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Book Review: Kalahari

Kalahari Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Deep in the Kalahari Desert, a Corpus lab protects a dangerous secret…
But what happens when that secret takes on a life of its own?

When an educational safari goes wrong, five teens find themselves stranded in the Kalahari Desert without a guide. It’s up to Sarah, the daughter of zoologists, to keep them alive and lead them to safety, calling on survival know-how from years of growing up in remote and exotic locales. Battling dehydration, starvation and the pangs of first love, she does her best to hold it together, even as their circumstances grow increasingly desperate.

But soon a terrifying encounter makes Sarah question everything she’s ever known about the natural world. A silver lion, as though made of mercury, makes a vicious, unprovoked attack on the group. After a narrow escape, they uncover the chilling truth behind the lion’s silver sheen: a highly contagious and deadly virus that threatens to ravage the entire area—and eliminate life as they know it.

In this breathtaking new novel by the acclaimed author of Origin and Vitro, Sarah and the others must not only outrun the virus, but its creators, who will stop at nothing to wipe every trace of it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it when I first picked it up. Not because it didn’t sound like something I’d enjoy, but due to not knowing what all was going to happen.

What I enjoyed about reading Kalahari is that it’s the third book in a series. A series where each book stands on its own without the reader having to read the previous books to get the gist of what’s going on. I really enjoyed it for this reason because it meant I didn’t have to go back and read Origin and Vitro before reading this one, though I’m most likely going to read those two books now because of it.

I also enjoyed reading this book because it takes place in a whole other world than what I’m used to. The setting takes place in the Kalahari Dessert, which is located in South Africa. It’s a place I’ve never been to and probably will never get the chance to see. But I enjoyed reading about it in this story because I felt like I was being taken to that place for a short while. It’s a fictional story, but its centered around a real place teaming with wildlife and nature. Reading a fictional book that takes place in a real world setting is something I rarely experience, but enjoy every time I do. I especially enjoyed it while reading this book.

Another reason I found this story so enjoyable was because the main characters felt so real and relatable. Even though I didn’t like all of the teenagers Sarah was stuck interacting with, I felt as if I was getting a glimpse into the way teenagers in today’s society would react if they were stuck in a dessert with little to no access to cell phones and other technologies. I found them relatable in that way, even when there carrying on and bickering got on my nerves. But I enjoyed seeing everything from Sarah’s perspective who isn’t used to dealing with human interaction because of her daily experiences in the wild.

I found the story in Kalahari to be enjoyable too. I like the idea of a deadly virus existing in the wild dessert where no one suspects it to be and a group of teenagers being the ones to stop it. I also enjoyed the story because throughout, the pacing was very climatic. I felt as if I was thrown into the action of the story, and loved every minute of it.

The one thing with this book I didn’t particularly enjoy was how neat and tight they ended the story. I felt as if everything turned out too perfectly for the characters that it was completely unrealistic. For example, I felt as if the author made the cure for the virus too easy. She made it where Sarah was able to figure out the cure on her own with a very limited amount of information. To me, that didn’t really suit the story because it made the events at the end happen a lot quicker than the rest of the book so that everything could be tied up all nice and neat. I also just didn’t like how they ended the book because I wanted to know what happened with the characters after the cure spread to the other animals that had been infected. I wanted to see more of the relationship between Sam and Sarah and wanted to know how this experience affected the rest of the group.

Despite this one issue however, I found Kalahari as a whole to be an absolute enjoyable read. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series at a later date.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Catching Up On Life

If We Were Having Coffee Image Ten

Hello everyone! Sorry for not doing one of these posts in two weeks. I’ve had a lot going on the past two weeks that I wasn’t available to do one for you. Hope you all are doing well this week and are having a lovely weekend.

If we were having coffee, I’d like to let you know what all I’ve been up to since we last spoke. I’d tell you about socializing with some old and true friends. I’d tell you I went to my best friend’s husband’s birthday party on a Saturday two weekends ago and got so drunk that I was hungover the next day. But I’d also tell you the party was fun and that I had a good time seeing my best friend once again. I’d also tell you about seeing my old friend from middle school that following Tuesday that I haven’t spoken to and really spent time with since high school. I’d tell you we were playing Pokémon Go because she’s become as addicted to it as I’ve been. I’d also like to mention I also saw her husband and daughter who I met briefly once a December a couple years ago. I’d tell you we all had a good time, and that it felt nice catching up with her, just like old times. We talked a lot about the stuff we did when we were younger, but also talked about how much things have changed over the last couple years. But also said we definitely need to do this again, and made sure we made plans to hang out together.

On that Tuesday after we hung out, I went to our Neighborhood Association National Night Out. My Mom is a part of the association as secretary and the person they had set everything up did a really good job. Unfortunately, the event didn’t last too terribly long because it began to pour minutes after it all started.

I also saw my sister the following Sunday after missing the opportunity the previous weekend to spend time with her. We met up near the college she attended, grabbed breakfast and walked around campus for a little bit. It looks like they are doing some construction around campus for the bridge program students, which really had Laney in quite a tizzy. But it felt nice to see my sister again, even if it was only for a brief moment.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’m sorry for not writing as many blog posts. Part of the reason I haven’t done quite as many is because I’m not sure what I want to write about on my blog next. That, along with using the new platform and taking the online course, for which I’ve already written two new posts, I’m hesitant still about posting the same material on two different sites. Mostly because for the class I can’t do that so I’m just treading carefully right now. Though I think I know what I want to do, or what I plan on doing, to say the least. Since I’ve been taking the online class, I originally wasn’t planning on doing any posts on that site until I completed the course. However, I think this might be counterproductive to me. Because if during the time I’m taking the course I decide to write video game reviews, I want to post them both on the site but on my blog as well. Not because I don’t want to post any of my other posts on my blog, but because I normally like having my video game reviews on my blog and would prefer to keep it that way, if I can. And the posts that I’m doing to complete the course are usually more specific in nature, I’d prefer to keep them on the site than have them both here on my blog and their site. So instead of sharing all of the posts for the course on here, I’m going to share them on my Twitter, and then at the end of the course talk about my whole experience with it and what I learned from it on my blog. Then from there, put whatever posts I decide to write on Now Loading onto my blog too so that you guys can still read what I’ve written. I hope that isn’t too confusing, but just know I’ll still be blogging on here, but I’ll probably only be doing reviews or some of my own writing unless I can think of something that I don’t want to post about on the other site.

In other news, I’d briefly like to mention with that I’m going to start playing some other games. While I’m still playing Pokémon Go currently, I’m not really playing too much else at the moment. I just started playing Transistor yesterday, which I’m pretty excited about because I’ve been wanting to play it for a while on Steam, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So that’ll probably be the next game I post about on my blog while still deciding what I want to talk about for assignment three at Creators Academy. I think I’ll probably do my next assignment on The Hunger Games again like I’d planned on doing, but still trying to figure out what I want to talk about with it. But I’m also interested in playing No Man’s Sky at some point, though I’ve been hearing there’ve been a lot of issues with it on PC. So I’ll probably wait until the PC issues are fixed or until I can get a PlayStation 4 to play it because I don’t want to deal with those issues on my computer, if I can avoid it. Plus, I want to get a PlayStation 4 in the near future anyway so I might as well save up my money and wait until I’m back at work making some money to get it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished reading both Shadow Mountain and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I enjoyed reading both books, but for very different reasons. You can see the reviews if you want to know more. But with the Harry Potter book, just be warned that my review has a lot of spoilers about what happens. So if you don’t want your reading experience to be ruined, I’d suggest you to wait until after you’ve read it to check out my review.

I think that’s it, that I can think of right now. I know I have a lot this week going on because my work is having a meeting this Thursday and I’ll be hanging out with my friend and catching up again tomorrow. But I’ll let you know how I’m doing again in my next coffee post. Until then though, I hope your all doing well and have had a wonderful weekend so far.  

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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Cover

Rating: 3 stars

Warning: This book review contains spoilers of some of the events that unfold in this book. Viewer discretion is advised for those interested in reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

I just recently finished reading this book and I’m not completely sure what I think of it. I liked reading it because I was brought back into the wizarding world and was reunited with Harry and his friends and family. Just starting out, I was enjoying it because it felt so nostalgic and good.

But at the same time, I wasn’t overtly pleased with it either. The plot itself was interesting, making me want to read more. But the storyline also had so many holes in it that I found myself questioning what I was reading.

I enjoyed being brought back to Hogwarts and getting to meet Harry’s youngest son Albus. I also enjoyed Albus’s friendship with Draco’s son Scorpius. I thought they were really great together and loved seeing Albus at least had one friend during his time at Hogwarts.

What I enjoyed about the plot with the Time Turner was how they allowed me to relive certain parts of the series. I love how those moments going back in time allowed us to go down memory lane and relive some aspects of the series for a second time. It made me feel like I was reading the books all over again and put a smile on my face.

I also enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in another format. As someone who doesn’t read plays that often, I thought it was an interesting way of presenting the story. It made me even more interested in reading it to find out what happened next.

However, I had a lot of issues with the plot and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as a whole. For one, I didn’t like the way they portrayed Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s older selves. With Harry, I wasn’t completely surprised at his inept ability to be a good father figure. I actually expected it. But I feel like they completely changed all of their characters. For example, I felt like they made Ron to be the typical “funny guy,” in the story, but I honestly didn’t find what he said to be hilarious. With Harry being a bad parent, they made him to be a complete jerk towards Albus in a way that I didn’t think was necessary. I get that Harry doesn’t know how parenting works, but I just feel like he was just completely disregarding his son’s feelings and not trying to understand how being his son puts a lot of pressure on Albus. With Hermione, I feel like they made her not quite as intelligent. A perfectly good example is whenever Albus drinks the Polyjuice Potion and turns into Ron so they can steal the Time Turner. Hermione doesn’t realize he’s not her husband during the whole incident even though he does an awful job at pretending. She also hides the Time Turner in her office on her bookshelf, which in my opinion is a stupid move on her part.

I also feel like they completely cut out some of the characters who should’ve been in the story. For example, they didn’t have Harry’s godson Teddy in the story and I feel like his other two children played a very minor role overall. That disappointed me because I thought there would’ve been more interaction between their children. I feel like the lady on the trolley was given more plot in the story than the rest of Harry’s kids.

I hated that there was no real explanation for why the Time Turners were destroyed to begin with. I get that they probably destroyed them because they didn’t want anyone trying to go back in time and bring Voldemort back. But with the way wizards were about going back in time in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I figured someone going back in time to change the past wouldn’t be a real issue at all. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the concept because I did find it interesting. I just wasn’t completely sold on how Thorne carried it out.

I found the thought of Voldemort having a daughter revolting. Mostly because to me, it really didn’t make any sense. Especially when reading the rest of the series and the way he was towards other people, including his own followers. Yes, Bellatrix Lestrange worshipped the ground he walked on, but he never once showed the same interest towards her. The only way I could honestly see Voldemort conceiving a child is through rape, which is what I thought happened until near the end of the play. However, I did like her character and thought she made for a great villain.

I know I need to keep in mind that this story is written in play format so it’s not going to be exactly the same as the other books in the series. But at the same time, its marketed to be the next book in the series so I’m having a difficult time not looking at it as such.

I think the story itself is enjoyable despite all of these plot holes I saw when reading it. I can definitely see some kernels in the story that if expanded would’ve made Harry Potter and the Cursed Child a much more enjoyable read. But I also get this story is meant to be a play so Thorne couldn’t expand on the story as much as I’d like. I definitely think looking at this book separate from the rest of the series will help you enjoy it in the long run and I hope as time goes on I’ll be able to do that myself.

 

 

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Book Review: Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, A Woman, and the Wild

Shadow Mountain Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

After forming an intense bond with Natasha, a wolf cub she raised as part of her undergraduate research, Renée Askins was inspired to found the Wolf Fund. As head of this grassroots organization, she made it her goal to restore wolves to Yellowstone National Park, where they had been eradicated by man over seventy years before. Here, Askins recounts her courageous fifteen-year campaign, wrangling along the way with Western ranchers and their political allies in Washington, enduring death threats, and surviving the anguish of illegal wolf slayings to ensure that her dream of restoring Yellowstone’s ecological balance would one day be realized. Told in powerful, first-person narrative, Shadow Mountain is the awe-inspiring story of her mission and her impassioned meditation on our connection to the wild.

This book is an amazing read. This memoir weaves together an amazing story about a woman and her love of the wild. Through Askins’s eyes, the reader learns more about her upbringing and how she was introduced to wolves for the first time.

I enjoyed reading Shadow Mountain because Askins really brings to light subjects a lot of us don’t talk about. She talks about the wild by providing her own definition of it, but also realizes that we can’t stop an animal from being wild because it’s a part of their nature. Askins also talks a lot about her personal life by telling us stories about her dogs. But she connects these personal anecdotes to her work with the Wolf Fund and her understanding of how we contribute to the state of animal populations. I enjoyed seeing these type of discussions in her memoir because it continues bringing to light topics we don’t openly discuss, such as how we try and take the wild out of our pets and pet pageantry. Both of these things are something we ourselves sometimes do and don’t realize it. So it was nice to have someone openly talk about these topics.

I found this book enjoyable because I wanted to learn more about the subject matter. As someone whose favorite animals is wolves, I wanted to learn more about the author and how she contributed to Yellowstone. But I also wanted to know more about wolves and their behaviors around people. I wanted more understanding of what our society is doing to help bring wolves back into the wild and what we are doing to make sure they are safe. And I found the information Askins provided to be very helpful in getting a better understanding of her organization and how she contributed to the restoration of wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The information she provided in Shadow Mountain shows she did a lot of research while doing her work, which helped me a lot in better understanding her perspective and the way the world perceives wolves.

My favorite part of this memoir was reading about her relationship with Natasha. I enjoyed reading about that relationship because I feel like it gives readers a better understanding of wolves. I also feel like when Askins was talking about Natasha she would talk about the wolf pack hierarchy, which I always found interesting to read about. I find learning about wolves and how they perceive others to be useful information in getting a better understanding of them. I also found it interesting that Askins voices an opinion that I myself believe to be true, which is that we as humans tend to fear things we know very little about. She talks about these things and calls them the “other,” something which we tend to do quite a bit ourselves when talking about things we don’t agree with as a society. I agree that wolves tend to be talked about in this way because they are creatures people don’t understand. So instead of trying to understand them, people kill them because they are scared of them.

While I find Shadow Mountain to be a powerful memoir, there are times when I feel like Askins does too much telling in her memoir. Her overall message to the reader is beautiful. But sometimes I feel like she’s telling story after story to get her point across instead of providing the reader with facts as to why we should be working on restoring wolves into the wild. While I get that this issue is very close to her heart, having all of these stories in her memoir made it a little of a slow read for me at times. When those moments came, I would’ve preferred to have facts as to why restoring wolves is a good idea for the whole animal population. I feel like that would’ve helped get her point across and provide the reader with even more information and understanding.

Despite this aspect of her memoir, I really enjoyed reading Askins’s book. I feel like it really helped me understand the challenges she faced while restoring wolves to Yellowstone. I also enjoyed hearing about her upbringing because it allowed me to better understand why she involved herself in this restoration effort. I look forward to continue reading more books about wolf recovery efforts in the near future and recommend this to anyone else interested in learning more about wolf restoration to Yellowstone National Park.

 

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If We Were Having Coffee: No Pain, No Gain

If We Were Having Coffee Image Eight

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a good week and that your weekend is everything you want it to be.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it really does feel nice to be back home. I remember last weekend when I mentioned my trip to Nashville that I wasn’t at home for most of last week. So this week has mostly been me adjusting to being back at home.

What I can tell you about this week is that it hasn’t been that productive of one. I only did one job application throughout the week. It was a job application for a volunteer opportunity with AmeriCorps. I heard about this opportunity from one of my professors at college who saw they were looking for people and let me know to apply. So I did the application and quickly heard back that they were interested in conducting a phone interview with me for the position. So now I’m just waiting to find out when our phone interview will take place. Speaking of jobs, one of the applications I did way back in May I heard back from this week too. They were also interested in doing a phone interview with me for the position, which I did on Thursday afternoon. I don’t know how I feel about that interview. I know it definitely could’ve gone better, but I’ll just wait and see. If they are interested in me any further, I’ll be hearing from them soon. If not, then I did the best I could and will just have to accept it’s not meant to be.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about the two cold sores I have on my lips. I don’t know what exactly happened for them to get there, if I bit my lip or what, but they really hurt. Have been the biggest pain in my butt this week because they make it difficult for me to eat and do things like brush my teeth. So I’m just trying to do everything I can to ignore the pain, but we bought some cream I can put on them yesterday when we went to the store. I think that’ll help with the pain and hopefully clear them up. I just wish I knew how I got them so I could make sure it didn’t happen again. But there’s not too much I can do about that now. Just have to do everything I can to make them go away so I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it’s really been a good week. Besides this mouth pain, I’ve had a good time at home. I continued playing Spyro Ripto’s Rage and am almost done completing the game. Just have two worlds left before I fight Ripto as the last boss. Planning on getting through that soon. But I’ve also been playing Pokémon Go quite a bit too. It’s becoming one of my favorite video games because I just enjoy it. Reminds me so much of playing Pokémon during my childhood and battling to become the best trainer in the world. I also love it because it’s gotten me to go out and walk around, both in my neighborhood and other places. When I mentioned to Mom that I needed to go to some PokeStops because I ran out of Poke Balls and needed some more, she immediately took me to the nearest walking trail by our house. She took me there because one time when we’d gone out, I saw on the game that there were some PokeStops there that I could go to. So we went there to walk instead of doing our neighborhood so I could get my Poke Ball inventory back in order. We actually went there twice to walk because Mom suggested us going back there the next day. It is a pretty great place to walk. The trail goes so many different directions that you could go any way and end up somewhere you didn’t expect to be. But one of the places we went to on our first walk since Pokémon Go was so beautiful I couldn’t help but take a picture of it.

Harbison Recreation Center Water Fountain

It was such a beautiful setting and such a beautiful place to go that I wish I’d taken more pictures of this beautiful water as I saw the ripples cascading around me. Another aspect of Pokémon Go I’ve found myself enjoying is that it allows people to explore the world around them. To see all of these new places you might’ve never gone to before. It makes me want to find beauty in the world around me that I know does exist. This game is also a strong motivation for me to walk, something I normally enjoy doing but don’t do as much as I should. I know part of the problem is the temperature outside because it’s so hot that I can feel the heat as soon as I step outside. But Pokémon Go makes me want to face the heat anyway, want to walk and explore the world around me despite the weather outside. But it does it in a way not at all criticizing the player but rewarding them for their hard work. It is something I really appreciate. There are so many people who criticize gamers so much for spending hours playing video games, for doing something they enjoy that having a video game that rewards its players for what they are doing is a great motivation for them to continue doing that task. I also enjoy this game motivating me to walk because I know I need to. It’s something I know I should be doing every day and having a game that brings one of my childhood dreams to life is one way I know will help motivate me to continue walking whenever I feel like giving up.

I’d also like to mention along with playing Pokémon Go I also finished reading Into the Woods and have started reading Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild, one of the books I had bought at 2nd and Charles a little while ago. Into the Woods was overall an okay read for me. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve read, but also wasn’t the best book I’ve read either. I enjoyed the mysterious circumstances surrounding the main character in the novel despite the disappointing aspects of the story that didn’t endear the book to me. I think the book I’ve started reading though will prove to be a much better read to me because it’s about an animal I enjoy learning more about. But will just have to wait and see to know for sure.

If we were having coffee, I’d also mention that we are getting close to the day I first started this blog last year. I plan on doing a blog post on this because I want to talk about my experience with blogging so far and what all I’ve learned since I created Vook: Books + Video Games and what I hope for as I continue blogging. I know a lot has changed for me since I first started this blog, and can’t wait to talk about my experience so far with you. I know there are some things I want to do in order to improve my blog, which is something else I plan on talking about with that post. I hope you all read it and tell me what you think because I want as much feedback as I can get on how to improve my blog. But I also want to hear other’s stories about their blogging journey and what they’ve learned along the way. Along with this post, I’m figuring out what else I want to post next in the days to come. I know I still have the one fictional story buzzing around in my head yet to be written so I’ll try to get that posted as soon as I can for you all to read and enjoy. Hopefully it’ll be as good as it is in my head, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

But for now, I think I’ll be going. There really isn’t too much else for me to say here about my week. It’s mostly been reading, watching YouTube videos and playing video games, the normal stuff you all should expect from me now. But enough about me. What all have you been up to lately? I want to hear all about it.

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Book Review: In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1)

In the Woods Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

As a crime scene novel, this book perfectly depicted how investigators solve crimes. There was just enough mystery and suspense to keep me interested in finding out what Ryan and his partner Cassie discovered. The writing was the perfect tone, adding to the suspense when needed, and describing the setting of the world around Ryan in perfect detail. It made me engaged, wanting to know more about what happened. Also enjoyed that the setting took place in Ireland because I haven’t read too many novels that take place in other countries. So it’s always interesting reading books like this where the setting isn’t somewhere I’m familiar with.

I also enjoyed hearing more about Ryan’s past. While he’s definitely not my favorite detective in this book, I loved learning more about the trauma he went through and understanding how that shaped him into the character read about in the book. I also enjoyed his friendship with Cassie, my favorite character in the book. I found both of them together as partners to be very amusing when solving crimes because they had amazing chemistry.

But while I enjoyed these aspects of In the Woods, there were so many things with this novel too that left me criticizing it. For one, Ryan’s character wasn’t great. When I first started reading this book, I didn’t mind him all that much. But the more I read, the less I liked him. I think my disdain for him is because of the way he acts with Cassie and the way he talks about his past. After everything they’ve been through together and Ryan saying Cassie is his best friend, he lets their friendship go without a fight over the dumbest thing. He ruins his friendship with her instead of trying to talk things out like responsible adults are supposed to do. And she tries to set things right, but he wants nothing more to do with her until it’s too late. That really bothers me because she was his best friend, yet he doesn’t act like it after what happened. I also don’t like the way he talks about his past because he’s never let go of the one mystery surrounding his childhood, the one he has the opportunity of solving only to let it slip through his fingers. I get his memory of events is skewered, but when he’s given the chance to solve the crime that has literally changed his life, he doesn’t put his best effort into it. He starts remembering some of the events that came before, but doesn’t even push himself to figure out what happened.

I also don’t like how the main case in this story was solved. There were so many mistakes made during the investigation that it took a lot longer for them to solve the crime if they’d looked in certain places at the very beginning. I also didn’t like who they chose as the scapegoat for the crimes because the person who actually came up with the idea got away with it completely.

To be honest, I was completely disappointed by the end of the story. There was so much buildup that I was expecting things to end differently. But that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, things change for the worse and the mysterious crime that occurred during the narrator’s childhood is never solved, despite the flashbacks in the past he experienced.

So while I enjoyed reading In the Woods, there were a lot of things in the story that left me disappointed, wanting more than what was given. Nonetheless, I plan on reading the second book in this series The Likeness in hopes that it’ll be a better read.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Traveling to Nashville, Returning Home

If We Were Having Coffee Image Seven

Good day everyone! Wow, it feels good to be back home again. Hope you all are doing well and had a good week so far.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you this week for me has been quite a busy one. I’ve been in Nashville for most of it, helping my sister move into her new apartment complex. I enjoyed all of my time up there because I not only spent some quality time with my sister, but my grandmother too. I enjoyed getting to help move my sister into her first new big girl place, getting to meet her two new roommates and getting to see what the city of Nashville, Tennessee has to offer. It’s a beautiful city, very bustling with life and many different places a person can go to explore. I enjoyed every minute I spent there with my family.

When we weren’t helping my sister unpack her things, we were exploring the city. We walked past the Frist Art Museum as well as some of the country music places that Nashville is very well-known for. We even went to the Grand Ole Opry, even though we only went inside to the gift shop because none of our family is big country music fans so we didn’t think it’d be worthwhile to spend money to get a full tour of the place. We also went to the Opryland Hotel, which is very beautiful inside with a riverboat tour that allows you to get even more acquainted with the place.

But before all of that, we celebrated our fourth of July in Nashville at a pizza place in the city. One of my sister’s new friends recommended the place and it was the perfect setting for us to enjoy some good pizza and see the fireworks we’d come into the city to see. We didn’t go deeper into the city because it kept raining so we wanted to be somewhere with shelter from the stormy weather. So we hung out at this pizza place instead where we listened to Sheryl Crow perform and then listened to the Nashville Symphony when the fireworks were in the sky. We had a great time despite all of the bad weather, making the most of our time in Nashville.

Our time in Nashville was a lot of fun and exhausting, all at once. We did a lot of unpacking to help my sister move into her new place while also getting to explore Nashville. It was a great time, full of fun and laughter. I took a lot of pictures in Nashville during my trip and have them posted on my Instagram for those interested in seeing what all I’ve gotten to see while there. I look forward to going there again in the future whenever we go to visit my sister. I really enjoy exploring whenever I go to a new place, especially cities because they have a whole lot to offer. I also feel like I’m going on an adventure, which makes me even more eager to explore new places.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve had a busy week at home too. The two days I had at home after returning weren’t too productive for me, but a lot of things did happen in the world that caused me some concern. This week, there have been shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police and in Dallas, five police officers were killed during a protest of these two deaths. This has caused a lot of unrest for me for many reasons. I don’t have issues with black people or police just trying to do their job and protect their citizens. I do however, have problems with police who use excessive force that results in the loss of life. And in both of the shootings before the protest in Dallas, I feel like there was too much force used against these two men which resulted in their deaths. Now I understand the need for police to protect themselves whenever they feel like they’ve been threatened. But neither of these men were hurting anyone when they were shot and I feel like the police officers decided to shoot first, ask questions later. While I understand being a police officer is a difficult and dangerous job, I also don’t think they should be pulling out their guns unless absolutely necessary. And in both of these instances, I don’t think it was necessary. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel sad for the police offers killed in Dallas.

I feel sad and outraged by all of the lives lost during these three incidents. I don’t think race should be an issue in our country, but I do believe racism is still alive in the world today. While I know being white I’ll never experience the racism that exists in our world, I want to do whatever I can to help those who do experience it and let them know they aren’t alone. I know I’m not perfect, but I want to do whatever I can to help because we are all human and deserve to be treated equally no matter our skin color. Along with that, I’d also like to say I’m sorry to the police officers who’ve lost their lives during the Dallas shooting. I have full respect for police officers who act to protect all of their citizens and am sorry you lost your lives because of a few bad apples. Just know I thank you for upholding the law and doing everything you can to protect innocent civilians during this difficult time. I don’t really think there’s too much more I can say because I know there’s a problem in our country that needs to be fixed, but don’t know of any way to fix it.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you that Pokémon Go came out earlier this week. It is a real world adventure game where you as a Pokémon trainer can catch virtual Pokémon in your own backyard as you move in real time. I’m really excited about this game because I played Pokémon quite a bit during my childhood. It was one of many of my favorite video games growing up. So having a video game like this one where you as the player can travel as an actual trainer makes me really excited to see what this game is like. And so far, I’ve enjoyed my experience playing it. When I first started playing, there were a lot of times the server went down so I wasn’t able to do too much in it. But now, I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on how the game is to be played. While I haven’t progressed too far into it just yet to do a first impressions post, I’m looking forward to continue playing it to see how far I get.

Pokemon Go Video Game

Along with playing video games, I’ve also finished reading Armada and written my review for it on my blog along with started reading In the Woods. So far, it’s a pretty interesting read and am interested in seeing where the story continues to go.

Other than that, I don’t really have too much else to say. The weather here has been very hot recently so I haven’t been out and about too much lately.  Mom and I went swimming at a friend of hers house yesterday in order to cool off which really helped me feel cooled off. Hope you all are doing well and are enjoying your weekend too.

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Book Review: Armada

Armada Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and video games he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure.

But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe.

And then he sees the flying saucer.

Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders. 

No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can’t help thinking back to all those science-fiction stories he grew up with, and wondering: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little…familiar?

At once gleefully embracing and brilliantly subverting science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with the pop-culture savvy that has helped make Ready Player One a phenomenon.

Wow, I really enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed reading it a whole lot more than I did Ready Player One.

For one, I felt like the plot of Armada was developed a whole lot better. I felt like the whole story made more sense and Ernest Cline didn’t make too many overwhelming science fiction references to the reader. I also could relate to Zack’s character on a more personal level. Like Zack, my father also hasn’t been a part of my life. While some people are fortunate and have both parents in their life, not everyone is quite so lucky and not having that figure around can impact a child’s life. For Zack, it caused him to question the world around him and made him obsessed with video games and the stuff his father left behind. But it also resulted in anger issues that could’ve developed into something more serious if it weren’t for what happened in Armada.

Besides being able to relate to Zack, I also enjoyed reading this book because I felt like the other characters were a little more developed. The reader can see this in the story with Zack’s interactions with the other recruits and the close knit relationship he has with his mother. I also appreciated that the small amount of romance in this novel wasn’t pushed. Whenever I read books with a main focus in one particular genre, I sometimes get fed up when romance is constantly forced into the story whenever it’s not really needed to make the plot move forward. While I do love reading romantic scenes, it’s not always needed. Especially in a novel like this with heavy emphasis on science fiction. So I appreciated that Cline didn’t force Zack and his love interest together and that she was more of a minor character who helped save Zack whenever he needed it.

I really enjoyed reading Armada because the story felt real. I felt like I could imagine everything that was happening to Zack in his world as he tries everything he can to save humanity. He remained focused on what he needed to do, even when things got really tough and lives were lost in the process. I also enjoyed it because I felt like I could relate to Zack’s struggle. Before the events on Armada unfold, Zack always dreamed of being whisked away on an adventure, of something happening that would take him away from his ordinary life. So he lived in his own fantasy world, spending his free time playing video games whenever he could. I often had this type of experience myself too where I wished something extraordinary would happen to me and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has. In many ways, his struggles in the world are something everyone faces, which makes him even more relatable to anyone picking up this book.

The one issue with Armada I have, however, is the ending. To me, it was very emotional and I was upset at the direction Cline decided to take the story. I knew we were going to get an explanation for why these alien beings were attacking Earth, but I found the reasoning for it to be filled with so many holes that it made me really mad. I didn’t like the way Cline decided to take it because it felt like he killed off characters that I didn’t need to be killed. I was pretty upset because he killed off one of my favorite characters in Armada and it made it difficult for me to be happy with how the story ended. I also just expected there to be a bigger explanation for why everything happened and was disappointed because I didn’t get one.

Despite this one problem though, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was just the right story for me to read and had characters I could easily relate to that I’ll definitely be rereading Armada in the years to come. I look forward to see what other works Ernest Cline will create in the years to come since I enjoyed the two novels he’s written so far.

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Book Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One Cover

Rating: 3 stars

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

This book was quite an enjoyable read. The plot revolves around Wade Watts, a teenage boy who doesn’t particularly live in the best part of town. He spends his whole life inside the OASIS, a virtual reality world where anything is possible because the world around him is so crappy that he’d rather live somewhere else. Then one day, the creator of the OASIS dies and leaves behind a video. In it, he challenges everyone in the OASIS to complete a series of puzzles because the first person to do so will receive his fortune. This competition goes on for a period of time because nobody is able to figure out the first clue. Then one day, Wade figures it out and his name appears on the scoreboard and everything in his life changes in ways he couldn’t imagine.

I found this book to be quite an amazing read because of how accurately its commentary is in relation to the way we live with technology in the world today. So many people (myself included) use technology so much that it’s integrated to every facet of their lives. We communicate with our peers through text messaging instead of having daily conversation because its fast and easy. We use the internet and television as a form of entertainment not only for ourselves but for future generations instead of just taking a moment each day to spend talking to each other. We don’t want to admit that we rely on technology so much because not everyone notices how integrated it’s become a part of our lives. But reading Ready Player One has really brought that reality of our world to me. Of how much we rely on technology to do things we ourselves could do without it. Of how much we no longer can live without it because we are using it for everything we do. And while we aren’t yet in the future of 2044, we are closer to it now than years past. Virtual reality is no longer a thing of the past. The Oculus Rift and other virtual reality devices currently on the market are perfect examples of how much closer we are to facing the future Wade Watts experiences. While we aren’t there yet, we are much closer to that reality and we already use technology every day as a form of escape from our lives instead of communicating with those we love or doing activities without using technology. We just aren’t at the total scope that people in Wade’s world use it.

I also enjoyed all of the references to the twentieth century and how they were incorporated in the story to solve the puzzles Halliday created in the OASIS. While at times they were a little overwhelming, it was also nice to have a sort of tribute to a different time period. To a time when technology wasn’t such a big part of people’s lives. It also added more to Wade’s character because when he wasn’t doing something in the OASIS, he was watching shows or playing video games from that time.

Ready Player One was also an enjoyable read because I loved hearing about the virtual reality world Wade immersed himself in. It was interesting to see what all a person could do in that reality to escape from the world outside. I thought it was cool that a person could do anything in that reality world from hosting a chat room to going to school. It made the virtual reality world seem more realistic and I felt like it also showed me possibilities of what virtual reality is capable of doing.

There were some aspects of Ready Player One, however, I didn’t particularly like. For one, I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot of character development for all of the characters and I felt no emotional impact in the story. I felt like none of the characters in the story had any sort of personality. We saw the story from Wade’s perspective, but the whole time reading, I felt like I didn’t really know Wade very well as a person. I knew he was pretty much obsessed with James Halliday and felt like most of his interests were due to his obsession with getting the first clue and winning Halliday’s fortune. In fact, I felt like all of the characters in the story were obsessed with winning this challenge and it would’ve been nice to have been introduced to someone in the OASIS who wasn’t obsessed with it. But I also felt like the characters we were introduced to were flat in personality. To the point where even when things went wrong, it didn’t feel like there was any sort of emotional response to what was happening. A perfectly good example without giving any of the plot away is when Wade gets threatened by the antagonist. He literally doesn’t bat an eye and when the antagonist makes his threat a reality, I imagine Wade saying in a sarcastically dry voice “oh no,” but he doesn’t get completely upset by the whole thing. He literally shrugs his shoulders and moves away. I felt this lack of emotion from Wade and all of the other characters throughout and it really bothered me. It didn’t help that all of the characters felt flat to me either.

Another aspect of the story that bothered me was how the love interest was incorporated in the story. I felt like the author for some of the story made her a distraction for Wade to complete the quest. To the point where in a couple of chapters the author has Wade and her spend a lot of time together instead of trying to find the next clue. And that bothered me because I felt like there was another way her character could’ve been used, such as having her and Wade team up together to find clues so that the antagonist wouldn’t win. Instead, I felt like the author was using her as eye candy for Wade until the plot picked back up.

There were also things in the story I didn’t find realistic. For example, I was surprised at everything the author made Wade capable of doing. Most of the things the author made Wade do in the real world just didn’t seem possible to me. Not because I didn’t believe he could do those things. But because Wade spent so much of his time in virtual reality that when he was in the real world, he was always miserable and trying to do everything possible to get back to the OASIS. And this bothered me because I felt like some of his feats were impossible for him to do without another person’s help. But he managed to do those things anyway all by himself. It just felt like these particular feats were a complete miracle on his part and it made me hard to believe some of the story.

While I did overall like Ready Player One and the story it had to offer, there were just some things about the story that really bothered me. These things made the book interesting, but also question what I was reading. However, I overall enjoyed reading this book despite these issues and can’t wait to read another one of his works in the very near future.

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