Books I have enjoyed, The Edge Chronicles

There is this series I've been reading called The Edge Chronicles. Below is a video outlining the basic plot line of the series.

Books I have enjoyed, Beyond the Deepwoods

This book was the first book in the Edge Chronicles. It tells the story of a human who lived in a large forest with wood trolls. The name of the forest is Deepwoods, hence the name of the book. It starts out with how Twig is excluded by the other trolls because he was small, skinny, and didn't fit in. Then his "parents" send him off to his "aunt and uncle" (everything is quoted because they aren't really his relatives). In order to not get lost in the Deepwoods, everyone follows a well beat path. While twig was walking down the path, he got to absorbed in the beauty and got lost. Then he helped a bunch of sky pirates (the name for people who deliver supplies in large ships built around big buoyant rocks. They also were like pirates and raided) find their flight rock. They took him in and then he fell off the ship and couldn't be found. After wandering around he fell into a colony of honey goblins. After a large conflict about stealing honey. The goblins accuse Twig of killing their mother who made the honey. Twig manages to escape by tunnels to the surface. He then gets captured by a little trog who keeps him  as a pet. Then one day in a coming of age ceremony, she has to drink from a big jug of special tree sap. After doing this she becomes bald, fat, and savage like all the other female trogs. She no longer recognized Twig as a pet and yet again he has to escape. As he blundered through the Mire (a big wasteland) he comes across a big caterbird cocoon. When it hatches, since Twig was there, it said it was now its sworn duty to protect him in times of danger. Then it flies away. He crosses the Mire and goes through the city that juts out on The Edge (the entire world is this huge rock that starts up high on the spring of life and goes out. If you fall off the edge you just fall and fall until you die of starvation or get eaten by these giant moths that fly around the edge. He then gets pulled off the edge by an evil shape changer called The Gloamglozer that had led him all the way to the edge. Then the Caterbird comes and saves him and takes him to his father's sky pirate ship the one that he was taken aboard in the beginning.

Anyway. I liked this book because it was very fantastical. Not only that, but it went into very precise details but it didn't overdo it. I would recommend this book.

Books I have enjoyed, Redwall

First thing I will do is to clarify why I'm doing the same blog post twice. The truth is, I'm not. The series is named Redwall and so is the first book. The whole plot is that an army of rats comes to Redwall abbey and demands to take over. The abbey, being an abbey, refuses to be turned into a castle of slavery (one of the main things that would happen during the takeover) and begins a war on them. Now a long time ago, a mouse named Martin had come to the abbey, and left his sword and shield in case the abbey was in any need of warfare help. But the problem was that they were hidden so no evil creatures could steal them. The basic plot-line is that Matthias and his old friend Methuselah (both mice) both set off to find the sword and shield. But eventually Matthias has to leave the abbey to find the sword. Meanwhile the abbey is waging a war. Below is a movie of people saying what they like about it.

Books I have enjoyed, Hush Hush

Hush Hush is written by Becca Fitzpatrick. The book is about a girl named Nora. A new kid named Patch transfers to her school and becomes her biology partner. At first all was well, but then Patch starts to be really creepy. What Nora doesn't know is that Patch is a- Well, I won't spoil the book. If you liked it, check out the rest of the series, Crescendo, Tempest and then Torment. Here is a book trailer of the book I made.

Hush Hush themes and messages

Hush Hush was a really intense book once it got going. And that somehow makes it hard to find themes and messages. But maybe I'll surprise myself and write more than I expected. Anyway, here they are.

1. Always follow love, even if it seems like it will go down a bad path. Nora felt attracted to Patch, and she didn't like the attraction. However, later in the book, by letting herself feel this, she developed a strong bond with Patch which helped her out of some sticky situations.

2. Things are unpredictable. Patch. Nora thought he was some creepy dude who put on a ski mask and tried to kill her. While at the end of the book, he saved her life, and wasn't so creepy when he became her guardian angel. And for the ski mask, he was Jules, totally unsuspected. And Nora thought she would die when she threw herself off the rafters, turns out she didn't.

3. Control your fear. All sorts of bad things happen when Nora got scared. Jules was able to manipulate it and make her feel trapped. Of course, when she overcame it, she escaped. Also, Patch controlled her fear sometimes, which once again got her into awkward situations.

4. And finally, there's got to be some sort of message relating to the falling angels. Something like don't succumb to temptation. Or some other moral that has a biblely feel to it. I can't really think of it right now.

Hush Hush finished

  

       Finally, I finished Hush Hush at 391 pages. It was only at page 250 that it revealed that Patch was an angel due to the telltale sign of Patch being able to plant words and images into Nora's, the main character, mind. Two people, Eliott and Jules, from another school transfer to Nora's school. It turns out that Eliott was one of the questioned in a murder investigation. Nora finds an article with the questioning in it and takes it home. Then the Ski Mask dude breaks in, ransacks Nora's room, and scares Nora out of the room when she comes up. Then after the police arrive, the room was all clean. Then Eliott breaks into Nora's school with her friend Vee, to play hide and seek. He cuts the power and ties Vee up. Meanwhile, Patch's angel girlfriend is trying to kill Nora because she is "stealing my boy." and because she is a vital part in the ritual to make Patch a human, which Dabria, Patch's girlfriend, does not want. Nora finds Patch and they both go off to find Vee who supposedly was camping with Eliott and Jules. Then they get stranded at a hotel where Patch spills the beans. He reveals that in order to become a guardian angel, he must save a humans life. Then they get a call from Vee, and go to the school to rescue her. She finds Eliott dead, as explained by Jules that he had too much evidence, and gets captured by Jules. Jules reveals that he is part angel and is related to Patch and begins to manipulate Nora's fear. Then Nora escapes onto the rafters and somehow sacrifices herself to kill Jules but was brought back to life by Patch. Then Patch becomes a guardian angel by saving Nora as she threw herself from the gym rafters.
        It was all very confusing, I plan on reading it again when I have time so I can understand everything. I really liked it. Even though it started off slow, once it got going, it shot off like a rocket. Next blog will be about messages and themes.

Hush Hush, somewhere around halfway through

Hush Hush was so-so. Although the suspense is really great, the weirdness of Patch, the guy with the ski mask, Patch reading her mind, and the whole "he creeps me out." plot is great. The movement of the overall plot is as slow as a turtle. If I didn't know that it was an angel book, or looked at the blurb and saw "one of the fallen." saw the cover of a falling man with big feathers, picked up the hint about the ride "The Arch-Angel." I would have not clue Patch was an angel. I would just think, wow, Patch is a creepy as creepy can get. But there is one good thing about it. It has sooo much suspense, that I would kill myself if I put it down and never read it again. It has provoked so many questions, that if questions were helium, I would be waving to airplanes. Anyway, as soon as I get a nice long time with absolutely no questions and the trial mostly out of the way, I fully intend to finish the book all in one go. And besides the slowness of the overall plot, this book is awesome!

Books I want to read, kind of A.K.A. my Summer Reading List

This isn't technically my summer reading list, but here it is.

1. The Lost, I tried to read this book when I was at my Grandmother's but I didn't finish it.
2. The last book of the Edge Chronicles, The Immortals.
3. Soon I Will be invincible.
4. I am the Messenger.
5. Buddha  Boy.
6. The Knife of Never Letting Go.
7. Ship Breaker
8. Chiggers.
9. The Good Thief.
10. The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet.

Books I have enjoyed, the Redwall series

The Redwall series is written by Brian Jacques. In the series, the only characters are animals, although there was a reference to a town in the first book. The animals can be assumed to have opposable thumbs because they are able to hold onto various things. Each animal has an accent, which is sometimes broken, for example, an educated mole, for plot purposes. Most of the story revolves around an abbey named Redwall named for its large red brick walls. But there was one warrior who was supposed to be there to defend the abbey. The abbey, of course had certain creatures that their species was known for fighting skills just in case. In addition to accents, each animal had a different type of attitude, for example, badgers were supposed to be huge living war machines, but could be caring animals when not under attack. One interesting thing about the series is that the difference in size between animals has been diminished, so badgers for example, are not so huge compared to mice as they are in real life. The whole thing is set in a sort of medieval time with vermin as bandits and warlords. Each character in the book appears at least twice in different books. And sometimes they only appear once because there was a time switch. What I like about it, is that it is jumping around in time, and if you read it in chronological order, nothing would make sense.

For the official site, click here

10 reccomendation books

Here are ten books I have read and recommend.

1. Redwall
2. Mossflower
3. The Book Thief
4. Godless
5. To Kill A Mockingbird
6. The Amulet of Samarkand (first book in series)
7. Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone (first book in series
8. A Swiftly Tilting Planet
9. The Ring of Solomon
10. A Wrinkle In Time

Angel factory, finished

Now I have finished Angel Factory. In the end, Thomas finds his real mom and finds out about these discs that can "shut down" angels and their spirit goes back to The Presence on the angels home planet. Later on, Thomas's friend Gip who helped with the taking of the encrypted files, does research by asking other adopted kid's parents do the same thing and behave the way thomas' s parents do. He finds out that The Project, the project to save mankind, is bigger than he expected, as all the kids show that their parents are angels. Then Thomas goes to meet the president, who is also an angel. He starts off as a friendly person, but when Thomas says he will not participate in The Project, things get creepy. He suddenly turns creepy evil and sort of implies that Thomas has doomed mankind. When Thomas gets home, Cy, another angel, says that The Project is leaving mankind. Just after Gip says he knows a way to blow The Project's cover, he is revealed to be an angel and deactivated. All of the angels go to the Angel Factory (Yay! now we know the significance of the title) and are filled with all of humanity's faults, to wipe out all traces of The Project's influence. The president then resigns and disappears. Then Thomas meets Gip, who was reactivated by other angel friends of his and says that now he is a fallen angel. He also thanks Thomas for deactivating him because now it gave him the strength to fall.
One important line was from Thomas's sister Amy. She said that when the angels went into the angel factory, their derms (marks of their angel-ness) faded but didn't completely go away. I think this is trying to say that no matter how faulted people are, there is still some angel goodness in them. Which contributes to the bigger theme that humanity can only be saved by humanity...

In the middle of Angel Factory

Now I am in the middle of angel factory, somewhat. The book is getting very intense and awkward. Encrypted files on his parents computer reveal that he was adopted. Later the person who decoded them dies in a car accident. And now for my prediction, the people I thought were angels are angels and are training Thomas to be a good person. But not in the way I thought. They are sterile aliens that are made to look like humans and sent to earth to stop it from destroying itself. But its not bad that my prediction didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, predictable books are boring. So far the book is great, and all I'm waiting for is what comes next and the importance of the title, Angel Factory :)

City of Angels

In the movie, City Of Angels (C.O.A.), angels are depicted traditionally and not traditionally. As for tradition, they aren't human, they come for dead people, they don't have blood, and they act in a way as guardian angels in the scene where the angels squeeze the people's shoulders when they are in a tough situation. But they are depicted non-traditionally too. Here are the ways they are depicted that way, they have no wings, they can't really fly although they can get into a lot of places, angels have free will (with real angels, this is why they envy humans), they also wear black, there aren't really assigned people for the angels to guard, and they are invisible. I thought that C.O.A. put an interesting twist on angels to make the movie interesting, but kept certain characteristics so people would recognize them. And I think it did a good job of that.

The Angel Factory, blog one, pages 1-49

This book is amazing. The best thing it has done so far is hinted at Thomas's parents being angels. When he and Gip go look at their parents files, they are labeled
"HOME
 BILLS
 SERAPH
 TAXES" (p. 9) Seraph is an old name for angel. Also, their neighbor calls them a band of angels. I so far have really liked the book and am wishing I knew the answers to all the questions I have now. At this point, everything is just established and not concluded. The files, the warehouse in the middle of nowhere. And the weird journey inside the warehouse. But I have some conclusions that may or not turn out to be true. I believe that the parents are angels. And possibly the surfer dude, and Thomas's sister too since they are all on the train no one sees. I believe that the purple place, since it is down under the ground and comes from the black elevator is representing hell. And the reason why Thomas passes out when he goes up, is because everything is too bright and holy. The way he gets in is not very lawful, he reads his parents mail, doesn't listen to them and goes on the train with them, and he pretends to be an "angel" and walks in with the other briefcase people. So he goes to "hell". But then when he once again tries to be and "angel" and goes into the second elevator. And with all this information in mind, I believe that his parents, sister and her boyfriend, are all trying to make Thomas so good that he becomes and angel, hence the name angel factory (the title).

5 best book blogs

As our assignment, we have to find 5 book blogs we like and why. Here are mine.

One book blog I like is this one http://youngadultbookreviews.com/. It has a long list of archives from previous months on the side. It also has a search box so I can search for relevant books I would like to find. And plus, it features a summary of each book and a suggestion for its audience and a basic theme, example, this book is about coming of age. That is why I like it.

Another blog I thought was good was this one http://loveyalit.com/. This blog is put up by two people named Nora and Em. It has two paragraphs for the plot synopsis and a sum up at the end. After that it has a rating by Nora. On the sides it has an introduction to Nora and Em. At the bottom it has links to reviews, archives, and other possible book blogs.

This is another book blog that was especially good, http://iwasateenagebookgeek.blogspot.com/. This blog has links to other blogs on the side and an archive on the other. It has a blurb, that seems like its from the book. Then a review type of blurb, some personal comments. And finally something at the end which can range from excerpts to interviews. I liked it because it felt more personal, not just and informative boring posts.

This is my next to last blog I thought was really good, this is it, http://lisadgibson.blogspot.com/. This blog has links to other book blogs on one side. On the top it has multiple tabs where you can see reviews by title, or rating. Also they have a list of books they are reading or have read, and something that appears to be excerpts from a book they are writing. The thing I liked best is how they put a blurb from a professional review maker, and then they put "my take" on the book. Then they gave it a rating.

And now, the final book blog I liked, http://yannabe.com/. This is a blog written by good reader (there are lots of book reviews). There are links to most recent posts, most recent comments, and popular posts. In their reviews, they give a short plot synopsis, what they liked and didn't like, a small excerpt from the book, and a sort of spinning the post out into the world with a few last sentences. That's what I liked

So there you have it, a long post with 5 different book blogs, a description, and what I liked. Ta da.
Nico