It’s Time! Book Blogger Hop!

Thanks to Jen over at Crazy for Books, for hosting.

What a great way for book bloggers to get to know each other!

Well, the question this week was who’s our favorite new-to-us author? Hmm. But we’ve read so many. I’ll let Noe go first.

Noe: Suzanne Collins! Yeah... definitely! I am counting down the days, till the release of Mockingjay and I will mow my mom down to read the book first. She will have to wait!

Suz: This is a tough one, but I’m gonna go with Danielle Trussoni. I absolutely loved Angeology and it’s influenced me in my writing and my religious studies. I am really looking forward to her follow up novel, Angelopolis.

Happy book blog hopping!!

Daniel Craig To Play Mikael Blomkvist

You know how much I love these books!!! Well... It's official, Daniel Craig has been confirmed to play Mikael Blomkvist in the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I am sort of freaking out, inwardly. *Screams* Not to say that Swedish actor, Michael Nyquist was not a good Blomkvist, it's just... *squirms* "I swear, it's not you Michael. It's me. Can we still be friends?"

Now I guess we will have to see who will be cast as Lisbeth Salander...

To read more, click here.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Genre; Adult fiction, Kick ass heroine antics

If you have not read the first in this series, The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo, by all means, stop what you are doing and GO buy the book! (Btw, the movie is available on Netflix Instant Play. Great Swedish film, though they have changed a few things from the book. I hate when they do that.)

“Crusading publisher Mikael Blomkvist has decided to run an explosive expose of wide-ranging sex trafficking operation. Just before the piece is published, two people are brutally murdered. The fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled hacker genius Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Lisbeth herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, and is forced her to face her dark past.”

Curiosity has plagued me but once again, as I hit add to cart the second installment of the late Stieg Larsson’s (who tragically died of a heart attack in 2004) Millennium trilogy.

In the first book, we learn of Salander's misfortunes as her new Guardian attempts to extort sexual favors from her, in exchange for access to her own bank account. Well, in the end we all remember what happened to him... (Think tattoo unskillfully inked across one's stomach that says "I'm a sadist pig and rapist.")

Yet, over the past two years of Lisbeth's mysterious departure (where she has been travelling the world on Wennerstrom's embezzled funds), the anger and disgusts in Nils Bjurman has been brewing. And this ultimately is the match that ignites the fire, as Salander upon her return, becomes wrapped up in a world of murder, sex trafficking, and biker gangs.

What I loved about this book is that we finally get to learn about Salander and her dark past. We learn of the reasons why she was committed to the insane asylum at age 12, and we learn why it is that she mistrusts people. All is finally revealed and not without disappointment. I have to admit, Salander maybe one of the most kick ass heroine characters I've ever read about. (artwork by me)

The book is action packed and very suspenseful right to the very end and I have to admit, I am happy that once again Mikael and Lisbeth paths cross.

I give it five stars!!! Suz...

We Are Book Hopping!

Hey! Guess What! Noe is back from vacation and we are book blog hopping! We have decided to make it our goal, to visit each blog that signs up for the Book Blog Hop (thanks to Jen over at crazy-for-books).

Our first blog that we have befriended, DeadWhiteGuysLit.blogspot.com An Irreverent Guide to Classic Literature. Wanna know why?

Because we have decided to go back and read the classics. This was our first purchase over the last weekend.

The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger

The Waste Land-T.S. Elliot

To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee

Yeah us!!

So this week’s question was, what book are we currently reading?

Suz; I’m currently reading The Girl Who Played With Fire and I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK SO FAR!! More to come when I post my review.

Noe; I’m currently reading White Cat and think it’s kind of cool. I’m also waiting on a shipment from Amazon of Greek Mythology books. I blame Percy Jackson.

My New YA Story; My Immortal

There was once a little girl who watched her mother type furiously on her computer. The mother was deep in thought, as she added word upon word, of her story. The little girl, understanding her mother's stories were too adult for her liking, simply asked... "How come you never write me any stories?"

From those simple words birthed My Immortal. The story is dedicated to my daughter, Noe.

Soooo. If you would like to check out my new YA story, the link is here; My Immortal.

Summary; The story centers around a young girl, Noe, who in the course of her school year discovers that there is more to her family than meets the eye. Yet strangely, this is only the tip of the darkness that the family is hiding. An unexpected trip to Paris, and an unintentional friendship with a young boy named Benjamin, threatens Noe's very core. Will she survive her family's past?

Marta Acosta's The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove Gets Picked Up!

I love Marta, truly I do. And when I saw her post that Thor picked up The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, I could be nothing but elated for her.

Marta runs a blog, Vampire Wire and writes several adult vampire themed books, including her famous, Happy Hour at Casa Dracula.

Marta is an avid reader, and I have won several books through her site. Did I mention I love Marta?

Well, to make a long story short. Marta was kind enough to post her YA story for free, here, and I wanted to help spread the love. Remember, her story will be coming out soon in hard cover, and paper back, so catch it while you can.

Congrats Marta!!

Summary of The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove: Jane Williams has suffered personal tragedy and learned to survive by hiding in the shadows of life. She thinks she will never escape the misery of her foster home when she's offered a full-scholarship at an elite academy. The school even offers Jane a place of her own to live, the old ground keeper's cottage in a dense grove of birch trees.

The very pale and very elegant headmistress, Mrs. Monroe, is especially kind and suggests Jane earn spending money by tutoring her son, gorgeous Lucky. A popular group of girls take Jane into their circle, and the challenging classes are all she could hope for.

It seems to good to be true. It is.

White Cat by Holly Black

Reading level; YA
Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

My review; First, Noe is STILL on vacation and I'm desperately missing my reading buddy (and of course, my daughter.)
Sighs... But, I love to read.

So when I put it out there on twitter that I was ready for another book. White Cat came back several times, highly recommended. (Oh, how I love twitter.)

I'm going to be upfront, I read 165 pages in the first day, and the rest, the second day. I could not put the book down.

I think what intrigued me most about the book was the plot line. It was unique, different. And there seemed to be enough cleverly placed twists, to make a reader go crazy with anticipation. The story seemed to have you on edge, and just when you thought you had it figured out, guess what? You don't.
Stumbling across this one review, the person said it best in comparing White Cat to a world of supernatural and mafia.

To sum it up, the book is a fast paced tale of a family of workers and their very dark secrets. My only complaint. I didn't get my happily ever after and I hate when I don't get my happily ever after. I despise the ideology of being consumed or devoured into one's life. A world without redemption? *sighs* Okay, okay. I'm straying.

White Cat is dangerously fun and without a doubt, you will enjoy this book. I give it four purring stars, and the only reason it did not get a fifth purring star... Ask Cassel's mom.

The Last Airbender directed by M. Night Shymalan

Four Nations, One Destiny.

Rated PG for fantasy action violence.

Playing now in theatres in 3D or 2D.

Short synopsis; Based on the animated tv show, Avatar.

The story unfolds, explaining the world in which we are about to embark on, as being divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Fire and Air.

Among these nations, children with talent are born, the talent being that they are able to harness and control the element in which they live in. Bend it, as their name is given; Bender.

We see two older teenagers within the water nation, stumble across a frozen ball. The girl, without any regard to danger, picks at the ice ball. From there, it shatters, light is strewn from it’s center; its content a child.

It is this child, as we soon learn, that indeed as legend has it, is the Avatar; Last Airbender. The bender, who is consistently reincarnated, as the one who brings peace and balance. He is the only one that speaks to the spirit world for guidance, and the only one that can control all the elements. He is like a messiah, I suppose.

Frozen in ice for over a hundred years, the boy learns that his nation, the Airbenders, are all but extinct. Killed by the Fire nation. And so the story begins....

My review; First! Why such bad reviews people? I will refrain from cursing, out of respect for the children, but @$&*@$!!! Seriously?

Okay, I’ve seen Iron Man 2 (boring in the beginning), Percy Jackson (the underworld hidden behind the Hollywood sign?) and Prince of Persia (Jake, your eyes are blue. You are not arab.) This movie was WAY better than all those other movies.

I had no trouble with the acting, the plot line moved well, and the action and special effects were awesome. It is a movie that the entire family can enjoy (which by the way, is only the first movie in which as we see by the ending, a saga.) You do not have to be familiar with the show, to understand the movie. But for those little boys that do know the show, they will be bending elements the minute they leave the theatre.

The actor who plays the Aang the avatar, Noah Ringer, was PERFECT. I would like to adopt him, please. And the Fire nation. Brilliant! (I loved Dev Patel as the Prince. Remember him from Slumdog Millionaire?) I can’t say this enough. I LOVED IT!

The only reason it does not get five stars from me is because both my husband and I agree, you advertised in 3D, and so we saw it in 3D. NOT worth your extra money. Shymalan, you owe me $8 dollars. That was not a 3D movie. Please improve by your next film.

You know what was better in 3D? The freaking trailers!

But regardless, the movie is pure fun. Screw the bad reviews, and go see it in 2D. Your kids will thank you.