Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This is another book that I read because of my AP class. I do have to admit that I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. The Boys in the Boat  tells the story of the 1936 U.S. Olympic rowing team. This team came from Washington State and was made up of a seemingly rag-tag group of boys. One boy in particular, Joe, came from very humble circumstances. Having been basically abandoned by his family multiple times in his childhood, Joe lacked confidence. By the time he got to the Olympics, his coaches had helped him succeed. I know next to nothing about rowing, but that was not a requirement to understand this book. Daniel James Brown does a great job of explaining the sport, and also introducing the mechanics of the boats themselves. I thought much of the background information he provided about boats and the legendary builder of them fascinating, but at times unnecessary. Joe's story is in many ways inspiring but also heartbreaking. Brown describes his childhood and ho...

 This book is a kind of sequel to The Paper Magician series, taking place after the events of The Master Magician . My mom really enjoyed this series (and I did too, overall), and the book, so I bought it on Audible and listened to it. Alvie Brechenmacher travels from the United States to London to study polymaking - the art of using plastic in spells, under the legendary Marion Praff. Unnaturally gifted, Alvie progresses quickly. Praff requires her to volunteer, and she spends those hours in a hospital. There, Alvie meets Ethel Cooper, a young woman who lost part of her arm in a horrible accident. Alvie befriends Ethel and is determined to help her out. She and Praff come up with the idea to create a prosthetic arm using their powers. Can they finish the prototype before the grand Convention? And can they protect their research from someone determined to steal it? Overall, I did love this series. I found it rather cozy, and I loved the way it was written. This book, however, felt ...

I read this novel for Battle of the Books, but I also wanted to read it. I keep trying Sepetys novels, thinking I'm really going to like them, and then finding myself disappointed. This novel was an exception. This is probably the best Sepetys novel I've read so far. I Must Betray You is the story of Romania behind the Iron Curtain. Christian Florescu is seventeen. His grandfather, an intellectual, questions the current regime, and Christian finds himself agreeing. Romanians are struggling; waiting in long lines hoping for food, spies everywhere, never knowing who's an informer and who isn't. Amidst these tensions, Christian is confronted by an agent of the secret police and blackmailed into informing on Dan Van Dorn, the son of the American Ambassador. Stuck between his beliefs and his fear, Christian does as he's told, hoping that he can dupe the agent. I loved this book, more than any other Sepetys novel I've read. While Sepetys excels at many things in her w...

This is my second time through The Great Gatsby . This time, I was reading to annotate it so that I'm ready to teach it. I really enjoy this book! The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an American classic set in 1922 at the height of the Roaring 20s. Nick Carraway is new in New York City. He moves into a dumpy house next to this gorgeous mansion owned by one Jay Gatsby. Across the bay, in the upper-class East Egg lives the Buchanans, a distant cousin of Nick Carraway. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are "old money," while Gatsby is "new money," with no one actually really knowing where he got all of his cash. Gatsby and Daisy dated for a time before he went to Europe to fight in WWI. While he was gone, Daisy married Tom, and Gatsby is trying to win her back. He throws elaborate parties at his mansion in an attempt to impress her. Will he win her back and get the happily-ever-after he wishes, erasing the past few years? I love The Great Gatsby . Maybe that's the...