Ender's Game

This book is freaking awesome!!! The world in this story is amazing, and soooo futuristic! The characters are endlessly fascinating. The premise? In the future, kids who are deemed the best of the best are taken from their families at 6 years old and sent to this Battle School in outer space, where they train to become soldiers so they can fight in the war against the alien Buggers.

I can tell that this is one of the best books I've read in this whole year, if not in my entire life! ^_^

Skinny *Witch

*Since I have an image of the cover right here [>>>] it is pretty obvious that I wrote the title wrong. This is because I, personally, am uncomfortable with cursing, even when I'm writing. So this is my way of working around that. Hey, it's only one letter off. Trust me; despite this book's actual title, it is fantastic, and you will want to keep reading this review. ^_~

As the subtitle says, this book is meant to be "A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating *klunk and start looking fabulous!" This book is all that it promises and more.

*Once again, I changed this word because I don't like using curse-words. =P The word I'm using instead is a reference to a term used in James Dashner's "Maze Runner" books. lol. ^_~

I started reading this non-fiction book on the high recommendation of my mom and twin sister. It is a very quick read, written with clever and sharp humor, but with a very serious and important message that I knew backwards and forwards already. That message is this: BE A VEGETARIAN!!! It is way healthier for you, you will stop being sick and fat, and you'll be saving the lives of countless animals in addition to making a greener environment.

There are quite a few curse words sprinkled in this book, but this is only so it can drive the point home for the reader. You have to use your head when it comes to your eating habits. Every day of your life, YOU control what goes into your body. You can choose to eat junk, or you can choose to eat the right stuff. You must look at the ingredients on the package and make educated decisions for your health. This book is a kick-in-the-pants for people who need to be told this.

These authors are not ordering you to go on a diet and give up the things you love to eat. They just simply giving it to you straight. Certain foods will slowly poison you, and other foods will vitalize you and give you the nutrition you need. After that, it is your own decision to make. Your life, your body.

Seriously though, though I am a very happy vegetarian and know most of this stuff already, I still learned a great deal from this book. There are separate chapters for the "evils" of junk food, sugar, dairy products, and meat. I'm not kidding here, I was freaked out by some of the facts I learned. Especially in the chapter called "You are what you eat"...

If you don't read anything else from this book, you HAVE to read that chapter. It has true horror stories of what goes on in the factories that slaughter the animals that become our meat. Actual people who work/used to work in these places talk about what their job entails them to do: murder hundreds upon hundreds of innocent creatures every single day! !,! Honestly, you will be shocked! You will also be horribly grossed out when you find out what really goes into your meat, milk, cheese, eggs and other such items.

You will not be sorry that you read this book (so long as you don't mind some of the language, that is ^,~). Of course, by the title, it is clear that the intended audience for this book is female. But all this valuable advice goes for both genders, without even saying. Still, I found out that a couple years after publishing "Skinny *Witch" and having it become a best-seller, these authors came out with a companion book for men. You can see the title right here anyway, so I don't even need to say it. ^_~ Enjoy!

I'm back again.

Sorry for skipping out for about 2 weeks. I feel a little guilty about shirking my reviewing responsibilities. Not because I think I'm disappointing any readers, mind you (I stopped worrying about that a long time ago.) I just care because if I'm not constantly vigilant, I won't remember all the books I read this year.

So here are the 3 brand new posts I put up today. Graphic Novels, Short Stories, and Nightlight. Please enjoy them!

Nightlight, by The Harvard Lampoon

This book is freakin' hilarious! A complete parody of the Twilight Saga, this thin parody will give you a barrel of laughs with every page turn. Seriously, I dare you to try reading it aloud and NOT feel the urge to giggle. XD

The characters are Belle Goose and Edwart Mullen. (Clever names, are they not?) Belle is waaaay crazy and self-absorbed. She doesn't make any sense with her ramblings and thought-processes, but that doesn't stop her from being funny. When she catches sight of pale, handsome, but terribly geeky Edwart, she is positive that he is a vampire. (Is he? You are certainly left guessing until the very end.)

Since this book was little over a hundred pages, I finished it really quickly. Sometimes I read a few choice passages aloud to my brother and sister, and it never failed to make us l.o.l., or laugh out loud, if you prefer.

Yeah, so definitely check this out. It is as good as (if not better than) any of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books. Trust me. You won't be sorry reading this book. (Unless you die of laughter.)

Short Stories

I am still very much enthralled with short stories. Here are 3 collections that that I've read during my 2 week absence.

"Oddest of All" I read first. Bruce Coville is quite a gifted short story author, I think. I love his characters and his worlds.

"Button Button, Uncanny Stories", by Richard Matheson, was quite interesting. I read this because the story "Button Button" was turned into the movie "The Box", with Cameron Diaz, which was an amazing story! All the other stories were equally interesting. Maybe a little bit disturbing, in a couple of cases...

I actually haven't finished reading "Xanadu" yet, but it is a good book so far. Jane Yolen, someone Bruce Coville has mentioned a few times in his author notes, edits this collection of short stories and poems written by a whole slew of authors I've never heard of. Basically anything goes in these stories. It can be fantasy or Sci-fi or anything. I'm enjoying it so far. I also have Xanadu 2 and Xanadu 3. When I'm done with all 3 of them, I'll let you know.

Now for my review of "Nightlight". (You'll love this. ^_^)

Graphic Novels

Here's a whole bunch of graphic novels that I've read in the last couple weeks. From right to left, these books are in order from least liked to most loved!

"That Salty Air" was just okay. It was a mildly interesting short story about a fisherman and his wife. The art and story of "Luuna" reminded me slightly (only slightly) of the Bone graphic novels. There were 3 small and round cartoony characters you're supposed to laugh at and a young attractive native girl. I wasn't a fan of the rest of the story, though. I read these 2 books while browsing in the library.

I finished the most recently published Cirque Du Freak graphic novel, "The Vampire Prince," as well. Ha, looks like I forgot to mention when I read #5. Well, suffice it to say I did, and that this series is still pretty good so far. But this book sure has a lot of fighting in it. 0,o

On Graham "Chop" Bradley's recommendation, I read "Sons of Liberty", by the Lagos brothers. Definitely a good read. Thanks, Graham. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next installment. ^_~

My twin sister, Annette, actually turned me on to the next graphic novel, "Japan Ai." This is the manga journal of a real-life woman who goes sight-seeing in Japan with a couple of friends. Her stories are really funny, not to mention that the artwork portraying her antics are adorable and hilarious! Her description of Japanese culture was extremely thorough and complete, so it was as if I myself had traveled to Japan with her. It sounds like SUCH a different place than America, but it also sounds wonderful!

The best graphic novel I've read in these 2 weeks, however, has to be "Phoenix: A Tale of the Future", by Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy). What an amazing, mind-bending story that was. It takes place waaaay in the future, a few centuries or so from now, and... really, the story is too complicated to relate here, but it's amazing! You must read it!

Alright. I'm done. Now onto the short-stories.

Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale

It's been a long time since I've reviewed a book that I could honestly say I enjoyed. Finally, here is a book that I think is simply amazing. Two thumbs up. Written by the brilliant and poetic Shannon Hale, I dove into this story and hardly wanted to leave it. Wonderful and solid world-building, characters you could relate to and knew were growing as the story progressed, and a happy ending that I could be well satisfied with. ^_^

Basically, it's a book written in a diary format about a girl named Dashti, who is the poor, humble maid of a sort of princess, Lady Saren, who was sentenced by her father to 7 years in a tower, because she refused to marry the man her father told her to. So the lady and her maid are imprisoned together. Luckily there's plenty of food in the tower, so at least they won't starve for 7 years (although they do have rats) and Dashti knows how to write, so she keeps a record of their time in that prison.

About a month of being locked in the tower, Saren's real love, Tegus, visits them, but Saren doesn't want to talk to him because she's scared, so she orders Dashti to pretend she's her. Dashti is quite reluctant to do that, but she does as she's told, and soon she and Tegus become really good friends, him thinking that she's Lady Saren. After a few visits in a row, though, he leaves and doesn't return for the longest time.

With many days, weeks and months skipped, eventually Dashti and Saren manage to escape the tower after nearly 3 years of imprisonment (I won't tell you how they escaped. ^_~). But the world around them has changed a lot. What used to be Saren's home is burned to the ground, so they have to go somewhere else. Dashti decides to take them to Tegus's realm, because she knows they'll be safe there. They get there, but Saren is a bit crazy from years in the tower, and she doesn't want to tell anyone that she's really a Lady, so she works with Dashti in the kitchen scrubbing pots all day.

I won't tell you how, but soon Dashti meets Tegus himself, and they become friends again, him never knowing that she was the one he'd spoken to in the tower. This is when Dashti realizes that she's in love with Tegus, not Saren. He never even met the real Saren, so that means he loves her.

As you can see, it was a really romantic story, and I loved it a lot. ^_^ I don't know why I haven't picked it up before now, but I'm glad I did. I highly recommend it.