Rick Riordan’s second book in the Percy Jackson series, The Sea of Monsters, continues the story with Percy and his friends finding trouble with the tree protecting Camp Half Blood when they try to return. Realizing this, they try to get a quest, however Percy’s nemesis Clarisse gets the quest instead. Percy decides to sneak away from Camp Half Blood anyways with Annabeth and his half-brother Tyson.
Normally I am not a big nonfiction reader. However, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou, was a very well written nonfiction book. I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. The book details the story of Elizabeth Holmes, who starts a new blood testing company called Theranos, with her boyfriend at the time, Sunny.
Orson Scott Card's book, Ender’s Game, is a magnificent book. The premise of the book, an earth that barely survived the first two alien invasions is prepping for a third attack from the aliens, or buggers as they are referred to in the book. The human race was barely able to survive the second attack from the buggers, only thanks to the cunning work of Mazer Rackham. With Mazer Rackham aging, the Humans knew they needed a younger just as brilliant mind that could help them lead the ships in the war.
Jonah and Dylan hate each other. No, really, they do. Dylan hates that Jonah can’t stand not being the center of attention for even five seconds and Jonah hates that Dylan is a perfect rich boy who sucks the fun out of everything. Their hatred for each other is not lessened by the fact that everyone thinks they’d be perfect for each other. When a circumstance presents itself, Dylan proposes a plan- if they fake date, they can stage a fake breakup, and everyone will stop expecting them to go out for real.
Gilly is a thief, and she doesn’t really see a problem with it. Her family needs to eat and isn’t everyone just using their skills to get by? She does however have a problem when her talent gets her sent to fairy tale reform school, a school taught by the villains in the stories of the princesses, not that she likes them much either but still, who all claim they changed their ways and are teaching others as well. Gilly has to play nice for the next three months to get back to her family to help them again but what will happen to her in that time?
Sophie Evans doesn’t need her life to be more difficult. She is already having a hard enough time, she can't figure out what's missing when it comes to her design portfolio and without that she can't get into her dream school, but a certain boy didn’t get the message. After the annoying first encounter, their relationship is much more sour than sweet, but it looks like she’ll be stuck seeing Andrew because his dad, a formerly famous chef, is running a mentoring program and her best friend’s dad, who runs a catering company, is part of the program.
Ella was just a normal girl before she was swept away to a castle with her prince but is her life really as picture-perfect as she expected it to be? Ella Brown isn’t as happy in the palace as she expected. She’s uncomfortable about the new rules that surround her. She has spent so long doing everything herself she has no idea what to do when she is now expected to have everything done for her. Ella got to where she is now all by herself and now, she has to wonder, is here really where she wants to be?
All Autumn Collins wanted to do this weekend was go on a nice weekend getaway with her friends and maybe confess to her longtime crus. While she was at it the crappiest luck possible got her stuck inside of a library alone instead. Well, maybe not fully alone. Instead, she is stuck with the school bad boy Dax Miller who she knows nothing about except that he might be trouble. She thought she would just be stuck for an hour or so until her friends realized she was missing but for some reason, no one is coming to get her.
Stargirl is a fascinating novel that explores themes of individuality, nonconformity and the challenges of fitting in. The story is about Leo Borlock, an ordinary high school student in Mica, Arizona, whose world is completely changed when Stargirl Caraway, a quirky and free-spirited new girl, arrives at school. She is not like anyone Leo—or the rest of the school—has ever met. She wears strange clothing, plays the ukulele and sings to people on their birthdays. Initially, her personality made her very popular.
The Button War by Avi is a historical fiction novel set in Poland during World War I, focusing on a group of boys who engage in a competition involving the collection of the buttons of soldiers. The story follows the protagonist, a boy named Patryk, as he experiences the war among countries as well as among his friends. The Button War has themes of loyalty, ambition, the destructive nature of war and the loss of innocence.
