Book analysis The Visible Man by chuck Klosterman - Brandon Lee

   

  Hi guys! Sorry for the late post, but I am back with another book review. This is called The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman. I first saw this book while browsing the Champaign Public Library, and saw the interesting cover and name on display. I looked at the book's small description and was immediately invested in the story. I am yet to finish the book, even though I have been reading it for quite some time now, because I have been quite busy. I took a long break from it, but am exited to continue reading it as the summer season begins.

    This novel takes place from the point of view of a therapist named Victoria Vick. Victoria is an ordinary therapist until she is met with a strange man who has come to share his experiences with a so-called invisible man. He claims that he is a man who has stolen technology from a lab that allows him to become invisible and observe people's everyday lives. At first, Victoria observes that the man is delusional with made-up stories. However, after multiple sessions with the man, his stories are starting to seem a little too real. Questioning the credibility of the man's experiences, she slowly becomes obsessed with the case, so much so that even her own life is affected by it. Her career, marriage life, and even personality slowly shaped around the case, and she slowly falls deeper and deeper into this inescapable rabbit hole.

    I personally am really enjoying this book so far, and dig the captivating yet unsettling plot of the story. This book is also really interesting because of the way it is formatted. The beginning is written almost every time, an email or therapy session notes about her clients, which makes it really interesting to read. As the story goes on, the story slightly shifts with the unexpected turn of events, with the experiences of her main client, Y___ (client name). I really recommend this book to anyone who likes these kinds of stories with an unsettling vibe to them, and cannot wait to see how this ending turns out! I truly thank everyone who has read and commented on my blogs so far, and wish for many more memories!

    

In Your Shoes - Book Review by Naomi

 Hi everyone! It’s Naomi and I’m back with another book review! This time, I’ll be reviewing the book I just finished, In Your Shoes by Donna Gephart.

First, I’ll begin with a summary. SPOILER IN THE LAST SENTENCE. The book starts off by introducing the two main characters: Miles Spagoski and Amy Silverman. It’s important to note the book changes through the characters POV’s between chapters, allowing the reader to know about both their lives fairly equally. Right off the bat it gives you the basic information about them. They’re both middle schoolers and death has greatly impacted their life. Miles has a lot of anxiety regarding death after Bubbie Louise (his grandmother) passed away. Asides from worrying constantly, he enjoys bowling– one of the times he doesn't feel stressed about everything (and he hustles kids so he has enough money for his grandfather's 75th birthday present), talking to his grandfather and family, and reading about strange ways people died. Meanwhile, Amy is still devastated from her mothers passing which had occurred very recently in the novel and is struggling to accept her new home after they moved. Additionally, she’s frustrated by the fact they live in Eternal Peace Home (a funeral home her uncle runs) while her father is away training to help his brother run it. She also spends lots of time writing. Later on in the story, Amy and Miles continue to cross paths and Miles tends to embarrass himself a lot (his “first impression” occurs after his bowling shoe hits her in the head while he’s fighting his friend, later he spills a cup of root beer on her lap… I think I’ve made my point.) Nevertheless, they end up becoming friends that like each other and are able to help each other through the hard things in their life, such as when (the following information is necessary, sorry to spoil) SPOILER Miles’ grandfather dies.

So, I have both critiques for this book and things I enjoyed, I’ll begin with what I didn’t like.

1. This book is definitely intended for middle schoolers. I realized this early into reading, however, decided to continue reading it because I had to write my blog about something (and I’m glad I did, because after getting over the somewhat cringe aspects, I enjoyed it).

2. The author makes commentary throughout the book and I’m not a huge fan of it, I honestly feel like it just adds pages some of the time. However, I suppose it was an interesting supplement to her author's note at the end. 

3. The author includes the story Amy’s writing, which is meant to show how life is impacted by talents and vice versa (there are common themes in her life and writing for example, the character in her stories' mothers deceased as well), however, I feel like the author could have shown this another way, as again, it just adds pages.

Now for what I did like:

1. The overall message of the story. The simple truth is that Amy’s mother is deceased. Miles’ grandparents are deceased. Time won’t fix it. I love how the author never makes it seem as though they are healed through time, because that’s simply not how it works. Rather, through their actions they’re healed (the idea is they’re also healed through each other, which can hold some truth as well in real life.) Overall, the message is that although life isn’t perfect and we will inevitably face hardships, we can heal and seek help from others, if we allow ourselves to. Additionally, we don’t have to be scared for life. SPOILER: After Miles’ grandfather's death, Randall has an asthma attack and stops breathing. Miles freezes in place worrying Randall will die and Randall ends up in the hospital (Randall’s life is saved because Amy and Tate took immediate action). While visiting Randall (who ends up being fine), Miles promises to never freeze up or let his fear impair him from helping anyone else.

2. I really like how anxiety is depicted. Miles often lies in bed awake at night in fear of death, yet he reads about it constantly (which has a lot of different explanations for why psychologically– if you google “why do people seek what they’re afraid of” you can find a lot of explanations). While reading I also saw how he’s constantly afraid and being triggered, yet doesn’t always say things because he’s worried he’ll be a buzzkill, so remains silent and hopes nothing bad will occur. Although this is sad, it’s very accurate as for many, most fears don’t make sense unless they’re your own.

3. The characters are extremely compassionate. Throughout the story, the characters are aware of each other and try to help one another which I thought was sweet and satisfying to read.

4. Everything makes sense once you’ve finished reading. All questions feel answered and it honestly ties together really well.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I thought the characters and plot were well developed and I could sense how passionate the author was while writing (and after reading the author's note I understood why). My main regret is that I wish I read this book in middle school as I believe I would’ve appreciated it more and certain aspects wouldn't have bothered me as much. Overall, I’d rate this book an 8/10, if I didn’t spoil too much and you can get over some of the cringy aspects– it’s 100% worth the read. Thank you for reading my final blog!

Mskingbean89 Writes Better than J.K. Rowling

 J.K. Rowling is famously known for writing the Harry Potter book series (which has made over $25,000,000,000 in revenue since being first released). She’s also a terf (transphobic) and, since 2018 (almost two decades after she published her first Harry Potter book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) has used her large platform to spread hate. While spreading hateful rhetoric does not directly equate to poor writing, this context is crucial for understanding J.K. Rowling’s books, and why fanfiction author Mskingbean89 makes the original Harry Potter series pale in comparison to her Harry Potter fanfiction.

Despite being a well-loved children’s author, J.K. Rowling took to the internet to write wrong and arguably repulsive comments. Following the Paris Olympics, she wrongly gendered a female boxer on Twitter (X). 

The Olympian being addressed is Imane Khelif, a cis-gender professional boxer from Algeria who competed in the 2024 Olympics. In the post, J.K. Rowling assumes, likely based on Imane’s appearance and skill, that she must be a trans woman. She then berates the boxer for shattering her competitor’s “life’s ambition,” despite the competitor herself having acknowledged Imane’s skills in an interview. Through this post, it appears that J.K. Rowling demonstrates far more misogyny for not believing Imane to be a cis woman because of her strength than the supposed “misogynistic sporting establishment.” Likewise, in a post during the pandemic, she ridiculed the term “people who menstruate.” 

Here, she clearly mocks the post for not addressing those who menstruate as women. However, similarly to the post regarding the boxer, her “correction” is incorrect. Even if an individual, for whatever reason, believes that a person’s gender must align with their sex assigned at birth, J.K. Rowling’s opinion would remain wrong, as it is possible for some intersex people to menstruate as well. Overall, her adamant refusal of inclusive language makes little sense. Inclusivity within a society is crucial for maintaining equity (something I’d argue should be upheld…); opposing such efforts only further excludes and stigmatizes different groups of people, leading towards systemic harm (which like, PLEASE–this world has had enough of it). Therefore, when writing children’s books, it’s highly important to integrate accurate/correct representation of different genders, ethnicities, races, etc.. (For anyone confused: I’m not saying children’s books should or must require arguably complex topics for children such as critical race theory, gender studies, etc.. However, diversity and representation should be there, even if not directly impacting a critical plot point, etc.). 

J.K. Rowling is awfully careless about representation in her books. (As a side note, she also wrote multiple books under the pseudonym, Robert Gailbraith, where she paints trans people as villains. So, uh–make of that what you will; it’s a whole other drama that, although relating to some earlier points, doesn’t necessarily progress the current argument. I’d argue that it’s still important to be aware of, though!). For example, in the Harry Potter series, the character Cho Chang is meant to be of Asian heritage. However, many criticize this name; “Cho” is not a real name and is arguably cartoonish. It also plays into racist stereotypes of how languages from Eastern Asia sound. Likewise, there’s also the twins Padma and Parvati Patil, whose names/characters overall face similar critiques. (For a more in-depth explanation about why these three characters are problematic, I found these articles which I believe do a decent job of further explaining the controversy: I Think the Harry Potter Movies Treated 2 Characters Awfully (But They Had a Ton of Potential) and Why Cho Chang Is a Controversial Name in Harry Potter).

Therefore, J.K. Rowling seems to not put much thought into her characters (also, let’s not forget she’s also literally just a shit person!!! (imo…)). However, her writing flaws don’t end there. The Harry Potter series faces numerous plot holes and underdeveloped worldbuilding. Here’s an article that offers forty moments where something in the Harry Potter series made (arguably) no sense: The 40 Biggest Plot Holes In The Harry Potter Franchise. And here is a summary of the examples I found most relevant: 

• Time turners (the magical devices that can turn back time to alter events) are rare and strictly forbidden. Despite this, one is offered to Hermionie to secretly take more classes.

• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort insists that Harry is the one to take the prophecy off the shelf (it could only be removed by Voldemort or Harry) despite his death eaters having entirely conquered the room where the prophecy was. One might argue that Voldemort wanted to stay safe, but that argument would be rendered void since minutes after Harry grabs the prophecy, Voldy shows up anyway to fight Dumbledore. (Then again, maybe the whole point was to bring Dumbledore to a controlled location, but I doubt JKR thought that far considering that, in an interview, she said that she never saw any parallels between her death eaters and nazis when asked… (again, just imo)).

• The date and day of the week never align with the year. For example, despite September first being a different day of the week each year, Hogwarts students continuously begin school on a Monday (supposedly September 1st). Despite these details being relatively small, they still show the inconsistencies and lack of attention to detail in the books.

ANYHOO. NOW THAT I’VE ESTABLISHED WHY J.K. ROWLING AND HER HARRY POTTER BOOKS LOWKEY SUCK, HERE'S WHY THE FANFICTION VERSION OF HARRY POTTER IS FAR BETTER:

(the following portion of this blog post will remain relatively vague to avoid spoilers) 

“All the Young Dudes,” written by Mskingbean89–(real identity has never been leaked)--(also, the title is a song reference–iykyk-hehe david bowie)--was uploaded onto Archive of Our Own (popular fanfiction (fic) website also known as Ao3) in 2017 and completed in 2018. Since then, this fic has been translated forty-nine times, has been clicked on 17,371,193 times, and received 263,289 kudos (equivalent of likes). It consists of 188 chapters and 526,969 words. The story follows Remus Lupin’s perspective as he maneuvers through his Hogwarts years as a teenager, therefore spanning from 1971-1995. 

Throughout the fic, Mskingbean89 makes clearly well-researched and detailed references to actual slang, terminology, historical moments from the 1970s alongside believable and realistic characters. Although subjective, I find her writing style to be far better than J.K. Rowlings’s–it's somehow both eloquent and easy to read and nicely flows together, reading easily even when depicting the mind of an eleven-year-old boy; it's so effortlessly evident that one is reading a child’s thoughts, but the words still draw you into the story. I cannot recall a singular moment while reading where I found myself pausing because of strange descriptions or similar awkward phrasing. 

Furthermore, Mskingbean89 manages to arguably accurately (yet respectfully) incorporate themes regarding LGBTQ+ experiences (Remus literally dates Sirius, but there's also decent representation and recognition of LGBTQ+ movements during the 1980s and 1990s) and also acknowledges poverty among other real-world stuff, whereas J.K. Rowling can’t even properly write a non-European character, let alone historical realities and economic disparities.

“All the Young Dudes” also shows incredible character development. Each individual character feels real and is clearly affected and changed by other characters, situations, environments, etc.. I don’t think the same can always be said for Harry Potter (lowkey, I would give some examples here, but I think this blog post has gone on long enough.)

BUT ANYWAY. I HOPE THIS POST MADE SENSE. BASICALLY, MORAL OF THE STORY: JKR SUCKS, HER BOOKS SUCK LESS, THE FANFICTION DOESN'T SUCK. 

If you want to check out the fanfiction for yourself here is the link: All the Young Dudes - Chapter 1 - MsKingBean89 - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]

WELL- THANKS FOR READING MY LAST BLOG POST! BYE BYE!

-Karina 

Sunshine Book Review

 Hello everyone (yes spoilers),

I recently read a very interesting book about Jarrett J Krosoczka, a popular children’s author (he wrote the Lunch Lady comic series). The sequel to his first autobiography, Sunshine, was a graphic novel about Jarrett’s experience volunteering at a camp for kids with life-threatening diseases, such as cancer. The first book, Hey Kiddo, gave information about his childhood and finding a place in life with never meeting his father and having a heroin addict for a mom. He grew up with his grandparents, and as you can tell, had a pretty rough childhood. Anyways, Camp Sunshine occurs when Jarrett is a senior in High School, and he gets to go despite extreme competitiveness within his school, because everyone wanted to go. When he arrives, he is told he’ll be a counselor for a specific camper, Diego, one who’s in a wheelchair and doesn’t really want to be there. Diego was a young teenager, so Jarrett was grouped with other ill teenagers and their siblings. Despite their disabilities, the entire group was still able to climb a rock wall (Diego was lifted) and do other fun activities. Jarrett learned a lot about what it’s like to have cancer, but these kids weren’t letting that stop them from having a good time.

He also met a family with a young boy who had cancer, and it was improving at the time of the camp, but he ended up dying from it later on. This struck Jarrett quite hard because he really bonded with that family over the course of the camp. He even attended the young boy’s funeral. He got to know his other classmates, who went with him, really well, because of the special moments at camp they experienced together. The group was from all different aspects of school life, such as sports, theater, and academics, but they all shared the memories from Camp Sunshine. I encourage everyone to read this two-part series if you haven’t already. They’re pretty heavy but really eye-opening if you give them a chance. Also, if you have younger siblings, suggest a Lunch Lady comic or a different book by Mr. Krosoczka. 

Thank you for reading.

Luke

Harry Potter?

    Like so many others, Harry Potter shaped a huge part of my childhood. The books were magical, and the movies thrillingly brought the books to life. The story of The Boy Who Lived going through the wizarding world and battling impossible odds was immediately one of my favorite stories. Which is why when I heard that HBO plans to reboot the original series, I felt hesitant. 

Do we really need to tell the same story again????

    Honestly, I don't think so. The original movies, while not perfect adaptations of the books, hold a special place in my heart and many fans' hearts. I feel that trying to recreate the magic of the series with a new cast and style is setting up the new series for failure, and here is why.

    No matter how carefully they cast or how amazing the visuals are, people will spend more time comparing it to the originals than actually enjoying it. This is a common phenomenon seen in recent remakes of movies such as Snow White. 

    I feel that instead of trying to recreate the series we know and love, HBO should take this opportunity to do something new within the wizarding world. J.K. Rowling created such a large world that goes much broader than just Harry's story. There are plenty of directions this could go, as Rowling created thousands of years of history and plenty of quickly brought up places that could have a series dedicated to them. 

    Even though I am not a large fan of the Disney Star Wars movies and series, I feel like they did one thing right, and that was making shows for a lot of individual characters and continuing to add to the story of many characters that didn't get a lot of development in the original movies. If HBO made a series following Draco Malfoy and his life, I feel that a lot of people would really like it (granted, as long as it's well made), as his story was never really expanded upon. Some other topics would be the founding of Hogwarts or a magical family in a completely different country. 

I think that I represent a majority of the Harry Potter fans when I say that we don't want to see the same thing done with "shinier" special effects; we would much rather see an expanded world. 

-Jameson

SZA song Broken Clocks Analysis - Brandon lee

 Greetings, my fellow classmates! I hope your journey of educational prowess is successful so far. This week, I wanted to try something different and try to write a blog post about a song I enjoy listening to with my friends. This song is Broken Clocks by Solana Imani Rowe, aka SZA. For some background information, SZA is a musical artist famous for her R and B and collaborations with famous artists. She was born on November 8, 1990, and grew up aspiring to become a singer. Broken Clocks is one of her most famous songs, being the Number 1 hit on her album Ctrl. I figured doing a whole breakdown would be too long, so I picked 3 verses to cover. Thank you for reading my blog and checking out this song. You won't regret it!

Verse 1: 

Run fast from my day job, runnin' fast from the way it was
Jump quick to a paycheck, runnin' back to the strip club
I'm never goin' back, never goin' back, no, you can't make me
Never goin' back, never goin' back (nah), they'll never take me
I've paid enough of petty dues, I've heard enough of sh- news
I had a thing for dirty shoes since I was 10, love dirty men alike 

This first verse focuses on her regretful past as a bartender in a strip club during hard times early in her life. She looks back on these times as times and the past and promises to never return to these times in her life, showcasing her maturity and growth as a singer. 

Pre-Chorus: 

Ooh, better day than yesterday (keep cuttin' up)
Ooh, I just take it day by day
Ooh-oh, never hearing what they say (uh)
Ooh-ooh (uh), I just do it my way 

This Pre-chorus delivers a message of self-improvement every day and proves that she would continue to ignore other people's opinions and focus on herself. 

All I got is these broken clocks
I ain't got no time, just burnin' daylight
Still love, and it's still love, and it's still love
It's still love, still love (still love), still love
It's still love, but it's still love, nothin' but love for you (nothin' but)
Nothin' but love (nothin' but), nothin' but love

This main verse references the Peter Pan movie when Captain Hook mentions all his broken clocks and how they all ticked until their last tock, and now all is good. Lastly, she finishes the verse by repeating and expressing her love for her significant other. 

Review of Wonder- By Naomi

 Hi everyone! I’m back with another blogpost and today I will be reviewing Wonder by R.J. Palacio. 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is a book about a 10 year old boy, August (Auggie) Pullman. He has common interests, such as Star Wars, outerspace, his dog, and Minecraft. However, he’s been homeschooled all his life because of a birth defect he has called Mandibulofacial dysostosis. As a result, he’s always been ashamed of his face and even tries to cover it with an astronaut helmet whenever he goes out. However, he ends up going to school in 5th grade and the story follows how that went for him. In addition, the story follows different characters who have played a role in August’s life, which gives the reader an idea of their role in August’s life and their own life as well.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book and here are the reasons why:

1. I really liked the character development of the characters and how they all have their own story. It doesn’t feel like characters are just thrown in randomly and the author does a good job at revealing the characters lives, both through Auggies lens and the other characters lens. It also shows their impact on Auggies life and Auggies impact on theirs.

2. I enjoyed the overall plot of the story. Realistic fiction is probably my favorite genre and this book did not disappoint.

3. I liked the new perspective and awareness the book gave. I found it sad how some kids would refuse to be Auggies friend just because of his facial difference, but I thought it was good R.J. Palacio decided to show this, because it’s definitely true about real life.

All in all, I would definitely recommend Wonder to anyone who hasn’t read it yet. It’s such a sweet story. There’s also a movie of Wonder and other books that involve characters from Wonder, which I would also recommend. Wonder is definitely a 10/10. Thank you for reading my blog!

Fanfiction in Modern Literature: How Ginny Weasley X Draco Malfoy Became a Bestseller

Fanfiction is generally regarded as a fictional work relating to one or more preexisting media that serves for entertainment rather than commercial purposes, (as profiting from these works goes against copyright laws). Fanfiction typically takes a written form and can range in length. These stories have been produced for hundreds of years, though began exponentially increasing in popularity within the past three decades. Now, in 2025, most (young) individuals have heard of the term, but lack context. This post will discuss how fanfiction has progressed in the last century and how common fanfiction "tropes” appear in popular literature of the last decade.

Although fanfiction may be dated back to the 14th century, it became more prominent during and after the 1960’s, where “fanzines” and conventions began slowly growing in attention. The term fanzine refers to a (relatively short) physical fanfiction; it was often a combination of written and artistic mediums as they typically included fan made art (fanart) of characters from either the original media or fanfiction story itself. For the next three decades (until the end of the 1980’s), a community began to form, although separated and heavily outcasted. (Fun fact: there are some accounts detailing the passing of fanzines in high schools in the 70s, similar to today with online fanfiction). While fanfiction today has become comparatively more normalized, it heavily deemed individuals partaking in anything fanfiction related as “nerds.” 

It was not until the introduction of the World Wide Web (WWW) that fanfiction became more interrelated with published literature (specifically novels), though the changes are better associated with the early 2000s, when the community had had time to evolve. During the beginning years of the WWW, fans of different fandoms (communities centered on (typically) one specific media) created small websites dedicated to their fandom. These sites included discussion boards, places to submit fanart, fanfictions, and more. In particular, Star Trek, Daria, and X-files sites were some of the most popular. There will be some links at the end of this post to explore, if you, the reader, are interested. 

However, these sites lacked longevity. Typically, each website averaged (approximately) seventy users, with the most popular having only a few hundred at most. Therefore, as users slowly lost interest over time, the sites died. Yet, the fanfiction community continued progressing thanks to the creation of Fanfiction.net in 1998, a site that is still used today. Fanfiction.net connected all fandoms, as previously, each group had been secluded to their individual sites. This website allowed for posting of any fanfiction, introducing individuals already accustomed to fanfiction to new and different fandoms, therefore growing the fanfiction community as more interacted with one another. As the site became more popular, entirely new individuals too heard of fanfiction, also aiding in growth, as more joined the community. 

Like any other community, the fanfiction community began having unique tropes, niches, and its own culture. Some tropes began being specifically associated with fandom culture, creating different writing styles and common themes (eg: MESSY BUN AND KIDNAPPED BY ONE DIRECTION). In the mid 2000’s came Wattpad, Tumblr, and Archive of Our Own (Ao3), which are other highly popularized fanfiction sites that spread the community to multiple platforms. Fanfiction also started being more openly talked about on other social media, such as YouTube. Therefore, it became common for new YA (young adult genre) authors and writers to also peruse these sites, likely finding it of interest as other story-enthusiasts did. Ultimately, many were influenced by these newer elements, and began incorporating the themes that originated in fanfiction within their own, published works. 

For example, both Cassandra Clare (popular YA author, known most for her “The Mortal Instruments” book series) and E. L. James (author of the bestseller “Fifty Shades of Grey”) have admitted to their novels having been heavily influenced by fanfiction. Specifically, Cassandra Clare said that, originally, characters Clary Fairchild and Jace Herondale (from “The Mortal Instruments” series) are meant to be representative of, respectively, Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy from the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. She told audiences that she had originally written fanfiction about them, but later revised her drafts for publishing. Likewise, E. L. James said her book was inspired by Twilight fanfiction. Both authors, while of the 2010 era, were (and are) quite popular, and heavily contributed to book trends at the time. Notably, “The Lunar Chronicles” and the “Red Queen” series also depict typical fanfiction tropes, mimicking the aforementioned series, “The Mortal Instruments” with their similar character archetypes and overall themes (supernatural elements/magic in modern world featuring relatively young main characters with strong personality).  

As years progressed, these same patterns continued, lodging themselves in most YA books produced today. For example, “Red, White, & Royal Blue,” “Powerless,” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” can all be comparable under fanfiction-influenced fiction, despite their having relatively large differences in terms of general plot and setting. Fanfiction also further encouraged people to become authors themselves, as can be seen with the influx in the fictional book genre, where now lay home to more books than ever before. Arguably, they are accredited to fanfiction spaces specifically because, as rates of online writing have gone up, so has the number of individuals aspiring to write fiction. While some of these novels tend to be of relatively bad quality, with incorrect grammar and incoherent plot (something also often attributed to fanfiction, as those spaces are generally against negative or constructive commenting), they still grow in popularity, therefore influencing others as they once were. Overall, fanfiction has changed from an incredibly niche subject, to something that has greatly impacted the ways new authors write and think about their books, inspired by the grown community.

ANYWAYYYY THAT’S IT FOR THIS BLOG POST–HOPE U FOUND IT AT LEAST SOMEWHAT INTERESTING

Links to old fansites:

• http://glitterberries.freehostia.com/episodes.html (Daria)

• https://trekfanfiction.net/category/deep-space-nine/ (Startrek)

Fanzine (gray poster) and convention poster (blue poster): 

ALSO, SHOUTOUT TO NONA FOR FINDING THE FANZINE INFO 'CUS WE WENT OVER SOME OF THIS IN OUR AGORA CLASSSSSS 

AND GO CHECK OUT OLIVE’S BLOG POST FROM SIXTH PERIOD ON THE DOWNSIDES OF FANFICTION

-Karina

Kobe!

 Spoilers, I guess…

Hey everyone, I'm back!!! I hope you guys had a very peaceful and fun spring break. Anyway, I went to Chicago way back on the weekend of March 1-2, and on that road trip, I just completely devoured Kobe Bryant’s The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. To quote the man himself, Mamba Mentality is “to be able to constantly try to be the best version of yourself.” For those who don’t know, Kobe Bryant was a professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers and is considered by many one of the greatest players of all time (he’s easily in my top 5). Kobe also recently died in January 2020 at age 41, in a tragic helicopter crash that included him and his daughter.

In my recent years, this was one of the few books I read start to finish in that short of a timespan (It helped that it was a picture book with not a lot of words). This book details Kobe’s work ethic: how he works, how often he works, and why he works. It also talks about the different matchups he faced in the NBA, from Michael Jordan to Kevin Durant. The book includes amazing photography on every page, done by Andrew D Bernstein, and the book wouldn’t be the same without it. The pictures include Kobe getting focused before games and him hitting a crazy dunk or move during games. The pictures were one of my favorite parts of the entire book, and I spent days before actually reading it flipping through the pages, gazing at the imagery. 

This book was part of a streak of sports books that I read in a row. After and during my freshman basketball season, I got into the sport more and more, visiting the Y frequently to play there and working out during the offseason. The great season wasn’t necessarily part of my excitement (4-26), but the thought of great seasons to come contributed heavily (*ahem* two 6' 3'' twins in our grade). This book both helped start the passion and fed logs into the flame. As of right now, I’m still experiencing the effects this book had on me, and I would recommend this to anyone who is super dedicated to something or wants to be (or anyone in general: as I mentioned, the pictures are top-notch).

Thank you for reading! Luke

The CodeBreakers Secret

 Hi all,

    The Codebreakers Secret is a WWII book set in Hawaii written by Sara Ackerman. This book follows Ackerman's pattern of writing about Women in WWII. The book follows the war in the Pacific. Isabel Cooper, our protagonist, is a code breaker working in Pearl Harbor in the year 1943. They are in a race against time to break codes found in enemy transmissions to slow down and take down the enemy. She is motivated to avenge the death of her brother, but is soon brought into other secrets with the people she works with. 

    I am an avid WWII book reader as I find the topic extremely interesting, but for some reason, this book didn't have the same lure to me. I found myself slowing down and not wanting to read as some parts of the book were confusing, and the motivations for the characters to do what they do weren't always clear. This made it hard to read sometimes and caused me to take a break from the book. Maybe if I read the whole book through immediately, it would have made more sense and redeemed itself, but even when I worked to finish it, I still found myself questioning whether I was really enjoying myself. 

I personally wouldn't recommend reading this book, but if someone who has read it wants to try and change my mind about it, feel free to leave a comment down below. I would love to hear differing opinions.

Jameson

My story on Harry Potter - Brandon lee

 My story on Harry Potter - Brandon Lee

Hello guys, welcome back to my blog! This week’s blog will be about a classic book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I'm sure the majority of you guys will have read this already, but I wanted to share my story on when I first read this book. For those of you who haven't read this book yet, here is a quick summary. 

This book revolves around a boy named Harry Potter. He lives with his abusive Aunt and Uncle’s family. His parents passed away shortly after his birth, which resulted in how he got into the situation he is in now. One day, he received an invitation to the magical school of Hogwarts. Although his family ignored it at first, the invitations kept coming until Harry ended up going to Hogwarts, revealing a whole new magical world to him. During his time here, he learns his new found talent for magic, and is greeted by a welcoming group of friends and mentors, which he is not used to. He quickly finds his love for this place until some conflict arrives. There are some corrupt individuals in the school who serve Voldemort, who is an evil antagonist with a motive to steal the sorcerer’s stone. Alongside his friends, Harry embarks on an adventure within the school to find this culprit and stop his plan before it is too late. 

Even as an elementary schooler, I knew about this book because of its popularity. Most of the people around me were big Harry Potter fans, but I never got to read the series myself until one day in 3rd grade. My 3rd grade teacher decided to read the first Harry Potter book as a class. Every day, we would read a small portion of the book, and little by little, we finished the book in a few months. I remember that when reading the book together, my friends and I would always listen carefully to imagine all the descriptive settings. One of the reasons why I enjoyed this book is because of how easy it is to follow along and also the freedom that it gives for the reader to imagine what the scenes in the book might look like. I think this is one of the qualities that make a good writer and why I wanted to share my story on when I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Thank you for reading my blog!!!