Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pretty Little Liars


The ABC Family Channel made a show out of this series, and usually when a TV show or movie is based on a book, I'm interested and read the book.

This book actually wasn't that bad. Someone needs to write a series where the characters aren't spoiled, rich, private school kids. This is kind of like Gossip Girl, but with a murder mystery. There are 5 BFF's, and then one night one of them goes missing. Alison. Apparently she's the one who held the group together, because after she disappears the other four stop talking to each other. 3 or so years pass after her disappearance, and out of no where the four girls start getting texts and emails from someone named A who seems to know all their secrets. Could it be Alison? Maybe she isn't dead. It freaks the girls out and towards the end of the book it sounds like they start talking to each other again. It leaves off with them receiving another spooky text from someone they know is dead.

I didn't like the fact that their parents let the girls drink and look the other way when they do something bad. It was a quick read and good enough that I want to read the next book in the series. I did watch a few mins of the TV show, and thought it was horrible. I can already tell that the book is going to be better than the show.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Alchemist


I'm not really sure what to think of this book. The back cover says that it's going to change my life forever. I'm pretty sure that it didn't do that.

From what I could understand, its about a shepherd who seemed pretty content with his life. He wanted to travel so he became a shepherd, had a crush on a girl in another town and was all excited to see her again, and then one day he stops in a town to rest and goes to see a gypsy to see about a dream he keeps having. She tells him that he has a treasure waiting for him at the Pyramids and he must go to it. Then he meets a king who tells him the same thing and how to get there. Of course the boy can't get anything for free and has to promise the Gypsy that he'll give her some of his treasure and he sells some of his sheep to the king for his advice. As far as the sheep go, the whole time all the author did was say how sheep only cared about food and water. I'm no Dr. Doolittle, but I think that sheep and all animals feel more than just hunger and thirst.

Anyway, so the boy starts his quest for his treasure and ends up getting all his gold stolen so he starts working at shop selling crystals. He does this for about a year and makes enough money to continue his journey. The whole time he's going on about how he wants to be a shepherd again. He was happy with that then the desire to find a treasure changed everything. Stupid boy.

He finally makes enough money to continue his journey and meets and Englishman who is on the same quest, but in search of The Alchemist. So they and a bunch of other people travel through the desert and end up at an Oasis and the boy meets a girl and falls in love. And then he meets the Alchemist. Then the boy and the Alchemist travel for many, many, many days to the Pyramids, along the way the boy learns stuff about life. So he gets to the Pyramids and starts to dig for the gold, and some bad guys show up and one mentions had dream that he had had. Thus brings the boy back to church the boy had stayed in back when he was a shepherd. And there he finds his treasure. It was at the beginning of his adventure the whole time.

The only thing I could think of as to what the moral of the story is that maybe you need to take chances and have adventures in order to find what you are looking for

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Carrie Diaries


I'm well aware that teens smoke, do drugs, have sex, talk about sex, and cuss. And regardless of what they read, they will probably always do these things. I just have a slight problem when a book that is targeted for teens has all these things.

This wasn't a bad book, I just would have liked it better if it was in the adult fiction section and not in the teen section. I don't have a kid, but if I did, I wouldn't want her to read something like this, she might get the wrong idea and think that having sex while in high school and smoking and lying to their parents is an OK thing. Before you think I'm prude, I have nothing against sex, I just think people should wait until they are 18 and out of high school to do it.

This book is about Carrie Bradshaw when she was 18. I kind of felt like there wasn't much of a connection between this Carrie and the one in the show. She was still confused about guys, which I think we always will be, but I never expected her to grow up with 2 younger sisters, a single father, and be on the swim team. Not sure exactly what I pictured, but that wasn't it. She didn't really have it easy in high school. Her friend Lali is super mean to her, and pretty much the popular girls think she's just weird. I did like The Mouse and Walt. Friends come and go in High School. Especially when guys are involved. Most of the time I kept wondering if I would have liked it better had I not seen the show. Then I wouldn't be comparing adult Carrie to teenager Carrie. People change over the years so I should've have expected them to be the same.

It really wasn't a bad book, just next time she writes a book which is all sex talk and language, I'd feel better if it was for adults and not for teens

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel


I found this while browsing at the library and sounded decent enough so I thought I'd check it out.

It's about Lou, who used to be an ugly duckling, but then on prom night when a guy was trying to force himself on her, she turned into a werewolf. She thought that she had killed him, so she and her best friend Cindy run away. After Lou turned back into a human, she was a beautiful swan, so she became a supermodel. 7 years later, one day after a shoot, a policeman comes to see her, saying that there have been many murders of girls who look like her. He suggests that someone might be out to get her. Then she starts having dreams of women getting murdered, so she helps the cop find the killer. Meanwhile, she has also looked into a private eye to help her find her birth parents because she was adopted and wants to know if they have any connection to why she turns into a werewolf.

I was totally loving this book until towards the end vampires show up. I'm so tired of vampires. Lou is a likable character. She's not stuck up and snooty like you'd expect a supermodel to be. The way it ended suggests that there will probably be a sequel.

It's a clean book, I don't remember a lot of bad words in it, and I think there was only one sex scene. Nothing to graphic. If you like supernatural stuff, this would probably be a good read for you.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

While I'm Falling


Not really sure what drew me to this book, I think I just like reading about people who are having breakdowns and their life is just going downhill to make me realize that my life isn't that bad. How sad that I need a novel to remind me of that. It's just a reminder that no matter how bad things look, they can always be worse.

This book is about Veronica who is a pre-med student in college and is having a bit of a breakdown. And things only get worse when her parents get a divorce and her mother ends up homeless with the half dead family dog. Veronica and her mother kind of help each other realize that no matter how crappy things might be, if you work at it, it will turn around for the best. I liked the mom, and felt sorry for her as well, because she's almost 50 and has to crash in her daughter's dorm room because she can't get into a new apartment for awhile. How awful for a parent to have to admit that to their child. What I liked was how she managed to stay upbeat. Or at least act like she was. If I was her, I would have lost my mind. Maybe she did and was just stressed out to the point where you can't feel the stress anymore. Like you are high or something.

Anyway, I liked it. The chapters are bit to long, and even though it's pretty short, it does kind of feel like it goes on forever. But other than that, it was decent.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Awakening


This book is nothing like the TV show. For some weird reason I actually like the show, so I wanted to read the book that it was based on. Other than the characters names being the same and Elena falling in love with a vampire, nothing else was the same. The character's personalities weren't even the same. I don't expect great things from teen books, but this one was just awful. Maybe the series gets better, but I have no intention of finding out. Really the only reason I kept reading it was because I had paid money for it, and I was waiting for Damon to show, which he doesn't until the end of the book.

Skip the books, watch the show.