Explanations...

Oh goodness... It's been a while, yes? Sorry about the long unannounced hiatus. Okay, here's what happened in a nutshell :). I got pneumonia and was sick the entire semester. Then when I got better/got home for break, I was way busy. Then I went abroad. I'm currently in England :D! However, the semester's almost over and I have no less than 10 books to review! I also have at least 4 that I'm planning to read over the summer, so we're back in action in two weeks :).

Books to Review:
Hogfather- Terry Pratchett
Interesting Times- Terry Pratchett
The Last Continent- Terry Pratchett
The Year of Living Biblically- A.J. Jacobs
The Spook's Apprentice- (I don't remember who wrote it at the moment...)
Making Friends with Black People- Nick Adams
Shelock Holmes (The complete works)- A. C. Doyle
The Writer's Handbook
Lords and Ladies- Terry Pratchett
The Battle of the Labyrinth- Rick Riordan

Books to Read:
The "First Law" series by Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself is book 1)
The rest of the "Spook's Apprentice" series.
The last Percy Jackson book! I'm sad that it's ending, but so excited to read it.
Some more Discworld novels

I'm taking another class this summer, so we'll see how many of those I actually get to read :).

The 13th Reality: The Journal of the Curious Letters

This book (written by James Dashner)  follows Atticus Higginbottom (Tick) as he receives letters from someone named M.G. The letters are all clues to a time, place, and action he must perform to save the world or at least a lot of people. The book is broken into four parts: the introdution chapters, the letters, solving the clues, and Ticks mission. It's a good book because you're completely in the dark about the letters, but it doesn't get boring. There are a lot of other things that Tick goes through while he's figuring the clues out or waiting for the next clue. I'd give this book to anyone over ten years old. Younger kids might not have the patience; it's a long book.

Favorite Quote: "Next came pajama time. Tick had brought a pair of flannel pants and a t-shirt to sleep in, but that wasn't good enough for Aunt Mabel. She wen to the basement and dug through some boxes before returning with a musty old pair of long johns that were as red as her lipstick and looked like Santa's underwear."

School Schedule

So, I'm back at school. There's no way I'll be able to do a book per week like I was during the summer, but I'll try to do two per month. That's the plan at least :). We'll see what happens!

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window

Third time's the charm, right? The Baudelaire children really hope so, as Mr. Poe takes them to their new guardian, Aunt Josephine. Though she is a kind woman with excellent grammar, she makes the Cowardly Lion look like Batman. Among her long list of fears are doorknobs shattering, the stove bursting into flames, and being electrocuted by the telephone. It's no wonder that the children have serious doubts about her abilities to protect them if Count Olaf turns up again.

Favorite Quote: "There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational...The Baudelaire orphans have a fear of Count Olaf, which makes perfect sense, because he is an evil man who wants to destroy them. But if they were afraid of lemon meringue pie, this would be an irrational fear, because lemon meringue pie is delicious and has never hurt a soul."

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room

Number 2 by Mr. Lemony Snicket. This book picks up where the first left off; with the Baudelaire children traveling to their new guardian's house. Dr. Montgomery Montgomery is a herpetologist: a snake scientist; and as the Baudelaires arrive to live with him, they find that they will be accompanying him on a trip to Peru to collect specimens. Just when the children's lives are looking better, the new assistant Stephano *coughOLAFcough* shows up...

Favorite Quote: "Count Olaf sounds like an awful person. I hope he is torn apart by wild animals someday. Wouldn't that be satisfying?"- Dr. Montgomery.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

The series is already widely popular, but it's worth mentioning again. These books are the type you can go back and read over and over, because of the humor in them. I have a problem describing these to people because the subject matter sounds so morbid that when I tell anyone how funny they are, they look at me like I'm crazy... :). It's funnier than the movie and Count Olaf is scarier than in the movie... just so you know.

Anyway, Bad Beginning is just what it sounds like. It follows the series' main characters Violet (an inventor), Klaus (a reader), and Sunny (a biter) Baudelaire as they find out that their parents have been killed in a fire, and are sent to live with their distant relative, Count Olaf. Their situation goes from bad to worse when they find out how despicable their new guardian, and his acting troupe, is.

Favorite Quote: "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle...Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes."

Why the North Won the Civil War

Awesome collection of essays about the Civil War. All of them have different takes on why the South lost, from political to military, and all of them are pretty interesting. Most of them are pretty short, and it's a good read if you're into military history.

Favorite Essay: God and the Strongest Battalions