Waiting on Wednesday #1

This week I decided to start doing Waiting on Wednesday. Waiting on Wednesday is a meme that is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

So, the other day I was thinking, “I can’t believe it’s almost October. Wait a minute it’s almost October!” There are so many books coming out in October that I can’t wait to get my hands on. This week I’m waiting for a book that comes out on the 5^th: Behomoth by Scott Westerfeld.

Summary from goodreads.com:

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.

Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory. Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead.

I read Leviathan and absolutely loved it. I’m a huge Scott Westerfeld fan, too so that makes me even more excited to read this book. Can’t wait till the 5^th!

Review: Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country by Allan Richard Shickman

Synopsis from goodreads.com:           

The prehistoric saga continues in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country, the sequel to the award winning Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure. In this story, Zan s troubled twin brother, Dael, having suffered greatly during his earlier captivity, receives a ruinous new shock when his wife suddenly dies. Disturbed and traumatized, all of his manic energies explode into acts of hostility and bloodshed. His obsession is the destruction of the wasp men, his first captors, who dwell in the Beautiful Country. When he, Zan-Gah, and a band of adventurers trek to their bountiful home, they find that all of the wasp people have died in war or of disease. The Beautiful Country is empty for the taking, and Zan s people, the Ba-Coro, decide to migrate and resettle there. But the Noi, Dael s cruelest enemies and former tormentors, make the same migration from their desert home, and the possibility develops of contention and war over this rich and lovely new land.

My Review:

I liked Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country more than the first book. One thing I liked about it was it did a much better job at catching your attention in the beginning and pulling you into the story than the first one. It also holds your attention throughout the book a little bit better.

I also really loved the characters better in this book. I really liked Pax, Zan’s wife a lot. She was probably my favorite character from the books. However, I still felt like I wasn’t connecting to the characters as well as I should have. For me, one of the most important things in a story, are the characters. If I can’t connect with them, and feel how they feel, think the way they think, then that makes the story less enjoyable.

I liked the plot and thought it was really good. It’s a good story that should be read, but I felt that the writing was a little bit less than it should have been for this story. I still really liked the ending though. The ending was perfect for this book. Not all books have endings that really fit the story and make it even better, the way this one does.

Overall, this book is a nice, short read with a good plot, plenty of action, and something to think about. I give it 6/10.

Apology and Update

           Sorry for not posting for the past month. When school started, for some reason, I thought it wouldn’t take up as much time as it does. I think my problem is that I’m taking too many classes. I don’t have a study hall and I have to take early bird gym (that means I have to have gym before school every other day). There were even a couple of nights, where all I did (other than eat and check my e-mail) was homework. We had gotten a project on a Monday, and it was due at the end of class on Wednesday. It was a big project, too.

            But, none of this should be an excuse for not posting a single thing in a month. That’s why I am going to try a LOT harder to post way more often. I think I’m starting to get used to school, so I think it might be getting easier to post stuff now.

            Now, there have been a few good things that came out of school starting. Before this year, as far as I knew, no one I knew that went to my school had read The Hunger Games. About the second week of school, I found out that about half of my Language Arts class was in the process of reading one of the books in the series. I saw people reading Mockingjay and I got incredibly excited (I’m a HUGE Hunger Games fan). I must have heard it mentioned at least once a day for a couple of weeks. Let’s just say, I thought it was awesome.

            There are also the assemblies. No matter how boring they are at the time, it is kind of funny. My school has the stupidest assemblies ever. I’m not joking. On the first day of school we had an assembly. This is what happened, in order:

1.      We had to stand up for ten minutes as we watched the seniors come in and find a seat.

2.      The principal gave a 5 minute speech about Thomas Jefferson (my school is named after him).

3.      Three teachers sang a song to the tune of We Will Rock You. Instead of We Will Rock You, it was We Will Teach You.

And that is the reason why our assemblies are so stupid. Maybe I’ll tell you about some of the other ones some other time because all three of the assemblies we’ve had so far have been really, really stupid.

            Anyway, I’m back and I’m going to be posting more than ever (hopefully)!