Book Blog #15

     I read Schizo by Nic Sheff. It was decent.

     Miles has schizophrenia. His little brother Teddy went missing during one of Miles' episodes, and Miles is determined to find him. That is a very basic explanation of the plot.

     I did not like this book very much because it was kind of dull. There isn't much conflict and most of the book is Miles thinking "oh no, if only Teddy hadn't gone missing."

     Over break, I'm not sure what I'll read. I ordered a bunch of books from the library, and will read whatever looks the best.

SOL #1

     
     BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! 

     We all jump. "That was us! That was totally us!" someone yells across the Kids Kitchen.  I leave my potato-egg mush (it would've been latkes, if the fire alarm hadn't stopped me) alone as everyone files out the door.
     As soon as I step outside I can see excitement and some fear on the little kids' faces. No one knew there would be a drill today. But it wasn't a drill. It was burning food.
     When the fire department leaves after giving us the all-clear, we go back to the Kitchen. Everyone looks kind of ashamed of themselves. We tried hard not to smoke up the room; opening doors, turning on fans. David tells us that it wasn't the smoke alarm in our room but the one in the next room over. We only have about five more minutes to clean up.
   
     No latkes for me.
   

Book Blog #14

     I read Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. It is decent. It's kind of the love story / fantasy genre that you would expect from a Rainbow Rowell book. I'm not going to say that it is the best book she's written.

     If you read Fangirl, it is about a girl who writes hit fanfiction for a book series called Simon Snow. In Fangirl, some chapters are from a fanfic book she's writing called Carry On. This book is that book.

     Simon Snow and his roommate, Baz the vampire, are enemies. They like to try to kill each other. There is this mysterious evil thing called The Humdrum that is attacking the Watford School of Magicks (see, fantasy. And not "magic,"no, it's called "magick") where they go to school. They need to get along and defeat it.
     There are some mature topics and language in this book. It's definitely fantasy, which is the main reason I didn't like it as much as I would, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone who feels the same.

Book Blog #13

     I read We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen. It was a very quick book. I would recommend this to anyone. No cursing, Gabe.
   
     Stewart is highly gifted and talented. Meaning, he is extremely smart in the language, science, and math departments but not so good socially. His mother just died and his dad found a new wife. He is going to live with her and her daughter, Ashley. Stewart is very excited. He has always wanted a sister.
     Stewart and his dad move across the state. Stewart's gifted school is now very far away, so he transfers to Ashley's high school. Even though he is in eighth grade, he is placed with the freshmen to suit his intelligence.
     Ashley is not happy about this at all. Ashley will have revenge. So will her boyfriend (who is quite a lot smarter than Ashley).
   

Strangers- Colfax poem

We don't know each other.
We've never met in our lives.
We live completely differently.
I'm walking past you on Colfax
And you wave hello.
And now we know each other.
And now we met.
And now we can find similarities
In smiles and waves.
We're still strangers,
Just not as strange.

Book Blog #12

     I finished 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I would recommend it to everyone, except people who get scared easily.

     Here is a short summary from the middle of the book:

     Danny (yes, Stephen King likes the name Danny) watched his brother get kidnapped. He went into shock. He can't remember anything. The next day, he dies in the hospital.
     After his funeral, a man named Mike is in charge of burying the coffin. He notices there is a lock. Why? To keep someone from getting in..... or to keep someone from getting out???
     Mike feels like he's being watched. He breaks the lock on the coffin. Danny sits up and grins at him. His teeth are very pointy.
     Mike dies a day later.  His body is taken to the morgue, along with three other people who have also just died mysteriously. That night, all the bodies vanish. The population of the town slowly diminishes as more people only come out of their houses at night.

     WHAT WILL HAPPEN??? Read the book! It's really good!


     For book groups, I would like more sci-fi.

Book Blog #11

     I am halfway through 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. This is a very good book so far, although sometimes confusing.

     A writer named Ben Mears shows up in his childhood town, Jerusalem's Lot. He is writing a book. He won't tell anyone what it's about. Throughout the book, the history of the town deepens. There was a fire. There was a horrible accident involving Hubert Marsten. Now children are going missing, going crazy, or simply dying. No one knows why.

     This is another horror book. The only warning would be that it might scare you.
     

Book Blog #10

     Finally, after almost every single person in the class recommended it, I read The Martian by Andy Weir. It is a REALLY good book. 5/5 stars.
     It's about this guy, Mark Watney, who gets stranded on Mars. His crew left without him thinking he was dead. He doesn't have any communication with NASA. He has to try to survive on Mars with very limited supplies.
    Everyone who already hasn't should read this!! It's a really good book!

Book Blog #9

     I finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It was a decent book. I would rate it about 2/5 stars because the writing style was annoying but the overall book was good. Again, it is about a fireman who is supposed to burn books in a future world. He meets a girl named Clarisse who changes the way he thinks about his life. I'm not going to give away the ending.

     

     I think Willa would like it. I know Willa is a fan of Divergent and The Hunger Games, and Fahrenheit 451 is that same sort of dystopia that the character doesn't like and has to fix.

Book Blog #8

     My book this week was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It is about a man named Guy Montag. He is a fireman in a sad dystopia/future where fireman burn books. Books give people an opinion, and the government doesn't want them to have that. Instead, people sit inside all day watching their wall-to-wall TVs. 

     One day, Montag meets a girl named Clarisse. She changes the whole way Montag thinks about his life. Then Clarisse gets "in a car accident."  Read to find out what happens after that!

Book Blog #7

     I read Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. I've read a couple other books by her and they were all very good, Attachments included. 

  

     It is told from alternating chapters of email conversation between two women and third-person of a man named Lincoln. Lincoln's job is to read other people's email and send them warnings if they are talking to each other and not doing their work. He starts reading the emails between Beth and Jennifer. He starts to like them more and more even though he has never met them in person. 

     This book is very funny and  good. I would recommend it to anyone (except for *ahem* people who don't like cursing)  

Book Blog #6

     I read Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. It is a sequel to Daughters of Smoke and Bone, which you can read about in the blog here. (click the word "here" to go to the Daughters of Smoke and Bone blog)

     Karou, a girl with blue hair and a bunch of monster friends, is trapped in a sandcastle in the middle of the desert. She has memories from another life as another person. One of her memories is of a wolf who had her executed. It's also the same wolf whom she is currently working for.
     In another world, angels are plotting to burn everything (they have no particular reason, they just want to).
     WHAT WILL THEY DO??? Read the book(s)!


TBR:
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Attachments

Book Blog #5

     I read Legend last week.
     As Max described when he was talking about good books, it is told from the perspectives of two people, Day and June. Day is a wanted criminal and The Republic (the future empire they live in) will stop at nothing to kill him. June is a spy who got a perfect 1500 on her Trial (the test they give all 10-year-olds to see how smart they are; it basically ruins your life if you get a bad score). When Day is suspected of killing June's brother, she goes undercover to track him down, because the thing is that no one even knows what he looks like. They meet and they basically fall in love except June doesn't know she's dating the most wanted kid in the country. Then she find out and locks him up and sentences him to death and READ THE REST TO FIND OUT!
   
     I did not really like this book. It is boring in the beginning, action-y in the middle, and boring at the end. I will not read the rest of the trilogy.

Book Blog #4

     I read Daughters of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.
     It is about a girl named Karou. She has blue hair that grows out of her head that color. She never gives away any information about her family, she draws made-up (or are they?!) monsters in her sketch books, and she has a necklace with beads that can cause things to happen. She disappears randomly, sometimes coming back with a bullet wound or a tropical disease. She has strange tattoos all over her body and she has no idea how they got there. She knows lots of languages, not all of them human.
     Black hand prints are being scorched into doors all over the world. People are reporting seeing angels drop down from a rip in the sky, place their hand on a door, and then leave. What is happening??? Read the book to find out!

     I think the best scene-setting would be on the first page of the book when the author is describing Karou and Prague where she lives. "It was cold, and it was dark- in the dead of winter the sun didn't rise until eight -but it was also lovely. The falling snow and the early hour conspired to paint Prague ghostly, like a tintype photograph, all silver and haze."

TBR:
Days of Blood and Starlight
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Attachments

       

Book Blog #3

     I read The Shining by Stephen King. Most people have heard of it, or at least the movie. This is a horror book so I wouldn't recommend reading it if you get scared easily. If you don't care about things creeping up behind you in the dark, then I would definitely read it because it's awesome.
   
     It's about a kid named Danny. His dad just lost his job and the only other job he could get is being the winter caretaker for a hotel called The Overlook. Danny, his dad, and his mom go up there for the winter. Danny also has a gift called the shining where he can read minds, see glimpses of the future/possible future, and also see ghosts. So of course The Overlook has a horrible past where lots of people have been killed there.
     The Overlook job is fine at first. Then they get snowed in and weird things start happening. There's a murderous dead lady in Room 217 who wants to kill Danny. There's a murderous creepy dead kid in the playground who also wants to kill Danny. There are murderous hedge animals out front who move when you're not looking and want to kill Danny and his dad. There's also a murderous spirit called the Manager who wants to kill everyone. Unfortunately, there are no "come play with us" twins.

     Danny is the strongest character. He is five, but he can read minds so he is very sophisticated. He struggles with the shining and his parents, who are thinking about getting divorced. I couldn't find any quotes showing character development.

   

Book Blog #2

I read the book Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. It is about a girl who's lives in a world divided by blood. There are the Silvers; people born with silver blood and super powers. There are the Reds; normal people with red blood. They are the slaves of the Silvers. Mare Barrow, a Red, is a thief. She steals from Silvers to make a living for her family. She is caught and taken before the Silver queen and king to be tried. There, she finds an amazing ability she didn't know she had. A genetic mutation.

First few sentences of the book: "I hate First Friday. It makes the village crowded, and now, in the heat of high summer, that's the last thing anyone wants." This was a first person narration. In my opinion it was effective because it made me want to know what "First Friday" is and why it's important.

TBR: The Shining

Book Blog #1

     Over the summer, I read the book Endgame. It's set in the future when the world ends.
     From the beginning of time, the 12 original lines of humanity had been training their children from the ages of 13 to 20. They were trained to hunt, spy, track, code, shoot, build, kill, and anything else. Endgame was signaled when 12 meteors fell from nowhere. The 12 kids must search the world for 3 keys with clues they've been given. The one who finds all 3 keys gets immunity for everyone in their line while the rest of the world dies. Sounds pretty fair, right?

    This book is written by two M.I.T. graduates. Somewhere in the book is a series of clues that lead to a real-life key hidden somewhere on Earth. If you find it, you will get $500,000. This contest has been open since 2014 and lasts until October 2016. It is open for ages 13 to 18. I read the book and I had no clue what do to, so don't ask me for hints. READ IT AND BE (possibly) RICH!!!!

http://www.endgamegold.com/  <-- link to a live-stream showing the gold in Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

YES, THERE IS A REAL PRIZE. This book does have some language and death.

TBR: Red Queen
          The Shining