Karenschoice books

book info: ages: 14 and up grades: 9 and up (Years 10 and up) on sale: now copy from: library publisher: Little, Brown and Company pages: 369 (big pages) title: The Blood of Flowers author: Anita Amirrezvani photo credit: goodreads In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great.  Despite her lowly station, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets, a rarity in a craft dominated by men. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim. Forced into a secret marriage to a wealthy man, the young woman finds herself faced with a daunting dec...

book info: ages: 14 and up grades: 8-9, years: 10 and up on sale: now copy from: library publisher: bantam pages: 349 title: The Caliph's House author: Tahir Shah photo: goodreads (goodreads) In the tradition of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, acclaimed English travel writer Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of making an exotic dream come true. By turns hilarious and harrowing, here is the story of his family’s move from the gray skies of London to the sun-drenched city of Casablanca, where Islamic tradition and African folklore converge–and nothing is as easy as it seems…. Inspired by the Moroccan vacations of his childhood, Tahir Shah dreamed of making a home in that astonishing country. At age thirty-six he got his chance. Investing what money he and his wife, Rachana, had, Tahir packed up his growing family and bought Dar Khalifa, a crumbling ruin of a mansion by the sea in Casablanca that once belonged to the city’s caliph, or spiritual leader. With ...

Hello!    I'll just sum up my "tweaked" rules: You are not required to follow me, only if you like my blog! You can leave a comment and I will seriously consider reading your blog if I like it I believe in people following because they like/want to, and not to be forced because of a blog hop. Anyway! What was your favourite book that you were REQUIRED to read when you were in school? photo credit: goodreads I actually don't remember most of the books I was required to read. However, this year's summer reading included The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I made a completely amazing dialogue journal (split pages into two sides, write a passage on one side, and discuss it on the other) that I will take pictures of to show you all. It included making a table of context (since the book is missing one) and my own, painted cover of the book as well as a book cover for my notebook :) Usually, people hate summer reading books. But I think they're chosen for a reason: they ...

Voyage, pronounced "voy-aah-j" Like in that French accent. Now, for some shameless promotion :D Hi readers!    This is actually a premature post requesting you all to visit and/or follow my new writing blog, Voyage. See, I'm having it designed but it's taking longer than expected. I'm not angry or anything, I'm just really excited. It's going to be simple and sweet and cute, and not professional like Pages is. A pleasant change I'm looking forward to! It's going to be more personal as well, seeing as I don't feel personal posts would fit well into the character of Pages. :D the URL:   http://voyagedelapaix.blogspot.com/ (It'd love it so much if you could stop by) Why Start a Writing Blog?  Anyway, a writing blog? I've seen many authors who had started blogging about writing and eventually got published, and I thought, "Well, that's a great idea!" Blogging has proven to be a motivator for me, knowing I had hundreds of peopl...

book info: ages: 13 and up grades: 7-8 and up (Years 9 and up) on sale: now copy from: library pages: 290 publisher: Ballantine Books title: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet author: Jamie Ford photo: goodreads In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a story of Chinatown, America during the time of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and is truly both bitter and sweet. I had seen average ratings for this book, but decided that I'd give it a go anyway. I struggled to get through the first few chapte...

book info: ages: 16 and up grades: 10 and up (Years 12 and up) on sale: now copy from: library pages: 372 publisher: Riverhead title: A Thousand Splendid Suns author: Khaled Hosseini A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them. Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of an unforgi...

source: tumblr " And he understood human nature so deeply, not just our great capacity for virtue and for goodness, and for love, but our capacity for pain and destruction and anger." Tom Hiddleston on Shakespeare There's something about the way Mr Hiddleston (Mr Hiddleston, haha, why am I so formal? I don't know him personally, so I don't feel like I'm privileged to address him on first name basis) says things, about the characters he plays or on human nature itself, but whenever he says something like this, I get very inspired. Mind you, I haven't taken psychology or studies on human nature at all, so I don't speak from professional knowledge.  "I believe we are born clean slates, and we all have a capacity to be nasty or noble" Nasty or Noble? They're two halves of a whole, I think, and we have to embrace both parts in ourselves. A person that is completely nice, completely passive and serene, is empty. He that never yells, or spea...

Hello friends!   Soon, it's going to be the start of a new school year for me, and I want to bring about some changes to this book blog. I like the way it is. Simple, sweet: just reviews and topic posts, the occasional interview and giveaways. However, I feel like I'm not servicing to your interests so I decided to change things, but I want to know how you feel about it. There are already many giveaways planned for this year, guaranteed, and I know how popular those are, haha. But would you guys like to see more: interviews book spotlights guest posts blogger interviews excerpt reveals And if so, what genres are you all most interested in seeing? I've added my opinions: Young Adult (YA)  <---yes!  Middle Grade (MG)  Romance <---if it's in the YA genres  Chick-Lit  Fantasy <---YA  Paranormal  Contemporary <---YA  Dystopian <----YA  Mystery/Thriller  Historical <---Adult or YA See, I'm singing up to be a host on...

It's another feature and follow Friday! For all you newcomers (I'm not sure if there are) here are my "tweaked" rules for the hop, which I hope are acceptable: I don't like Feature and Follow Friday's because it forces people to follow this blog, of whom are not really interested in my content, and are only interested in getting followers for their blogs. I know this isn't true for everyone, but it's an underlying concept. Therefore, I've changed it a bit to fit me. Why? Because a blog that doesn't grow is stale and boring. And as a blogger and person, I'm constantly craving meeting people and interacting. SO If you're visiting (thank you so much!) here's what's happening: If I followed you, you are NOT required to follow me back: only if you want to If you follow me, I'll seriously consider following you back, but it's not guaranteed I know it's part of the hop, that it's basic courtesy to follow you back, but.....

Hi readers! I'm going to try something new with this review. I read a post on ( Candace's Book Blog ) about what people look for in a review, so I'm going to make this one to see if I can improve my reviewing skills. Tell me what you think! (P.S. this is a book I read quite a few years ago, but never reviewed) book info: ages: 13 and up grades: 7-8 and up (Years 9 and up) on sale: now copy from: Amazon pages: 243 publisher: Scholastic Press title: A Map of the Known World author: Lisa Ann Sandell photo: goodreads Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagin...

Historical fiction is one my most favourite genres, but I just haven't actually gone out and picked them up. Getting books from the young adult section at my library is easy, it's several bookshelves along a wall that are all YA. However, going to the adult fiction section is like, about eight massive bookshelves one after another: so getting books there has been a put-off. I do plan, however, when I go to volunteer there again this Thursday, to hunt through that section. I shelve adult fiction for now, so it'll provide me with that opportunity, hehe :D What inspired me to actually start on historical fiction is this historical fiction blog called The Tiny Library . I'll be reading and reviewing a lot of books that Sam has mentioned, yay! It's really exciting. What to expect: photo credit: goodreads A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini A suitable boy : a novel by Vikram Seth In Arabian nights : a caravan of Moroccan dreams by Tahir Shah I'm pleased to rea...

Hi guys! I'm really excited to announce that I have achieved six hundred followers! That's an amazing achievement that I never thought I'd get, back when I had around two hundred followers. It seems like 600 is the magical number of followers that makes one a "high up" blogger. The number of followers shouldn't matter, as quality of content is the only thing that should, but nonetheless, it's an observation I've made. I am old As I was browsing through my Reading List, trying to find blogs I've loved and grew up blogging with, I realised that nearly all of them have just...stopped blogging. I did that once too, I might have stopped with them and a generation would have died: but I didn't. I feel like a survivor. I mean, I had great affiliates like Cate from Sparrow Review and Liz from Cleverly Inked: Now they've both gone, and my only affiliate left is Precious from Fragments of Life. It's sad to not see them around any more. Jenn fro...

Well, really the books in the bookshelf. I've taken a picture of my bookshelf before, but not the actual books that I own. Welcome: to my books! This may kind of look like bragging, but I don't usually buy books like many other bloggers, so I don't have too many fantastically envy-worthy books to share.  First, I have my prized Harry Potter collection! I'm sad to say I've mis-located the Chamber of Secrets and I still need to get my own copy of The Half Blood Prince. I know they're the necessities in every bibliophile's library but...I promise I'll get to it! My favourite series ever: Harry Potter! US Editions Thanks to my Mum and Dad for getting them for me :D By the way, I was just eating some Kit-Kats while re-reading a bit of the Deathy Hallows: I unwrapped it in a strange way, so don't think I was like, mad with chocolate hunger or something, haha :D But I have been! It's been ages since I've actually had chocolate. Before this, I manag...