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.