Youtube Reviews

     So I did decide to give this its own post in case you didn't read my last review. I will be discussing books on Youtube very soon. They WILL include spoilers since I will be discussing my opinions on the entire book, so beware. My channel is slamiller14 and I will have some videos posted in a few days. Happy Reading!

Maximum Ride: School's Out- Forever by James Patterson

     Okay, so this book ranked slightly lower on my scale than the first book, but only slightly. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. I wish I'd reviewed this book right after I finished it, but time was of the essence, so bear with me. I'd also like to point out that I will be reviewing the entire series, so don't read all of the reviews before reading the series, unless you like spoilers. I won't give spoilers about the book itself, but just like the blurb on the back of a book, I may give away some important stuff from the previous book. I'm going to start reviewing books on Youtube as well, but those WILL contain spoilers, because it is more of a book discussion. Probably should've put all this in a separate post, but whatever.

     "IT'S YOUR BEST DREAM AND WORST NIGHTMARE: SCHOOL'S OUT- FOREVER!
Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, Angel, and Maximum Ride: six incredible kids with the ability to fly, free as birds... until Max and her gang are discovered by an FBI agent and forced to face their worst nightmare. You guessed it- school. That is, the abominable where they learn everything except how to survive as winged fugitives relentlessly hunted by killers...
     FLOCK REPORT CARD:
Computer Skills: A. Can hack into any computer at lightning speed- bonus in a quest to locate missing parents.
Scientific Research: B-. Score points for discovering source of a diabolical plot, but often fail to identify clones and imposters.
Extreme Sports: A+. Earn extra credit by trading Dumpster diving for supersonic travel, aerial ballet, and flying with dogs.
Dating: C. Relationships with non-winged peers improve. Need work on picking suitable mates.
Discipline: D. Setting off explosives, stealing hidden documents, and harassing faculty are no-nos- even if the headmaster is evil.
Saving the World: This is a pass/fail course...
THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON THE FINAL GRADE." (book description from back of book)

     So, the flock just got back from saving Angel from the School. Then what happens? They are forced to take Fang to the hospital, and then the police step in and send them to school. Oh the irony. The action never stops. This can get really annoying if you, every once in a while, want peace of mind. Just putting it out there. Anyways, a few things happen at school that piss me off. Max and Fang aren't exactly Mang in this book. You'll see what I mean. This book did keep me turning the pages and, like the first book, I finished it in one sitting. So if you like very fast-paced, action-packed books, definitely continue the series. If you read the book, I will have a video posted in a few days discussing the book start to finish, so check out my Youtube channel, slamiller14 if you want to see it. I will start reviewing books really soon. Again, really belongs in a separate post, but, oh well. I highly recommend this book and series to anyone at all like me.
     Happy Reading!

Book Challenge Complete!

And in the nick of time, too. Sorry I haven't posted any reviews! I was very busy accomplishing my goal. This is a very short post, because I am going to get on to reviewing!
    Happy Reading!

Updated June Book Challenge Status

     So, I finished several of my books, but I also added two more, so I now have to finish five more in the next three days. I would only have two more if I stopped at ten, but no, I had to put down thirteen. So I added Specials by Scott Westerfield, which I finished on 6/27/12 (today), and The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson, which I will finish today.
     I also finished Beastly this morning, School's Out- Forever by James Patterson on 6/24/12, Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson on 6/25/12, Pretties by Scott Westerfield on 6/26/12, and Ruined on 6/26/12. I was sucked into the stories, so I was able to read them like there was no tomorrow. Okay, I will be posting some reviews a little later, but I've got to get back to reading if I have any hope of finishing before the end of June. Happy Reading!

I'm Back!

So, as you know, I was in India last week. I haven't posted since I got back, because I was suffering from severe jet-lag. Now I am mostly back to normal, so I can start back up again! I've been reading A LOT since I got back, so I'm going to post several book reviews. I will post pictures from India later, once I get my camera synced to my computer. I am pretty far along in the June Book Challenge now, so I will be posting my updates on that as well. I will include several book reviews on those books. Are you enjoying your summer? I wish you the best! Happy reading!

Leaving For India Tomorrow!

AaaAhhhh!!!!! I'm leaving tomorrow! I couldn't be more excited! I will take tons of pictures and post some of my journal entries here once I get back. I am so so so so very excited for this trip!!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea! I will post more in nine days when I get back. I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow morning so I need my sleep. Bye! Wish me luck!

June Book Challenge!

     If any of you are as obsessed with books as I am, then head over to www.goodreads.com and get yourself an account! If you already have one, great! Anyway, I am in a reading group on Goodreads-
Fantasy and YA Addicted Book Club- and every month they have a monthly book challenge! So I decided to pass on the challenge, and also share what I will be doing to fulfill it. Here's the original challenge:
"So it's the Queen's Jubilee here in the UK so we are going to have a royal theme this month.

Level 1: 4 Books
Level 2: 6 Books
Level 3: 8 Books
Bonus: 10 + Books

Category One: Words
Queen
King
Crown
Prince
Princess

Category 2: Cover Match

A books with Red on the cover
A book with White on the cover
A book with Blue on the cover
A book with Pink on the cover
A book with Yellow/Gold on the cover

Category 3: Bonus

A book with a princess

~ And/Or ~

A Fairytale book
^ can be a fairytale retelling."

      And if more explaining is necessary, here are the details:
"You choose a level which determines how many books you want to try and read this month.
Then there are different categories. You can choose any of the categories you want and you can mix and match if you want to do that.

For the word category you just choose one of the words I have listed there for example Queen.
Then you would choose books that had each letter somewhere in the title,
e.g a book with a Q in the title, a book with U in the title, E in the title, E in the title and N in the title.

Then the next category is the cover match. You can try any or all of them or even none at all if you don't want to do that category. You just choose books based on the characteristics listed. So they are all colours so it'll just have to have that colour somewhere on the cover. Like the title could be red and it'll count.

Then you have the bonus round. You don't have to do it. And you just find books that fit into the category. In this instance as it's a ROYAL theme a book with a princess as a character or a fairytale retelling."
 -This was posted on Goodreads by OCD Kay {K-Books}

      So here is my response to the challenge:

I'm going to go for Bonus: 10+

My word is PRINCESS.

P
R
I
N Finished 6/1/12
C
E
S
S

And The Second Category

A book with Gold on the cover: finished, 6/10/12

Bonus Round:

A book with a princess:

And a fairytale retelling:

I'm getting out of school tomorrow, so I should be able to blow through these in the next 18 days!


     So now I am passing on that challenge to you! Will you meet your goal by June 30th? Let me know! Also, add me as a friend on Goodreads! Search Savannah Miller, and my profile picture on here is the same as on there :) Happy reading!

India!

     I will be leaving for India on Thursday! I am so excited! Ahhhhhhhh! I will be going there on a missions trip to open up some orphanages in Patna with my church for nine days! Apparently it's gonna be around 110 degrees during our trip, and we are required to wear all Indian clothing, sooooo, it's gonna be a hot one. And also humid. Anyway, I will be posting my travel journal entries, and plenty of pictures up here sometime after June 24th. Please check out the rest of my blog, and have a wonderful summer! :)

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

So, I just finished reading this book, and I absolutely LOVED it! I'm gonna have to get all cheesy and say that I'm already a fan of Max and Fang, or Fax (although I think Mang sounds cooler, but whatever). I need to either stop at the library or the bookstore and pick up the second book, because I am getting super antsy about it, and I've read every excerpt I could find, which is not a lot, mind you. I was so desperate that I looked at pretty much every spoiler of Mang (yeah, I'm gonna use my nickname for them, because you know what, it does sound cooler!) in every book. I have this "gut feeling" that I'm not going to enjoy Angel very much, but I've stuck with other book series that are very flip floppy, for instance The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. I did need a little push from my good friend the internet, which told me where exactly in the series something would get figured out (which was two  books after the problem was created). I will save those books for another time, though. For now, let me just get started on this review. So this was another easy read for me, but again, a really good book. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
     "Fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare--this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb--now her betrayed and greatest enemy--that her purpose is save the world--but can she?" ( book description from Amazon.com)
     The first reason I loved this book was that it kept me reading, and I read it in one sitting. I tend to do that with a lot of books, but I just really liked this one. The second (I know from some of the other reviews I've read that some people disliked the book because of this) is the style of writing. It did seem like an inexperienced teenager wrote it, which is why some didn't like it. The way I see it though, is that it is in the perspective of Max, who is actually fourteen, so it's a good thing Patterson wrote it this way. I remember being 14 and saying/ thinking (is the space supposed to be there? I've always wondered...) in the same style and with the same kind of language.  
     Now onto the story itself. I thought it was kind of strange in the beginning that Angel was the only member of the flock that had a special power besides flying, obviously. I liked Fang from the beginning of the book, and I had a feeling there would be some chemistry between Max and Fang, but it took a long time to really get there in this book. I also thought that the Gasman was a kind of cheesy nickname, but at least he had something beside a number. There are a few somewhat predictable plot twists in the story, but sometimes, I like predictable. It was really frustrating that the flock was constantly running into the erasers, and they never had a break. Also, it was frustrating how long it took the flock to save Angel on account of Max. Over all I really liked the book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy. The book is mostly a 7th or 8th grade reading level, but I enjoyed it all the same, and I'm a just now a Junior in high school, so I really think it depends more on the content of the story, and not so much the difficulty level. I hope you enjoyed this review :)

My Main Source of Punishment is Getting My Books Taken Away

     So, my parents both know about my extreme nerdiness. When most kids do bad things, they get their phone or iPod taken away. Sometimes they lose their laptop, or their TV privileges, or they aren't allowed to hang out with friends. What's my punishment? No reading! My parents have to come up with unique punishment to get me to stop doing bad things, because I don't care that much if they take away my phone or iPod, and I especially don't care if they take away my TV privileges. But take away my books, and I get PISSED! I am a serious book addict, and withdrawal could end in death. I don't think they realize this, but I will give you an example of just how addicted I am.
     So, a few months ago, around Christmas time, I was super hooked on the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I bought the first one in paperback along with another book that I started reading beforehand. That night, my mom took the other book away so I wouldn't be tempted to stay up all night reading it, but she mistakenly left the other book in my bedroom. When I was sure she was asleep, I picked up the book, turned on my flashlight, and stayed up all night finishing that book. When it was clear to my parents the next morning that I had stayed up all night, the book was found and taken away, which was pointless, because I had already finished it. Anyway, the next day, my brother came over, and I still had to buy gifts for everyone, but my mom always takes me shopping, so I can never get a gift for her when I go shopping for everyone else. So I made up the excuse that I needed to buy her a gift, and I got my brother to drive me to Meijer. I did get her a gift as well, but I also bought the next two books in the series. They were still in hardcover, which I complained about because hardcover = more expensive, but I'm really glad I bought them, otherwise the next events would never have happened. So my mom eventually found out that I had started reading the second book, and she asked me to bring it to her not long after. I anticipated this of course, so after I made sure she had seen the cover of the second book, I swapped the covers of the second and third books. Ha! Take that mom! Anyways, I had to do my reading in secret, and stayed up most of the night reading the second book. The next day, I was nonchalantly walking through my parents' bedroom, and I saw the third book sitting out on their dresser. I was like, Oh! How convenient! I'll just hurry up and finish the second book, and then switch the covers back! To my dismay, I didn't have much time to sneak away and read, so by the time I finally finished the second book, the third book was no longer waiting in plain sight on my parents' dresser. I went to bed very discouraged that night. The next day, though, I had color guard practice until nine PM.  By some series of fortunate events, (well, fortunate for me, but not so much for my dad) my dad got stuck at work super late, and my mom had to leave for work as soon as she dropped me off at home (she works nights). My dad would be gone for another hour, which left me approximately 3600 seconds to scour the house and find my book. Once I was 100% positive that my mom was on her way to work and not coming back, I crawled to my parents' bedroom (I had just had foot surgery and didn't want to bother with crutches). I carefully opened each and every drawer that I knew of and searched it thoroughly until I finally found it. I switched the covers, put the second book in the drawer, and frantically crawled back to my room, book in hand. I HAD OUTSMARTED MY PARENTS!!!!! I felt so clever. Infact, I would describe my level of cleverness as break-out-of-prison clever. I was on top of the world! I will be reviewing the Hunger Games series some time in the near future, but for now, this is the story of my serious addiction.

My Top Five Picks For Best Cover Art of 2012

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4.

5.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Uglies is the most recent book I've completed. Many of my friends had read this book in middle school, but none of them had never really recommended it to me. I did hear it was good, and it showed up in my recommendations list on Goodreads and on Amazon, but I still didn't go out of my way to read this book. I finally read it, though, when I found the third book, Specials, at a used book store and bought it. Since I never, ever, ever start in the middle of a series, I had to wait until I had a chance to go to the library and pick up the first book. It was a very easy read for me, but it was also a great book. I am a big fan of dystopian novels, so this was definitely my kind of story.
     "Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks, Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever." (Taken from the back cover of the book)
     When I first started reading the book, I thought what a lot of other people probably think at some point in their life: if only I could get an operation that made me pretty! I'm positive that some people think this, because many people like celebrities get liposuction, plastic surgery, botox, and other types of cosmetic surgery. The problem in this story is that they don't get a choice. They are brainwashed into thinking that they aren't pretty at all, and that they need the operation. The part that frustrated me the most was that Tally took way too long to realize that there are more important things in life than being pretty, and also that it is wrong to betray your friends. She was planning to go to great lengths to get her friend in trouble, just so that she could be pretty. So her character irritated me in the beginning, but she did change a lot throughout the book. I was sort of hoping that there wouldn't be a romantic aspect in this story, because I was getting a little fed up with all of the relationship problems that have been in the majority of the books I've been reading recently, but lo and behold, a boy comes along. An "ugly" boy who is 18 and never lived in Tally's town, or any town where they got the pretty operation. He tells Tally that she is beautiful, and who can resist that? He is a nice guy, but their entire relationship is based on Tally's lies, which pissed me off a bit. But Tally was very human, which made her character very believable, which is probably why I liked the book so much. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars, and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of dystopian novels.

Let Me Introduce Myself

Welcome to my new blog! I'm Savannah, and this is where I will be posting my reviews about books that I've read, authors I love, cover art, and other stuff. Let me tell you a little bit about myself: my favorite genres of book are young adult, paranormal, fantasy, dystopian, teen romance, thriller, and some historical fiction. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo has been my favorite book since I was in third grade. My favorite teen romance author is Sarah Dessen (if you like teen romance/ realistic fiction novels, you should DEFINITELY check her out). My favorite historical fiction author is Jane Austen, even though it wasn't exactly historical fiction when she wrote it, besides some mention of the war of 1812. My favorite dystopian writer is Suzanne Collins, auther of The Hunger Games series. My favorite fantasy author is Cassandra Clare. Richelle Mead is my favorite paranormal author. My favorite thriller author is Stephen King. My over-all favorite author is J. K. Rowling (I can't believe Harry Potter is completely over!) Anyway, I will start reviewing books very soon. I hope you enjoy!