WOW!
That was it. I had nothing else to say after I read this book. No words can do this book justice.
Despite saying that I’m still going to try, note the key word here is ‘try’ to describe my experience.
Here goes my try.
The prologue literally yells for your attention. It’s like a Venus flytrap that coaxes you in with its pretty appearance and smell but the moment you’re close it traps you. After reading the prologue you cannot, I repeat CANNOT, leave the book because the prologue is about a murder. And as we know murders in books don’t reveal anything - not even the tiniest clue, but they let you in enough to make you curious.
A month ago I was basically at a stage where I was reading books all the time and did that for about two weeks until I realised that I didn’t have any new books to read. I found this in my bookshelf while searching for something to read.
My sister had actually told me about it but I hadn’t paid much attention to it until then.
Ready Player One is a science-fiction book. It’s set mostly in a virtual world called the OASIS. In a world crumbling and a destroyed economy, the OASIS is the escape of millions. With a pair of gloves and a headset, even the poorest could use the OASIS. To get a better idea, imagine a world, perfect in every aspect and you have the OASIS. With millions of planets and thousands of quests to prove your worth, the OASIS can make even the poorest feel rich, albeit virtually. Well, perhaps that isn’t completely true. There is a chance, one chance to become the richest person alive. The Hunt.
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detectiveby Donald J. Sobol
OK fine, I know this series is kind of kiddish for my age. But while I’m stuck at home, I’ve been dying for books to read. And this series was something I hadn’t re-read in a long time so I decided to read it.
There are quite a few books in this series and I have three of them. The Encyclopedia Brown series is about a ten year old boy named Leroy Brown aka Encyclopedia due to his knowledge about the smallest trivia and his knack of noticing things most people would ignore.
Each book has around 10 stories about the various mysteries and cases he solves along with the help of his partner Sally Kimball.
Sounds quite simple and not that complicated. Well, that’s exactly what I love about this series. I mean most of the books I read have complex plots, at least three subplots and a million other complicated mysteries to solve along with a race against time to save the world or something. Don’t get me wrong I love all of those books and they are thrilling to read. But amidst all of these complex and complicated books its kind of refreshing to have a book that’s just so simple and has mysteries about missing cookies. This simplicity is what makes me want to read this book when I’m not in the mood for a long thrilling mystery.
And most of the mysteries are pretty easy to solve if you just pay attention to the details. Most of the answers are just staring at you in the face but you don’t notice it until Encyclopedia points it out and solves the mystery. It might seem kiddish but amidst the races against time and mysterious death threats, this series is quite different.
This is another book in the Wonder series. The first book called Wonder, is about a young boy named Auggie, whose face is, well, not exactly normal. Having being home schooled all his life, Auggie is in for a rude shock when he finds out that he has to start attending normal school. The rest of the book talks about Auggie’s journey through school and the troubles he faces and the things he discovers. Throughout the book there are parts told from other characters points of view and how they feel about Auggie.
I am writing about one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Well, you can probably guess from the title, I’m talking about my experience with a Rubik’s Cube. Let’s start at the beginning…….
(5th grade summer holidays)
I’d had a Rubik’s cube at home for as long as I could remember. I used to fiddle and play with it even though it was not one of the smoothest cubes. After some time, I began to ask my father how to solve it. He knew only how to solve one face and tried to teach me. I soon figured it out and could solve one face on my own. I was now one step closer to my goal. After practicing how to solve one face, I wanted to be able to solve the whole cube. I looked online but didn’t understand anything. I slowly forgot about the cube until….
(7th grade)
It was a new year and a few weeks had gone by. This was when I became interested in the Rubik’s cube again. It was a time when everyone in school was obsessed with Rubik’s Cubes. I saw many people in my school roaming around with cubes in my hands. At that time even my friends were interested, even obsessed with their cubes and I used to feel left out. I thought if they can solve cubes why can’t I.
It was a long process since I had to learn layer by layer. For those who don’t know, while solving a Rubik’s Cube we must first solve one layer, or one tier.
To get a clear picture, imagine that you are looking at a cube and are holding it in such a way that white is facing the top and yellow is facing the bottom (you can find out which face corresponds to what color by looking at the centerpieces. The red center corresponds to the red color, blue to the blue color, etc.). If a person solves a cube starting with white, you will know the first layer is solved when the entire white face is solved and each of the sides (except yellow) will have a strip of the same color (the green side has a strip of green, orange side has a strip of orange, etc..). A picture is given below.
When the second layer is solved it looks as if two tiers have been solved and so on. There are millions of methods to solve a cube but the one I used needed only 3 algorithms and they were pretty easy. It does help if you know how to solve one face as it is then easier to get the cross at the start. It was quite frustrating when I first started to learn, and I could even see it on my friend’s face when she was teaching me. I didn’t know what to turn, how to get a piece in place despite being taught a million times, and how to remember the steps for each layer. However, it was worth it, since very few things could have given me the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment I felt when I finally slid all 3 layers in place and saw the solved cube. It was one of the best and most irritating weeks of my life.
I personally felt that the second layer was the hardest when I was learning how to solve a cube, though I even used to get stuck on the third layer. After learning I just practiced and practiced till, I could solve it comfortably. Then came the best part. I was asked by my parents to teach my sister. It was amazing as finally, it was I who got to yell and scold her and not the other way around. The joy I felt because it was I, the younger one teaching the elder one. Ahhhh…….
After learning how to solve a normal 3-by-3 I learnt how to solve a ‘mirror cube’ which is basically like a normal cube with 6 faces, but it doesn’t have any color and all the pieces are of different sizes, so it is slightly tougher to solve. It helps if you learn how to solve a 3-by-3 before attempting a mirror cube as you use the same algorithms in both. After the mirror cube, I learnt how to solve a 2-by-2 which is pretty easy and very similar to a 3-by-3. I am currently learning how to solve a pyramid cube.
Well, you have read about my experience so why don’t you try it out on your own and learn how to solve a cube, as I can guarantee that it will be amazing and you will never forget the feeling when you finally solve a cube on your own and slide the layers into pace.
A fight for succession to the throne. A war that has dragged almost all the tribes into it. A war that has destroyed the peace and calm of the land. Blood and killing everywhere and only five dragonets who can stop it.
Set in the dragon land of Pyrrhia, the first five books revolve around a mysterious prophecy and the fight for the throne of the SandWings. The three SandWing sisters, Blister, Burn and Blaze have dragged all the tribes into their war and are still fighting even after twenty years.
From the title you can kind of guess what this book’s going to be about. I mean ‘And then there were none’ makes it sound like there were some at the start and then something happened to them and then it became none. When I say it like this, it doesn’t sound remarkable or memorable, but Agatha Christie takes this simple phrase and spins it into an unforgettable story.
Ten people are invited to the out of the way Soldier Island situated in Devon. All of them invited by a certain Mr. and Mrs. Owen. None of them have any idea that the others are coming. An odd collection they are. A judge, a governess, a doctor, two caretakers, a retired army general… well you get the idea. Upon reaching they are escorted to their rooms and are informed their mysterious host and hostess aren’t there. Unsure about what’s happening they decide to dine but what they don’t realize is that after that dinner nothing would be the same.
A silent patient and a determined psychotherapist who will try his best to make her speak.
This was what I thought the book would be about when I first read the blurb. It sounded like a book about lengthy psychological talks and a lot of hospital scenes and technical terms. All in all not a very good first impression. It didn’t sound like the first book you’d pick up or something that would catch your attention. Yet when I read the blurb something about it caught my attention. It could have been the quote at the top or the fact that I wanted to know what the patient was hiding. Whatever the reason was, I decided to give the book a shot.
Let me jump in and explain a few things before I really get started because the book is quite confusing at the start.
Liam was a steward on the sinking Titanic in 1912 and was about to drown; Maddy was on a plane with a ticking bomb in 2010 and was destined to die; Sal was about to get crushed to death in a fire in 2026. However, all three of them were rescued by an old man just before they died.
To cut a long story short, they wake up and find the old man who saved them. The man introduces himself as Foster and tells them he works for an agency called TimeRiders, the same agency that the three of them were recruited for. They would work with the agency and their goal would be to prevent time travellers from altering the past. When they went for a walk Maddy notices that they are in New York. However, the Twin Towers were still part of the skyline. Foster explained that they were in 2001 on 10th September, the day before the 9/11 attack. The three of them would be the New York group of the agency. The room where they woke up would be their field office where they would be living and working. The field office was in a time bubble of 48 hours and would reset on the night of 11th September. Therefore, the three of them would be reliving the 10th and 11th of September over and over.Each one of them had a particular role. Sal would be the observer as she was very observant and would immediately notice if anything had changed or if time travellers had changed anything. Maddy would be the analyst and would discover where and when the change occurred. Liam would be the field agent and would be sent back in time to fix and correct the timeline.
I had recently reviewed the first book in this series. Now I’m reviewing the second book that is called “The Copper Gauntlet”. (Minor spoilers)
Call will soon be heading off to his second year at the Magisterium. He feels unexpectedly relieved, at the thought of going back and escaping the strained silence that had invaded his home ever since he had gotten back. Alastair was angry at the fact that Call had attended the Magisterium and was going back. This had led to an awkwardness and had put a strain on their relationship that hadn’t been there before. With only one or two weeks left, he is longing for the holidays to end.
One day, Havoc, his pet wolf goes missing. Call is horrified to find him tied up in his basement. Adding to his horror are the pair of shackles that seem to be for a teenage boy. Call confronts his dad and it ends in a huge fight that leads Call to leaving his house. Call goes to Tamara’s house and goes to the Magisterium directly from there. His joy at being at the Magisterium is diminished when he realizes that someone had tried to steal the Alkahest, that was a dangerous object used to destroy Makars. He is even more shocked when he notices the uncanny resemblance between the Alkahest and a drawing he had seen in his dad’s notebook. Call is gripped with fear and uncertainty because he thinks Alastair tried to steal the Alkahest. He tells Aaron and Tamara who in turn tell the Masters at the Magisterium. Now, there is a manhunt for Alastair Hunt, involving all the mages in the world. Call decides to set out and find his father before the mages so that he could at least try to prove Alastair’s innocence. He knows he has to try because the alternative would mean certain death for his father. Aaron and Tamara insist on coming. The only hitch in the plan was having to kidnap Jasper, a fellow student to ensure that he didn’t snitch on them.
Now, Call and his friends are in a race against time to find Alastair before its too late. And on the journey Call must prevent his friends from discovering his secret, knowing that they would hate him if they knew.
The second book was as good as the first. Maybe it was even better. Holly Black and Cassandra Clare know how to spin a very good tale. They haven’t copied any of the age old clichés but instead have created such fresh and new ideas you are surprised at every turn. My favourite character has to be Jasper. He adds the spice and sarcasm to the book. My favourite parts are when Call and Jasper start arguing. Then, you just can’t stop laughing. Their sarcastic and snide comments are hilarious. While the book has its humour, the series never loses the darkness that was so evident in the first book. In every chapter you can sense the darkness in Call and his frustration and fear that his friends would discover his secret. The air of mystery still remains and you are still amazed by the ideas and the plot.
