Review 25: The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Title: The Alchemyst

Author: Michael Scott

Rating: 9/10

Publisher: Random House

The Lowdown:

What would happen if the person you admired the most suddenly told you that he was a thousand years old, keeper of a mysterious book with the immortality formula, and that a weird guy was after him to keep the book?

You must be out of your crazy mind.

But this is exactly what happens to twins Sophie and Josh Newman. And of course, there is adventure. Oh and did I forget to mention that they are trying to rescue the wife of this man? Oh yes sire.

The Good:

A. I enjoyed the story and I played along with the characters.

B. I also liked the mythological references. They were quite cool.

The Bad:

A. All the characters were trite and cliched.

B. The entire story was too predictable.

C. The book was extremely slow and dull.

The Consensus:

Why the 9 rating, you ask? Well, I am usually lenient on the first novel in a series because the author is trying to set up the tale. So, Michael Scott. I hope your next one is better! For the meantime, go ahead. Read the book, and tell me if you agree/disagree by COMMENTING.

Quick Overview:

Plot: 3/5

Original Appeal: 3.5/5

Ending: 3/5

EXTRA-ordinary: 4/5 (the mythology was interesting.)

Review 24: Envy by Anna Godbersen

Title: Envy

Author: Anna Godsberen

Publisher: HarperTeen

Rating: 8.5/10

The Lowdown:

The sequel to Rumors, Envy picks up where the previous book left. It talks about the troubled marriage of Penelope and Henry Schoonmaker, even though Henry has his eyes on Diana. It talks about their troubled romance, and how they come through it. It also talks about Elizabeth Holland and her ordeal with her boyfriend. And of course, there is the gossip, tidbits, and all things Luxe!

The Good:

A. I like the format the Luxe books follow. Before every chapter, there is a newspaper clipping/ book clipping/ letter/ something that sets the mind frame for the chapter, as well as interesting tidbits about Victorian-era society.

B. The last few pages were quite dramatic in nature.

C. How Elizabeth's little crisis was dealt with. It was quite charming, actually.

D. The book art. Those dresses make me swoon with jealousy. After all, they are so pretty.

E. The side story of the Holland's maid and her rise to fame.

The Bad:

A. Most of the story, quite frankly, was tedious. Not at all page turning. The only thing I liked was the ending, and that was the reason I moved it from a 6 to an eight.

B. I hated the character of Penelope Hayes/Schoonmaker.

C. I also hate the fact that everyone falls in love with Diana. She isn't that special, ya know.

D. The death of Mr. Careyhorn. He was such a nice man. Tear :(

E. The whole thing between Henry and Diana. Oh she cheated on me, oh, he cheated on me, I hate her, I love her. Gosh. It's SO predictable.

The Consensus:

If you have never read the book, don't try. If you have, you might get bored in the middle, but convince yourself to reach to the end. I promise, it is QUITE satisfying :D

Quick Overview:

Plot: 3.5/5

Original Appeal: 4/5

Ending: 4.6/5

EXTRA-ordinary: 2.8/5

Contest Patrol 1

Hi all!

This is a new segment on the blog, known as the Contest Patrol! We will be hunting for the best contests around the blogosphere around the week and giving them to you. For free!! :D

This week's contest of the Week is at Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf, where she has linked to a free giveaway to the sequel to the Hunger Games, Catching Fire.

I can't wait to read it, and if you want it for free, enter at http://laurenscrammedbookshelf.blogspot.com/2009/06/contests-for-catching-fire-all-around.html!

Have fun and don't forget to RSS/subscribe/follow/etc.

In My Shelf!

UPDATE: I just received a few more books today... unfortunately, I lost my copy of Graceling, so I have ordered a new one, so at the moment, I am not reading Graceling. I was kind of looking forward to it, actually.

Last Christmas: the Private Prequel by Kate Brian This book looks ultra exciting! I am a huge Kate Brian fan and the admin of the Kate Brian Groupies over at Shelfari. So far, the book looks too good to be true. I love her writing and how she makes everything looks so much more awesome!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini I have heard great things about this book and it's predecessor. Although The Kite Runner is far more popular than A Thousand Splendid Suns, I wanted to read the second book first because, well, it was cheaper! :)

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr Apparently, this is one of those goth books that are completely engrossing. I have recently turned from realistic fiction to more fantasy and sci-fi (definitely more sci-fi after Star Trek, which by the way, is an AMAZING new movie. Check it out!). I have heard insanely good things about this; it is apparently as good as Twilight. We'll see.

Fowl Friday 2

Artemis Fowl has been nominated for even more awards! SHOCKER! :)

Link: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/86943-independent-booksellers-book-prize-shortlists-unveiled.html

Independent booksellers book prize shortlists unveiled

01.06.09 Graeme Neill

Bloomsbury dominates the shortlist for the Independent Booksellers Book Prize with three nominations. Voting for this year's award, along with the prize for best children's book, will begin during Independent Booksellers Week, which takes place from 15th to 22nd June.

Bloomsbury's A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are the publisher's three books on the shortlist, which also includes Booker Prize winner The White Tiger (Atlantic) on a shortlist of nine titles.

HarperCollins and Puffin have three books each on the children's shortlist. Puffin's Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, By Royal Command and Then will be battling against HarperCollins' The Crossing of Ingo, Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire and Kaspar, as well as the four other books on the shortlist.

Both shortlists were voted for by Booksellers Association members from a longlist derived from sales data of bestselling books at independent bookshops.

The BA is providing participating indies with point of sale material as well as voting cards from 15th June. Customers can vote using the postcard or by emailing votes@booksellers.org.uk. Voting will run until 28th August and the winners will be announced in September.

More than 200 bookshops have signed up to take part in the week long event. Authors including Kate Adie, Matthew Hoggard, William Fiennes, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall will be taking part in events at shops across the country.

The adult shortlist:

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Pocket Books)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Bloomsbury)
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks (Picador)
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Faber)
Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill (Granta)
Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson-Wright (Hodder)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury)
When Will There be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (Black Swan)
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Atlantic)

The children's shortlist:

The Crossing of Ingo by Helen Dunmore (HarperCollins)
Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson (Egmont)
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson (Macmillan)
Tiddler by Julia Donaldson (Scholastic)
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton (Egmont)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy (HarperCollins)
Then by Morris Gleitzman (Puffin)
Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer (Puffin)
By Royal Command by Charlie Higson (Puffin)
Kaspar by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins)

Dan Brown Month...

Is Officially Over :(
I know I know. Even I feel quite depressed and down. But Harry Potter Month is around the corner! Ish!

Movie Review 1: Angels and Demons

Title: Angels and Demons
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor.
Rating: 6.5/10
Critics Rating (from Rotten Tomatoes): 36%
Review:
I was actually quite excited for this movie to come out. I mean, after all the great things I said about Angels and Demons in the previous posts! But this movie failed to achieve any sort of hype from me. I mean, come on. First of all, Tom Hanks does NOT make a good Robert Langdon. No way. Secondly, half the movie is like, "hm, let's go and solve this clue. Walk. Walk. See, kill, oh no!" I mean, it worked for the book. And now I totally don't like the book. Here is what I hate about when books turn into movies: they turn horrid. And terrible. And that ruins the whole book for you. So spare yourself to the drama and read the book instead. It is quite better! :)
Overall Consensus: Don't waste your time, stay in and watch something else.

Trailer:

New Segment: In My Shelf!

Now, I read a few blog posts about doing a "In-the-Mailbox" section, where we basically talk about what we are expecting in the book/ why we picked it. So, I've decided to do the same thing without the whole mailbox thing. It's now called "In my Shelf!"

So, I'll pick three random books that I just received:

Pastwatch: Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card

OK, I admit, I don't read that much SciFi. But after being recommended to this book by friends/reviewers, I have a feeling I'm in for a pleasent surprise.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

I'm reading this right now, and so far, it's pretty good. I saw this book on Amazon, read a little into it, and thought, Hm, this looks good! This book is basically about kids who are introduced to magic by the all famous alchemyst. I find the kids boring and predictable, but I love the adult sorcery. Freaky deaky!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I read The Hunger Games and loved it. So, on Amazon, it said I should also read Graceling. I thought the book was such a trashy novel, but after seeing the book trailer and the fact that it was the latest bestseller in Teens, I decided to give in and read it. I hope it is as good as the reviews say it is!

Review 23: Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

Title: Digital Fortress
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Pocket Books
Rating: 8.5/10
The Lowdown:
At the NSA, Susan Fletcher is a gifted mathematician/ code breaker. Her code breaking machine, TRANSLTR, can decrypt any code within seconds. But after TRANSLTR gets a code it cannot solve after 24 hours, Susan realizes that there is something fishy going on, along with the fact that her husband, David Becker, is in Spain looking for the ring of the creator of the code which TRANSLTR cannot break...
The Good:
A. I loved the puzzles in this book especially. Cryptology fascinates me.
B. I just loved the character of David Becker and the whole Seville plot line. It was amazing!
C. The ending was truly unexpected.
D. All the minor characters (this time) were actually quite vital to the plot and quirky and intriguing. I often feel that Dan Brown's minor characters are better than his major ones.
E. Not bad for a debut novel. :)
F. Great cliffhangers
G. Short chapters
The Bad:
A. The ending was quite stretched and drawn out. A few chapters cut would have been appreciated.
B. The usual plot line. See my earlier blog post about Deception Point.
C. The major characters. All so cliched, all so boring.
The Consensus:
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. Every chapter was short, quick, and usually had a cliffhanger. I would recommend this book to any techie/person who enjoys a good thriller and some cool facts. Good one Brown!

Quick Overview:
Plot: 4/5
Original Appeal: 2/5
Ending: 4.5/5
EXTRA-ordinary: 3/5

A Word About Twilight...

Now, I realized that when I temporarily left this blog, I was crazy about Twilight.
I'm sorry guys, but I'm now a skeptic.
Look, the new movie just didn't do it for me. I thought it was so horrible and so overrated that I would rather do something else rather than watch the movie. The actors are horrible and turned the movie into something so idiotic and stupid that it's not Twilight anymore.
It's pure trash.
So, no, I am not looking forward to the new New Moon movie. Thanks for asking, by the way.
So if you are a twilight maniac, go ahead, send me hate mail. But frankly dear, I don't give a damn.
Just to be sure we are all on the same page with this:
Twilight Tuesday - officially over.
Fowl Friday will still continue.

Review 22: Deception Point by Dan Brown

Title: Deception Point
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Pocket Books
Rating: 7/10
The Lowdown:
Rachel Sexton, the daughter of the presidential candidate/senator Sexton works for the FBI. When she gets called down to the poles to uncover a mysterious fossil, although at first it may seem unreal (that's because it is.) How she uncovers this/ tells herself to believe it is the book, along with the politics behind Sexton.
The Good:
A. Books about ET/ books that elevate NASA's rep? I love that.
B. The quirky scientific characters. All of them made me laugh out loud, but when they died, it was quite sad.
The Bad:
A. Same old plotline. Crappy life, big mystery, POLITICS, scandal, love, and happy ending. Change your storylines, Brown!
B. Half the book was convincing Sexton that the fossil was false. We get it, now can you please move on?
C. The length was too much.
D. The shifting perspectives worked for this book, but honestly, some of the characters were just there to fill up the pages. The book was dragging on halfway to the end and I felt like falling asleep at page 150.
E. The character of Rachel Sexton was so predictable and quite honestly, pathetic. I see her on Fringe everyday. Yawn x 2
The Consensus:
This has to be Brown's worst. Considering the fact that it is his second novel (first being better than the second), it is a good first try.. He has a patter of writing good/bad/good/bad. Which means his latest book should be good (hopefully!)

BREAKING NEWS: Dan Brown's New Book

Dan Brown's new novel is almost here, titled The Lost Symbol. It will be released sometime in September.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/20/dan-brown-the-lost-symbol

Dan Brown's suave symbologist Robert Langdon, star of the international phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, is set for a return to the literary stage in a new thriller this autumn.

The long-awaited novel – one of the most anticipated in recent publishing history - will be called The Lost Symbol, and will take place over a 12-hour period. No more details were given about its content, but persistent rumours have suggested it will be set in Washington DC and will focus on freemasonry. It will be published on 15 September with an initial print run of 6.5 million copies – the largest first printing in publisher Random House's history.

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's 12-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

Fans of Brown's rapid-paced, page-turning novels kept The Da Vinci Code at the top of bestseller charts around the world for over a year when it was published in 2003. Today, it is the UK's bestselling adult paperback novel of all time – ahead of Brown's other titles Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress, which take second, third and fourth place.

Announcing publication plans for The Lost Symbol today, Brown's US publisher Sonny Mehta described it as "a brilliant and compelling thriller" which was "well worth the wait".

"Dan Brown's prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book," he said. "This is a great day for readers and booksellers."

Brown's longterm US editor, Jason Kaufman, promised that, as ever, in The Lost Symbol "nothing ever is as it first appears". Brown scandalised Catholics in The Da Vinci Code by having Langdon discover that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene.

A film of The Da Vinci Code was released in 2006, starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. It will be followed up on 15 May this year with the film of Angels and Demons.

Review 21: The DaVinci Code

**Part of the Dan Brown Month**
Title: The DaVinci Code
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Pocket Books
Rating: 8/10
The Lowdown:
Robert Langdon's most adventure- the one that takes him all around Europe in locating the infamous Holy Grail.
The Good:
A. Introduction of a few quirky/cool characters.
B. The mystery part
C. Awesome facts/tidbits about Jesus Christ and Christianity that I never knew. I'm not a Christian, so I didn't look at the book hypercritically; it was more like an enlightening experience for me.
D. Short and sweet chapters.
The Bad:
A. The ending. I seriously did not get it/ was not satisfied by it.
B. The romance. Seriously, Robert Langdon is such a player! He's always messing around with other girls SO MUCH younger than him. Ew. Gross!
C. Shifting perspectives.
The Consensus:
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but it did have boring parts. Sometimes, I got confused when Brown changed the perspective of the speaker. Overall, the book was enjoyable but not as good as Angels and Demons.

Review 20: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

** Part of the Dan Brown Month Series**
Title: Angels and Demons
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Pocket Books
Rating: 9.5/10
The Lowdown:
Robert Langdon is solving a case for CERN/ the Vatican as their Pope candidates are kidnapped and brutally murdered as the legend of the Illuminati resurfaces.
The Good:
A. I really enjoyed the narration of Dan Brown. There was always something intriguing about the story that kept me awake.
B. I loved the puzzles as well as the little illustrations. They were all extremely enjoyable.
C. I loved the mystery aura with the whole who-killed-the-candidates.
D. The papal history was great.
E. The ending was unpredictable. If you guessed the killer, I will be in awe.
F. I liked the journalist guy. He was a great comic relief character!
The Bad:
A. The length. Honestly, I think that sometimes authors write too much and isntead of being edited out it ends up being included in the story. No, I do not want to read extraneous stuff that doesn't contribute to the plot but instead just fills up the pages. No thanks.
B. The shifting perspectives. I was definitely confused in the beginning but then I understood the story.
C. The ending. I had a few issues with the ending, but I can't really explain it without giving it away. But I can say one thing: even though it was unpredictable, it was too... grandesque. No one can actually believe that it would happen.
The Consensus:
Although the story gets confusing at some parts, I loved this book. It is page turning and addictive. Read it, love it, comment on it! It is definitely well worth the recent hype, no matter how unrealistic the ending is.

Dan Brown Month

This month is officially (you guessed it) Dan Brown Month. We'll be featuring a full review of all four of his books, latest news on his new book, as well as a review on the new Angels and Demons movie. So stay tuned, because you don't want to miss it! :) Here's my personal story of how I got hooked onto Dan Brown. It started with the general Dan Brown fever. But I was skeptical. So I read the book. I never watched either of the movies. But I loved the books. So there you have it folks, even I take recommendations! I think it's great how most popular movies originated from books. Personally, I liked Angels and Demons over The DaVinci Code. What do you think? Post your opinions!

I'm Back....

Hi all,
Personally, I'd like to apologize for leaving without any sort of notice. I've been extremely busy with stuff and have clearly neglected my readers. I will truly apologize :(
This summer, though, I will revamp the blog and make it better than ever. But first, 800 hits? That's amazing.... thanks to everyone who read it! This gives me great support for the future!!!!
Thanks a lot!
~Bookielicious