March 17th, 2008 ideru
By: A.J.Zerries
Clay Ryder, NYPD major case squad detective, is doing exactly what he wants to do. He has recently been appointed their “Art Guy” and is the lead detective on all cases which have an art angle. Admittedly, that is not all he does, but it does allow him to indulge his passion for art as well as make use of some of his college training. He is intrigued when a Van Gogh painting, Monsieur Trabuc, is delivered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with no return address. UPS made the delivery but is of little help in tracing the origin of the painting. more.
Finally finished it. 
. Very well researched. The settings is currently in the present but has a lot of connection to the past, specifically WWII. A mysterious painting, a Nazi who wants to get it no matter what the cost. Join Clay Ryder in his effort to protect the real owner, and discover the story behind the painting.
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February 4th, 2008 ideru
Book 2 : The Subtle Knife
Genre(s): Fantasy Novel
Publisher: Sholastic Point
ISBN: ISBN 0-590-11289-9
The Subtle Knife initially follows the story of Will Parry, a twelve-year-old boy on the fun from unknown men looking for letter from his long lost explorer father that had been sent to his now ailing mother. He leaves his mother with a friend and recovers the letter, killing one of this pursuers in the process, and while fleeing he accidentally stumbles across a window to another world.
Here Will Parry stumbles into Lyra Belacqua who travelled there by as by passing through the hole Lord Asriel creates in the Northern Lights(Golden Compass) at the end of the previous book.
The pair team, up traveling back and forth between the two worlds as Lyra tries to uncover more about the nature of Dust and Will unravels the mystery of what happened to his father.
Book 3: The Amber Spyglass
Genre(s): Fantasy Novel
Publisher: Scholastic Point
ISBN: ISBN 0-439-99358-X
Lyra has been taken by her mother, Marissa Coulter( more commonly known as Mrs. Coulter ) to a remote cave in the Himalayas of their own world, where she is kept in drugged sleep.
In Cittagazze, a pair of angles named Balthamos and Baruch tell Will that they have come to take him, the bearer of the Subtle Knife, to Lord Asriel. Will refuses to go until Lyra is rescued, to which the two assent.
Three forces- Will, Iorek, and Balthamos; Lord Asriel’s army; and the Church’s army- converge on Mrs. Coulter’s cave. Who will get there first?
A book you don’t want to miss… and for the open-minded people only..
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January 21st, 2008 ideru
this is a double post for booky monday and what’s in a name book challenge for Colour
Title: The Golden Compass / Northern Lights
His Dark Materials Trilogy Book 1
Author: Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Point
ISBN: ISBN 0-590-66054-3
Plot Summary:
It all begins when Lyra Belacqua-an orphaned, eleven-year old girl residing in Jordan College, Oxford-secretly enters the Retiring Room, despite resistance from her daemon, Pantalaimon, an animal-formed, shape-shifting manifestation of her soul. Inside the room, they see the Master of the college attempt to poison Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle. Lord Asriel shows the resident scholars a picture of mysterious elementary particles called Dust. Shortly afterwards, Lord Asriel goes north and Lyra continues with her normal life… Read More
I was planning to do a lot of things last weekend, like fix my blog problem with javascript ( does not seem to work if I attached a script in the sidebar ), do some ads on the blog, do my household chores, etc but when I started to read a few pages before doing all what I had in mind, I could not stop. I sat down and continue reading till I finally finished it.
Lyra grows up without knowing her true parents, although raised by the scholars of Jordan College she remains free-spirited. She is though an accomplished liar, but only when she needs to. Unknown to her, she has a destiny to fulfill but this destiny she must not know, she must find it out on her own or else everything will fall apart. Born with a natural sense of leadership, she makes everyone around here, help her. Guided with the Golden Compass, she must go and search her mission.
If you have watched the movie and read the book, you would automatically notice the changes in it but just like any other fantasy-book-based-movie, they have to change it to make it watchable. The book is highly recommended, it will just take you to Lyra’s world and join her in her adventure
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January 14th, 2008 ideru
1865 Boston, a small group of literary geniuses puts the finishing touches on America’s first translation of he Divine Comedy and prepares to unveil the remarkable visions of Dante to the New World. .. more ..
What would you do when something you worked so hard is being brought to life?
Matthew Pearl’s debut novel. A book you don’t want to put down. You just keep on turning the page after page , wanting to know what happens next. I’ve never understood what “The Divine Comedy” was about, this book not only explain that but also introduce you to the world of scholars.
** Highly Recommended **
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November 1st, 2007 ideru
Vida Winter is a considered to be a living legend, a famous and mysterious author, who is haunted by her past.
Margaret Lea is a bookish girl, an amateur biographer who like Vida is haunted by her past.
Together they face their fear.
“You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone.”
She [Vida] shrugged. “It’s my profession. I’m a storyteller.”
“I am a biographer, I work with facts.”
If you are in search for a good mystery novel then The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is the thing for you. Don’t miss it.
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September 16th, 2007 ideru
Again this book was recommended by a friend who rummage in the booksale and found the first book of the seven supernatural “offices”. It was On A Pale Horse, a book about the “office” of Death.
The seven “offices” are Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil and Good. The basic idea of each book is that any human could take the responsibility of each office. Each of these human came into each office in a different situation. For example, the office of Death, Zane accidentally kill the current Death and so he took over the role of the office of Death.
After reading the first book, I could not stay put and so I went to get the rest of books but it was harder than I thought. I tried the local bookstores but unfortunately they don’t sell it anymore, so “booksale” was the only option. I was able to get the first 5 books but the last 2 was much much harder to find, but I was able to get it after about a year
I think my favorite part was the wedding of Parry and Orb ( Incarnation of Evil and Nature ). It was really the true meaning of Love. Imagine Parry commanding all the creatures( choir) of hell to sing the amazing grace, to show how much he love Orb.
I don’t recommend this book to narrow-minded people, you might find it disturbing especially
the last 2 books.
Here is title of each book:
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September 7th, 2007 ideru
i just could not get enough.. have already watch the anime but still i have to finish reading it, i have to know what happen to chiaki and nodame in paris.. and so while waiting for a friend in kobe went to junkudo bookstore to check out the latest one piece and end up buying 10 volumes of the nodame manga from vol 9-18.. so excuse me … have to read it
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August 3rd, 2007 ideru
A novel by Neil Gaiman and Illustrated by Charles Vess.
I could still remember the first time I open my copy of this illustrated novel, it was marvelous. The illustrations were simple amazing. This is not your usual fairy tale story, but I am not going to narrate the excerpt here just google it. If you love unusual story then this book is definitely for you. And no, a movie is on its way though Claire Danes is not my fave actress, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert de Niro is part of the cast so I hope the movie is well worth the watch.
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July 24th, 2007 ideru
Christopher Paolini was only 15 years old when he started writing the first book of this trilogy: Eragon. It took him about 3 years to finished it, and with the help of the entire family published his first book.
Eragon, became the title of the first book who is also the main character. It show his adventure from meeting his beloved blue dragon Saphira and Brom ( you have to read the book to know who he is ).
If you love dragons, elves, dwarfs and adventure this is definitely the book for you. Oh before I forget, MAGIC.. yes its full of magic..
Eldest, was the second book of the series. It is the continuation of Eragon and Saphira’s adventure into the land of the Elves where they met the Eldest of the remaining Dragon… Glaedr..
The 3rd book of this series is still on its way and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
It is a book filled with love, friendship, sacrifices, magic and adventure.. what else could you look for in a book. A MUST READ for all ages.
The movie, now that is a different story. The character as far as my opinion goes where well selected. But the plot of the story was a total crap. I know they need to change somethings to make the book moviable but at least they should at least gave it justice , just like what Peter Jackson did with LOTR. I guess I have had high hopes with the film. But Saphira was simply amazing, and with Rachel Weiss voice.. fantastic.
The book a must read, the movie … is up to you …
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July 24th, 2007 ideru
The only time I heard about Dracula was from Bram Stoker’s book and movie Count Dracula. Since I have never studied Romanian History, I never realized that the character was based on real historical person, Vlad Dracul the ruler of Wallachia.
The book is full of adventure and suprises. From London, to Istanbul to Romania.. It’s still fiction but based on historical facts, so it reading Romania history with a twist. I did find the book eerie though, or maybe I was just a coward, but once I started it I just could not put it down.. This book you don’t want to miss reading..
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