dfrnt: Here & Now.

I also recently got this book from Barnes N Noble, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.  I didn't get into it right away, but not long after I started reading it, I couldn't stop.  I definitely want to see the movie, although the book is most likely better.  It is basically about a werewolf girl that falls in love with a human, something that is forbidden.  She begins to lose herself when she realizes what differences lie in the world of humans and of werewolves, and the similarities of lies and deceit.

When I was recently at Barnes N Noble, I got another book by Ned Vizzini.  I had already read his book Teen Angst? Naaah... and enjoyed it quite a bit.  This one was called It's Kind of a Funny Story and was about a teenager that had to go into a hospital for 5 days because he was depressed and suicidal.  I was drawn to the book for various reasons, and knew that it would be very good.  As I began reading, I couldn't put the book down, and read it straight through (minus when I had to help customers).

I really suggest this one, especially if you can relate in any way to being depressed or suicidal.  It makes you think a bit, and can help you see things in a new light.

The House of Night series by P.C. Kast and Kirstin Cast are a really great series that are about the world and lives of vampyre fledglings at the House of Night.  One thing I really enjoyed about this series was the Greek legend aspect about it.  The fledglings worship Nyx, the goddess of Night, and when things start happening that their high-priestess Neferet cannot seem to control, it is in the hands of vampyre fledgling Zoey Redbird.

An odd fledgling, Zoey became Marked one day in her high school, which meant she had to either go to the House of Night and accept her position as a fledgling, or die.  She chose the former, against the wishes of her mother and step-father.  Supported by her grandmother, Zoey entered the school and is quickly noticed by everyone because she has developed faster than the normal fledgling, which poses a few problems.

The four books in this series that I have read all caught my attention, because like the Vampire Academy novels, this series focuses on a more original and lesser-written about aspect of vampire legends.

Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead is a great series about, as the title suggests, vampires.  In the series, dhampir Rose Hathaway is set to protect the Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir.  They had escaped the confines of the school, St. Vladimir's, and are on the run for 2 years before they must return and are forced to stay again.  Strange things had been happening that had caused them to leave in the first place, and the fear comes back once they return.

I've read these books twice now, and they seemed to get better with each page I turned.  If you enjoy vampire books, these ones also take on a different aspect of vampire legends: dhampirs, Moroi, and Strigoi, aspects that are very rarely mentioned.

Vampire Academy
Frostbite
Shadow Kiss

These books by L.J. Smith are insanely good.  Each volume has 3 different stories, centering around the "Night World" which is a world inside the world of humans that humans are supposed to have no knowledge about.  The Night World has vampires, witches, werewolves, and shapeshifters. 

They are very quick reads, at least for me, and always hold my attention very well.  I'm very much into books involving the supernatural, and will be reviewing more of them on here very soon :]

I was hanging out with one of my friends on Friday and Saturday of last week and on Saturday morning, I saw an interesting book on the shelf in her room.  So I picked it up, read the first few pages and told her I was gonna take it to read.  So I did.

And it was VERY inspiring.  It's been a long time since I've read such a good book.  It is about two Christian guys that live in Washington D.C. and have good lives, going to a Christian college.  They decide that for 5 months they are going to live as homeless people to see if they can still have the same faith in God even if they don't have all of the things that they are able to have.

The book is called Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski.  Pick it up from a library, bookstore, or wherever.  Check it out :]

Have you ever had one of those moments where you see something, or hear something, or smell something, or read something and it brings back some long forgotten memory? I get those moments a lot. But mainly because I forget things. A lot. That's not the point though. I went to the Notepad on my phone so I could put a number in for the color I use on the homepage of the site (if you hadn't noticed, it's been a slightly different shade of blue every post) and I saw another note I had in there. It was an author's name that I had wanted to remember from a long time ago. Here's a bit of background first:

In the eighth grade, I was a Library Aid. It was my second period "class" in between science and history. I shelved books, ordered them, straightened them, ran errands, located books, along with many other things. The most hectic time of the year was the beginning and end when we had to check in/out all the textbooks. I was the only library aid for that period. Sucked. But it was always funn and an awesome experience. Anywhoo.

There was one author that I read a ton of her books, and they were the page-turning I-can't-put-this-book-down kind of books. Awesome. Well, then I stopped reading them. Not intentionally, they just sort of went out of my mind. I forgot them. Something awhile ago reminded me of the author, and I put her name in my phone so I could remember to check them out. Well, I forgot it was in there. But just found it. So now, I share it with you:

Anne McCaffrey. Google her. Check out her books. Tell me what ya think.

(I know I said this was a 'lil blurb, but it turned out being more. That's what you get for listening to me :])

This book is the sequel to The Chosen by Chaim Potok. He writes about what life was like for Jewish and Hasidic people in Brooklyn of New York in the 1940's. I read The Chosen for a school paper and when I found out there was a sequel, I wanted to read it right away, which I've finally gotten around to doing. I think that The Promise was even beter than The Chosen. I kept telling myself I was only going to read to the next chapter, or the next, and "the next chapter" finally became the end. I couldn't put it down. It's definitely better if you read The Chosen first, but it's not entirely neccessary. I highly suggest that anyone who enjoys any form of reading to read these books. I also plan to read the other books that Potok has written.

Now that I've finished the books I had from the library, I'm going to start reading more from my own personal library, and might I just say, but they are gonna be really awesome books! :]

Alright, so I finished Innocent in Death, and it was a-maz-ing. So good. I did not see the ending coming the way it came. Ha. But seriously, it was really good, and again, I suggest that series to anyone. I also got finished with The Shakespeare Stealer, and it was pretty good too. Definitely a quick reader (for me, at least) and the plot moved at a nice pace. Didn't see the whole cross-dressing girl thing coming. See, that sparked your interest now, did it not? You're thinking "A cross-dressing girl?! I must go read that now!"

Yeah, I'm a dork. So stick that in yo juice box and suck it. Aha.

When I've finished reading a book, I'll post on here a rating for it- between 1 and 10 *'s, and reasoning for that amount of *'s. I'll separate every two *'s by a "/" minus the quotes, cuz when they're all squashed together it's kinda difficult to see.

Yes, I enjoy reading, and books, because it's good for you. If you haven't tried it before, I totally recommend it.

So,
The Shakespeare Stealer: **/**/** 6 *'s cuz while it had a good plot and storyline, it wasn't really my cup 'o tea, but it may very well suit your tastebuds :]
Innocent in Death: **/**/**/* 7 *'s cuz the plot, storyline, backstories, characters, and basically everything in it was amazing, but I've read better.

--Note that when I rate any book I've read, a lot of the time I take into consideration my own personal likes and dislikes for it, and those may very with other readers, so these ratings can be slightly biased.

This blog that you are currently lookin' at is going to be dedicated to anything and everything that is books: authors, titles, my favorites, background info, the whole nine yards!  I'll keep you updated on what I'm currently reading, as well as books I've read in the past, and give you some information on 'em.  If you have any suggestions for books I should read, or books you wanna know more about, just shoot me a comment, and I'll check it out :]