BLOG ACTIVENESS aka HOLIDAY WEEK

UPDATE ON BLOG ACTIVENESS

Sorry for the regular post per day being disrupted as I am going on holiday for the next 7 days or so. I'm really sorry about this to everybody who reads these posts (However badly written they may be. :D ).
To make up for this. I will be writing and publishing at least 3 extra posts from my holidays when I return, on books I have read. (Only three reviews I hear you saying, well I'm on holiday okay? You have to give me some time for myself.)

To occupy you in the meantime, I am going to introduce an upcoming weekly post series, where I write a story with the help of my readers/viewers to tell me what choice the main character takes at the end of each section, and stuff like that.
So I will send you to the page where pretty much all my writing resides, Storywrite.com
Here is where all my stories reside, and even some really badly written poems too.
HINT: My latest stuff is actually the best, I recommend 'Who Is Me?', 'Delusional Psychosis', and 'Loss and Heartbreak' as stories, no poems to recommend.
They are all under 2000 words, most are under 1000 words.

http://www.storywrite.com/Sammiannz
There's the link. Read what you will if you want, and comment down below to tell me what you think of what you read, and whether my 'Write Your Own Adventure' Story should be canned.

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,

(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.

Ella Enchanted

 
Ella Enchanted
Gail Carson Levine

 Think you know Cinderella? Think again.

"That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift. 'My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient. Now stop crying child.' "

When Ella was born, she cried through the first hour of her life. Lucinda was a fairy and she put the 'gift' on Ella. Any command Ella is given, she must obey. A wish cannot effect her like 'I wish you'd put on a jumper' but 'Put on a jumper' would cause her to put on a jumper. As she grows up, she learns to delay obeying for minutes, but this causes dizziness, nausea and other effects.

When her mother dies and her father endeavours to find her a wealthy husband, Ella is sent off to finishing school with two sisters whom she despises, by their mother who she also doesn't like. Ella goes on a quest to find Lucinda and to break the curse.

Faced with ogres, giants, an errant fairy and her father, she much go against the rules of magic to find her freedom and save the one she loves.

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.

Juno Of Taris

 

Juno Of Taris
Fleur Beale

"On Taris we shave our heads. No, that's wrong. On Taris, we have our heads shaved for us."

Juno is a girl who has grown up on Taris. Taris was the brainchild of a 21st century scientist. Take a small, windswept island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, put a fully enclosed dome over it, stock its waters with fish, give it a balmy climate and put some people on it to survive. When Taris was formed, it was a social experiment, as well as survival and perhaps even the future of what mankind was to be like.

But somewhere along the line, the communication stopped, and the people were left to survive on their own. Juno is one of the children of Taris. When the book starts, Juno is 11 and the most inquisitive and disobedient girl on Taris. All Juno wants is to be free, grow her hair and wear something other than the linen tunics all people of Taris wear. She wants to be able to express herself, but this causes people to withdraw and turn their backs from her, leaving her alone.

However on Taris, using your energy for anything other than learning and surviving by helping in the community is banned. There are exactly 500 people on Taris, when one dies, a couple is allowed to have a child, usually from outside genetic stock. Taris is ruled over by the Governance Companions, Lenna and her husband Hilto, Majool, Cammoon, and the leader, Fisa. Nothing goes by without their consent, not even what the new children are to be named.

Juno feels trapped, and rightly so. Taris on the surface seems to be a happy, perfectly functioning island, able to support itself, but the history is deep, and dark. Secrets have been kept and pacts made to keep the truth hidden. The more Juno questions her freedom and lifestyle, the closer she becomes to discovering the truth. This makes her a target and a threat. Will Juno find out the truth about Taris, or will she be targeted before she even gets too deep?

Juno of Taris is a brilliant, well written page turner of a book set over 2 years on the island of Taris. I would recommend it to anybody, anywhere in the world, wherever you may be, as it applies to all generations and cultures. Try and get this NZ book if you can, search for it online, it will be well worth the shipping and handling fees. The story is a page turner and tells the story of a tightly knit community who doen't even know the truth about their own existance. Read it. Tell me what you think.

 

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.

The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants #1

The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants
Ann Brashares

This is a book I attempted some months ago. This is the first in a series focusing on a group of 4 girls who end up with a pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly, even though one of the girls is very skinny, and one of the girls is a bit larger. The first book follows the stories of Bridget, Carmen, Lena and Tibby and their summer with the perfectly fitting jeans which they have dubbed 'The Traveling Pants'.

I found the books to be a little strange in the way they were set up. There are 4 main characters and as they do not spend the summer together, this leads to 4 seperate storylines, mostly only coming together at the very beginning and the very end.

As they storylines are developed, the travelling pants come into effect. There a set of rules, put in place by the girls, to do with the pants, and the pants are sent from girl to girl throughout the summer. This causes complications in the storyline and ultimately causes the biggest problem I had with the book.

The story itself is rather stereotypical, dealing with self-esteem and body issues, as well as summer romances and love, and also as the title would suggest, friendship. But the switching storylines can make it hard to follow sometimes, and the writing is rather generic, and it seems very 2 dimensional. The characters, while facing the issues, also seem very generic.

I would only recommend this book to a younger audience from probably 10-14 years of age. Any older and the reader would see the generic-ness of it all.

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.

Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone

Labels:

 (Only Minor Spoilers)

 

I thought, for my first review it was only fitting that I do one of the biggest influences on my generation, the Harry Potter Series.
Starting with Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone and going right through to the Deathly Hallows. Alrighty. Here goes nothing.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, at first glance is not that remarkable.

(Sorry for the slight glare, it was from the camera flash)

A cartoon train and a nerdy looking boy with a scar and glasses on the front. But this simple cover, with an old man in robes with a long white beard on the back hides a much greater story than first imagined. A world of wizards and witches, where magic is in everyday life yet normal people are clueless. This is the world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

 

Set in Britain, the book is the first in a series of 7, which follows what appears like a relatively normal boy, Harry Potter, who wears glasses and has a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Harry has been brought up a muggle but on his 11th birthday, he receives a visit from the man who delivered him to his aunts, a half giant called Hagrid.

 

From here, the read adventure begins. Harry, thrown into a world in the back alleyways of London, a secret train platform and a large castle in Scotland which holds the school. The world of magic and wizards is so well written into a world we already know, and using the real places like Charing Cross and Kings Cross Station.

 

This book is very well written, and the characters are well introduced and well developed throughout the book. The plot has a few interesting twists and the introduction of some very interesting and important items that are re-occurring, such as a library book called Hogwarts: A History and the 'Invisibilty Cloak' that Harry gets given.

 

There are downfalls to the book however, as well as it is written, there are some parts that are not quite as page-turning as the rest of the book. These parts however are few and far between.

 

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

 

Samantha.



Me And My Confessions Blog

My very first blog post. Woohoo!
For anybody who cares about such stuff, here's a bit about me.

I'm Samantha. I live in Auckland, New Zealand (Pacific Ocean, Near Australia). I'm a self confessed bibliophile with too many 'favourite books' to actually count, using all my fingers and toes as well. I'd be counting just bones before I got anywhere near the number I needed. I'm also a depressive, and reading books is one of the few things that brightens up my day.

I love books. Everything from crime novels (Michael Connelly is the best), to fantasy (Christopher Paolini and his 'Inheritance' Cycle) and to round it all off, magic in the current world, (The 'Harry Potter' series by J.K Rowling and the Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer have to be the best two out of that genre).

I am not going to be overly harsh on books if they don't deserve them, but if they do deserve them, then it's no holds barred. I will write spoiler posts sometimes, because they will be long winded, analytical and descriptive. I will also do shorter 'review' and 'overview' type posts for those people who want them. I may also even take requests, if people want a particular book reviewed, I could read it and tell them what I think. This blog is not jut for me, I want the people who read it (you guys) to also contribute and to tell me what you thought about that book, or about the review. Feel free to argue your points with me, I honestly can't wait to share some of my thoughts.

I will be nerdy and tell lame jokes that only people who have read the books will get. I will make some obscure references. If you get them...please...let me know.

I am hoping to intergrate a Youtube channel into my blog in a while and will provide notice if and when that happens.

I'm not in this to get free books, I'm not in this to gain popularity. I'm in this to gain insight into my own thoughts and feelings about books. Come along, join me in my adventures through the literary world!!

Until next time,
Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.