Outliers

This week I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This was a non-fiction book that examines outliers throughout history, including geniuses, professional athletes, and successful people like Bill Gates or Robert Oppenheimer. First of all, I do not enjoy non-fiction books AT ALL. Second, this book was awesome. It was really interesting to see the authors view on things in culture. I learned why January is the best birthday for hockey players, to why plane crashes are more likely to happen in Korea or Columbia then the USA. This was really interesting and really entertaining to read. My one piece of criticism for the book is sometimes it seemed a little bit over-analytical, it completely ruled out the factors of luck, talent, and hard work and replaced them with different factor around the people, which was kind of sad and pessimistic. So yeah, overall I would totally recommend this book to anybody, even if you don't especially enjoy non-fiction; I never do, and this books was great, and really interesting.

The Islands at the End of the World

This week I read The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan. This was one of the best books I've read all year. This book is about a almost 17 girl who lives in Hawaii, called Leilani, who's half white and half Hawaiian. Because of this she has trouble fitting in, and is bullied by the other Hawaiian girls at her school. Another problem is that she is an epileptic, which makes it even harder to make some friends. Leilani and her dad leave the island of Hawaii to go to Maui for an experimental treatment for epilepsy, which will hopefully let her do the things she love like surfing, other stuff, and just get rid of her epilepsy. Suddenly, a global disaster hits. Nobody really knows what is going on, so Leilani and her dad don't panic at first. Eventually, they realize that the situation is way out of hand. Supplies are running out, the president warns them of a global disaster that nobody can really catch what it is, and people start to panic. Leilani and her dad start on a journey to make their way home to their family, but are surprised at the danger they have to go through. While they are trying to get back, Leilani and her dad start to realize that they might hold the key to stopping this event before it gets even any worse.
This book was great. The characters were really well imagined, and I found out later in the book that I actually really did care about them. The plot was exciting, suspenseful, and well paced, and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend this to probably all the people in our class. There was a little bit of violence, and just people going through horrible things and condition, but honestly not really any, just enough to keep the book going. This book was amazing, and if you like adventure/survival books with a bit of science fiction/dystopian, a bit of realistic fiction, and some magic in otherwise very normal places, things, and people, this book would definitely be for you.
Next few books:
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Bird
Eleanor and Park
A New Book:
Looking For Alaska

Fangirl

This week I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I would call this book realistic fiction.   This book is about someone named Cather, or Cath, who's whole life is these books called Simon Snow, which is basically like Harry Potter. She writes fan-fiction with her sister, or always has until they go to college. Her twin-sister, Wren, starts to drift apart from Cath and fan-fiction. She refuses to be roommates and starts going out to parties, just ignoring Cath. Cath is left on her own without any friends, a hostile roommmate and no idea how anything at college works. Over time, she learns how college works, starts to involuntarily make friends, fall for her roommate's boyfriend, and has to figure out what to do with her and Wren.
This book was okay. There wasn't much of a plot line, honestly, but the writing was okay. Honestly, I hate fan fiction, so I wasn't able to relate to that part, but overall it was pretty good. The plot never really went anywhere though, so I wasn't really able to enjoy it as much as I wanted. Also, some of the characters I really liked, but some of the characters, like Cath, I didn't really honestly like for most of the book. Overall, this book was Okay, but not amazing.
Next 5 Books:
- The Islands at the End of the World
-   Bird (Recommended by Linda)
-The power of 7 ( I am #4 Series.)

TBR List

My TBR List:
- The Summer of Letting Go
- Neverwhere
- Outliars
- Cloaked
- Navy Seal Dogs
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
- Ready Player One
- Eleanor and Park
-Fangirl
-Unbroken
-This One Summer?
- Everybody Sees the Ants
-The Catcher in the Rye?

I Am Number Four

Over the summer, my favorite book that I read was I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. This book was amazing. The plot line follows a group of teenagers who came to Earth after their planet was destroyed, on the hopes to someday return to it and save themselves and their planet. One problem; they are being tailed by the same people who destroyed their planet in the first place, who are probably trying to kill them and then take over Earth. When their planet was destroyed and they were sent to Earth, a charm was put on them that they could only be killed in a special order. They were each given a number when they left, and can only be killed in the order of their numbers unless two or more of them are in the same place at the same time. The main protagonist's name is currently John (he has to change his name every single time they move to a new place; he's constantly on the run from the aliens). He has just moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere, called Paradise. For the first time, John actually makes some friends, and even has a girlfriend. He starts wishing that he had a normal life, and even starts to forget about the aliens chasing him. John is happy, but there is one problem; three of his friends are dead, and he is number four.
This book was amazing. It was kind of a mix of realistic fiction and sci-fi. I really liked the characters, even though I thought that they could be a little bit more developed; the book was more plot based then character based. If you like books that are set in a normal place but have magical elements, this books is for you. I would recommend it to people who liked Divergent , The Hunger Games, or The Fifth Wave.

One For the Murphys

This week I read One for The Murphys by Linda Mullaly Hunt. This book was AMAZING. I love reading and all of that stuff, but I don't normally care about the characters or stuff like that, and get connected to the characters as much as I did for this book, but it was AMAZING. This book is about a twelve year old girl named Carley Connors, who after getting abused by her mom and stepdad, gets put into foster care and into a house that almost seem too perfect. Carley makes new friends at school, and even starts to fit into the family, and enjoy it. But then she hear from her mother, and her life is basically torn apart. She has to choose; if she even has a choice; between her new adoptive family, the Murphy's, and her mom.
This was the best book EVER!!!I seriously connected to it, and it also was one of the SADDEST books that I read ever. You all really should read it, especially if you're a girl, because you'll connect to it more, but if you're a guy too. This was one of, if not the best, books I've ever read, and definitely the best one I've read all year. The last scene is so SAD!!!
Yeah, y'all should read it.

The Grandmaster

This week I read Grandmaster by David Klass. This book was about a freshman in high school, named Daniel Pratzer, who decides to join the chess team, although he's not great at it at all. Daniel is about the most normal kid in the world, he's basically ignored at school, his parents are the most boring people ever, and his sister is just being a normal girl in middle school. When two of the most popular and good chess players at his school ask him to come to a father/son competition, he wonders why, considering he's so unpopular, such a bad player, and as far as he knows his dad has never picked up a chess piece in his life. He then finds out that his dad used to be a Grandmaster, the highest ranking a player can be. Throughout the tournament, Daniel tries to figure out why his father quit chess, why he hid it from his family, and learns more about himself too. This was a really good book. I SUCK at chess, and I still really enjoyed it; I might have gotten some of the references more if I did like chess, but you don't have to know a lot about it in order to read this book. Overall, it was really good and not a hard read, it took me less than a day to read the whole thing, partly because I like it so much. Overall, I would recommend this book to a lot of people; it was great.