Booked: Current Kindle Reads

Ever since I got my kindle, I was totally excited and happy that I spend most of my free time reading books on it. In fact I've already finished two books and I'm about half way through my 3rd book.

I downloaded the whole Percy Jackson series because I was always been fascinated with the Greek Gods and Goddesses and I saw the movie before and it made me really want to read the books. As usual the book was so much better than the movie which is why I always want to read the books first before seeing the movie. There were so many important parts that were not included in the movie which was somewhat disappointing but that how it goes usually. This book was so so good! I love reading it with my kindle because whenever I encountered a word that I don't know I can immediately look it up just by touching that word for about 2 seconds and the dictionary would immediately pop up. 

I am a huge house of night fan. I immediately downloaded a copy of this book once I found that it was already out. I really got into reading this book and this booked made me feel really happy and pissed at the same time. I was really into it that it affected me when Erin (the fledgling with water affinity) betrayed her friends. Well, if you followed this series that you will know who I'm talking about. There was a lot of characters changing sides and this book was really all about the Aurox (the bull or beast boy) finding himself.  In the end he found out well they all found out that he has Heath's soul through the ancient magic of the Seer stone.  I was happy of course that Aurox and Zoey's team defeated the evil Neferet but since Neferet turned immortal I don't think that was the end of her. She did disappear into a million spiders and scattered but I think she will be back to seek revenge. I was glad that this time no body had to die and it seemed that Zoey and the rest of her gang are more aware of how to use their Nyx given gifts.

Booked: Divergent by Veronica Roth

by: Veronica Roth

I was so looking forward to reading this book because this was so hyped up. Elle by Allthatglitters21 did a Gliterature about it and my interest was instantly piqued. So, I went of a mission to find a copy of the book, but it was sold out everywhere.  Finally, after 2 weeks of searching, I found the last copy of Divergent which was somewhat damaged from being smushed in the corner of the best seller section. The bookstore also had many copies of the Insurgent and just to be sure I purchased it in advance to avoid having to hunt for it when I’m done reading Divergent.

 The story was really fascinating. It was similar to other dystopian novels I’ve read but, the story line really sucked me in beginning from the first two chapters. Basically the society is made up 5 factions, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each factions have attributes or qualities that they uphold. For Amity they believe in keeping peace.  Candor believes in truth and honesty. Erudite believes in knowledge. Abnegation believes in being selfless. Dauntless believes in being brave and courageous.

 The story started by showing us how the Abnegation live, since the main female character, Beatrice, was born to this faction. When the children turns 16 they are given this evaluation to determine which faction they are most suitable. Those candidates that have affinity for two or more factions are called Divergent and was deemed dangerous to society. Most of them hide the fact they are divergent for the fear of being pursued by the government.

After the evaluation test, they would hold this choosing ceremony where the children would go up on the stage before everybody and choose which faction they would like to belong to by spilling their blood on a bowl that symbolize each faction. After choosing, they would stay with their chosen faction for the initiation process. Those people who failed the initiation will become factionless and basically become outcast of the society.

"Faction before Family"

  

Beatrice has qualities that would be suitable for 3 factions namely Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless but in the end she chose to become part of the Dauntless faction. From then on the story became really interesting because the Dauntless are known to be really brave and fearless and it shows in their brutal initiation. Candidates are asked to jump on moving trains, jump off a building and even beat each other as part of their training. They went thru many physical and mental struggle for them to come out fearless. The initiation process was ridiculously hard and dangerous that some of the candidates end up dead.

For the most part of the story, it revolved around Beatrice journey in becoming part of the Dauntless faction while hiding her being divergent. There are also bits of romance involved which was nice to balance out the story. But, in this book I did not really grasps why the society was afraid of divergent people and I’m hoping the second book will reveal the reason why. This book was really fun and was a quick read. I read the whole book in one day. I literally can’t put the book down.  It was so interesting to see how the different factions interact with each other and how romance of Beatrice and Four developed.

I totally recommend this book and I can’t wait to read Insurgent. 

Booked: "Matched" by Ally Condie

 I picked-up this book after watching Allthatglitters21 book haul. It was recommended to her by her subscribers and I thought that the book was interesting. The review says that if you like the Hunger Games then you will also like this book since it also has a dystopian setting and it has a little bit of romance. So I paid my local bookstore a visit and I searched for this particular green book and luckily I found it and decided to pick it up since I'm fresh out of books to read and I am huge Hunger Games fan.

Well this book is just what they said, similar to the Hunger Games in terms of dystopian romance setting but I found that it is not as exciting and thrilling as the Hunger Games books. It took me awhile to really get into the story and I did not have the feeling of not wanting to put the book down until about the last 5 chapters of the book. Throughout the book I was waiting for something exciting to happen that would change the destiny of the three main characters namely Cassia, Xander and Ky. Throughout the story I found that the romance build-up was kinda slow for Cassia and Ky and as for Xander, I did not see him exert himself to get Cassia's heart back not until the final 3 chapters. 

I am more excited for the second book since things were just beginning to heat up at the end of this book. The story line of this book was really slow for me but overall the author did a somewhat of a detailed picture of the society the book clearly explains the rules of the society and the reader can clearly understood how the society works. I feel that this first book only serves as a background or the stage for all the exciting twist that will happen to Cassia quest in finding Ky in the second book and also to Xander plans in getting Cassia's love back. Well at least that is what I expect for the second book. 

For the die hard Hunger Games fans that want action and excitement this book may not live-up to your expectation because of its slow pace. As for me I think I will still pick up the second to verify if my theory is correct that the story line will pick-up in the second book and since I'm also curious as what will Xander do to get the Cassia back. I always find myself rooting for the best friend to end up with the girl.

September 2011 Book Round-up

Here are the books that I've read in the month of September:

Belinda Jones' "California Dreamers" was a light read. The story is all about a woman make-up artist trying to make it big in Hollywood and how she deals with a long distance relationship with her Navy boyfriend. Throw in a very charming and handsome Hollywood actor vying for her affection in the mix and you got yourself a very entertaining love story. Perfect feel good book.

Stieg Larsons' "The Girl who played with fire" was amazing. It literally kept me all night with all the action filled scenes. The book now tells us about the past of the Lisbeth Salander which was very intriguing and the twist was really unexpected. New characters were introduced, more people ending up dead and all the more mysteries to be solved. This book can really stimulate the mind.

Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games trilogy". With all the buzz about the upcoming Hunger Games movie, I decided to refresh my memory before the actual movie comes out next March 2012. I am really excited about the movie and I hope they stick to the storyline as much as possible because the characters and plot is just perfect. This series is the best series that I have read so far. I highly recommend it. I have already gotten my co-workers hooked on this series.

Now I'm on the hunt for my next read... Believe it or not I have not read the Twilight Books, I only watched the movie but my friends strongly recommend reading the book so I might get those next.

Book review "Poor little Bitch Girl"

I had just finished reading this book "Poor Little Bitch Girl" by Jackie Collins and it was quite entertaining. It is such a good read, it is perfect for the beach and just a feel good book. Basically it is about a group people who knew each other in high school and somehow their path have crossed again in the future when an interesting thing happens. The book shows us the life of the people living in LA and New York. How the rich and famous people lived and it also has some juicy romance stuff. Who would have thought that a plain Jane in high school would become a successful defence lawyer and that the popular girl in high school needs her help. It also has stories about life in high school and what happens after high school. Well I love this book and my favorite character out of the bunch is Denver because she is most real and people can easily relate with her character and she is also the most level headed or practical character in the book. So I would definitely recommend this, it is perfect pick me up book!

Book of the Month (Girl with the Dragron Tattoo)

My boyfriend bought this book about 2 months ago. We have this thing that every month I get to pick a book that I want and he would buy it for me because he knows I love to read (Isn't he sweet?). So we went to a bookstore looked around and I found this book in the bestsellers section and I picked it up, read the back cover and we bought it. I was looking for a book that is thrilling and full of mysteries and since this book certainly piqued my interest i started reading it the night we bought it.

The first hundred pages is really hard to get through because the story has a lot of characters and I can't remember who is who. Since the story is about a journalist investigating a supposed crime 40 years ago there are a lot of characters being examined and it was very confusing. So I got bored and I shoved the book aside and a month after I decided to start reading it again and to really stick with it. Surprisingly when I got to the middle part of the book I can't seem to put the book down and while I'm reading it my heart was beating really fast because of all twists in the story.

Overall I loved the book. It is definitely a book catered to more mature reader because it mostly talks about finance fraud and it contains a lot of violence. If you are planning to read this book, the story build-up is slow in the beginning but when you get in the middle I assure you that you will loose sleep reading it. I'm excited to watch the american movie version of this book and I hope it is as exciting as the book.