Samie Foster's Blog (55)

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Over all rating: Went up and beyond expectations to quite possibly make this the best in the series.

Okay this one is a book I bought a long time ago. It is called The Battle of the Labyrinth. It is indeed the fourth book in the Percy Jackson series. And this time I actually did pay full price for a book instead of finding it at a yard sale or bargain bins. I was totally hooked on this series. That is until I paid ten bucks to see the…

A Lust Of Cupids By Laurell K. Hamilton

A Lust Of Cupids By Laurell K. Hamilton

Okay here’s another odd one. This is a short story written by Laurell K. Hamilton . And this has nothing to do with Anita Blake or Meredith Gentry. This entirely is it’s own thing. It’s called “ A Lust Of Cupids’ and it can be found in the Strange Candy short story collection.

So what is it about? Well its about a thirty year old woman named Rachel Ceridian , who is not married and never planned to…

The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker

Not big fan of horror. And if you read my smoothie reviews, you’re probably sick of hearing say that. But I always like to try new things. After all, I wasn’t a big fan of spy novels until I read of Ludlum’s work that made me rethink my opinion about the genre all together. And when they were cleaning out the library at my college, they were selling old books for a quarter a piece. And I found this thick book called Book of Blood. (Very cheesy…

Nick of Time by Ted Bell

This is another bargain bin item. I get most of these books for a dollar or two a piece and because there’s so many I often skim them before buying them, you make sure I’m not buying a boring romance or mediocre mystery. But this one was called “In The Nick Of Time by Ted Bell.” And I when I skimmed it, I found it was about Time Travel., and like the typical sci-fi nerd I am I go “sweet!” I love Time Travel. So it; was quickly tossed into the “To buy”…

Those Who Seek Forgiveness by Laurell K. Hamilton

Okay, this is another smoothie review based in an individual story. Why not a whole book? Well tell me how to review a collection of short stores with it having a meaning behind it, and I’ll start. Every story in my opinion whether it’s a novel, novella, or short story if it’s a piece of work and should be seen as such. This one comes from Laurell K. Hamilton short story collection called, Strange Candy. And this one is called, “Those…

Witches and Wizard By James Patterson and Gabrielle Carbonnette

Overall Rating: Okay This Actually is Good. James I Forgive You.

I love Hastings bargain books. The three and four dollar books are always a good buy. Sure. Some can be cruddy, but every once in a while a person can find a treasure. But then again treasure is a matter of opinion. This time I found a book called Witches and Wizard By James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnett. And to see that a book that had just…

Airframe By Michael Crichton

Overall: A Forgettable Read Involving Airplanes

Being a fan of Michael Crichton, I have to read the books. I over looked in the past, simply because there aren’t going to be any more. So I decided to finally read Airframe. Not my first choice in reading material, but ahh well, I’ll give anything a try. Now I have to write this thing before I forget what I just read.

So given the name Airframe, one would assume it’s about airplanes. And it is.…

The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls

Overall: A Better Than Average Memoir

The Glass Castle By Jeanette Walls , was something I was forced to read in English 102. It’s a memoir and typically I hate memoirs, and any memoir is far from my first choice of reading material. I have always viewed true stories are generally boring and as I began to read the pages, I have to say this. It’s not that bad.

The book is the author’s recollection of growing up in a family where the…

Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot :

Overall rating: Predictable and Soaked in Suspense

Sometimes a book will just sit around the house forever. It collects dust. The pages turn yellow. It’s most likely the original print from the 1970’s. The original source the book is that it was given to me a long time ago, but I’m not sure who gave it to me or why. Then spring cleaning comes and I pick it up this book and have to make a choice. Trash it or read it. And despite the fact that it is…

Nickled and Dimed

Overall Rating: This Is a Book That Teenagers Should Read Before Attempting To Rule The World

Typically when you’re taking a college class, and they give you a book and say you must read it by Friday, the reaction is just pure dread. Never have I enjoyed a required reading, but this one isn’t too bad. It’s called Nickled and Dimed by Barabarea Ehrenriech.

The book is non fiction. In the prologue she states that it was nothing more than a journalism…

Sandstorm By James Rollins

Overall rating: A Great Climax, But Not Much Beyond That

This was interesting. After reading Subterranean by James Rollins, I really did want to read some of his other work. When looking at his other books, they all seemed similar in very stereotypical “Indiana Jones” like set up. So when it came to picking one, it is like pulling a random number out of a hat. So I just picked Sandstorm.

Sandstorm is a odd novel. It’s a adventure novel that…

Sea Of Monsters

Overall: Kind of mediocre but still a good second installment

In case you haven’t heard there is a fantasy series that’s been around a few years now. It’s called Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. And I just recently discovered it and the addicting effect it has on it’s readers. So here’s my review on book two of the series which is called Sea of Monsters.

First off Percy Jackson series ask the question, what if the gods and monster of Greek…

Archenemy by Frank Beddor

Overall rating: This book has saved the looking glass wars series.

When you start a trilogy and you’re impressed by what you read in the first book, you have to finish it. Right? Archenemy , please try to ignore the super cheesy name, is the third and final book in the Looking Glass Wars trilogy. The Looking Glass Wars is a re imagining of Alice in Wonderland with a odd sci-fi twist to it. It has nothing to with Lewis Carol. It plays out very much like…

Pirate Latitudes By Michael Crichton

Overall rating: Exactly the charm the genre’s been missing for a while.

Pirate books are so hard to come by. Beyond the classics like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, there really isn’t much of a selection. I have in the past found a couple corny ones, but corny was all that they were. It fell the author didn’t know what they were talking about. It didn’t have the grittiness , the atmosphere or adventure. I felt that the closest thing to…

Titan’s Curse Smoothie Review

Overall Rating: A good third entry into the Percy Jackson Series.

Titan’s Curse is the third book in the third book in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series written By Rick Riorden. After reading the first two novels, I know have to read the next three. So here’s my review of the third Percy Jackson and the Olympians book.

To start off with, to explain the set up for this book, I have to explain the ending of The Sea Of Monsters. If you…

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

Overall rating: Just unique perspective of our evolution told in this one.

This is odd review for smoothies reviews, because this time it is on a none fiction book written by Richard Wrangham. it’s called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. I didn’t want to read it. I just had to in order to pass a English course.

The book is a collection of scientific essays. It’s about how cooking began ( or thoughts of how it began) There’s…

Shutter Island

Overall rating: Holy wow!

Okay there’s book by Denis Lehane. I never heard of the author and am not a big fan of scary tales. Few have actually been good. Yet after seeing a trailer for the shutter Island movie, I got kind of curious, so I had to check it out.

Shutter Island is a tale about a bizarre investigation on a island mean t for the insane. Federal Marshalls Teddy Danielle’s and Chuck Aule arrive there to investigate a missing patient case. When they…

Subterranean by James Rollins

Overall rating: A wonder revamp that gave a fresh new look to a old classic

Let’s face it. Well thought out science fiction action adventure stories are had to find. They’re unrealistic and often times has no science facts to support the science fiction. Among the good ones are Prey, Timeline and other Crichton novels has been the best in that area. But it’s hard to find authors beyond that. Then lord behold, sitting by itself at a table at a yard…

Second Sight By Beth Amos

Overall rating: This book is a lesson in mediocre murder mystery101.

Have you ever got tired of reading the same sort of books all the time and just decided to grab a random book out of blue because you just wanted a change? Okay. Maybe not all of you. But I’m sure some have. This time around it was a mystery/paranormal/thriller called Second Sight By Beth Amos.

The write up on the back of the book was awfully vague. It was it was about a…

Howl’s Moving castle

Overall rating: A odyssey

Howl’s Moving Castle By Diana Wynne Jones is a British fantasy that was adapted into a fantasy film by Japanese film maker Hayao Miyazaki, who in my opinion is one of the , if not the best Asian filmmakers of our time. (Even if most of his work are cartoons) I’m not a anime fan at all, but when I watched this movie I thought it was a wonderful story. Then I found out it was a book. It was based on a twenty something year old…