This page will concern only books. I got this idea from a friend's page, and really liked it. I read constantly and have quite a collection of good books I read and reread. What I'll do is show you the book, and give a quick review. If it's on here, its worth it. Please feel free to contact me with recommendations.. I'm always on the lookout for a new book!

Favourite books:

Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)

This is an incredible book. It was first read to me by my English teacher in 8th grade. Since then I have read it about 3 or 4 times per year. The copy I own is duct-taped to hopefully preserve it for future readings. Technically, this falls under Science-Fiction, but I wouldn't call it a Sci-Fi book. True, it takes place in the future, and deals with space, but this book is more about how one little boy reacts to his cicumstances. Earth has been attacked twice and barely survived. Now, in order to ensure we do not lose the next fight against this alien race, we are trying to breed and train military geniuses. One family is allowed to have a third child (against population control laws) in the hopes that this one will work. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is take from his family when he is six to begin training. This brilliant little boy is put through ordeal after ordeal during his training. It is truly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. There are several other books in the series: Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, and Ender's Shadow, the companion novel to Ender's Game. Ender's Game, however, is without a doubt the best!

The Witching Hour (Anne Rice)

Another incredible book! Anne Rice deals with one family, tracing its roots from a village in the 1600s to a doctor in modern times. This family is followed by a mysterious spectre called Lasher that does their bidding and is controlled by one witch per generation. Lasher, however, is not completely tame, and will kill to protect his witch. The descriptions in this book are incredible and powerful! There are other books in this series: Lasher, where you learn more about this strange being, and Taltos, where you learn about his kind. Highly worth the read!

The Green Mile (Stephen King)

I decided to read this after seeing the preview for the movie. I have never cared for Stephen King's work, but something about the way that preview looked made me grab the book and start in. I have to give King credit, this is a masterpiece! Meet an old gentleman in a nursing home, and follow his flashbacks to the past, when he was a guard for a prison death row. Things are routine until a new prisoner, John Coffey, comes on the block. It is readily apparent that Coffey is not what he seems. This is an incredible book. (Note: I finished this before the movie came out, and was awed by the movie almost as much as by the book)

Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

I would have thought that everyone had read this book! Or at least seen the movie. But for those of you that have not, this is the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a saucy southern belle, during America's Civil War. In love with Ashley Wilkes, but unable to marry him, Scarlett marries another man. Follow her as she does what she has to to keep her and her family from starving during and after the war. Watch her conflicts with Rhett Butler, a dark, dangerous, and mysterios man who has pursued her for years. This is considered to be one of the best novels ever written and I heartily agree!

L.A. Confidential (James Ellroy)

This is a great crime drama set in the 1950s. Some of you might be familiar with the movie version (which has Kevin Spacey, a favourite of mine, and is what first attracted me to read the book.) This is about three LA cops trying to work three cases (a mass murder, a pornography ring, and a drug ring) which seem to be seperate, but which are really connected by the mysterious Fleur de Lis group. I had a little bit of trouble with the language (by which I mean the slang terms were definitely 1950... and I had no idea what half of them meant! You figure them out though.) This book varied slightly from the movie *or should I say vice versa, but we a great read!

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien)

Another book I was inspired to read by the movie. I grew up watching The Secret of NIMH, and would definitely say it is one of my favourite movies. This is the book it is based on. It is basically the same as the movie, with some small variations. *In the movie the widowed mouse is referred to as Mrs. Brisby. Who knows. This was a great book and doesn't take too long to read. Fun!

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

The classic tale of the doomed love of Katherine and Heathcliff. The thing that draws me to the book is the incredible description of the English countryside, and the dark romance that hovers in the air. Interesting characters.

The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle)

Another book I read after having loved the movie for years. For those of you not familiar with this childhood classic movie, it is about the last unicorn left wild in the woods. She realises she has not seen another unicorn in years, and so sets out to find them. She is told by a butterfly that they "passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull followed them and covered their tracks" (not bad from memory, eh?). She sets out on her way to find the Red Bull, who lives in the realm of King Haggard. On her way, she meets Schmendrick the Magician and Molly Grue. I won't say what happens next, for those of you that don't know. Its a wonderful story and a great movie. The book definitely has more information about their journeys. Highly recommended!

The Neverending Story (Michale Ende)

Goodness! Another one of my "movie books"! For those of you that know, Neverending Story the movie was made into parts one and two. Both of these stories are contained in the book, which is divided into book one and two *in the same novel. It is a tale of a young man who travels to the faraway land of Fantasia through a book and his adventures there. Highy fanciful, terrific!

The Princess Bride (S. Morgenstern, William Goldman)

I can't believe there may be people who have not seen this movie (go get it!!). This is a classic fairy tale that has a twisted sense of humour. The movie is incredible, and so is the book, though there are definite variations between the two. In the book, William talks about how his father read this book to him when he was sick, and how years later, he searched it out for his son. It was only then that William realised that his father had edited out long passages of boring information that Morgenstern put in. Goldman set out to edit the book so it was only "The Good Stuff" (the things we have come to love in the movie, and that you will come to love in the book) Follow the romance of Buttercup, a beautiful (if not brilliant) young woman, and Westley, her adoring farmboy. When Westley sets out to make his fortune so he can marry Buttercup he is captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts and murdered at sea. Buttercup swears never to love again. Five years later, she is being pursued by Prince Humperdinck in marriage, and agrees, but tells him she will never love him. She is captured by three goofballs (Fezzinni, Inigo Montoya, and Fezzick) but saved by the mysterious man in black. Who is this man, and why does he save her? Follow the incredible adventure!

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (edited by Otto Frank)

I started reading this to help me with character analysis for the show, The Diary of Anne Frank (for which I played Anne... see my theatre page...) I found this to be an incredible book... very true to what I think most teenage girls are, but with the tragic addition of the Holocaust. This book was elemental in my study of Anne, who I found to be very similar to myself at that age, and also a lot like Anne of Green Gables, an L.M. Montgomery character. Truly an inspirational work!

Flight of Dragons (Peter Dickinson)

This was incredible! You cannot read this book and then deny that dragons existed! This man has a reason and explanation for everything, from how and why they flew, to why there are no fossilized remains! Every culture in the world believed in dragons, and wrote about them; this book explains why they disappeared. I cannot recommend this book enough! I picked it up because it was the same title as one of my favourite movies, however, the movie bases its facts on this book, and its plot on a book called The Dragon and the George, which I still have not finished. I will note more on that later.

Harry Potter Series (R.K. Rowling)

I have read through this series twice now, from book one to four (and cannot wait for book five through seven to come out). This fanciful series has taken the world for a wonderful ride, and I cannot wait for the movie of book one to come out! Join a young wizard named Harry and his friends on their adventures as they go through a wizarding school called Hogwarts!

Current reads: (*once again, bit off more than I could chew… too many books at once!)

Sybil (Flora Rheta Schreiber)

The true story of a woman with sixteen documented personalities, what made her dissociate, and how her psychiatrist helped her become whole again. Really fascinating, though very tragic. This is not a read for someone who cannot handle violence…

Mindhunter (John Douglas)

This is the story of John Douglas, the man who basically founded the profiling department in the FBI. It tells how he developed his techniques for tracking and profiling serial killers, and goes over several of his famous cases.

Le Morte D’Arthur (Sir Thomas Malory)

This is considered one of the definitive works on King Arthur (the title is French for The Death of Arthur) and it covers from his birth to his death, and all the legends between. My one complaint about this book is that is was written in the 1340s, and so everything was Christianised. King Arthur lived in Pagan ~ NeoChristian times, and Malory “cleaned up” the pagan aspects of the legend. However, if you take the book with a grain of salt, the legends are great!

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