For The Love of Books

For The Love of Books is a blog that I dedicated for my love of books, my everyday journey of reading books, sharing recommendations on books to read and just share a review of what I thought of the books that I've read. And occassionally, there will be some things unrelated to books, but it will mostly be about my love of books.. Enjoy..

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Book Review: The Awakening

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Title : The Awakening

Author : Kelley Armstrong
Rating : **** (4 out of 5 stars)

You don't have to be alive to be awakened.
Chloe Saunders is a living science experiment - not only can she see ghosts, but she was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. She's a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control, which means she can raise the dead without even trying. Now Chloe's running for her life with three of her supernatural friends - a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch - and they have to find someone who can help them before the Edison Group catches them.

As soon as I finished the first book in this series, I immediately made a trip to the local bookstore, hoping that they still have a copy of this book and they do!! So I bought it straight away. I like the first book enough to got me running to the bookstore and get the second one.

The story of Chloe Saunders continues in the second book. She finds out that she not only can see and speak to the dead, but she can summon and wake them out from the dead. This book follows Chloe's adventure together with her three friends escaping from Lyle House to find relatives of one of her friend, who can help them.

The second book is as good and as fast paced as the first one. I enjoyed it as much. This book kept me up reading at night, just to get as much of the story as I can and because it's very difficult to put the book down :) I would definitely recommend this book.

Unfortunately I have as yet could get my hands on the third book. I don't really like hardcover edition, because not only it's expensive here, but it's also very heavy to be carried around everywhere. So I have to wait for the paperback edition to come out in the US in April 2011..

Book Review: The Summoning

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Title : The Summoning

Author : Kelley Armstrong
Rating : **** (4 out of 5 stars)

I've been slacking on posting my review on this blog. Sometimes with work, traffic, other activities and me catching up on my reading to finish the challenge that I have with my friend who lives in Denver, there is just not enough time left to concentrate on putting stuff in my blog. I've been meaning to learn to "beautify" this blog, but just haven't got enough time and energy to do it, so my first attempt at blogging will have to stay this way for the time being.

Anyway, as for the book review, I thought of posting a synopsis of the book for each review, so for those of you who haven't read the book, you can at least get an idea of what the book is about:

She sees dead people - and they see her.
Chloe Saunders used to have a pretty normal life. But that changed on the day she met her first ghost. Locked up in Lyle House, a group home for troubled teens, she finds out that there's more to the home's teen residents than meets the eye. Will Chloe be able to uncover the dangerous secrets of Lyle House... or will its skeletons come back to haunt her?

This is my first encounter of Kelley Armstrong's book and I gotta say that I really enjoyed this book. I picked this book up accidentally. I was travelling and have finished the book that I brought with me, on the second last leg of the journey home. So I went to a bookstore at Changi airport in Singapore during transit and stumbles upon this book which is the first in the series. All the others are at least the second, or the third in a series and I can't buy that to read on the plane home. So I picked up this one and it seems interesting enough, reminds me of the movie Sixth Sense with Haley Joel Osmond.

But I got hooked on this book from the start. It's interesting and fast paced. Chloe Saunders can see ghost but in normal society, she's considered as having some mental disease, which puts her in Lyle House, a sort of psychiatric hospital. She then encounters other teens with the same "problems" with her. As the story develops, Chloe began to find out more about her power.

I like this book because it's different and it brings a different topic, although still in the paranormal-supernatural genre, but at least I get a break from all the Vampire stories that's been clogging the bookshelf, both adult and young adult.

Social Networking

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Saturday is always a good day for me. I start my Saturday morning with breakfast, a cup of coffee, and continue reading what book i'm currently reading at the time. For this particular Saturday morning, it was re-reading of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Then, I always logged on to my favorite social networking site, Facebook. I've tried Friendster, I've tried MySpace and a few others, but Facebook is the site that I used the most and that I've come back to almost everyday. My time with my facebook page is mainly not to look at other people's activities and status. Only as a glance when I first opened the site, but I go to the site mainly to play games and check out stores and find good stuff to buy at a great price haha..

Anyway, this particular Saturday, I promised myself that I would reward myself with a trip to the bookstore, and allow myself to splurge, because my friend gave me shopping vouchers to be used at Kinokuniya for my birthday,so I got a few books from there. And, to further succumb to my addiction, I got 3 more books from Periplus, another local bookstore in my town. So, in total I got about 6 new books, which made me a happy girl that day.

I also went to the movies to see Social Network. This movie has been playing at the theatre here for 2 or 3 weeks I think, but I just haven't got time to go and see it yet. It is interesting to see the movie about the social networking site that I've spent a lot of time in. The movie is indeed about Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. To date, Facebook is the most widely active used social networking website in the world (well, i used it at least 2 - 3 times a day ha ha) and has 500 million members worldwide.

It's interesting to find, watching that movie, that the site was originally intended to connect Harvard students alone, and then it developed to connect inter-universities, until it become the Facebook that we know and use today.

The length of this movie is 2 hours. Although there's minimal actions in this movie and mostly conversations and dialogue, I did not find it boring and restless waiting for the movie to end. I actually enjoyed it. There are some funny scenes as well, when Eduardo Saverin is being accused of animal cruelty and canibalism because he's feeding chickens to his chicken. That was stupid, but hillarious I think :) But overall, I think it was a good movie. It's not something that you would watch over and over again, but it's an informative experience for me to find out the origins of the most popular social network in the world and found out that Mark Zuckerberg, is the youngest billionaire in the world and he's only 26 years old. How about that, right?

Not a big fan of Mondays...

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This is what I typically look like on Mondays. I don't like Mondays at all. It's the start of the week.. The weekend has just finished.. But I'm not liking it at all and I find that I get easily grumpy on Mondays.


A friend of mine sent me a forward email, with pictures of what a typical work week look like and the picture on the left is what Monday looks like.


Everything is always harder on Monday. It's harder to get up in the morning on Mondays. Traffic in the morning (and sometimes in the afternoon AND evening) gets harder and more difficult on Mondays. It's harder to concentrate on Monday and there's always so much work to do on a Monday. All I want to do on a Monday is to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep, which is sooo not happening..


But come Friday morning, my facial expression completely changed 180 degrees. It has that air of happiness, excitement and no matter how much work was put on you that day, nothing can get you down, because it's Friday!! But I realize that in order for the day to become Friday, you have to put up with Monday, otherwise you won't get to Friday!!!
Happy Monday..... :)

Book Mooch

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I recently became a member of http://www.bookmooch.com/




Book Mooch is a an online book exchange community, where you can exchange books with members of the community around the world. It's another way for you to interact with other book lovers in the globe.


The reason that I joined Book Mooch is to share some of my book collections to people who can enjoy the books that I've read, and due to the recent influkes of To-Be-Read books, I need a lot more space on my one and only bookshelf.


Since a few days ago, I have managed to put in 52 books in my inventory, and have received requests to send out a few of them.


The way Book Mooch works is by points system. You can earn points by doing the following:

1. You'll get 0.1 points for every book you entered into the inventory

2. You'll also get points for sending books. 3 points if you're sending the book outside of your country and 1 point if you're sending it to someone in your own country


You can then use your point to mooch a book that you like from members of the Book Mooch community. You need 1 point if you mooch the book from your country and 2 points if you mooch it from someone in another country.


So, if you're a book lover who may have some books that you're not going to read again and have no space on your shelf to keep it anymore, Book Mooch is a great site for you to share some of those books.


Lazy Sunday

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What better way to enjoy a lazy Sunday than to curl up with a good book, accompanied by a steaming cup of good coffee while listening to soft jazz music in the background? Sundays are almost always a lazy day for me. I don't tend to go out of the house on Sundays, preparing for what lays ahead in the next busy 5 weekdays.

My favorite thing to do on a Sunday is to read a book. I have a lot of to be read books and it feels like it would take a lifetime to finish them, but I'm happy with it.

Another way to enjoy a lazy Sunday (if I have to go out of the house) is to make a trip to the bookstore. Luckily, the largest and most complete English bookstore in my town is in a mall near my house. I can spend hours and hours in the bookstore, browsing and seeing what other people buy in the bookstore, and of course at the end of the trip I came out with a book or two (or sometimes more LOL).

As for today, I am enjoying re-reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the second time. It's as good as reading it the first time and even better I think. So, for now, I'm going to make a cup of coffee and curl up with my book and hope that Sunday doesn't end too soon.

Happy Sunday reading everyone..

Book Review: Edge of Evil

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Title : Edge of Evil

Author : J.A. Jance
Date Read : 25 - 26 October 2010
Ratings : ***1/2 (3.5 stars out of 5)

You know you're reading a book you like when you can hardly put that book down. I read this book in less than 24 hours. I only managed to put this book down to have dinner, take a shower, sleep (at 2 am in the morning), and work the next day. I read the last 40 pages as soon as I finish work, and manage to finish it in 20 minutes.

This is one of those books that keeps you wanting to read the story more and more. It was really hard for me to put this book down from the start. If it were not because of sleep and a couple of hours of no electricity at night, I would have been able to finish this book last night.

This is my first book by Judith Ann (J.A.) Jance and I believe I'll read many more by her. I like her writing, short chapters, and fast paced read.

This is also the first book of the new series from Jance. The main character is Alison Reynolds, who is a reporter/news caster for a local TV network, who was recently fired because she's over 40 and is considered too old to appeal to a younger audience (aahhh Hollywood and its image crazy audience). She then finds herself out of a job, with a rocky marriage, a cheating husband, and a best friend from her hometown in Arizona who went missing and is presumed dead by suicide.

The story follows Ali's return to her hometown in Sedona, Arizona, to a parents who own a little family diner called Sugarloaf, who is famous for its sweet rolls for the breakfast crowd. Reading the way Jance tells of this story makes me want to visit Sedona, go to Sugarloaf and try one of the sweet rolls made by Mrs Edie Larson, Ali's mother. It just sounds so yummy.

That's just the way Jance writes the story and the characters, whom I like and I can connect with. I hate Ali's husband's character, Paul Grayson, who is the type of guy that I absolutely despise. Ali then start writing a blog created by her son, to vent her story to her audience, called cutlooseblog.com, where it deals with not just her own story, but of ALS (which Reenie is diagnosed with before she died) and of domestic violence.

Overall, I would have given this book a 4 stars, but there are several things in the storyline that were a little loose and went unresolved until the book ends. Maybe it's going to be continued in the second book, Web of Evil, I don't know. I have to find out. But this is definitely an enjoyable read that I would recommend to lovers of mystery thrillers out there.

Oh My Little Town...

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For the past two days, this is what happened in the little (or maybe not so little) town that I live in. Rain, flood and traffic make a lethal combination in my city. It took people at least 3 hours to get home. Some even took 8 hours to get home from work.


And the disastrous condition continues today. It started raining at midday and I was already worried. I was very lucky yesterday because I stayed home all day yesterday, I was on leave and didn't go to work. But today, it took me 3 hours to get home, from a meeting place that normally takes around 40 - 60 minutes, even with normal rush hour traffic. The traffic started to move very slowly to a stopping point in one area, then it started to move slowly again. We had to cross the normally one way road, in order to reach home early. Otherwise it may take another hour for me to reach home.

As I sit quietly in the car, I start to get very frustrated with the road condition in Jakarta. Every time it rains a little, traffic usually gets worse. So you can imagine if it rains really heavy for more than 1 hour, traffic will be ridiculous here. People just don't follow traffic rules anymore, everyone wants to rush home and is very impatient, which I think is making the traffic worse, instead of better.

It's also common to see accident during these traffic condition. Imagine that!! Accidents when you can hardly move an inch between cars!! That's how crazy people in Jakarta is!!! If the this situation is not improved, we won't even be able to get anywhere under 1 hour within Jakarta next year.

Book Review: Serpent's Tooth by Faye Kellerman

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Title : Serpent's Tooth

Author : Faye Kellerman
Date Read : 21 - 25 October 2010
Rating : ** (2 out of 5 stars)

This is my first book by Faye Kellerman, although I've read quite a few books by Jonathan Kellerman, her husband. However, I have to say that I didn't like her books as much as Jonathan's. Her writing was okay, but the plot was simple and predictable and I didn't particularly relate and connect to the main character, Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Part of that was because this is the 10th book in the series, but I didn't find myself liking the characters.

The book tells the story of Lieutenant Peter Decker from the LAPD's investigation into a mass shooting murders in an upscale restaurant, where it kills 13 people and left 32 wounded and left the shooter dead in a suicide shooting. However, there are developments in the case that leads to Lieutenant Decker's suspicion that there is a second shooter and he's determined to investigate a case that seems simple, but turns out complicated.

I enjoyed reading this book for the first few chapters and was thinking of giving it at least a 3 stars rating, but towards the middle part of the book, the story just gets boring and predictable and I can't wait for it to end. And I also found many references to Orthodox Jews, especially the words and rituals, which I don't understand at all, so that kind of takes the enjoyment out of the book as well.

However, the writing is quite fast paced, which makes this book a good book for holiday or a beach read. But I have to say that I'm not going to read any of Faye Kellerman's books at this stage, although I do have another one on my Owned-Not-Yet-Read shelf which I got only because it was on sale for $2, that I'm considering to donate unless someone else convince me that the other book is a much better one than this. I'm definitely not a fan of Faye Kellerman.


Birthday Splurge Book List

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In continuation to my previous blog on my birthday splurge yesterday, I just bought another book to add to the splurge. The 15% discount is valid for the 2 days after my birthday, so I thought better buy what I found now rather than buy them full price later. And what made me buy all those books was also that living in Jakarta - Indonesia, we don't have quite a full collection of English books that I can hunt for older published books. If it's there, it's there... and if you don't grab it now (even though I have a mountain of To-Be-Read books), you won't find it anymore, except for those books that are very popular that they keep ordering them and shelfing them.


So, in total, here's the new addition to my to-read list:
1. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia
This is the second book in the Caster chronicles. I own the first book, so I figure that I have
to get the second book and I've heard that it's even better than the first one
2. Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
I've read one of Lee Child's books and completely enjoyed it. I thought it was one of the
books that keeps me reading until late at night, and I like the character Jack Reacher.
This book is part of the Jack Reacher series.
3. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
This is the prequel series to the Mortal Instrument series, which I've heard so much about it
on Goodreads, and people have been waiting for this book to come out. I got this one quite
reasonably priced, so I bought it with the 15% discount..
4. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Another book by Rick Riordan. Many have also been waiting for this book to come out.
His Percy Jackson series is so popular, recommended by a lot of Goodreads member.
5. Burned by P.C. Cast
The seventh book in the House of Night series. My friend told me that once I start with the
first book, I would want to have the next book and the next after that ready because the
story is so good.
6. Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Now, this is another Vampire series that I read synopsis and review of in Goodreads and
other websites and I like it. So I decided to go for the whole series. I like stories on vampires
with Twilight being an exception.
7. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
Another book in the Vampire Academy series. I'm on a YA series roll..
8. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
Another book in the Vampire Academy series.. I'm excited to get the whole series..
9. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
The second book I think in the Vampire Academy series.
10. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
What interested me to buy this series is the cover of the book. I know, I shouldn't judge the
book by its cover, but still, the cover of this book is so nice, love the dress.. And I checked
out Amazon has a better deal on this book, the first 3 book in a package, so I got it.
11. Rumours by Anna Godbersen
The second book in The Luxe series. The story is about socialites and rich community in
New York in the 19th century. I'm not a fan of historical fiction, but I heard that this is much
like Gossip Girl, and in that case, I do love the intrigues..
12. Envy by Anna Godbersen
The third book in The Luxe series, which I think is not the last book in the series.
Depending on how much I like the series, I might go and buy out the fourth book :)

So.. there you go, the complete list of my splurges for my birthday this year. I feel so happy, like a kid in a candy store :)