Archiv der Kategorie: English Books

Review: Eldest

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Christopher Paolini – Eldest

  • Publisher: Laurel-Leef Books
  • number of pages: 1016
  • Part of a series: Yes – it is the second out of four parts (Inheritance Cycle).
  • Contents:
    The story of Eragon and his dragon Saphira continues. He goes to the Elves for further training of his abilities and to learn more about magic. At home in Cravahall his cousin Roran starts his fight against the Ra´zac  and makes his people join to the Varden.
  • Review:
    I liked this book, too. Eragon becomes older, he falls in love and has to manage many different adventures and he learns that not everything is the way it seems to bee.  But  I think the first volume is a little bit better. Because the story is very long and sometime a little bit boring, we take a break from the “Inheritance Circle“ now and read another book (or two) before continuing with the third and fourth part. Sometimes I think the book had been better if it hadn’t been so long. I’d think, maybe half as long as it is. But the story is still great — big themes: Love, friendship, good and evil, loyalty are big words and the story tells much about them. I can understand that many people love it and I will surely read the last two  parts of this series.
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Review: Eragon

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Christopher Paolini – Eragon

  • Publisher: Laurel-Leef Books
  • number of pages: 754
  • Part of a series: Yes – it is the first out of four parts.
  • Contents:
    Eragon lives in peace together with his uncle and his cousin. One day he goes hunting in a near mountain range, called  the Spine. There he finds a mysterious stone — which is an egg of a dragon. Eragon finds out one night when a dragon hatches from it. He takes care of the dragon, Saphira, and becomes a Dragon Rider. An exciting jouney begins for Eragon and his dragon as they experience what could not be imagined before and find out things that they had never expected.
  • Review:
    It was a real good book and I can hardly believe that was written by a fifteen year old. I loved to listen to the very exciting book and follow the fortune of the Dragon Rider and his dragon, when my boyfriend read it to me. I have been deep inside the story and could really feel how it was for Eragon and his friends. I liked it very much to follow his development and accompany him on his path to become a real Dragon Rider.  I liked the characters, whom Eragon meets on his way. I like, Saphira most, but also  Brom, Murtagh, Arya and Solembum. They bring friendship, love and some funny moments into the story. I can recommend this book to all people, who love fantasy with dragons,  Elves and much of magic. It is a wonderfull book and I am happy to have started with the next part of the series directly when we  finished this book.
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Review: Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour-Dog

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Jeremy Strong – Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour-Dog

  • Publisher: Penguin Books / Puffin Books
  • number of pages: 132
  • Part of a series: Yes – there are many books about Streaker the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour-Dog.
  • Contents:
    Streaker is the dog of Travor, the boy who tells the story what was happening shortly before Christmas one year. Streaker is a dog, who is brilliant at many things, but most she is brilliant at getting in trouble. One day Travor goes for a walk together with his friend Tina, Streaker and her puppies, when something mysterious happens to Streakers puppies -they disappear. The two children and Streaker start to look for the puppies and to find out, who kidnapped the pups. But it isn´t easy to rescue them…
  • Review:
    This book was really funny to read. In my opinion it is not only a good book for children but also for adults, who like funny stories. It is a good book for the days before Christmas, for rainy and dark days and it made me laugh many times. The story is funny – most because of Streaker and Mouse, who is Tina´s dog. I like the special way the story is told, it was funny and easy to understand. But the best thing additional I think are the wonderful pictures, which aren´t only loved by little children. Thanks to the sister of my boyfriend, who has recommended this book to me.
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Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

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Alan Bradley – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

  • Publisher :Orion Publishing Group
  • number of pages : 384
  • Part of a series:  Yes – It is the first of a few Flavia de Luce books.
  • Contents:
    Buckshaw  (England) in 1950: The eleven years old Falvia de Luce lives together with her father and her two sisters in an old house, called Buckshaw. She loves chemistry and exspecially poison. One day a dead bird lays in front of the door and a day later Flavia finds a dead person in the cucumber patch. Now she startes her investigation and helps she police to find the truth and to rescues her father from jail. While her investigations she finds out al lot about the past of her dad. And a special stamp playes an important role – it is the mysterious Penny Orange, which all philatelists would wish to own.
  • Review:
    The book was excitingly and I loved to investigate together with Flavia and make my own suggestions what had happened. But the book was a little bit hard to read because of the language, which had often been difficult to understand and  there have been many word, which I hadn´t known before an I had to search in a dictionary. But nevertheless I loved the book and I am am locking forward to read the next part of the series. I fall in love with Flavia, who is such a wonderful girl an I like the very good story, which had never become boring.
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Review: The Host

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Stephenie Meyer – The Host

  • Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
  • number of pages : 617
  • Part of a series:  No
  • Contents:
    The main character is Melanie Stryder. She is one of the last human beings, who have not been invaded by one of the alien species, that take over the minds of the humans they live in. But one day she is implanted with a „soul“ inside her body, too. The „soul’s“ name is „Wanderer“ and she is special, because she learns from Melanie herself, who hasn´t completely vanished and maintains a mind of her own about what it means to be a human being.The thoughts of the two individuals in one body mingle and so after a while they both fall in love with Jared. But it isn´t easy to share your body with someone you don´t really like and to be still yourself. And step by step they try to find a way how they both can be happy.
  • Review:
    It  was a book, which I had read in German before and I decided to read it in English again to practice my English. And fortunately it worked, the language was good to understand. The story is wonderful and it was no problem to read it twice – so I could discover new details of the story which I hadn´t noticed when I read it for the first time. Melanie and Wanderer are two very lovely persons and I like it very much how they interact. The story is very exciting and I almost couldn’t put the book away when I had to do something else, even thought I remembered what comes next. I love the many lovely details of the lives of the characters, which are so wonderfully invented by Stephenie Meyer. It is impressing how strong love can be and how it finds its way. But the most incredible thing was, that Wanderer helps the others to get „souls“ out of human bodies – even herself out of Melanie’s. Many parts of the book make me cry a little bit because they are so sad and so wonderful at the same time. But the absolute highlight is the end – how it all becomes nearly perfect. I love it! And I think this book is much better than the Twighlight books everyone first remembers when you think of Stephenie Meyer. Everyone should read this book, too, I think.
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Review: Fall of Giants

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Ken Follett – The Fall of Giants
  • Publisher : Dutton Adult
  • number of pages : 985
  • Part of a series:  Yes – It is the first part of a trilogy.
  • Contents:
    Billy Twice (his real name is Billy Williams)  is a thirteen-year-old boy, who goes to work in the coal mine underneath the fictional Welsh town of Aberowen in June 1911 for his first time. This is the beginning oft the novel. Three years later the main story begins: Earl Teddy „Fitz“ Fitzherbert of Aberowen, gives a party with many powerful people from around the world as his guests. For example there are Maud Fitzherbert, Fitz’s liberal sister, the German Graf Walter von Ulrich, his Austrian cousin Graf Robert von Ulrich, the Amrican Gus Dewar, a close adviser to the President Woodrow Wilson, Bea Fitzherbert, Fitz’s wife, a Russian Princess an King George V and his wife. Their lives and those of their families are followed by the reader during the coming  years. Other important characters are the two Russian orphans Gregori and Lev Pushkov, who work in a railway factory, and have good reason not to like Bea an the rest of her family. The book ends in January 1924, so it plays during the time of World War 1, the Russian Revolution and the woman´s suffragette movement.
  • Review:
    I liked this book very much. It is brilliant, how Follett brings in the five families an combines their lives. So history becomes alive and you can understand how it all fits together.  I like it that Follett explains the time from the different perspectives of the five families, which each belong to a different country: America, England / Scotland, Germany and Russia. I am impressed how he manages to mix their lives and makes the reader understand how difficult life was in this time. The big, exciting, historical narrative is told by telling many little personal and individual stories of the people. I like the love-stories between Ethel an Fitz as well as the one of Maud and Walter most. I love the many little details of their live and the way Follett tells them in a lovely way. It is a good mixture of love and war and I, who normally isn´t very interested in history, likes the way  it is presented here as well as in many other books by Ken Follett. Although it was a very long book, especially for persons like me, who are not as good in the English language, I am happy I decided to read it, because it was easily understood and a wonderful story. So I am locking forward to read the next part of the trilogy and experience, how the stories go on and the families come together again.
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