great month for book reading since i'm holed up in the hotel room for 2 weeks with little internet and tv selections.
11. battle hymn of the tiger mother by amy chua
An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way.
All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua's iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, her way-the Chinese way-and the remarkable results her choice inspires.
But Chua demands as much of herself as she does of her daughters. And in her sacrifices-the exacting attention spent studying her daughters' performances, the office hours lost shuttling the girls to lessons-the depth of her love for her children becomes clear. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is an eye-opening exploration of the differences in Eastern and Western parenting--and the lessons parents and children everywhere teach one another.
3.5 stars - when i heard that amy chua is a filipino chinese living in america, i was curious to read the book, not because of her controversial topic, but because i wanted to see if we had the same experience growing up, since i'm also a filipino-chinese. one of my best friends have read the book and she found it amusing because it reminded her a bit of her childhood. so i finally got a copy and read the book.
in some ways what she is saying is true, like the thinking of the "chinese" parents is similar to how my mom thinks. my mom was never as bad as amy was to her kids but i guess it's because i'm not a prodigy. and this book didn't focus on their academics, it focused more on her children playing the violin and the piano. i guess if i had the gift that sophie and lulu had, my mom probably would have done the same thing. oh, i almost forgot, my mom is a tiger and i'm a monkey (the worst match since tigers and monkeys do not get along). my mom did make me play the piano but i was like lulu when it comes to practicing. i would waste time laughing and playing pranks than practicing. finally after telling my mom that i really dont want to learn piano, she let me off. academics wise, i was a good kid and was on the honor roll so my mom mostly left me alone (though i still remember moments where i would cry when my mom would repeatedly spank, scold, slap me with a metal ruler if i didn't know the answer) and focused her attention to my less bookish brother.
on the book however, i think the media just made a big deal out of this book because they are "western"parents so just like what amy was saying in thebook, western parents have different ideas about rearing children so i guess to them they were aghast at the "abuse" amy seemed to be putting on her kids. for me, i felt bad about her kids but then i remember i had a similar childhood of not having a lot of free time. on weekends i am obliged to work at our family business since i was in grade school until i finished college. and i agreed with amy and lulu. looking back, if my mom was less lenient on me i probably wouldn't be as diligent as i am now. i value hard work and patience. i value the discipline that she and my school instilled in me. and while my mom and i continue to be at odds at every single turn, i'm proud of her and thank her for pushing me hard when i was young so i can enjoy and reap the benefits i'm getting now.
12. damn you, auto correct! by jillian madison
“Damn You, Autocorrect!”
If you own an iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid, or any smartphone, there’s a good chance you’ve screamed that phrase out at least once. In Damn You, Autocorrect! Pop-culture blogger Jillian Madison shows you are not alone.
Filled with submissions from readers of her popular website, this laugh-out-loud funny book features cringe-worthy exchanges with parents, friends, significant others, and co-workers that contain some of the most unintentionally hilarious—and mortifying—mistakes ever caused by Autocorrect. Inside, you’ll find a husband who tells his wife that he just “laid” (paid) the babysitter, a dad who tells his daughter that he and her mom are going to “divorce” (Disney), and many more epic texting fails too raunchy to list here.
Whether you love technology, texting humor, or taking just a little bit of pleasure in the misfortune of others, Damn You, Autocorrect! will leave you laughing until you cry, and thankful that nothing this embarrassing has happened to you. Yet.
4 stars - this is really a book, but more like a compilation of auto correct fail. very very quick read. had me laughing out loud for most parts. i am one of those people who has disabled auto correct so this doesn't happen to me. now i dont understand why people continue to enable this feature and blame autocorrect if they send out inappropriate texts but nevermind. it is hilarious reading them!
13. don't mess with texas by christie craig
Nikki Hunt thought her night couldn't get worse when her no-good, cheating ex ditched her at dinner, sticking her with the bill. Then she found his body stuffed in the trunk of her car and lost her two-hundred-dollar meal all over his three-thousand-dollar suit. Now not only is Nikki nearly broke, she's a murder suspect.
Former cop turned PI, Dallas O'Connor knows what it's like to be unjustly accused. But one look at the sexy-though skittish-suspect tells him she couldn't hurt anyone. The lead detective, Dallas's own brother, has the wrong woman and Dallas hopes a little late-night "undercover" work will help him prove it . . .
4 stars - this was quick and fun read just like her other novels. i like all characters and looking forward to the stories of the other brothers.
14. geek girl's guide to cheerleading by charity tahmaseb
When self-proclaimed geek girl Bethany becomes the newest member of the varsity cheerleading squad, she realizes that there’s one thing worse than blending in to the lockers: getting noticed. Who knew cheerleading was so hard? Well, at least there’s a manual. Too bad it doesn’t cover any of the tough questions like: What do you do when the head cheerleader spills her beer on you at your first in-crowd party? And how do you protect your best friend from the biggest player in the senior class? Bethany is going to need all her geek brainpower just to survive the season!
4 stars - love bethany and i didn't really understand how she can be friends with moni who was hungry for popularity and didn't even considered her feelings and dropped her even after all she did for her. but it's good she learned her lesson and they became friends again. i was confused with the wrestler guy though if he actualy liked moni or not.
15. i've got your number by sophie kinsella
Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.
4.5 stars - the plot is very flimsy but i was still drawn to both characters and their chemistry. it's not easy to find someone that you feel instant connection too and be able to communicate with them without those awkward pauses. the story somehow seems similar to can you keep a secret that's why i liked it because the shopaholic series was too much. and i was one of those people who cheered when she finally made the right decision to break up with her fiance. i understand going to the safe route but i believe we should not sacrifice our happiness just because people around us are pressuring us to settle down.
16. lethal by sandra brown
When her four year old daughter informs her a sick man is in their yard, Honor Gillette rushes out to help him. But that "sick" man turns out to be Lee Coburn, the man accused of murdering seven people the night before. Dangerous, desperate, and armed, he promises Honor that she and her daughter won't be hurt as long as she does everything he asks. She has no choice but to accept him at his word.
But Honor soon discovers that even those close to her can't be trusted. Coburn claims that her beloved late husband possessed something extremely valuable that places Honor and her daughter in grave danger. Coburn is there to retrieve it -- at any cost. From FBI offices in Washington, D.C., to a rundown shrimp boat in coastal Louisiana, Coburn and Honor run for their lives from the very people sworn to protect them, and unravel a web of corruption and depravity that threatens not only them, but the fabric of our society
4 stars - i've been reading her books since i was in high school and i know she can do better than the okay but forgettable novels that she has been releasing of late (smash cut, tough customer, smoke screen, ricochet, play dirty). most of her newer stories are more political and farfetched stories that are not as interesting as before, and this impedes me from enjoying the books. the characters for example, the hero has become darker, more of a wrongly accused bad boy but actually a good guy. while the heroine is almost always married or was married to a seemingly good guy but actually a bad guy.. starting to get what i mean? for book is just like her previous novels except it was more fast paced with a "which one is the bad guy" vibe like charade or mirror image (2 of my favorite novels). but 3 things that made me rate this a 4 instead of 4.5 are: the heroine's name is honor which is the same first name as her heroine in another book, the reveal of the bad guy was a bit unbelievable and anti climactic, and the open endend epilogue seemed like she ran out of pages and left it at that.
17. faking faith by josie bloss
Dylan Mahoney is living one big unholy lie.
Thanks to a humiliating and painfully public sexting incident, Dylan has become the social pariah at her suburban Chicago high school. She’s ignored by everyone—when she’s not being taunted—and estranged from her two best friends. So when Dylan discovers the blogs of homeschooled fundamentalist Christian girls, she’s immediately drawn into their fascinating world of hope chests, chaperoned courtships, and wifely submission.
Blogging as Faith, her devout and wholesome alter ego, Dylan befriends Abigail, the online group’s queen bee. After staying with Abigail and her family for a few days, Dylan begins to grow closer to Abigail (and her intriguingly complicated older brother). Soon, Dylan is forced to choose: keep living a lie . . . or come clean and face the consequences.
3.5 stars - the thing about this book is that the premise is so weird, i couldn't help but be like her and get so engrossed with the story. i am catholic but not like them that's very conservative and i feel like i'm friends with dylan and have asked her to go to their place and see what it looks like. and that's why at some point i also felt bad. i dont know if she was really curious or she was criticizing their lifestyle. while she had the best intentions, she is still young and has not realized that there are so many different cultures that we should try to understand them, there is no one way and your life is not the right one just because you live it. but what i'm most glad about this book is the friendship that was formed between dylan and abigail. i know there will not be any sequel but i hope that they meet when they're older and still be friends.
18. international kissing club by ivy adams
Piper, Cassidy, Mei, and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. And they've always agreed on one goal: to get out of tiny Paris, Texas, and see the world. The school's foreign exchange program seems like the perfect escape: Piper will go to the original Paris; Mei will go to China; Cassidy will go to Australia; and Izzy, unable to afford the program, will stay at home. To add spice to their semester away, and to stay connected to their best friends, the girls start The International Kissing Club, a Facebook page where they can anonymously update one another and brag about all the amazing guys they're meeting. After all, these girls are traveling abroad: amazing guys abound at every turn! But sometimes fun, flirty vacation flings turn into more serious romances, and sometimes you don't return from abroad the same person you were. Will the girls' relationships-and their friendships-be able to survive?
3 stars - i almost put down this book mainly because i didn't like half of the characters and their stories and the facebook pages i just skipped. at first i thought piper was the lead but she was the least that i liked. and i think the reason people keep making fun of her is because she has low self esteem. and i thought as her friends, they should not only support her, they should also scold her and help her be stronger. i dont know if she will end up with sebastian, but im glad she didn't now because she needed to grow up first. i like cassidy and lucas, they were sweet. i also liked izzy and tanner. for mei, i liked that the author was realistic in telling a mature theme like adoption. im not adopted but im sure it's difficult to be one and be searching for your identity. and im glad she realized that her current family loves her.
19. kiss and blog by alyson noel
As freshmen at Ocean High last year, Winter and her best friend Sloane thought they could ditch their nerdy past, launching from invisible to cool. But after another miserable year of standing on the sidelines they make a pact to do whatever it takes not to go unnoticed in their sophomore year, promising each other that whoever makes it into the cool group first will bring the other along.
One Sloane gets a taste of life on the A-list, she slams that door in Winter's face. Suddenly cast out of her former best friend's life, Winter takes revenge the modern way: by announcing all of Sloane's dirty little secrets on an anonymous blog. Then the blog becomes more popular than she ever dreamed and Winter must decide if her retaliation is really worth the consequences--and if the price for popularity is one she's willing to pay. Once again, Alyson Noël navigates the tricky waters of the high school social scene with the heart and humor her readers have come to love.
3.5 stars - i like the story except for the main part -- which is creating a blog about her ex friend. im not really sure what was the point of her putting a blog except maybe for them to sort of patch up in the end? but still, i think no matter how angry you are, you shouldn't be doing that to someone, especially someone you considered as a friend. that's just mean and there are some things that are just meant to be private. if she felt writing as therapeutic, there are other venues for that, like writing in good old diary or marking the blog as private. that also shows how scary social networking is.
20. bloody valentine by melissa dela cruz
Vampires have powers beyond human comprehension: strength that defies logic, speed that cannot be captured on film, the ability to shapeshift and more. But in matters of the heart, no one, not even the strikingly beautiful and outrageously wealthy Blue Bloods, has total control. In Bloody Valentine, bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz offers readers a new story about the love lives of their favorite vamps - the passion and heartache, the hope and devastation, the lust and longing. Combined with all the glitz, glamour, and mystery fans have come to expect, this is sure to be another huge hit in the Blue Bloods series.
4 stars - i have been following the blue bloods series since book 1 came out, while the stories are getting more complex, it still focuses on sky and i love this book because she finally bonds with jack. i wish they make a tv series of this or made a movie of this instead of twilight which was really just fluff. my only problem is feels like the author is trying to milk the readers by releasing short novellas like this before releasing a full book with meatier content.
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the smell of.. freshly baked bread...
the smell of.. fresh laundry...
the smell of.. baby powder...
the smell of.. freshly brewed coffee...
these are my favorite smells!
