27
Apr 2008

Down To A Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese

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In my honest opinion, I found this book quite a difficult read. There are 15 short stories in here and I could not understand all of them. I had to read some of them a couple of times to understand them better. In a way, the stories make you think and form your own opinions about the characters and the endings. Some stories don’t have a clear ending, hence making you guess it.

Mathias B. Freese brings you into the minds of troubled individuals. For example, in ‘I’ll Make It, I Think’, the narrator describes himself as normal-looking at some parts of his body while some aren’t so normal. He says that girls wouldn’t date him because they wouldn’t hold a deformed hand like his. So even though he’s different from the rest, he is still human and has normal human feelings.

In the story ‘Herbie’, Herbie aspires to start a kind of shoeshine business with his friend. His father also polishes shoes for a living and Herbie wants to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately, despite his son looking up to him, Herbie’s father is not very happy of his son’s idea.

I like the story ‘Alabaster’. It is about an encounter of a 9-year-old boy with an old Polish woman who had survived the Holocaust. She showed him her numbered hand but it’s not clear if the boy understood what it all meant. It’s a simple story but a truly poignant one about a small boy spending time with a lonely old lady by listening to her talk.

All the same, ‘Little Errands’ is exceptionally interesting. The person telling the story is kind of restless. He has mailed his letters but he kept worrying whether he had remembered to put stamps on them or whether the mailman collected them or not. Sometimes, I am like that too. It may just be a little chore but it’s so simple that we feel like we did not do it right. Like something went wrong somewhere and we are not sure about it, that’s why we worry and keep thinking about it!

Have you ever answered back at your teacher probably because you don’t like her or feel that she’s not teaching the right thing? That’s what Nicholas did in ‘Nicholas’. This short story was probably written by the character Nicholas himself since there are spelling and punctuation errors. It seems that he’s not good in English and he receives neither respect nor attention unlike another kid from Iran whose English isn’t that good either.

Most of the short stories are about children and young adults and about how they feel towards themselves as well as their surroundings. Like what I had mentioned earlier, this book gets you thinking and asking questions. That’s how it is with me. What about you?

***Also, I’d like to thank Mathias Freese for sending me a copy of Down to a Sunless Sea.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: gautami tripathy, Melody, KittyCat

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors F, Genre - Short Stories, Titles D
06
Apr 2008

The Secret Scroll by Ronald Cutler

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The title itself has made me eager to get started on reading the book. The Secret Scroll…it sounds pretty mysterious and exciting, don’t you think?

Anyway, the hero is supposed to be American archaeology professor, Josh Cohan. He has been dreaming some weird dreams about a cave somewhere in Jerusalem. Something inside the cave, which is The Scroll, is waiting for him to find it. Wouldn’t it be fun if we had dreams like his that would help us make the most important discoveries in our lifetime? But then, life would get a little bit too exciting.

Because Josh made that tremendously ‘fantastic’ discovery, he has put his and other people’s lives in absolute danger. When Josh translated the scroll, as it’s written in Aramaic, he found out that it was supposedly written by Jesus Christ himself! Now that is one heck of a crucial discovery and Josh has to make sure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.

Since the scroll was found in Jerusalem, Josh must hand it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority or The IAA. While he was trying to pass the scroll to them, there are other people too who wants the scroll badly. They are The Guardians, a cult who believes that they are the only true Christians in the world and wish to eradicate those who don’t share their faith.

Therefore, Josh and a team of archaeologists from The IAA set out to translate the scroll to determine if it’s really written by Jesus Christ. Also, there is someone from The IAA who has been leaking out information to The Guardians. Actually, there are a number of traitors and I had a fun time trying to guess who they were. Sadly, all my guesses were wrong. =D You’d be truly surprised when you read the book.

Besides action and adventure, there is also romance between Josh and the daughter of an archaeologist from The IAA, Danielle. Actually, Danielle has suffered more than Josh since she has been kidnapped and molested by The Guardians. I’ve noticed that Josh didn’t really go all out to save the woman he loves. He was more interested in translating the scroll.

Nevertheless, The Secret Scroll is an incredibly exhilarating read. You never know what’s going to happen next and I really enjoyed doing a lot of speculation while reading. It’s easy to read so you can probably finish it in less than a week or maybe even a few days. But do take note that Ronald Cutler embarked on a research that took him more than two years to create this book!

Oh, I also like the short chapters in this book. I don’t like long chapters because then, reading would be tiring. I usually stop reading at the end of a chapter and then take a break or something, so short chapters are always welcomed. =) There is a simple map of Jerusalem on two pages in the front part of the book, so you can refer to it if you want to get a clearer picture of Josh’s journey.

For fans of The Da Vinci Code, I highly recommend The Secret Scroll. Incidentally, this is Ronald Cutler’s first novel.

***Thanks to Lisa Roe for sending me a copy of this book!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: naida

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors C, Genre - Thriller, Titles S
28
Mar 2008

Astro Socks by Leigh M. Le Creux

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Astro Socks is a brilliantly written book about a young boy who wants to make a pair of socks for his baby sister. Chris is 10 years old and his younger sister is Rachel. One of Rachel’s socks can’t seem to stay on her feet for long. When she’s in her Jolly Jumper and she kicks hard, a sock will fall off. That’s why Chris is determined to find out how to make the perfect pair of socks for her.

Chris is smart as well as inquisitive. He likes to find out how things worked and his parents are proud to have a son like him. They are caring, considerate, and they encourage him to not give up on things easily. Oh, Chris would like to be an inventor one day too.

So, Chris starts his research on how to make socks that’ll stay put on his sister’s feet. He looks up for information on the Internet and finally sends a simple e-mail to a company that makes space suits for astronauts. Little did he know that that e-mail will help make his dream come true, that is becoming an inventor.

This book would be a very good read for children. I like the cover (simple and light) and there are also some cute drawings scattered throughout the book. The drawings were drawn by Leigh’s son and his classmates! This makes the book quite different from the others.

With the book’s simple language, I believe it could help children with their language and vocabulary. Children and adults alike would certainly enjoy reading about Chris and how he tries to solve the sock problem, as Chris appears to be an average and likeable kid. The sock crisis is a new one too. I was eager to find out Chris’ solution to the problem.

Astro Socks is Leigh Le Creux’s first novel. She’s working on her second one too, so open up your eyes and ears for more news!

***I’d like to thank Leigh M. Le Creux for sending me a copy of this book to review!

Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors L, Genre - Children's Books, Titles A
26
Mar 2008

Sticky Fingers by Niki Burnham

By 1 Comment

The story starts with Jenna who is reluctant to open the letter from Harvard University. Would it be a rejection letter or an acceptance one? Well, she got accepted into Harvard anyway and she’s simply thrilled just thinking about it. She’s also 100% positive that her boyfriend, Scott, has been accepted too. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get into Harvard.

In Jenna’s eyes, Scott is the most perfect guy on earth. Everything about him is wonderful to her. The only imperfect thing would be him pressuring her to sleep with him. She’s not ready to take that step yet but he feels that she can’t relax.

Jenna’s best friend, Courtney, seems to be having problems of her own lately. She has to deal with her parents’ divorce and Jenna suspects her of being a shoplifter but she’s just not sure about it. When she saw Courtney knock a bottle of nail polish into her purse, she thought she must be hallucinating. Why would Courtney, who doesn’t seem to have financial problems, be stealing nail polish from a store?

One day, Jenna sees Scott arguing with Courtney. She asked Scott what was it all about but he wouldn’t tell her much. She also won’t ask Courtney because at that time, they weren’t really speaking to each other. That arguing part got me interested in reading more about what Scott is really up to. Why is he hiding things from his girlfriend? What is it that he doesn’t want Courtney to tell Jenna?

Later at a party, Scott does the unthinkable. He does something Jenna thought he’d never do to her but then, she’s just oblivious of his real character. He is nice to her, like trying to be the perfect boyfriend and all, but he just can’t wait for her to say yes.

This would be a good book for teenagers and also for those whose boyfriends keep asking them for sex although they have already said “NO!” many, many times. It’s time to think of whether he’s really sincere or not. Ask yourself if he’ll still be around after you get pregnant. He can tell you that he loves you a lot, promising this and that to you, but just think about it.

The thing about Jenna’s best friend, Courtney, is that why didn’t she just tell Jenna what Scott planned to do? Why did she just keep quiet about it? And also WHY is she still being friendly to Scott when she knows that he’s not a good guy after all? Courtney’s a mystery, that’s all.

Anyway, enjoy Sticky Fingers. It’s been a good and quick read. I’m going to check out other books by Niki Burnham. =)

Popularity: 42%

Categories: Authors B, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles S
22
Mar 2008

50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom

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I know of a story where a vampire is in love with a human but what if the romance is between a vampire and a witch??? Now, that should be a very interesting tale.

Jasmine Tremaine or Jazz, is a 700-year-old witch who was banished from The Academy for Witches many, many years ago and is forced to survive on her own in the big, bad world. So now, she works as a curse eliminator and also as a driver for All Creatures Limo Service during the night. Dweezil is Jazz’s boss in this limo service company.

Jazz’s life is tumultuous. Eliminating curses for people can be quite a tough job, especially when clients don’t pay her but that’s easy because she will only need to bring the curse back to them. Then only they’ll pay her quickly!

Besides that, working as a driver for Dweezil’s company is like a nightmare. One of the customers that she has to drive is Tyge Foulshadow whose farts are absolutely horrendous but since Jazz is a witch, they don’t bother her that much. She hates to drive him, too because she knows that he likes her and she feels uncomfortable around him. Tyge pays in gold bars and Dweezil values him as a very valuable customer. That’s why Jazz still drives him around.

But wait! The excitement isn’t quite over yet. How would you feel if you had a T-Bird car with a ghost in it? Pretty scary, right? Well, Jazz’s ghost is not that scary at all. Irma is/was a heartbroken woman who killed herself in her husband’s car. And now that car belongs to Jazz.

Now, the part I guess you’ve been waiting for. The man, or should I say vampire in Jazz’s life. He is Nikolai Gregorivich or simply Nick. He needs Jazz’s help now to find the bad guy who’s responsible for the disappearances of vampires. The thing is, will she help him? Many years ago, he had put her in jail because he thought that she was a thief! Weird, huh? They’ve already hooked up and broke up lots of times.

What do you think? It is an exciting book, after all. Just check out the cover’s design. I like the cover and I like the feel of the cover. I just like to hold the book, you know. 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover is fun to read, a few twists and turns here and there, and you will like Irma the ghost. You might not like Dweezil or Tyge as they are quite sleazy kind of creatures.

The bad guy’s part is kind of creepy. Well, he has to be creepy, right, since he’s the bad guy? I guess this is not purely a chick lit’s book as chick lit books don’t scare me. Nevertheless, it kept me turning the pages to find out if good triumphs over evil.

By the way, look out for more of Jazz’s adventures in the next book, Hex Appeal! And don’t hesitate to check out my interview with Linda Wisdom!

***Thanks to Danielle Jackson of Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book.

Popularity: 4%

Categories: Authors W, Genre - Paranormal Romance, Titles A
08
Mar 2008

The BFG by Roald Dahl

By 1 Comment

When I first heard of The BFG, I thought it’s short for some scientific term that I did not know. Was I surprised when I found out that it’s short for The Big Friendly Giant! This is also the third Dahl book that I’ve read and it’s entertaining. The only set-back was the extraordinary words that Dahl created and the BFG’s broken English.

However, I found some interesting words that do not exist, for example, squackling, biffsquiggled, flushbunking, and lots more! After all, it is a story book and it’s supposed to be superbly fun!

Anyway, one night, during the witching hour, Sophie, a bespectacled orphan girl, was ‘kidnapped’ by The BFG. She had seen him and the giant thought he had better bring her back to his home so that she couldn’t tell the whole of England and the whole world that she had seen a giant. The BFG then brought her back to his cave/home in Giant Country.

Sophie and The BFG soon strike an unlikely friendship. The BFG is kind and sympathetic and Sophie likes him. The other 9 giants in that country are horrible and they eat humans. Therefore, The BFG has to hide Sophie in his cave where she’ll be safe. And no, The BFG doesn’t gobble up humans.

Besides that, The BFG has excellent hearing. He can hear things that we can’t normally hear. For example, he can hear a flower scream when it’s being plucked. He can hear a terrible sound a tree makes when it’s being chopped. He can hear the beating of your heart even though you are quite a distance away from him.

The screaming flower and chopping tree parts are also told in The Sound Machine, also written by Roald Dahl. Dahl was probably passionate about preserving the environment and making the world a better place. In The BFG, The BFG is proud of being a giant because he says that giants don’t kill their own kind. So are the animals. Only humans go around killing each other, especially in terrible wars.

The BFG likes to collect dreams, too. The dreams are invisible but he can hear them. He catches the dreams with his net in Dream Country where the dreams float around invisibly. He then keeps his dreams in jars and at night, he blows the dreams into children’s bedrooms where they’re sleeping. The dreams that he gives to the sleeping children are always good and happy dreams.

Anyhow, one day, the human-eating giants decide to visit England to feast on English children. Sophie was horrified and insists that she and The BFG go to England to tell the Queen everything about the nasty giants. The BFG was afraid to go at first but after persuasion from Sophie, he agreed to help her capture the giants with the Queen’s help.

I like the ending of the story. Read it and then you’ll see how Dahl ends his story in a clever way.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: Melange, T

Popularity: 12%

Categories: Authors D, Genre - Children's Classics, Titles B Tags:
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