Day 21, Class A, by Robert Muchamore

I really don’t feel like doing the book report thingies.

I like reading. I like writing.

I don’t really like having to repeat the whole storyline.

So I won’t repeat the whole storyline. I’ll just give my views on this book, kay?

It was an awesome book. Better than the first one, I think. James gets sent on another mission to bust some major drug dealer, and it goes in rounds and comes out fine in the end (:

I love how the plot is weaved together, how it falls in theme with the first book but it isn’t repetitive… There is a fair bit of swearing and uh. Alcohol and drug dealing. But not really that much. It’s about busting a drug-dealer, isn’t it? But I think all that was unnecessary, but I suppose maybe the author was trying to convey a message that children could do things like that too?

I don’t know.

But it was a good story with a good plot.

OKAY. GOOD NIGHT! (:

Day 20, Checkmate, by Malorie Blackman

So. This is the last of the series.

It was great. Really.

It jumped from one perspective to another, but it wasn’t confusing- the events weren’t necessarily in order either, but it was cool.

This story was about Callie Rose Hadley and her life, pretty much. It starts with near the end of the story, when she’s about sixteen. Callie hates her mom at this point. Then it jumps back to when she was young, when she was still on good terms with her mother. Sephy is unable to get herself to tell Callie the truth about her father, and is also unable to move on with her life. She had two men propose to her, but she couldn’t agree to it even though she loved them.

Callie struggles to deal with the truth and lies about her past (being half-cross and half-nought), and starts to hate her mom under the influence of her Uncle Jude. She joins the L.M, and many things happen to her along the way. Ultimately, she is sent on a suicidal mission to bomb her grandfather, Kamal Hadley. Jude uses this to try and hurt Sephy.

But it doesn’t work out.

Okay, I’m tired of writing book summaries. Read the rest of it yourself to find out more.

(:

Day 19, The Liar’s Poker, by Michael Lewis

Anyways.

This is an economics book btw. So I highly doubt many of you will want to read it.

It’s not that bad, really. My friends say it looks super boring, but it’s not. It’s like any of the stories you read, just that it’s non-fiction.

Mostly, I think.

It’s written as a biography by Michael Lewis, and how he joined Saloman Brothers from the 1970s to 80s. It was ridiculously hard to get a job, and they all had to go through training. He pretty much talks about fellow trainees, managers that you have to suck up to, sticking around the trading floor and gaining experience…. All he pretty much says in the middle few chapters is that he learnt that you needed gut instinct. Then they all realized that they didn’t have a job, they were only in training. So there were lists of jobs, and every trainee tried not to land in ‘Equities in Dallas’ (pretty much means you’re going to have a depressing life). ANyways, Lewis got a job in bond trading, and goes on about his job.

For the most part, it’s just talking about the market and how one thing leads to another. And how life is just whatever is thrown at you.

Yeah.

They swear quite a bit in this boook. I think more then 30 swear words, at the very least. It really doesn’t matter, but it’s not for kids. Not that kids would understand anything about trading and mortgages and salesmen and liar’s poker.

Uh huh.

Okay, g2g and cya! (:

Day 18, The Naming, by Alison Croggon

I just picked this up at the bookshop, even though I’d never heard of it before. That’s quite rare, for me.

Anyways.

Maerad, a slave in Gilman’s cot, is suddenly discovered by Cadvan, a Bard (with The Gift). Apparently she has The Gift as well, and her dead mother was from the school of Pellinor, one of the destroyed schools. Cadvan rescues her from her slavery, and takes her to the school of Innail, where she becomes a Minor Bard and is trained. She learns of an old prophecy, where she learns about The Nameless One, a corrupted politician who’s immortal. The prophecy says that The Foretold One will defeat him, and evidence points to her. Her own history corresponds with that of the Foretold One. She goes to the school of Norloch, wanting to be instated as a full Bard and be named, to see if she is the Foretold One.

At the end of the story, she turns out to be the foretold one, and she has a brother as well. LALALA alot more stuff.

THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! READ IT, it’s more complicated than i said.

Day 17, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K Rowling

I’ve obviously read this tons of times.

I’m very sorry for the delay in posts. I’ve been busy over the weekend, so I didn’t have much time to post about the books I’ve been reading. I read The Host on Friday, I’ll continue that post later.

My sister is beginning to read Harry Potter now (under the pressure of my parents), and I don’t even think she got through the first page.

Anyways. Harry Potter is an average boy who lives under the dreadful care of his awful Uncle and Aunt (and cousin), the Dursleys. His parents died when he was barely a year old. Then, on his eleventh birthday, strange things happen as owls try to get mail to him. His uncle, in a frenzied attempt to stop the torrent of letters, takes them out to a deserted rock (i couldn’t classify it as an island) in the middle of the sea. Then someone knocks down their door. A large, giant-like man (Hagrid) wishes Harry happy birthday, and tells him that he belongs at Hogwarts, a school for wizards. Harry goes off with him and buys equipment. When the time comes, he takes the Hogwarts express to school. He makes somes friends, including Ron and Hermoine.Anyways they go through many trials and tribulations, with schoolwork, Quidditch, and Lord Voldemort’s attempt to arise from the dead. The school is protecting a special stone that can give you immortality, and Lord Voldermort’s trying to reach it through Quirrell (one of the professors).

Yeah. That’s not even a quarter of it, but yeah. I need to do the other two for yesterday and today.

I LOVE J.K ROWLING! LOOK AT THE PAGES (:

Day 16, The Host, by Stephanie Meyer

Well, I read this before, and it was worth reading again.

I think it”s so much better than the Twilight series.

It’s late, I’ll continue this post tmr.

Day 15, Knife Edge, by Malorie Blackman

I must admit, this a-book-a-day thing is getting out of hand.

Not really, but I can feel a little bit of time management skills needed nowadays. Not as much as last year, of course, being in a local school is much harder. But now I just don’t waste my time. Read the book, do my homework, write the blog. Then, if I actually have enough time, wind down, email, skype, talk to old friends, whatever. Or squeeze in a little bit of creative writing.

Then there’s drama CCA and trying to avoid the book on my desk with Principles of Economics in bolded letters. Every time I sit down at my desk, it’s as if there’s a pair of beady eyes boring into me (do books have eyes?), going ‘Read me. READ me.’

Creepy.

Anyways, today’s story was just as good as yesterday’s. It’s a sequel to ‘Noughts and Crosses’. And it lived up to expectations.

I think the ending was too abrupt though. The ending of yesterday’s book was sad, but today’s… a little abrupt. But keeps you wanting to read, you know?

Anyways, this book is about Sephy, having giving birth to Callie, trying to cope with the responsibilities of being a mother and the prejudice against her and the noughts. It’s also about Jude, and how he falls in love with a Cross called Cara, against his own better understanding and against his own will. He ends up killing her, and Sephy saves him despite herself. She saves Jude for Meggie, his mother, for Callie’s grandmother. Jude, still intent on revenge on Sephy even though she saved his life, kills two birds with one stone by saying that Andrew Dorn (a traitor to the Liberation Militia) killed Cara, and using Sephy as a alibi. Because she doesn’t want to condemn Jude to his death, Sephy keeps quiet, and it hated by both noughts and crosses now.

The story ends with her almost suffocating Callie, and Meggie trying to revive her.

That’s it.

The storyline’s not too complicated, but this book is just emotionally powerful. It outlines the problems of racism, prejudice, and love and hate.

Okay, I NEED TO WRITE NOW! (:

Day 14, Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman

This is like an interesting version of TKAM.

No offense to Harper Lee.

I mean, this is so much more interesting. And ironical. And cool. And awesome.

I can’t belive I saw this at the bookshop and never picked it up until today. And that was because I was trying to find an interesting book and I’ve finally opened up my mind a bit.

This is a story about racism, but it’s a good story. It doesn’t sound like a story that’s just trying to get a message across, it sounds like a real story written to be a story, but still getting the message across. You could say it make no difference, but it does. This book is about noughts and crosses (whites and blacks). At first I thought the noughts were blacks (they were the people that were looked down on), but actually it’s the other way round. Funny, I immediately assumed noughts were black and crosses were white. I think Blackman intended it to have this effect on readers, so we realize there has been injustice done on black people. Whatever it was, whites were looked down on in this book.

This book centers around Sephy and Callum (Sephy being a cross, daughter of a well respected politician) and Callum a nought. As children, they play together and become best friends, and realize as they grow up that they were finding it harder and harder to be together, because of their differences. Sephy’s school (heathcroft) has, for the first time, accepted four noughts into their school, including Callum. Turns out to be a huge disaster, and the noughts are bullied and shunned, even by teachers. Sephy and Callum are drawn apart, and slowly, as the Liberation Movement (group of noughts trying to make a difference in the world by sabotaging crosses) gets more and more violent and the tension builds up. Sephy and Callum have even more than friendship at stake now. They realized they loved each other.

Sephy’s mom has a fallout with her dad, and then they almost get killed as the Liberation Movement bomb the shopping center that Sephy and her mom were shopping in. Callum saves Sephy’s life by getting her out of the shopping center seconds before the bomb exploded. Callum’s older brother planted the bomb, but his dad took all the blame for it, and is sentenced to hang. An anonymous person hires a lawyer (Callum thinks it’s Sephy, but it’s actually her mother), but the case still fails. He gets a reprieve seconds before he is hanged. He gets sentenced to life imprisonment, but gets killed trying to escape from prison.

Sephy moves on, knowing it was the best thing for herself. She goes away to boarding school, and Callum, in the midst of the confusion and anger and loss from his dad’s death, joins the Liberation Movement.

Several years later, Sephy comes back from boarding school to visit, and is kidnapped by Callum and his cell (He was ordered to trick her). Callum realizes he’s still in love with Sephy, and after professing his love to her, he lets her escape. Callum gets caught as he goes back to find Sephy. She’s pregnant with his baby.

Okay, maybe this part’s not exactly for children, but that’s not the point.

Sephy’s dad arrests Callum and gives him two choices. Death, or the agreement to confessing that he had raped Sephy to save her face and her father’s reputation. This will result in the abortion of the baby. He chooses death. Funny, because his brother had said that Sephy would catch his death.

At the end, he gets hanged and Sephy tells him she loves him. Callum’s last words were “Sephy, I love you too.”

Sad, eh?

It was a good story (:

Pretty long though. Took me about 3-4 hours to read it. But definitely worth it.

Day 13, The Recruit, by Robert Muchamore

Only after reading the whole book did I see the message on the back of the book.

Not suitable for younger readers.

Oops. But then, I’m not so young anymore, am I? I can’t deceive myself, I’m old. Aged. Reminds me of the RME project that we’re kind of going to fail at.

Anyways. I didn’t find much inappropriate stuff in the book. I mean, it’s a book.

Whatever it is, it wasn’t too badly written, but I don’t think I would recommend it to anyone under ten. It’s fairly easy to understand, but yeah. It’s about this boy who gets recruited into Cherub, a secret kids spying mission training agency thingy, and who nearly gets skewered during his training.

After his grueling three months of training, he realizes that his sister Lauren has also been recruited. Then he gets sent on a mission to this place where there are people suspected of trying to bomb a conference where some oil production company people are going to have a major talk. Ends up, they were trying to spread some biological disease anthrax thing, and James, working undercover, is suspected to have gotten it for a tense few days, until they realize it was a weaker strain, made to make people immune to anthrax.

Basically, quite a straightforward story, and I put in the plot twist I liked most (though not the most important). Oh wells.

I’m feeling a little down today.

See you around, whoever you are.

Day 12, Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer

Oh dear.

I’m afraid there aren’t going to be very good comments on this one.

I can’t fathom why I ever ever liked it. I mean, it’s just a fantastical story with a flimsy plot. I guess the characters have depth, and it’s all the lovey-dovey stuff that teenagers (and very dreamy adults) like.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. But Stephanie Meyer’s writing isn’t nice. At least, to me. I don’t really have anything against any authors, so if anyone reads this, please don’t blame me. I’m just critiquing the books as I do in my mind. I know people will be outraged that I would pan such an ‘awesome New York Times bestseller’. Especially Renee, who absolutely adores Twilight and EVERYTHING to do with it.

Grow up, people.

No, Edward will not come after you. No, Jacob is not real. Werewolves and vampires are fictional. Of course, I love everything fictional. But I just find it absolutely RIDICULOUS that people will let Twilight rule their lives.

And it gives you the impression that love ever after happens. Uh-uh, people. Face it, in life, there’s not much happy-ever-after. There’s always a balance between good and bad.

Anyways. The story is about Bella, a human girl who moves from Arizona to Forks. Edward is a vampire that finds her blood very aromatic, and he struggles not to eat her, as he’s what vampires call a ‘vegetarian’ (he doesn’t drink human blood). They fall in love even though Edward doesn’t age and feels like tearing apart some of the time. This story traces their love story, and then another vampire (not a vegetarian) catches scent of Bella and wants to eat her. and blah blah blah. ends up Bella gets rescued by Edward (oh, yay! how unexpected -.-) and then they go home. Ends with high school prom.

It’s actually not so bad, but when you trace out the plot….

It doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?

Oh well. I remain neutral on this. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. I find the entire franchise absolutely ridiculous. Just movies and books would be enough. Harry Potter is kind of like that too, but Harry Potter is- well the plot is so much more complicated and well-written and thought out.

Okay, I shan’t criticize anymore (:

Science test tmr.