The Other Boleyn Girl

I just finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory. This book is about two sisters Mary and Anne, who are in the kings court (Henry VIII) They become his mistresses only to give him a son and to get to the throne so they can become the wealthiest family in all of England. Mary gives him a son but Anne steals his affections... He marries Anne and she becomes queen, but she thinks the King can not give her a boy after three stillborns and two miscarriages. So she sleeps with her brother and a "monster child" is born, meaning a deformed child, she is later tried for treason and beheaded on the account of adultrey

The Invaders

This quarter i am reading a book called the invaders by John Flanagan. it's the second book in a series about a group of boys who live in a place that's basically viking territory. they won a competition against all odds and were trusted with protecting their country's greatest treasure for one night. they failed. the object called the Andomal was stolen by a group of basically pirates. the boys were to be exiled, shamed, and punished, but they escaped chasing the Andomal in hope of recovering it, along with a one-armed war veteran named thorn. once they left a huge storm broke out and they barely made it to a sheltered bay. where they are now.

Mockingjay

For my last book of the year I read Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay. While this book lacked a lot of the action the first two had I still found it entertaining. Katniss’s struggle through becoming the mockingjay and wanting so desperetly to go to war was encouraging. While she was deemed too important, she still proved to District 13 she was willing to make a difference. As I said above, the one thing I would change would be to make it more action-packed. There really are not very many scenes that include action but the ones that have it are so vivid. Collins paints a image of a battlefield with soldiers and bombings so well I can almost see it. Overall I would highly suggest this series to any reader and to read through to the last book.

The Knife of Never Letting Go (#3)

I have still continued to read The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. The book lags on a bit but there is always suspense that Ness creates that makes me want to keep reading. Throughout the book there are continuously new characters added. Most of them are described well, but they are all a bit strange. It is a violent book with gruesome details, some of which Ness leaves out to create more suspense. It's sad because the main character, Todd, sacrifices his dog, Manchee, for his friend, Viola. The scenery is pretty descriptive and I have a clear image of what I'm reading in my mind as I read the book. There are two more books after the first, so I hope to finish the first soon and continue reading the next two throughout the summer!

The Armchair Economist

I recently read the book The Armchair Economist by Steve E. Landsburg. The book is a collection of essays that explain the logic of economics can be applied to everyday situations. Topics like pricing, sales taxes, deficits, pros and cons of taxes, football, courtship are illustrated in an very easy to understand style. One story that really stuck out to me was one explaining the concept of incentives. This short story showed both meanings of incentives, the positive ones, promoting good actions, and bad ones, promoting harmful actions.. One such example of these incentives is the seatbelt. While it appears to be a life saving piece of genius, its existence actually causes almost twice as many automobile accidents as before law required it. The thinking behind this is that if drivers thought of driving as a very dangerous action, they would be very careful, trying to limit as many risks as possible. But the addition of the seatbelt has caused many drivers to think of driving as a more casual and harmless everyday factor. This in turn causes them to be more reckless and take more risks that end up in crashes.

            The author uses many other examples like this to show his points in a very clear way. He also uses a plethora of analogies to illustrate the situation to the reader in a way that persuades them to his perspective, much like we did in our speeches. Even though this would seem to be a very dry read, the author implements clever logic, humor, and irony to keep the reader interested. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some interesting non-fiction that is not only fun to read, but will also teach you some valuable lessons.

Taken

I am reading the book Taken by Edward Bloor. It is set in a rich area of Florida called the Highlands in the year 2035. In this time kidnapping is a large industry in the U.S, and the rich people live in highly secure areas and all have body guards and helicopters, but still many kids are still taken. The main character, Charity, lives with her dad who created a bronzer that keeps you tan for a whole year and her step mom who runs a TV program. The scene switches from her in the back of the kidnappers ambulance to her on Christmas eve trying to think of good thoughts and not to panic. It is a little hard to follow and you don't know if it is her in the flash back or real life. I wish they would explain Charity's situate better all you know about her is that she's rich and was kidnapped. I am almost half way done with the book and i don't think they are going to reveal much more about her life. I really like the book as of now, it is very intense because apparently her kidnapping is not a normal one. I want to know how it is not normal and what the kidnapper wants, other than money. It is a really hard book to put down especially when there is a very good part. The sensory details are very good, at points you feel like you are in the ambulance with Charity wondering if you will get out alive. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes upbeat intense, thrilling books. I'm very excited to finish the book and find out what happens to Charity.

Ender's Game (second post)

I had forgotten about this book, which is called Ender's Game, for a lengthy period of time. But, I happened to stumble across it recently and decided to finish it. The story is set in the distant future, and the main character is Ender. He is a young boy who lives with his mother, father, brother, and sister. He also happens to be a child genius. In fact, both of his older siblings are child geniuses, as well. But, only Ender is chosen to be a potential savior of Earth. This enrages Peter, Ender's older brother. Earth is at war with the "buggers," an alien race that has tried to destroy Earth before and nearly succeded. Several top army officials decided to recruit these child geniuses to attend a special school, which they simply call "Battle School." It is a place where war is simulated and the children learn to become military masterminds. Ender quickly becomes the star student there, and it quite possibly Earth's last hope at surving. Ender was really sad to leave his home, too, because he especially loved his sister. Ender thinks about her a lot as he trudges through the difficult program. In the end, Ender completes the final test by completing the simulated battle and destroying the alien homeworld. But, Ender's superiors did not tell him that the simulation was actually real, and that Ender had just destroyed an entire race of living things. Ender is enraged by this, and ends up leaving the planet, along with his sister to form a new colony out in space.

I didn't like this book all too much. It was very confusing at some parts, and often lacked the necessary description to understand what was taking place. The concept of the main plot was fascinating, but it wasn't described well enough, and I couldn't enjoy this style of writing. I thought, for the most part, that the author did a nice job of letting the readers get to know the main character. As the reader, I really got an accurate picture in my mind of who Ender really is, and what he felt like. For example, I could feel his pain after having to leave home to go to a rigorous school in which he was always depressed and lonely. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book because of its writing style, but the concept of the story itself was interesting, to say the least.