Trials of Death

At the end of this book I was dying for the next one, but when I got to the bookstore they were all out of book six! And I've only just bought it yesterday. I can't wait to continue this series.

Summary: In order for himself and Mr. Crepsley not to be shamed (because Darren was blooded so young), Darren must endure the trials of initiation. Vicious tests that full vampires use to test themselves. Darren must complete five ridiculous tests, drawn at random. He must pass the tests, because the penalty for failure is...death. But what is to happen, when his Little Person friend jumps in to save him in the middle of his test? And what about all these rumours of vamaneeze travelling to Vampire Mountain?

Other: Even in death may you be victorious.

Favorite Parts:
1. Darren almost gives up, but then survives the water maze! That one had me a little claustrophobic. I don't do drowning.
2. Darren's training for the second task--crossing a cavern full of sharp stalactites and stalagmites--funny and exciting.
3. Darren's allies cook up a plan to allow him time to recover from the third test before his fourth test... brilliant!!
4. The very end!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I won't tell you what happens.

Vampire Mountain

Book Four takes place several years after the first three books, but seeing as he's a vampire, he's still basically a little kid. While all the books end with "To Be Continued..." and you want more, this one was serious when it said "To Be Continued..." I read books four and five in the same afternoon, they were so good.

Summary: Darren and Mr. Crepsley are headed to Vampire Mountain for Council Meeting. But the trek there is a proving ground for vampires and it's a long hard trek. Not only that, but along the way Darren and Mr. Crepsley see signs of the Vampeneeze.

Other: Mr. Tiny is really creepy and I would really like to know what his deal is. In this book you learn about the Little People, and everyone's favorite, Lefty, from book Two, surprises everyone by.... speaking!!

Favorite Parts:
1. Darren fights a deranged bear!
2. Lefty finally speaks!
3. Darren fights a vampiress.
4. The end that left me begging for more!

Mister Monday

I've been meaning to read this one for a while. I thought I would breeze right though it (it's not a very hard read), but it took me days. I enjoyed it, but I'm not that excited for the next one. Part of the reason it took me so long might have been Christmas, being sick, and trying to spend time with the family, but needless to say, other things just kept being more important (which I think says a lot). I may read the next one, but I'll be getting it out of the library.

Summary: Basically, there is a will, which is a will in the traditional paper sense, but it also has cognitive thought. It is a will for everything that exists or has ever existed. It has been torn into pieces. In this book, the first part of the will is freed and it throws Arther into an adventure where he must realize the first part of the will.

Other: I don't have anything against Garth Nix. I loved the Seventh Tower series.

Favorite Parts:
1. Arthur's first day at a new school and he has an asthma attack and almost dies.
2. Arthur meets the Old One.
3. Arthur makes himself a player instead of a pawn.

Do Princesses Really Kiss Frongs?

I found this book in a pile of children's book when I was hanging out in my friend's room. (You could assume I'm the snooping sort, or I could tell you that they were sitting out, just calling to me.) It looked cute so I opened it and it almost made me wish I had a niece to read it to. Almost.

Summary: A young girl and her father go on a hike and through couplets she asks him various things about Princesses. The gist of it is that whatever she's doing is the answer, because she's his little princess and he loves her.

Other: It's very cute, and told in couplets. I had a lot of fun reading it. The pictures are great. There are lots of little details in the pictures that made me laugh. At the end of the book was a search and find sort of game. It showed a page of objects and you had to go back and find them throughout the book. If I, at age 21, had fun with it, than young girls certainly will as well.

Favorite parts:
1. The dog chases the bee.
2. The dad is overwhelmed by the amount of stuff his daughter wants to take on the hike.
3. The shadow scares the girl.
4. They meet a boy hiking with his mom... cute!

I'd Tell you I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

I've been dying to read this book, but I'm a broke college student so I had to wait until I found it in paperback. Last week, I was successful and I took it home excited to read it. But it was exam week and I had to put it off. On the second to last day of exams I decided to read a chapter of it. Needless to say, I didn't study much for my last exams.

Summary: Cammie Morgan is a sophomore at boarding school. They say that the school is for girl geniuses, but it's really for future spies. This year she finally gets to start learning about covert operations, but on an undercover assignment for class she meets a boy from town and falls for him. But she can never tell him who she really is. To make matters more complicated, the headmistress (Cammie's mother) has made a controversial decision to accept a student into the sophomore class. The girl isn't very nice and even better, she's rooming with Cammie and her friends.

Other: This book has all the nice details that made me fall in love with the Harry Potter series. For example, the girls learn fourteen different languages, and in order to make sure that they sound like naturals they speak a different language and dialect at each meal. A sign outside the dining hall will say "English-American" or "Chinese--Mandarin", etc. It's the little touches that made me fall in love with this book. Also, it is pretty exciting, but it's not superficial. I cried at a few parts.

Favorite moments:
1. The school gets a new young, hot teacher and all the girl go ga-ga.
2. The Red-Alert makes the new students crazy--you'd think that a red alert meant danger, but it meant that the whole school needed to appear like it was a normal school! The details are amazing.
3. During the practical CoveOps final Cammie gets mock-kidnapped (but it's really realistic). Her townie boyfriend sees it and comes after her to save her, not knowing that she's already escaped and working with her whole class to retrieve a disc. He crashes through the warehouse wall with a fork life. Brilliant.

The Clue of the Tapping Heels

The final Nancy Drew mystery in my top three, however, I'm excited to read the rest of them. But I've got lots of different things for you all first, so don't worry. This won't turn in to a shrine to Nancy Drew.

Summary: Nancy's goes to stay with an old woman who breeds cats to help solve the mystery of who keeps tapping in her walls all over her house at night. What else happens? There is a cat thief, a stalker, a grumpy neighbor, a secret room, and Nancy brings down the house with her amazing tap dancing in the play she's acting in.

Other: Nancy borrows Ned's car in order to avoid a stalker, but it doesn't work. I guess it's the thought that counts.

Favorite Parts:
1. Ned punches the stalker.
2. They find the neighbor unconscious in the backyard.
3. They discover the secret room and the diary!! This is why I loved this book so much in the first place.
4. Everyone falls in love with Nancy, because she risks her life to climb into the rafters and retrieve a prize-winning cat. For a smart girl, Nancy's always been a bit thick.

Sector 7

Another picture book, from award-winner David Wiesner. This book was lent to me by the same friend who lent me Flotsam. I like Flotsam a lot more, but this one is great as well. At first I thought it was going to be the cheesiest thing I ever read (well, kind of) in my life, but it was such an enjoyable book.

Summary: A young boy goes on a school trip to the top of a very high building to look through binoculars. But it's really cloudy that day and the boy ends up making friends with a cloud. When the wind comes to take the could away, the boy goes with him to Sector 7, where clouds get their assignments. There the boy helps the clouds transform themselves into all sorts of crazy shapes (like fish). The people in charge at Sector 7 aren't happy about this and send the boy home on a much older cloud. He is very sad when he discovers his friend the cloud back on the roof. This time the cloud escorts the boy to his world.

Other: This book is terribly fun. I wish I had a cloud for a friend.

Favorite parts:
1. The boy turns all the clouds into amazing shapes.
2. The boy tries to hide the cloud under his coat and looks very suspicious when he starts floating.
3. At the very end all the wonderfully shaped clouds come and amaze the city.

The Myster at Lilac Inn

This book is one of my top three Nancy Drew mysteries, the other two being The Clue of the Tapping Heels and The Haunted Bridge. I probably read this book more than any other book I've ever owned in my life. I also blame it for the fact that I love to buy lilac scented products.

Summary: Nancy goes to visit her friend at the Inn she and her fiance just bought. But Nancy soon realizes that all is not okay and bad things keep happening at the Inn, which include her friends family diamonds being stolen, someone impersonating Nancy, and a bomb in Nancy's cabin! Can Nancy solve the mystery and help save the Inn?

Other: I forget how much actually happens in the Nancy Drew books. There's always a lot going on, so I'm never bored. However, Nancy is way too perfect. In the last book she was a great golfer, in this one she's great at scuba diving, in The Clue of the Tapping Heels, she knows Morse code, is a great tap dancer and an actress. When does it end? I hate girls like Nancy in real life. Also, the picture is for the audio edition, but I read it, so I have no idea if the audio edition is good or not.

Favorite Parts:
1. Nancy goes to a department store to report that her charge card has been stolen and they think she is trying to get out of paying her bill.
2. After recovering the diamonds, they bring them to be appraised only to learn that they are glass!

Calalyst

Laurie Halse Anderson is such a good author. I love her books, and she is such nice woman. I met her at a book signing about six years ago (and have a signed copy of Speak which I am still excited about). This book did not disappoint me. I devoured it! Read it in one sitting.

Summary: Kate Malone is a senior. Life is complicated, but everything looks good on the outside: She has kept her family going after her mother died, is a great cross country runner, and battling for the number one spot in her class, as well as having an equally smart and motivated boyfriend. To deal with life, she runs late into the night instead of sleeping, but soon the running won't even be able to help her make sense of everything: she's about to lose control. Ignoring the concept of a safe school, Kate only applied to MIT, and doesn't get in. As if that weren't enough, the girl next door, who beat her up every day in middle school, moves in with her family (her dad being the local preacher and the inviting sort), when her family's house is burned to the point where it is unlivable. Her whole life is about to change, and she's going to have to learn to face her problems and fears and grief.

Other: Laurie Halse Anderson does not shy away from the real world. She deals with the main problems, but everything is not resolved at the end. It is not really a "happy" book and it deals with everything from death to incest. Even though Anderson usually writes about heavier themes, her writing is fun and easy to read. You will cry when you're reading it. I was sobbing. My poor roommate was trying to sleep.

Favorite Parts:
1. Any time Kate describes something using current technology as a metaphor is great. It was a great touch, adding to her character while at the same time making it interesting to read.
2. Mikey's diaper overflows and goes everywhere!
3. Kate teaches Mikey to sing the elements of the periodic table.
4. When Teri tears the house down, it tears my heart apart.

The Haunted Bridge

I love Nancy Drew. I grew up on them. My mom read them when she was a girl and she saved them and gave them to me. I read them all the time when I was young, so I started reading immediately when i found a box of them in the basement. This is one of those series where it doesn't matter what order you read them in, so I started with this one, because it was one of my favorites. It's in my top three Nancy Drew books.

Summary: Nancy and her friends, Bess and George, accompany Carson Drew to a resort where he is working on a case. Nancy says that she'll help him on his case, but at the same time, she picks up a mystery of her own--a haunted bridge. Soon she discovers that the two may be connected. Along the way she plays in a golf tournament, meets a rather annoying man with a knack for changing his penmanship, and gets the boys to come for a visit.

Other: The good thing about this one, is that regardless of the fact that I must have read it a million times as a kid, I couldn't remember the end, so I was pleasantly surprised with the happy ending. However, being older as I read this, Nancy really is pretentious and whiny goody-two-shoes. It kind of annoyed me. However, once I got over that, I was able to enjoy the rest of the book.

Favorite parts:
1. Nancy wins the golf competition, even though she is injured.
2. Nancy finds a mysterious chest with a beautiful compact inside.
3. At the end long lost lovers are reunited (I'm a sap, what can I say?).

Flotsam

A friend had this in her room and I picked it up to look at it. She said it was great, but I had my doubts. I have a hard time loving books for this age group. But I was so impressed with this book. It is one of my favorite all time books I think. The summary will give away the whole book, just so that you are aware.

Summary: A boy is at the beach with this family, collecting things that wash up and examining them under his microscope. He finds normal things like crabs and starfish and shells, but then he finds an underwater camera. Getting the pictures developed he sees the most amazing things from under the ocean. But the last picture is special. It is a picture of a kid holding a picture of a kid holding a picture of a kid... etc. When he uses his telescope he discovers that the pictures go all the way back about fifty or sixty years. Not to break the chain he puts new film in the camera and lobs it out to sea, but not after adding his picture holding the special picture of all the children who have discovered the joys of the ocean.

Other: This is a picture book. There are absolutely no words in it, but it is a better told story than half the books out there for this age group.

Favorite parts:
1. All of the pages that were pictures from under the ocean were amazing.
2. The pages that showed the chain of children who have found the underwater camera were great.

Binky Brothers and the Fearless Four

This is the first time I'm posting about a non-young-adult fiction book. I'm going to be branching out more. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a week, exams were brutal (but went surprisingly well). Expect lots of updates this week in books of all genres (maybe).
Binky Brothers and the Fearless Four is totally vintage, but I don't think I would call it classic. I used to read this when I was younger. I'll probably read it to my nephew, but it doesn't snow where we live, so he probably won't understand it.

Summary: There are two brothers, Pinky and Dinky Binky (I know!). Pinky, the older one wants to build a snow fort and won't let Dinky or the new kid join his secret club. Pinky doesn't like the new kid and the snow fort somehow gets ruined. Pinky is sure that it is the new kid, but Dinky says he was playing with the new kid the whole time.

Other: On second thought, I won't read this to my nephew. This is the most ridiculous book I've ever read. Pinky and Dinky? Are you kidding me? (Pinky because he has red hair and Dinky because it fit better than his real name.) Also, it's not really a mystery, just a boy who is jumping to a lot of conclusions. The pictures were okay, it too a while to get used to them, but I think I kind of liked them.

****SPOILERS****** (not that it matters, because you don't want to read this book)

Favorite Parts:
1. Dinky charges Pinky and his friend ten cents each for him to solve the mystery for them, and it turns out he was part of it to begin with, so he wasn't so much as solving the mystery as just confessing. Way to go Dinky.
2. A case of mistaken identity: Bobby, the new kid, isn't really Bobby the new kid, because.... she's a girl, named Roberta. The other Bobby (Robert) is her twin brother.

Tunnels of Blood

This series only gets better! I think I might read the rest of them straight through over Christmas break (along with everything I pick up at the used book store!). Although I do wonder about the cover. He looks so normal on it.... but he's a half-vampire... and dressed like a pirate through out the whole book.

Summary: Darren, along with his master Mr. Crepsley and his best friend, Evra (the snake-boy) head off to the city so that Mr. Crepsley can secretly kill a "vampaneze"--a vampire who is so bent on killing that he has removed himself from the race of the vampires. But Darren and Evra follow Mr. Crepsley and soon Evra has been kidnapped and Darren has found himself in the middle of another terrifying predicament.

Other: I really want to learn about the Little People at the Cirque. I hope we hear more about them soon! Also, Shan always adds these ridiculous sentences to the ends of his chapters like "I wish I had turned back then" or "I didn't know it was all going to end in death!", etc. I love love love it.

Favorite parts:
1. Darren gets a girl friend! Every part that has Debbie in it is amazing!
2. The final battle between Mr. Crepsely and the Vampaneze.
3. Darren eats a fork.

Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

This is book three in the series, and I must say that it wasn't as good as the first two. It was still funny, but I enjoyed the first two much more. I'm hoping it was just that I was entirely too tired to enjoy it. I'm still excited to buy the fourth.

Summary: Georgia goes on vacation in Scotland with her parents and misses her new boyfriend, Robbie (the Sex God) terribly. But when she gets back he doesn't have a lot of time (his band is in the process of being signed to a real label!) and she can't keep her lips off of Dave the Laugh.

Other: Georgia needs to buy a bra... maybe in the next book?

Favorite parts:
1. Georgia turns around to kiss Robbie and he jumps back because he is afraid of getting knocked out by her nunga-nungas.
2. Dave the Laugh tells Georgia that he is in love with her and she doesn't know what to say until she sees that he has put on a clown nose and is just joking.
3. The sex kitten gets preggers!
4. Georgia becomes top in French class because of the hot student-teacher.

So You Want to Be A Wizard

This is a book from the eighties, but I just discovered it. It was hard for me to read about wizards having grown up with Harry Potter. I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, so it was a struggle to read this book and ignore my other experiences in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. That and that fact that I'm afraid I'm becoming a "quote whore" and not saying anything bad about the books I'm writing about. That being said, this book was good. It was a lot different than a lot of the books I read from our current decade, but that doesn't make it bad. It definitely reminded me of Madeline L'Engle (who was one of my favorite authors when I was younger!).

Summary: Nita finds a career book in the library about becoming a wizard. Reading the oath the book opens this new world up to her. She meets Kit, who has had a similar experience and together they try a spell. "There are no accidents" and the spell doesn't go as planned. They call up a magical being, "Fred", who tells them that the Book of Night with Mood, the one thing that holds the universe together, has disappeared. Together the three must save it and save their world!

Other: This is a classic good vs. evil story. I really enjoyed it, although it seemed a bit didactic at some points (the point is that you have to give bad people the opportunity to change or else they are trapped being a bad person). Since it is something that is part of my life, I feel like I have to say something about Christianity. I think that the involvement with magic in this novel is much more real than in the Harry Potter series, but it also has a good message. As long as parents talk to their kids, I don't see this book being a threat to Christianity.

Favorite Parts:
1. Kit makes friends with a mean car, who is pretty much the Rambo of living cars.
2. Nita does a spell so that nothing will hit her before some girls beat her up. She pretends to be in pain, but as the girls walk away she jumps up and tells them to never hit her again.
3. Nita talks to the old tree in her backyard!
4. Nita and Kit meet a parrot who can tell the future.
5. Fred blows his quanta to save the world.

The A-List

Well, I picked this up randomly over Thanksgiving, because I never bring enough to read. I think it is a subconscious thing so that I always have an excuse to go the book store. My cousin told me this was great and of the books I've read in this genre I definitely felt it was the best told story. I related to it, there were real issues. In short... it was great.

Summary: Anna is a prim and proper, prep school girl from New York City. But tired of her good-girl life, she makes a move to California. It takes her two days to get involved with the movie star scene and all their drama. Can this new Anna handle it?

Other: This is probably one of the best-written books I've read so far with this target audience.

Favorite moments:
1. Anna meets Ben on the plane from New York when he helps her avoid the creepy man sitting next to her. At the wedding later he shows up (as fate would have it) and ends up embarrassing them.
2. When you find out that every character ever has their eyes on Ben.
3. Anna gets food poisoning and throws up on everyone. They deserved it and it felt good.
4. Anna finds her Dad smoking weed.
--I'm going to stop there, because I realized I could go on forever, and I don't want to give away too much of the good stuff!

Best Friends For Never

I love this title. I wish I had come up with it. This series is entertaining. I don't know if I've been jaded by television, but I'm delighted that this book isn't trashy or tacky at all, but it still manages to entertain me.

Summary: Claire still isn't "in" with Massie, but things are getting better. The two start a bet that cuts to the core of their fashion values, throw a boy-girl party, enter a fashion competition (together!) and go after the same boy.

Other: I know my plot summary sucks. A lot happens in this book. It's about relationships, so it's hard to define one action as being the center of the plot.

Favorite Parts:
1. Massie, desperate for new clothes, wears her Halloween costume to school, which causes all sorts of trouble including: All the school girls ripping their clothes, rumors at the boys schools, and a new policy on uniforms!
2. Massie and Claire work together and come up with an awesome uniform that includes.... Keds!
3. All the parts that involve Massie and Claire's fashion bet: Massie can't buy anything new and Claire can't wear anything more than once.

Well, I hope you like the format I've settled on for each of my posts. It will most likely stay that way. This post is just for a little bit of news:

I've labeled my posts by series and author so if you want to find posts about the other books in a series or by the same author, you can now do that. I've also added two other labels. "News" for posts like this and "must read" for my absolute top picks. Hopefully this will help as the posts get more numerous.

Finally, a teaser. Books that I will be posting soon: The A-List, Best Friends for Never (The Clique #2), Catalyst. Books that I'm in the process of reading: So You Want To Be Wizard (Young Wizards), Girls On Film (A-List), If I Have An Evil Step-Mother Where's My Prince, and Mister Monday (Keys to the Kingdom).

Pretty Little Liars

I picked this book up at Wal-mart because the cover looked interesting. It was interesting enough to read the back anyway, and the back was good enough for me to read it. Even from the back I could tell what kind of book it would be: Deliciously trashy and wonderfully scandalous. I wasn't disappointed. I read all day, including during classes. My professors love me, really.

Summary: Five friends share several dark secrets. One friend knows ALL of the secrets, but she mysteriously disappears one night. Three years later she comes back to haunt them.

Other: There are so many plot lines. Some are dark, some are mysterious and some are just scandalous. There are seriously so many "Oh, snap" moments in the book that I couldn't possibly count them. There are plot lines for each of the main character, and plot lines for all of them together. There is a plot in this book, while clues and allusions to plots in the later books. Seriously, this book set up so much without failing to provide an adequate story that provided some closure for this novel.

Favorite Parts:
1. Aria hooks up with a guy at a bar and the next day walks in to her first day in AP English to find that he is her English teacher!

2. Hanna's mom "takes care of" her trouble with law. What a good mom.

3. Emily's boyfriend, Ben, discovers her making out with the new girl!

4. Spencer hooks up with her sister's boyfriend! It's hot!


Buy it!

The Vampire's Assistant

Well, I couldn't put down the first one, and I couldn't put down this one either. It is every bit as interesting as the first. Still just as funny, compelling, and heartbreaking. J'adore le Cirque du Freak. My French never was any good, but these books are!!

Summary: Darren Shan is learning about being a half-vampire, but there is one thing that he won't do: drink human blood. But without it he'll die. Darren tries to ignore this choice as he spends time with the Cirque du Freak (Mr. Tall is happy to have them back!), makes friends with a human boy and the Cirques own snake boy, and tries to stop R.V., an environmental warrior, from causing the Cirque problems.

Other: I'm not one to push religion, but this book does briefly talk about it. However, the book is clearly fiction. Also, its a bit dark and scary at times. I don't believe in banning books, but because of some of the content in this book, I would suggest reading it with young children who want to read it and then talking about it afterwards.

Favorite parts:
1. When Sam saves Darren's life.
2. The collapsible cookware--it was one of those really creative details that reminded me of the brilliance of Harry Potter.
3. When Darren performs in the Cirque Du Freak.

Buy it!

Secrets of My Hollywood Life

When I was little, I totally wanted to be a Hollywood actress. How amazing would it be for everyone to know your name? All the boys loved you and everyone wanted to be your friend. It sounds perfect. Secrets of My Hollywood Life goes into this world and shows the unglamorous side. It's absolutely fascinating. I can't wait for the next one.

Summary: Kaitlyn Burke, sixteen and famous, is ready for a break. She doesn't want her career to end, but she does want to just relax for a bit. Her solution? Make a disguise and go to school with her best friend. But will she be able to pull it off forever? And what about this boy that falling for her fake-self?

Other: I like books because through them I can live lives completely different than my own. However, this book is great, because it takes this glamorous life style but makes comparisons between it and normal life. No matter what kind of life you live, there is always going to be the same kinds of problems, and your going to need your friends.

Favorite Parts:
1. When Kaitlyn and her entourage make her disguise.
2. When Kaitlyn gets nervous and tells the boy she likes that she hates pizza (it sounds lame the way I wrote, but it's hilarious. I swear!)
3. When Kaitlyn, in disguise, goes over the house of the boy she likes and he has a picture of her (not in disguise) on the wall.

Buy it!

Cirque Du Freak

I've been meaning to read this book for a few years now. I wish I had read this book sooner. It was scary and interesting and funny and full of dramatic tension and basically has everything I could ever want in a book. Plus J.K. Rowling (my hero!!) liked it.

Summary: Darren Shan is just a normal boy who is tricked by fate. He goes to a freak show (The Cirque Du Freak) with his best friend Steve, who recognizes one of the performer's as a vampire! Darren ends up stealing the magnificent spider that belongs to the vampire. However, it ends up biting Steve and Darren is faced with a choice: Become a vampire and leave everything he has ever known or let his best friend die.

Other: This book is real. I mean that in the sense that there are compelling choices and it doesn't abide by the rule that everything needs to work out happy in the end. Life's not like that and neither is the book. That's what the author says in the beginning, and that's what you realize at the end.

Favorite Parts:
1. All the chapters where Darren and Steve are at the freak show. The descriptions are amazingly entertaining. It almost makes me wish I was there. Almost.
2. When Darren shows Madame Octa (the spider) to Steve for the first time.
**Spoiler**
3. When Darren is overcome with blood lust and drinks his friends blood after he falls and scrapes his knee. Then he shouts "I am the vampire king" and all his friends take it as a sick joke.
**Spoiler**
4. When Darren fakes his own death and his Dad cries over his body--I was sobbing. My roommate thought I was crazy.

The Clique

Ahhh... The Clique. It's kind of like a younger Gossip Girl, but still pretty unique. It starts out slow. I really didn't like it at first, because the main character, Massie, is SUCH a brat. However, the book got really good, and I went out and bought the second one in the series as soon as I had finished this one.

Summary: Massie Block is the queen B at her school, she has the coolest friends, the richest parents, and the best fashion. Claire Lyons threatens everything that Massie stands for when the Lyons, who are having money trouble, move into her families guest house. She must put Claire, in her old Keds, in her place. But watch out, Claire isn't as much of a pushover as you think!

Other: Like other books in this genre the story is tracked through the passage of time and is told from two different points of view. However, it has several distinguishing characteristics from the other books of this genre. First, there is a main character who is not privileged or under-privileged. She's a real life girl thrown into this world. Second, it's set in the suburbs, which is something I haven't yet found in this genre. Third, because it is for younger girls the content and types of betrayal is much different.

Favorite parts:
1. At the end, Mr. Block and Mr. Lyons, both drunk, sing 100 bottles of beer on the wall at a fund-raising event in front of everyone Massie and Claire know.
2. Claire tricks Massie's friends into thinking she knows about a designer that they don't.

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

I've been reading a lot lately, so I feel bad that my second blog entry (well, really the third, bu the second book) is the sequel to the first book I wrote about. However, this whole series is so amazing, that I can't help it. Read this book. Seriously. I can not wait to buy the rest of this series.

Summary: Well, I suppose the title gives it away that at the end of the last book Georgia and the Sex God started dating. This would be great, but her mom is making her go to New Zealand for the summer to visit her father. She doesn't end up going to New Zealand and Robbie dumps her, so she spends the rest of the book trying to get back together with him. This is combined with her feuding with Robbie's ex "Wet Lindsay", and her relationships with her family and friends.

Other: The whole book is funny, but I'm going to limit my favorite part to one part (see below). This is because I was reading it in class (sorry Ryan, it was too good to put down) and started cracking up. I could barely breath I was laughing so hard. Then I thought about how that happens in the book--Georgia is always laughing when she shouldn't and getting herself into trouble--and that made me laugh even harder.

Favorite parts:
1. When Sven gets the girls into the nightclub.

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging

This is the first book in the series "Confessions of Georgia Nicholson" by Louise Rennison. I have nothing bad to say about it. It is the funniest book I have ever read in my life. And I've read a lot of funny books.

Summary: Georgia is 14 and in love with a Sex God (aka SG, aka Robbie) who she has no chance with. The story follows her wanting to date Robbie, as she learns how to kiss, starts to date, and interacts with her friends and family.

Other: The book is British, but includes a glossary in the back for Americans who don't understand British slang. I didn't look up words, but read the glossary straight, because it was just as much of a laugh as the rest of the book.

Favorite parts:
1. Georgia dresses up as a stuffed olive for a fancy dress party.
2. When Georgia's mom comes in to talk to her about why she is depressed. ("Is there anything you'd like to talk about?" "Yes, suicide." Georgia is so overly dramatic it's brilliant!)
3. The breast fondling incident.

This is the start of Something New

Having a blog that had more to it than silly high school angst is something I've always wanted to do. So here in my very first post, I will explain why I chose to have my blog be about reading and why what exactly I plan to have in my blog. Consider it a little introduction.

I love reading. I always have. Book-it was my favorite as a kid because I got a free pizza for something I was doing anyway. I devour books. Me in a bookstore is one of the most dangerous things for my bank account (which is always dangerously low to begin with). But none of my friends read, really. And those that do read things entirely different from me. This blog will be a way for me to share my love of reading with people that I might not be able to interact with on a personal level. It will allow me to be able to put my opinion out there. I want to be a writer myself, so it will allow me to develop a critical eye for a good story and what works and what doesn't. It's something that I'm excited about, even if no one reads this (which I hope they do).

What will be on my blog? My blog will be full of what I'm reading. I'll provide you the title, author, link to the amazon page in case you want to read it yourself. Then I'll tell you what it's about and tell you what I think about it. Basically a book review. However, since the blog is about reading as well as books, I may have a blog entry to two that discusses theory in reading or writing or anything of the sort or a link to a blog or website that promotes reading or is great to read itself.

So for now, a list of what is to come in the immediate future:
Books: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson, Gossip Girl, The Clique, The A-list, Secrets of my Hollywood Life, Cirque du Freak, Uglies, The Pendragon Series, some C.S. Lewis, and lots of other books! Who's excited? That's right me.

And for now my favorite blog and webcomic (I love Webcomics almost as much as I love novels). The Dilbert Blog is hilarious. Scott Adams always has something ridiculous to talk about and he always does it from the most unexpected angle. I read it every day because it is always good for a laugh, but more than that, it usually makes me think outside the box. The webcomic is called Unshelved. It is about a library. It is hilarious and every sunday they do a book review in the form of a comic. It's one of my favorites, and I love webcomics.