Follow Friday #22

Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison of Alison Can Read.

This weeks question: It's Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. so we want to know what you are Thankful for - blogging related of course! Who has helped you out along the way? What books are you thankful for reading? 

Answer: The books I am thankful for reading would firstly be The Harry Potter Series. They are the first books I can ever remember reading. I am also thankful for The Twilight Saga because I had stopped reading prior to reading them, and they reintroduced me to reading.

TGIF #9

Hosted by Ginger over at G-Reads

Question: What occupies your time when your nose isn't stuck in a book?

Answer: I love to watch sport. I watch almost every sport on earth, and so there is no offseason.

Book Review #85 - The Summer I Lost It by Natalie Kath

 

Kat is just like other fourteen-year-old girls. Except this summer, she's spending four weeks at a Health Camp . . . otherwise known as fat camp. Can she lose the weight she needs to be able to do the things everyone else does? Or will she let her body control her?

My Rating: 3/5

I got this book from Netgalley. It was a very quick read, I finished it  in under 30 minutes. The book is also a very light read, there isn't much depth in anything.

The synopsis of this book is misleading. Kat doesn't go to Fat Camp, although she does lose weight.

This book would probably be inspiring to other people in Kat's position, it also gives you tips how to lose weight at the back of the book. 

Follow Friday #21

Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison of Alison Can Read.

Question: Letter to Santa: Tell Santa what books you want for Christmas!

 

Answer: I don't want any books for Christmas. I need money for when I go to Sydney to see the Harry Potter Exhibit.

On My Wishlist #4

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where you list all the books you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

This week I have chosen Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Film making Journey by Bob McCabe. It is really heavy and really expensive.

Goodreads Info: Harry Potter: Page to Screen opens the doors to Hogwarts castle and the wizarding world of Harry Potter to reveal the complete behind-the-scenes secrets, techniques, and over-the-top artistry that brought J.K. Rowling’s acclaimed novels to cinematic life. Developed in collaboration with the creative team behind the celebrated movie series, this deluxe, 500-plus page compendium features exclusive stories from the cast and crew, hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and concept illustrations sourced from the closed film sets, and rare memorabilia. As the definitive look at the magic that made cinematic history, Page to Screen is the ultimate collectible, perfect for Muggles everywhere.

Link to Goodreads Page 

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Objective: Read some of those books you've been putting off for the past year or more from January 1st, 2012 to December 31st, 2012. (Must be published no later than 2011)

Challenge guidelines:
1. This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.

2. As we would like to see quality reviews linked up to our monthly wrap-ups, only bloggers can enter. Sorry about that!

3. Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2011 and earlier! NO ARCs and 2012 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!

4. You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.

5. When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge (You need to include the info + host list + challenge button. You can also grab the button code and add it to your sidebar!)

6. You can move up levels, but no moving down.

7. Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.

8. At the end of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it'sunique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. For participating in the mini-challenge you will get +1 entry.

9. If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;)

10. December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - 12 books, 12 winners, INTERNATIONAL.

11. You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of them to be entered in giveaways!

Levels:

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children

Hosts:
Evie from Bookish - http://www.evie-bookish.blogspot.com @SeoEvie
Nicole from All I Ever Read - http://www.nicoleabouttown.com/ @Nicoleabouttown
Bonnie from Hands and Home - http://www.handsandhome.ca/ @HandsHomeBlog
Donna from Book Passion For Life - http://bookpassionforlife.blogspot.com/ @BookPforLife
Caitlin from WatchYA Reading - http://whatchyareading.net @caitlingss
Rie from Mission To Read - http://missiontoread.com/ @missiontoread
Vicky from Books, Biscuits & Tea -http://booksbiscuitsandtea.blogspot.com/ @alouetteuette
Christa from Hooked On Books - http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot.com @ChristasBooks
Jenna from Fans Of Fiction - http://fansoffiction.blogspot.com/ @fansoffiction
Angel from Mermaids Vision - http://mermaidvision.wordpress.com @mermaidvisions


You can see the full list of my to be read books here. There is no way I will be able to read all of them in 2012. I might choose Love at First Sight for now. 

Top Ten Tuesday (#4)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish. Each week features a different topic, and you make a top ten list about it.

This weeks question is: 

Top Ten Books That Have Been on My Shelf for the Longest But I’ve Never Read

1. The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings #1) by J.R.R. Tolkien;

2. City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2) by Cassandra Clare;

3. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare;

4. Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy #1) by Kiersten White;

5. Heist Society (Heist Society #1) by Ally Carter;

6. Raised by Wolves (Raised by Wolves #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes;

7. Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr;

8. Halo (Halo #1) by Alexandra Adornetto;

9. Obernewtyn (The Obernewtyn Chronicles #1) by Isobelle Carmody;

10. The Host (The Host #1) by Stephenie Meyer

Book Review #84 - Top 8 by Katie Finn

Madison MacDonald is seriously freaking out

Madison MacDonald

16

Putnam, CT

Status: Single?

About Me:

Everything in my life was working out. I had my three best friends, a brand-new boyfriend, and the lead in the school play. Aside from that history paper I hadn't started, things felt perfect.

Then I returned from spring break to find my Friendverse profile hacked. Someone clearly out to ruin me had spilled the most damaging secrets - AND posted the worst photos of me ever taken - online.

Now my boyfriend and I are broken up, half the school hates me, and I'm in deep trouble.

Goals:

Get my boyfriend back, figure out who could have done this, and clear my name!

Also, pass history

My Review: 4/5

This book was way better than I expected it to be, and the protagonist was more likeable than I thought she would be. 

Although I knew who the hacker was midway through the book, there were still plot twists that I wasn't expecting. 

I liked the layout of the book, how it showed  Friendsverse profiles. 

On My Wishlist #3

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where you list all the books you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

This week I have chosen Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. 

Goodreads Info: In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the wall and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife, Gaia Stone, who live outside. Gaia has always believed it is her duty, with her mother, to hand over a small quota of babies to the Enclave. But when Gaia’s mother and father are arrested by the very people they so dutifully serve, Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught to believe. Gaia’s choice is now simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

TGIF #8

Hosted by Ginger over at G-Reads

Question: Love-Hate Relationship: Which characters from a book do you love to hate? 

Answer: Either President Snow from the Hunger Games or Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter.  

Follow Friday #20

Follow Friday is a weekly event hosted by Parajunkee & Alison of Alison Can Read.

Question: In light of 11.11.11 and Veteran's Day tell us about your favorite solider and how he or she is saving the world. Fictional or real life.

 

Answer: We call it Remembrance Day here in Australia. The only person I personally know who has taken part in a war is my Pop. He worked as an engineer in the Vietnam War.

Book Review #83 - Going Bovine by Libba Bray

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

My Review: 3/5 

I liked this book but it was just too weird and random for my complete liking. 

I liked the premise and the uniqueness of the characters. 

As a Melbourne Storm fan, I liked how the protagonist's name is Cameron Smith. I didn't like Gonzo that much, he was too eccentric.   

This book took me a week to finish, and I was very happy when I finally did finish it.  

Links: 

For my review of A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray click here. 

For the Goodreads page for this book click here.  

Book Review #82 - Love is Hell by Various Authors

Sure, love is hell. But it,s totally worth it. 

In these supernatural stories by five of today's hottest writers—Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely), Scott Westerfeld (Specials), Justine Larbalestier (Magic or Madness), Gabrielle Zevin (Elsewhere), and Laurie Faria Stolarz (Blue is for Nightmares)—love may be twisted and turned around, but it's more potent than ever on its quest to conquer all. 

From two students who let the power of attraction guide them to break the hard-and-fast rules of their world to the girl who falls hard for a good-looking ghost with a score to settle, the clever, quirky characters in this exciting collection will break your heart, then leave you believing in love more than ever. 

My Review: 3/5 

This book contains five short stories. Sleeping with the Spirit by Laurie Faria Stolarz, Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld, Thinner than Water by Justine Larbalester, Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin and Love Struck by Melissa Marr. 

This was a library book and I have already returned it as I finished it quite a while ago, and so I have no reference to use for this review. I don't remember what Thinner than Water and Fan Fictions were even about although that I remember liking them.

Sleeping with the Spirit I thought was a bit strange, and could have been explored deeper. 

Stupid Perfect World was my favourite story in the book. I would love to see a novel based on this world. 

Love Struck was my second favourite story, it had the best characters and the storyline had alot of depth for such a short story.  

Book Review #81 - The Dead Tossed Waves (Forest of Hands and Teeth #2)

One night beyond the barrier. One boy she's known forever. One veiled mystery. One reckless moment.....and half of her generation is dead.

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of the lighthouse. 

Home is all she's ever known and all she needs for happiness. But life after the Return is never safe and there are threats even the barrier can't hold back.

Gabry's mother thought she'd left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth but now, to save the one she loves, Gabry must face the Forest of her mother's past. 

My Rating: 5/5

I found this book to be incredibly slow-paced, yet very exciting at the same time. 


The writing style the author uses is unique and it builds the world and the characters in such a way that they seem very real. 


When I first found out that the protagonist was not the same as in The Forest of Hands and Teeth I was a little hesitant that I would like that aspect, but Gabry is introduced in such a way that you forget that she is even a new character.  


For my review of the first book The Forest of Hands and Teeth click here.






 

Library Haul

• You against Me by Jenny Downham;
• Jane by April Lindner;
• Faking 19 by Alyson Noel;
• Top 8 by Katie Finn. 

• Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved #1) by Cate Tiernan;
• Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James;
• Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney;
• Before I Die by Jenny Downham;
• Lonely Werewolf Girl (Kalix MacRinnalch #1)  by Martin Millar

Book Review #80 - All we Know of Heaven by Jacqueline Mitchard

Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFF's since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend's loss and pray for the other's recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died. 

My Rating: 3/5 

The book starts off really slowly, which makes it hard to get into the story. The pace of the plot only quickens when things start to get weird. 

I didn't like Maureen at all. I felt like her actions were unrealistic for the situation she was in (especially in the last third of the book).

The premise of this book was what drew me in initially, but I felt the author never reached the potential that was possible for this book.