Book/Book Blog Plans!

  Hello again! I know I haven't posted in a few weeks, but my grandma and cousin have been coming over on the weekends lately and I've been having a really hard time figuring out what to write a post about....which is the reason why I just spent about twenty minutes on a few different blogs finding ideas for posts for this one! And I found like 16 ideas that I liked and wrote down! So hopefully I'll have an easier time making posts! 

  I think this post may have a few different sections....it has a few different topics at least! First, I have a notebook that I'm gonna write my blog schedule and post ideas in! I really like this notebook, but I've never used it for anything until now. I love that it has my first initial on it.... XD So far I've only written on two pages, but it should come in handy! 

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So, my dad took me and my mom to the library on Thursday and I got six new books! Plus I got to talk to my favorite librarian and see my beautiful library! I mean seriously, look at their ceiling! They've been adding changes too, and I love some of the ideas like this book basket I found on one of the tables in the Young Adult section!

Anyway, on to the actual books! Technically I have seven books checked out, including one that isn't in this picture, and one that's still sitting on the shelf in the background...the ones that you can actually see are The Colossus Rises, Lost in Babylon, The Tomb of Shadows, and The Curse of the King (Seven Wonders - Books 1-4) by Peter Lerangis in the top row and Mystery on Museum Mile (Eddie Red Undercover - Book 1) by Marcia Wells along with 12 (The Last Thirteen - Book 2) by James Phelan on the bottom. :) Unfortunately, the first book in The Last Thirteen series has yet to come in so I can't read 12 until I get it.... The other two books are School's Out - Forever (Maximum Ride - Book 2) by James Patterson, which is on the shelf in front of the other books, and House of Many Ways (Howl's Moving Castle - Book 3) by Diana Wynne Jones, which isn't in this picture...

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Finally, I'm gonna go ahead and do a book update! So, I still haven't picked City of Bones back up....I'm still on page 60/485..... I'm still reading Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, except now I'm on page 119/412 instead of 116....XD I'm also reading The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams for school and I'm on page 11/104 and House of Many Ways that I'm on page 206/416, 49% through! XD 

Well, that's it for now! I should be able to post tomorrow, but if not I definitely will next weekend! 

~Allie~

New Books!!!!

Hi!!! I have a sleeping toddler on the couch so I now have time to write a blog post! XD So, I have six new books!! Technically I got them yesterday, but I already posted once yesterday and I didn't really want to post twice in one day.....(Plus I may or may not have forgotten.....but we'll ignore that! XD) I went to the thrift store with my dad yesterday and of course I went straight to the book section and stayed there practically the whole time.... And I made another collage...XD

Okay, so top left is Moonrise by Erin Hunter! It's the second book in the Warriors : The New Prophecy series and even though I've read it before, I'm trying to collect all of the books if I can so I bought it! Even though it's paperback and the first one (that I also own) is in hardback....which usually drives me insane, but since I have some sets in paperback and some sets in hardback, it doesn't bother me too much... Anyway, top right is Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. Honestly, I almost didn't even read the back of this book to see what it was about when I saw who wrote it..... Diana Wynne Jones is the author of the Howl's Moving Castle trilogy (which I love and am planning on reading the last one soon) and I automatically wanted the book just because of the author...XD To my knowledge, (and Goodreads), this book isn't part of a series.... The middle left book is The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas by Tracy Mack. By the looks of this book, part of it got wet at some point, but it seemed fine other than that and it sounded good, plus it was only fifty cents (awesome, right?!), so I figured why not! This book is the first book in the Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars series. :) The book on the right in the middle is The Wish by Gail Carson Levine. This was another book that I got mostly based on the author...(she wrote Ella Enchanted!) and I figured that if I liked Ella Enchanted, I would try out this one! This one is a stand alone too I believe... Okay, bottom left is Holes by Louis Bachar. I've been wanting to read this one ever since I found out the movie was based on a book...I really like the movie and I would really like to find out what the book's like! Apparently this book is the first book in the Holes series.....or duo....or whatever you call a set of only two books.....(slightly ashamed that I don't know what that's called...) I thought it was only the one book....XD And last but not least is The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo! This is the movie novelization, but I'm really curious, and again, only fifty cents, so I got it! 

Well, that's it for today! Feel free to comment if you've read any of these books! I plan on doing a book update tomorrow! Plus, I really need to work on figuring out posts for my other blogs that I'm a part of..... 

~Allie~

Books Read in January!

Hi! I meant to post again this past weekend, but that never happened, so we're gonna post today! XD So, I read eight books last month! It probably would've been more if I hadn't kept switching books........On the bright side, I finished my first book in my 2016 reading challenge! And I saw on another blog that this person made a collage of the book covers instead of individual pictures and I really liked that idea, so I decided to make a collage of my own! I'm quite proud of it...XD

  I think I'm gonna try a new setup this time too.......So, here we go!

• Jan. 4th - Johnny B. Fast : The Super Spy (Johnny B. Fast - Book 1) by Tom Doganoglu. This book is an e-book that I got on my kindle a few years ago. This is either the second or third time I've read this book....I apparently never noticed the grammar errors when I first read it.... But they didn't ruin the book for me this time, and all in all I thought it was pretty good and gave it 4/5 stars. 
• Jan. 6th - The Storybook of Legends (Ever After High - Book 1) by Shannon Hale. This one was a library e-book and it was surprisingly good! I honestly wasn't expecting to be as entertained as I was by an Ever After High book, but I really liked it, and I gave it 4/5 stars. 
• Jan. 11th - The Menagerie (Menagerie - Book 1) by Tui T. Sutherland. Another library e-book! I really liked this book and plan on getting the next one from the e-book library soon! This one also got 4/5 stars. :) 
• Jan. 14th - Little House in the Big Woods (Little House - Book 1) by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is the second or third time that I can remember reading this book..... I was addicted to these books when I was younger and my opinion definitely hasn't changed!! I loved this book (and am currently in the middle of the second one) and am very happy that I own the whole series! XD In case you can't already tell, I gave this one 5/5 stars! 
• Jan. 16th - Beyond the Deepwoods (Edgewood Chronicles - Book 1) by Paul Stewart. Okay, not much needs to be said about this one considering I wrote a review on it that pretty much covered everything......I'm really hoping I'll like the next book better! This one got 4/5 stars. 
• Jan. 18th - The Unfairest of Them All (Ever After High - Book 2) by Shannon Hale. Another library e-book! (Can you tell I love my e-book library? XD) Just as good as the first one and I hope to read the next one soon! I gave this one 4/5 stars too :) 
• Jan. 20th - Abandoned Puppy (Animal Emergency - Book 1) by Emily Costello. This was one of the books that I've had on my shelf for a looong time and finally got to reading... It was pretty good, but so far I think I prefer the Animal Ark series a bit more...This one got 4/5 stars. 

And finally....... My first 2016 Book Challenge book.....for "A book I should've read for school"...

• Jan. 31st - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen! I almost didn't finish it in time, but I was determined and I got it done! Oh my gosh I loved this book soooooo much!!!! I can't believe how much I enjoyed it! It's definitely on my favorites list now and I'm sure I'll be reading it again at some point....XD This one got 5/5 stars! 

Okay, that's it for this post! Hopefully I'll be able to post this weekend, but I'm babysitting until Monday starting tomorrow, so we'll see! 

~Allie~

Would You Rather Book Tag!

  Hi!! Sorry I didn't post last weekend!! My cousin Lainey and my grandma spent the weekend with us and posting completely slipped my mind... Plus I couldn't think of what to post, and I still couldn't think of one for this weekend, but thankfully my friend Sierra helped me out by tagging me in the Would You Rather tag on 26 Countless Possibilities!

  Read Only Trilogies or Stand-alones?  
  
  I think I would probably say trilogies.....just because I get more of the story that way!

  Read Only Male or Female Authors? 

  Um......considering most of my favorite books are written by male authors, I'm gonna go with male.....even though choosing between the two would stink!

  Shop at Barnes and Noble or Amazon?

  I haven't been happy with Amazon when I've bought books in the past, and Barnes and Noble is where I got my signed copy of Magnus Chase, so I'm gonna say Barnes and Noble! Even though I never go there......  

  All Books Become Movies or TV Shows? 

  Um.......It really depends on the accuracy.....Little House on the Prairie was made into a TV show, which wasn't too bad.....but then you have movies that are really accurate and then you have movies that are so bad you can barely watch them if you compare them to the books........I'm gonna go with movies for this one though!

  Read Five Pages a Day or Five Books a Week? 

  Five books a week!!! I would never be able to only read five pages a day! I would be so bored!!!  

  Be a Professional Reviewer or Author?

  Definitely author.....I would love to be an author.....and reviewing is fun, but writing is (usually) way more fun!

  Only Read Your Top 20 Favorite Books Over and Over Again, or Always Read New Ones You've Never Read Before?

  Um..........That's really hard..... My first thought would be to say my 20 favorite books......so we're gonna leave it at that for now!

  Be a Librarian or Book Seller? 

  LIBRARIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to be a librarian so badly!!!!!!!!

  Only Read Your Favorite Genre(s), or Anything But Your Favorite? 

  Favorite genres definitely!

  Only Read Physical Books, or E-Books? 

  Physical books!!!! I prefer actual books for so many reasons!

  I Tag: Anyone who wants to do it!!!!!


This one was really fun!!!!!!!!!!

First Review of the Year!! Into the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart (The Edge Chronicles - Book 1)

Okay, so I'm not sure if I'm gonna review every single book that I read.......but I really wanted to write a review on this one!!

About the book - Young Twig lives in the Deepwoods, among the Woodtrolls, but he isn't one of them. In a brave attempt to find out where he belongs, Twig wanders into the mysterious, dangerous world beyond the Deepwoods. He meets a collection of odd companions, such as his wise guardian, the Caterbird; the slaughterers, a peaceful race who butcher animals for their livelihood; and the vicious, bile-swilling rotsucker. Always watching out for the horrible Gloamglozer, whose presence haunts the thoughts of all the inhabitants of The Edge, Twig steadfastly pursues his quest until he discovers his roots, not among the trees, but in the skies....

Pages - 278 (according to Goodreads) 

Genre(s) - Fantasy

Age range - 13+ (depending on the person reading it...)

POV - Third person - Twig - 13 - Main character

Stars - 4/5 (because of the last four chapters.....read review for explanation...) 

Review - Okay, first of all, this book is really weird........It definitely takes some getting used to.... so this book has its good sides and its bad sides. First, this book is a little violent....and there are illustrations in this book that possibly would've given me nightmares if I was younger.... I showed one of the pictures to a couple of my friends and they both agreed that it was pretty creepy. Another thing I didn't really like about the book was that as soon as Twig would get out of one dangerous situation, he'd end up right in another one. I understand that the Deepwoods are very dangerous when you stray from the path, but this continued on through most of the book and I felt that it should've been spaced out a bit more. Now there were only fourteen chapters in this book, therefore the reason I finished it in two days - that and the way it was written was pretty easy to read, but anyway, it took me ten chapters to really get into this book and want to read the second one (which I own along with this one)....the last four chapters are when the most interesting (in my opinion) characters (*cough* pirates *cough*) came in and it drew me in a lot faster than the other ten chapters did...up until chapter ten I wasn't really sure about this book.....I didn't want to give it three stars, but I wasn't sure if I liked it enough to give it four.....but the last four chapters helped me make up my mind in favor of the fourth star and also in favor of reading the second book (which is now in my book jar!) 

~Allie~

Btw - This story gave me an idea for a story, so that's another good thing! XD (Except for the fact that I have a bunch of other stories I'm supposed to be working on.....)

Books Read in December!!

  Okay, so I can't believe I'm already doing a post for the books that I read in December........It's so hard to believe that it's 2016 already!! Okay, so I read a total of nine books in December! That sounds really small, but I think it's a pretty good number for a month.....

   So on the 9th I finished The Isle of the Lost (Book 1 of the Descendants series)  by Melissa De La Cruz! I borrowed this book from my friend Abby who loved it so much that she wanted to restart it immediately after she finished it and I have to say that I really felt the same way!!! I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did but I loved it! I almost didn't want to give it back.....XD I can't wait for the next one to come out! In case you haven't already guessed, I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads :)





  On the 15th I finished The Sword of Summer (Book 1 of the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy) by Rick Riordan! I definitely was not disappointed by Annabeth's cousin!!! And I love the characters so much already even though it's only the first book! I can't believe that I have to wait until October (at least!) for The Hammer of Thor!! I also gave this one 5/5
stars on Goodreads!

  On the 16th I finished Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein! This was an e-book from my library! Okay, so either this book was really short, or I just loved it so much that I read it in a day.....both are possible because I absolutely loved this book!!! The characters mentioned so many books that I've read and it takes place in an amazing library so of course it held my attention!! I gave this one 5/5 stars too! 

                       I actually finished three books on the 17th.......first, I finished up Cinder (Book 1 in The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer for the second time....it had been over a year since I read it first and I wanted to reread it before I read Scarlet (book 2), which I unfortunately had to take back to the library before I could read it, but it's in my calendar as one of my 2016 reading challenge books! After Cinder, I read The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit (Book 1 of  the Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective series) by Octavia Spencer! This one was another e-book from the e-book library! This book was surprisingly good and I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that the author is an actress from a movie that I love! (Insurgent!) The last book I read on the 17th was The Island of Dr. Libris by Chris Grabensein. Another e-book! I was expecting to love this one as much as I loved Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, but I actually had a hard time even giving this one the amount of stars that I did.....I had a hard time getting into this one.....I gave all three of these books 4/5 stars! 

                         

On the 18th I finished In a Blink (Book 1 in The Never Girls series) by Kiki Thorpe. I saw this one on the e-book library and thought I'd give it a try, but I was definitely disappointed.....This book was really short and it wasn't very well written at all....I gave this one 3/5 stars and it takes a lot for me to give three stars.....

On the 24th (Christmas Eve!) I finished The Arch of Avooblis (Book 1 in the Adventurers' Academy series) by Charles Streams. Once you get past the kinda weird title, this book was actually pretty good! A lot of people on Goodreads were saying that this was a lot like Harry Potter...and I definitely agree with them on some points such as there being different groups and the boys and girls being separated in towers by gender and what year they were in. However this book has characteristics that makes it differ from Harry Potter in many ways and I plan on reading the next one when I get the chance :) I gave this one 4/5 stars!  

Finally, on the 29th, I finished The Angel Experiment (Book 1 in the Maximum Ride series) by James Patterson! This book was very good and is currently being loaned to my best friend Shelby (she calls me her book dealer...XD) and I plan on reading the second one soon! I love all of the kids, each for different reasons, and I can't wait to get more of them!! 

~Allie~ 

Goodreads Tag!

  Hi again!! So my friend Sierra tagged me in this tag on her blog 26 Countless Possibilities! And this is one that I was determined to complete since I love Goodreads and use it a lot!! So here it is!!

  What is the last book you read? 

The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale! First book in the Ever After High: Storybook of Legends series! Way better than the show I have to say.... 

What book are you currently reading? 

Okay, so I have multiple, but I have decided to just put Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan instead of all four....XD 

What is the last book you marked as To-Be-Read? 

The Rescue by Gordon Korman! Book three in the Kidnapped series.....I have the others on my list too, but this one was the most recent! 

What book do you plan on reading next? 

Ummmm......That depends entirely upon whenever I finish the books I'm reading right now and what title I pull out of my book jar.....

Do you use the star-rating system? 

Of course!!!! I love it!!

Do you have a 2016 reading goal? 

I do!!! I'm gonna try for 100 books this year!!!! 

What book(s) do you plan on buying next? 

I'm not entirely sure.....I don't usually plan what I buy....I usually just browse and if I see a book I want and it's a good price I'll buy it! 

What's your favorite quote? 

Okay, so total nerd moment, but the only one I can think of is when Leo says "One basketball to rule them all" in The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan.....XD It's my favorite character and my favorite book series....not to mention it's a Lord of the Rings reference! 

Who are your favorite authors? 

Rick Riordan, Richard Paul Evans, J.K. Rowling, Gordon Korman, Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins, and Erin Hunter! 

Are you part of any Goodreads groups? 

I'm part of a couple, but I don't get on them at all.....I should look at some of the others though....

What could Goodreads do better? 

I wish it was easier to keep track of how many times you've read a book....I have to be on my laptop to view the extra details to put in how many times I've read the book and I use my phone more than my laptop when it comes to Goodreads.....That's all I can think of right now....

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Okay, that's all!! This is the part where I'm supposed to tag someone, but I don't know anyone else who has a blog that I can tag...... Therefore, anyone is completely free to do this, and if you want to, consider yourself tagged!!! If you do end up doing it, I would love to check out your blog and your answers so please comment with a link! 

~Allie~