Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal - Jeff Kinney

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal - Kinney, Jeff

Summary: Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.


Fabian's Review
The book is great. This book is a fun book to read. And it is a funny book and it is also a great book for kids that who really do not like to read. When you start reading this book, it is going to be kinda hard to put it down. I loved it.

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You're the One that I want - Cecily Von Ziegesar

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You're the One that I Want - Von Ziegesar, Cecily 
Summary: After an agonizing wait for college acceptance letters, Blair, Serena, Nate, and their classmates at elite Manhattan prep schools discover that their college choice depends a lot on relationships--old and new. 


Cecilia's Review It's spring on the Upper East Side and all the senior girls and boys are finding out which colleges accepted them. Serena van der Woodsen goes off to the schools that accepted her and falls in love with every school (tour guides included). Will she be able to make the right choice? Blair Waldorf has her eye on Yale and only Yale. Nate Archibald decides to test how bad each school wants them but, will that help him to choose the right school? Vanessa Abrams and Dan Humphrey decide to take a big step in their relationship by moving in together. Dan is debating whether or not to stay in New York for college. Dan's little sister, Jenny, idolizes Serena and pursues a modeling career. Decisions, decisions. Who knows if they will make the right ones. Most of the characters find spots at colleges or universities in the northeastern United States, conveniently within watch of the Gossip Girl, who will no doubt be reporting on them for many volumes to come. This series is quite addictive, and as the other Gossip Girl books, you wont be able to stop reading it. I definitely enjoyed reading this book. 
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Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

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Charlotte's Web - White, E.B. 
Summary: Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him. 



Jinnee's Review A little piglet, Wilbur, was saved from a horrible fate by a little girl named Fern. When he's all grown up, his life was in danger again. He met a spider named Charlotte and she is trying to save Wilbur's life by using her web. I think this is a good book because you can learn about friendship, trust, love and how important they are. Interest readers need to understand how writers uses metaphor to express their message of the book. I loved it. 
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The Good, Bad, and Ugly

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Holy holiday craziness! I love this time of year but it sure gets busy.I’ve been slacking on my blogging duties a little (nothing new) but I do have afew announcements for you.

The Good
I love The Onion. You know The Onion, right? The satirical news…um…paper.Can we call things “newspapers” anymore? They hardly exist. Newspapers are kindof relics, like speak-and-spells or centrist republicans.
Anyway, I’ve always loved The Onion and recently I had several ideasfor fake news stories that I thought would be perfect for them. One problemthough, they don’t take submissions! They have staff writers that come up withall of their content. That’s both impressive (the same people come up with suchoriginal humor day after day) and depressing (because I’m not one of them). 

Rather than setting my ideas aside I looked around and found a fewOnion-like satirical online news sources that do accept submissions. Over thelast week I’ve had 3 stories published on Glossy News.
CHECK THEM OUT!
P.S. - If you’ve never written satire you should give it a try. It’s aton of fun. I try to keep my stories funny but inoffensive.  That having been said, as you can tell fromthe comments on the Palin story, if you touch on politics or religion, chancesare pretty good that you’re going to offend someone. I just try not to be meanabout it (note: the caption and picture on the Palin story are a little meanbut those were contributed by the editor, not me).
The Bad
Rejection letters aren’t good. No matter how much we butter them up aslearning experiences or chances to grow, rejection letters suck. That’s whythis bit of news is under the “Bad” category. However, some rejection lettersare better than others and some are freaking amazing. I recently had a short storyrejected by the online science fiction magazine Bewildering Stories. Thewonderful folks at BS (nice abbreviation) not only take the time and effort tohave a team of reviewers look at every story that comes in, they go above andbeyond to actually tell you what they think! Instead of a form “this story isn’tright for us” you get a whole personalized email telling you exactly why yourstory was rejected and what they think might improve it. Submit your stuff tothem. They’re awesome.
The Ugly
While getting a rejection letter is bad, getting no response is worse. I realize that some agents and publishers don't respond to most queries/submittals but they usually warn authors on their website. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about a market that promises a response but don't come through. For example, I submitted a science fiction short story (probably the best thing I've ever written) to the fledgling online magazine Specutopia in mid October. 
Like I do with every submission, I played the waiting game. I tried not to think too much about how many days it had been in review. I got excited when the story wasn't rejected in the average response time. I got worried when the response time went past the average, then double, but I waited to contact the editor until the minimum 60 days specified on the website. In the meantime their website stopped working altogether. At 60 days I queried and after a week without a response I withdrew the story.
I'm sure Sepcutopia wasn't planning on going out of business or falling into a black hole or whatever happened to them. I'm not mad at them for that. What butters my bread is the lack of communication. A one sentence email or a brief announcement on their website would have saved me weeks of stress and allowed me to sent that story, my favorite story, somewhere else. So screw you Specutopia. I'm glad you're dead.
The Good - Part 2
I almost forgot. I’m scheduled to have my science fiction short story “LightningFlashed” (which is the same story that was rejected by Bewildering Stories) in the 4th issue of Dark Edifice in early February! Those of you that have beenfollowing my antics for a while may have already read this story when it waspublished on OnFictionWriting. It may not be a new story but it’s still cool to get itout there for new readers. I’ll let everyone know when it’s out. 
Happy New Year!

Lollipop and Grandpa's Back Garden Safari - Penelope Harper and illustrated by Cate James

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Summary:
Back gardens have never been this exciting! Lollipop and Grandpa are intrepid explorers, always on the lookout for the next adventure! It’s often just the two of them against the world in their expeditions, armed only with ham sandwiches and imagination. In this book they set out on an exciting expedition in the back garden where they encounter Chimpan-trees, a Hippo-potta-compost and even a Croco-logus. They’re prepared for action, but will Lollipop and Grandpa make it back home safely?~~~

I was given this book a little while ago and I completely fell in love with it. The story is charming, imaginative and heart-warming. It's great for kids who want to have some adventures in their garden or in the park - instead of a boring patch of grass, they can discover a world full of danger and scary creatures like the Chimpan-trees or the Croco-logus. Any corner of the garden can transform into a scary creature and there really isn't a peaceful place to eat ham sandwiches!
The illustrations by Edinburgh-based illustrator Cate James are simply fantastic. They're very stylish and evocative and play on textures as well as colour. The font is really easy to read and Penelope Harper's story is well-paced, funny and an amazing springboard for children's imagination. 
This is an adorable book for grandparents to read to their own little explorers and this is the start of an amazing picture book series about Lollipop's adventures with her Grandpa. Thumbs up from me!

Lollipop and Grandpa's Back Garden Safari, by Penelope Harper and illustrated by Cate James | 2012 | Phoenix Books | Age 3 to 5 | Gift

Speculative Fiction Top 10 of 2012

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Hey guys!

It's that time of year again! Here's my Speculative Fiction Top 10 novels of 2012!

Enjoy!
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1- The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

In Ian Tregillis' The Coldest War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Britain and the USSR. For decades, Britain's warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union—a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. Now each wizard's death is another blow to Britain's national security.

Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary people with superhuman abilities, then prisoners of war in the immense Soviet research effort to reverse-engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England.

Because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him.

As Marsh is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.



2- Kings of the Morning by Paul Kearney (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

For the first time in recorded history, the ferocious city-states of the Macht now acknowledge a single man as their overlord. Corvus, the strange and brilliant boy-general, is now High King, having united his people in a fearsome, bloody series of battles and sieges. He is not yet thirty years old. A generation ago, ten thousand of the Macht marched into the heart of the ancient Asurian Empire, and fought their way back out again, passing into legend. Corvus’s father was one of those who undertook that march, and his most trusted general, Rictus, was leader of those ten thousand. But he intends to do more. The preparations will take years, but when they are complete, Corvus will lead an invasion the like of which the world of Kuf has never seen. Under him, the Macht will undertake nothing less than the overthrow of the entire Asurian Empire.

Kings of Morning is the thrilling conclusion to Paul Kearney's Macht trilogy.


3- Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

We are not alone.

The alien protomolecule is clear evidence of an intelligence beyond human reckoning. No one knows what exactly is being built on Venus, but whatever it is, it is vast, powerful, and terrifying.

When a creature of unknown origin and seemingly impossible physiology attacks soldiers on Ganymede, the fragile balance of power in the Solar System shatters. Now, the race is on to discover if the protomolecule has escaped Venus, or if someone is building an army of super-soldiers.

Jim Holden is the center of it all. In spite of everything, he's still the best man for the job to find out what happened on Ganymede. Either way, the protomolecule is loose and Holden must find a way to stop it before war engulfs the entire system.

CALIBAN'S WAR is an action-packed space adventure following in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Leviathan Wakes.


4- Rapture by Kameron Hurley (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

After years in exile, Nyxnissa so Dasheem is once more a bel dame, part of a sisterhood of elite government assassins trained to a cut a target's head off without remorse. But the end of a centuries-long war has thrown her native land of Nasheen into turmoil. A huge influx of unemployed--and unemployable--young soldiers have brought Nasheen to the brink of civil war, even as an alien spaceship stations itself in orbit above the capital.

With aliens in the sky and revolution on the ground, Nyx figures it's a good time to get the hell out of Nasheen, so she assembles a team of renegades, shape-shifters, magicians, and mercenaries to rescue a missing political leader who may be the difference between peace and bloodshed.

Just one problem: the politician is an old enemy whom Nyx once left to die in a ditch . . .



5- The Straits of Galahesh by Bradley P. Beaulieu (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

West of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya lies the Empire of Yrstanla, the Motherland. The Empire has lived at peace with Anuskaya for generations, but with political turmoil brewing and the wasting disease still rampant, opportunists from the mainland have begun to set their sights on the Grand Duchy, seeking to expand their empire.

Five years have passed since Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, was tasked with finding Nasim, the child prodigy behind a deadly summoning that led to a grand clash between the armies of man and elder elemental spirits. Today, that boy has grown into a young man driven to understand his past - and the darkness from which Nikandr awakened him. Nikandr's lover, Atiana, has become a Matra, casting her spirit forth to explore, influence, and protect the Grand Duchy. But when the Al-Aqim, long thought lost to the past, return to the islands and threaten to bring about indaraqiram - a change that means certain destruction for both the Landed and the Landless - bitter enemies must become allies and stand against their horrific plans.

From Bradley P. Beaulieu, author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Winds of Khalakovo, comes Book Two of The Lays of Anuskaya, The Straits of Galahesh.


6- Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

Forge of Darkness: Now is the time to tell the story of an ancient realm, a tragic tale that sets the stage for all the tales yet to come and all those already told...

It's a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power… and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners' great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted by his followers to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold...

Steven Erikson entered the pantheon of great fantasy writers with his debut Gardens of the Moon. Now he returns with the first novel in a trilogy that takes place millennia before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and introduces readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness. It is the epic story of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in shaping the world of the Malazan Empire.



7- Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

Army Officer. Fugitive. Sorcerer.

Across the country and in every nation, people are waking up with magical talents. Untrained and panicked, they summon storms, raise the dead, and set everything they touch ablaze.

Army officer Oscar Britton sees the worst of it. A lieutenant attached to the military's Supernatural Operations Corps, his mission is to bring order to a world gone mad. Then he abruptly manifests a rare and prohibited magical power, transforming him overnight from government agent to public enemy number one.

The SOC knows how to handle this kind of situation: hunt him down--and take him out. Driven into an underground shadow world, Britton is about to learn that magic has changed all the rules he's ever known, and that his life isn't the only thing he's fighting for.


8- Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old stepfather Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own, and out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust. . .


9- King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

The boy who would be King has gained the throne...

Prince Honorious Jorg Ancrath vowed when he was nine to avenge his slaughtered mother and brother—and punish his father for not doing so. When he was fifteen, he began to fulfill that vow. Now he is eighteen—and he must hold on by strength of arms to what he took by torture and treachery.

King Jorg is a man haunted: by the ghost of a young boy, by a mysterious copper box, by his desire for the woman who rides with his enemy. Plagued by nightmares of the atrocities he committed, and of the atrocities committed against him when he was a child, he is filled with rage. And even as his need for revenge continues to consume him, twenty thousand men march toward the gates of his castle. His enemy is far stronger than him. Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight.

But he has found, in a chamber hidden beneath the castle, ancient and long-lost artifacts. Some might call them magic. Jorg is not certain—all he knows is that the secrets they hold can be put to terrible use in the coming battle...


10- The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

Bobby Dollar would like to know what he was like when he was alive, but too much of his time is spent working as an extremely minor functionary in the heavenly host judging recently departed souls.

Until the day a soul goes missing, presumed stolen by ‘the other side’.

A new chapter in the war between heaven and hell is about to open. And Bobby is right in the middle of it, with only a desirable but deadly demon to aid him.
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Although many of the heavyweights are absent, it's been another good year for speculative fiction readers everywhere!

Roll on 2013! =)

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (December 17th)

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In hardcover:

Jim Butcher's Cold Days is down eleven spots, finishing the week at number 12. For more information about this title: Canada, USA, Europe.

George R. R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons is down two spots, finishing the week at number 22. For more info about this title: Canada, USA, Europe.

In paperback:

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is down one position, ending the week at number 8 (trade paperback).

Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is down two spots, finishing the week at number 11 (trade paperback).

George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones is up thirteen positions, ending the week at number 11.

Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus is down one spot, finishing the week at number 14 (trade paperback).

Stephen King's 11/22/63 is up one position, ending the week at number 16 (trade paperback).

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game returns at number 17.

Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole is up one position, ending the week at number 19 (trade paperback).

George R. R. Martin's A Feast for Crows is up seven positions, ending the week at number 22.

George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords is up seven spots, finishing the week at number 23.

George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings returns at number 33.