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...