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A Reader's Recipe to Proper Hallucination

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When I was a small child, full of aspirations, imaginations, and dreams, my *insert relative* would treat me with this recipe. After playing in the fields all day, I would run back inside to our old wooden stove, and take in the fresh, familiar, and crispy aroma of my *inserts relatives* specialty. Everybody’s eyes can’t help but sweep over the precisely cut layers and take in the symmetrical markings. This generational secret not only carries varieties of meanings with every individual one, but it also surpasses all typical size, shape, and time limitations. It has been passed down through our family for generations, along with a little phrase: “Fill your eyes, fill your mind”. After the recent decease of my *insert relative*, I thought there would be no better way to remember *insert relative* than to share this recipe, in hope others find the same comfort and reminder of home that we do. Please help us continue this generational tradition. A Reader's Recipe to Proper Halluci...
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Restart by Connor Guarnieri

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       Throughout this year, I have read many books, mostly dystopian and mystery, but today I want to take a step back for my final blog and write about a new genre. I remember picking this book up because my 6th-grade teacher recommended it to me. I've heard of the author before and seen some of his other books, but have never actually read one of them. So I thought I should check it out.      Restart is a realistic fiction book, centered around a main character named Chase. To be right, this kid is an asshole. He has bad friends, he bullies people, intimidates them, and hurts them. But he is a star football player, he has well-respected parents, and whoever doesn't hate him already, loves him. Chase believes he has the perfect life, and is being offered some scholarships for his athletic talents. But it all comes crashing down, literally. He, being a reckless moron, falls off headfirst of his roof, suffering brain damage. He becomes an amnesiac and ...
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Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within review by David Goggins - Aldo

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This book by David Goggins has to be one of the best books for motivation. If you this is your first David Goggins book then I highly recommend it. I would say its better than the first one just because it talks more about compassion and still wanting to be the best but also wanting the best for those around him. You also see a lot of growth from David as an individual and you see him try and developed his winning mentality into something more elaborated. The book itself is a great ways to help you reach your goals and examine your personality. The book overall helps you overcome your fears, how to use your emotions as fuel, how to break the mental wall you have created because of past trauma, and how to be a true self leader. I would this book is great for anyone who wants to better themselves and learn how to grow as a person.  I would give it a 9 out of 10
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Anatomy of "Anatomy: a love story"

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  While I was reading it, it didn’t seem that bad. Then I sat down to think about it and it did. It seemed to be written solely for the purpose of being entertaining and igniting pity. It definitely didn’t succeed. The “social commentaries” didn’t add anything new, and seemed to evoke pity and outrage and nothing else.                 The social pressures on women and the misogyny in the book are so much stronger than ANY other historical literature I have ever experienced, and all the men (excluding the mc’s love interest) were misogynistic villains. There was soooooo much opportunity to dive into why and how that sexism was instilled, or use the mc to fight those terrible stereotypes and social norms cleverly, but it’s potential died.  The only attempt Hazel (mc) made to pave the way for any woman interested in medicine, was making a deal with Dr. Beechman III, the founder of the Anatomist Society of Scotland and basically th...
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The Selection by Kiera Cass

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"The Selection" by Kiera Cass is a YA dystopian romance novel set in a futuristic society divided into castes. The story follows America Singer, a young girl from the fifth caste who is chosen to compete in "The Selection," a competition where thirty-five girls are chosen to vie for the prince's hand in marriage. At first, America is reluctant to participate, but she enters the competition to support her family. As the competition progresses, America finds herself torn between her growing feelings for Prince Maxon, the kind-hearted prince who is the future king of the country, and her past love for Aspen, a boy from her hometown who is now a soldier in the palace. America has to navigate the complexities of the competition and the politics of the palace, all while trying to decide where her heart truly lies.                                              ...
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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr review - Aldo

Before and during Germany's conquest of France, the story takes place in Germany and France. Doerr's vivid imagination appears to be rooted in his or her favorite children's literature: Marie-Laure is a little motherless French girl who is blind and has the freckles of Pollyanna and Anne of Green Gables. In the German mining community of Zollverein, which is close to Essen, Werner Pfennig and his sister Jutta are orphans. He is a seven-year-old boy with snow-white hair whose presence fills the space "like being in the room with a feather." Even though Werner is small, he is not Peter Pan. He is gifted in science, especially the complexities of radios. He's able to cure anything.  For me, the book was really interesting. I liked the way that each character had their own little backstory. I also liked how detailed the story was. It did a great job of explaining everything that was happening in the book and how it influenced the ending. Speaking of the finale, fo...
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Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

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  Keeper of the Lost Cities  - Shannon Messenger, entire series *Spoiler warnings* I’m not talking about book one, book two, or book three. I’m talking about the whole nine-book incomplete series. I firmly believe that it is really good (although maybe just after the first few books). Once you get back Sophie Foster's god complex, or rather get used to it, the rest of the series allows you to pretend the side characters are the main characters. Sophie is an elf with superpowers, who after spending the first twelve years of her life in the human world (and reading the dictionary for fun at age five), gets introduced to the elf world. And of course, she has to save the world. Nine books later… She's still working on it. Most elves have one ability (basically a superpower), and she just happens to manifest a new one every book. Even made up a couple new ones!              You can imagine how entertaining that would b...
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