Random Blogging on my life

I have to go to bed soon, but I thought I might get some blogging in. Let's see, my life right now...Hm, I've been teaching swim lessons. That's fun stuff, one of my kids is a complete brat. She's fun to work with...not. My love life! Oh my gosh, I sort of actually have one. The boy I may or may not like [my feelings are all over the place!] confessed that he likes me. That's interesting...I don't know where that's going yet. I think I like him...I don't know though, I'm new at this. He's being patient with me too, said we could be friends and see what happens. I think he's incredibly sweet for that, totally gives him bonus points in my book!

Hm...yesterday I went to the library. I got out The Uglies by Scott Westerfield and Artemis Fowl. Two books I've been meaning to pick up and read. So that should be cool, I've started The Uglies, so far its way good. I'm excited to go deeper into that. I still have to start my summer homework...^^;; heh yeah...but as my English teacher said I know I won't be doing it till August, so might as well be getting some reading I want to do in. Hm...oh and I'm going to the Breaking Dawn Prom in August. I'll post pictures of that!

So I should head to bed, I have a stupid meeting tomorrow...ugh. So see ya!
-She Who Reads A Lot

Weregirls: Birth Of The Pack

Summary: Lily Willison and her friends Nikki, Arielle, and Grazia start up a girls’ soccer team at their school (actually Lily is the primary founder and leader of this) it is forced to be a club team for lack of school budget. So they’ll deal with it, they call themselves the Weregirls and play hard. Soon enough Andra comes into town, absolutely gorgeous, and rich beyond belief Andra quickly owns the school. Andra only wants one thing though, Lily’s magic. She’s convinced Lily will help her get magic, because she knows Lily has it. So, Andra starts an official soccer team and challenge The Weregirls. Long story short, Weregirls win but Andra isn’t satisfied. In the middle of all this Lily has contact with her deceased father, and he’s telling her that her and her friends are magical. The stories he told her as a child are true! Soon enough, Lily and the girls find themselves in a battle between good and evil, that goes far beyond a soccer rivalry.

My Opinion: I finished this book in two days, but there were about 10 days in between those reading days. I didn’t get into the book, to be honest with you, I hated it. I hated this book, the characters and everything. Up until chapter 10, that was when I started my page-turning for real. Honestly, even in the end I didn’t like the characters. The only reason I kept into it was the plot, I wanted to know what happened. I couldn’t give a crap if evil Andra won or Lily (whom I really don’t like) won. I just wanted to know what happened. I wanted to like this book…I really did. I think the idea is really interesting, I think that the characters could’ve been a little better written, some of them were very flat (even the main characters at times). I found the book confusing at times. The writing from Lily’s point of view was done sloppily. The book did not mix with me.

I didn’t like the characters at all. I will say this good thing though; the elements of this story were cool. The idea of these urban legends, of these girls who are gifted with magic, weregirls (hello! Girl protectors! Awesome!), a magical (dead) protector watching all of them, good vs. evil, I mean for this I must say: rock on! The plot was cool, edgy, and new. Something you don’t see a lot, if I really feel up to it I may pick up the sequel. I just might, just to see what happens.

Rating: 2/5

The plus point in this is the idea of it, the supernatural myths. If you can read through some annoying characters (in my opinion by the way), then cool read this book.

Reviews from the Pros: Couldn't find any!

Happy Reading everyone!
-She Who Reads A Lot

Firebirds Rising

I can't think of a summary for this one so I'm stealing it from off the back of the book. "What you hold in your hands is more than a book. It is a gateway between worlds--from deep space to Faerie to just around the corner. The seventeen authors who have contributed original stories to Firebirds Rising have won virtually every literary prize and made bestseller lists wordwide. These authors, including Francesca Lia Block (Weetzie Bat), Charles De Lint (The Blue Girl), Diana Wynne Jones (The Pinhoe Egg), and Tamora Pierce (Beka Cooper: Terrier), have written singular stories that will capture readers and spark their imagination."

My Opinion: Yeah, I couldn't think of a better way to say it than the summary itself. This book, which is an anthology, is just the right formula for fantasy and sci-fi Teen readers. I enjoyed every story in the book (though some were a little long [i.e. "The Wizards of Perfil" that was freakin' 50 pages long. Though it was certainly worth the long read of this "short" story]). As you can probably tell this book boasts authors that I love, and that are very famous for their Teen books. I have to say that Tamora Pierce's "Huntress" was probably my favorite story in the book. It was a great opening story, and it had this combination of reality and myth. Most stories were able to do this combine some reality (even if it was set in outer space!) with some fantasy or sci-fi asset. It made these stories very compelling and had me turning pages to see which story was next. This is the book that you want to curl up with on the couch on a miserable day or just at night. It will keep you entertained for hours, it certainly did me!

However, it wasn't perfect. As with most short stories, it's difficult to write fleshed out characters for everything and put in a plot and all the other assets needed. Most of the authors do all this very well, however, some fall just a little bit short (hardly at all, but still there). Still, I recommend this for anyone who is a fantasy or sci-fi fan, this is the book for you!

Rating: 4.5/5 Not perfect but it was damn near close!

Reviews from the pros:

"Short story collections for young adults are realtively plentiful, but rare is an anthology wherein every selection comes from authors who are already established; most of them have taken this free-form assignment to truly reach towards new creative heights." -BCCB

"At their best, [the stories]combine humor, character, and surprise with remarkable depth." -The Horn Book

"Compelling stories for thoughful readers." -SLJ

"Editor November follows Firebirds (2003) with an equally captivating collection of original stories offering a rich vairiety of selections." -Booklist

"Like its predecessor, [this] an encouraging sign that (no doubt with November's prodding), YA science fiction and fantasy is beginning to attract an impressive number of the field's better writers." -Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

Happy reading everyone! I hope you pick it up!
-She Who Reads A Lot