Expierence Your Book with Mozart: Booktrack

Ever thought that reading would be more interesting if you had some kind of music to go along with it? No? Well maybe you've thought that you know a particular song goes just well with this passage and only if you could share it with the world. 

There's website, Booktrack, that allows users to listen to books and texts with synchronized movie-style soundtracks and sounds. Apparently you can buy books with soundtracks already loaded (for example, the Power of Six comes with over 70 different musical scores and sounds, according to The Atlantic), create your own for books, or even add music and sounds to books and documents you originally create. 

According to The Atlantic:

It takes about six weeks to produce the nine hour-long track for a typical book. Booktrack has a small in-house team, but the bulk of the labor is done at outside production companies like Park Road Post, which has won Academy Awards for sound mixing. Creative designers read each book and determine what music and sounds should be used, and where. It all comes together with a composer, an audio technician, and sometimes, a sound producer. Cameron said it was only natural to seek out sound experts from the film industry, and they try to work with writers when they can. 

But how exactly does it work? According to the Smithsonian:

How does the book know when to fire the gun? It reads your mind. Almost. By calculating your reading speed from when you turn the page, it gauges when you'll reach the word or group of words that trips a sound effect. For slow readers, the background music plays on a loop, idling euphoniously, until you get to one of the trigger words. 

Booktrack tries to help improve literacy
According to Forbes.com, it reports that the National Endowment for the Arts reports that 33% of high school and 42% of college students never read a book after graduation. And with these numbers, educators are looking for more ways to engage students with reading (with reading showing not only increased test scores, but other benefits as well).

So in comes Booktrack, hoping to help educations tackle the non-reading trends among young adults. Booktrack Classroom gives students free access to ebooks with soundtracks for reading or creating their own. 

The thinking goes that with videos, radio, TV, video games, and interactive media, students have a hard time engaging in silent reading with a book that requires longer attention spans and less interactive parts to keep them engaged. So Booktrack figures that by adding music and sound, it'll help keep their attention.

According to their press release:

The announcement follows findings from a research project conducted by a team of experts from the University of Auckland that shows how reading with Booktrack increases reading comprehension and engagement. Of the 260 students in the randomized study, those who read the syllabus text incorporating Booktrack’s synchronized soundtrack spent 30% more time reading and registered up to 17% higher comprehension in comparison with the control group.

A second study was conducted with students with reading difficulties, with an even greater impact. This group had up to 18% higher comprehension and 35% higher satisfaction. The studies were led by Dave Hithersay, head of Biology at Auckland’s Mt Roskill Grammar School.

  From my own experience, I know when reading a book, my English teachers have often played corresponding movies and soundtracks (usually not while we were actually reading) or would find some way to make it more interesting (because apparently just reading on its own can't be entertaining). In any case, its a nice idea. 

Creating your own Booktrack?
Going on from education, we've now come to the what if I actually want to do this and create my own Booktrack? part. 

Booktrack’s expansion into education builds on the company’s recent successful fundraising round where it secured US$3million from global investors, led by Sparkbox Ventures. It allows the company to build on its recent growth with Booktrack Studio, which provides self-published writers with the ability to add soundtracks to their ebooks. In just over five months since its launch, over 300,000 users have created more than 3,600 Booktracks in 30 different languages and have spent more than 2.5 years reading.

 Anyways, according to the website, its fairly simple. "1. Copy your existing work, type an original story, or use a royalty free text to get started. 2. Add music, ambient sounds, and effects from our free library of 1,000s of tracks to create an immersive soundtrack for your text. 3. Publish your story for our community of readers to enjoy and share."  But of course, we all know that it is never as simple as they say. So if you really want to create your own booktrack, there's this handy-dandy little guide on how to make yours nice  or you can check out their author's blog.

Booktrack isn't such a new idea
Even though this is totally relevant, but I feel I must mention audiobooks. If you've ever listened to an audiobook, you'll probably notice that there's usually a little bit of music and sound involved. Usually in between the reader actually reading, sometimes to indicate a break or to introduce a chapter or whatever.

Authors in the past have also made use of creating soundtracks to go along with their books. Author Glen Duncan collarbated with Stephen Coates to create soundtracks to go with the novels I, Lucifer and The Last Werewolf. Jeff VanderMeer has also created soundtracks to go with his books.

And besides that, is a habit for writers now days to seek out music that goes along with their books. For Those Crazy Years, I found some wonderful playlists on Spotify (I think under a genre called electro swing) that works perfectly with my 1920s steam/deco punk story. Many of my writing friends have also created playlists on 8tracks that go along with their books. And this Amazon post lists some other books that have soundtracks created with the story in mind.

Other tibits
You can watch this Tedtalk by Booktrack's co-founder Paul Cameron.

And although I think this is a pretty neat idea, and I could see how it could be appealing to some, I would think that overall, it would just be too distracting. Unless maybe you're already in a situation that is distracting and you want something to listen to. Besides that, if you're looking to buy a book with a Booktrack, it costs extra (obviously, but would you really want to spend a couple extra dollars on it?). In any case, the app for it is available for both Apple and Androids so you can download it for yourself and check it out. And I might have to as well just to see if it really does work nicely or not.

So what do you think? Would you like to add music and sounds to your own book or read a book with a soundtrack ebbed in it? Do you think it says something about society went we're using soundtracks to help engage readers, or do you think its a smart or stupid idea?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Take a Book; Leave a Book: Little Free Libraries

(Credit Given to this Website)
And yes my Birdies, that is a tardis...

Have you ever wished there was a place where you could just exchange books, without even ever having to find friends and family or even needing to leave your neighborhood? Well, see there's this thing called Little Free Libraries that allows you do to just that!

What is Little Free Libraries?
These are boxes placed in communities, buildings, neighbors, etc, where anyone can drop off books and take books for free. You can have them officially registered on the website and you can check out to see if there's any near you by using the map.

History of LFL.
 In 2009, Todd Bol and Rick Brooks started the project after Bol created a little home for free books in his yard. His neighbors loved it and it grew from there. 

(Taken from their website)
They were inspired by many different ideas:

• Andrew Carnegie’s support of 2,509 free public libraries around the turn of the 19^th to 20^th century.
• The heroic achievements of Miss Lutie Stearns, a librarian who brought books to nearly 1400 locations in Wisconsin through “traveling little libraries” between 1895 and 1914.
• “Take a book, leave a book” collections in coffee shops and public spaces.
• Neighborhood kiosks, TimeBanking and community gift-sharing networks
• Grassroots empowerment movements in Sri Lanka, India and other countries worldwide.

 Their Mission

• To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide.
• To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations.

 Benefits of having one (according to the website).

• People meet more neighbors and passers-by than they have in years.
• They often spend time getting to know people as well as books.
• They value the free-wheeling exchange of books, especially because they are often surprised by the variety and quality of the collections.
• They like giving as much as –or perhaps even more than—taking books. • Little Free Libraries are likely to have a positive influence on community quality of life and social capital.
• Small, local business owners report that Little Free Libraries help them attract and keep customers.
• Realtors have said that Libraries (big and small) have influenced potential homebuyers to decide to settle on one neighborhood rather than another.
• The vast majority of public and school librarians fully support the concept and role of Little Free Libraries as outreach and inreach tools for library success.
• Children, youth and adults of all ages and backgrounds can share in the give and take. People of widely diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds participate in this grassroots effort.

Extra Stuff about it
Its doesn't cost much to start your own little library and if you can't make your own, you can also buy an already made little library. There's a "get involved" page if you find yourself wanting to make your own or want to start one in your community. My own tiny little hometown recently got one and it's pretty cute. I haven't been able to use it yet since I've been at school since they started it, but I plan to use it this summer while I'm home. I'll take a picture too and update it to this post.

Anyways, so I really like the idea of having a place to exchange books. I like getting new books and giving away books I don't particularly find myself wanting. I'm not sure how much my community will really get into meeting each other more because of it, but we're a pretty small town so you can just walk outside your house and see everyone within a few minutes. And everyone knows everyone else who lives in the town, so we're pretty tight knit, I guess you could say.

But who doesn't like free books? Its also a great way to promote reading, which I think is very important. Studies have shown numerous benefits to people who read a lot.

So go find a book to read. And leave a book for someone to read.

Or go find your own Free Little Library.

Sincerely,
Sareh

Book Review- Spells

(From Goodreads) Six months have passed since Laurel saved the gateway to the faerie realm of Avalon. Now she must spend her summer there, honing her skills as a Fall faerie. But her human family and friends are still in mortal danger--and the gateway to Avalon is more compromised than ever. 

When it comes time to protect those she loves, will she depend on David, her human boyfriend, for help? Or will she turn to Tamani, the electrifying faerie with whom her connection is undeniable?


Certainly not one of my favorites. I decided to read the next book in this series because I hate not finishing series. 


Anyways. The books was really slow throughout. I'm going to say that now. 

What I did like about it was the fact that we actually got to see Avalon, which is what I wanted to happen. And I know I mentioned that in the last post about the first book, Wings.  Avalon was very interesting and I adored seeing how the author described it. 

I loved the summer fey's houses the best. They were cool. I also enjoyed seeing how they don't use money there and instead you can have something if you really like it. I enjoyed meeting the other fey and learning about the fey Laurel knew before she went to our world. 

It was cool to see Tamani's mother and the little girl who stayed with her. Although I wasn't sure who exactly she was. I got confused. The play that Laurel went to was interesting, especially the twist on The Midsummer's Night Dream. 

But beyond those things, I didn't really like the story. It was good yes, but really slow. You didn't even see trolls really until the very end where we find some things out.  The characters were okay although most of them just ended up annoying me. Especially the stupid love triangle. 

This is going to be a short review, but I just don't have that much to say about this book. The cover is beautiful though. 

On Goodreads: Spells

Website: Aprilynne Pike

Book Trailer:

Sincerely,

Sareh

Buying vs. Borrowing Books?

I saw an article a while back that talked about borrowing vs buying books. And so I want to know, which do you prefer?

Anyways...

Borrowing Books

Pros- You don't have to spend money, even if you borrow it from a friend or the library. Hopefully, if you're lucky, you can barrow as many books as you want. Libraries have tons of books so you can find books on pretty much any subject. It's more eco-friendly (if you're into that type thing).

Cons- You only have a certain time to read them, and if you don't return them in on time you have to pay a fee (if you're borrowing from the library of course). Libraries may not always have the book you want or it may be on a waiting list and you have to wait till the person ahead of you is done with it. The books may come in a
damaged way (i.e coffee stains, pencil/pen marks. drawings, missing pages etc).

Buying Books

Pros- It's yours, so technically you're allowed to do whatever with it. You can make notes or high light stuff in it.  You don't have to worry about when to return it. There's something special about buying a new book and seeing that book sit on your bookshelf or wherever you keep books (unless you're buying them used, cause unless the person recently bought the book it probably won't be in perfect condition). You can read it whenever you'd like. Plus you support authors when you buy books because authors don't get any money when you rent their books from libraries.

Cons- Books are expensive, especially if they're new. This means that you may not be able to get as many as you'd like. And if you buy a book you end up liking you're stuck with it most of the time unless you return it or give it to a friend. Friends may want to borrow the book from you and some times not return it or damage it.

Inspiration for this post:
Is it best to buy or borrow books?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Writing Tips- Prologues: Aye or Nay?

Random thought: so since tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I have been reading the articles on Yahoo! about it and in one of the articles it was talking about how President Bush was at a elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. Well the name sounded familiar and I couldn't think of why, but when I was going over some of the articles on here recently, I saw that Tuesday's post mentions Sarasota. Yep, the same town where President Bush was in ten years ago, just got on the news so soon to the anniversary of 9/11.

Anyways, back to the actual article. I was going over the comments I have gotten on my books on Inkpop recently and it came to mind that some people don't mind them and others hate them. So the question came to when is: when is it ever okay to use a prologue and does my story really need one?

Well, does it?
According to A Writer's Guide to Fiction, prologues should be used...:

• To show a scene from the past or near future that may be too jolting in the rest of the story.
• To introduce a character or point of view that may never be seen again in the rest of the story.
• To provide critical infromation about the background, history, etc. that the reader needs to understand in order to understand the rest of the story but may not fit into the rest of the story. 

Here's some tips:

Some writers tend to have a prologue when it really isn't needed. For example, if you have a prologue, look and see if that information you have there could be sprinkled into the rest of the story without causing too much problems. If you can fit that information into the rest of the story without changing anything too much, chances are that you don't need that prologue. 

In The Cursing, I have a prologue. And in some ways it really isn't needed, but it's important to the story because it shows a) the viewpoint from a character who won't ever get her own point of view again and b) it shows some truth to what really happened in the past. I.e, it shows that Tatiana's aunt lies to her all the time and is evil and mean. 

Keep in mind:

• Some readers just plain don't like prologues, even if they are well written and are important to the story. But if you feel that your story must have a prologue, buy all means, go for it! 
• Prologues are not meant for info dumping. That's one of the reasons I didn't really liked Ready Player  One. It info dumped for the first eighty pages.
• Try to keep it somewhat short. Although there are many books out there where the prologues are quite long (In The Book Theif, the prologue is actually several chapters and lasts more than ten pages). 
• It's your book. Even if some one says that you shouldn't have a prologue you don't have to listen to them unless you know that you really don't need one. 

I personally don't mind prologues but only when I think they work for the story. \Sometimes, I've seen it where the author has a prologue to remind readers of what happened in the last book. For example, in Eldest, the prologue tells us what happened in Eragon. Sometimes I find this really nice, especially if its been a while since I've read the last book or if it took a while for the book to come out. 

So, do you like prologues or not? Does your story have one? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Book Review- Cold Stone Seduction

Title: Cold Stone Seduction
Release Date: 09/05/2011
Source: Netgallery
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Author: Jess Macallan

(Book pitch from Netgallery) When a regular night of Robin Hood-ery results in the manifestation of some, um, unusual paranormal abilities, perfume-maker Elleodora Fredricks realizes the normal world she lives in isn’t quite… normal. And neither is she, thanks to her father, king of the shadow elves. Not only is he evil incarnate and the reason Elle moonlights as a burglar—someone has to take care of all his victims—he’s stolen her memories.

And only reading her fate can fix that.

Good thing she’s got a trio of hotties willing to help her find said fate, but only if she gives them something in return. Saving her oracle BFF’s fiance, falling in love with the gargoyle, and making up for breaking the phoenix’s heart ought to be a piece of cake for the princess of the shadow elves.

If only the king didn’t want his daughter dead…

So I guess this is one of those things I've seen on other blogs where the post title is usually something like In My Mailbox. But I'm just gonna call it a review as I would do with normal books. I have signed up with a website called Netgallery where you can request to read and review books before they are out. And because I'm suppose to get the review for the books out before they're actually published, I'm going to post my reviews for these requested books first before I get to my regular books. Anyways....

So the title is kinda sketch I know, but it's an adult book. Yes, I, a teenager, read adult books. One of the reasons I picked up this book was that it's fantasy and has elves and the like in it. I'm interested in pretty much anything that has elves in it. 

Writing: I enjoyed the writing style in this book. I thought it was good and I saw a few words here and there I had to look up because I wasn't sure what they meant. The story's PoV is in first person, present tense, which I enjoy reading. I have seen a lot of books in first person but not a lot of them are in present tense. I also thought that Macallan keeps up the tense well throughout the rest of the book. 

Plot: While romance is certainly a strong theme in this book, as is the much overused love triangle, I enjoyed that Macallan didn't make it the center of the book. I enjoyed following Elle in her quest to retrieve her fate. I thought that there was enough tension and a sense of urgency to keep me reading and guessing. There were bits of mystery in this story that made it exciting. And the plot twists were great too, I never saw most of them coming. 

Characters: I thought that all of the characters were very good. Elle was a character that I think people can relate to and she was interesting. Although she was good as the Main Character, I thought that she could be too stubborn and she didn't really ever trust anyone (although she has good reason not too). Jax was an interesting character, but I thought that he was way overprotective. Sometimes it was annoying and kinda creepy. 


MacLean I thought was sweet. I felt bad for him when he realized that Elle doesn't remember him at all. Although as we go through the story, we see her slowly remembering who he is. As for Elle's father and Luke, I hated them. They were evil characters just as Elle said so. Macallan certainly did a good job portraying them as evil. I thought that her best friend, Teryl, was a good friend too. He was kinda funny and interesting. 

What I liked: I enjoyed the creativity in this book. I was happy to not only find out that there was no vampire and werewolves in this novel, but I also enjoyed Macallan's take on gargoyles and phoenixes. This is one of those moments were I think "why didn't I think of that!". While I'm sure I've seen gargoyles in humanoid forms before, I've certainly never come across phoenixes in human shape before. So I thought it was cool that Elle could "shift" both. And how gargoyles were bound to serve shadow elves and phoenixes were bound to serve light elves. I thought that the world building in this story was very good as was the mythology and lore put into it. I also loved the powers that Elle developed.


What I didn't like: As I said before, this is an adult novel so it has some..adult parts in it. And lets just say I skipped over them because I really didn't want to read those parts. That being said, I thought that Elle's relationship with Jax (cool name by the way) was too soon. I've seen this in other novels where the character has met a love interest and suddenly they're in love. I mean, how realistic is that? 


I think Elle's relationship with Jax was based more on lust and desire than it was on love. I think that her relationship with MacLean is based more on love even though she doesn't really remember him. And the whole part about Jax being made for her I think is complete rubbish even though his fate says so. It just bugged me. Elle has only known him for two months and all of the sudden they're in love and crap. 


Overall: I really liked this book and I thought it was good! I'd recommend it for it's certainly very nicely done. The only real problem I had with it was the relationship between Elle and Jax. 

On Goodreads: Stone Cold Seduction

So, have you ever done anything like Netgallery? If you're a teenager, how do you feel about reading adult books?

Sincerely,

Peony

Writing Tips- How to Not Write a Good Pitch

Book pitches (or blurbs, but I like to call them pitches) are very important. One could argue that they're the most important factor in whether or not someone will buy your book. I'm sure everyone here could say that they've bought or picked up a book because those 250 or some words on the inside flap or back cover sounded interesting. But I think that most authors end up having pitches that ends up sounding like a bunch of other pitches. So what does and what doesn't make a good pitch?

This has been annoying me a lot lately. Mostly because it seems like I see it on almost every book pitch I read. And I'm sure you've seen lots of these too. And guess what, they're not unique or exciting anymore. Here's what I mean:

1. (Insert character name here) was a normal (girl/boy) who just wanted a normal life. Or something like that. Guess what, people don't read books because they want to read about someone who's life is probably just as boring as their's. And characters who may have had a normal life in the beginning, their lives usually end up never being normal ever again. So why have it? 
2. And nothing is as it seems... Blah, blah, blah. Yeah I get it, in every book nothing is as it seems. And do I really care? Probably not unless it's something really good. My advice: don't even put that in the pitch. It's boring and used way too much. In the book I'm writing, Night Lies, literally nothing is what it seems, but I say that no where in the pitch. Because I want it to be a surprise, something that my readers weren't suspecting. 
3. Nothing will ever be the same... We got that already. Especially when you began the pitch with (Insert character name here) was a normal (girl/boy) who just wanted a normal life. In what story please tell me, is anything ever the same afterwards?
4. (Character name) will learn some startling truths but not only everything else, but him/herself...Really? I had no idea that was going to happen! *sarcasm* 
5. (Main Character) will have to choose between two men/women. Something like that. I've already had this talk about love triangles. They aren't cool anymore. 
6. In a race against time...Doesn't everything end up being a race against time?

Now I'm not saying that you can't put these in your pitch, but when you're writing one, try to be original and not use the same thing we've seen over and over. People want something exciting and fresh, and while these are certainly exciting, they're just used all the time. 

But let's face it. Trying to fit your whole book into 250 (more or less) words is hard. And I'm sure every writer will tell you that. Sure some have it easier than others and some books have easier pitches than others. I've written several pitches for my unpublished books where I came up with a great one in a day while others took me a long time to get it right. 

Oh and the best way to make an especially bad pitch is to write a really good one, but then have the book be something totally different. 

Yeah I saw that once. 

No lie.

Well it wasn't in anything published, but I saw it once on Inkpop. There was this awesome pitch but when I went to read the story, it ended up being something totally different. I wasn't sure if the author meant to do that on purpose or if it was an accident. Because for all I know, the author could have just uploaded the wrong story and have not noticed. Although whatever the case was, it story wasn't all that good anyways. 

The point of that was, if you're going to write an awesome pitch, make sure it has something to do with the story. Because your readers will know that you lied and they will tell all their friends and you'll have lost what could have been a great book. 

Another tip, don't copy another book's pitch just because it's similar to yours and it sounds awesome. You'll most likely be found out and sued for all your worth because you stole some one else's work. That or people will assume that your book is a rip off of another great book and won't read yours. 

So what other things about pitches annoys you? Have you seen any other common pitch sentences? And have you ever read a book where the pitch was different from the story? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Something Random- Favorite Blogs?

So I was thinking today about blogs. I was going to list all of my favorite blogs, but all those are listed on the blog roll over on the right.

I was also thinking about what I liked to see in a blog. My favorite kind of blogs talk about books, writing, give useful tips, interesting information, and I love seeing pictures. Like some of my favorite blogs post covers they make. Alot of them review books, and some of them give useful information that I can use in books or are writing related. I also enjoy it if a blog recommends music or books too.

I don't mind long posts or short ones. I love seeing posts that use pictures or gifs to get a point across or to tell something. I've never done it, but then I can never find any good pictures or gifs to use. I enjoy vlogs (instead of a writing post, people post videos of themselves or others talking), which is also increasingly coming more and more common. I've been thinking of doing a vlog, but I'm not sure how and mine wouldn't probably be all that good.

Another kind of my favorite blogs, are author blogs. I love following my favorite authors. Not only is it a good way to know what's coming up, but I love hearing their thoughts. Blogs I think are of the best ways an author can connect to their readers, because your readers can follow you and stuff. Sure you can do that with facebook and twitter, but I enjoy blogs more. Blogs are also useful to writers because it's a great way for publishers and agents to see that you can attract readers. It's like a way of showing what you can do before you're even published.

So, what are your favorite blogs? Please share your favorites and remember to post a link so I can check them out. What do you enjoy seeing in a blog or what about the blog makes you follow them? Do you enjoy vlogs and do you think I should try one?

Sincerely,
Peony

Book Review- The Last Days

Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz, and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it?

Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.

In the next book after Peeps, we meet five kids who want to start a band. Pearl and Moz meet when they save a rare guitar and then Moz introduces her to his best friend. The two boys have been playing guitars together for six years and considered themselves a too person band.

Pearl then brings her friend, Minerva, to their band practices as the singer. Min has been getting over the sickness that turns you into a vampire. That's one of the things I liked about this book, while they turn into vampires through getting bitten, I enjoyed this book partly because vampires isn't actually said. Plus they still eat people, hate light, love meat, and are pretty much normal vampires. They don't sparkle.

I thought that all of the characters were relateable to in somehow shape and form. Plus since this was written in first person and there was five different point of views, I thought that Mr. Westerfeld did a very good job keeping them straight and moving the story along. I loved learning about the characters and seeing the sickness that was affecting New York through many different eyes. Minerva was probably my favorite character. 

While I didn't think much happened in this book, it was still interesting to see how Moz and his new friends turned into vampires and into a great band. I loved the way the music was described when the played and how everything went good. I loved the part where they were trying to come up with a name for their band and how Minerva talked to her cat and how the cat acted. 

My favorite part was probably when the characters from the last book, Peeps, appeared. I was happy to see them show up and explain to Moz's band what was happening. Plus I love how vampires are good things in these stories rather than dark evil creatures. 

Overall, it was a good book although at times it was boring, so more could have happened. Some of the characters were funny and amusing and so I enjoyed the book. Would I recommend it? Maybe, if you like this kind of stuff.

On Goodreads: The Last Days
Website: Scott Westerfeld

So, have you ever read a book that take a new meaning or look at an old species or an idea? Did you like this new apporch or not? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Book Review- White Cat

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

First of all, the concept was really cool. And I love Cassel's name, it's epic. Cassel Sharpe lives in a world where a simple touch can be life or death, love or hate, good or bad. He lives in a world where people with magic are called workers. Workers are shunned by the normal people because they think that workers are bad people. Because curse work is illegal most of the workers have ended up working as mobsters or con artists. They also work for large crime families or other workers.

I thought that Cassel was a good character. I think that he is a character that some of us at least can relate to. Why? Well Cassel happens to not only be an outsider at his school since few people are related to workers, but he is also an outsider in his own family since he can't do magic. One of the traits I liked about him was his strong sense of family ties since I believe that family is very important. 

All the characters were very good too. From Cassel's brothers, his friends, family, and other people. They were all believable and cool. I loved his friends, they amused me. As did his grandpa. And I love how he turns out in the end, go grandpa! 

And the plot was amazing. As the story progresses Cassel figures out that his memories have been tampered with. So as you read, you're never really sure what's real and what isn't until the very end. I enjoyed how Holly Black explores the idea of memories and how they affect you. Like, if your memories change, does that change you? Can changing someone's memories make them a better or worse person? 

The other concept I thought was cool was the concept of curses or magic in this book. There are many different types of curses, good and bad, ones that can give you luck and protect you from other curses, to ones that can erase your memories. And according to the story, we find out with every time you curse someone, you get a blowback or something happens to you. Kinda like a check and balance. So say if you erase some one's memory, than a part of yours is gone too. Or like with Cassel's grandpa, he's a death workers which means he can kill people by touching them, so for every time he curses someone, he loses parts of his fingers. Eventually he's left with just stubs where his fingers used to be. 

Of the things I didn't like, I found some misspellings (although one of them I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not) and things got confusing for me at times that I had to reread something. I had problems following the story line and figuring out how a con worked. But other than that, I really loved this book! 

Overall this book was really good and I'd certainly recommend it. And I normally wouldn't read this type of book, dark and morbid
 at times, but overall I thought it was interesting. And it's good to read something you normally wouldn't. I haven't read Black's other books, but I've been meaning too. 

So, have you ever read any books about mobsters and gangs? Actually, do you know of anyone who has stories about mobs and gangs? According to a rumor floating around my family, we used to be related to some guy in the mafia. But he died a long time ago and we don't know if it's true or not. 


On Goodreads: White Cat

Her Website:  Holly Black

Sincerely,

Peony

Movie Review- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

*Spoilers are in this post.*
In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort. It all ends here. 


This morning I woke up and realized that there really won't be any more Harry Potter movies to look forward to. This really is the end.

I went and saw this movie Sunday night with some family. And I'll say that I loved it! One of the thoughts I remember thinking as I was watching it was "Man! I have to get this soundtrack!" And so I did. It's an epic soundtrack too.

Anyways, what I loved about this movie is the sense of danger and the emotions that it sparks in you. Although for the first half of the movie I kept getting this feeling like I saw it before. And I have no idea why, what I think is that I must have seen the trailers or a movie preview before and forgot about it. That or my brain likes to mess with me.

The special effects were really cool. One of my favorite special effects was when there was Hogwart's magical shield. It just looked cool. Anyways, and the ghost, I can't remember her name, but I've always thought they have done a good job showing the ghosts.

I thought the actors were all good too. I loved Professor McGonagall's "I've always wanted to use that spell" saying. It made me and the rest of the audience laugh. At the part where Snape dies, I was crying. It was so sad! I loved the memories they played, they were very touching and I thought they showed off the side of Snape we probably haven't seen before. Although for some reason when Snape said "you have your mother's eyes," my stepdad thought that that it could have been taken in a way that could mean he's Harry's dad. Which he all know isn't true, but he thought that it could imply that.

Neville was one of my favorites too. Like when he tells Harry that he's got to find Luna to tell her that he likes her, when he stands up to Lord Voldemort, and finally when he kills the snake himself. I was secretly cheering for him.

The other sad part was when Fred died. Or at least I think it was Fred, I could never tell the difference between those two. And the scene of Remus and Tonks when Harry sees them.  So sad!

I thought it was interesting when Malfoy's mom asks Harry if her son is alive and when he briefly nods his head, she turns to the Lord Voldemort and says "he's dead". But then in the end the Malfoy and his parents run away as Harry goes to defeat Lord Voldemort. I wasn't all that too crazy about that scene where they are flying through the air and they are fighting each other. It was strange, but fitting I guess.

I loved the ending, when Harry breaks the elder wand and throws it off the bridge. It told us that no one should ever have that kind of power again.

Plus the epilogue was great. I thought that the kids were so cute! Although I'm not to sure on how well of a job they did making Harry and the other's to look older. I didn't think Hermione looked older at all. And for some reason they all seemed really tall to me. Maybe it was because of the kids or what I'm not sure.

Overall it was an epic movie and if you haven't seen it you should! The soundtrack is epic too. And I loved a bunch of stuff with it. I also thought that they did a good job keeping to the book. I love it when movies stick to the books if they came from one.

So, have you seen it yet? If you have what did you think? And are you planning to go see it in theaters or wait till it comes out on DVD and rent/buy it?

Sincerely,
Peony