Paper Towns

Hey there!

Obviously I am on a John Green kick because my book review this week is for Paper Towns.

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer Q gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew. 

These characters are pretty much the same. In fact the stories are all very similar just in different settings. Although this book makes a great palette cleanser. It's less of an emotional roller coaster than his other books, which is nice for a change. This book addresses high school cliques but not in a normal way.  It's like a high school coming together. The beginning of the book was great, mysterious and suspenseful. The second part just kept repeating itself and somewhat anti-climatic. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Happy reading!
Mackenzie 

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Hey everyone!

Next up is The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Russell Brand, yes Russell Brand wrote a children's book...I think.

Well I don't think I would ever read this to a child. The whole time I was thinking, "What the heck am I reading?" I'm sure most of you know the story of the Pied Piper and this I guess is the same thing...just really weird. As an adult it was an amusing read. As I was reading I found it jumped around so much I thought I was missing pages because it didn't follow through and it was very unfocused. The seemingly main character, Sam, really shows up about five times and he really isn't necessary for the story. I don't even know why he was there. Brand really forced the morals but never explained them. After mentioning something of importance once he just left it. This is definitely something that would come out of Russel Brand's mouth. Maybe he should stick to writing about himself. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

P.S. This book was read in order to fulfill the "A book you can finish in a day" category in my 2015 book challenge.

Lorien Legacies

Hello, hello, hello

The last book I read was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. I read the next three books in the series, The Power of Six, The Rise of Nine and, The Fall of Five. Instead of making three separate postings I'm going to clump them all together in one post and give you just a little bit of insight on each. If you have not read my review on I Am Number Four here is the link:



The Power of Six

In this book Lore starts switching between characters. That's great but he doesn't tell the reader they've switched characters. Hmm....I didn't know who was talking. There were a few continuity errors. These books seem really to be based on luck and I know I will repeat this in my other quick reviews. There wasn't too much action in this one. It was an overall okay read. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

The Rise of Nine

There was more character switching in this book but it was a lot more organized. It was almost every chapter that they switched. They explained the seven world wonders from a Lorien point of view which was super cool. Anything Earthly from a Lorien point of view is cool. There were LOTS of love triangles. There was quite a bit of action in this one. Again, the issue of continuity. I also gave this one 3 out of 5 stars.

The Fall of Five

THIS ONE! I would read this whole series just to read this one book. It was that good. This was the most twisted book so far. I could have done without the love stories that were in it. It seemed the love triangles were fixed. Like all the others it was all based on coincidence. It was kind of predictable but oh so good! There was much more action in this one to balance out the amount of waiting time they do. I gave this story 4 out of 5 stars.

A Prince for Jenny

Hello, hello, hello!

So naturally after I read Touched by Angels by Peggy Webb I read the sequel, A Prince for Jenny. If you missed my review of Touched by Angel, please click the link below:



Renowned artist, Jenny Love-Townsend, born special and forced to struggle for every achievement, can never take for granted that she will have what other women do - love, marriage, children.  But when big-hearted Daniel brings his children to sit for a portrait, she dreams that she might finally have a prince of her own. A single dad, Daniel has everything a man could desire - two healthy children, friends, power, wealth - everything except the love of a good woman. Jenny awakens in him a desire to protect and honor...and a forbidden passion so strong it cannot be denied. But in loving a special woman will he destroy her? Can their love survive the headlines, an ex-wife who would use Jenny to regain custody of Daniel's children, and the gossip of people who see Jenny's flaws without seeing her heart?

Since, I'm already done with the letter " I will move straight on to my review.

Much like the first book this is a very sweet book. Maybe a little too sweet.  This book is so similar to the first book it's like rereading it with different character names. No real difference in personalities...nothing! Another rushed ending as well....sigh. My HUGE problem with this book is that Jenny has a disability, specifically Down's Syndrome. The girl described in the book does not have Down's Syndrome. Webb obviously has not done her research, the only thing Jenny has is a limp and loves with her whole heart. There was so much the author could do with Jenny to make her a more believable character, but then I suppose it would "make it difficult" for this crazy handsome, rich man to fall in love with her. I believe Webb was also cushioning us from Down's Syndrome and what it really is. Honestly, if you read the first book, don't bother reading this one. Although it was a quick read, the differences were minimal from the first book. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars because it was somewhat cute.

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter P

Hello there!

As promised here is your letter "P" post.

Here are all the "P" books and the links to their reviews:

Perks of Being a Wallflower
Palestine
Persepolis (The Complete)
Princess Ever After

Follow this next link for a list of random and unusual "P" words.

Unusual "P" Words

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for:

Happy reading!
Mackenzie

Princess Ever After

Hey there!

This post is brought to you by the letter "P" because I actually finished the letter "P". Now for something kind of different. I read Princess Ever After by Rachel Hauck which is the sequel to Once Upon a Prince. 

Regina Beswick never dreamed of faraway places. She’s happy with her life as a classic car mechanic and owner of a restoration shop. But an unexpected visitor and the discovery of a fairytale, drawn by her great-grandma, causes Regina to wonder if she might be destined for something more. Tanner Burkhardt, Minister of Culture for the Grand Duchy of Hessenberg, must convince the strong-willed Southerner, Miss Beswick, that she is his country’s long-lost princess. Failure could destroy his reputation and change his nation forever. As Regina and Tanner face the challenges before them, neither are prepared for love to invade their hearts and change every thing they believe about themselves. However, when a royal opponent nearly destroys Regina’s future, she must lean into God and trust He has sovereignly brought her to her true and final destiny

Xenocide

E

N

O

Princess Ever After

S 

Expect a video of the letter "P" sometime this week!

If you missed the review for Once Upon a Prince check out the link below:

Once Upon a Prince Review

I had originally thought that this book would be completely separate from Once Upon a Prince and there would be no connection between the two...I was wrong. They had a connection but it wasn't a total continuation from the first book, but it isn't necessary to read the first book to understand this one. This book reminded me of a mix of Princess Diaries and Sound of Music. Like the first book, it was very, very predictable. At points the book was very religious, which to some people could be a turn off. The characters were cute and just as likeable as the characters from the first book. The ending felt very rushed. Like the first book the story was somewhat far-fetched but that's what these fairy tale romances are. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars because it was a cute book.

Keep reading!
Mackenzie

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Hey guys!
Sorry, I haven't posted I was on vacation this weekend, which means that I forgot to mention that I started and finished reading Perks of Being a Wallflower. So I have used up all the p's and f's in my alphabet. Finishing Perks of Being a Wallflower gives me:

Perks of Being a Wallflower
E
A
C
O
C
K

So this book was incredibly good. Definitely as good as everyone tells me it is. It is a very singular and intimate book. What I mean by that is, that it is written in letter form to a person who doesn't know who the main character is, so as opposed to a diary, the main character, Charlie, isn't worried about being found out or having his diary found, so he can be very open with this person. It singles the reader out as if they're the person receiving the letters. This book does show you what high school is about and how fitting in isn't always easy, although most of us know that by now. It gives insight to the unwritten initiation into high school. Overall, this book should be on a must read list for most people. It may sound like the "typical" book for a teen, but it's so much more than that.

Another note: I'm not sure if I've mentioned that I've paused reading The Two Towers. I'm just losing steam with it. I'll definitely come back to it before this challenge is over. But I am reading The Happiness Project, and I think I may start my own happiness project, but I'll keep you posted on that.

Ta-ta for now!
Mackenzie

Palestine

So I have finished Palestine by Joe Sacco. That gives me

O
C
T
O
Palestine
U
S

That means I have started four animals started, hopefully I can finish one soon. So since I just read The Complete Persepolis which is also a graphic novel, I'll compare them a bit. At first I like The Complete Persepolis  better but as I got further into the book I decided that I like Palestine better. I think maybe because I got more point of views in Palestine but it's hard to say. In Palestine, the drawings were definitely better and more detailed, but in both books the drawings carried so much meaning, which is very important. A lot of the people in the book Palestine, are lucky to be alive. I was so shocked at how many bullet wounds those people could survive and in places like back, neck, and stomach. Also, I started comparing Palestinians to Americans. The biggest thing I noticed was age. At age 10 in Palestine, children have experienced so much and are so devoted to their country. They have such strong opinions and seem so much more mature than American children. Overall, this book was good. It's a very good book to help people understand what's happening around the world. It opened my eyes. The only big problem I had with this book, and it was mentioned at the end, was that after spending so much time in Palestine the author became biased almost against Israelis. He only got one side of the story, but that's typical in life.

On a side note: There's this great website about book blogs and it organizes book blogs quite nicely, I suggest if you're looking for another book blog to read check out this website.
http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/

But keep reading!
Mackenzie

The Complete Persepolis Part II

Sorry I've been MIA the last few days, I just moved to a new house and we don't have internet set up yet, so I have limited posting time. But I finished The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. So that leaves:

E
L
E
Persepolis (The Complete)
H
A
N
T

Yay! Three animals started!

4 of 5 stars

But as for my review of the book. It was an excellent book. I had to read it for my lit class. It was a quick read (mainly because it was graphic novel), and it gave a lot of insight to Iranian history which I really liked, even though I'm not a history fan. Her story was a typical leave home, get into some trouble story. I admired her ability to speak her mind no matter who she was taking to(especially since I'm the quiet type) Overall, it was a good story, if it wasn't for my class I wouldn't have read it but I'm glad I did. I'll hopefully watch the movie soon and compare the two.
As for The Fellowship of the Ring I have about a hundred pages left. I how to finish it sometime this week.
Anyway, happy reading!
Mackenzie