Book Review: A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2)

Author: Beth Revis

Pages: 386

Rating: 4/5

This is the second book of Across the Universe. It’s good but not as good as the first installment of the trilogy. In this second book, there are many people who died (I’m not telling who)  and more mysteries and secrets unveiled. They are still in the ship that I can assure you, but in the last few pages they are few minutes away from landing to Centauri Earth. I recommend you to continue reading because the last book is just so frexing amazing (I’ve already started reading it)!

“Michael Angelo  said: Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of teh sculptor to discover it” -Beth Revis, A Million Suns

Book Review: Outpost

Author: Ann Aguirre

Number of pages: 320

Rating: 5/5

Deuce, Fade, Stalker, and Tegan are now all in the topside called Salvation. This place seems like paradise for them…. at first. They have their own adoptive families, friends, and new responsibilities. Duece and Fade developed and expressed their feelings for each other. However, it’s difficult for Deuce to learn all the girl things expected from her. She always gets in trouble because of this. The huntress lurking inside of her still boils and becomes alive when she sees Freaks. Deuce and Fade joined the security group where they guard the persons growing the crops from Freaks. But one day, the Freaks stole their fire. And then another more day, they kidnapped Fade. Deuce rescued Fade. What Fade told her from his experience is so chillingly unbelievable. The persons captured by the Freaks are first put into a fenced pen, and before they are eaten they will first be mashed to make them tender and then deboned. Even though most people in Salvation do not like Deuce, it’s all in her hands to save them before history repeats itself.

“People try to make sense of things, and if they don’t know the answers, they make them up,because for some, a wrong answer is better than none.”

Book Review: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

No. of Pages: 374

Rating: 5/5

 

This is a futuristic story being related through the point of view of the protagonist. This story happens in generation where virtual videogames are popular and are widely used. The ideas incorporated by the author are very plausible considering the breakthrough innovations nowadays and the prolific use of computers. The protagonist and his friends all battle inside a videogame amongst other “gunters”, short for “egg hunters”, to win the inheritance left by the maker of OASIS, James Halliday. All of the OASIS users have the chance to be the heir to a billion dollar property of James Halliday. All they have to do is to search for the hidden keys scattered around OASIS, but this is not as easy as it looks because OASIS is composed of hundreds of planets and that the search has been on for so many years already and that many users already gave up thinking that all of it is just a sham. However, one day, the dormant gunters started searching again when the first key was found by a young boy living in the suburbs. That young boy happened to be Wades Owen Watts a.k.a. Parzival a.k.a. W.O.W.

“It’s not over until it’s over. And it’s not over yet.” ~Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

The Pleasure of Books

I had this minor subject in school where the professor just let us read things even though their not really related to our topics and not even related to our subject in any way. One time he gave us a list of great speeches to read and the speech made by William Phelps titled “The Pleasure of Books” is one of them. That’s the first speech I read from the list because it’s the shortest one (there is this one speech, I forgot the title, which I didn’t bother to read because it is 25 pages long). Although it is the shortest, it is the most stunning, piercing, memorable, [insert other adjective here] speech I’ve read. If you’re a bookworm or someone who loves to read or devours books, you’ll really gonna love this speech. I posted it here below for those who are interested to read it.

The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to us much more than if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly. And then, some day, although this is seldom done, you really ought to return it.

But your own books belong to you; you treat them with that affectionate intimacy that annihilates formality. Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the significant sayings, to refer to them quickly, and then in later years, it is like visiting a forest where you once blazed a trail. You have the pleasure of going over the old ground, and recalling both the intellectual scenery and your own earlier self.

Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is fundamental in human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no evils. One should have one’s own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the eye. The best of mural decorations is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and they have the prime advantage of being separate personalities, so that if you sit alone in the room in the firelight, you are surrounded with intimate friends. The knowledge that they are there in plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to read them all. Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that comes from strangers. “Have you read all of these books?”
“Some of them twice.” This reply is both true and unexpected.

There are of course no friends like living, breathing, corporeal men and women; my devotion to reading has never made me a recluse. How could it? Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. Literature is the immortal part of history; it is the best and most enduring part of personality. But book-friends have this advantage over living friends; you can enjoy the most truly aristocratic society in the world whenever you want it. The great dead are beyond our physical reach, and the great living are usually almost as inaccessible; as for our personal friends and acquaintances, we cannot always see them. Perchance they are asleep, or away on a journey. But in a private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They wrote for you. They “laid themselves out,” they did their ultimate best to entertain you, to make a favorable impression. You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their innermost heart of heart.

William Lyon Phelps – 1933

Book Quotes

I read mostly through my kindle. Since then, when I see interesting phrases or quotations, I highlight them. Here I will be posting some of the accumulated quotations from the books I’ve read through my kindle beginning February 28, 2011.

• “Hard work and pain are the best teachers.” ~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (JK Rowling)
• “Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” ~Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (JK Rowling)
• “All endings are also beginnings” ~Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
• “The thing is– fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream.” ~Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
• “The greatest ideas are the simplest” ~Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
• “For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are” ~The Magician’s Nephew (CS Lewis)
• “Battles are ugly when women fight” ~The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(CS Lewis)
• “Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the ship of folly toward the rock of indigence” ~The Horse and his Boy (CS Lewis)
• “He who attempts to deceive the judicious is already baring his own back for the scourge” ~The Horse and his Boy (CS Lewis)

“Swords can be kept off with shields but the eye of wisdom pierces through every defense!” ~The Horse and his Boy (CS Lewis)

• “See the bear in his own den before you judge of his condition” ~The Horse and his Boy (CS Lewis)
• “A man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)
• “There’s no such thing as an honest man” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)

“When you’re up there’re hundreds of people who’ll claim you as a friend. When you’re down, you’re lucky if one of them will buy you a cup of coffee” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)

• “It’s not what a man has but what a man is that’s important” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)
• “The fox who keeps to one den is the easiest caught by the terriers” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)
• “There is no right way to do something wrong” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)
• “Curiosity breeds suspicion” ~Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)
• “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors not his equals” ~Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (JK Rowling)
• “When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout” ~Little Brother (Cory Doctorow)
• “God answered the prayers, not of the sick or dying, but of the friends of the sick and the dying” ~Heaven is For Real (Todd Burpo)

“Don’t worry about the stuff you can’t do anything about. You do what you can even if your chances of success are less than one percent” ~Battle Royale (Koshun Takami)

• “We must defend ourselves according to our opponents’ ability, not their intentions” ~Battle Royale (Koshun Takami)
• “There is no such thing as free lunch” ~The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
• “History has taught us that when it looks like there is no hope, hope still lives in people’s hearts” ~A Stolen Life (Jaycee Dugard)
• “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes” ~The Curious Incident of the Dog During the Night Time (Mark Haddon)
• “Pity does not get you aid. Admiration at your refusal to give in does” ~Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
• “Politeness is deception in pretty packaging” ~Divergent (Veronica Roth)
• “The smarter you are, the more things can scare you” ~Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson)
• “Take what pleasure you can int he interstices of your work, but your work is first, learning is first, winning is everything because without it there is nothing” ~Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
• “Do not take revenge at the heat of the moment. Instead, wait until the hour is propitious” ~The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
• “When you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave” ~Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
• “The more a man knows, the less he talks” ~A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L ‘Engle)
• “For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal” ~A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L ‘Engle)
• “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope” ~I am Number Four (Pitacuss Lore)
• “Those things that are most obvious are the very things we’re most likely to overlook” ~I am Number Four (Pitacuss Lore)

“The key to change is letting go of fear” ~The Power of Six (Pitacuss Lore)

• “Each day means a new twenty four hours. Each day means everythin’g possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time” ~Legend (Marie Lu)
• “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” ~Enclave (Ann Aguirre)
• “Aim high hit low” ~The Maze Runner (James Dashner)
• “Sometimes what you see is not real, and sometimes what you do not see is real” ~The Scorch Trial (James Dashner)

“He who leaps for the sky may fall, it’s true. But he may also fly” ~Delirium (Lauren Oliver)

• “Every journey begins with one step” ~The Angel Experiment (James Patterson)
• “Is it important to be right or is it important to do what’s right” ~The Angel Experiment (James Patterson)
• “Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness” ~School is Out Forever (James Patterson)
• “They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” ~School is Out Forever (James Patterson)
• “There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it” ~Titan’s Curse (Rick Riordan)
• “Evil is easy to fight. Lack of wisdom…that’s very hard indeed” ~School is Out Forever (James Patterson)
• “There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between”  ~A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness)
• “Belief is half of healing” ~A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness)

“You do not write your life with words. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do” ~A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness)

• “Secrets don’t keep when there is someone throwing cash around” ~Ship Breaker (Paolo Bacigalupi)
• “Blood is not destiny no matter what others believe’” ~Ship Breaker (Paolo Bacigalupi)
• “Sometimes it’s better to die trying” ~Ship Breaker (Paolo Bacigalupi)
• “I never said it would be easy. Giving up is easy” ~Inside Out (Maria Snyder)

 

Book Review: Inside Out (Insider #1)

Inside Out

Author: Maria Snyder

Pages: 315

Rating: 4.5/5

The whole story happened in this place so called Inside. It’s a very big cube divided into 3 rows and 3 columns with 4 floors and assigned as sectors or quadrants. The people living in the upper most floor are called the Uppers, they live in a life of luxury where they are allowed to have a family and a space of their own. The lower level people are called Scrubs. They are called such because their main job is to scrub clean the pipes that sustain their everyday needs, air, water, electricity. The main protagonist is Trella, she is labeled as the Queen of the Pipes because she knows basically all the cris crossing of the pipes and the gaps. One time, her friend Cog introduced her to a prophet who knows something about the Gateway or the way to the Outside. It all started on that and as the story progressed Trella became the hope of everyone both the Scrubs and the Uppers. There where people helping her and with much sacrifice she found the gateway but only to discover that they are currently traversing the outer space and only on the millionth week will they be able to arrive to their final destination, the planet Earth.

“No hope, is worse than fear.” ~Maria Snyder, Inside Out

Book Review: Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1)

Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Pages: 326

Rating: 5/5

In an isolated island in America’s Gulf Coast Region, Nailer, a light teenage boy with protruding rib cage, works as a ship breaker. One day after a hurricane passed their place, Nailer and Pima, his friend, saw a sunken clipper ship. They decided to scavenge the whole ship but as they searched the area, there was a beautiful girl, Nita, a swank, who was trapped inside the sunken clipper. Nailer chose to save the girl first before breaking the ship apart. The girl turned out to be a real swank who was being chased by his father’s business enemy. Unfortunately, while Nailer and his friends were recuperating, his father, Richard Lopez came and saw them, then for the mean time they were held prisoners. After some days, the men who were looking for Nita arrived in the beach so, Nailer and Nita escaped to go to a place where Nita’s ships could be. After some excruciating events, they arrived the place as planned and after some nights, they saw the ship that could save Nita. When they were about to go to the ship, Nailer saw his father and his half man-crew lurking looking for him and Nita so, they went to their hideout first. That night, Nailer volunteered to check the ship so, he left Nita and went alone. Face to face, he talked to the captain and realized that they truly were loyal to Nita and her family. They decided to go to were Nita was but she was not there, she was taken by the enemies. The captain together with Nailer followed the ship where Nita was and with Nailer’s idea they succeeded in getting Nita out of the enemy’s ship.

At first I was unsure if I will read this book or not because I don’t know anything about ship breaking and so I thought I’ll get bored with it. But that was not the case, I was superbly engrossed in reading this book, it was written in a way a where you could vividly imagine what was happening. And so, I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn and feel what ship breaking is all about, and to those lovers of apocalyptic genre.

“The enemy of your enemy is your friend.” ~Paolo Bacagalupi, Ship Breaker

 

Book Review: The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3)

The Titan’s Curse

Author: Rick Riordan

Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5

Read at your own risk, this review may contain spoilers.

The book starts with Percy, Thalia, Annabeth, and Grover saving two potential half blood kids, Bianca and Nico di Angelo,  from a private military style school. As they were escaping, they were thwarted by Mr. Thorn, a hideous manticore who was under the direct supervision of the General. The Hunters led by the goddess Artemis arrived and shot arrows towards the monster however, the manticore fell off the cliff together with Annabeth. They all returned to Camp Half Blood including the Hunters but excluding Annabeth and Artemis who was supposed to seek for the rare monster who could destroy Olympus. Artemis haven’t returned yet so the Hunters including Bianca, and Thalia and Grover decided to find Artemis. With no one’s knowledge, Percy followed the group. From his quest, Percy met a cow serpent whom he helped escape from the net and towards the end it turned out that this cow was the monster Artemis was looking for, the monster who could destroy Olympus. After some gruelling events, Percy, Thalia, Grover, and the Hunters met the General who turned out to be Zoe’s (one of the Hunters) father, Atlas, Luke, Artemis, and Annabeth. After the group won in the battle they visited Mt. Olympus then returned back to the Camp. Percy delivered to Nico that her sister Bianca died in their quest, Nico was so angry to Percy. At that same time skeleton monsters suddenly appeared but to Percy’s surprised Nico easily took care of them. He was shocked to know that Bianca and Nico di Angelo were Hades’ children.

Favorite Character: In this third installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, my favorite character is Blackjack, the flying pegasus who helped Percy in his journey in saving Annabeth and Artemis. I think Blackjack is so funny, he was written with the touch of humor. I also like Dionysus or Mr. D for short. Though it looks he doesn’t care about the half bloods and the activities in the camp, in truth, he does. He even saved Percy in his life and death situation. He’s also a bit funny especially when he’s called the wine dude.

“There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it.” ~Rick Riordan, The Titan’s Curse

 

Book Review: School’s Out – Forever (Maximum Ride #1)

School’s Out – Forever

Author: James Patterson

Pages: 406

Rating: 4/5

It’s the continuation of the The Angel Experiment under the same series. Not too far from the beginning, Fang was deeply wounded from their encounter with Ari’s group. Max decided to bring him to a hospital because they cannot manage by themselves the injury Fang suffered. After examining Fang, the doctor obviously knew that the flock was different. So, he called the FBI then, Max and her flock were held under investigation. After some investigations, the FBI agent whose name is Anne brought the flock to her house to protect them from whatever. She clothed them, fed them, and enrolled them to a school (the normal one). Fang got a girlfirend, Iggy met his biological mom and dad, and Max experienced her first date. Things were getting better and way beyond what the kids imagined when they discovered that Anne is connected with the School. Her relationship with the School was not so simple because it happened that she is the boss of Jeb. And so, the avian kids left the house, went to Florida, played in Disney Land, and discovered more truth about them.

In this installment we get to see Ari better. Though he is bigger to some adults and stronger to most, he is still just a seven year old kid fighting for his father’s attention. He is very depressed because he was always left behind. Ari just wants to be recognized by his dad, be one with the flock, and be loved by Max. With the flow of the story, I’m pretty sure there will be progress in the sotry of Ari in the next books.

Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. ~James Petterson, School’s Out-Forever

Book Review: The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner #1)

The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner
Pages: 384
Rating: 5/5

When Thomas woke up, the only thing he could remember was his name. Kids were flocking around him and he was told that he was in the Glade, a small community inside giant stone walls. Later on, he learned that they were being experimented like lab rats and to get out of that living hell, they have to fight themselves out the Maze where metallic beetles and Grievers lurk ready to shred the Gladers to pieces. A day after Thomas arrived in the Glade, to everybody’s surprise another unconscious girl was sent (they were baffled because it was supposed to be just one glader a month). When Thomas tried to see the girl when she was still unconscious, he was stunned because it seemed like he can hear the girl speaking to him on his mind. At one time, Thomas voluntarily let a griever bite him so he could enter the Changing with the thought that he would remember everything. Well, he was basically right but what he remembered was way more than what he expected, it turned out that he was one of the Creators of the Maze and Teresa was his bestfriend. It was a shocked to him of course but it kind of helped them solved the Maze.

I haven’t read any novel with the same kind of idea that is why I enjoyed The Maze Runner very much. I like how I do not know anything at the start and I only got to know things when Thomas discovers things. It’s like I only know what Thomas knows. What enforced me to finish this novel is the cluelessness (is there such a word? ) of Thomas. I recommend this to dystopian and science fiction lovers.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. ~The Maze Runner