Around the world, continent-by-continent, here is the best the world has to offer: 1,000 places guaranteed to give travelers the shivers. Sacred ruins, grand hotels, wildlife preserves, hilltop villages, snack shacks, castles, festivals, reefs, restaurants, cathedrals, hidden islands, opera houses, museums, and more. Each entry tells exactly why it’s essential to visit. Then come the nuts and bolts: addresses, websites, phone and fax numbers, best times to visit.

Stop dreaming and get going!

I saw and have heard about this book of Patricia Schultz a couple of months ago, and I liked its theme. I've been hoping to buy a copy for my mom because I know that she loves to travel, but I can't afford it yet (It's a bit expensive. :D). This book is a great gift to your parents, because when we move out of the house and build our own lives, they tend to get lonely. So, why not give them this book and during their anniversary, why not give them a trip to one of the places in the book as a gift? I'm sure they'll love it! (They're nuts if they don't. LOL)

The Rescue

The Rescue
Nicholas Sparks

Plot:

Denise Holton is a single mom, and her four year old son, Kyle has trouble in speaking and understanding language. During a record-breaking storm, she and Kyle met a car accident that intertwined their fate with a volunteer fireman named Taylor McAden. When Denise woke up from the accident inside her car, she found out that Kyle wasn't in the car. So Taylor and other volunteer firemen engaged in a rescue mission in a swamp and when Taylor finally found Kyle, he was shocked for Kyle enthusiastically clinged into his arms without hesitation.


Ever since they Denise and Taylor ran into each other in a store on the outskirts of town, they have been spending gays and nights together. Denise finally came to the realization that she was falling in love with Taylor McAden and Taylor sure can't deny the attraction he was feeling for Denise, but why is it that Taylor have been distant ever since the evening when they had dinner at Mitch - Taylor's Bestfriend - and Melissa's house where the topic marriage came up?


At the end, true love sure prevailed and Taylor has been able to open his heart shrouded with pain and guilt for his father's death that kept him from being happy, and faced his ultimate fear-to love someone forever.

Insight:

The first words that came out of my mouth when I finally finished the book was, WOW. This book is really great. It is yet another masterpiece written by the only author who can make me cry no matter where I am. The story is brilliant. Filled with absolute love, sincerity, rejection, acceptance and the joys of loving and being loved. Words aren't enough to express the magnificence of this novel. The best book I've ever read since The Choice. I LOVE IT. Superbe! Nicholas Sparks is a true genius.

The Lucky One

The Lucky Ones
Nicholas Sparks>br>
Plot:
U.S. marine Logan Thibault found a picture of a smiling woman buried in the sand during his tour in Iraq. Somehow, this picture brought luck to him. Helping him survive bomb explosions and deadly combats, win poker games-pretty much in everything he did at Iraq.


When he finally got home from the war, he went to a walking expeditioin from Colorado to Hampton-the place where the girl in the photograph lives-in search of his destiny.

Sometime during his trip, he crossed paths with Keith Clayton, a childish sherrif who takes nothing seriously, when he catches him taking pictures of naked coeds. Clayton, from then on, swore that he would someday find this man who not only stole the camera he used in taking pictures of the coeds, but also busted the tires of his patrol car.

After this encounter with Clayton, Thibault finally meets his destiny. He eventually found out that the girl's name is Elizabeth and where she lives. By coincidence, Elizabeth's family owns a kennel, which is in need of an employee. He grabbed the chance to get to know Elizabeth and applied. When he was hired, he got to know Elizabeth more. He found out that she has a son and an ex-husband-who incidentally, is Keith Clayton-, she lives with her grandmother, and she is falling in love with him little by little. He decided to keep the photograph as a secret.

But it's too late when Elizabeth found out about this. She was already madly in love with Thibault, that she can't turn her back on him for too long. The Lucky One shows that no matter what happens, we will all find our way to our true destiny.

Insight:
Another Nicholas Sparks masterpiece. Trully, Nicholas knows how to tug the reader's heartstrings. Two thumbs up for this one! Yay!


Well, that's it for my Top Ten Best books for Young Adults Special. I hope that eventhough they were just a couple of brief descriptions about the books, you found out how the story runs in each book. I also hope that they inspired you to entertain other genres of books for young adults. Not just romances, but also life experiences. There are a lot of other books out there just waiting for us to pick them out of the bookshelves and devour in order to impart their true messages about life and lots of other stuff. xD For my fellow readers, please comment on my cBox at the left side of the page. Hope to hear from you!

The Brothers Torres
by : Voorhees, Coert




Frankie Towers has always looked up to his older brother, Steve, and with good reason. Steve is a popular senior who always gets what he wants: girls, a soccer scholarship, and--lately--street cred. Frankie, on the other hand, spends his time shooting off fireworks with his best friend Zach, working at his parents' restaurant, and obsessing about his longtime crush, Rebecca Sanchez.




Frankie has reservations about Steve's crusade to win the respect of the local cholos. He doesn't think about them, though, until he gets into a fist fight John Dalton - the richest, preppiest kid in his New Mexican high school, and longtime nemesis of Steve. After the fight, Steve takes Frankie under his wing - and Frankie's social currency begins to rise. The cholos who used to ignore him start to recognize him; he even lands a date to Homecoming with Rebecca.




The situation with Dalton continues to simmer, and after another incident Steve is bent on retaliating. Frankie starts to think that his brother is taking this respect thing too far. He may have to choose between respecting his brother and respecting himself.




In an honest and humorous debut novel, Coert Voorhees uses a coming of age story to look at where loyalty ends and the self begins.

Skim
by : Tamaki, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki



The time is the early 1990s, the setting a girls' academy in Toronto. Enter "Skim," aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth.


When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird time to fall in love, but Skim does just that after secret meetings with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer.

When Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation, as her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull her into "real" life by setting up a hilarious double date for the school's semi-formal.

Skim finds an unexpected ally in Katie. Suicide, depression, love, being gay or not, crushes, cliques of popular, manipulative peers — the whole gamut of tortured teen life is explored in this masterful graphic novel by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

Nation
by : Terry Pratchett



Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl.


She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire. Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy.


Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She's certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship's parrot.

As it happens, they are not alone for long.Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation.

As can be expected from Terry Pratchett, the master story-teller, this new children's novel is both witty and wise, encompassing themes of death and nationhood, while being extremely funny. Mau's ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone's lives!

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