The 13th Reality: The Journal of the Curious Letters

This book (written by James Dashner)  follows Atticus Higginbottom (Tick) as he receives letters from someone named M.G. The letters are all clues to a time, place, and action he must perform to save the world or at least a lot of people. The book is broken into four parts: the introdution chapters, the letters, solving the clues, and Ticks mission. It's a good book because you're completely in the dark about the letters, but it doesn't get boring. There are a lot of other things that Tick goes through while he's figuring the clues out or waiting for the next clue. I'd give this book to anyone over ten years old. Younger kids might not have the patience; it's a long book.

Favorite Quote: "Next came pajama time. Tick had brought a pair of flannel pants and a t-shirt to sleep in, but that wasn't good enough for Aunt Mabel. She wen to the basement and dug through some boxes before returning with a musty old pair of long johns that were as red as her lipstick and looked like Santa's underwear."

School Schedule

So, I'm back at school. There's no way I'll be able to do a book per week like I was during the summer, but I'll try to do two per month. That's the plan at least :). We'll see what happens!

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window

Third time's the charm, right? The Baudelaire children really hope so, as Mr. Poe takes them to their new guardian, Aunt Josephine. Though she is a kind woman with excellent grammar, she makes the Cowardly Lion look like Batman. Among her long list of fears are doorknobs shattering, the stove bursting into flames, and being electrocuted by the telephone. It's no wonder that the children have serious doubts about her abilities to protect them if Count Olaf turns up again.

Favorite Quote: "There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational...The Baudelaire orphans have a fear of Count Olaf, which makes perfect sense, because he is an evil man who wants to destroy them. But if they were afraid of lemon meringue pie, this would be an irrational fear, because lemon meringue pie is delicious and has never hurt a soul."

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room

Number 2 by Mr. Lemony Snicket. This book picks up where the first left off; with the Baudelaire children traveling to their new guardian's house. Dr. Montgomery Montgomery is a herpetologist: a snake scientist; and as the Baudelaires arrive to live with him, they find that they will be accompanying him on a trip to Peru to collect specimens. Just when the children's lives are looking better, the new assistant Stephano *coughOLAFcough* shows up...

Favorite Quote: "Count Olaf sounds like an awful person. I hope he is torn apart by wild animals someday. Wouldn't that be satisfying?"- Dr. Montgomery.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

The series is already widely popular, but it's worth mentioning again. These books are the type you can go back and read over and over, because of the humor in them. I have a problem describing these to people because the subject matter sounds so morbid that when I tell anyone how funny they are, they look at me like I'm crazy... :). It's funnier than the movie and Count Olaf is scarier than in the movie... just so you know.

Anyway, Bad Beginning is just what it sounds like. It follows the series' main characters Violet (an inventor), Klaus (a reader), and Sunny (a biter) Baudelaire as they find out that their parents have been killed in a fire, and are sent to live with their distant relative, Count Olaf. Their situation goes from bad to worse when they find out how despicable their new guardian, and his acting troupe, is.

Favorite Quote: "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle...Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes."

Why the North Won the Civil War

Awesome collection of essays about the Civil War. All of them have different takes on why the South lost, from political to military, and all of them are pretty interesting. Most of them are pretty short, and it's a good read if you're into military history.

Favorite Essay: God and the Strongest Battalions

Who Moved My Blackberry?

Everyone knows someone like Martin Lukes- the one that thinks they're making the world a better place just by breathing. This book follows a year's worth of Martin Lukes' text messages and emails as he stives to be a "creovative" person. This guy will make you mad. He communicates almost totally with his family by texting, is uninvolved in both of his sons' lives, and blames his oldest son's behavioral problems on his wife's career. So when all of his... activities come back to bite him, it makes you feel warm inside :). Book for adults.

Favorite Texts: Martin Lukes to Jake Lukes: Jake, can you do an exercise for me? Can you think up six key behaviors that will help you going forward, and email them to me? Then I can help you learn to live them. Let's make a new start! Love, Dad

Jake Lukes to Martin Lukes: Dad, you're gay. -J

This Book Will Change Your Life

This book is definitely for adults. There's one activity for each day of the year; half of which you won't want to do. However, the authors Ben and Henrik are hilarious and even the days that wouldn't be the wisest to carry out (shoplifting, writing to a murderer) are great to read. It's a quick read since it's just a paragraph or two for each page, so reading it in a couple shots is pretty easy.

Favorite Day: Day 25-Things You Will Never Do Before You Die.

Reaper Man

This is the eleventh book in the Discworld series. Yes, I'm skipping around; don't judge me :D. This book follows Death and Windle Poons (wizard) through a very interesting time for Ankh-Morpork. The Auditors force Death to retire, which throws reality into chaos because whatever you believe will happen to you when you die is what will happen. Thus, things and people are dying, but no one is moving on; causing Ankh's life-force to start building up and causing strange things to materialize. In the meantime, Death's become Bill Door- a farmer.

Again, the books that follow Death are always wonderful. This one's no exception. Especially since, as a farmer, Bill Door has to kill things...something Death hates. Because Death doesn't kill things, he takes them away after they've been killed.

Favorite Quote: "It is true that the undead cannot cross running water. However, the naturally turbid river Ankh, already heavy with the mud of the plains, does not, after passing through the city (pop. 1,000,000) necessarily qualify under the term "running" or, for that matter, "water".

Battle Cry of Freedom

"Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson is an overview of the Civil War. The book starts before the beginning of the war and details/looks into both sides of the war, Confederate and Union, as well the different areas of life the war affected.

This book is awesome if you're into war stories or American history. Don't try to read it to kids, they'll be bored out of their minds. It's definitely a read for adults, as it's not exactly in story form and doesn't follow one specific person through the war.

Favorite Chapter- Amateurs Go To War

Sourcery

The fifth book in the Discworld series picks back up with Rincewind, who has been named the assistant librarian at Unseen University. Twoflower has gone back to the Counterweight Continent, but he's left the Luggage, a walking trunk with a mind of its own. All is well until a little boy with ridiculously amazing magical powers comes to the University and demands to be made head wizard. After stepping out of the University for a drink, Rincewind gets "kidnapped" by the thief who stole the head wizard's hat- a girl named Conina. Oh, and the hat talks, by the way.

Favorite Quote: "The Ankh-Morpork Merchants' Guild publication Wellcome to Ankh-Morporke, Citie of One Thousand Surprises describes the area of Old Morpork known as The Shades as "a folklorique network of old alleys and picturesque streets, wherre exitment and romans lurkes arounde everry corner and much may be heard the tratitinal street cries of old time also the laughing visages of the denuizens as they goe about their businesse private." In other words, you have been warned."

Mort

Fourth in the Discworld series, the book follows Mort, Death's new apprentice, as he tries to change fate and keep a princess alive. The problem is that Reality isn't listening, so even though he stops her assassination, everything keeps existing as if she's died anyway. During all of this, Mort is trying to put up with Death's annoying adopted daughter, Ysabell.

This book is funny as crap! Any scenes with Death are great, so an entire book with him is awesome. He and Mort are two of my favorite characters in the Discworld series.

Favorite Quote: "The world is a funny old place in which, metaphorically speaking, one should never be so proud as to turn down an offer of a perfectly good hot meat pie."

The Light Fantastic

The second in the Discworld series, this book is a continuation of Rincewind's travels with Twoflower the Tourist after almost getting chucked off the Disc. During this adventure, the pair are on the run from a psychotic senior wizard who wants the spell that is lodged in Rincewind's head (long story). Rincewind and Twoflower meet an interesting array of people during their travels, including a couple of heroes, and even get a couple of visits from Death himself. They travel to and from danger, all the time trying to figure out what the new red star in the sky means. Whatever it is, it can't be good...

Favorite Quote: "In much the same way that gnats appear before a thunderstorm, really heavy buildups of magic always attracted things frrom the chaotic Dungeon Dimensions-nasty Things, all misplaced organs and spittle...They won't be described, since even the pretty ones looked like the offspring of an octopus and a bicycle."

The Eyes of the Dragon

The Eyes of the Dragon (by Stephen King) tells the story of two Princes and an evil magician determined to destroy their kingdom. The story is told in small sections, following each of the characters: Peter, Thomas, and Flagg (main characters). It also follows Peter's friends in the second half of the book.

Flagg the Magician, wanting a rebellion/overthrow of the monarchy, devises a plan to put Peter in jail and make Thomas king of Delain. The story shows the different ways the boys grow up, Peter with his mother and Thomas without. The loss of his mother makes Thomas the less-liked of the two boys, and the more susceptible to Flagg's bullying. Once his brother is put into the Needle (the jail for royalty), Thomas is completely at the magician's mercy.

Favorite Quote: "I think that, soomer or later, things like you always begin to repeat themselves, because things like you know only a very few simple tricks. After a while, somone alsways sees through them. I think that is all that saves us, ever."- Peter

The Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson runs away from Camp Half-Blood to help his best friend Grover and find a cure for whatever's poisoning the camp's boundries. He also gets another piece of information about his family...one that he's not exactly happy about it.

I think this book is my favorite in the series so far. While the first book introduced a lot of the monsters and themes of Greek mythology, this one gets into the actual stories/legends a lot more. It also gets into the characters more than the first book. In "Lightning Thief" we met a lot of characters, but Percy didn't get to interact with a ton of them. That changes in this book.

Favorite Quote: "Do you have a favorite constellation, Percy?"- Hermes
"Uh, I like Hercules."- Percy
"Why?"
"Because he had rotten luck. Even worse than mine. It makes me feel better."

The Color of Magic

The Discworld is, as the name indicates, a world shaped like a disc. It is carried on the backs of four elephants who stand on the shell of a "Celestial Turtle." Seriously. The Color of Magic (by Terry Pratchett) follows Rincewind the (failed) Wizard as he tries to keep the Disc's first tourist from getting robbed, killed, or both at the same time. Not exactly the easiest of tasks, especially when the tourist has a walking trunk made of the Disc's most valuable material, carrying loads of the Disc's second most valuable material...

The Color of Magic is definitely a book for older readers. It has mild swearing, and there are some things that would go over kids' heads. It starts a bit slowly, but the pace picks up after a few pages. This one is the first in the Discworld series and is, as all the rest are, hilarious!

Favorite Quote: "Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the type to stand on a hill in a foot bath, wearing copper armour and screaming 'All Gods are bastards.'"- Rincewind

The Lightning Thief

The Lightning Thief (by Rick Riordan) is one of the books I picked up to fill the void that the end of the Harry Potter series caused. The story follows Percy Jackson through his adventures after he finds out he is a half-blood, half Greek god/half human. With this unsettling discovery comes the added trouble of finding out that Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and he, Percy, is the number one suspect.

This book is great for kids and older readers alike. For the older readers, some parts of the book may be a little predictable, but the way they come together isn't. There are little twists every so often and Percy's sarcasm/sense of humor is great!

Favorite Quote: "I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera. The truth? My only thought was: Aaaagggghhhhhh!"- Percy