Frank Li is a Korean-American teenager who is very aware of the cultural gap between him and his parents. At the same time, he wants to be in a relationship with a girl who isn’t Korean, which doesn’t mesh well with Frank’s family. So, Frank plots a plan in which he and one of his childhood friends, Joy, can both make their lives somewhat easier. It follows the fake-dating trope mixed with unexpected outcomes and a wonderful navigation of cultural differences in new generations of teens.
Malcolm Gladwell builds off the success of his first 2 books with Outliers. This novel is about what patterns appear when major success stories are examined. In the first part of the book, he discusses different examples of how our environment and specific opportunities lead to success. Gladwell gives examples like how hockey players born in January have a tangible advantage over their younger peers because of how youth hockey is organized.
Alexis has been studying for this test for over a year, since a good score will secure her a spot in the most prestigious college in the post-apocalyptic world of gods and titans in which she resides. Her goal is to make a better life for her and her adopted younger brother, Charlie, the two of whom have been homeless since their abusive parents died when they were young. After the longest test of her life, Alexis is required to drip her blood on the page. Instead of only staining the page red, the paper begins to disintegrate, revealing her blood is not what she thought.
Tristan isn’t as smart or as perfect as his sister, Janine, and he is okay with it, for the most part. Janine can’t make a perfect chocolate chip cookie like Tristan, and she certainly can’t do more than simple baking. Tristan prides himself on his baking ability and his home in the greatest city in the world. His world turns upside down when his parents decide to move to rural New York, where no one knows him and there are barely any kids his age. While exploring the tiny town center, Tristan discovers an old doughnut shop and tries to enter.
“Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.”
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
When the mistreated animals of the farm rise up against the evil humans, they try to establish a fair and just society. As they work out their rules and sayings, the leading power begins to take over slowly, until the animals that now run the farm remain as cruel as the human who once ruled over them all.
“They had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
Despicable Me 4 is a decent movie with a messy storyline. The movie starts off introducing a new villain, Maxime Le Mal, who forces Gru and his family into hiding to protect themselves from him. The introductory plot is interesting and could have resulted in a better story had the villain been utilized more. The villain is barely present during the duration of the movie, and there is not much buildup of tension or pressure.
