The Year of Secret Assignments - Jaclyn Moriarty

At the suggestion of a friend, I recently read The Year of Secret Assignments, and very much enjoyed it.

The whole book is written in a series of letters between three sets of penpals from rival schools. This seemed to me like an idea that could have been rather lame, but turned out quite well. The characters were quite believable, and all had very different writing styles. I think that writing styles that are too similar is probably the easiest mistake to make when writing a book of that type.

The story was a bit fantastical at times, but I don't think that worked against it in the end. For most books, I think expectations make a huge difference in how much you enjoy it, and this book is no exception. I, for example, expected this book to be fun, and not too serious. As it turned out, that was a good expectation to have, because that was what it was. However, if I had read it hoping for a serious book, or a very complex plot, I would probably have been disappointed.

I guess the point I was trying to make in that last paragraph was this: This book is great for what it is, which is a fun, light read.  The characters were good, the plot was fun, and the writing was better and more diverse that I would have expected.

This is the kind of book that I would take and blow through in an afternoon. It's writing is easy to read, and the plot and characters are compelling, but not too serious. It's also a bit of a girl book. For me, all of this translates in to something that I enjoyed, but I won't make any promises about you.

If, after reading all my comments, you think it seems like the kind of book you would like, then give it a try. I do not think that you will be disappointed. If you are looking for another Ender's Game, or Alex Rider, this is probably not the book for you.

As usual, if you feel a need to understand the plot now that you have heard it deconstructed, the title of the book up at the top of the post to go to it's Amazon page.

Have you read this book, or any other book I have reviewed? If so, please let me know what you thought in the comments. I would love to put some reader thoughts right in the original posts, to help give a second or third opinion for prospective readers. I don't care what kind of opinion you have. In fact, a dissenting opinion would be more valuable for the readers.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Just a warning, this post will contain plot spoilers. If you have not read this book, but intend to, you might want to skip this post for the time being. I am going to try to put a warning up at the top of the page about that, since many of my posts are at least relatively spoilery. If you would like to get more info about The Great Gatsby, click on the title to go to the Amazon page.


I started this book with out any real expectations. I have often found that that is the best way to start reading a book. If you do not expect anything, you are far less likely to be disappointed. It helped that I didn't really know anything about the book itself.  As I read, I had many different feelings about the book, its plot, and its characters.

As I began reading, I was struck by the writing style, which reminded me a lot of J.D. Salinger. I actually have only read one J.D. Salinger book, Frannie and Zooey, but the writing seems similar to me. Has anybody else read both of those books? What do you think? As the book went on, the writing style was one of the only things I truly liked about the book.

Now, we should get into the characters, starting with Nick, our narrator. Now, Nick is on of the characters in the novel that we know very little about. As a (quite inexperienced) writer, I must say that I have tried to have a first person narrator who was not the main character, and it failed miserably. It is HARD. I think the way the Nick tells the story is also very interesting. There is obviously a lot that goes on between chapters. In fact, most of the story, time wise, is not actually even ever mentioned. The story itself is just told in a few short bursts over the course of one summer in West Egg.

Now, Gatsby is the obvious character to talk about, but I am not even sure if he is worth spending very much time on. He has been, and will be, analyzed many times over. Still, here are my brief thoughts on him. Gatsby is a fascinating character whom I managed to both feel sorry for and be creeped out by the entire book. To a certain extent, I have to feel like the way things ended for him was the best in the end. I am not really sure that he could have ever been happy, with or without Daisy. At least this way, he got to die to save Daisy, which was, in some ways, what he always wanted to do.

Then, of course, there are the symbols. I can think of many of them off the top of my head, but they are, in my mind, rather over talked about. I did like the green light at the end of the dock, mostly because that is one symbol that I think most people can empathize with. We have all felt that way. If you really want to think more about the symbols, watch these videos, which are each about ten minutes long. In them, John Green (author, and Vlogbrother), talks Gatsby. They are really very good, and also funny. Part One, and Part Two.

Enough on the book. I can't wait for the movie to come out in May! Have you seen the previews yet? If not, here it is. What do you think? Are you excited or skeptical?

Homeschool Fridays: Our Homeschool Story

Some of you may also remember this one from my old blog, Living Homeschooled. It was first published there in October 2012.

Our journey through homeschooling began eight years ago. It was the summer after 1st grade, and my dad was trying to convince my mom that I should be homeschooled the next fall. My mom was, to say the least, skeptical. She didn't have time to homeschool. She worked full time, and she knew that my dad would have no real part in it. But, eventually, he convinced her to try just one year.

So, my mom started by doing some research. She found Susan Wise Bower, and decided to use her Classical Method. That first year of homeschooling was a very strange one. Isabelle, who was four years old at the time, was in preschool. I did my work (what little I had) and read the rest of the day. At night, I did History or Science with Mom. Those first few years, I did math with my dad.

By the next year, we had really started homeschooling properly. That first year was a bit of a disaster, but things got better. By third grade, we had begun homeschooling in the way we still do it now.  I won't go into depth about any one subject, as they will all be covered sometime over the next few months.

Our homeschool group was very important to our homeschooling success. We made many wonderful friends those first few years, and without them, I would be surprised if we would still be homeschooling today. They have helped us a lot over the years.

Today, homeschooling looks a lot different for us then it did that first year. Partly, that is from experience, and partly because we are older now. We are now homeschooling veterans. We have tried a lot of programs, and found the right ones for us. We have met people who are now life long friends.

I was not sure about homeschooling in the beginning, and there have been many times in the past eight years that I have had my doubts. But, really, I am so glad I am homeschooled. I think I am a much better person because of it.

Any questions about homeschooling, or anything else? Let me know in the comments, and I will do my best to answer your question! 

Reached - Ally Condie (Matched series)

Reached is the final book in the futuristic teen trilogy that began with Matched, and continued with Crossed. I won't go into too much detail about the plot here, so if you have not read it, you might want to check out the Amazon description I linked to above.

While this sort of  a review of the last book, it is also a review of the series of a whole. 

When I first read Matched, I really enjoyed it. I was not really sure where it would go after that, but I had high hopes. Right after Crossed came out, I read it and was relatively disappointed. It was fine, but certainly not as good as the first book. It was, however, good enough that when Reached came out this fall, I put a hold on it at the library. I figured that the series still had hope.

I am glad I gave it a second chance. I really enjoyed the last book. I think on of the biggest problems with the second book is that it has very little that is important to the rest of the series. I almost feel like the series would have been better with just the first and last book, with maybe an epilogue and prologue to take the place of the second book.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who liked the first two. If you are just considering starting, the series, I would recommend it with a warning.

The romance, while okay, is not really that believable. The characters are all right, but not as believable as they could be either. The plot, while not airtight, had some really good parts. While I liked the original idea, I feel like the series strayed from it, not really coming back until the last part of the third book. Each book is pretty different from the last. While the first book reminded me a lot of the Giver, the last book at more of a Mockingjay feel, with some added romance. If you want to hear my main complaint about this book, go all the way down to the bottom paragraph. I put it down there to make it easier to skip if you have not read the book, and you do not want the spoilers. I am going to put a warning up in my blog header about spoilers, but until I have done that, just be warned.


Now, I have a question for you, the reader. What do you think of my style of book review? For the most part they are just a semi-random collection of thoughts about the book that I try to get written down right after I read it. But, do you have any interest in reading these thoughts? Would you prefer more traditional book reviews? Let me know, and I will try to find a method that works for all of us.






Also, why, why, why did she have to miss her chance with the Pilot? There are so many great things she could have some with him, but didn't. What I really wanted was a scene where you find out who he really is. I was hoping for Matthew (Ky's cousin) the whole time. Even if it was not him, surely she could have made it something interesting. It could have even been mentioned in the last page or two. We did not need a lengthy explanation, just something to add a little for depth to the character.

Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctorow

Over the last week or so, I have been slowly reading Cory Doctorow's newest teen novel, Pirate Cinema. It quickly became my favorite Cory Doctorow book that I have read.

My first experience with his books came about two years ago when I picked up "For The Win" at the library. It was a bit slow at times, and I actually don't think I got through the whole thing, but something about it so that I could not totally forget it, or it's author. It was nearly a year later that I picked up Little Brother, but when I did, I loved it. I would highly recommend either of those books. For more on them, click on the links, they will take you to their Amazon pages.

Pirate Cinema, like Cory Doctorow's other two teen books, is a book with a purpose. Just like Little Brother is warning about what our anti-terrorism policies could turn into if they are not kept in check, and For the Win is about what could happen if our world gets a little to virtual, Pirate Cinema is a warning of what could happen if copy write laws got out of hand.

I won't go over the whole plot here. If you are interested, check out the Amazon page (by clicking on the title at the top). Instead, I will just go over the things I like about it.

Mostly, I really just liked the story. It was very unique premise, and his terrific story telling style pulled it off very well. It is a bit on the rambling side at times, but the story line was still pretty great. I almost lost interest a few times near the beginning of the book because it took a while to get to the main story. It was worth the wait, though, so keep that in mind if you give it a try.

All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys futuristic stories, high tech/hacker stories, and maybe even video editing. Of course, I don't really fall into any of those categories (except for the first one, although not even too much), and I still loved it, so you might still want to try it out.

I know this was a very short book review, but I promise that more will be coming soon! If you have any questions about this, or any book I have reviewed, please leave them in the comments.

Do I Like to Write?

This is another installment in my "Why Do I Write" series. This post really questions if me liking is any part of it.

Do I Like to Write? This morning, I wasn't so sure I did. I hadn't really written anything meaningful in months, and I was questioning why I even bothered. I decided it was time to go over my various writing projects, and think about why I did them, and if I liked it. This was what I came up with.

My first serious writing project began when I was seven years old. I decided that I wanted to publish a "newspaper" for my family and friends. I went around collecting money from people, and then I went to my mom for help. She, understandably  was a little hesitant at first. She realized that she would be doing most of the work, but she still agreed. I am so grateful to her for that. For two years, I wrote articles about school, and field trips, and holidays, and books, and everything else I could think of. When I was done, I gave them all to her, and she typed them up, printed them out, and once a month, we sent out the Classical Academy News. When I was about ten, I took over the typing. I emailed the articles to her, and she formatted them and printed them out. By that time, CAN was a very different thing than when we started out.

Did I like it? Not always. I often had unmet deadlines, stuck printers, and unpaid subscriptions. So, why did I keep doing it for nearly four years? I did it for that feeling that came when I held the printed newsletter in my hands each month. It was only four pages long, and I only had fifteen subscribers, but for me, it was amazing. One time, I wrote a review of a field trip to a small, local book binding company we went on. The mom who organized the field trips was one of the subscribers, and she emailed me after she read it. She liked it so much that she wanted to know if she could send it to the book binding company to read! The feeling I got right then is why I write.

Maybe that is not really an answer to the question, "Do I like to write?" So, I'll answer it with another question, "Does it really matter if I like writing while I am doing it? Or is the feeling of success afterwards enough?"

Fellow writers, what do you think? Do you like the act of writing? Do you think it matters? Let me know in the comments!

Homeschool Fridays: Socilization

Socialization. If you are a homeschooler, then you know this word all too well. You know what it means, and you know exactly how it relates to you. If you are not part of a homeschooling family, you might not understand what I am talking about. I will try to explain.

As every homeschooler knows, "socialization" is a big issue. When you tell some one that you are homeschooled, socialization is the number one issue that they will bring up. You see, most of the world seems to be under the opinion that we homeschoolers never see people outside of our immediate family. Now, I have probably said this before, and I know I will say it again: Every homeschooling stereotype (and really, any stereotype) is true about some people. There are homeschoolers who never leave the house, who rarely see other people. They, however, are not the majority, at least in my area.

Again, some people are like that, but I am not, and neither are any of the homeschoolers I know. Just to show you how true this is, here is a quick look at my week. One thing that you may notice is that a lot of the things I do are with the same basic group of people. Some people call this a problem, but isn't it pretty much the same as a class in a school. You do most things with the other people your own age, or in your own crowd.

Sunday: Dance class in the morning with six other girls (one of whom is my sister). After lunch, our homeschool Choir group meets to practice. In the evening, I go with a few friends to a class to get our first aid certification renewed.

Monday: I go to the library to clean books in the children's section with two other girls. One of them is a homeschooled friend, and the other goes to the public high school.

Tuesday:  I have an American History class led by a homeschool dad. Many homeschool friends of ours are there.

Wednesday: We go to Park Day, a large gathering of about ten to twenty homeschool families (it varies by the week, location and weather are often a factor). In the evening we go to a talk by a professor from our local University on the topic of homeschooling. It was a bit funny, a bit annoying, and just not that well thought out in my opinion.

Thursday: Many moms of the group have a Mom's Night, leaving us kids with a few of the dads, which is fun for all.

Friday: My sister goes to homeschool soccer in the morning and then goes home with some friends. I hang out at home.

Saturday: We run some errands (grocery store, library, ect.) and then go to Starbucks, where I work on my current Latin translation.


So, you see, I see other people every single day. Many of them are the same people, but that is just like being in a school. Most families in our group have similar, if not busier, schedules most weeks. Socialization is not an issue around here. When people ask, I tell them that I do things out side the house every single day. They still look skeptical? I walk away. I know that they disapprove, and I don't care. Hopefully I can soon win them other with my fantastic social skills. :)

Fellow homeschoolers, how do you deal with the socialization question? Non-homeschoolers, do you think socialization is a big deal? Do you think that we do not get out enough? What are your main concerns with homeschooling? I am curious to know what you think.