Review: The Mythic Guide To Characters

BY IN B, Non-fiction NO COMMENTS YET Dr. Antonie Del Drago

By Dr. Antonie Del Drago. Grade B

The Mythic Guide To Characters

How do you create characters that are so compelling that they hook readers from the start?  As a professor, writer, and philosopher, Dr. Antonio del Drago has immersed himself in the literary and mythological traditions of the world.  His search for answers led him to uncover the common elements behind all great myths and stories.  Applying this knowledge to the writing of characters, he has developed a layered approach to character creation. This is more than a book on how to write characters. This guide offers a practical, step-by-step approach to character creation that is sure to take your writing to the next level.

Drago starts off stating, or rather warning, that this is not an be all-in-all guide but that it is to be a few guidelines to help you with the process of developing your characters.  … Continue Reading?

Review: Son

BY IN A+, Fantasy, Lois Lowry, Young-Adult NO COMMENTS YET Dystopia

By Lois Lowry. #4 in The Giver Series. Grade: A+

 

I have been reading The Giver series since the first book came out and I have never been disappointed. The stories The Giver series brings us are about individuals wanting more than what life handed them. That there had been some gross misdoing and they set out to right it. They risk their hearts and spirits for the sake of gaining a love they barely knew of in the first place. The surreal experiences, the insurmountable circumstances and the fantastic finishes to each book in this series has kept me as a fan longer than any other book series I have ever read.

Son by Lois Lowry

They called her Water Claire.

… Continue Reading?

Review: The Designer’s Web Handbook

BY IN A+, Non-fiction, Web Design, Web Development NO COMMENTS YET Patrick McNeil

By Patrick McNeil. Grade: A+

You know how to design. But you can increase your value as a designer in the marketplace by learning how to make that design function on the web. From informational sites to e-commerce portals to blogs to mobile apps, The Designer’s Web Handbook helps any designer understand the full life cycle of a digital product: idea, design, production and maintenance.

This book is definitely a web designers handbook. To put it simply, the book outlines the different trends and styles of website and what makes them tick. You can think of it as a comprehensive documentation of web design as it is in 2012.

Inside the book the author, Patrick McNeil, gives valuable information and tips about the accepted norms in web design and how to get there yourself.… Continue Reading?

Review: The Web Designer’s Idea Book

BY IN A+, Non-fiction, Web Design 1 COMMENT Patrick McNeil

By Patrick McNeil. Grade: A+


When I opened this book, my amazement could have made me gasp aloud. The book opens to pages of full-color, top-notch designs. My mind started ticking away immediately. The inspiration was already sparking in the air above me. No words were read; just viewing and consuming.

The Web Designer’s Idea Book includes more than 700 websites arranged thematically so you can find inspiration for layout, color, style and more. Author Patrick McNeil has catalogued more than 5,000 sites on his website, and showcased in this book are the very best examples.

Again, I find this book amazing. It has hundreds of designs to study and be inspired from. Most of us have gotten the message that the nineties style of design is out.… Continue Reading?

Review: The Guilty One

BY IN C, General Fiction, Mystery 4 COMMENTS Lisa Ballantyne

By Lisa Ballantyne. Grade: C

A little boy was found dead in a children’s playground…Daniel Hunter has spent years defending lost causes as a solicitor in London. But his life changes when he is introduced to Sebastian, an eleven-year-old accused of murdering an innocent young boy. As he plunges into the muddy depths of Sebastian’s troubled home life, Daniel thinks back to his own childhood in foster care – and to Minnie, the woman whose love saved him, until she, too, betrayed him so badly that he cut her out of his life. But what crime did Minnie commit that made Daniel disregard her for fifteen years? And will Daniel’s identification with a child on trial for murder make him question everything he ever believed in?

… Continue Reading?

Review: Conquering SAT Math

BY IN A, Non-fiction NO COMMENTS YET Dr. Robert Postman, Ryan Postman

By Dr. Robert Postman and Ryan Postman. Grade: A

So it’s your turn, huh? The SAT test is finally upon you. That test that will decide your fate when it comes to getting into colleges and will tell you how smart or how dumb you are. And you know the math section is not only going to get you, it will crush you. Turns out you can relax. The SAT is a multiple choice test with little bubbles you get to fill in, fun pictures and logical answers. And no matter what anyone says the SAT is not an IQ test. What you need is a book that understands your frenzied predicament and puts its information in an hands-on, ready-to-digest, kind of way.

… Continue Reading?

Review: 500 Simple Website Tips and Techniques

BY IN A, Non-fiction, Web Design, Web Development NO COMMENTS YET Jamie Freeman

By Jamie Freeman. Grade: A

More and more people are setting up their own websites for personal or professional purposes. This convenient, easy-to-use guide offers solid, jargon-free advice on the basics of website design. Learn exactly how to plan a site, with an introduction to information architecture, tools, scripting basics, file and image formats, choosing and buying a domain name, and testing procedures. Key design aspects, such as colors, typefaces, and rollovers are also explained, along with tips on marketing, quick loading, and fun extras like Flash animation. Want a website? Build a website, with help from 500 Simple Website Hints, Tips, and Techniques.

This book is great right from the get-go. You open it up to find glossy, full-color pages.… Continue Reading?

Review: Johnny Hangtime

BY IN action, B NO COMMENTS YET Dan Gutman

By Dan Gutman. Grade: B

This book is a childhood favorite of mine. I checked it out at a public library 10 years ago. After scouring google and praying with all my might that the library still had the book, I found it again. Was it worth the search? Well…

Jumping off the Empire State Building, fighting on the wing of  a biplane, and parachuting onto the back of a horse are all in a days work for 13-year-old Johnny Thyme, a stuntkid known in the movie business as Johnny Hangtime. But Johnny’s phenomenal feats are a movie industry secret. Ricky Corvette the superstar teen for whom Johnny doubles, wants his fans to thing he does his own stunts. Johnny’s devoted to repeating the career of his legendary stuntman father, but what’s he going to do when his favorite director asks him to preform the super-dangerous stunt that killed his father?

… Continue Reading?

Review: Web Designer’s Guide To WordPress

BY IN A+, Non-fiction, Web Design, Web Development NO COMMENTS YET

By: Jesse Friedman. Grade: A+

Legions of web designers and developers are choosing WordPress for building sites. That’s because it’s powerful, reliable, flexible, scalable–and more. This book is your complete guide to mastering WordPress theme development, covering everything from installation to leveraging the community resources to improve your WordPress skills for years to come. With detailed explanations, real-life examples, and step-by-step tutorials, you’ll find everything you need to build and deploy WordPress-powered websites with no prior server-side or WordPress development experience.

This book is a great manual on using WordPress and what it can do for you. If I could use the word powerful to descibe a web design book I would. This book takes you from installation all the way up to advanced techniques.… Continue Reading?

Review: Sense and Sensibility

BY IN B+, Jane Austen, Literature NO COMMENTS YET classics, Jane Austen, love, Romance

By Jane Austen. Grade:B+

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willougby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love – and its threatened loss – the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

I really loved reading this book. I think it is my favorite of Jane Austen’s. And if you were going to ask, I definitely enjoyed it more than the movie.… Continue Reading?