Hiya guys!!!

So last year at school we read Black Ships Before Troy. I found my notes (chapter summaries) and so I'm uploading them. However, in order to not clog up your feeds and also to not clog up my front page, I'm publishing them in "March 2012". There will be a page link in the sidebar where you can find all the summaries I've ever done and, eventually, an index of all my reviews... ............... eventually, haha.

Just wanted to drop in and let you know. Here is a comprehensive list of all of the links for Black Ships Before Troy, actually. Have a wonderful day!

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20

Opera A to Z by Liddy Lindsay

Opera A to Z: A Beginner's Guide to Opera by Liddy Lindsay
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The following review was first posted on NetGalley. Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book! :3

I had a hard time enjoying this book, although I suppose that I'm in the target age range. Was it because of how difficult it was to relate to the subject matter? Perhaps, although I consider myself as being more open-minded among my peers...

I expected the paintings to be a big plus. While obviously the whole picture book thing was discounted because I read it on a Kindle (third generation, so it's still black-and-white), I looked up the author's website shortly afterward, and the paintings were not spectacular as some other reviewers on Goodreads have said-- in fact, they looked somewhat pitiful and amateur.

I mean no disrespect to the author by saying this; in fact, the writing was very informative. However, I was quickly bored, without any deviation from the almost monotonous structure to keep me interested.

I do give this book two stars, though, for the content, although I would not read this again.

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The Danger Box by Blue Balliett :)

The Danger Box by Blue Balliett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Danger Box. Ahhh <3
Just kidding.

i picked up this book when I saw it at the library for a number of reasons:

1) Ooh that's an...... interesting cover. Rather reminds me of this one, another personal favorite:
2) Ooh Blue Balliett!!!! I read her book Chasing Vermeer and thoroughly enjoyed it in fourth grade and I assumed that that meant that her other books were all equally entertaining. Alas!
3) Ahh the blurb is so.... intriguing!
4) Omg dat TITLE~! It just sounds amazing and interesting and VERY mysterious.

So there were a lot of things that I felt had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped it would.

Firstly, the main character, Zoomy, is the son of an alcoholic and a migrant worker. His father is the alcoholic, Buckeye, and he did not claim Zoomy, leaving him under the care of his parents (Zoomy's grandparents). "Zoomy" turns out to be the name of Buckeye's childhood 'invisible friend.' I felt like that concept could be developed a little more, like maybe some special link with Buckeye's childhood friend that becomes a special link between estranged father and son.

Secondly, Zoomy has pathological myopia (he's legally blind), so he wears incredibly thick glasses. This does affect the way he sees, as mentioned in the blurb; but, it doesn't play as big of a role as I had hoped it would, nor is the 'affected way he sees' the way I had anticipated, either. Surely he is almost blind, but most of the time anything related to his eyesight comes up it's usually when he's saying "I can't see! What's going on?" or some other version of that.

Also, I never really understood what the Danger Box really was. In the preface in the beginning of the book, something about "Everyone has their own Danger Box" was mentioned, which really heightened my hopes, but in the end, it seems that the Danger Box is just a box full of treasures and memories?

Additionally, the plot was disorganized, for the most part. I would have liked to know more about Lorrel, the "mysterious girl who doesn't fit in", and her family, as well as her life before in the city.

Really, my major disappointment was that it was never really clear what (view spoiler)[ the "players" hired by "Mr. Zip" were hired to do. (hide spoiler)] It had all sounded so thrilling, so exciting, so mysterious, in the beginning of the book, but then it really fell flat for me.

However, I would probably consider reading "The Wright 3" and "The Calder Game" just because I thoroughly enjoyed "Chasing Vermeer" and those books are (i think?) sequels to it.



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Quickie Review: The Wide-Awake Princess

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So.......... I found out that this has a sequel! Squee~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway. I rather liked this book, even though I found the part about the knight a little more than unbelievable. It's been almost three months since I read this, though, so please forgive my bad memory! Anyway, I always love fairytale retellings, different perspectives, etc. But once in a while I think that it would be fun to have a girly fairy tale heroine... I think that we tend to reward more 'tomboyish' girls nowadays and I'm just like.... what's wrong with girly girls, you know? Like, they don't have to be super 'delicate' and 'fragile', because that's annoying, and I get that. But honestly I wouldn't have thought that Princess Annie would have been the exact opposite of Gwendolyn.

Also. Another thing that bugged me was the thing about Annie that makes her so "special": (view spoiler)[ her gift that makes magic disappear in her presence (hide spoiler)]. It's an..... interesting twist, I suppose, although how that would work I have no clue, because (view spoiler)[ it's not like she has a gift for "un-magic", she just has NO magic (hide spoiler)]. I would have expected Annie to make a bigger deal out of it, or at least be more concerned that she wasn't as "good" or whatever as Gwen. Instead, Annie is all like, "Lalala I really couldn't care less."

So, that's all I really have to say about this book. A little bit of a disappointment if you ask me, but I would definitely read the sequel, and........ does this series have a third book?


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Quickie Review: The Menagerie

The Menagerie by Tui T. Sutherland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I found this book to be very entertaining. The premise is simple, and at times cliched-- but it was enjoyable, in the least. Although I prefer deep, thoughtful, well-written books, I still like a good light read now and again, so this book was perfect for it!

I don't read much fantasy, mostly because not much of it interests me (vampires? zombie? ghosts? goblins? ugh.). But I decided to give it a shot because it sounded okay.

I didn't like the main character, Logan, mostly because it was like, (view spoiler)["Oh, you have a superpower. Great, you're suddenly better than someone who's been training all his life!!!" (hide spoiler)], even if Logan really couldn't help it and it wasn't his fault at all....

I am SO DONE with totally precocious main characters. Hello? They should have flaws too! UGH.

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Escape from the Forbidden Planet by Julie Anne Grasso

Escape From The Forbidden Planet by Julie Anne Grasso
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The title is a bit misleading. Most of the book is not about the forbidden planet, much less the escape from it. In fact the first mention of a so-called forbidden planet was page 104, which was the start of chapter 21!!!!!!!

The book was kind of quirky in an endearing way, using words like "higgledy-piggledy" and "bearnaise". But, and this might just be because of cultural differences, but there was this sentence:

"'Caramel, you have had a long day and tomorrow we will go to our cardamom harvest so you need to be fresh.'"

Uh.............. what?

And there was a part where(view spoiler)[ Caramel revealed to her parents that she was super gifted, and they were just like, "Well done honey, BUT WE WERE JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO REALIZE IT. Hahahahaha." (hide spoiler)] Uhhh. That was SO not convincing.

And then there was the (view spoiler)[kidnap scene (hide spoiler)]. I got the feeling that that was supposed to be incredibly suspenseful or something, but all it was was really really fast paced and I couldn't understand a word of it. That totally took away from the whole "suspenseful" thing going on.

Also there was a bit where Micah, one of Caramel's friends, kept saying, "Haha, I know you know that it means _____ but you sounds so SINCERE!!!"

Uh. That was sooo annoying, because the whole time Caramel didn't know what it meant and she wasn't trying to be funny....

And the book was sooo full of coincidences, like the thing about (view spoiler)[ Richard Reynolds being employed by the Alexanders (hide spoiler)].

At one point Kirra (another one of Caramel's friends) said "Hoh K". (sic)

Ummmmmmm what?!?!?!

Read the following sentence:
"This is why Isabel had to remove her brother and live in exile on her own planet."

You would think that Isabel was living in exile, right?! But according to the book, it's referring to her brother!! Uh...... someone call the grammar nazi.

And the character Sass didn't do anything for me. She was just there, but not in a particularly good or bad way...

So the bottom line is, this book was enjoyable but there were a lot of frustrating or confusing bits. It's a fast and light read, though, so I would probably recommend it.


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Quickie Review: Dead Girls Don't Lie

Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

This book was an honest-to-goodness, nail-biting thriller. It was very frightening in the descriptions of the gang activities. I felt that this book was very well-written. Although I myself am not an avid fan of thriller-mystery-suspense type books, I have wholeheartedly recommended this book to my friend, who loves that genre. I would recommend this book to fans of the Pretty Little Liars series. The friendship between Jaycee and Rachel was done well and realistically portrayed. All in all, I liked this book, although I would not read it again.

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Girl Out Loud, by Emily Gale

Girl Out Loud by Emily Gale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually quite liked this book. I give out 2-star and 3-star ratings literally all the time, but this one made it to 4 :)

Where do I start with this? There were parts of the book I didn't like. But I think I'm a bit of a "hopeless romantic" (I'm not sure if I'm using this correctly), so I dislike reading books about people receiving very harsh treatment or anything like that. Let me elaborate: when a character gets treated unfairly by another, i.e. bullying, child abuse, harassment, etc., it makes me VERY uncomfortable, even if the case is very minor. But I digress.

The reason I mention that is because our main character Kassidy's dad has a sort of disorder. It's not very detailed in the story, and at parts it was so vague that it got to the point where I was wondering if the author even bothered to do any background research at all. But I understand that living with a parent with that disorder would make it hard for Kassidy to talk about it, and I don't blame her, so............that makes it all right.

I don't understand why Char, Izzy, and Kass, not to mention Luke and Cass(ian), all have family problems. Really? Is it that serious in their area? And Kass's family, apparently, has problems with both parents. But I see how living with Kass's dad could have caused her mom to do the things she did. (Trying not to spoil too much here (: )

One thing I really loved about the book was (view spoiler)[ the conflict between Char and Kass about Dream Boy, a.k.a. Cass. (hide spoiler)]

I also loved how, in the end, because of what was going on with their mom, Raff and Kass became closer to each other. It seemed so sweet.

But it also seems impossible how Raff gets away with every. single. thing. he does. Really? That seems really odd, considering how uptight the parents are with Kass, who is two years older.

I wished that there could have been more descriptions of how Kass didn't stand up to her father's outrageous demands.

I know that the (view spoiler)[ Gorton's fish sticks (hide spoiler)] incident was one, but then they didn't describe any of the other failed Operation: Stardoms, such as the Mensa IQ Test and Youth Orchestra.

And it was so unfortunate that nobody realized that Kass had tried to rebel against her father, more than once. Deep down inside, she didn't want to let him down, I think, because that might unleash his inner "monster". (Something they refer to as GTD or something that I never quite managed to understand, *shrug*)

Anyway. That's it for this book.
~Dana


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Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings (Threads, #1) by Sophia Bennett

Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings, Sophia Bennett (Chicken House, 2011)
Length: 304 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Children's Books
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Plot:

Nonie's a freak for fashion. Eco-conscious Edie blogs to save the world--and get into Harvard. Starter-starlet Jenny just landed a small part in a big Hollywood blockbuster. When they meet a Ugandan refugee girl who's an amazing designer, the three trendy London teens--and Crow, the incredible fashion designer-- combine their talents to raise awareness for the crisis of the Night Walking children.

{adapted from Goodreads summary}

Thoughts:

I had mixed feelings about this book.

I didn't like the cover design.

I know, I know, very superficial of me, but I sincerely doubt that either Nonie, Crow, Jenny, or Granny would approve of this book cover.

Anyway, "don't judge a book by its cover" right?

I don't believe that the world Sophia Bennett spins is very believable. Look, there's a girl who's just starred in an absolute Hollywood blockbuster! Plus she's got a famous father!

And ooh, look, there's that twelve-year-old tween from UGANDA who catapulted to huge fashion designer in around six months!!

This might be the life of a couple of rich kids, but as far as we know, Crow is not rich.

I'm not denying Crow the years that she spent studying fashion. But what about Jenny?

Let's see:

According to her best friends, who probably wouldn't lie and turn their backs against their best friend, Jenny

a) is not that good at acting on set (Remember, there was an agent searching for a girl for Kid Code? Jenny did well in Annie.
b) does not AT ALL enjoy being on set OR on tour, especially at awarding events.

There is really no reason at all that Jenny would be on the set of an enormous blockbuster hit, if she doesn't enjoy it at all.

Furthermore, Jenny went and did a screen test for a movie in Hawaii, not even thinking about her best friends she was leaving behind in London, just so she could be with a boy who was not only too old for her, didn't even care for her at all!!

Nonie, I think, was the most developed character in the story, and even then, she wasn't really fleshed out. I felt that the scenes describing Nonie having a "new idea for a minidress, so she took all of her fashion books onto the floor and studied them" could have been elaborated a LOT more.

For example, in the story, Crow is the only one portrayed as having any real fashion success. In the end, Nonie actually has to be the business coordinator and manager for Crow.

And it just wasn't fair that Nonie's mother kept spending time with Crow and not with Nonie, as Edie had pointed out.

I also felt that Jenny had been very unattached from the other two while abroad. They couldn't really be best friends, could they?!??!?!?

Just kidding. But still.

I didn't understand why Edie put what Nonie and Jenny were wearing onto her "Saving the Environment and Invisible Children are Important!" website.

There was no reason, besides that she found it interesting, which I'm pretty sure she didn't. Edie was always the straightforward, honest, and, according to Nonie, boring one. She doesn't have a lot of style, based on the descriptions of her clothing choices. So there's no reason why Edie would be interested in her friends' clothing choices.

And why in the world did Nonie get upset when Edie was trying to design a logo for a T-shirt?!?!?!?!?!

It's a T-shirt, Nonie!!!!!!

They are really quite un-fashionable!

At least the commercially-produced-for-merchandise are. I mean the kind that Edie's trying to sell.

They're just plain T-shirts with logos on them.

~~~~~~~

Anyway,  ta-ta.

xoxo~ Dana