Kate's Tales of Books and Bands

Next week, we're trying something a little different: our first ever (Best) Magic System discussion. Several questions need to be asked before then: 1. You might want to think about some of the following questions: What's your favorite magic system? In what book is it? How does it work, and who can do magic? 2. Think of your own feelings about "magic". Do you like it? If you could design a magic system, what would it be and how would it work? 3. We'd like to get some answers from our readers, too! Leave comments below! Brandon Sanderson fans might like his viewpoint:  http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/40/Sandersons-First-Law (This is probably what I'll be basing, at least in part, the discussion on. Idea credit, too, as to Goodreads.)

By Laini Taylor       Karou is a girl with blue hair. Unusual in itself, but she didn't dye it that color; she wished  it. Raised by demons, Karou has no family that she can remember other than Brimstone, the Wishmonger, Issa, Twiga, and Yasri, helpers in Brimstone's wish shop. She lives in Prague, a 17-year-old art student with her friend Zuzana and ex-boyfriend Kaz, while sometimes running off to run errands for Brimstone: to collect teeth. What started as a normal week quickly descended into chaos.      Attacked by an angel, or a seraph, in Morocco, Karou went inside the shop, something permitted only because she was wounded badly. Once there, she went through the other door in Brimstone's shop, the one that has always been closed in her presence, never open, until now.  Once through, she found another world, one of constant war, of constant fear and fighting. The world of her family and the seraph that had attacked her.   ...

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón      Having been shoved at me as an assigned reading project by a certain someone *ahem*, I was all set up and ready to hate the book just because I was forced to read it. However, Zafón soon had me captured in a world of mystery and danger, as well as one twisted with secrets. A wonderful story of a group of seven friends, who had grown up in an orphanage and had sworn to always protect another, on the eve of their separation, ends up being a thrilling plot.      Ben, the main character, learns the truth about his family.  But someone from his past is threatening to kill him and his newfound friend Sheere. The rest of his friends and he try to unravel a 16 year old mystery as to who this mysterious and dangerous Jawahal is. The 8 friends risk their lives to unravel this mystery to the end, and find out truths they didn't necessarily want to know. Those who play with fire always get burned...      Having be...

By A. S. King Whoo-hoo! Another book by King, who also wrote the well-received Please Ignore Vera Dietz . This book lights up a period in Lucky's life (yes, his name is Lucky) from his freshman year in high school through his summer vacation. With a few flashbacks, it is understood early in this book that Lucky has suffered from on-off bullying and torment from a young age. Along with this, his dysfunctional family has failed to help him; his father focuses only on cooking while his mother finds peace only by swimming the days away at the local pool. After Lucky has a scuffle at the pool, Lucky's mom uses it as an excuse to take a vacation in New Mexico. Away from his menial life, Lucky has a chance to meet a positive side that he couldn't see before. This book's progression was quite clear-cut and easy to follow, though its construction with Lucky's intermittent dreams and flashbacks may confuse more people than me. It was fun to read and a well-written book, but i...

I must confess that I originally wrote this review for a biology project, but I liked the book enough to share it with you. That means you must read it.       This summer, I was walking around in a bookstore in England. I was poking around the bestsellers section and, quite by chance, stumbled on  Mutants.  The British cover instantly grabbed my attention- it sported an X-ray of a six-fingered hand. Winner of the Guardian First Book Award. Inspiration for a television series. Can't be too bad. As I started reading it, I instantly noticed the vivid (sometimes  too  vivid) medical photography used as evidence and illustration. Each chapter covered a few related mutations (limb-disorders, for example) and Leroi dug up photographs, specimen exhibits, and photos of skeletons as he explained the disorders. First, he began with an explanation of the history of mutants as it is known to scientific historians. Italian monsters, condemned by the chur...

Karou is living two lives. Sometimes, she is an art student at a college in Prague. She has a friend and an ex-boyfriend and she lives in a flat. Other times, she is the messenger for Brimstone, a part crocodile, part fox, part human thing. He owns a shop, and the door opens into many different countries around the world. Karou helps him by collecting teeth. She doesn’t know what the teeth are for, but she does know that Brimstone can somehow make “wishes.” There is also a secret door that she isn’t allowed to enter. Then she meets Akiva, a seraphim. Akiva is trying to destroy Karou’s chimera friends because that’s what angels do. Karou learns about thousands of years of war between the chimeras and the angels. She also falls in love. This is a story of forbidden love. And it was pretty funny. Karou can’t wrap her head around the fact that some people think that the chimera are evil. Akiva can’t figure out how this human got stuck in everything. Which leads to that deep d...