papalbina - aNobii

Books (740)

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- Bittersweet (2)
- By Sarah Ockler
- Reading since Feb 6, 2012
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- The Scorch Trials (26)
- (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 2)
- By James Dashner
- Reading since Jan 23, 2012
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- El frío azul (6)
- By Ramón Caride
- Reading since Jan 6, 2012
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- Wither (15)
- Chemical Garden #1
- By Lauren DeStefano
- Finished on Feb 5, 2012
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- Divergent (61)
- By Veronica Roth
- Finished on Jan 23, 2012
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- Unravelling (1)
- By Elizabeth Norris
- Finished on Jan 14, 2012
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- The Red Pyramid (75)
- By Rick Riordan
- Finished on Jan 9, 2012
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- Let's Pacheco (9)
- Una semana en familia
- By Carmen Pacheco, Laura Pacheco
- Finished on Dec 30, 2011
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- How to Train Your Dragon (22)
- By Cressida Cowell
- Finished on Dec 5, 2011
  
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How to Train Your Dragon

well, it was a very big shock to discover that book and movie only share names and a couple of details.
after the initial shock passed, which took me a couple of chapters, i enjoyed hiccup's first adventure, although the story is very introductory and without much depth. it was funny, anyway, and ... (continue)

well, it was a very big shock to discover that book and movie only share names and a couple of details.
after the initial shock passed, which took me a couple of chapters, i enjoyed hiccup's first adventure, although the story is very introductory and without much depth. it was funny, anyway, and it reminded me slightly of Wickie, but without dragons, probably it's a viking thing.
the toothless in the book ended up being cute, but nothing like the one in the movie. the same about hiccup. fishlegs on the other hand is much lovable in the book. and where is astrid? what i missed the most was Stoick the Vast and Gobber the Belch's funny accents from the movie...
the illustrations are terrible, but thinking as the target of the book i can see why they could be great. and i can imagine my nephew will have a great time reading (or hearing) this story.
for me it was... well, not exactly a disappointment, but i made me realize that i'm just old for this kind of books *sigh* but it's really a great book for kids!!

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— Dec 6, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Seraphina (1)
- By Rachel Hartman
- Finished on Nov 27, 2011
  
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Seraphina

When I requested this book in netGalley, I didn't know anything about it, didn't hear a word about it, NOOOTHING! I think I requested it because of such a frivoulous reason as the title, the heroine's name. I would never call my daughter Seraphina, but as a character's name is very, very attractive ... (continue)

When I requested this book in netGalley, I didn't know anything about it, didn't hear a word about it, NOOOTHING! I think I requested it because of such a frivoulous reason as the title, the heroine's name. I would never call my daughter Seraphina, but as a character's name is very, very attractive and skimming through the synopsis I caught words like dragons, medieval, fantasy... and that day at that moment I felt like reading something like that and clicked on "Request". Luckily I got accepted, otherwise and after reading such positive reviews I would have bitten my fingers waiting until July.
Let's go to the book: I had big troubles to get into the story at first. It took more than 20% of the book until I understand, but only partially, the whole medieval jargon, the religious system with all these saints' names (even if it's quite simple and very close to what I know), all the stuff with dragons and saarantaris and quigutl and their devices, or the story of the Southlands (I hope the paper edition has at least a map or just a sketch, but something, please). Probably because of that I felt lost for most of the book, which didn't help me to get deeper in the story.
I think Seraphina is a great character, one of the best I have seen in this kind of books. Her issues with acceptance were in my opinion the same any teenager in a YA book have, up to a point, so I would have had to understand her, empathize, feel her sadness, her struggles between finding friends and having to lie to them... and I kind of feel it but very, very superficially, and no with the depth I was expecting after reading the first reviews. That disappointed me, but I admit that I was part of the trouble due to my understanding problems. I really think a re-read will help me to go into Seraphina's character and all her layers. I already pre-order my copy and I'm looking forward to reading it again in July.
After reading this last part, someone might think: "Girl, you didn't like the book, why 4 stars?". I must point out that the only thing I am disappointed with is MYSELF (and my English, but that goes all together)...
The book, the story was brilliant. The plot was a bit predictable, though, intrigue is not its strength, but anyway I was so preoccupied understanding that I didn't care. I loved the mythology Rachel Hartman (Can I call you just Rachel?) created for this story. From all the Saints to the dragons and their saarantaris, Seraphina's background, her garden or the mad Porphyrian philosophers. AWESOME!!! And I'm very, very sad that I wasn't able to understand everything.
About the rest of characters: what to say??
Orma reminded me a lot of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. His completely lack of sensitive response could be considered like a type of autism (dragons are autist, they may have souls). Orma is a dragon, but he could also pass for a certain physicist with Asperger's syndrom. I learnt to love him through Seraphina's love. That part of her was transparent to me.
The same happened with her feelings towards Kiggs and Glisselda. It was warm, adorable, sweet... It made me feel good, although the ending, the last conversation left me puzzled.
I could go on and on and on, especially if I begin to talk about Kiggs and his cuteness and his vitality or Abdo or Lars or even Viridus...
Really this book is worth every minute of your time!!! Even if you struggle like me :)
Thanks to Random House Children's Books and netGalley for providing me with a copy of this awesome book!!

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— Nov 29, 2011 | Add your feedback

- Fairy Bad Day (1)
- By Amanda Ashby
- Finished on Jul 11, 2011
  
  Finished (re-read) on Nov 20, 2011
  
  Review
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Fairy Bad Day

Amanda Ashby did an awesome job with this standalone book, because she introduces you in a new world of slayers of supernatural creatures very smoothly just flowing with the story telling.
It felt fantastic to finish for once a book knowing everything that was loose at the beginning is tide up by ... (continue)

Amanda Ashby did an awesome job with this standalone book, because she introduces you in a new world of slayers of supernatural creatures very smoothly just flowing with the story telling.
It felt fantastic to finish for once a book knowing everything that was loose at the beginning is tide up by the end. There're still a couple of not too tight tied endings that could open again, but for now Emma's story is closed. I'd love to read more adventures starring such wonderful, charismatic and funny characters, but they are not necessary and that's my point. You can write a wonderful, action-packed, entertaining and romantic story in just one volumen. I think that's why I'm giving Fairy Bad Day 5 stars. The style is no particularly amazing, it's rather simple and easy, but achieving such a entertaining and enthralling story and good characters in 320 pages... well, that's praiseworthy. And besides, Curtis is so cute :)
In short, I had a whale of a time reading this book and finished it with a wide smile on my face. That should tell something about the book :)

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— Jul 11, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Canción de pájaros muertos (2)
- By Marc Talbert
- Finished on Nov 8, 2011
  
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Canción de pájaros muertos

Cuando leí este libro estando en el colegio, con probablemente la misma edad que Matt, el protagonista, me impactó y me EN-CAN-TÓ. Era el primer libro de más de 100 páginas que leía en mi vida, y entre el tema y el esfuerzo, supongo que me emocioné.
No sólo no me gustó el tema, sino que tampoco ... (continue)

Cuando leí este libro estando en el colegio, con probablemente la misma edad que Matt, el protagonista, me impactó y me EN-CAN-TÓ. Era el primer libro de más de 100 páginas que leía en mi vida, y entre el tema y el esfuerzo, supongo que me emocioné.
No sólo no me gustó el tema, sino que tampoco me gusta como está tratado, ni la aproximación que toma el autor para solucionar la situación dramática. Se nota que era su primera obra y que eran los 80 porque es flojo, muy flojo. Tanto el protagonista como su amigo Jamie no suenan como niños, cuando hablan entre ellos. Los diálogos en general son bastante rígidos... La traducción no ayuda, porque tampoco está muy allá.
Si bien el personaje de Scott es interesante con sus reflexiones, me dejó bastante fría y Matt no llegó a caerme bien y en ningún momento llegué a empatizar con él ni con sus circunstancias (y bah, se ha muerto su madre, debería ser sencillo empatizar con algo así). La gracia es que recuerdo haber sufrido con él a los 13 años. Quizá simplemente sea que me he hecho mayor...
Hay libros que nunca deberías leer 20 años más tarde porque se te caen los mitos. Este es uno de ellos.

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— Nov 8, 2011 | Add your feedback
- Early to Death, Early to Rise (17)
- By Kim Harrison
- Finished on Nov 2, 2011
  
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Early to Death, Early to Rise

This was a disappointment. One of my best friends gave me these books for my birthday and she was so enthusiastic about them that now I feel bad to tell her how crappy I think they are.
There were several things that annoyed me about this book, but two were of the gritted-teeth kind: 1. Madison an ... (continue)

This was a disappointment. One of my best friends gave me these books for my birthday and she was so enthusiastic about them that now I feel bad to tell her how crappy I think they are.
There were several things that annoyed me about this book, but two were of the gritted-teeth kind: 1. Madison and her whinning about everything, but especially her being dead (I know it's a crappy situation, but girl, get over it) and her obsession with dead puppies, and 2. the constant mention of incredible smells like, for instance, the back of the clouds, come on?! (and that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I have hyposmia).
The first book I kind of liked it, because I thought in the second the story will take off... but in the second one we're in the same point and doesn't really happen much... the third one I still have to finish it. I don't think I'm going to be able to bring me to do it soon.
It was promising, but it fell flat already in the first book and didn't recover. The supporting characters try to be witty but fail, the story is not very coherent or continuous, the love interest (poor Josh) is forgotten all over the trilogy and besides... why three books? The story can be perfectly told with less words in just one book.
Not every adult writer can do YA and be fairly successful, and this book is a good example that YA can be tricky...

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— Jan 23, 2012 | Add your feedback
- Once Dead, Twice Shy (35)
- By Kim Harrison
- Finished on Oct 28, 2011
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- Epic Fail (9)
- By Claire Lazebnik
- Finished on Oct 22, 2011
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