Title: Angels and Demons
Author: Dan Brown
# of pages: 608

Review:

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor and renowned symbologist, has conducted extensive study on the secret organization called the Illuminati, that once comprised of all of the most brilliant scientists during the Renaissance on and rebelled against religion. One night, he is assigned the task of investigating an extremely peculiar case involving the death of a CERN physicist. There are no clues - except for the prominent Illuminati brand on the late Leonardo Vetra's chest, and Langdon knows that the Illuminati, after centuries of relative inactivity, has resurfaced.

To make matters worse, the messenger of the Illuminati has notified the Roman Catholic Church of a time bomb that has been hidden at the heart of Vatican City, prepared to detonate at midnight and destroy the world's smallest nation in size and population. With the company of Vittoria Vetra, Leonardo Vetra's adopted daughter, Langdon sets off on a journey against time that takes him across the city of Rome.

Angels and Demons is filled with adventure and suspense from the beginning to the end. The twists in the plot leave the reader baffled by the circumstances, and the large cast of characters allows for more suspense to build up as reporters in the media itch to be the first to reveal the story, Langdon and Vittoria attempt to find the culprit and the time bomb, and the Vatican Guard ponder over their decisions.

As many websites have identified, there are, however, several notable similarities between Angels and Demons and Dan Brown's other notable bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. They still had their respective differences in the plot, but perhaps it would be better if there were more.

Angels and Demons is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys reading action-packed stories, or would be interested in Roman art and architecture.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

The nature of jade

Title: The Nature of Jade
Author: Deb Caletti
# of pages: 288

Review:

Jade DeLuna occasionally suffers from panic attacks, and she already has scheduled therapy sessions and prescribed medication. She realizes that she can also help treat her anomaly by spending more time at the nearby zoo. She sets up the elephant exhibit's webcam in her room so that she can watch the elephants' daily routines, until she notices a boy around her age carrying a baby who visits the elephants every day. Intrigued by him, she eventually volunteers with the elephants, admiring their grace and semblance to human minds, and meets Sebastian.

Later on, she struggles to balance her life of hiding her relationship with Sebastian from her friends and family, increasingly-estranged friends and family, and maintaining good grades in her Advanced Placement courses. Although she feels at times that she has not done so successfully, she still tries her best to make ends meet.

The Nature of Jade was quite an interesting read for me. Jade faces the same obstacles in her life as many other teenage girls do. She seeks solace in caring for the elephants. When the members of her own family distance themselves from each other, she almost treats Sebastian's family as her own. She uses alternative methods to deal with stress that prove to be very useful.

In some way, this novel was similar to Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies). Jade is trying to find herself amidst several looming problems in her life, the same as when Patty Ho was in a stage of self-discovery. There are conflicts to deal with on the way, but through all of the struggle, they learn to appreciate themselves and their families.

The Nature of Jade is highly recommended for people of all ages: those who understand well enough to accept who they are, and those who have yet to find themselves.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

The DaVinci Code

Title: The Da Vinci Code

Author: Dan Brown
# of pages: 454

Review:

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor and renowned symbologist, is suddenly awakened by a phone call, discovering that a curator of the Louvre museum has been murdered. To make matters worse, he is the prime suspect for the crime thanks to a cryptic message left by the curator in his dying moments.

Fortunately, for him, though, the curator's cryptologist granddaughter Sophie Neveu knows that he is innocent, and accompanies him on his proceeding quest for the true culprit behind the murder, leading him to travel the world in search for justice.

Filled with twists and turns in the plot, it is no wonder that The Da Vinci Code became a worldwide success, later being adapted for the silver screen. Dan Brown's writing is filled with action and adventure, along with strong elements of mystery. The completely unpredictable events will keep the reader yearning for more, until the twist in the conclusion that finally puts everything into perspective.

I would highly recommend reading this and Angels and Demons, despite the already large numbers of rave reviews in recent years.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

HP and The Deathly Hollows

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J. K. Rowling
# of pages: 607

Review:

Harry Potter has been left with an extraordinarily difficult, yet crucial task of finding all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, pieces of his soul that have been separated from Voldemorts physical being. Doing so will finally bring down the Dark Lord and his reign of terror over the magical world, but every minute he and his best friends Ron and Hermione spend is filled with fear of fatal discovery by the Death Eaters.

And so, they set off to hide in the wilderness for the duration of what would have been their last school year at Hogwarts if not for Voldemort. The Death Eaters have now taken over the Ministry of Magic, and several stringent regulations regarding Muggle-borns, Muggles, and "blood traitors" who are pure-bloods but support the Muggle cause have been enacted. The evil regime poses an enormous problem for witches and wizards who mean good, but Harry remains true to his destiny and works to

Though some were unsatisfied with the last instalment of the bestselling Harry Potter series, I thought it to be a fitting conclusion to the series save for certain parts of the ending. Had Harry died, readers would see a dynamic close to the saga. Some of the deaths that did occur, however, seemed unnecessary in that they didn't influence the emotional aspect of the novel.

Nevertheless, J. K. Rowling did a wonderful job of putting in many twists and turns in the plot, piqueing the reader's attention and making the story an absolute thriller from the beginning to the end.

I would highly recommend reading this and the other Harry Potter novels, even if the fanbase is already at a quite substantial size.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny

Branch: Angus Glen

Wings

Title: Wings
Author: Julie Gonzalez
# of pages: 208

Review:

Ben is determined that one day, he will sprout his wings from his back and fly, despite everyone in his surroundings rejecting this belief and calling it off as naiveness and a wild imagination. He is fascinated with all flying animals, even documenting the wing structures of insects and birds with sketches and diagrams, or studying Leonardo da Vinci's wing design. He jumps off his roof, off the top of his tree, off a railroad track over a roaring river, to see if his wings come out. He insists that others call him Icarus after the character in Greek mythology. He does well in school, but refuses to dedicate the rest of his life to anything other than independent flight. One day, his dream comes true, surprising those who knew him, and he sets off to find people who are just like him, human-like creatures with wings.

Wings portrayed the value of believing in oneself no matter what opposition or consequences there are. I would say that it gives a realistic picture of self-confidence, had human-like creatures sprouting wings been a well-documented event - hence, the novel won't likely serve any purpose as a self-help book.

Otherwise, this novel was mainly dull. It constantly focuses on Ben's dream to fly, and while it shows how strongly he believed in it, many of the small occurrences hardly meant anything in the end.

I would not recommend this novel to anyone, though I strongly advise that those who do read it, fully understand the dangers of jumping off high elevations. In real life, Ben's fate would be forever changed if he had a spinal cord injury and lost his motor skills (therefore having no chance of flight).

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

P.S. I apologize if my sudden review submissions have caused any inconvenience. I had some reviews that were half-completed from the past few weeks and I only recently finished them.

A swift pure cry

Title: A Swift Pure Cry
Author: Siobhan Dowd
# of pages: 310

Review:

After her mother's death, Michelle "Shell" Talent is struggling to take care of her younger siblings Jimmy and Trix alone, in her small village of Coolbar. Her father has quit his job and his previous life, becoming an angry and often delusional man who claims to dedicate his life to God and preaching the Gospel. Although Shell lost her faith in God after the tragedy in her family, a new curate comes to her parish and renews the faith in all of those who attend Mass.

Meanwhile, Shell Talent's life is further troubled when she realizes that she is pregnant with the child of a boy who has left for the New York. She tries her best to hide it, but when it is born, an entirely new crisis emerges and throws the village out of balance.

Based on a true story, the plot of A Swift Pure Cry seemed to lack originality. Teenage pregnancies are a common issue that has been dealt with in many, if not all, developed countries. Often, teenage mothers resort to abandoning their babies. Therefore, Shell's situation in terms of the baby could have easily been another regular occurrence.

Nevertheless, the concept of faith expressed in the novel was quite interesting. A single priest who arrived in Coolbar completely changed the views of the congregation with his passion, and he is described as a person with a kind heart. Shell immediately fell in love with religion, even having frequent hallucinations of her mother.

Because of the deplorable lack of creativity in the story, however, I would not recommend this novel to anyone.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

Title: The End of East
Author: Jen Sookfong Lee
# of pages: 245

Review:

The first member of the Chan family to arrive in Vancouver was Seid Quan, a poor man from a Chinese village who looked toward a job in Canada as a great opportunity. With his passage being paid for by the village, he set off in 1913, determined that he will pay back his debt, send enough money back to China to feed his family there, and save up so that his wife and children can settle in the city with him.

Two generations later, his granddaughter Sammy is looking back on her family's history, uncovering Seid Quan's mementos hidden in an old crate and an aged cigarette tin. She has been assigned the task of taking care of her outrageous mother now that all of her elder sisters have moved away to live with their husbands.

While The End of East did not have the format of typical historical fiction, I found Lee's style to be very entertaining. We learn about the difficulties Seid Quan faced for most of his time in Canada, especially the racial discrimination that was prominent in society at that time. The characters are given real personalities, and it almost seems as though the reader knows them in person. The events that occurred could have easily happened in real life.

I would highly recommend this novel to everyone with an interest in historical affairs, or simply anyone who enjoys reading novels.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

nothing but the truth

Title: Nothing but the Truth (And a few White Lies)
Author: Justina Chen Headley
# of pages: 256

Review:

Patty Ho was born to a Taiwanese mother and a white father. Since her father left her family, Patty's mother has been working tirelessly as an accountant to feed the family. However, her mother is subject to performing lengthy lectures and screaming in the public when she is unsatisfied with something. As the school year ends, the Truth Statement that was meant to be her end-of-the-year project was labelled by the teacher as "incomplete" because it did not seem to portray the truth about herself.

The following summer, Patty is sent to math camp at Stanford. There, she meets teenagers she once considered as nerds, but who are really people just the same as she is and have a passion for math (or were otherwise sent by their parents to study mathematics). Though she used to deny her mathematical abilities, she learns from her mentor at Stanford that one must not hide their strengths, and that she must be proud of her heritage regardless of common stereotypes. By the end of the camp, Patty finally realizes the truth about who is , and it is with that knowledge that she finally completes her Truth Statement and hands it in to her teacher.

Justina Chen Headley did a fantastic job of portraying the process of self-discovery and how the support of mentors and friends can help one accept the identity of oneself. It takes a series of events before Patty transforms from a girl who downplayed her mother's origins after constant bullying at school, to a confident young adult. Headley also gave an interesting perspective on the common stereotypes regarding Asians, describing how a seemingly harmless stereotype could have such effect on a person.

Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) is recommended for all teenagers, and may be of particular interest to those of Asian or part-Asian descent. The novel also contains some significant elements of chick lit.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

Love is a many trousered thing

Title: Love is a many Trousered Thing
Author: Louise Rennison
# of pages: 271 (250 when appendices and glossary excluded)

Review:

Georgia Nicolson, after several long weeks of wondering where her future love life lay, has finally received not one, but two offers of being the girlfriend of either Robbie, her handsome first boyfriend who just returned from Kiwi-a-gogo-land (aka New Zealand), or Masimo, the charming singer for the Stiff Dylans who replaced Robbie after he left England. In the eighth instalment of Georgia's story, she must decide who will ultimately be her boyfriend, even if the situation is only more complicated with Dave the Laugh's constant presence in her life.

Finally, three novels since the introduction of Masimo as a romantic interest in the series, do we see any progress in terms of the plot. That expanse was filled with a few events that managed to carry on for pages and pages, to the point that the repetition occurring in the series was unnerving. Of course, there were some hilarious situations here and there, but for the most part, it was Georgia ranting about how depressing her life was when in fact, it seems that she lives life with no worries besides those of her love life. I enjoy the humour expressed in Rennison's writing, but I find that the events that have occurred in the eight novels so far could have been consolidated into 4 at most, to save readers from reading about the same complaints over and over again without many plot developments, and to have a sense of conclusion and the end of each novel that I had only seen in Love is a many trousered thing and the first few books.

I would recommend this novel to all fans of chick lit, and (previous) fans of the series will be satisfied with it.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

Everything Worth Knowing

Title: Everyone Worth Knowing
Author: Lauren Weisberger
# of pages: 367

Review:

Bette Robinson works at UBS as an accountant, and spending long work hours doing mindless work bores her. One day, she suddenly decides to quit her job, though she admittedly has nothing in mind concerning her future prospects. She does, however, enjoy unemployed life and the immense freedom it brings.

Perhaps in an act as sudden as quitting her job, her trustworthy columnist Uncle Will lands her one at his ex-assistant's firm: a PR company specializing in planning events, with strong connections to the most prominent celebrities. She is an immediate success, meeting new faces, going to parties, and suddenly being part of the "cool" crowd - meaning, thinking nothing of a $1000 price tag, or enthusiastically keeping track of her place in the wait list for the next Hermes Birkin bag. However, as she soon finds out, all of her life is published onto accusatory tabloids, and appearances are often deceiving.

One of the things I noticed about this novel was that it bore strong resemblance to another, perhaps more well known, of Weisberger's works: The Devil Wears Prada. The main character experiments with a job that seems to bring great opportunities, only to realize how much it destroys her personal life and the relationships with the ones she loves most. Perhaps one of the few significant differences between the two storylines was that the characters landed on different jobs.

In all other respects, Weisberger has done an excellent job of documenting Bette's life throughout the course of the story. The storyline is imaginative, for the most part. Nevertheless, I found the conclusion quite disappointing - it seemed a bit rushed, when Bette's revenge against those who defamed her during her stint as a PR girl and her relationship with her new boyfriend a not as well-described as the rest of the novel.

A prime example of chick lit, Everyone Worth Knowing is recommended for all young women who enjoy reading the genre, but don't keep your hopes up for a good ending.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

Masquerade

Title: Masquerade - A Blue Bloods Novel
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
# of pages: 311

Review:

Schuyler van Alen is a Blue Blood, an immortal vampire with superior powers compared to humans (known as Red Bloods). Amidst the Blue Blood community of New York social elites, there is a dangerous force, called Silver Bloods, that is terrorizing Blue Bloods and murdering their souls. Now that her grandmother has "died" to be reincarnated in another human-like form, Schuyler has been given the quest of searching for her grandfather to seek answers regarding the many questions surrounding Silver Bloods and how to defeat them.

She travels all the way to Italy, but all the trip does is leave her in further despair. The Committee that governs all Blue Blood affairs seems to be hiding secrets from the general population. As the annual Four Hundred Ball, Blue Blood tradition, is being organized and preparations are underway, mysterious events continue to bring suspense and Schuyler's only hope is that her friends are safe.

The sequel to Blue Bloods, Masquerade was filled with adventure and suspense from cover to cover. Many of the Blue Bloods were constantly on alert for any suspicious activities that would underlie Silver Blood presence, while the Committee seemed not to be taking action against the looming threat of losing another Blue Blood. To add to Schuyler's troubles, she was quite unpopular in society because of her relative lack of wealth compared to the other social elites, and the most popular girl despised her out of jealousy.

I would highly recommend this novel to any fans of horror or fantasy novels, though there are also some hints of a chick lit novel (not very surprising considering de la Cruz has written a myriad of novels in the genre). With its many plot twists, Masquerade will surely entertain the reader.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen

Book Review: Angels in Pink - Raina's Story

Title: Raina's Story
Author: Lurlene McDaniel
# of pages: 201

Review:

After Raina persuaded her closest friends Kathleen and Holly to volunteer at the Parker-Sloan Hospital as "Pink Angels" in the summer, the three have found it to be such a fulfilling experience that they have decided to continue their volunteer activities into the school year, this time for credit.

In the meantime, Kathleen is uncertain whether she can still be together with Carson when they attend different schools. Holly has difficulty at home, trying to find ways to rebel against her parents' conservative beliefs without getting into trouble all the time. Raina is trying to cope with the fact that her ex-boyfriend, Tony Stoddard, has returned to her school to make her life miserable. Her current boyfriend, Hunter, is leaving for college in the fall. Worse yet for her, she has only recently discovered the truth about her family, and the life of a sister she never knew before now depends on Raina's bone marrow.

As always, the author has managed to write a tale that touches the heart of the reader and has such complexity that can only be defined as that of Lurlene McDaniel's. Each of the characters has realistic challenges to face, that one could easily relate to even if they did not experience the same circumstances. Furthermore, each of those characters is unique in their own right, bringing a diversity I greatly appreciate.

The second in the Angels in Pink trilogy, Raina's Story is a memorable read that will captivate the audience until the very last page.

Screen Name: WaterfallOfDestiny
Branch: Angus Glen