BookWormin'

The holiday season is a great time to be a book lover.  For Christmas this year, I got Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan, a book on Greek mythology, and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer.  I also got a lovely little reading journal with pages made for reviewing.          all images from Google Aside from the books, I also got two gift cards to Barnes and Noble, which is only the best possible gift to get a bibliophile. I also already know at least two of the books I will be purchasing with the gift cards.   Cress and Winter by Marissa Meyer were both on my list, as they are the two books that come after Scarlet , and I own the first book of the series, Cinder.   After pulling those two off the shelves, I look forward to wandering around the bookstore finding more items to add to my collection. Another advantage to getting books for the holidays is the vacation from school for at least a week and a half.  So much time to spend reading!  (I've already finishe

Once again we're diving into the Percy Jackson books, but this time with a Roman twist.  In Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus , readers are introduced to the Roman gods, and how the Romans took the Greek gods and changed them. All images from Google Through the five books of the Heroes of Olympus series, the viewpoints switch between Greek and Roman demigods.  However, the Roman aspect is elaborated on quite well.  Characters are introduced to us the form we know them (Zeus is Zeus) and then reintroduced in the Roman form (Zeus is now Jupiter), so the information builds upon something we already know, and is reinforced.  Often the Roman demigods from Camp Jupiter are more aggressive and war-like than the demigods from Camp Half-Blood, who spent a lot of time playing sports and training summer-camp-style (before Percy Jackson came along, anyway).  The camps fit the traits of their Greek and Roman ancestors. Age-wise, these books are a step up from the original Percy Jack

The mythology of Egypt is explored in Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles . The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent's Shadow are focused on Carter and Sadie Kane, brother and sister who are descendants of pharaohs.  Carter can host the Egyptian god Horus, while Sadie hosts Isis.  Throughout these books, I learned the names of many different Egyptian idols, as well as pharaohs and archeology fun facts (for example, Carter is named after Howard Carter, the man who discovered King Tut's tomb).  I even learned some hieroglyphs, such as the ankh, which stands for life, as well as several other words.   Photo of a page, found on pinterest.com, and Ankh found on google.com My History course started in Egypt, and while this is the one series I did not reread this year while reviewing Egyptology, I kept the Kane Chronicles in mind. Another interesting thing about these books is that Rick Riordan also wrote three side books, in which Carter and Sadie meet an

Technically, the Percy Jackson books largely take place in New York, with some quests across the United States, but overall, they're all about Ancient Greece.  While these books aren't the best for specific history questions, like who led the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae (answer: King Leonidas I), or who Pericles was (answer: a famous leader of the Athenians), they were pretty helpful for me as I studied Ancient Greece in middle school and as I went over the Greek chapters in my History of Western Civilizations course this year. Percy Jackson is a demigod, a child of a Greek god and a mortal.  Obviously then, this series focuses on Greek mythology.  After reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians , I can name all twelve Olympians and that the Greeks named them patrons of, I'm fairly good at the mythological family tree (from Ouranos to Kronos to Zeus, etc.), and Greek mythology is one of my best subjects, which was really cool when I had a whole chapter and test on

For the past three or four years, I have been in a mother-daughter book club with several other neighborhood gals and their mothers.  Once upon a time, several years ago, I did a post about it (which can be found here ).  This year, I thought I would share with you our chosen books and a short description about them, as well as a list of all the other books we have read through the years. Our book club meets once a month throughout the summer months, and then one book in September as well.  Every year, we have a meeting in May to discuss any changes we'll be making to how we meet, etc., and then we pick our books. June: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Honestly, I had heard a lot about Fangirl, and even before it was brought up in book club I was thinking of reading it.  It was on my list.  However, I'm really glad I read it with a group because then I could discuss it with a group.   The story is about Cather, and her twin sister Wren, who are going off to college.  Cath

This year for my education, I am taking History of Western Civilization, Irish Literature, and then math course and a public speaking course.  The last two aren't important.  Anyway, in History and Lit, I've discovered that I'm familiar with several of the topics due to books I've read.  I've probably already blogged about several of these books (or possibly all, but I'd have to go back and check to be 100% sure).  Regardless, I am going to do it again, because this is a different context, and now they relate to my education instead of my love of reading. Personally, I think it's really cool to read a history textbook, or a literature piece, and find that I already know several elements of what they are talking about because I read it in a fictional story (or any book outside of the curriculum).   I am going to share with you four book series, and each series will relate to a topic in my Western Civ. or Irish Lit class.  I'm not guaranteeing anyth

I really liked the different perspectives of this story.  First, the narrators are twins.  However, they tell the story from different points in time, so we never know what they both thought while they were a certain age.  Noah, the boy, tells his point of view from age 13-14, where he is quiet while his sister is outgoing.  Then Jude jumps in with her perspective at age 16 or 17.  The chapters switch off who is telling the story, and overall the intertwined yet separate story lines reflect the twins quite well. The two twins are artists, like their mother, and they are aware that Jude is their dad's favorite.  However, when they are applying to art school, the two learn something new; they thought their mom didn't have a favorite, but it turns out she does, and it's Noah.  This revelation is one of many that leads to the twins' ultimate falling out.  They are both keeping secrets after their mother's death, and we learn about them from the other twins' po

This is an amazing book.  I could say it's about war, or writing, or stories, or truth.  There's a lot of all those things.  But mostly, it really is about the things they carried, the soldiers. When I was looking for a book to read, my grandpa pulled this one off of a bookshelf.  He told me, "It's not just about what they carried on their backs.  It's what they carried in here," he gestured to his head, "and in here," and his heart.  There's really no better way to describe it than that. However, here is the description offered on the back of the book: "They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other.  And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb."

      Throne of Glass is the story of a female assassin named Celaena Sardothien, the most notorious assassin in Erilea.   She is taken from her place in prison by the Crown Prince of Adarlan, the main conquering force of Erilea.  Dorian Haviallard, the prince, offers her a deal.  If she competes in a competition as his champion, she will be freed from the terrible prison after four years in the king's service.  Celaena agrees.        From there, the story follows Celaena as she re-trains her body and becomes a great assassin once again.  She competes in the contest to be the King's Champion along with twenty-three other people of various criminal professions, all while hiding her own identity. Celaena trains with Chaol, the captain of the guard, in the mornings, and rarely sees the prince except for during the trials.  Her bond with Chaol is predictable, as well as with the attractive prince.  This is where my issue with the story comes in.        For starters, while I do

One of my history assignments a while ago was to read The Scarlett Letter.  This story is definitely a highly referenced story, and I think everyone's heard at least a little about it, but I didn't read it until it came up for history.  The story was good, although some of the older books are hard to read because of the complete difference in vocabulary and writing style.  Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it for a read if you haven't already, but it probably won't be one that I'll be re-reading anytime soon.