Birthmarked

Wow, I actually uploaded my weekly review before Sunday! It’s a miracle. Thanks to the extended weekend this week, I was able to actually get some good reading time in. So, on to the review of Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien.

Birthmarked takes place in the year 2400 or so and focuses on one city and the town on its outskirts (It’s not clear if that is the only city left in the world, but there is a vast wasteland all around the city). The technical name for the city would be the Enclave (it’s also separated from the town by a huge wall around the city), and the town outside it would be Wharfton, which is split up into six “sectors.” There are no hospitals anywhere, so midwives deliver all the babies in Wharfton. Every month, each midwife (there are a couple per sector) has to take the first three babies she delivers and give them to the Enclave. The babies are taken away from their real parents, adopted by families inside the Enclave, and supposedly have a great life inside the Enclave. The Enclave seems perfect.

               Gaia Stone, sixteen, is one such midwife in Wharfton, taking after her mother. She hates having to take babies away from their mothers, but she believes that it is for the good of the Enclave. Then one day, a panicked friend gives her a ribbon with a strange code sewn on it right before her parents are taken away for questioning. A soldier starts asking her about any records kept of the births her mother has overseen. Though she doesn’t know why it’s important, she keeps the ribbon secret and evades his questioning. Weeks pass, and her parents still haven’t come back from inside the Enclave. She sets out to break in and discover where they are, and is horrified by what she finds. Not only by what she finds out about her parents, but by what the happy façade of the Enclave hides. Things begin to spiral bigger than she had ever imagined.

                Sooo, I’m sure you all know my shtick by now. This is a really good book, copy and paste admiration and whatnot here. I'm expecting a sequel. The only comment I have other than that is that the code stuff is sometimes a little confusing (and this is coming from a somewhat-math-whiz). Though, maybe I’m just a little slow today and it’s perfectly clear if you’re lucid. Hey, we don’t have school. My brain has no obligations to work. Okay, you can pick up Birthmarked (which you should) at Kettleson or Mt. Edgecumbe.

Graceling

Okay, I know this is a day late. See the review below for excuses. I didn’t get time to actually read the book until the weekend, and then didn’t have time to write the review on Sunday. Long story short, I’m sorry and I’ll try to not let it happen again. Put your pitchforks and torches away. Aaaand on to the review of Graceling by Kristin Cashore!

                Graceling is set in an olden land with seven kingdoms (I love it… even “olden land” sounds all, um, olden). In these lands, some people are born with two different colored eyes and have Graces. A Grace is basically an extremely heightened skill at something. It could be anything, like swimming, archery, cooking, or sewing (yeah, that would be a lame Grace). Some Graces are completely odd, like the ability to hold your breath for a really long time or climb really tall trees. Anyway, all Graced children are sent to their country’s king when they are young. If a king has use for their Grace, they’ll be brought up at court. If he doesn’t, they’ll be sent back home.

                Katsa, who in the book is in her late teens or so, is ruled by King Randa of the Middluns. She has a very unusual Grace, though, the Grace of killing, and is forced by Randa to do his dirty work—dole out punishment and the like. One day she meets Prince Greening, or Po. Po is Graced with hand-to-hand combat. He shows Katsa that it would be possible to get out from under Randa’s thumb, and tells her about his purpose being there. Soon the two set out on a journey to uncover the truth about his mission that is buried deeper than anyone realizes. They must learn to trust each other to survive, a process which isn’t helped by some shocking discoveries about both Katsa and Po’s Graces.  Will they both make it through the journey unharmed, or will they be ripped apart by forces beyond their imagining?

                Dun dun duuuun. Yep, this is definitely an adventure-type book. I personally read it in one sitting because I couldn’t bear to put it down. And, I’m not the type to collect a lot of books (I consider it my duty to keep the library running) but I can say that this book is on my Christmas wishlist. Seriously, read this book. It doesn’t matter what age you are, everyone would like this book. Get it at Kettleson, SHS, BMS, and Mt. Edgecumbe. I’m not kidding. Go.

Audrey, Wait!

Okay, I have an essay, an eight minute presentation, and a poster to work on, so you should feel lucky that I even got time to do this. Still, I guess it was a good thing that I read this book. I’ve been kinda stressed lately, and this book totally cheered me up. I swear, I got so many weird looks because I was laughing out loud at things in it. So, Audrey, Wait by Robin Benway is of more of a normal teen book, no fantasy or anything like that. Trust me, it’s really good.

                Audrey, Wait's main theme is definitely music, and how it can make you feel anything from happiness, to sadness, to anger, to utter embarrassment (which applies here). It's about a normal girl living near LA named Audrey (shocker) who has a deadbeat boyfriend, a job at an ice cream place called the Scooper Dooper (need I say more?), and a slightly insane best friend (don’t we all?). She decides to break up with aforementioned deadbeat BF Evan, due to a very long list of reasons. Unfortunately, Evan is in a band and decides to pour out his feelings into a song called Audrey, Wait, perhaps the only good song the band has ever played. Much to Audrey’s horror, the song gets famous, almost overnight. Everyone in the country knows the song, and even worse, knows it’s about her. She’s suddenly getting calls from reporters, and stalked by paparazzi (seriously, not as much fun as you’d think).  Her every action is being documented and twisted in a not-so-good way.  A fight with her best friend is the final straw, and Audrey decides that she’s had enough. The only question is, how will she fix the huge mess she’s in?

                So, as I’ve said before, this book is awesome. The only thing is, it’s got a bit of language here and there, so if you’re very conservative I’d say don’t read it. Though, I’d say overall the language shouldn’t be much of a deterrent. It's totally your loss if you don't read it, because this book is hilarious and great for anyone who needs a mood-lightener.  It’s available at Kettleson, Blatchley, and Sitka High.

RDYF

That stands for Read Down Your Fines in the Dictionary of Little-Known Acronyms. Yeah, I made that up. Shocking. Anyway, if you, yes you, have any fines owed to the library, don't worry. It happens to the best of us. I'm assuming you like to read (why else would you have overdue books?), so you can come into the library any Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to read away your fines. Just bring a good book, tell the librarian what you're doing, and for every fifteen minutes you read, $1 will be taken off your fines. *In cheesy infomercial voice* Watch your debts literally disappear! Sideeffectsmayincludeheadachesnauseaupsetstomachdizzinessandfainting. Naw, you don't get those. You just can't do an infomercial without a blurred-together list of side effects, many nastier than the thing the product is curing in the first place. Okay, enough with my rant about infomercials. If you want to see the nifty, official flyer, scroll down and look on  the bar on the left. It pretty much says what I just said, but looks nicer. Okay, I have a very extensive workload (*cough*English*cough**cough*), but I'm trying to get your weekly review up by Sunday. Wish me luck!

Bookface Pics

Okay, wow! We have a lot of bookface pictures now, so I'm going to start naming them by their subject and/or by a letter. If you look back at those two pictures I posted a bit ago, you'll see that I've re-labeled them, in the poll too. Sorry for the confusion, it should make more sense soon. Okay, I give you... the photos!

Label: Rebels (C)

Ouch (D)

Code (E)

Half (F)

Hugo (G)

Silhouette (H)

Wolf (I)

Stork (J)

Preacher (K)

Shaker (L)

Butterfly (M)

Vote!

Hey, people of the interwebs!
The bookface poll is now fully operational, so move that mouse over to the left.... a little more... down a bit... there you go! Vote! I'll add more options when we get more pictures, so go ahead and submit one! Be the change! (heh heh. anyone at SHS will get that.) Anyway, I'm hyped up on sugar right now, as you could probably tell by my abuse of exclamation points, so I'll stop before anyone else catches my hyperness. Is that a word? My microsoft word spellcheck says no, but it's also saying microsoft isn't a word, so it can't be all that smart. Okay, I think I said something about stopping. Bye!

Tiger's Curse

Ooh, I love that feeling when you finish a really good book! Very satisfying. Okay, let me say that this is kind of a girl’s book, cause it has some romance-y tendencies. Still, there’s also a really good plot and setting, so any boys reading this should at least try it.  The name is Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck.

       Tiger’s Curse starts out in Oregon with eighteen-year-old Kelsey Hayes. She gets a job at a circus and makes friends with a white tiger they have, Ren. Soon a man named Mr. Kadam shows up, showing a great interest in Ren and Kelsey. When he manages to buy Ren from captivity, he offers Kelsey the chance travel with him to India and get Ren to a safe place. Little does she know what she’s about to get into (ominous music. Nah, don’t worry, it’s not like a horror movie or anything). Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, India. So when they get there, Mr. Kadam reveals that Ren is actually a prince that’s been put under a curse; he can only be a man for 24 minutes of every day, and only when he’s not in captivity. (I know it sounds like a cheesy fairy tale, but stick with me. I’m not the best at explaining things.) Kelsey and Ren unearth a poem/prophecy that outlines their task: to find four special items somewhere around India. So, they set out to find the first object, Kelsey learning a lot about Indian culture and maybe a little about love (see, that’s where the guy deterrent comes in). She learns that she is Durga’s (the main goddess of Hinduism) chosen one, and that sometimes doing what’s right isn’t the easy way. She also learns that you should really stay away from monkeys while in India, but that’s a different story. I’ve probably said too much already, so I’ll leave you with that.
       Okay, since I just finished it, the book isn’t at the library yet, but I’ll turn it in tomorrow. Pick it up at Kettleson, I promise you won’t regret it! (Also, don’t be daunted by the size, it’s really interesting and it goes fairly fast.) Ciao!

Bookface Pics!

Yay! We have our first bookface entries! The one on the top is from Jack Peterson, and the one on the bottom is from Luci Cannizzaro. I'm setting up a poll on the side so you can vote for your favorite, so stay tuned! Also, I plan to post a review today or tomorrow, so look for that.


This picture is labeled as: Kiss (A)

This Picture is labeled as: Anatomy (B)