Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of book: Little house on the prairie Author Name: Laura Ingalls Wilder ISBN: 0-06-440002-6 Publisher: Harper Trophy Part of a Series: Little House series; Little House in the big woods prequel, Farmer Boy and On the Banks of Plum Creek, are sequels. Type of book: Young adult, kid, prairie, 1871?-1872? Year it was published: 1935 Summary: The Big Woods was getting too crowded. So Pa sold the little log house and built a covered wagon. The family was moving to Indian Country! They traveled from Wisconsin to Oklahoma, and there, finally, Pa built the little house on the prairie. All year long, Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and Baby Carrie put their hearts into the land and their safe little house. But the prairie belonged to the Indians, and in the end the government made them move on again. Characters: At the moment it's not evident how the characters have changed or grown. This book also marks the first appearance of Mr. Edwards who will be shown in differen...

Name of book: Just Surrender... Author Name: Kathleen O'Reilly ISBN: 978-0-373-79615-1 Publisher: Blaze Harlequin Part of a Series: Harts of Texas, Just let go... and Just give in... are sequels Type of book: Adult, romance, blaze, New York, 2011 Year it was published: 2011 Summary: Straitlaced surgeon Tyler Hart hops into a cab at JFK...and goes on the ride of his life. Punky, funky, fly-by-the night cabbie Edie Higgins takes him on an all-night New YOrk CIty adventure involving a flat tire, a strip club, and diner food. Oh, and a mind-blowing early-morning romp in a notoriously naughty hotel. So when Edie offers to become newly single Tyler's love sensei, he thinks, why not? Especially since she's a very hands-on teacher. They couldn't be more different, but they're about to learn the same lesson: to just surrender. Everything. Characters: Both characters appear to be three dimensional and are unique, including the thoughts. Although at ...

Name of book: See You Later Author Name: Christopher Pike ISBN: 0-671-02025-0 Publisher: Archway Paperback Type of book: Young adult Year it was published: April 1990 Summary: Mark has just graduated from high school and has just fallen in love for the first time. THe girl's name is Becky. Unfortunately for Mark, Becky has a boyfriend. Mark tries his best, but he is unable to win Becky for himself. THen Mark meets a young couple: Vincent and Kara. Both look extremely familiar to him, although he could swear he's never seen them before. They quickly become good friends. Kara does not want Mark to give up on Becky. In fact, Kara is obsessed that Mark and Becky get together, and she comes up with an elaborate scheme to break up Becky and her boyfriend. Mark thinks the scheme is cruel. He tries to stop kara. He doesn't succeed. Suddenly Becky is a free woman, and Mark can't help but ask her out on a date. THen things start to get very strange. AN evil ma...

Name of book: Scavenger Hunt Author Name: Christopher Pike ISBN: 0-671-67656-3 Publisher: Archway Paperback Type of book: Young adult Year it was published: July 1989 Summary: School was almost over. A secretive club on campus had organized a scavenger hunt for the entire senior class. In small groups, and with the help of cleverly planted clues, the kids are led throughout the city, and then deep into a nighttime desert. The sponsoring club has promised a wonderful prize for the first group to reach the goal of the hunt. But for Carl Timmons, a troubled young man who has recently lost his best friend, the hunt will become a nightmare. Led astray by his love for a strangely beautiful girl, he will wander far from the others, and back into a haunted past, where the line between hte living and the dead is blurred and broken. Characters: The characters are second dimensional but are interesting. In particular its hard for me to find a character I disliked. Also th...

Name of book: Spellbound Author Name: Christopher Pike ISBN: 0-671-68793-X Publisher: Archway Paperback Novel Type of book: Young adult Year it was published: April 1988 Summary: They found Karen Holly in the mountain stream, her skull crushed. There was only one witness to the tragedy, Karen's boyfriend, Jason Whitfield. He said a grizzly had killer her. But a lot of people didn't believe him. They thought Jason had murdered her in a fit of rage. And now weeks have passed, and Jason has another girlfriend, Cindy Jones. And there are the new kids in town. Joni Harper, the quiet English beauty that Cindy's brother, Alex, cannot get out of his mind. And Bala, the foreign exchange student from Africa, the grandson of a powerful shaman. Together they will return to the place where Karen was killed. Some will die. The others will come face to face with a horror beyond imagining. Characters: Although the characters seemed to be two dimensional in my view, t...

Name of book: Night Maneuvers Author Name: Jillian Burns ISBN: 978-0-373-79638-0 Publisher: Blaze Harlequin Part of a Series: Vegas Trilogy: Let it ride, Seduce and Rescue prequels to this book Type of book: Adult, romance, blaze, Vegas, 2011 Year it was published: 2011 Summary: Subject: Mitchell McCabe, US Air Force Captain (Call Sign: Casanova) Current Status: Celibate-because he lost a bet. Mission: Survive thirty days without sex. Obstacle: Captain Alexandria Hughes, who's suddenly gone from hotshot pilot to just plain hot! Alex has had it bad for gorgeous Mitch ever since their academy days, but he's only ever seen her as a wingman, never a woman. It's time she made him take another long, hard look. After years as friends and comrades, Mitch is seeing Alex as the opposite of "one of the guys." Has that smoking-hot body always been hiding under her flight suit? Is she just messing with him? Can he wait a month to discover what he...

Name of book: Louise de la Valliere Part II Author Name: Alexandre Dumas ISBN: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ Publisher: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/ Part of Series: D'Artagnan Series by Alexandre Dumas Sequel to Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, Vicomte de Bragelonne, prequel to The Man in iron mask Type of book: Adult, French, 17th century, Louis XIV Year it was published: (Original version in France 1847-1850) Summary: In the Musketeers' final adventure, D'Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV after the Three Musketeers have retired and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask wastes away deep inside the Bastille. When the destinies of king and prisoner converge, the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties. (from Goodreads Man in Iron Mask) Characters: Good news is that this part has more Three Musketeers sightings, so of course it...

Name of book: To Kill a Mockingbird Author Name: Harper Lee ISBN: 60-7847 Publisher: Popular Library Type of book: Young adult to adult, 1930s, racism, coming of age, South Year it was published: 1960 Summary: (from goodreads.com) The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple lov...

Name of book: East Wind Author Name: Julie Ellis ISBN: 0-87795-498-4 Publisher:  Arbor House New York Type of book: Adult, China, 1902-1948, melodramatic, Jewish, Israel Year it was published:  1983 Summary:  From the author of Glorious Morning, a saga that sweeps through two world wars, set against the backdrops of Hong Kong, England and America, about a proud, beautiful young woman who is caught up in the ageless struggle between reckless passion and staunch commitment-and who makes a life for herself in which she can have both. Sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Hong Kong after the untimely death of her parents, Constance Levy meets a brilliant, complex young man who leads her into the deep recesses of her heart, where she must come face-to-face with her own abiding faith as a Jew. After a tragic misunderstanding tears the lovers apart, she builds a family of her own, silently enduring loneliness and anger...and emerges to embrace her one true l...

Book Review Policy UPDATE: As of November 2nd, 2015, I am pretty much limiting to what I will or will not accept to read and review. I have a lot of books and promises to uphold, (some dating years...O__o) and I want to get through these first before accepting and disappointing anyone else. Thank you for understanding. Also, I will NOT be accepting e-books.  UPDATE: October 31st, 2013 I'm open to review requests (until noted otherwise) but please keep in mind I try to be as selective as possible to ensure that each book I read and review receives the necessary time and attention it deserves. I review books that I like and dislike and am very honest about my tastes. If there are particular reasons I did not like the book, and if the review will fall below 2 stars, I will email the writer(s) and let them know that I did not like the book and whether or not they'd like me to review it. I do this for free on my own time. I'm not paid or compensated for the hobby. UPDATE:...

Name of book: The Russian Concubine Author Name: Kate Furnivall ISBN: 978-0-425-21558-6 Publisher: Berkley Books Part of a Series: Russian Saga; Jewel of St Petersburg before, The Girl from Junchow after Type of book: Adult, China, Russia, Communism, 1917, 1928-1930?, Interracial relationship Asian Male/White Female Year it was published: 2007 Summary: A sweeping epic and stunning debut, this novel brings to life the war-torn CHina of the 1920s. On opposite sides of a political and social divide, an exiled Russian girl and a Chinese Communist boy find love; a mother must face what she would rather forget; and an idealist realizes his greatest enemies might be his own kind... Junchow, China, 1928. Perhaps it's her red hair, or her hard life. Whatever the reason, Lydia Ivanova has a fierce spirit. Nothing can dim it, not even the foul waters of the Peiho River. Into the river's grime bodies are tossed, those of thieves and Communists alike. So every time...

Name of book: Crime and Punishment Author Name: Fyodor Dostoevsky ISBN: 0-451-52723-2 Publisher:  Signet Type of book: Adult, psychology, punishment, crime, Russia, 1860s Year it was published: 1864-1866 (Version I have 1968) Summary: One of the world's greatest novels, Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its consequences- a tale of suspense withotu equal, set in the midst of nineteenth-century Russia's troubled transition to the modern age. The novel's young protagonist, Raskolnikov, is a sensitive intellectual driven by poverty to bellieve he is exempt from moral law. In this brilliant translation by noted scholar and literary critic Sidney Monas, we are privy to the supreme expression of an author who "explored pathological states and the psychology of high tension, the realm of 'obsession' and 'possession,' because it was there one could most clearly and dramatically see the human consequences of an idea carried ruth...

Name of book: The Kinslayer Wars Author Name: Douglas Niles ISBN: 1-56076-113-X Publisher: TSR Part of a Series: The Elven nations Trilogy; Firstborn before, The Qualinesti afterwards Type of book: Adult, elves, fantasy, Dragonlance Year it was published: 1991 Summary: The leader of the Wildrunners, Kith-Kanan, commits the ultimate heresy and falls in love with a human of intriguing background. His twin brother, the firstborn ruler of all Silvanesti elves, Sitahs, declares war on the Ergothians, and Kith-Kanan must choose sides. Nobly, he fights alongside his proud race in the terrible Kinslayer Wars. But when the historic Swordsheath Scrolls is signed, Kith-Kanan and his followers are forced into a tragic exile. Characters: Although the author tried, the characters didn't match up to the ones from The Firstborn. Kith-Kanan gives in to a temptation and apparently the times he spent with Anaya were somehow pointless. (I kept hoping that Hermathya used an ench...

Because I'm still a bit of a long way from finishing and reviewing some books, just for the fun, I'd do a post about common themes in a Danielle Steel novel. 1. The Lolita Effect Expect for at least one of the characters (most likely a female,) to be with someone who is way older than she is. (Ten to thirty or so years.) 2. The Mary Sue Effect Although her characters do suffer as normal people, they are described as la creme de la creme in all the choices, be that from finding a soul-mate to business to whatnot. Thus, their suffering does not seem to be realistic. 3. The Gagging Effect Expect constant repetition with few simple ideas. (Every other page says that main character is beautiful or intelligent, or the viewpoint of the character on issues.) 4. Ellipses used incorrectly Effect So...well...I'm supposed to talk about ellipses right? In Danielle Steel's novels, she is trying to go for emotional effect, but ellipses...tend...to...be...wrong... thus it ...

Books I'm reading: By Invitation Only-Lori Wilde, Wendy Etherington, Jillian Burns 94/218 Caddie Woodlawn-Carol Ryrie Brink 24/242 The Moonstone-Wilkie Collins 192/434 Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky 372/522 Native Speaker- Chang Rae Lee 19/349 To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee 79/284 Once upon the river of love-Andrei Makine 19/209 Just Surrender-Kathleen O'Reilly 82/218 The Tale of Genji-Murasaki Shikibu 219/1090 Come toy with me-Cara Summers 38/214 Tailspin-Cara Summers 99/216 Love in translation-Wendy Nelson Tokunaga 13/260 The Story of the Stone-Xueqin Cao 2. The Crab-Flower Club 323/582   D'Artagnan Romances-Alexandre Dumas 4. Louise de la Valliere Part II 17/118   The Lydia Saga-Kate Furnivall 2. The Russian Concubine 435/517   The Elven Nations Trilogy-Douglas Niles, Tonya Carter, Paul Thompson 2. The Kinslayer Wars 241/314 Bird and Fish Duology-Adrienne Leslie 1. Bird and Fish 171/532   Little House Series-Laura Ingalls Wilde...

By Invitation Only-Lori Wilde, Wendy Etherington, Jillian Burns SR: July 31st, 2011 FR: N/A Caddie Woodlawn-Carol Ryrie Brink SR: August 22nd, 2011 FR: N/A Night Maneuvers-Jillian Burns SR: September 9th, 2011 FR: September 23rd, 2011 The Moonstone-Wilkie Collins SR: December 7th, 2010 FR: N/A Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoevsky SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: September 9th, 2011 Native Speaker-Chang-Rae Lee SR: September 1st, 2011 FR: N/A To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee SR: August 22nd, 2011 FR: September 12th, 2011 Once upon the river love-Andrei Makine SR: August 22nd, 2011 FR: N/A Just Surrender...-Kathleen O'Reilly SR: July 1st, 2011 FR: September 30th, 2011 Scavenger Hunt-Christopher Pike SR: September 25th, 2011 FR: September 28th, 2011 See you later-Christopher Pike SR: September 25th, 2011 FR: September 29th, 2011 Spellbound-Christopher Pike SR: September 25th, 2011 FR: September 28th, 2011 The Tale of Genji-Murasaki Shikibu SR: May 17th, 2...