Review: The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Title: the Book of Tomorrow

Author: Cecelia Ahern

Rating:

Who Should Read It? I would say you should check this out if you love Cecelia Ahern, but given that I've never read anything else by her, that might not be apt. It has a fairly YA feel to it, so I think that it's great for fans of YA or of creative mysteries!

What I Have to Say:
My first experience with Cecelia Ahern was P.S. I Love You, and even though I loved the movie, and even though it seems like the kind of book I should adore, I couldn't finish it. I can honestly say that it is maybe one of 5 books I have ever not finished in my life - I got maybe three or four chapters in and then gave up. And to this day I still can't say why.
Still, since then, I find myself for some reason always attracted to her books and wanting to read her other ones - and not letting myself because I remember my experience with P.S. I Love You. Well, with the Book of Tomorrow, I finally decided to get over my Cecelia Ahern boycott and give one of her books a try. And boy am I glad I did. To the point in which I'm now thinking I've got to go try P.S. I Love You Again.

The Book of Tomorrow is fast-paced and exciting and creative and well-written and, just, wonderful! I couldn't put it down. I LOVED it!

In the beginning, Tamara Goodwin, our first-person narrator, is bratty and self-centered, and I wonder if there is any way for her to ever redeem herself. She announces to us right off that she is going to, but frankly, I had trouble believing. Tamara's life changes when her Dad dies and leave them in debt. With her mom, they have to move to live with her weird Aunt and Uncle in the country. Her life then proceeds to change even more when she discovers a journal in a traveling library (how COOL is that?!?) that seems to contain entries that SHE has written from the next day.

With the help of the diary, crazy mysteries are uncovered and Tamara (who by the end does, indeed, become an almost likable character) discovers that her life is actually way crazier than she ever could have imagined. The Book of Tomorrow will have you excitedly sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for the next foretelling entry in Tamara's life - and wondering how Tamara is going to deal with whatever new revelation she discovers. Ahern does a great job of writing this in a slightly choppy, self-obsessed way, as if she really is a teenager writing.

Ahern has created a beautiful story of love and revenge, and if you can remember what it feels like to be in the mind of a teenager, you'll love this book. Especially if you were a slightly bratty teenager. :-P I think this book is worth checking out!

Summary:The magical new novel from number one bestseller Cecelia Ahern. Tamara Goodwin has always got everything she's ever wanted. Born into a family of wealth, she grew up in a mansion with its own private beach, a wardrobe full of designer clothes and all that a girl could ever wish for. She's always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. But then suddenly her dad is gone and life for Tamara and her mother changes forever. Left with a mountain of debt, they have no choice but to sell everything they own and move to the country. Nestled next to Kilsaney Castle, their gatehouse is a world away from Tamara's childhood. With her mother shut away with grief, and her aunt busy tending to her, Tamara is lonely and bored and longs to return to Dublin.When a travelling library passes through Kilsaney Demesne, Tamara is intrigued. Her eyes rest on a mysterious large leather bound tome locked with a gold clasp and padlock. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

Cover Story: Love this cover! It's so magical and mystical seeming, and I adore the way it ties in with the book. The colors are also beautiful!

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review by the publisher.

Back Sort-of Maybe

So I've been gone for a really long time (and I managed to lose 4 followers in my gone time - sadness) - with Christmas and the new year and traveling and never being settled, it feels like I haven't posted in almost a month.

I've missed you guys, and I hope you've missed me, too!

Today, I am sick (and thus the sort-of maybe in the title), and I just want to get in bed, so I won't type up a review, but rest assured that from tomorrow on, now that I am back in Japan, I'm BACK! And you can except nearly non-stop awesome reviews and other fun bookish stuff. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of reading your blogs as well.

So, big huge sorry, and I hope you haven't forgotten about me! I know I haven't forgotten about you!

Review: The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne

So, with the craziness of everything, December has been a bad month for blogging for me. Sorry! Anyhow, I know it's already after Christmas, but I'm still in the Christmas spirit, and since I didn't get the opportunity to post at least one Christmas review before Christmas, it's happening now. Enjoy!

Title: The Paper Bag Christmas

Author: Kevin Alan Milne

Rating:

Who Should Read It?
All lovers of Christmas! This story is adorable, heart-warming, and Christmas perfect!

What I Have to Say:
This is one of those stories that is meant to be read while holding a steaming mug of hot chocolate and curled up on a comfortable couch in front of the fireplace.

Mo(lar) and Aaron Alan are two ordinary boys who, thanks to a little trick played by their father, which starts with them deflating the legs of an apparently legless father and ends with them volunteering in the children's ward of a hospital for the Christmas season, have the opportunity to experience their first "real" Christmas at a very young age. They learn to see past the commercialization (don't we all need to do that) and discover the true spirit of Christmas, of giving, of love, and of acceptance.

Both Alan and Molar are charged with befriending some of the more difficult patients, and their charges end up touching their lives in an extraordinary way, as was forseen by Dr. Ringle. Dr. Ringle is the doctor in the children's ward, and if you ask me, there's no doubt in my mind that he's the real Santa Clause. What's so beautiful about this story, though, is that as the children grow and begin to learn the true spirit of Christmas, they help the patients learn to accept their terminal illnesses and see that, no matter what your position in life, friendship is priceless.

It's hard to say more about the book than that without giving anything away. This is a short, cute book that really helps the reader to remember the importance of Christmas and the joy of giving while expecting nothing in return. It reminds us, as cheesy as this is to say, of the true Spirit of Christmas. If you love Christmas, read this - I promise you won't be disappointed.

Summary:Dr. Christopher Ringle is the last person you'd expect to find moonlighting as Santa Claus at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving. But it is there that he meets a young man named Molar Alan, who desperately needs a new perspective on the underlying value of Christmas. Dr. Ringle recruits Mo and his older brother as volunteers at a nearby children's hospital for the holiday season. At the hospital, Mo is tasked to help bring holiday cheer to the young cancer patients on the fifth floor. His biggest challenge is befriending a decidedly angry girl who is so embarrassed by her scarred appearance that she hides her face behind the safety of a paper bag. Almost in spite of himself, Mo finds that Christmas joy emanates from a source far greater than the North Pole, while the young girl learns that she is more beautiful than she had ever imagined.

Cover Story: The cover of the book that I read, which is the small Amazon one by the summary, is adorable. It's so Christmasy and wonderful and fits the book perfectly. The other one I find to be a bit plain.

Review: Shadow of the Sun (Timeless #1) by Laura Kreitzer

Title: Shadow of the Sun (Timeless #1)

Author: Laura Kreitzer

Rating:

Who Should Read It?
This is a great book for those that love teen fantasy about angels. It's creatively written and filled with new, interesting ideas about well-known supernatural beings!

What I Have to Say:
I'm going to be totally honest - over 100 pages in, and I was STILL thinking that I wasn't going to like this book. The writing seemed wordy and unprofessional, the story seemed underdeveloped while at the same time seeming overly detailed, and the characters and plot held no interest for me. I didn't like the characters, and I especially didn't like the writing style. I genuinely believed that this book had no way of redeeming itself.

And then something clicked. I don't know what happened, but suddenly everything fell into place, and I just couldn't get enough of Shadow of the Sun. It took me nearly two weeks to read the first 100 pages, and then I polished off the last 300 in about 3 days. While, stylistically, the book never became something to rave about, the author did seem to finally fall into her groove. And the story of Gabriella, a lab technician researching the supernatural, and the angels she discovers, became fast-paced, exciting, and somewhat twisted. Gabriella is strong, strong-willed, extraordinarily intelligent, and fierce, and I couldn't help but get the feeling that the author put a lot of herself into her. The romance between her and Andrew was steamy and fabulous (and there were times when I was very thankful to Kreitzer for not going into more detail), even if Andrew did slightly frustrate me sometimes.

In Shadow of the Sun, Kreitzer has composed an extraordinarily creative, well-though out (although there was one thing that happened that seemed to slightly contradict itself about which I'd be interested in asking the author) work of teen fantasy. It's light and fun and twisted, and when I was finally able to get into it, I couldn't wait to figure out what would happen next.

So, while this book does start off somewhat slow, if you can stick it out, it does pick up and become absolutely worth it, if you're into teen fantasy involving angels.

Summary:Gabriella's past is a mystery, but that never stopped her from achieving her goals. As a supernatural specialist, and far more intelligent than anyone her age, she has always been ignored by her peers. Because of the isolation she has always felt, she put her life and soul into her job. Being a supernatural specialist hasn't given her the divine intervention she always longed for, until one day a shipment arrives from Italy containing three dead bodies with an uncanny ability to regenerate. Gabriella is frightened and intrigued, but not as scared as she becomes when a dark creature attacks her.
As the bodies come back to life, the plot takes an unexpected twist that you won't see coming. The supernatural world only begins to unfold before her as angels appear, her dreams start to haunt her, and the very past she has forgotten comes back with startling clarity. Romance blooms, escape plans are made, an assassin is out to kill her, and death is only around the corner. But what is more terrifying than all of it is the fact she is the chosen one, the Illuminator, the one who will save them all.

Cover Story: This cover is absolutely stunning and amazing. Everytime I look at it, I want to read the book again!

Disclosure: This book was sent to me for review by the author. This in no way affected my review.

Arriving Home and Secret Santa

So, as sometimes happens, I completely disappeared from the blogging world last week, and for this, I am sorry. It was the last week of classes before break, and I found myself actually STUDYING for the huge test that I had Wednesday. And then there was a mad rush to say goodbye to everyone and get my things together to come home for Christmas.

Now I am in Louisiana (arrived yesterday afternoon) and jet-lagged to the extreme. But I am excited to be home and to get to spend Christmas with the family.
I'll be a little bit here and there and everywhere over the next month before I head back to Japan, but I'm going to do my best to keep the blog updated and check out all of your blogs as much as possible.

In other news, before I left, I was SO excited to receive a fabulous present from my Secret Santa!

The chocolates and the teddy grahams were vegan (yay!!!!), and they were all devoured on the plane ride home.
My secret santa herself ended up being not so secret, which I was quite happy about. Because that means I can say a HUGE thank you to Simcha of SFF Chat. Thank you, Simcha!

It's especially nice because I feel like Simcha is already a friend, and so I was thrilled that she decided to pick out books not on my list that she thought I would like. I absolutely trust her taste, and the books she picked look FABULOUS! I can't wait to read them when I get back to Japan!
I also got some cute fairy pins, a beautiful bookmark, and an Israel towel. Oh, and a driedel, which I am super excited about, because I have always wanted one.

So yes, it was an asbolutely FABULOUS first gift of the year, and I am thrilled about it!

Now, I'm off to wrap presents, and hopefully you'll have some awesome reviews heading your way soon!

Review: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Title: Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

Rating:

Who Should Read It? EVERYONE! Seriously! It's witty and funny and brilliantly constructed. More than that, though, it's informative!

What I Have to Say:
Frankly, this book is frightening. And frighteningly awesome. I have vague memories of having read it way back when I was in junior high, but reading it again recently, I had no memories of the actual book itself, so this time around was basically like reading it the first time around. And boy am I glad I did decide to reread it.

So, it starts of seeming like, what is to me, a dream come true. The animals of Manor Farm decide to kick the human off the farm. I've always dreamed about something like this happening somewhere, to show humans that animals really do have feelings and the way we torture them on factory farms, raising them for food, is sickening. Unfortunately, from there it goes downhill (in terms of my dream of what would happen if this actually did happen in life), and what follows is a brilliantly master-minded story that gives us a unique look at the inner-workings of a socialist/communist society.

Sure, with the animals and all, it's fictional, but it's based on truth so much so that, were you to replace the animals with human animals, you would have communist Russia. Orwell's story is told in such a way that, even though you are reading something serious and important, you are absolutely hooked from line one, and you won't want to put it down until you know what happens to the animals of Manor/Animal Farm. Even though, if you know a little something about communism, you probably do.

I think it was absolutely fitting that Orwell used the guise of "pig" for the rulers of his farm. And the sheep, of course, were always the ones to blindly follow. It is scathingly critical in the funniest and most appropriate of ways. Despite the good intentions with which the farm is formed, we see how easily these intentions can change, and how readily the people in charge are willing to brainwash those "less intelligent" in order to gain a little more human comfort. It builds up in such a way, though, that it's almost as if those high up don't even realize what is happening.

Animal Farm is satire at its best, and I could go on for ages about how brilliantly Orwell has parodied communism and given all the best reasons it won't work, but the fact is, the book is short and wonderful, so I think it's best for you to just read it for yourself. So do it! Now! :-)

Summary: Having got rid of their human master, the animals of Manor Farm look forward to a life of freedom and plenty. But as a clever, ruthless elite among them takes control, the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the old ways. Orwell's chilling story of the betrayal of idealism through tyranny and corruption, is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1945.

Cover Story: There are a bagazillion different covers to this book, but I'm particularly partial to the cover of the one I recently read, which can be seen at the top. I love the creepy pig with the barbed wire and the pipe!

Things I Love As Much as Books (15)

So, I think it's a given that I love to read. Don't we all?
The thing is, though, there are a TON of other things in my life that I love just as much as reading. Sure, most of these things aren't as constant as reading, but they count just as much in my life when I'm loving them.
SO, I decided to start this weekly feature in which I write a short post about something in my life that I am loving just as much as reading!



I think I've posted about them before, but An Cafe. Just An Cafe. I absolutely love them as much as books. Maybe more. I am SO devestated that, for the time being, they are disbanded, and I'm just glad I had the opportunity to see them live before that happened.



Is the singer, Miku, not just the prettiest man you have ever seen?
Love love love love LOVE!

And that's all for this week!