Friday, February 26, 2010

Cathy's Book- Review

Cathy is not only a funky dresser, but also creative, clever, fun, curious and an artist extraordinaire. From the book's exciting cover, which states in gray letters against a black background "Cathy's Book if found call (650) 266-8233 (650) 266-8233 ," to the ensuing pages of artistic doodles and adventures, this is one terrific read. Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman have gone out on a limb with some daring ideas and succeeded in creating an interactive, totally hands-on reading experience that teens will go wild for.

Set up as a kind of diary and sprinkled heavily with wonderful drawings, Cathy writes about her relationship with the mysterious Victor, her very best friend Emma, her frazzled mother and the pitfalls of getting involved in something very dangerous. Her diary covers about a month of her life as she investigates Victor's sudden withdrawal and strange behavior. As she becomes more deeply involved, she realizes that Victor is not who she thinks he is, that he possibly has used her in some kind of terrible experiment (there's a needle mark on her arm and a blank space in her memory) and that even murder is possible in the weird happenings of the Chinese underworld.
Emma is the brains, technology and nerdy part of Cathy's world. She pulls Cathy in and tries to keep her focused as well as attend to her school projects. After all, Cathy will not succeed in anything if she doesn't settle down. Emma is also pretty peeved that their science project failed because Cathy was so distracted. Throughout all of this, however, Emma's family has their own issues, and the wealth that surrounded Em is suddenly gone because her father loses his job. What else can happen in all this chaos? Oh, plenty can --- and does!
Cathy can be poignant as she recalls her recently deceased father, very funny (see her alter egos such as ArtGirl, PhoneGirl and GothGirl) and dreadfully foolish as she hurtles herself from one dangerous situation to another. Her personality bubbles over the pages as we root for her all the way through. Her last entry makes it imperative to follow with a sequel and to explore every possible clue provided.
Readers can call phone numbers, visit web sites and explore a little packet of assorted papers tucked into the book. There are blogs and fascinating links that help answer the many questions related to uncovering the mystery of Victor and the strange cult-like group surrounding him. This is a gamer and a reader's treasure.

Review
This book did not catch my eye as much as some others, but I won't say it wasn't a good book. I liked the character Cathy, and her wittyness. I loved how she had a good comeback for everything, and being able to get inside her mind. She reminded me of me in some ways, and in others I could just get lost in the book. I had a hard time trying to finish this book, It wasn't because of the length or anything I think it took a while for it to let me get into it.
The whole deal with Victor confused me for a while, like how he was 'immortal' I'm still trying to figure out how that part works into the story. I'm also debating on the different books in the series, as to if I want to get the other books or not.
I liked the drawings that went along with the pages, I liked the different personalities of her like 'Arrtgurl' and 'Gothgrrl'.
Again it was just a book you can't write to much about, It's one of those things that unravels slowly in the end. Oh, I also didn't like the ending. I never like endings of books though.
Well, until next book.
Justanotherauthor.<3(:

Sunday, February 21, 2010

We Are The World.

Hello There.
I've been sort of been readers blocked. And in a writing slump. I haven't been reading nearly as much as I usually do, maybe this book just isn't catching my attention? I am currently reading Cathy's Book. It's okay, but just hasn't caught my attention yet.
So you may have noticed the title. We Are The World. If you haven't heard the new We Are The World 25 for Haiti, that was originally written by Michael Jackson for Africa. There are many singers of all genre's that gathered around to sing that song for Haiti.
The point of the song is to tell you how we are all the world, and no matter what we do we can make a change in the fight for Haiti. So, please. If you haven't yet donate some money to the cause for Haiti, every dollar and penny counts. Each penny or dollar you donate will feed another child, and person.
(

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Easy- Review

The school is having a photography contest and fourteen-year-old Jessica needs to find the best snapshot of herself for her submission. The problem is Jessica no longer knows who she is anymore. Her parents have divorced, so her once-strong mother is now falling apart, her sister is constantly worrying over their mother’s emotional state, and her father has become distant since the arrival of his new girlfriend. All these changes have brought down Jessica’s once-stable home and has got her thinking it's time for some major changes of her own.


In this compelling young adult story by first-time novelist Kerry Cohen Hoffmann, readers delve into the mind of a teenage girl who tries to find a way out of her problems at home by using her newfound sexuality. With a unique perspective on a topic faced by so many of today’s teens, this book offers a much-needed look into what can sometimes happen when teens take the wrong turn in their search for answers.




Review.
I thought Easy was a very well written book. It took a lot of thinking to come up with the character, Jessica, a teeanger trying to figure out who she is. Jessica is going through the faze in life where she doesn't know who she is, or what is going on around her. She's having tantrums, moodswings and many other teeange problems. Jessica was a character to admire, not only for her talent in photography, but for the fact she went through struggles, in and out of friendships and still managed to stay strong.
It wasn't easy for her, but once she figured out how to accept life as it is, and not try to see only what she wants to, but what's really going on. I like this book a lot, the author did a good job creating the story that is Easy.
If there was something about the story I could change it would most likely be how fast she went into the fact her mom was depressed, it seemed to me that she went into the family instead of Jessica herself too quickly. Some of my favorite parts of the book would have to be at the end, where she had figured out everything she needed to, and accepted change.
Well, until next book,
Love,
justanotherauthor-x. (;

Monday, February 15, 2010

To Read List.

Hey There. How is everyone? What are you reading? Well I figured since I'm a dork and make to-read lists, I was going to post it. Here we goo.
Blind Faith- Ellen Wittlinger
The Blue Girl- Charles De Lint
The Boy in Striped Pajama's- John Boyne
Breaking Point- Alex Finn
The Girls- Lor Lansens
Lush- Natasha Friend
The Notebook- Nicholas Sparks
Dear John- Nicholas Sparks
Perfect- Narasha Friend
The Secret Between Us- Barbara Delinskey
So B. It-Sarah Weeks
Someone Like You- Sarah Dessen
A Time for Dancing- Davida Wills Hurwin
Twenty Boy Summer- Sarag Ockles
A Walk To Remember- Nicholas Sparks
What I Was- Meg Russoff
By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead- Julie A. Peters
Some Girls Are- Courtney Summers
Same Difference- Siobhan U.
Absolutely Maybe- Lisa Yee
Broken Soup- Jenny Valentine
Something Maybe- Elizabeth S.
A Map Of The Known World- Lisa S.
Willow- Julia Hoban
Waiting For You- Susan C.
The Lost Summer- Kathryn W.
Rage- Julie A. Peters
Girl over board- Justina Headley
You Know Where to Find Me- Siobhan U.
Cruel Summer- Alyson Noel
Stealing Heaven- Elizabeth Scott
Would You?- Marthe J.
Living Dead Girl- Elizabeth S.
Story of a Girl- Sara Zarr
Harmless- Danna Reinhadt
Kiss and Blog- Alyson Noel
Love, Meg- C. Leigh Purtill
Mocking Jay
Hush Hush- Becca Fitzpatrick
Wake- Lisa Mcmann

Sunday, February 14, 2010

In My Mail Box- (7)

My First In My Mail Box! (:

Here are the books!


Waiting For Normal-Leslie Connor
Addie loves her mother, but unfortunately Addie's mom tends to take an all or nothing approach to life. One day she will work hard to clean up their small trailer near the railroad tracks, and then the next day she will lay around in bed all day and let the dirty dishes pile up. Some days she comes home with bags full of groceries and makes wonderful meals for Addie, but then she'll be gone for weeks on a “business trip.” Just when the pantry is beginning to get empty, though, Addie's mom will return again and Addie can't really be mad at her then.






Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist- Rachel Cohn
Nick, a high-school senior from Hoboken, can't stop obsessing about Tris, his cute, blond, conniving ex-girlfriend. Norah, also a senior and an acquaintance of Tris's, is dissed by Tris at a club in New York City, so to show she's cool and has a boyfriend, she goes up a stranger, whispers in his ear, and kisses him. It's Nick. Thus begins a night of fits and starts between Nick and Norah as they share a love of music, hunt for an elusive band scheduled to play somewhere that night, search for Norah's drunk friend Caroline - with the help of Nick's gay band mates, and keep running into Tris and Nora's sort-of boyfriend. Both Nick and Norah have to figure out what they want




The Secret Language of Girls- Frances O' Roark Dowell
Kate and Marylin have been best friends forever. But as they enter sixth grade, their friendship changes. Kate continues to love reading, basketball and bugs, while Marylin dreams of kissing, boys and cheerleading. The friends periodically drift apart and then are pulled back together throughout THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF GIRLS.












PS. Longer Letter Later- Paula Danziger
Tara Starr is outgoing and impulsive and likes to write, while Elizabeth is shy, quiet and enjoys writing poetry. Even so, they are best friends. When Tara*Starr moves to Ohio, the girls continue their friendship by writing letters, which detail the changes in their lives - Tara*Starr must cope with moving, making new friends and dealing with her mother's pregnancy while Elizabeth's family begins to fall apart. Tara*Starr makes another best friend in Ohio. Her name is Hannah. Tara calls her Pal Indrome because her name spelled backwards is the same as when it's spelled forward. It becomes her new nickname and everyone calls her "Pal". Tara also gets a boyfriend named Alex who kisses her.

Elizabeth's father is starting to scare her when he is coming home later than usual, drinking, and going overboard on his credit cards after he loses his job and has no money. Tara*Starr, is making new friends, joining clubs and getting involved in the school activities. When Elizabeth's family has to move to an apartment because of the money problem, her dad decides to leave, or separate from their mother.
It is through their alternating letters that readers learn how Tara*Starr and Elizabeth grow and change - and how they keep their friendship strong, even if it is long-distance. This book shows how hard a friendship can be when you can't see your friend, but also shows that if you truly care about something and if you work hard for that something anything can happen. The girls really care for each other.


Faith, Hope and Ivy June- Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools. The girls will stay at each other’s homes, attend school together, and record their experience in their journals. Catherine and her family have a beautiful home with plenty of space. Since Ivy June’s house is crowded, she lives with her grandparents. Her Pappaw works in the coal mines supporting four generations of kinfolk. Ivy June can’t wait until he leaves that mine forever and retires. As the girls get closer, they discover they’re more alike than different, especially when they face the terror of not knowing what’s happening to those they love most.




Becoming Chole-Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Jordy, homeless, gay, and abused, finds a kindred spirit when he rescues fragile, childlike Chloe from a brutal rape near the abandoned building where they both live. Thus begins their intensely codependent friendship. When Jordy all but commits murder to protect Chloe, it only reinforces in his mind that they have no option but to leave New York City for their safety and sanity. And here, at the halfway mark, the novel takes a left turn: the teens hightail it out of the city in a beat-up pickup truck to discover America and possibly new lives. The arresting and gut-wrenching opening scene promises a gritty urban tale of survival, and despite some choppy, repetitive dialogue, Hyde makes the first half of the book succeed. But the cross-country trek quickly loses momentum with a wistful, near-philosophical shift in tone. And while Hyde's jerky, streamlined style reinforces the teens' pain, it doesn't complement their cross-country search for beauty and trust in the novel's second half. The results feel rushed and uneven, almost as if two separate narratives were merged to create this single slim volume.–


Girlbomb: a halfway homeless memoir- Janice Erlbaum


 Erlbaum, a columnist for Bust, left her Manhattan home at 15 after her mother reunited with Erlbaum's abusive stepfather. Landing first in a shelter and then a group home, Erlbaum—shattered by her mother's choice—embarks on a treacherous course of self-destruction. Casual sex with a series of brutally uncaring boys coupled with daily drug and alcohol abuse become her antidote to the violence and racism in the child-welfare system housing her. Her isolation and loneliness threaten to swallow her whole. Yet when Erlbaum's mother invites her home (the dreaded stepfather gone for good), things don't improve. Erlbaum has more freedom, which allows more opportunity for trouble. At 17 she leaves again (this time to live with an older boyfriend), becomes addicted to the cocaine so plentiful in the 1980s New York club scene and nearly dies from an overdose. Through Erlbaum's adolescence, she often seems a willing victim. In her chaotic senior year of high school, she begins writing stories, attempting to put the life she's been living into perspective. Her memoir (comparable to Koren Zailckas's Smashed) reads like a neorealist novel. Sharp yet poignant, raw and vivid, it illumines the dirty underside of American girlhood and brings it to harrowing life.

My Sister's Keeper- Review

My Sister's Keeper is about Anna Fitzgerald, a 13-year-old girl who enlists the help of an attorney, Campbell Alexander, to sue her parents for the rights to her body. Kate, Anna's older sister, suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Anna was conceived through in vitro fertilization to be a donor who could save Kate's life. Her parents initially use Anna's umbilical cord blood to treat Kate, and continue to use Anna as a donor for other bodily substances as Kate cycles through remission and relapse over the years. Anna eventually petitions for medical emancipation so that she will be able to make her own decision concerning donating a kidney to Kate, who is experiencing renal failure. Sara, her mother, is an ex-lawyer and decides to represent herself and her husband in the lawsuit. She continually attempts to convince Anna to drop the suit, but Anna refuses.








The guardian ad litem assigned to Anna as her representative is Julia Romano, an old girlfriend of Campbell's. Julia and Campbell met at a private high school, where she was a scholarship student from a poor background and he was a rich kid. They fell in love and enjoyed a relationship until Campbell broke up with her at graduation. Julia never knew the reason but felt it was because of her social class. Although they try to conduct court business professionally, their attraction to one another is apparent. Feeling abandoned again, Julia is frustrated with her relationship with Campbell. He also has a service dog whose purpose he keeps a secret. However, when Campbell has a seizure during Anna's testimony, the purpose of the dog is revealed: he is a seizure dog. Julia then learns that Campbell developed epilepsy after getting into a car accident before their graduation, and broke up with her because he did not want to be a burden. Julia supports him, and they reunite. They eventually marry.






During the trial, Campbell and Sara bring in their witnesses and battle over whether Anna is mature enough for medical emancipation. Julia, who is supposed to deliver a report about who she thinks should win the case, is undecided. While on the witness stand, Anna reveals that Kate told her that she did not want Anna to go through with the transplant, which is why she filed the lawsuit. The judge rules in favor of Anna, and gives Campbell medical power of attorney to help her make any medical decisions until she turns 18.






Soon after being medically emancipated from her parents, Anna is involved in a car accident and left brain dead. With Campbell's permission, her kidneys and other organs are donated to Kate and other patients who might need them. As the book closes, a number of years have passed since Anna's death. Kate explains that she thinks she has survived for so long because someone had to die, and Anna took her place. Whenever she begins to forget her sister, she looks at the scar from her kidney transplant and feels that Anna is with her wherever she goes.




My Review.
This book was very touching. I couldn't help but cry, and cry again. The characters are well thought out, I got into the character of Cambell Alexander and Julia Romano. As the author told about their past. I also liked Jesse's character, dying to be noticed as any kid would.
Jodi has done a fantastic job telling a story about a girl and her sister, how no matter what they'll always be there with you.
There were points in this book where I couldn't put it done, exciting points, and sad points. During the beginning I even shed a few tears. You learn a lot about these characters that Jodi had worked hard to create.
With Sara, the mother with more issues than a natural one. You can't help but feel sorry for the whole family, they only know Kate's sickness.
Anna is the person that was born to save her sister's life, which is exactly what she did in the end, but Kate couldn't save hers.
It makes you feel sorry for Kate, the guilt she'll always carry with her. This is a book you'll mix in with reality, and a good one at that.
If you haven't read it, and like heart warming stories, I suggest you read it. Now. (:
Tell next book,
Love,
Just Another Author.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My Sister's Keeper- Goal

I've set a goal for myself while reading My Sister's Keeper. Since it is a naturally long book, and I have so many others to read I'm going to be reading one hundred pages a day. So far I'm on page two hundred, which means I should be done with it by Saturday (Feburary 13th.) I'm going to be doing this with a lot of my books, the ones that are long anyways. Well, time to hit the books. (;

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Why Hello There.

Hello Readers.
I was pretty bored, and I've been looking at a lot of other people's book-blogs. I figured to make one of my own, also this is dedicated to my person blog to. So you're gonna get a mix of things. I figured I would also, possibly, make a page on here for my stories and poems. If any of you care to read them.
I suppose this first entry could be an introduction to myself. (;
My name is Amanda, or Kam either one dosen't matter. I'm pretty crazy and weird, so beware. I'm a gleek, yes I love that show. Reading is obviously my huge hobbie, and writing. Music is a huge part of my life, without it I might as well be lost. Sometimes I can be outgoing, others I can be shy.
Usually I'm pretty easy to get along with, but I don't take any crap. I love my friends and family, school is very important to me. I'd do anything for my friends, as long as it wasn't illegal.
I have a partner in crime, and her name is Elena. I have belated wifey and her name is Kayla. My lamo is Sadie. (:
I guess that's it for now.
Duces.