Middle SchoolWhat if? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall MunroeFrom the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.
bad boys blue book of love
It's a double treat! HEA unveils both the cover of New Adult romance Dare to Dream by S.B. Alexander and the book trailer. Dare to Dream, book two in the Maxwell Series and the follow-up to Dare to Kiss, arrives July 17. (To see a larger version of the cover, click on the blue arrow in the lower right corner of the image.)
Shadow and Bone is the first book of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy, and her Grisha series. Shadow and Bone is the perfect book for someone who loves fantasy, super-human powers, and plots of self-discovery. The novel starts off with the main character, Alina, and her childhood best friend, Mal, in the orphanage that they grew up in. Grisha examiners (Grisha have special abilities like the ability to heal, or control water with a flick of a hand) come to test the children for special abilities. Both Alina and Mal are found to not have these abilities. But this does not continue to be the case. When Alina and Mal are grown up and apart of the army, they try and cross "the Fold". The Fold is a strip of darkness that divides the country of Ravka, which is based on Tsarist Russia; The dark strip was created by the Black Heretic, or a shadow summoner. The Fold is a long strip of complete darkness, full of dangerous monsters called Volcra. When one of these monsters try to come at Alina and Mal as they are trying to cross, it is revealed that Alina has sun summoning abilities, and is in fact, a Grisha. Once the army gets back to base after the attack, the General, also known as the Darkling another shadow summoner, demands that Alina comes with him back to the Little Palace to train and fight with the Grisha army, seeing as she is the only sun summoner and the one who can get rid of the Fold. Alina learns how to control her abilities better, makes new friends, starts to fall in love, and shows off her abilities to other high-up citizens of Ravka. She even learns about a way to amplify her abilities. But even while all these great things are happening, Alina can't help but to worry about what could go wrong, her friend Mal, and a possible deceiver. When one of Alina's teachers, Bahgra, reveals that someone close to Alina isn't who they claim to be, Alina runs away in fear and hope that she can find this amplifier before her traitor does. This book had many plot-twists that kept me drawn to it the entire time I was reading. Mystical creatures, political mayhem and unexpected romance. This book is the one that gave me a love for reading nd left me wanting more after the cliff-hanger at the end. This trilogy only gets better as it goes on. The novel will always be on a must-read list for me.Reviewers Grade: 11th
Divergent by Veronica Roth is one of the best books I've read this year. It is action-packed and entertaining throughout the whole book.Split into 5 different factions, or branches, based on your personality and character traits, Beatrice (Tris) Prior is a danger to all of society. She is what's known as Divergent, someone who doesn't fit into one of the preset sections in the civilization. Forced to hide it or face certain death, Tris decides to become a Dauntless, the faction favoring the brave. She faces a dangerous initiation there, in which she must face her fears and become a true Dauntless or live factionless forever. Soon the world becomes more dangerous for the Divergent and she must do everything possible to survive.I liked this book because it's very attention-grabbing, it was a book I could escape into. It had very cool fighting and training scenes and was so detailed and relatable that I knew how Tris felt half of the time. The book had me hooked and up all night reading it. I think the author did an excellent job with all of the characters and plots that went into the book. I picked this book because I wanted a good dystopian book and I was not disappointed! Divergent is extremely well written, suspenseful, and quick... You will never want to put it down. This book comes with a great storyline and just the right amount of romance to add to the overall brilliance of it all. By the end, you will adore all the characters and it will leave you longing for more. (It's a 4-book series with 3 movies :) If you love a good young adult, dystopian, romance this book is for you!
Sense and Sensibility follows two sisters, Marianne and Elinor, who have been left destitute following their father's death. Marianne is an impulsive romantic who chases love wherever it will lead her. Elinor is logical and socially conscious, and hides her turbulent emotions even from those closest to her. Together, the two of them will survive scandal, family drama, and first loves in an attempt to find the prized middle ground between passionate expression and silent intelligence.This is not the best Jane Austen novel. I've only read about one and a half of her other works, but I can guarantee anyone that this is not the best Jane Austen novel. My main problem with this work is that it has all the drawbacks of a Jane Austen classic (slow pace, meandering conversations, way too many characters) with none of the expected romantic investment.There's still a lot of great stuff about this book. The best thing for me was the main character, Elinor. Elinor is the character through which we sees the story, which has a lot of benefits. It makes her sister's antics more endearing and impactful. It makes her romantic situation more sympathetic, which it needs. It also makes the book much more interesting, because Elinor is an amazing character! She's funny in the best, most sarcastic way possible. She's observant and intelligent, so its great to watch how her mind works. She deeply loves the people around her, and gives everyone new dimensions. She is what makes this book special. The other benefits, I'd say, is the general humor in the writing, the drama of the story, and the sustained level of tension.The thing I don't like about this romance novel is that it doesn't do what its supposed to do: create a compelling romance. Both sisters have romances that both end somewhat in tragedy, which is supposed to be very sad and moving. This works a pretty well with Marianne, since her situation involved a lot of deceit and drama that was very fun to read. It does not work at all with Elinor. Elinor's love interest is present for very little of the novel, and is so boring that I already forgot his name for this review and wouldn't have remembered it while reading the book if Elinor didn't think about him so often. And she does think about him a lot, which doesn't make sense to the audience, since he's offered so little of himself as a character to be a compelling love interest. This wouldn't be as big of a problem if romance wasn't the central pivot of the book, but as it stands it's distracting to see the intelligent, charismatic lead longing after someone the audience couldn't care about less.All in all, this book is still very good, and worth a read! I'd recommend this to anyone who likes regency romance, interesting female lead characters, moving emotion, and lots of drama!
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas is an astounding book! It is one of my favorite books and will surely please all of its readers.In the complicated kingdom of Ardarlan, Celaena Sardothian, the infamous assassin, is taken to the castle of the ruthless king and his strange throne made of glass. There to participate in a competition with killers, warriors, thieves, and cutthroats she tries to win the prize of being the king's champion and a chance to attain her freedom. Disguised as the Lady Lillian, Celaena takes on many different challenges and befriends an international princess, while going head to head with the Crown Prince and the Captain of the Guard. But soon her opponents start dying one by one and it's up to her to fight the evil before it shatters her life completely.Throne of Glass is incredible because you can tell the author took her time with the book. It has so much detail, you truly feel like you are right there with Celaena every step of the way. The characters are very relatable, yet unique to the fantasy storyline so you always feel connected to the story. The adventurous and exciting feel to the story is added to with a little romance too. Every chapter has new surprises waiting around the corner to constantly keep you on your toes. It has detailed fight scenes and challenge scenes that keep you up all night longing for more. It can get a bit violent and inappropriate, so I recommend age 12+. I feel like this story is a great read because it is a very surprising, suspenseful, and extremely exciting read. In my mind, Sarah J. Maas has created the epitome of fantasy! I would certainly recommend this book to you if you love the fantasy genre!
Emily Henry is an author whose work I've enjoyed, so Beach Read was on my list right away. The story follows January and Augustus, two accomplished novelists and college rivals, who become neighbors and work together to overcome writer's block caused by their resurfacing trauma. They challenge each other to new genres and experiences and definitely don't fall in love along the way. January is a fun character to read about during her most embarrassing and romantic moments, despite each situation being exaggerated so much that it felt silly. Augustus' personality was a little bland and I wished there was an actual reason for them to become enemies instead of the overused misunderstanding trope. However, the message of valuing family despite their faults and taking a leap of faith for the sake of your individuality is important. I'd say this book isn't life-changing, but good to read if you can relate to any struggles with parental relationships or feeling obligated to stay in a relationship that is just average.Grade 12 2ff7e9595c
Comments