Book Blog #32 - Last One!

The Diviners: finally finished!

Serial killings have made the front page in New York City. Evie O'Neill and her uncle, who runs a museum of the occult, do their best to track down the killer before a prophesied comet raises an evil thing called the Beast. That's as much as I can give away for now. Read my previous book blog on this book for the basics of the story.

This is an amazing book and would be great summer reading if your parents force you to read something. :) It's 700 pages long and the first of a series, but super interesting and well-written.

Book Blog #31

The Hunger Games - week 2

Katniss is now in the arena. She and Peeta are fighting for their lives, and at the same time trying to gain sponsors by pretending to be in love. Katniss' survival instincts from District 12 kick in and Katniss hides in trees all day and hunts with snares and her bow and arrow. She has made an alliance with a little girl named Rue from District 11. Will they win the hunger games?? Find out in the next episode of "Rereading a book that's not very well written!"

Book Blog #30

For the book group, I read The Hunger Games. Most everyone in this class has already read it, but I'll go over the plot anyway.

Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, a poor, coal-mining district under the rule of the evil Capitol of Panem. Originally there were 13 districts, but they rebelled and District 13 was destroyed as a lesson to the other 12. Ever since her father died in a coal mine accident, her mother has been unable to provide for Katniss and her younger sister Prim so Katniss hunts animals in the nearby forest and sells them on the black market. Every year in Panem, there is this event called the Hunger Games where children between the ages of 11 and 18 compete in an arena to the death. Two girls and two boys are chosen from each district. When Prim's name is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to go in Prim's place. Her companion from District 12 is Peeta Mellark. 

Book Blog #29

I read the first couple hundred pages of The Diviners. Fair warning, this book is like 600-700 pages long.
Evie O'Neill is kind of the reckless party girl of the 1920s. She also has a special talent. She can tell all about a person by holding one of their personal items. In her hometown of  Ohio, she goes to a party, gets drunk, and accidentally reveals her talent to everyone. Fearing for her safety and her family's reputation, Evie is shipped off to New York City to live with her uncle who runs "the museum of creepy crawlies." Her uncle has an unhealthy obsession with people with special powers like Evie, called Diviners. Evie's new life in New York is perfect, and then, of course, a serial killer strikes. Evie jumps headlong into the case, tracking down the killer with her abilities. In the background of this story, an evil spirit called Naughty John is causing trouble because of a Ouija board spell left unbroken.

Book Blog #28

I read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black.
The world has been overrun with vampires. Vampires were there since the beginning, but one stupid vampire went around biting people without killing them and unknowingly creating more vampires.
But there are two stages to becoming a vampire. If a vampire bites you, you go Cold. When a person is Cold, they have to bite a human to turn into a full-fledged vampire.
Coldtowns have been set up all over the United States. It describes them in the book as prisons ruled by their inmates. A Coldtown is kind of a high security prison-town where vampires can run loose and kill whomever they choose. People can also live there for food supply. Once anyone, human or vampire, enters the Coldtown, they can't get out.
Tana is a regular person. She went to a party one night. When she wakes up in a bathtub the next afternoon, every single person in the party has been killed. Her previous boyfriend Aiden has gone Cold. She finds Aiden and a chained-up vampire in a bedroom. Going against her best judgement, she frees them (but is also bitten, going Cold) and they flee to Coldtown.

This book was really good. It has lots of drama and some romance. It's kind of your stereotypical "girl meets attractive male vampire" thing.

Book Blog #27

I read I Woke Up Dead at the Mall by Judy Sheehan over the trip. It is a horribly written book with a funny plot. It's about Sarah who, as the title implies, wakes up dead at the Mall of America. There's this whole other floor of the mall just for dead people. Sarah learns that people are sent to the mall if they are murdered. Sarah is just ordinary. She has no enemies and she has no idea who murdered her. With the help of some ghost friends, she must track down and haunt her killer.

This book is very sarcastic. It basically makes fun of the whole ghost thing. It's really badly written, as in "I closed my eyes. I couldn't believe this was happening. Was I really dead?" 

I would recommend this to people who maybe aren't into super advanced books but would like a quick read.

And yes! I would definitely want to be part of a Hunger Games book group.

Book Blog #26

 Wolf by Wolf, by Ryan Graudin, is about a Jewish girl named Yael. She escaped as a young girl from a death camp where she was subject to experiments. The goal of the experiments was to change her brown hair to blond and her eyes to blue, but along the way Yael gained a kind of shape-shifting power. She can now change her features, height, skin tone, hair, and pretty much every other aspect to fit a chosen person. She uses her powers to turn into the previous champion of a world-wide motorcycle race and enters the race as Adele Wolfe with the goal to kill Hitler.

This is a very good book. It's slightly confusing at times because it uses German I don't know how to pronounce. It's very dramatic and has a big plot twist at the very end. I would recommend this to everyone.

Book Blog #25

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a book about a girl named Melinda who is just starting high school. She doesn't fit in. She only made one friend named Heather. All her other friends from last year hate her, tugging her hair at lunch and throwing things at her. In fact, everyone at the school hates her because she called the cops on an end-of-the-year party. Several people got arrested and everyone blames Melinda.  She expects things to go back to normal after the party thing cools down, but they aren't. Melinda is still hated. As the year progresses, Melinda becomes more and more depressed and chooses not to speak to anyone. But what happened at the party that forced her to call the police?
This book is very good. I've found myself reading a lot of depressing books recently and I have to say that this one is the best. This is Laurie Halse Anderson's first novel, so if you've read anything else by her I would recommend this one.

Book Blog #24

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a really good book. It's told from the perspective of a highschool student named Clay. One day, Clay receives a set of tapes from an anonymous person. The tapes tell the story of a popular girl named Hannah and the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. The tapes are being passed around to 13 people who Hannah says caused her death in some way. Clay has no idea why he's in these tapes. He was Hannah's friend. When the tapes arrived at his house in a shoebox, they came with a map. The map has little red stars on it where important events happened. Clay follows the map and what he finds changes his perspective of everything.
This book is really, really good. It's kind of haunting how detailed every story is. It's very sad, too, because it's a girl telling people why she's going to kill herself. It also makes you think about depression and how that affects people. There are some mature topics.

Book Blog #23

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon is about a girl named Madeline. She has a rare disease where she is basically allergic to the world. She almost died when she was a baby and now she lives in a house with air locks, filters, and only white clothing. If people want to visit her they must complete an hour-long decontamination process. She hasn't left her house in 17 years. One day, a new family moves in next door with a boy Maddy's age. They communicate via IM and pantomime through the windows. I want to add a dramatic last sentence but if I do it will ruin the book.
This is a really good book. No cursing but some slight mature scenes.

SOL 1 - Enigma

This is the first in a series of clues that were decrypted by the Logan School Code Breaking Super Team Who Has a Habit of Writing Very Long Sentences as Names. Follow the clues that lead to a wonderful treasure!

In the all-seeing eye, there lies a pie. 

Book Blog #22

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is about a kid named Craig who spends time in a mental hospital. Craig is depressed, and after a severe incident he decides to check himself in to the hospital. There, he meets other people who change the way he sees the world. This book is told via Craig's current moments, flashbacks, and a weird side persona of an army general.
This book was very good. The first chapters are kind of slow but later on it's so good you can't stop reading. I would recommend this to everyone except Gabe, and from this I'm sure you can guess the topics involved.

Book Blog #21

     Max said to read a book that won awards, so I chose Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. It won three awards so I would have expected it to be better than it was. I was not impressed. I barely noticed any plot so it felt like the book was just a very long story with no end or beginning. 

It's about this kid named Aristotle who goes by Ari. One day he meets this other kid named Dante and they become friends. The whole story is basically about them being friends with other stuff happening in the background. Like I said, there is almost no plot. That's the best I can describe the book because there's no climax point, antagonist, even protagonist, or anything semi-important to make a good story. I would not recommend this to anyone. It was really boring and hard to read. Some mature topics.

Book Blog #20

The 5th Wave movie came out and I like to read books before watching the movie just so I can say "this part's different," or "she has red hair not blonde, ugh do they pay any attention to detail!?" and so on.
Aliens have invaded Earth. They send out four "waves;" first everything that has an engine or runs using electricity is dead. Next, there's a giant earthquake that sends everyone running toward the center of continents. With that many people in one place, disease kills most of the remaining population. Finally, the Others arrive. They plant themselves in human brains and take over their bodies. Cassie is one of the survivors. The Others take her brother, and Cassie wants to get him back.
I liked this book. It was captivating and even though there were some big blocks of text I skipped over, it was good overall.
No warnings.
Next, I will read the second book in The Naturals series, Killer Instinct.

Book Blog #19

I read The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle. It was very creepy and good.
It's about a girl named Cara, her ex-stepbrother Sam, their older sister Alice, and Cara's friend Bea. Every October, the family is strangely accident-prone. Usually it's just a bunch of scrapes and maybe a couple broken limbs, but sometimes someone dies. Cara is looking through her photos one day in the "accident season" when she notices that one girl is in every single one, even the ones from family vacations. Cara goes investigating, which leads to ghosts, magic, and a bunch of horrible accidents.
This book was very good. Barely any warnings. I would recommend this to anyone, especially maybe Miles and Maya (this just is the kind of book you would like).

Book Blog #18

I read The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It was very good, and if you like murder mysteries, combinations of sci-fi and realistic fiction, and drama then this is the perfect book for you.

It's about a girl named Cassie. She has this weird ability to profile people, or to know exactly what they're thinking and what kind of person they are by the looks on their faces. She's never really thought much of it until her mom gets murdered.
An FBI agent approaches Cassie and asks her to join a special program for others with her kind of gift. She agrees and is sent to a house with four other people who all have different "natural" abilities. They are trained to catch criminals.
Right after she arrives, a series of serial killings takes place. Cassie believes this might be her mother's killer sending a message to Cassie.

For book genre, I would like murder mysteries. I really like murder mysteries, as you may be able to tell by the books I've read in the past year or so.

Poem #1 - strange limericks

I once met a mole in a skirt.
I exclaimed, "doesn't that hurt?"
The creature replied,
With fear in its eyes,
"I am very scared of the dirt."

--------------------------------------------------------

There once was a tiger named Paul.
He was very awkwardly tall.
His head soon reached the moon,
Popped like a balloon,
Free tiger skin blankets for all!

Book Blog #17

     I read Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy. It was very good.

     It's about a girl named Alice. She's kind of the reckless type. One day, she is diagnosed with leukemia. In the year before she's scheduled to die, she makes a bucket list that includes revenge, pranks, and a few good deeds. Then Alice goes into remission. She did all those things on the list because even if she gets arrested or expelled from school, it wouldn't matter since she's about to die. But now that she's not dying anymore, she must live with the consequences.
     This book is told in "Then" and "Now" chapters, and also alternates between being told from the perspective of Alice and her best friend Harvey.

     I would recommend this to everyone. No warnings.

Book Blog #16

     I read 5 books over break, so I'm choosing the best one to blog about.

     The book is Dumplin' by Julie Murphy. It's about a girl named Willowdean, dubbed Dumplin' by her mom. Will is fat. People give her weird looks whenever she goes clothes shopping, and only about 5% of the clothes she likes actually fit her anyway. Her beauty pageant champion mom doesn't tell her straight out, but Will knows that her mom is ashamed to have such a daughter. But she doesn't care.
     She lives in Clover City, a very small town in Texas.  Every year, the town hosts a beauty pageant called the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet pageant. Will's always felt comfortable in her own skin, at least until her best friend Ellen enters the pageant. Will enters the pageant too, determined to prove that weight doesn't matter, it's the person that counts.

     This book was really good. I would recommend this to everyone, especially a few people in this class, you know who you are. I think this book holds some important messages for people who don't feel that great about themselves.

    There is a little bit of language and some mature topics, but barely any.