Good Reads!!!

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Yesterday I found out about this website about books that I actually like, so far is simple, fun, and most importantly useful, I've encountered many books websites in the past but this one beats them, because it's like a Facebook of books, you can share opinions, the books, there are links to buy them, and the people there is really honest, it's not like amazon reviews, because I can see more of the person behind the review, like what kind of books that person read, I know you can do that in other websites but in this one is much more simple. I also like the groups there I'm currently in two of them and so far, so great.

So add me if you like books, I promise to be honest in my reviews. My username is Shiriusa.

Try it out!

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Hunger Games Trilogy

by Suzanne Collins.

The first time I saw this book, was in a compilation of e-books, I got curious and started to read it, I read the first chapter and got dizzy for two reasons, the first was that I read the chapter so fast that my nose was like 3 inches away from the screen (that can't be good for my eyesight) and second because it was really good reading.

I got a simple way to say whether if it's a good or a bad book, I read the firsts chapters and if I can't put the book down, then it's good, very simple, right?

So I wanted to read a lot more about this Katniss girl, so I went to my favorite bookstore and bought it (not a cheap thing really) then I got home and since it was Friday night and I had no plans I read, and kept reading until 6:15 am, I remember very well the time because I was supposed to get up at 8 o'clock that day (I had a family trip to go) anyways the moment I finish the book, it entered my all time favorite books.

I haven't seen that kind of literature in a long time, the themes exposed are very dark, like death and misery but it was so well written that some scenes that could be really gore and bloody, were kind of beautiful.

The overall story is that in the future, there is a bad big controlling Capitol and 13 districts under their control, in the 12th district lives Katniss, a teenager who haven't had an easy life, then we have these Hunger Games, which is the way the Capitol keeps the fear and hatred present in Panem (the country) the way it works is this: each of the districts select 2 tributes a boy and a girl (only underage kids are eligible) and they are send to the Capitol to compete, there is only one winner and this is the creepy sick part, the winner is the one left standing and there has to be one survivor only, for this to happen they have to kill each other, and it is all televised.

So when I say gore and blood, I meant it, as for who should read it? I don't really see a specific target for this book, because I made my mom read it and she couldn't put it away either.

There are three parts, the second book is also as great as the first, maybe even better and that's extremely rare to say, then when the third book came out I was anxious to see how the story was going to end, but (and I'm not spoiling anything) I'm not sure if I liked the end, sure it's and END and the book needed one but it's been a lot of time since I read it and I still can't come to a end with my opinions, I ask my mom and she just made a confusing face, so I don't know how if some people have loved it or hated it, you have to read it to see what I mean.

UPDATE

I had this post written for a long time (4/7/10 according to blogger) and now that there is a movie coming out I need to say something about it, I did some research and Suzanne, the author was part of the script writing process so I thinks that in terms of story it will be related (what I mean is that they especially waited for the last book to come out so they had all the details that will meant something in the end really there, not like for example; what they did in the Harry Potter series).

In terms of casting I'm happy with it, I can't actually judge until I see the film but for what I'm hearing they did great auditions.

I just hope that the result is not that graphic, because the best part of the book is that beside the gore and blood you actually paid attention to the characters, and maybe that can be lost in translation.

Book Review: The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

By Mark Haddon

This book is at least ten shades of awesomeness, I read it in the summer around January I went to the mall library in which my mother is subscribed and I found this little red book with a dog upside down on the cover, I know the "don't judge a book by it cover" thing but this one was really cool, so I took it home and read it, at first there was surprise to know that the book is narrated by Christopher a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, which is (in case you don't know) a type of autism, loosely explained people with these syndrome don't get emotions and can't be emphatic because they don't know how, and therefore they have zero to none social skills, they don't relate to people like in the normal way, they have a very logical mind, which makes them good at working with maths and science, because numbers don't get emotional.

So, this kid narrates the story, he explains how he sees the world and his relationship with his father, the mother is not in the picture because his father told him that she died when he was little.

The story stars with a dog murder, a dog that belongs to a Eileen a close neighbor and because Chris like dogs he decides that he would find out ho killed him and bring him to justice. That's the mayor scene, is very simple and easy to follow and read but what makes it interesting and brilliant is that Chris in his investigation starts to uncover some information, about the dog, his owner Eileen and information about his mother and father, the story gets interesting when Chris finds letters of his mother, actual letters of his mother ho he believed was dead, he doesn't understand it because of the Aspergers, but we as readers do get the undertone and the implications that this letters and information brings.

That's what really caught me the fact that Chris is discovering all this stuff about his mother, and we as readers already know what happens.

I'm not going to tell how the story ends, because I'm no fan of spoilers, so I'm going to strongly recommend this reading, is fun is thrilling and at the end you just want a happy life for Chris, he is a very likable character after all.

For a summer reading or a Sunday raining day, this book won't take much time to read it, but it leaves you thinking about the nature of humans and how people take advantage of other people's weaknesses.

Have a nice reading.

To know about the author, here is his website.

True Blood & Charlaine Harris's books

I just wanna do a little comparison between the tv show and the books by Charlaine Harris, let's start with the books (because I don't think that all the viewers have read the books).

So a little background is required, I think it was the first week of January of 2009 when I downloaded a ton of e-books and among them was Charlaine Harris's books series, by that time I was a little biased with the whole Twilight Saga thing so I went for the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, "vampire" being the key word keeping my attention, anyways, I read the first one, Dead Until Dark in an afternoon, I found it kind of short really, and with no surprise I was totally hooked by the story and it's not that this is the greatest book of the decade, because it isn't, for example; the writing sometimes goes off point and some of the characters are just so over the top, but like I said I liked the story.

The way Sookie's brain works is really interesting, I can just imagine what it would be like to hear everyone's thoughts with no filter to them whatsoever, an absolute nightmare, so to go from that to then met a Vampire and hear nothing (they are supposed to be dead with no electric brain waves, so Sookie can't pick up their thoughts or at least that's the explanation of the book) must be an absolute relief, so I don't blame her for getting involved with vampires in any way.

Also what I really liked about the books is the way that the vampire big revelation works, (they reveal themselves to the world because of the synthetic blood, meaning that they don't need humans to feed) . I don't really think this is a big theme in the show, although it's kind of there and assumed, it doesn't have the big impact portrayed in the books, because there you really get the whole accepting/rejection of people, Charlaine describes this in the books like the situation is kind of the same thing we face today with the Gay marriage laws, for example, where we see all these people against it while others are in favor. So it's a really interesting theme that is present throughout the books.

Now, after reading the first I couldn't just stop there, so I read a book a day until I was finished (at the moment there where 8 books, now there are 10 and counting) and what I have to say after reading them all is that Eric Northman is one of my favorites characters ever, that's why I read them really and Charlaine must have realized what a strong character he is too, because Eric slowly made his way into the spotlight and obviously, I'm not complaining about it.

Others characters I really liked and I hope I will see in the TV Show are Amelia, Claudine and Claude, they where really fun to read, I love Amelia's personality and I absolutely adore Claude's attitude, he's such a bad ass, Claudine actually appeared in the latest episode of True Blood, I don't really get why are they portraying her as a fairy straight forward, but honestly the show has its own way to tell the story.

In the process of comparing the books with True Blood I must say that my conclusion is that I like them both for very different reasons, I love that they kept Lafayette around in True Blood for example, and the little side stories they have added, like Godric being Eric's maker, and Jessica's story (I really like how her role is to explain what is like to be a new vampire).

The only thing that concerns me though, is that I don't know how they will evolve from those story lines, because every time they change something it gets more complicated to follow it from the books perspective, like with Eric's maker, we know that it wasn't Godric but Appius Livius Ocella a very disturbing roman vampire who made him, so there you have it and as much as I like were this is going, I just can't wait for the Eric show time (this meaning the adaptation of book 4), I hope they make it good, and knowing the boldness of Alan Ball I know it will be good.

To finish this post, I will say that I still recommend reading the books, because it's always good to read, but keep in mind that what you'll read is not True Blood, but the story that inspired the series, which can be very different.