Books

Painting Mona Lisa

by Jeanne Kalogridis

This is one of my all time favourites and I was surprised to see that I hadn’t put it on here! Painting Mona Lisa is a great book for anyone into Leonardo Da Vinci- in fact, for anyone up for a good book. It’s a historical novel, with the kinds of twists and turns and excitement few books can deliver. I would recommend this for the older readers out there, it is a little bit complex and it’s quite a chunky book. Beautifully written with an amazing storyline, it’ll have you hooked. It’s a completely different take on what you thought you knew about the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci. I’m sure you’re going to love this book!

Paintin Mona Lisa, Jeanne Kalogridis

13 REASONS WHY

by Jay Asher

This book is about a girl named Hannah Baker who’d committed suicide and leaves a set of tapes that is passed around to a selected few who are known to be a reason for her death. Clay Jensen, an ordinary classmate of Hannah, also receives the tapes. The rest of the book goes on to explain the reasons of why Hannah had committed suicide.

Although it sounds depressing, the book is very interesting and the chain of events are cleverly moulded together to keep the reader totally hooked. The book also makes you think about the way you treat others in your everyday life and how little things you do can affect people in ways that you don’t immediately realize. Hannah’s life from the outside looks very different from what you see of it when she explains it to you in the tapes. The thought of physically hearing her voice after she dies makes her message more effective. The way it’s written and sculpted keeps the reader interested to the last minute and portrays some very good ideas behind a simple but effective story. I really liked and highly recommend it to all our readers. But don’t try to read the back because this is a book that cannot be understood even if you read the back (i’m talking from experience here as i have a very bad habit of reading the back of books!).

Getting to Third Date

Kelly McClymer

Katelyn is only in her freshmen year but not only has she developed a big crush on the editor of the college newsletter who’s going ga-ga over her room mate, but she writes the advise column under the name Mother Hubbarb. Now, Mother Hubbarb  is a long-standing tradition in the college newsletter and the woman’s lived there for the last century and is a pretty good adviser. But then, now this is Katelyn writing. So Mother Hubbarb goes from advising students with what they want to hear… to giving advise that really grabs them out of dreamland and throw them out to face reality. Naturally the students searching for comfort and advise doesn’t like it. So a controversy starts up and Mother Hubbarb becomes the talk of the school. Partly to stop the cynical and strict Mother Hubbarb (aka Katelyn) and to prove that her theory of not giving guys more than two chances when it comes to dating, Tyler challenges Katelyn to go back to the list of ex’s she keeps and give them another chance in the form of a third date to three second-date drop outs. Challenged in a way that she can’t refuse, she obeys the editor and prepares for what would certainly prove the school and Tyler wrong and prove that she is right…or will it turn out the other way?

I could give you the whole story here but whats the point. I already ruined the ending for myself (not reading the ending is inevitable) so i’ll let you pick up this book and read it and find out how it all turns out…will Katelyn see sense like the school wants her to? Just a reminder that, yeah, books, they have a tendency to surprise you more than some things in this world can. In any case, i’ll tell you this book is one awesome book. I would rate it the best of romantic comedies after Scary Beautiful (found far below in this page if you’re interested). So, i say, you pick this out of the local library ASAP and read it.

The India Fan by Victoria Holt

…it’s another book by what i think is officially my fave author (well, she’ll be my fave until i find another favourite…just the way i work). Anyway, back to the story…basically this story is about a ‘plain’ (as called by Lady Harriette of The House) girl Druisilla who gets involved with the very beautiful Lavinia and Fabian of The House, the rich aristrocrat-like people of their village. It’s probably destined that they intricate their lives around one another because through series of significant events and matter of convenience, they always tend to mix and get involved in the same disasters that strike them. So, Druisilla becomes the head strong friend of Lavinia as she goes through problems caused none other than the fact that she is so beautiful and she loves the attention of men. This story truly implies how beauty can kill and about curses which can come true if you believe hard enough. Like many of her books, this one goes through heaps of events and many plots but they all entangle together and pinpoint a very good point in the end.

This is most suitable for readers who like olden days romance with a tinge of the modern language in it or people that like romance in general. Anyway, this would be a book for any reader and i strongly suggest you don’t ignore this book if you ever come across it because, trust me, it’s good!

I figured I wasn’t contributing enough to this section of the blog and decided to put up a book I recently read and loved. The book is called Ripped At The Seams and is about a 18 year old Elk Lake, Minnesota girl called Sami Granger who is just out of high school and persuing her dream of designing for some of NYs hottest fashion designers. But its not as easy as it seems, Sami soon realizes that she’s a small fish in the big, bad ocean. Shy, naive and super-sweet, it’s virtually impossible that someone out there won’t take advantage of her. Somewhere along her struggle, Sami learns a valuable lesson about success, faliure, trust and love with a little help from her Elk Lake relatives- her Dad, her brother Al, best friend, to be mum and sis-in-law Celia and some newly-made family in NY, struggling model Rain, truely amazing Vin and hippy Lola.

I really liked this book but the only thing that really ruined it for me was the blurb… I know it sounds strange but it just gave waaaay too much away so try to avoid reading it before the book. I really tried to give the best summary I could without spoiling the whole story and all the twists and turns. I hope you you guys will check this book out it’s worth the read, trust me!!

The Truth About Forever…

It’s late at night, almost 12.30 but i don’t want to go to sleep. Sometimes it happens, you know, sleep just doesn’t come (that’s most holz nights for me, lol). And so, i’m going to let the world (the part of the world that visits our blog) know about a cool and awesome and romance-mixed-family story called the Truth About Forever. It’s by Sarah Dessen and thanks to one of my friends, i read it and found this amazing book.

This book is about a girl named Macy. She’s a perfectionist, living in a bubble, with a sad past and a planned future. But when her boyfriend goes off to Brain camp and she’s left alone for the summer, her life takes a turn and directly places her in to the hands of Wes, Kristy, Delia, Monica and Bert, the workers of the disaster prone catering service. She quickly becomes there friend and with their help, gradually faces her past and in the way, deals with the falling relationship she has with her mother.

It’s a gripping story with a character that was so out of the normal, that it makes the story even more interesting. Not to mention the guy character, mysterious Wes and his iconic hand in heart. It’s really good with an unsual but good romance. i have to admit this story’s one of my absolute favourites!

Hope you guys check it out and maybe drop in a comment afterward about what you think of the story!

Alex Rider Series…By Anthony Horowitz

We all know Anthony Horowitz is an awesome writer specially when it comes to horror and adventure. One of the series he wrote that really got me hooked is the Alex Rider series. Although i didn’t read the whole series due to a misfortune of having a vexing habit of reading books out of order, i did read some and i do know the main line of the story.

This story is about a teenage secret super spy who goes on missions and saves the world. Yeah, when i put it like that it sounds so cliched and boring right? But it’s not. It’s not at all. The storyline is a little cliched but the details…it’s almost like Anthony Horowitz really do go on the missions he writes about!

Anyway, back to the story…Alex is officially orphaned in the beginning of Stormbreaker, the first book of the series when his uncle dies in an “accident”. He had lost his mother and father at a young age and had lived with his uncle. After that, Alex is appointed by a secret service called MI6 to be their teenage spy and go on missions for them. It turns out that this was the same group that had employed Ian Rider (Alex’s uncle) and that Ian had died in a mission for MI6. Apparently Ian Rider had really been training Alex Rider from a young age for a career as a spy. It makes sense since Alex can speak German, Spanish, French and is a black belt in karate…

So, that’s how fourteen year old Alex becomes a spy. Throughout the series, Alex goes on various missions. In these missions he finds out more about his past, his parents and manages to make enemies in other secret services out to do evil things to the world!

I suggest you guys start reading the series. It’s really good. I have a friend who got really obsessed in the series, she would finish one book in just one or two days! It’s a gripping story. The series hasn’t finished yet. According to wikipedia, Anthony Horowitz is planning to write two more after the eighth one, Crocodile Tears. Crocodile Tears is coming out later this year or next year. The first book is called Stormbreaker, the second book is Point Blanc (Point Blank in the US), the third book’s Skeleton Key, fourth book’s Eagle Strike, fifth book Scorpia, sixth book Ark Angel and the seventh book is called Snakehead. It’s a lot but each story is very interesting. In any case, i hope you like this series. When you’re done reading, come back and check out the latest update in this section!

PS: I found this sign thing in google. I thought it looked really cool!

The Mediator…By Meg Cabot

It starts with Love You To Death/Shadowland and ends with Twilight/Heaven Sent (don’t be put off by Twilight if you are not a huge fan of Twilight because it’s nothing like Twilight). And it’s awesome. Simply awesone. It’s one of my long list of favourites when it comes to books.

The story starts out with Suze, the main character, who’s a ghost-butt kicking, bad girl. Yes, i wrote it right, she kicks ghost butts… Suze has a weird gift which allows her to see ghosts and let her help them to move on to the after life if they are stuck on Earth after their death due to some kind of deed that they left unfinished. I know, i know, so far it sounds like a bit of a cliche. But read on and you’ll see…

So, when Suze arrives at her new home, which she must share with a new step father and three step brothers, she meets the long dead, cute ghost, Jesse. Not only is this ghost cute, but he’s head to toe mysterious…Gradually, as the series goes along and Suze going through trouble, carrying Jesse along the ride, they get closer, and Suze falls in love with Jesse. And soon, she finds out that Jesse feels the same way about her.

Now…i know, even that sounds like a cliche, but i can assure you that the ending is not a cliche. It’s something out of the ordinary. Also, the whole set up and writing is so modern and humorous, you guys are sure to love it. I’m not going to ruin the rest of the plot for you, but believe me…this is a book worth picking up. If you’ve had a chance to get hold of Scary Beautiful (below), you would know, that you can trust me when it comes to books. This is a series worth reading.

If it makes some of you hard critics happier, i’ll tell you one bad thing about the book. I know, it’s not usual for a someone who does what i’m doing right now to be critical but, one thing i don’t like about these books is that everything happens in such a short space of time. It’s kinda weird and makes you wander if it actually could happen like that, really. Well, i guess there’s an error in saying that…this story is not real so i guess anything could happen and doesn’t have to match up to how it will happen in reality.

In any case, i hope you guys go check it out. And if the plot doesn’t interest you, the character, Jesse, should. First, when i was obsessed with Twilight (something i kind of regret and i don’t do any more), i used to think Jesse was a bit like Ed Cullen…but, believe me, Jesse’s way different and too stubborn to be anything like Edward.

So, take my advice check out the first book and if it holds your interest, here’s the rest of the series…

2nd book…Ninth Key

3rd book…Reunion

4th book…Darkest Hour

5th book…Haunted

6th book…Twilight.

Hope you enjoy!

 

Scary Beautiful… By Niki Burnham

Yes, from the front of the book you can tell it’s a cute romance book. And it is. The geek in the front…yes, he is one of the main characters! But no need to be put off because this geek is one awesome geek, named Billy (the name is boring…but we’ll have to deal with that). He not only excels in being one of the brainiest guys in the school but he manages to steal the heart of the most popular girl in school, Chloe Rand. You see, Chloe’s perfect life turns in to a dark and stormy sea when her perfect boyfriend decided to move across the country and dumps her right at the airport terminal, five minutes before he gets in to the plane! I mean, how rude is that? Personally i would slap the guy so he’ll be scarred for life but our heroine (are you allowed to call the main character that in a romantic comedy?) is too nice for such a thing. So she just walks away.

Life seemed to go on fine until she finds out a key point about being popular and having no boyfriend…all the girls assume you’re out and about to steal their boyfriends and all the guys have no idea how they should react to a girl like her that has no boyfriend. And with all this, she meets the geeky Billy and couldn’t help but fall for him. She wonders if this is a bad thing or a good thing and if this a romance, that may result in losing a friend, is really worth it…

So, the book is good and you guys shud definitely check it out. Once you’ve read it you will absolutely fall in love with it just as we did and believe me, Billy is an awesome character!