Update on SIlver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Stacy and her friends rent a cottage on the beach after they graduate. They hope to relax and release the stress and just let go of all their worries. But then, Stacy starts having her nightmares again. The ones where she wakes up with nose bleeds, dreaming about death. These nightmares have occurred before- both of the girls in them ended up dead because she ignored them and did nothing to prevent them. But this time it's different. The girl she dreams about has a secret; one that she's willing to kill someone for if they tell it. And she lives 3 doors away...

She searches for Clara, asking all of her friends where she may be. Her friends get curious and suspicious and question if Stacy is actually seeing these things.

Stacy and her friends finally find Clara at a restaurant called the Clam Stripper. Clara's reaction wasn't really what Clara had expected. She thinks it's a joke! Stacy tells her that her life is in danger and that she needs to be more careful.

I would've reacted the same way, though! If someone I'd just met told me that they had a nightmare that I was going to die, I wouldn't believe it either. I would think that they're just trying to make me feel paranoid.

Clara promises Stacy that she'll tell her about any surprising or abrupt things happen in the near future.

About the Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz

 

Laurie Stolarz, author of many adult fiction novels such as "Blue Is For Nightmares", "White Is For Magic", "Silver Is For Secrets", "Red Is For Remembrance", "Black Is For Beginnings", "Bleed", "Project 17", "Deadly Little Secret", "Deadly Little Lies", "Deadly Little Games", "Deadly Little Voices", "Deadly Little Lessons", and coming soon in the Spring of 2014 will be the Dark House series.

Laurie grew up in Salem, Massachusetts. She attended Merrimack College and even received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. She is known for her blend of genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, and mystery.

Some interesting facts about Laurie Stolarz including her favorite snack; popcorn with salt, pepper, fake butter, and garlic powder. How interesting! One of her favorite TV shows would be The Real Housewives. Laurie's favorite quote is "Perseverance is key". Did I mention that she loves Indian cuisine? Well, she does! She even enjoys cooking it also. Some of her hobbies consist of walking, napping, cooking, shopping, interior decorating, and of course writing.

I'm super excited about beginning her book, Silver Is For Secrets. Though I haven't read the other books in the series, I don't think it goes in order. Laurie Faria Stolarz seems like a fantastic author and I'm absolutely thrilled about starting it today.(:

Blog Reflection

The quality of my writing has improved greatly over the period of this trimester. For one, I have begun to show more personality in my writing rather than just blatantly telling the reader about my book. By developing this growth factor, it makes my blogs more interesting and easy to read, in my opinion. Another example of how my writing has improved is by writing complete thoughts first and then going back to edit after I’ve written the most important ideas. I am a complete perfectionist, so it’s hard to appreciate anything I’ve written. I don’t think there’s one blog where I haven’t edited it at least three times.

One thing that I have struggled through this blogging experience is making time in my schedule to read. I enjoy reading very much, so you’d think it would be fairly easy to make time! Because of homework in other subjects, and after school activities it’s been tough to find time to read. To work through this struggle, I’ve been putting at least 30 minutes in before I go to bed to read to. A strength I have had through blogging is that it doesn’t take me long to construct a well written blog. Especially if the book that I read was recent, and was a book that I enjoyed. I did not meet the reading goal of 10 books on GoodReads.com. I have only read about 3 this trimester. I used GoodReads.com as a resource to find books that I’ve read and recommendations on what to read next and it did a great job at that! I believe that I improved as a reader over the course of this trimester, because blogging definitely showed that reading is very important in your life. Not only does it improve your vocabulary, but it affects the way you think as well.

The Twilight Saga By Stephanie Meyer

Because her mom gets busy with her new husband, seventeen year old Bella Swan moves in with her dad Charlie in Forks, Washington.She is very different compared to the other students at Forks High School. Shy, timid, clumsy; she didn't think she'd make any friends in her new town.

Then she meets Edward; the youngest of the "adopted" family of Cullens. Something about him crawled under her skin and made her want to know more about him, but how? He was so mysterious and Bella was curious and eager to know more. He runs fast, and he can stop cars with his bare hands! What kind of gift is this??

Edward's quiet and really only talks to his siblings, so it's hard for Bella get the nerve to speak to him. Then Bella finds the perfect opportunity to talk to him! They sit together in their Biology class and have a lab to do. He still doesn't talk much though, and it seems to her that he wants nothing to do with her.

 

As he starts opening up to Bella, she gets more intrigued. He warns her to stay away from him, but she doesn't listen. He doesn't want Bella to get hurt because of his secret; him and his family are vampires. To make that concept even more dangerous, Bella's scent of her blood is super overwhelming to all vampires.

Even more so to a certain vampire; James. He's a tracker. He discovered her scent, and was instantly drawn to it.

Later in the book, he tells the Cullen's that he has taken Bella's mother captive in her old dance studio. Bella thinks she can handle James by herself, so she goes to the dance studio. He didn't even have her mother!! He just said that because he wanted to kill Bella. Luckily Alice has the gift of seeing the future and can see that James was planning to kill her. So her, Emmett, Jasper (the other siblings) go to the dance studio and make it just in time to save her life.

They definitely learned a lot more about Bella; she may seem shy, but is really daring!

Through this series, Bella and Edward fall more in love with each other. Edward and his "family" being vampires doesn't change her mind about being with him.

Click above to watch the movie trailer of the first Twilight!

The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

In this book, the country is split into districts. Each district send tributes to go in as a 'raffle' to take part in the Hunger Games. One from each district is chosen at random and those tributes go into the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is basically a tournament to the death; the one most skilled in killing and surviving wins!

Katniss and her sister wait and hope they don't get chosen. Because their family is poor, they have to put more 'raffles' to get food and survive. As people were getting picked and cries were cried, Katniss and her sister began to tremble. "Prim Everdeen!" Effie Trinket calls out. Guards go to pull Prim up to the stage as she screams and resists their strong arms.

"I volunteer as tribute!" Katniss then shouted. Katniss thought she will have a way better chance than her sister would at surviving. That was the first time in a very long time that someone had volunteered as tribute.



I really recommed this book to everyone over the age of 12. It contains a lot of violence and may be too mature for some kids. But overall, this book is hard for a lot of people to put down because of how well it is written and the never-ending action it provides.

Wattpad: Totally Recommend!!

So, my friend Natalie told me about Wattpad a few weeks ago and how she's addicted to the fan-fiction. I've been putting it off, but last night I had enough time to browse and look into it.

 Woah....you have no idea  how addicting this website is!! Not only do they have the largest selection of fan-fiction, but they also have tons of other genres available. There's literally unlimited stories waiting to be read by us.(: Good writers, fans; whatever you want to call them, put so much work and effort into creating these stories and just wait for them to be read. These writers post their stories or updates of their current stories after a few days, so I can see how this would be stressful thinking of what to write, and hoping it's good enough for the public.

 If you're interested, sign-up! It's completely free and easy to join. I recommend this site to all book lovers out there and who enjoy new and unique stories.

You read the stories directly off the website, so it can easily be read on phones, ipods, ipads, computers, etc. What I'm trying to get at here, is that you don't have remember to bring a book to H.English everyday, when you have unlimited stories on your electronic device!(:

Wattpad Website! <<<<< Sign-up now! You'll thank me later(;

Chapter 10 (Matched): My Thoughts

Cassia comes home after work, and notices something strange. Officials are at her house. Is this about the poem she isn't supposed to have; did Ky tell her secret? Are they telling her parents about the glitch on her micro-card? Or could it be something as simple as a food distribution check? What's going on? Millions of thoughts went through her mind, as did mine. So here are a bit of my thoughts and examples (some are not word for word quotes) (:

As Cassia opens the door, her brother Bram lets out a sigh and says, "You're back!" Confused, Cassia says, "What's wrong? Where are Papa and Mama?". "They're here." His voice shaking nervously. "The Officials are searching Papa." "Why?!" (pgs. 106-107)

She thinks to herself: He doesn't have the poems though. But could my mistake affect my family??

Cassia quickly went to her room return the secret poems from her pocket back into her compact, safely. Just in case she were to be searched too. She heard loud footsteps from out in the hall; as if they were looking specifically for her. The knob of her door then started to turn as she gasped (pretending she was changing) and said, "I'm changing!!"

Cassia walked out shortly after to her brother telling her that the Officials are searching their father because he has lost the tissue sample of their grandfather (his own dad). When someone passes on, Officials take the deceased's tissue sample, give it to the scientists to use in the lab to possibly bring him back. How could their father lose such an important thing? Wouldn't he want his father back? Did he 'lose' it on purpose? What the heck is going on?????????

All of these thoughts running through mine and Cassia's brain as I read through this chapter. There's so many different reasons or possibilities of why her father had done this, so the only way I can find out more is to continue reading (: Wish me luck!

Matched Predictions

Cassia Reyes’ grandfather is almost 80 years old and it’s time for him to die. While the family visits him on his dying day to comfort him and wish him well, he gives Cassia an old paper with old lettering. He puts it inside of the compact so it is hidden. Cassia thinks to herself, Why would this need to be hidden? What is written on this paper?? But she kept her thoughts to herself and decided she would read it later.

Grandfather passed minutes later with his loving family at his side…

A few days later, Cassia goes on a hiking trip with a few other students. The Officials give them no help or guidance on how they should hike up to the top, so they do it on their own. Cassia is very athletic, so she assumed she would make it to the top first. She decided now would be a good time to to open the compact and read the old papers. It's a poem! A poem from decades before; the society only picks a hundred poems people can access, and the rest they burn. This poem was supposed to be burned because it tells you to fight. The poem spoke to her and she understood it fully, even though it wasn't up-to-date with the language they have now. 

I predict that the officials will soon find the poem and possibly arrest Cassia and her family for having it. "Quickly, I fold up the paper and put it away. I have lingered too long....." "It isn't until I'm almost at the top of the hill that realization hits me: There's a reason they didn't keep this poem. This poem tells you to fight." (pg. 97,98)

Will Cassia get in trouble, or will her secrets be kept? Or will one of her friends betray her by telling her secrets?

I can connect to this book, because if I had something like an old poem that isn't supposed to exist that meant a lot to me, I would be very protective of it even though it would put me at a higher risk for getting in trouble. 

Matched is similar to  The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga. It is similar to The Hunger Games because both their governments are very restrictive and strict with the rules they have. In The Hunger Games, there are different districts and in Matched there are different Provinces. The government in The Hunger Games makes each resident from when you're a child to a teenager to take part in the Hunger Games where you have to try to survive on you're own..Matched is not as intense but they still are very strict with the way you eat, communicate, and basically live! Matched

A connection I can make with the world, is the government. They can invade our privacy by listening in on our phone conversations! Plus, they even restrict some internet sites because it gives information they don't want us to know; but nothing compared to the day and age of Cassia's society.
 

Update on Clouded Rainbow

I've been reading another book along with this one, so I haven't read much more; probably 3 chapters or so. Don't get me wrong, I do find this book really interesting, it's just been really hard to follow. So much more has happened since; Roger and his wife both got in a fatal car accident and were sent to seperate hospitals!

The author had a great idea for this book, but I think he just didn't tell the story like it should have been. You know what i mean? Like, he rushed his writing some how. The conflict appeared too soon in the beginning and I feel predict the book's going to end soon with a happy ever after.

Will Roger recover from his head injury? Will he ever find his wife?
This blogger feels exactly the same way i do: Clouded Rainbow Review

Matched by Allie Condie

I've heard a lot of raves about this book, so I've been wanting to read it for a very long time.When i finally found it on my teacher's bookshelf i picked it up. Although I am still in the middle of another book, i couldn't resist. Flipping through the first few pages, I noticed many good reviews. People comparing it to other books like The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga, or people saying they recommend it to all young adult readers. 50 pages in, I have to say I truly agree. It is so well written; down to the word choices and the character descriptions. I am so tempted to not do the rest of my homework, just so I can read!

This book is about the future, and that 'The Society' makes matches for who you will marry, where you will work, and when you die. The main character, Cassia Reyes, just has turned 17 years old and her turn is up to be matched at the Match Banquet. All of the girls are both nervous an excited to find out their match. Their matches can be anywhere in the city and in other regions. But Cassia got extremely lucky! Her match is her best friend, Xander Carrow. They have known each other since they were very young, and they couldn't believe how it happened. 'The Society' was so shocked because of how uncommon this was. "I smile as Xander's face appears on the portscreen immediately following the recorded message. It's a good picture of him. As always, his smile looks bright and real, his blue eyes kind. He is handsome. I'd never dare think that he might be my Match, of course, but now that it's happened I am interested. Intrigued. A little scared about this might change our friendship, but mostly just happy." (pg. 1)

Matched is one of those very few books that is both very well written, and addictive. It starts of really slow, but I can tell it's heading in a new direction already!

I totally recommend this book to anyone. It's not just for girls, even though it is written in her perspective.

So far I love this book, and can't wait to continue the series! (:

The Fat Boy Chronicles By Diane Lang

Though "The Fat Boy Chronicles" was assigned to read for Health class, I enjoyed reading this book. It's about a boy named Jimmy in middle school. He's overweight and gets picked on for it. Jimmy was a new student so, he had no friends to stick up for him. Through his journey he encounters bullies like no other; backstabbing friends and people he doesn't even know who are making fun of his weight. Even adults! From the text: "I'm the big kid who sits in the last seat by the door. I stay in the back so you don't have to constantly hear, "We can't see around Jimmy!" And: "I'm the diet-challenged kid who sits in the last seat by the door. I'm probably bigger than I was this morning because your class isright after lunch and homeroom." Notes from the author: "...I went from being a kid who sat alone, to a cool kid everyone wanted to know." Quote that motivated him to keep losing weight: "For the rest of my life?" - referring to the doctor telling him that he will be obese forver if he didn't drop the weight. He questions suicide because of how much he hates his body. Eventually he starts to see hope; he trusts in God and sees light through the dark.

As soon as Jimmy heard from his doctor that he was obese and that if he didn't drop that weight now he could stay obese forever, him, his mother and father started exercising and dieting to get rid of the weight.

I noticed how his character changed from beginning to end, just based on being 60 pounds lighter in the end. He became less self-conscious, and had more friends. It's sad that he had to lose weight to stop the bullying, but true in today's day and age.

His friends made him feel comfortable because they didn't judge him about the way he looked. His best friends throughout the story include: Sabel, Allen, and Paul. I think the theme of the book is to believe in yourself no matter what others think, because Jimmy explains that he had a perfectly fine life right up until he started noticing the looks from others and before the bullying began.

All in all,  this book was extremely touching. And not just because it's based on a true story of a student who went to Mason, but because it told anyone who is overweight, they have a chance.

Movie Trailer for "The Fat Boy Chronicles":

First Few Chapters of "Clouded Rainbow" by Jonathan Sturak

Honestly, I knew nothing about this book when I purchased it. The cover just looked just interesting and I've been wanting to read a lot lately.

As I read the first chapter, I was completely lost and confused. It started with a man walking through the rain, then a few pages later "...blood oozing from the orifice." What I get from reading this is that the man got hit by a car...but it was just a dream. Literally that is all that happened that chapter. What kind of book is this?? I kept asking myself. I convinced myself that it must get better and that I don't have any other book right now to read anyways. I noticed right away, that the author is great at describing the thoughts of characters and their description! I could picture myself in the main character's situation and knowing what he looked like. It is evident that the man is daring and confident because: "The unresponsive man continues on his journey. His eyes maintain focus straight ahead at the encroaching force, but does not blink. It is as if he has no worries, no fear, and no pain. Something is motivating the man to continue down the deadly path-something incomprehensible, something in his determined eyes. A slight yet distinctive glow in his dilated pupils proves his force." (loc.825) It is evident that Roger is persistent and won't give up in trying to get his memory back because: "Roger looked deep into the man's hazel eyes. He longed to find the lost memory that held his home address. His mind throbbed with pain, but Roger kept trying, kept focusing." (loc. 789)

Roger is a hard-working man with a beautiful wife named Lois. Roger planned on having the job he has now after he graduated from Penn State with a degree in finance.

About 3 chapters in now, I've noticed that Roger and Lois have had a pretty perfect life. Living in a half-million dollar house, a great relationship, and great jobs, there's no sadness. Not that I'm wanting sadness, but I infer that something unexpected is going to happen to this couple because of how cheery it has started. I also infer that Roger will have to go through a lot to get what he wants; whatever that is.

Looking back at chapter 1, it seems as if it has nothing to do with anything that I am reading now. No one got hit by a car yet! I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm going to keep reading to find out!

Clouded Rainbow Animatic

The Lying Game Book 1 Review By Sarah Shepard

Emma Saxton is not the typical orphan. Her foster brother has a crush on her and since she doesn't like him back, he gets her in trouble. To make matters more confusing, she has a long lost twin! Emma discovered her twin, Sutton Mercer, by messaging her on Facebook. They end up chatting for a while and Emma really wants to meet her in person. She's dieing to talk to Sutton about their mother and past lives.

Emma's foster brother then takes money from their foster mother and frames Emma. Emma wouldn't even need the money because she has a job! Her foster mother doesn't believe her. Next, he shows their foster mother a very strange video. It's of someone that looks exactly like her being choked! "That's not me, I swear!" She exclaimed. But the girl had all of her characteristics so she couldn't defend herself much. The foster mother had no choice but to kick Emma out of the orphanage. Emma is so upset and taken aback, that she decides she might as well take this as a 'Out Of Jail Free' pass and go visit Sutton in Tuscon, Arizona. But there's a twist. Sutton's dead.

Emma visits Tuscon, Arizona and Sutton is missing. She is put in place as Sutton, since they're twins, and encounters many mysteries along the way. Like, betraying family members, and fake friends.

When I first picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. I finished the entire book it 2 or maybe 3 days! I would make time in my day to read this.

If you love mysteries,  you'd love this book and i totally recommend it. It will keep you reading and you'll never want to put the book down.

This article is well written, and gives the book a great description and quick overview.
Lying Game Article-

The author, Sara Shepard, talks about writing the book and what it's all about. Enjoy!