Book Chat Central

It's Been a Long Time...

2010-09-07T17:50:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

It's been a while since I posted anything and I have read several books. Reviews to come soon but for now here is a list:
-Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
-Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
-The Pact by Jodi Picoult
-She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott
-Reality Check by Jen Calonita
-The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
-Wanted by Sara Shepard

I highly recommend all of these books. I also attended an Author Panel with Sara Shepard, Kieran Scott, and Jen Calonita. They are so nice and such good authors. I hope to read more of their books soon.

Books I Would Like to Read:
-Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan
-The Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles Series by Tess Gerritsen
-The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

I also got the NOOK. Do any of you have the nook and if so do you like it?

Have you read any of the books I mentioned? If so what did you think of them? Did you read anything else by these authors? What books do you recommend to your friends?

-Jaclyn

Heartless

2010-02-22T23:51:00.004-05:00

Hey Everyone,

********Spoiler Alert********

So last week I finished reading Sara Shepard's book called Heartless. It is the latest book in the Pretty Little Liar series. Like always one minute you think you know what is going to happen but then you read a couple more pages and you now have no idea what is going to happen. In this book I felt like Sara was starting to like tie up the book, because I am not 100% positive, but I believe that there will only be one more book. I did like that Spencer wasn't adopted, however I was a little shocked that she would just forgive her parents just like that. I liked that she did but to me it just didn't feel right. Moving onto other matters I still do not like Darren Wilden, there is something about him that gives me a very iffy feeling. I also get that same feeling times 100 about Jason DiLaurentis. Okay, moving onto a major spoiler if you didn't read the book yet; in the very last chapter I just had this feeling that it was Jenna who was killed not Melissa because of little things throughout the book. And finally before I rate the book I would just like to say/ask did anyone who read the book think just for a minute that Alison wasn't dead, she was really Iris. I know that probably isn't the case but there were a few minutes when I got that feeling like is that Alison? Feel free to give me your thoughts. So my rating for this book is "five books".

-Jaclyn

New Blogger Feature

2010-02-05T23:51:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,
So recently Blogger add a new feature where you can now add pages. If you look under where it says Book Chat Central you can see "Home" and "Books I Have Reviewed". Hopefully I will add more soon, but right now all I have is a list of books I have reviewed. I will try to figure out if there is a way to click on a title and go to the post about it. Stay tuned to find out. And please please please tell your friends about my blog. I know I said I would be blogging more and I will but right now I don't have all that much to read. It's so sad but as soon as I start reading more I will post more.

-Jaclyn

Great Expectations

2010-01-27T14:32:00.004-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Just last week we finished reading the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In my opinion this book was very long and most of the story wasn't all that interesting. The last like ten chapters were the best but unfortunately you kind of need to read the beginning to understand what is going on. It's a really good storyline because it is basically a soap opera but someone seriously needs to write a modern edition like people did with Shakespeare's work. If you chose to read this book you will learn that Dickens put everything in for a reason. I am giving this book a rating of 3 books because although the storyline is great, the actual book is a little boring.

-Jaclyn

Three Cups of Tea

2009-12-01T15:27:00.006-05:00

Hey Everyone,
I know its been a while since I posted but I have been crazy busy. Anyway in school we just finished reading the Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, but it was like the young readers edition or something because one of the English teachers thought that it went more in order then the adult edition. Yeah, I'm not really sure why but I do know that this book was an amazing story and I am not a fan of non-fiction writing. I usually think that non-fiction books are very boring but that was not the case in this book because I found this book to be very inspirational. Throughout the book Greg tells the story of how he begins building schools in Pakistan, how he starts Pennies for Peace, the CAI and it also discusses his adventures as he travels back and forth between America and Pakistan. I think what touched me most was the lengths Greg went to help build schools in Pakistan. For example, he sold everything he owned and lived in his car when he first came back from Korphe and was raising money to build a school there. And then after he is married and has kids of his own, he stills sends a a lot of time visiting schools and places around Pakistan. Which in opinion is very courageous & brave and although I don't think that there are many people who would go that far, there are a lot who would donate money even if all they could give was $5. And after reading this book I think anyone would be inspired to do something like giving money or school supplies. If you haven't read this book I highly recommend reading it, because it will open your eyes to a whole other part of the world where kids especially girls don't get to go to school even though they WANT to. Also I just found out today that he wrote a second book called Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rating:

-Jaclyn

P.S. spread the word about my blog to your friends

Lord of the Flies

2009-11-10T23:39:00.007-05:00

Hey Everyone,

***Spoiler Alert***

I know that I haven't reviewed a book in a while, but tonight I have some time to blog and last week I finished the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This was a book that I was required to read for school, and although the book was not something that interested me it was very well written. Golding did an amazing of using literally devices, especially symbolism. And although at times it can be hard to understand what the theme might be or what these symbols actually mean Golding does a wonderful job of explaining man's essential illness. Anyway to sum the story in a couple of sentences a group of English boys end up stranded on island with no adults, shelter, or food, so they have to use their surroundings to create shelter and find food. The boys begin very civilized but as time passes on the island they become very uncivilized. They spilt into two different groups and before the ending where the boys are rescued, a couple of the boys are killed. This book gets "3 books" because although it was very well written, it was at times a little too descriptive and not interesting to me.

-Jaclyn

No New Blog Title

2009-11-10T23:36:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,
Okay so even after an extra week I only got one title for the blog contest so I decided that there is not going to be a new title. The title will remain Book Chat Central, but maybe down the road when more people start reading the blog (hint hint spread the word and get your friends to read) I will host a contest.

-Jaclyn

The Results Are In!

2009-10-27T14:46:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,
The results are in, and most of you said to have a contest, so that's what I am going to do. so come up with a cute, creative, catchy title and leave it in a comment on this blog post to be considered for the contest. And after about a week I will look at all the titles and choose my top 5 favorite and put them in a poll for you guys to vote on. Then the winning title will announced and the person who came up with the title will I have the option to blog about their favorite book, author, or series.

-Jaclyn

Twilight

2009-10-21T20:58:00.004-04:00

Hey Everyone,
I know a lot of you aren't going to like this, but this is most likely the only time I will blog about Twilight unless I give the book another try. Which I might but not for a long time because life is really crazy and there are other books that I want to read which I am interested in. But since I know there are a lot of Twilight fans out there and most of my friends are big fans, I am giving the readers (you) a place to talk about Twilight with readers. I here the books are really good, but I wouldn't know because I didn't even finish the first chapter of the first book so I can't really review the book and give an opinion if I haven't read the books. I hope that one day I will have enough time to try and read them but for now you guys can talk about the books here.

-Jaclyn

Harry Pottter Series

2009-10-21T17:03:00.008-04:00

Hey Everyone,

SPOILER ALERT! (please don't read on if you are currently reading the series and don't want to know what happens or if you haven't read the series but are going to and don't want to know what happens.)

Okay well one of my favorite authors is J.K. Rowling. She did an amazing writer, all seven of her books were fabulous. I loved how throughout the series as you could think one thing was going to happen but then you read the book that comes after it and your like Oh, that's not what I thought was going to happen or wow that character is really different then I thought. Like how you could think in the earlier books that Harry and Hermione were going to be together but then Hermione ends up with Ron and Harry with Ron's sister Ginny. Or how you think Snape is a bad guy, then Dumbledore says that he is really like a "double agent" or sorts so you think he is a good guy but then when Snape kills Dumbledore in Harry Potter in the Half Blood Prince, he is bad again. Anyway aside from that the writing was amazing and the story line was great, I love Hogwarts and wish that it was a place you could actually go. What are your thoughts about the series?

Next Post: not sure yet

-Jaclyn

I Created a Rating System

2009-10-19T17:57:00.005-04:00

Hey Everyone,

It's not really a system, it's more of a way for me to express what I thought of the book with a rating. You know how movies get rated in newspapers, by stars well on the blog after my personal opinion of a book I will put my rating in books. For example, I gave My Sister's Keeper 5 books. Anyway I will be rating them by books with little pictures and I will be adding the number of books as a label so that you can find all the books I gave 5 books to just by clicking on that on the right side of the blog.
Here is what the little books look like:
5 books
4 books
3 books
2 books (hopefully there won't be many of these)
1 book (hopefully i won't have any of these)
Remember this is only based on my opinion, NOT on a point system or anything like that.

-Jaclyn

Coming Attractions...

2009-10-19T17:18:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,
I have a bunch of books that I have read and really want to blog about but because I don't have a lot time on my hands if it's something that I haven't read in a while then it will take some time before it gets posted. Long weekends, holiday vacations and weekends with little homework is when you will most likely see a lot of posts from me. Anyway here are some books that I am either currently reading for school, on my own or have read in the past that I plan on blogging about:

The Pretty Little Liars Series- Sara Shepard

The Harry Potter Series- J.K. Rowling

I know What You Did Last Summer- Lois Duncan

Lord of the Flies

Inherit the Wind

Down a Dark Hall- Lois Duncan

Change of Heart- Jodi Picoult

Twisted Window- Lois Duncan

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series- Ann Brashares

Math Doesn't Suck- Danica McKellar

Kiss My Math- Danica McKellar

These are some of the books I will be blogging about in the next couple of months, I included the authors that I could remember. And hopefully by the end of the week I will have a post for the Harry Potter Series and Inherit the Wind.

-Jaclyn

Should I rename the blog?

2009-10-19T00:03:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone,
Should I leave the title of the blog as Book Chat Central or should I rename it to...

Book Reviews

By A

Bookworm

Or should I have a contest where you guys leave comments on this post and this post only where I choose my four favorite blog title ideas and then create a poll for you guys to choose the winner. And the winner's title would beome and the blog title and they would get a psot about them saying like what their favorite book is and anything else they want to add. Anyway I'll create a poll so that you guys can tell me what you think.

-Jaclyn

I'm taking recommendations

2009-10-18T22:56:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone,
I know I said that the next blog would most likely be about Harry Potter but because I am not going to get around to that for I few days, I figured I would make a post where you recommend books for me to blog about. If it's something I haven't read and don't plan on reading I will create a poll to decide whether or not to create a post about the book you recommended. If after looking up the book you recommend on Barnes & Noble and I am interested then I will add it to my Books to Read List. The Books to Read List is on the right hand side of the blog.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND IT MIGHT TAKE A WHILE TO BLOG ABOUT A RECOMMENDED BOOK.

-Jaclyn

My Sister's Keeper

2009-10-18T21:16:00.010-04:00

Hey Everyone,
So two weeks ago I finally got around to reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This was after a whole summer of wanting to read the book because I saw the movie which was great and then heard that book was different and included more about the characters. And let me tell you the book was great. I think I took out from the school library on Thursday, then started reading it on Friday and by Sunday afternoon the book was finished. I think the book was over 400 pages, but it was so good and grabbed my attention so much that I never wanted to put it down. To give you guys a summary of the book I will write what was written on the back of the back.

WARNING: Possible spoilers in the summary and my opinion.

The summary from the book:
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.
My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

My opinion of book:
The book is amazing and at the same time it is incredibly sad. It is a huge tearjerker, especially the ending. Now I saw the movie a couple of months before I read the book and I know that they always change things from the book when they make movies but this was not what I was expecting. The movie left out the character of Julia, who I thought was sort of important to the storyline especially when it came to Campbell's storyline. Because when I read the book I was better able to understand the type of person that he was. Also in the book they talked about the trouble that Jesse was in and how he was starting fires in empty buildings, which was not talked about at all in the movie. The movie also completely changed the ending, because in the book Anna dies in a car crash while on her way from the court house to the hospital with Campbell after winning the case & signing some documents. She makes it to the hospital but when she gets there they discover that she hit her head very hard and is brain dead. The doctor comes out to ask her parents if they should remove her organs for donation, but her parents just stand there and Campbell steps in to says something like They don't have power of attorney, I do and there is a girl upstairs who needs that kidney. Kate then goes on to live because she got Anna's kidney. While in the movie after Anna wins the case, she doesn't give Kate the kidney because Kate doesn't want the kidney. As Kate nears her last days of life, and keeps asking to go to the beach the doctor suggests that they remove Kate from the hospital and grant her that wish. Her father takes Kate from the hospital and goes with the three children to the beach even though Sara (the mother) is not happy about that. In the end Kate ends up dying and the family just sort of drifts apart but once year they vacation to Kate's favorite place. However, there were some parts of the book where I was reading and it was word for word what was in the movie.

So even though the ending of the book was the total opposite of movie and I was super sad, I loved the book. And the movie was really good, but the book is like 1000000000000 times better. I think part of the reason I loved the book so much was because Jodi did a great job of writing the book from all the characters perspective. Well, she didn't include any chapters written by Kate until the end but I think that writing it from every one's view gave the readers a much better sense of what was going on.

Rating:

My next post will most likely be about Harry Potter, so check back soon. I hope to post something about Harry Potter or another book by the end of the week.

The Clique Series

2009-10-18T20:51:00.005-04:00

The Clique Series is written by Lisi Harrison who in my opinion is amazing. She has written 15 books in the series is you count each of the books from the summer collection as its own. And the prequel, Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee is availbe in stores on October 27. Also the dictionary for the series comes out in I believe November and she is working on the book that will come out after Charmed and Dangerous which will be called These Boots Were Made For Stalking. And on top of this series she is writing another one called Alphas.

Anyway becuase there hasn't been a book that came out lately, that I can review and start a discussion on and there are so many books I will just leave this up to the readers to start talking about.

Chech back soon for more blogs about The Clique Series and Alphas.
The next post will be about the book My Sister's Keeper.

What is this Blog All About?

2009-10-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone,
I am going to be using this blog to review and discuss books. Mostly I will talk about books that I have read, but if there is a book that you want me to blog about let me know what the title is in one of the comments sections and if I have read the book I will definitely blog about and if not I will try to read the book if it's something of interest to me. And if it isn't then I will take a vote from the people who read the blog to find out if they want to discuss the book.

-Jaclyn