A Colloquy on Books

This review was requested by the author. Charlie Brady has never even thought of the possibility of extraterrestrial life being real. His life had more pressing matters like the Great War and how to survive. That is until one day, one of those very lifeforms physically took him off the planet. The aliens took him several times adding fear about future abductions to his very terrestrial concerns of outrunning the mob and falling in love. Will Charlie be able to survive it all? When I received the message to review Big Orange Flying Dinner Plate, I happily agreed to read and review it. I haven’t read many books about alien abductions so I wanted to take a shot at reading this book. Since I haven’t read a lot about alien abductions and since it is a topic that can be interpreted very differently by every single person, I did not have any expectations as I went into this book. With that being said, I didn’t enjoy it. The narrative style of the book was weird and there were moments where th...

When a world famous genius millionaire suddenly disappears, everyone takes notice and the facts of his last known appearance get distorted. He was last seen walking his pet salamander leash (or without the leash as some others claim). As time goes on, more and more ridiculous rumors start flying around, rumors that lead to more questions: Has he gone into hiding? Has he been kidnapped? Has he lost his mind? Is he even alive or has he died? As Quinn, his friend, tries to track him down,  he begins to think: How about all of the above? I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. While there is no rule that I have to review the book that I win, I am choosing to review this book and I'm gonna be honest about what I thought about this book as per my policy.Let me just start off by saying, this book was really weird. Either I didn't understand the point of this book or this book just shouldn't have been published. I had a hard time following the story in this book. Not because it wa...

Beware of the spoilers to The Thousandth Floor  that lurk beyond this message... New York City, 2118. In the thousand story tower, five teenagers are hiding dark and dangerous secrets. Leda is haunted by the memories of the past, the worst night of her life. She wants the truth to stay hidden, and the only way to ensure that is to trust her enemy. Rylin’s life suddenly changes when she wins a scholarship to an upper level school. Now she has to face the boy who broke her heart on a daily basis. Avery is tortured by the love of her life because no matter how strong her love is, he is unattainable. She is desperate to be with him, regardless of the cost. Watt wants to put the past behind him and forget what happened that night, but Leda forces him to start hacking again. Will he be able to free himself from Leda? Calliope arrives in New York, a beautiful girl, who knows exactly what buttons to push. A hidden threat lurks, watching their every move, waiting for them to make a mistake,...

A cargo ship sinks in the Pacific and all that remains is one lonely lifeboat. The lifeboat's crew is: a hyena, a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutan, a Bengal tiger by the name of Richard Parker, and Pi, an Indian boy. As the crew members begin to assert their places in the food chain, Pi has to focus on getting to the top and how to deal with a Bengal tiger that grows hungrier by the day. Will Pi survive an impossible journey? At the mention of Life of Pi  most people begin to gush about how amazing the movie was and how much they loved it. Followed by their shock at the fact that I haven't seen it yet. My reason? My general experience has been that reading the book is a more enjoyable experience than watching the movie. The book is usually richer in terms of content, context, and backstories. I didn't want to spoil the experience of reading the book by watching the movie. Life of Pi  sat on my to-read list patiently waiting and I finally go to it when an extra cr...

Discliamer: This post contains spoilers to The False Prince  if you would like to avoid these spoilers, don't read the summary for The Runaway King . It is the last summary. The Dangerous World of Butterflies: The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists by: Peter Laufer Peter Laufer was tired of answering the question, "What will your next book be about?" Without thinking he answered, "Butterflies" as an analogy for peace and contentment. This simple answer led him to discover that the world of butterflies might not be as peaceful as he once thought. 4 stars. Every Day by: David Levithan A wakes up in a different body everyday and he doesn't know how to stop it  but he has resigned himself to his fate. He has his rules, don't interfere in their lives, don't get attached, and live like a guest and leave. But all that change the day he wakes up in Justin's body and meets his girlfriend Rhiannon and all of a sudd...

For thousands of years pegasi and humans have peacefully co-existed, communicating with each other, through pegasi shamans and human magicians. Each human is bound to his or her own pegasus on their twelfth birthday. On Princess Sylviianel, Sylvi for short, is bound, quite ceremoniously, to her own pegasus, Ebon.  But for whatever reason, Sylvi and Ebon  can  talk to each other. This communication threatens to destroy the peace between their nations. Will their communication actually break apart their nations or are they strong enough to hold them together? Pegasus  started out as nice and interesting, and it ended not as well as it started. I decided to read it because it sounded like a good book. The beginning was all fine and dandy, nice plot twists, good characters, and building of bonds. Then came the middle of the book, it got better, the plot started thickening, Ebon and Sylvi started facing their own troubles, and that means that they are...

Disclaimer:    This review is about the fourth book in the Selection.  This review contains spoilers to The One  by: Kiera Cass, you have been warned, proceed with caution. Princess Eadlyn Schreave has grown up on stories of how her mother, America Schreave, and her father, Maxon Schreave met. They are a fairytale, twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection of Prince Maxon, and won his heart, never to look back. Eadlyn has always found the story romantic but she wants to put off marriage as long as possible. But her life isn't always her own as she's a princess, and no matter how hard Eadlyn tries, she cannot escape her own Selection. Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance but as the Selected arrive, some entries may start capturing her heart. Finding her own happily after might not be as hard as Eadlyn once thought. Let me start by saying, I was really looking forward to reading The Heir , for two reasons. The first being I would fina...

Saleem Sinai was born at the stroke of midnight, at the precise moment of India's independence, he was born special. He is one of the 1,001 children born in the midnight hour of India's independence, children who have been bestowed special gifts, children who Saleem is connected to telepathically. But, there has been a mix up at birth and Saleem's life take twists and turns. He grows amidst disasters and triumphs he realizes that his fate is inexplicably connected to the fate of his country. Every one of his actions is mirrored and magnified to shape the newborn country India. It is a terrible curse, and a great blessing.  The blurb of Midnight's Children  made it sound like a really cool book. It wasn't. It was quite boring. It took me three months and two days to read it. Those of you who know me well, will realize that three months and two days is too much for me to read a six hundred forty-seven page book. I read a eight hundred forty-nine page book in...

Things are happening, like a girl who won't speak, a coal black seal, Nera, who returns to same spot every year, and a bitter feud, and Becca is caught right in the middle. 2 stars. Note: If you would like a detailed review of any of these books, please comment and I will get it posted as soon as possible.

Kavya is comfortable with her name. Her brother's name? Not so much. She is mortified of her address: 708, Kansas, Grand Canyon, Banglore, India. She has friends that believe she is a vampire, (at best). Sure, Kavya has issues. But the ones mentioned earlier are the least of them. Her mother is trying to cut them off from society in general. Her father is trying to cut himself off from her, her brother, and mother. She has board exams, and she hasn't studied, at all. Can she just start her life over again? I started reading Jobless Clueless Reckless  and I was shocked. *Eyes pop out of skull, chin hits the floor* I was shocked because of the way it was written. The language, the texting type of writing. and the sentence structure do not in any way seem like something Revathi Suresh would write, (I say this because I do know her and you do not expect this kind of writing from her). After I recovered from that shock I found the book to be good. Which is to say average, n...

Josh and his sister are visiting the Isles of Wonder when a terrorist group biologically attacks the world, killing all of the adults. Josh and his sister are stranded on the island of the Isles of Wonder with other children who were visiting or live there. They come together to help each other but when accusations are aspersed small groups form. The islanders are on the brink of a war that will determine the future of the islanders. Will Josh and his sister come out safe and sound or will they lose their lives in this war? When I read the blurb for Neptune's Children , my first thought was: Gone  by Michael Grant. The basic idea of both novels is the same, all the adults disappear, the children are left to fend for themselves, cliques form etc. I thought that I would like it considering it was like Gone . But I didn't like it. I didn't like it very much because it was very predictable. You always knew who was going to cause problems. Another reason I didn't ...

Defiance is the story of Rachel, the daughter of Baalbodem’s most skilled tracker. Jared, Rachel’s father has been on a mission for three months. On the last day of the three months Jared is declared dead by the leader of the city, the Commander. Rachel is assigned a new Protector, Logan. Logan is Jared’s apprentice and also the boy who was loved by Rachel two years ago. Rachel believes that her father is still alive. She formulates a plan with the help of Logan to go out of the city and and search for her father. Will she find her father or will she uncover something far bigger? My first impression of Defiance was, “This book is dystopian.” But as I got into it a bit more I realized it was fantasy. With a title like Defiance it sounds like a dystopian novel. But it wasn’t meant to be. The book was good but I expected a bit more on the Cursed One. I would have liked a better explanation of the Cursed One. The only thing I got from it was that it was a dragon-like creature th...

The Wave is a story about a history class learning about Nazi Germany. The students in the class have questions, “Why did people follow HItler?” Another one is, “How did they not know it was bad?” Unable to answer these questions their teacher Mr, Ben Ross begins an experiment to explain. He starts by teaching them: STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE. The students accept the motto and follow the disciplines. The next day the students are still following his disciplines. Mr. Ross decides to continue the experiment by adding two more slogans: STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY and STRENGTH THROUGH ACTION. Using these slogans Mr. Ross creates a group, The Wave. Soon the Wave starts taking over the school and it is up to Laurie Sanders to stop it.  When I read the synopsis for The Wave I expected a very horrible and gory story. I was very disappointed when I read The Wave. I would have really liked it if it had a little more goriness to it. I felt like the writing was kind of timid. I also t...