Kidnapped

Hello fellow readers! With finals coming up this might be my last post for a while. I'll be back soon enough though.
The book I decided to post about is Kidnapped, if you haven't already guessed. It's about a sixteen year old boy named David Balfour who loses his father and his sent to live with his wicked uncle, Ebeneezer. His uncle puts him on a ship that is bound for slavery. On board, David witnesses the cruelty of the captain of the ship. However, when he meets rebel Alan Breck, David is given the chance to escape. Together he and Alan are chased across the Scottish moors.

I liked the book up until the end. It got a little slow at that point. I really loved the old Scottish language.

The Island at the end of the World

Aaaand we're back!
       Been a little busy between school work and job hunting but I'm back with a new book!

This is about a man and his three children living on an island after a great flood  wiped out their home and the rest of the world. The man and his children, Alice, Finn, and Daisy,  lead a peaceful life filled with music and farming. Things are going smoothly and everyone is happy, until a stranger appears on the island. His presence threatens to turn everything upside down. Told from both the father's point of view and his two oldest children, this story is captivating and terrifying all at once.
I thought the story was interesting, but there were a few things that didn't make a lot of sense to me. The creation of the island is one thing. Other than that the story is suspenseful and a definite winner.

The Book Thief

Hey everyone here's a new book for you to sink your teeth into!
 This is the story of  Liesel Meminger. Liesel is abandoned by her mother during 1939 when the Holocaust is beginning. She is adopted by Hans Hubermann, a painter and accordion player, and his foul-mouthed wife Rosa. At first Liesel is weary of them until Hans teaches her to read. With his help, Liesel develops a love for books that is so deep she is willing to steal them. The first book she steals is from a Nazi book burning. As the years go on she continues to steal books and reads them to her neighbors while they hide in bomb shelters. She also shares them with the Jewish man hiding in her families basement.

 This story is an inspiring tale of courage and love under trying circumstances and I especially love how the book is told through Death's point of view. I thought that was an interesting and creative way to tell a story. Liesel and her friend Rudy are a lovable and fiery pair of young pre-teens that the reader will enjoy.

Looking for Alaska

A friend loaned me this book and I've got to say reading it was a really good decision! Looking for Alaska is about a young man named Miles Halter who transfers from a public school to a private school in search of the Great Perhaps. What he finds instead is a wild young woman, whom he forms a close relationship with.
 I didn't care for the main character that much, but I loved his friends Alaska and the Colonel. The crazy pranks they pull will keep you laughing. Overall a really good read!

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories

Here's another good book that will get you ready for Halloween! This a collection of short stories written during the 1920s. Each story combines the supernatural with science fiction. While it could be hard to follow at times, most of the stories were interesting and very entertaining.

IT

Hey everyone! As promised here's your book for this week.
  IT is about seven childhood friends living in the town of Derry, New Hampshire. After not seeing each other for 26 years they must reunite to battle a monster that terrorized them and their town. This story is filled with suspense and will give you a chill with every chapter.

Halloween theme

Hey again! Been a little busy with midterms coming up but I'll keep posting as often as I can. Since Halloween is coming up I thought it would be a good idea to share a few creepy/scary stories to get everyone in the Halloween spirit. Starting Monday I'll have a new story posted for all of you. Stay tuned!

I'm back!

Hello again everyone!
       For the past week I got caught up in a book called The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. The story follows three friends; Julius Clarke a gay half Vietnamese man, Danielle Minkoff a struggling TV producer , and Marina Thwaite the daughter of a notorious journalist. All three met at Brown University and moved to New York with hopes of doing something important. The three friends are now 30 and have accomplished very little. Danielle is the only one with a well paying job as a documentary producer, however she writes stories about liposuction. Marina struggles to finish a book she started years ago and Julius is a freelance critic who hasn't gone very far with his line of work.
      During the spring of 2001 two men enter the lives of Marina and Danielle, one is an Australian magazine editor who is raging with ambition and a deep resentment of journalists. He becomes very close with Marina in hopes of destroying her father's reputation. The other man to enter the group is Marina's cousin, Frederick "Bootie" Tubb. Bootie is a college dropout who believes he doesn't school to learn. He move in with Marina's family with hopes of following in her father's footsteps. Both men threaten to turn Marina's and Danielle's lives upside down.
       Obviously I'm not a 30 something year old struggling to get by, but I still sympathize with all three of them. Probably because I'm almost done with school myself and feel a bit uncertain about my future. There's also the fact that they all aspired to do something big and wound up being disappointed in the end. I think that happens to a lot of people. Overall, it was an entertaining story and I would definitely recommend it.

Hello,
      Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I'm currently reading another book that I will post about when I finish it. Stay tuned.

The Shining

Last year I decided to give Stephen King's novels a try. I read a handful of them and decided to try The Shining.  It's about an aspiring writer named Jack Torrance who has recently been fired from his job as a teacher for assaulting a student. He lands a job as a caretaker for the Overlook Hotel located in the Colorado Rockies. Jack moves into the isolated hotel with his wife, Wendy, and telepathic son, Danny.  Not long after moving into the hotel Danny begins to see terrifying images and ghosts that have to do with the hotel's violent past.
 The novel  wasn't as creepy as I thought it would be. It was actually very entertaining. I especially liked how King went into detail about the hotel's history. I love or hate any of the characters. Although I did have a soft spot for Danny. This was an excellent read and if you're thinking about getting into Stephen King this is the book to start with.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

Set during the Great Depression, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is about Cassie Logan and her family and how they try to survive not only the Depression, but the constant abuse from white people.
 I really liked Cassie due to the fact that even though she is only nine and an African American, she still doesn't allow the older white people in her town to  boss her around. Despite her rough and tough attitude, you can tell that she is still an innocent child.
The story, although dark at times, has plenty of funny and heartwarming moments too. Overall, reading this book was a great decision and I can't wait to read the sequel Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Just re-read this a few days ago and forgot how much I loved it! Ed Kennedy is definitely not what you imagined a hero would be. He's a high school dropout and drives a cab for a living. He's a huge underachiever but his humor and honesty make him an enjoyable character.

First post

Hello and welcome to my blog! I will mostly talk about books I've read, what I liked or disliked about them. I'm also thinking of adding a suggestion page so if anyone has a book they recommend they can let me know!