Goliath: Imagination Inducing

Another mini, syndicated Amazon.com review of mine. Sorry for the mini-ness. . . . it's because I've been busy tired lazy experimenting with the power and simplicity of shorter writings these days. :)

Oh, how I've missed the series! And how I'll miss it forever more!

Goliath is the ultimate conclusion to the thrilling, witty Leviathan Trilogy. All the characters you love - Alex, Deryn (aka Dylan), Dr. Barlow, Bovril, and Newkirk (Yes, he'll become of favorite character of yours in this book) - along with a few new ones mold together with vivid settings to create a imaginative, crisp universe.

Alex and Deryn, still aboard Leviathan, the sky's greatest Darwinist, DNA-mutant "beastie", struggle with their problems. Alex's problems? His parents are dead, his home taken away from him, he's the heir to Austria's throne, and he's a deeply confused Clanker, one of engine and steam upbringings, that is surrounded by a world of Darwinists. And Deryn's problems? She has a "barking" huge crush on Alex, but he's nobility and she's just a low commoner. Oh! And she's also a girl disguised as a boy, who will be kicked off Leviathan, her newfound home, and possible tried for treason if her secret's revealed. No biggie . . .

Already faced with unimaginable obstacles, Alex and Deryn's troubles reach a new level when the Leviathan makes a pit-stop and picks up a new passenger . . . Mr. Nikola Tesla, a complete mad-man, whose ideas of world peace involve great deaths. And with Mr. Tesla comes deception, truths, and more secrets.

Faced with brutal decisions, Alex and Deryn must each decide their own future. Becoming closer than ever before, Alex and Deryn start a "no secret" relationship. But will that be enough to save their friendship from the life-changing, life-destroying war that has already taken one too many victims?

Accented by Keith Thompson's stunning black-and-white illustrations, Goliath is a perfect tale that depicts an alternative past. Scott Westerfeld flawlessly relates Alex and Deryn's problems to the issues of our age. Goliath, abundant in imagery, adventure, humor, and wonder, is not a story to be missed.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

(image via)

The Results Are In! (Poll #8)

The readers of the newly redesigned The Bookshelf have voiced their opinions; the results to Poll #8 are in! Poll #8 addressed the topic of the ever-debatable and ever-changing market of eBooks and eReaders. I imagine everyone understands what eReaders and eBooks are by now, but for the theoretical few that may not, this previous post might be handy to you. 

Amazon Kindle

My views on eReaders and eBooks are mixed. On the one side, paper will always be my most favorite form of book. I enjoy holding the book in my hands, feeling the cover, turning the pages, and easily jumping from the front of the book to a page in the back. However, on the other side of my mind, the defendant side, I truly recognize that the material, the words, and the story are not at all different in the eBook format than the paper format. I also recognize that eReaders and eBooks aren’t leaving any time soon – they’re too popular to just stop existing one day. It is my hope that the paper book will share that same outcome. I do not think paper books will become obsolete because paper books have been around for thousands of years. The Amazon Kindle, the most popular eReader, was first released in 2007, just four years ago. I believe that a world with equal parts e- and paper books would be perfect.

Time for the poll results!

The question: What are your views on eReaders and eBooks?

And the results:

• They are the way of the future! Paper books are the past! 3 votes, 12%
• They're nice, but paper books are better. 12 votes, 50%
• I think both eBooks and paper books are excellent! 4 votes, 16%
• eBooks and eReaders are horrible! 2 votes, 8%
• I've never read an eBook, so I'm not sure. 3 votes, 12%

Nook Color

The clear winner is option number two, “eBooks = good, paper books = better”. Second place, and my personal opinion, is “eBooks = paper books = excellent!” Tied for third was “eBooks > paper books” and “eBooks = ?” Interestingly, there were only two votes for “eBooks are D:< ” compared to the three votes that “eBooks are :D” received. I like that option number two won because it says that both e- and paper books are good, but that eBooks and eReaders will need much improvement until they reach the level of awesome that is reserved for paper books.

Thank you so much for the total of twenty-four (twenty-four!) votes! Unfortunately, there will be no polls in August. But don’t fear! August will be filled with a great deal of reviews, recommendations, summaries, and news! A new poll, topic yet to be revealed, will be published in mid-September.

– Jacob 

(images via and via)

Wish You Were Dead: Be Careful What You Blog For

The first in Todd Strasser’s cyber “thrill-ogy”, Wish You Were Dead is a chilling mystery paired with a side of adventure, intrigue, and ever-bountiful plot twists. Recommended to me by my local library, Wish You Were Dead sows questions in your mind about social class, popularity, and the effect your words have on people.

Taking place in a ritzy neighborhood, Soundview, a community that isn’t often faced with crime, Wish You Were Dead follows Madison, a rich, but well-intentioned, high schooler. Madison, who volunteers with her community’s Safe Drives, an organization that offers ride to inebriated teens departing from parties, finds herself in a big mess after one fatal accident. Madison and her Safe Drives partner, Tyler, make the mistake of dropping a girl, Lucy, off without waiting for to enter her house. All Safe Drives volunteers are required to wait until the partygoer enters their house before leaving, but it was late, Madison was tired, and Lucy was being uncooperative. Leaving Lucy, Tyler and Madison returned to their homes to sleep. But when Madison waked up in the morning, she learned that Lucy had went missing, leaving no signs as to where she escaped to. Madison, shocked and guilty, was unsure what to think. Lucy, also another rich girl, used to be Madison’s best friend.  Madison called off the friendship because of Lucy’s extreme competitiveness and the mood swings that came from her bipolar condition.

the sequel to Wish You Were Dead

At first, Lucy is declared by the cops as a “runaway.” But as Lucy’s boyfriend, Adam, also another ex-friend of Madison’s, also goes missing, the cops, the parents, and the students of Soundview begin to worry. Madison, afraid that she will be the next “popular” to go, begins a search to find the kidnapper, who, as people begin to speculate, may be a murderer. Through a series of Facebook stalker messages, slashed tires, and handwritten notes, Madison begins to make some connections to the disappearances. However, for each connection made, a double amount of questions are created.  A culmination of plot twists and exposures causes Madison to view her former friends, her teachers, her best friend, Whitney, Tyler, and herself in a different light.

After the discovery of an anonymous blog, which, in detail, lists the cruel actions made and words spewed by the popular kids at Soundview High, Madison tries to improve her attitude, generosity, and friendliness in an attempt to avoid being the next one taken by the Soundview Kidnapper.

Using 21st technology to make an edge-of-your-seat, read-it-in-one-sitting-and-never-forgot-it thriller, Wish You Were Dead expertly weaves crime, loneliness, popularity, and rejection to create one engaging and horrifyingly creative story.

A companion to Wish You Were Dead, Blood on My Hands, another thriller that incorporates the cyber aspect, is now available.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

 (images via and via)

Poll #8: eReaders + eBooks

It’s reward time! After Poll #7’s absolutely smashing, record-breaking results, I thought it would be fun to have another poll, because they are a great way to for you, the readers of The Bookshelf, to participate and have your voices heard. I present to you Poll #8!

I imagine everyone has now heard of eReaders and eBooks (if not, please read this post) and the impact they have brought into both the literary and technological worlds. eReaders are devices, oft called “the iPods of books,” from which you can purchase and read eBooks. An eBook is an electronic copy of a regular book. The only difference is that you don’t get the full experience of a regular book with actual pages, designs, and (with some eReaders) color. Amazon.com introduced the first eReader, their famous Kindle, in 2007. The Kindle remains the most popular eReader on the market, surpassing the Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, and the Kobo eReader (I’m not including the iPod Touch, iPhone, and the iPad, because they’re considered more than eReaders). However, not only is Amazon’s Kindle the bestselling eReader; their eBook sales aren’t too shabby, either. On May 19th of this year, Amazon announced that, only after four years of selling eBooks, their eBooks sales surpassed the sales of their hardcover, “real,” paper books.

This news is monumental, especially with people saying that one day paper books will become obsolete, and that eBooks will take over for good. I, and many others, will be horrified if paper books become obsolete. I cannot envision a world without paper books. Imagine how different things would be: Would libraries lend eBooks instead? And bookstores? Would they all be online? Textbooks? Would every schoolchild be issued an eReader instead of an armload of textbooks? I own a Barnes and Noble Nook, and I use it fairly often (I buy probably fifteen books a year on it). However, nothing is more beautiful to me than “actual” paper books, available in a wide variety of shiny and muted colors, sitting on my bookshelf. Speaking of bookshelves, if paper books become extinct, will people even use the word “bookshelf” anymore? If not, what meaning will my blog’s title have?

the original Kindle

Please, don’t miss understand me; eBooks, in certain circumstances, can be very cool and very innovative. And, despite not being in paper, is the same book in both formats. And I suppose that should be the main concern: the writing, creativity, and thought in the book, not the format it arrives in. So, without further ado, Poll #8’s question:

What are your views on eReaders and eBooks? You can find the poll, along with its answer options above the “about me” section on the right side of the page. Please vote! The last poll was so successful, and I suspect this one will be nothing less! Make your vote and let your voice be heard, because the poll closes on July 31st at midnight!

Do you think eBooks are awesome? Or do you not want paper books to become obsolete? Now is the time to let your opinion out in a peaceful way. VOTE!

– Jacob

PS: You can find just about any book in eBook format these days. Even the Harry Potter series (final movie comes out on Friday!), which J.K. Rowling once insisted not to become eBooks, will be available in eBook format in October, through a website called Pottermore. For more eBook sale stats, please visit this website.

(images via and via)

Candor: Picture Perfect (AKA Brainwashed)

Candor, written by Pam Bachorz, is a short, witty, creepy novel about a seemingly perfect community in Florida. In this town, everyone does as they are told, respects themselves and others, and strives for their very best. After the startling and heart-breaking death of his oldest son, Campbell Banks created this town. He, with his wife and younger son, bought an area of plantation in Florida and began to rewrite their lives. Finally relieving themselves of their son’s death, Campbell and his wife, Lucy, began to construct other houses for other families. Because of its ritzy houses and friendly, courteous members, the community began to flourish. Business were built, schools were developed, citizens worked harder than ever to do what was best. From the outside, the Community, named Candor by its founders, Campbell and Lucy, appeared to be the best place to live and especially the best place to raise a child. However, deep under the community’s good virtues and efficiency their loomed a dark, dangerous secret. 

One day, Lucy left the family. She escaped the town of Candor, only leaving a note behind that said, “Don’t come looking for me.” Devastated by his mom’s leaving, Oscar became prone to noticing things that were out of place. Right before his mother left, Oscar noticed she suddenly became uninterested in art, something that she had loved all her life. Oscar also noticed that he, himself, had also developed a distaste for art, too. And junk food and relaxing and breaking the rules. He also noticed that he had discovered a certain joy in cleaning the house and pleasing his father and making perfect scores on his SATs, no matter how many hours into the night he had to study. As more families began to move to Candor, Oscar noticed the change in other children and their parents, too. Determined to discover the meaning of the radical change, Oscar soon discovers it, hidden in all the music that plays throughout the streets and homes of Candor.

Fast-forward a few years later, Oscar has become a master at avoiding the messages that play in the music of Candor. After rifling through his father’s study, he discovers many documents and equipment that reveal to him that messages are entered into the music that is played all around Candor. These messages say things like, Don’t litter, Respect personal space, Lying is bad, and A nutritious breakfast is a key to success. You do not notice these messages, but instead they enter your brain and activate themselves in your subconscious. Oscar, after discovering the truth about the messages that lie in his favorite music, teaches himself how to block the messages sent out by his father and create new ones to keep himself on track. However, to avoid anyone from noticing, Oscar must continue to act the part of a “perfect child.” If he were to let his armor down and reveal to his father the truth, Oscar would be sent to the Listening Room, literally a room where you are forced to listen to messages, hidden in music, until you are “cured.” 

Deciding to take advantage of his knowledge, Oscar begins seeking out children of families new to Candor, hoping to find a new “client.” After successfully combating his father’s brainwashing techniques, Oscar seeks to tell other kids of the terrible actions being played. Calling them his clients, Oscar gives these new kids CDs with personal messages on them. However, these messages were good – they confirm that Candor’s messages force children to be perfect, and that Oscar’s way is right. But Oscar, who I believe is more like his dad than he realizes, doesn’t let these clients get their special music at no cost. Oscar makes them give him something that is outlawed in Candor, such as candy, alcohol, art supplies, photographs, et cetera. 

However, Oscar’s secret business is thrown into jeopardy when he builds connections with two risky clients: Sherman, his blabbermouth best friend, and Nia, a new bold girl who he develops a crush on. After many too-close-to-being-caught excursions, lying, and distrust, Oscar must make decisions on what is right and what is best. Coming to a quick, yet unpredictable end, Candor is a great book with a bad and surprising ending, but as one of my favorite, and most certainly quirky authors, Pseudonymous Bosch, would say:

“Only bad books have good endings. If a book is any good, its ending is always bad because you don’t want the book to end.”

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 

(image via)

Windows, and Firefox, and Israel! Oh, my!

A few days ago, I discovered a feature by Blogger (the program I use to create my blog) that allows you to view statistics about your blog. These stats include the amount of people who have viewed your blog, which Internet browser and operating system is most popular among my readers, and which countries I get views from. These stats can provide me with information and ideas of how to make my blog a better place to visit. Here's what I learned about my readers:

Windows. The majority of the people who have visited my blog have Windows installed on their computers. 96% of my readers use Windows, 3% use Mac, and 1% use an unspecified operating system. Looks like Mac people don't like me (or maybe they're not readers :D).

Firefox. Internet browsers retrieve, present, and traverse information resources on the World Wide Web. They are what you use to search the Internet. The most popular Internet browser, that my readers use is Mozilla Firefox with 79%. Internet Explorer is next with 15%, Safari (not to be confused with Shelfari) with 5%, and Java with 1%.

Israel. I would have thought that the people who have viewed my blog were residents of the U.S., but I was wrong. I have received three page views from Canada, and surprisingly one page view from Israel. A note for my foreign readers: Keep visiting!

A few other stats:
1. On average, I receive 5-30 page views per day
2. The slide show with pictures from my trip to Europe was viewed twenty-two times
3. The least amount of views to my blog occurred between June 19th-June 30th, roughly the time when I was in Europe, and unable to post.
4. Fourteen viewers have found my blog through Google searches

Well, I think that's all have to say for now. Look for a loooonnnng overdue review of The Forest of Hands and Teeth tomorrow. I finished it about two weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to update! :)

Shelfari!

Shelfari. That's the name of my new favorite thing.

Shelfari, a combination of the words "shelf" and "safari", is a website for books and readers. Recently, I set up an account with Shelfari. This account allows me to display my books on a virtual shelf. On Shelfari's website, I find the books that I've read, I plan to read, and I'm reading now, and add them to my "shelf". Upon doing this, I can see the book cover on my shelf, and click on them to get more information (synopsis, reviews, character list, author, etc.). In addition, you can rate/review the book for yourself. Another one of my favorite things about Shelfari, is that you can put your virtual shelf on your blog.

As you may have noticed, a smaller version of my shelf is located on the right side of the blog (under the polls). This shelf just shows some of the books that I've added to my account. If you want to see my entire shelf, just click on the word Shelfari, located on top of the shelf. This brings you to Shelfari's website. Here you can see the big version of my shelf, along with my ratings.

Important note: I had some trouble getting the shelf on my blog, and I am experiencing some other problems, too. Because of this, I'm making this shelf on my blog experimental. At any time I could remove it from the blog. If these were to happen, I would include a link to the website, so you could continue the view my books.

I hope you enjoy this new feature on The Bookshelf, and stick with me through the technical problems that I may have.

P.S.- I'm extending the date that the polls close by one week. There's only five votes (on each poll) so far. We can do better than that! :) New date that the polls close: August 8th

Enter the World of eReaders

The world of reading has recently entered a new level, as eBooks and eReaders have becoming more and more popular. eReaders have been known as "the ipod for books", because it's just that: an electronic device that lets you store thousands of books, just like an ipod stores thousands of songs.

eReaders have a screen that displays the book, the words. However, unlike a computer monitor, or a phone screen, you won't get any eye strains from looking at the screen too long. This is because eReaders use E Ink. The reader's E Ink display means it uses special technology that makes the screen look just like paper. E Ink also makes the screen have no glare, so you can read in a low-light area, or in a bright, sunny area.

Most eReaders have an application that allows you to purchase eBooks, eNewspapers, and eMagagzines. It's really easy: for most readers you set up an online account (where you give credit and gift card info.), you open the app (often called the store/shop), browse through reading materials, find something you like, press the BUY button, and it will be delivered to you in under 60 seconds. That's quick!

Depending on which eReader you have, you may have special features. I own the Barnes & Noble Nook (upper left picture). Some of the extra features it has are, 2 screens-one of them a touchscreen and in color, games-chess and sudoku, a web browser, a music player-to play music while reading, and the ability to upload and read Word and .pdf files.

I personally love the Nook, but there are other eReaders out there, too. The one that started it all was the Amazon Kindle (middle right picture), there's the Sony Reader, and a new one called the Kobo (lower left picture). The Kobo will be sold through Borders Booksellers.

While these readers are certainly high-tech and convenient, they will never replace the feeling of a real book. I love my Nook, but I still read more real, paper books. eReaders have certainly changed how the public looks at books, but I don't think it will ever surpass the essence of a paper book.

Also...I have decided not to write Incarceron's review until summer. I have recently started my summer reading theme, classic books, with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I hope to finish and review this classic soon.