The One Time I Was Satisfied With A School Book.

So, my opinion of school required books is usually pretty bad. I mean, both of my flop posts were school required books. Last year I did a review of one of our required books, The Outsiders, so I decided to keep it going.

We only had one required book this year, so here it is:

Night

By Elie Wiesel

Good Reads Summary

Year of Publishing: 1958

Publishing House: Hill and Wang
Genre: Nonfiction
Age: Literally Anyone 13 and Up
Short/Long Read: It is a very short book; you could probably read it in a day if you wanted to. However, I suggest reading it over a much longer period of time, at least a week. If you're feeling like it, annotate it. I promise it will help with your understanding of the book (there are a lot of double meanings).
Rating Out Of Five: 5/5 Stars

I'd like to preface this review by informing you (if you didn't already know) is a documentation of Elie Wiesel's experience during the Holocaust. Real events are written about in this book.

The greatest thing about Night is that it really makes you think. My language arts class would end up talking about a specific line and its meaning for a good amount of time (which is a good thing because they were very good conversations). You could read something and think it meant one thing, but unless you thought about it, you wouldn't get the real meaning.

Another thing, Elie Wiesel is able to pack a punch in one line that could make you cry or completely change your perspective on life.

Here's one of the most impactful quotes I remember:

“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked...
For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.
Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
“Where is God now?”
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
“Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . . .”

I know that school required books can be a pain for students, especially with annotations and assignments for the book, but Night made the experience enjoyable. I have no critiques or complaints for this book. The next time you're at a book store, I suggest that you grab this book.

"It Was Just Ok, Dog."

I'm sorry for skipping last week, I was very very swamped.

(Ok, this is probably the tenth time I've used The Princess Bride gifs. I'll stop.)

Anyway, this week's book is a book I've heard a lot about, and it was mostly positive. You could probably go around my school and ask all the girls if they've read this and they'd all be like: "OMG YES! I LOVE THAT BOOK!"
Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. But I paid three dollars for it so I kind of had to read it.
And no. That's not a typo. I got it at Plato's Closet in surprisingly good condition.
So here is that book:

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

By Jenny Han

Lara Jean's life depends on a hat box. It's a hat box filled with letters to all the boys she's loved before, in an attempt to get over those boys. And when that hatbox disappears and all of the letters are sent out, Lara Jean's life falls apart. Peter Kavinsky is more than just an acquaintance, Josh and Lara Jean's friendship is destroyed, and now the whole school's talking about her. And not to mention, Lara Jean's older sister, who held the Song's house together is off at college. Will Lara Jean be able to pull things together, or will the letters ruin the rest of highschool?

Year of Publishing: 2014
Publishing House: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Romance
Age: Teen/Middle School
Short/Long Read: It was a long read for me. It took me a little over two weeks.
Rating Out Of Five: 2.5/5 (Two and a Half Stars)

"It was just ok, dog."

-Randy Jackson (That Judge From American Idol)

I was reading this, and I was expecting it to become my favorite book, and it turned out to be just average. And yes, I did read Love and First Sight (last week's book) directly before this one, so that's probably why I didn't like this book all that much. The major problem I have with this is that it really isn't realistic. The letter situation isn't realistic really, and it is a fiction book, so I'll let that slide. However, it is a realistic fiction book, so you would think that the relationships between the characters and the way Lara Jean reacts and deals with her situation would be realistic, but it's not. 

For example:

When Lara Jean tells Josh that Peter is her boyfriend, she runs up to Peter and straight up kisses him. That is against the rules in school, and you can get in serious trouble for that.

Also:

Lara Jean's character in general is just not similar to any high school junior on the planet. I have never met a high school girl who scrapbooks and volunteers at retirement homes and randomly kisses a guy in front of a bunch of people at school. That just doesn't happen.

The last thing that I didn't enjoy about Lara Jean:

She didn't really have any motive. At the beginning of the book, she is concerned about fixing the problem with the letters, but the rest of the book she spends farting around with Peter. I never really know what drives our main character, which should always be present in a book and the reader should always know.

I am definitely going to give Jenny Han's books another chance because I have heard that pretty much all of her books are awesome, so The Summer I Turned Pretty is on my To Read List, but as of right now Jenny Han is a decent author.

That's pretty much it! I do realize a lot of people love this book, so if you have heard from people that they like it, I'm not discouraging you from reading it because everyone has a different taste in books.

Have a great day!

:)

I'M SO SORRY!

(Fancy Font, I Know...XD)
It's been since October of last year...
YEESH.
So here's some updates for you guys:

• I'm going to actually try to update this blog. Homework is starting to slow down a little bit because all the big tests are going to be over in a couple weeks, so I'll be able to blog some more.
• However, (brace yourself for some sad news) I won't be using The Awesome Mix of My Life anymore. This isn't the end of my personal blog posts, I'll just be putting them on here, so it's easier to keep up with.
• I have some big projects going on right now. Aka:
• A MUSICAL! THAT'S RIGHT!
• SHORT FILMS! THAT'S RIGHT!
• FINISHING MIDDLE SCHOOL! that's right...XD
• So this means that I might be super busy lately, so what I said about blogging more above **MIGHT** be a lie.
• HOWEVER, I actually have books to review. I have a list.
• In addition to this blog, MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL IS UP!!! WOOT WOOT! So whenever I post a video, I'll post it here for everybody. So here's my first video, a short film called Scripted. Hope you enjoy!

Expect a book review pretty soon. I will most likely be rejoining Shannon Messenger's MMGM Squad.

Which is an awesome squad, by the way. If you have a book blog, you should totally join it! It's east and free!

**Disclaimer: This message is not sponsored...Because well, no one really knows this blog exists so who would sponsor it? >.<**

Have a great day and weekend!

Summer's almost here! You can do it!✌

(Check out this week's MMGM post below.)

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I. CAN'T. EVEN.

Why hello there!

I'm here to finally do what this blog was actually made for...

REVIEW BOOKS!

Ok, so into the actual review now:

❤Love and First Sight❤

By Josh Sundquist

"On his first day at a new school, Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on  the stairs, sat on a another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a new classmate to tears. High school can only get better from there right?"

That quote is from the inside cover of the book, which DO NOT READ THE REST OF THE SUMMARY BECAUSE IT SPOILS THE WHOLE BOOK. UGH. So the book is basically about a blind kid trying to survive high school.

Year of Publishing: 2017
Publishing House: Little, Brown
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Romance
Age: Teen/Middle School
Short/Long Read: It's a pretty short read because you can't put it down. I read it within two days.
Rating Out Of Five: 5/5 (Five Stars)

THIS BOOK WAS FREAKING AMAZING.

I JUST--

I CAN'T WITH THIS BOOK.

Ok so here's the thing:

This book has amazing humor. It's the straightforward kind of witty humor that I enjoy a lot, and I laughed out loud during class multiple times...and I got weird looks for it too.

It has awesome characters. I'd have to say that Nick is my favorite character.  Well, either him or Will. Once again, these characters are super witty and weird.

And my most favorite thing about the book:

We never get a physical description of the characters until the end of the book. This may sound horrible and it may sound like it will drive you insane (which it does), but it leaves readers in suspense. Almost the whole book we are wondering what the love interest Cecily looks like and it builds up so much it almost kills.

I love this book with a fiery passion and it opens up a totally new perspective (that was a pun for all the people who've read the book). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy this book as soon as you get the chance. You can find it online or in the teen section at Barnes and Noble.

That's all for this week!

I'm going to go sleep (which seems the theme of the end of all of my posts, but it's true). Finals are finally over and I'm ready to actually get some sleep.

Have a great week!