The Pact by Jodi Picoult

For eighteen years, the Hartes and the Golds have been neighbours for eighteen years, sharing absolutely anything and everything. They've grown so close to each other that they've been part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have become best friends, and in high school, their two children - Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more, and they've already become soul mates the moment they were born.

When midnight calls from the hospital comes in, neither of them were ready to face the appalling truth that Emily is pronounced dead at seventeen with a gunshot in her head and a single unspent bullet is in the gun that Chris has claimed that he had taken from his father's cabinet. Chris explains that this bullet was meant to be for himself, but a local detective doubts this and finds it unlikely to be the suicide pact that Chris has described to be.

The questions faced by the characters in this heart-rending novel are the ones we can all relate to - how well do we really know our children or our friends? The chapters unfold, which alternates between the idyllic past and the equally unthinkable present, this novel indeed paints an indelible portrait of 2 families in anguish, as well as a suspenseful courtroom drama when Chris finds himself being charged with first degree murder.

I really enjoyed reading this novel as Jodi Picoult has yet again created this novel with riveting psychological drama, she has an uncanny ability to bring us into the worlds of teenagers and create such an outstanding novel which also explores the minds of teenagers and the stereotypical problems that they face. This is indeed a good read as it is deeply moving as the sudden, violent death in the novel was extremely gripping, and Chris's trail was very compelling and filled with suspense.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

At the age of fourteen, Susie Salmon is murdered by a man in the neighbourhood. With his odd habits and frequent customs, he seemed like a normal, unsuspecting and lonely man in the eyes of everyone in town.

In heaven, Susie watches her once inseparable family drift apart, becoming more and more detached since her death. She watches them attempt to cope with their terrible loss and move on in any way possible. As time goes on, Susie finds herself becoming a mere bystander. She watched as her parents break apart, as her friends grow up, as her siblings fall in love and as the entire town tries to piece her murder together to no avail. Only through letting go of her life on Earth can she find peace, but Susie isn't so inclined to do so. At least, not until she's ready to move on from her past.

***

I found this book incredibly moving. The plot itself is touching because it highlights the struggles of dealing with a loss of a loved one. It's interesting to see how each character tries to cope with Susie's death and how Susie herself feels about it. Unlike most stories, the bad guy in this novel gets away, but I liked how the author somehow made the ending relatively happy, despite the murderer escaping. The whole novel is bittersweet with its dark atmosphere to begin with, then becoming increasingly light.

Right from the very beginning, the reader is told that Susie was murdered. I personally didn't like reading about her murder because I knew what was going to happen, and Susie's innocence just made it worse. Being told exactly what had happened during Susie's death, I found the police's tedious and long-winding investigation boring to read. It was hard not to get annoyed with them because of their bluntness, as the events are obvious to me. I think the story would've been more intriguing if the entire plot had not been revealed to the reader from the very start. Throughout the novel, it's hard not to sympathize with Susie, but the writer also makes it difficult at times to hate the murderer. Whenever you really start to hate him, the author talks about the murderer's sad past and forces you to empathize with him. Also, sometimes, the writer tends to talk in too much detail about irrelevant things, and not enough when detail is actually needed.

Though overall, The Lovely Bones is a compelling novel about family, romance, and a bit of mystery. It's worth a read if you're looking for a moving, sweet book. :)

Fall of Giants - Ken Follett

An epic novel - one of the greatest I've read I dare say. Fall of Giants is an eloquently crafted novel that fuses Fiction with Non-Fiction to produce an eye opening and gripping story of World War 1. The novel revolves around 3 interlinked families/character sets spread around the world.

Firstly, the Welsh nobility and the miners of the town of Aberowen. Housemaid Ethel Williams' fate is entangled with that of Earl Fitzherbert's through romance, as her brother, Billy Williams is sent to fight the war for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the German Front and in Russia against the Bolsheviks.

The second is a family of two brothers, whose parents have been killed by the Tsar and his nobles. Grigori and Lev are split by chasing the American Dream and Conscription, as Lev goes to America whilst his brother helps lead the Bolshevik revolution under Lenin.

The third is that of Walter Von Ulrich, son of a german count working for the Kaiser's embassy in London. He loves Fitzherbert's sister, Maud, but faces difficult choices due to the war and the British hatred for the Germans.

The book is just so packed (900 pages) with stories that I couldn't dream of summing them up on this blog, but I just have to say what a brilliant book it is. Its a fiction book that opens your eyes to the human psyche, looking at how the war was started by disgruntled aristocrats but fought by the innocent man, the racism for ones neighbor that ensues and the rich history that is built from this.

Before I read this book, I was taught history from the British perspective. Learning about their victories and losses, and thus sympathized with them. When I read in the book that the British had taken a German trench in a strategic location, killing many and moving closer to Berlin, I felt secretly happy that justice had been served, but reading this book I realize one thing. That nobody is right and nobody is wrong. When we fight wars, we don't kill enemies. We kill good people with no intention to do wrong. In the book you get an unbiased view from every perspective of the war front. I was moved to tears many times when I was reading about how once good friends, having dinner together at lavish parties were shooting at one another in the thought that they were fighting for riotousness. Even after the Germans lost, I sympathized with them. There can only be one victor, and the loser is at their mercy. The treaty of Versailles proved the true evils of the hailed "heroes" of the allies, as many innocent germans lost everything.

The same goes for the Russians. When reading about the Revolution, you even sympathize with the rich aristocrats. When angry farmers kill as many of the rich as possible, you are forced to think twice. Is the fact that they were merely connected to the Tsar enough to kill them?

Another thing I learnt about is Revolution. The Russian Revolution ousted the Tsar, but gave birth to the Soviet, whom everyone thought would save russia. But from what we know about Stalin, we can see that this is plainly not true.

I couldn't stress enough how much I recommend this book to everyone. It merely isn't another story book. Its a revelation.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Hatchet.

This book is a story about a boy called Brian Robeson. He is left in the forest where no one lives and he is alone in there. The only thing he has is his hatchet. However, he succeeds to ameliorates his harsh life, create shelter, fire, and find foods just with his hatchet. Later when he is having a harsh life in the forest, he accidentally drops his hatchet into the lake, and because he knows how crucial the hatchet is to his survival, he looks for it and finally retrieves it from the bottom of the lake. While doing that, he finds a survival pack in the plane in which he was riding, and finds a trasmitter. He used it, but didn't know how to use it, so thought it was broken; however, it actually worked, consequentially a float plane finds him and he is rescued.

.

Well it is not one of my favorite books but this book is one of the most impressive books i've ever read because this book shows how human being can survive in the harsh situation. Also, while he demonstrates vulnerability, frustration, and anger at the beginning of the novel, his experiences in the forests alter his perspective forever. He learns lessons and adopts qualities that are relevant not only to wilderness survival but also to life as a whole. Patience, observation, an appreciation for the natural world, and a newfound connection between mind and body all contribute to Brian's character development. Furthermore, he matures dramatically compared to the beginning of the novel.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

This book is about an accidental couple who end up going on a journey into the infinite night of falling in and out of love. This first date was filled with music, laughter, confessions, heartache, confusion, passion, taxi driver wisdom and a jacket named Salvatore. And of course, there is the killer soundtrack of the night.

Nick watched his girlfriend who has dumped him walk in with another guy, and his basic instinct was to talk to that strange girl standing next to him to be his girlfriend for five minutes to avoid any awkwardness in his conversations with his ex-girlfriend.

Norah, on the other hand, would do anything to avoid any sort of conversation with her not-so-close-friend who has just dumped Nick, and to get over her ex-boyfriend that she couldn't really let go off. Norah decides to answer Nick's question by agreeing to be his girlfriend for that very five minutes.

Yet, with that one kiss that sent them swooned, they end up going on their very own journey of bewilderment and new love. Their night goes on as Nick and Norah wander around the mystical maze of Manhattan, their night was so perfect and so flawless; when every minute was so precious and so real.

"The wattage goes way up as two of the bright lights of contemporary writing for teens come together for an incandescent he said/she said night of storytelling. There's perfectly captured teen music-geek talk and delicious stuff about kissing and what lies beyond." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred.

I would have to say that this book is definitely one of my favorite books. It tells such a unique and very sweet love story, it is genuinely poignant; and it is a story of thrills and risks of intimacy. There were definitely many heart-stopping moments in this novel, I loved the writers' description of the characters and I would say that this is definitely a good read. This book has also been made into a successful major motion picture and I'm really compelled to watch the movie soon!

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda tries hard to put her past in the past. She wants to forget all the events that occurred the night of the party, and everything that follows it. It'd be so easy, too, if everything didn't remind her of it. Since the incident, Melinda's life has spun out of control, from school to home. Her grades have only gone downhill and nobody cares enough to listen to what she has to say.

She chooses not to speak, but as it becomes harder for her to erase her memories, Melinda finds that she has no choice but to voice the truth.

***

I think the message of this book is very powerful and meaningful. The growth of Melinda is clear as she begins to open up a bit more to the people around her. The storyline is inspirational and it's not too haste, time-wise. I thought it was also interesting how the writer used a variety of sentences with different lengths to either quicken or slow down the pace of the book.

However, I found the book extremely boring at times. I found it quite hard to get into the book because Melinda, the character, is annoying. She's pessimistic and just strange and would often do the most random things at times. As the reader, I found Melinda confusing with her abrupt inner thoughts and outright stupidity. Her lack of hope and constant moaning is depressing. :( The storyline could have been more original, in my opinion, and possibly less predictable. Although I think the book conveys a meaningful message, I wouldn't want to read it again.

Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty

As part of a school project, Cassie, Em and Lydia are forced to exchange letters with students at Brookfield High. Everything starts out peacefully, but what else could they expect from a school of 'slightly disturbed', psychotic, drug-dealing students but an unexpected surprise?

Eventually, as the three best friends continue their pen-pal project, they soon realise that this project could either be one of two things: the spark to a romance, or a devastating roller coaster of betrayal and lies.

***

This book is honestly one of the funniest I've ever read. It's written in an original context, plainly in either letters, memos or diary entries. I like how Jaclyn Moriarty leads you on by making everything seem bright and serene, only to reveal a darker, more sinister side to the novel. I think the plot of the book is meaningful and deals with a lot of character development and growth.

My only complaint is that some scenes were too rushed. I honestly also felt that the novel would've been more interesting if the author had included more clues as to what would happen later in the story, instead of suddenly stating a shocking fact which makes no sense from the reader's point of view.

Still, without a doubt, I highly recommend reading this book. ;)

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Jack St. Bride was once a History teacher and sports coach at an all girls' school. He was popular, attractive, and perhaps a little too loved. When word gets around that he was responsible for raping one of his students, Jack is falsely sentenced to eight months in jail.

After serving his sentence, Jack walks out of prison looking to turn over a new leaf. He settles down in a quiet town known as Salem Falls, where everything is orderly, peaceful and just perfect, thinking that he'd be free of his past. He finds a job at a diner, gets to know Addie Peabody, and slowly starts to piece his life together again.

Just when Jack begins to adjust to his new life, a group of teenagers accuse him of rape again, leaving him fighting for his innocence yet again. In this story of both romance and mystery, Jack finds that no matter where he goes, his past will inevitably haunt him.

***

I actually really enjoyed reading this book. :) The twists and turns of the plot really made me desperate to read to the very end. The book definitely emphasised that there are always two sides to a story, no matter how unbelievable it may seem.

Though I would say that the plot was a little too far-fetched at times, especially when some things just "coincidentally" fell into place. I thought perhaps there could have been more originality at some parts, and less stereotypical context.

The ending really caught me off guard and made me kick myself, but thinking back, there were all these little signs and symbols that came together to make the ending fit. To anyone who decides to read this book: make sure you take all the details into account if you'd rather not admit that you were too gullible to guess the ending.

Petals in the ashes by Mary Hooper

Hannah and Sarah are two sisters who had a sweetmeats shop in London. At the time, London was suffering many losses from a terrible plague. Luckily, they were able to flee, with a mission to take an orphaned baby safely to her relatives.

About a year later, when numbers of death from plague decreased, the sisters headed their parents’ home in Dorchester. Sarah was happy to stay with her parents for a while, whereas Hannah went to London to run the shop with her younger sister Anne. Hannah’s ‘sweetheart’ Tom was rumoured to die from plague, but surprisingly, she found he was alive and working for a magician. But their happiness didn’t last long as a fire spread out the whole city. They had to abandon their home to save their lives. Despite of the losses, Hannah believed that she can rebuild her shop again soon.

‘Petals in the ashes’ is a fiction book, but it was based on a real historical event: the Great Fire of London in 1666. I really like this book as the narration told by a character, Hannah, with her point of view. That makes the chaos and dangers of this fire become more vivid, and also shows how strong human spirit can be through difficulties and hardships by telling her own experiences and feelings. This book is a sequel to a story ‘At the sign of the sugared plum’ but its plot is easy to catch, so you can read this without its first part, like I did :)

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

At fifteen years old, Haven finds her world falling apart. Her father's found a new wife, her sister's moving out and her mother is having a mid-life crisis. In this novel, Haven realises that growing up means involuntarily embarking on a long-winding, turbulent roller coaster ride.

She'd give anything to relive the beautiful moments when her parents were still together and her sister was as carefree as she had always been. That summer, everything was perfect. That summer, things seemed to just fall in place. That summer, they had all been happy. Or so it seemed.

___

I personally enjoyed reading this book as it gives a clear insight as to what growing up involves. It doesn't only show the more positive sides of aging, it also illustrates the colder, more harsh reality. However, I thought some parts of the book came across as too melodramatic and cliche, but overall, a good read that provokes thinking. :)

Love, Stargirl

This book is the sequel to Stargirl when Stargirl (the main character) leaves everything behind - Arizona, Mica High, enchanted desert places, and the boy that she likes - Leo.

Initially, Leo is everything that Stargirl can ever think about. Her life is a sequel of unhappy events until she meets her bizarre new neighbours who indeed bring in some joy and fun into her life. There's Dootsie, the hyperactive five-year old 'human bean', Betty Lou who hasn't stepped out of her house for nine years, there's Charlie, who spends his lives of sadness mourning around tombstones, there's Alvina, the hot-tempered girl with the one glittered fingernail who experiences a difficult transition from being a kid to a teenager; and lastly, there's Perry Dellopane, a blue-eyed thief that claims the owns of Stargirl's heart at the end of the novel.

Stargirl experiences and learns new lessons over the course of a year when she writes to letters to Leo. She finds her hope in new places; mockingbirds, donut angels, moon flowers, and the Winter Solstice. She even finds herself slowly letting go of Leo, as she soon lives the whimsical fantasies of her life and her wonderful new friends.

Stargirl is definitely, hands down, one of my favorite books ever. I love how Stargirl's so different; she isn't the cliqued 15 year old. She is described to be a supernatural figure, she's a heroine. She's very quirky, and I definitely love the humour and the perspectives of Stargirl. Truly. Amazing.

Time Traveller's Wife

This book is like a diary as it gives dates on to show what period of time you're reading. So there is this guy named Henry and he is born with this disease which causes him to time travel involuntarily, and when he time travels, he only takes his body with him (yes, when he time travels he leaves his clothes behind and appears in front of random people on the sidewalk naked). In the future he is married to this girl named Clare, who has known him since she was 6 (he time travelled). She grew up keeping his secret for him and provided him with clothes every time he appeared in the Meadow near her. It relates the life story of mostly Clare and of Henry after he met her and some bits of his past.

One word. Amazing. I love this book. It is so good. I usually read this book before I go to bed and sometimes I forget to sleep. I could read this book till 3 in the morning. It is soooooo amazing. It is full of surprises and it is just incredible. Thank you Cheryl for telling Hieu it's a good book and thank you Hieu for letting me steal it from you ^^

Inkheart

Probably to Mr Pollicutt's relief this is not a vampire book :) It is a book about people being able to read storybook characters to life instead. This book is a movie and I'm pretty sure all of you have watched it. So Mo can read people out of books and one day he sees Dustfinger (a fire-eater from the actual book Inkheart) and Dustfinger wants him to read him back into his book. However, Mo cannot do this. So he takes Meggie (his daughter) to Elinor's house (Mo's wife's auntie). There they stay for a while and then Capricorn's (really really REALLY evil guy from the same book Dustfinger's from) men come and take Mo away. (the story is very different) Then, Meggie and Elinor go out to find him with Dustfinger. They finally reach Capricorn's village and get captured. They witness Mo reading a young boy names Faird out of a book who constantly believes that he is in a bad dream. Dustfinger helps them escape and they run to the nearest village. There, Mo tells Meggie about her mother and how she was read into the book. The two of them then set off to look for Fenoglio, the author of the book hoping that he has a copy of the book Inkheart. I do not wish to tell you anymore of the book to make you read it :D

I think that this book is SOOOOOOOO different from the movie. I actually started reading Inkspell (the second book) thinking that I already knew what happened in the movie but everything in the book was so different than what happened and I was so confused so I had to go and borrow Inkheart from a friend and read it before I understood it. (Meggie's mom doesn't get her voice back in the book O.o) Please read this book. It's sooo good. And it's not about vampires. ^^

Burned

This is the 7th book and in this book Heath has died and gone to the Otherworld and Zoey's soul shattered so she went with him. Neferet (evil teacher) sent Kalona to the Otherworld to get Zoey back because her all evil plan to take over the world wouldn't work without her. So now there are three people in the Otherworld. Zoey, the saviour of mankind. Heath, the human who is dead but is helping Zoey get herself together. Kalona, evil bird guy who honestly freaks me out and loves Zoey but wants to kill her (-.- I don't get it either). However, being crazy in love with Zoey (like 5 guys in this book like her. I don't get that either -.-) and being her guardian decides to die and go save his high priestess.

I think that this book is good but kind of weird and confusing. The story itself is good, like the action bit and all the fighting and dying bits, but the way it happens is just kind of stupid. BUT ITS STILL REALLY GOOD SO READ IT :)

Tempted

This is the 6th book in the House of Night novel. Those of you in my class last year would have seen my blog on the first 5 books but since we can't count books we've read before I have to summarise everything here.

So Zoey is this vampyre(yes I know I spelt vampire wrong but this is how it's spelt in the book) fledging and she is special. Not special in a freak way, special in a "I'm better than all the others" kind of way. So she has these powers for affinities and she can control water, fire, earth, air and spirit. And there's this evil "principal"/teacher who teaches at the vampyre school and she is evil and she tries to rise this bird guy from the dead and it works. So her and the bird guy (Kalona) try to enslave the human race and make vampyres rule the world (cliche much?) and Zoey is going to stop them with her friends and human consort. They go to the High Vampyre Council and talk to them with the evil teacher and Kalona and they try to plead their case. And I cannot tell you anymore cos that would ruin the book but someone dies.

I think that this book is good because I was waiting a really long time for it to come out and when it did it was just soooo AWESOME. I highly recommend this book because it is extremely good but you need to the read the books before you understand it so you can borrow them from me if you want. :) I just realised Twilight has got to be the only book with vampires in it but no evil vampire that wants to enslave the humen race :/

Tunnels of Blood

This is the third book in the saga of Darren Shan. This time, Darren and Mr Crepsely are in a city and there is another vampire who is killing humans and draining them of blood. Darren also meets this girl and is starting to be very good friends with her although Erva is against it as he is afraid that Mr Crepsely is going to have problems with a human. Darren starts to get visions and in his visions he sees Mr Crepsely trying to murder a man and Darren starts to doubt his mentor. Soon, someone is after Darren, Mr Crepsely and Erva and they suspect it is the vampire.

I think that this book is AMAZING and that this series is AWESOME (even though Mr Policcutt thinks that all vampire books are stupid -.- they're not). I highly recommend this book to all of you because I think it's awesome and so does Tram so... :) read it XD

The General

CHERUB is a branch of British Intelligence, where its agents are kids aged ten to seventeen. James Adams, one of the agents of CHERUB, starts his mission by taking part in a demo organised by the leader of the SAG (Street Action Group), Bradford. Afterwards, he becomes Bradford’s bodyguard for a meeting with a gun supplier. However, the police arrive unexpectedly and arrest everyone during the meeting, resulting to fail in James’ mission. Meanwhile, James’ sister Lauren and some of the younger agents become successful in their mission, which is to test the security of an air traffic control centre.

Back in campus, James, Lauren, and other agents gets selected to be part of a team in the Fort Reagan exercise. Fort Reagan is the world’s largest urban warfare training compound, and the exercise is a two-week exercise with forty British commandos, against the American soldiers, with weapons restricted to paint guns and grenades. Kazakov, who is the commander of the agents, as well as being an anti-American, uses all the tactics he can to beat the Americans. These tactics are effective, making the Americans become overrun and suspend the exercise only after two days. However, these tactics were controversial, so he and James, who was involved a lot in his tactic are asked to leave before the exercise restarts. In the free time they have, Kazakov persuades to help him play blackjack in Las Vegas. James almost gets caught, but they end up winning $92,300.

This is the tenth book of the CHERUB series, and they all of the books never failed to get my interest. This book, of course, was also very thrilling, although somehow it took me nearly three weeks to read. I recommend this book to everyone, though it would be better to understand if you start from the first book, like all series books. :) Also, just a random thing, my computer failed to open the blog more than ten times yesterday and restarted itself about seven times. That was fun.

The Clique .

HI PEOPLE.
i feel like a critical review today. (:<

The Clique. It has once been made to a movie. And a Nintendo DS game. And a manga. I stole this book off from my sister, and I regret reading this book very, very bad. Not only is it very unoriginal, it is depressing. And shallow.

This book is about 4 wannabe girls; Massie Block, Dylan Marvil, and Alicia Rivera wasting their money on stuff non-stop and having sad 'boy talks' among themselves. There is also a very poor girl, who gets bullied by them.

It is well written and funny in some bits. However, when you put the book down to go to dinner and you take another look at your un-manicured nails and your clothes, it makes you disappointed.

Basically, this book brainwashes you in some ways.

Laughing at someone because they got their first 'something' is not very nice.

This book makes you feel uncomfortable and makes you feel bad about yourself and your life, possibly ahead of you. Unsure, perhaps. For example, you think: well, I don't really see the point of me living this life because I don't shop at Gucci or Louis Vuitton nor Salvatore Ferragamo. And these girls do.

I wouldn't really recommend this book to some people, simply judging from my own perspective. This book reminded my again how sad my sister was. (:

BYEE.

The foreshadowing - Marcus Sedgwick

Sasha Fox, a seventeen years old girl who lives a privileged life. However, her brothers Edgar and Tom cannot avoid the war. Sasha has been given the gift: she can see the future. The worst thing that she can see is what is going to happen to Tom and Edgar.
Edgar died.
One day, she asks her mom to be a part-time nurse at a local hospital. Later, Sasah forms friends with Jack - a soldier who knows where Tom is.
Sasha. A seventeen years old normal girl goes from every land from North England to France just to find her brother to tell him about his death. Tom does not believe her. As a sister, Sasha shot Tom on his leg the day before the battle, therefore saves his life.
At the end of the book, Sasha has said: '... I was a VAD nurse who had got into the danger zone, and that all I wanted to do was try to help men get well.'
Finally, she decides to stay in France to help British soldiers.

Angels and Demons

This book is an ingenious mixture of thriller, mystery, science, and crime. It is the first Robert Langdon thriller in the series written by Dan Brown. It is for those who expects cliff-hanging and "unputdownable" moments. To be frank, I was idly sauntering around the library - looking for a good read - until this magnificent book captured my retina's attention. As an astounding result, I spent four feverish days to finish the six-hundred and thirty eight pages book. It's that awesome...

The story begins with a short prologue of a murder scene. After that, a Harvard professor Robert Langdon was phoned in the middle of the night by CERN's (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire - The European Organization for Nuclear Research) director, Maximilian Kohler. The steely, cold director wanted Langdon to go to CERN in order to investigate the mysterious symbol that was seared into Leonardo Vetra's flesh (a famous world-renowned scientist). The ambigram read "Illuminati" - the Catholic Church's biggest enemy thought to be extinct but now has came back with vengeance. Their sole aim is to strike and eradicate the heart of Catholism - the Vatican City.

In this book, you'll join Langdon and a beautiful young woman Vittoria Vetra in a journey across Rome and Vatican City searching for mind numbing symbols and conundrums in order to reach the Illuminati's lair - the Church of Illumination to save the Vatican of its horrible fate. They'll have twenty-four hours until the Church will be deleted from history. The ultimate question arises - can they save the Vatican or let thousands of years of traditions evaporate?

Looking For Alaska - John Green

The books begins by the main characters parents, Miles Halter, throwing him a goodbye party as he prepares to leave home from Florida to go to Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama.

As Miles moves to his new home in Alabama he gets acquainted with his new roommate Chip 'The Colonel' Martin. The Colonel gives Miles the nickname 'Pudge'. It's ironic as Miles is actually quite a slim character in the book. Miles is later introduced to Alaska Young, a girl who Miles slowly develops a crush on. On his first night Miles taped and thrown into a nearby lake by the 'Weekly Warriors', Birmingham area students and the only apparent reason seems to be is because he's friends with the Colonel. The Colonel and Alaska are furious about the event and soon an all out prank war follows between the three them and the Weekly Warriors. Soon, later in the story, being friends with these pranksters leads him to a new found sense of excitement, danger and most importantly, recklessness...

This novel by John Green opened up a playful side to me as a reader but also pointed out the seriousness and reality of life and how it can be delivered in tragic and surprising ways. Overall this book is very exciting and my blog is only a teaser of what's to come if you decide to read this award winning novel yourself.

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

As you might guess, this story starts with an old fisherman. He had been in his fishing boat for eighty four days and returned empty-handed. In the first forty days, a young boy called Manolin went fishing with him but his parents forced to leave the old man for a more prosperous fishing boat. However, the old man and the boy were still close friends.

On the next day, he continued to get on his boat and headed out for fish. Soon, he hooked a really big marlin. On his own, he wrestled with the big fish and also suffered with pains and hunger. Although he was trying to kill the marlin, he always considered it as his “brother”.

After the long battle, the old man won and headed to the sore. On the way, the sharks attacked his boat to eat the marlin. The old man fought against them. Sadly, when he reached the shore, there was nothing left but the skeleton of the fish.

In this book, Hemmingway describes the loneliness of the man and his courage in the struggle with the nature vividly. The battle between the old man and the fish is not just the battle of strength but also the battle of dignity and wills. The fish’s skeleton symbolized human achievements from adversities. Overall, this is an excellent short story and that’s why it received the Pulitzer Prize in 1952.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (Mark Haddon)

Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old boy, lives with his father because his mother died 2 years ago. He is very good at maths. He knows every prime number up to 7057 and his way to calm down is to doubling 2's. One day, Wellington, the neighbor's dog, is speared by a garden fork. Christopher decides to find out who killed Wellington in the style of his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes. During his investigation, he does a lot of things that he has never done before, such as talking to his neighbors. Thanks to this, he finds out the secret about his mother which father has been hiding from him: his mother hasn't died. And father tells Christopher that he is the one who killed Wellington. After all of that, Christopher loses all his trust in his father. He even thinks that his father may kill him. Therefore, he decides not to live with his father anymore...
The way Christopher react with everything is weird. He cannot understand people well. He will definitely scream when someone, even his parents, touches him. He wants everything in his life to be planned. He doesn't like things that he don't know about. He refuses to touch or eat anything that is yellow or brown just because he hates the color. But he knows a lot of different things, some of which I cannot understand.

Amy - Mary Hooper

"Deals with difficult issue in a sensitive, mature way - so don't expect any easy answers." The Daily Telegraph

"It's all started after I fell out with Louise and Bethany. Really. It was falling out with them that made me try to find friends somewhere else, and the internet seemed a good place to look. "

The above statement describes the whole book. We are at the age that technology is taking over everything we do. Technology certainly have its advantage, but if we don't use it wisely, you won't want to know what will happen.

Amy is a 17 years old teenager that just recently broke out with her gang containing Louise and Bethany. Amy decided to make new friends by the Internet Chat Rooms. She met ZED, Zed sounds perfectly normal at first. They decided that they will meet up, although knowing that meeting a person from a chat room is definitely not sensible. Amy still did it...

Very interesting book. Very realistic as well. Teaches us a valuable lesson, "Don't meet up with people from the internet alone" This book should be given to all teenagers girls around the world.

Lie psychology

As you can infer from the title, this book is about psychology used in LIE.
It was so hard to find this book published in english but i managed to do that. But i didn't buy it.
And also i can't find the pic of this book so this time, i'll not find one.

This is one of my favorite book. This books shows the psychological analysis of human brain when people lie and also ways to find whether someone is lying or not. And also the definition of lie and what is defined as a lie, and when people lie. People lie because of many reasons. People lie to escape from punishment or detention, or to get respect from other people. Some people lie to achieve their purpose which is usually crimes. Others lie to make people feel better. For example, some doctors lie to the patients so that they will not be shocked.
This book is very good because by learning how people unconsciously, and consciously detects lie, i could learn how to lie without being detected.

I think i'm reading too many non-fiction books.

Joy of Psychology

This is not a fiction book. And i can't find the picture of this book, so just put a pic of a book that is similar to the original book.

Joy of Pyschology is the best book that i've ever read. It's very thick but its content about psychology is truly amazing.

This book shows how psychology and techniques using psychology can be used for our successful life, in the business, in your job or in my daily life. For example, if you just know one simple rule about psychology, you can make most of people to do your favor. This is why psychology is so amazing.

Also, in this book, there is a chapter about making a boyfriend/girlfriend or how to make a successful dating .etc. I don't understand why these things exist in here but all these facts are based on scientific facts.

I really would like to recommend this book, not because of the chapter that i discussed just now, but because this book can make our life successful.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

"You will find this novel impossible to put down" - Daily Mail

Chris and Emily grew up together hand in hand. They were neighbours, friends, best friends, then eventually, to no one's surprise, soul mates. Having lived next door to each other for eighteen years, the Hartes and the Golds became inseparable. In their parents' eyes, Chris and Emily were perfect. They had everything anyone could ever wish for. Or so it seemed.

One night, a call from the hospital threatened the young lovers' parents to question if they really knew their children at all: Emily and Chris were involved in an apparent suicide pact, yet, somehow, only Emily died.

Piecing together all they can, Chris' and Emily's parents find themselves face to face with the terrifying truth: what really happened that bitter night.

***

I thought this book was captivating, and the style it was written in successfully captured my attention. The story constantly jumps back and forth from past to present, allowing you (as the reader) to try to piece together the events yourself. The plot had many twists and turns, which is interesting, but at the same time, misleading. Some scenes were horrendously 'vivid' and 'obscene', but overall, a great read. :) I finished the book in one day! (partly because I had to review something, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless) Highly recommended!

Malarkey - Keith Gray

Definitions: MALARKEY : (məˈlärkē) n.SL. Bullsh*t...

"...Grabbing the reader by the scruff of the neck... Tough tender and TRUE "

John Malarkey is a 16 years old kid that just moves in town and into Brook High. His mum and him moved into town a while ago and his mum set up a bookshop selling secondhand books.

One day, John was just walking on the school's corridor, when he was beat down and his bag was stolen away from him. He couldn't chase them however his bag showed up on his desk the next class. John was really surprise and was blamed for couple of thefts around school. He needed to prove himself innocent and to get the group called Tailors out of the darkness. The Tailors are the group of students in Brooks High that steal cigarettes, selling singed reports card to students and eventually John was all blamed for all of this. However, he only have 24 hours to do so.

The thing about this book is that the writer had transformed a couple of hours in school to a couple of days whilst you're reading. It is very intense and most of all it's true. It is very realistic and I would recommend this book to everyone and especially to the one that just recently move into a new school. :)

Starters for Ten - David Nicholls

This book to me, it's hilarious and has a wide range of modern vocabulary. It's about intelligent teenager named Brian Jackson, aged 18 and about to leave his widowed mother's maisonette (little house) to go to University. He was a scholar of University of Bristol. On the way to the University, on a train from Essex, he meets a girl named Kate Bush and has sex with her (there was no other information of how they did it). he fell in love with her but, what he doesn't know is that Kate is also going the university of Bristol. In the University, he was selected to be on a University-Vs-University game-show. Brian is a strange and perverted guy, he easily falls in love with women. In the whole book, he sleeps with 3 women.

I recommend this book to EVERYONE and then everyone with understand how I think and the way I think sometimes (not the sex) and so far it's the only book that I didn't get bored of because I strongly dislike reading but this book is much more interesting than other books. If anyone wants to read this book I have the book and the library doesn't. Also made into a movie.

Swoon by Nina Malkin

This story is about a girl, Dice (Candice) who moves from New York City to Swoon, Connecticut after the death of her friend Ruby. She unhappily accepts her fate of living life in the city where nothing interesting really happens. Dice spends most of her time with her cousin Pen (Penelope). However, a queer event that occurred at the start of the novel when Pen nearly dies when falling off an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost - Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission is to seek revenge, as he was executed in colonial times after the death of his wife, and he has risen from the dead to get revenge on the descendants of his killers. Pen is oblivious to the possession, and Dice is too aware of him. However, Dice finds herself inextricably drawn to him - despite the fact that he's wreaking mayhem in Swoon. After exorcising him, Sin is free to use his supernatural powers to destroy the town, and Dice has to find her way to stop him. However, the only trouble is that she's fallen in love with him, and yet, she has to destroy him.

I thought this novel was particularly captivating, it was also very vivid and definitely unforgettable. It was spine-tingling, with the collision of the past and the present, yet expressed in such a terrifying manner. However, paragraphs became very lengthy and at times difficult to understand. i also felt that it was hard to believe. The characters were underdeveloped and in some ways, stereotypical.

Overall, I thought it was a good book - only if you had patience to read through the incomprehensible paragraphs.

Vampire Academy: Blood Promise

4TH BOOK IN THE SERIES.
Rose set off to Russia to get rid of Dimitri. But through some adventures, she fails. He is not how he used to be. He is a Strigoi. Their relationship can never be the same.

He kidnaps her and tries to convince her to turn Strigoi, promising that they could be together forever. Rose decides to escape, but Dimitri is hunting her down. That ends on a bridge, where Rose asks him why he wants her to turn. When he gives the wrong answer, she stakes him, telling him that she will always love him forever. He falls into the water and is carried away by the current.

Rose returns to the Academy to finish her final semester. Along the way she discovers an old myth...or so it seems. The myth tells that there is one man who claimed to know of a cure for Strigoi...as in, he knew how to turn them back. Unfortunately, the only person who knows his location is his brother, Victor Dashkov...the same Moroi who tortured Lissa, her best friend for her healing abilities.

In the end, Rose discovers the fact that she didn't stake him right in the middle of his heart. He is not dead. :O

Check out what happens after in Spirit Bound. (:

Vampire Academy: Spirit Bound

5TH BOOK IN THE SERIES:

Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir’s—and to her best friend, Lissa Dragomir from a heart breaking trip to Dimitri's hometown. It's graduation, and Rose can not wait till the real guardian life begins. Rose’s heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere.

She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he's silenced her...forever.

Robert, Victor Dashkov's brother, has turned a Strigoi back to life. Noone believes it. Rose isn’t even sure it can be done, but she has to at least try. The mission is dangerous as all hell, and involves dealing with a certain criminal that she’d prefer never to see again in her life, but that doesn’t stop Rose. Even when she realizes that its going to put her friends and loved ones in danger, Rose refuses to stop. For Dimitri.

It is a great book. Nothing like twilight. (:

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

The story starts off when Jack St.Bride, a popular teacher at a private girls' school was unfairly accused of rape which sparked from a student's crush. He had lost in job and reputation, and after, a public ordeal that left him serving an eight-month jail sentence and no job. Jack strives to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and he arrives in a small town - Salem Falls, where he hopes to turn over a new leaf. He takes up a job at Addie Peabody's diner, and a relationship between them starts to form in this quiet, secluded town. Just as Jack thought that he has successfully rubbed away the remains of his devastating past, a group of teenage girls who harbor the darkest secrets of witchcraft have formulated a plan to maliciously target Jack with an allegation. However, all the evidence shows that it is flaringly obvious that Jack is the culprit, but he is forced to declare his innocence to a whole town who are seeking for answers, a justice system, where the truth is almost blurry and cannot be seen, and to the woman that he loves. Yet, in the end, Jack his pronounced not guilty and it is revealed that the girls have been the ones twisting the truth and framing Jack for his inappropriate sexual abuse that he wasn't responsible for. The story ends with the cliqued happy ending - when everything that has been devastatingly broken gets fixed, and Addie & Jack get to be with each in the end despite the tough times that they have faced.

I definitely enjoyed reading this book as its unique and original; it was indeed one that i couldn't put down as there's a twist of fate on every page; a revelation. It was also genuinely suspenseful and it is a mixture of romance, mystery, spookiness, heartbreaks - and all these traits make this book a really great novel.

Maximum Security Robert Muchamore

During this new thriller of CHERUB James has to get into the daily lives of the worth criminals which couldn't be executed because they were below legal age. In the Prison Arizona Max James is aming for the son of the greatest weapon dealer around the world. This person which we don't have any clue what she is called expet it is a famle in her 40s. James manages to get into the group of the skin heads will his collegue which is also from CHERUB gets put in the hole after a massive riot. The plan was to escape with Joe (the son) and afterwards to use him to get to the weapon dealer. However once she knew that her son was out she made an attempt of killing him while he was sleeping via some more criminals and to get her son back in her arms. However as James is CHERUB agent he knocked out both criminals called his mission controller Mr John John and told him the number plates of the car and after a long hunting they found the car driving towards a small town where Joe meeted his mom. However he only had time for a little recomfort as all the MI6 and FBI agents were around pointing guns at them. As she got in prison the British Army got there mini rocket launchers back which have been tooken of them by her and James goes back to the campus to meet his girlfriend which had been in Japan for 4 months.

This new thriller of Robert Muchamore was fantastic it was even better then the first one and I stongly recomend that you join the ranks of the CHERUB readers.

The Recruit from Robert Muchamore

This book starts off in london ina suburb area wher James, the main charcter, goes at school and every year he gest into a fight.

However he has one quality is super intelligence in Maths. When his mom dies his sister a,d him are put a childrens home. His sister is tooken back by his unliked father who as james says can't take care of her. As the story goes on he gets enroled in a secret agency called CHERUB which is training young children at martial arts, foreign languages, physical educationa nd many other things that make them just as good as MI6 agents which they work in close relation with. The idea of CHERUB is that a terrorist wouldn't suspect a young boy or girl to be an undercover agent so he might let them come into there lives and let them find an evidence to put them in prison for teh rest of there lives. However all CHERUB agents need to pass the basic training tes, which is a 100 day long and where your nevers, your body strenght and your courage is put to it's limits and if you either get harmed or that you get away you will have to pass it again in 32 days. James passed and went for his first mission which was in a small Hippie town called Fort Harmville and wear there was suspected to be a terrorist attack from the group "save Earth" which would consist of killing all the big oil leaders meeting in a governmental building 60 kilometers away. James succeds and saves thousands of lives and earns a Navy T-Shirt. The colour of the shirts tell people what level you are at if you are orange it means you are totaly new and nobody should say information to you until you meet the Head of CHERUB. Then you get a Blue one which is wiating for basic Training, afterwards you get grey which is avilable to do missions, then there is navy which fro outstanding performnaces on a single mission, then there is the black T-Shirt which for outstanding performances on many missions and the final one is white which is for staff and for retired agents.

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

This book is about a boy, 13 years old, called Steven. He has mouse-brown cowlick-y hair, glasses that are about an inch thick, and braces that look like he tried to swallow a train wreck. (: He plays the drums in the All-Star Jazz band, has a crush on the hottest girl in the school and is constantly annoyed by his 5 year old brother, Jeffery.

One day, there was a little accident Steve caused to his brother. Few days later, Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia. And Steven's world is turned upside down. He is forced to deal with his brother's illness and the sudden change of everything. Having his mom quit her job as a teacher to take care of Jeff, having to deal with all the nightmares of Jeff's death, having to face his friends and teachers with a huge secret, having to run out of money... The next minute, he finds himself in a MAHOOSIVE family crisis.

I really, Really, REALLLLLLY recommend this book to everyone. It gives your heart this tingly feeling (: Family issues will vanish after reading this book. It is very touching, and an extremely funny book. It is really worth reading. Give it a try, and you will love it (:

Homework

Does anyone know what picture we need to find about our character in Death of a Salesman ?
Thank you

The Vampire's Assisstant

This book is the second book of the saga of Darren Shan. Darren has been turned into Mr Crepsley(the vampire)'s assisstant and has been following him in the Cirque du Freak(the freak show in which Mr Crepsely performs). He has made friends with Evra von (the snake boy) and is exploring the village that the Cirque du Freak were currently based in. They meet this boy named Sam who wants to join the Cirque and an enviromentalists named RV who has issues with the Cirque keeping animals in cages. Sam tries deperately to join the Cirque and RV tries to free the animals. He tries freeing the wolfman and got his arms bit off by the monster. The wolfman then kills Sam and Darren drinks his blood to allow Sam's conscious to live on within him.

I think that this book is really amazing like the last one and I think that this book is really really worth reading. It is also filled with suspense and surprises. I recommend this book to everyone who reads this blog.

Cirque du Freak

This story is about a boy named Darren Shan who got turned into a vampire's assistant to save his best friend's life. A vampire in a freak circus had a really neat spider which could do a lot of tricks. Darren, seeing the spider decided to steal it. After stealing it, his best friend got bit by the spider and the only antidote to it was with the vampire. So Darren went to the vampire who said that he would give the antidote to him if he became his assisstant. Darren agreed and his best friend's life was saved.

I really really liked this book. I think that it is one of the best books I have ever read. It is full of suspense and surprise. It is one of those books that you cannot put down once you have started. This book has also been made into a movie "The Campire's Assistant". I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves suspense and action.

Toxic Coworkers

It's not a fiction book. Therefore i don't have many things that i thought after reading this, but i'll try to write as much as i can.

It is a book about personality disorders that people may have and is also one of my favorite books because I like books about psychology and human minds.etc. One of the reasons that i liked about this book was that the symptoms and the ways to prevent yourself from being harmed from them were suggested in here. For example, when you deal with a coworker with antisocial personality disorder, you just need to document everything about that guy, even the things that he or she talked about.

This book deals with 10 different major personality disorders;narccistic, antisocial, paranoid, borderline and etc.

After reading this, I found that i was able to see some of disorders in BIS, which is cool.

And this is it. I can't write anymore about this because it's social science book, not a fiction book.

The Kitchen God's Wife

This story is mainly about a mother who tells her daughter about her life story during the war. She tells her about her first husband who abused her and about how she met her deceased husband.

I think that this story is very inspiring because it shows the difficulties and hardships that people go through during the war and the trauma that it brought. It is quite a long story and some parts of it are quie boring but the story itself is very interesting. It consists of any different accounts from the mother which are both interesting and emotional. I strongly recommend this book to everyone.

Holiday Homework

Does anyone know if we can do our Homework about the American Dream in the form of bullet points?

:)

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Mine

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

I do not agree with the concept of death that is in this case being considered by Ken Harrison. Ken Harrison himself is young and capable of doing things that would benefit his own life. Death is not a perfect decision to be made by any clear and rational mind.
"Although Ken Harrison has a strong spririt and is basically good-natured, he cannot accept the fate of never being able to perform his craft again and seeks to be set free and allowed to die."
Ken Harrison is apparently in a depressing state when he will have to accept the life as a quadriplegic. However, there are still hope for a quad to contribute into the society as a legitimate citizen.

Whose Life is It Anyway? Dai Champion

The Quote: "This thought provoking and philosophically painful. Most people have an opinion on euthanasia and how they would react should they end up helplessly crippled and so does Ken Harrison in this movie. But do we really mean what we say? What is really special about this movie is that it does not take a stand at the end. It lets us wonder. Does he actually change his mind as the good doctor suggests he might?"

If I were crippled and the doctor suggests that I might recover. I'd still go on about life and fight death until death arrives. But being lied to by a professional doctor will hurt when a quadriplegic finds out the truth, she/he might try to resist any medical treatment and are desperately wanted to be euthanised. Like how Mr. Ken Harrison reacted to the situation, he started swearing and becoming a maniac. Firstly he was being treated unfairly (not as important) from the doctors. They are using thousands of dollars on him PER WEEK. It is an excess amount of money a week MUCH more than anyone's salary per month (Except for maybe some Bureau Workers).

Whose Life Is It anyway?

Whose Life Is It Anyway? is an excellent moving film with a first rate performance by Richard Dreyfuss. It's very thought provoking about a person having the right to die. Personally I think his character does make the right choice. Life in a hospital as a vegetable is not a life. However the one thing that's always bothered me is how short the trial is. In similar real life cases, a trial about the issue of right to die would take much more than that one short session. It would probably take months in fact.

I agree with this person. Harrison made a right choice. He must die. In the hospital, he is having a very hard time and people don't consider him like normal human.
Also, to make him alive, thousands of dollars are used per week. But in some places like Africa, one person can save one's life with less than a dollar. So Harrison's survival is making hundreds of people in Africa to die. Also he has no hope of recovering to normal state. Therefore he is just a waste of money. Also, he wants to suicide. Even a person with normal mind sometimes wants to suicide. Mental disease is not the only thing that makes people to suicide.

Whose life is it anyway?

I don't agree with the main character. I think he should move on living. He can still see, hear, talk to other people and the most important is that he still have a sound mind. He isn't suffering from endless, unbearable pain. Therefore, in my opinion, the problem he has now is the hospital. They treat him like he's in vegetable state and force him to do want he doesn't want. Instead of trying to die, he should find a better place to live.

Whose life is this anyway?

"Whose Life Is It Anyway? is an excellent moving film with a first rate performance by Richard Dreyfuss. It's very thought provoking about a person having the right to die. Personally I think his character does make the right choice. Life in a hospital as a vegetable is not a life. However the one thing that's always bothered me is how short the trial is. In similar real life cases, a trial about the issue of right to die would take much more than that one short session. It would probably take months in fact."

I don't necessarily agree with this person's view. I think he is just going through a depressing state when recognized that he would not be able to ever to a human actions again. As said throughout the movie and was portrayed perfectly by Richard Dreyfuss, Harrision was an intelligent man and we should just give him time to pass through this state. As demonstrated throughout the film, he was introduced to various technologies and always refused to eventually use any of it. He just needs to calm down cause in fact, he has so much more to offer to the world, he's not just a sculpture, he is an experienced man and can use his time sitting on his bed giving ideas and contribution to the world. Rather than just sitting there and begging to die.

Please comment :)

and everyone has different opinions, don't argue it here :) We only discuss.

Homework on "Whose life is it anyway?"

"Ken Harrison (Richard Dreyfuss) is an artist... His fingers make things of beauty...

When he lived through a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down, we understood why he wanted to be left alone to die...

Ken moved from a world of life and creation, to an empty world where he can't move even a single finger...

Lying under the white sheets of the hospital bed, he is subjected to stress under the shock of his another reality... The artist has gone... The creator of an art expressed in all its different dimensions, round in relief, imagery, symbolism, all vanished in seconds...

But his human spirit remains alive under the severity, the compulsion, the threats of his new reality...

Ken was a cunning sculptor, skillful, ingenious in the use of his mind and hands... He is now charming, capable to seduce the whole nursing staff by pillow talk...

The movie deals with many hypothesis about the right to die...

Does a patient have the right to choose to die? Does he have the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment, even if that means certain immediate or accelerated death?"

Yes, I think he has the right to die. He desperately wanted to die because he was depressed, he couldn't do all the things he used to, like create a sculptor. Why do he have to keep on living, when he feels that his life was not valuable anymore?