Booking Through Thursday #3

Well, the book I'm reading is taking me longer than planned.  I should have gone ahead and posted a Waiting on Wednesday yesterday, but didn't.  So I will have to go ahead and post this today, and maybe, hopefully, my review of my book tomorrow.  So, even though it looks like the prompt is from 2 weeks ago, here here is my third time of Booking Through Thursday: (P.S. - I like this meme, but maybe need to make a new button for it that won't be either really tiny or blurry.)

Which is better (or preferred) … stories with multiple character points of view? Or stories that stick to just one or two at most? And, why?

This is a really good question I think.  I do enjoy stories with multiple character points of view, especially when told from a first person point of view.  But, the characters must sound different enough as I read them that I don't forget who we are reading about just because I'm no longer on the first page of that section where their name is.  For example, Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys series is actually done in 3rd person, but the different character points of view are done in a way that is really great!  Unfortunately, even though I am a big fan of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, I did not enjoy his newer Kane Chronicles series, because of this very reason.  I had trouble remembering who was the chapter narrator because they sounded so close.  Now I never read on past The Red Pyramid in that series, so who knows, maybe it got better.  
So tell me what you think about this topic?  Do you like just one point of view, or multiple?  And would you prefer it be in first person, or third person?
 

The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again I am in love with Rick Riordan and his world of mythological creatures and demigods! I put off reading this for so long because when his other new series, The Kane Chronicles, came out, I couldn't wait to start reading it. And then, unfortunately, I was quite disappointed. And I love Egyptian mythology, so that was very sad to me. But the way the story was told, between the two characters, I had trouble sometimes remembering which person I was reading from their point of view. Which really made it hard to let the story take me away. But with this new Heroes of Olympus series, I was grabbed again and sucked back into the story, just like I was back with the Percy Jackson series.

We have a new group of demigods in this story to follow around, but some of the old ones, as well as other characters are back. Of course we still have all the Greek gods, but we now learn about the Roman gods and how they relate to the Greek ones and demigods. Percy Jackson has disappeared, and at the same time a new demigod, Jason, has just shown up out of nowhere. Now, the kids he is dropped in with have all these memories as if they've known him, but soon learn it is just the Mist messing with their memories. And of course, something is brewing, and there is a quest. The kids get to Camp Halfblood where it should be safe for them, but not without danger along the way! There they meet Annabeth who is looking for Percy.
One of our other new demigods is Piper, who is the daughter of a famous movie-star. What I like about this story is that we know kind of from the get-go that Piper may betray her friends. Her dad has been kidnapped, and she is being contacted by something evil. And this evil has said she must keep the quest from being successful if she wants to save her dad. The other of the three new ones is Leo, who is a son of Hephaestus. I have to say I just loved Leo. His character is so funny. I also felt him to be very relatable. He felt as if he was a nobody, that his friends had all the power. But he can withstand fire, and even create it! And he is great with fixing things. I also love how his "type" of girl are the ones that are way out of his league and he knows are not attracted to him. Again, that seems to be my "type" of guy. He also has secrets he doesn't want to share with his friends, and worries about whether he can help or if he'll be causing the quest to fail.
And finally we have our Jason. Jason can't remember who he really is, but he seems to have a lot more memories of the Roman gods as opposed to the Greek ones. At Camp Halfblood, Chiron knows he is, and tells him he should be dead. But then won't explain why? Hera, or Juno in Roman mythology, comes to the demigods saying she needs their help in order to prevent another evil from taking over, even though the Titans were defeated before. And as the story goes on, we learn more and more about Jason, but in very small doses. We're given just little tidbits that fill in some blanks, but still leave you hanging till the end to find out more.
Some great new characters/gods in this book. I loved King Midas, he was funny, as well as Aeolus, also really amusing to read his part in the book. I'm now so excited to go on with this series, and you'd think as part of my "September is for Sequels Challenge" that I'd read on in the series, but alas, I have other books on the list to get rid of. This does help me out in getting the current Truman nominees read, because I hadn't read them all yet. But doesn't help with the ones I need to help read for next year.

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The Goddess Hunt (Goddess Test #1.5) by Aimee Carter

So, I was getting ready to read my brand new autographed copy of Goddess Interrupted from BEA, when I saw something on the bookmark I got with it about this story.  And I know that you don't usually HAVE to read the short stories set in between the novels to keep up, but I decided to go ahead and quickly download the $1.99 e-book on my Nook and read it before I jumped into the next full length story.  This was an interesting and short look into Kate's world in the 6 months after she's married Henry (Hades), and has been sent out into the world to have experiences before she spend her first 6 months with Henry ruling the Underworld.  In it, she's taken off with James (Hermes), to do some sightseeing, and of course the first, and most likely place they visit is Greece.  James seems to have a plan though when he takes Kate and they get "lost" on a hike in the woods. It is here that they run into Castor and Pollux, who are on the run of course from the other gods.  See, one was immortal, the other was not, and they wanted to share the immortality, but Zeus, now called Harold, tricked them, and said while they could share, one would be on the surface, while one would be in the Underworld.  And the thing was that they had wanted to be together!  So Pollux has broken Castor out of the Underworld.  Well, James has always been nice to them, and so he seems to want to just visit with them.  But instead, they end up running into other gods.  I think the point of this little story is to give us a look into how Kate will rule the Underworld.  As we saw in the first book, The Goddess Test, she doesn't agree that the way the council of gods often rules or makes their decisions makes sense.  Henry learns that he doesn't want to lose his wife, and that her decisions are a fresh, new outlook that is probably needed in their world.
I read this really quickly, and moved on to Goddess Interrupted.  I have to say that what I am really liking about these books is that they are doing the same thing that the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan did in a way.  As I read about the stories of the gods as told by Aimee Carter, the author, I am having to go back and look up the actual myths to see how close the interpretations are.  And I love that!!

Top 10 Tuesday: Books You Want Made Into Movies

I know, I know, it's Wednesday. But when I was scrolling through my blog reading list this morning, I saw this meme on other's and thought it was such a neat topic that I'd join in this week and now have something to do on Tuesdays as well. This is sponsored by The Broke and the Bookish, and I look forward to participating in this because I enjoy lists as well. Now I thought this would be fun, so let's see if I can come up with 10 books!

1. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I love this series, and since zombie movies really seem to need a good storyline anymore, I think this would be a great one to start with. And then the two sequels could make for a series of movies.

2. The Gone series by Michael Grant. I love this story about a bunch of kids left alone when all the adults, or people over a certain age just disappear. There are some great monsters and scary parts that could really draw in people.

3. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Yes, I know they already made a movie. But I'd like them to re-do it, making it more true to the book so that they can go on and make the rest of the books into movies as well.

4. Another series I'd love to see re-done that they messed up on the very first book is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. That movie was so bad, they even had the mother killed at the end of the movie, thereby screwing up any chance of making the rest of the books into movies.

5. I also think the Suite Scarlett series by Maureen Johnson could make for a very humorous movie. Especially if they let the author help out around the set and with the script writing!

6. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. In my love of dystopian books lately, I think this would be a great movie. There are so many scenes that would be so dramatic in a theater.

7. Another dystopian book I've really enjoyed lately is Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I can see as this is supposed to be a series, it might even make for a good tv series.

8. I do think the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer would make for a great movie, or again I could see them as a tv series. On the WB or UPN. :-)

9. I think that after Julie and Julia was such a hit, and Eat, Pray, Love too, that another memoir that would be fun would be The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure. It would be so fun to see her travel to all the different Little House on the Prairie locations and the story was so entertaining it wouldn't even have to be a documentary, it could be done as a fun movie like the two I mentioned at the beginning of this.

10. Finally, wow, there are so many that I love, trying to find one more that I think would make a good movie. I think the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro would be an intersting historical fiction movie about Typhoid Mary. I would go see it.

Wow, I did it!

Waiting on Wednesday - The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus)

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. It's a weekly post for you to share what upcoming books you can't wait for!

This week I am very eagerly awaiting the latest book by Rick Riordan about Percy Jackson and the other Camp Half-Blood characters we grew to love in The Lightning Thief and it's four sequels.

The info about this says it will pick up after Percy has defeated Kronos and goes back with his friends to rebuild Camp Half-Blood. Specifically we will be joining a new generation of demigods, but fortunately it says they will get a little help from our favorite demigods, which would be Percy, Anabeth, and hopefully Grover as well. This is currently set to be released in October 2010. At one time it was listed as October 22, which would have been my birthday, but since then Riordan tweeted that it was actually a week or so earlier.

Now, if only someone would go back and re-do the movie, which messed up soooooo much from the books, that anyone who had read them came out of the theater disappointed. Just ask my students that I read it with in our Greater Gator class. :-)

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted, and I'm actually going to skip a few books I've read since I'm so behind. But I'll jump back in with the new series by one of my favorite YA authors, Rick Riordan. While this had some really interesting stuff with all the Egyptian mythology mixed in, I must say I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the the Percy Jackson series. I think part of it is the way it skipped back and forth between the 2 narrators, who were brother and sister. It got confusing and I don't know, it's just not my cup of tea. I think kids will enjoy it though. And I will of course recommend it to all who enjoyed Percy Jackson.

I know this is a really short post, but it has been a week or two since I finished the book, so I'm going to go on to another book now.

Book Review 12: The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

Now, let me start off by saying that this was a good enough book. Whenever I picked it up, it was hard to put down, but it did have some issues, or at least it did for me.

First, the cover, the main character is supposed to be only 12 years old, but the girl on the cover looks older to me, so that was a bit misleading. But I guess to sell it to teens, the section it is in our bookstore at, you probably have to do that. The main character is Fern, she has a twin brother named Sam, and an older brother named Eddie. They call their mother the Commander. Well, Fern has some special powers. She talks to the dog, and hears him talk back. She can predict the weather, and hear people from far away, when they're talking about her anyway. And she comes to find out that she is a vampire, or as they call themselves now, otherworldlies.

This book brings in Greek mythology in this. It is in a way that makes me wonder if they read the Lightning Thief before writing this. Another similarity is how the vampires/otherworldlies want to come out to "normals" or humans and live side by side. I've now read about this in the Suck it Up by Brian Meehl I read earlier from this list, as well as it is a big part of the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series. Not that it's a bad thing, just very familiar to me right now.

There's a big deal about good and bad vampires and not knowing for sure who is good, and the good guys aren't always out for keeping Fern and her family safe, and not knowing who to trust, but in the end Fern does good and everyone is safe. I also see that it is left open for a sequel, so who knows when we might see another in a series. Why not, it's what everyone else is doing.

Tonight I started My Father's Son by Terri Fields. Should be done with it by tomorrow.