Review: Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth - John Moe

I found this book on Edelweiss. It sounded so interesting to me that I had to just read it!

Dear Luke, We Need to Talk. - Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences by John Moe was too funny. It is a collection of letters, diaries, reports, and "Welp" reviews from all the popular movies in the past 100 years.

Most of easy to catch on that you know what they are. But, some, I had to really think about where they came from. You have to either be older (or well versed in older pop culture) to understand alot of these things.

The ones that I did were absolutely funny! There were things from movies, music, books, TV shows, even the Super Bowl because pop culture is all of these things.

I wish I could have read in Paperback because reading it via the format I did just wasn't working for me. I think with the Paperback, it would have made more sense. (One section I had to skip over because I couldn't find the right formatting.)

I give this a 4.5 coins.
5 = best
1 = worst

This book had mostly good parts, but sometimes you have to really get past the cussing (a lot) and try to actually seeing the section as a whole.

This book is published by Three Rivers Press. It runs about $15 USD/$18 CAD

Review: Candy and the Cankersaur

I was recently contacted by Jason Sandberg, the author of Candy and the Cankersaur.

This is a story about a girl, her dinosaur, and the jealous neighbor. Candy is a girl with a businessman for a father who likes her to play outside while he does business. The Jealous Neighbor is a little boy named Chucky who likes to have whatever Candy has but better. Candy's father decided that she needed a pet to keep her company. He bought her a dinosaur, which Chucky got very jealous of and decided to steal.

I can't reveal the end. But it is a very cute book which I would highly recommend. It has a cute plot, wonderful graphics, and reveals that all humans, even Jealous Neighbors, have feelings. Businessman fathers can actually be there for their daughters. And let's not forget that Dinosaurs might not be extinct! It is a good bedtime story and also is really good for morals.

I give this 5 coins.
5 = best.
1 = worst.

This book is recommonded for kids ages 3-9 (3-6 for a picture book; 6-9 for a read alone book). It is a cute book and can be bought at http://www.jasonsandberg.com/ebooks.htm.

I have been compensated for this post by being provided a free copy. All opinions are mine.

Review: Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Summary:

Naomi <3 Ely.
And she's kinda in love with him.
Ely <3 Naomi.
But he prefers to be in love with boys.

Naomi and Ely have been inseparable since childhood--partially because they've grown up across the hall from each other in the same Manhattan apartment building, and also because they're best friends. Soul mates. Or are they? Just to be safe, they've created a NO KISS LIST--their list o people who are absolutely off-kissing-limits for both of them. The NO KISS LIST protects their friendship and ensures that nothing will rock the foundation of Naomi and Ely: the institution.
Until Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend. and a fateful piece of gum in the wrong place at the wrong time changes everything.
Soon a rift of universal proportions threatens to destroy their friendship, and it remains to be seen whether Naomi and Ely can find their way toward new soul-mate prospects...and back to one another. (from back of paperback)

Review: I have to admit, when I first picked up this book, I thought it was a just another middle grade book about "backstabbing friends", but I found it later on a GLBT book list and changed my mind. I am glad I later went back and got this book. I do not regret it.

The book is told similar to Nick and Norah's Infiinite Playlist where it has alternating chapter views. There was even one chapter where it alternated within that chapter! It was kind of confusing sometimes because I did a little lost as to I am reading the point of view from. I liked how Naomi used pictures instead of words all the time.

This book reads like a diary. It even has a playlist from the night doorman. I think because Naomi has the hots for Ely, she doesn't want anyone else, which I think why Ely kissed her boyfriend, Bruce the Second. Ely didn't want him to passed on as another Naomi trash.

It is a real growing up for these two NYU freshman. They have to grow apart in order to them to grow by themselves. It is wonderfully written and Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written yet another book that teenagers will like. This one has less profanity than Nick and Norah, but defintely more "gayness" (please excuse the politically incorrectness there). But it truly is many loves stories within one love story. Between Ely and Bruce. Between Naomi and Gabriel. Between Robin and Robin. Between Naomi and Ely. But most of all between each character and themselves.

I would recommend this book for fans of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and also for fans who want to read a love story with all the mushyness and sex scence.

I would give this book 5 coins.
5 = best
1 = worst

Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Description: When Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own . . . except that it's different. It's a marvelous adventure until Coraline discovers that there's also another mother and another father in the house. They want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to keep her forever!

Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home

Review: I have to admit that I read Coraline because the movie came out and I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. Since it was a children's book, I didn't think it would like it is. I like reading children's books, and usually they don't scare me like from R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike. This story was diffrent.

It had so much detail. It read like a children's book, with simple words and everything, but I could feel the sense from it. It was a fully developed story. It did scare me, a little bit. I finished it in the middle of the night, so I had to turn off the night to go to bed. Actually, I was reluctant to turn them off because the book felt so real. I feel like Coraline was telling the story about herself, and not a narrater.

Gaiman did a very good job on the telling of this story. I would recommend this to anybody skeptical that children's books are just that, children's books. This book is for all ages, whether you are starting to read, or about to stop. But be careful letting the little ones read the book. It might scare them a little too much and give them nightmares.

*Maybe Spoilers*My favorite scene in this book was...actually I had two. One them was when Caroline went exploring in the "Other Mother's world" and walked into whiteness, and then ended right back at the house. It just seemed so surreal. The other one was at the end when the hand went after the key and Coraline set up the perfect trap.*Maybe Spoilers Over*

I would give it 4 coins.

5=best

1=worst

Unbelievable by Sara Shepard

Description: Our pretty little liar's charmed lives have turned into living nightmares. Emily's been shipped off to Iowa to live with uberconservative cousins. Aria's boyfriend is behind bars--because of her. Spencer's afraid she was involved in Ali's murder. But Hanna's fate is far worse: She's clinging to life in the hospital because she knew too much. If these girls don't start listening to me, Hanna's going to look like the lucky one.

~A

Review: This is the fourth in the Pretty Little Liars series. I read the first three during the beginning of last year. It really got me hooked and wondering who A is. It is so well written.

Sara Shepard did such a good job of keeping the suspense going about what is gonna happen to the girls next. It has alternating chapters, which each one focusing on one of the girls. Even when Hanna was in the coma, it had her chapters. I really liked it because that way you can feel for all the girls. The only problem I had with the alternating chapters were that if something exciting happened to one, I would want to know what happened to them right away and not have to wait for it come up again, which sometimes it didn't happen for a few chapters.

The book is really well written, as I have said, and the suspense that Shepard creates is marvelous. The stuff that happens to the girls is so marvelous that it would take such a strong imagination to create them.

I would give it 4 1/2 coins.

5=best

1=worst

So Yesturday by Scott Westerfeld

Description: Ever wonder who was the first kid to keep a wallet on a big chunky chain, or wear way-too-big pants on purpose? What about the mythical first guy who wore his baseball cap backwards? These are the innovators, the people at the peak of the coll pyramid.

Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque is a Trendsetter, on the second level of the pyramid. Hi job: find the newest, coolest thing for the retail market. His MO: observe, don't get involved.

But he has to get involved when he and his crush, Jen, discover his boss's cell phone in an abandoned building--and his boss missing. Hunter and Jen are soon snared in a web of brand-name intrigue: a missing cargo of the coolest shoes they've ever seen, ads for products that don't exist, and a shadowy group dedicated to the downfall of consumerism as we know it.

Review: I got this book from Barnes & Nobles after I got a gift card from my boyfriend's grandmother. I didn't realize that it was older, but that didn't seem to affect it. Some of the technology was kind of out of date, but otherwise it was pretty modern.

I liked how Hunter didn't use name brands. That would have taken away the intergrity of the book. It kept me reading. I didn't want to stop reading, but I had to in order to do homework. The end was not what I expected, but I guess that was in it all along, just very underlined.

My favorite scene was the commercial of Poo-Sham, the fake shampoo. It was just funny!

I would totally recommend it anyone, especially people who always wonder where trends come from and what happens when something is way "too cool"

I would give it 4 coins.
5=best
1=worst

Review: A Bride Most Begrudging

Description: When Lady Constance Morrow finds herself held against her will aboard a
ship bound for the American colonies—a ship filled with "tobacco
brides" and felons—she is quite sure that as soon as she arrives she
will find a reasonable man who will believe her father is an earl and
send her back on the next ship to England. Instead she meets Drew
O’Connor, a determined Colonial farmer who is nearly as headstrong as
she is. Drew wins Constance as his bride but soon realizes he has taken
on much more than he bargained for. (stolen from Amazon.com)

Review: I got this book from my dad's book stash. I was reluctant about it because it was a Christian romance, but was I wrong. I thought it was a nice romantic story without all the sex interfering. It did have God and the Christian element in it, but it was preaching the message. It was showing more than telling. It also was pretty accurate, and I thoroughly enjoyed.

I would give it 4 coins.
5=best
1=worst

Originally Posted on: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 1:32 p.m.

Review: Violet on the Runway

Description: A wallflower in the spotlight can do one of two things: wilt, or blossom...

Violet Greenfield's life changes forever when a lady in giant Chanel shades tells her she could be IT, the next Kate Moss-but taller, and without the PR problems. That's how Violet winds up with a business card in the front pocket of her jeans on her first day as a senior in high school. Angela Blythe from Tryst Models in New York City wants to put Violet on a plane and whisk her into the world of high-heeled boots and oversized sunglasses. Tall, skinny Violet, who's been P-L-A-I-N practically forever.

And guess what? She's going...(stolen from Amazon.com)

Review: I had heard a lot of hype about this book and had wanted to read it for the longest time. Sometimes when a lot of hype is surrounded around a book that I don't like it. But I was very surprised. I actually enjoyed this book. I didn't want to put it down but I had to in order to finish my homework.

It started off good but after a while it kind of rushed. It didn't slow down a little after that but then rushed a little bit more. The end slowed down a lot and kept it open for a sequel, which I want to get soon. I really like it a lot. It made me really feel like I was Violet and living in her life. I actually felt at one point that I was her.

I would give it 4 Coins.
5=best
1=worst

originally posted on: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 10:50 p.m.