Just Me and My Little Brother by Mercer Mayer

This review is for the children's book Just Me and My Little Brother by Mercer Mayer.

This book is really short. In my opinion, this book is great for a child learning to read and the illustrations are great.

How many siblings really get along THAT well? Not any that I know of, but that's okay because it's still a good learning tool.

Despite the unrealistic idea of an older sibling wanting that much to do with his little brother, I highly recommend this book.

Eight Keys to a Better Me: Character Development for Young People by William J. Briggs, Ed. D.

This review is for Eight Keys to a Better Me: Character Development for Young People by William J. Briggs, Ed. D.

The cover and title of this.book are decieving. I expected this to be a higher level book for either young adults because the title says "young people" and I and I am a young person. This book is for young children. An adult can still learn from this book but it's geared more toward elementary school children.

The illustrations were cute and I really liked the poem on the back.

The poem is called The Sculptor, which I can relate to.

The Sculptor - Author Unknown

I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it, one day
And as fingers pressed it, still
it moved and yielded to my will.

I came again, when days were passed,
That bit of clay, was hard at last,
The form I gave it, still it bore,
And I could change that form no more.

Then I took a piece of LIVING clay
And gently formed it, day by day,
And molded with the power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart.

I came again, when years were gone,
It was a man I looked upon.
He still thst early empress bore,
And I could change it, nevermore.

Clifford Goes to Hollywood by Norman Bridwell

This review is for the children's book Clifford Goes to Hollywood by Norman Bridwell.

The one thing I learned from this book is that Clifford the Big Red Dog has been around since the early 1960s. That absolutely blew my mind. So Clifford had already been around for TWENTY years when this book was published. Crazy, right?

I also learned that this book was later (2010) reprinted as Clifford is a Star.

This book was really cute but not really all that educational. But that's okay because I mean it's Clifford. Who doesn't love Clifford?

I wondered why his owner (Emily Elizabeth; unnamed in this book) didn't go with him to Hollywood. I would have wanted to go with him if he were my dog. It's hard not to miss a gigantic red dog.

I definitely recommend this book. I love Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Funny Dog Facts by Anna Ciddor

This review is for the children's book Funny Dog Facts by Anna Ciddor. I absolutely loved this book. I'm an adult and I learned from this book. I had never seen some of these dog breeds before and I learned some things I didn't know about breeds I am familiar with, like that many Dalmatians are deaf. I would gladly have kept this book if I didn't have to return it to the Birdhouse Library. This a really neat book. Interesting for all ages. I highly recommend this book.

Bud the Crud and the Vampire-Werewolf Wars by Jamie Wasserman

This review is for Bud the Crud and the Vampire-Werewolf Wars by Jamie Wasserman. I received this book for free from the author through LibraryThing's August 2013 Member Giveaway.

Honestly, I have to say that I hated this book. I struggled through it for a week and a half because it was too easy, wasn't interesting, and Buddy was really, really, really, really (I could go on) annoying. I did not want to write this review at all because I don't like writing bad reviews. I wouldn't want someone to read what I have written and be critical but as my fiancé and best friend said I just have to be honest because that's just the way it works. And I hate it. But Jamie Wasserman said in his email that even bad reviews are appreciated so here goes:

Buddy is awkward, short, and a geek. I thought I could relate to him but I couldn't at all. He cries a lot for no reason and rambles about stuff for most of the book.

This book was written at a teenage level for teenagers and young adults (assuming anyway), but it was written like a teenager. I guess that's okay but it just wasn't something I liked.

Buddy had a cat named Spooky. That's cool. So did my fiancé. I miss that cat. I can respect Buddy's love for animals but he talks about them wayyyyyyyyyy too much.

The part where he says "It's like having a mom inside you constantly there to protect you from the world.", yeah, that just came across as really gross. There is almost no way in the world that a 14 year old in America doesn't know a thing or two about sex. They teach sex ed in middle school now! He had to have known that wouldn't sound quite right.

Hans turning himself into a little ankle-biting dog instead of a werewolf was just hilarious. Classic.

And I liked that the ending was a nod to Stephen King's Pet Semetary. I love that movie. Please, Jamie (if you're reading this), write a sequel about that but please please please make sure he's not such a whiner that he can't tell his story. That was annoying. I'll consider reading your other books in the future but I was not satisfied by this.

Raven's Blood (Raven Chronicles, Book 4) by Deborah Cannon

This review is for Raven's Blood by Deborah Cannon. This is book four in The Raven Chronicles. It is the latest in the series and is the first and only one I have read in the series. I received this book for free from the author through LibraryThing.com's August Member Giveaway.

The only thing that bothered me about this book was that the author spelled out the year or time or something along those lines near the beginning of the book. I can't find it now and it only happened one time so it's not even really an issue.

I learned that the term "spelunking" comes from the Latin term "spelunca" which just means "cave". It's not as strange of a word as it sounds now.

I am very thankful that this was an ebook and not a paperback novel because the dictionary on my iPod was absolutely necessary to get through about 90% of the book. I'm okay with that because I got to learn some things but I am definitely not an archaeologist.

This book reminded me of the movies Tomb Raider and The Mummy. I love stuff like that. Archaeological stuff is such a mystery that it makes for a great fictional setting. Deborah Cannon uses her extensive knowledge of archaeology and her wild imagination expertly. She writes like a professional. I expected that she had more books out that she does because she's just that good.

Ironically, the day before I read the scene where Cristine rents the Lancia, my fiancé (who is a car fanatic) was looking up Lancias online.

Susanne saying she had "sampled" Jake's body set off alarms in my head. What the fuck is up with her? Whatever.

The ending is a major cliffhanger. I didn't expect it to end the way it did and since this is the most recent in the series, it makes me anxious to read more. I definitely want to read the other Raven  Chronicles and I definitely recommend this book, but make sure you have a dictionary handy (and Wikipedia)!

Unfaithful Mind by Marion Gibson

This review is for Unfaithful Mind by Marion Gibson. I received it from the author for free through LibraryThing.com's August 2013 Early Reviewers batch. This is my first review for a LibraryThing book. It is nonfiction, with which I am inexperienced.

I loved this book. Marion (AKA Mar)'s story is a true story so I can't complain about how things went or things like that. But I do however have a problem with how she switched back and forth between the past and the present, and how she would refer to things that she now knows but didn't at the time that she is talking about. It made it kind of hard to follow and I wanted to follow every word because this is a truly heartbreaking and wonderful re-telling of her story.

A thing that I want to point out is that she spelled out times and dates constantly and that made it hard to read in places because it was hard to understand what she was meaning by them since she did not put it a common format. I don't know, maybe that's something she was taught to do in her writing but I was not.

There was also a major autocorrect malfunction on page 52 of 178 in which I assume that she meant to put "...and his piercing glare.", but it was published as "...and his Pier-Mariecing glare." I point this out not for readers or for myself but in hopes that the author will read this and fix it. It took me a few minutes to understand what was really meant, and I know that isn't the author's fault. Stupid autocorrect.

Before the film A Beautiful Mind was mentioned (I didn't think it would be!), I was comparing this story to that movie. If you haven't seen that movie, you should. It's great!

I will end by saying that you should read this book! It is heartbreaking, beautiful, and everything all at once. I wish the best for her family and would really love to read more from her about her husband's progress. I think she should start a blog for all of the people who want to know more in real time. Mrs. Gibson is a very strong lady and I support her decision to publish this 100%. More people need to know that this happens to normal people every day! I definitely recommend this book.