Sanctum

Author: Sarah Fine
Goodreads Rating: 4.67
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pages: 433
Reviewed by: Nicole

"My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple."
A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos's best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance – hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn't just anyone – she's determined to save her best friend's soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife.
As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she's captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city's endless streets. Their all-too-human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind. Malachi knows something Lela doesn't – the dark city isn't the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.

Safe Within

Author: Jean Reynolds Page
Goodreads Rating: 3.83
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pages: 325
Reviewed By: Nicole


I read The Space Between Before and After by Jean Reynolds Page last summer and loved it, so each time the chance to read another of her books comes up, I seem to jump at it. I got The Last Summer of Her Other Life at Borders as it closed on a whim and her book Leaving Before it's Over was a Free Friday book for the Nook. So when the chance to review it for her blog tour came up, I happily jumped at the chance to be one of the special 10 blogs mentioned on the back cover of the book. (Not mentioned by name, but all the same)


Amazon.com Synopses:

A novel of how family happens—whether you like it or not

Elaine and Carson Forsyth have returned to the tree house—Elaine's childhood home, a cabin nestled high in the branches of two oaks beside a North Carolina lake—where forty-nine-year-old Carson has chosen to spend the waning days of his life. As Elaine prepares for a future without her beloved husband, their solace is interrupted. Carson's mother, Greta, has set loose a neighbor's herd of alpacas and landed herself in police custody. While Carson, remarkably, sees humor in the situation, Elaine can only question what her obligations are—and will be—to a woman who hasn't spoken to her in more than twenty years.

In the wake of Carson's death, Elaine and their grown son, Mick, are thrust into the maelstrom of Greta, the mother-in-law and grandmother who never accepted either of them. Just as they are trying to figure out their new roles in the family, Mick uncovers unexpected questions of his own. A long-ago teenage relationship with a local girl may have left him with more than just memories, and he must get to the bottom of Greta's surprising accusations that he's not Carson's son at all.

The Nook Simple Touch

As many of you know, this past holiday season, I came into possession of a wonderful device created just to make the lives of us readers easier, I got a Nook Simple Touch. This device is the third of its kind to be released by Barnes and Noble. Its predecessors, The Nook First Edition was large, bulky and had a difficult touch screen and the Nook Color was more tablet than ereader. And thus, the Nook Simple Touch was born, with the benefit of just reading like the First Edition but more shapely like the Color.

My boyfriends mother got the First Edition for Christmas when it came out, and I will admit I loved the idea of an e-reader. I helped to set it up mostly because I was eager to play around on it, but I was disappointed by it, and it discouraged by wanting to get one. The idea was nice, but the tiny touch screen was difficult and you couldn't even use a stylus to alleviate the difficulty of using your finger to select keys the size of your pinky nail. Then my older sister got the Nook Color as did a friend of mine. Again, I helped my friend set up her Nook because I wanted to play around on it, and I liked how it had a lot of features, but the screen hurt my eyes, I liked the e-ink technology of the First Edition and so the idea of reading a computer screen hurt my eyes. I nevertheless borrowed my sister's Color so that I could see what it was like reading with it-this too failed to suit my needs.

And so I began to feel like Goldylocks waiting to try baby bears porridge. When the Simple Touch came out, and I played with it in stores, I was completely in love. It was small, had an e-ink screen, and it was light, but there was so much more to it than that.

Size
As someone that lugs her books back and forth, its important to have something small that I can use to read. During my time reading 11/22/63, I have come to appreciate my Nook even more. Weighing in at less than 8 pounds, this little baby is smaller than the average size of a paperback. Half the time I carry it with me just because it fits so snug in my purse. The page turning buttons on the side make it super easy to turn the page without needing both hands.

Reading

Side view of the
Nook Simple
Touch

I know that some of my friends don't like to use Nooks or other e-readers because nothing beats turning a page and holding a book, and they're right. I love holding books to and being able to turn the page myself. But how many times in turning that page have your eyes wandered too far ahead because a different typeset caught your eye? With the Nook that doesn't happen, and better yet, when its been awhile and your picking up in the middle of a book after a few months or another book in a series and you can't remember who that person is, you can search the book for that name or term. I did it when I was reading Mockingjay. I couldn't remember who Seneca Crane was and I hit find, and it gave the his name in context which lead to an "ahhh thats who he is" moment.

Another benefit is that you have your library right at your fingertips. Rather than lug 3 books with me on my trip to Pittsburgh, I brought one book and my Nook. When I finished my first book I still had my whole library on my Nook, and it was a good thing too because I finished a second book in the car. I'm not sure what it is about Nook vs. physical books, but I found that I read them a lot faster too.

Adobe EPUB

Library
One of the great benefits about the Nook and most e-readers is that you can get library books on them. While I can't get every single book, you still have access to a lot of e-books. On my library system, you register your library card online, and then you add 10 books that you want to "request" give them your email address and when its your turn with the book, follow the steps, download Adobe EPub (only once), connect your Nook to your computer and you drag the book to the little Nook icon, and then BOOM! You have the book on your Nook.

Cost
The Nook Simple Touch currently costs $99 plus tax depends on where you are, other than the Nook First Generation which you can no longer get from Barnes and Noble. The Nook Color is the second tier of Nook's costing $169 on the website. Lastly there is the Nook Tablet which starts at $199 for the 8GB and $249 for the 16GB. The cost of books then range from free to textbooks for $200 or $64 for a collection of books such as the Sookie Stackhouse books. The last expense is accessories like a cover or matte screen, or even a stylus.

Benefits
I love that I can just lie in bed and hold this over my head and simply use the other hand to swipe. I also love that all of Barnes and Noble's 3 million book library is at my fingertips so long as I have wifi. It was the best to finish Catching Fire and be able to download Mockingjay right then and there. One other great feature is the option to lend books to friends. A good friend of mine got the Nook app on her iPad and so I was able to loan her Mockingjay for her to read. I can also add Nook friends so that I can see what loanable books they have for me to borrow. I also love that I can download library books from my computer and not have to worry about going to the library to get them or return them. If I wanted to I could take notes on my books and change the font size so it would be easier to read. It's also great if you're traveling so I don't have to worry about bringing 12 books with me at once.

Disadvantages
As far as disadvantages go, its not the same as holding a book. I miss being able to judge how far I am in a book by pinching the pages. One of my other biggest problems with my Nook is that you need a light for it, so when I'm going on those early road trips at 5 AM with my dad, I can't read my Nook for a lack of natural light, but thats no different than reading an actual book. If you get a Color or a Tablet then its going to be harder on your eyes, but that's a matter of preference and opinion.

Overall
I like that I have my Nook for occasional use and that I don't need it all the time. I like that it has a long battery life, and that I can read it both indoors and outdoors. I also love that its so small an compact that it fits right in my purse and I don't have to worry about something folding the pages or the cover within my bag. If you're considering an e-reader just for reading, then this bad boy is your Nook, and you can even check out the new Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight out on May 1, 2012!

The Hunger Games: The Movie

So I've expressed how much of a book nerd I am to all of you. I told you about my books, how much I intend to read and that I love to go to the midnight release parties for books as well as for the movies. What makes you think Hunger Games was any different? Not only did I go to the midnight viewing, but I went with my mother, my best friend (who was jet lagged from having landed from a trip to London not 24 hours earlier), and my boyfriend (who I forced to read the book, but admits he enjoyed it). I know this is a little late, but I still had things to add to it.

We got there at 9:30 to find that there was already a line out the door. We hit Target for snacks, Barnes and Noble for coffee and then we went to the theater where they told us they had already let in about 200 people so we could head on in if we wanted to. We found four seats easily, and then settled down to wait for two hours. I had a book with me and so did my best friend, but the boy had to venture down four stories, back to his car to get his. And there we sat reading while the younger children around us screamed in excitement. (I was going a little deaf when they started to hand out posters to whoever was the loudest.) Side note to the posters: My mother marched down to the employees and demanded a poster, who told her they were only for the kids, she proceeded to remind the worker that she was in here talking to him months earlier about the movie, and then he gladly handed one to her. Mom -1, Little kids - 0.

There was lots of screaming when it came to the movie starting and the theater getting darker- but how could there not be? We had all been sitting for TWO HOURS waiting-just waiting. Thats when it started. I spent the entire movie squeezing my boyfriends hand because it was the most stressful movie I have ever seen.

On to my review. Which contains spoilers about the movie.

The Hunger Games Party

So if you've ben paying any attention to my blog, you will know that my mother works for a Barnes and Noble and I love the Hunger Games. With the movie release being on March 23, Barnes and Noble has decided to host parties the night before and the night of the Movie release. (Basically there is a party on March 21 and March 22, and the movie is out on March 23)

If your local Barnes and Noble is near a movie theater (like in the same shopping center as a movie theater, chances are the party will be on Thursday night and then you can walk over to the theater for a midnight viewing of the movie.) If you aren't sure, your best bet is to call your local Barnes and Noble by clicking here. I'm not sure if other local bookstores will be hosting parties as well, but you can always find out.

I couldn't find a picture of my
from the release party, but this
one shows my fandom in high school.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"

I think going to the parties are the best because (at least the way my mom does it) its a lot of fun especially when people get dressed up and go all out for it. I have a Mockingjay necklace, and pin that I'm going to wear and I'm even getting my hair done to be dressed like the capitol. It's mean to be a good time where we can let out inner geek out. I remember getting dressed up for when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out (If I can find the pictures I will share them with you). There was the time that I convinced my mother to host a party for Breaking Dawn also, (I met a really great friend that night.

So call your Barnes and Noble or local bookstores to get in on the action, because tomorrow night is bound to be a good time, and if you're lucky enough to have two Barnes and Noble's near you, like myself, then go to both of them! (I have one in a mall with a theater and one that isn't, so I'm going to hit up both!) I know at my mom's store there is going to be trivia and giveaways and all sorts of fun!

Why brick and mortar stores are better

It is no secret that I grew up in a bookstore. When the going got tough I could always count on being able to sit in the aisles with a good book. I would spend hours of my summers sitting in the air conditioning leaning against uncomfortable metal bays while my mother and sister worked hard to buy me the books that I couldn't read during the day.

 My sister started to work at Barnes and Noble in 1997, I was 5 at the time, two years later my mom started to work there and she's worked there ever since. When I was in elementary and middle school, I was a "junior bookseller"and would help my mom shelve books and answer questions from customers who seemed to think the (visibly) 9 year old worked there. I didn't mind though, I helped them find books, and when I didn't know what they were asking for, I ran to find my mother or an available computer for me to look up with they wanted. Every so often another bookseller would help me out.

This was how I spent most of my summers until I was around 13 and that was just because I was 13 and evil. I loved those days that I spent wrapping presents during the holidays or reading in a corner, and before you start accusing my mother and sister of child labor, know that I liked what I was doing and I was paid for my work with the latest Bailey School Kids book or an A-Z Mystery.

I am ashamed to admit that this summer, when they announced that Borders was going out of business, I was giddy that all of these books were going to be so cheap. I loved reading and I loved books, but what I didn't realize was what it would mean for brick and mortar stores like Barnes and Noble. It is no secret that a large number of people do their shopping online, not just for electronics but for books as well. As people look to get their books from online because its cheaper to do it that way then to go into the store and use gas and have to pay someone to put the book in their hand.

Bookstores offer a great experience. You get to be surrounded by books and people that love books just as much as you do. Bookstores offer something that, online stores can't; the chance to hold the book in your hands and feel it and see other parts of the book. I know plenty of people that like to read the end of the book first or read a chapter from the middle of the book before purchasing it.

That being said, I still want to open my own bookstore. When I went into Pittsburgh last month, I don't think I saw a single chain bookstore, and that gave me hope that someday I might be able to open up my own shop and survive.

The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye

Author: Robert Kirkman
Illustrated by: Tony Moore
Goodreads Rating: 4.25/5
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Pages: 144


I decided to read this graphic novel even though I am currently watching the show The Walking Dead, but when I was helping out at Barnes and Noble and I was wrapping presents, I found myself without a book to read, and my friend suggested this. At first I was going to wait until the show ended, but who knows how long that was going to be so I dove in and finished it in 30 minutes (with wrapping in between). It wasn't hard since I've been completely obsessed with zombies for the last few weeks.


Synopses from Goodreads.com:


An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future. A couple months ago he was a small town cop who had never fired a shot and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family, he must now sort through all the death and confusion to try and find his wife and son. In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally begin living.


My review after the jump! Spoilers Ahead!

Angelology

Author: Danielle Trussoni
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.22
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.


I listened to this book as an audiobook, given that information, it took me a long time from when I started it to when I finished it. It was a twenty hour book that took me two months to read, sometimes listening to it a lot, sometimes not for a month. That being said, some little facts are forgotten between starting and ending it. My opinion of this book also changed knowing that it was the first in a series, although I think that it would have been better as a standalone.


Synopses from Goodreads.com:

A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time- between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.
Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.

My review after the jump!

Introduction

This is going to be my new blog about books. Since this is only going to be an introduction to who I am and what sort of things that I like. Right now I am a recent college graduate waiting to turn twenty one. I love to read, and have a degree in History and so I love Historical Fiction books. My mother is a bookseller and my sister is an English teacher which is how I found my love of books.

I have started to come out of my comfort zone as far as books go, I usually don't read a lot of factual books or memoirs, but I have started to, and I really love it. I listen to audiobooks when I'm driving and occasionally when I work out. I do still love to read and do it any chance that I get. This Christmas I will be getting a Nook and I will be blogging plenty about my new Nook and what its like.

While I get to the ends of the books I'm currently reading, I will update you on previous books that Ive read, and offer some books that fit the season.

Right now I am in the process of reading Angelology by Danielle Trussoni, Plague and Fire by James Mohr and Far from Here by Nicole Baart.

You can Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/fireflyflames and add me on Goodreads!

I look forward to being a trusted site for what books to read!