The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 374
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Ages: 12+
My Rating: 10/10


Synopsis: Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.



My Thoughts:  Alright. So if you didn't already know, I am a huge scifi fanatic*. Like super huge scifi fan. So naturally, this book was straight up my alley. I loved the premise and the idea of the totally corrupt Capitol in charge of the remains of America, and how the Hunger Games originated and all this wicked dark creepy stuff... Lol. Katniss is such a fantastic character. As are all of the other suporting characters in this book. I should also mention that even if you aren't a big scifi junkie, this series is still worth your time. It's awesome. The sequel to The Hunger Games is Catching Fire, and the third book Mockingjay, is coming out soooon. The writing is beautiful. Suzanne Collins brings this dark and incredible story to life through her words. It's a brilliant series. Go read it.  

(Agh. New book of the week. This means I have to take down all my Hush, Hush fan stuff...Lol.)

*For my 14th birthday, I had a TARDIS cake. Does this tell you anything? Lol.

Christmas in April

I was able to spend the weekend with my cousin, be in the city, go to the art store, get the world's most incredible art set (which I'm still currently starring at in total awe.) and I got not one, but two new hard covers*. Sigh. Christmas in April? Possibly. 

I haven't gotten much further in The DaVinci Code because my bedroom is a mess, and the book was unfortunately MIA for a few days. I found it this morning, however, lodged away between my matress and the wall. Wow. How Clean Is Your House has nightmares about stuff like this. Lol jk. It isn't that bad.. Haha.

So the two new books I have are The Kingdom of Ohio and The Dream of Perpetual Motion. Both have incredible covers. I can't wait! Lol.

And how time flies when your on vacation... Today is the "Last Day" of the Hush, Hush Book of the Week thing. You should all go read this book. Please? The summery may sound highly cliche, but it is really a fantastic novel. The sequel comes out in the fall, I even have a little countdown clock on the side. Go to your library, and get Hush, Hush.
Ok. I'm done now. Adios.


-Chase

*Of course, there was the not so fun incident at the dentists, this afternoon. Since when does novicane take four+ hours to wear off? It is far too difficult eating a giant burger with only half your face working...

In Which We Learn of Designers, Dead Guys, and Deviants

Last night, I picked up The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown,  which has been guility sitting on my shelf for a rather long time. Most of the "good books" in my house are in my room. Its like I'm hording them, unitentionally, or something like that. When my mom or dad finish a good book, it ends up in my book case.*
I am not complaining.
So last night I was going through my books, and I came across The DaVinci Code. As I said, it's been sitting there for a while, so I finally decided to read it.
Now I know that it is the second book, and I normally never read the sequel first, but I know the story of Angels and Demons... So I guess my question is, for those of you who have read the books, can a reader follow The DaVinci Code without reading the first book? Because I started it last night, and I'm pretty much addicted to it already. (Even though I'm not that far into it, I love the premise, and the whole bit with the dead guy at the Louvre...And the plot thickens..) But I don't want to go through with it if there are sections that I won't understand, having not read Angels and Demons first.  

And now for something completely different...

Gahh... I watched Project Runway last night OnDemand.**
-Possible Spoilers-
Wth. That's all I have to say. Heidi and Nina should listen to Micheal. They should have listend to Micheal, and put Jay through to Fashion Week. Ugh. I was ticked. I'm not denying that Mila isn't a good designer. She is***. But God, she can be obnoxious. And what was really weird, is her color palet. Or lack of, I should say. Her collection is basically 98.6% Black and White only, and when Tim visted her home it was all black and white too. Her dog is a dalmation. Whats up with this? I agree with what the judges said, about her very retro style... But how on Earth would she manage to put out 6 different collections a year. Can she even use color? Ughh. Anyways.
Seth Aaron all the way :-) .

Hey! Look what I learned to do.
Upload pictures from my phone... Woohoo.
This is a big step for me, because now I don't have to walk down stairs to the basement to use the scanner. Nope. I just click with my camera, upload to Photo Bucket , and viola!
I've been having a very lazy day. I think I left my room twice. Once to go to the bathroom, the other time to get a bagel from the kitchen. I've been sitting on my bed with my laptop, and sketchpad... Maybe I'll actually get around to uploading stuff to my Deviant Art account today.
 Below, is just an upload from my cell. I was too lazy to use the scanner, so the resolution is a bit fuzzy...




Alright. Well I'm off to enjoy more of vacation, adios.

-Chase
*Whenever I see books lying around the house, I move them to my room. I can be slightly OCD about books in that sense.
**FiOS On Demand, just another thing I'm unhealthily obsessed with. Lol.
***Why does it seem like her and Irina, from last season, would get along nicely?

And the Oscer Goes to...

Well I wanted to just thank Blue at Fantasy4eva for giving me my first award, The Honest Scrap. Woohoo! You should also go and check out her blog, because it is just amazingg.  

So, I have to pick 10 blogs to also give this awesome award to...

Dim the lights.

And the award goes to...

-Loud Words and Sound

-Fantasy4eva 

-Lost in Ink

-Can't Find a Bookmark

-Books That No One Would Ever Give Up Willingly

-Cleverly Inked

-A Good Addiction

-Adventure Through Wonderland

-In Which a Girl Reads

-Black and Blue Ink...

Congrats. (:

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

So, as I've mentioned about 700 times, Crescendo is the sequel to Hush, Hush, and is going to be released on November 16th, 2010. I was on Becca Fitzpatrick's website, and stumbled across the synopsis of the book*...      

Nora should have known her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described as anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy, Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The further Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim bloodline has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

Yay. (:

-chase





*I was wicked excited, and was like "Omg! Crescendo! Crescendo! Ahha!" My cat gave me a rather terrified look. Maybe I shouldn't do that again.

Sounds like a plan.. Stan..

Ok. So as I previously mentioned, I believe that I'm going to feature a Book of the Week on this blog. This week, the book I chose is Hush, Hush . I also have a quote from the Book of the Week, which is currently a quote by Patch, located benieth the picture of Hush, Hush. And not only that, but I also have the Book's trailer, that I commendeered from YouTube.
This is going to be a pain, doing this weekly.

I'm also working on getting a spiffy layout. Which I haven't really had time to look in to........ Yet?....


-chase

Book of the Week... (I'm experimenting here)

So I sort of stole this idea from everyone else.
If you look to your right hand side*, you may (or may not, depending on how observant you are) notice that my side bar now has "Quote of the Week" and "Book of the Week." I find this to be rather self explanatory.

This week, I chose Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick to be the "debut" book of the week... My reasoning is this: Since the release of Crescendo's cover, I have been completley overly obsessed  with Patch and Nora. Again. So, by making this my "Book of the Week" I can just review Hush, Hush and claim that I am just simply doing it as just another blog post. But I'm really just freaking out like the rest of you. In my head I'll be thinking "Ahhaa! Only eight more months! Only eight more months...!" In short. The reason I chose Hush, Hush as my book of the week, is because I am beyond thrilled for Crescendo to come out. And this is how I am showing my excitment. Lol. 

Title: Hush, Hush

Author: Becca Fitzpatrick

Pages: 400

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

My Rating: 10/10

Synopsis: For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch came along.

With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure who to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

My Thoughts:

Dude. Just go read it. I when I first got the ARC of Hush, Hush through B&N's First Look program, I thought it was going to be another sucky YA vampire thing. (There are no vampires here. Don't worry.) I wasn't really looking foward to reading it. And never in 102 years did I think that I would end up falling so much in love with it. Fitzpatrick's writing is great, and not like some other Teen Supernatural Romance, the characters are fantastic. I was so upset when I reached the end, simply because it was over. I missed Patch, and his snarky badass hotness**. Wow. I don't even know what that just meant. But I think it translates to "Patch is mine." And I missed Nora's sensitive personalitly. And Vee is just hilarious. So I missed her character too.
This book is great. I was expecting it to be terribly boring/chiche, and it was the complete opposite. I can not wait for Crescendo. 

-Chase

(Oh. And my Quote of the Week isn't exactly from Hush, Hush. Maybe it should be? Like, the Book of the Week... Quote of the Week... Kind of goes hand in hand here? Hmn maybe I'll try that next week, having the quote of the week be from the book of the week... We'll see. Ciao.)

*Please notice the exists in the front and back.. No. Nevermind.

**Yes. Snarky Badass Hotness.   

Blog Buttons and Layout Changes

So I finally, finally, finally, managed to get 3 columns on this blog. Hazzah. But I lost my spiffy background in the process... Oh dear. I'm working on getting a better layout situation. Just give me a moment.

Look! I attempted to make a blog button. I think it's mildly snazzy. My only issue is uploading it to the side bar, which I will hopefully figure out soon... Hopefully is the key word here. I'm following steps I found on Google, and it said something about posting it on the blog? Um... Ok. Google is all knowing I guess.

If you haven't heard yet...

... The cover of Crescendo is going to be released tomarrow! Very exciting.* I was looking at Fallenarchangel.com (Whose button is located somewhere on my blog..) and read that Laurie Mauves** will be be drawing the cover of Crescendo live. This my friends, is seriously awesome. The video streaming, or whatever it is, of this is going to start at 10am EST/ 8am MDT on Saturday, April 10th***. So... You should stop by www.FallenArchangel.com sometime tomarrow, because this will be an all day event, and watch the cover reveal take place. I am, in short, rather thrilled.

Crescendo is the sequel to the New York Times Bestseller Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. (I was lucky enough to read an ARC through the Barnes and Nobel Inside Look. Which was wicked awesome because we were able to speak with Becca, and talk about her book.) If you haven't read it yet, you should.

Another Impaitent YA Fan,
-chase


*This is also very thrilling for all those impaitent YA fans, like myself, who can't wait until Nov. 16th. (The cover release is just something to tide all of us over for a little while.)
**A "Chalk Artists from Denver CO."
***Tomarrow. For all of you who don't know the current date.

Ok.

Wow, it sort of feels like I haven't been on here in forever.
Which is pretty much because, well, I haven't.
So, there are some rather excellent giveaways and contests going about that I recommend you check out ASAP. (I've also linked some amazing blogs on that little side bar thing. You should go and look into that. It's pretty cool.)
Bloody Bookaholic has a wicked awesome contest, and you should get over to the blog, like right now, and check it out. It's insane. (In a totally crazy awesome unbelievably amazing way.) Oh. And may I also take this moment to point out, that not only does Bloody Bookaholic have a great blog, I also think it deserves an award for having one of the greatest blog titles. Ever.
Black and Blue Ink also has a fantastic contest that you absolutely need to go enter. Did someone say 120+ Followers Contest Extravaganzz? Oh I think so! Lol. Congrats on having so many followers*. Your blog is totally awesome.

Alrighty. Thats all for the moment I believe. I'm going to post somemore later I thinkith. Right now, I'm still trying to get my 3 columns! I have the link that Andrea (Loud Words and Sound) gave me, which showed how to get 3 columns in your blog. The only thing is Blogger keeps telling me blah blah blah is invalid and there are all these errors in the code. Ugh. I'm not a very html-y type of person.


cheers,
chase

*120+ ??!! Thats incredible! Dude. I'm still geeking out over getting 11 followers! Haha. You totally deserve it, Chioma. And Happy Birthday!