Missouri in Mazury

This book was on a list for the Tournament of Books and it seemed like a promising dystopian novel. The author herself calls it A Tale of Two Cities retold. Frankly, this book falls way short of those promises. New York is divided between Light and Dark. Lucie was born in the Dark, but with the help of her aunt, she escaped to the Light. This high school student now is a celebrity with a rich and famous boyfriend. But, that innocent-seeming boyfriend has secrets also! The story follows the boy from the Light, the boy from the Dark, and Lucie, who is a mix of both, through a world of magic and mayhem. But, wait, where did this magic come from? The book explains that it just appeared and the whole world was changed . Okay, that's an easy explanation. The story in general was interesting if you could overlook the flaws. Lucie always knew what she was doing, but then was always surprised to find that she was actually totally wrong. Surprise! By the way - I fel...

A private plane crashes into the ocean, leaving two survivors. Aaaaaaand I'm never flying again. My dad recommended this book to me, but warned me that my fear of flying might interfere. It did. But that's not to say that this isn't a well-written and overall awesome book. It has everything I desire in a book: mystery, suspense, drama, gossip, conflict, etc. I could've gone without the weak women and douchebags, but that's life. The general plot is ripped from recent headlines (as Hollywood would say, based on a true story!). The book, however, goes into more detail, taking the reader through the victims' lives, the present, the investigation, until we find out what happened. Rating: 5/5 Pages: 392 Borrowed from: Library Recenzja powstała w ramach wyzwania  Wypożyczone .

I'm a big fan of opera, so after reading the book's description, I was very interested. The book is this: Lilliet Berne is a famous opera in Paris, but she has a hidden past that only four people know about. An original role is presented to her that turns out to be based on her hidden past. The plot of the story is Lilliet going through her past - from a child in America to a hippodrome rider to a courtesan to a maid to a singer - to figure out who's told her secrets. The one big thing that bothered me about this book: all throughout, she was very clever recreating herself and finding the necessary connections to keep herself alive and safe. Except at the end - suddenly she becomes totally clueless. I also have basically no knowledge of France and French, so the references were sometimes lost on me. The big gossip that I am, I loved the intrigue and drama that made up Lilliet's life, though many parts were just sad. The text is a bit dense and har...

As a language-obsessed person, I want B to also learn different languages. Since his parents are natives of two different languages, of course he's learned both (English and Polish) so that - most importantly - he can communicate with his grandparents and relatives. I speak to him in English even when we are out and about. Especially at playgrounds, this always gets the same response. 1. Ambitious child. This one is my favorite response, because it's usually so random. Kids will recognize that I'm speaking English and will blurt out the first words that come to mind. The best was when a girl started singing Rain, Rain Go Away. 2. Staring. Usually this is from a child, who hears that I'm not speaking Polish and may mention that to a friend or parent. But usually it's just staring. Sometimes it's an adult who stated, but then it usually leads to the next point. 3. Ambitious parent The parent recognizes that I'm speaking English and wants their kid to lis...

I have to say first that this book wasn't what I was anticipating. I was expecting something more along the lines of Tina Fey's  Bossypants . But that's my fault for seeing something with The Daily Show in the title and immediately going for it, rather than reading the full title and summary. Anyhoo! The Daily Show: An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests by Chris Smith is an entertaining tale of the history of the show from the point of view of those involved. I only started watching the show when I was in high school (after 9/11), so the early history was completely new to me. This was an amusing and interesting read - and especially fun when read on the voice of each contributor. I would've loved an accompanying video to watch the segments referenced in the book, but that's also basically why YouTube was invented. Rating: 3.5/5 Pages: 480 Borrowed from: Library Recenzja powstała w ramach wyzwania  WyPożyc...