Roots by Alex Haley

Front and Back Flaps: When he was a boy in Henning, Tennessee, Alex Haley's grandmother used to tell him stories about their family- stories that went back to her grandparents, and their grandparents, down through the generations all the way to a man she called "the African." She said he had lived across the ocean near what he called the "Kamby Bolongo" and had been out in the forest chopping wood to make a drum when he was set upon by four men, beaten, chained and dragged aboard a slave ship bound for Colonial America. Still vividly remembering the stories after he grew up and became a writer, Haley began to search for documentation that might authenticate the narrative. It took ten years and a half of a million miles of travel across three countries to find it, but finally, in an astonishing feat of genealogical detective work, he discovered not only the name of "the African"- Kunta Kinte- but the precise location of Juffure, the very village in The Gambia, West Africa, from which he was abducted in 1767 at the age of sixteen and taken on the Lord Ligonier to Maryland and sold to a Virginia planter. Haley has talked in Juffure with his own African sixth cousins. On September 29, 1967, he stood on the dock in Annapolis where his great-great-great-great-grandfather was taken ashore on September 29, 1767. Now he has written the monumental twp-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him- slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lumber mill workers and Pullman porters, lawyers and architects- and one author. But Haley has done more than recapture the history of his own family. As the first black American writer to trace his origins back to their roots, he has told the story of 25,000,000 American of African descent. He has rediscovered for an entire people a rich cultural heritage that slavery took away from them, along with their names and their identities. But ROOTS soeaks, finally, not just to blacks, or to whites, but to all peoples and all races everywhere, for the story it tells is one of the most eloquent testimonials ever written to the indomitability of the human spirit.

AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING. AMAZING. WOW, this was an AMAZING book!!! I read it because my grandma wanted me to, and at first it was alright and I had to get used to the language and all that but after that it was just soooo real and so like wow. Esepcailly the part where Kunta is in the ship going to America and what they describe is so horrible. How they're all chained together and just sit down there under in like the dark and cold and just fester and rot and there's rat and they have to go to the bathroom and throw up just all over the place then live in it! Imagine how that would be omg. And then Kunta getting whipped and his foot cut off. I just really liked how the story just progressed down the family. At first it was Kunda telling the story, then it went to his daughter Kizzy after she got sold to someone else and after that is the last you know of Kunta and then Kizzy never gets married because her "massa" rapes her!! It was horrible that part. And then she only had one son, George, who was named after the master's first nigger. And they say that a lot obviously. And then George gets married to Matilda and they have 8 children!! And then the story is in George's point of view and he fights chickens with the massa and another guy and then after that the story kinda just goes through Tom, one of the sons who marries Irene. After that it's not really in anyone's point of view. But it was also crazy to read about all the history going on during that time and then they finally became free and just started their own village and everything. It was such an amazing book, I don't even know what else to say, but I can't believe they traced it all the way back to him! Just goes to show you how if you keep telling your children something and they pass it on it goes on for a long time and lots of generations! It would be so awesome to be able to somehow trace back my ancestry took because I know my dad is black and so is his dad and my grandma and my great-grandpa but I don't really know much else, but yes everyone should read that book. It is relaly long basicaly 700 pages but I read it in 8 days! go me haha but it was hard to put down and super good! I def wanna watch the movie now. But yes amazing I know I said it lots of times but it really was!

Thank you to Ashley!

Thanks Ashley for awarding me woohoo! :]



The Rules
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (in no particular order...)

4. Contact the bloggers


Well, here are seven things about me!
1. I love to read! I think that's pretty obvious but I had to include it in there.

2. I love to scrapbook. I love being creative and using different papers, stickers, frames, beads, ribbons, glitter, postcards, and pictures to make awesome scrapbooks which is way more fun than just printing out pics and putting them in an album!

3. I am in love with my boyfriend Joel, who I've been dating since March 14, 2005! He means the whole world to me.

4. Strawberries are my favorite fruit. I have a strawberry necklace from Puerto Rico which is one of my favorite necklaces and just recently bought some strawberry earrings to match :]

5. I go to PLU and I'm going to major in social work. I want to help people, that is my goal for my job and I think my area is people in poverty.

6. I am Filipino, Black, Cherokee, and Irish and I love to be unique.

7. My favorite color is pink.

Bloggers I'm Awarding
1. Scrap That
2. Collegiate Bookworm
3. Angela
4. Johnathan
5. Laura

I dunno who else!!! Sorry!!!

You Just Can't Get Enough by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Back Cover: It's September- time to put away your white eyelet sundresses and platform espadrilles and say goodbye to the East End. But say hello to Manhattan's newest residents, the scene-stealing, heart-stealing Carlyle triplets. Lock up your boyfriends and throw away the key because B and A are hotter than NYC during a sultry Indian summer. I love this series already! It's so interesting to be reading about triplets and of course all the interconnections everyone has with each other. Like when they're at the part and the couples but only momentarily are Owen and Jack, Baby and J.P., Avery and Tristan, and Rhys and Kelsey. But the thing is, Jack is J.P.'s ex, and she's only with Owen because she knows Owen's secret that he likes Kelsey who he lost his virginity to over the summer and so it's all tense and by the end of the night nothing is the same! It's def a crazy world that's for sure haha. But now the couples have changed so we'll see how long that lasts, nothing really does last in these books. But I like the triplets. It's fun.

The Carlyles by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Back Cover: Get out your Montblanc pens, Chloe satchels, and cashmere cardigans: it's a brand-new season on the Upper East Side, and the irresistible Carlyle triplets are taking Manhattan by storm. You now it's going to be another wild and wicked year, and I'll be here to whisper all the juicy secrets... you know you love me, Gossip Girl. So I liked this new series, but I'm still missing the other characters, especially since the show has them and I'm used to hearing about them and everything, but this bunch is interesting. At first I just had to get used to the new names, but it didn't take too long to do. I like the idea of the triplets though, I think that was different. And funny that one of their names is Baby. Hmm. But besides that of course there's gotta be the bitchy one, but she ends up losing her credit cards, her boy, and the position on the board or whatever it's called, so we'll see what's gonna happen next because I'm about to be reading that now. The only thing about the Gossip Girl books is I read them so fast!

Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella

Back Cover: What's a round-the-world honeymoon if you can't buy the odd souvenir to ship back home? Like the twenty silk dressing gowns Becky found in Hong Kong... the hand-carved dining table (and ten chairs) from Sri Lanka... the, um, huge wooden giraffes from Malawi (that her husband Luke expressly forbade her to buy)... Only now Becky and Luke have returned home to London and Luke is furious. Two truckloads of those souvenirs have cluttered up their loft, and the bills for them are outrageous. Luke insists Becky go on a budget. And worse; her beloved best friend Suze has found a new best friend while Becky was away. Becky's feeling rather blue- when her parents deliver some incredible news. She has a long-lost sister! Becky is thrilled! She's convinced her sister will be a true soulmate. They'll go shopping together, have manicures together... Until she meets Jessica for the first time and gets the shock of her life. Surely Becky Bloomwood's sister can't... hate shopping? First off I just have to say it's really annoying because my book's cove background is like light lime green and all the ones I found have this yellow? WHAT! haha, but anyways I loved it! These books are so funny and Becky is so crazy! All that shopping she does and the thinking of why she needs to buy it is interesting and most likely true for other people, like I just was watching True Life I'm obsessed with shopping or something like that. But yeah this is the kind of situation where you feel two different ways because Becky did all that shopping and wanted that angle purse so told that guy Luke would do whatever and then made Luke super mad so you're like wth why did she do that just for that stupid bag??? But then when she's all alone at moments in the book and really sad you're like SAD! And wish everything would be better. I mean I feel like that for lots of things or see it in shows or other books so that's def a realistic thing happening, but this book is just so fun and funny and energetic. Becky is def a crazy character who def does need to do less shopping, but I still love the style of the book, especially the funny bank notices or letters from bank or organization to Becky, love that!

Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad

Front Flap: Jane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, landed their own reality show, L.A. Candy. Now the girls have an all-access pass to Hollywood's hottest everything. But there's more to life on camera than just parties and shopping... When racy photos of Jane are leaked to the press, she finds herself at the center of a tabloid scandal. She turns to her co-star Madison Parker for help, unaware that Madison is scheming behind the scenes. She might be Jane's shoulder to cry on, but does Madison really have Jane's back? Scarlett's working on a scandal of her own. She's fallen for someone who's strictly off-limits- which means Scarlett has a big secret to keep... from the L.A. Candy cameras, the paparazzi staking out her apartment, even from her best friend. Of course, nothing stays secret for long for the stars of the newest TV series, and all this drama couldn't be better for ratings. But can Jane survive another season in the spotlight? In television star Lauren Conrad's dishy, entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them. I loved this book, the only annoying thing is that I'm always comparing it to The Hills and I am seeing some similarities. Like at the end when Caleb came back is that like Jason or something? Haha, but besides that it was good! Of course there had to be this evil character Madison! And she just reels Jane in man that's such a hard world! I also see how reality shows aren't too reality, they like set up stuff so that it seem real but it really wouldn't happen if the cameras weren't there ya know? I also love the covers, very cute! But def will be excited when the next one comes out.

A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

Back Cover: Ever since the day her classmate Jenny-May Butler vanished, Sandy Shortt has been haunted by what happens when something- or someone- disappears. Finding has become her goal. Jack Ruttle is desperate to find his younger brother Donal who vanished into thin air a year ago. So when spots an ad for Sandy's missing persons agency, he's certain that she will answer his prayers and find his missing brother. But then Sandy disappears too, stumbling upon a place that is a world away from the only one she has ever known. Now all she wants, more than anything, is to find her way home. This was an amazing, captivating, like nothing else book. When I got this book, I didn't even realize it was by an author of a book I already have called Rosie Dunne which is also incredible btw written all in IMs, notes, letters, and e-mails! Of a girl and boy who are soul mates but go through lots of diff things, anyways, back to this book! It was like nothing I've ever read before, because thinking of something like that, is crazy! About a girl who cares so much about finding things once they're lost, like socks and things that aren't too meaningful so ya know. But to think of a place where all the things that are lost, including memories is pretty weird!! But I loved this book because it was different and not about things you normally think about in a novel or really at all, because it's true how people go missing and after time some people forget or give up and it's really sad! That part isn't new, but the Sandy Shortt character was def different. I def would like to read more of her books though that's for sure! It's a diff scene from the teen ones, which I like to put in between so I won't get too tired of em haha not that I ever do, but ya know just in case!

Shadowland by Alyson Noel

Front Flap: Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives- and fought off the world's darkest enemies- so they could be together forever. But just when their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen... one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden death- plunging Damen into the Shadowland. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick- and gets help from an unexpected source- a surfer named Jude. Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She's always believed Damen to be her soul mate and one true love. But as Damen pulls away to save them, Ever's connection with Jude grows stronger- and tests her love for Damen like never before... This one was really good too! And I see the next one is coming out soon! :] There is something kinda annoying, I dunno why but how Ever keeps talking about Damen's past and I dunno somthing she keeps saying, I don't remember what it is, but a definite twist at the end where Ever makes Haven an immortal, now what about Miles? And how is she gonna tell Haven this! And Roman is just pure evil, while Ever is so dumb to go and visit him wth! She's crazy haha. And definitely weird thing about Jude being the guy Ever always tries to pursue or likes until Damen comes along, that changes things too. I just like the book because it's different, instead of vampires jeez! Haha. And there's so many interesting things going on like wth! Like the twins! We do learn more about them though so that's nice. But once again Ever is dumb and doesn't look at what she's doing, trying to use magic, in dark way and Roman knows! So the next book will def be intense too!!