Into Thin Air

I just finished the book Into Thin Air by John Krakeur. It was an intense biography about climbing Mt. Everest. The main character, was one of the few survivors, while 8 died. It is true that the number of people that died that season is about the normal, but the unusual thing is how they all died. The main reason for their deaths was lack of good judgement. The guides caused a bottleneck at Hillary's Step, a tricky part of climbing on Everest. Because of this, not many people got to the summit before turnaround time. If you are not at the top by turnaround time, the group turns around. No one turned around, although several groups reached the summit hours after the scheduled time. The guides of the expeditions had several inexperienced Sherpas and assistants leading their clients up Everest. Several of these Sherpas had never summited Everest. This was a very intense, well written book. There was some controversy, though, as some of the facts may not be accurate. The author did his best to remember what happened that awful day, but for several hours, he was above 20,000 feet, without oxygen. If he like intense, addicting books, you'll like this one!

I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory

Over the weekend, along with reading other books, I began plodding through the book I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory. I did not just ornament my sentence with the good verb choice of 'plod'; I mean that this book stultified me enormously. The beginning started off brilliantly. It was festooned with great action verbs, which guided the reader in. Then came the story after that, where the narrator beheld an experience that posed many questions. In this experience, an old woman had a young husband who bombarded her with kisses that he planted on her cheek or that he blew at her. The narrator identified this as true love and challenged the love that hovered around the relationship between her and her boyfriend. This stimulated much suspense, which drew me into the story. But after that, the narrator launched into an enormous essay in which she defined a memoir through various difficult analogies and metaphors. She restated the same thing many times, and I was stultified, even fatigued, after reading that. Then, the narrator told a story about how she was retrieving birth control pills in the 1960s, but she was mortified and ashamed because a lot people condescended to people who utilized birth control pills. Suddenly, the narrator transitioned into talking about the poetry and pieces that she loved to read, and she reflected on that for pages and pages.

I personally think the book was boring. The beginning was good, but that happiness was quashed as I trudged through her essay that defined memoirs and the boring reflection on what books she liked to read. To me, this book seemed like the author bundled together unrelated stories and forced them bear some similarities. It didn't make sense and it seemed contrived. In addition, I personally love to read stories, not essays. The essay/reflection portion of this book immensely eclipsed the storyline. Because of this, I abhorred this story. To me, this wasn't a memoir; it was a series of unrelated stories intertwined together in a contrived manner where there was a ton of essay writing a little storyline. I'd first of all not recommend this book. I'd only suggest it to people who want to hone their toleration skills; if you want to train yourself to read any material, no matter how boring, you should embark on a journey through this book. Also, people who love reading essays a lot should read this. They can probably tolerate it, now I cannot assure them that they will like the book or if their emotions about this book will even nudge a positive note.

Inheritance

I recently read the book Inheritance, by Christopher Paolini. It is the final installment in the series of the same name. As it was the final book in the series, I had extremely high hopes for it when I read it. However, it seemed an underwhelming ending to me. The ending was depressing and the main bad guy dies in a hopelessly out-of-character manner, considering how powerful he was hyped up to be in the previous books. Here is a brief plot summary. The dragon rider Eragon fights alongside the rebellious Varden and elves of Alagaesia to topple the evil king Galbatorix and his servant, formally Eragon's friend and half-brother, Murtagh. The problem? Galbatorix has several hundred dragon souls bound to him to give him great power. Eragon has two. Basically, there are two plots. The main plot follows Eragon as he tries to figure out how to beat Galbatorix. He eventually finds a hidden vault of dragon souls so he can fight Galbatorix. The secondary plot involves his stepbrother (?) Roran, who is a normal man who has risen to prominence in the Varden. Just like any fairy tale, they win, kill Galbatorix, and happily ever after. Right? Wrong. After the "ending", there is a secondary ending, I've forgotten the literary term for. In this second ending, Eragon goes around righting the wrongs of Alagaesia briefly and says goodbye to his friends before leaving Alagaesia FOREVER, away from his love Arya and the rest of his friends, for reasons too complex to describe here. Paolini writes it in a very sad way.

OK. The final book in the series ends with the main character leaving forever and ditching everyone he ever knew except his dragon. The character development is presumably that he matures and realizes his duties and how to keep peace after Galbatorix dies, but it doesn't wind up that way. It simply makes the reader unhappy and makes the previously loved main character look like a dirtbag. I just don't believe that the final book in a series should end in such a depressing way. If you enjoyed the previous books in the Inheritance series, by all means, go ahead and read this - fans like me will find it still quite good. Same goes if you like fantasy and adventure. If you don't, you might want to make this a pass.

Uprising

Uprising is a historical fiction book about 3 girls who get involved in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory strike. Jane is a wealthy girl who understands the workers frusturation. Bella is an italian immigrant who starts as a scab and then gets involved with the strike. Yetta is a jewish immigrant who's olders sister is one of the organizers of the strike and she is very involved in it herself. The book starts off telling three different stories but slowly they all come together and all the girls lives fit into one story, of them becoming sisters and best friends. I really liked how well the author transitioned from the three stories to one because it really made sense rather than they just saw each other on the street and moved in together. The character developement is really good and the characters become very complicated each with their own hopes and dreams but supporting one and other as they slowly become a family. The book also taught alot about the strike because you saw from the point of view of a striker, a scab, and an outsider. About halfway throught the book the strike ends and you see the results of the strike very clearly. The end of the book was very disturbing. The characters are so realistic and complicated that they feel like real people when you are reading this book but the book ends with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which two of the girls die. It was a disturbing end to a fantastic book.

Grayson

Recently I read a short, sweet book called Grayson. It's a fascinating memoir. The author, Lynne Cox wrote about her experience when she was swimming in the ocean at seventeen years old. She was out on a typical morning training for a big swim (she had already swum the English Channel twice, and the Catalina Channel). She felt something huge underneath her and realized after a mile or so that it was a baby gray whale. Lynne concluded that he was lost and, needing milk and guidance, would die without his mother. She describes her journey to help the baby find his mother. Her descriptions of the ocean are incredibly vivid and made me feel like I was swimming in the ocean as I read. Throughout the story as she swims for many miles, she describes her bond that forms with the baby whale, whom she names Grayson. The playful baby follows her everywhere and even allows her to touch him. This book was an easy, short book but it melted my heart and was hard to believe that it was true. It's a great book for animal lovers and for swimmers. There are really creative descriptions and many similes that helped me think about how I could become a better writer. I would recommend it.

The Mystery of the Great Swamp

This a another mystery story except this one stars a boy and his dog that go on an adventure to a "haunted" swamp that everyone is so afraid of. He tells the people that live nearby that there is nothing to worry about because he will solve the mystery, After many dangerous and life threatning adventure he solves the mystery and I was happy for him. I think that mystery stories are great to read and I hope you do to.

Superwoman

I was rummeging through my basement one day and found this comic book sitting in a box. When I read it I thought it was weird because it was about super heroes and things which do not exist but then a friend of mine explained the point of the book then I reread it and look for specific details and when I was done I thought that it was quit interesting if you like books like this reccomend it.

Mystery of Mordach castle

This book is about to kids who are great at solving mysteries and this one is their most frightning one ever. When I first started reading this book it started to remind me of Scooby but later on in this book it started to get complicated and the more you read the more you though about it. When not reading the book I would be trying to figure out the answer to the mystery. When learned what was really happening I was a little sad because my guess was way off but in all this bk was pretty cool.

Alex Rider: Stormbreaker

in this book young Alex Riders' uncle was killed but everyone around him said it was a car accident. He did not believe it because there were bullet holes in the car. He later found out that his uncle was indeed a spy and then he was recruited into the same agency as his uncle. Alex then started training to become a spy and when he was ready the agency sent him on mission involving dangerous men and crazy gadgets.

The Line

I recently read The Line by William A. Urseth. The reason I read this book is mostly because it was given to me by Bill, the author. I went to a hunting camp over the summer where I received my hunting license and Bill was the man who ran the camp. I got to go shooting and hunting with him and even some of the dogs from his book! The book describes some of Bill’s life stories with dogs and which involve training and hunting. I really enjoyed reading this book, as a hunter and dog lover, and would recommend it to others.

Perseverance Part 2

The rest of Marc Trestman's book describes what it is like to be all of the different types of coaches in the NFL, CFL and NCAA. Marc started out as an quarterbacks coach with the University of Miami (in Florida). He eventually worked his way of the ladder of coaching and became a Offensive Coordinator for the Browns. Marc is now the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, but would someday like to be an NFL head coach!

This book message was to "Embrace adversity, Be humble in success and always compete" - Marc Trestman

Ryan

Steve Jobs

As I have read further into this book, I have realized how important and special Job's childhood was. His father, Paul Jobs, who adopted Steve along with his wife, Clara Jobs, gave him so many good qualities. Despite the fact that Paul Jobs was a high school drop-out, he was responsible for inspiring and interesting Steve with electronics. Steve loved to work along side his father or watch his father to learn about electronics. As Steve got more interested, he took off on his own and became a lot smarter than his parents. Also, Paul Jobs had this thing for perfection. As many people know, Steve as an adult, working at Apple, had a need for perfection. Steve said that he got this from his dad, who seemed perfection of anything he built. Steve said that his dad didn't care if the part wasn't even visible because it was inside the product; it had to be perfect. Eventually Steve Jobs would meet up with the "other" Steve, Steve Wozniak. Together, they founded the Apple computer company, where Steve Jobs was the business-man, and Steve Wozniak was more of an engineer

I really like the author's style of writing. They explain things really clearly and include details that show where Steve Jobs got the traits for success. I really find it fascinating that so many qualities of Steve Job's success came from his childhood and his parents. I think that without having the father that Steve Jobs' had, or growing up in the valley he did with all the new technological development, Steve Jobs might be a name that a lot of us don't know. Instead, he got lucky with his father, where he lived, and who he met. In turn, Apple was created. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone, especially if you have an interest in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science. This is a superbly well-written book.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game is a novel about a boy named Ender who is possibly Earth's best hope at surviving another war with the aliens, or "buggers", as they are commonly referred to as. Ender is a child genius, and he has been monitored by the government ever since being born. The government looks for kids like Ender so that it can send them to Battle School, and train them for the next war. Nobody knows when the war will be, or how heavily armed the aliens will be when they come back. This book takes place in the future, so there are inventions that the people in the book use that have not been invented in our time. Ender and the other child geniuses are in training to become commanders of Earth's starships, and masters of the art of battle. They are sent to a special government funded school in space that is designed see what they can do in challenging situations. Ender is particularly impressive to the instructors at the school that are always observing his actions because of his amazing problem solving skills that he can apply to almost any situation. At Battle School, he quickly defeats those who challenge him and makes allies in the process. Even though Ender is only six years old, his abilities are astonishing. I am not very far into the book yet, but from what I have read so far, this book seems intriguing because the reader is able to see Ender's thought process, and his methods are truly amazing for a six year old. I look forward to reading the rest of this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in science fiction, books about the future, or books about child prodigies.

Once There Was a War

I am currently reading Once There Was A War by John Steinbeck. This book is a collection of articles that Steinbeck wrote in 1943 from the front for a New York newspaper. What sets this book different from most others, is its writing style. It is written like a diary, and therefore the development of the story is unknown to the writer. Of course, now we know how WWII went, but at the time Steinbeck was accompanying the troops, he had no idea how things would turn out. Even though he is a newspaper reporter, he writes as a writer, leaving aside the hard facts to focus on the emotions and how its feels to be in a war situation. Sometimes it seems that there is no purpose to the story, just random rambling. Because the articles were published during the war, many details of locations and troop information are left out, he couldn’t give out the location of the American troops. The book is very interesting and very easy to read. It shows an unprecedented view of the war, very realistic, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes angry. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a quick read and a short amount of time to read. Prior knowledge of what happened could be useful to better understand the situations.

The Help

I have just recently started reading The Help, and I am already addicted to it. The Help is about Aibleen, an African American Maid in the 1960's who has struggled the past couple years from losing her son. She gets attached to a baby who she works for, the first time she worked after the passing of her son. The book is mainly about her struggles, and problems that many African American maids faced back then too. Racism was a big factor of the problems, and having to deal with the problems makes me sick to my stomach. The Help is a great book to read if you like sad, depressing stories. It's a book where if you start reading, or getting in to it there is no way you are putting it down. I have also seen the movie, and I advise you read the book before the movie because there are more details that are not explained in the book. The Help is one of the best books I have ever read in my life and I recommend everyone reads it.

-Daniela Phillips

the hobbit

I am now reading The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. I have read the lord of the rings before, and i wanted to see how it all started. The book begins with the main character Bilbo Baggins who is living in the shire and is visited by 13 dwarves who ask for him to come on a quest with them "since 13 is a very unlucky number" Bilbo accepts, and they start on there quest to get the treasure back from smaug the dragon. on the way to the lonely mountain, they make stops at many places like rivendell, and through the misty mountain range. were Bilbo is seperated from the group finds a goldon ring. Bilbo has just met gollum, and that is as far as i have gotten in the book. I can see a lot of ways of how it works its way into the Lord of the Rings. I am really injoying reading this book and can't wait to finish it.

Pretty Little Liars

I am now reading the first Book of Pretty Little Liars. There are 5 best friends, Ali, Spencer, Hannah, Aria, and Emily. One of them is always supervising the others and telling them what to do, or in other words Ali is the leader of the group. They just graduated from 8th grade and they're all having a sleepover at Spencer's house. Ali is hypnotizing all of them because she wants to prove that she can do it. Ali and Spencer get into a huge fight and Ali leaves. Ali went missing. Now the four best friends seperate and don't really talk to eachother. They all get these weird emails and text messages from "A." "A" has brought all of them back together, and they all think that it's Ali. But then in Ali's old house a new girl named Maya moves in, they were doing work in Maya's yard and they found Ali's dead body, so they now know it's not Ali. They are all trying to figure out who "A" is because "A" knows all of their deepest darkest secrets and the only other person who knows their deppest darkest secrets is Ali. They are all very freaked out and scared at every moment because "A" could be watching their every move.

The Unfinished Angel

I just finished reading the book The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech. This book doesn't particularly take a long to read. But, the book is about an angel living in a house in the Swiss Alps, she has lived there for a long time undisturbed until a girl named Zola from America moved in. To quickly describe the theme of the book, Zola a girl is like an angel to the angel and the angel is an angel to Zola. They make the area around them realize what they are doing wrong and stir up a little bit of trouble. The chapters in this book are short and the pages don't contain tons of words. Overall, I really liked this book because it was humorous and a light quick read. Sadly, I wish it was longer then a meek 164 pages. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to read/browse around in the genre of fantasy. Also if you need a summer read I would recommend it because it's not hard to follow and it's light and witty.

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas

In this book about the holocaust from the perspective of a young boy, I have found it interesting in how as the story develops, Maria, the maid has become more relavant. In the early pages of the book, she is portrayed as a machine with no feelings or opinions. That position is changing, as it started early in my reading with her explaining to Bruno, the main character about how much his father has helped him, and hints that she doesn't agree with the decision to move. I believe this move is to accommodate Bruno's Father's job working with the Nazis, and have a more direct role in the holocaust. Bruno wonders who the people outside in the "striped pajamas" are, and his father says "they are not people". Bruno was not satisfied with the answer and couldn't understand it. I can infer at this point that those are Jews during the holocaust. This indicates that his father is a Nazi and is onboard with Hitlers plan of genocide. Maria has hinted at this and other clues have pointed to it.

The Tipping Point (Part Two)

I recently finished The Tipping Point, By Malcolm Gladwell. After reading the book, I can definitely say that Mr. Gladwell has written yet another great book. During the time spent reading The Tipping Point, I was never bored, the book constantly captured my interest. In one of my earlier posts I had high praise for another one of Gladwell’s books, Outliers. I am happy to say that I also have high praise for this book. The Tipping Point is centered around the idea that little things can make a big difference, and after reading the book, I can say that I am convinced. I found many of the stories in the book interesting, but some of my favorites were “connectors, mavens and salesmen,” a story about the Airwalk shoe company, and the story about the early-90’s crime rate in New York City. The stories in the book are fascinating, and the author does a great job connecting the significance between them. I found it very interesting that just by painting subway cars and reducing the amount of people who didn’t pay to ride the subway, the MTA was able to drastically reduce the amount of crimes that occurred on the subway. I also thought it was interesting that Paul Revere’s midnight ride was successful because of the people he was connected to, not the message he was spreading. Overall, Malcolm Gladwell has written another great book, and I would recommend that you read it.

The Tipping Point

A few weeks ago I started reading The Tipping Point, another book from one of my favorite authors lately, Malcolm Gladwell. The general topic of the book is “how little things can make a big difference.” Mr. Gladwell explores topics ranging from the end of a crime wave in New York City, to Paul Revere’s midnight ride, to brands of shoes suddenly becoming popular all across the country. The book actually discusses two stories we covered in English class, the Kitty Genovese murder and the Stanford Experiment. I found it fascinating reading about some of the different events in the book that Gladwell considers “tipping points.” One of the most interesting stories, was about how the NYPD and New York State officials were able to cut down on crime in the subway system, by re-painting the subway cars. The book also highlights how different types of people, namely connectors, mavens and salesmen, can cause something to “tip.” The book also talks about the “stickiness,” of an idea. The “stickiness” is basically how easily something grabs your attention and keeps it for a sustained period of time. So far I have really enjoyed this book, and I think it is another great book by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Throne of Fire- Rick Riordan

I started and finished the book the Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan over winter break and I loved it. It follows two magicians, Sadie and Carter, through the realm of ancient Egyption mythology to revive the god Ra. Riordan is very good at writing books about mythology and I can tell that he really loves the subject and it's interesting having one series set in Greek/Roman mythology and another with Egyption. Other than having a really interesting plot I think that the book has really interesting, dynamic characters who really complement each other well. Like the brother and sister pair Sadie and Carter; Carter is more of the guy who plans stuff but when in battle he always just jumps in with his sword but Sadie kind of leaps into plans and doesnt really think about what she's doing very much but in battles she'd rather create animals to fight for her. I dont really like how Riordan has been writing his new books with multiple, first person point of view angles. Sure it makes it dynamic but it sometimes throws me off, especially when he has more than two.

The Death Cure

I recently read The Death Cure by James Dashner, the third and final book in the series. In the books leading up to it, which all take place in the future the main characters, Thomas, Teresa, Newt and Minho survive an underground maze with predators, and a town full of flare-infected, man-eating crazies. The flare is a disease brought on by extreme sun flares, that is highly contagious, without a cure and that less then 1% of the people are immune to, which includes most of the people they travel with.

One of the very interesting, but sad at the same time, aspects of the book is the relationship between Newt and Thomas. Newt has always been a sort of mentor for Thomas, and is always there for him, but they find out that Newt has the flare, which will drive him beyond insane. In the end, after Newt is taken away by authorities for this reason, they find him, but are rejected. Newt ends up begging, pleading Thomas to kill him, to end him of his suffering. This goes on to the point where Newt will kill Thomas unless Thomas kills Newt, possibly his best friend.

In conclusion, I would recommend this series, especially the first one, The Maze Runner, to all fans of action-packed books with a lot of sadness, almost post-apocoliptic.

True Grit

Recently, I read True Grit by Charles Portis. This was a book about a girl, Mattie Ross, whose father was murdered. She then sets out to get him and get justice served. She hires Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn to help get him. A Texan also hires him to hunt down the same guy. The three eventually set out, more or less together, and they go and capture a few outlaws. They try to get another group of famous outlaws, but it doesn't really work, and the outlaws attack them. They both regroup and eventually stand off again, but this time the lawmen win, and justice is served. This book is written in a way that seems exactly like the time period. By this I mean that, though the apostrophes aren't often in place like they would be back then, the words do seem to be correct, and in some cases, it seems like they are speaking a different language. The characters are also really well developed. By this I mean that they have their habits that they have throughout the book and that you learn a lot about their past in the book, even though the book is only about 220 pages. I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to pretty much everybody, though I think that people who like action book will be most likely to like it.

The Scorch Trials (End)

So I finally finished reading The Scorch Trials and I liked how the book ended. Thomas is still split from the rest of the group with Brenda. They eventually find a place where a bunch of crazy people do nothing but party. It's kind of unexplained but I think that they were knocked out by a drug of some sort. They were being held hostage, but they were saved by Minho and the other Gladers including Jorge. They then run into group B and with them Teresa. They kidnap Thomas and hold him hostage. Thomas eventually finds out that he has been betrayed by Aris and Teresa. He is then taken into a gas chamber and it starts filling up with gas. It isn't poison gas so that's good, but it turns out that Teresa and Aris were doing an act to make sure that WICKED doesn't kill Thomas. They meet up with group A and B and reach the safe haven and are given the cure. I don't know how I would've acted as Thomas because when I was reading this I was furious at one point and I was just thinking to myself "Punch him Thomas" or "Waste his sorry self". I like how it ended because it had a happy ending, but the flare is still around. Now all I have to do is read the final book The Death Cure.

War Horse

Over the weekend before our third turn-in date I realized that's still needed to read another 200 pages or so. And lacking any new books I realized that my grandmother sent me the book War Horse. This book written by Michael Morpurgo, is a story about a horse named Joey and is powerful bond between his owner, Albert, but things soon change when Joey is sent off to be a war horse in WWI. The story is then based around joeys time as a war horse. All throughout this time Albert is waiting to be old enough to join the army. And in the end after a coin toss Joey trips over some barbed wire and is brought back to health than non other than Albert, who fails to recoganize him at first. The author chose a very odd point of view I thought. It was a past tense first person view from Joey. I thought this to be odd since not many books are written from the POV of an animal. Overall this was a good book, however it was a pretty easy book to read, I'd you want a challenge I wouldn't recommend this book.

Eve

Over winterbreak I read Eve by Anna Carey and I really wasn't all that enthused. I really just couldn't get over the premise of the book, it just didn't seem to make sense to me. Eve is set in a post-apocalyptic world where 98% of the world's population died of a deadly plague 16 years ago. Eve, the teenaged main character, is about to graduate from her all girl school for orphans, when she finds out that after you graduate from the school you become used for repopulating the world, continuasly birthing babiesfor the rest of your life. This is where I don't understand the premise. Assuming that the time this plague hit was around modern time, or further into the future, that means that there would still be about 140 million people left on the Earth, or more considering this is 16 years after said plague hit. Taking this into consideration, I don't understand why there would be such a dire need to repopulate that they were forcing girls against their will to breed. If anything, I would think they'd want to make sure everywhere was safe to live before they started filling up the Earth again, especially since there would be 6 billion some bodies lying around everywhere, which don't seem to be taken into account in this story.

As the story progresses Eve and another girl named Arden escape the school and eventually find their way into a refugee camp with the help of a boy named Cabel they meet on the road. Eve and Cabel fall in love of course and then something happens with a boy named Leif and Eve and Cabel have a fight which somehow leads to Eve being abducted by the government because apparently the King wants her to bear his children. If I may point out, none of this is really gone into much detail, or if it did, I didn't notice because the characters are extremely boring. I don't think there was a single real character trait for anyone, except maybe that Arden is cranky all the time. The only thing we know about Eve is that she has brown hair, and was the valedictorian at her school. I was really annoyed by this, because I really couldn't care less about what happened to Eve if I didn't know who she was at all.

The book ends with Eve finding Califia, which is a sanctuary for girls to live safely, and leaving Caleb behind, promising him that she'll see him again, along with a page long advertisement telling me not to miss the next book in the trilogy.

Needless to say, I won't be buying the sequel.

Micro

If you liked Jurassic Park, than I suggest reading Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston. (Crichton died in 2008, while writing Micro, and Richard Preston was selected to finish the novel.) Something unique and interesting to the book is the author's note in the beginning which was written by Michael Crichton. The points that he make our well-thought out and make you really think, but he died before finishing the note.

Micro begins with the baffling death of 3 men in an office locked from the inside. All men bled to death. The only indication of something wrong are hundreds of small, razor-like cuts made by a robot so small it is all but invisible to the human eye. When an opportunity of a life-time arises, college-students at the top of their fields; Rick, Karen, Peter, Erika, Amar, Jenny, and Danny take it. Once again, Crichton introduces a world both familiar and strange to us, a world of beauty and violence, a world where a person's fate is decided with terrifying precision and almost no time to react.

Though Micro is not as sophisticated as Jurassic Park, it isn't a bad story. I love Crichton's fast-paced, but detailed writing style. His talent for setting the stage for action is apparent and I appreciate that he wastes little time in beginning the story. Crichton grips the reader with vivid details, but there is a decidedly deadly undertone, in the sharpness of his words and also in the scenes of Micro. Tastefully, the author includes some humor between characters to break up the intensity occasionally. From reading Jurassic Park before, I can see that the author has a fascination of a peaceful Paradise that turns deadly quickly. Though, I liked Micro I didn't connect with the characters which was a bit unsatisfying, especially during scenes in between the action.. Another problem with the characters was they were undeveloped. An example of this is Vincent who was overly evil. I found him unrealistic and undeveloped, his purpose was to be the villain and that was all he was, there wasn't a single somewhat likable trait which would have given the story a touch more of plausibility. I'm not altogether sure about how I should judge Micro because of the book it might have been should Crichton have lived until Micro was finished and the difficulty of switching authors mid-story. Micro is not the best book I have ever read, nor is it the worst but if you liked Jurassic Park style of stories than you may like Micro.

The Scorpio Races

I really liked The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. It was about the
drama and relationships that happen on the small island of Thisby leading up to
the Scorpio Races which are run once every year. The story centers around two
characters Sean and Kate (Puck) and them getting closer throughout training to
prepare for the races. What I really liked about this book was how complicated
the characters were, how much the characters developed, and how the author did
a really good job telling the story from two points of view. I also really
liked how the author made the plot more interesting by adding another plotline
so that the whole story wasn’t about Puck and Sean’s relationship. She added that instead of racing on normal
horses, water horses are raced in the Scorpio Races because they are faster
than normal horses but they are also much more dangerous. However since Kate
can't afford a water horse she is riding her island pony. Overall I really
liked the Scoprio races because the characters were so well developed, the plot
was interesting, and Maggie Stiefvater made you become involved in what the
characters were thinking and feeling because her writing was so detailed and
fluid.

How to Save a Life

(Note: This was the second blog post that was due, I was going through the blog to look for it but I couldn't find it, so I decided to just re-post it just to be sure that it's on here)

I just finished reading How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr, and it was much better than I thought it would be. I had originally just picked it up because the cover was pretty and I was stocking up on books for Thanksgiving break, so when I opened it for the first time I wasn't really expecting much, but the book drew me in right away.

The book begins with Jill, one of the main characters, reflecting on her father's death and speaking to her mother about changing her mind. We later learn that Jill's mother has decided to adopt a baby in order to compensate for the death of her husband under a year ago. However, Jill's mother doesn't go to an agency, and instead finds a pregnant teen over the internet and invites her to live in their home until the baby is delivered. I'll admit that the premise of this book seems a little strange, however once you suspend your disbelief on the probability of this sort of situation, the rest of the book flows very smoothly.

I loved that Zarr really took a lot of time to flesh out her characters. Many authors who write for teens seem to think that because they are writing for teenagers, they just need to put out an interesting story and insert steriotypical characters to fill up the space. Every single character in How to Save a Life has a unique personality, not just the main ones. The little details she adds like how Jill's mom plays with the mole on her face when she's nervous really add to the book. Some other character traits that I really thought were interesting were the facts that neither Mandy, the pregnant girl, nor Jill were all that likeable in the beginning. Jill was rude and uncommunicative, and Mandy was clueless and socially awkward. I found this to be a good decision by the author, because if one character seemed to a better person than the other, than it really wouldn't have worked with the way Sara Zarr told the story, which was alternating between Jill and Mandy's point of view. If the reader favored say, Jill, over Mandy, then they probably wouldn't be paying as much attention the chapter's from Mandy's point of view, and would have missed her growth and developement as the story progressed.

The one thing I disliked about the book was that the ending seemed a little forced. Throughout the book, Jill was slowly warming up to Mandy, so slowly that she didn't even realize it herself. However when the end of the book was near, it seemed like the author sped up Jill's growth so that her change of heart seemed a little unnatural. The book ends with Mandy giving birth to the baby and the family deciding to adopt Mandy and take her in. Jill was the one who suggested this, and to me, it just seemed like she wasn't ready at this point to stretch so far for Mandy so as to suggest that she continue living with them.

Overall, I thought this book was really enjoyable, although the motives behind the ending and the beginning seemed to be a bit lacking.

into thin air

this book into thin air, is a book that i have been meaning to read for a while, it was first suggested to me by my father about a year ago who said that i would love it, but i never got around to it until now. this book has taken several unexpected turns that i had not anticipated when i began. the story started with the main character already at the summit of Everest and just beginning his dissent. at the end of this chapter the main character ends it with "non of them imagined that a horrible ordeal was drawing nigh. nobody suspected that by the end of that long day, every minute would matter." when i first herd of the book i originally thought that the story was going to be about the clime, and not the dissent, which this last quot led me to believe. then the next chapter the narrator (same person as main character) gave some history about Everest, who climed it first some facts, stuff like that. i thought this was neat because frankly i didnt no anything about Everest except the fact that its the highest mountain in the world. i thought that this was a great way to really show how unforgiving and brutal mount Everest can be, so that throughout the story you can realize how hard the tasks are that the characters are doing.

Oskar Schindler

I am still reading Taken by Edward Bloor but I would like to set that aside and instead discuss the article I read for Resisters and Rescuers, Oskar Schindler. Oskar Schindler was a German Nazi, until one day he witnessed German police forcing Jews out of a ghetto and cramming them into trains that would take them to concentration camps. After bearing witness to this incident, Schindler found it his responsibility to do something about the wrongdoings that he had seen. Schindler decided that he would use his factory to keep 900 Jews safe from liquidation. At the factory, the Jews created (purposefully) inoperative ammunition for the German soldiers.

What I found really amazing about this story is that an average man could be transformed from being a German fascist, to a supporter of Jews during the holocaust. All it took was one incident to change this man’s way of viewing life! In class we wrote about what the true nature of human beings is. Schindler’s story just goes to show what one of our true natures is: to stand up against what is wrong.

I am a Taxi by Deborah Ellis

I am a Taxi is a book about drug production in Bolivia. The main character, Diego, is a young Bolivian boy who lives with his mother and sister in a prison. His mother and father are in separate prisons. They were jailed for producing cocaine. Diego works as a "taxi" for prisoners. Since he is not convicted of a crime he can come and go as a he pleases. A "taxi" is someone who does errands for the people in the prison in exchange for money. He runs errands like buying food and clothing for prisoners. Prisoners in the jail have to provide their own food.

Diego works hard as a taxi but is not able to make enough to support his family comfortably. One day his best friend, Mando, tells him about a way to make more money. Diego tells his mother that he will be staying with his father in the men's prison for a few weeks. Instead he and Mando go to work for a drug cartel out in the jungle. Their job is to make coca paste, which is then processed into cocaine. I will stop here because I don't want to give away the whole plot of the book, but it is very exciting. I learned a lot about the process by which coca leaves are turned into cocaine and about the cruelty the cartels.

Hate List (Again)

I finished reading the Hate List by Jennifer Brown and I really liked it. I was a little confused at first though because there are flashbacks in the book from before the shooting happened and I didn’t know what was going on. So, I was a little confused but then I figured it out. Also, at the end of the book there are a bunch of chapters about art classes that Valerie takes that I thought were pointless. They had nothing to do with the plot of the book. The author just described these random art classes that Valerie took and I think she was just trying to make the book longer. Besides those parts, I really liked the book. It made me think a lot and foreshadow a lot. I was constantly putting myself in Valerie’s shoes and thinking, “What would I do in this situation?” The whole idea and plot of the story reminded me of the Columbine situation about 11 years ago - when two boys opened fire in their school and started shooting people for no reason. That story pretty much sums up the entire Hate List plot. But, I thought it was a really interesting story and it kept me reading because I always wanted to know what was going to happen next.

The Chosen

The Chosen, written by Chaim Potok, is a book about a very religious Jewish boy named Reuven Malter who lives in Brooklyn and goes to one of several yeshivas, or schools of religion for Jews. The yeshiva Reuven attends is run by his father, and does not teach the religion as rigorously as most of the other yeshivas do, which makes him and his father targets for criticism within the community. In the first scene of the book his yeshiva plays another one in a baseball game, in which Reuven gets his eye hit with a baseball and is escorted to the hospital. This injury is done on purpose by the more religious yeshiva team. Reuven, at first, hates the other team and refuses to see them when they try to apologize, but as he develops and matures, he eventually talks with the more religious yeshiva students and comes to make a friend out of one. So far, this book has been about friendships, religious clashes, and the on going World War 2 in the background of the story. While I have not read much of it so far, it is very well written and anyone who likes realistic fiction will sure to be a fan of this book.

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay is a gripping novel that switches between centuries. The book starts with a young girl in Nazi occupied France, waking in the middle of the night to police banging on her door. They yell, telling her to open the door. With her father in hiding, the girl wakes her mother. Her family is told to pack a few things, for they are to be "temporarily moved". Afraid, and thinking that they will soon return, the young girl locks her little brother in a small and hidden room. She has good intentions, wanting to save her brother. While she, her mother and father go to the Vel' d'Hiv', where thousands of Jewish families are held until deportation. The novel then switches to the live of an American named Julia, married to a man from France, living in France. It is 2002, and Julia is working for a magazine. She is assigned to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, a dark time in French history. At the same time, Julia, he husband and their daughter, Zoe, are renovating and moving into an old apartment, one that used to hold a secret room. As the story continues, more and more connections are made between the young girl in the Holocaust and Julia. This book is very well written, because the switching of time periods doesn't get at all confusing.

Peak

I read the book Peak. It is about a 14 year old boy climber whose dad wants to be the youngest person to climb Everest. However, Peak (the boy) meets Sunjo, who is older than Peak by a couple of days. This turns into a competition to climb Everest, but neither of the boys want to make it a competition. 10 feet away from the summit, Peak turns around and lets Sunjo go to the top. This shocked me so much. I can't imagine being so close to the top of the world, and turning around, saying, "maybe next year." How could you do that!? I think it would be amazing to get to the top of the world, and if I were Peak, I would have gone to the summit with Sunjo. However, the story is much more complicated than that, involving the Chinese police, father-son conflicts, and many, many deaths of other climbers. This book got very intense around the end, and it was so hard to put down, I read it in about 2 days. If you like intense, fast-moving books, this would be really good for you!

Mockingjay

I am reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is the third and final book to the Hunger Games Series. So far in the book Katnis has been helicoptered out of the games because the games where all a plan to rebel against the Capital. All of Katnis's allies in the games are safe and alive, except for the few that had died during the games. They were all taken to district 13, all except Peeta who is been taken by the Capital. District 13 was supposed to be destroyed during the last war against the Capital but the citizens of district 13 have been creating a underground district that the Capital doesn't know about. They were waiting for the perfect time to rebel against the Capital and now that Katnis has the exact same thought in mind they decided this was the perfect time. Katnis has a lot to do with the rebel, she is the Mockingjay. This means that she was been chosen to be the face of the rebel. Katnis has a lot of things she worries about, Peeta in the Capital, the safety of her mother and Prim, and being the Mockingjay. Katnis had to learn how to be a leader and she has, she decided to take matters into her own hands and make some requests. The most important one that is going to influence the war is that, when they capture President Snow, she will kill him.

Crank

by Ellen Hopkins

Crank is a true story that is written in the form of poems. It is written by the mother of a girl named Kristina Snow. Kristina, a quiet, well-behaved, 16 year-old girl visits her father in New Mexico for the summer going into her senior year. When she goes, she falls in love with a boy named Adam and she releases a new side of herself, Bree, which is wild, crazy and daring. Adam introduces Kristina or "Bree" to crank; the monster. She feels amazing and instantly becomes dangerously addicted. By the end of the summer she has to go back to Nevada to be with her mother, step-father, lesbian sister, and little brother. She meets Brendan, a boy who is also on meth and ends up raping her. She also meets Chase, her boyfriend who is caring, and Robyn, who teaches her how to get more of "the monster" or meth. Eventually, she becomes pregnant. At fist she thinks the baby is Chase's, but then figures out that the baby is actually Brendan's, from the rape. At the end of the book she struggles with raising her new son and ending her addiction. There is a sequel that I will probably read. Crank was disturbing and depressing (especially because it's a true story about the author's daughter), but incredibly hard to put down. It is really well-written in poetry form which makes it more dramatic and suspenseful. It's a quick-read about sex, drugs, and love. I would only recommend this book if you're comfortable with reading about these topics.

The Tipping Point

My second book for the independent reading assignment is The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I chose two Gladwell books this semester- Outliers and this book. In the Tipping Point, the author writes that there are three rules: 1) The law of the few 2) The stickiness factor 3) The power of context and that all three suggest that epidemics occur due to these three rules.

I found the stories and points made on each rule to seem to make intuitive sense. The evidence provided made me a believer. In the law of the few, I learned about the 20/80 rule where 20% of people can have the power to create change in the remaining 80% of people- these are the influencers or connectors. The second rule also applies to the connectors in that an idea, change or epidemic has to stick. The author shows how a few “connectors” can make a global change. The example given was hush puppy shoes that took off in New York. In our generation, things like Dr. Dre beat headsets, Ugg boots etc, being worn by the connectors has influenced all of us to want these items. The third rule, the power of context, allows one to realize the situation or actions taken to capitalize on creating an epidemic. For example, if you can understand how to market a product, determine a crime pattern or teenage smoking, the answers will allow you the power to create an epidemic.

I found both books this semester to be fascinating. To analyze data, hear stories and facts that lead to phenomenal athletes, trends in best selling products made me realize that it is not good luck that gets you success, it is understanding data points that can enable success.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain is a book that will make you cry, laugh, and contemplate many different themes in life. What makes this book so interesting is that it is narrated by a dog, Enzo. Throughout the book, Enzo and Denny (his owner) keep a long-lasting friendship and love for one another, even when Denny goes through hard times when his wife dies, and the long battle for custody over his child, Zoe. Enzo is constantly helping Denny, and supporting him with Denny's love of race car driving, even when it starts to get complicated. Another interesting part of the book is Enzo's love of talking about becoming human. He dreams about his after life becoming a human and how he'll be able to have thumbs! Enzo always thought that he was somehow part human even when he was a dog. This book is an amazing story about a wonderful friendship between a dog and a human.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place in a futuristic, communist society. In this society, a mysterious Big Brother presides over every detail of the society by erecting telescreens- huge bright screens that function as video cameras for Big Brother's government- everywhere, including in people's homes. Everything in the society is wrong: their motto is: "Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, peace is war." Concepts such as love have been abolished, and people only get married to produce kids who serve as spies for the Party, or Big Brother's government. This society functions only because the population believes anything the party said, and if someone were to doubt that what the Party says is incorrect, the Thought Police kill them.

The book follows Winston, an independent thinker who defies the party, and his story of defying the party and eventually joining the rebellion before being captured and tortured. The book also subtly pokes at a romance story that befalls Winston and a rebellious woman named Julia.

Overall, I thought the book was great. What I liked most about the book is about how it makes you gawk at how terrible communism is. Darkness and misfortune is at every turn, and you learn to understand the badness of communism- how the badness created by muzzling free speech eclipses the equality of people.

My Life in Dog Years

I am currently reading My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulson. When i was looking for a book my mom recommend this to me because she said my brother had read it when he was about my age and really liked it. It is pretty much what the title says, his life in Dog Years. It's about all of the different dogs Gary Paulson had in his life time and what they did for him and what they meant to him. In the book you learn that Gary had a rough life and his parents were drinkers and would come home drunk most nights. When he was about 12 he pretty much lived on his own in the basement of his apartment building. All of the dogs that he had never really lived with him, they would meet up in the forest when he went hunting or at the back of the bowling ally when he got off work. He started working at about 14 being a pin boy at a bowling ally during the school year and working on a farm in the summer. He meet many dogs form the farm and would have a short relationship with them. It wasn't until he gets older until he has dogs that are actually his. I really like this book and it's a quick read, it shows how dogs can play a big role in peoples lives, and being and animal lover I especially liked this book. I would recommend it to anyone that likes animals, it is also very funny.

Leviathan

Over Winter Break and currently I am reading a series called the Leviathan series. It is a book based during the beginning of WWI in Europe. The book has two main characters the Austrian duke that was murdered to begin the wars son Alek and a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service called Deryn. Both of them meet on the airship (which is actually an animal) called the Leviathan. Alek has a history of nobility in Austria and Deryn has a background of military. The character interactions between the to are so interesting because Alek thinks Deryn is just a nice boy. Deryn starts to have a fancying for Alek and becomes close to him, in a manner of friendship. Alek doesn't tell anyone his background on the ship and Deryn has her secret too. The characters often learn new things from the two's differences. Deryn has to fight very hard to not reveal her secret. The way Scott Westerfeld writes it is unique, switching from one main character to another. I would recommend this book, I don't usually like Science Fiction, but this book made me rethink this. The reason it is science fiction is because both powers have enhanced and updated weapons including the British who make their own army out of animals they have created. The Germans use technological steam powered inventions.

Catching Fire

For this reading check I have finished the book Catching Fire. It was a really good book and a good addition to the series. It was interesting to see how Suzanne Collins could further develop the characters like Haymitch and others that already participated in the hunger games. The thing I liked most about the book was just the suspension of the games and all in all the anticipation that any one can die at any time. Suzanne Collins did a great job on writing a sequel to the 1st book. I look forward to reading The Mocking Jay (the third book).

The Number One Ladies Detective Agency

This series (11 books so far) has really been interesting for me. It has inspired me more than any other series, I think. When you read books with a detective in them, they are usually mysteries. This book, however, I would not consider mystery. This is because the book is not so much about solving the mysteries but what life lessons we can learn by solving them. I really like the main character, Mma Ramotswe because of her insight to life's thoughtful questions. When I did the questions from Night about where we get answers to life's persisting questions, I immediately though of this series. It teaches us to be honest, trustworthy and charitable, all without listening to a professor drone. It really helped me get to know myself better and I would suggest it.

Peak

I've just finished a book called Peak. It's about a young boy (14 years old) who's parents are both extreme mountain climbers. At the start, it was just a typical book of a young troubled boy who just happens to climb skyscrapers. Although this was very unusual (and unbelievable), it made me want to read through to the end. Long story short, he gets caught as he's climbing over the top of it, his 6th skyscraper. He gets arrested, threatened to 3 years in a juvenile delinquent centre, but his parents post bail. To send him away from all the drama around himself-even causing a boy to try climbing and falling to his death. Instead, the parents send Peak (the 14 year old) with Joshua Wood, his biological father and an amazing climber. Because of the bail money that Joshua offered to pay, he is deeply in debt. He had started a climbing expedition on Mount Everest, and hoped to get Peak to be the youngest to summit the mountain. Along the way, there are small betrayals, lies, delusions and some angry climbers thrown in too. It's a really interesting book, and has made me start a bucket list with "Try to summit Everest" at the top.

Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz

I recently finished the book point Blank by Anthony Horowitz, which is part of the Alex Rider series. I found multiple parts of this book, near the beginning and towards the end, to be unrealistic. Although overall the story was great and has the plot of a story that I might write... Which could be taken in both good or bad ways. The end was very exciting and equally as suspenseful. I would recommend this book to people who like the CHERUB series, although I don't like this series as much as the CHERUB series and I will most likely read another CHERUB book next!

Life of Pi

Last year, I wrote a post on Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, at approximately page 120. I wrote with a rather negative connotation, as I didn't think too much of the book at the point where I was. However, the real story was just getting started. After Pi (the main character) manages to survive being thrown overboard along with a large party of zoo animals, he spends the rest of the book in a lifeboat. That lifeboat starts out with nearly an entire zoo worth of exotic creatures, but ends with only Pi and a tiger named Richard Parker. Throughout the novel, the Yann Martel explores the concept of humans coexisting with animals. However, he also subtly turns it into a survival book; something which I believe endears it to a far greater audience than if it merely explored relations between man and beast. The book is written in a manner that provides enough detail to bring out the realism, but doesn't go overboard (no pun intended) to bore the reader.  But at the very end of the book, it turns to an entirely new idea. As Pi is questioned about his experiences by authorities, his story is cast aside because of not only how incredible it is, but also that it comes from a child. This isn't clearly stated, but I inferred it because of subtle hints in the language of the questioning adults. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. If one can get past the initial hurdle of the first 120-ish pages, anybody with an interest in animals, survival, or deeper concepts between humans and animals will likely enjoy Life of Pi. On a side note, the beginning of the book makes it sound like a book on religious theory, but that changes after Pi is sent on his watery journey.

Seventeenth Summer

Over break I started reading the book Seventeenth Summer by Mawreen Daly. I didn't particularly like the book so I decided to end it early I only read to page 206 because. The book follows a girl named Angie and she falls in love shortly after meeting the towns bad boy Jack. They have their ups and downs throughout the book like the stereotypical relationship in most romantic books. Also, the book was written during the 1940's which made it hard to relate to. The book was written with really elongated details that didn't have to be in the writing, which made the book really long. Also the book is really out dated and most of the scenarios are far-fetched and hard to believe. The beginning of the book just jumps into a relationship that just doesn't sound believable. Personally I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone that doesn't like slow very detailed books. But if you do enjoy that type of book I would be intrigued to find out what you thought of it and what happens in the end.

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking

This could have been boring and uneventful as the science text book that we have at school, or as long winded and confusing as me giving a lecture about sting theory during wood shop, but it isn't. This book was written by one of the greatest theoretical physicists and astrophysicists of this modern day and age. I am able to find this book extremely interesting as Hawking uses his writing style and put it in colloquial language that even a 6th grader could understand (although there are some terms in there that many would not understand such as "supersymetry"). This book is however aimed at a slightly higher age group, being 9th to 12th graders in physics classes. It was easy for me to understand as I have touched on most of these subjects such as: entropy, probability waves, string theory, inflation, ect. It does have many controversial points to it though, such as the multiverse theory. Hawking is able to make his readers interested in the subject by his humoristic writing style, and everyday examples of "hard to explain otherwise my brain will explode" ideas. Overall, a very good read. I will be reading a similar book called Fabric of the Universe. Even if you are completely uninterested by any of this stuff, read it, it might just boost your IQ by a few points and open you up to a completely different universe to the one we know.

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

Honestly, I have loved this series (the Flavia de Luce novels), but this latest book, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, has, so far, been kind of a let down. I mean, Allen Bradley's writing style is just as witty and funny as ever but the actual plot almost feels like it has faded into the background. I'm nearly halfway through the book and the murder that the book is supposed to be centered around JUST happened! I would give a plot summary, but all there would be is:

Flavia, a witty 11 year old who loves chemistry has run around her house doing experiments and causing trouble and talking to people for 100 pages while a film crew shoots a movie in her house, and then she finds the star of the movie dead in a bedroom upstairs.

I strongly recommend the first three mysteries-- they're addictive and suspenseful from the get-go-- but not this one. I sort of feel like I'm just sitting and listening to a mischievous 11 year old think. It's not as interesting as it may sound. I don't think I'll give up on the book, maybe (hopefully) it will get better. I'll give you another update later. :)