Do you feel obligated to finish all books you start reading?

** this is my 124th post and thanks to wordpress for suggesting this topic.

Every time i read a book, either it’s a novel, a short story or just any other book about anything, i try and make a point that ‘i’ll finish reading this one’ — especially when i’m very interested on the topic that the book is written about.

when i read a book, i make believe that i’m the protagonist of the story and let my imagination do the rest!

Some of the topics that i’m looking forward in reading a book are about (most importantly) love, death, friendship, family, moral lessons that i’ll get, mysteries, humor and positivity.

I’ve been hooked up with stories such as:

* the undying love stories that goes on and on for ages.
* friendship over Lovers stories.
* detective stories.
* worlds apart love stories.
* comic books. (who doesn’t read one?)

i also read books that are in series or in sequels. I love reading those that are written in novels and then were made into film. I like to see what changes were made or if they did exactly what is written in the novel.

Examples of the books that i have finished reading are:

* The twilight Saga novels written by Stephenie Meyer — Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I also got to read the Midnight Sun that had been leaked on the internet before.

* A Series of Unfortunate Events written by Lemony Snicket (Bad Beginning to The End)

* Nicholas Sparks’ The Last Song and Dear John

* The Queen of Babble Series by Meg Cabot

* Sophie Kinsella’s Twenties Girl and Can You Keep A Secret?

* Paulo Coelho’s the Alchemist

* Ann Martin’s The Babysitter’s Club books.

* Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes

* Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Reading is learning. Whatever lesson we may get on what we read, we should know what values to keep and what to just leave on those pages.

Book Review: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Characters:

John Tyree
Savannah Lynn Curtis

Plot:

She was a mountain girl, gifted and sweet, raised by attentive parents, with a desire to help those in need; he was a tattooed army grunt, hard around the edges, and largely a stranger to his own home.

They fell in love together almost only a week when he’s home for vacation when she met her at the beach. They confessed their love for each other when she brought him to see the house that they are building for the Hurricane victims. He brought her to special places to eat and walk at the beach while planning on how they’ll keep in touch in spite of the distance between them. When he took a vacation the next year, she introduced him to her parents and the time was so fast yet their days together are only few. They made love, had quarrel, and planned for marriage when he returns.

September 11 bombing had happened and he took another two-year service for the army. Exchange of letters between Savannah and him began to gradually skip a day or two. Neither did she mention how she feels about how she can’t see him because of the incident. When one day, he got a letter from her saying something about breaking up, and that’s how he got hurt so much. His dad got sick and that’s how he began to build friendship with him even though he knows that his father’s passion for coins were the only ones he can talk about well with him. When according to Savannah, his dad is suffering Asperger’s, routinely actions.That makes him feel almost well in spite of his condition. Six weeks after he returned to Germany, his father died. He returned for the funeral and decided to let the attorney sell the house.

He went to Lenoir, deciding to see Savannah again. He found a way to know where she now lives. It’s a ranch with title about “Hope and Horses”. He got to see her again, and she was suprised. He noticed that she now have a wedding ring, and knew that it was Tim, the guy way back before when he met her at the beach in Wilmington. He was a good guy. Maybe a lot better than him. But it was obvious that they still love each other. She asked him to go back the next day to meet her husband, and so he did. He just didn’t expected that he’ll meet him at the hospital. He was diagnosed for Melanoma, a poor guy. John knew that Tim love Savannah so much. That’s why he decided to sell the coin collection of his father to donate and help Tim in his diagnosis, but it has been anonymous to the couple.

As John, behind the darkness, watched Savannah outside the ranch, he saw her look at the full moon so intently like what they promised each other long ago. And that made him feel like they were together again.

Reaction:

This is another book by Nicholas Sparks that made me cry, the last song is the first one of course. I expected them to break up in the end because of what was said in the prologue. And i was proven right during the latter part of the story. It was just so realistic. Time is what was lacking in their relationship, although they keep in touch by writing each other. They haven’t seen each other for years, and so she finds comfort with her friend, who she’s also consoling for the loss of his parents. Tim’s character was not villainous and he played a very nice role in the story. He’s been kind to John when Savannah and John went out together during their days. But John knew that Tim has a special feeling for her even before. Well, all i can say is that she must have waited for him for he truly loves her. I mean, who on Earth will do that?, considering the distance and the war? Ok. It’s really a tearjerker and the story makes me want to read continuously up until the end, although most all of the time it was John who narrates the whole events of the scene. Is he for real? I wanna find someone like him, ok cliche.

I Love It!

Book Review: Queen of Babble In the Big City by Meg Cabot

The story unfolds as bestfriends Lizzie and Shari were looking for an apartment to live in New York. Later then, Lizzie was asked by her boyfriend, Luke, to live with him at his mom’s apartment in Fifth Avenue. That’s why Shari get to live with his boyfriend, Chaz.

Things were not going fine with Lizzie’s job hunting. She was always rejected on her application, or do not ever get a call from them either. As she wanders along the streets of New York hoping to find a job that will make her a certified Wedding-gown Specialist, she ends up working with Monsieur Henri… FOR FREE! She is later then hired as a receptionist at the Pendergast, Loughlin and Flynn firm with the help of Chaz.

Her work is being a receptionist in the morning til two in the afternoon and be at Monsieur Henri’s after that. Luke is also busy at his studies that’s why she’s making herself busy with her jobs. When she’s alone at the apartment, she gets to hear a man calling for Luke’s mom, thinking it is a lover of her. She didn’t say anything to Luke about it.

Things got bad when she found out that her bestfriend is a lesbian, or a bi. Shari broke up with Chaz and getting to live with her boss, Pat.

Thanksgiving day passed by without her to celebrate. So there’s only Lizzie, Luke, Luke’s parents, Lizzie’s co-receptionist Tiffany and her boyfriend Raoul, and the heartbroken Chaz.

Lizzie gets to have her somewhat big break when she met Jill Higgins at the Ladies’ room. She knew that she’s worrying about her wedding gown. It must be the wedding of the year. So, Lizzie encourages her to bring the gown to her to be refurbished.

Lizzie was warned by the firms HR head, Roberta, when it was published that she was working with Jill, saying that they’re keeping their clients privacy.

On Christmas Eve, she’s so excited to unwrap Luke’s gift for her, thinking it is an engagement ring, only wrapped box within a box. But she became so upset to find out it was just a sewing machine, a replacement for the one Luke’s father has broken during their stay in New York. She’s so upset that she packed all her things and stayed with Shari and her girlfriend. It was just the perfect timing when she was fired at the second time she was on paper. She was finish with Jill’s gown by that time and Mr. and Mrs. Henri were so proud of her. When she arrived at the shop, she demands that her benefits must be given to her. The Henri’s agreed. And so she gets to occupy the upper room above the shop. Luke went back to France at that time to spend the holiday with his parents.

On New Year’s eve, which is also Jill’s wedding day, Lizzie attended the event with Chaz as her escort. They celebrate their New Year’s eve there, both heartbroken. She gets to catch the bouquet Jill threw and said she’ll be the next bride. Both Lizzie and Chaz gets drunk and ending up sleeping at her place. All she remembers is that they kiss and nothing more to that has happened. But there’s been a proposal that within a week, if they’re still willing to be together, then they’ll be.

But on the morning of New Year’s day, Lizzie is awaken by the loud knocking on the door. She’s still on her gown while Chaz is snoring beside her. She’s suprised to find that it was Luke, not even wanting to let him in. He explained that he’s wrong to say the things he said on the night they broke up. And that his mother has no lover, it was her surgeon. After so many speeches, he gets something from his pocket, and knelt down. He proposed to her while outside the shop.

Isn’t it romantic? But also head cracking. Imagine, Lizzie’s bestfriend’s ex-boyfriend, her boyfriend’s bestfriend is upstairs while her boyfriend is proposing to her outside! Oh my! The Queen of Babble really is having fun at the big city. So what will happen now? Is she going to get hitched? Having the perfect job, living in the big city, and having the perfect boyfriend is really a life almost all girls dreamt of having. Of course, i’m no exception!

Book Review: Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot

Main Characters:

.Elizabeth “Lizzie” Nichols
.Jean-Luc “Luke” de Villiers
.Shari Dennis
.Charles “Chaz” Pendergast the Third
.Andrew “Andy” Marshall

Plot:

Queen of Babble tells the story of young Fashion History “graduate”, Lizzie Nichols. She went to England to reunite with her boyfriend who turns out to be a government fraud, which she doesn’t like. So, she goes away to France to be with her friends, Shari and Chaz. While on her way, she sat by a man whom which she told her experiences with her past boyfriends and the you-know-what thing she wanted back, thinking she’ll never see this stranger anymore. But just as she got off at her stop, this stranger admits that he’s her host, Luke.

Luke turns up to have a girlfriend, Dominique, who spends alot of money for her glams. She helps prepare for the wedding, and as Monsieur de Villiers showed her his vineyard, she gets to like the place, Chateau Mirac. He was praised by Luke’s father on how she loves vintage clothes that’s why look gets to show her to the attic where she then finds a stained long dress that has been wrapped for a hunting rifle. She refurbished it and was glad she did it.

Right before the wedding day happen, the bride, Luke’s cousin Victoria, had a problem with her gown. It got alot of laces, it’s as if she was just covered with laces. Lizzie, who have been heard to be good in sewing, was asked to make it look better. She did her best, but then in the morning when Vicky came, she was so happy that she has found the Givenchi gown and the bride chose this over the other one. It turns out to be that that gown was Luke’s mother’s. And because of that, Luke’s dad and mom became ok again together.

Right after the wedding, when it was time for the band to play, the lead singer was no where to be found, and later then was known who runaway with Luke’s ex-girlfriend. That’s the reason why Lizzie and Luke got to be together.

This story goes like the way Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret?. Both protagonist have met a stranger to whom they tell their life’s secrets. And both ends up being together with the man they met.

My next review will be about Queen of Babble’s sequel, Queen of Babble in The Big City.

Book Review: Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella

Emma Corrigan, a marketing assistant at the Panther Cola Company was sent to Scotland to have a meeting with one of their company’s business partner. Wanting to be promoted and make her parents proud of her, she, however, messed up the whole event. When she’s about to go back to London, she was secretly upgraded by the stewardess to take the business class flight. There he sat with a guy whom she thinks is uninterested with her. When suddenly, the plane met a disturbance and was likely to crash. She was panicking so much that she blurted out all her secrets to him, from what had happened on her meeting to her deeply hidden secrets about her sex life with her boyfriend, Connor. All of those things, which she didn’t think will come out, was told to this one guy, whom she thinks, she will never meet ever again.

She’s suprised when she say this man, and was even more suprised when she finds out that this man, Jack Harper, is the owner of the company she’s working for. Every now and then, she is summoned to speak with him. They agreed to keep their secrets together and eventually got even more special to each other. Emma’s boyfriend also works for Panther, and is really excited to meet Jack, wanting to give his best efforts for the company, he is on the Research Department. Emma broke up with him and he is suspecting that she has another man, and he keeps guessing who it is until Jack is interviewed on TV. Who along his interview about Panther’s target market, he got to described and tell the secrets that Emma has told him on the plane. Their relationship was known and everyone in the company verifies if it is really her. Not even in the company, but so as her family and her flatmates have watched the interview. She thinks that all the people in the world already know her secrets. It has brought her alot of stress so she went home early. Jack apologizes, as she wonders how he could have remembered all those things, every detail that she had said to him. And he told her that he ‘was gripped’ by her. They never talked about love but it was the words that meant alot, especially it came from him. He told her that everyone who teases her, he will fire. But that doesn’t end there. Because Emma’s flat mates, Jemimah and Lissy keep on planning how to revenge on Jack. They keep on thinking if he ever has one secret that can ruin him and avenge on what he has done to their friend. Emma asked them to stop but Jemimah didn’t keep her promise and at Lissy’s recital concert, she has brought a tabloid reporter to interview Emma. Jack sees them and walked out when he thinks that Emma’s giving away his secret.

Before the day ended, Jack went back to the auditorium and has forgiven Emma. She told him that she’s not told them why he really is at Scotland that day. And so, he told her even more funny secrets about him and they were together again at the end of the day.

This is a funny romantic novel. Knowing that the protagonist is a trying hard marketing employee who hopes for a promoting, she represents almost all other real life office people. Of course, each of us has secrets which only one or two people know, but there are some who we just wanted to keep to ourselves. Finding true love through honesty and being true to oneself was what happened here in this story. I enjoyed reading it and it took me just about two or three days to finish it. Of course i needed to do my chores first.

Sorority Life♥

Sorority Life gets better and better each time you complete a level. Leveling up requires earning Influence Points (IP’s). This article will give you several strategies on how to do that faster! I’m currently at level 43, but I play often and will be updating this article as needed.
Difficulty: Easy
Instructions
Things You’ll Need:

* A Facebook or MySpace account
* A Sorority Life account
* Some time!

1.
Step 1
Stage a Musical Production

Stage a Musical Production

I’m not much of a fighter (just not my style), so my favorite way to earn IP’s is to socialize! I am currently on level 43 and the most tempting of the events I can organize is the “Homecoming Formal,” which gives up 140 IP’s with each event. However, it also requires 74 energy points. That’s a hefty portion of my available energy! One of the most effective uses of your energy, as long as you have plenty of sisters, is the “Stage a Musical Production” event. Each time you organize the event, the amount of IP’s it pays increases. At 40% of the way to platinum (where I’m currently at because I only have 33 sisters), I can earn 32 IP’s for only 6 energy points.
2.
Step 2
Letters in the Sand Event

Letters in the Sand Event

However, my favorite way to earn IP’s is by organizing the “Letters in the Sand” event on Campus. It only uses 3 energy points and, if you earn at least 5,000 points on the game (which I do most of the time), you get 20 IP’s! If you played this 24 times, you would use 72 energy points (a little less than the “Homecoming Formal”) and could earn 480 IP’s!! The only downfall of this event is that it doesn’t matter how many times you play it, you never achieve a new level of expertise. In other words, you don’t go from bronze to silver to gold, etc. You usually earn money or brownie points for reaching a new level of expertise, so make sure to organize other events from time to time as well.
3.
Step 3
My Current Look

My Current Look

Fighting is the only other way to earn IP’s. I do use this option occasionally when I only need a small amount of IP’s to reach the next level and I don’t have any energy points available. One strategy I use (and I’m sure a lot of girls have plenty of other strategies, so see other articles on how to fight if you so desire) is to attack someone who has just attacked me and I won the fight. This usually means that I’m capable of winning the fight, so I know I’ll get IP’s from the attack. Another option is to go to the “fight” tab and choose someone with a small number of sisters. I feel bad doing this because I know that’s why I get attacked so often! But, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, right?

What I Did For Love

by Susan Elizabeth Philips

Plot

Georgina York and Bramwell Shepard were both from Skip and Scooter program not until the show ended because of Bram’s attitude. Between the age of fifteen to twenty three, they’ve been doing the show, but Bram became an alcoholic, a smoker, and also a drug addict. He even got a sex tape with one of his women. At that time, Georgie’s Scooter character is very much likely her in real life. She’s been loved by people so much because they’re both good girls in camera and in reality.

But that scene is now long gone. Georgie had onced been married to Lance Marks, the action-adventure superstar of the town. But they later divorced because Lance “realized” that she wanted Jade Gentry, the do-gooder best actress, as his wife. This caused Georgie so much heartache. The paparazzi don’t want to leave her and were even wanting to get her opinion about Jade’s being pregnant. And so she ran away from the paps and that’s where her life and Bram’s life got mixed up.

She wanted to relaxed and so she had to meet up with her friend, Sasha, but it ended up that Sasha got to go somewhere more important. That’s when she spent her time alone in Las Vegas, that’s what she think. She met Bram by accident and they went to a party, too. Accidentally, they’ve made love and ended up getting married without knowing how.

Georgie lived at Bram’s house for about two months and with that time frame, she discovered that so many things has changed with him. They became closer with each other and Georgie realized that she’s in love with Bram. That’s not all, there’s also the moment when Lance and Jade came to their house just when they have this SARS virus but it’s not yet confirmed so they’ve been quarantined at Bram’s house for two days without going outside. Along with them were Georgie’s father, Paul York; Laura Moody; Rory Keene; Meg Koranda; Chaz, Bram’s all around cook; and Aaron, Georgie’s personal assistant. By that time, Bram convinced Rory to produce the story Tree House, with him at the lead role.

They hold a wedding party with Skip and Scooter as their theme. Things were looking good not until they went home. Georgie confessed her love for Bram but Bram just told her that she’s just a best friend for him. That made Georgie feel so miserable. She went away and didn’t let Bram know where she is, only her friends and her father. At that time, she knew that Bram has finally got the lead actor’s role and another actress got the role for Helene.

Bram was trying to convince Georgie to come with him but then, he realized that Georgie must have time to settle everything that has happened to them. One day, Aaron called her saying Chaz is sick. Because they’ve been close enough, she quickly went to Bram’s house to take care of Chaz. Bram was there and he dragged her to the Ivy to tell their story to the Press people, that their marriage was just an accident and that neither of them love each other. And then they went back home and Bram let Georgie watch a film which Bram made himself. It was a Love Letter according to him. The short film was set in a cemetery where Bram was standing beside dead Georgie’s coffin. Also in the film were her Dad and Chaz and Aaron and her other friends. There were two kids, a girl and a boy, which were supposed to be their kid when she’s been alive. Georgie was touched and now accepted Bram’s apology. They arranged a real wedding, a simple wedding at the beach.

In the epilogue, their daughter Iris York Shephard was featured. It was their fifth anniversary and it was said that their Iris has gotten her mother’s talent and her father’s naughtiness.

And that’s the best reunion show ever of Skip and Scooter, according to Georgie.

Reaction:

This was a great love story. It shows how the life to actors and actresses alike are going on, their love life to be exact. Georgie’s journey to find her true love ended up with Bram, her childhood love, but that’s just a secret. It also tells us to decide our own life, just like what Georgie did. She had been an actress all her life because of her father’s pursuance but later on she discovered that film making is what she really like. As for Bram, he’s been a good role model because it’s been implied that bad people can change for the better, right? Happy ending is just a conversation away… As i’ve said, this is a love story so don’t be surprised when you read some love scenes. Gotcha! i love this. It’s just like i’ve watched a movie: Cameron Diaz as Georgina York and Brad Pitt as Bramwell Shepard.

Melody J. Mular
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REMEMBER ME?

by Sophie Kinsella

Characters:

*Alexia “Lexi” Smart-Gardiner
*Barbara Smart
*Amy Smart
*David “Loser Dave”
*Eric Gardiner
*Jon
*Fiona “Fi” Roper
*Debs
*Carolyn
*Rosalie
*Byron

Summary:

Lexi just got into an accident and all she remembers is the night she went clubbing with her friends, the night before her father’s funeral. She’s been called snaggletoothed or snagglehair at school, isn’t it obvious why? She’s awaken in an hospital bed, forgetting everything that had happened three years ago. Way back 2004, that’s all she can remember. It’s dated 2007 now.

As the story goes, she meets people which she thought that she’s seen for the first time, except of course for her mother and sister. The worst is that she can’t remember her husband. She’s so amazed how her life had gone during the past three years. They told her that she’s been in a Tv business game show, Ambition, and that’s where she met Eric. And then things became complicated when Jon came in the scene, telling Lexi that he’s her lover, that they were so in love and she’s ready to leave Eric for him. All these stuff makes her head ache. She begins to find that her friends hate her because she now happens to be the Flooring Director of the Deller Carpets. She’s been called bitch-boss-from-hell, cobra, snake… So many things that she never thought that she became for the past three years… And she wanted to bring back the “old Lexi”. She wanted to gain back her friends, not until things became worst at the Deller Carpets. The management wanted to disband the Flooring department and Lexi is not letting it happen.

Apart from the problem with her friends, she’s also trying to pick up the missing pieces of her memory with Eric and Jon. Eric has always been so businesslike and life with him feels so boring now. Yes he’s rich, but Lexi feels that living with him is like living in a world where everything needs to be in order, loft-style living… that’s what Eric was always saying. With Jon, she’s seen her “old self” when at first she doubts if he’s just a womanizer playing on her, taking advantage of her amnesia.

Later in the story, she’s decided to leave Eric and find an apartment just near to her own company. She’s bought the rights for Deller Carpets and is now running it along with her friends. Her sister, Amy, has now changed for the better and has gotten a job.

It was October, Christmas is in the air, when she goes shopping for gifts and a woman talked to her that she remembers her buying a shirt and looked like so in love. Lexi knew that it was Jon she’s so in love with so she bought the green shirt and ride on a taxi to Jon’s apartment. It’s been three months already since they last saw each other. She hums a tune while on the way and she knew that it was a familiar tune that she and Jon know. And so it was… She may not remember anything more, but maybe slowly she will… with Jon.

You’d trust Jon with your life.
-Eric to Lexi

Reaction:

The story was narrated on a first person. It was Lexi, and as i was reading, i felt like i was her. I felt how it was like to experience amnesia. It was like she’s changed from ugly duckling to a swan princess. A search for a loss memory is the main problem and it branches off into so many other branches like her friendship with Fi, Carolyn, and Debs; her secret affair with Jon; and even how she turned into someone she doesn’t really expect her to be– the bitch-boss-from-hell. The story was clear: even though i asked so many questions as i was reading the story, it’s normal (right?). I read this story for the first time and i thought that Lexi and Eric really do have a happy married life not until Jon entered the picture. And even though it was told that Rosalie warned Lexi that Jon was just a womanizer pestering them, i knew that Lexi and Jon were really the love team in the story. They just don’t have this passionate love scene (parental guidance needed?), not until the ending came. And, oh! That Mont Blanc thing! Is it true? Oh, no… It can’t be.. It really is it like that? I understand why Lexi disliked it, hmmm.. maybe with Jon will do! i just wonder whether this story will be made into a movie. If it will be, then it’ll really be a big hit and will surely be my favorite!

Melody J. Mular
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