The Year of Secrets Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

Hello wonderful readers! Lydia here, and don't worry, I'm trying to get Amy to post, but she's got a TON of homework. So, because I'm not doing well on my coming-up-with-other-ideas-other-than-reviewing plan, i guess that I have another review...

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty (back of book)

The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools in a spirit of harmony and "the Joy of the Envelope." But when Cassie, Lydia, and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie, and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as a simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identities, and an all-out war between the schools--not to mention some really excellent kissing.

Ok, the main reason that I picked up this book was because there is a main charachter names Lydia. You don't see many Lydia's, so it made me excited. You get excited when your name is in a book. Or at least I do, because there are only a few books I have ever found that have my name in it.

I read The Year of Secret Assignments at camp, and absolutly loved it. It was really cute, and the charachter Lydia is extremely similar to me! Like, at the beginning, she was testing to see how smoke decetors worked, and that is TOTALLY something I would do!

Lydia, Cassie, Emily, Matthew, Charlie and Sebastian (Seb) are some of the funniest and wittiest charachters I've ever read about. I loved how at the beginning of the pen pal program, Lydia and Seb were testing to see if their teachers actually read their letters. They decided to pretend like they were selling pot (or some other drug), and it made me laugh out loud (legitly) during "rest hour" at camp.
Overall The Year of Secret Assignments was one of the funniest books I've ever read. If you've never read this book, you must go to the store, or library, or wherever and get our hands on a copy of this book NOW!

so there is my review for Friday/Saturday. I will be back on Sunday (HALLOWEEN!!!!! I LOVE HALLOWEEN SOOO MUCH!!) for my IMM.
rock on! ~lydia~

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz

It's Lydia, and as I promised you, i have an epic review!! I'm kind of out of my reading slump, so we'll see how much more I get read. Right now I'm reading She Theif by Daniel Finn. It's pretty good, but nowhere near The Vinyl Princess.

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz (description from inside of book)

How does a sixteen-year-old vinyl junkie get by?

Summer is here and Allie is excatly where she wants to be: working full time at the ultra-cool Bob & Bob Records in Berkeley. Here Allie can spend her say bantering with the street people, talking the talk with the staff. shepherding the uncool bridge-and-tunnel shoppers-all while blissfully surrounded by music, music, music. It's the perfect setup for her to deelop her secret identiy as The Vinyl Princess. Her very first ine is about ready to print and her new blog, http://www.thevinylprincess.com/, is up and running. From the saftey of her favorite place on earth, Allie's poised to launch a vinl revolution-or at least reach some fellow music geeks out there.

They are out there....aren't they?

Ok, as I said, this is now my #2 favorite book ever. (Harry Potter is at an eternal reign as #1). Allie is the perfect charachter. I want to be Allie so much. She is awesome! I love the whole mysterious "M" boy at the beginning of the book, and the end result with him. I am a vinyl junkie as well, or at least a beginner collector, so this book was perfect for me.
Another thing I absolutly LOVE about this book, is that there are just about no cliches! Cliches are boring, and annoying, and take a lot out of books. Allie and Kit are the perfect best friends, total oppisites, and I loved Kit's road trip idea! I think Amy and I should do that sometime! (Just kidding Mom.....maybe ;D) I also think that the whole mysterious Zach thing was really cute, and how they had their musical banter. I so wish I had a Zach in my life :D
Yvonne Prinz is the cofounder of Amoeba Records (aka the world's largest independant record store AND a place I need to visit), and that makes her probably one of the third or forth most important musical-related women in my life. Pat Benatar, Joan Jett and Hayley Williams are the top three. I went on their website last night, and found out that Bob and Bob's Records is based on the first Amoeba Records store which is legit on Telegraph Ave in Berkely, CA, which is where The Vinyl Princess  is set!!!
Overall, The Vinyl Princess is one of the best books I have ever read. It shows the true personality of all music and vinyl freaks out there. We are real, and The Vinyl Princess shows the world how awesome we are, whether other people like it or not.

So, you all know now how much this book means to me. It is so awesome and every single person who read this post needs to go and get this book from the library, or buy it, or whatever, but you need to get it and read it. Ok, I have been reduced to rambling, I need to read. goodbye wonderful blog readers!
~lydia~