Witch and wizard

I recently read the last witch and wizard book by James Patterson. In the book, whisty and whit, the only ones with the power to defeat the evil ruler, the one who is the one. As the story progresses, whisty and whit find out more about their world around them, and how to defeat the one who is the one. Traveling through the dangerous overland and underland, they face many dangers along the way.

The most interesting character relationship in the story is the one between whit and his diseased girlfriend, Celia. He is able to see and interact with her in dreams and the underland, and almost commits suicide at one point to be with her. She also saves whit from dangerous creatures in the underland, even though it appears for a while that Whit might have a new girlfriend.

All in all, I though it was a pretty good book in a good series, and if you like fantasy books, you should read it.

Leaving Paradise

I have just read Leaving paradise by Simone Elkes. This has just turned into one of my favorite books. It is about a girl named Maggie who was run over and hit in the leg by a guy that she really liked named Caleb. They learn to become very good friends and start dating until Caleb leaves and Maggie finds out that it wasn't really Caleb it was her best friend and Caleb's little sister. I like this book because it talks about both views of the main characters, because it switches off narrating between characters. I definitely recommend it to my peers because the main characters are about our age and it is a very interesting book altogether.

I recently finished LA Candy, by Lauren Conrad. Although I enjoyed reading it, it did not have an ending. I know that there's a sequel, and many books end in a way that forces you to read the second. Personally, I do not like cliffhanger endings, especially ones that aren't written well. The novel simply ends with no resolution, which I suppose is a way to insure the purchase of the sequel. I prefer books that give me the answers, not series that eventually reveal all. The novel ends with Scarlet reading a note written by Jane, explaining that she and Madison had snuck to a condo in Mexico as to get away from "it all". This note has no significance, just an update on the whereabouts of Jane scribbled on the back of a Chinese carry-out bill. Although I enjoyed the first novel for the most part, I still cannot decide if I should read the second. It could very-well end in another cliffhanger, luring the reader to pick up the next book.

Farewell to Manzanar

Farewell to Manzanar is a book about a young girl, Jeanne, and her Japanese family that live in America during the second World War. Soon after the bombings of Pearl Harbor, Jeanne finds that she must grow up much quicker than she expected. When the family moves to hide in a new neighborhood, she faces prejudice and has difficulty making any friends in school. When her father is taken from the her by the FBI, with little explanation for his capture and no information about where they are taking him and for how long, she must hold together, especially as her mother grows older and weaker. When she moves to the camp, the family is forced to live in small cold huts, under poor conditions. However, she must make herself useful to help both repair the cabin, and to stay out of the way of her busy mother. She must not complain about the horrible food or the sand that often blows into her eyes at the camp. Jeanne must grow up.

This book has been very good and has been very informative so far. I honestly had no idea of how many thousands of people were crammed into these camps and how terrible and inhumane they truly were until reading this book. Anyone who likes Holocaust books like Night by Elie Wiesel, or anyone who enjoys history in general will like this book a great deal. However, even if you do not like either of these topics, I still strongly recommend this book because of the author's brilliant style of writing.

Catching Fire: continued

I am still reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The way she rights the book is very suspenseful. She will have the story lead one way, but then switch when the reader won't expect it. One of the only laws the Hunger Games has is once a tribute has fought in the Hunger Games they are out of the reaping forever. This year it is the 75th Hunger Games and every 25 years something that the capital thinks is special happens. On the 50th Hunger Games the special change for that year was there would be double the amount of tributes in the rink, so instead of 24 tributes there where 48, and for the 75th Games it is the reaping will only contain the living winners of previous Hunger Games. Because district 12 has always been the underdog, there are only 3 living tributes, one girl, Katnis, and two boys, Peeta and Haymitch. Because of this the Tributes are Katnis and Peeta for the second year in a row. When the announcement was made Katnis thought it was a setup because President Snow want to get rid of Katnis and Peeta because their "love" is causing uprisings in the other districts. Now Peeta and Katnis are back in the Capital with the other winning tributes, waiting for the games to start again.

Forever Princess

Forever Princess is the 14th book in "The Princess Diaries", even though it is only called book 10. I haven't read all the books in this series though, only about four. It is written from the point of a princess, Mia, in her journal. She is the princess of Genovia, a made up principality in Europe. At first, she is a gawky awkward girl and not very princess-y at all! In this book, her ex-boyfriend has come back from Japan and it's really awkward between them. I think this book raises the question, what does it really mean to be a princess? Mia may not be the prettiest, smartest (she admits it) girl, but she always says the right things and is polite. She learns what it really is about to be a princess, it's not always sparkly tiaras and ballgowns, but being a good person. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you've read some of the main books (none of the 5 and 3/4 or 6 and 1/2s are that important to the plot..). Although some of the events confuse me, because Meg Cabot doesn't come back and re-explain what happened in previous books, one of the only flaws.

Uglies

I just finished the book The Uglies by Scott Westerfield. It is a futuristic book about a city where at the age of 16, you turn 'pretty'. The authorities get it into everyone's heads that before you turn 16, you are ugly. Everybody sees themselves as ugly, even if they are not. There is a rumor of a town called The Smoke, a town where uglies run away to if they don't want to be pretty. Where we live is not much like this, but it is. We think that being super skinny is pretty, when it's not. Girls all over the world starve themselves to look 'pretty'. But what is pretty? Do we only think someone is pretty because the media says they're pretty? We all are different. There is not any one person who is prettier, because everyone is beautiful in their own way. If you think you're ugly just because you don't look the model on the cover of Seventeen, then you're wrong. The girl on the cover puts on a lot of makeup, has had her hair done professionally, and you still want to look like her. Why do you want to look like someone else? Can't we just be happy looking the way we are, different than everyone else? We are all pretty in our own way. Sure, you don't have long straight, black, shiny hair, but you are tall. We all have something that makes us beautiful, even if it's your personality that makes you amazing.