It's not completely done, but me and my sister are working on a book review site, you can view it here:

http://booknerds.net

We have a few reviews up! More to come! Along with a contest at some point for a gift certificate to your favourite book store!

Apparently it's bad to run your own business, and try to maintain a blog, that has nothing to do about said business. I know, I'm a slacker & I'm making excuses... but you'll live right?! You will? Great, glad to hear it!

So, I read all the books that I posted about before in this post, except for The Red Scarf (by Kate Furnivall), which I can't bring myself to read for some reason, even though it sounds really interesting to me, I have a theory on this, but more about that later (maybe). I stopped reviewing them individually though, because I pretty much had the same thing to say about the majority of them! They were all very good books (minus Mr. Spines, which I am so upset over), with good character development & story lines!

In update to those series mentioned in that post, I'm on the third book in the Vampire Academy series, the second of the House of Night series, and the second in the Mortal Instruments (City of Bones) series.

As for the anger over Mr. Spines - it was a good book, very vivid, but it feels as if I was cut off in the middle of the story at the end. The book is only 214 pages long (with fairly large type), but it feels like someone ripped the end of the story out of the book and forgot to tell anyone. Not cool, especially when I expected to have paid $8 for a full story, not just half of one.

Also, I'm fairly certain I'm going to have to start using my bookshelves sometime soon, as my desk is getting quite full, as illustrated in this photo:


Any series that are missing their first, second books (for instance, Seeing Red, City of Bones, & the first two Vampire Academy books) are at my sisters, she left with about 5-6 books the other day haha

Now, I know, that's not a lot of books in some peoples minds, and to some collections it's measly, but I owned maybe 5 books, in December, so I think it's quite large. Not to mention, it's all on my desk, which in it's own right isn't very large.

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Books that are up next to be read: City of Ashes (Cassandra Clare), Shadow Kiss (Richelle Mead), Wintergirls (Laurie Halse Anderson), & The Summoning (Kelley Armstrong).

Books I'm currently reading: Betrayed (P.C. & Kristen Cast), & Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary (Brandon Mull)

Books I've just read: Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell (anywherebeyond) - It was awesome. Really, I promise. But cause I'm lazy, I'll just give you what I posted on GoodReads.com:

Very, very good book! The characters were well thought out & you get to know just enough about all of them to be interested in their lives. It's not a large book but it kept me guessing and wondering until the very end. I love the way the author takes the most obvious answer to the issue at hand with Elijah and puts a spin on it. As I said, very very good book, a little sad, but very good. Glad I bought it and will end up recommending it to as many people as possible (mom's reading it now, sister next), as well as reading it again myself!

You know what I really don't understand right now?! The whole controversy over the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie.

Now admittedly I might not be all up in arms about this because I'm not Asian in anyway, and I might not understand the problem fully. Also, before I go on I want to also state that I'm not AGREEING with the casting or DISAGREEING, but I don't think the casting should be the make/break for a movie. Even IF it's because the races were changed, or the characters don't look exactly like the people who will be playing them. Having said THAT, I AM a BIG fan of the cartoon, I love everything about it to be completely honest, it showed history & culture that I didn't know about, as well as a good well thought out story line with well developed characters & settings.

I think I AM right, however, when I say that to see a movie (to read a book, to play a game, etc), aren't we supposed to be there for the story, the plot, etc (yes, some movies are about the flashy cars & hot chicks and blah blah blah as well) - But when I go to see a movie, I don't think 'Oh well are the characters the same race as in the TV show?' or 'Are the skin tones the same', etc. When I go to see the movie, I want what I paid almost $10 for: A good movie with good casting, that tells me a story.

What about with the recent movie where they turned Rebecca Bloomwood (played by Isla Fisher) from being English to American in Confessions of a Shopaholic. Not only with that movie did they have to change the characters, they had to change the SETTINGS. I'm pretty sure there is nothing about Avatar not being filmed in Asia, or in that setting (as I'm sure they might not be able to accomplish the movie in the next 12 years if sticking to the seasons for one area), but they completely picked Rebecca's character up and flung her from London to New York. (And I'm not saying it's exactly the same, keep reading before you get defensive).. the POINT is, no matter her nationality, or where the book/movie was based both were still GOOD. I read the books, and at no point did I think 'Oh this would be better if she were in London' or 'What about her accent?' - It didn't matter because the STORY itself was still good. I know that watching the Avatar movie, I'm going to look at the story, and the acting of the characters, and decide weather the film was worth paying money for, not their race.

If anything with this movie I'd be more worried about how they're going to pull off the stunts, then who is being cast.

Other people are concerned that in the way they're casting & filming, that younger children are going to see the 'good side' as being white & the 'bad side' as being darker skinned. SERIOUSLY? People come on! Teach your children right from wrong, or the history of our country/world, and they will know better to think such things. Just because a child is SHOWN something doesn't mean that they're going to jump to conclusions and believe that only white people can be good and only darker skinned people can be bad. If that were the case, I also would have grown up thinking murdering someone was okay (lots of horror films), or that little dolls were evil and went on murdering rampages.

ALSO! If people are so upset that white people were casts as the cartoons equals, what about the fact that the majority of the characters are voiced by white people. Aang (Zachary Tyler Eisen)? White. Katara (Mae Whitman)? White. In fact the only main character that is voiced by an Asian is Zuko, who is voiced by Dante Basco - and Uncle Iroh, although only in the first two seasons. Why are people only up in arms now that you will actually SEE the characters? So, the people who did the voices, does anyone have a problem with the fact that THEY were white? If the people who voiced the characters were playing their roles, would we still be having this giant fiasco?

More than anything Avatar was about the culture, the ideas & the characters. Not about their race. Get over it people and enjoy the freaking story.

/RANT

So... this was a fast read for me, but it didn't appear like it would be at first, and I shall explain, of course!

When I first started Vampire Academy (by Richelle Mead) I did NOT like it, the MC, Rose, seemed like she was trying far too hard to be (and the author was trying far to hard to make her) a bad ass, it was too strong and I wanted to throw the book out a window.. this was still continuing onto page 100, which isn't good since there's only 332 pages to the book to begin with. I left it at page 100, and went off to do something else, at this point and every time I thought about the book I thought maybe I'd just put it up, give it away and start reading something else.. but I am SO glad that in the end I decided to read it all the way through, because I fell in love (again! Second time in the last three days! I'm on a roll!)

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