“If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced” :Vincent Van Gogh

The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Brad Raines is an FBI special agent who tends to end up with very complex and gruesome murder cases. In this instance, he's responsible for someone who is abducting women, gluing their naked bodies to the wall, placing a wedding veil on their heads, and letting them bleed out through two holes drilled in their heels. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill murderer... The killer's pace is accelerating, and he's not leaving anything behind in the way of forensic evidence that can be used to track him down. It's only once he starts leaving notes behind for Raines that there's any sort of trail to follow. And the trail is quite warped. He is presenting these women to God, and is working up to his perfect offering. In desperation, Raines turns to a patient who is living in an institution for the mentally ill. She is supposedly able to touch a body and see the event that killed the person. Raines isn't all that open to the possibility, but he has little else to go on. And when events start getting extremely personal and close to home, Raines is forced to confront his own demons along with those of others in order to stop the killer and save the ones he loves.
The way the story is structured, you know who the murderer is right off. The story bounces back and forth between the killer and Raines, so the payoff isn't the "who dun it" resolution at the end. Instead, it's more along the lines of seeing whether Raines will be able to stop him before he can claim his final victim. Dekker also touches on issues such as the mentally ill, spirituality, abuse, and a few other themes that will allow the reader to ponder such topics if they so choose. In the middle of the story, things slow down a bit, and it seems as if we're just killing time before the end game comes into play. I also felt as if some of the characters, especially Nikki Holden, were less developed than I would have expected. It may be that this isn't the first novel with the Raines character, in which case I could understand it. But I still felt as if I was missing something in terms of the depth of some of the people.
I'd have no problems heading over to the library and starting to catch up on some prior Dekker novels. The Bride Collector was worth reading, and if his other novels are as good as this one, I'd enjoy them.

Sarah Dessen

The first Sarah Dessen book I bought was her fifth one, This Lullaby, at Page One. I loved it (it’s still my favorite one of hers) and so I gradually bought all the rest. Can't wait for her newest one, which comes out in May (excitement!). Sarah Dessen’s books all have to do with teenage girls and things that they cope with, ranging from parents and sibling issues to teen pregnancy and abusive relationships. She explores these often sensitive subjects with grace and humor, using witty supporting characters and side plots to add depth to the stories. And of course, there is always a boy, although the conclusions regarding the protagonists and the boys may not be what is expected.

One thing I especially love about Sarah Dessen’s books is that characters from her previous books make cameos in her newer ones. I always feel that simple sense of accomplishment when I identify a name or recognize a reference.

Sarah Dessen’s books can be viewed as chick flicks, but I think they address relevant issues that run deep and are executed in ways more sophisticated than the average beach read.

NaNoWriMo

So last month I told you guy I was doing my own nanowrimo in my time. JaNoWriMo. Well right after I posted that, I never went back to my novel. Guess I jinxed myself talking about it. Anyways I'm going to restart today in the month of Feburary. FeBruNaNo? ehh maybe not. I'll fill you in as the month goes on.
Word Count- 846
Aiming For- 2,000

Ellen Hopkins vs Sarah Dessen

*Sorry picture taken from webcam.
So last time I did this it was for a book series, HoN vs VA. Vampire Academy won.
Now it's Ellen Hopkins vs Sarah Dessen. You choose.
I pick E.H

Hero by Perry Moore

Synopsis: Thom Creed is coming to terms with his sexual orientation, basketball star Thom Creed is trying to figure out exactly what his untrained superpowers can do. In an attempt to break away from his seemingly non-understanding father (an ex-hero with something to hide) and homophobic community, Thom runs away, only to find himself in the middle of a multi-hero rescue operation. Using his ability to heal, he keeps an injured woman alive until the League superheroes arrive and impresses them enough to get an invitation to try out for a hero apprentice position. Thom is teamed with an old woman who can see into the future, a spiteful girl who unleashes her power through fire, a sickly boy who is able to inflict disease on anyone, and a demoted hero with insane speed. With superheroes dying in mysterious circumstances, Thom is forced to admit publicly that he is gay in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice, but finds himself cast out of the League. He organizes his ragtag team to figure out what is really going on and to fight society's prejudices as well as the criminal element of the town.

From the start I heard many good things about this book, so when I had a chance to read it myself I was amazed, awed and definetly inspired by the main character Thom. He finds himself at a cross road in his life where he's not sure who he is. Mr. Moore has created a believable character, one who finds courage within and learns to be a hero that anyone no matter what orientation or age can look up to. Highly recommended and loved. I cannot wait for the sequels.
4.5 Stars!

Sarah Dessen, Flowers

I really love to spend my money on books, movies, records, etc. Worth it.

50 Theme Challenge

So I'm aiming to do a 50 Theme Challenge in the month of Feburary. It's a challenge where I write 500-1000 words for each theme.
This is where you guys come in, I'm going to ask that you to provide me with a theme, I will add them all on here.
Examples of themes. Solitude, Illusion, Storm Gathering.
Thank You. :)

I miss the feeling when...

I can’t get myself to put the book down and have been isolated in my room the past two days with barely any contact with the outside world. I love the way I escape to a different world when I drown myself with the words on the pages. It’s a new adventure every book I read. It’s as if this boring life that I have is just a pause from all the excitement I experience as I read. I love to feel the emotions, the pain and the happiness, that the narrator expresses as if their mind and mine are one. I grow a love for the characters I am introduced to and a hate for those that mean wrong. It’s crazy how amazing one book can make me feel.

Where I've Been

Helllo Bloggers :) I'm so sorry I haven't updated my blog in a long time.
Some updated book related and just my life.
So I started a new job. A desk job, and it basically consist of filing, answering phone calls, and all the jazz. UGH I know, but it pays.
Also in January I've been trying to do JaNnoWriMo, it's a knock-off of NaNo. I just wasn't feeling very creative in November.
I'm going to try my hardest to update this blog more, and thank you all for following me. && Caitlyn R. I hope you like the book Let It Snow.

Have a great day.

Christmas Contest

Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. I love reading this book during the winter time.
Good luck!

City of Ember book review

The city of Ember is in trouble, but the complacent citizens seem to ignore the food shortages and frequent blackouts. The Builders, when they created the city some 241 years ago, made provisions for its citizens in the form of a note called "The Instructions." Unfortunately, The Instructions were not handed down through the generations as they were supposed to be, and suddenly 12-year old Lina, a city Messenger, has discovered them. After trying to tell her friends and even the Mayor about the discovery of the partially destroyed Instructions, Lina turns to a one-time school friend, Doon, a worker in the underground Pipeworks, whom she believes will understand their importance. But what can two children do with such important information, and who would even believe them?

The City of Ember is a clever novel which tells the unique story of two unintentional heroes who fight the status quo in order to bring hope to their city. The descriptions of the world of Ember are fascinating, leaving the reader to appreciate the incredible imagination of first-time novelist Jeanne DuPrau. The narrator thoughtfully informs us of the setting-the unusual and self-contained world of Ember-slowly throughout the novel, and not all at once in the first chapter. It's only in chapter 8 that we even realize that there are no animals in Ember and the words "heaven" and "boat" have no known meaning. The characters are outstandingly original yet touchingly familiar in their pre-pubescent views of the adult world. The deaths of Lina's parents and then custodial grandmother create a sympathy for her that causes us to, all the more, wish for her triumph. It is the curiosity of Lina and Doon that drive this narrative, and it is the nice balance between primary and secondary characters that keeps the reader on his/her toes. While we expect a happy ending, it's not until the final pages of the novel that we understand what has happened and why. And, as always, we forgive a good author for the blatant suggestions of a sequel.
5 STARS!

Edward, Harry

LMAO, I laughed really hard.

My new reading list.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started, but have yet to finish or from which you have read an excerpt.

I've read 17/100

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris’ Cover for her 11th Sookie Stackhouse novel. Book will be released in May, 2011. Where is Eric or even Bill on the cover?
Team Eric.

I'm not quite sure if I'll be purchasing this book, #10 wasn't all that good. Plus I feel the series should be over by now. I swear authors of PNR books never end their series, they just keep going on and on.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The story is told from Astrid Magnussen's point of view. She is a young girl (story goes from age 12-18), who lives with her mother, Ingrid, who is a smooth, freeminded poet. They live in an apartment in Hollywood, California. They go to museums, read books by Dmitry and Dostoyevsky, and do poetry readings. Ingrid uses her charm to lure in men and have carefree relationships, but she gets too serious in one of these relationships. After the man breaks it off with Ingrid, she kills him. She is then put into prison and sentenced for life.

So begins Astrid's life of foster care and life altering changes. Throughout the story, Astrid is at 6 different homes, including a children's center. Each home is filled with people and experiences that all take their toll on Astrid and her upbringing. These include: getting involved with a MUCH older man, gun shot wounds, starvation, and a death, to name a few. During her time at these homes, she corresponds with her mother with letters, in which Ingrid is still trying to shape her daughter...even through prison. Astrid soon realizes that her mother wants her to remain unhappy in these homes, so she will still be "needed" by her daughter, and so that she can still influence Astrid into becoming like her.This book, while occasionally disturbing, is an important one to read. 4.5 STARS!

I find it offensive.

In almost every book I have ever read (I’ve read a lot) it has always been the girl who screws everything up. Like in this one I’m reading.. Torment by Lauren Kate. I love her books. I love this author. Nothing against either. I mean, if your boyfriend (who is an angel. Named Daniel♥.) tells you to stay where you are because it’s safe and he’s always protected you.. you should be smart and listen to him right? But no, she’s gotta go and be all “My life is my own” and not listen. Gah.
I’m at the part where she’s tricked into going some place so an Outcast (worst kind of angel) can kill her, then someone saves her by killing that angel saying there’s more of them around that area. Well. She wants to go on a yacht trip, knowing she’ll be going back to that place with more Outcasts. When Daniel told her not to. Hello?! Brains. Do you not have a brain? Do you want to get killed?
Or like in Alyson Noel’s Immortal Series. I love Alyson. I love that series. Again, nothing against either. **warning: I don’t think you should read this last part if you have not read all of the books currently out because it will contain spoilers.** If Ever(main character) just did what Roman(bad guy) wanted, she could’ve been with the love of her life: Damen. But no, she had to be all “I don’t want to with Roman it’s wrong!” I know it’s wrong, but would you rather not be able to touch your boyfriend at all? If you two touch fingers or have any contact, Damen dies. Do what Roman wants -> get the antidote -> you being able to hug or do whatever with Damen. Of course Jude(guy who likes Ever) had to go and kill Roman when you were about to do what Roman wanted but then pushed him off. So Roman is dead. The antidote is forever gone because it was in his pocket and Jude smashed the bottle.
Idiots.

Remeber Me, Movie

I love this movie, Remember Me.
Robert Pattinson <3