The Lightening Thief

By Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book one


Percy Jackson would really like to forget about his last school trip, during which he was attacked by his math teacher (who then disappears, and whom no one seems to know ever existed), saved by his Latin teacher tossing him a magic pen (or is it a sword?), and thrown out of yet another school (his sixth in as many years, I think.) Unfortunately, that won't be possible. As soon as he gets home, his mom takes him on a trip to the beach, during which his best friend, Grover, shows up (minus pants, plus furry goat legs) pursued by the Minotaur (a half bull, half human monster, for those who aren't familiar with Greek mythology), who is actually looking for Percy. After fighting the Minotaur, who kills Percy's mother, Percy winds up unconscious and when he wakes up, he is at Camp Half-Blood. Turns out, Percy is a demigod: half human, half Greek god. Yup, you heard right, his dad is a Greek god. Unfortunatly, any chance of normality, even for a half-blood, is pretty much out of the question. Zeus's thunderbolt has been stolen, and Percy is the main suspect. Now Percy and his new friends have ten days to find the thunderbolt, solve a mysterious prophecy that warns of betrayal, and uncover an evil plot that threatens the gods themselves, and the rest of the world with them. I don't usually do very popular books like this on here, for some reason, but this was just such a good book. Exciting, exasperating (Is Percy stupid, unlucky, or does he just have a death-wish?), and funny, this is a simply wonderful book. Seriously, read the book. READ IT OR I WILL UNLEASH MRS. DODDS AND THE OTHER KINDLY ONES ON YOU!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

Emily the Strange: The Lost Days

By Robb Reger and Jessica Gruner


Book one of the Emily the Strange series




 In this book you will find:

1. Amnesia
2. Cats
3. An espresso-making golem
4. A black dress with infinite pockets
5. Calamity Poker
6. The Moon Child of the Valley of the Knowing, a.k.a. Jakey
7. Junk mail
8. Dumpsters
9. A beige, treeless town called Blackrock
10. Nightmares
11. A slingshot
12. Evil genius
13. Emily the Strange

Emily the Strange is thirteen, wears exclusively black dresses, and could probably conquer the world. If she felt like it. She is more likely to be found cuddling with her four black cats, building some sort of strange and possibly sinister device, booby-trapping and sunproofing her room, conducting some sort of experiment in her bedroom/laboratory, pranking whatever town she is living in this month, skateboarding, prowling around town in the middle of the night, rocking out on the guitar, creating a golem out of a Tasmanian devil, or writing in her journal. Her most recent life motto is "Nothing ruins (insert anything good) like OTHER PEOPLE. She has been told that she has Evil Overlordish tendencies and she hates the sun. THIS IS AN AWESOME BOOK EMILY IS umm, STRANGE!!! READ IT AND LAUGH! LOVE THE CATS! Emily would not win an Evil Genius contest due to being overqualified,and anyway she would have better things to do.

Rosemary And Rue

By Seanan McGuire

Book One of the October Daye series

Being turned into a fish for fourteen years can really mess up your life. Just ask half Faerie private investigator and knight errant, October Daye. Toby is a changeling: half human, half Daoine Sidhe. After being turned into a fish for almost a decade and a half, Toby gave up being a private investigator, and tried to distance herself from the world of Faerie. Now she has no choice but to resume her old position as knight errant and delve back into Faerie. One of her closest friends, the faerie Countess Evening Winterrose, has been murdered. Killed by iron, one of the most painful ways to kill the fae. As she died, Evening cursed  Toby, binding her to find Evening's killer, or find only her own death. I absolutely LOVED Toby, Rosemary and Rue, and this entire series, of course. Toby is one of those characters who just don't seem to be able to keep themselves and their lives in one piece. In this book alone, she is turned into a fish for practically a decade and a half, shot at multiple times, attacked by a Doppleganger, has hired thugs attempt several times to kill her, and nearly drowned after falling off a cliff into San Francisco Bay.  You see what I mean? AND the other two books in the series add a good PARAGRAPH to that list. Geez. Anyway, this is a great book all around, though perhaps a bit dark and violent in parts. READ THE BOOK!

Demon in My View

By Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Book two of the Den  Of Shadows quartet

Seventeen year-old Jessica Allodola doesn't fit in at her high school, and she doesn't really care. She has a secret, however: she writes vampire fiction under the pen name Ash Night. What she doesn't know is that the characters in her books are real, and that some of them don't like what she's writing. When a new student shows up at her school, she immediately recognises him as the vampire Aubrey from her books. But he doesn't exist outside of her imagination, right? Jessica is about to find out just how real her vampires and their world are. This is one of my favorite stories by this author, and is, in my opinion at least, better written than the first book in this series. Interestingly, "Tiger, Tiger", Jessica's first book, has the same plot as In the Forests of the Night. I wish I could read Jessica's book Dark Flame, but I am pretty sure it only exists in this book.  Demon in My View is a great story, and the series, author, world, and characters are just amazing. I loved Jessica, Aubrey, Caryn, and even liked Fala. SUCH an awesome book!

Meridian

By Amber Kizer

Meridian Sozu has lived with death for her entire life. Dead and dying animals find their way into her room at night and follow her at school. She has always accepted that she is strange, a freak, but after witnessing a bad car accident on her sixteenth birthday, Meridian's world is about to change. Suddenly she it sent to live with her aunt in Revelation, Colorado and told that she is in danger. Her aunt tells her that she is a Fenestra, a half angel, half human link between the living and the dead. Now she must learn to open the "window" between this world and the afterlife, through which the souls of the dead pass. And Meridian must learn quickly: the Acternocti, the enemies of the Fenestra, are hunting her. The Acternocti are also links between the living and the dead, but with a difference: they are evil. They carry souls to hell, rather than heaven. Meridian also has do deal with the charismatic new preacher in Revelation, who is taking over the town and  is likely an Acternocti. And if she has time--and can accept herself and her sworn protector, Tens, for who they are--maybe even fall in love. Dark, thrilling, romantic, and beautifully dramatic, Meridan is a simply delicious book. I don't know if there is a sequel, but I hope so. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. As always, LOVED IT! I adore Meridian, both the book and the character. Purrrrr.

So You Want to Be a Wizard

By Diane Duane

Book One of the Young Wizards Series

Fifty or sixty eons ago, when life brought itself about, it also brought about to accompany it many Powers and Potentialities to manage the business of creation. One of the greatest of these Powers held aloof for a long time, watching its companions work, not wishing to enter into Creation until it could contribute something unlike anything the other Powers had made, something completely new and original. Finally the Lone Power found what it was looking for. Others had invented planets, light, gravity, space. The Lone Power invented death, and bound it irrevocably into the worlds. Shortly thereafter the other Powers joined forces and cast the Lone One out.
Many versions of this story are related among the many worlds, assigning blame or praise to one party or another. However, none of the stories change the fact that entropy and its symptom, death, are here now. To attempt to halt or remove them is as futile as attempting to ignore them.
Therefore there are wizards--to handle them. 

                                                     ---- The Manual, exerpt

When thirteen year-old Nita Callahan finds a book titled So You Want to Be a Wizard at the library, she thinks it's a joke--or is it? The book is actually a manual--for wizardry, and it says that Nita herself could be a wizard if she wants. She takes the Oath, and begins her Ordeal. All new wizards, once they take the Oath, embark on an ordeal, a test of aptidude. If they survive, they become full-fledged wizards. Nita soon meets Kit, another new wizard on Ordeal, and they become friends. When they are accidentaly thrown into an alternate Manhattan, they must work together to survive, find a way home, and save the Universe. I (of course) loved this book, this series, and this author. Nita and Kit are awesome, the Lone Power is a great villain, and Peach is hilarious. As always, great writing, great chrarcters, great plot. LOVED IT! The writing is fairly simple, rather than the somewhat complex books I sometimes read, but sophisticated enough that IT IS A GREAT BOOK! It was funny, interesting, and engrossing, with a great take on magic, fun characters, and AWESOME epic battles. The quote at the top is from Nita's Manual in the prologue of So You Want to Be a Wizard. I don't usually put quotes in my posts, but I thought it was the best way to explain why there are wizards in this book. This is a nice long series, with about nine books already out and more to come. YAY!

Psyche in a Dress

By Francesca Lia Block

Psyche loved Love himself, and lost him. She became Echo, who disappeared, became only a voice, Eurydice, who faded when Orpheus looked back, Persephone, stolen, a queen only in darkness, and Demeter, a goddess, a mother, Psyche still. Psyche, which means soul. A modern blending of several lovely myths, and a great story about a young woman's quest to find herself, Psyche in a Dress is a gorgeous book, poetic and well written. Not one of those books that make you want to give the main character a good shaking and some advice, while you're reading it at least. Once you finish the book and think about it for a minute you might want to, but the book is told in such a dreamlike fashion that you just go with it. Doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat, but the beautiful storytelling more than makes up for it in my opinon. Greek myths make great stories and this book is no exeption. Psyche in a Dress is one of my favorite books, as much as I have them. I love this author. Her books have beautiful imagery, great characters, and tend to blur the line between reality and fantasy a lot, which I love. Psyche in a Dress is, in my opinion, one of her best books. Lovely, simply lovely. Purr.

Eyes Like Stars

Lisa Mantchev

Welcome to the Theatre Illuminata, where the actors backstage and the characters onstage are one and the same, where you can find Ophelia, Macbeth, Tatania, Peter Pan, and many others, where The Book holds the characters and the Theatre together, and where seventeen year-old Beatrice Shakespear Smith lives. Bertie has lived at the Theatre Illumiata for her entire life, painting the stage which is her bedroom, dying her hair all the colors of the rainbow, playing with fairies, pirates, and all the other characters, and causing mischief and mayhem. Now, if she doesn't do something, Bertie may lose her home and friends forever. I, as always, loved Bertie and her fairy sidekicks, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom, adored the Theatre Illuminata, and devoured Eyes Like Stars. Gorgeous, funny, and simply wonderful, Eyes Like Stars is such a good book. Fans of Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange will love Lisa Mantchev's debut novel.

Monstrous Regiment

By Terry Pratchett

A Novel of Discworld

On the Discworld, the small country of Borogravia is at war. Again. Borogravia has a long history of making war on pretty much everyone around it, a ruler who no one is sure is even alive, and a god who has Abominated practically everything and who may be either insane or dead.Polly Perks has decided to disguise herself as a boy and join the army to find her brother, who joined up and then disappeared. She joins the Ins-and-Outs, and quickly discovers not only does her regiment include a vampire, an Igor, and a troll, along with humans, but she may not be the only one with a secret. They are shipped out to the front immediately with no training and bad, secondhand weapons and armor. Now they must rely on each other, the fat, famous, and possibly insane or demonic Sargent Jackrum, and sheer luck to survive. SUCH a good book. SOOO funny. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! I laughed hysterically right through it. I absolutly love Terry Pratchett's books, and this one is no exeption.

Bad Kitty

By Michelle Jaffe

All Jasmine Callihan wants to do on her family vacation in Las Vegas is relax by the pool, avoid her cousin Alyson and Alyson's Evil Hench Twin, Veronique, work on her Meaningful Reflections journal and Little Life Lessons for school, and maybe meet the cute guy Jas has been eyeing from across the pool. Is that really so much to ask? Apparently yes. After wreaking a wedding and subsequently getting out of trouble and being given a limo, Jas decides to become a Model Daughter. This causes her friends Polly, Roxy, and Tom to come to Vegas to "deprogram" her using magazines and dog collar restraints. Yes, I mean that. Yes, dog collar restraints, as in real dog collars to be used as restraints. Dog collars with rhinestones. No, her friends never used them. Yes, her friends are nuts, wacko, and insane, except maybe Tom. Before they get there, though, Jas meets Jack (the guy from across the pool), discovers that he is (probably) evil, receives a threatening note, steals a limo by accident, and bids Model Daughter Jas goodbye, thereby eliminating the necessity of reprogramming. Soon Jas and her friends are embroiled in a mystery involving murder, possible murder, theft,  and an orange cat. And it's all the cats' fault. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this book, which frequently has both me and my sister rolling on the floor laughing. Hilarious! Everyone in it is completely insane, though. Oh, wait, that's a good thing. At least from my point of view. LOVE JAS LOVE POLLY LOVE ROXY LOVE TOM! Much purring.