Sunday, November 29, 2009

In My Mailbox: One



I love this idea, and even though I don't get books every week, I'm still going to start it (: So! This week I got three new books.


Under The Dome by: Stephen King

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.


Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.



Bride Of Pendorric by: Victoria Holt

Favel Farrington meets Roc Pendorric on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Capri, where she was raised and lives with her father. Roc sweeps her off her feet, taking her from her home by an emerald sea to the ancient family home of the Pendorrics, in Cornwall. His sister and her family await them with open arms, welcoming young Favel. She is the much anticipated Bride of Pendorric, a name that amuses and flatters her.

The castle is beautiful in its way, but the atmosphere is foreboding. Roc’s twin nieces begin watching her carefully; even the stones in the courtyard seem to have eyes. On the walls hang portraits of two other Brides of Pendorric—one of them Roc’s mother—who died both young and tragically. Favel’s fear increases as Roc seems to be growing more and more distant. Has her courtship and marriage been just a deception?

Soon Favel can no longer dismiss as accidents the strange things happening to her. Someone is trying to kill her and she must confront the very real dangers that surround her.


Shutter Island by: Dennis Lehane


The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple-murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.










Utopia by: Sir Thomas More





Oh, Utopia. I had to read this for history class. The book has a great premise, the main character listening to a traveler explain about his time spent in a place called Utopia, where everything is perfect. Everyone is happy, life is good and fair to everyone [aside from the slaves]. In the sixteenth century, it would've been the best place to live. Nowadays, a lot of things would have to be changed to make it desireable, but the term is still used quite openly.

I didn't hate this book, it had some great ideas, especially for being written centuries ago. I didn't love it, either. Mostly because the whole novel is like one big monologue. There isn't a lot of dialogue or plot, so it dragged in some parts.

This is a book I would recommend to anyone with an English or Philosophy major. It raises some good questions, the main one being that if you could live in a place like this, would you? Can a place like this exist? Things like that.

My rating: 5/10

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

New Awesome Contest!



So, there's another contest in our midst! Book Bound is hosting an awesome contest, where four winners could have the change to win twenty dollars worth of books from the The Book Depository

Check out all the information
here to find out how you can enter!!

--Faith

Monday, November 9, 2009

The Angel Maker by: Stefan Brijs





Synopsis:


The village of Wolfheim is a quiet little place until the geneticist Dr. Victor Hoppe returns after an absence of nearly twenty years. The doctor brings with him his infant children—three identical boys all sharing a disturbing disfigurement. He keeps them hidden away until Charlotte, the woman who is hired to care for them, begins to suspect that the triplets—and the good doctor— aren't quite what they seem. As the villagers become increasingly suspicious, the story of Dr. Hoppe's past begins to unfold, and the shocking secrets that he has been keeping are revealed. A chilling story that explores the ethical limits of science and religion, The Angel Maker is a haunting tale in the tradition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. Brought to life by internationally bestselling author Stefan Brijs, this eerie tale promises to get under readers' skin

[from barnesandnoble.com]


The Angel Maker was a book I just picked up at the library on a whim. I fell in love with the cover and when I read the back blurb, I knew I had to read it. I'm glad I did. The book, very subtlely written, was a great read.

It's broken up into three parts. The first part focuses on the children and Charlotte, the second on Victor and his past, and the third tied them both together. It's written in third person, which helps the reader get points of view from many characters, which turned out to be quite important for the story.

The basis of the story really depending on both science and religion, and how they intertwined. It raised a lot of questions to the characters and the readers, it really makes you think, which I love in books. It's a twist on the mad scientist, one that I really liked. I really liked the children, and how their names tie to the title of the novel. It's all very closely related, and you've got to read the whole story to get all those litte things to make sense.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes philisophical books, ones that make you think.


My rating: 8/10

Sunday, November 8, 2009





I love this idea, I think it's amazing. Id you love giving gifts and meeting new people, you should definitely join this!
Go join now!


--Faith