Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart

picture of cover courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

Reading Young Adult (YA) fiction novels I find there is an angst, a restlessness of constantly looking for resolve from being content that I can't find in the adult collection.

Recently I found a book that broke that mold for me. Titled Now is the Time to Open Your Heart by Alice Walker, this adult novel follows the journey of Kate: a woman in her 50's, who has been consistently on spiritual adventures to satisfy a restlessness after living through failed marriages and death within her family.

When I read the cover, I thought it would be something ultra cheesy and some hot sex. I started reading the first page and I knew right there I didn't need to read any more.

It was better than hot sex, affairs, and all those romantic clichés: it was an actual adventure. And there was no need for random vampires and werewolves to pull me in.

Kate goes to the jungle and builds relationships with others who are in the same journey. Although the book starts mainly with Kate, while she is in the jungle with these people; each person has a story too. Kate's journey becomes everyone's journey including her lover's, who she had left behind.

At times when I read through each character's thoughts and stories, I felt like I was reading Alice Walker's opinions of the world's issues and found it a bit of poor taste. But after reading those same thoughts, I found myself thinking about my life, my surroundings and the choices I have made throughout my life.

It is actually rare to find books like that; that aren't obviously about teaching the reader philosophy. I appreciate Alice Walker's writing here but I don't think its extremely exceptional.

If you like to read adult books that have a message but are devoid of extreme cheesiness and is told in present times; I recommend this book.

Note: this book is not for everyone.

-Miss Bobo







Boneshaker (A Steampunk Book Review)

picture courtesy of bartsbookshelf.co.uk

January has been an interesting month for me. So far I have finished 4 books and I am currently on reading some other books along with venturing on some non-fiction.

One of the 4 books, I finished was Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.

Taken place in Civil War America, this steampunk story covers the journey of a kid who is trying to find physical evidence of who his father really was after 17 years of his life hearing all sorts of stories about him. So he goes underground to the other side of town where zombies, pirates, and all sorts of crazy action occur. Meanwhile, his mother goes after him worried he will die in the process.

There is quite some action in this book along with mystery and suspense. I loved the zombie parts and found myself engaged in some of the life-or-death situations. However, for some reason I found the book a bit bland. I finished it but felt like it needed more spice. The ending pretty much saved it from being "blah" (and the zombies too). Otherwise, I wouldn't really give it much thought.

Since it is a series, I am going to try the other books but I am still skeptical if it will be better or in the same line of "ok". Besides that, I'd say why not try it. Maybe you will find it greater than how I found it.


Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

P.S. Here is an excerpt of the audiobook. Courtesy of YouTube.

Jiu Jiu v.1 (book review)

Hey guys hope December is treating you well wherever you may be. Recently, with this upcoming winter break I got a chance to check out a few books to crack on some book reading.
A few of them I have already started reading them on the side until I can go full blown book worm mode aaaaaand I got to finish one of them.

picture courtesy of mangapark.com

Now, this is a first since the beginning of this blog because I usually review fiction rather than comic books or graphic novels. So as a first: here is my review on a manga I picked up yesterday.

Titled Jiu Jiu (story and art done by Touya Tobina), this manga starts with the growth of Takamichi who is put in charge as a demon hunter after her twin brother passed away. As years go on, her father finds two puppies and puts them in Takimichi's care. She calls them Snow and Night and takes care of them for 3 years. As she gets older she starts high school and spends less time with them. Puppies now turned into grown dogs, find themselves in a struggle to stay by her side.

As you can tell by the plot, it is a shoujo story 9meaning that the target audience is young girls). Personally, I do know a few guys who do read shoujo so it isn't a big deal. But with shoujo mangas like Vampire Knight and Absolute Boyfriend, its a bit hard to distinguish yourself in the genre when the main point is about a girl finding love (or so is the usual trend in this genre).

Anywhoo...I found this graphic novel more cute than comical and there were instances in which there wasn't much of transitioning in character growth. I liked the concept of a girl being put in charge of her dead brother's job and found that her character was aggressive in action sequences. Nevertheless, its cute just not that big of a deal. This would probably go well for a girl who is in her preteen-early teen years and who had just started getting into japanese graphic novels.


Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

"Why Be the Sheep When You Can Be the Wolf?"

picture courtesy of compassbookratings.com

Good Afternoon fellow book pirates! Just came through with a finished reading on a book that came out this summer.

Taking place in medieval Britain, the story centers on a girl named Ismae who escapes an arranged marriage by the hands of fate. Turns out she is destined to be the handmaiden of Death since the "mistake" of her birth and is sent to a convent in which she is trained to be an assassin.

However, as it may, things aren't always cut and dry when there are politics at hand, romance, and traitors in the midst of a potential war. What will Ismae do?

This is a unique story because its not your everyday medieval novel. I mean, the main character is trained to be an assassin which is a bit antagonistic. She is definitely not girly and kind of awkward when it comes to interacting with hot guys. And what I also like about this book is that the romance (yes there is romance) isn't the main focus of the novel. There is action and almost a textual game of Clues because when reading it, it isn't exactly clear who is the traitor in the group of people surrounding the duchess. I'd say its a great book for the beginning of the series but I think some of the supporting characters could have had a little bit more spotlight to add more mystery or something else. Otherwise, I recommend as a train read.


Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

Stray (First Fall Book Review)

courtesy of rachelvincent.com

Hope you all are having a good week. The fall season has started and its time to collect some of those books for the time in between work and school.

And talking about books, today I finally finished an awesome adventurous one I was reading ebook style:

Written in first person narrative, Stray by Rachel Vincent is centered on Faythe, a girl doing her years in graduate school to escape her family life. Independent and stubborn, Faythe has spent her years in college studying and annoyed at the bodyguards her father sends to protect her. Being the only female daughter who is a werecat, she has always been a great concern of her parents. And as human girls start to appear dead within werecat territory, worry starts to bubble even more.

The concept of a “werecat” was interesting to find in this book since werewolves have been one of the famous fantasy archetypes along with the vampire. Here, werecats are very similar to werewolves in behavioral aspects but have different elements of stealth. For example, in this book werecats are impervious to silver.

I also found the main character, Faythe, to be a little too stubborn and crazy in the beginning but as the story progresses it becomes apparent the reason why she is that way and why she avoids her family. There is suspense in this book in which there are twists and unsuspected turns along with adventure and romance. And even the romance itself is intense and less sweet than your usual conventional one.

Finishing this book, I find myself highly intrigued and waiting for the next one since this book is the first in the series. However, I do have to say that this book was really graphic in the violence content and there were some scenes that I actually had to take a 2-day break before continuing reading. I definitely recommend to read this book for those of you who are shape-shifter fans and like some good suspenseful action. 

Beware: this book requires a certain tolerance to violence.

Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

City of Bones (update!!!)

picture courtesy of  http://cassandraclare.tumblr.com/

So, while I am reading a few books and classes in between, I have just stumbled upon some crazy news: City of Bones has started filming and the cast is set. The official website is up, so you guys can check out the full cast on the website along with their character and a small blurb of information on the character.

And for those who want confirmation, here is a list of who is playing who:

Characters--------- Actors who will be playing them

1. Clary------- Lily Collins 
2. Jace---------Jamie Campbell-Bower
3. Simon-------Robert Sheehan
4. Alec---------Kevin Zegers
5. Isabelle------Jemima West
6. Magnus------Godfrey Gao
7. Jocelyn-------Lena Headey
8. Luke----------Aidan Turner
9. Hodge--------Jared Harris
10. Valentine----Jonathan Rhys Meyers

You can check out the whole cast on the highlighted link: (city of bones)

I am highly interested how this movie is going to turn out. According to a FAQ On Cassandra Clare's main website/blog, they might make another one if this first movie is successful.

I really do hope that this film won't mess up the book too much but still be creative on how they interpret the book. OF COURSE, nothing is perfect and assuming that this movie will be the best book-into-film that has ever been released is a little too much to expect. However, other's might think otherwise and that means all these people contributing & working towards the release of this movie should work their ass off to make it the best work they have done (my opinion) anyway. 

Cruelty Can Be Beautiful (book review)

courtesy of Barns & Noble

You look at the cover of this book and you think "seems like it could be a good suspense book." And to no avail, it is a ghost story. Shall you read or shall you leave this one behind?

Written in third person by Kate Cann, this YA novel takes place in London focused on the view of a 16 year old girl named Rayne. Rayne deals with an alcoholic mother, a little brother, and a possessive boyfriend.

Summer heat is insufferable and Rayne is suffering from the heat outside and inside her home. With her mother, she is always held responsible to take care of her brother while her mother goes out partying with her boyfriend. With her own boyfriend, Rayne feels lucky but finds herself cornered at times. Rayne wants to get away from her usual life so she goes and looks for a job. She gets one at an Estate far from her home in order to get away from her usual life; only to find out she is gotten herself into an adventure she didn't expect.

The book was alright if I was 13 and was easily scared by little details in books like "a creaking door" or "red-eyed self portrait" of some dame back in the victorian era. But certainly I am not. As Rayne explores the different creepy rooms of the Estate she is working on, I found myself still looking for the "scary" part of the book. The bad guys are just laughable and the main attraction of the book is a particular scene that involves her possessive boyfriend.

Cann did good in writing a main character who isn't your usual archetype. Rayne is more realistic in the aspect of how she reacts emotionally with people. But the dialogue was a bit cliche. The ending was rather weird to me in the way it was written so far in the aesthetics of the book. To conclude this review, I was disappointed to find that the ghost story part of this book wasn't fulfilling as it should be. If you're going to pick up this book just to give it a chance despite this review; I will suggest to not expect much of a creepy ghost story. Otherwise...

Til Next Blogpost,
Miss Bobo

Tell Me What You Know About Me?

Being raised by a single mother always brings its own sets of complications just as any set of parents.

For Billy Allbright, that means being home schooled and raised by his religious mother while having his own sets of desires to be a regular high school kid.

Because his mother has taken the quest to destroy anything that is particularly related to the devil, Billy and his mother are always on the road and so he never gets the chance to stay in a stable environment.

Until, his mother decides to stay at a town with a mormon church. At first, Billy thought this was just another mission and then when he found out the church he questioned what was this all about. While still wondering what exactly is going on, he receives a Bible in the mail with his name on it. His mother proclaims its a sign of God when in reality it turns out to be the ticket to his oddyssey of self discovery.

Reading this book, I found many humorous moments and others that were heart warming. I am actually glad that the author pretty much wrote this story in similarity to Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But its not the same and that is another thing I love about it. There is a whole dynamic between this fight to stay christian and a fight to find his true self. There is a lot of crazy happenings in this book that is unique from all of the books I have read so far. A lot of this book, I didn't expect which is good. You never want to predict what is happening in the book 3 chapters before it even happens. (Maybe that is just me). I would definitely recommend this for someone 16 and up who is looking for a coming-of-age story with no limits.

Tiger's Curse (A Book Review)

picture courtesy of lytherus.com

I have spent quite some time reading this book called Tiger's Curse even while I posted the latest news on The Mortal Instruments film production.

Written in first person narrative by Colleen Houck, Tiger's Curse is the story of a girl who goes on an adventure with a tiger after working in the circus he was residing in. She gets pretty much ensnared by his "cobalt blue eyes" not realizing that the tiger has more of a story to tell. He is part of a curse that is up to her to break.

Reading this book, I found romance and adventure that reminded me a little bit of Indiana Jones. Even the main character herself, Kelsey, noticed it and made a comment in the book towards that respect. However, I found myself more interested in the adventure than the romance. The romance seems t0o cheesy for me to really get into. There is also some humor here and there but not enough to give the book more of the spark it deserves.

Nevertheless, Houck did a great job in including mystical parts of Indian culture within the book while still holding the main character's belief in the universe. I liked the fact that there was a theme with bringing spiruatility to life. Remembering those scenes now, I think adapting this book into a film will give it less credit than it deserves. (Then again you never know).  What was interesting to me is that there is a mixture of Asia and India at some point within some of the characters. The novels I have read that deal with curses have always been centered in one culture. Buuuuuuut......

Although this book may have been a New York Times Bestseller, it seems the content is more of a preteen to early high school material. I would say the equivalent of eating a gourmet cupcake from Bon. I can only recommend it as a snack you can finish within 3 days to a week. Of course since this is a series I would also recommend taking a break within books, the sugar (*cough* romance *cough*) may be a bit too much.

The Unidentified (A Library Find)

straight from Rae Mariz website

The summer is up with exciting new adventures both outdoors and indoors (especially indoors). On a rainy day is good to grab a few books at your local bookstore or library. So be prepared, this summer is packing.

Recently, I picked out a few books in the YA section at random and found this one.

Written in first person narrative this book shows a world in which school is a game composed by companies selling and marketing products to not only the kids but also the adults. Each student gets a chance to improve their skill by creating, designing and even modeling for the companies they get sponsorship from. Classes are no longer about the basics (i.e math, english, biology); it's about the bonus points.

 The main character, Katey, aka "Kid", gets smack dab in what seems to be a protest from a group who call themselves "The Unidentified." And just for kicks, (I am not kidding, this girl is a Nancy Drew), "Kid" ventures out to find out who are "The Unidentified" and what is their purpose within the Game. Little does she know what twisted Jump Shot ride is waiting for her. 

This book is Nancy Drew meets "A Brave New World." There is sarcasm within the voices in the characters you will appreciate and quirky language that might just be catchy. The writing is great in capturing the archetypes and the social setting of the basic day-to-day high school is captured juuust about right. Personally, this book will do well without being a series since the ending was nor cliff-hanging or cliche. However, your imagination will follow with how advanced the technology in here is depicted. I recommend this book for those days when you want a mental distracting mini adventure.