Ilona's World

The Wild Cats of Piran: Chronicle One is the first part of a series of children's books by Scott Alexander Young , who is also known as the creator of the TV series Max's Midnight Movies . The book includes charming illustrations by Moreno Christe and it is about the adventures of a group of wild cats and their clever, beautiful, and somewhat mysterious leader, Queen Felicia . Her best friends, Dragan and Magyar, all have very different personalities and these cats are able to use magic on certain occasions. They live in a nice seaside town in Slovenia, which is a great place for them, except for when they meet some of their enemies, including local rats and certain local humans. The book is also enjoyable for adults because of the story, the humour and because it is also beautifully written . Unfortunately, the story ends too early and the other parts in the series have not been published yet. The Wild Cats of Piran is highly recommended for cat lovers everywhere.

2012 was a good year for me in every respects. As for my writing, I became busy writing only towards the end of the year, but it felt great. I had more poems published in English and I also wrote an urban fantasy story , and I managed to submit it to the publisher in time. This also means that I learnt to handle deadlines . I was also learning more about screenwriting and I would really like to learn more about it later. In 2012, I also became brave enough to perform in front of people, so I was reading poetry at the Write Like Bukowski contest and I also did stand up for the first time, in a pub , at a charity event. The latter was a so-called open-mic event. (I'd like to do this again some time.) I also made lots of new friends and got a lot of new ideas that still need to be put on paper. The year 2012 was a better one for me than the ones before, and I was able to start the next one as an optimist .

Title: Seriously...I'm Kidding Author:  Ellen Degeneres Category: Humor Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group) Copyright: June 2011 Formats: paperback, hardcover, electronic, audio Rating: 7 Seriously...I'm Kidding is the latest book by the much loved stand-up comedian and talk show host, Ellen Degeneres. This book is a collection of random thoughts and ideas and it includes stories both from everyday life and from the life of a celebrity. There are a lot of really quotable lines in it about success, beauty, marriage, manners , politiness, and some even about gift-giving. The author also keeps giving advice to the readers on all these issues. It seems she has become both a great comedian and a fine motivational speaker. However, at places I felt that the text was far too simplistic for my liking . I suppose this is because the book was written for a talk show audience. English-learners might find this a great advantage. This book is reco...

The Best Planet in the World appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of the magazine. Illumen is a print magazine of speculative poetry, published biannually by Sam's Dot Publishing . It contains poetry, illustrations, articles and reviews. The featured poet for this issue is Marge Simon and the cover art is by Joshua Gage. You can order a copy via the publisher's bookstore .

Blind Faith (2007) is a dsytopian novel and it is also dealing with a great variety of issues that are of interest to today’s reader. The book was written by the brilliant comedy writer and stand up comedian, Ben Elton, who is also the author of The Thin Blue Line and Black Adder . In this didactic but very well-written book he is sharing his views with us on consumer society, trends in the media, in the world of community websites etc , while also telling a great story set in a near future England. Elton has always been a very good observer of the typical, the suprising, and the alaming and presented his observations in a funny and thought-provoking way. Blind Faith is definitly one of his most serious works. In this book, he describes a world where it is compulsory to share all details of your life online, even the smallest and the most intimate details have to be shown on photos and videos. Citizens of this state live their lives in front of webcams and are obliged to show...

  Title: Casting Shadows Author: J. Kelley Anderson Genre(s) / Subgenre(s):  Fantasy/ Urban Fantasy Publisher: World Castle Publishing (January 31, 2012) Formats: paperback (232 pages) or electronic (Kindle Edition) I’ve always liked stories that are a bit different from the average. Casting Shadows by J. Kelley Anderson is definitely a book that tells a story like that. At the beginning, the main character Edward performs a magic ritual in a cemetery to summon an undead servant. He only does this because he is under a spell and a demon is trying to influence his deeds. However, the new servant, Vincent  will not be the merciless evil being that one could expect. He will be more like a friend, who always has Edward’s best interests at heart, but he also has his own will and his own views about things. He does his best to protect him from himself and from the evil forces that are at work in the ususally quiet little town of Hurst, Ohio.  A very powerful ...

Hyperion Books (October, 2010) Whoopi Goldberg had a lead role in some of the best comedies of the 80s and the early 90s, so when I came across her book Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? I immediately decided to get a copy . This is a book of observations about the lack of respect that you can witness every day, with some humor added. She basically wrote a guidebook on what is acceptable behaviour and what is not at a lot of different places. The list includes for expl. cinemas, theatres, buses, trains, airports, airplanes, hotels, restaurants and workplaces. The book is a bit didactic, sometimes overly didactic, but at times it is also a bit like watching stand up comedy. She is talking mainly about the US, but most of the thoughtless behaviours that she mentions are a part of everyday life at other parts of the world, too. She notices that sometimes people just simply do not think that their behaviour can be irritating to others , even though there are many who ...