TBR List
- Insurgent
- Allegiant
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Week 20 Reading
"The 5th Wave" by Rick Yancey
So far (I have only read about half) this has been an okay book. I don't like it a ton, but I hope my emotions will be changed by the end of the book. A young woman named Cassie lives on an earth where we have been attacked by aliens called the "Others." There have been four waves of their attack on earth (using different ways to kill us), which leaves few survivors, and those survivors believe they are the only humans left. On the eve of the 5th Wave, which might wipe out humanity for good, people desperately attempt to prolong their lives until the inevitable end. Before I started to read this, I thought it was a book about zombies where there were different stages (or waves) of the infection or some thing like that. I sounded a lot cooler than what has happened so far though. Nonetheless, aliens and zombies are both overdone and overused, and I give this book credit for trying to be original with it's story, but it hasn't impressed me very much.
You will have to read my blog next week to see if the second half changes my opinion, so don't decide whether or not you want to read The 5th Wave based on this post. It is very well-written (it is told from Cassie's prospective) and is captivating and admittedly creepy sometimes. It follows Cassie's thoughts as she tries to survive as long a possible, and as she finds other survivors (while trying to decide if they are real people or just traps that the Others have planted) and how they interact in the in-humanizing setting.
I will continue to read this book next week. Good luck on EXPO everybody!
So far (I have only read about half) this has been an okay book. I don't like it a ton, but I hope my emotions will be changed by the end of the book. A young woman named Cassie lives on an earth where we have been attacked by aliens called the "Others." There have been four waves of their attack on earth (using different ways to kill us), which leaves few survivors, and those survivors believe they are the only humans left. On the eve of the 5th Wave, which might wipe out humanity for good, people desperately attempt to prolong their lives until the inevitable end. Before I started to read this, I thought it was a book about zombies where there were different stages (or waves) of the infection or some thing like that. I sounded a lot cooler than what has happened so far though. Nonetheless, aliens and zombies are both overdone and overused, and I give this book credit for trying to be original with it's story, but it hasn't impressed me very much.
You will have to read my blog next week to see if the second half changes my opinion, so don't decide whether or not you want to read The 5th Wave based on this post. It is very well-written (it is told from Cassie's prospective) and is captivating and admittedly creepy sometimes. It follows Cassie's thoughts as she tries to survive as long a possible, and as she finds other survivors (while trying to decide if they are real people or just traps that the Others have planted) and how they interact in the in-humanizing setting.
I will continue to read this book next week. Good luck on EXPO everybody!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Week 19 Reading
"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
Catcher in the Rye is a very different book. I'm sad that I wasn't there on Thursday to talk about the classic books, because of the classic books I have read, it is nothing like the others. It is about a high school age boy in the 1950's name Holden, who lives at his prep school. People told me the kids there weren't nice to him, which is why he left, but I disagree. He isn't a very good kid, and he does things on the spur of the moment because he has plenty of money and no intentions in his life. He leaves his school in Pennsylvania five days before everyone else leaves for Christmas and goes to New York City. He intends lives there for a couple days before he goes back to his home for Christmas break.
Now I will talk about how it is different. So, what is excepted in society as a great book, generally is something that has beautifully written descriptions and a compelling story. That is what most classics have (except they are written in old English). Catcher in the Rye has absolutely no content like that. It is told in a way that it is as if Holden is telling his life story to a friend, like instead of writing it down he is casually telling almost all of the details in his days. It is odd and amazing in it's own way, and I do recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a very different book. It does have quite a bit of adult content/language, so it would be nest for second year AS students.
Next week I will read the 5th Wave.
Catcher in the Rye is a very different book. I'm sad that I wasn't there on Thursday to talk about the classic books, because of the classic books I have read, it is nothing like the others. It is about a high school age boy in the 1950's name Holden, who lives at his prep school. People told me the kids there weren't nice to him, which is why he left, but I disagree. He isn't a very good kid, and he does things on the spur of the moment because he has plenty of money and no intentions in his life. He leaves his school in Pennsylvania five days before everyone else leaves for Christmas and goes to New York City. He intends lives there for a couple days before he goes back to his home for Christmas break.
Now I will talk about how it is different. So, what is excepted in society as a great book, generally is something that has beautifully written descriptions and a compelling story. That is what most classics have (except they are written in old English). Catcher in the Rye has absolutely no content like that. It is told in a way that it is as if Holden is telling his life story to a friend, like instead of writing it down he is casually telling almost all of the details in his days. It is odd and amazing in it's own way, and I do recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a very different book. It does have quite a bit of adult content/language, so it would be nest for second year AS students.
Next week I will read the 5th Wave.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Week 18 Reading
"Laika" By Nick AbadzisThis is the first graphic novel I've read in a while, (the others being the Adventures of Tintin) and I have come to enjoy graphic novels a lot. It is the true story of a dog in Russia originally named Kudryavka, who was born into a family, and was immediately know as a different kind of dog than the rest. She has a long story with many different owners in her life, and different well told sub-stories, but she eventually came into the hands of the Russian version of NASA (the IMPB) by the time she was an adult dog. After the launch of Sputnik 1, the Premier of Russia finds the propaganda importance of spacecrafts in the orbit of Earth. He then looks to the IMPB to get another object into into space in just a month, but this time with a dog in it. They find Laika as the best fit for the position, and quickly start training her for things she will endure in space. She makes many friendships with the workers at IMPB, and they soon come to realize that they can't afford to be so affectionate with the little dog.
Laika is widely known as the first living organism out of Earth's atmosphere and to orbit the planet. The story is told in an interesting way, and it brings out a lot of emotions that are naturally between humans and dogs. From the standpoint of a graphic novel, the drawings aren't the prettiest, but it probably works better as a graphic novel than it would as a normal book. I highly recommend this book for anyone, no matter if you like graphic novels or have trouble reading them.
Next week I will read "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Week 16 Reading (Winter Break)
"Divergent" by Veronica Roth, and "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline
Hello
everyone! It’s been a while (for most of you) since I've talked to you. I've
been in England/New York for a while, and there hasn't been any Wi-Fi for me to
look at the blog with. I've read Divergent
and Ready Player One over the break
and they were both very good sci-fi books. Let’s start with Divergent- I read this to finally catch
up with society. If you read my previous blog about the first half of the book
you will find that I really enjoyed this, and it lived up to the expectations
that everyone has set for it. The ending is very good, so I will definitely
read the following two in the series in time.
Ready
Player one is the book that Kam suggested to us before the break started, and
different from Divergent I will probably need to explain this one more. It is
set in the future, where a lot of things has gone wrong for the human
population. The planet is in the third stage of the great recession, and more
than half of the population is without food. War is constant, and the
environment is of course screwed up. The only thing for most people that makes
life worth living is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)
named the OASIS. There is a lot of history that goes with the OASIS, but what is
important to the plot is that James Halliday (the game’s creator) died. When
the died, he left behind his multi-billion dollar fortune and the ownership
OASIS game itself, but he did not simply leave it for his relatives (he didn't
have any), he created a huge hunt that was filled with puzzles and games that
only can be solved by people determined to know everything about Halliday’s
life.
So, after
that huge ramble (I apologize), I largely recommend both of these books to
anyone that like sci-fi books.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Week 15 Reading
"Divergent," by Veronica Roth
I finally decided to keep up with the culture of the class and read this book. I only read half of it, because again my life decided to be crazy and not allow me any time to read this weekend. It definitely lived up to the expectations that everyone has given it, and it hooked me very quickly, but I'm not sure why. Even though most fiction books these days are about teenage girls in a distopian world : ), this seemed to stand out to me.
It probably wouldn't be necessary to describe what it is about, but anyway, it is about a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in the far future, in a city which is divided into five factions to prevent war. The five factions are Abnegation (selflessness), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (courage), Amity (peace), and Erudite (knowledge). Tris, is in Abnegation, until she is sixteen when she has to choose what faction she will be in for the rest of her life. There is a test to see which one fit each person best, but when she takes it the results are inconclusive. This is called Divergence. She is then told that being Divergent is very dangerous.
I will continue to read Divergent over the break, and I might start to read Ready Player One.
I finally decided to keep up with the culture of the class and read this book. I only read half of it, because again my life decided to be crazy and not allow me any time to read this weekend. It definitely lived up to the expectations that everyone has given it, and it hooked me very quickly, but I'm not sure why. Even though most fiction books these days are about teenage girls in a distopian world : ), this seemed to stand out to me.
It probably wouldn't be necessary to describe what it is about, but anyway, it is about a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in the far future, in a city which is divided into five factions to prevent war. The five factions are Abnegation (selflessness), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (courage), Amity (peace), and Erudite (knowledge). Tris, is in Abnegation, until she is sixteen when she has to choose what faction she will be in for the rest of her life. There is a test to see which one fit each person best, but when she takes it the results are inconclusive. This is called Divergence. She is then told that being Divergent is very dangerous.
I will continue to read Divergent over the break, and I might start to read Ready Player One.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Week 14 Reading
"The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods" by Chris Riddell, and Paul Stewart
This is an interesting book- I didn't actually like it as much as I thought I would. It was a very low reading level, yet it was sort of hard for me to read because I couldn't get hooked on to it at all. Being a low reading level, I think it might be better for younger kids, but at times it was kind of cool (me liking fantasy books). Something I noticed about it, is that it was making up this huge unknown world, much like the Lord of the Rings, but it doesn't captivate you the way LOTR does.That might be because the Lord of the Rings was written a very long time ago, so the writing style is different to us these days which makes it seem old and otherworldly, while the Edge Chronicles was written in the past ten years, so it doesn't have that vibe.
But before I start careening off track- as you probably remember from Gavin's Book Talk, it's about a boy names Twig who lives in a world called "The Edge," and goes on an adventure into the Deepwoods to find out about his history. It is an okay fantasy book, yet I didn't particularly like it, but if you like fantasy books I would recommend trying it.
Next week I will read Divergent
This is an interesting book- I didn't actually like it as much as I thought I would. It was a very low reading level, yet it was sort of hard for me to read because I couldn't get hooked on to it at all. Being a low reading level, I think it might be better for younger kids, but at times it was kind of cool (me liking fantasy books). Something I noticed about it, is that it was making up this huge unknown world, much like the Lord of the Rings, but it doesn't captivate you the way LOTR does.That might be because the Lord of the Rings was written a very long time ago, so the writing style is different to us these days which makes it seem old and otherworldly, while the Edge Chronicles was written in the past ten years, so it doesn't have that vibe.
But before I start careening off track- as you probably remember from Gavin's Book Talk, it's about a boy names Twig who lives in a world called "The Edge," and goes on an adventure into the Deepwoods to find out about his history. It is an okay fantasy book, yet I didn't particularly like it, but if you like fantasy books I would recommend trying it.
Next week I will read Divergent
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