the au pairs: skinny-dipping

This is the 2nd book to the au pairs series. It is by Melissa de la Cruz and has 289 pages. This book is about 3 girls Mara, Eliza, and Jacqui. Mara is a ex-rich girl, Eliza is a small town poor girl and Jacqui is a middle class Brazilian girl. In this book they come back to the Hamptons for another summer of adventures. Eliza and Jacqui's spend the winter with the Perrys, where Eliza and Ryan Perry were up to no good while Mara was away. The Perry's are the family that the au pairs babysit for. Eliza gets a job with a hot club instead of working with the Perry children, and a new au pair, Philippe, moves into the house with Mara and Jacqui. Philippe is as handsome as he is mysterious, and Jacqui tries to overcome an attraction to him. Mara is still recovering from breaking up with Ryan by partying too much. She loves all the attention she is getting from photographers and designers, but Eliza and Jacqui are growing tired of her. Eliza never sees Jeremy while he is busy at his finance job, and ends up spending too much time with Ryan again. Her job is hard work, taking care of two spoiled pre-teens is not what she had in mind for her summer. I really enjoyed this book. It is very similar to gossip girl. I recommend this book to teen girls. this would be a really good summer read. I can't wait to read the next one!

Nimitz class

I am still reading the same book as I was when I wrote my last post, Nimitz class, by Patrick Robinson. However, in my last post, i was not as far into the book as I am now, so I an able to go more in depth about the plot. The Thomas Jefferson was blown up in the pacific, and the navy has narrowed down all of the possibilities to one, sabotage. Now the question is, who did it? To begin with, they narrowed it down because there were reports of submarine sightings near the area of the accident and it was even on their radar, but it was not acknowledged. They have various clues that lead to one suspect, Russia. Unfortunately, they have no real evidence to back up their claim. The rest of the book is spent finding the submarine that attacked it and finding evidence to put Russia behind the crime. Overall, this book is very interesting but it is also fairly long and may take a long time to finish.

Fallen Angels

I am reading a book about the Vietnam War called Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. The main character is a black boy from Harlem who is about 18. He is named Perry and he s a good student and good basketball player but he doesn’t have the money for college so he joins up. You really connect with Perry and his new friend from his squad named Peewee. Peewee is a loud mouth but he is hilarious and has a caring side. During the war the characters really find out who they are under pressure. Some of the men stand up for their squad when they need to but others are too cautious and self oriented to do so. The book gives you a small glimpse of the struggles of war. It shows a unique perspective from one man and his thoughts about the war and the horrific things he witnesses. I really like how well developed the characters are in the story. I feel like I connect with them on a personal level. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes war stories and some good action. I have read a lot of war books and this isn’t the best one ever but it s still very good.

Post

Toward the beginning of this quarter I posted about Caught by the Sea by Gary Paulsen. I have finished that book since then. This book was filled with adventure and the stresses of sailing on the ocean. If you love the water and boats I would really recommend it as it give an insight to the brutal circumstances of ocean boating. For someone like me that has most of their water experience on lakes it was a great contrast. I was looking through my bookshelf when I noticed I had a book I haven’t read before. It is called Seekers, written by Erin Hunter. This book is about the survival of 3 young bear cubs. They go through things like life in the woods to living in captivity. I really like the setup of this book. It alternates between three characters, one is a polar bear-Kallik, one is a black bear-Lusa and the last is a brown bear named Toklo. The switching off between characters is great since it leaves you hanging when the next bear is up and if you don’t like one character much then you can look forward to the next chapter. Right now I am on to the second book in this series called Great Bear Lake.

Nick Washuta: Harry potter

Over the past few weeks I have been reading Harry potter and the goblet of fire. I just finished reading the book. It was 734 pages long (minus the 130 from last quarter). It was once again by far my favorite series and I would recommend it to anyone to read it. I was a great book and lots of things happened throughout it. For the last 200 pages of the book, Harry finishes the final part of the triwizard cup and wins. Though in the end, Harry meets up with his nemesis, voldemort. It was a long lasting battle, and Cedric comes out of it dead. Though, Harry puts up a good fight with the help of the souls from the people voldemort has killed including his parents, Cedric, and a few other muggles. The book ends off in a great way that I don't want to give away. But like I said, it was one of my favorite books and I would recommend it to anyone.

The Heart and the fist by Eric Greitens

The Heart and the Fist is an excellent book about the life of Eric Greitens, a student, humanitarian, and Navy SEAL. Eric Greitens teaches many life lessons and shares his insights into the worlds problems. My favorite theory of his is this: the use of force without compassion is evil, but compassion without force is ineffective. He came to this realization through working as a humanitarian in Bosnia and Rwanda. Eric Greitens attended Duke and achieved the highest honors academically. He also got into boxing during his time at Duke and trained daily with his trainer "Beebop." I havent made great progress in this book yet, but I can already tell it is going to be great. Eric Greitens offers many valuable and interesting insights into life. He is also a sublime role model of hard work, kindness, intelligence, and courage.

If I Stay by Gale Forman

I have just finished reading If I Stay by Gale Forman. Although, it's a very confusing book I really enjoyed it! It's about a 17 year old girl named Mia who has just been in a severe car accident with her family. Instead of being in her previous body she is now having an out-of-body experience. She is actually seeing herself from a different life. She watches her former friends and family find her at the hospital where she's there recovering. Mia basically relives her entire life through the book and must choose whether she wants to stay alive and live a very difficult life or actually die. It sounds super traumatic, but it was actually worth reading. This book is very similar to Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I would suggest this book to those who like books with a far deeper meaning and one that gets very personal and jumps right into your emotions! Overall, I absolutely loved this book!!

October Skies

I have have just finished reading October Skies by Alex Scarrow. It is the sequel to the Day of the Predictor in a series called Time Riders. This book has a lot of history about the wagon trails west in the mid 1800's. I would highly suggest this book to any history or mystery lovers.just in the few hundred pages of pure awesomeness it taught me more about this event than we ever learned in social studies class. It is a little disturbing at some parts and I must warn you it brings up cannibalism, so this is not for the weak of stomach. If you are also into horror, it has some of that too. The writing style is my favorite because it can be confusing at some times when it switches between times, places and characters. For the first couple hundred pages it does not bring up any of the characters from the past books in the series. I would give this book a 9.5 out of 10 for its great morals and its knowledge of important American history. The theme of the book also revolves around what we are learning about native Americans in English and social studies class. I hope you will read this book because of its great human morals on basic principals that from time to time us busy students forget. such as; sharing and helping each other out in a tough situation, and survival techniques.            

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...

Okay, so yes I am reading a self help book. I was at one of the many used bookstores and I thought I might as well get a book, and this was the only one that talked to me. Don't Sweat The Small Stuff...And It's All Small Stuff is written by Dr. Richard Carlson. He got the idea for writing this book after a publisher used an old endorsement from Dr. Dyer (some famous guy I guess.) He could not believe the publisher would do such a thing because it is not only tacky but if Dr.Dyer wanted, he could sue Carlson. Carlson decided to write Dyer a letter explaining he had know idea that that publisher would take Dyer's quote from a earlier book of his, do a copy paste and be on their way. To Carlson's surprise, he got a letter back say, "Richard. There are two rules for living in harmony. #1) Don't sweat the small stuff and #2) It's all small stuff." Dr. Dyer even signs the letter with, "Love, Wayne." After reading about such a relaxed guy I decided to keep reading, and some of Carlson's ideas on how to "be in charge of your life" are not half bad. He talks about how perfection is not key, you don't need material things to be happy, etc. Even though my cousin teases me for reading this book, I like it, and will probably keep reading.  

The Death Cure

I've finally finished the final book, so far, in the Maze Runner series by James Dashner. This book is named the Death Cure. In this book, Thomas has to find a way to get away from Wicked because even though they have good intentions, their methods of trying to complete those methods are horrible. For example, even after the first maze didn't work because Thomas wasn't cooperating, Wicked has tried again to restart the trials to find another result. And they do this by rounding up all the Munies, or people who are immune to the virus, and see what makes them munies. Throughout this book, it's been very saddening to read. But luckily, in the end, just as Thomas is about to have his brain dissected, leaving him dead, he escapes into a better world. This is a world where the virus hasn't touched yet and it's a place for civilization to restart.

Insurgent

I recently finished reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth. This is the second book in the Divergent series. Insurgent takes place after the war with Erudite and the other factions. Erudite is still trying to control the other factions with injections that will make them follow simulations. Almost every person can do nothing about the serum injected into them unless they are divergent, meaning that they can belong to more than one faction. The main character Trish is divergent and can not be controlled by the serum and is trying to figure out how to stop the serum from affecting other. Trish is also trying to find out what information the Erudite want. When the Erudite start using the serum to kill innocent people Trish sacrifices herself.
     The most interesting part of the book for me is how the government works. People take examines and tests when they are 16 that decide which faction they belong most in. For example if you are honest you belong in Candor. This is a very interesting way of dividing people, but I think it does create a lot of conflict. If all groups share equal rule it would be hard to make decisions. I also think that some traits would be thought as weaker traits and those factions would be overruled. I would not want to live in a society divided this way.

Seal Team Six

Recently I have gone back to a book that I was reading at the beginning of the last quarter. This book is called SEAL Team Six by Howard E. and Stephen Templin. If you read my last post on this book you would know that this book is basically a behind the scenes look at what its like to not only be a Navy Seal but be in the prestigious Seal team Six. The main character has gone through many missions already in the book, each mission consisted of different orders to follow, new partners, and new targets. Right now in the book the authors have taken us back in time to show how the main character has gotten to where he is today. The main character does many things to keep himself ready for action, for example he shows up at Intensive Training (IT) which is meant for men who forgot their manners or have not followed orders. Men go here to get worked until they throw up or until as the authors describe, you start crying and quit. Our character just shows us here every week to stay in shape and become a great fighter. I really recommend this book to all who are interested in action packed books.

THE DEATH CURE!!!!!!

This time, i read the third book of the maze runner series titled, The death cure. this time, Thomas was sick and tired of the lies that WICKED had told him and he really wanted to get revenge for killing chuck, but when he thinks he is far away from and safe from WICKED, they just played him again. Thomas wakes up to a room filled with hanging dead bodies and is horrified by the smell. he gets cheated and thinks that his best friend his dead but realizes that she is also being played by wicked. he learns a new term "CRANKS" these are people infected by the flare, sort of like zombies. He was told a day later, that he has the flare and he believes it. Him and his team were now sent on a mission to a safe heaven that would give them a cure for the flare, but along the way, they learn that it was just another trick and that they were immune to the disease. They get to the safe heaven but are brought to WICKED headquarters for more testing. Thomas escapes WICKED and goes to Denver Colorado and meets the friend that killed Chuck, Gally. Gally is now sane and is a part of a new resistance group called right arm. their goal is to attack and take down WICKED, they succeed and free themselves after the chanselor of the united stated freed thomas and told him where his friend were hidden. the flat trans that is supposed to free them, takes them to a nice medow with may supplies and food and freedom.

Three Cups of Tea: Post #2

Greg begins to look for a place to build the next school. While searching, he is kidnapped in a remote Pakistani town. He remained captured for eight days and then was real eased without any word of why he was originally captured. His wife, Tara, has a baby girl. The donor for the school gave Greg's organization 1 million dollars before he died and he also appointed Greg as director. Greg builds 5 or 6 more school around Pakistan. Then, they begin to focus on education for the girls and medical care for everyone in Pakistan. While in America, Greg spent a lot of time raising money to build schools and also raising awareness. After a hard time getting more funds, he is cheered up when his wife gives birth to their son. When he returns to Pakistan, he learns that the muslims are trying to build schools as well, which is great, but these school are only for boys and would force the boys to be part of military assignments. On September 11, 2001, while Mortenson is dedicating a school in Pakistan, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers takes place. Greg tried to explain to people that these acts of terrorism were fueled by poverty and lack of opportunity, but the word did not spread. Back in America, he begins to receive hate mail from other Americans who believe that he should not be building schools and aiding Muslims. However, with a streak of good luck, he was featured in a cover story of Parade Magazine and he then receives many donations. Greg finally receives the attention he had been wanting all along and he is supported when he decides to move his efforts to the neighboring country of Afghanistan. I really enjoyed this book, but like I said in my earlier post, it was a little repetitive. I also read and finished Boys Are Dogs. To say it briefly, it was not a very good book. I would not recommend it. 

CHERUB: SHADOW WAVE

Well, this is the last book of the CHERUB series, a series of TWELVE books. I was surprised on how worried and disappointed I was to end the series, for it had captured me and is basically not letting me go. But, to start, I must recap that CHERUB is a British Intelligence organization that is basically like the CIA of America or the FBI. Basically, they get the bad guys. But, there's a cache, they use children as their agents because what evil person would suspect a child as a spy who could kick their butt? But now, to the story. We take place of James Adams, a eighteen year old boy who a long time member of CHERUB. This is his last year as a CHERUB before he goes to college, and is no longer a CHERUB agent. Throughout the book, he is sentimental about this, and his nostalgia is present almost all the time. But, when his old retired CHERUB agent friend, Kyle, who is about 20 years old, returns to campus, he has one last mission for James to help him on, which is only known between the two of them, and is not legal for them to do with the CHERUB campus's permission. It starts with a small village in Malaysia, in the perspective of a native there. One day, a tsunami hits his village and ravages it to bits. From there, they ask the Malaysian government for help, except the government itself is so corrupt and obsessed with money that they take the old village land and turn it into a resort for wealthy tourists. Basically, this pisses Kyle off, and he decides to get back at Tan Abdullah, the governor of the land that the resort was on, who took a bribe for the land. When Tan Abdullah takes his "royal" business trip to the United Kingdom, James and Kyle decide to strike. They plant microphones in Abdullah's room and thus wait for him to say something bad about money or the government. Eventually, Abdullah insults the Prime Minister of Malaysia and is also heard taking a bribe. James and Kyle make a quick getaway, and then give the recording to news networks across the world. From there, Abdullah is never seen again, and some said that he killed himself on a plane, but not after he suicided the plane into a mountain. Later, it cuts to a scene with James coming back to London from college, one year later, and he has fantastic grades and meets his girlfriend from the start, Kerry. From there, he returns to the campus for the Christmas feast for every CHERUB member or retired agent ever. And so the series ends.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

This Quarter I have read over 100 pages of The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, finished Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (352 pages) by Ransom Riggs, and 147 pages of A Heartbreaking Work of  a Staggering Genius.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a New York Times Bestseller, is quite unique and unlike any other book I have read. I have become bored with Teen fiction, because it all seems repetitive, but this book has been a breathe of fresh air. The plot follows Jacob after his "mad" grandfather dies. His grandfather has a mysterious death, and many weird photos of humans with strange abilities. The best thing about this book, is the fact that there are many photos to help tell the story. The even cooler thing is that the author found photo collectors, so all these photos are real photos! Anyways, Jacob decides to travel back to the island his grandfather lived on with his father. As he somehow enters 1940, on the day that Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is bombed (World War 2), and meets many peculiar children. I'll leave it at that. The weirdest thing about this book, is that this book is scary in the fact that it holds an incredibly creepy and unknown factor that the photos seem to bring. I even had to skip school because of this book!

Basically what happened was, I was sleeping and I got the worst of nightmares. I knew it originated from this book, because I dreamed of peculiar haunted children trying to kill me (I have the strangest of imaginations). After that, I made myself stay away for hours because I was absolutely terrified. And, I wasn't feeling well anyway so I knew I wouldn't get better if I went to school on 5 hours of sleep, so I went to school late that day. So, just warning you, this book isn't scary, but it is incredibly creepy. I think that is what makes the aura of the book very interesting.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy unique, and somewhat creepy books. Again, I had some weird dreams because of this book, so perhaps this isn't for the faint hearted.

Brandon olympians

The second book I have read this 4th quarter is the first of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Before reading the book I had heard a lot of good things abut it so I decided to read it. The book got off to a slow start, but once it got going it really got me hooked. The storyline is very clear and I think it's pretty easy to follow, but there are some pretty dry spots in the book. I still enjoyed the book a lot, it had a of Greek mythology theme which I really got into. I thought that the Greek mythology part or the book was something that I havent seen a lot of in a modern day book. The way they tied the main character into the Greek gods web really made the book unique and interesting. The other characters are also very different and unique as well which made it so the reader doesn't get bored.

The Book of Fate

I have just finished reading The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer. Overall, I thought it was a solid book. This book got into a lot of conspiracy theories about the government and the presidency. It was about a young man, the main character, who worked for the president, when one of the senior staffers was killed. Eight years later, he mysteriously came back to life and that's when the book is off and running through an exciting mystery chase. I do have to say that the book can get very slow in parts and kind of confusing. Many times I would have to go back and reread a page or two to get all of the names straight and figure out exactly what was going on. As a whole I really enjoyed the concept of the book and loved how a lot of really interesting facts about the White House were incorporated into this fictional story. I really enjoy Brad Meltzer's writing, and suggest this book to anyone looking for a good mystery read.

Matched

I am reading a book called Matched by Ally Condie. This book is a trilogy and I am on the first one. It is about a post-apocolyptic society where nothing ever goes wrong. The society has strict rules about everything; what people eat, read, write, know, and everything in between. When each citizen is eighteen, they are matched with their perfect pair based on personality traits. When the main character Cassia is at her matching ceremony, she is paired with her best friend from her district named Xander. But when she looks at his information card, another boy in her district named Ky pops up for a minute. Although she is reassured by a society worker, she begins to wonder. She starts to pay more attention to Ky and it begins an entire love triangle. This book is very similar to the Hunger Games and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed those books.

The Serpents Shadow

The Book I am reading is called The Serpents Shadow by Rick Riodran. Its about twin brother and sister who are magician in the modern world with the egyptian gods. The plot to the book is that their is a big monster who is going to kill everyone and bring chaos to the earth. The only way to kill the serpent is for the twins to find out. If they do find out they can save the world, the only problem is their are 2 days and they need to find all answers. They meet a really bad guy who is dead, but this man has one of the most important answers of all time to save the world. they need to take this man on an adventure to find the answer, the only thing is can they trust him? Also one of the twins likes a god and a boy. The problem is the god is a god and the boy is destined to die. I really recommend this book to people who love adventures and cliff hangers.

The Book I'm reading is called the Maze Runner, written by James Dashner. This is about a boy named Thomas who was sent to a place called the Glade. in the Glade, Thomas meets a lot of new people, people he had never met before. The reason why he couldn't remember anything is because he has been swiped by WICKED. This is what happens when you are immune to the desease called the Flare. Thomas and his new friends learn about this in the second book of the series. Thomas has to find a way out of the Glade in order to get his old life back, or whatever is left of it. In the Glade, there is something called the Maze. this maze is virtually UN solvable and has to be walked through every single in order to find a way out. it has has been two days and only one new person comes every thirty days, but the place that Thomas had come from was full again with a new person, but it was a girl. The Glade had only gotten boys for the past two years. suspicion rises and he is blamed for this mishap. Thomas is getting ready to leave the glade and his new goal is to become a runner. a runner is someone who runs through the gigantic metal doors into the maze every day to try and find an exit path but the walls move every night, thus changing the pattern of the maze. After six, the doors close until night time and the Grievers come out. these are cyborg wolves that are mixed with a venomous porcupine skin that causes you to go thought a changing. Thomas friends do escape the maze through the whole the grievers come through. he is so relieved but to only have his best friend killed by wicked, a new thirst for vengeance has risen and it caries on throughout the series.