December Releases

By: Martha Pointer

With the end of the semester approaching, I’m looking forward to having some time to sit down and read. Although November was a month chock full of new releases, December has a couple I am looking forward to. So without further ado, here are the book releases I’m highly anticipating in December.

Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying’s advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study… as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don’t loot everything first. Mia and Jules’ different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.

In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race’s secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race…

I’ve always enjoyed Amie Kaufman’s storytelling and her past few collaborations, namely the Illuminae series with Jay Kristoff, have been outstanding. So needless to say, I’m pumped for her newest collaboration (also, alien books are always cool).

Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes

This book is the sixth in a young adult fantasy series, so I’m not going to provide a summary because of spoilers. The Falling Kingdoms series is one I’ve loved for awhile; it’s action-packed, fast-paced, and exciting, and I enjoy the multiple perspectives the story is told from. The fifth book left off on a huge cliffhanger, so I have been DYING to read this installment for the last year. I CAN’T WAIT!

Well, there you have it. The two books I’m most excited for in December. Aside from those, I’ll probably spend my break catching up on other fall releases that I missed because of college. Sigh.

Which books are you most excited to read in December?

A List of “Book Firsts”

By: Fiona Schneider

A lot of people have a single book they can name that made them a “reader.” I can’t say I am one of those people since I have been reading for as long as I can remember, and according to my parents even longer than that. However, I do have a somewhat list of “book firsts” I can share that chronicles my reading history and development.

I was never much for children’s literature, my mother claims I jumped straight from picture books to chapter books once I could read like a baby bird learning to fly. However, I did have a fond love for Dr. Seuss (much to my mother’s chagrin because she does NOT have a fond love for the Doc). The first book I picked up by Dr. Seuss was The Lorax, and I kind of stumbled into reading any book I could find by him thereafter. I loved the lyricism and flow of the words, and the Doctor is probably to be blamed for why I have fun writing poetry for myself in my spare time.

The next “book first” is actually about two books my father read to me when I was five before bed at the same time, switching back and forth depending on my choice each night. And these are the first books I read that tackled more depressing topics, like injuries, death, and recovery. These were Runt by Marion Dane Bauer and My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara. Runt is about a young wolf pup who is the pack, well, runt. It follows his life as he grows up and tries to prove himself beyond his small size to his father, King, in comparison to his other four siblings. My Friend Flicka is much different from the several show and movie adaptations, with the original main character being a young boy who sees Flicka, an uncontrollable yearling, at a round up and knows she is the horse he has been looking for. The story is a bit more dark than the later adaptations, and goes into a lot of the underbelly of the equine world. And if you haven’t noticed yet, I am a bit of an animal lover so I almost solely read books that revolved around animals and reality until my next and last “book first.”

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. This is the first fantasy novel I ever read when I was about nine, and I haven’t turned away from the genre since. I already wrote about this novel in a previous blog post to the main character, Meggie, but I left out details on the storyline itself. This book follows the adventures of Meggie Folchart, who learns she is a silvertongue, someone who can read words and make whatever is written a reality. She can read herself into books, as well as read characters out of books. She uses this ability to try and rescue her father who has been kidnapped and she thinks has been transported to the world inside the book Inkheart.

Now that I’ve told you a little about my own reading journey, I challenge you to try and think of some of your own “book firsts.” This reflection may make you laugh as you realize some things about yourself and just how much one book may have changed your life.

Treat Your Cat

For those who do not know, October 29 was National Cat Day and November 1 was Cook for Your Pet day. Although these are not necessarily commonly celebrated days, and it is kind of a requirement to feed your cat every day, it isn’t too late to treat your feline friend with a nice meal anyways.

Purr-fect Recipes for a Healthy Cat: 101 Natural Cat Food & Treat Recipes to Make Your Cat Healthy and Happy by Lisa Shiroff gives a guide to understanding a cat’s diet as well as a comprehensive recipes list to choose from, including the one below:

Poached salmon

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds whole salmon
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 6 quarts water
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 teaspoon eggshells
• 1,000 mg taurine

Directions:

1. If you do not have a fish poacher, use a roasting pan with a lid and a rack that will hold the fish.
2. Combine water and vegetables in pan.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
4. Lay fish on rack and add more water if needed to cover.
5. Replace lid and simmer 25 to 30 minutes or until meat is no longer deep pink around the backbone.
6. Remove pan from heat, but let fish remain in broth up to 45 minutes.
7. Remove fish and vegetables; finely dice so that your cat can comfortably eat it.

Now go make your cat happy! They were probably begging you for food anyways.

Surviving Mother Nature 101

By: Fiona Schneider

Everyone loves a good romp in the woods, or a weekend out with friends or family to camp under the stars. Being stranded due a natural disaster, empty gas tank or getting lost on a hike, however, is not generally on someone’s weekly to-do list. The thought of being “wilderness prepared” might not even cross your mind due to today’s technology. But cell phone signal only goes so far, and not everyone just happens to stash several days worth of survival supplies in their car trunk, so the ability to “live off the land” per se, can be helpful.

In A Complete Guide to Surviving in the Wilderness: Everything You Need To Know To Stay Alive and Get Rescued by Terri Paajanen, is a plethora of survival tips that can get you through any situation. Perhaps you are a wilderness enthusiast who wants to go off the radar for a few days, or even weeks, and you run into an impromptu emergency situation, such as lack of supplies or injury. Or you are at home and experience an extreme natural disaster, such as a hurricane. Regardless of the dire situation, this book can help. This resource covers everything from how to find shelter, to securing and rationing supplies, as well as how to deal with a series of different injuries and illnesses.

In an emergency survival situation, though, the best advice from the survival skill equipped Shannon Morrigan is to, “Keep your head.” Staying calm and thinking a situation through could be the difference in your survival. If you are in a panic, you may rush your actions and not realize small details. For example, if you get lost on a hike and run around in a delirious state, you may not recognize familiar landmarks or hear running water when you get near it.

If you are planning to go on a camping weekend get away, make sure to tell those around you where you plan to stay, and for how long. This will decrease your rescue time when others start to question why you haven’t returned when you said you would. Also remember to bring the proper supplies. Don’t focus on luxury items, or foods that will spoil if not eaten in a few days (and especially not items that need refrigeration). A first aid kit and nonperishable foods, or simply foods with a long shelf life such as trail mix, are priorities. If you’re not the most fit person, don’t be overambitious and stuff a 70 pound pack to carry around. Stick to the essentials. A camping trip isn’t a fashion show, and if you go by yourself, nobody is going to be around to even tell if you wore an outfit more than one day in a row anyways, so skip the extra clothes for more important things, like a flashlight or pocket multi-tool.

Other small pieces of advice include planning how and when your supplies, namely food and water, will be used. Also consider learning how to tie various knots and snares before your trip. This will help with stowing away supplies to keep them out of the reach of foraging animals while you sleep, or help to catch food should you be stranded for a lengthening amount of time. Remember a person can survive longer without food than water, so once you realize you are lost, finding water is the first priority. Then comes shelter, and then food since water often doubles as a source of food if fish happen to populate the body of water you discover.

Nobody particularly wants to be stuck in the wilderness, but should this occur, it is good to be informed about what actions you can take to best survive and await rescue.

 

A Book Worth The Struggle

By: Fiona Schneider

Now, I don’t come upon books I dislike very often. Whether it’s my tendency to not take recommendations seriously, my low standards or my picky nature of not trying out books I don’t think I’ll like, I can’t pin point the real reason. I just tend to like the books I read from the get-go. However, when it comes to a book assigned for school, I often find I don’t care for them as much. I never hate them, but they are often so much more tedious to read. Especially since most books required by classes tend to be either in or on their way into the classics genre, and while I’ve read a significant number of classics, I can’t say they are anywhere near my favorite genre.

So, when in my senior year of high school my teacher had us read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy the summer before class started, I could have been a bit more thrilled. It’s a book about a family in Kerala, India, who used to be rich, and now just act like it. Roy mixes some fantastical elements into the otherwise realistic narrative, and delves deep into familial, religious, cultural, societal, and even gender stereotypes. There’s all sorts of individual stories mixed into the narrative. Murder, scandalous affairs, runaway children, and other dark events. The God of Small Things is not for the faint of heart, it’s gritty and real, even with the slight magical undertone.

I honestly did not like it at first, mostly because I couldn’t understand any of what was going on. The book is told through two timelines that interrupt and contradict each other, almost as if they fight for dominance on the pages for who gets to tell which part of the story next. It’s confusing, deliberately confusing. Especially when the section is told from the eyes of one of the family children who don’t understand what is happening around them. The reader is shown things that are answers, to questions which haven’t even been asked yet, so you are left with information you at first believe is irrelevant.

The graphic scenes and jolting transitions did not sit well with me when I was first reading the novel, but by the end I was fully on board. It was like a switch flipped, and while I still did not quite understand all that was going on, I was finding snippets of interest to latch onto and enjoy. I fell in love with Roy’s peculiar writing style and her equally weird characters.

I had to read it twice before I was able to pick up on half of the social critiques, cultural jabs, and other conversations Roy stowed away within the text. Even still, after an entire year of studying the novel (as it was one of my teacher’s favorite novels, and we kept coming back to study it before our IB exams) I believe if I read it again, I would only find more. It is the oddest little blend of grotesque and beauty I believe I have ever read, and I highly recommend it to anyone willing to read a novel that doesn’t tip toe around the darker parts of life.

 

Best Books of the Year (So Far)

By: Martha Pointer

I’ll be honest with you – I haven’t read much this year. Between school and traveling and being constantly ill, I just haven’t had or made the time for reading that I have in years past. That being said, I’ve still read a couple of home runs in the book department.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

My brother bought me this book for Christmas last year, but I didn’t get around to reading it until I was backpacking through Europe this summer. I borrowed the e-book from my library and read it on my Kindle on planes, trains, buses, you name it. Set in a Romanesque world, Nevernight is a beautifully written fantasy novel about a girl training to be an assassin in order to seek revenge for her parents’ murders by a corrupt government. The main character, Mia, is enthralling and far from perfect, which I loved, and so much is set for the next book in the series. I can’t wait.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Wow, I didn’t expect to love this one as much as I did. Into the Wild is a book I’ve had on my to-be-read list for ages, but I was inspired to finally read it this summer while traveling. It chronicles the life and death of the young adventurer Christopher McCandless, who was found dead in a backwoods trailer in Alaska in the 1990s. I found Chris’ story very moving, and related to some of his philosophies regarding excess, the value of nature, and seeing the world. I have fond memories of starting this book in my Airbnb in Berlin, devouring it for hours in Letna Park, which overlooks Prague, and finishing it back home in my childhood bedroom. Krakauer’s book is well written and includes personal anecdotes that made me want to read some of his other works, most of which chronicle his adventures rock climbing and in nature. Into the Wild is one of those instances where, in my opinion, the book far surpassed the film.

Love Her Wild by Atticus and The Universe of Us by Lang Leav

These two poetry books are about love, heartbreak, humanity, and the beauty of the human spirit. I found them to be empowering and lovely to read. I connected with the simplistic style of poetry both authors use and felt that, after reading both books, I had been enlightened on the experience of being vulnerable, emotional, and well, human.

Wondrak and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig

Surprise! Another travel read. I picked this collection of short stories off the shelf of Massolit Books & Cafe in Krakow, Poland and sat there reading on a rainy day with a steaming latte and a slice of carrot cake. I loved all three stories, each of which was set in the World War I era. The first was about the persecution of a Jewish community, the second about a man drafted into the German army, and the third about a deformed woman who would do anything to keep her son from fighting in the war.

Well, there you have it: 5 of my favorite books from this year (so far). Hopefully I’ll get to read a few more great books before the end of 2017!

What are some of your favorite reads from this year?

Book Signing Experience: Rick Riordan

By: Fiona Schneider

Ever since I first read the Percy Jackson series as an elementary school kid (albeit WAY out of order) my love for Rick Riordan, affectionately called Uncle Rick in the fandom, has only grown. The chance to get a booked signed by him, or possibly see him in person, was an out-of-reach dream tucked away in the recesses of my mind. However, early this year, Rick Riordan announced he would be going on a book tour for his latest book, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Ship of the Dead, and for the first time ever he was including a Florida location! Tampa! I madly checked the website over and over again for details on tickets, time, and location. It was almost painful, until one day in September when I was checking the website and FINALLY information was released about the Florida event. I rushed to my mother in a panic, told her I was going, no questions allowed and marked it down on the family calendar.

Flash forward to last night, after a day of driving to Tampa and a hurried visit to Sonic because I was starving after only eating a croissant the entire day due to nerves, I made it. I managed to snag a seat toward the front and waited an hour for the event to begin. I started to get antsy when 6:10 p.m. hit, 10 minutes after the event was supposed to start, and all the activity in the auditorium furthered my giddiness. Everything officially began when two actors dressed as Magnus and Alex, characters from the book, performed a skit and threw goodies into the audience. Then came the time when Riordan was introduced.

Not going to lie, my initial reaction was, “Oh, that’s not what I expected him to sound like.” I quickly forgot this, though, and enjoyed his wonderful presentation on how he came into writing as a profession in 7th grade from an English teacher who gave him a little push. His career in publishing was the typical story of getting rejected numerous times before a single one of his ideas was picked up and published. He transitioned from adult murder mysteries to focusing on middle-grade books when he realized this was the age group he knew best. This was in conjunction with stories he made up for his eldest son, who struggled to read as a kid because of his ADHD and dyslexia.

The presentation transitioned from personal history to discussing characters from the books, as well as future releases. One, in particular, I am excited about is the series of books coming from the “Rick Riordan Presents” Disney Hyperion Imprint where Riordan is promoting the work of other authors who write about their native mythologies.

This, in turn, led to the Question and Answer section, which was equally informative as funny. I’ll take this time to comment on the actual personality of Rick Riordan, and how who he is as a person has only solidified him as my favorite author. Riordan loves to play the comedian and make people laugh. The presentation was so much fun to watch and listen to, I don’t even mind that it wasn’t a live signing, and I wasn’t able to speak with him one-on-one. He’s also incredibly genuine, despite the majority of the presentation probably being scripted, I can’t help but feel there was a large portion of him ad-libbing and interacting with the audience as he wished. He admits to not knowing everything about his universe and what’s going to happen, but that he’s continually researching and planning to try and give us readers something worthy.

To a question, “Would you ever do a collab with J.K. Rowling?” he laughed and answered, “I don’t really think Ms. Rowling needs any help. Besides, why would she want to work with me?” That spark of humility, jabbing humor, and strange sense of confidence is a wonderful summary of why I love him as both an author and person.

The free merchandise at the end of the event was a pure bonus.

 

Overhyped Books

By: Martha Pointer

Do you ever read a hyped up book and think, huh? Most of the time, popular books are popular for a reason – presumably because they’re good, and worth reading, or so I would like to believe. But sometimes I’ll read a widely publicized book that everyone is gushing over and feel underwhelmed. That sense of disappointment tends to derive from two sources: either I didn’t click with the book or genuinely thought it was bad; or, it was SO hyped up that the book itself couldn’t live up to my expectations. In essence, the hype killed the book. It’s a problem I’ve encountered a fair few times, so today I thought I’d share some of my most overrated books.

I love fantasy. It’s by far my favorite genre, and I read a lot of it. So I can be kind of picky when it comes to overhyped fantasy books, particularly in the young adult genre. I feel like a lot of YA fantasy novels overuse certain tropes or lack strong world-building, making them weak in the fantasy department in my not-so-expert opinion. The Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo is sadly overrated in my view because it relies on a (rather annoying) love triangle and spotty world-building to support the narrative. The protagonist can be weak at times and relies on men a little too much for my liking in the early part of the series. I don’t hate Bardugo’s writing by any means; in fact, I think her Six of Crows duology is brilliant. I liked Shadow and Bone enough to finish it and read the next two books, but I think it could’ve been much better with more extensive world-building and less emphasis on romance.

Another fantasy series I found overhyped is the Study series by Maria V. Snyder. I enjoyed Poison Study well enough – it’s led by a strong female protagonist and an interesting male antagonist – but the following two installments were disappointing. They just seemed to drag on forever with nothing really happening, and I got so bored trying to get through them. I know this is a series many readers love, but in the end, it just wasn’t for me!

Because I read mostly fantasy, most of my overhyped books tend to fall into that genre, but there are a few others that don’t. I thought the writing style of The Fault and Our Stars by John Green was trying too hard to be witty, although I still enjoyed the book, and my best friend raved so much about The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that I was slightly underwhelmed when I finally read it for myself. Hype can kill good books for me, and sometimes mediocre books are hyped up because a lot of people connect to them, but I don’t. It all depends on the level of hype surrounding a book, the reader, and the book itself.

What’s a book you feel is overhyped?

A Letter to Meggie Folchart

By: Fiona Schneider

[Meggie Folchart is the main character of the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke.]

Dear Meggie Folchart,

I think I forgive you. Or maybe I don’t. I still struggle to discern my feelings about you since they have festered since I was eight. Maybe it’s a bit odd to hold a grudge against a fictional character, but when you’re a child, none of that matters.

First and foremost, I love you. Or rather, perhaps I want to be you, and thus envy you. You could read a few simple words and whisk yourself into the very books I so desperately wanted to be a part of. My young mind may have thought you took this for granted, I don’t remember. I just remember initially loving your character. You had faults, but you were not weak. You did not give in or stand by when someone of a supposed “higher authority” told you to wait. My own desire to act and never quite be satisfied with where I am in life made me see myself in you.

And that, is perhaps why I can’t forgive you for wanting peace. At the end of a fantastical, epic trilogy filled with adventure, trauma, and character development you decided on the calm. You were so young, and yet you decided on not the boy with the most beautiful eyes that shined like starlight, but the kind inventor from an unpublished book. Doria was pleasant, serene. For my heart, he was just too perfect, too good, too right for a girl who previously sought out treachery.

I have read practically every official explanation to this plot point from Cornelia Funke to date, but I have never REALLY wanted to understand it. I feel like my own contempt for your decision has blinded me to the choice, but nevertheless, I still feel you chose wrong. Of course, I realize I may be wrong. Farid had a lost-child attachment to Dustfinger and a growing love for fire-play. He would never settle and had the charisma of any smooth-talker, but by the end he was willing to grow with you.

Maybe you set him free for the better, but I guess my main argument is not even about your love life, but about settling into complacency on your journey. The Silvertongue I so admired and wished I could be had lost her spark. No longer did you seek out danger or vie for quests of wonder. Barely out of your teenaged years and you desired a simple, carefree life.

Perhaps my fear of giving in to that same peace made me view you differently. I still loved you, but no longer wanted to be you. It was like losing a role-model or life path. It was a stark reality that I could not be the Silvertongue. So perhaps if I re-read your story I could forgive you, or maybe I have already forgiven you in some small part of me. I don’t know, but I will not lie in saying that I will always be a bit curious to know how your life turned out.

Decent Wishes,

The Heart of a Young Bookworm

An Underrated Book

By: Martha Pointer

I read a lot of books. Popular books, classics, books for school, books I stumble upon… you get the idea. I’ve found that, most of the time, popular books are popular for a reason, but sometimes I don’t understand the hype surrounding them. Then there are books that aren’t as well known, but are amazing, or that a lot of people were underwhelmed by that I adored. Just One Day by Gayle Forman is one of such novels.

Just One Day follows a girl named Allison through the summer after graduating from high school and her first year of college. She takes a school trip to England, meets a mysterious actor at a street performance of a Shakespeare play, and spontaneously decides to take a train to Paris with him the next day. They spend all day and night together, and then the next morning, Willem is gone. From there on, Allison is forced to evaluate changes in herself as she attempts to navigate college life and piece together Willem’s disappearance. The book is cool because it essentially shows how one choice, one act of spontaneity, one day can change someone’s life.

Many people, including most of my friends, didn’t like Just One Day. They found it boring, or the main character annoying. I, however, really connected with Allison and her narrative. I read Just One Day the summer after freshman year of high school and at the time, I was in a very similar place as Allison, one of being a perfectionist and having a life plan, but not necessarily wanting to follow through with it. She helped me get more in touch with myself and who I wanted to be, and I learned a lot from her story. The storyline itself drew me in with its settings in Europe and a college campus in the U.S., and I enjoyed the uncertainty and vulnerability of the romance. Overall, I was quite impressed with Just One Day, and a lot of that is because I connected with it on a deeper level probably than others who maybe didn’t like it as much.

I think Gayle Forman is a great writer of YA that deals with difficult or more complex young adult subjects, and I think Just One Day is underrated and less appreciated than it should be. It’s a remarkable coming of age novel, and I think it’s one that many people could relate to, particularly because Allison really has to rediscover herself throughout it. If it sounds interesting to you, or if you’ve enjoyed any of Forman’s other novels, like If I Stay, give Just One Day a read!

P.S. If you do read Just One Day, make sure you read the novella Just One Night, too! Forman also wrote Just One Year, which chronicles the same year from Willem’s perspective, and if you enjoy Just One Day, I’d recommend reading that, as well.

What’s a book you believe is underrated?