112 books down, 122 days to go!

Hey all!  I am having a blast in California!  My birthday is in two days but just because I have been busy doesn't mean I haven't read!  I have finished three books.

The first one is called Vampireville which is the third book in the Vampirre Kisses series.  In this book the vampire from Romania who came to track down Alexander has brought his freshly vampire made sister back with him to Dullsville.  Luna, the vamp sister, now hates Raven (or atleast for a while into the book) and wants to turn Trevor, Ravens enemy, into a vampire.  Which Raven cannot allow as much as she hates him, because she can't have Dullsville turning into Vampireville, can she?  This book was a fast read, fun, amateur, and totally awesome!  Despite the amateur writing, you can't help but love the main characters, especially dreamy, mysterious Alexander.  Love ya, Vampire! 

I have to go now so if you don't mind I'm gonna be quick and just give you the amazon reviews on the books.  I also finished Hex Hall:  Sixteen-year-old Sophie Mercer, whose absentee father is a warlock, discovered both her heritage and her powers at age 13. While at her school prom, Sophie happens upon a miserable girl sobbing in the bathroom and tries to perform a love spell to help her out. It misfires, and Sophie finds herself at Hecate (aka Hex) Hall, a boarding school for delinquent Prodigium (witches, warlocks, faeries, shape-shifters, and the occasional vampire). What makes this fast-paced romp work is Hawkins’ wry humor and sharp eye for teen dynamics, especially between the popular and the misfit crowds. Sophie is a multidimensional character, both likable and believably flawed. Secondary characters lack her depth, but their more broadly drawn portraits are in keeping with narrator Sophie’s impressions of her teachers and classmates. Many clever touches (vampire Lord Byron teaches literature), spot-on depictions of classic teen situations (crushing on the queen bee’s boyfriend), and an ending that leaves you hanging will have readers grabbing for the sequel.  (I liked it, but not as much as they say you will)

I also finished Chasing Brooklyn (despite the verse i liked the plot even before I read it so I enjoyed this book): A year after Brooklyn’s boyfriend, Lucca, was killed in an automobile accident, Gabe, the boy who was driving the car, commits suicide and, soon thereafter, begins haunting Brooklyn’s dreams. At the same time, Lucca starts showing up in the reveries of his older brother, Nico. Both spirits are persistent and demanding, but what is it, exactly, that they want? Readers of this verse novel will figure that out long before Brooklyn and Nico do, but the first-person point of view, which switches back and forth between the two teens, successfully builds suspense and foreboding in this highly readable romance-cum-ghost-story. The text could use fresher imagery (does the sky have to be a canvas, and clouds, cotton balls?), but the plot is well structured and the characters are appealing.

A chameleon's tongue is LONGER than its body.

Love, Lizzy S.  112 books down, 122 days to go!

109 books down, 125 days to go!

Hey All!
Guess what!  No really, guess!
Well, I finished FOUR BOOKS IN FOUR DAYS (one from the library- yes a.m. i do read aperback sometimes... I'm not THAT much of a phony!)  AND.... drum roll please ( i can do a drum roll, did you know I'm a drummer?  no joke...) my birthday is in 5 Days!!  Yay!
Sorry Guys, but maybe I AM a phony! I can't review these, they're just to horible!  I hated these and I'm NOT getting the next in the series (and yes, vlad gets the girl though he gets to hungry around her so he dumps her!)  Oh, and I hate Darren, I just do!

Anyway, I also read the first two books in the Vampire Kisses series, jeez so many vamp books!  But these were pretty good.  In this series goth girl, vampire-obsessed Raven meets, you guessed it, a vampire!!!  Who just so happens to be her boyfriend though he won't admit he is a vampire!!  Oooh!  Aaah!  In the second book, Kissing Coffins, Raven vampire beau, Alexander, runs away to protect her from the vampires out to get him from, you guessed it, Romania!  But Raven doesn't know this so she goes on a search to find him, by telling her parents she is visiting her aunt to spend time with her, not search The Coffin Club near her aunt's house for Alexander.  Tada!  All that info in under 8.1 sentences!  Wowzahs!



The word "facetiously" is the only word that has ALL the vowels IN ORDER if you include "y"

Love, Elizabeth

109 books down, 125 days to go!

By the way, I'm going to be in California in a little over 27 hours!  Yay! 

105 books down, 129 days to go!

Hey All!  I finished three books.

The first one is called Hate List by Jennifer Brown.  Doesn't the cover look spooky?  Intense?  Well, it goes pretty well with the book plot, so start reading this to see what I mean:  In this book a girl named Valerie and her boyfriend made a "hate list" of people they didn't like and why to take away the pain of being bullied.   But when Valerie's boyfriend shoots and kills six students and one of the teachers on the list during lunch at school, before killing himself, Valerie is stuck.  He had also shot many others without them dying and when Valerie tried to stop him she ended up getting shot in the leg. Even when the police conclude Valerie had nothing to do with the shooting, everyone in her small town, including her parents, think she did.  So Valerie's therapist is her only hope at being strong enough to go back to school the next year, which she does.  This book is told in past-tense and present-tense and I really liked it.  Good read; tough plot, okay writing.

I also read an amazingly good book called Hold Still by Nina LaCour.  This book is about a girl named Caitlin whose best friend, Ingrid, commits suicide and becomes functionless with pain.  She won't talk, she won't see a therapist, she won't live.  When Caitlin finds Ingrid's diary, she reads about Ingrid's depression.  But Caitlin wants to use this diary to live on and with the love and support of her new friends and family she learns that she really might be able to do just that.  The cover of Hold Still fits the book really well also and i totally recommend this book!  I won't soon forget it.


This next book, Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chalats had a heart-wrenching plot but I read this in hardcover, not nook format, and it was a little hard to get through since it was in what I think is called Verse.  Anyway, the cover is perfect once again and I thought this book was okay, though I would have loved it if it was just written in plain format.  So, this book is about a girl named Anke whose father is brutally abusive, but not to her, only to her brother and sister.  She seems to be invisible, just standing in the shadows, screaming silently with horror, too painfully shy from the sights she has seen to do anything about the situation.  But then Anke joins the volley ball team and hears her own real voice with passion for the first time, yelling to the other players that it's her ball.  Anke is noticed now, and after a while she begins to think about the day when she will be brave enough to say something that could rescue her family at home, including herself.

WORD OF THE DAY: format
FACT OF THE DAY: An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.  

Love, Elizabeth
105 books down, 129 days to go!

102 books down, 132 days to go!

Hey All!  102 books down, 132 days to go!  That's right, we've hit 100!!  Yay!

I finished Pretty Dead, about a girl who is a vampire who doesn't want to be one though her "boyfriend" does (that's basically it- hated it), Eclipse, and Willow.  I'm only going to go into the details of Willow because I liked this book a lot.  

Willow as about a girl (Willow) who killed her parents in a car crash 8 months ago.  To deal with the mind and body shocking, numbing, excruciating pain Willow has to dig blades into her arms, legs, and sometimes even her stomach.  But when Willow meets Guy, a rather attractive, sensitive, lovably kind boy, she freaks.  She likes him immediatly, though she is stuck without much to do.  Willow sees here brother (who she lives with), David's, pain.  She can't tell him her cutting secret, and when Guy finds out, shes stuck again.  Willow is in the emotional shock that came from killing her parents, and she can't seem to interact with other humans very well.  ***SPOILER ALERT**** Willow and Guy become more than just friends, Willow saves David and hers relationship, and finds out a lot about herself, though she doesn't quit cutting for all we know.  Minorly inappropriate in a couple parts, this book is a slightly mature, yet great read.  

Thanks for stopping by!

The longest recorded time for someone to have the hiccups is 69 years! 

Love, Elizabeth

102 books down, 132 days to go!

ALMOST AT 100!

Yes, I admit we are way behind schedule, but we are keeping up our progress because we know that during the summer Elizabeth alone can read on average 40 or 50 (she's aiming for 60 even). And I definitely read much more over the summer and it's going to be especially easy for us to read more and more this summer because now that we have our nooks we don't need to be constantly begging mom, "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY! WE NEED TO GO THE BOOKSTORE--NOW!!!!!" Yep, we can definitely do even more this summer and over our school break that's coming up that we're going to be spending at our grandpa's.
Anyhow, I finished a book! I read Jinx by Meg Cabot. Which Meg Cabot, I'm not sure of because it is after all a nom de plume for multiple writers. This book focuses on Jean Honeychurch, also known as Jinx for her infamous bad luck, who moves away from her rural Iowa town to New York, New York, with her richy-rich Aunt and Uncle and their kids. But what you won't get from the summary located on the book is that the books is not as much about bad luck as it is modern witchcraft; because Jinx's great-great-great-great-great (etc.) grandmother Branwen predicted that one of the daughters in the family would have supreme magical abilities and of course Jinx's narcissistic, sulky, wanna-be-goth cousin Tory (or Torrance as she goes by to her coven) is sure that it's herself. But everything is not as it seems. So of course, as predictable as anything, the witch is Jinx even though she doesn't even believe it herself. Complicated sounding, but very easy to follow. It was a great read even though it was more of a "junk food book" as A.M. calls them because I just ate it up even though I got no deep thoughts or lessons from it. Still an awesome book, though.
See ya,
Zoe
99 books read, 136 days to go. 
ALMOST AT 100!!!!!!

A.M.,

Hello am.,

You recently posted this onto one of Zoe's blogs:

Hey, wait! What am I hearing? Defeat when there are still many months left to reach your target? Isn't September 1 your deadline? You'll make up the deficit during summer vacation.
That downer attitude must come from reading George Orwell. Elizabeth, Zoe needs a pep talk from you!
Have you picked up _The Revolution of Sabine_ yet? It's a quick quality read, but not available on Nook. You'll have to use your public library. Fancy that! :-)
a believer,
a.m.

First of all A.M.,

 You  are just jealous of our nooks.  Kindle? Ick.  By the way, has yours blown up yet like Mom's did?  Anyway, I gave Zoe the pep-talk you suggested and I will read The Revolution of Sabine from my library as soon as possible. Thanks for commenting!  Love you and can't wait to see you again soon!

Your niece, Elizabeth :)

Oh, and our deadline is 9/3/10

Happy Easter!

98 books odwn, 137 days to go! Happy Easter!

Hey All!  Happy Easter!

I finished Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater!  This book was amazing!  I don't see why anyone would be obsessed with twilight when they could be obsessed with this world! Now, since it was a romance fiction, I will say maybe it wasn't exactly written for people my age, but I still loved this book!  This book is about a girl named Grace who has been intrigued by a yellow eyed wolf since she was about eleven.  And every summer the wolf changes into a boy, Sam, who she meets when she is seventeen and falls in love with him immediately and vise versa.  But all is NOT well!  This is Sam's last year to be human in the warmth and as winter approaches and Grace and Sam fight to keep him warm, they know it's coming.  The End. But when a peer finds what might be a cure, and might be poison, Grace has some hope.  So Grace gives Sam the Wolf a meningitis (which inflicts a huge fever- 108of, and the humans need heat no to be turned into wolves) injection but when the peer, Isabel, whose brother became a wolf, dies from the injection and Sam the Wolf disappears Grace snaps.  She thinks Sam is dead.  Best book.  Now I'm onto Eclipse and a couple more of the Vladimir Tod books.

Well, thanks for checking up on us!

In Long Beach, CA, it is illegal to curse on a mini-golf course. But, don't worry - there are no mini-golf courses in Long Beach, CA.

Love, Elizabeth

97 books down, 138 days to go!

Hey y'all!  I finished a couple of books in the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod
 Series.

In the first book, Eight Grade Bites Vladimir (13) or Vlad's junior high life sucks.  Literally.  Vlad is a vampire, his Mom was human, his dad was a vamp.  And Vladimir has to deal with his cravings for blood.  hich sucks if you don't want to be, as Jacob from the Twilight Series calls it, a bloodsucker.

Back to his normal life, though: Vladimir likes a girl who seems to like his best friend, kids are constantly mean to him, the principal avoids him, and he doesn't have a real family anymore.  His parents both died so he lives with his best friend whose mom works at the hospital and has to steal blood bags. But when his teacher disapeared and a sub came, who seemed to know a lot more info about him then possible, he realizes he's being hunted by a vampire killer.  Rawr.

Sorry guys!  I also read Ninth Grade Slays but I have to go have dinner so here is a preview via Amazon:

Vladimir Tod wants be popular like his friend Henry and cool and carefree like Henry's cousin Joss. He would so enjoy putting bullies Tom and Bill, who have been tormenting him for years, in their place. And, of course, he longs to tell Meredith about his feelings for her. All of this should really be a piece a cake for him. He is, after all, the only vampire "living" in Bathory, and he possesses extraordinary powers. Unfortunately, luck does not seem to run his way. What is working for him is the opportunity to go to Siberia with his Uncle Otis to be trained by Vikas, one of the oldest vampires around. Vikas sharpens Vlad's skills, especially in the area of mind control, and educates him on vampire history, language, and culture. Vlad also learns about the prophecy regarding the Pravus, a powerful vampire born from a human mother who will not only rule over all of vampirekind but also enslave the entire human race. Upon his return to Bathory, he is pursued by a vampire slayer and attacked by another one. Could Vlad, whom readers have come to love, possibly be this evil Pravus? Brewer does an excellent job keeping readers on their toes with an intense plot full of many twists and turns. Her writing style is original, witty, and on target.

Thanks!  Sorry I had to go so soon!  :)

 Yawning is contagious - even thinking about yawning is enough. After reading this fact, there is a 50% chance you will yawn.   I just yawned.

Love Lizzy S. 


97 books down, 138 days to go!