Book Review: The Selection (The Selection #1) By Kiera Cass

Judul: The Selection
Pengarang: Kiera Cass
Penerjemah: Nina Setyowati
Penerbit: Bentang Belia
Edisi: II/ Bahasa Indonesia
Diterbitkan pada: Agustus 2012
Jumlah Halaman: 432
ISBN: 978-6-029-39743-7
Genre: Fiksi remaja, romansa, cinta

Sinopsis: Semua gadis di sini menginginkannya, kecuali aku. Semua gadis di sini ingin merebut hatinya, kecuali aku. Semua gadis di sini ingin berdiri di sana sebagai putri raja, kecuali aku. Yang kuinginkan hanyalah hidup bersama Aspen, pujaan hatiku, cinta pertamaku. Jika bukan demi keluargaku, aku tak mungkin mau melakukannya. Demi Tuhan, aku tidak mau ikut Seleksi konyol itu, memperebutkan seorang pangeran bodoh di dalam istana sana. Mereka menjanjikan berbagai hal yang menyilaukan bagi kami kasta bawah. Harta, tahta, dan kehidupan yang lebih dari layak. Tapi, apa mereka punya cinta? Apa pangeran Maxon nanti akan bersikap baik? Bagaimana dengan Aspen? Kenapa Aspen justru ikut memaksaku?

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eBook Review: Just One Day by Gayle Forman

         Title: Just One Day
         Author: Gayle Forman
         Publisher: Penguin Group
         Edition: I/eBook English Version
         Published: January 2013
         Page: 300
         ISBN: 978-1-101-59274-8
         Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Romance, Traveling

Synopsis:

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

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eBook Review: The Hollow by Jessica Verday

          Title: The Hollow

          Author: Jessica Verday

          Publisher: Simon Pulse

          Edition: I/ Kindle English version

          Published: September 2009

          Page: 528

          ISBN: (A SIN) B00BB8WTUY

          Genre: Young-Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural

Synopsis:

When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. It only makes things worse that everyone now treats Abbey like either a freak show or a charity case. Thank goodness for Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again but also special. 

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

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eBook Review: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Synopsis:

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Set in a city stalked by spectres, The Screaming Staircase is the first in a chilling new series full of suspense, humour and truly terrifying ghosts. Your nights will never be the same again . . .

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eBook Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Synopsis:
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. 

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

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eBook Review: My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton

Synopsis:  My tale has been told again and again, and I’ve heard each one. Except for my hair, I barely recognize the pitiful renditions. Muddled versions, crafted to entertain laughing children…but the children wouldn’t have laughed if they’d known the real story. It wasn't their fault. They didn't know the truth. Nobody did. My name is Rapunzel. I will tell you my story. I will tell you the truth.

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It is another story about Rapunzel. Rapunzel in this book is described as a teenager, she was 16 years old, and she was fall in love with a guy named Henry. At first, she expected that Henry will be her only love of her life. She wanted to marry him, and he wanted to propose her to be his wife. Their charming love story was not that easy to be true. The day when Henry proposed Rapunzel, something horrible happened. There was a weird storm approaching then Henry was gone. And something left behind after the storm was only the Witch with a suspicious Dragon standing in front of Rapunzel.

eBook Review: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, Hazel and Jack were best friends. They had been best friends since they were six, spending hot Minneapolis summers and cold Minneapolis winters together, dreaming of Hogwarts and Oz, superheroes and baseball. Now that they were eleven, it was weird for a boy and a girl to be best friends. But they couldn't help it - Hazel and Jack fit, in that way you only read about in books. And they didn't fit anywhere else.

And then, one day, it was over. Jack just stopped talking to Hazel. And while her mom tried to tell her that this sometimes happens to boys and girls at this age, Hazel had read enough stories to know that it's never that simple. And it turns out, she was right. Jack's heart had been frozen, and he was taken into the woods by a woman dressed in white to live in a palace made of ice. Now, it's up to Hazel to venture into the woods after him. Hazel finds, however, that these woods are nothing like what she's read about, and the Jack that Hazel went in to save isn't the same Jack that will emerge. Or even the same Hazel.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," Breadcrumbs is a story of the struggle to hold on, and the things we leave behind.

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eBook Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Sinopsis:

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: his sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

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Aplikasi Pembaca eBook untuk Platform Java

Hi readers!

How was your life?

I'm so excited to tell you something through this post. Well, may be it is not really fresh news to share, but I think I should share it to you, just in case you haven't got the similar information. Pada intinya, beberapa hari yang lalu aku keranjingan banget untuk nyari-nyari ebook yang free download. Tapi sayangnya, aku agak malas rasanya membaca ebook lewat laptop atau PC. Pertama karena nggak nyaman dan kedua karena ribet. That's why dulu-dulu aku lebih suka baca cerita langsung lewat buku, karena lebih fleksibel dan portabel. Beberapa hari yang lalu aku gandrung alias suka lagi membaca ebook karena sempat menemukan beberapa novel fiksi (terutama sekuel) berbahasa Inggris yang belum terbit di Indonesia.

Masalahnya, sewaktu pertama download aku nggak nyadar kalau yang aku download adalah file dengan fornal EPUB. File ini jelas-jelas tidak bisa dibaca, bahkan di PC/laptop, tanpa bantuan aplikasi khusus. Akhirnya, aku memilih merepotkan diri untuk meng-convert file EPUB tersebut ke PDF. You know lah, hasilnya agak berantakan, terutama spasi dan hurufnya. Jadi makin nggak nyaman deh membacanya. Apalagi aku bener-bener pengen membaca novel itu-The Cuckoo's Calling-dengan nyaman.

Akhirnya, dengan bermodal niat yang sangat besar, aku coba-coba browsing di Google aplikasi untuk membaca ebook dengan format epub, ternyata ada banyak. Tapi aku pengennya yang bisa diinstal dan applicable untuk handphone. For your information, handphoneku bukan smart phone ya, agak jadul dan berplatform Java, bukan Android, iOS, atau Symbian. Semakin curious lagi untuk mencari aplikasi yang tepat, aku coba tanya sepupuku. Dia menyarankan untuk browse di Google dengan kata kunci, "free ebook reader for Java mobile". Setelah lama mencari, voila!!! Aku nemu aplikasi yang bernama Albite Reader 2.2 karya Svetlin Ankov.

Hal yang Wajib Diperhatikan dalam Memilih Rak Buku

Rak buku atau bookshelf merupakan benda yang keberadaannya sangat penting bagi para penggemar atau kolektor buku. Ada berbagai macam jenis dan desain rak buku yang dengan mudah bisa kita temui di internet. Namun, ada beberapa hal lain yang lebih penting selain desain yang patut untuk diperhatikan sebelum kita memasang atau membuat rak buku pribadi. Berikut apa saja hal-hal penting yang wajib diperhatikan.

1. Space (Lahan)

Lahan merupakan hal yang dirasa paling krusial dalam menentukan bentuk dan desain rak buku. Sebelum kita menentukan ukuran rak buku sebaiknya kita mengukur dulu lahan yang tersedia. Semisal kita ingin meletakkan rak buku di kamar. Nah, kita harus bisa mengukur (atau mengira) seberapa luas area kosong di dalam kamar yang kita miliki. Untuk area yang cenderung sempit, hanging bookshelf bisa menjadi pilihan yang tepat.

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Book Review: Lifted - Pengutil Paling Top by Hilary Freeman

Judul: Lifted - Pengutil Paling Top
Judul Asli: Lifted
Pengarang: Hilary Freeman
Penerbit: Gramedia Pustaka Utama
Cetakan: I/ September 2013
Penerjemah: Devi Chyntia
ISBN: 978-979-22-9874-1
Tebal: 224hlm
Genre: Teenlit

Sinopsis:

me·ngu·til v mengambil atau melebihkan barang belian tanpa sepengetahuan penjual.

Robyn tak bisa menahan diri untuk mengutil. Tapi dia tidak merasa bersalah karena semua yang dicurinya, pasti dia sumbangkan ke toko amal, lalu dia menuliskan kisahnya di blog. Sebenarnya dia tidak perlu mengutil karena orangtuanya sangatlah mampu memberikan apa yang dia inginkan, tapi dia merasakan sensasi yang menyenangkan saat mengutil.

Dalam sekejap semua orang membicarakan tentang si misterius blogger. Akhirnya Robyn mendapatkan ketenaran yang dia inginkan. Hanya satu orang yang tahu siapa Robyn sebenarnya, dan cowok itu bersumpah akan merahasiakannya.

Akankah Robyn mengungkapkan identitasnya? Bisakah dia berhenti mengutil sebelum tertangkap?

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