Book Haul (16 Books) Birthday Addition

Hey everyone!
As some of you may know, my birthday recently passed and I was fortunate enough to be able to buy some books with gift cards to Amazon (I also purchased two at the bookstore :)). I'm really excited to read all of these books so I'm just going to list them instead of gush over my excitement with every book. Two things though: I'm not tyring to brag and some of you may realize I already read Beautiful Creatures so why did I get it? I originally had it on my phone, so I thought it would be nice to obtain a physical copy as well as the rest of the books- in hardcover!

• Beautiful Creatures Complete Collection (Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
• The Kane Chronicles Box Set (Rick Riordan)
• The Darkest Minds (Alexandra Bracken)
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Michelle Hodkin)
• The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Michelle Hodkin)
• Rise (Anna Carey)
• Cinder (Marissa Meyer)
• Scarlet (Marissa Meyer)
• Across the Universe (Beth Revis)
• A Million Suns (Beth Revis)
• Shades of Earth (Beth Revis)

Many book reviews coming soon! Comment down below to tell me what books you want to see reviewed! Also, quantity vs. quality? Would you like book reviews on all these books, but more general, or more in depth but less? -Kait :)

Tag: Yearbook Hall of Fame

Hey everyone!
So I saw this tag going on in the YouTube community and thought it would be fun to bring it to Blogger. This was created by Kat and you can watch her video here! If you're familiar with the high school concept of who has the best smile, or is friendliest, etc., this tag follows that, but in book form! Let's get started:

 

1. Best Dressed
2. Best Eyes
3. Best Hair
4. Best Couple
5. Class Clown
6. Biggest Flirt
7. Most Dramatic
8. Most Musical
9. Most Likely To Succeed
10. Valedictorian

 

1. For best dressed, I have to award Adelice from Crewel by Gennifer Albin. Because of her role, she gets many luxuries such as her fancy outfits. I remember her talking about what she was wearing several times in the book.
2. I'm going to have to say Tobias from Divergent. Tris always mentions how Tobias has deep blue eyes.
3. It's hard to imagine hair via book and my answer isn't that great, but I'm going to say Jocelyn from The Mortal Instruments. Clary wishes that she had the same beautiful, vibrant red hair of her mother's.
4. Percabeth all the way! (Percy Jackson and the Oympians) Percy and Annabeth are just so perfect...
5. Since I already mentioned Percy, I'm going to have to go with my other favorite character from PJO/HOO world and pick Leo Valdez! If you read the Heroes of Oympus series, you know what I'm talking about.
6. Finnick Odair from Catching Fire. I mean, seriously, we're talking about Finnick.
7. This one was a little harder to think of, but I'm going to say Nora from Crescendo, and only Crescendo in the Hush, Hush books. She was way to dramatic over Patch and her; she didn't really think about it through all the way.
8. I'm going to pick two for this one. First, I want to pick Lena from Beautiful Creatures. She's not extremely musical, but she does play the viola like me, and it's rare to have someone else play the viola! Otherwise, I'm going to pick Risa from Unwind because from what it sounds like, she's really good on the piano.
9. June Iparis from Legend/Prodigy by Marie Lu. When we last saw her, she was headed in a direction that would be good for her. Personally, I don't want her to do what she's going to do, but if you want to learn more you can search for my Prodigy review in the upper left-hand corner. June has the ability to get back on the Republic's side, whether it's intentional or not, but she's also very smart, agile, strong, etc.
10. Hermione Granger. I feel like so many people pick this, but how true can you get?

 

Thanks for reading! I TAG YOU, and if you do it, leave it in the comments so I can go check it out! -Kait

Book Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Hey everyone!
So today I have a short book review on a great book! I heard a lot of great things about The Book Thief, which is what we're discussing today, and I thought I should get it. This will be a spoiler-free review, except let me say one thing: the ending made me cry. Anyways, here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
"It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time."
 
First of all, I heard amazing things about this book, and don't get me wrong- I did love this book, yet I was expecting something to amaze me. Unfortunately, I didn't get exactly what I was looking for, but I still loved this book. One thing that I liked what the unique narrator. This book is narrated by Death. How cool? Secondly, I loved the characters. Every one we ran into I liked, even if their personality's themselves weren't wonderful. My favorites have to be Liesel, Rudy, Hans, and Max. They were just likable and well-developed. The writing was really nice, too. It was simple, but there were so many metaphors and similes, and very creative ones, for that matter. But the ending. It wasn't like it was bad or anything, it was just so sad. So heads up! I really enjoyed this book, and I would still give it a 5/5 stars. I thought everything was great, but I heard that this a book, that NY Times says on the cover, is "Life changing". Anyways, thanks for reading! -Kait

My Rating Scale

Hey everyone!
Everyone rates their own books differently, so I thought I should share how I rate my books on a five star "grade". My rating also depends on the book; for instance, if I hate a major character but loved everything else so much, it could possibly get a 4.5/5-5/5.

If I give the book a 5/5 and I mark it as a favorite on Goodreads, then I loved it. There may have been a minor flaw that I can pass.

If I just give it a 5/5, it means that I loved it, but something made me not put it in my favorites. Whether I didn't like a character or a certain aspect to the book. If it's a main character(s) I didn't like, then it would not get a 5/5.

If I give the book a 4/5, it means that I did enjoy, but there were several minor problems or one big problem I didn't like.

A 3/5 means I enjoyed it, but I didn't connect with something. It could be that I didn't find the plot interesting, if the characters were flat, etc.

A 2/5 means that I didn't like it that much. Some major thing(s) were disagreeable, yet the book had few enjoyable moments.

A 1/5, being the lowest, means I disliked the book completely. Sure there might have been a moment of me enjoying the book, but when I look back on it, I didn't enjoy much at all.

Hopefully this might clear some things up! Thanks, Kait

Book Review: Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi

Hey everyone!
So I finally got Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi and read it! And of course, here I'm doing a book review. This is the second novel in the Shatter Me trilogy, and if you want to see my Shatter Me thoughts, click here. It took me 100-150 pages to really get into this book, but once a certain something or someone showed up, things got a little interesting. We see Taherah Mafi's unique style again which I love, and I have to take a break from writing because I feel like I would subconciously start using it. Juliette shows more character development, especially right at the end. We get to see our favorite characters again, as well as meets some new ones which was fun too. You learn much more about Juliette, Adam, Warner, and so much more. I definitely recommend this if you read Shatter Me and liked it. I would give this a 5/5 stars.

SPOILERS:

CATCHING FIRE TEASER TRAILER TALK

Hey everyone!
So last night, the teaser trailer for Catching Fire aired and of course I stayed up to watch it. I'm not going to do an actual review, but let me just say: I think they did a great job from what I've seen so far. Everything looks spot on with the book. One thing that I found a little cheesy was when Peacekeeper Thread pointed the gun at Katniss and she said, "Go ahead." But other than that I thought it looked really awesome! If you want to see it, click here which I highly recommend! -Kait

Book to Film Adaptations

Hey everyone!
Many movies that are coming out are based off of books. It's very exciting, but it can bring out nerves! One of the movies is PJO: Sea of Monsters. From the trailer, it looks a LOT better than their first adaptation. So I am excited, yet from last time, this movie does not have high hopes. It comes out August 7, 2013. Next we have TMI: City of Bones, which I am excited about. I think the cast is great and in the trailer it looks like they did stick to the book. I'm not a huge fan of TMI, but the movie is making me very excited and I'm definitely going to reread it again soon. (August 28, 2013). After that, we have my personal favorite, THG: Catching Fire. The trailer comes out tomorrow which I'M SO EXCITED FOR. But yeah I think they're going to do a great job-not biased or anything... mostly. (November 22, 2013). And after that, there's Divergent of course. I try to be as lenient as I can, but I'm not too thrilled with the cast. No matter what, I will be seeing this movie! Lastly, we have The Fault in Our Stars, with not a lot of information but hey- it's The Fault in Our Stars were talking about.
That concludes this post! Let me know what movie you're looking forward to seeing the most! -Kait

The Book Collecters' Tag

Hey everyone!
Today I though it would be fun to do a tag. I TAG ALL OF YOU! This is a great tag and it's short. Let's get started!

How many books do you own?
I own 47 books, which isn't much compared to must book-readers.
How long did it take you to accumulate your collection?
Mine is sort of a lenghy explanation, but when I really started reading, a little less than a year.
How often do you buy books?
It really depends. For instance, I've bought two books in the last two months. However in January and December, I bought eleven books!
How do you arrange your books?
Right now I have it by author's last name.
What was the first book you remember buying?
I was always a big reader at school with my teacher's library, not typically outside of school. So whenever I would want a book which was like three times a year or so, my mom would buy it. (Not including giftcards.) For YA, it was Insurgent, Pandemonium, and Shiver on May 1st!
What was the last book you purchased?
Requiem and Delirium Stories by Lauren Oliver... about a month ago.
What is the longest book you own?
My brother owns the HP series, so I have to go with the Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan which isn't that long at 574 pages!
What is the shortest book you own?
Probably the Demigod Files by Rick Riordan or the Delirium Stories by Lauren Oliver.

Thanks for reading! -Kait

Would You Be Divergent?

Hey everyone!
Today I wanted to talk about something that I love in dystopian novels-groupings, like districts and your god parent. More in depth, I like groupings where you would fit. For instance, there are factions, which I'll be discussing today, houses, and much more. In Divergent by Veronica Roth, there are five factions that each value a certain trait, for those who have not read it. Here's the list:

• Abnegation: The Selfless
• Dauntless:    The Brave
• Erudite:        The Intelligent
• Amity:          The Peaceful
• Candor:        The Honest

If I lived in this world, I would probably pick Erudite. Now if you're currently reading Divergent or are going to read, the Erudite are portrayed as the arrogant, antagonist people. But that's because we are see things in first person from Tris's point of view, and she has a very strong dislike for them because that was her upbringing. Not to be an arrogant Erudite, but I am fairly smart. Not exceptionally or anything, but I do think I know things, and although grades don't really reflect knowledge, I do receive good grades. That being said, even if I was less smart and adequate, I think I still might pick Erudite. Maybe not a year or so ago, but I do value knowledge.

The next faction I think i would pick would be Amity. When I first read about them in Divergent, I didn't second-guess that I would be Amity. However, when Insurgent came out, we actually get to see how Amity functions. No offense to Amity, but I do not want to be drugged from eating bread. One thing that Tris mentioned in a part of Divergent is that each faction believed that the "world" had its "downfall" due to a certain reason- all opposite to what they believe. For instance, Erudite believes the destruction was caused by ignorance. I do agree with that, but I also believe it was due to aggression which is what Amity thinks. These are my main two factions that I would have picked.

In the order, I think I would be in Abnegation next, and Dauntless and Candor are tied for me. In today's society, it's hard to really pick out. So are we all Divergent? Or is it just because since we don't have to focus on our major trait, per say, it seems we can fight into many factions-or all? I definitely have some aspects of bravery, honesty, and selflessness, but I think Erudite would be the most prominent for me.
Let me know what faction you think you would be in, or if you would be Divergent! -Kait
(Images from Google).

March Wrap Up and April TBR

Hey everyone!
Hope you had a great Easter if you celebrate! Today's post is what I read in March and what I hope to be reading in April. Let me tell you ahead of time: this will be a short post. I don't have a job, and when it comes to always wanting to buy books, not rent them, sometimes reading gets put off.

March Wrap Up:
In the beginning of the month I read the final installment to the Delirium trilogy, Requiem by Lauren Oliver. As well as the Delirium Stories. I enjoyed Requiem very much, but I just wish it had a little more insight of what's to come. I still gave it a 5/5, but the ending bothered me a bit. Delirium Stories were great! I already read the Hana one, so I read Annabel and Raven which I loved! 5/5. I also recently reread Divergent for the fourth time and I plan on rereading Insurgent soon, too. I read many samples on my phone, like the first chapter of a book type-thing. But I won't list them because it would take a long time.

April To Be Read:
My birthday is in April, but late April. Therefore, some of the books I'm asking for and will have to order may not come in until late April, and because of that, I will probably end up reading most of them in May. But here are a few I'm dying to read in the next few months. If you saw my Birthday Wishlist post, these may be familiar!

~Beautiful Creatures Box Set: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Have to read 2,3, and 4.)
~The Infernal Devices Box Set: Cassandra Clare (I know, some of you may be fangirling right now.)
~The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer: Michelle Hodkin
~Unravel Me: Taherah Mafi
~Rise: Anna Carey

I'm also hoping to reread Insurgent, like I said, and City of Bones! Thanks for reading, Kait