Six Sentence Saturday - August 6, 2011

Welcome to Six Sentence Saturday.

Where I try to express my thoughts on recent reads using only 6 sentences!!!!.

At the end of each review I will post a

rating scale of 1-5 using the cute and original (lol) Playing Cards.

Rating scale will be as follows:

5 of Hearts- You must read this book NOW!!

4 of Hearts- A great read, put it on your TBR list.

3 of Hearts- Glad I read but no big deal

2 of Hearts- Why did I finish this?

Joker Card - Don't bother (why did I?)

Six Sentence Saturday is an idea that I occasionally borrow from Staci at Life in the Thumb.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Completion Date: March 14, 2011

Reason for Reading: Fun!

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

I had seen a lot of good reviews of this book, so I knew I was going to have to read it and eventually the library bought a copy. There were lots of things I liked about this book: The characters connection to bookstores, the idea of a notebook being the only communication with a person until you finally meet, and the characters themselves had great personalities. I didn't love the book as much as other people, though, but I think it was more me than the book. The first half was really good, but then when the characters actually met each other I felt like the quality decreased. I think that is mainly because there was a lot of drama in the second half of the book that was missing from the first because they hadn't actually met yet. It was still a very fun book with a creative idea behind it and I am glad that I read it.

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

Completion Date: April 25, 2011

Reason for Reading: Read more from this author.

When the magician Jocelyn Brandon Hope died he bequeathed Melstone House to his grandson Andrew. He also left his ‘field of care’: an area of strangeness surrounding the land around the house, whose boundary Andrew must walk in order to preserve its power.

Andrew had always loved the house, but he finds owning it a lot more complicated, aside from all the magic. There is Mrs Stock, the tyrannical housekeeper who won’t let him move the furniture and punishes him with her terrible cooking. Just as bad is the obsessive gardener who will only grow giant inedible vegetables. To add to his troubles, twelve year old orphan Aidan Cain suddenly arrives on the doorstep begging protection from magical stalkers, and Andrew’s sinister rich neighbour, Mr Brown, begins to encroach on the ‘field of care’. The one compensation is the gardener’s beautiful niece, Stashe. Things become stranger and stranger until all is made clear with the help of the enchanted glass itself.

When the announcement was made that Diana Wynne Jones had passed away, I made it my mission to read even more of the books by her that I had missed out on. Enchanted Glass is my favourite of the lot I have read more recently, but probably not my favourite book by her overall. It contains a wonderful cast of characters and a lot of creative ideas that will hook you from the very first page. I also enjoyed the creative way that she worked the coloured glass on a door into the story and made it seem so believable. This was a wonderful book by a beloved author and by rights deserved a longer review, but it has been so long since I have read it I am not sure if I could really do it justice.

This book counted for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Nightschool: The Weirn Books Volume 2 by Svetlana Chmakova

Completion Date: May 2, 2011

Reason for Reading: Carry on with Series.

When Alex's sister, Sarah, vanishes and all memory and evidence of her existence is erased, Alex is determined to get to the bottom of her sister's disappearance. What better place to start her investigations than the Nightschool itself? But when she discovers that sneaking into the Nightschool isn't as simple as it might seem, Alex enrolls as a student. But is she prepared for what she might find?

I loved Chmakova's series Dramacon, but this series isn't getting me nearly as excited. I think it is probably because she is joining in on the paranormal craze and I am getting a bit tired of this craze, so the idea isn't working for me as well as I had hoped. The artwork is still fantastic and the idea is still very creative, but I am not getting caught up in the story and rushing out to get each volume after finishing the previous ones. I loved Dramacon so much that when the library didn't have the third volume, I went out and bought the series. I think this is a series that I will appreciate all the more when I look back on it overall, but if you want to give Chmakova a try I strongly recommend her other series. Still, I look forward to reading the last two volumes in this series.

This book counted for the Once Upon a Time Challenge and the Manga Challenge.

**Note: I had a really hard time getting pictures to load for this post, so I will have to add book covers later. Hopefully Monday when I have my new computer. Yay!