NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

Sooooooo..... yes. I am terribly sorry that have not written in a forever long time! Anyways, instead of writing about a book this time, I am going to write about an event that occurs every November! The National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) happens every year in November. The goal of the project is too write a 50,000 word novel in one month - an impossible task! Or so it would seem... but not if you have friends! If you can get together a group of friends who will compete in this project, you can support each other. This year I am lucky enough to have a group of friends like this and so have great hope that I can actually complete the project this year! Anyway, I encourage you all to check it out at !!! It is a fantastic opportunity that only comes around once a year!!! Take advantage of it, write a novel, accept a challenge :) Good luck to all and "may the odds be ever in your favour!"

The Last Thing I Remember

Imagine going to sleep one night, thinking about how you're going to ask out the girl you like and then waking up the next morning strapped to a chair, no memory of how you got there, and terrorists about to kill you. Well that's what happened to Charlie West. What follows is the stuff of movies: high speed chases, prison breaks, hidden lairs and murder. At first, Charlie hopes that it is all just a dream, but eventually he realizes its not, this is his reality. And the last thing he can remember is a year in the past. So what happened in that missing year? How did he get captured by terrorists? Did he really murder his best friend? And why is Detective Rose working so hard to capture him? Charlie must work to discover the answers to these questions, while at the same time trying to stop a massive terror strike - the details of which he of course cannot remember.

The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan is like The Bourne Identity for teens. Non-stop action, mystery and deceit fill every page. This book is part of The Homelanders series, which also inludes The Long Way Home, The Truth of the Matter, and The Final Hour. These books are fantastic, filled with plenty of high speed chases and explosions to keep any action/adventure fan happy. The first two books are a little slower than the latter two, simply because of all of the flashbacks (which, although they occur regularily throughout the series, are more concentrated in the first two books). However, all of the books are simply amazing. They also talk quite a bit about God and keeping your faith and trust in Him even when life seems at its lowest.

This book is reccomended for anyone who is a fan of The Bourne Identity, action and adventure and similar topics. Also, anyone interested in the CIA, FBI, etc. and undercover operations. Age reccomendations are for readers between the ages of 13 and 19. This series is definatley aimed at teens! Both boys and girls can read this series, even though the main character is a boy. It is also highly reccomended to reluctant readers because they are quick, easy and light reads. (I read them all in about a week)

You can find this series at your library or book store or at Amazon.com.

Enjoy and happy reading!!

Kobato

Uwaaaa! It has been so long since I have updated this poor blog! I am going to try to update it moreoften, especially in the summer so y'all have something to read! Okay I assume that you are ready for a new book yes? Well this is going to be a SPECIAL EDITION article of the blog because it is the first one about a manga! Manga is Japanese "comic books" for those who do not know.

For this special editon of the blog, I have decided to write about Kobato. Kobato is a fabulous new manga introduced to me by my friend H. It is by the world renown manga group CLAMP (yes their name is spelled in all caps!). If you dont know about CLAMP, they are a group of four women who started out as doujinshi (fan-comic artists) who gained a publisher and are now world known. A semi-complete list of their manga will included at the end of this article.

Kobato is a cute, light hearted shoujo (girls) manga. It is the story about Kobato Hanato and her blue dog Iroyogi-san. Kobato is a bit absent minded, so its up to Iroyogi-san to keep her in line! Kobato has a wish, she wants to travel to "that place". However, in order to do so, she must collect a bottle of broken hearts she has mended. First, though, she must get the bottle! How, you ask, can she get this bottle? By proving her common sense of course! However, Kobatos common sense takes some creative thinking, but with her determination and evident goal, she will indeed succeed! Now all she must to is gather the hearts...

So far there is one volume of this manga translated to the English. I read it just last night for the first time, and I must say it is aabsolutely fabulous! If you love CLAMP, cute things, shoujo manga, or any of the above, I would highly recomend this book! Hopefully more volumes will be released in English soon, as I cannot wait to see what mischeif Kobato gets into next! Fans of CLAMP will be pleased to see that they have continued their trademark mixing of mangas. The story of Kobato evidently takes place in xxxHOLiC's Japan,(one scene takes place in Yuuko's favourite park) and I beileive that she is living in the appartment from Chobits. Characters and items from many of their other manga appears too. There is also an anime (television programme) of this story available, though I think only in the Japanese language with English subtitles. The only bad thing about this manga is that it is a little expensive at $11.99.

The publisher is Yen Press.

Please look for it at your local new and used bookstore, and at your local library!

Other titles by CLAMP:
-xxxHOLiC
-Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
(xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa have interwoven stories so please read them together!)

-Chobits
-Magic Knight Reaearth
- RG Veda
-CLAMP School Detectives
-Cardcaptor Sakura
-Clover
-Angelic Layer

1-800-WHERE-R-YOU

The 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series is a series of books by nationally renown author Meg Cabot, written under her pen name Jenny Carroll. These books are abosolutley astounding. Even if you didnt enjoy her other novels, this series is a sure please.

The series is about an ordinary teenage girl, Jess Mastriani, who's 16. Shes just like you and me. Just a normal girl who gets in fights, has detention for life and visits the guidance counceller so often, they're practically on a first name basis. Her small town in Indiana, just outside Indianapolis is just as normal. Nothing ever happens and when something does, everyone knows about it immediatley. Especially her family, of coures, that could just be because they own and operate the three biggest restaurants in town. Oh her family is perfectly normal too. Just a girl and her two brothers - one who is schizophrenic, the other who is a computer genius and is in love with the girl next door. Jess is perfectly content with her not-so-ordinary ordinary life, when one day she gets struck by lightning.
Yes. You read that right. Struck by lightning.
So, now she has these powers which allow her to find missing people. Only theres a catch. She can only find them when shes asleap. And of course, when the FBI finds out about her powers, they want her to use them to find criminals. And they want them found now. But after her powers cause a major screw up in someones life, shes not sure she wants to find these people. After all, what if they aren't bad? And what if the kids she finds don't want to be found? It'll take some major work to keep up this job, but with the help of her sort-of boyfriend, Rob, Jess can handle it. After all, whats a psycopathic kidnapper or two when you've got the hottest guy on two wheels at your side?

This series is absolutley fantastic. The only thing that I did not like about it was the end. Under the origional publisher, the books were not selling so the series got cut off at four books, while Meg had planned eight. When the books were re-released under her real name, she only got to write one final book for the series to tie everything up. The final book, although good in its own right, to me doesnt fit the same tone and style as the previous books and seems more seperate. Of course, this could ablos be because of the gap of four years between the fourth book and the last one. All in all, 4 out of 5 stars.

Books in the Series:
-When Lightning Strikes
-Code Name Cassandra
-Safehouse
-Sanctuary
-Missing You

Find these books wherever you buy them and at the library!

Love this series? Read more of Megs Fabulous Fiction!

-Teen Idol

-The Mediator Series

-Victoria and the Rogue
-Nicola and the Viscount

-All American Girl
-Ready or Not

-Jinx

-Avalon High

-The Airhead Sieres

-The Princess Diarys

Also check out her adult and childrebs fiction novels!!

Eva Ibbotson

Normally, I'd talk about a book. And, yes, I suppose that this is talking about a book too, just under the heading of an author. Eva Ibbotson. I'd never heard of her untill the summer of 2009, and yet, I can't get enough of her books now! She was Born in Vienna, Austria, but fled to England when the Nazis took over. And that is where you will find the setting of most of her novels. Vienna. England. Austria. World War Two. They're made for romance-history buffs. ESPECIALLY Austria/Germany history. They are all different, and yet each as equally entrancing as the others. I'm supposing you'll want a list of these AMAZING books now n'est pas? Yes? Then here you go!!

A Song For Summer
A Countess Below Stairs <-(this one is the only one that has NOTHING to do with WWII or austria/germany. Its WWI Russia)
The Morning Gift
A Company of Swans
The Reluctant Heiress

(My personal favourite is The Morning Gift)


These are her main books, although she has some out there for children too.

You can find all of these books at your local book store, as well as used book stores and your local library.

These books all belong to Eva Ibbotson.

Teen Spy? Thats the Life for Me!

Awsome gadets. Super cool trips. Really hot boys. Constant adventure.

Sounds fun huh?

Cammie Morgan is just your average teenage girl. She likes cute boys, cool movies, good books, and hanging out with friends. Except, she's NOT just your average everyday fifteen year old girl. She attends Gallagher Academy, an elite all-girls school in Virginia. A school for spies. Thats right, spies. Cammie and her firends Bex, Liz and Macey are in training to become some of the best spies in the world. But, there's a catch. They can't tell anyone. Not even their parents. So when Cammie falls for a super cute, but super ordinary boy, what's girl to do? She'll use all her spy training to figure out how to be with him, but will it work? Or will her secret life keep her from the boy of her dreams?

Find out in the first book of the superbly written Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You. Then continue following Cammie's adventures with Cross My Heart And Hope to Spy, Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover and Only the Good Spy Young, due out in July of this year.

Want more great Ally Carter reads? Check out Heist Societey, and for adults and older readers Cheating at Solitaire and Learning to Play Gin. (Unfortunatley, her adult novels are currently out of print. However, that doen't mean you can't find them. Check your local library or used book stores.)

And check out her website at allycarter.com

Titanic

Its exactly a week untill the anniversary of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. Out of approximatley 2,230, there were only 706 survivors. So, you know this, but want to know what it was like on the Titanic? Check out these awsome books, and while your at it, check out the movie Titanic by Twentieth Century Fox starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

- Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osborne
- Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh
- Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Maragret Ann Brady by Ellen Emerson White
- Titanic Crossing by Barbra Williams
- Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn
- Eyewitness Titanic