Friday, December 11, 2009

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, a novel by Eoin Colfer


His memory wiped, Artemis remembers nothing from his previous adventures.
But now he needs his memories back. A certain evil pixie is out for revenge and Captain Holly Short is on the run, charged with murder. To save her, he'll have to prove her innocence and break a kleptomaniac tunnel dwarf out of jail. Even then, there's still the pixie and her henchfairies to deal with. Everyone is depending on Artemis Fowl.

And he's depending on a flatulent dwarf.

I felt a little difficult reading this. The language was went in circle so I had to read it couple of times. Plus, many sophisticated gadgets without images (of course no images because it is a novel, not a comic book, stupid me!) so made me think harder to imagine how they looked like.

Each chapter is longer than in other books. Though this book is 200 pages, I can finish it in just, say it, below 5 hours. But I don’t read it all in once. I have to do other things. Besides, I’ll hurt my eyes and neck. Believe me, you won’t stop because the story flowed fast. It’s so intense. Without realizing, I was on the middle of the book. And the next time I continued, I can finished it.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, a novel by James Patterson


Strap yourself in for the thrill ride you'll want to take again and again!


From Death Valley, California, to the bowels of the New York City subway system, you’re about to take off on a heart-stopping adventure that will blow you away...
Your faithful companions: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways - except that they're 98% human, 2% bird. They grew up in the lab, living like rats in cages, but now they’re free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they're prime prey for Erasers - wicked wolf-like creatures with a taste for flying humans.


First, I thought the book is awesome. Kids with bird’s DNA (they have wings and can fly!) and they have to fight an institute to find their origins. But it’s not that awesome. Very good (Patterson’s writing always good) but not too superb. The adventures are thrilling. I could feel their blindness finding out the truth. Didn’t know where to go, what to do. But the existence of mutant wolfs are not scary enough. The fighting are too soft. On the climax, Ari died in a sudden (ups, SPOILER!).
One character I like the most: Fang. I always like character with his style and personalities (no matter he or she). Cool, talkless, dark skin and eyes, a little mysterious. It’s as if s/he has a bad side or on the gray area.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Straight Talking, a novel by Jane Green


Meet Tasha—single and still searching. A producer for Britain’s most popular morning show working under a nightmare boss, Tash is well-versed in the trials and tribulations of twenty-first century dating. She and her three best friends certainly haven’t lived the fairy tale they thought they would: there’s Andy, who’s hooked on passion, but too much of a tomboy to have moved much beyond the beer-drinking contest stage; Mel, stuck in a steady but loveless relationship; and Emma, endlessly waiting for her other half to propose. Their love lives are only complicated by the sort of men who seem to drift in and out: Andrew—suave, good-looking and head over heels in love . . . with himself; Simon, who is allergic to commitment but has a bad-boy nature that’s impossible to resist; and Adam—perfectly attractive, but too sweet to be sexy.

A little confusing. I don’t know which part is the present, which part is the flashback. Green used the first person point of view and the funny thing is, Tasha – the main female character – talks to readers.


Boring in the first half of the book, but the tension is higher when Tasha acted like a moron. Cheating when you have someone beside you. Fool Tasha. Besides, Adam is the best for her. Who else loves her with what she have?


On the last part, Green taught readers with many morals. I like it. That happens to all of us and we can learn to avoid it after we read this.

Tell It to Naomi, a novel by Daniel Ehrenhaft


Dave Rosen has a secret. “Naomi,” the wise, witty, always-on-target, female writer behind his high school’s hit advice column, is, well, him. A native New Yorker who likes secondhand CD shops, The Simpsons, and meatball heroes.

A kid like him doesn’t have all the answers. He doesn’t even have most of the answers. Dave only got himself dragged into this fiasco to help out his older sister, the real Naomi—and because he let himself be convinced that it might, in some lunatic way, enable him to meet his dream girl, the senior who gets his weak little sophomore heart racing: Celeste Fanucci. If he could get Celeste to write in and open up her soul to “Naomi,” he could use this secret knowledge to transform himself.

He could bridge the unbridgeable chasm between sophomore boys and senior girls. It’s a grand, grand scheme. And it’s about to go haywire.

This is teens story with adult language and thought. I mean, not the vulgar and negative one but in a good way. This book is about teenager with the way of thinking like an adult. The story is serious. I don’t think teenagers like this book. It’s because of – maybe – Dave is different than other boys. He talks and thinks like girls’.

On the other hand, the story is good. Typical teens problem with a little thinking reading. How to look good in front of someone they like, how to start talking to them. Problems like that in boys' heads.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Bras and Broomsticks, a novel by Sarah Mlynowski

What if all your wishes could come true? Blink your eyes, drink a fizzing pink potion, and poof! Life is perfect. That’s Rachel’s situation. Except she’s not the one who suddenly has magical powers. Her younger sister is. And as Rachel would tell you, spellbooks are wasted on the young!

Yes, yes, of course world peace and cures for horrible diseases are important. But so is dancing without looking like she’s being electrocuted, winning back her best friend, stopping her dad’s wedding, and finding a date for Spring Fling.

Rachel’s not bewitched. Yet. . . .

Teenlit books is so easy to read. The main characters usually non-popular girls, have no breast, have a crush on popular and cute boy, have problems with the parents. It is so cliché. But, it makes me laugh. Sometimes when I feel bored, I read one and it can make my mood up again.

This is the first book of Rachel Weinstein. It is written in her perspective. How she socialized with her friends, how she rejected her father’s new engagement, how she face her school and love life.

It is the same with other books, but Mlynowski wrote it with her style. I like it and I can’t wait to read the second one.