BookWormin'

For those of you keeping up with my 2016 Reading List , you may have noticed the sudden stream of books by Susan Mallery. My friend recently introduced me to a new reading app, called the 3M Cloud Library, so that I can read on my phone without spending money on Kindle books - all thanks to my library card.  Through this app, I discovered When We Met by Susan Mallery. Image from Google.com Immediately, I was sucked into the small town of Fool's Gold and the story of Taryn and Angel.  Once finished with the book, I looked and found more and more and more by Mallery.  Unfortunately, When We Met is one of her more recent books in the Fool's Gold series, and so some characters were engaged in one book but hadn't met yet in another, and I quickly found that I read many of the Fool's Gold books in the wrong order.  (Oops.)  Thankfully, knowing the end result never diminished the detailed story for me. One thing I enjoyed about these books is that just as the small

This last school year, I did book club with a high school near me.  (Being homeschooled, school-year book club isn't as fun unless you do it with a high school.)  One of the books we read was Tracks by Robyn Davidson. To be honest, I didn't completely enjoy the book.  It was, however, informative.  Mostly about camels, but also the Australian Outback and the making of magazine articles and also about being a little bit crazy and alone in a desert.  (Like I said, I didn't completely enjoy the book). The book, written by Robyn Davidson, focuses on her solo trek across 1,700 miles of Australian Outback, like it says right on the book cover.  The journey doesn't even begin right away; instead the story focuses on her struggles finding the camels she needed and learning to take care of them, provides a bit of backstory on why she wants to trek across the Outback, and a little bit of her lifestyle and neighbors before she leaves.  From there, it tells about her journ

As of today, this book blog has a Pinterest!  You can check out some of BookWormin's posts, browse through pins of bookshelves, see some tips on how to write, and just explore the literary world through BookWormin's social network.  Check it out here .

Cress is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles.  Once again, the story starts out from the perspective of a new character - although she has been briefly introduced before, this is the first time readers learn about Cress beyond a few words exchanged in a conversation. And she's awesome. Rapunzel was stuck up in a tower, and she loved to paint (according to the Disney movie, anyway).  Cress has lived on a satellite in outer space almost her whole life, and she basically knows everything there is to know about computers and programming.  Honestly, Cress quickly became one of my favorite characters of the entire series.  She's pretty cool. To be completely honest, Cress is my favorite book in the entire series.  It's where everything reaches the climax before the falling action comes in Winter (the final book).  I probably like it best because Tangled has been my second favorite Disney movie ever since it came out, and I really love the interaction between Rapunz

The Raven Cycle book one Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, and every single one of them has told her that true love's kiss will kill her true love.  She doesn't let this news affect her life (as far as readers can tell), and she has her rules, anyway.  "One, stay away from boys, because they were trouble.  And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards. ( Raven Boys , p. 10)"  Aglionby boys are the students of the all-boys school Aglionby Academy; due to the raven emblem of the school, Blue refers to the as Raven Boys.  And that's that. Image from weheartit.com Except for the first time ever, Blue saw someone on the corpse road, and since she doesn't possess the psychic ability that runs through her family, only the ability to "amplify" readings, that can mean only one of two things: that person is her true love, or she's the one who killed him.  In Blue's case, chances are it's both. One day she m

Recently, I came across this on Pinterest:     I've always thought books are the best way to travel - they can transport to anywhere in any world.  Since forever, one item on my bucket list is to visit all 50 states; this is the next best thing!  I think for the most part, the book that corresponds with the state is because that book is based there, such as with Shiver or The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which are set in Minnesota and Virginia respectively.  Other books, like Divergent by Veronica Roth, I believe are listed based on where the author lives (a quick Google search revealed Veronica Roth lives in Chicago).     So far, I've read through Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Virginia.  (I also saw the movie version of the Kansas book - does that count?)  Someday, I'll have read through the whole country!      A lot (possibly all) of these books are fiction, and so not entirely educational, but I'm sure they capture at least part of the

(We're finally branching off from Rick Riordan books!) The Tapestry series by Henry H. Neff revolves around the Irish story of Cuchulain (or Cuchulainn, or Cú Chulainn; there are several different spellings available) who is known as the Champion of Ireland.  In the series, Cuchulain has been reborn (in a sense) as Max McDaniels, a young boy with special abilities.  He is scouted by someone from the magical school of Rowan Academy, where other students with Old Magic in them - though most do not have the sam level of power as Max - go to learn about their abilities.  (It's sort of Hogwarts, but more serious and mystical.)  When a great evil rises and threatens Max, his roommate David, and all of Rowan, Max and his friends must step up and use their abilities to defend themselves and the people they love. Book One Not only are these books really cool, they include some interesting mythological tidbits, mostly from Ireland but also from a few other countries/cultures as w

Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer.  One great characteristic about this book (and the next one, and the next) is that it picks up right where Cinder left off, but from a different character's perspective.  Enter Scarlet Benoit. Scarlet lives with her grandmother on their farm - or she did until her grandmother disappeared a few days ago.  As she goes on with her deliveries and asking around about her grandmother, she comes across a street fighter by the name of Wolf (not a coincidence), who offers to come help her with the farm.  She turns him down, but they cross paths more than once and eventually they join forces to find Scarlet's grandmother. In the meantime, Scarlet's story crisscrosses with chapters from Cinder's perspective, as she deals with recent changes in her life and builds up her plan and determination to do what it best for New Beijing (and Prince Kai).  With each chapter, the two girls get closer and clos

Cinder is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.  The story focuses on a cyborg girl named Cinder, who is a mechanic in New Beijing.  Unfortunately, Cinder lives in a society where cyborgs are viewed as less than people and are treated poorly, which includes being offered up as test samples to find a cure for Letumosis - a deadly disease that is highly contagious.  Cinder lives with her step-mother and her two step-sisters, working for them as a servant because of her cyborg status.  (Do you see where this is going?)  One day, Cinder is visited at her mechanic stand in the market by Prince Kai, who asks her to fix his robot.  As she gets closer to the prince, she gets closer to the palace, and in more trouble with her step-mother.  When her step-mother discovers Cinder's disobedience, Cinder is punished by being sent away to be experimented on for a cure for Letumosis.  It is quickly discovered that there is more to Cinder than meets the eye, and she becomes invo

I took a writing class in middle-school, and one of the things that was really stood out to me was how to give your work a title.  You had to have a title that hinted at the events to come, but without giving away any important part of the story.  For example, The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke is, obviously, about an assassin's curse.  But is the assassin the main character?  Is the assassin male or female?  What is the curse?  What caused it?  How can it be stopped/cured?  You have to have a title that gives the readers more questions than answers. On one  website for aspiring writers, there are probably over a hundred stories with a title somewhere along the lines of "The Bad Boy and the Nerd."  The title tells readers that there is a bad boy, which leads them to assume the nerd is a girl, the "and" in the title suggests they get together in the end, and the rest of the story is some unoriginal plot to do with the bad boy's "dark pa