Dreamland Book Blog: April 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012 2 comments

Friday, April 27, 2012 10 comments

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 4 comments

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 5 comments

I was nominated by Alexia Smit of Alexia Chronicles and Terra Harmony of the kick ass Akasha Series. Two of my favorite ladies!

So, here are the rules ...

1. Include the award logo in your post or on your blog.

2. Answer 10 questions about yourself - you can use mine or make up your own.

3. Nominate 10-12 other wonderful bloggers.

4. Let the other nominees know they are nominated and include links to their blog.

5. Link the person who nominated you.

So here it is:

1. What book are you currently reading?

I'm reading Princess of the Midnight Ball and I'm sticking to it!

2. Vampires or werewolves?

Always a vampirette! (lol, I just make up that word) But I do love werewolves too. I'm addicted to the vampires and werewolves in Underworld! Who thinks Selene and Lucian is hot??

3. How many books have you read this year?

Less than 20. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

4. Who is your favorite book character from a book you've read?

Too many to choose from :( But well, I'm a loyal citizen of Morganville. Shane Collins it is!

5. Heels, sneakers, flip flops or clogs?

I still haven't master the skill of wearing heels (I love them but they make my feet hurt), I wear sneakers to school all the time because of lab work, I've never worn a clog, and I wore flip flops 90% of the time!

6. What's your favorite dream vacation?

I've never really thought of any vacation spots, but ship me off to a tropical island with great beach, beautiful weather, hot guys and good food, and I'm content.

7. Who is your favorite author?

[I'm going to exclude paranormal fiction because it would be impossible for me to choose] My favorite author for non-paranormal genre is Jennifer Echols!

8. Favorite book series?

The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth and The Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting.

9. Why do you enjoy reading?

From the time my mum bought me my first teen romance book, I knew I was hooked. Reading has been my second nature, it is a habit that I developed all these years. I love reading because it makes me smile, I can get lost in a book and forget the world for a while, and I always feel better after reading a book.

10. What is your favorite quote from a book?

"Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now."

- Divergent (Veronica Roth)

Here are my nominees!

1. Alexandra @ Words of the world - A talented writer and a wonderful friend, I am in awe and have great respects for her!

2. Emilija @ The Sweetest Sin - A great blogger with a great perspective, read the most unusual books and write the greatest stories and reviews!

3. Claire @ ClaireReads - One of the blogs that I enjoyed visiting, I adore her book choices and her post! Definitely a blog worth stalking.

4. Veronica @ MostlyReviews - She is one of the ones who made my blog happened. Without her I'll be left clueless! And not to mention she has the most awesome giveaways and wonderful blog!

5. Patti @ PattiRoberts - My first giveaway book was written by Patti! She's such a great person and so terribly kind hearted!

6. Natalie @ Purple Jelly Bean Chair Reviews - An awesome blogger, great friend and a person who is easy to talk to!

7. Ritesh @ Ritesh Kala - Yes yes, I know you have been nominated by Terra and Alexia but I'm going to nominate you again! xD His blog is informative and his posts were so thoughtfully written, and he is such a great person who has helped me in so many ways! Thank you!

8. Tina @ Martina Bookaholic - I know you have been nominated twice too! Tina is also one of the person behind my blog's success! Thank you Tina! You're the best! Plus, she writes awesome reviews who never failed to make me laugh!

9. Cambria @ Cambria Hebert - A blogger and a writer with a killer sense of humor! I enjoyed her blog posts and even more her books! She is such a fun person to be around with!

10. Debra @ DebraAnastasia - What can I say, she wrote one of my favorite books of all time. Plus I love her tweets!

Thank you for dropping by my blog, and once again thanks Alexia and Terra for the nomination! You guys rocked!

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Sunday, April 15, 2012 20 comments

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Cambria Hebert where she will ask us a question and we can share our answers by exchanging our links and dropping by each other's blogs!

Tell Me Something....

Who are your book boyfriends?

*squeals in anticipation*

This is the question every girl wants to answer!

In my previous TMST and FF posts, my answer to this question will always center around Shane from the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine.

Isn't he a darling??

But I feel it's unfair of me to always dedicate my posts to Shane, therefore it is time for me to reveal my other book boyfriends!

I have too many to choose from, and my lists of book boyfriends have only grown and not dwindle in size! Hence, to answer this week's question, I have categorized my book boyfriends into 3 groups. (You see, if I don't group them, I'll end up being very excited and well...you would've guessed how it will end ~winks~)

Group 1 : YA Paranormal book boyfriend.
Ethan Wate (Caster Chronicles)

My original cast for Ethan was Logan Lerman, but I knew not to judge a person and I am looking forward to watch the movie! Ethan has been one of my favorite person ever since I've started the series two years ago. Ethan was the first mortal guy that I read about, he was my first love because Beautiful Creatures was the first book I'd read after Twilight, and the first guy who made me swoon. I liked that he was just human and possesses no superpowers, he was just a simple boy who loves a girl and would do anything to keep them together.

Group 2 : Non Paranormal YA Book Boyfriend
Travis Maddox (Beautiful Disaster)

Yes, I admit, I have a Mad-Dog addiction, and apparently an obsession towards Max Irons too :P

In my previous TMST post, I did mention why I do adore Travis. Non other but for the fact that he is a bad boy who turns good for a girl. I'm just a sucker for those kind of stories! In Beautiful Disaster, we get to see how a hard man such as Travis transformed and we also get to see an incredibly protective and vulnerable side of Travis. I would want Travis for a boyfriend, even if he was an underground boxer, an ex-player, and a guy everyone wanted to date.

I am definitely not immune to the Mad-dox infection!

Group 3 : Mature YA Book Boyfriend
Lochie (Forbidden)

Okay! Perhaps a Logan Lerman obsession too! lol...

Some of you might have heard of this controversial book, Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma which mainly focused on the romantic relationship between Maya and Lochan, brother and sister. In short, incest. I don't oppose it, in fact I love the story! But if you take away the "incest" part, Lochan was actually a guy that you could easily fall in love with. He sacrificed his time, dedicating his youth to raise his siblings and never asked for anything in return. He was socially awkward, which made me drawn to him even more. He fought his attraction towards Maya, hard, which made me love him even more. What's not to like about him?

That's it! My three book boyfriends (excluding Shane and the other 100 ++ more in my list). Please do leave a link to your post! I would love to check yours out! I love sharing 'book boyfriends'!

Happy Tuesday.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3 comments

Friday, April 06, 2012 11 comments

To read the short story, click on "The Lottery" to be directed to another webpage.

* This review may contain spoilers, read it at your own risk! *

"The Lottery'' is considered one of the most haunting and shocking short stories of modern American fiction and is one of the most frequently anthologized. The story takes place on a June morning in the town square of a small village. Amidst laughter and gossip, families draw slips of paper from a ballot box until housewife Tessie Hutchinson receives a slip with a black mark on it. The villagers then stone her to death as a ritual sacrifice despite her protests about the unfairness of the drawing. The impact of this unexpected ending is intensified by Shirley Jackson's detached narrative style, the civility with which the cruelty is carried out by the villagers, and the serene setting in which the story takes place.

- Excerpt from Enotes : The Lottery

I am really beginning to love my University's literature texts. First by awing me with Lamb to the Slaughter, and now with The Lottery. The Lottery is an annual event that had became a paramount tradition in this particular village. Similar to the Looking For A Rain God short story, The Lottery is about a sacrificial event that was believed to bring good season for corn crops, which is an important food and income source at that era.

To be honest, I wasn't able to get into the story for the first few times that I tried to read, mainly because I was going in blind. Therefore I would suggest you to read the summary or at least get a rough idea of what the story is about, then the introduction will make much more sense.

The third time I picked up the story, I knew I was hooked. The Lottery started off with a description of a perfectly serene summer day which later unfolds into a twisted stoning event. The Lottery was a symbolism for misguided belief and the extremity of human's cruelty, and the unfairness of it all.

In a small village with only 3000 population, when comes June every year, the villagers will gather in the town's square and prepare for The Lottery in which a drawing event will take place. For every family, a representative will be called out to draw a random strip of paper from a worn out black box seated on a three legged stand, and if the paper is blank, it meant that the particular family is saved from the next drawing which will decide who will be the human sacrifice. In the story, the Hutchingson's was the "lucky" ones.

Having five members in the family, namely Bill the husband, Tessie the wife, and children Nancy, Bill Jr. and toddler little Dave, each of them will once again draw out a random piece of paper from the box. Only in this drawing, whoever who have a black spot on the paper will be the chosen one. I wouldn't reveal who was the "lucky" one but I would like to point out that the story managed to bring me to tears at that point.

In my opinion, what the author was trying to convey was how fast human could turn their backs on one another:

Human's ignorant behavior towards other people's wellbeing.

Quote : "All right, folks." Mr Summers said. "Let's finish quickly"

Mr. Summers, the conductor of the event said this during the stoning scene, proving human's disregards for other people even if it involves the situation of life and death.

Family and friends are my enemies.

Excerpt : Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remember to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready. there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Ms. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."

The children had stones already. And someone gave little Dave Hutchinson few pebbles.

Once again, this short excerpt portrayed human's cruel nature. The villagers could tolerate forgetting the rituals and the box, but the only thing they don't accept is changing the way they are. Blood must be shed in order for them to have their own release, and even children are included in the "stoning event", thus exposing their fragile mind to bad influence at such a young age. Delacroix and Dunbar was Hutchinson's friend, but Delacroix was wiling to pick up a large stone to help kill a friend. And the worst part of it all was " And someone gave little Dave Hutchinson few pebbles." This part really got to me because I couldn't seem to get over the fact that the people were actually encouraging a young innocent boy to kill his own family member. Which sounded pretty sadistic to me.

Unjust.

The Lottery ended with the plea of the "lucky one" "It isn't fair....it isn't right...."

I was really trying to fight off my tears after the story ended, the "lucky ones" suffered from a tragic death that could clearly be avoided. They had in fact, died for nothing, all because of a twisted belief and human's selfishness.

The Lottery was full of foreshadows, ironies and symbolism, it might not be clearly depicted at first glance, but it is definitely present. Shirley Jackson conveyed such a strong message that it was hard to ignore.

For more details on the symbolism in the story, visit Slayerment : The Lottery. He described the symbolism perfectly that had my mind trying to connect the dots. The Lottery is worth a read!

*The Lottery bears a slight similarity to the beginning of the Hunger Games, which made me even more excited to read it.

(This review is completely and solely from my own opinion and dissection of the story, if you are referring this for a literary assignment, I suggest you to look it up on a more reliable website, but thanks for reading!)

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Thursday, April 05, 2012 3 comments

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Cambria Hebert where Cambria will pop a question and we will be exchanging our links and check out each other's answers!

Tell Me Something...

What is it about books that makes you want to blog about them? What is your favorite thing about blogging?

Truth to be told, I am a sucker for book covers.

When a book cover captivated me, I will be "drafting" the blog post even before I read them. In my head I will be thinking of the colors that I will use, the intonation of my posts and probably the pictures I could relate my posts to (which is kind of hard). Not taking into account the content of the story, I feel very driven and passionate to write a blog post for a book with an awesome cover. (All those talk about not judging a book by it's cover makes me sound like I'm bull-crapping ;p ). I know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but books are sold because of their covers.

To not beat around the bushes. THE COVER makes me want to blog about them. (And of course, the amazing story behind the covers sealed the deal...)

I am a goth-at-heart, I will always orientate myself to dark colors even if I loved the bright colors. (Hence the mixture of dark background with bright wordings in my blog), therefore dark and gothic covers always seemed to attract my interest (no wonder my bookshelf looked so dark) and makes me excited to write a review!

This is a book cover that I cropped off a picture that I had made for my own story. Just to illustrate my taste in covers...

What's my favorite thing about blogging? Besides the opportunity to ramble and rant continuously on my favorite subject in a long blog post (thus perfecting my reviewing skills - New Year's Resolution Goal number 4 and practice my typing speed), I love receiving feedbacks! The comments and replies always made my day no matter how short or brief it is. They encouraged me to write better posts and taught me to put my heart into what I am writing. Apart from that, I really loved dropping by other people's blogs to read and comment on their posts because I know, like me, they would also appreciate my effort. Plus, blog hopping is FUN.

I know I have been missing a few TMST posts (which I am regretting because I love answering those questions!) and haven't gotten around to check your posts lately, but I am trying my best to include 'blogging' into my daily agenda, and also "GR-ing", gotta love that website! Looking forward to the following Tuesdays!

Happy Tuesday!

Please leave your link so I can drop by your blog :)

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Tuesday, April 03, 2012 5 comments