Friend's New Blog!

Heyy! So one of my wonderful book-loving, great-advice-giving friends has created a blog, and she needs some more followers! I really think that you all would like her. She will have stuff about books she's reading/ read, reviews on movies and music, and debates! Be sure to check out her blog ASAP! :D. Her website is http://urmomsfaveblog.blogspot.com/. Thanks a bunches!

Happy Reading,

The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

The Miserable Mill (Series of Unfortuante Events, #4)
By Lemony Snicket
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000
194 pages, Hardcover
Date Finished: 26/ 9/ 2010
Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

~First Line of Book: "Sometime during your life -- in fact, very soon -- you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book's first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains."
~Last Line of Book: "The Baudlaire orphans were alive, and it seemed that maybe they had an inordinate amount of luck after all."

Review: The fourth book in the Unfortunate Events series was spectacular. There were some things that were completely ridiculous, like the fact that Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are forced to work in a lumbermill with some very dangerous machines. But anyway, some of the characters were really nice, and others were straight up mean. Lemony Snicket has once again told an unfortunate period of time for the Baudelaire orphans, and even though it will make you feel sorry for the children, it keeps you buying and/or borrowing the series to finish reading all thirteen books. I recommend this book (this series) to anyone that has the time to read it.

Rating:


Quotes from the Book:

"For instance, I once loved a woman, who for various reasons could not marry me. If she hadsimply told me in person, I would have been very sad, of course, but eventually it might have passed. However, she chose instead to write a two-hundred-page book, explaining every single detail of the bad news at great length, and instead my sadness has been of impossible death."

"A fair deal, as everyone knows, is when both people give something of more or less equal value. . . . If someone offered to smuggle me out of the country in her sailboat, inexchang for free tickets to an ice show, that would be a fair deal."

"My chauffer once told me that I would feel better in the morning, but when I woke up the two of us were still on a tiny island surrounded by man-eating crocodiles, and, as I'm sure you can understand, I didn't feel any better about it."

" 'Well,' he said, 'this isn't too bad. My left leg is broken, but at least I'm right-legged. That's pretty fortunate.'
'Gee,' one of the other employees murmured. 'I thought he'd say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My leg! My leg!" ' "

Reading Status (24 Oct, 2010)

So this week I did get to finish something!

Finished This Week:

• Nightlight by Harvard Lampoon. Finished on 19/ 10/ 2010. This was pretty crummy in the beginning, but as you get into the story, it gets so much better! Even if you are a serious Twilight fan, you should take the time to read this book. The comedy is wonderful :)!

Currently Reading:

• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. On page 358. This book is getting better and better! You all will simply love my review of it! :D (You will love the review, b/c wonderful things will be said about the book, l0l.)
• Remember Me by Christopher Pike. On page 167. Haven't been able to read any lately.
• Chosen by P.C. & Kristin Cast. Have read 25%. I will definitely go back to reading this, hopefully, sometime this week.
• Reunion of the Untouchables by Kurt Frenier. On page 90. I will unquestionably have to finish this book this week. I feel like Mr. Frenier has been waiting on a review for his novel wayy longer than he should :/ .
• Boys R Us by Lisi Harrison. On page 11. I will have to get back to finishing this one as well, so that I can give it back to my generous friend that lended it to me :).

Next On My TBR Pile:

• I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

Hopefully I will be abke to get two or books read this week, but I seriously doubt it because I have dance practice everyday this week except tomorrow, Monday. This shall be a tiring week... :/ . Happy Reading,

Zakiya, the walking butterfly

Essay Reivew #1 - The Last Song

This is the first Essay Review I've ever done; just as the title replies, it is a review written in essay form. Yes, I wrote it like I would for school. I needed the practice :).

**SPOILERS INCLUDED**
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Last Song
By Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2009
405 pages, paperback
Date Finished: 4/ 10/ 2010
Genres: Chick Literature, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult

~First Line of Book: "Staring out the bedroom window, Ronnie wondered whether Pastor Harris was already at the church."
~Last Line of Book: " 'I love you, too, Will Blakelee,' she whispered, leaning in to kiss him again."

Review: Do you like to read? Or maybe you do read occasionally, but you're picky on the topic. I know a lot of people like this, yet if you know them well enough, you can find out exactly what they like to read. We all have a favorite book or magazine. My favorite novel is The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. The Last Song is my favorite novel because it has an exceleent plot; wonderful, unique characters; and a great life lesson.

First of all, The Last Song is my favorite book because Nicholas Sparks created an awesome plot. I'm going to assume that all of us have started reading or completely read a book with aplit we didn't like, This happens sometimes, but not with The Last Song. It is about a girl whose dad finds his wife cheating, and he leaves them. The daughter becaomes angry towards the father and doesn't speak to him for three years. This is definitely a plot that several teenagers can relate to. At the same time, The Last Song is a Young Adult romance novel. Ronnie, the main character, meets a young man named Will when she visits her dad in NOrth Carolina; yes, lkike most romance novels, Ronnie and Will fall in love. Again, this is something that some people can completely relate to. How everything fell together in The Last Song was marvelous. Nicholas Sparks' fabulous plot is an unquestionable reason as to why The Last Song is my favorite novel.

Next, Sparks had a magnificent characters, which helped make me love The Last Song even more. I was crying near the end of the book. I won't spoil the climax of the novel for you, but Ronnie's father gets an illness and is hospitalized. Let me just tell you that you will LOVE Steve, Ronnie's dad, by the tagivc realization of his illness. Will's character is any girl's dream, smart, handsome, dedicated, romantic. I really missed his character once he left for college. Marcus's character made me strongly, passionately dislike him, but I guess that's what Nicholas Sparks wanted. Overall, however, you can see that the people Sparks has created to narrate The Last Song are spectacular, which is another contributor to why I love this book and consider it a favorite.

Finally, I have honoured The Last Song as my favorite novel (well, really only one of my exceptionals) because Nicholas sparks included a wonderful life lesson in the midst of the story. To be honest, the majority og people who have read this book might not have even noticed this, and Sparks might not have intended to include a life lesson at all, but he did. What I gained from this book was that if your parents ot friends or any other family members split apart, it is okay to feel angered, but don't reject and ignore them, because when they are gone and cannot come back ot reply to your messages and letters, that is when you will really and truly miss them. We must all cherish our loved ones while they are here with us still. Any moment could be the last moment that we have with the,. "Appreciate and cherish the loved ones you have now, for they are not promised to you tomorrow." I believe this quote to the deepest depth of my soul, and it is my6 opinion that Nicholas Sparks, by writing The Last Song, has given us a perfect example of what the quoataion above means. Sparks' hidden life lesson goes without speaking as ont of my favorite things about my favorite work, The Last Song.

As you can see, Nicholas Sparks has done a completely wonderful, spectacular, and all together outstanding job of writing The Last Song. The book included an excellent plot, several unique characters, and a fabulous, but somewhat hidden, life lesson. In casr you didn't know, The Last Song has recently been made into a movie, in about mid-2010. I myself have not yet gotten a chance to see the movie, but I plan to soon. I have run across a plethora of books that were close to being on my favorites list, but The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks, is probably the best of the best so far. As I said earlier, all of us have a favorite book; or maybe it's a magazine, but there is something we all love reading. For myself, this would be The Last Song, but I wonder: what's yours?

Rating:


Quotes from the Book:

" 'Mom says it's because she has PMS.'
Steve almost choked but composed himself quickly. 'Do you even know what that means?'
Jonah oushed his glasses up. 'I'm not a little kid anymore. It means pissed-at-men syndrome.' "

"He continued to stare at Ashley as he answered. No surprise there. Everyone always notice Ashley. She was like a flashing neon sign for anyone with an ounce of testosterone."

"His dad always wanted the place to look as though the floor had been waxed and the place just opened for business. Unfortunately, air-conditioning hadn't been quite so important to him, and in the summer, the temperature was somewhere between the Mojave and the Sahara."

"In her mind, haveing a Baptist pastor teach him the piano was akin to playing hopscotch with the devil."

Reading Status (17 Oct, 2010)

So this last week, I haven't finished anything. I will just skip that part to save you some time :).

Currently Reading:

• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare. On page 1; starting today. This is sure to be an awesome book! Reading it for groups on GoodReads :).
• Remember Me by Christopher Pike. On page 167, chapter 10 of the first book. Shari has found Peter in the afterlife; they are about to go stalk the people who were at Beth's place when Shari died.
• Chosen by P.C. and Kristin Cast. Have read 25%. Haven't been reading this.
• Reunion of the Untouchables by Kurt Frenier. On page 90. Haven't been reading this.
• Nightlight by Harvard Lampoon. On page 93. Belle and Edwart are hanging out (I guess, a little confused right now).
• Boys R Us by Lisi Harrison. On page 11. Haven't been reading this.

I don't have anything on my TBR pile right now, because I'm trying to finish this lot. Maybe next week I will have some improvement :).

Happy Reading!,

New Contest! :D

Kelly Oram sent an email out to bloggers, and I am making sure to post this!

She is having a contest at her blog and guess what you can win?! A signed copy of her debut novel, Being Jamie Baker!!!!! She will giving away one copy every week in November.

She has a preview of the entire first chapter of Being Jamie Baker and the trailer if you would wish to put use to those. Look at her blog (http://www.kellyoram.com/) to learn the details of this contest.

What are you waiting for?!! Head over there RIGHT NOW to sign up!

HR (Happy Reading),
Zakiya :P

Reading Status (9 Oct, 2010)

I haven't gotten a lot of stuff read, but I'm definitely working on it!! :D

Finished This Week:

• Nothing; working on quite a few, though.

Currently Reading:

• Boys R Us by Lisi Harrison. On page 11. My friend is letting me borrow this one, since she's farther in the series (The Clique) than I am. Looks to be a good read.
• Nightlight by Harvard Lampoon. On page 37. I have heard that this books' humor is more stupid than witty, but there are a few good parts in it. Maybe it will get a little better as I keep reading.
• Reunion of the Untouchables by Kurt Frenier. On page 35. Frenier sent me an email personally, asking me to read and review his book. Now I am; it's really good so far! My friend Leanne has already read and reviewed this book, and she has assured me that it is a very good series debut. Can't wait to write a review of this for y'all :D!
• Chosen by P.C. & Kristin Cast. Have read 25%. This is getting really good! So far it's 4 wings :).
• Remember Me by Christopher Pike. On page 42. Same spot :// .

Next On My TBR Pile:

• Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee (The Clique Prequel) by Lisi Harrison

So as I said before, I didn't really get a lot done, but isn't that why they made the weekend? Even when we're not at work/ school, we still ahve stuff to do. *sigh*

Happy Readin',

VA Series Re-Read Challenge

I found this on my friend Kate's blog (Read After Your Bedtime Book Reviews), and I figured that I should participate. The goal of this challenge is to re-read the Vampire Academy series. All the way from Vampire Academy to Spirit Bound. Then, on December 14th, you can crowd the stores and buy the series finale, Last Sacrifice.

I will be starting this challenge either in late October or on November 1st. I have decided to do more of a series post for the first four books, but I'm not sure that I will stick to this. Be on the lookout!

Happy Reading as always,

One Lovely Blog Award!

Excitement's in the air! Why? Because I've been lucky enough to receive another blog award! The One Lovely Blog Award was given to me by Crazy Cat Lady @ Crazy Cat Lady's Library. Thank you so much, CCL, for giving me this award; it means so much to me!


When recieving this award, you are to:

1.) Add the logo to your blog. (Done!)
2.) Link to the person from whom you received this award and thank them. (Done!)
3.) Pass it forward to 15 more blogs. (Done!)
4.) Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are "One Lovely Blog"! (Done!)

Here are the 15 Blogs that I believe to be absolutely lovely! :

~ For the L♥ve of Reading
~ A World of Personality
~ In the Closet With A Bibliophile
~ Books Are Like People
~ Read After Your Bedtime Book Reviews
~ Tales of the Mockingjay
~ Badass Bookie
~ A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews
~ Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing
~ Dark Wyrm Reads...
~ Electrifying Reviews
~ Em and Emm Expound on Exposition
~ Fresh Off the Shelf
~ Kelsey's Book Corner
~ To Read or Not To Read

Thank you again to Crazy Cat Lady for awarding me with this, and Congratulations to all the new OLBA receivers! :D

Reading Status (4 Oct, 2010)

Another week, more reading records!

Finished This Week:

• The Miserable Mill (Series of Unfortunate Events, #4) by Lemony Snicket. Finished on 26/ 9/ 2010. This book was a great sequel to The Wide Window! Definitely recommended :).
• The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. Finished on 4/ 10/ 2010. One word: WOW!!!! I can't even tell you how much I loved this book because there isn't a word for it :). All I can say is that anyone who hasn't read Sparks' work before or seen the movie version of this book should really read it. Def a recommendation!!

Currently Reading:

• Chosen by P.C. & Kristin Cast. Have read 17%. Yeah, I know. I'm taking really long :). Working on it right now.
• Remember Me by Christopher Pike. On page 42. Still in the same exact spot; LOL. I will have to read that tonight.

Next On My TBR Pile:

• Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices, #1) by Cassandra Clare
• Nevermore by Kelly Creagh
• Tall Cool One (The A-List, #4) by Zoey Dean

Hope you have a great time reading whatever engulfs your time! :D