Chocolate Book Tag

Yay!!  Two of my favorite things combined!  Thanks to Monica at Spilled Ink for the tagging of me :)

Dark Chocolate (a book that covers a dark topic)

I think I'm gonna have to go with Island of the World by Michael O'Brien.  I could put almost any of his Children of the Last Days series under here, but I feel like this one is the one that best fits the description.  Or maybe I'm just putting it here because the book is so deep and that makes me think of Dark Chocolate?

White Chocolate (a light and humorous read)

While not exactly humorous, this book (or any in the series) is a very light read, and pretty fun too.

Milk Chocolate (a book with lots of hype that you're dying to read)

I've been wanting to read this one ever since I watched the movie.  That was shortly after I saw the Hunger Games, and I wanted to compare the two stories.  Now I really want to read the book, which, as a little birdie told me, my sister is getting me for my birthday :)  Don't tell her I know, I dragged the secret out of Mom.

Caramel Filled Chocolate (a book that makes you feel gooey inside)

 

This is one of the many romance novels I have read that makes me feel gooey inside :) But this one does it the most!

Wafer-less Kit-Kat (a book that surprised you)

 

I was going to mention one of my first sci-fi books here, but instead I'm putting Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale instead.  This book, unlike the sci-fi books which surprised me in a good way, surprised me in a not so good way.  It was just really dry, which surprised and disappointed me, since the prequel was soooooo good.  I was really surprised at how cookie-cutter it seemed, especially after the originality of the first book, Princess Academy.

*Snickers (a book you're going nuts about)

 This is kind of hard, because there are books that I have gone nuts about before that I now am not so entranced with, and there are books that I would like to go nuts over, but haven't read them yet (e.g., The City, Divergent, etc.).  That being said, I... don't really have an answer.

Hot Chocolate with Mini-Marshmallows (a book you turn to for comfort)

 

The Lord of the Rings :)  Need I say more?

A Box of Chocolates (a series you feel has something for everyone)

 

I think I would have to say the Fairy Tales Retold series.  It has a little bit of romance, a little bit of adventure, and a little bit of religion.  The religion part might annoy some people, but it's one of the highlights of the series to me.

Well there you have it!!  My Chocolate Book list :)  Look out for more posts in the near future.

*I king of feel like this should be called Nutty Bar, since you're going nuts over it?

Breed to Come

Okay, so my step-grandfather got me hooked on sci-fi books.  It was an attempt to get me away from some of the more serious books that aren't actually stories (like 'Myth, Morality, and Religion' or 'The Philosophy of Tolkien') but it didn't work, because in one of books the author was talking about the relation between The Lord of the Rings and sci-fi books, so they were good examples :)


I am so glad I found the cool cover
not the creepy one.

'Breed to Come' by Andre Norton (that's a nom-de-plume, her real name is Mary Norton) is a post-apocalyptic story, which is basically what you would get if you took evolution, Humans leaving earth, very advanced technology, cats, and rolled them all into one.  Humans have been gone from our good planet Earth for quite some time.  In those long, long years Cats, Dogs, Wild Boars, and Rats have evolved and become the four dominant species, all capable of reasoning and at the very least, using simple tools.  The first three species are living very primitively near the ruins of a Human university.  Cats have developed the ability to walk constantly on two legs, and they are able to use primitive tools and weapons.  The Rats live in the ruins of the city, and not much is learned about them until the end of the book.  They are very similar to Cats, though. 

The hero of the story is a Cat named Furtig, whose ancestor Gammage left the Clans to live in the ruins of the Human university and discover their secrets.  Furtig, after losing his chance at the Trials (a contest between the males so the females have a chance to choose their mate), decides to follow Gammage and the many Cats who followed him.  When he finally arrives, Furtig discovers that Gammage and the Cats under him have made tremendous progress discovering how to use the Human's technology, and why the Humans left in the first place.  Even so, Gammage is very concerned that the Humans will return, and soon, to reclaim their home planet.

The story is very complex, and there is so much about the technology of the Humans that is never explained.  There is an extremely interesting plot twist, which I never really expected, but probably should have.  I wish I could rant about it, but I'm going to restrain myself.  There is not much conversation throughout the book, which is usually what it takes to keep me occupied with a  book, otherwise I will read through three full pages without actually registering what was happening, then I have to go back and re-read.  But the book kept my attention the whole way through!  I absolutely could not put it down.  If it was possible to read all the time (literally) I would have read this book while I slept!


I give this book an: A-
The book was really good, and I love, love, love the plot, however, nothing really relevant to the plot happens until you're almost half way through the book.  Okay, stuff happens, it's just very slow.  After reading more Andre Norton books I find this rather typical of her.  There is also not a whole lot of character development, which in NOT typical of Andre Norton.

I would TOTALLY recommend this book!

Oh, and one thing I LOVE about Andre Norton's books is that she proves that romance is not required to make a good book :D