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.

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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