Ariel

Author: Steven R. Boyett
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy

It’s been five years since the Change: cars stopped, lights went out, electrical items just cease to function and magical creatures appear and roam the earth. Pete Garey a survivor of the Change wonders the deserted streets alone until he encounters an injured unicorn he calls Ariel. Through their travels together they start to form a special bond. Unicorns are highly priced for their magic and due to Ariel’s magical possessions both Pete and Ariel are hunted by a necromancer from New York City.

I didn’t exactly enjoy reading Ariel but I did appreciate the special bond that exists between Pete and Ariel which kept me wanting to read more. The overall storyline is revealed in a slow pace and at times I felt that certain pages seem to drag on unnecessarily but I have to say that the author manages to combine both science fiction and fantasy successfully. What got me about the book was that you didn’t know why the Change happened, why magical creatures appeared and also the ending… I didn’t like the ending….At ALL.

I’m still curious as to why the Change happened and might pick up Elegy Beach which is the sequel to Ariel targeted for release in November 2009. Hopefully the sequel will have more answers.

Kenny & the Dragon

Author: Tony DiTerlizzi
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Reading Level: Ages 9-12 

Kenny and the Dragon is a heart warming story about friendship between Kenny the Rabbit and Grahame the Dragon who share the same interest despite their differences. However when the local villagers are made aware of the presence of a dragon within their countryside, they panic.

Unfortunately for Kenny, his other good friend George who is a bookstore owner and a retired knight has been dispatched by the King to slay and save the village from the dragon whom they believe is a threat to their community. Kenny is now caught in between two friends and frantically tries to find a way to save his friendship with both George and Grahame as well as trying to keep Grahame from the being slayed.

I absolutely love, love, love this book! I love the simplicity of the story and the strong message on friendship and how negative beliefs or prejudice can effect the nicest of beings. Kenny and the Dragon is a suitable read for both the young and old. The adventure is exciting and the characters are absolutely lovable. Its a light read and the drawings included in the book are just so cute. Definitely a recommended read and I'm keeping this to read to my kids someday!

100 Mile Fitness Challenge Update (12- 18 Oct)

Sometime back, I decided to take part in Trish’s 100 Mile Fitness Challenge. Last week I kick started the challenge with some exercises and I thought it’d be nice to share with everyone how I’ve been doing on a weekly basis.

Here's what I did last week:

Date	Type of Exercise	Miles Collected
Monday, 12 Oct	Treadmill	1 mile
Tuesday, 13 Oct	Swimming	1 mile
Wednesday, 14 Oct	Swimming	1 mile
Friday, 15 Oct	Treadmill	1 mile
	Total	4 miles

I’m also on a personal mission to quit smoking. I think I’m doing well so far. I haven’t had a cigarette for more than one week. It’s been tough especially when you're used to one pack a day but I really do feel better now and the exercising helps.

In the past, people have told me that I looked haggard and I had really bad dark circles under my eyes but lately everyone says that I look better and healthier. My only problem is I eat… A LOT! I just hope that I don’t gain too much weight or I won’t be able to fit into my wedding dress this weekend!

Anyway, if you'd like to find out how other participants are doing in the challenge, please visit the official site here.

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening & The Struggle

Author: L.J. Smith
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Reading Level: Young Adult

I don’t know how and why I’ve never heard of Vampire Diaries before until recently when I noticed it as a trending topic on Twitter. The TV series had taken off in the US and I think just about everyone I was connected to from the US was raving about it. Then I found out that My Friend Amy was hosting the Vampire Diaries Reading Challenge and I thought I should join in to see what the hype was all about.

Vampire Diaries is a young adult novel which was originally published in 1991. I read a comment somewhere (can't remember where) that Vampire Diaries is the original Twilight and I can understand how that comment came about. There are some similarities based on the premise of girl falls in love with good vampire. However, unlike Twilight I didn’t find Elena as annoying as Bella :)

I absolutely love Stefan’s character…BIG SURPRISE! I always fall for the same type of characters; brooding, mysterious, heroic vamps. I found Elena’s character to be spoilt and can be quite bitchy but she also came across as independent, confident and knew clearly what she wanted and how she was going to get it thus why she wasn't as annoying to me as Bella was when I was reading Twilight.

Anyway, the storyline itself was entertaining. There was enough mystery, excitement and activities that kept me wanting to read on. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book and have the next instalment to the series ‘The Fury & Dark Reunion’ on my TBR pile already.

I’m also going to catch the first series of Vampire Diaries soon. Hope I’ll enjoy it as much as the book.

Zombie Blondes

Author: Brian James
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy- Paranormal
Reading Level: Young Adult

The first time I read about Zombie Blondes was through reviews by The Book Smugglers and Becky’s Book Reviews. Shortly after, I found the book at Kinokuniya with a 20% off discount on the book so I decided to get myself a copy.

Zombie Blondes is about Hannah, a teenage girl who moves from one town to another every time her father faces financial difficulties. Moving so many times has made her sort of an expert in identifying who the cool crowd is in her new school. Like any teenage girl, she wants to be part of the cool, popular crowd (who happen to be cheerleaders of course) but this time she’s been given an opportunity to join them… the only thing is the cool chicks are zombies!

The plot was predictable; teenager moves into new town and wants to be part of popular group the only difference is there’s zombies involved. I didn’t really enjoy the book but I did like how it picked up towards the end and I also liked the ending. In between, it was really just an okay read. The only other problem I had with the book was that there was no explanation on how the town’s occupants became zombies so I wish the author would have elaborated a bit more on that.

Overall, Zombie Blondes is an easy read, nothing complicated, a bit predictable but still enjoyable.

Ps- I forgot to mention, I absolutely love the book cover.

Friday Finds, October 9

Here are some books I found over the past week that I'd like to share for this week's Friday Finds:

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I’ve read The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Three Incestuous Sisters sometime back from the same author and really can’t wait to read Her Fearful Symmetry. I might get this book over the weekend so that it can be my next Halloween read for October.

The Year of the Flood by Margarent Atwood

I found a review of this book from Book Nook Club and found the premise of the book quite interesting. I’ve never read any of Atwood’s work before though I have a couple of her books on my TBR pile and this one seems like an interesting read.

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading.

Mr Toppit

Author: Charles Elton
Genre: Fiction

‘Once upon a time a book broke a family…’ – Those were the words on the cover of the book that attracted me to purchase Mr Toppit. Mr Toppit is a story about a dysfunctional family and how each and every one of them is affected by the popularity of a book written by the father, Arthur Hayseed. The novel traces the history of the Hayseed Chronicles and the series of events that leads to the book becoming a sudden worldwide phenomenon after the death of Arthur Hayseed.

The story was engaging at first and was an okay read for maybe about 200+ pages or so, after that I was no longer interested about the characters or the series of events that were happening. I ended up skimming through the pages towards the end of the book trying to look for the punch line but when the dark secret was revealed, it was a no biggie.

I was a bit disappointed with Mr Toppit. I was hoping for a big family drama with a big wow ending. The family drama was definitely there but the book didn’t have a big impact to me as a reader despite the tragic and dramatic end.

Was there anything good about the book? Well, it did have some funny lines here and there that did made me laugh other than that it just wasn't outstanding enough. I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately I don't.

100 Mile Fitness Challenge

I started with my quit smoking program three days ago. It’s been tough but I’m going to try extra hard this time around to make it happen. I’ve tried many times to quit but always succumb to the bad habit in the end.

Anyway, I am actually taking a month off from work starting Friday and I thought that I should use my free time to do more exercises in hopes that it could help me with my efforts to quit smoking. A few days ago I found out that Trish from Trish’s Reading Nook is hosting a 100-Mile Fitness Challenge  which starts from October until December 2009… Incredible timing don’t you think? So YAY! Count me in Trish. I want to be a healthy puppy!

If you are interested to sign up, please visit Trish’s blog here.

Wish me luck people!

Friday Finds, October 2

Sometime back I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I absolutely enjoyed it. This week I found out about another Quirk Books publication which I absolutely MUST get my hands on titled Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. (Btw, if you click on the amazon link they have really cool wallpaper background that you can download for free!)

Bryan’s Book Blog gave a great review of the book, please click here to read the review. I also found a book trailer on YouTube on the book.

I’ve gotta get this book!

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading.