I love vampires. I do not wish to see them in person, but I love to read about them, especially in fiction books. I always am fascinated when authors try to twist the story of the vampire and relate them to ordinary, mortal people like ourselves.

In The Historian, a young English girl discovers an old book of her father’s with a wood carving of a dragon on the cover and several letters addressed to “my dear and unfortunate successor”. When she confronts him about it, her father begins telling her about his quest during his university days for the legend of Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Dracula, and how these things seem to be connected to this cruel ruler. He investigated the legend when he discovered that his professor, who did the same thing 20 years earlier, as a student, has suddenly disappeared.

The professor’s disappearance led him to meet his professor’s illegitimate daughter, Helen, who helped him discover and find out the truth about Vlad the Impaler. They journeyed to Budapest and Istanbul, hoping to find more answers, and met other experts who also wanted to know more about Dracula.

Despite the historical inaccuracies, Kostova delivers a book that will inspire you to learn more about Dracula yourself and, at the same time, scared to find out more. You want to put down the book because you’re scared Dracula will just pop out of the book and haunt you in your waking moments. But at the same time, you turn the page eagerly every time, desperate to find out what will happen next.

The Historian is a great book about history and legends. But at the same time, you have to read it at your own risk. Because your sanity will really depend on it.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, drinking a cup of tea with someone is more than a casual encounter. With the first cup of tea, you are a stranger. During the second cup of tea, you become a friend. After the third cup of tea, you join the family. As quoted in Three Cups of Tea, Haji Ali, the Korphe Village Chief in the Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan, said, “… for our family we are prepared to do anything -even die.” Written by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin,Three Cups of Tea is an uplifting story about one man’s remarkable perseverance that led to astonishing changes.

Mortensen’s attempt to climb K2 (the world’s second largest mountain) in memory of his sister fails. On his descent, he arrives in a village, Korphe. The welcome of the people of the village touches him so much that he decides to build a school for the village. This, of course, is not as easy as it sounds. School for women was forbidden in Pakistan under the rule of the Taliban. Today, the literacy rate among the adults is a shocking 50%. (Literacy is defined as being able to read at the elementary school level.) In the story of becoming a humanitarian from a mountaineer, Mortenson is described as “a real-life Indiana Jones”. In his quest to make a difference, his adventure encourages him to build not one school, but seventy-eight.

This book is wonderfully written. Consequently, it topped the New York Times’ bestsellers list and has been on the list since its release in January 2007. My mother recommended the book to me, and in turn, I recommend it to you, knowing that you will enjoy it and recommend it to others. It is a fabulous story that should be shared with everyone.

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The contest runs from now until November 26th at midnight EST.  Prizes will be awarded on November 27th.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we like to let go of the award-winning, critically-acclaimed books, books that tug at your heart and force you into action. Sometimes it gets too much. And those are the times when we turn to the book that will make us laugh and giggle and make our hearts warm and help us escape even for awhile. These are the chick lit books.

I admit I have a weakness for chick lit. I love the tried-and-tested romantic angle, where girl meets boy, boy gives her a hard time, girl eventually falls in love with him, they kiss and the love story is complete. Or the angle where the girl gives up everything, goes somewhere alone and re-discovers herself. It’s not original, but it works because it gives “chicks” hope.

There are some chick lit books, though, where the formula becomes tiring, and it doesn’t work. It just fails throughout. But there are a lot of chick lit books that have succeeded everytime. If you’d like to read a chick lit, I suggest reading books from these authors:

1. Jane Green

She has tried to evolve and expanded her books to include other woman issues, including aging, fertility and the like. She knows she is writing chick lit, so she doesn’t try to be intellectual in any of her books, which works better anyway.

Notable Jane Green Books: Jemima J, Second Chance, The Other Woman, Swapping Lives

2. Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes and Jane Green are two of the authors leading the pack when it comes to chick lit. They invented what chick lit is all about. Marian Keyes, however, at first decided to concentrate on one family with five sisters and decided to create stories about three of the sisters. She later evolved to writing stories about different females that reflected the issues women are going through today.

Notable Marian Keyes Books: Rachel’s Holiday, Angels

3. Jane Austen

The ultimate female author who unofficially started the trend for chick lit. Even though her books were set in the 19th century, a lot of the issues back then are still the issues women are going through today. She has served as the inspiration of chick lit authors worldwide because she captures the emotions and the trials of a woman accurately all the time.

Notable Jane Austen Books: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion

Do you like reading chick lit? What’s your favorite chick lit book?

It is often that we come to the end of a book series and look back and say, “Wow! What happened? It used to be so good.” Oftentimes, as with media and books, about the third installment the only thing the writer or producers care about is the money and profit to be reaped…so the storyline and depth somewhat drops off. Lately, however, the existence of this problem has begun fading away. Finally it seems writers and producers have realized quality matters certainly much more than quantity.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the final release in the magical series that JK Rowling brought it into fruition in 1997. Over the years the entire series has dealt with many underlying themes and meanings, which all seem to be rather collective in this final masterpiece.

The opening of the book finds Harry unable to return to Hogwarts due to the growing presence of evil at both the school and the nearby areas. Voldemort, the antagonist of the Harry Potter series, has been returned to power over the world of wizards and muggles (non-magical people). Harry is forced to discontinue his schooling early and search for a way to end this seemingly endless quest to destroy his malevolent arch rival. The particulars cannot be delved into without giving away much of the books entertaining plot, therefore I will go no further. The ending of the series, however, certainly does not disappoint like many other series that have come before. It fits perfectly into the quaint little world that is Harry Potter.

For those that have never read the Harry Potter series but have seen the movies, it is right to contest the books provide a much more vivid experience. The first book in the series was titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States; therefore novice readers should begin there and work their way through the entire series before starting the final chapter.

Overall the book does provide a very satisfying conclusion to the Harry Potter series, and JK Rowling has once again outdone herself.

Do you experience certain days when you want to read a book that exactly fit the mood you had in that exact moment? I know I have. I only read certain books with certain emotions. Otherwise, I will have a hard time grasping the whole story. I have to be in the right frame of mind before I tackle any book.

Rainy Days
On rainy days, I really don’t want to be thinking too much. The weather’s down, and all I want to do is just relax. On these days, I mostly choose to read love stories. They can range from chick lit to young adult novels to unconventional love stories. One of my favorite books about love is Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It’s about a man who, because of some gene in his body is able to time travel to different periods of time, but only between the years he was alive on Earth. On one of his time travels, he meets his future wife. He was 27 that time, she was 6. This is a love story between two people perfect for each other that literally withstood time. It’s not the conventional love story we are all familiar with, but it will still tug at your heart.

Philosophical Moments
Franz Kafka’s The Castle is the perfect book when you want to work your brain and bring it to overtime. Because with The Castle, just when you think you’ve figured everything out, Kafka twists it again and forces you to think some more. You may get a headache when reading this book because of too much thinking, but you will learn a lot from The Castle. You will learn to observe and to question. You will learn to analyze and criticize. It’s not a very complicated story, it’s about a man searching for The Castle. But the things he learns while on his journey complicates the story. If you’re ready to read this journey, then I suggest you start this at the start of the day.

Scandalous
Do you want to expect the unexpected when reading a book? Try The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It’s a story about a young woman who is searching for her father and finding the connection between him and Dracula. It’s scary and chilling. My only advice: Don’t read this alone at night.

What about you? What are the books you like to read on certain days? What kind of days are those?

Change Of Heart is the fifteenth and newest published novel from American author, Jodi Picoult. It is the story of Shay Bourne, a young man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the town of Concord, New Hampshire. It also is the story of June Nealon, a young mother whose first husband died in a car accident, whose second husband and eldest daughter were killed by Shay Bourne and whose youngest daughter is suffering from a weak heart. Finally, it is the story of Michael Wright, the last juror to convict Shay Bourne and sentence him to his death who becomes the priest assigned to Shay Bourne as his spiritual advisor.

In this book, Jodi Picoult gives her readers her usual style of writing, which involves allowing her readers to think about the issues she presents in her books. And this time, she presents a discussion on how to justify killing a person by killing another person. When a person decides to make things right after having done something wrong, does it justify what he did? Or do his past actions weigh more than the good things he performs? Which weighs more: to be good morally or lawfully?

It’s not her best book, but her loyal readers will not be disappointed in Change of Heart. It may not be the best book to recommend to first time readers, especially since Picoult tended to underdevelop some of her main characters to stay true to the story. But it stays true to the spirit of her writing style.

Have you read Change of Heart? What did you think of it?

Imagine what would happen if NASA found an astonishingly rare object, which proved the existence of extraterrestrial lifeforms in the universe. The world would fall into a state of complete awe, and science would reach a standstill, even if only for a second, as everyone watched news coverage of the event. It would go down as one of the greatest days in history for science.

Dan Brown’s novel, Deception Point, explores such a scenario. The story is an intense political thriller filled with espionage, action, and even romance. The author is well known for his fiction books based on prominent and even some unforeseen conspiracy theories. Dan Brown also wrote The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Digital Fortress. All of his novels have quickly become New York Times bestsellers, including Deception Point. When it comes to writing conspiracy thrillers, Dan Brown is certainly not a novice.

The book follows Rachel Sexton, the daughter of a presidential candidate running for office. Rachel’s relationship with her father is certainly far from comfortable, and she makes it clear to everyone that she harbors an intense hatred for him. Her job as an NRO intelligence analyst and her attitude toward her father earn her a visit at a classified NASA site in the Arctic. Rachel quickly finds that the current President, Zachary Herney, has been planning to use her as a political tool to thwart her own father’s campaign by validating the special NASA discovery with her opinion. Soon thereafter, flaws are found in the NASA data, and Rachel and fellow scientists are pursued to keep the mistakes covered up. An intense political and life threatening battle ensues, involving Rachel and many others.

The novel is both intense and enveloping and is tough to put down once it has been cracked open. The most astonishing part is that all of the electronic equipment and devices introduced in the book are used in the modern world today. Some of the gadgets are incredibly technical, including a tiny, fly-sized helicopter, which can record and playback audio and video. Dan Brown certainly does his homework before writing any of his fictional novels.  It’s always amazing to see what conspiracies could exist out there on the horizon.

This is a book recommended for film and digital editors, whether they are wannabes, beginners, more advanced professionals or experts in their field. The Blink Of An Eye is written by Walter Murch, the editor behind Apocalypse Now and Cold Mountain. He talks about film editing and how it has evolved from the simple splice and dice of the early 1900s to the digital world of now.

Walter Murch talks about how he edits his films and the techniques he has learned to develop over the years. He has his own way of editing, which he always does in a standing position at an angle with his right hand on the editing machine and the left side of his body focused on the screen and the shots to be edited. It’s a little funny and strange, but then you realize that everybody has his own unique working style and what may work for one may not necessarily work for another person.

Murch also talks about the technical language of editing that all film and digital editors should know. It boils down to style, but Murch discusses the rules of editing because there are basic rules that should be followed.

It’s a good read, especially for those just beginning to become film and digital editors. Murch gives a basic overview of what editing is and of life as an editor. He tells it like it is and, unlike his job, he doesn’t edit anything.

As a high school student, there are a lot of books that I am “forced” to read. The announcement that my class is reading another book usually instigates several groans and sighs from my classmates. Much of the literature we read is boring, and often hard to comprehend. We have no way of relating to the authors, some of which seem ancient. We know that the books are all classics, but other than that, they tend to carry no other meaning to us. Finally, in class, I came across a book I enjoyed: The Great Gatsby.

If you haven’t read this book, I’d suggest that you take the time to do so. First published in 1925, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby was a story unique for its time. Today, it is a standard for most high schools across the nation. What Fitzgerald did was capture the American values and lifestyle of his time. He developed characters that could represent a wide variety of people. People similar to these characters still exist today, so when I read the novel, I found myself relating to the text, even if it was written more than eight decades ago.

The story is told by Nick Carraway, a character who moved from the Midwest to Long Island in order to continue his work. His home is located next to a large mansion owned by a man named Gatsby. There is something odd about Gatsby. Though he holds grand parties every week, no one seems to know where he gets his money or why he suddenly moved to Long Island.

Within this short novel, there are enough plot twists to fill an entire TV series. Fitzgerald gives readers a backstage pass to the “rich and famous” of the 1920s. These people weren’t above the scandals and affairs of modern times; there were plenty to go around.