City of Screams by James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell

Genre: Thriller, Action & Paranormal

Publication Date: October 30, 2012

# of Pages: 100

City of Screams is #0.5 in The Order of the Sanguines series. It is told from Sergeant Jordan Stone's POV and takes place in Afghanistan. Sergeant Jordan, his forensic team and a professor are called in to investigate the massacre of an archaeology team that was massacred in the ruins of Shahr-e-Gholghol. On their way to the site and when they arrive we learn more about the history of Shahr-e-Gholghol thanks to the professor. Shahr-e-Gholghol is said to be haunted due to the betrayal of an emperor's daughter to Genghis Khan. Once at the site, Jordan Stone and his team notice some abnormal animal tracks. And not long after that come across a ten year old girl who survived. Can she help them or will she just make things worse?

City of Screams is the first novel I have read from James Rollins and also the first novel I have read from Rebecca Cantrell. I cannot say that I really liked this short story. I guess the elements that I was looking for really weren't meant to be there as I suppose this is supposed to make you want to read the first book of the series, The Blood Gospel. I was confused through most of it as I wasn't quite sure how everything tied into each other. However, this does make me want to start the series. I just curiosity does kill the cat, because I am super curious as to getting to know more about Jordan Stone and his team. I am hoping that more comes to light about the little girl, even if it is through past thoughts and memories from the characters in the book.

My rating:

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Genre:

Classics & Adventure

Publication Date:

June 10, 1996 (first published in 1952)

# of Pages:

132

Santiago is the main character in this book. He is an old fisherman who has not caught any fish in almost 3 months. He has a young apprentice and friend, Manolin, who has been forced to not go fishing with him because he does not catch any fish. The old man is determined to break his unlucky streak and sets out farther on the sea then he usually does. While out there he hooks a fish that instead of it being easy to pull in, it starts to pull Santiago's boat.

Trying to make sure that the fish does not snap his line, he ends up getting in a lot of bodily pain. The fish ends up pulling Santiago into a dangerous current. Santiago eventually kills the fish and gets it in the boat, however, this ends up causing more trouble for Santiago on his way home. When Santiago gets home, he is not completely empty handed. Instead, what he comes home with is not what others think that it is.

The Old Man and the Sea is the first book I've read by Ernest Hemingway. I read this book my junior year of high school. We took turns reading it aloud in the classroom, and I still kind of found the book painful to get through. After we read the book, we watched the movie. I found the movie a little more interesting than I did the book, which is usually not the case with me. If this book had not been required for my literature class at the time, I may have not finished it. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless I was to reread this book. Now even though I did not like this book, it does teach a valuable lesson. It teaches us to never give up and that every victory does not have to meet everyone else standards to be a victory. I do commend Santiago for his bravery. I just was not interested in the way the book taught those lessons.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Genre:

Classics & Historical Fiction

Publication Date:

May 23, 2006 (first published in 1960)

# of Pages:

324

To Kill a Mockingbird is a fantastic novel. I never got around to reading it in high school, but I am glad that at 24 I finally read it. I feel like I understand this book more now than I would've as a teenager. I guess it may be that I have been through more than I did at that age. I understand more about racism and how things used to be in those days than I did in high school. I guess I didn't really get it back then because I wasn't really exposed to it. I lived in an area where there were mainly minorities and people never argued or fought over race. But once I made it through high school and to college, I got to witness first hand that racism still existed. I guess it takes incidents to happen in reality for you to understand the real-life situations in fiction novels. Without that connection between reality and fiction, you cannot fully connect with a novel in some ways that others might. I know that people who do not fully comprehend racism, may not understand this novel on the same level as someone who does.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight is the first book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. This is the first book I have read by Meyer, although I do plan on reading The Host. I read this book before it became a movie, and I am glad that I did. Don't get me wrong I like the movie (mainly because of Taylor Lautner as Jacob), but the book is so much BETTER. I came across this book because of a girl at a facility I was at, and she was sitting on her cot reading this book. The cover is what caught my eye because for some reason when I was in high school I did not read as much, which is pretty weird being that I read all the time now. Anyways, I asked her what the book was about. This is what she told me, "A vampire. He falls in love with this human girl and they are like totally in love." I was just sitting there like that's just creepy, but that cover was so intriguing that I decided to give the book a chance. And here we are today.

The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas

Publication date: January 30, 2006

# of pages: 232

Genre: Psychological thriller & Adult fiction


The Summer I Died is the first book in Ryan C. Thomas' Roger Huntington series. This is the first book I ever read by Thomas and I don't regret it. The title sucked me right in. I'm like, "Oh my goodness!!! This sounds scary as a mother f***er." At the time I had seen  the book, it was free on Amazon's website for the Kindle edition. (I'm always browsing Amazon for free Kindle books). Even though it was free, I definitely would have paid for it. It is totally worth the $2.99 (Kindle price) it's listed at today.

The cover caught my attention as well. I mean who wouldn't be curious about a book with a man standing in some mountains while the sun is setting with an axe in his hand!?!? I was super intrigued. I was like, "Who is he going to chop up? And why?" Thomas writes in a way that leads you right in to the point where you don't want the story to be over.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Publication date: March 1, 2002
# of pages: 688

Genre: Science fiction

Dreamcatcher is the first book I have ever read by Stephen King. There is a movie based on this book; it is also titled Dreamcatcher. For me the title of this book suggested something different. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. I read a lot of reviews about this book prior to reading it, and most of them were not good. Half of those reviews are the reason I picked this book out of all the other Stephen King book to start with. I figured if I even remotely like this one, then I should like his other ones. However, I’m still not too keen on reading his book, It. I just don’t think that will ever happen because the movie scared the s*** out of me as kid and to this day I’m still afraid of clowns. They’re creepy.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Publication date: March 27, 2007
# of pages: 485
Genre: Young adult, Fantasy and Romance 

City of Bones is the first book in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. This is the first book I've read by Cassandra Clare. I must say that I was a little on the borderline on how I would feel about this book and whether I liked this style. After finishing this book, I want to read the second book in the series, City of Ashes,

The main character in this story is Clary Fray. I loved how easy it was t remember her name because it really goes together. The story begins with Clary and her friend, Simon, going to a club named Pandemonium in New Work City. While there Clary sees three individual with weird tattoos an weapons, however, her friend Simon can't see them. I thought this was super weird. 

After seeing them, Clary decides to follow them and ends up witnessing a murder where the body disappears into thin air. 

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Publication date: October 1, 2006

# of pages:  286

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Mystery & Thriller

Pretty Little Liars, written by Sara Shepard, is the first book in her popular series called Pretty Little Liars. The book is fictional and intended for a young adult audience. It is also a very popular TV show series titled the same as the series. I have only watched the first season of this show. This is the second book I have read by Shepard. The first one being The Lying Game, a first installment in another series, which you can see the review of here. I love the way that Shepard’s novels pull me in to where I feel like I have to finish them. And Pretty Little Liars was not an exception to that.

Pretty Little Liars deals with friendships and secrets. The main friendship deals with four living girls and one we’re not really sure about her living status.

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Publication date: December 7, 2010

# of pages: 307 

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Mystery & Thriller

The Lying Game, written by Sara Shepard, is the first book in her The Lying Game series. This is the first book I have read by Shepard and I’m glad I picked it up. I actually found out about this book because of the TV show, The Lying Game, which is based on this book. I was very upset when I learned that the show was being canceled meanwhile The Secret Life of an American Teenager was still airing. I mean at this point I had felt like The Secret Life of an American Teenager could have taken a backseat and this show could have continued on. Anyways, I was heated about my show being canceled. I’m not the type of person that makes sure I’m home sitting in front of the TV at a specific time just to catch a new episode of a show. Usually, I just be like “I’ll catch it another time.”