Ruby Loves Adventure

Finally - a book I finished after nearly 5 months! Hmm... just goes to show how easily bored I am in Manila and there's nothing much to do compared to what I was previously doing in London. Anyway, summary of the book from Goodreads:

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.


But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.
 
So, what do I think about the book? First off, I read the book when I was uh.. really emotional. So yes, I can definitely relate to the character, Lena, and feels that she has much to learn about the world. Or maybe yet I'm just lucky enough to be born in a non-dystopian society hence can think for myself.
 
I could say this book came at the right time for me. Well, either I found it at the right time or the book found me. This was just available at a local supermarket I go to buy groceries in front of work, and tadah, it was on sale! I couldn't say no, could I?
 
Alex - well, I would have wanted to have more back stories on him, but I guess what he did for Lena was sweet enough.. He's not such a loveable male protagonist but you'll learn to appreciate him along the way.
There was one name that recurrs for two characters (minor ones though) but the first time the name was mentioned brought me to tears. I wouldn't say the name of the character though - you have to find that out yourself!
 
Do I like this book? Hell yes. The concept is very much different from the other love story books that I've read. Imagine, a cure for love?? I was initially pondering on that thought during that emotional time that I was reading the book and it seems like an easy way out. Then again if it means cutting off part of your brain - and experiencing no emotion at all (ie you're like a zombie). Oof. NO. As they say - "it is better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all."

Published: 2011 Available From: everywhere!
Publisher: HarperTeen
Book was: bought from Tesco
Rating: 5/5

Another non-book related post here, im afraid. I still need to finish 100+ pages of Delirium by Lauren Oliver before I could fully comment but all I could say is: WOW.

Anyway, im writinf this post from a dark hostel room in Belfast that I share with two other mates. I'm awake and ready but call time isn't for another 30 minutes. For some awful reason, I woke up twice! But no need to jump into the details. I'm currently in Belfast, Northern Ireland, enjoying my final weekend out before I get back to Asia.... I really wish I could stay in the UK forever but this run has ended. Boooooooo

Belfast is not as charming a citu as Edinburgh but its history is very much ibteresting. having come out of the Troubles only fairly recently, people are slowly discovering what this city has to offer. From the Europa hotel - which was the most bombed hotrl in Europe - bombed approximately 30+ times by the IRA to the murals that are painted on the sides of the houses that convey peace, political meaning, or just memorials in general. Some of the older structures still remain, such as the city hall and the cathedrals.

What's surprising is the faxt that the city is divided into two: the Catholics and the protestants, and is visibly marked by a wall which has a few gates that allow access. Each night, these gates are closed down by the police and reopened again in the morning.

Head to the Crown Bar to drink a pint (or maybe half) of Guinness and enjoy a night out at the pub with mates.The Irish and British living in this area are very, very nice
people! They are happy enough to point you in the right direction and are very accomodating.

Oh - if you have plans to go here and you're flying in from London, its more xonvenient to fly via Easyjet than Ryanair - just my humble opinion!

Jolly old London town - the place I now call my home :)

I know I havent updated in the past few months- mainly because I didnt get to finish any books yet!! Yes, I know, I'm really slowin reading here but really, I'm having the time of my life!

After work, there's always a billion things to do - watch a play or a musical, go out for drinks or dinner with friends and colleagues, learn how to cook, or just hang around with friends. Then when I do get home, there's household chores to do: ironing, washing clothes, sleeping.. Or just chilling out in front of the telly.

My reading time has now been confined to journeys in the tube, a coach, or the train.

Weekends are spent sightseeing within London or within the UK. Now can yoi guys understand why I have no updates much? Ha ha

back to boring old Manila in 2 weeks. Perhaps i'll have more reviews then - i dont have much to do there anyway :(

I guess it's time to explain why I haven't been updating much: Iwas busy trying to collate and pass all my papers to the UK embassy because I'm going to London :)

I'm flying off this Friday - a very early morning flight [1AM] so please don't expect any regular updates to the blog. I'm only bringing two books with me in my luggage - although I don't know if I'll be able to read a word or a sentence in any of them while I'm out.

This is a business trip,so on weekdays I'll most probably be busy with work, and on weekends busy with sightseeing and trying to explore everything that I can within the area and out of town as well. Might as well make the most of the opportunity.

Hopefully I get a chance to go to soe bookish evens whilst in London, but I'm not really sure where to find them so here! :)

If I get a chance to blog about my adventures/places I've visited, I'll probably share some of them here, but mostly will share them in my travel blog, so please follow if you're interested:
http://projectglobetrotter.blogspot.com

Ps-> The books I brought are "Ribblestrop" by Andy Mulligan and "Madame Tussaud" by Michelle Moran. Sure they're not connected at all to London or England, for that matter, but I've got excellent travel guides that I'll bring along with me!

Summary from Goodreads: It is in this, the second Holmes novel, that the great detective comes fully to life - not only as a melancholic and an inscrutable master of deduction, but also as an incurable drug addict. "Which is it today?" Watson asks Holmes matter-of-factly on the opening page of the novel, "morphine or cocaine?" "It is cocaine," Holmes famously replies. "A seven-per-cent solution. Would you like to try it?" Mary Morstan comes to Holmes in the hope that he will be able to solve a mystery. Ten years earlier her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, had returned to London on leave from his regiment in India where it is said that he and one Thadeus Sholto, "came into possession of a considerable treasure." By the time his daughter arrived at his hotel, he had vanished without a trace. The Sign of Four remains a small masterpiece of suspense, and the novel has enjoyed a steady readership ever since its first publication in 1890.

Thoughts: Well now, I didn't expct any of the events to happen one after another: a young girl triggers Holmes and Watson to help her find out what had happened to her father, then they discover a death, a native, a man without a leg, and end up with a river chase in the Thames. Oooh. Heartpounding. The book has the same formula: Holmes will eventually apprehend the perpetrator, and the last chapter/few pages of the book would provide a back story on the perp. Which oerall, provides a great conclusion to the tale.

In this book, Holmes is getting even more addicted to drugs, and Watson gets to fall in love. They all get their insecurities and their problems, providing more of an insight in the main characters as compared to the first book, which was just an introduction to them.

Although some parts of the story can't be relatable now [well, we are so technologically advanced now, who would ever think of consulting the newspapers or using telegraph machines to convey messsages anymore?] Holmes and Watson will forever remain to be amazing characters, well, considering the number of movie and telly show adaptations that have already been out over the years.

Published: 1800s
Available From: everywhere!
Publisher: Don't know - i think this is now availabel for free since the 100 year license is up!
Book was: read using the 1001 Classic Novels iPod Application.
Rating: 3/5

More of a notebook than an actual book [well duh, Ruby, the title suggests it otherwise], this "book" contains bits and pieces of information about the branches of the Cahill family, status of the agents, and other bits and information that you could infer/gather from reading all 11 books of the 39 clues.

I think this is more for the die-hards, as it is a terribly expensive notebook, if you'll ask me. Sure there's monograms of the various Cahill branches on the pages, but that sure isn't enough to convince me to get this book though!

I think it's targeted more for the younger audience - there's a number of codes at the back of the book where you could try and break the codes [a few hours of fun, if you ask me - perfect to bring on trips to keep the little ones busy], and also a summary of the first 9 books of the 39 Clues.

Would I say that this book/notebook is worth it? Erm... No. Not unless you're a really big fan of the series. If I didn't get a chance to borrow this from a friend I would never take a second look at this again, to be honest.

Published: 2008
Available From: everywhere!
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Book was: bought from a used bookstore
Rating: Great YA novel! It's different from some of the other ones i've read [4/5]

I was looking at my blog today and saw that i didnt update for bearly two weeks. Gasp! Well, ill tell the reason why: ive recently went on trips to baler, aurora and took a weeklong backpacking trup to cebu and bohol. As im typing this blog on my ever handy upod at thw hostel in cebu, i realuzed that i havenr blogged any reviews about recent books ive finished! I honestly dont know when ill have the time to do si, seeing as im getting ready for a 4 month business trip coming up in 2 weeks time.

Anyway, im going home from cebu and bohol wirh two new books in tow- i found two booksale branches in cebu: one in smabd thw other in robinsons and walked away woth baby prof by emily griffin and speak!! Of course u included going to the bookstores as part of my sightseeokg itinerary, it is compulsory even if u dont buy anytjing! (and i normally dont buy anything full priced)

Of course during my other trips, i eill still go to tje bookstores, and share what i get. Maybe through an in my mailbox post or through more infotmal blog posts such as this.

I cant help thibking that one f the main problems i also encoubter whenever j travel is what book am i going to bring wih me. Unlike what other travel blogs sau, to bring a book that you would swap or lwave behind, i normally brin books that are very special and important to me so it coukd share in the experience that i had and i woukd remember those exeriences just By looking st the book.

If you coykd count the number of typos i had in this podt then apologies- its really hard typing on a teeny tiny tiucj screen much like this

Hapee makes you smile, hapee makes you confident, hapee gives you fresh breath. Oh and yeah, with all those write ups, why wouldn't it be first class? At its affordable price and availability, it's positively brilliant.

Nuffnang - one of the world's best blog sites. They don't just pay you for ads that they run on your blog, oh no, they also have these amazing contests for you to join! A-MA-ZING.

So, with those reasons I stated above, aren't Hapee & NuffNang both first class? They're having a movie screening this friday too, June 3rd, 7:30PM at Greenbelt. Wahooo.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. It features bought, borrowed, or received books as well as other cool stuff from the mail.


I'm actually waiting for my PC to finish it's disk cleanup so I have some extra time to post a blog today :)


So, here's what I got for the past x months of book buying.


Borrowed from friends:

Princess Diaries # 2: Take Two by Meg Cabot.
The 39 Clues - Agent's Handbook
The 39 Clues # 11: Vesper's Rising by Gordon Korman, Rick Riordan, Peter Lerangis & Jude Watson [review coming up soon]


Bought: 
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare - for a friend
So Yesterday - Scott Westerfield
Son of the Witch - Gregory Maguire

And a few other books for my friend [forgot the titles ha ha]


From my favourite Bargain Bookstore:


Wake by Lisa McMann - review coming up soon
A Great & Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
Rebel Angels - Libba Bray
The Sweet Far Thing - Libba Bray
Patience Princess Catherine
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet

Also saw Uglies by Scott Westerfield available at the bargain bookstore but resisted getting it! ^_^ I'm saving up for something BIG! :) 

So, that's about all the books I could remember getting within the past few month. What's in your mailbox? :)

As I type this, I've already finished two books and haven't even made a review yet!

Why, you may ask? Well, I've just been really, really busy since I just started a new job - one that I had hoped to get for quite some time. And yay it's here [and no, it has nothing to do with reading]. With it comes another plus - and something very exciting [which I'm still waiting for]

I won't reveal anything yet. Well, not within a 5 weeks, but I'm just so happy ^_^

Pardon the lack of updates though. I'll get back to blogging uh.. when I'm not busy with real life!

Summary from Goodreads: When Josh, Michael and Beth Lotts catch sight of some mysterious lights one summer’s evening, they are drawn into a dense forest near their home where no one dares ever go. What they find there is incredible.

The Tree of Seasons is a doorway into another world. There are four kingdoms in this world, each forever stuck in spring, summer, autumn and winter and each with its own ruler. The tree and the world it conceals have existed for hundreds of years and have never been uncovered by anyone, until now.

The Lotts find that peace has been shattered in this magical world. One ruler, who bears a remarkable resemblance to their aunt is intent on power at all costs. She causes destruction and suffering that threaten to tear worlds apart. Josh, Michael and Beth have arrived just in time to take part in the battle that the other three kingdoms have to fight in order to survive.

Thoughts: The book had potential when I read the blurb - little did I know that I would be extremely disappointed whilst reading the book. Initially, the story had promise - it's like Narnia, only written by someone else. Kids finding a magical world where magical creatures live. But ugh, the narrative and how the story was progressing definitely is not my cup of tea. It was confusing, it was unstructured, and it was quite redundant on some parts. Oftentimes, I find myself scratching my head and had to read some parts again - definitely not something you'd want if you have lets say, a bazillion more books that you would have to read.
 
Character-wise - they definitely lack character. Yeah, the three kids are siblings, and yes, they will do everything to try and save one another, but please - I know that at the start most of these kids have their own problems and negative traits that they have to overcome but they became so annoying! Ugh. Definitely not loveable. The villains - well, come on. There's always supposed to be villains - they should be hated, they should be hard to defeat. The protagonists definitely encountered the antagonist more than once, but ugh.. they always manage to escape. Seems bloody impossible, if you ask me.
 
The illustrations - for a children's book, they're not appealing. Definitely not. I wish the illustraions were cuter, more appealing, more - I don't know, loveable.
 
So, despite all my negative comments above, I picked up this book [and paid bloody hell of a lot of money for it] just because it was written by Stephen Gately - an ex member of Boyzone [bless his soul]. It was the first children's book he wrote, and I think he left it unfinished because he died unexpectedly. It probably took the editors a hell of a lot of time trying to edit the book out. And I guess I could forgive the story - since it was probably still under development and was just rushed out in the market.
 
It took me a while to finish this book. I now refer to it as my "sleepy" book - because for some reason, it just makes me sleepy. I would read a few paragraphs or pages every now and again, whilst reading telly or while preparing to go to bed. Hmm.. Not a book I would devour in a few sittings.
 
Published: 2010
Available From: the Book Depository
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Book was: bought from the Book Depository
Rating: Horrid, but since it was written by Stephen Gately, I would be more lenient in my rating [2.5/5]

Princess Mia has now come to terms that she is the princess of Genovia. Just a few weeks after, she has learned that her mother is pregnant, and is going to marry her Algebra teacher! Add to the fact that she is about to be interviewed on tv for the very first time. Oh, to be a princess and have the world on your shoulders.

Thoughts - Well, at least Mia isn't as whiny as the first book. And I think most of her diary entries this time are much funnier! I love some of the lists she writes. Her English Journal also is great! I also love how she deals with her feelings for Michael and her secret admirer - it clearly shows the torment that girls go through thinking if the guy she likes likes her too and tries to assess each and every conversation that they would have - including body language. Aahh, definitely something that I could relate to, even though I'm not in high school [along with Mia's other insecurities as described many times in the book].

The time interval that had passed between the first and the second book has been very minimal - so the story flows very smoothly between the two books. I find the TV interview funny - obviously Mia hasn't been trained very much on dealing with the press!

Nevertheless, this book is quite an enjoyable and quick read - perfect for the hot summer days

Published: 2002
Available From: everywhere
Publisher: HyperTrophy
Book was: borrowed from a friend
Rating: Okay - funny read. [4/5]