Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of book: Lie with me Author Name: Cara Summers ISBN: 978-0-373-79417-1 Publisher: Harlequin Blaze Part of Series: Sequel to Tall, Dark...And Dangerously Hot Trilogy by Cara Summers, prequel to Come Toy with me By Cara Summers Type of book: Adult, Contemporary, romance novel Year it was published: 2008 Summary: Corfu's exotic beaches are a matchless place to meet true love...or at least to have a fabulous fling! And that's exactly what Philly Angelis needs. After all, she's a survivor of unrequited love...and an embarrasingly rejected sexual proposition. Fleeing to Greece to soak in its sexy magic-as well as to find a hot guy to take her mind off her longtime crush, Roman Oliver-seems the perfect antidote. Roman can't believe what's he's doing. Philly is his best friend's little sister-definitely hands off! So why is he following her to Corfu? And why is he taking her outrageously delicious sexual proposition seriously? Maybe beca...

Name of book: Romance of the Forest Author Name: Ann Radcliffe ISBN: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ Publisher: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ Type of book: Young adult to Adult, historical, gothic Year it was published: 1791 Summary: Set in a Roman Catholic Europe of violent passions and extreme oppression, the novel follows the fate of its heroine Adeline, who is mysteriously placed under the protection of a family fleeing Paris for debt. They take refuge in a ruined abbey in south-eastern France, where sinister relics of the past - a skeleton, a manuscript, and a rusty dagger - are discovered in concealed rooms. Adeline finds herself at the mercy of the abbey's proprietor, a libidinous Marquis whose attentions finally force her to contemplate escape to distant regions. Rich in allusions to aesthetic theory and to travel literature, The Romance of the Forest is also concerned with current philosophical debate and examines systems of thought central to the inte...

Name of book: Prey Author Name: Lurlene McDaniel ISBN: 978-0-385-73453-0 Publisher: Delacourte Press Type of book: Adult, contemporary Year it was published: 2008 Summary: Ryan Piccoli is a good-looking high school freshman-smart, a class cutup, but also a loner. His father travels; his mother is out of his life. He spends his free time with friends, including his gal pal Honey, hanging out at school and getting by. Then new teacher Lori Settles walks into his history class. She's beautiful, the talk of the school, considered hot and sexy, and she takes a special interest in Ryan. One day after school, Lori Settles surprises Ryan with a request, and he's flattered and eager to help. He's attracted to her, but she's his teacher and more than twice his age. As Ryan and Lori grow closer, Ryan's friends see changes in him. He's secretive. He keeps more and more to himself. Honey can tell something is wrong. Even his busy father senses changes. Ry...

Books I'm reading: The Foreign Student-Susan Choi 63/325  The Moonstone-Wilkie Collins 127/434 A Tale of two cities- Charles Dickens 187/376 Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky 61/522 The Secret Life of Bees-Sue Monk Kidd 165/302 Just Surrender...-Kathleen O'Reilly 46/218 When my name was Keoko-Linda Sue Park 28/192 The Romance of the Forest-Ann Radcliffe 193/??? The Tale of Genji-Murasaki Shikibu 158/1090 Coyote Dream-Jessica Davis Stein 112/364 Tailspin-Cara Summers 54/216 'Till Morning Comes-Han Suyin 176/620 D'Artagnan Romances-Alexandre Dumas 4. Louise De La Valliere 576/671 The Story of the Stone-Xueqin Cao 2. The Crab-Flower Club 173/582 The Russian Saga-Kate Furnivall 2. The Russian Concubine 111/517 Books that are waiting for reviews: Prey-Lurlene McDaniel Lie with me-Cara Summers Future Books: By Invitation Only: Anthology- Lori Wilde, Wendy Etherington, Jillian Burns Are you there God? Its me Margaret-Judy Blume Caddie Woodlawn-...

Name of book: Chenxi and the Foreigner Author Name: Sally Rippin ISBN: 978-1-55451-172-3 Publisher: Annick Press ltd Type of book: Young adult-Adult, 1980s, contemporary/ historical, interracial, white female/asian male relationship Year it was published: 2009 Summary: When Anna travels to Shanghai to study traditional Chinese painting, she's determined to immerse herself in the local culture- unlike her businessman father, who sticks to a community of Westerners. As an innocent new arrival, Anna spends time with Chenxi, the good-looking and aloof classmate who is her student guide, and is soon forced to recognize that it's much harder to escape being a wai guo ren- a foreigner- than she expected. WHen she unwittingly draws the attention of officials to Chenxi and his radical artist friends, she must face the terrible price of her actions. A deeply felt love story filled with raw emotion, cultural collisions, and memorable characters, Chenxi and the Foreign...

Name of book: Firstborn Author Name: Paul B Thompsons, Tonya R Carter ISBN: 1-56076-051-6 Part of a Series: The Elven Nations Trilogy: The Kinslayer Wars next, The Qualinesti afterwards Publisher: TSR INC Type of book: Young adult-Adult, fantasy-historical Year it was published: 1991 Summary: Silvanos, the august founder of the united elven nation known as Silvanesti, is dead and buried in a crystal tomb. The leadership of the clans and households has fallen to his son, Sithel, who is himself father of twin sons. The princes Sithas and Kith-Kanan represent emerging factions among these elves: Kith-Kanan is the leader of the Wildrunners, a group of elves that stirs tension by forging contacts and trade with the humans of Ergoth; Sithas closely allies himself with the court in the elven capital. The rivalry between kin climaxes with their father's mysterious death. When Kith-Kanan is vaguely implicated, Sithas, the firstborn twin, is enthroned. Characters: The...

 Part VI: Memoirs of a Cinderella err Geisha Last week I watched a movie titled Memoirs of a Geisha which is, yes, based on Arthur Golden's book. I have read the book perhaps in 2005 or 2004, possibly around the time the movie came out, being curious about the Japanese culture. I sort of liked the book, at least the beginning of it, but then it quickly became robotic and droned on and on.  (Warning: Spoilers alert.) It is a typical Cinderella-esque story of a poor young girl from the fishing village. She gets sold and through one man, the Chairman, she becomes THE ULTIMATE AND POWERFUL GEISHA! (Banzai!) In the end she ends up in America and that's all I understood. First of all, as far as I know, no such thing as a Japanese with blue eyes exists. (As far as I know, even if an Asian gets married to a blond haired blue eyed Caucasian, the child will most likely end up with black or dark brown hair and dark eyes...) Second of all, I disliked that I never got to find out a...

Name of book: Forever... Author Name: Judy Blume ISBN: 0-671-69530-4 Publisher: Pocket Books Type of book: Young adult-Adult, contemporary/historical Year it was published: 1975 Summary: The story of Katherine's and Michael's love is a joyous one, filled with all the wonder of "the first time". THey meet on New Years Eve and become completely involved with each toher. It's an idyllic affair-until they're separated that summer...Forever...Katherine "faces an ancient dilemna: How can you love one person and still be attracted to another?...A convincing account of first love." The NY Times Book Review Characters: This is written as a first person narrative, and its from Katherine's point of view. Katherine is basically a seventeen-year-old who falls in love with Michael. Unfortunately, despite the first person narrative voice, I could understand very little of Katherine and Michael. While reading this as well, I honestly didn...

Books I'm reading: 'Till Morning Comes-Han Suyin 141/620 The Romance of the Forest-Ann Radcliffe 89/??? The Secret Life of Bees-Sue Monk Kidd 102/302 The Moonstone-Wilkie Collins 115/434 Coyote Dream-Jessica Davis Stein 92/364 The Tale of Genji-Murasaki Shikibu 150/1090 A tale of two cities- Charles Dickens 73/367 Tailspin-Cara Summers 43/216 Just Surrender-Kathleen O'Reilly 35/218 Lie with me-Cara Summers 42/211 The Foreign Student-Susan Choi 33/325 Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky- 50/522 The Elven Nations Trilogy- Paul Thompson, Douglas Niles, Tonya Carter 1. Firstborn 216/305 D'Artagnan Romances-Alexandre Dumas 4. Louise De La Valliere 488/671 The Story of the Stone-Xueqin Cao 2. The Crab-Flower Club 155/582 The Russian Saga-Kate Furnivall 2. The Russian Concubine 67/517 Future Books: The Idiot-Fyodor Dostoevsky Great Expectations-Charles Dickens The castle of Otranto-Horace Walpole The Monk- Matthew Lewis A Sicilian romance-Ann Radc...

(Signet Classic Version) Part I. Chapter 2. Page 24 "Without saying a word, the young man hastened to depart. By now, the inner door was wide open and from the threshold peered several curious onlookers. Brazen, laughing faces pushed their way in, cigarettes or pipes dangling from their mouths, skull caps on their heads. Some were in the bathrobes, some quite unbuttoned, scantily and immodestly dressed and in disarray; some still held playing cards in their hands. They laughed with particular amusement when Marmeladov, pulled by the hair, shouted out that he enjoyed it. Some of them even came into the room." (24) Raskol'nikov walks Marmeladov home, and at home the wife starts beating Marmeladov up. Part I Chapter 6. Page 62 "'She's quite a girl,' he said. 'Rich as a Jew, she's always got money around...she could lend out five thousand just like that, yet she wouldn't turn down a pawn worth a ruble. A lot of our guys have been to her. ...

Name of book: The return of the evil twin Author Name: Francine Pascal ISBN: 0-553-57002-1 Publisher: Bantam Type of book: Young adult, contemporary Year it was published: 1995 Summary: Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield have no idea that their world is about to be turned upside down-again. Last christmas, Margo-a girl who looked, talked and dressed exactly like Jessica and Elizabeth-arrived in Sweet Valley to take what she considered her rightful place in the Wakefield home. On a dark winter's night, Margo fell to a violent death, and the Wakefields thought their nightmare was over. But they didn't know about Nora, Margo's own twin sister. Nora, separated from Margo at birth, is outraged when she discovers that the sister she'd never known is dead...and that California's picture-perfect twins are to blame. Now Nora wants revenge-and she's capable of evil beyond anything Margo could have ever dreamed Characters: The characters were unrealistic...

Name of book: The Evil Twin Author Name: Francine Pascal ISBN: 0-553-29857-7 Publisher: Bantam Type of book: Young adult, contemporary Year it was published: 1993 Summary: Margo's monstrous plan is complete. She came to Sweet Valley to find a new life, and discovered identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield and their "perfect" family. If only Margo can get rid of one of them, she can take her rightful place in the Wakefield home. Now the moment Margo has been waiting for has arrived. The twins aren't speaking to each other. Sweet Valley is in chaos. Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield are out of town. Margo has just enough time to do what she needs to do. Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are in mortal danger. Characters: One dimensional characters, although I have to admit that Margo is very creepy. The twins, as I have mentioned previously, don't learn from their mistakes and I constantly rolled my eyes at the things that were happening to them....

Name of Book: The Decameron Author Name: Giovanni Boccaccio ISBN: 0-14-044-269-3 Publisher: Penguin Classics Type of book: Adult, historical, anthology, classic Year it was published: 1350s? (Penguin Edition 1972) Summary: The Decameron, here presented entire and unexpurgated in a new translation, remains one of the supreme monuments of world literature. The Black Death of 1348 lends a macabre setting to the hundred stories which are supposed to be recounted, during ten days, by a party of wealthy young patricians taking refuge in a villa outside Florence. With equal felicity they range over comedy and tragedy, morality and bawdy; and the skill with which Boccaccio matches the style and mood of his prose narrative to the tales and their tellers is as astonishing as the variety of a collections which has often been imitated but never bettered. Stories: I have many favorite tales from the book I fell in love with and enjoyed. My favorite one in particular was ...

Name of book: Feather in the Wind Author Name: Madeline Baker ISBN: 0-8439-4197-9 Publisher: Leisure Type of book: Adult, contemporary/historical, interracial white female/native american male, romance novel Year it was published: 1997 Summary: Black Wind-He gazed out over a land as vast and empty as teh sky, praying for the strength to guide his people, and he saw her face. She came to him in a vision, a woman as mysterious as the new moon over the prairie, as tender as springtime in the Paha Sapa. And he knew his life was changed forever. Susannah-She saw his face in a faded picture, and his eyes, restless as the wind, seemed to call to her. It was said he'd been hanged nearly a century before for kidnapping a white woman, yet his story seemed unfinished. To the writer in her he was an inspiration, but to the lonely woman within he was a dream come true who would lure her across the years to fulfill a love beyond time. Characters: If I would have read th...

Part V: Rachel DeWoskin's Repeat After Me: Why I didn't like it When I first heard of the book, I was ecstatic and happy: Wow, a Jewish female character who ends up with a Chinese guy in a book! (I also have interest in dating Asian men.) I thought for sure I'd love this book to pieces and all that. What has never crossed my mind is that I'd end up hating this book. I read the book last year, and I've done something in this book that I've never done in any other book: I skipped sections dealing with the present day in the book. I remember a lot what irritated, but since this will be filled with spoilers, and because I can't think of anything positive to do with it, I decided to put it in this section. Normally I had very positive experiences reading Asian male and white female love/romance novels. (Han Suyin, Susan Choi, Jade Lee, Marguerite Duras, Takashi Matsuoka?, Kate Furnivall) But this is the first time I didn't have a good experience with that...

The Foreign Student-Susan Choi SR: July 8th, 2011 FR: N/A The Moonstone-Wilkie Collins SR: December 7th, 2010 FR: N/A A Tale of Two Cities-Charles Dickens SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: N/A Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: N/A The Secret Life of the bees-Sue Monk Kidd SR: June 1st, 2011 FR: N/A Just Surrender...-Kathleen O'Reilly SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: N/A The Romance of the Forest- Ann Radcliffe SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: July 28th 2011 The Tale of Genji-Murasaki Shikibu SR: May 17th, 2011 FR: N/A Lie with me-Cara Summers SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: July 24th, 2011 Prey-Lurlene McDaniel SR: July 14th, 2011 FR: July 14th, 2011 Tailspin-Cara Summers SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: N/A Coyote Dreams-Jessica Davis Stein SR: June 1st, 2011 FR: N/A 'Till Morning Comes-Han Suyin SR: June 1st, 2011 FR: N/A Forever-Judy Blume SR: Monday July 11th, 2011 FR: Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 Chenxi and the Foreigner-Sally Rippin SR: July 14th, 201...