During Rebound written by Kwame Alexander, the reader experiences many different feelings and emotions that Charlie Bell experiences. After Charlie packs his bags and moves to Up State New York for the summer with his grandparents, Charlie finds a love for basketball. Roxy, Charlie’s cousin, helped discover this love by putting her love and passion for the game in Charlie. This newly found love has helped Charlie sallow the tough pill of losing his father. The loss of his father has changed a lot in Charlie’s life. He wasn’t on the best terms with his mother right after the loss but they are working to get things back to normal. Along, with this new passion, it has made Charlie Bell more confident and has helped him get over the loss of his dad. With summer coming to an end it will be interesting to see how Charlie reacts when he returns home for the fall.
Day: January 20, 2023
The Fellowship of the Ring and its Horribly Nerdy Prologue
I have only just started the Fellowship of the Ring, so instead of a review or update I am going to tell you about how Tolkien sets up his story, as well as his intricate worldbuilding.
The prologue is 20 pages long. It is written from the perspective of someone in the world Tolkien has created, who is reflecting on the events of the past(the present during the plot of the book). Tolkien’s books also exist in the universe, written after the events of the stories. So the narrator is a historian-like, unnamed character writing to an in-world audience. This creates the assumption that the reader already knows the basic history of the world. However you, the one actually reading it, probably don’t. The prologue names like 40 characters and 13 different countries, none of which you have to remember because if they end up being relevant they will be explained later. Tolkien was just a nerd who wanted everyone to hear about the tens of thousands of years he had mapped out of his fictional world. The prologue does explain what Hobbits are, and some of their history for context; as well as who Bilbo Baggins is and why he matters even though he is only in the first chapter. Once you get past that part it is a history textbook and can be very difficult to get through, honestly unless you’re super invested in who Meriadoc and Peregrin might be or how the time records of the Shire differ from that of the Elves, skip right to chapter one and save yourself the time.
Book Update- Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a very interesting book. the story is about a large group of boys who get stranded on an island. the main character, Ralph, finds one of the others boys who’s name is Piggy. The boys must find a way to survive and they wonder if there’s anyone else on this abandoned island. Ralph and Piggy spent time exploring and looking for new information on the island. Eventually they come across a beach shore and they find a shell. this shell is a conch and Piggy knows when you blow into a conch it will make a very loud noise. Piggy decides to blow the conch and it echoes throughout the island. Piggy and Ralph wait for a little and then they hear rustling in the bushes of the island. out comes a boy which eventually turns into a lot more. All the boys talk and realize there are no adults and they will have to survive on their own. they talk and agree that they should explore the island more. But not everyone can come on the exploration. Ralph will go and he decides to bring two of the boys on the exploration. the three boys leave from the beach and embark on an exploration into the island.
I am only 30 pages into the book but this is what i have taken away from it so far. This book portrays how boys will act in order to survive. I see it as a great coming of age story and how these boys will have to mature to survive on this island.
Book update- Secrets of eastcliff over the sea
I am about halfway through the book and my motivation to finish the book has increased and i have been enjoying the book more than from a few weeks ago. I’m glad that I took time to get further into the book to see if it would get more interesting. The characters in the book aren’t very complex but the most complex would probably be Throckmorton due to him being a sock monkey. The most recent conflict was between one of the characters getting sick for awhile and everyone else getting worried about them.
State of Fear by Michael Crichton Book Update
When starting Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, the reader is introduced to many people and many places in a short period of time. In the first chapter, there is a physicist who falls in love with a beautiful woman and shows her his work that he has made simulating waves and currents. Once she seduces him, strong men inject the physicist will a drug that slowly paralyzes him. The woman then dumps his limp body in a river, with him never to be seen again. Another chapter is shown to have people smuggling wire for missiles, with one of the smugglers being injected with the same sedative, which causes him to go limp and be killed. Additionally, there is another instance where two men buy a submarine and act very shady when purchasing it, creating suspicion among the sellers. There are many more instances like this at the beginning of the novel. While not making total sense at the moment, it seems everything is building up and coming together like a puzzle. With the acts of murder, theft, and the use of explosives, whatever comes next in the story must cause mass destruction to the world and humanity.
Their Eyes Were Watching God- Reading update
Their Eyes Were Watching god by Zora Neale Hurston is so far a really interesting book. The main character is a women named Janie living in the early 20th century. She was orphaned as a child so she was raised by her grandmother who had traditional idea’s. Janie has to deal with the struggles of not only being an orphan but being a African American women in a difficult time period.
So far I think Janie is having trouble finding her identity. So far a lot of her life has been controlled by someone. First, it was her grandma then two different men. It is hard for her to find her voice when she is in the shadow of powerful men. Especially considering the roles women are forced into specifically in this time period.
I’m looking forward to see how Janie will grow as a character. I’m also excited to see what part Janies husband will play. If he will end up supporting her or holding her back. So far I would recommend this book it is interesting and also a little challenging of a read.
I Know What You Did Last Summer-Book Review
I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan is a Young-Adult suspense/mystery/coming of age book about four teenagers who find themselves in a struggle for their lives when the horrible secret of “what happened last summer” eventually gets out, and a killer is out for their blood. The story has extremely well written characters, however the horror aspect is quite old and predictable considering the age of the book, which originally came out in 1973 when teen-horror was still relatively fresh. The book hooks readers from the beginning by not mentioning exactly what happened last summer, although it is not difficult to figure out. Then, once the mystery starts to pick up, the events from last summer are revealed, and at this point readers are now interested in how the conflict will be resolved. The book is set in a traditional 70’s town. Not very big, not the kind of place where a killer would be expected, and where each character has their own small desires. (Such as getting a job, going to University, etc.) The most complex characters in the book would be the four main protagonists, who are each unique and go through many dynamic changes throughout the story. The characters are Julie, the one most affected mentally by the accident, Ray, the mature one, Helen, the pretty TV star, and Barry, the cocky football hero. The book slowly build the tension as the killer starts making more and more dangerous moves on the protagonists, however the main internal conflict is the kids decision to keep the accident a secret so that they could resume their lives as normal, though bearing the pain of what they had done. Overall, the book is a great mystery story, and has great characters and good pacing, and is a very good suspenseful read for those who don’t like hardcore horror.
One of Us is Lying- A book update
At the beginning of Karen M. Mcmanus’ novel One of Us is Lying, a group of students are in detention. These students are all in detention for the same reason. One student, in particular, is allergic to peanuts. This student’s name is Simon. Simon gets a cup and fills it with the faucet water offered in the classroom. Almost immediately, Simon hits the ground. He’s turning blue and is in an obvious state of distress. Simon ends up passing away and everyone is confused. How did peanut products end up in Simon’s water?
Book Update: Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Deep End
In Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Deep End by Jeff Kinney, Greg and his family have been living in his grandma’s basement because of the incident that happened with their house. And they are getting sick of it. Greg’s mom decides its time to go on a family trip. Using Greg’s uncle’s camper the Heffleys leave with high expectations but quickly they turn into problems.
Bound to happen.
The book It Ends With Us by Collen Hoover is already one of my favorites. The story starts while you are still curious and feels like you are just walking into the story. At first, I was confused, but as the story went on, I started to enjoy being able to make my own inferences about characters and upcoming stories. Ultimately this book is a love story- A girl finds a guy on the top of a rooftop and tells him every last ounce about her life. She finds out he is learning to be a neurosurgeon and is extremely wealthy- although he doesn’t say it. Not only did this help me learn about the character but it also helped build the story. While they are talking, the girl (Lily) tells the boy (Ryle) that she has dreams of opening an amazing flower shop. The story picks up 6 months later when she is handed the keys to her new shop. On the first day, some girl around Lily’s age walks into the store asking if she needs help with anything. One thing leads to another and Lily and her (Allysa) become best friends. After some hard work trying to transform the flower shop, Lily falls off a chair and hurts her ankle. Allysa calls her husband, but as he is too drunk to help, he hands the phone to Allysas brother who is apparently a doctor. When they walk in Lily can’t believe who is there.
The 7 1/2 Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
This book was one that I had been meaning to read for a while, and I finally got around to it after the new year started and I decided I would read 36 books in 2023. This was my first one, and it was pretty interesting.
The main premise of this book is that a man named Aiden Bishop is trapped in a time loop, and every day, he will wake up in the body of another person. He has eight days to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, who dies every night at 11:00 PM.
When I first read it, I enjoyed it, but there are a few things that I think are confusing. This book definitely requires you to pay close attention to it, and even then, the ending will catch you off guard. I really enjoyed this aspect of it, because there is truly no way to know how the mystery will be resolved.
Unfortunately, while the time loop provides room for a lot of interesting worldbuilding, you never really find out what’s going on behind the scenes. There’s certainly some clarity provided in order to reach a resolution, but if you’re looking for a book with time travel mechanics that are very well thought out, this isn’t it.
I recommend this book if you like complex murder mysteries, books you have to pay attention to, and amnesia and time travel with tiny elements of psychological horror.
I would not recommend this book for those who don’t like scenes of violence, semi-anticlimactic endings, and complicated plot lines. There’s also not much humor, and the font (at least in the copy I got) is pretty tiny, the text is pretty dense, and the book is very long ( 133,607 words/~528 pages).
1 of 36: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Rating: 3.5/5)
Read me – REAMDE by Neal Stephenson
Yes, the typo is intentional. REAMDE by Neal Stephenson is a story that begins with a computer virus, but very quickly spirals out into a series of events much larger than any of the characters could have predicted. Richard, the creator of popular video game T’Rain, finds his greatest work terrorized by a group of Chinese hackers ransoming player’s data. Zulu and her boyfriend, Peter, find themselves in over their heads when Peter makes a stupid decision. Meanwhile, Russian gangsters who have also found themselves victims of REAMDE make their move to hunt down its maker.
The Leavers
I’ve gotten a couple chapters into The Leavers and im liking it. It started off slowly, but it got a lot more enjoyable in the recent chapters. I’m still at a point where the book is introducing characters, but they do it well so it’s not that boring. The book’s main character is in foster care and the story goes through his time being adopted. Throughout the story he gets used to his new life, and I like how they do that.
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