Unwind

What if you can 'abort' your child before they reach a certain age if you realized you don't want to keep them legally. That all it takes is signing papers and then your child will be no more. That you can do this without guilt knowing that you did not really 'killed' them as all of their parts will be used by other people as spare parts when others need it.
Does using all of their body parts counts as not killing them?
This is the way of life in the book Unwind. Where unwanted children, orphaned and some being born as thirds are to be 'unwind' or 'chopped up' so that all of their parta can be used.
Connor, an unwanted son, Rachel an orphaned with no one to support and Levi, born as thirds are to be unwind. The lives of the three crosses as they face being unwind and to try to continue living until they reach the age when they can't be unwound anymore.
This book has been recommended to me by a good friend. I had a copy of this for quite sometime before deciding to read it. Good thing I did as this is a great read. Pacing is good and there is almost never a dull moment.

5 claps/claps

The Lost Hero

A spin off of Percy Jackson series.
If you had liked Percy Jackson series you would probably like this new series as well. It has the same formula and feel from the former series.
Riordan did a good job of creating another story that continues what had happened from the Percy Jackson, adding another myth to the mix. Now referring also to Roman gods and godesses, the story revolves around the gods having two personas, one from Greek another from Roman, thus, having offsprings or demigod as it is referred to in the seires differs from the two personas.
Characters from the Percy Jackson are all in the book, well most of them, and it seems that only a few characters have been added, albeit the new enemies.
But I can't shake the feeling that there are things in the Lost Hero that contradicts things in Percy Jackson series but I can't quite pinpoint it (I am too lazy too refer to the Percy Jackson books to double check).
Still, I find the book quite a read as I am fascinated with Greek and Roman Myths. I just feel that the new characters are quite powerful than the original casts.
4/5 drachmas

Mysterious Benedict Society

Another trilogy for me.
This one is a light and fun read.
The story is about a group of people recruiting gifted child. And by gifted, I mean, really gifted.
There are four main character, they were selected by Mr. Benedict by administering a series of test to special children.
One of the character has a knack for puzzles and riddles. Another with photographic memory. One athletic girl with special ability to measure distance accurately just by looking. And a very stubborn girl that likes to make rhymes.
The four of them are tasked to stop an evil plan by a person that most people trusts.
I recommend the book although there maybe times that the story seems to drag on and the children are quite lucky.
4.5/5 riddles

Atherton Trilogy

It was just a need to buy a book. I asked someone from a certain bookstore and she recommended me this book.
The first book of this trilogy is the House of Power. This book sat in my bookshelf for quite sometime until I have to read a book written by an author with last name that starts with a C.
To my surprise, I enjoyed the book.
The story is about a makeshift place to live as the earth we know is dying, Atherton.
It was created by a mad genius who had gone missing and disconnected Atherton to the Dark Planet (as the earth is called being dead and all).
Little did the people of Atherton that Atherton is changing. The highest level known as the highland where the House of Power and rulers and elite lives in is falling to Tabletop, the place where people who serves the Highland lives.
The once 3 layers of Atherton, one on top of the other will be no more. And along with it the changes that the people of Atherton must face and overcome, in the middle of this, is Edgar, a boy who was able to climb to the highland and knows the change that will happen.
The ending of the book is a cliffhanger that I decided to buy book 2 and 3 as soon as I was able to.
In book 2, there is yet change to Atherton that no one knew, except for the missing creator of Atherton.
As of now, I am reading book 3 and so far I am still enjoying the series.
On a side note: I think Atherton is an anagram of 'Not Earth'.
Book 1 and 2: 4.5 figs/ 5 figs

Buried Fire

Buried Fire

by Jonathan Stroud

i stumbled upon this book at a bargain book store and bought this in the instant i saw who the author of the book is. from the same author of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and being a great series i want to try his other works.

the book is about a buried dragon, thus i think the title, that from time to time reaches out its thought. being banished under the earth for so long, its distance between the surface had diminished allowing its thought out in the open. all those who get soaked by the dragon's thought are endowed by four gifts.

the main character happens to get soaked with the dragon's thought for quite a long time making his gifts quite powerful. he then have to decide on how to use his gifts.

the book somewhat disappointed me as the pacing is really slow and i hardly able to finish this book. if not for bit of interesting things thrown at random interval of pages, i would not be able to reach the climax part of the book, which happened so late that the story wrapped up so fast.

still, i enjoyed the last part of the book even though i think the first half of the book could have been good if the gifts have been discussed and have played major part in it.

rating: 2.5/5 wyrm

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

I have read a fair amount of reviews for this book that rates this one very high, and its usually associated to the Japanese movie Battle Royale.

I liked Battle Royale movie (I am currently reading the novel) so I bought this book. And what those review i have read is right, this book rocks!
It is really like Battle Royale but the story added the factor of the game being shown live ala Big Brother.

The story revolves around 12 Districts and Capitol in a dystopian setting of North America that is called Panem. The 12 Districts each sends a boy and a girl chosen by lottery to compete in what they call the Hunger Games orchestrated by the Gamemakers of the Capitol.

Katniss, the main girl volunteered as a substitute for her sister that was drawn even when the odds are against the latter. Now, Katniss must survive the game wherein each player kills one another to be the sole survivor. That is one of the obstacle of the game, Hunger, of course, is also a factor in this game, as thus terrain wherein the Gamemakers have complete control.

This book kept me at the edge of each pages as I literally sneak to the next page as every page always make me want to know what will happen next. I had hard time putting this book down even staying up late with my usual sleeping time even if I have work on that day (I slept around 1 am).

This belongs to a trilogy, and the second book, Catching Fire is already out, the last book, Mockingjay will be out sometime around August.


I highly recommend this book.

12/12 district.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Due to my reignited passion for reading, I looked for a book to read and found a review about this one.
On book caught my attention as the main character is mentally challenged.

Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism, and is very logical and usually do things by Math. The book is presented as the result of Christopher's school project and tackles his adventure when he decided to investigate the murder of his neighbor's dog. Little did the main character knew (as I have) that this will lead to his discovery of things that is far from, yet, the reason for the dog's murder.

It is quite interesting to see how an autistic boy thinks and reacts to his surrounding (of course, base on the author's understanding of autism). I loved how he usually solve problems by relating to math and logical conclusion (as I'm a math lover myself :D).

A very good read (first book, I think, that I have finished in two day's time) and I had very hard time putting this book down to do something else. The turn of events of the story surprised me as I was not expecting the way the story unfold.

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Rating: 5/5 gray cells