An Abundance of Katherines : 19 and Counting...

No quote for this one because it's buried within the confines of a suitcase with is in the hold of the unfinished bathroom across the hall. Will I ever put my room back together?

But this book, oh this book, is amazing. It's so different from anything I've ever read. First off, it's hilarious. The characters Green presents to the audience are filled with all these quirky characteristics that make them interesting. Secondly, the story is great and original. And, lastly, there are footnotes. Yes, footnotes. This book has footnotes explaining certain things in it, which adds to the amount of laughs you get from it.

The story starts with a child prodigy. A super-smart child who can anagram anything. (i.e. Joe Biden = I need job.) It also includes a rather funny Muslim who likes to insult his own culture. Basically, they go on a roadtrip the summer before they both hit the books and run off to college. That's when they find a place called Gutshot, and the main character (Blasphemy! I can't remember his name.) has an idea. He decides to make a formual for when I girl plans on dumping you.

I'll leave it at that and just urge you to read it. (:

Blue is For Nightmares : Of Wicca and white lillies.

"That's when I know for sure. If I want to save Drea, I'll have to do it myself."

This is the last book I have stashed away to blog about, so probably some lyrics or a painting next week. D:
Anyway, this book is the start a four-book series, all of which are fantastic books. This author is one of my favorites, because she wrote my favorite book every, Project 17.
This one is about a girl who practices Wicca. Yes, all you people who think that's terrible and witchcraft or whatever can stop reading right now. Her name is Stacey, and she keeps having these premonitious dreams about her friend, Drea being taken away. In these dreams, she sees white lillies, which are supposedly the flowers of death.
Slowly and slowly, Stacey's dreams become more descriptive, and some seem to cross over into her reality. Turns out that someone is stalking her friend Drea with phonecalls and lillies showing up at their dorm. As the day the stalker wants to present himself to Drea becomes closer, Stacey soon realizes that she's the only one who can save her.
It's a great book, I highly suggest it and any other books written by this author.

Unwind : Do we die? Or do we live? We do both.

"The seconds Civil War, also known as "The Heartland War," was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single issue.

To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as "The Bill of Life" was passed.

It satisfied both the Pro-life and Pro-choice armies.

The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the momrnt of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen.

However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively "abort" a child...

...on the condition that the child's life doesn't "technically" end.

This process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called "unwinding."

Unwinding is now a common, and accepted practice in society."

Loonnnggg quote, sorry about that. It's really hard to explain the amount of awesome put into this book. It's by Neal Shusterman, who is such a creative author, he should get some award for it.

Unwind is about a futuristic America. This book dives right in to one of the most controversial topics in society today: abortion. In this futuristic world, there has been a second civil war between the two pro-life and pro-choice sides. Like the quote says, it was long and bloody, and one simple thing fixed it all; they called it The Bill of Life. This states that, if you do not want a child, you can get rid of it, just not by way of abortion. But, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a child can be unwound. Unwinding is the process of taking a child apart and using them for donor parts. (Gross, I know, but when the book does explain it, it's not bloody or disgusting at all, it just really sends shivers up your spine.) These children are sent to an Unwind Camp, where they basically wait to get chopped up.

This book focuses on three different children who are sent to be unwound. These children are often called "Unwinds" by the world. The first kid's named Connor, and he is being unwound by his own parents. There's Risa, who has lived in a state home her entire life, is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Then there's Lev, who is being unwound because he is a Tithe. In the bible, apparently, it says you should try to give ten percent of everything to your church. Lev's parents had ten children. Byebye, Lev.

These three unfortunate souls run away from their unwinding to a sanctuary where everyone is an unwind, and even get a taste of the dreaded Unwind Camp. You even meet a few other amusing characters on the way.

This book is absoluetely amazing. I suggest this to anyone who likes Sci-fi, or is just interested in this kind of stuff. It's great, this author is great, and I suggest you check it out.

Unfortunate English : The Gloomy Truth Behind The Words You Use.

No quote from this one because it's currently locked up in a suitcase, along with the rest of my books. We're gonna paint my room this weekend and you really don't care. (:

I was thinking about what we needed to read this term. Then I realized I didn't do the one for last quarter. Oops. Here it goes!

I picked up this book at The Afternoon, expecting something hilarious or down right vile and horrendous, because, well, I got it at The Afternoon, you go in there and expect the unexpected. I got both. This book is a sort of dictionary; it tells you the true origins and the meaning of the word. And, I tell you, some of them are pretty funny and disgusting and disturbing all at the same time.

I'm finding it rather hard to write about a nonfiction book. But the idea of this one was really great, it's not written by a doctor or anything, so I suppose it isn't quite the most officially type of book, but whatever. It's entertaining.

I suggest this book for anyon willing to help this author become rich and to anyone whose morbid and hilarious all at the same time. (:

The Westing Game : Sixteen Heirs, One Killer.

"SEVENTH - And now, dear friends, relatives and enemies, the Westing game begins."

I have had no time to read, so I'm going with something old, again. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin is one of those mysteries you just can't put down. The writing isn't superb, but, like Neal Shusterman books, the originality and ability to bring this story to life through words makes up for even the worst of writing styles. (And I am in no way saying that either author is terrible at what they do, I'm just saying it could get a little better.) Any one person who could come up with such a twisted plot as this one deserves and award, and bygolly, she got one.

As for the plot of this, it's about a place called Sunset Towers, a sort of fancy apartment building with maid service and doormen and such, and the people who live there. Sixteen people were invited to live in this place, which happened to be about a mile down from the mansion owned by Sam Westing, the mysterious owner of a paper product company that went missing many years before. Minus this detail, all sixteen lead normal live.

That was, until, on a casual Haloween dare, Turtle Wexler, the youngest living in Sunset Towers spent the night in the Westing mansion. What she found was not a pleasant sight. Samuel Westing was dead in his bed, peaceful as ever. Being as this was, the very next day, all sixteen people were called down to the main dining hall to read the will. Turns out, all sixteen were heirs.

Except for one. In Sam Westing's will, he makes his heirs play a masterful game of chess in order to find his killer, whom of which is hidden within the sixteen heirs.

Tried not to give too much away, sorry if I did! I suggest you read it and think about the not-obvious whilst doing so.

Paper Towns : Viewing People in a Different Light.

"Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved myseries so much that she became one."

Now, once again, this isn't what I'm currently reading, but I like to review a different book each week. I'm still reading Suite Scarlett. Read what I wrote about it down there.

But, this work of art is so good it took me forever just to find a quote, because all of the book is just that amazing.

Paper Towns is the twisted tale of two very different people that were once childhood friends, but slowly drifted apart after both found a man dead in the park on a playdate. Soon, they became very different people as they moved on to bigger and better things, like the tremendously terrifying walk over hot coals called High School. Margo, now the pretty and popular girl of the school had become a mystery to those around her. No one really had an idea about what she was really like, not even her friends. Then there's Ben, the band geek and all around nice guy, and he's been chosen to solve the mystery of Margo. Many hilarious things soon ensue that involve beer kegs, the world's largest balls, and the world's largest collection of Black Santa's.

John Green, the writer of this book, is amazing. I've gone to see him with a friend of mine, and have my copy of Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines signed by him. (He has terrible handwriting.) But, he's also the other half of the vlogbrothers. If you're heard of them, you're officially amazing, and if you haven't, go here www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers and check them out.

This book is actually a little raunchy, so I suggest this to anyone who has parents that approve! ;D

Suite Scarlett : Droop On, My Lifeless Friends.

"This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever played a dead body on stage or screen. It takes a big actor to lie on the ground and pretend they're dead. Droop on, my lifeless friends."

More Maureen Johnson, yes. I'm slowly falling in love with her books. She writes in this overly witty manner that could charm anyone into reading the books she writes. It's just the way she strings together words and paints these scenes with the characters she's got her hands on, it's quite amazing, and quite hilarious.

Johnson takes characters like the ones in Suite Scarlett, her newest book, throws them in a hotel that's slowly loosing it's income, and magically has this story. It isn't just one story going on, either; many of the characters in this book are parts of subplots that just all string back to the bigger picture, which is a lot of what real life really is like. That, in addition to the witty and flawed characters, gives the book a big shot of realism.

But, as for the story(suppose I should mention that?), Scarlett, and the rest of the four children living in, running and owning the Hopewell hotel with their parents in New York City, when one turns fifteen, they become in charge of a Suite within the hotel, taking care of any guest that comes upon it. But when this declining Art Deco hotel built in the Roaring Twenties recieves a guest staying for the entire summer in Scarlett's glorious Empire Suite, her boring friendless, vacation-less summer becomes a whole lot more busy.

I'm, honestly, not very far into it, but, hey, it's great so far and I suggest it to anyone whose up for a great story about washed-up actors, Art Deco Hotels, and just life and all it's humurous games.

Downsiders : The Woes of a Life Without Sky.

"Cities are never random.

No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve some problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy."

WHAT IS THIS, SHELBY. You have no Neal Shusterman on your blog?

Yes, I'm terribly neglectful of one of my favorite authors, forgive me, blogger. ):

This actually isn't what I'm reading as of right now, but if I do write something on that one, I doubt I'd hit the minimum mark of words that I'm supposed to be ranting out about it. But if you'd like to look it up--which I encourage--it's called The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

Anyway, onto this amazing piece of work. I believe that the main thing that catches my attention with books is originality, you know? Taking something that's either been used before in a whole new manner, or use some other totally new concept and weaving a web of words out of it. Downsiders does just that. It's about a civilization living in the abandoned Subway tunnels that litter the underbelly of New York City, also known as Downside, and a the strange occurence of a Topsider stumbling in upon the underground city.

Downsiders is one of those books that makes you think, as well as any Neal Shusterman book does. In this world, especially in a crazed infestation of people like New York City, do people have what it takes to step back and admire the good part of the work? To admire the details?

I'd suggest this one to anyone who likes these kids of books, as well as anything by the wonderful Neal Shusterman.

Devilish : Cupcakes and Evil, All Rolled Into One.

"I think I laughed when the knife whent in. At least, I made the motion, but blood came out of my mouth instead. I remember seeing the perfume bottles on the matelpiece as I fell back and, aside from the faint, somewhat implausable realization that I was dying, nothing else.

And I smilied.

'Got you,' I said."

So, my friend told me to read this, due to the fact that the main character and narrator, Jane, reminded her of me. Funny enough, a lot of Jane's reactions and adventures are all things that I would probably do. Haha. I'm really glad that she recommended this, because it was really a great book. It's about Jane, the spunky, super-smart, albeit outcast, high school senior, Ally, Jane's needy, more-of-an-outcast best friend, a demon hiding the midst of their school, a dead boy, a deal with the devil, and evil cupcakes. Oh, and a plot thrown into all of that.

I really liked this because even at the parts with the most tension, Jane's mind had to think of something that could make anyone laugh; such as making plans to convince her sister that earth actually has a second moon, it's just made of glass, therefore you cannot see it. The characters weren't perfect, which is what I love in a book, because they had all of these little quirks and things that you could find unique to anyone one the street. The way it was written really got me, too, Johnson stitches together this odd story with all of these little, unbelievable things that make the story all the more believable.

The only thing I really didn't like about this book was the cover. I'm a total OCD kid, and when you mix the artist in me with that, you get the girl freaking out because the girl on the cover's hand is as long as her forearm. Eh, maybe she's just one of the special ones.

I would suggest this book to anyone who loves John Green, twisted stories, and evil cupcakes.

Alice In Wonderland : Nonsensical!

"'I don't want to go among mad people!' Alice remarked.

'Oh, you can't help that," said that Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad.'"

I'm sure we've all heard of this story, but have we read it? After watching the super old video I have of Disney's Alice in Wonderland too many times over (I swear, I know every single line of that movie by heart. I am sadly obsessed.), I decided to read it. Oh, boy, this would be a big feat for me.

See, the book may be only about 200 pages long, but the old english it's written in is really hard to follow. It's not the Alice that I remember from the movies, it isn't as cheerful, but I think I like this Alice better. It's a weird, astonishing book that really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. That is possibly the reason that I love it.

When I did finish it, and watched the movie for the eight billionth time over, I realized that the movie is quite different from the book. Or should I say books? Alice appears in two books by Lewis Carroll, and the Disney movie (and most other things that are spin-offs of the lovely Alice) actually mixes both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Two books, sounds like three. If you'd like to know these mixes, I suggest you start reading them!

Project 17 : The Spirits Lurk Among Us...

"Rock-A-Bye Christy, on witch's hill,

When the wind blows, the patients will kill,

When the nurse comes, I'll pretend I'm asleep,

And shoot her with needles so she won't make a peep."

This is my all-time favorite book. I'm not done with I Am the Messenger quite yet, and I ran out of things to talk about on that one, so I'll just talk about my favorite book in forever. This book kind of introduced me to the horror genre, and I love horror books now because of it. Honestly, it scared me a lot (I was a wimp) when I read it. It's about six high school kids that go into this haunted asylum, which actually does exist, it's called Danver's State Hospital, on the eve of its demolition to record a movie of their adventures for various reasons; one goes in for kicks, two in because they want to become big-shot actors, one is looking for any remembrance of her grandmother, another needs it for her college resume, and the other needs it for his future to not be flipping burgers.

The tale is wonderfully woven, and written by one of my favorites, Laurie Faria Stolarz. She writes from the perspective of each character for each chapter, and she doesn't do it blandly. What I mean is, she doesn't use the same writing style for any of the characters when she writes in their perspective. For example, one of them is written like a Screenplay.

Some would call it scary, other's wouldn't. It's kind of like a roller coaster ride, some people will love it, some will think nothing of it, and some will cry because it's just too much. It's a ghost story, so no gory scenes were depicted in it. It doesn't really make you want to go, "EW. OUCH." it sort of just makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

I highly recommend it for anyone who's looking for a thrill. I also suggest Stolarz's other books, like the Blue is for Nightmares series.

(AndnotBleed. Don't read Bleed.)

I Am The Messenger : Chosen to Care.

"Christ, it's deafening. Why can't the world hear? I ask myself. Within a few moments I ask it many times. Because it doesn't care, I finally answer, and know I'm right. It's like I've been chosen. Chosen for what? I ask.

The answer's quite simple:

To care."

I think I've found the drive for most artists. They try the walls of society, and see what it can take. Sometimes, the boundaries will change with the art movement, others will reject it, even though they know it cannot be destroyed. I think other artists try to make something different, and see how people will take it.

I'm not sure which this book is trying to do (conciously or subconciously), but it's really good so far. It's unlike anything I've ever read, really. It's about Ed, an underage taxi driver, who finds this card in the mail. This card has different adresses on it, and he soon becomes the messenger. Granted, he doesn't want to become the messenger.

It really gets you to think. In this uncaring world of ours, is there something or someone who actually does care about the poor, mangled souls crying out in pain? (Hello, melodramatic wording. It's nice to meet you.) Or will people be forced to care?

Need : Benign to Sinister.

"Pain shoots through my head. Fireworks. Explosions. All inside my brain. The white world goes dark and I know what's about to happen."

This book was seriously addictive. Some say that if you read a book really fast, it's good. I don't really agree with this, seeing as I tend to savor the book, but that wasn't the case here. I suppose I read this in about three days, I can't really remember. But what I'm trying to say in this long ramle of a paragraph is that it was a good book.

It was actually kind of Twilight-esque, which kinda dissapointed me. I tried to ignore it, but my thoughts kept going back to that book. Maybe it was just my head being stupid or something. But one of the things that made it not Twilight was that the characters had flaws! (Ohmugawd, call the cliche police, they need to hear about this great feat of awesome.) Insane, right? Who ever heard of a character that isn't perfect? It was also really creative.

What I liked the most about Need was that the author takes something that seems so benign, little and insignifigant and makes it this sisnister thing that could steal you in the night and make you bleed to death. It was lovely.

Fade : Your Dreams are Not Your Own.

Your dreams are not your own.

I love sequels.

I was waiting for this book for months. A friend of mine texted me from Barnes and Noble saying that she had it in her hands. She also thought it would be hilarious to tease me with a picture and the synopsis in another text. My response, was, obvioulsy, "I hate you so much right now."

Fade by Lisa McMann is the sequel to Wake, which is about a girl who can jump into your dreams (whether she wants to or not) going undercover to bust those on drugs. That sounds extremely lame because I am absolutely horrible at explaining things that are just too awesome to explain.

But McMann didn't let us down, like so many writers have in their sequels. She brings back the good ol' Janie and Cabel and the same old spook and chill like Wake had. It's kind of like another season to a popular TV show. (Prefferably Heroes...(: ) You get to revisit the characters and world after not having it for so long. Thankfully not like other TV shows that are just running because they were once popular, but are just running out of ideas, thus ruining its former image and turning just...stupid.

My Twilight Rant.

Total misuse of the blog, I know. But, hey, I'm talking about a book! :D
(And my last two were boring, as well as me being tired of the fangirls. :C )


First Off, Twilight Does Not Compare to Harry Potter!

No, never, no. Twilight and Harry Potter can't even be compared, really; they have no smiliar archetypes in them whatsoever. Nothing really can surpass or even come close to the craze that Harry Potter has become, I mean, is there such a thing as "Vampire Rock"? I've only heard Wizard Rock. I am not saying that one is better than the other (though my opinion is pretty obvious), but people should stop saying that Twilight is the new Harry Potter, because it's not; Twilight is the new Twilight and Harry Potter is the new Harry Potter, that's it.

Twilight is Great for Psychology and What Not To Do Puns!

Just about everyone in Twilight has a mental problem, seriously.
Bella is a narciccist, Edward's a stalker, Jacob (turns into) a pedophile and Reneeseme is a demon baby that tried to kill her mother before she was born. If trying to suck the life out of your mother before you were born isn't a sign of insanity, I don't know what is.
Despite that fact, most are Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus. For those who don't know what these are, (they seem to be writer's terms) they basically mean that said character has no personality whatsoever, or is completely and totally perfect and without any flaws.
Edward Cullen is a prime example. Edface is an icecube, filled with nothing but bland water, with shiny wrapping paper over it and a bow of handsome tied on top. That's it.
And, in Breaking Dawn, Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu made a Mary-Stu.

Stephen King vs. Stephenie Meyer

"Stephen King is just jealous of Stephenie! He hasn't sold 12 million copies of books! He just wants to bring his books into the limelight! He can't say that about her!!!!!1111!!"

Yeah, Stephen King said that SMeyer "can't write worth a darn," and people are having a total and complete SPAZZ about it.

Firstly, Stephen King has sold 350 million copies of his books, and that doesn't even tell you how many people have read it, considering the fact that people borrow, lend and use libraries. Stephen King is like a god in the writing world, and SMeyer is a wannabe.

Stephen King can say that about her, because he is Stephen King.

The Writing Hurts my Head.

If one was a writer like I am, you could take Twilight two ways.
A) It could be a shiny beacon of hope to the hopeful novelist; with said person knowing that this horrible work of literary suck was published, they'd get that novel they wrote for NaNoWriMo in stores sooner than you could say shiny vampires.
B) An insult to all writer kind and the start of the long, book recession. Vampire books are everywhere now. Whoopee.

Most take the latter rather than the former.
The writing is so horrible in this, I actually had a friend of mine and I go through two of the Twilight books and highlight every 'perfect,' 'brilliant,' 'angel,' and 'amazing' we could find. The number was crazy. The writing is forced and un-effortless. When you're an author, you want your writing to end up painting a picture such of Monet, not your five year old cousin.

Kay, I'm done now.
I am now ready for people to throw rocks at me. (:

Neverwhere : Welcome to the Truly Terrifying

"'Don't worry,' She said, seriously, 'The blood was probably someone else's.'"

Slowly, my friends, this blog is going to just become a shrine to Neil Gaiman...because here he is again! I, honestly, am not very far into this book, and it appears to be very ambiguous and downright confusing. Mostly, it's about a girl named Door, who seems to be a little our of the ordinary, and Richard, a man who is overly ordinary. I suspect something unpredictable is going to be thrust upon Richard, but with this author, you really have no clue what's to come.
So far, though, the book is really great. It’s written well, and the plot is interesting, even if I don’t have much of a clue as to what’s going on. Gaiman puts in the ambiguous little patches of moments in the story that keep me hungry for more and more, and I have a feeling that I’ll be very disappointed when it ends. Awkward blog is awkward, because I have nothing much to say about the book. D:

Coraline : Be Careful What You Wish For

'"I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave."

"Does she even have a grave?" asked Coraline.

"Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back."'

- Page 93, Coraline.

Read the book before the movie, otherwise you really don't get why the cat is there, and you get the experience without Whybie.

Anyway, I read this book, and it was amazing. Imagine Alice in Wonderland with a creepy twist and buttons. It's about a girl named Coraline, who wishes for a better, more interesting life. Soon, she gets it, but in the most unsuspected way: a whole new world, complete with an Other Mother, an Other Father, and Other people in her life back home, and they all have buttons for eyes. Little does Coraline know that, despite the fantastical and amazing new things in this world, it's all a trap.

Basically it's a whole 'be careful what you wish for' deal. Coraline is actually a really amazing book, and Neil Gaiman is an amazing author (wrote the book Stardust, which was made into a movie, as well.) with an insane amount of imagination. I read it and couldn't stop thinking about the buttons-for-eyes idea. I highly suggest it to anyone looking for a good read.