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".