Books read this month:
The Sun and her Flowers - I may not show it on this blog but, I do like poetry and this book is NOT poetry what so ever. I have written a rant that will be coming out soon.
12/28/20
The Phantom of the Opera
Goodreads: The Phantom of the Opera
Author: Gaston Leroux
Genre: Dark Romanticism (gothic), Romance
POV: 1st person
Summary: Long ago strange events have happened at the Palais Garnier Opera house. Disembody voices heard singing and the crashing down of the chandelier on that dreadful night. To this very day it remains a mystery as to what happen regarding the phantom of the opera.
cue the music:
12/26/20
The Best books of 2020
27,017
pages read
113
books read
Click here to see my year in reading on GR.
Click here to see my list of the top ten best movies I watch this year
I going to do something different for this year. Instead of a top ten list I will be listing my favorite books I read this year. To be frank I read so many great books this year I can't narrow it down to ten. There will be three categories: graphic novels, middle grade, and fiction. I place teen and adult together because 1. I don't read a lot of teen (YA) books and 2. many adult books can have a teen appeal to them. Doesn't mean they are all fluff up they just have mature subject matter that most teens should be able to handle.
Top 10 best movies of 2020
Unlike last year I have narrow down the best movies I watch this year to ten. This is not a rank list, their just movies I watch for the first time this that have become my favorite.
Click here to see my list of the top ten books I read this year
btw If you want to see every movies I watch this year you will has to go through the monthly wrap-up posts. of the pass twelve months.
Three more things, 1) I made a septate list for the animated movie just make it clear that not all these movies are live action 2) I not going to included any documentaries I had watch, and 3) I am not bothering putting up pictures of each movies. There just way too many.
12/21/20
The Centerville Ghost Review and why its should be a Movie Adaptation
Author: Oscar Wilde
Summary: The ghost has been haunting the Centerville mansion for centuries until an American family move in. No matter what tricks the ghost used they all back fire.
12/16/20
100 Cupboards
100 Cupboards by N.D. WilsonAuthor: N.D Wilson
Genre: Portal Fantasy
Age: MG
Format: audio book
Summary: Since his parents disappear Henry move into his Aunt and Uncial house. Up in his attic room he discovers cupboards pastor in the wall. Why were they pastor into the wall. What secrets lay inside? Lost treasure? A map to a lost city?
12/14/20
Cir Du Freak books 10,11,12 Plus review of whole series.
Review book 10 The Lake of Souls:
Review: This series is quite odd to begin with and now it gets stranger. First, I have to say that this book keeps it real with Darren grieving for Mr. Crepsley.
The world Darren and Harkat travel to this over worldly places. They do find out what the place is at the end and all I’m going to say about it is that it interesting.
A lot of question that have been building up in the previous book have finally been answer. However, lead to more questions.
Books 7,8, and 9 takes a subplot line and stretch it in to three books throws the story off a bit. Book ten makes up for that.
12/4/20
Two Year Blogaversary
Click here for 1st year Blogaversary post.
I have survived 2020 and will live to blog another year. A lot has change in my reading and in the world. There is no hiding the fact that this year sucks (for the world that is). I am not going to recap the awful world events that happen this year. All I got to say is...12/3/20
Yamasong March of the Hollows: movie review
Genre: Sci-fic, drama, art house
Year of Release: 2017
Rated: PG
Director: Sam Koji Hale
Summary: An automated girl and tortoise warrior journey with a band of outlaws on an incredible quest. Their one hope is to find a legendary relic to defeat a sinister mechanized army and save the creatures of their world.
11/30/20
11/27/20
Logan's Run: movie review
Genre: Sci-Fic
Rated: PG
Year of Release: 1976
Director: Michael Anderson
Summary: It's 2274, and on the surface, it all seems to be an idyllic society. Living in a city within an enclosed dome, there is little or no work for humans to perform, and inhabitants are free to pursue all of the pleasures of life. There is one catch however: your life is limited and when you reach thirty. Some, known as "runners", try to escape their fate when the time comes, and it's the job of Sandmen to track them down and kill them. Logan (Michael York) is such a man, and with several years before his own termination date, thinks nothing of the job he does. Soon after meeting a young woman, Jessica-6 (Jenny Agutter), he is ordered to become a runner and infiltrate a community outside the dome known as "Sanctuary" and to destroy it.
11/24/20
Courtney Crumrin Vol. 1 the Night Things and Vol. The Coven of Mystics
Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things by Ted NaifehAuthor and Artist: Ted Naifeh
Genre: Unban fantasy, fairies
Age: Teen
Summary: Courtney's parents have dragged her out to a high-to-do suburb to live with her creepy Great Uncle Aloysius in his spooky old house. She's not only the new kid in school, but she also discovers strange things lurking in the woods.
11/23/20
The Voyage of the Frog
The Voyage of the Frog by Gary PaulsenAuthor: Gary Paulsen
Genre: Adventure, Sailing, Survival
Age: YA
POV: 3rd
Format: Audio
Summary: Fourteen-year-old David Alspeth intended only to fulfill his uncle's last wish when he set sail in the Frog, but when a savage storm slams the tiny sailboat, David is stranded. No wind. No radio. Little water. Seven cans of food. And the storm is just the first challenge David must face
11/16/20
Journey Through Fiction #8 Why buy books at used book sales
When I first join the book community, I notices all these book hauls where its almost always brand new books that are being brought. Rarely do I see a library or used book hauls.
I understand people can do what they want with their money. If you want to spin 10 dollars on one book at Burns and Noble by all means that is fine. B&N has a rewards program even. However, I rarely buy books at bookstores.
A bit of backstory is that as a kid my mom will take me to yard sales and used book sales. Schools, Churches, and Friends of the library will have these book sales. My mom is smart with her money and can get good deals with about everything. Somehow, I pick up on it and it has turn me into a deal searcher blood hound.
As a young teen I started buying used books for myself. I rarely buy books at a B&N or Books a Million. If I did go to one of the store it will be BAM because you can acquirer coupons easily. However the sad thing is that the BAM near my house has recently close down and the nearest one is now three hours away.
11/11/20
Mooncakes
Mooncakes by Suzanne WalkerAuthor: Suzanne Walker
Artist: Wendy Xu
Genre: Fantasy, F/F
romance
Summary: Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers' bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home
11/9/20
The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story
The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing HahnAuthor: Mary Downing Hahn
Genre: Paranormal
POV: Switches between the 3rd person for the girl and 1st person for Jules.
Summary: family moves into an old, abandoned house. Jules's parents love the house, but Jules is frightened and feels a sense of foreboding. When she sees a pale face in an upstairs window, though, she can't stop wondering about the eerie presence on the top floor—in a room with a locked door. Could it be someone who lived in the house a century earlier?
Genre: Paranormal
POV: Switches between the 3rd person for the girl and 1st person for Jules.
Summary: family moves into an old, abandoned house. Jules's parents love the house, but Jules is frightened and feels a sense of foreboding. When she sees a pale face in an upstairs window, though, she can't stop wondering about the eerie presence on the top floor—in a room with a locked door. Could it be someone who lived in the house a century earlier?
11/6/20
The Nightmare Before Christmas: movie review
Genre: Musical, family
Rated: PG
Year Release: 1993
Director: Henry Selick
Summary: Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween Town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right.
11/4/20
Gulliver's Travels
Author: Jonathan Swift
Genre: Fantasy
POV: 1st
person
Format: read the first two
parts then switch to audio
*Warning* for size-ist. Five inch people are not well
represented, and giants are treated as the bad guy **gasp**.
None of that is true for what happens in the book.
Life doesn’t have trigger warnings, so I don’t give trigger warnings. Only
yahoos give trigger warnings.
Summary: This
book begins the authors account of visiting remote regains of the world. Which
first begin when he was cast away on an island fill with small people.
10/31/20
10/30/20
I'm Thinking of Ending Things: movie review...sort of
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Year of Release: 2020
Rated: R
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Summary: A young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.
10/27/20
TTT #38 Halloween Freebie
My freebie is going to be scary books for kids that are better then the Goosebumps books series. Let's faces it Goosebumps are cheap in thrills. They get you with their twist endings for a few books and then dwindles in to cheapness. I understand why my mom didn't give me the Goosebumps books as a kid. Instead she give most of the books that are on this list.
1. The Haunting of Drerek Stone series.
Author: Tony Abbott
I like how the story takes place in New Orleans and has an interesting concept for ghost that is hard to explain in a few words. Also the main character is over weight and is partly deaf in one ear. Knowing how you guys are that might grab your interest.
10/26/20
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny HanGenre: Contemporary, romance
POV: 1st person
Series: To All the Boys I Love Before book one
Age: Teen
Format: Audio
Summary: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh.
10/22/20
A Man Called Ove
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik BackmanAuthor: Fredrik Backman
Genre: Contemporary
POV: 3rd
person
Formant: Audio
Summary: Meet Ove. He has
staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the
bitter neighbor from hell. Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and
a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty
young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is
the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected
friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul.
10/16/20
The Dark Academia Book Tag
I love old things and learning. Dream of having my own study with a roll top deck, typewriter, and antique globe. In fact I have an antique globe so I can check that one off. Only this year have I heard of the aesthetic Dark Academia. This fits my intellectual style nicely.
I find this tag on La Petite Muse and the Original is created by *emmie* over on book tube.
10/15/20
The Asylum of Dr. Caligari
Autor: James Morrow
Genre: literary, magic
realism, horror
POV: 1st
person
Age: Adult
Summary: In 1914, the world teeters on the brink of the Great War. An American painter, Francis Wyndham, is hired to provide art therapy at a renowned European asylum, working under the auspices of its mysterious director, Alessandro Caligari. Francis is soon beguiled by his most talented student, Ilona Wessels, whose genius with a brush is matched only by the erotic intensity of her madness. Deep in his secret studio, Dr. Caligari, rumored to be a sorcerer, struggles to create Ecstatic Wisdom, an immense painting so hypnotic it can incite entire regiments to rush headlong into battle.
10/9/20
movie review: A House with a Clock in its Walls
Rated: PG
Year of Release: 2018
Director: Eli Roth
Summary: A young orphan named Lewis Barnavelt aids his magical uncle in locating a clock with the power to bring about the end of the world.
10/7/20
Stacking the Shelves #2 & WWW
Note: For WWW Wednesday scroll down to the bottom.
This weekend I went to my Friends of the library bookstore. Strangely enough its the only library bookstore that open and its been open since July.
10/5/20
Cirque Du Freak books review of 7,8,9
Book 7: Hunters of the
Dusk
Summary: Darren
Shan, the Vampire Prince, leaves Vampire Mountain on a life or death mission. As
part of an elite force, Darren searches the world for the Vampaneze Lord. But
the road ahead is long and dangerous - and lined with the bodies of the damned.
9/30/20
Monthly Wrap-up September 2020
Books: 1
Luthiel' s Sone: Dreams of the Ringed Vale
Manga: 12
The Promise Neverland Vol. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
E-book: 1
The Complete Book of Ghost
Total books read: 14
9/27/20
Luthiel's Song: Dreams of the Ringed Vale
Dreams of the Ringed Vale by Robert FanneyAuthor: Robert Marston Fanney
Genre:
Age:
POV:
Summary:
Review: I have read this book two years ago. Looking back on my old review (down below) I feel that my views for this book has changes. I will be going back and forth from my old review to what I think about the book now.
9/21/20
The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1
The Promised Neverland, Vol. 1 by Kaiu ShiraiAuthor: Kaiu Shirai
Genre: Mystery
Age: Teen
Summary: Emma, Norman and Ray are the brightest kids at the Grace Field House orphanage. And under the care of the woman they refer to as “Mom,” all the kids have enjoyed a comfortable life. Good food, clean clothes and the perfect environment to learn—what more could an orphan ask for? One day, though, Emma and Norman uncover the dark truth of the outside world they are forbidden from seeing.
9/10/20
Journey Through Fiction #7: Who is Eva Ibbotson
Bio: Born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in 1925. Eva Ibbotson attended the University of Durham, intending to be a physiologist but was put off by the amount of animal testing that she had to do. Instead She married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s. Ibbotson began writing with the TV drama ‘Linda Came Today’, in 1965. Ten years later she published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue.
Her books are imaginative and humorous, they offend feature magical creatures. Despite the fact she disliked thinking about the supernatural, Eva wanted to decrease her readers’ fear of such things. Eva Ibbotson’s antagonist in her stories will be greedy and have a lust for power.Source: Goodreads
9/8/20
Stacking the Shelves #1
I don't usually do book haul. Since I buy a majority of my books used and maybe showing them will encourage others to buy second hand. Used books are cheaper and their environmentally friendly.
I got 14 books for an averages of one dollar each. At B&N you can only get one book for that price or maybe two if there a good deal.
9/7/20
Nothing to See Here
Nothing to See Here by Kevin WilsonAuthor: Kevin Wilson
Genre: literary, magic realism
POV: 1st person
Summary: Lifelong friends Madison and Lillian have not talk since a scandal happen at their boarding school. Until years later Lillian receives a letter from Madison pleading for help. Madison wants Lillian to be the caretaker of her step-kids that are moving in. However, their a catch. When angry the kids spontaneously combust.
8/31/20
August Wrap-up 2020
Books read: 2
Non-fiction: 2
The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black (NF)
Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can't or Won't Show You (NF)
8/30/20
Figment: Graphic Novel
Figment by Jim ZubSummary: beings the origin of Figment the dragon and Dreamfinder. Well the duo are exploring the realms of imagination back on Earth, a clockwork army assembles under the command of the frightening force known only as the Singular. hen Clockwork Control invades London while the intrepid explorers are trapped within the Nightmare Nation, the only obstacles standing between the Singular and total domination are Dreamfinder, Figment and their newfound friends.
8/29/20
Reading the World: Chinese Ghost Stories Curious Tales of the Supernatural
 |
Author: Lafcadio Hearn
Summary: A collection of six Chinese ghost stories written down by Lafcadio Hearn.
Review: In my ghost story collection I have stories from China and Japan however, they are scatter throughout different anthologies. I been wanting to bond up of these stories in at least one book. Particularly Japanese ghost stories. Even these are Chines ghost stories, its a start of what to look for.
8/24/20
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes
The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard GoldbergAuthor: Leonard Goldberg
Genre: Mystery
Age: Teen
POV: 1st person – told through the view of John Watson Jr.
Summary: Joanna Blalock’s keen mind and incredible insight lead her to become a highly skilled nurse, one of the few professions that allow her to use her finely tuned brain. But when she and her ten-year-old son witness a man fall to his death, apparently by suicide, they are visited by the elderly Dr. John Watson and his charming, handsome son, Dr. John Watson Jr. Impressed by her forensic skills, they invite her to become the third member of their investigative team.
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