Posted by Adrienne on July 19, 2010 under Books | 
No Comments
My most recent books for the Book Count were the 5 books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I’ve read the first four before, but I wanted to have the story fresh in my mind as I read the last volume. My thoughts on the series as a whole and my review of the final book in the series are after the jump.
Posted by Adrienne on July 16, 2010 under Books | No Comments
Yay! I’m half way to my goal of 100 books!
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It was an excellent idea. A cure for society’s ills and the makings of an entirely new society. What could possibly go wrong? Just imagine: a place to put all of the criminals and the evildoers where they cannot get at everyone else – yes, a prison, but what a prison! – and govern them with a computer programmed to fill their needs and allow them to build a new society, a utopia! Incarceron would be the perfect civilization, the pinnacle of human achievement!
It’s never that easy, of course. Despite the philosophers and scholars who volunteered to enter the prison at its beginnings, and the ability of the computer to provide everything the inmates needed, Incarceron became a living hell, a mechanical cage that brought out the worst of everyone in it. Finn is no different than the others – he does what he has to survive, including stealing and killing – but he does have glimpses in his mind of Outside and the mysterious tattooed eagle on his wrist. No enters or exits Incarceron…but if that’s true, how can Finn remember the birthday cake?
Posted by Adrienne on July 8, 2010 under Books | No Comments
After a few intense weeks of reading, I’m nearly halfway to my goal!
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Blitz is raging, and Nick’s mother sends him away from the dangers of London to the relative safety of his father’s plantation in the midst of the Burmese jungle. Nick loves the plantation and has greatly missed it, his father and the elephants in the years that he lived with his mother and step-father. But Nick’s stay in Burma is anything but peaceful. The war has followed him to southeast Asia; the Japanese are taking over the continent, and many of the Burmese workers on the plantation are tired of British rule and agree with the Japanese slogan, “Asia for Asians.”
Nick’s father is desperate to get Nick out of the country, but the Japanese take both of them prisoner and send Nick’s father to a labor camp. How will Nick survive his captivity at the hands of the Japanese? Will his father die in the camp? And what about Nick’s Burmese friend Mya? She’s as much a prisoner as he is, and possibly in even more danger…
Posted by Adrienne on July 2, 2010 under Books | No Comments
I started reading John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series 3 years ago, and had to settle with reading the second and third books last year, with no way of getting the fourth book. This was more than a little torturous, as the third book had an absolute cliffhanger. But now I have finally been able to continue the series, to my great delight.
It’s a good thing that Flanagan’s stories are quick reads, because through a combination of circumstances, I really only had a few days to read the next four books. I finished them under the deadline, but because of the quick reading I did, I’ve decided to write one big review for the four books. You can see my review after the jump.
The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Posted by Adrienne on June 18, 2010 under Books | No Comments
Summer is here, and that means more daylight for reading!
Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Most people know the story of Rapunzel: locked in a tower, hair long enough and strong enough to climb on, etc. So it’s always a pleasure to read a book like this, one which takes the well-known story and spices it up.
