Kel's Thoughts

Author Blogs

2008-07-12T11:06:00.005-05:00

Okay this is new, but for today's post, instead of me going on about random authors, I want you to see their blogs. Cool right?

John Green (Looking For Alaska & An Abundance of Katherines):
http://www.sparksflyup.com/weblog.php

Libba Bray (A Great And Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, & The Sweet Far Thing):
http://libba-bray.livejournal.com/

Jennifer Anne Kogler (Ruby Tuesday & The Otherworldlies):
http://www.jenniferannekogler.com/category/blog/

Cassandra Clare (City of Bones & City of Ashes):
http://cassandraclare.livejournal.com/

Sarah Dessen (Just Listen, The Truth About Forever, Lock And Key, etc.):
http://writergrl.livejournal.com/

Elizabeth Scott (Stealing Heaven):
http://www.elizabethwrites.com/blog/

Justine Larbalestier (Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons, & Magic's Child):
http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/

Maureen Johnson (Girl At Sea, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, etc.):
http://maureenjohnson.blogspot.com/

Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tithe, Valiant, & Ironside):
http://blackholly.livejournal.com/

If anyone else knows any other authors who keep cool blogs, just comment on this post and I'll add their link. For the rest of you guys, enjoy! Also, John Green's blog has a really cool question running for anyone to answer that I think many people will be interested in answering.
~~MP

Other Books

2008-07-08T15:47:00.002-05:00

I lost my master list of book that I have read, so I guess I will just have to put down my ratings for the books that I remember for now.

Just Listen (Sarah Dessen) ~ 5 Stars

Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage (Alma Alexander) ~ 4 Stars

Worldweavers: Spellspam (Alma Alexander) ~ 5 Stars

Evernight (Claudia Gray) ~ 5 Stars

Firestorm (David Klass) ~ 5 Stars

Whirlwind (David Klass) ~ 4 Stars

That Summer (Sarah Dessen) ~ 3 Stars

Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague (Brandon Mull): 3 Stars

Someone Like You (Sarah Dessen) ~ 4 Stars

Messenger (Lois Lowry) ~ 4 Stars

The Great And Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray) ~ 5 Stars

Rebel Angels (Libba Bray) ~ 5 Stars

The Sweet Far Thing (Libba Bray) ~ 5 Stars

~~MP

Fearless: FBI by Francine Pascal

2008-07-08T11:20:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I was ridiculously bored so I went over the library and started walking the aisles. This is a series of four books which I picked up and read all of them in the same day. The picture you see is of the first book, Kill Game. The other titles (in order) are: Kill Game, Live Bait, Fear Out, and Naked Eye. They started off good, but soon got depressing. Very depressing. So Gaia (the main character) has this off-and-on relationship with one of the other characters during the entire book. In the end of the fourth book though, he dies. Seriously. Not even worth reading. And of the four main characters: Gaia, Will, Kim, and Catherine, one ends up dead (Will) and another ends up being a traitor (Catherine). They were okay, but when will the depression stop? I just kept reading them because I have this thing against putting a book down when I'm halfway through it.

~~MP

Rating: 4/10 (Depression Factor Was Major)

I Am A Freak

2008-07-08T11:19:00.001-05:00

Okay, I am a serious freak. I can't believe I have neglected books for that long. I'll do a full review of a couple of books, but I'll just list the other ones.
~~MP

Book Ratings

2008-06-24T09:37:00.003-05:00

Jeez, I promised myself I wouldn't fall behind on reviews. Oh well, and since I've read a million books recently, I'll just write down the title and my rating on it.

Bewitching Season (Marissa Doyle): 10/10

Into The Wild (Sarah Beth Durst): 8/10

Wish You Were Here (Barbara Shoup): 9/10

Bratfest At Tiffany's (Lisi Harrison): 6/10

The King's Arrow (Michael Cadnum): 8/10

Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson): 9/10

The Mediator: Shadowland (Meg Cabot): 9/10

13 Little Blue Envelopes (Maureen Johnson): 10/10

The Magician (Michael Scott): 10/10

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

2008-06-19T11:37:00.002-05:00

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr was a really original plot line. In most books that I have read, one or two details I have recognized from a different book. In this book though, the plot line was so original that even though I had promised myself I'd read about half of it yesterday, I ended up reading the whole thing, staying up until three a.m. until I was done. Yeah. That's how amazing this book was. Aislinn was a strong protagonist, along with the fact that she had an amazing name. Keenan, the almost-Summer King is forced to continue tricking female mortals until he has found the right one to be his Summer Queen, and only then will he get the full powers he is entitled do. It's only his luck to find that the Summer Queen is actually probably the only girl on the face of the planet that is immune to his charms. Will Keenan be able to convince her to be his Summer Queen in time before the Winter Queen completely takes over?
~~MP

Rating: 9/10

Beastly by Alex Flinn

2008-06-19T11:27:00.005-05:00

This book was, pardon the pun, beastly. Alex Flinn (who is, by the way, a girl) did an amazing job of taking the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast and turning it into a modern-day classic. The main character, Kyle is turned into a beast after rudely making fun of an "ugly" girl in front of the whole school. Little does he know that she is, in fact, a witch. Now he has two years to fall in love and have the girl fall in love with him back or else he will have to stay a beast for the rest of his life and live in hiding. But what is a fifteen-year-old guy to do? He begins searching for the perfect girl, only to find that true love is harder than it seems in storybooks and that if any girl will ever fall in love with his ugly exterior, he has to put a lot of work into it. Then, one day, a guy breaks into his Brooklyn flat in an attempt to rob Kyle. Kyle is about to kill him until he offers his daughter, Lindy, in exchange. Will Kyle fall in love with Lindy and have her love him back within the two years? Even though the ending was predictable to anyone who has seen or read any version of the story, I still loved every moment of the book.

~~MP

Rating: 9/10

Aurelia by Anne Osterlund

2008-06-19T11:19:00.003-05:00

Aurelia by Anne Osterlund was everything I expected in the book from the minute I picked it up. It had mystery, adventure, and a little romance on the side too. Aurelia is the crown princess, but when she starts to have assassination attacks, the king's former spy's son, Robert comes back to court to investigate. Never did he known that on the way he would fall in love with the stubborn, hard-headed princess too. I loved Aurelia, because it was one of those books that made you feel what the characters were feeling, despite whoever was narrating the story at that exact moment. At the end of it, I admit that I almost cried due to the way it ended. The author, Anne Osterlund, plans to make it the first in a trilogy, and I hope she does. It doesn't matter what kinds of books you usually read, because I know you'll love this one.

~~MP

Rating: 10/10

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

2008-06-17T09:39:00.003-05:00

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins was something I enjoyed, but to a point. One of my biggest problems with the book was that it really was too short. The author should've elaborated a bit more at parts, like made Jazz write more letters to Steve overseas or write more about the whole day-to-day stuff itself. The book skipped from the first day in India to the next week so fast that I didn't even understand what had happened and had to go back and read it again once or twice. Overall though, the book was okay. It is about sixteen-year-old Jasmine Gardner and how her mother is an adopted Indian while her father is an American. When the whole family goes to India for the summer, Jazz finds out that her looking so much like her father and her brother looking more like her mother is a big problem. Nobody else had ever seen a mixed family before and everybody begins to mix up her mother and brother for her servants. Another thing is that she is in love with her best friend, Steve, and while she keeps trying to write a good letter to him, they all end up horrible. The main question in this story is, will Jazz be able to survive one summer in India?

~~MP

Rating: 7/10

Season Of Ice by Diane Les Becquets

2008-06-15T18:58:00.005-05:00

Season Of Ice by Diane Les Becquets was not something that i would normally pick up to read, but let me tell you, I'm glad I did. Seventeen-year-old Genesis is used to the ice, the cold harshness of it and yet the beauty of it too. But when her father goes missing and his boat found in the middle of one of the largest lakes, she starts hating it. Nothing makes sense about this at all. Why would her father - one of the most careful people of the face of the planet - just leave his boat out there like that? But then winter comes and they still haven't found her father's body. Soon Genesis starts changing, just as everything around her is. Will Gen be able to cope with her father's mysterious death before she herself starts going crazy? Will she be able to help her stepmother provide for her two half-brothers or will they go in debt? Will Genesis be able to go to college? I'm sorry but i really don't want to give any more of the story away! The point is, no matter what kind of books you usually read, I can promise you that you will love this book just as much as I did!

~~MP

Rating: 10/10

Haunted by Meg Cabot

2008-06-14T12:34:00.003-05:00

Haunted is the fifth book in the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. Suze Simon is back, but it isn't good news. The guy who had been haunting her dreams, Paul Slater, is now going to her school. Not only did he almost leave Suze and Jesse stranded in the pits of hell in the previous book, but he is also a mediator, meaning that he can see ghosts too. With Paul comes danger, not stuff that Suze is unacustomed too, but different kinds of danger. She knows that he is dangerous, but will Suze's hunger to learn more about herself over-power her good sense? And will Paul finally send Jesse, the ghost that Suze is in love with, back to the point of no return? In this second-to-last installment of the Mediator series, things only get more dangerous, if not to the point where innocent people start to die. I liked this book a lot, mainly because it is different than the other books that Meg Cabot has written, and it also has that appeal for people who like more of the fantasy type thing, like me.

~~MP

Rating: 9/10

She's So Money by Cherry Chiva

2008-06-13T15:50:00.003-05:00

She's So Money by Cherry Chiva was different than I expected. When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be about some stuck-up rich girl. It was quite the opposite, in fact. The main character, Maya, is a nerd. She gets straight A's and is expecting to get into Stanford. But when her parents go away for a weekend to someone's wedding, she mistakenly decides not to clean up the resturaunt when closing up that night due to the fact that she is too tired. This became a huge mistake later on when she finds out that the Health Inspector makes a round the very next day. Obviously, they do not pass and get a fine. Of 10,000 dollars. She doesn't want to tell her parents and get into trouble, so she resolves to pay it by herself. Pretty soon, she becomes involved in this cheating ring, where she herself is cheating the other people in it, along with helping them do their homework. Can she fix it in time before everyone gets caught? I really liked this book and think everyone will enjoy it as much as I did.

~~MP

Rating: 10/10

Missing You by Meg Cabot

2008-06-12T09:59:00.008-05:00

So today I am going to do my first review. The book that I just finished, Missing You by Meg Cabot, is the fifth and final book in the 1-800-Where-R-You series.

Jess Mastriani is back, but her powers aren't. The book starts off three years later from when the fourth book ended, as she is now going to Juliard and living in a flat with her best friend Beth. The last year for her had been spent overseas in the war. When she comes back, she is "broken" as Rob says. She hasn't heard from Rob Wilkins in one of those three years, her ex-boyfriend. That is, not until he ends up on her doorstep, asking for help. He lost his sister, or half-sister anyway. What can Jess do? So she goes back to Indiana to help him look for her, only to find someone else that she doesn't realize she has been missing along the way: herself.

Did you like it? It's my first review, but I think I did okay. Any comments?

~~MP

Rating: 9/10

Looking For Alaska

2008-06-11T13:54:00.001-05:00

Is it possible to like the last two pages of a book more than the rest of it? Because that's what happened with me and the book Looking For Alaska by John Greene.

"When adults say 'Teenagers think they are invincible,' with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot fail."

"So I know she forgives me, just as I forgive her. Thomas Edison's last words were: 'It's very beautiful over there.' I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beatiful."

I don't understand half of it, but it sounds wonderful, or at least it does to me.

~~MP

Inkdeath Cover

2008-06-10T15:44:00.002-05:00

Don't you agree that the cover of Inkdeath looks AMAZING?? I wouldn't mind reading the book either, lol. I only wish I could read German, because then I'd already have finished the book by now!! Grr.
~~MP

Amazing Brisingr Widget

2008-06-10T15:32:00.004-05:00

New Books

2008-06-10T13:51:00.001-05:00

Since I love to read so much, I might as well post a few of the books that I am looking forward to:

The Magician by Michael Scott (June 24, 2008)

Fade by Lisa McMann (2009)

Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (March 2009)

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (October 1, 2008)

Kingdom of Twilight by Tui Sutherland (2008)

Raven Rise by DJ MacHale (May 20, 2008)

Into The Wildewood by Gale Summers (Summer 2008)

The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer (July 15, 2008)

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (August 2, 2008)

The Dragon Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (September 9, 2008)

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale (August 19, 2008)

Stolen by Vivian Van Velde (October 2008)

Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler (June 19, 2008)

In Front And Center by Catherine Murdock (Spring 2009)

The City Of Glass by Cassandra Clare (March 2009)

The books listed are a variety of genres, though most are fantasy and science fiction.

~~MP

Tribute To M

2008-06-10T13:43:00.001-05:00

So my friend, M has always had this obsession with "head-nodding," so since I am writing a book, I figured I might as well put it in there. Here's the amazing quarter-page:

I attempted to head-nod in response, but I’m not quite sure if it worked because Jasper stared at me strangely right after I had done so. “What was that supposed to be?” he demanded, looking as if he was trying really hard not to laugh at the moment.
“A head-nod,” I replied defensively.
“A head-nod,” he repeated, his eyes bugging out because he was trying that hard not to laugh.
“You know, when you nod your head up once in recognition of a person,” I explained.
He nodded his head up and down at this, though it was clear that he had no idea what I was trying to say.

~~MP

Quotes For Mistakes

2008-06-09T12:35:00.001-05:00

If you ever make a mistake, remember these quotes:

1. "There is nothing wrong with mistakes. Just don't respond with encores." ~~Unknown

2. "The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style." ~~Fred Astaire

3. "The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does." ~~Herbert Prochnow

4. "If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything." ~~Marva Collins

5. "I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards. ~~Rudyard Kipling

Just remember those. :)

~~MP

Welcome!

2008-06-09T12:05:00.001-05:00

Welcome, fellow people! At least, I hope you're human. Just kidding. This whole blogging thing is really new to me, so I will accept ideas on what to write about from anyone. So I guess I'll start off with a couple of things about myself:

1. I love read. Especially fantasy and science fiction, though there are a few mystery books which I love. A few of my favorite books are Inkheart, Eragon, Fake ID, The Lightning Thief, Hawksong, The Ruins of Gorlan, The Alchemyst, Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools, Harry Potter, and many more.

2. This goes along with the reading thing, but I also love to write. I finished writing my first book last year, and it was in total 237 pages. That book was just like proof that I could do it though, and I am curently on my second book, which is to this date 122 pages.

3. I am really good at math. It's not bragging or anything, but math is one of those subjects I'm good at.

4. I am terrible at most sports, excepting swimming, tennis, and football. Yes, I mean football as in American football. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the most amazing person at it or anything, but I'm pretty decent.

Any comments? Please, no fowl language, especially not on my first post. As HG Wells once said, "The past is but the beginning of a beginning."

~~MP