Theory.

OK, maybe it's not so long, but it's heck of a lot longer than some of my other theories. Like my Theory of "Normal" lists all the things that are abnormal, and everything else is normal, which can be summerized in 7 words. Along with theories, I have lists. The list I want most to fulfill is my List of Paranormal, which lists all the paramormal things that I want to happen to me, which includes Hypnosis, Possession, and Telekenisis. I haven't crossed of any, but I almost hot hypnotized once. Seriously. I was at a hypnosis show, and I was a volunteer, but I couldn't get hypnotized. I blame it all on sound system. With the speakers and the microphone he was speaking in, I strained to hear him, which makes me stressed, so it didn't work on me. Actually, I don't remember much from when I was actually up there, so I wonder if I snapped out of the hypnosis. I'm not sure.

But then there was this time, when I was in the audience, where the person asked the eight people out of the twenty that was still hypnotized to go out there, and pick someone with an orange shirt, and that person would have their favorite scent. Well there was this guy with an orange shirt on right beside me, and he got ransacked by two hot girls. And guess what he smelled like. The first said he smelled like a very hot boy, the other, sex. And I was going to wear an orange shirt that day too. Just my luck.

Hey, you can get a book on Self Hypnosis and hypnotize yourself. It is not difficult, and can be quite relaxing. Many people use it as a tool to assist themselves with losing weight, or quitting smoking, or dealing with some other habitual undesirable behavior.

I might have to do that someday, but it'll be much more fun if someone else control me. Actually hypnonis is not paranormal at all, but it's on the list.

It is a common misconception that "someone else control"s you.... You can not be made to do something you wouldn't otherwise do. You can not be hypnotized into killing someone. Thank goodness for that.

Yeah, I know that. He said you must be willing to be hypnotized. But I'll be willing to be hypnotized to do any embarrassing thing that the others had to do. Heck, I do that every day, it's no different.

:-)

#49 "You can not be made to do something you wouldn't otherwise do. You can not be hypnotized into killing someone."

Therein lies the problem with hypnotizing me. There is one person in this world I would be willing to kill, and would kill with great joy.

>52 millhold: That's bad. Hopefully that dark side will never come out.

You know, I just realized that the group picture just changed. I love it!

Have you ever heard of a book called dragon Wyth?

Have you ever heard of a book called dragon Wytch?

I can't say that I have. I saw the work page and you added it recently, right. I didn't look into it much, since my next question is if you can tell me what it is about. I looked at the tags, and tags can tell what the whole book is about most of the time, and one of them was romance, and I think it was bolded, which means it was tagged that often. Not a big fan of romance. Do you recomend it?

Actually I'm still reading it but i would recomend Blood Trinity it has a lot of action.

Well when you get it done, tell me about it, gotchya?

FINISHED: Book 32: Icedragon by Richard Knaak

Review:

Cabe Bedlam just got done defeating the Black Dragon and now with Gwen and the Gryphon are trying to get the other Dragon Kings for a truce to stop the madness created by them. Unfortunately, a Dragon King, the Ice Dragon, has a plan to spread winter all over the Dragonrealms…forever.

//I finished this book 2 ½ days ago and just now reviewed it because of my procrastination, and I’ve been deathly sick for the past week and hit me hard in the last three days.//

I enjoyed this book as much as the same as the previous book. Problem is, well, I enjoyed it just as much as the previous book. Let me explain. Have you ever read a series, where all the books in the series are almost exactly the same? Well…this series may be just like that. And after a while, it’s the same thing over and over again. Like the previous Maximum Ride books. They’re just the same time after time, and that’s why, along with other reason, why the series almost collapsed. But I’ll put the rest of the books on my Wishlist.

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½

New reads:

I'm still reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, and I finally got into it at page 400. Great! Now I'm actually comprehending the things I read. I will read that at time B.

The now new things I'm reading is The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. Can't wait to start it! I'll read that at time A.

And now in my book class, we are pretty much done with James Patterson and will move on to ourl last author of the year. It's bound to be spectacular. The best of them all. It's the amazing.........................................................................Nicholas Sparks :(

I guess the deal was at the beginning of the year, that if we read the Louis L'Amour books, the whole class would have to read Nicholas Sparks. And all the girls in my class, except one thank God, and none of the boys likes him. So I went to the library today and checked out one of his book, since I'm contractually obligated to read. While I was there, I discovered that it does not have A Game of Thrones. Anyway, the book I got was A Walk to Remember. What is it about? I don't know. There wasn't any imformation. But I can say I won't like it, but it wouldn't be fair just to write a bad review just because of the content, so I'm going to be in a female track of mind while reading in. I'll read that in time C.

Take a deep breath, and open your mind. You can not judge a book by its cover, and even reputations are sometimes off the mark.

I hope you are able to find A Game of Thrones as I think you would love it.

Yeah, you're totally right. I bought my sister that book for her birthday before this whole Sparks phase set in. It can't be that bad. Thanks!

I decide that I'm going to read A Game of Thrones from an iterlibrary loan almost as soon as summer gets out for me, which is in more or less exactly 1 month. It'l be a nice summer project.

A Game of Thrones is first on my to-read list as soon as I can steal some time to start it. I've heard great things about it.

Likewise. Why not read a book that you'll absolutely know you'll love?

FINISHED: Book 33: A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Review:

Landon is just a regular high schooler trying to survive through life. Nothing special, just living in the moment. He just got done breaking up with his previous girlfriend who left him for a jerk just before the homecoming party, and since he’s on student council, he must and he must bring a date. The problem is, there’s nobody but Jamie. Jamie is the daughter of the reverend a t the church he goes to, and doesn’t like him at all. Jamie is one of the most perfect people ever. She doesn’t do anything wrong and a very religious person. Landon has no choice.

While there, Landon meets his ex-girlfriend, Angela, with her new boyfriend. And when Angela get drunk and her boyfriend abandons her, Jamie helped her get home, being the absolute sweet person she is. A nice person would leave Angela alone; only a saint would help her.

Now Jamie’s dad made a play based on his own life, and it’s a local hit. He wants only seniors to perform the play, and now it’s Jamie’s turn to perform it. Jamie wants it to be extra special, so he personally acts Landon to star the play as the role as the young version of Jamie’s father. Landon agrees.

Throughout the months, Jamie has been acting somewhat stranger than usual. She doesn’t lose any of her qualities, but she seems to be “off”. And soon Landon realizes Jamie’s secret, and everything changes.

I hate to admit it, but I loved this book. I really, truly did. I loved how Sparks made Jamie look to other people. Since Jamie is so pure, it forces other people to feel…well dirty in comparison. I’m telling you, if Jamie was evil and used her good charms, the whole world would be under her control. But it was so romantic, that I just had to mock it, which was fun, which made me like the book even more.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

Jamie’s secret is that she has leukemia. That’s why she was so off. I can imagine very sensitive people crying their eyes out at the moment, which I mentally sort of mocked, which made me enjoy the book more. And then Jamie gradually got weaker and weaker until she can barely move. Then Landon had a word from God and he knew he had to marry Jamie, even though she’s about dead. More tears. And then, the last sentence, Landon said he really did believe in miracles. I took me awhile to figure out that Jamie lived. Oh the tears! The perfect ending to a perfect love story

***END OF SPOILERS***

It’s a great story. Great plot. Great characters. I felt sympathy. I just can’t deny a truly good book.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars ****1/2

*waves to Dragon* Hello there! :O)

You have a very interesting thread going here! But I have to ask:

#59: "I finished this book 2 ½ days ago and just now reviewed it because of my procrastination, and I’ve been deathly sick for the past week and hit me hard in the last three days."

Are you feeling better? Sounds rather serious! :(

Well...funny you mentioned that. I fully recovered and then there was this building that was dripping cold, dirty, rain water in a rapid fashion, so I had to fun my head under it knowing the consequences. So from then until now, my throat hurts really, really, really bad, even with medication. Trust me, it happens every time I do that. You think I'ld learn my lesson?

Yes, yes, yes!!! I just bought the next three books in the Pern series that I need: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums in the Harper Trilogy. I’ve read six books in the series before this, and they were great overall. My favorite so far being The White Dragon. I have a friend who just got done reading my huge paperback with Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. It took her…..about 5 or 6 months to read it. I lost count after 2 ½ . I devoured those three books in….take a few hours exactly 6 days.

I so want the Pern books to be made into movies. I know that the movie-making business is mostly about money, but the way I see it, it’s a guarantee money maker. Think about it. All the fans of Pern will absolutely want to see the movie most likely. And then other people besides previous fans will want to see it too. And whether it’s good or bad, it doesn’t matter mostly, because people would want to see it anyway. Of course, I could be wrong. But right now a Canadian company has the rights, but they will probably eventually sell them.

I decided to make a list of all the books I’m planning to read this summer in order. It might change, in fact, it probably will, but this is just the first draft. This starts after I get done with The Hero and the Crown.

In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells
The Lark and Wren by Mercedes Lackey
The Robin and Kestrel by Mercedes Lackey
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey
A Game of Thrones by George Martin (estimated late May)
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher
The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
All Narnia books (6 total when not reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (if I can get it)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (possibly)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

OK, I think that’s it. That’s all I’m planning so far. That’s…20 books planned…I hope I read more than that this summer.

Impressive. I wish I could get through that many books. I just don't seem to have the time.

It seems like I have all the time in the world. Maybe I can get to your book this summer, but I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anymore books until November after I bought the Harper Trilogy. I'll see...

FINISHED: Book 34: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Review:

Rand is from a small place in an area called The Two Rivers, a place that’s very peaceful and nothing ever seems to go wrong. Until there is news about another false Dragon, a person who claims will either destroy or save the whole world. But then horrible beasts of the Dark One, Trollocs and the Myrddraal, attack them. Then Rand along with his friends Mat and Perrin and also accompanied by Thom, an Gleeman (traveler merchant), Nynaeve , as Wisdom, and Moiraine, a Aes Sedai (a woman who has the One Power). Rand is sent on a marvelous and terrifying journey that will forever change himself and the world.

Right when I finished the book my first reaction was “Yes. Finally I finished it! It took me about one month”. My second reaction was……nothing. I felt nothing. So I asked myself, “Did you like it?” And I sat there saying in a meek voice, “I don’t know.” “What do you mean you don’t know?” “……I don’t know”. You see where I’m getting at?

After about thirty minutes, I can to the conclusion it was a pretty good book. It would be a lot better if it was shortened by half. It’s very Tolkien-ish, but and that’s why I judged the same way as those books. After that, I knew exactly how good it was.

Rating: Four Stars **** 4 ½

I too felt like that with Robert Jordan's books, they were good, but would have been a lot better if they'd been cut WAY down.

Also, I liked the Pern books and I agree that they would make good movies. Anne McAffrey wrote them on a wide ark, from long ago to into the future and back and forth, as well as all around the planet and from many points of view.

Now I feel like reading them all over again :) What a great adventure you have ahead of you. You get to read so many wonderful books for the first time!

There is another one in the series, maybe the fourth or fifth, that is more pages than all of the LotR combined. Oh, speaking of that, I forgot to add the other four books in my planned reading for the summer. I need to add those.

I think the whole series spans....I don't remember. Let me see. Without looking, there was nine intervals spanning two hundred years and one with four hundred...eight passes... Let me do the math. Two thousand years? Yeah, I think that's it actually. And each different interaval adds too many characters to count. Anne wrote a lot of books in her lifetime. When I learned she wasn't writing anymore, I was wondering why. Then I learned she was....old. According to LibraryThing, she has 239 different works. I bet most of them are short stories though.

She's still co-writing with her son, Todd, and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.

I think you'll be happy to read the following as well:

http://collider.com/david-hayter-dragonflight-dragonriders-of-pern/85654/

OK, that's a start. And it's recent. I kind of half-expected it to be five years old for some reason. If it's due to start production in 2012, then it may be out in theaters maybe...2014? I'm not sure. Usually the first movies in the series takes a little longer to make.

Great! I read that article, I'll have to keep watch on that site. I wonder if they will give the thread-fall that dramatic deep canyon thunder to warn us of the danger coming? Thread wouldn't LOOK dangerous if you didn't know yet what it was going to do, so how would you show it doing its worst? I vote for the eerie lack of foliage, then a sudden scream of pain from a child walking there.

I have to read those books again.

I always imagined thread as white, very skinny eel-like organisms that, you know, have no brain, organs, etc., but have very sharp teeth at the end and...well, actually I don't know. It's been six months since I read any of those books last.

I was watching this show the yesterday (I don’t really want to say which one), and the main character was doing a book review on this one book called Animal Farm by George Orwell. As soon as I heard the author, I immediately perked up. This is the same author who wrote 1984. I listened on and…well the book review was horrible (the result was an A, but not in my standards), but it still made me interested. So I looked for the book and I found it. It looks very quick, so might as well read it. In case you don’t know, it’s about something like a group of anthromorphic (animals with all human properties) farm animals taking over the human world. There is something fascinating about anthromorphic beings and the process of anthromorphism, so this has to be somewhat cool.

I might not be around much this weekend or none at all. My great-grandma just died after two weeks of torture. Unfortunately this is the second great-grandma that died in six months. The whole family has been stressing over it. Along with that, I’ve also being worn out from my classes for the first time in history, I’ve been frustrated that I haven’t read enough, I’m tired about those stupid sicknesses, and to be bluntly honest, I’m at my breaking point right now.
……
……
……
……
That felt great to let out. Wow, I actually feel better now miraculously. I might go tomorrow or Friday to the funeral depending on the date. I never been to a funeral before, and I still don’t want to go, but I must.

Funerals are not for the dead, but for the living. Family members will undoubtedly appreciate your presence and support. And you may find some comfort in their presence as well.

So true. I will be leaving noon-ish today and will come back Tuesday. There's strength in numbers. Thanks!

Nathan, I hold you in my heart as you travel to be with your family. This is a time to think and feel about your great-grandmother and say good-bye. As I am "older" and sometimes think about the family I will leave when I die, I can say, I'd like them to remember a good time or two, and to be glad they knew me, for however short a period of time. Take good care of yourself, and hurry back to your friends here.

Thanks for that personal touch! Don't all people wonder who will remember them when they die? Thank you very much!

Yes, I think you are right, all people wonder who will remember them, even if they are too "sophisticated" to admit it. There may be some very spiritual people who have overcome this human characteristic.

There might be. Death is such a strange thing...don't mean to be gothic or anything, but sometimes I try to figure out the characteristics of death and how all people may respond to it......I think a lot.

Yeah I’m back! I can only take so much family. So here’s a short summary of what went on while I was gone alone with some references to the books I read. They are not going to be my reviews, just some random comments that I’m probably not going to put in my review.

So my journey began on Thursday at noon, and I arrived late, late at night. I fell asleep within minutes at my aunt’s house, which is the rendezvous point of my whole mom’s side of the family. Then I started to plan my days, which consisted of doing my homework, playing video games, reading, watching people play video games that I’m not interested in, playing pool, watching t.v., playing poker (I love gambling.
Remind me never to go to Vegas), and literally doing nothing. The next day went exactly the same way, except at 2:00 my cousin convinced me to go to Fast Five in the theaters. I’ve never seen any of the Fast and Furious series, but I’ll admit it’s pretty good. Especially when they steal the safe full of money and then they wipe out a whole bank, go on top of a bridge, and lay waste to all the vehicles in it.

And on Friday I finished The Hero and the Crown. I’m glad I had the chance to read it. It was truly a spectacular book. I enjoyed it all the way. And then on Saturday I started Animal Farm, but finished it on Sunday, because I wanted it to count it for May’s TIOLI challenge. I can’t love this book enough, and I’m going to do some background research on it before I review it. And before I review that, I have to post the April Review, but I’ll have my best and worst books posted up on message 1, if you care to look there.

Then on Sunday it was my great-grandmother’s funeral family get together thingy that I’m not sure what it’s called. There, I saw her body all nice a pretty…and sad. And the television was playing with a video of all the pictures and memories collected through her life. And then people started to show up. Have I ever mentioned that a lot of people that I don’t know together in a small room full of obnoxious children more annoying than me make me very irritable? Well, it’s true. These small girls probably made get well soon cards for my g-grandma. I had no idea if I should scream because of the horror, or laugh my head off because of the ridiculousness of the situation, so I did both, the former internally, the latter externally though. I know they are like 5 or 7, but still. And then they were in the ash tray…Anyway, I was there for four hours, which was 3 ½ too long for me to bear. I hope that’s the right kind of bear/bare. Word says it’s bare, but…

Now Monday was the big day. The funeral. Non-Catholic people say that Catholic weddings/funerals lasts unbearable too long, but I beg to differ. It was actually pretty short. It was a normal mass, then proceeded to the graveyard for the burial, actually no one saw it buried or the face shown, but you know what I mean. And then it was done and mom grabbed her flower and then we left. We predicted that just the mass would an hour fifteen, and the graveyard scene maybe thirty, but the whole thing together lasted just an hour fifteen. Then afterwards there was a “luncheon” with more family. Have I ever mentioned that a lot of people that I don’t know together in a small room full of obnoxious…Oh wait, yes I have.

And from there it got really boring and just wanted to go home. Don’t mean to by whinny, but like I told you, I can only stand family for so long. And being in a small room full of people I don’t know…twice… shortens my patients for family even more.

And just today I finished Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. As soon as I saw the name Menolly I was like, “Awww…it’s that woman whose queen dragon named Wirenth got killed by Kylara’s queen Prideth. That made me furious when I read it the first time, now I might read it again?” But luckily I knocked some sense into me and realized that was Brekke, not Menolly. But I know I heard of Menolly. Yes, in The White Dragon, she was there a lot. I think Jaxom liked her after he…well, yeah. But Anne did not fail to disappoint me, or did she fail to disappoint me? Anyway, it was really good, and I decided to go ahead with Dragonsinger and Dragondrums before I start anything totally new. I honestly didn’t think they would arrive so fast.

Like I said, glad to be back. It’s a new month, and I feel brand new!!!!

Nice post, DF, and I do sympathize. Glad you liked The Hero and the Crown - one of my favorites.

BTW: right "bear," wrong "patience." ;-)

Edited for typo

>88 MerryMary: Thanks! I might have to read more books by Robin McKinley. I'm not good with spelling or phrases. There is just so much phrases in the world and I don't know what the heck any of them means. I can't think of any right now, but some of them drive me crazy not knowing what they mean.

Ask. Any time.

OK. Oh, I just thought of one. I don't know how it goes exactly, but it's like "add injury to insult" or something like that. Or maybe it's vice versa, but what does that mean?

Usually it's "adding insult to injury." What it says is "It isn't enough that you hurt me. Now you have to insult me too."

It's like kicking somebody when he's down. Adding on to their misery.

>92 MerryMary: Ah, that makes sense, I should write that down somewhere...

OK, how about this list:

1. Catch-22
2. Play second fiddle
3. The bee’s knees
4. Poetic justice
5. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

1. Catch-22. There's always a "catch" that prevents good fortune. In Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, a war story, you couldn't get out of combat unless you asked, and unless you were crazy. But if you asked, that proved you weren't crazy, so you couldn't get out. It's a circular set of circumstances that has no solution; no way out.

2. Play second fiddle. The first fiddle (violin) in the orchestra is the most important instrument in the orchestra, and usually carries the melody. It means to be of second importance; the side-kick and not the star.

3. The bee's knees. Not sure about this one. It means "the best" or "the most exciting." It's from the 1920s - a bit before my time.

4. Poetic justice. This means getting exactly the reward or the punishment you deserve. It comes from a literary device, where the author makes sure the character gets what he has coming.!

5. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. When you're looking in a horse's mouth, you're looking at his teeth to see how old he is. You shouldn't analyze and criticize a gift. You should just be grateful.

***clap, clap, clap*** Well done, MerryMary! I am amazed at how long Catch-22 has lasted as an expression used with no noticeable reference to the book. DragonFreak, the book might be worth reading. I don't know that it has aged-well but maybe...

I am glad you like Animal Farm, it is one of my favorites, and the ending has another great phrase. It might go something like "we are all equal, but some are more equal than others". Does that ring a bell? Oh, oh! That's another phrase. Ring a bell = remind you.

**bows**

Phrase origins are of interest.

>94 MerryMary: and 96 Those are really great explanations! I'll never use them maybe probably, but at least now I can understand them. I'll back back to you if I need anymore help.

>95 maggie1944: I thought the book has something to do with the phrase or vice versa. My English teacher has that book on her small bookself beside the shelf. One of my teachers said something about that book, and this is almost in the exact quote (he may be joking though):
"The greatest book ever is one that you cannot read is Catch-22 Why? Because it's for people over 33."

When I saw that part of the book in Animal Farm about "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal to others" the first thing that went through my mind was: "That makes no sense". You can't be equal and unequal at the same time. It's like a mother cuts off a piece of cake and says: "OK, I'm going to give both my children equal amounts of cake, but I like my son better, so he gets more cake than my daughter." You see what I mean? I really doesn't ring a bell actually...should it?

I don't know if I'm correct in this or not, but my take on that phrase from Animal Farm would be something along the following. It is the way many "elite" thinkers reason. It is how some people act, even though they will spout words otherwise. For instance: "All men are created equal" is in our Constitution, yet people of other races and genders were not treated as if they were equal in position.

Exactly. In fact, orinigally the Constitution implies that it only relates to white men only, so in a way, no all humans were created equal.

yup, that's pretty much it! And in Communist Russia, I think (being relatively uneducated about communist Russia) I think they talk a good talk about all the comrades being equal, not like in the bad old Czar days, but you do discover that the Oligarchs are more equal, that is - the Communist Party leadership received many many privileges that no one else received, and they were less often sent to Siberia.

I think Animal Farm was written, in part, as a response to Communism and was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

I think you hit the mark on that. I think the preface to the book said something about it was also written as Orwell's real time experience.

ETA: Don't expect to see any reviews for quite a while actually. I'm majorly set back on more "important" things.

FINISHED: Book 35: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Review:

Aerin is the daughter of a king and a witch. A witch who supposedly “enspelled’ her father into loving her, and when she had a baby girl instead of a son, she died. That’s the story she has known, and for anyone, that can be a spirit breaker right from the start.

Aerin wants to do something in life, and her destiny happens to be a Dragonslayer. She used her father’s old, very trusty warhorse and found the secret recipe that repels the effect of dragon fire, and she set of the kill the pesky dragons that bother her nation. And for quite a while she was very, very successful.

Until Maur comes along. He is the evil Black Dragon of the North who’s terrorizing the villages and will eventually reach Aerin’s land. After a spectacular battle, Aerin slays Maur…but costs her livelihood. The aftermath of the battle leaves her broken and injured beyond belief. She takes the head of Maur back as proof of victory, but one girl can’t be anymore hopeless. But her story is far from over. All too soon, she has a worse fate and even worse destiny to fulfill that will make for one epic tale.

I’m glad I read this book. I really, really am. It deserves a lot of praises, and I highly recommend it to any fantasy lover of all kinds, especially those who are into very strong female roles.

Rating: Four Stars ****

And now finally, my April review. April well…sucked. Can I say “suck” on here? I can? OK, well April sucked for reading; there’s no other way around it. I only read 7 books this month, which I think is a low, and there was no five stars. But I can’t expect that every month, now can I? Well here are the standings:

Best
3. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan – This book would get an automatic two stars extra making it a six star book if it was half as long. I think that’s the problem I’m going to have with the whole series.

2. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley – As I realized just a couple of minutes ago, I love McKinley’s style of writing whatever it is. It’s like…being in a dream. Yes, that’s exactly what it is! The writing is so light and fluffy I felt like I can just wake up from it. It is also very calming, even in the most brutal scenes. So interesting.

1.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks - I have a friend who thinks it’s so pathetic that I said I hated Sparks with all my guts and then…I liked one of his books. Some friend you are! Well anyways, it’s the first realistic fiction or pure historical fiction book that I really, really liked since Chris Crutcher. I just can’t deny a good story plot when I see one.

Worst
2. Firedrake by Richard Knaak – My biggest flaw in the best/worst thing is if I don’t read enough books to make a true judging. I have a friend, the same friend who just got done with the Pern books, who’s reading this one as I type. She needed something to read fast, so I gave her this, and she must be hooked. I don’t know, it’s impossible to get anything out of her; she’s such a closed book. I still don’t know if she liked or hated the Pern books either, and won’t tell me her what is her favorite part, but is quick to remind me all the things that slipped my mind from the lack thinking about them.

3 and 1: The Final Warning and Max by James Patterson

– I think these books were the worst by default, along with Firedrake. In reality, there weren’t any really bad books for this month, these just happened to be the third and first worst. At the end of March, I really didn’t think this series would be so…uninteresting anymore.

The Hero and the Crown - I agree and I disagree with your discription. I wouldn't call the writing light and fluffy, but yes, it definitely is like being in a dream. Most of her novels are like that and I find McKinley does it well. Glad you liked it.

I've got The Eye of the World on Mt TBR, and I keep meaning to start it, but I'm waiting for a time when I know I'll be able to devote myself to it and the following books without so many distractions. I find I've been putting off chunky books lately (which is actually turning into a few years now) because I'm afraid I won't have the time to concentrate on them and really immerse myself.

The thing I regret most while reading The Eye of the World is that I kept being distracted. But if you want to read it, I say go ahead and give it a shot.

The publisher of the ER book I won, Dystopia Press, sent me an email asking if the book should be delivered by my street address or my PO box, so I'm thinking I'll see the book pretty quickly!

FINISHED: Book 36: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Review:

An old pig named Major predicted a time when the poor, abused animals of a farm with rise against their cruel owners and rule mankind. He never lived to see his vision come true, because right after that, all the other pigs, the horses, dogs, sheep, cows, hens, and cats rebelled, took control of the farm, naming it Animal Farm.

Things were going good. In fact, things were going great. The animals made their own anthem, their own flag, and their own commandments that every other animal had to live by. Among these were: All Animals are Equal, Animals Must Not Sleep in Beds or Wear Clothes, Never Drink Alcohol, and Never Kill Other Animals. This was a start to a great unity that will seemingly last forever.

If only that’s what happened. Things start to go…wrong. Traitors are among the animals, the leaders start to get too powerful, and somehow the commandments are changing, but they still seem the same. For some reason, this “perfect” society that Major predicted doesn’t seem so good…

I loved this book. It’s so much better than 1984 which I gave Four and a Half Stars. If I could go higher than Five Stars, I would give it an 8 ½. This may be a story a story about political confliction mirroring real life, but to me, it’s so much more than that. To me, it’s about the dystopian books I love so much: societies going bad. Real bad. Let me tell you why I loved it so much

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

This kept reminding me of The Lord of the Flies. Now what Golding did is use innocent boys symbolizing pure humans and using that to symbolize why we are so evil. Orwell may or may not have had that in mind when he used animals, but that’s how I interpreted it. There’s a dream of freedom that the animals have, and the revolt and succeed. And because of all the evil in the world, the society collapses, but at the same time…survives and thrives.

The first thing that went wrong is that there is a rule in the commandments that no animals shall sleep in beds. But the pigs do. Now since the pigs are so much smarter than all the other animals, they convinced them that the rule has always been: No Animals Shall Sleep in Beds With Sheets. Since all animals have beds of some sort, but not sheets, it’s alright to sleep in beds then. Nothing major, right?

Another thing that happened is that towards the end of the book where the book is even more face paced than the previously, the pigs start drinking alcohol. Wait, was that against the commandments? No, the rule is that No Animals Shall Drink to an Excess. You see the pattern? And since all the other animals are so stupid, of course, they just forgot it or missed it.

Backing up a little bit, there were to possible leaders: Napoleon and Snowball, both pigs. Snowball lost and Napoleon declared him a traitor and was a spy to their previous owner. Well, there was a slaughtering of animals, because so many things were going wrong, and a myriad of animals confessed that they did something horrible to the farm suggested by Snowball. Actually, most of them were pretty harmless, but if it was any way bad at all, they are dead. Even the dumbest of animals suddenly thought that there was a commandment that said no animal shall kill another. But no, they proved their stupidity, because the commandment actually said: No Animal Shall Kill Another Without a Reason. You see how Napoleon is changing the rules their supposed to live by?

And then, at the very end, everything changes. The pigs wear clothes and walk on two legs, and those are both against the commandments. There’s no way the other animal can possibly miss that, because the sheep constantly chant, “Two legs good, Four legs bad.” But strangely they now say, “Two legs good, Four legs Better”. And all those commandments, it just gets replaced by one single commandment: All Animals are Equal, but Some Animals are More Equal than Others. Do you see the flaw in that? You can’t be equal and no equal at the same time. The society just went bad. And at the end, the pigs and humans looked exactly alike.

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

And for you how read the long spoilers, that’s why I love this book. I love flaws in characters and other things. You know why? Because it’s very natural to have flaws. Very Highly Recommended. You can learn a thing or two just like I did.

Rating: Five Stars *****

FINISHED: Book 37: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

Review:

Menolly’s talent is music, and she excels above all others at it. The problem: her parents won’t let her. They don’t want her to play music, but to behave and just to do the boring, unfair jobs at the Hold that almost always ends in disaster. But behind their backs, Menolly is an apprentice, but everyone but her master thinks she is a boy. Now she can live her dream.

But of course, not for long. Menolly accidently cuts her hand wide open making in incapable of moving…incapable of playing music. She soon runs away from the Hold even when the dread of Thread is very high. And what she finds is unbelievable. She finds the once “mythical” Queen fire lizard with a Clutch of eggs. Menolly soon realizes that the Queen is in trouble. The tide is coming in, and the place where the eggs are, they will eventually drown. Menolly successfully helps the Queen move the eggs manually, because if the Queen goes between, then the eggs will die. And when the eggs hatch, Menolly Impresses the eight eggs and the Queen, which she names Beauty. She did the thing on accident that most other people would literally die for just to have one fire lizard.

Despite Menolly’s horrible luck in the past, it soon seems the things are looking up, and with the newly found friendship of her fire lizards, what could go wrong?

I truly feel sorry of Menolly. She’s forced to live a life that she doesn’t want to live. Of course, I think most people can connect with Menolly’s feelings. Most people can probably remember a time when their parents want to do something that is “the best” for them. And to me, this story is just about what life is like for a typical person with dreams that can’t come true. Naturally, it was very good.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

I’m halfway into Dragonsinger, and I found this really cool poem made by Menolly at the beginning of Chapter Six.

The tears I feel today
I’ll wait to shed tomorrow.
Though I’ll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight;
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to talk
No choked with grief, clear-minded.
My mouth cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
Yes, I’ll keep my tears till later;
But my grief will never go
-Menolly’s “Song for Petiron”

Also, I keep forgetting to say that I finally order A Game of Thrones from the library. I was forcing myself to order it on May 16th, but that’s way too far away, and then I’ll have to wait for it to get here, so I just ordered it now, and I’ll read it when it gets here. I may have to push back my Mercedes Lackey books further done my list, and if my ER book arrives soon, I’ll push those books down further. I’m afraid I won’t be able to read them in time for when May ends, because I created a challenge specifically to make those books count, so that’ll be kind of embarrassing I guess.

FINISHED: Book 38: Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

Review:

Everything finally seems to go right with Menolly. She is a new apprentice Harper, she can finally play her music freely and people everywhere love it, and she has nine wonderful fire lizards. Unfortunately, Menolly’s fate isn’t that easy or perfect. She’s recovering from her gutting accident and her feet being cut, her teachers are somewhat hard on her, some students at Harper Hall are really mean to her for no apparent reason, and everything that Menolly does or when someone does something to her, her fire lizards always get in her way and ends up disastrous. But throughout it all, Menolly struggles to find her place in the strange planet of Pern.

No comments. It’s just as good as Dragonsong. And the chronological time is still within the book Dragonquest, but at the very end of it.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

Dragonsinger is one my beloved rereads. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Well it's a Pern book so of course I'm going to love it. I also realized in that book that all the dragons end in TH for some reason. It's like Chris D'Lacey's dragons all begin with G, but that's more confusing.

Anyways, on to Dragondrums.

Great news: Just got my ARC copy of 20 Years Later by Emma Newman today! It came with a packet about the book and a handwritten letter addressed specifically to me. Any publishing company who would take time to do that is a pretty darn good company in my opinion. So after I get done with Dragondrums I’ll read that…unless A Game of Thrones comes in and then I’ll go back and forth from each other.

Speaking about Dragondrums, I’m halfway into it, and I realized something. There’s a character in there named Piemur who’s like the Justin Bieber of Pern. He’s young, and has a voice like a girl, and all the girls love him, and he lost his golden voice…OK, so that hasn’t happen to Beaver yet, but pretty soon, I can stop calling him Justine unfortunately.

Oooh, I wrote that! 20 Years Later that is. I hope you enjoy it!

I read A Game of Thrones years ago, and I loved it - the TV adaptation really is excellent. Might have to go and re-read books 2 and 3 now, and then catch up on book 4 before number 5 comes out. Blimey, there's so much to read!

>115 Emapocalyptic: Hello! I didn't know you were an LT author. You're not listed as one. I will start your book sometime tomorrow and depending on the conditions, I will get it done by Sunday and review it. That is, if A Game of Thrones doesn't come in soon. And yes, there is so much to read.

Hey, you said blimey. Now I know for sure you're British!

Hehe, I most definitely am, and to prove it further, I have a nice cup of tea right beside me :)

>117 Emapocalyptic: Funny! I can't have tea. With the meds I have I end up throwing up from the caffine...same with coffee...why am I telling you this..........That's why I love rootbeer. That's my cup of tea.

ooh rootbeer, yum.

Especially the A & W kind.

FINISHED: Book 29: Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

Review:

Piemur is the friend of Menolly in the Harper Hall. His reason for being there: his unnaturally high-pitched, golden voice that is absolutely amazing. Piemur knew his voice wouldn’t be that way forever, and he was right. Just before Master Domick’s new ballad about Lessa, which he wrote specifically for Piemur to sing Lessa’s part, his voice suddenly changes when he hit puberty. Piemur is afraid that he is now going to be kicked out of Harper Hall, but Master Robinson has other plans. Piemur is now going to be a drum apprentice and is going to work for the Masterharper. This is different, but it’s good to Piemur.

But like Menolly when she arrived, things started to get complicated. His peers hate him for the same reason Menolly’s peers hated her: he is too good. While the rest of the class struggled, he flew by the rest of them with no trouble at all. Also, Piemur has a problem with speaking his mind, and lately, it’s been getting him into much trouble. Also, he really wants a fire lizard, and Menolly promised an egg of her golden fire lizard, Beauty, when she mates. But both of them know that that promise won’t happen, since Menolly has no control over who gets Beauty’s eggs. In this final book of the Harper Hall Trilogy, chaos breaks loose and the madness over the fire lizards increases.

At first when I learned that this book was more about Piemur and not about Menolly, I groaned and thought, wow, this is going to be bad. But was I wrong. It was better than both Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. Why? It’s was more surprising. There were more twist and turns. I’m glad I didn’t pay attention to the back, because it told the whole plot of the book. Dragondrums was the perfect ending to a perfect trilogy!

Rating: Five Stars *****

Notes that I’m not going to put on the book’s work page:

At the end, I remembered that Piemur was too in the book The White Dragon. What triggered my memory: his runner beast named Stupid. Can’t forget anybody with that name, now can I? Also, the fire lizards affect their Impressed humans just as strongly as the real Dragonriders do, especially when it comes for them to mate. Wait, I’m getting a flashback. I knew that already. In Dragonsdawn, I think that may of helped the goal of populating Pern. Yes, that’s right in fact. Pesky things those fire lizards. Not worth the trouble in my opinions. I’d much rather have the larger, genetically mutated ones instead.

#120, I agree, the floats at the A&W restaurant, where the rootbeer's on tap, yum. Mmmmm I want a rootbeer float.

Never been to one of those restuarants. They don't come around where i live. Have you ever had an orange pop float? Tastes exactly like Sherbert.

No I haven't but it sounds wonderful, what kind of orange soda is best?. My first experience with an A&W restaurant was when I lived in Minnesota...sadly I don't know if there is one on the island (HI-where I live now)

>124 Joybee: Well the restaurants are owned by Yum! Brands. Sorry, but it's fun to say, that's why it's bolded.

About the orange float: almost any orange pop is good, but if you want it the best, make in a brand name like Crush or Sunkist. It also works with grape, strawberry, and Coke. I haven't tried Coke, but people say it's good. Oh the things you can do with vanilla ice cream and carbonated soda!

FINISHED: Book 40: 20 Years Later by Emma Newman

Review:

Zane lives in the post-apocalyptic town of London, England i where there are bones and skulls of past humans that litter everywhere and a state of almost anarchy resides. The literacy rates of new humans are very low, and their brains develop slowly from the lack of education and order. In London, there are three gangs: The Bloomsbury Boys, The Gardners, and the much feared Red Lady’s Gang. Here, each gang are mortal rivals struggling to survive in the horrible state.

Zane is one of the Boys of The Bloomsbury Boys and lives with his mom, Miri, which is the only female in the gang. The leader of the Red Lady’s Gang, the Red Lady herself wanted to meet Zane, and seduced his somewhat immature mind into letting one of her Hunters train him.

But that’s not the worst part. Life for Zane gets much harder. And soon he strives out to find everything: who is his father, why are the Unders taking all the females, and most importantly: How did the world-wide apocalypse start? The answers to these questions are shocking to Zane as everything in the world is about to change. Again.

You know, for a debut author, this is a pretty good book. It certainly kept me entertained, and whenever the plot got boring, and it happens a couple of times, the book gets much, much better all of a sudden. And like I said in the summary up above, the reason for the apocalypse is so twisted and dark, it’s almost unbelievable.

All in all, very good. I will definitely be looking for a sequel.

Rating: Four Stars ****

Sounds interesting, I'm adding it to my list.

Your welcome!

>125 DragonFreak: -

Coke floats are quite good. I highly recommend them.

FINISHED: Book 41: In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells

Review:

William “Willie” Leadford is a student in a British town called Clayton. He, like most people at that time, is a socialist and wants a change in power for the higher ranked class. Willie is stuck in this horrible circle of love where he loves Nettie, and one day Nettie is now married to an upper class gentleman, which breaks his heart. All the while, a mysterious green comet is coming closer and closer to the Earth, but it seems that the new war with Germany is much more important.

On the night of the Change, Willie decides to kill Nettie, his husband, and then kill himself. That was his plan, until the comet crashes into Earth, changing everything…for the better. When Willie wakes, he feels happy and pure, and realized for the first time how horrible it was to kill his love. The comet changed everyone else too to this strange sense of relaxation and kindness. And as his adventure goes on, he contemplates on his life before the days of the comet.

Despite how ideally interesting this book sounds, it’s really not that interesting. I’ve read The Time Machine by Wells and felt horribly disinterested in the book. The book is missing something. I can’t tell what, but there’s some sort of element that lacked in both books. But I can tell you, I’m probably not going to read anymore Wells books.

Rating: Three Stars ***

FINISHED: Book 42: A Game of Thrones by George Martin



The Seven Kingdoms of Westero is ruled by Houses like the Starks, the Baratheons, and the Lannisters and others, each of them very powerful, very influential, and potentially very deadly.

Up in the North are the Starks where bitterly cold weather is always a threat. Their House words Winter is Coming and indeed it is. After a decade or so of non-stop summer, winter is approaching, and with that, comes the unknown. Eddard “Ned” Stark the current ruler of the Starks along with her wife Catelyn of the House of Tully. Their children are Robb, the oldest fourteen years old and the heir to Ned’s throne. Then his two daughters Sansa and Arya, is next. Sansa age 11 is the typical princess stereotype, and her dream is to be queen with her betrothed Joffrey , the heir to the Baratheons. Arya, with 9 years on her, is the complete opposite of Sansa, and because of that, they fight constantly. And last, Brandon or Bran, age 7, and Rickon, who’s only three. But Stark also has an illegitimate son named Jon Snow. Jon has high respect and love for his father and honors him, but how can he when time after time again someone points it out that he shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

The Baratheon House is in the southern continent ruled by King Robert. He’s a good ruler, but he has many faults and weaknesses, it gets in the way of his duties. His wife Cersei of Lannister House doesn’t have the best reputation either. Also there is Prince Joffrey, the son of the King and Queen, and Sansa’s fantasy husband. When Robert’s top advisor Jon Arryn dies without reason, he picks his childhood friend Eddard Stark to take his place, and Eddard reluctantly agrees to the position.

Tywin Lannister is the Lord of the House of Lannister, father of three very unique children. His two oldest are twins named Jaime and Cersei, who the latter is the wife of King Robert. Jaime is also called the Kingslayer, because he murdered Aerys II, called the Mad King, of the Targaryen House.

And finally there is Daenerys or Dany, of the Targaryen House with his brother Viserys. They are the last of the Targaryens, the Blood of the Dragons. When they get exiled to a new continent to the east, Dany is forced to marry Khal Drogo. It seems like everybody wants to kill Dany, because they don’t want another King like Aerys II, and no one wants her dead more than King Robert.

These are most of the characters in the book, and just for a few pages, everything seems good, but it’s not. Dangers are around every corner, no one is safe, and many people are in line for a throne, and winning one is very dangerous. And soon, only one thing is for certain: When you play the game of thrones, you win or die.

There are two things I look for in a book: Great plot, and even greater characters. The plot is outstanding. Even when I thought this one event was going to happen, it didn’t, it was much better than I thought it would be, and at the same time, much worse. It’s not predictable, never boring, and full of surprises on every page.

Then the characters, oh they are so great. I foolishly got very connected with them, wanting them to never get injured or to die, making me feel like they are my friends. Very few books make me have that feeling. Also in addition to character I love, there are also characters that I hate with a passion. Characters I want to stab in the back and send them to the seven hells.

I know a million other reviews say this, but I’m saying it again. Read this book. Seriously. I can’t guarantee you’ll love this book, but I’ll bet my life that you won’t hate it, and why not read it if you know you’ll not going to hate it? This book is now in my Top Five list of the best books I have ever read, and I’m thinking it’ll be on that list for a very long time.

Rating: Five Stars ***** (although if I could, it would be much, much higher)

Welcome to the Song of Ice and Fire cult family.

I'm happy to join!

Yes, this evening I have the rare privilege of "babysitting" the toddlers and their older bro while the parental units go out to dinner to celebrate my niece's birthday. I'm looking forward to sitting in the comfy chair and reading while the kids rule the house. Seriously, they are very good kids and no harm shall be done. Of course, they know their Great Aunt and she does rule with an iron will; therefore, they will not harm each other or the house. Conclusion: I'll get to read! Book 3 is on my nook, waiting for me to continue.

Loved your review, Dragon Freak, it was very nicely written and should bring in more folks to our happy band of Ice and Fire lovers.

Thanks so much! Have fun "babysitting". That's usually how I do it, except they never listen to me.

Game of Thrones is waiting for me at #1 on the To-Read list on my Kindle. Just trying to get through short stories first and stuff in line for convention. Then I'll start!

(Who am I kidding? I'll probably start editing book 2...)

Dragon Freak, the babysitting was not all wonderful peacefulness. Thiese kids do not have enforced bedtimes and so when parents are not home, getting them to actually go to bed is quite the challenge. They won, but parents assisted in the victory by getting home pretty early, maybe 9:15 pm.

Life is good.

>136 rtkaelin: I'm very interested to see what you think of it! Also, I need Book 1 of yours cheap, because it sounds good, but don't do that until November, because I'm on a no-book-buying ban for me, which is driving me insane.

>137 maggie1944: I see. Babysitting is never peaceful, especially if someone babysat a 4-8 year old me. I was very difficult, and to prove it, I got kicked out of kidnergarten and made the newly enrolled principal to quit his job. Well I think I did, he didn't like me...

You must have been a very powerful personality in the Kindergarten classroom! But speaking from the perspective of a 30 year educator, having seen Principals come and Principals go.... one Kindergarten kid, no matter how challenging, would be the sole reason for a Principal to leave their position. You might have been a contribution to the decision, but probably not the only cause.

But on the other hand, I was not there, so I really don't know. Hope not....

>140 DragonFreak: Funny. Well it's just a good thing my behavior problem finally straightened out after...fifth grade. I'm really glad I don't have a good memory, because some of the things I did...well, that's the past now.

Great news. I just one my second ER book Escape from Zobadak by Brad Gallagher, which was the only book I really wanted from the list. Yeah!

FINSIHED: Book 43: The Lark and Wren by Mercedes Lackey



Rune's dream is to be part of the Bardic Guild, but her dream seems very distant. She's cursed to be working in a small inn and have a bad reputation just because her mother is a whore. What she can do is play a fiddle really, really well. And one day she makes a bet that she can go the Ghost of Skull Hill and survive the night. There the ghost arrives and she makes a deal with him that if she can play all night and not bore him, Rune will live. And all through that night, Rune played her soul out, and lived…with a bag full of silver.

Upon going back, she realizes that her dream to be part of the Guild will never come true if she stays, so she runs away with only the silver and her precious fiddle. In a town far away she meets up with her first music teacher named Tonno, where she also finds her a home in a place called Amber’s to work, which coincidently is a whorehouse and befriends all four of them (later two more) and a worker named Maddie.

For months she trained to be in the big competition to automatically become a Bard, but only one problem: women are frowned upon horribly. And what happens after the competition is over is just half of the book, the other half is a new situation full of new surprises and one great adventure.

Surprising, I loved this book. I didn’t expect much the first 100-150 pages or so, but I warmed up to it, and it was really good. The thing I thought I wouldn’t like about it, it turned out all right. In my review up above, Rune worked in a whorehouse as an entertainer. When I saw that, the first thing I thought was Really Lackey? You really want to go there? but the whores were made…not moral by all means, but very likable characters. It’s hard to explain without reading the book, but them and other later characters in the book I can’t say without putting a spoiler warning on it are very, very likable characters also.

So in short, not truly a fantasy book by all means, but it kept me engaged in 3/5 of the book.

Rating: Four Stars ****

To prove how good May was, I’m going to do the worst section first.

WORST
1. In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells – Wait, no third or second? Nope. Those places would’ve been The Lark and Wren and 20 Years Later by Emma Newman, and those have absolutely no reason why they should be in the worst section. This one, well it should be. I don’t know what’s with both of the Wells books, but it’s just missing something important. And I think what: The lack of good characters. In The Time Machine, both plot and characters seemed very flat, and in In the Days of the Comet, it wasn’t much better. The plot I admit was better, but I didn’t give a hoot what happened to the main character, which was so forgettable I forgot him already. No more H G Wells books for me.

BEST
3. The Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey – I just love Pern, and this set of books was perfectly flawless in every way. In fact the below books are even more flawless, but it always seems that non-first time series books just naturally fall lower in the ratings compared to first-time series books and non-series books, but these didn’t fail to keep the rating just as high as when I first read Dragonflight. On what planet are there genetically altered dragons with rider saving its planet’s citizens from doom? A planet I want to live on!

2. Animal Farm by George Orwell – For such a little book of only 140 pages, this book really made me think. I think I’ve mentioned before that I love books about societies going bad, and this book is about that. Orwell didn’t fail me again!

1. A Game of Thrones by George Martin – Ha, two George’s right in a row. What are the chances? Anyways, you knew this was coming right? Need I say anything anymore?

So for Sunday through about Wednesday I’ll be gone, but I plan to read, read, read. And then I’ll have to review them all…I should pre-write them. Also for another heads up, the weekend before Father’s Day, I’ll be gone again for another 1-2 weeks. You see my other, other, other Great-Grandmother on my step-father’s side of the family is having her 90th birthday party, so there’ll be another family reunion. And there is only 6-7 people on his side of the family that’ll I’ll actually know out of the possible…dozens…Just grin and bear it I guess.

So today is garage sale day! Where the whole city has a garage sale. There were two places that had a whole lot of books. The first had 100-150 books, but with one problem: they were all romance books, and probably wasn’t even fantasy romance either! Also the covers did not look appealing to a male’s brain, so I just left.

Then the second had a better selection. There were five James Patterson books, but there was only one that wasn’t in the middle of a series, and it didn’t catch my interest. Then there were four John Grisham books, and I decided to buy one, so I picked the best looking one called The Brethren. Then jackpot! It was the book The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which I kind of always wanted to read.

Two more books into my library and it only cost 2 dollars apiece, which is a pretty good deal considering how thick they are.

See you all Wednesday, unless I can sneak onto another computer, which is expected.

138 >

Not sure if ebooks are an option for you, but Progeny is available for both the Kindle and Nook for $4.44.

>144 rtkaelin: Not anymore it isn't, but if it was, I would buy that right now. Seriously.

I'm doing a giveaway it at Good Reads (as soon as they approve it) to mark my time at Origins. Throw your hat in the ring.

Or...if I have a bunch of books leftover after the convention, I'm thinking of selling signed copies via ebay for 30% under cover.

>146 rtkaelin: Well if you do sell some on EBay, notify me instantly.

Book 44: The Robin and Kestrel by Mercedes Lackey



Jonny Brede “Kestrel” and Gwyna “Robin” have separated from Rune and the rest of the Free Bard group to go on their separate ways together. They’re married, and since Robin is a gypsy, so is Kestrel. The plan is to go out, and happily play music for everybody.

But that plan gets crushed in an instant. The Church is controlling a number of things, and one of those is that it’s illegal to play music unless you are in the Bard Guild, which to the members of the Free Bard, they are worthless and lazy. And know what Robin and Kestrel love to do, is punishable by death.

Now they are on a mission to change these absurd laws and to take down the Church. The problem is, they are two people versus a great power, but maybe they can get help from something. Maybe the Ghost of Skull Hill, the same one the Rune went to and earned a sack of silver…

While in the first book I’ll have to say it was the most exciting the first 2/3 of the book, and then got boring the last third, this one was boring the first 2/3 of the book and most exciting the last third. It’s a pretty common thing to have books criticizing the workings of the Church, heck I do, and I’m in it. But those are for good reasons, which makes the book both cliché, but also very exciting. I was satisfied with the ending, and it makes me want to read the third.

Rating: Four Stars ****

Book 45: Running Loose by Chris Crutcher



“Hey, you know, this isn’t a whole lot of fun.”
“Ain’t is it? Not hardly worth playin’. Funny too, ‘cause the rules are simple and easy.”

Louie Banks doesn’t have the worst life. His friends and people he knows have it bad with abusive parents and bad influences, but compared to them, Louie lives like a god. With great friends, a fantastic football player, and the most wanted girlfriend in the school named Becky, who’s eyes makes guys ache for her. What can go wrong?

Apparently a lot. In a big game, Louie fights against the coach who ordered one of his players to hurt the star player on the opposite team, and what he gets for that is getting kicked out of the team. It’s still not that bad. He has supporters that love him and care for him including Becky, but as things start to look better, Louie’s life is running loose.

All of Chris Crutcher’s main characters have relatively good lives. They always do compare to their best friend or one of their enemies. Also, Crutcher makes you want to root for the main character, because every other one ticks you off, including any/all Catholics. That and with drugs, abuse, language, and other suggestive themes, no wonder people want to ban his books, but each books has their own lesson, but you have to look inside yourself to figure that out. I highly recommend all of his books. They’re short, and to me, guarantee satisfaction.

Rating: Four Stars ****

Book 46: The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher



Eddie Proffit and Billy Bartholomew are best friends, but nobody knows why. Billy is the smartest kid in the class, while everyone thinks Eddie is an idiot. In reality, people think that because he asks questions no one has an answer for like “Why didn’t the whale’s stomach acids destroy Jonah?”, but Eddie is a genius in disguise, and Billy saw right through it. They are inseparable.

Just one tiny detail is wrong: Billy’s dead. He accidently killed himself during a sledding accident, but their friendship is not going to end, in fact, it’s going to get closer. Billy’s now a ghost and now follows Eddie to help him in his greatest time of need.

It’s now the first day of school, and both Eddie and Billy planned to be in a class called Really Modern Literature, where you can only read books by live authors. The teacher plans to read their first book together called Warren Peace by Chris Crutcher. The thing is, there is a lot of Catholics in that class, and they don’t like all the abortions, the drugs, the language, how good Crutcher makes gay people look, and they want to ban the book without really reading it. Eddie decides to stand up to this. And with Billy by his side, nothing can go wrong, can it?

This is not a typical Crutcher book. For one thing, all the other books I’ve read to him has to be realistic fiction, but with the topic of Billy being a ghost, that’s really not that possible. Also, he mentions a book written by him, that doesn’t exist, which I’ll tell you why later on. And third, he’s a character in his own book.

In the back of this book, there are extras that told me the purpose of this book. Apparently, he wrote this one to fight back against the banning of his books. So The Sledding Hill is actually a censorship book about people wanting to censor his books, and he made up a book, because he didn’t want another one of his books to be part of the banning. Also, and this part is really smart, there is a whole absence of language, drugs, abuse, or anything else that people who look for in a book that would make it banned. Pretty much if you read this, you know the essence of every Crutcher book out there.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

Book 47: Dark of the Moon by John Sandford



In the little town of Bluestem, things seem peaceful. This is a town where everybody knows each other and what they are doing at all times. But the horrific murder of Bill Judd Sr. uproots the whole town. His death was caused by a fire in his house and he went down with him. Judd wasn’t very popular, in fact, ever since the infamous Jerusalem Artichoke Scam, people hated him. It almost seemed inevitable that he’ll be killed.

Virgil Flowers, part of the BCA, was called in to solve this murder. It seemed like a simple “Who Done It” case, but again there was another murder. Two actually, a couple about Judd’s age, the Gleasons. Now the case is stranger and gets more personal. Virgil realizes that these murders aren’t some random thrill-seeking kills, they’re something more, much more. This didn’t start with the scam, no, this started 30-40 years ago because of Judd’s actions, and the lives it will affect will be far great.

Truth be told, I thought this book was pretty darn good. The plot is complicated, maybe a little too unnecessarily complicated at times, but overall, very good. Recommended.

Rating: Four Stars ****

Book 48: Powers That Be by Anne McCaffrey

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½

Book 49: The Lake House by James Patterson



In Colorodo, six unusual children named Max, Ozymandias (Oz), Icarus, Matthew, Peter, and Wendy are in trial. It’s not them that are fighting, but Frannie and Kit, their “parents” versus their actual parents. You see, these children are genetically mutated superhumans that are part human, part bird. Their mothers were unknowingly part of a secret experiment and at last they have found their parents, but the kids don’t want them. Before the trial, the children were found by Frannie and Kit, and like real birds, they imprinted on them. Frannie and Kit did all they could to gain custody, but failed. Now all eight of their dreams of living at the Lake House, the one place where it’s truly safe, is crushed.

Time has passed and the kids are separated and try to live life normally, but that’s not easy when they have wings with IQ and strength that’s off the charts, and having the Press constantly trying to film them. But that’s not the worst part.

Dr. Ethan Kane is the surgeon of Liberty General Hospital and the mastermind of the Resurrection. His plan is to save the world forever while destroying it. In this Hospital, people die for his cause, and there is nothing that can stop him, except for Max and her Flock. He doesn’t want to kill her, because she’s worth millions, and pretty soon the special place called the Lake House may not be so good anymore.

I’ve wanted to read this book because it inspired the Maximum Ride books. I thought they’ll be very similar, but it’s not at all. In the MR books, the characters goof off half the time, but in here, it’s all serious, all the time. Also the MR books are kind of scientific with the characteristics of the bird-humans, but this one is a lot more scientific with way more “realistic” physical and mental bird DNA. What I like is that all of them, especially the oldest Max and Oz, have very high levels of bird instincts.

In short, this book is better than all of the MR books combined. It would be five stars, but the book just ended. I kind of wanted more, and there were some unanswered questions I would love to know, but all in all, very good.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

Not part of the Review

There was an author’s note at the beginning and said why is his first flying novel When the Wind Blows is popular because of either people fantasize about flying or it may be possible the contents may actually happen in our lifetime. Patterson said the latter, but I’ll strongly disagree with him and go with the former, because that’s the one of the only two reasons why I like the MR series.

Oh, and my library has When the Wind Blows, which sounds exactly like a prequel of The Lake House, so I’m going to read that very soon.

The Lake House sounds really good, Dragon. For some reason, I've been resisting picking up a James Patterson book, but you've intrigued me with this and the Maximum Ride books. Why did I think he was just a mystery writer?

Maybe because he's primarily is. Kind of. I think his most popular books are mystery. The Lake House is really good. I'll be looking out for it on your thread if you ever decide to read it!

BEST:

3. Dark of the Moon by John Sandford – It’s my first legit mystery, so I guess it’s a big deal whether or not I’m going to like the genre or not. It was pretty good. Like I said in my review, the plot was complicated, maybe a little too complicated, but that works for me.

2. The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher – It’s not a typical Crutcher book with the first person character being a ghost. It also contains no swearing, no drugs, and no reason for people to ban that book, which was his goal. And as abnormal as it was, he hit the mark head on.

1. The Lake House by James Patterson – This is way better than the Maximum Ride books by two miles. It’s all serious all the time and there is more bird DNA in Max’s flock of mutant freaks than MR, which for me, the freakier, the better. It is really weird, like off-the-charts weird, but I’m used to things like this. Now I really want to read When the Wind Blows.

Worst:

1. Powers That Be by Anne McCaffrey – This is the only one of the six-book month that was “bad”. My expectations for this books must’ve been estimated 6 out of 5 stars, because it fell really flat. Actually not that bad. I did rate it Three and a Half Stars, but that’s a Two and a Half Stars down from 6 stars. Plus, what was supposed to be the biggest shocker of the book, I knew it 110%.

BOOK 50: CRAZY HORSE ELECTRIC GAME BY CHRIS CRUTCHER



Willie is on top of the word when he wins the baseball game of the season dubbed The Crazy Horse Electric Game. He’s invincible, he’s unstoppable, he’s untouchable. That is until the accident that left him hopelessly crippled. He can hardly move, hardly talk, and there is hardly a thing he can do about it. And while he’s crippled, he sees his perfect, non-fighting mother and father slowly drive each other away, and his girlfriend cheat on him. And there is nothing he can do about it. So he runs away.

He ends up quite by chance at OMLC High School. The letters stand for One More Last Chance, and are a place where people with mental and physical disabilities go to be helped and nurtured. There he starts to feel more and better, but what is waiting for him elsewhere? Willie is not the same person as he was at the time of the Crazy Horse Electric Game.

This one was kind of a dud book, and I knew it was going to be. It wasn’t bad by any means of the sense, but compared to the other Crutcher books, it fell flat. But like I said, it wasn’t bad at all.

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½

Book 51: Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher



Dillon Hemingway’s life is turned upside down the day he watched his brother Preston commit suicide. It killed him, his family, and all his loved ones inside-out emotionally. But that’s only the beginning of Dillon’s trouble. As he trains for a triathlon that will put him in a coveted race called the Ironman in Hawaii, he has to deal with two girls, one his brother’s long-time girlfriend, Stacy, the other, his want-to-be girlfriend named Jennifer.

Stacy has always treated Dillon as a friend. Sure she always plays tricks on him and gets him in trouble, especially when he was young, but he was the one closest to Preston, and knows why he may of did his terrible act.

But Jennifer has an even darker secret. When Jennifer was little, her father used to touch her inappropriately. Her mom and dad divorced naturally, but now her new step-father, a big hotshot lawyer, does the same thing…only much, much worse. He threatens her that if she tells, both her mom and sister will get it. And when she did called Child Protection Service, he killed Jennifer’s dog, and managed to convince CPS that Jennifer is only trying to kick him out. And the only one who has any hope to save her is Dillon.

With these new set of complications, Dillon has tough choices to make that will make more than one life fate sealed. If he’s to succeed, he’s going have to go by the lesson of Chinese handcuffs: if you want to do it right, you have to do the opposite of what you normally do.

This is by far the best Crutcher book I have ever read. It’s intense, it’s scary, it’s full of twists, and the sympathy you feel towards the characters is astronomical. I highly recommend this to any person who not overly sensitive.

Rating: Five Stars *****

Up Next is When the Wind Blows by James Patterson, followed by my May ER book Escape from Zobadak by Brad Gallagher, and then maybe A Clash of Kings by George Martin, but I might save that until the 12 hour car trip on the day of the move.

Book 52: When the Wind Blows by James Patterson



Frannie, recently widowed a year and a half ago, lives in Colorado and is the town’s veterinary nurse. Her life is boring and sad ever since her husband was murdered, and that day still haunts her. Little did she know, her life was going to get a lot more interesting.

The day she met Kit, is the day that things start to get odd. For one thing, Kit is an FBI agent, and he came to Colorado to look into a secret organization that he was thrown off of. There have been clues that led him to believe that someone was doing highly illegal experiments on humans for some reason unknown. Frannie, not knowing Kit’s true identity, let him stay in her cabin as he doubled as a guy on vacation.

Then later that night, Frannie saw a young girl running through the woods. One problem though, she has wings. And over the next day, she sees her again and again. Her name is Max, short for Maximum, and she’s the creation of one of the mutants that secret organization is making, ultimately for the good of all human life. Max is very weary of all humans. All her life she was kept in this horrible place called the School, where she’s been tested on and kept in a very solemn place where everyday experiments are “put to sleep”, and Frannie, with the help of Kit, capture Max and convince her that she’s OK with them.

And that’s only the beginning. Somewhere Max’s best friend Matthew, who is also the same genetically, is struggling for his life. Also forces are beginning to rise and soon Frannie and Kit can trust absolutely no one. Frannie’s life is changed forever along with the rest of the world.

Fantastic book. It was really slow in the beginning, but the last one hundred pages are the best.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

So I decided that after I read the rest of the Maximum Ride books, I’ll read his Alex Cross books if they are available. I want to see what they are about.

Book 53: Escape from Zobadak by Brad Gallagher



Uncle Gary Fyfe was probably the best person in the world to his nephew Billy and niece Sophie. He’s fun and imaginative, and he can build things from wood that no one else can. His furniture is amazing, so amazing it’s unreal. And then one day he disappeared.

Billy and Sophie’s father told them their uncle owed someone enormous amounts of money, and maybe that’s why he’s missing. Their family went to retrieve the belongings of Uncle Gary, but all they found was sawdust that was feet upon feet deep. And in the basement was just one piece of furniture: a nightstand.

As soon as the nightstand was transported to Billy’s room, two mysterious people came. They claimed they were from the Zobadak Wood Company and wants back a rare piece of wood as part of a shipping error. They looked and smelled creepy and disgusting. When they left, their house was plagued by hordes of crows.

But things start to get even stranger. The nightstand in Billy’s room is magical. It will transport them to a world unknown, a place that Uncle Gary might be. And they must find him quick, because pretty soon Billy and Sophie must escape from Zobadak.

This was a pretty good children’s book. When I was 12, I would go nuts over books like this. Now out of the things I didn’t like, there was really no reason not to like it. It wasn’t flawless, but I know that children who love fantasy would think it’s perfect. Overall, it definitely was worthwhile and engaging.

Rating: Four Stars ****

*pokes, prods, and gently nudges you out of The Lurking Corner*

Dragon! Post more! More! More! *grin*

~Pandora~

OK, now that you disturbed me, I'm out of the shadows. I am going to post another review pretty soon. It's going to be a nice, long review.

Book 54: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman



Eon is a candidate to be the Dragoneye to the Rat Dragon. Every year, one of the twelve dragons, each one named after an animal of the Chinese Zodiac, chooses a new Dragoneye apprentice, who will eventually become a Master Dragoneye. This particular year, Eon, his friend Dillon, and ten other much stronger 12-year-old boys compete. The winner will become the Rat Dragoneye. But Eon is crippled, and because of that, people despise him, and it seems that he’ll never win. Except that he can sense all of the eleven dragons with ease, which is a very rare talent. The twelfth dragon, the Dragon Dragon, or Mirror Dragon, has been missing for 500 years, and doesn’t look like he’ll ever come back.

But there is one tiny little problem with Eon being a candidate. Eon’s name is actually Eona, and “he” is actually a 16-year-old female. Her master choose Eona on an impulse, even though the punishment for females to use dragon magic is death. So to disguise her, she claimed she’s a 12-year-old eunuch boy, so that way no one questions her when her body in not as “developed” as a male’s should be.

On the day of the ceremony, the Rat Dragon will choose who will be the new Dragoneye and be apprenticed to the terrible Lord Ido. Eon must win, because if she doesn’t, she’ll be sent back to the Salt Farms, where she’ll inevitably die at a young age. Unfortunately, the Rat Dragon didn’t choose her, but Dillon instead, who was considered the least likely besides Eon.

Then something strange happened. The Mirror Dragon came back and choose…Eona. Her dreams came true. She’s now Lord Eon and everything will be alright from now on.

But that feeling of happiness may have lasted about a second compared to the problems that Eona will have to face. The Emperor is dying, and he asked Eona to protect his son when he reigns, because she is the most powerful Dragoneye. Eona realizes something really, really bad. She can’t call her dragon. Something went wrong. Maybe it was because she didn’t give her name to the Mirror Dragon at the ceremony, or maybe…it’s because she’s female. Either way, she can’t protect the prince, and if the Emperor’s other son, Sethon, gets the throne, it’ll spell doom for all of the land.

But there is one other force greater than Sethon, and that’s Dillon’s master Lord Ido, the current Rat Dragoneye. He’s planning a rebellion of some kind. The end result will be untold horrors. And he’s doing something to poor Dillon, because his mood is becoming…more like Ido’s. And as the days go on, and Eona still can’t call upon her dragon, it’s getting a lot harder to be herself, even more hard to be Eon.

The theme that I found interesting in here was the changing of Eona to Eon. It’s one thing for a girl to pretend to be a boy, especially for hiding, it’s a whole different situation to act like one and even have the mindset of a male. And more or less, that’s Eona’s problem: she’s caught in this world where she mentally may be male, female, or both. And Eona struggles with this up to the final pages of the book.

Also, I know the author really did her research. Although the setting in not based in ancient China/Japan physically, but it has most of the traditions and beliefs of both ancient and modern China and Japan.

I found no faults in the book or anything to make me not like it, so my decision is very easy.

Rating: Five Stars *****

#55 A Clash of Kings by George Martin

WARNING: Contains MAJOR spoilers for A Game of Thrones



There’s a comet in the sky. It’s blood red, and it means different things for different people. But whether it is a good or bad omen, it doesn’t matter. After the deaths of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros has been in complete turmoil and chaos.

Up in the North, Robb Stark is the new king after the slaughter of Ned. He wants to make peace with Joffery, but that may never happen. His mother Catelyn is by his side, and her will is almost crushed. Her husband is dead, her son Bran is hopelessly crippled, and her two daughters are held captive. But she bears on hoping for a better outcome.

Bran has been having strange dreams called Green Dreams, dreams that can tell the future. Also dreams about his direwolf Summer, which makes people believe he’s a shapeshifter. And lastly, he’s having dreams about falling. The same fall that crippled him. What he’ll have to face will be complete terror.

Sansa is the betrothed of Joffrey, a boy of thirteen who reigns after Robert Baratheon. The only reason why she’s alive is because if she dies, Joff’s Uncle Jaime Lannister will be murdered in the prison in Winterfell. Sansa used to love Joff, but ever since he ordered Ned to be executed, things have changed and now she wants out of the marriage and to escape. Arya actually has escaped the Iron Islands and now is disguised as an orphan boy in the Night’s Watch. There she’ll have many hardships that will put her swordsmanship to the test. And every day, her hatred grows until she gets her revenge.

And finally there is Jon Snow, Ned Stark’s illegitimate son. He’s still on the Night’s Watch exploring more of the world beyond the Wall and all of the dangers. This is what’s left of the Stark family.

Down South, the three Baratheon kings rule. The first king is Joffery on the Iron Throne. He’s much too young to rule by himself, but everything he “does” goes through either his mother, Cersei, or his Uncle Tyrion. Cersei may be the mastermind of Joff’s power, and she has a secret so big, it’ll affect the course of Westeros. Tryrion is a dwarf, and through his wits he survived, and through his wits he’s thriving. He’s constantly battling Cersei to see who can outdo each other.

The second and third Baratheon kings are Stannis and Renly. Both of them are Robert’s brothers, both want power, both will stop at nothing to get it, and both want each other dead.

Then there is Daenerys Targaryen in the East. She has the Blood of the Dragons, and the past year in A Game of Thrones has unnaturally aged her way past her years. She was left with her sun-and-stars husband, Drogo, dead, and her stillborn son. She was helpless and powerless, but now she has a new weapon. Dany has three newly-hatched dragons: Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. The dragons are back with much excitement to Dany and the East, but to horror in Westeros. She just found out that her number one enemy Robert Baratheon has died, and now she wants to go back and be the Queen of Westeros, but her future is uncertain, but she is determined to win.

The Kings play a dangerous game. They fight, they clash, and will inevitably die. And that will either be apocalyptic, or a new beginning.

What can I say? All my comments made on A Game of Thrones will more or less be the exact same. Now that I read it, the only that I want to read next is A Storm of Swords.

Rating: Five Stars *****

Ok, you've convinced me, I'm going to give Chris Crutcher a go, I like your reviews, I think I'll try Chinese Handcuffs first.

>165 Joybee: Great! Chinese Handcuffs is a pretty good place to start. For one Crutcher book that I didn't review, try Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. "Byrnes" is pronounced "Burns", and you'll get the pun pretty early on.

have u read? firelight its about dragons so u mite like it

>167 Rose2332: No, I can't say that I have.

I dont know if you wold like it because everybody likes diffrent things

That's true. I read some review online and...I don't know about it.

well i liked it

Yeah, it has a nice concept, just the apparent romance part of it turns me off.

Book 56: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown



Robert Langdon is an expert on symbology and a professor at Harvard. He’s in Paris during a lecture about the power of symbols. After the lecture, late that night, he gets a call from the Judicial Police saying that a murder has been discovered and Robert somehow has a connection to him. The murdered man is Jacques Saunier, also an expert in symbology and one of Robert’s heroes. He was found at a museum lying in a very awkward position, and he wrote his final words consisting of a string of numbers and an odd message. Unfortunately, that’s the most normal thing that will happen for quite a while.

Agent Sophie Neveu is from the Cryptology Department trying to decipher the numbers that Saunier left behind. Sophie has every right to be involved, because Jacques Saunier is her grandfather. He left her hints that only mean things to her. For example: the string of numbers that she decoded was the Fibonacci sequence, which is when the last two numbers equal the next. The sequence is Sophie’s favorite. Plus the position that he was in was called The Vitruvian Man, a drawing made by Leonardo Da Vinci that shows the human anatomy, another one of Sophie’s favorites. But Sophie knows something else. Langdon is in danger. The last line of her grandfather’s message was P. S. Find Robert Langdon. There are people that think Saunier wrote that because Robert killed him. But Sophie knows that her grandfather wanted her and Robert to meet.

When Robert and Sophie do meet, she tips him off that he’s wanted for murdering Saunier. And with that, they both run off and discover something. The message that Saunier left was an anagram of one famous painting:

Leonardo Da Vinci!
The Mona Lisa!

And as the night progresses, they go on a “scavenger hunt” of Saunier’s dying secret: The Holy Grail. And what’s going to happen will truly be unlike anybody has ever experienced before.

On the front: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. As much as I would like to believe this statement, it’s almost impossible to. If there was anything I like in this book, it wasn’t the characters or the plot or the action; it was the facts in it that I really liked. Seems pretty stupid that I only loved the book because of the things I learned especially in a fiction book, right? Well it is, and for that reason this book deserves…

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

Book 57: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan



After the horrors that happened in The Red Pyramid, Carter and Sadie Kane, one of the two most powerful magicians in the world, sent messages to unknown kid magicians to help them fight and to regain Order from Chaos. In this world, Earth is filled with Egyptian gods, goddesses, monsters, and deities, and their personalities are very human and sometimes deadly. And the most deadly god of all is Apophis, a god who spent millennia fighting with Bast, the cat goddess. Now that she escaped, Apophis’s prison is slowly deteriorating, and at the spring equinox he’ll break out and swallow the sun making Chaos rule all.

And as their journey begins, Carter and Sadie realize the only way to defeat Apophis is to awake the old sun God Ra. Problem is, he is retired and hopelessly senile. And the other problem is that they need the Book of Ra, which is currently well guarded in three different places, one of those is in the possession of Vladimir Menshikov, the third most powerful magician in the world, and a minion to Apophis.

The task ahead will be difficult and dangerous, but if they fail, Chaos will take over forever.

This book is the sequel to The Red Pyramid, and it’s just as “good” as the first one. I used to like Rick Riordan’s book, but now that I’m older, it’s just not targeted for me anymore. Oh well, I’m still a diehard Rick Riordan fan.

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½ (Although any time I read a book where I’m a diehard fan of a particular author, subject, or theme, the rating automatically goes up at least 1-1 ½ stars, so make this rating as you will)

Book #58: Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz



This seventh books in the series includes spoilers from book five: Scorpia and book six: Ark Angel.

Alex Rider, teenage spy, was found by the Australian government as he hurled toward Earth from space. After the unreal victory with the Ark Angel, Alex is left once again alone. But not forgotten. It seems wherever Alex goes, some secret organization wants to use him for their various purposes, and the Australian’s Secret Service is no exception. The only reason why Alex joins and doesn’t go back to his home in London is because of who he’s going to work with. It’s Ash, Alex’s Godfather and his father’s closet friend. Alex wants to know more about his parents, and he hopes Ash will tell him all.

The terrorist organization Alex is up against now is called Snakehead, and over in Asia, they are vicious and out of control. But they are working with someone else: Scorpia. Alex already defeated the terrorists before, but they are back and nothing will stop them. Two missions ago, Alex worked as a double spy for Scorpia, and when they tried to hatch their most deadly plan, Alex managed to stop it. But he learned that his father was part of Scopria, also a double spy.

As the truth is uncovered, Alex will learn the darkest secret of his life. He better be prepared.

Rating Four Stars ****

Book #59: This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J Levitin



If you ask someone if music is a big part of their life, he or she will most likely say yes. But why is that so? We know that music has been around since the dawn of humankind, but did we create music, or did music create us? Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist and throughout the book he argues that we humans would not be who we are if it wasn’t for music, and he’ll prove this by both the scientific and physiological properties of music and the brain.

In this book, you’ll see the answers to these questions:

• What are the basic components of music including rhythm, pitch, and timbre?
• Why do certain emotions and memories are associated with music we like?
• How do teenagers get attached to music and how it all begins with before we are born?
• Does music really make you smarter? (aka The Mozart Effect)
• Why do songs get stuck in our head?
• How some abilities and disabilities like Absolute Pitch and Williams syndrome affect music?
• What does the cerebellum, the oldest part of the brain, have to do with music and how does it relate to reptiles?
• What makes a musician and how much practice does it take to be great?
• If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it makes a sound?
• How does human and animal courtship us music and other forms of creativity naturally.

Levitin explains everything in such a way that everything is crystal clear. His goal is to simplify things without oversimplifying. If you’ve always been curious of how music works, how it affects our brain, and why we like it so much, then read this book to discover what your brain is on music. You won’t be disappointed.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½

Sounds like a book I'd like to read!

I really think you would.

In case you are still interested our book group is reading The Terror for October. Meeting is on the 10th, I think..Second Monday. Let me know if we can look for you....

>179 maggie1944: *Looking* Artic, Cannibalism. The problem with these things for me is actually getting the book...but I'll see.

It's also on @blackdogbooks Halloween reading list. Good stuff! I read it in July and actually felt cold reading it! :)

>181 drneutron: I can really imagine!

Book 60: Fang by James Patterson



After another mission with the Coalition to Stop the Madness, Maximum Ride learned two horrible discoveries: one, the flock has another evil scientist set on “playing God” to accelerate human mutations that will survive any/all apocalypse. The second is much worse. Angel, the seven-year-old girl who has the power of reading minds and controlling anyone, said that soon the perfect world that Max lives in will be gone, and that her beloved Fang will be the first one to die. Max knows that Angel is a little unbalanced, but the scary thing is, she’s never wrong. And to make it worse, someone has constructed another bird-kid. His name is Dylan and he’s been alive for only eight months, but he’s just as strong as the rest of the flock, and he was designed to be Max’s perfect half…and to replace Fang.

Going back the Colorado, Max and the rest of the flock decides to study for once so they can be smarter than their enemies. After tense days, Max established that everyone is one year older and throw a birthday party. Unfortunately that party was ruined by an old enemy: the Erasers and Jeb. Then to add insult to injury, the flock kicked Max and Fang out of the flock led by Angel. And soon, it only gets worse. There will become a day when Max’s world is not how it has always been. That’s fine with her, but will there be a day when there will be no more Fang?

Compared to the last two books in the series, this one is slightly better. But my problem right now in the series is that I have no idea where it’s going. Usually in a series, there’s a goal or a plan that involves another book, and this one and the previous two have none. And after 309 pages nothing happened except two minor details. I will keep on with this series, but it’ll be a miracle if any rating will be over 3 ½ stars.

Rating: Three and a Half Stars *** ½

"Yes you're back! Stay that way. It's a command, but I'm pretty sure you'll follow it."

*mischievous half-smile*

You are rather bold in your commands, Freakish Dragon! ESP since I have an ingrained disposition to do The Exact Opposite of what is expected of me; mostly involving controversial expectations/and predisposed assumptions of how I Should Act, dress or appear.

I take delight in living my life 90 degrees to the rest of the world, and many many times this involves doing exactly what I am told NOT to do... ESP big red buttons that read "Do Not Push" and generally shocking the masses with my unconventional and stereotype-slaughter mindset. I can't really help it, it's just who I am. :*)

In summary:
One of my favourite (off-colour jokes)~

The Perfect Relationship:
A Masochist and A Sadist are at a bar.
Masochist:" please hurt me"
Sadist: smiles and calmly replies, "No"

Bottom Line: Commands make me inherently be predisposed to do the opposite! :*)

~Pandora~

ETA: typos run amok, no longer.

>184 PandorasRequiem: Wow. Just saying, that was an epic entrance. In that case, I command you to leave LT forever and never return. There, that's reverse physcology for you. I use on me all the time and it works. Sometimes to well that I end up doing a reverse reverse physcology.

And I think everyone is tempted to push big red buttons that they aren't supposed to. Like two big red buttons in a row, one for coffee, the other to set off the world's missles at one time, you just have to press both, or when a little brother of somebody's build these incredible inventions that have buttons that should'nt be pressed, but are pressed anyways. It's just human nature to press buttons.

"Wow. Just saying, that was an epic entrance."

Why thank you! It wasn't planned that way, but I'm glad it turned out so nonetheless. *grins in delight* Epic! I made an Epic Entrance! What an awesome thought to start my morning with! Thank you, Freak o' The Dragonish :*)

And reverse psychology doesn't really work on me either, partly because if you look at it right (sideways, out of the corner of your eyes) you can see through it, and then it's just another case of "Contrariwise" and anyone can tell you The Cheshire Cat has that covered... Things That Are But Really Aren't ... Plus he has the BEST evaporating skills... So obviously, he reigns supreme there. Also nonsense, but only to those who have not the sense to reason it out, in other words.

And there you have it! Another rambling postulation of epic almost extrapolationish reasoning. Or, a line from one of my All Time Favourite Movies should do the trick:

"So I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you!"

~Pan~

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line"!

#187 *snort*

"never march into Russia in the later summer"

"You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles."

"Have fun storming the castle!"
"Think they'll make it?"
"It would take a miracle...Bye Bye Boys!"

Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo.

>186 PandorasRequiem: Freak o' The Dragonish Like that play on words. Kind of wordy though. I know! Freak Among the Dragons. It's basically saying the same thing, right? Yeah, that sounds good.

Anyways...I knew I spelled psychology wrong. I'm such a horrible speller. I blame third grade for that. Also, I would never choose the wine anyways. It might be poisoned, but poison is a woman's weapon you know.

>187 Morphidae:-192 Ok, I'm totally lost on everything all of you said. I have a feeling that I should know, but yet again, that could be me trying to be smarter than I actually am, so no comment, but very entertaining.

(Psst... It's from the movie "The Princess Bride")

Oh good, I was right about the movie. Good movie. And book. And I admire you all for remembering and putting it all together. And I admire Dragonfreak for earning such a good audience.

Hahaha! Right on time. Check out http://bit.ly/n15cul Serendipity!

>194 PandorasRequiem: Yup, I haven't seen it. I should watch movies more, or maybe it's a good thing I don't(?).

>195 nhlsecord: I thought it was a book also. Oh great! I'm admired! I thought something was strange when I had 7 unread messages, because that doesn't happen often, in fact this may of been the second time. But you just got to love these Green Dragon people!

>196 majkia: I should learn not to be surprised when a new Monopoly game like that comes out, but it always surprises me. Just when you've seen it all...you haven't come close.

"Princess Bride" has an unusual effect on Dragoneers. It's possibly the most quotable movie around, and we are somehow driven to quote whenever the name comes up.

I saw an episode of NCIS the other day, where The Dread Pirate Roberts was actually a clue to the murder.

Drop. Your. Sword.

>198 MerryMary: Well maybe when or if I watch it, it'll have the "unusual effect" on me too. But I love to quote things to, which leads to some people thinking I get everything I saw from books or TV, which is true.

Hello to everyone again!!!! My first semester of this year is over! Yeah!!!!! So many exclamation points!!!!! I haven’t been on here much lately, but that obvious. I was busy and totally lost interest in the Internet. I guess that happens sometimes.

So what’s been going on? At school, I’ve been practicing my Clarinet like mad practicing for the Winter Concert. We played Danse Bohemien. Look it up, you’ve probably heard it. The Band director said it is the hardest piece of music our school as ever played. And I think it is too. Great thing is, us Clarinets dominate almost the whole piece, and trumpets are minor instruments. It’s usually the opposite.

And I’ve joined two new clubs: Chess and Academic. I play Chess every day at school whenever I can, including lunch. Yup, there is a whole table or two dedicating to all of us who play chess. And because of that, we now have a Chess Club. The other one is Academic, which basically, there are two teams and we answer random trivia questions and the team who answers the most wins. Finally, something that puts my knowledge to good use.

Also, I’ve read The Book Thief and Inheritance, which were two very interesting books. And now I’m reading The Son of Neptune. And speaking of books, my friend from my old town mailed me a Christmas gift. Guess what it is? Ready Player one by Ernest Clive. I still have yet to contact her and say thanks.

So no all I need to do is post this and…read through my messages. I wonder if there is a Mark All Read button. There really should be.

Nice to hear from you again! You seem very happy and busy so I'm happy for you. And I really liked Ready Player One, hope you do too.

Welcome back.

Nice to hear you are having a great time at school

>201 nhlsecord: I really hope I do too!

>202 Joybee: Thank you!

>203 maggie1944: Thanks! I am.