Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

I finally got around to reading the last book in the Inheritance Cycle.  It turned out good and I am glad to have finally been able to finish this series.  It seems like it took a very long time for Paolini to get this book out.  I am glad for the most part how things played out and where everyone ends up.  Thank you Paolini for not making everyone's ending a 'happily ever after' story.

Spoiler:

So if you have not read the book yet, then DO NOT READ FURTHER.  I usually try to steer clear of giving out too much information about a book, but in order to really state my feelings on this book I will have to say some things that may ruin the surprises and twists in this book.  So to start off with.  Why or why did Paolini have to make Arya a dragon rider.  Seriously.  She already becomes queen, why not make someone else the dragon rider.  I was happy to see Murtagh and Thorn live, it puts a little twist on things having Murtagh and Nasuada have feelings for one another, but it does seem fitting.  I love the twist of finding hidden dragan hearts and eggs.  It seems like a very logical thing for the riders to have done and especially to have everyone erase their memories of it in order to keep everything safe.  It was a very well thought out part of the story.  Lastly, I am glad to see that every race now has the ability to have a dragon rider.  This also seems fitting and a good way to unite all the races.  I am glad to see that Paolini was also smart enough to put in that not everyone would be happy to have Nasuada as queen and therefore even after the main battle, they are still fighting with one another and bands of rebels.  Mainly, my main complaint is making Arya a dragon rider.  Even the final battle was slightly anti-climatic and I think he could have spent a bit more time with the final fight between Galbatorix, Murtagh, and Eragon.  It would have even been interesting to actually hear from Thorn and Galbatorix's dragon a bit to see relationships between other dragon riders.  It sort of seemed like Paolini was done with the book and just skimmed over it.  He spends more time on other non-important details, but the actual climax of the book was lacking just a bit.  I am a little more critical of this book than others just because it is a great story (even though it has many similarities to Lord of the Rings).  I just expect perfection from a good story.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

 This is the second book in "The Heroes of Olympus" series which continues to follow Percy Jackson and introduce new demigods to save the world from Gaea.  I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the feel of this book.  Yes, we are introduced to two new demigods, Frank and Hazel.  Frank's life is dependent on a piece of wood and Hazel is brought back to life by Nico for a second chance at life as a daughter of Pluto (Hades).  So Percy shares the light with these two and I felt like his character just did not fit him like in "The Olympians" series.  He seems a little too grown up now and less of a main character.  I still enjoyed the book and can see that this book sets up for all seven characters to meet again in the third book.  I am hoping the third book will bring some good humor and interesting stories since we have Greeks and Romans being forced to work together and even better, we have the two heros of each camp finally meeting, Percy and Jason.

One thing I would like to mention is that I like having the Greek and Roman terms and way of life being compared side by side.  If you are like me, you tend to mix up the Roman and Greek gods, not realizing they are the same person, just a different time period.  You see the good of each time period as well as their weaknesses.  The Greeks tend to embrace technology while the Romans keep the old ways of life, but they also have a safe civilization for older demigods to live, while the Greeks do not have this or at least we have not been introduced to it yet.

GoodReads

I didn't have much time to read over the Christmas Season, however, I was introduced to a wonderful book site.  goodreads.  It took me a bit of time to set of my account since there were so many books that I wan't to add to my list, but it was worth the time.  This site allows you to add books you have read and rate them on a 5-star rating.  You can also put together lists of books you want to read as well as post reviews on books you have read for others to see.  It shows what the average rating is for each book and also refers books to you that you might be interested in reading based on your lists.  If you like free giveaways, there are tons of books you can enter to win.  Check it out by clicking on the goodreads link.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Wow. Want a book to really make you think and possibly start worrying about our future, then this is the book to read.  Another one of those books from the classroom that Blake wanted me to read with him.  What really makes this book believable is that Ray Bradbury wrote this in the early 1950's and much of what he thought and predicted can be seen today.  That's over 60 years later.  The book is divided into three sections instead of chapters so there is no stopping points or segment breaks which is nice to just keep your thoughts on the one idea instead of many subjects.

So the first section you are introduced to Montag and the life he lives as a fireman.  However, being a fireman means that you burn books and houses that held books.  Anyone found with one is arrested.  No one really remembers the past and what it was really like and they do not care.  No one really knows eachother or interacts with one another.  The world is in chaos and no one cares.  After seeing a woman burn herself alive with her books, Montag starts to really question his life.  He doesn't know his wife, nor does he seem to care about her anymore.  She has been sucked into the life of imediate gratification and entertainment.  Her 'family' consists of 3 tv walls that she even says makes her laugh and she makes them laugh.  It's who she only cares about.  Even going to bed she puts in headphones to keep in contact with everyone.  Intellegence and individual thoughts are crushed.

What makes it scary is that you can see this happening today.  Everyone comes home from school/work and is glued to an electronic device.  Even today, the power went out for an hour and I kept finding myself being drawn to the computer since I wanted to check emails and facebook, which I had already checked a couple times today.  I didn't know what to do at first without any connection to the world.  A sad, but true commercial I saw of a teenager saying her parents have no friends while she has 350 on facebook sums it up pretty good as well.  Are these really your friends?

Another part of this book talks about how minority groups caused the main reason for the start of burning books.  Groups kept getting offended of what each book talked about.  Not just racial groups, but religious, intellectual, etc...  Any group of people with similarities started saying everything was unfair for them since the majority did not comply.  The fire chief put it pretty clear when he said that their job is to make the minority population happy no matter what.  Do we not see this happening today?

We learn that it is not necessarily books that make all the difference.  There are three things everyone needs.  1. Quality Information, 2. Leisure to digest it, and 3. The right to carry out actions based on what you learn from the interaction of the first two.  Society in this book are missing these and struggling to survive.  People kill each other with no thought and commit suicide.  It is accepted an part of life.  One lady mentions she will never have children since it limits her fun while another says she puts her kids in schhol for ten days and the 3 days in the month they are home she puts them in front of the tv.  It is all about the individual.

To see what happens to Montag in this environment pick up this book and read it.  It has been a while since I have read a book that really makes me think and analyze life.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Blake has a ton of classroom books in his room so I decided to go through them and read some of the ones I have never read.  Blake started to read this book and insisted that I needed to read it with him.  Needless to say, I got hooked  and finished before he did.  This was a great book and the story just pulls you in.  I just looked up on amazon and noticed there are a good 5 books in this series so we will definately have to keep reading them.

Ender is 5 years old when the book starts. You have to keep reminding yourself that most of the characters in this book are between 5-12 years old and being breed and trained to save the world.  Earth was attacked by Buggers (bug-like aliens) and nearly destroyed before the military, by pure luck, stopped them from invading the earth.  Now they have decided to attack the Buggers and get rid of them for good.  The world is only allowed to have children if granted by the government and even them only 2.  Each child when they has a monitor attached to their neck to see if they are gifted enough to go to Battle School.  Ender is a Third in his family.  This is not highly thought of and often the kids are bullied since they were only breed since their older siblings did not pan out and therefore the Third was breed with the intentions of them being great.  From the start, the military has pegged Ender as the commander to lead the Bugger invasion and therefore isolate him and rigorously train him beyond any student.  He is pushed to the limits and eventually makes it to Eros, the command center.  He is only 11 at this time which is unheard of since most go when they are 16.  Ender and his group of toon leaders train with mock battles in order to prepare for the actual Bugger battle.

I won't say much more since I don't want to ruin the ending of the book, but it is crazy how smart these kids are and what they are capable of doing.  It is also sad to see that they have no childhood.  Yes, it was for the good of the earth, but at what cost?  What has the government done to their economy and the people in it?  A must read for sure.

Darke by Angie Sage

What a great way to end the Septimus Heap series.  An evil Darke has enveloped the castle and starts to take over the village as well.  Marcia accidentally banishes Alther and Septimus must return him in order to hopefully end Merrin's terror over the castle.  Merrin is still determined that he was suppose to be Septimus and is intent on taking revenge on him.  Jenna finally accepts that she is to be a princess and must act accordingly and think of everyone else as well as her safety, however, the Coven witches are determined to make her a witch.  Sounds crazy and a lot is going on, but Angie does a great job tying up all the lose ends and ending this fun story.

The Heavenly Surrender by Marcia Lynn McClure

Yes, I read another one.  In this story Genieva has agreed by mail to marry Breven McLean.  When she arrives at the train station, Breven is needless to say a little upset with how young, pretty, and small Genieva is.  He needs a hard worker to help him with his farm.  They marry and she finds herself for the first time in the country learning how to milk cows.  I love this book since it has so many different things going on.  You have a neighboring family trying to take the McLean's land with their son trying to take Genieva.  Then you have Genieva's family who shows up and then the town that talks about how Breven fathered a young girl's child, which is not true.  For some reason my favorite part is when Breven gets hurt and is out for a couple of days when their corn needs to be planted.  Genieva plants the corn all by herself and then carries water from the river to the corn all day since the corn needs water.  Breven wakes up to Genieva asleep at the table and takes her to bed to notice that her feet and hands are terribly blistered.  It is just an awesome part since she works despite the pain knowing the work has to be done and doing it for her husband who she loves, but believes he will never love her in return.  Great story of trust and work.

Desert Fire by Marcia Lynn McClure

Who can resist a good Marcia Lynn McClure book?  Not I.  I started to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and decided I needed something more lighthearted and fun to read.  I'm not saying Dorian Gray is not a bad book, I've read it before and enjoyed the overall story, it just is not a quick, easy read and I struggle with those at times.  So when in doubt, turn to Marica.  I admit at first I was not a fan of her books and found them somewhat simple and predictable, but there are times when I crave reading her books.  I have never had that from an author so Marcia has risen to the top of my list of great romance authors.  I am a little embarrassed to admit that I even e-mailed her with a cute, romantic idea for a book.  Who knows, she may actually use it, which would be totally awesome.

Back to "Desert Fire."  I have read all of Marica's books, just not posted all of them since there are so many.  It took me some research to finally find this book since I knew I was in the mood to read the story where the girl is found in the desert and can not remember who she is.  Yes, the young lady in this story finds herself rescued by a very handsome McCall boy and taken to his family's ranch.  She can not remember who she is and stays with the family.  She slowly remembers who she is throughout the book and falls in love with her rescuer.  It is a fun read with a classic love story that everyone can love.

I'm Back

No, I have not given up on this blog. We just finished moving and finally got the internet connected again. Unfortunately I have not had time to read for a while with the new baby and not having a home, but hopefully I will start a new book next week. There are so many options I don't know where to start. I've got a huge list of books from my husbands new classroom that I would like to read since they are all approved books for 9th and 10th grade and I would like to be familier with these books. For Halloween this year I need to read Frankenstein. Then there are all the new books coming out such as the Inheritance book, Septimus Heap, The Sun of Neptune... Man, I need to set up my new library card so I can be put on the waiting list.

Otherwise, I need to catch up with the Domino Project by Seth Godin. (Click here to read more) Sadly I have not read the other kindle books I have recieved from The Domino Project since my kindle was packed in a box, but I did recieve a paperback copy of one of their books, Pick Four: Zig Ziglar's Legendary Goals Program, Updated and Simplified as part of being an agent for BzzAgent. (Click here to join BzzAgent) I found this booklet to be awesome, especially for someone who has a bunch of projects they want to accomplish and don't know where to start. Zig starts you out by listing 100 things you want to do and then you slowly go through the list until you have 4. Each with a differnt focus such as family, career, financial, physical, spiritual, etc... You need to have different focuses for the goals in order to create balance in your life. It then makes you write down each week what you accomplished and goals for the following week. If you follow the steps, you will accomplish your goal. It's awesome. I would suggest copying the pages so you can continue to use the worksheets over and over again. Seriously, try this out.

The Kiss of a Stranger by Sarah M. Eden

When Crispin kisses who he assumes is a serving girl in order to get rid of unwanted female attention, he never thought it would lead to a forced marriage that same day when Catherine's wealthy uncle says her virtue has been compromised and must be married. Catherine has spent the last seven years being abused by her uncle and therefore does not trust men and believes all are the same as him. Crispin does not think this marriage will be an issue until he realized an annulment will taint his reputation and completely ruin Catherine's. Surprisingly, both start to fall in love with eachother, but are hesitant to reveal their true feelings believing the other wants the annulment.

I enjoyed reading this book since it is yet again another easy, feel-good, romance novel. Sorry for the short review today. New baby and moving requires a short review today.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

As you can see it has been a little while since I last posted and for the next couple of months my posts will be scarce compared to what I usually do since life is going to be very hectic and crazy until August. Last week I finally had my little girl, but I was able to get one book in while recovering at the hospital. Otherwise, the next couple weeks are going to be filled with family visiting and packing up and moving to Roosevelt, Utah for my husbands new teaching job. Oh yeah, have I mentioned that he is in the process of publishing his first book. Exciting! I'll do a review of his book once it is published so I can post a nice picture of it.

Anyway... So I was able to read the entire book, The Maze Runner, while I sat for endless hours i my room waiting to be released and go home. I feel like I have read this book before or at least a very similar type story. Actually, thinking on it now, the way it was written and the beginning of the book seems similar to The Missing series that I started a couple years ago, but never continued. This book is a very simple, easy read and also reminds me of Lord of the Flies in the sense that you have a group of boys that have been stuck in this maze for up two years. Each month a new boy shows up who, like the others, has no memory of his family or life, only his first name. He remembers knowing about life and concepts/ideas from before, but no actual memories of his life. Each week supplies are sent to them. They have put together somewhat of a society and each boy is assigned to either farm, butcher, run, cook, bury the dead, etc... The Runners, are boys that have been there for a while and each morning go out to the maze and plot the maze. Each night the walls around their 'settlement' go up and keep out the horrible machine monsters found in the maze. They never find an exit.

Thomas shows up and the boys who have been stung and 'changed' by the monsters, all have a faint memory of Thomas and so are skeptical of him, especially when the next day another person arrives and it's a girl who knows Thomas. Together they figure out hoe to escape the maze. I enjoyed the story, although it is not one that I am excited to continue or feel the need to immediately get the next book in the series. I do have to add that most people I have talked to absolutely love this author and in particular this series.

Mark of Royalty by Jennifer Clark & Stephonie Wiliams

A short, but delightful story, Mark of Royalty is about a princess, Sarah, who was first-born and marked with a unicorn scar, as is custom of her country. However, a twin brother was also born and because of a prophecy that the first-born would be a boy, they marked the boy and hide Sarah so protect her life. Sarah grows up in a different country not knowing who she is. Only her 'mother' knows who she really is. As circumstances have it, Sarah starts courting the king's nephew of her new country, but falls in love with the King's son. Her, step-father has other plans and sides with Lord Chad, the king's nephew, in a plot to make Chad the king. Alex, the king's son, has been forced to find a bride from another country or give up the thrown to Chad, which he wants to do in order to bring unity to their country and be able to marry Sarah. In the end, Sarah, is revealed to everyone to be a true princess from Spain and therefore, Alex can indeed marry her and fulfill his obligation to marry from another country and Chad is tried for treason. All ends well. A classic story, but a nice, easy-read, feel-good story that is worth reading.

Listen by Rene Gutteridge

"So the question is, do the conversations we have privately define who we are, or are we who we are despite our private conversations?"

Just one of the few thought-provoking statements made in the most recent Kindle book I read. Someone has started a blog that posts the towns most intimate, private conversations that are not meant to be heard by anyone else and especially not the person they are talking about. So what happens when a town becomes obsessed with this site and begins to piece together who is saying what about whom? People begin to fight with one another and even get to the point of killing eachother. Friendships are forever ruined and married couples are afraid to communicate with one another in fear that their conversation will show up on this site. So how would you change if you knew your private conversations/gossip would show up the next day for all to see. It is an intrigueing book and honestly had a ton of quotes that I would love to put together at some point to really contemplate on. The story itself is not too bad either and it is interesting to see who the person is that is behind this website and what motivated this person to start it. I think this is an excelent read for all, and especially should be integrated into high school classes since a part of the story deals with bullying and gossip.

Gables Against the Sky by Anita Stansfield

I have never been a huge fan of Anita Stansfield. I read a few of her books when I was in high school and they were ok, but nothing great. Obviously, I haven't read any of her books since even though she has quite a few. My younger two sister-in-laws love this story and insisted that I give it a try. I've had the book for a few weeks and this week finally started to read it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it a decent book. This is a sequel and I really don't think I would enjoy reading the first book based off of the story line told in this book, but who knows.

This started out as a typical story of growing up in Australia at a boys home and one of the troubled boys falling in love with the owners daughter, but running off when she does not agree to go riding with him one afternoon. To get revenge later on he kidnaps her and of course she falls in love with him. Her brother falls in love with their 'adopted' sister and wants to get married, but she wants to stay in Australia while he wants to travel the world. He leaves and she has his son 9 months later. He doesn't come back home until 4 years later. I was surprised to find the main story line of the kidnapping and leaving home done by the middle of the book.

Unfortunately, after this point, the book gets a little annoying since we spend the rest of the story dealing with Lacey's crazy madness at Tyson for leaving her with a kid and unable to forgive him and incredibly mad at Michael for kidnaping her and Emma. She thinks Emma is insane for wanting to marry this criminal. Of course his past comes back to haunt them and they all have to overcome murder charges and learn to deal with their past skeletons in order to live happily ever after. Like I said, the beginning of the book was good, but then the second half just got annoying with all the irrational fighting and drama. Still a decent book.

Borrowed Light by Carla Kelly

I enjoyed reading this LDS book. It is not incredibly spiritual or filled with LDS scriptures and principles, but it does mention it tastefully in a way that does not take away from the main story. Julia is engaged to the 'perfect' guy and realizes on her sisters weddind day that she does not want to marry him and in a moment of frustration she applies for a cooking job on a ranch in Wyoming. A couple weeks later she still has not told anyone that she plans on canceling her engagement but is forced to when she gets a reply back saying she is to report to Wyoming within the week. She shows up at a secluded ranch full of men who have been eating out of cans and really have never cleaned the place up. Rats are everywhere and it takes her a week to get the oven cleaned. If you've seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers you can pretty much get the idea of Julia's experience at the beginning.

Of course she falls in love with the young owner who has been in charge of the ranch since he was 15. Julia struggles at first with her own testimony of her religion when faced with questions about it and the closest branch is a days train ride away so she is only able to go every couple of weeks and must rely on her own strength to uphold her values and defend her religion. In the end, Mr. Otto, the ranch owner, joins the church and Julia finds herself living her life in Wyoming. Don't let the churchy-type book scare you because the story is good and the book very enjoyable to read.