Book of a Thousand Days

I just finished a five star book called the Book of a Thousand Days.  The Book of a Thousand Days is about a young girl named Dashti.  Dashti is a maid, her mistress Lady Saren and her, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. As food runs low and the days go from boiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable.  With the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors, one welcome, and the other much less so, the girls are confronted with both hope and great danger.   Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth much more than she knows!  This was an amazing book!  It took me only two days to read!  This is my first book of 2012 and I'm hoping I will be able to read 100 books this year!  Last year I got to 81 books, but my goal was only 75.  This book is definitely recommended!  What are your reading goals for this year?

Thanks
Alyssa :)

The Yearling

Yesterday I finished a great, very emotional book called The Yearling. The Yearling is about a young boy named Jody.  Jody lives with his family, his father Penny and his mother named Ory.  They live on a little farm in Florida that is surrounded by dense forests and marshes.  Jody and his father Penny work in the fields planting crops and hunting game for food.  One day when Penny and Jody go hunting Penny gets bitten by a rattlesnake, Penny knows he needs to get the poison out of him, but what can he do?  Penny shoots a deer and takes out it's liver and puts it on his arm to squeeze the poison out of his arm. Jody soon finds the baby deer whose mom had just been killed to heal his father and feels bad for it and begs and begs his mother and father for him to take it home.  They give in and let him take care of it.  No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than The Yearling.   This is actually the first book I cried in, this book was so sad and you could really see the relationship between Jody and his deer that he named Flag.  The author Majorie Kinnan Rawlings used such powerful words that you actually felt like you were right there with the characters in the book! This book was amazing and I would rate it 5 stars!  Definitely recommended!!

Thanks
Alyssa :)

Sasha Cohen Fire on Ice

Okay guys, I've been really bad I haven't posted for over a whole month! That is terrible! I will try to keep posting as often as I can! Okay, so about a week ago I finished a  great book written by the famous figure skater Sasha Cohen. In this book Sasha Cohen tells her  life story on and off the ice.  Champion figure skater captures the world's attention with her gorgeous spiral and outstanding layback spin at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.  In Torino, she reigned as the most intriguing contender in figure skating at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games and placed second with the silver medal!  For the first time Sasha tells her amazing story in her own words.  She tells about her discovery of ice at age seven, her comeback from and injury that almost ended her career, and finally her crushing lows and her charming wins.  This book is the official autobiography of one of the world's most captivating figure skaters.  This book was very good, I would rate it four stars.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone, even if your not a figure skater, you are sure to like this book!

Next Review: The Yearling (this is a long book, it might take a while!)

Thanks
Alyssa :)

The House of Dark Shadows

I just finished a VERY, (emphasis on the VERY)  creepy, spine tingling book!  You know how some books just don't pull you into the story?  Well, this book got an A on that standpoint!  This book is about a family of five. A fifteen year old brother named Xander, his littler twelve year old brother named David and their little sister named Toria and of course the mom and dad.  One day the dad decides they should all move to a new place in Pinedale, California.  When the family first gets to the house they were thinking about buying, strange things start to happen, their real estate agent says that the father of the house that lived there before, murdered his wife and kids, also strange sounds come from wrong directions, prints of giant bare feet appear in the dust, and Toria screams when she says she saw a man standing right outside of her room door!  Then the really, really weird stuff starts to kick in, David and Xander find a hidden hallway with portals leading to far off places in long ago times.  Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of travel is a teen's dream come true, or his worst nightmare!!!  This book so far has six books in the series, I can't wait to read the second book!  This book is really good and I would definitely recommend it!

Next Review: Just Listen

Thanks
Alyssa :)

Dear Julia

Today I finished a great book called Dear Julia.  Dear Julia is about a sixteen year old girl named Elaine Hamilton.  Elaine is very quiet, shy and timid.  She really doesn't have any friends, and her family, (her five crazy brothers, her dad that is committed to doing yoga every day, and her mom who is an important congresswoman) are most the time, always busy doing their own things.  The only thing Elaine really loves to do is cook.  She loves to be in the kitchen, somewhere away from the high school drama and just be with her beloved pots and pans.  Elaine is dedicated, and wants to master the arts of French cooking.  Her idol is Julia Child, she truly adores her, she even has memorized most of the recipes in Julia's books!  All the time since Elaine was six, she has been writing letters to Julia, asking how to cook this better, or what kind of knife to use to chop a certain kind of vegetable.  The thing is Elaine never sent these letters to Julia, she just kept them safely tucked away in a wooden chest.  Elaine, one day, meets a crazy upbeat friends named Lucida Sans, yes, the computer font.  Lucida has always wanted to be famous for something, but nothing seems to suit her.  Elaine and Lucida grow a friendly bond throughout the story, enjoying joyful times and tackling difficult problems together.  In this wonderful story, Elaine finds out what she really loves and who she really is.  And she realizes you can't do great things without hard work and of course a little spice sprinkled in.

Next review: House of Dark Shadows

Thanks
Alyssa :)

Weedflower

I just read a really good book called Weedflower.  Weedflower is about a twelve year old girl named Sumiko.  Sumiko's parents die when she is very young.  Sumiko lives with her aunt, uncle, her little brother named Tak-Tak, her two older cousins named Bull and Ichiro and Jiichan (her grandpa.)  This is right at the time when Japan bombed pearl harbor, which is in Hawaii.  Most Japanese were actually disturbed that their country had done such a terrible thing!  That was Sumiko's family.  But her thoughts start to change when her family, including herself are forced to go to Poston, Arizona living in an internment camp.  She and her family have to cope with their new surroundings and the uncertainty of the future.  Only her bright imagination and the friendship of a young Mohave boy carry her through tough times.  This is a great novel by Cynthia Kadohata.  I read another award winning book by her called Kira-Kira.  The only problem with this book is, I think it started off a little slow and it was kind of hard to get into.  But all in all this was a great book!  :)

Next Review: Dear Julia

Thanks,
Alyssa :)

The Queen of Water

I just finished an amazing book called the Queen of Water.  The Queen of Water is about a young girl named Virginia Farinango who was born in an Andean village in Ecuador.  Virginia lives with her poor family in a small mud hut.  In her village it is not uncommon to work in fields all day long, even as a child.  It is also very common to be called longa tonta (stupid Indian) by members of the ruling class of mestizos, or Spanish descendants.  When, at the time, seven-year-old Virginia is taken from her village to be a servant to a mestizo couple, she has no idea what the future holds ahead of her.  Over the years spent with the mestizo couple,Virginia quickly grows accustomed to the luxuries of the mestizo life.  Virginia even finds it hard to remember how to speak her hometown language called, Quichua, and only knows how to speak Spanish, The Mestizo language.    Virginia also finds it hard to remember the faces of her own family.  While working for the mestizo couple she is beaten many times and told that the sole purpose of an indigenous girl like her, is to serve.  But Virginia has a dream to one day be famous and not to be told what to do, how to act, how to eat, how to speak, she wants to be free.  Virginia must fight to hold on to her spirit and humor.  Virginia soon gets caught up between the decision of going back home to her parent's in a mud house and farm all day, or stay at home with the nasty couple but have a good chance to grow up and be someone successful?  This novel is based on a true story and the writing is so good it keeps you hooked throughout.



Thanks
Alyssa :)