Teaser Tuesdays (19)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

'Anything hazardous in here, son?'
'What? You mean... apart from my big bomb?' sighed Howard with a lazy smile. ~ p.78, TimeRiders: Day Of The Predator by Alex Scarrow.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (19)

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through Books.

In the past week I read:

Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love 4/5 - review
Sebastian Fitzek - Therapy 5/5 - review
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games 5/5 - review
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 4.5/5 - review

At the moment I'm reading:

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

In the next week I hope to read:

Alex Scarrow - TimeRiders: Day Of The Predator
Pittacus Lore - I Am Number Four
Alyson Noel - Shadowland

In My Mailbox (17)

In My Mailbox is a meme created by The Story Siren, and sums up my past week in book purchases!

So this week I bought 5 books:

Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge...

~~~~~

Rick Riordan - The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

~~~~~

Meg Cabot - Love You To Death & High Stakes

Meet Susannah Simon: she's a typical teenage girl, who just happens to be a ghost-hunter ...oh, and she's also dead-over-heels for Jesse - the sexiest spook ever! But can this girl get her ghost? In "Love You to Death", Suze arrives in California and has barely unpacked when her mediator skills are put to the test. A vicious spirit in her new school is hell-bent on making her life a complete nightmare, but Suze is more than ready to kick some serious ghost butt if she has to. In "High Stakes", Suze's new life is looking up - cool friends, pool parties and getting to know Jesse (swoon), but then a desperate spirit asks for her help. Suddenly she's on the trail of a creepy local businessman, who just might be a vampire. Life just got dead complicated. Again.

~~~~~

Tess Gerritsen - Presumed Guilty

Miranda's ex-lover is found murdered. She had a motive and the opportunity. After being arrested for the crime, Miranda is shocked to learn she's been released on bail--bail posted by someone determined to remain anonymous. Is someone trying to help Miranda? Or is someone trying to manipulate Miranda and draw her into the dark and secret world of a murdered man, where everybody's presumed guilty?

~~~~~

Tess Gerritsen - Whistleblower

The man emerged from the mist, right in front of Cathy Weaver's car--running from killers who were closing in on him. Victor Holland's story sounded like the ravings of a man on the brink of madness, but his claim to be a fugitive was confirmed by the haunted look in his eyes--and the bullet hole in his shoulder. As each hour brings pursuers ever closer, Cathy has to wonder, is she giving her trust to a man in danger or trusting her life to a dangerous man?

~~~~~

And I also received this as part of a book ring:

Sebastian Fitzek - Therapy

Dr. Viktor Larenz’ life ended the day his 12-year-old daughter, Josy, vanished without a trace. Now, with his marriage and his career as a TV psychiatrist in tatters, he retreats to a remote island cottage to work on an article marking the fourth anniversary of Josy’s disappearance.

Viktor’s solitude is shattered by the appearance of a mysterious woman named Anna Glass. A schizophrenic author who claims she meets characters from her stories in real life, Anna begs for Viktor’s help. Reluctantly, he agrees—but when he recognizes Josy in one of her delusions, it becomes clear that Anna is not what she seems.

Top Ten Picks: Fictional Places

Top Ten Picks is a weekly meme by Jillian about your top 10 picks! Each week, there will be a different theme and this weeks theme is 'fictional places'. So here are my top 10 fictional places (in no particular order) ~

Places I'd Love To Visit

1. Hogwarts (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)

I would absolutely love to go and learn at Hogwarts, magical lessons during the day, big feasts for tea, and Quidditch for fun, what more could you ask for?!

2. Susie's Heaven (The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold)



Of course I don't want to be dead, after all, who does? But if I died and went to a place like the heaven described in The Lovely Bones, I'd be pretty happy.

3. Forks (Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer)



I hate summer, so the thought of somewhere where it rains a lot and generally has pretty bad weather is the place for me! There also is that little matter of perhaps bumping into one of the rather lovely Cullens too...!

4. Stonehaven (The Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong)



I loves the wolves in this series, and I really wish I could be one of them so I could live at Stonehaven with Jeremy! I think it would be pretty awesome to just go running free on the land whenever you wanted!

5. House of Night (House of Night series by P.C. & Kristin Cast)



Another school, but this time a vampire one. I love vampires, so learning their histories and how to become one is pretty darn cool in my book.

Places I Wouldn't Want To Visit

6. Bon Temps (The Southern Vampire mysteries by Charlaine Harris)



I love Bon Temps and there are many places there I'd love to visit, such as Merlotte's, and Sookie's house. However, with all the wars, and the random disappearances, I think I'd be better off not visiting!

7. The Arena (The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins)



Not really a place anyone would want to be. After all, it's kill or be killed and I have a feeling I'd die pretty quickly in that place!

8. The Forest (The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan)



Again, not a place you'd like to be, surrounded by zombies that will bite you in a blink of an eye. You'd either be eaten to death, or you'd become one, neither is a particularly fun fate!

9. Morganville (Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine)



Who would want to live in a town where mean vampires are the bosses and humans are food. Get caught out after dark and you're guaranteed to become dinner, would be rather scary wouldn't it.

10. Europe, 6000 Years Ago (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver)



Just seems like such a harsh and brutal place to be, not to mention incredibly scary. Couldn't imagine having to walk for days, hunt for the simplest of foods and fight with possessed animals.

So where are your favourite fictional places?

Therapy by Sebastian Fitzek

No. of pages: 348
Rating: 10/10

Synopsis: Dr. Viktor Larenz’ life ended the day his 12-year-old daughter, Josy, vanished without a trace. Now, with his marriage and his career as a TV psychiatrist in tatters, he retreats to a remote island cottage to work on an article marking the fourth anniversary of Josy’s disappearance.

Viktor’s solitude is shattered by the appearance of a mysterious woman named Anna Glass. A schizophrenic author who claims she meets characters from her stories in real life, Anna begs for Viktor’s help. Reluctantly, he agrees—but when he recognizes Josy in one of her delusions, it becomes clear that Anna is not what she seems.

Review: Dr. Viktor Larenz is a renowned Psychotherapist, but his life falls apart the day his 12 year old daughter Josy disappears. Fours year later, Viktor is taking a break on the island of Parkum, when a strange woman called Anna Glass insists she needs him to give her therapy sessions. When she starts talking about a character in her book, a young girl that ran away, Viktor wonders if she could possibly be referring to his daughter, and if he might he find out what happened to her after all?

This book was quite frankly, one of the best I've read in the psychological thriller genre. The whole thing from start to finish was written to play with your mind, and it does it oh so well too. When you think you've guessed what happened, something else is revealed blowing your theories out of the water. The story is well written, as are the characters, and I was so gripped I found it impossible to put down until I was finished. The ending was a complete surprise, which I didn't see coming at all, and I love those kinds of endings. I cannot recommend this higly enough to fans of this genre. When more of his work is translated, I will be first in the queue!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

No. of pages: 348
Rating: 8/10

Synopsis: Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Review: Elizabeth Gilbert is in her early 30's, married, and trying for a baby when she decides she doesn't want this life anymore. After a messy divorce and a disasterous rebound relationship, she decides to take a year to travel and try to find herself. During her four months in Italy, she learns the pleasure of eating good food; the four months in India, the art of meditation; and in Indonesia, she mixes the two and finds love again.

I had been thinking about reading this book for a while, but when I saw the advert for the movie about to be released, I really wanted to read it. I'm not sure if it was exactly what I was expecting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I really enjoyed the first section about Italy, she made me wish I were there with her eating that delicious food and enjoying the fantastic sites. The section about India I didn't enjoy so much. There were long sections about meditation and religion, which I found a bit hard to struggle thorough, and also the bits where she ascended to a 'higher plane' I found a bit...stupid to be honest. I do appreciate that these are her experiences, but they just seemed a bit unbelievable to me, perhaps because I'm not religious, I don't know. When she got to Bali, I found myself enjoying it again, it was a lot like the Italy section which I was glad about. I loved the multitude of colourful personalities throughout the book and overall I did enjoy it, even though there were bits I didn't like too. I think it's a book that opinions will divide because it will appeal or not appeal depending on each reader's life experiences. I'm not sure if or who I would recommend it too, but I'm glad that I read it, and I feel that it's given me a different perspective on a few things.