from goodreads.com

Fairytales aren’t just for children anymore!

Welcome to Jackalopany!  Meet King Jack and Queen Felicia and their estimable children, Paisley and Jackson.  Paisley has reached the year of her majority and is about to endure her “Majority Ball.”  She’s unique, prank-loving, and not ready to change her life.  She’d rather continue her days herding sheep, playing her harp, and avoiding the responsibilities associated with the Jackalopian throne.

The shepherd Henry, Prince Rupert of Froggilandria, Kyle of Kaiandra, Marcus of Wellsbiundia, and the amusing Cletus of Rednecky all battle for the hand (and possibly the rest of) Princess Paisley.  Will Darius of Griffinlund foil the plans of so many?  Will tragedy leave the Jackalopian throne bereft of an heir?  And last but not least, will the narrator ever stop yammering about the rigors and rules of the fairytale genre?

A sweet little Kindle book. Like most Kindle books, it has a couple of typos and some errors, but I guess it was worthwhile if you get it for free. Just read the summary and decide if you want it... :)

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When 9 year old Audrey and her best friend, Julianna, discover a tattered note in Audrey's mailbox, they embark on an adventure that will change their lives forever. A missing show dog worth a fortune, two dangerous villains and a series of mysterious clues come together in this first exciting adventure of the Jellybean Club.

It was cute. Really cute. Although I'm not a big fan of the mystery genre in general, I was kind of drawn to the cover. I liked the cover (okay, now I'm being redundant). It was on sale for free, so I got it onto my Kindle. However, it was a bit rushed, but it will appeal to younger readers closer to Audrey's age.

The intro was pretty good overall. The inciting incident, in which Audrey got thinking about her future as a detective, was kind of unrealistic, but then again, she was nine years old. I didn't really get the point of having a younger sister in there, though. Ashley didn't do much throughout the book, and neither did Dani, another character's younger sister. I was confused as to why the author would have bothered to write such useless characters.

At first, I was criticizing the way these kids thought of the money - a $10,000 reward - because I thought they would misuse it. A real, touching motive for getting the money only manifested itself much later in the book, and very suddenly. There was almost no foreshadowing whatsoever, except that Georgette, the girl in need, was always very sad. If there had been more foreshadowing, it would be more justified and believable.

The villains were also introduced far too late. If I'd gotten a sense of what these kids were up against, I might have cared more about the outcome of the story.

I honestly didn't like it all that much - it was too juvenile for me. However, it's cheap and I suppose younger kids will like it. Give it a shot.

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Think you can spot the fake?

Think again. It's going to be a lot harder than you think to pick out the BS. Each entry hides one well-crafted fib among a pair of unbelievable truths. And it's up to you to figure out what's fascinating and what's fabricated on everything from koala bears to Confucius to high-fructose corn syrup.

Was Cleopatra the last Egyptian pharaoh?

Can you really make diamonds out of tequila?

Is the platypus actually poisonous?

A flip of the page reveals whether you're right or wrong as well as more information on the true trivia--and why you might've fallen for the fake fact. You'll really need to know your sh*t if you plan on correctly calling bullsh*t.

Very amusing, and a well-done way to present trivia fun facts. (Buy here.) I like the cover too. This was loaded onto my Kindle when it was being free, so yay. Anyway, it was really cool. I just sort of went through looking at all of the crazy facts. I think I laughed my head off for like a minute straight once or twice. I'm pretty sure I got at least 90% of it wrong. Heh. Heh. 

However, when I checked its page again, it became like what, nine dollars? I'm not sure if it's worth it. 

There isn't much analysis to be had for a book of fun facts. It was funny, it was interesting, and it was cool, but it isn't worth nine dollars, especially since the complete Lord of the Rings is ten dollars. So yeah.

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Pygmalion is a 1912 play by George Bernard Shaw.

Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence.

In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the creator of a statue which came to life and was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story in 1871, called Pygmalion and Galatea. Shaw also would have been familiar with the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed. Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the musical My Fair Lady and the film of that name.

--From the Wikipedia article on Pygmalion

This was... well, interesting. I'd never heard of it before, and I'd never read a play other than Shakespeare. Needless to say, it was considerably quicker to read, and slightly confusing. The title is a reference to the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who created a statue of a woman and promptly fell in love with it. With the help of Aphrodite, she came to life. (You can read the myth here.) The themes of the book are sort of parallel; a phonetician with a Holmes-like talent for knowing where people were raised by their accents who taught a poor flower girl to speak like a duchess treated her as his "creation" and not as an individual. Although the two clashed too much to fall in love, the flower girl eventually did rise somewhat in social class and remained the phonetician's friend. 

Henry Higgins was the "Pygmalion" in this play. He practiced the obscure profession of phonetics, and taught the wealthy to speak well for a living. Because of this, he was a bit of a snob. Higgins was also extremely moody and condescending. This was part of the reason why he treated Eliza (the flower girl) so unfairly, although in his eyes he "never gave her the slightest provocation". In my opinion, Pygmalion was basically the story of one very messed-up guy and his mistreatment and ultimate resolution with someone who at first appeared less powerful than he was. 

Various other important females in Higgins's life, like his housekeeper and his mother, entreated him to be more reasonable towards Eliza, but he seemed to be unwilling to accept any female advice. He only caved a little when spoken to by a man. Higgins had very strange ideals and outbursts throughout the play. Most modern people would roll their eyes and think, "Anger management problems~" very early on while reading. 

However, it's a pretty quick read and a creative premise. As a classic and free on the Kindle, I'd recommend it.

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When Nikki Murrow lost her first High School debating match she did what anyone would do – she hid in a closet. She found comfort hiding among the mops and cleaning supplies, but she also found two imps – tiny creatures from a magical kingdom who lead her on a strange journey into the Realm of Reason.

There is Fuzz, an imp with a fondness for breaking the rules. And Athena, a model of impish manners, decorum and spotlessly clean clothes. Together they convince Nikki to join them in the battle against the king's evil advisor, Maleficious.

In her debate class, Nikki learned the value of logic and reason, but who knew her ability to formulate a hypothesis would help a mud-splattered Knight redeem his tarnished reputation? Or that her knowledge of logical fallacies would rid the Realm's Haunted Hills of ghosts? 

Maleficious's hold on the king is strong, but Nikki and the imps are determined that the Realm will not fall into his clutches. Will their mastery of logic rid the kingdom of the ignorance Maleficious is spreading, or will the inhabitants of the Realm fall back under the sway of centuries-old superstition?

Huh. Pretty good for a free Kindle book. That's right. It's free (buy here). It's a Phantom Tollbooth-style sort of book that involves a whimsical other-world filled with strange creatures and a desire to spread reason. The thing that's sort of weird/endearing about this book is that it's "educational" (dun dun dun....). It introduces logical fallacies in a way that might be good for.. say... third graders. It was a bit over-simple for my taste, but I'll keep it on my Kindle for its useful information on logical fallacies--I knew about them already, but I'd never heard the formal terminology before. 

Generally, each chapter detailed a different logical fallacy as Nikki and her imp companions traveled throughout the Realm of Reason to eliminate superstition and spread knowledge. I also like that they weren't always successful. Repeated victories against ignorance every single chapter can get really monotonous. The one thing I didn't understand was why Nikki had to be a high schooler. It made her seem extremely stupid not to be applying her knowledge more, almost as if she was just bored and helping these immature imps for fun. If she was, say, a fifth grader, it would have made the story way more plausible and entertaining.

It was a bit more medieval than The Phantom Tollbooth, and the character foils of Fuzz and Athena were fun to read about. Nikki often spoke to the imps like they were first graders, very simply and patiently. However, it's an engaging format for teaching logical fallacies to younger readers. The next book, Castles and Chemistry is about--guess what? Chemistry! A preview chapter is included in Logic to the Rescue in which Nikki teaches Athena what an atom is.

So if you want an introduction to logical fallacies in a simple story, go ahead and download!

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Sophia “Soap” Lazarcheck is a girl genius with a knack for making robots—and for making robots explode. After her talents earn her admission into a secretive university institute, she is swiftly drawn into a conspiracy more than a century in the making. Meanwhile and without her knowledge, her cousin Dean wages a two-fisted war of vengeance against a villainous genius and his unwashed minions. Separately, the cousins must pit themselves against murderous thugs, experimental weaponry, lizard monsters, and a nefarious doomsday device. When their paths finally meet up, they will need to risk everything to prevent a mysterious technology from bringing civilization to a sudden and very messy end.

--From Sechin Tower's website

Pretty good for a Kindle book. The premise is... well, interesting, and the whole revolving-around-Tesla thing is cool, since I'd never heard of Tesla before I read Mad Science Institute.

Other than that, it was an okay adventure story with okay characters. I don't really feel like analyzing it further... but if you're really, really bored and are looking for something cheap on your Kindle to keep you occupied, then go for it.

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The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and later adapted into two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media. This story is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre.

--Taken from the Wikipedia article on The Time Machine

The Time Machine was altogether a very abstruse narrative of one unnamed man's travels into the deep future. I read it on my Kindle, where it's free due to its classic status. 


The book was initially narrated in first person by an unnamed narrator. Then, however, the mood shifted as he (presumably) transcribed the Time Traveller's telling of his voyage on the Time Machine. The Time Traveller's name was never revealed.


It's an interesting portrayal of the future, where the Golden Age of Mankind has already passed, and the species is crumbling. The technological advances commonly seen in science fiction were absent, which was definitely refreshing after the slew of dystopian novels that have been plaguing me these days. Yeah, I know this book was written a realllly loong time ago, but the relieving effect remains the same. I mean, everything seems so clichéd these days that anything different is such a rush, you know?


It was a sort of unprecedented way to think of the demise of humans, and the ruined splendor of the aftermath of human folly. I know that I never thought of the end of the world the way it was delineated in The Time Machine.


I generally don't like science fiction classics (i.e., Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, etc. etc.) very much - I mean, they're deep and all, but the science fiction elements and the slow prose of old books just doesn't click for me. The Time Machine was actually okay... I mean, for such an old book. Yeah.


Okay, now before I start rambling, I should wrap up the review, right? So The Time Machine was a fairly quick read, for all its archaic terms that are inevitable with any classic book. I say go for it if you're okay with really deep thoughts and a slightly confusing setup. Plus, it's free!!! YAY

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Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The plot of the novel is based upon a true story told to James by his close friend, British actress Fanny Kemble. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was hardly a great admirer of Jane Austen, so he might not have regarded the comparison as flattering. In fact, James was not a great fan of Washington Square itself. He tried to read it over for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction (1907–1909) but found that he couldn't, and the novel was not included. Other readers, though, have sufficiently enjoyed the book to make it one of the more popular works of the Jamesian canon.

--Taken from the Wikipedia article on Washington Square

I've always loved Jane Austen, and Washington Square's similarity to her writing struck me immediately. However, perhaps because it was written by an American author and was written eight or nine decades later than the works of Austen, it is less difficult to read through - in short, a slightly quicker read than, say, Persuasion.

Unlike Jane Austen's heroines, Catherine Sloper was a totally bland MC. I didn't like her very much - what was really interesting was the relationship between Catherine and her father. Dr. Sloper was really unfair (it seems like I'm reading a lot of books featuring unfair parents nowadays), and I hated how he was so blindly prejudiced against Morris and Catherine's relationship from the very beginning.

Kinda hard to review a classic.... so anyway, it was pretty good, but JANE AUSTEN IS BETTER. SO GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND READ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ALREADY!

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Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated, that is until she saves her crushes life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her new found fame brings misfortune in the form of an old family curse come to light. For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her its next fairytale victim.

To break the fairy tale curse on her family and make these deadly occurrences stop, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.

Well... it was okay, I guess. I hate the cover, though. And the title. And the MC's name. Yeah, I hate a lot of things, and the plot was only slightly original, so I didn't really like it, I guess.

Mina had no substance as a main character, and Brody didn't have any either... just your stereotypical sweet, overprotective rich boy. Nan was just another Tweeting, texting best friend.

GAAAH!!!!

I won't rant about it any more.

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Welcome to the Festival of Roses, a world full of magic and romance. Every year during the festival each boy leaves a flower at the door of the girl he believes is the "fairest of them all." Naturally, Snow White gets dozens of flowers, while her younger sister Rose Red is ignored. This year, though, things are different. For the first time, Rose Red has a mysterious admirer, and this year she isn't the only one jealous of her sister's beauty. But even though it’s a time of celebration, when girls begin disappearing, the festival turns deadly. With mysterious strangers arriving every day, an ominous marriage proposal, and magic and danger everywhere, Snow White and Rose Red will need to work together to survive the festival and solve the mystery.

I loaded this book onto my Kindle upon seeing on the Top Free list (strange... I checked the Kindle store again upon finishing it and it is now $2.99...). Though, like most free Kindle fiction books I've read, it needed some polishing up (i.e., grammar, spelling, dialogue, vocab usage, etc.), it was a okay read, and I liked how Rose Red is included in this story. There's a Grimm fairy tale called "Snow-white and Rose-red", and you can read it here. Although the book had nothing to do with the original fairy tale, I liked it all the same, and Rose's natural jealousy is done pretty well.

The rose-centered economy of the little village was really interesting, as well as the Festival itself. The plot is kind of disjointed and incomplete, but the basic storyline is all there... just not enough backstory to fully satisfy me.

I didn't get why Snow immediately fell for the Huntsman... as well as the point of Imerine being the witch, yada yada ya etc. A quick, okay read for bored people like me... not bad.

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