A Novel Idea
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Sunday, March 9, 2025
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!!!
Monday, March 3, 2025
Why an Award-Winning BookTok Book Faces Backlash on Goodreads (and everywhere else)
Goodreads is a free public website used to track one’s book count, interact with other readers, and rate and discuss literature. After finishing a book, one has the option to rate it out of five stars, which then affects the overall average rating given to a book based on the general public opinion. Furthermore, one may also write comments. There are no regulations to what someone may comment or when, meaning that someone who has not read a book can still comment as if they had and rate the book. Therefore, the opinions circulating on Goodreads are by no means professional, and should likely not be taken too seriously. However, the website still provides a relatively good way to gauge the general public opinion on a specific book. I often like browsing through some reviews, both negative and positive, on books I finish, primarily for entertainment. Recently, I’ve noticed that my last read has quite the discourse surrounding it. While this book still sits at a generally high rating of 4.3./5, I found some interesting comments I believe would be interesting to address, as the arguments made seem to have many supporters.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, an award-winning bestseller published in 2015, praised for its refreshing take on race, gender and sexuality, follows a friend group from their 20s to their deaths, though primarily focuses on Jude St. Francis, one of the four members. Throughout the span of approximately 800 pages, readers witness complex, nuanced, and tragic emotional relationships as the characters traverse through, what the book depicts as, the hardships of life in a realistic yet melodramatic universe. They move through jobs, relationships and more, during which, Jude reveals more of his past as a young child to mid-teens to the readers, and ultimately, his best friend, Willem. Before reading the book, I was unaware of how heavy the topics would be. (Slight spoiler alert) It is revealed that Jude experienced nearly unimaginably harsh systemic abuse within a monastery for the entirety of his childhood, then was later forced into sex trafficking as a young teen, then kidnapped, and given a life threatening injury when trying to run away that continuously provides a reason for Jude to feel like an “other” for the remainder of the book. Somehow, this isn't even half of the stuff this kid goes through. (END SPOILER) Since the book begins with the four friends having recently finished college (A few years after Jude had escaped his previously horrific life), the book contains huge psychological elements, as Jude’s mental health becomes a direct result of his trauma and greatly affects his general life experience as he develops a severe affinity for self harm. Due to these elements, many readers have and continue to call A Little Life a poor (and even problematic) example of literature, stating that it is simply well-written “torture porn,” especially considering Jude is an otherwise “perfect” being whenever not being affected by his horrific past. Though, this statement also exists because the author herself has not experienced, nor researched, any of the featured topics and admitted to having opinions many consider wrong or even uneducated. For example, in an interview regarding A Little Life, she states: “I don’t believe in it—talk therapy, I should specify—myself. One of the things that makes me most suspicious about the field is its insistence that life is always the answer. Every other medical specialty devoted to the care of the seriously ill recognizes that at some point, the doctor’s job is to help the patient die; that there are points at which death is preferable to life,” therefore admitting she believes there can be a point where an individual is beyond help, an idea which many consider incredibly dangerous and harmful. I will also mention that many have acknowledged other controversies within this book (such as the representation of LGBTQ+ characters in modern fiction, the depiction of race, depiction of time, “black and white characters,” and more), however for the sake of maintaining a relatively short blog post, I shall primarily address my thoughts on the supposed overuse of trauma and heavy topics and the author’s underdeveloped research on mental health / thoughts on mental health (+the role it played in the plot).
Myself and many other readers express general like for (roughly) the first 200 pages of the book as the “balance” in plot remains much more equal than later on. Overall, the focus remains on what the book was originally said to be about. For reference, here is the official description (as written on the back of the book):
“A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.”
However, for the following 600 pages (with the exception of roughly 50 pages towards the end), there is practically nothing but description after description of self harm, pain, self torture, an unwillingness to receive help, and a dwindling amount of interaction between the relationships we are supposedly meant to follow. Therefore, I find it no surprise that readers express so much disdain, as (IMO) these scenes are just truly harrowing to read and aren’t even what the book was meant to address. Rather than creating a book that allows a unique perspective into topics more rarely discussed openly, such as (but not limited to,) mental health, Yanagihiara has instead created an awfully repetitive novel that focuses purely on the negative situations in one’s life. Based on the book itself and other interviews with this author, I believe her intention was to write a story that expresses one of many possible but unjust realities faced by an individual with a tragic ending to depict the true unfairness of the situation (despite the supposed “masterful depiction of love” statement on the back cover). While some of this goal was achieved, her choosing to pick apart fifty one years of one’s supposed life and include only elements further progressing her intended narrative ultimately made many readers find the book unrealistic, especially when it grew to be quite repetitive. For example, after 750 pages of reading about the absolute pure torture of Jude St. Francis, he had finally reached a content life for approximately two years, when his partner was killed, which yet again pushed the book towards the same depressive cycle. The constant plot twists existing only to further this very specific plot has made many readers ultimately wonder why the book was written in the first place. How could one possibly benefit from reading about these relentless tragedies? From the way I see it, I believe the characters make for interesting subjects to analyze, however I too think the overall length of the book could have been far shorter to (1.) better capture the intended themes, and (2.) create that intended narrative in a more impactful manner.
As for the author’s stance on mental health, I certainly find it problematic, as do many others. There have been interviews where she has admitted to doing no research on the topic and not having consulted with any mental health professionals or even those having dealt with similar issues as Jude. Therefore, having written a book surrounding the effects of poor mental health can most certainly be considered strange, considering she knows nothing about what she spent nearly 800 pages describing. However, it should be noted that she otherwise clearly made a strong attempt to make other aspects within the book as realistic as possible, as seen when considering the immense research she has done for everything else within A Little Life (eg: the places visited by the characters, law firms/legal procedures, architecture, etc.), further adding to my confusion about why she did not do the otherwise necessary research to write such a book. Overall, by lacking information on how a character with psychological trauma may truly think and behave, it further adds more misleading information regarding mental health in a world already full of similar misconceptions. (Lowkey even worse considering the audience for this book is quite young… but I won’t get into that lest this post gets any longer as I’d ultimately start typing about the role of fanfiction within modern literature which is a whole nother thing!).
ANYWAYYYY
I will also say that, despite these controversies, A Little Life may still be one of best written books I’ve read, and I say this because throughout the entirety of the book I remained constantly in awe of Yanagihara’s writing style and character expression. While I may entirely disagree with her opinions regarding mental health and find kinda a lotttttt of issues with her book… she still had great character development and, at least in my opinion, insanely well-written scenes that incorporated wonderful detail.
SOO YEA I THINK THAT'S MAINLY IT FOR THIS BLOG POST GUYS- TAKE FROM IT WHAT YOU WILL.
Thanks for reading!
- Karina
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Bridge to Terabithia - Naomi
Hi everyone! I’m back with another blog post, and today I will be reviewing Bridge to Terabithia. I read this several years ago and have also watched the movie, and it’s pretty sad.
To start, I’ll share a summary of the book *spoilers included.* The main character in the story is named Jesse Aarons, and he starts the book off by being pretty lonely. People never really showed interest in him, inside and outside of his family. The only exception to this was his teacher Miss Edmunds, who he has a crush on. However, Leslie moves in next door and she also takes interest in becoming friends with Jesse. They’re very imaginative 5th graders and go off to play in the woods. They have a made up land called Terabithia. They spend lots of time playing there and having fun with each other and Jesse is very happy. However, one day he wants to take a trip with Miss Edmunds to see the National Gallery over in Washington for a day. While his mother is barely awake, he asks if she can go so that she’ll be too tired to really think about it since he knows she would say no otherwise. Leslie wanted to test out the rope and swing over the creek, but Jesse left anyway so he could hang out at a gallery with Miss Edmunds. He has such a fun time with Miss Edmunds and they eat lunch and she even purchases ice cream for him before going home. He’s over the moon- until suddenly he walks into his house and finds out very unfortunate news. Leslie had in fact been swinging across the creek, and she was found dead. They believed she must have drowned. His only friend was now gone. He struggles with coping and is very sad. He blames himself for going to Washington, because he thinks had he stayed Leslie would’ve had someone. But he didn’t, so she was all alone. However, he is able to eventually cope. He does so by building a bridge to Terabithia and really spends time there. He honors her memory since this was their shared world, which is sweet.
This book is very sad. However, I think it is also very beautiful and fun to read. Although Leslie died, she and Jesse still had fun times together. The stories' lessons about friendship and how life is fragile serve as great reminders of the good and the bad, making this worth it to read. Overall, I would rate this an 7.5/10, given it is a book for younger readers. Thanks for reading my blog!
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Shot Clock: A Review
DUH SPOILERS
Hello everyone, I’m back with another sports book blog review! This review is on Shot Clock, which follows a teen basketball statistician Tony (or Tone), and his season on a Milwaukee AAU basketball team. I have the impression that everyone on this 14 and under roster (including the statistician) would cook anyone from Uni, considering they end up in the national tournament, and that this book is written by a former NBA player (Caron Butler).
And I’m telling you, the odds were stacked against them. The team was affected by the death of Dante, one of the top high school prospects in the nation and a team member’s brother before the season started. He was shot by a white cop, and being African-American, this incident shows all the signs of racism. Much of the book is spent trying to get the cop in jail for his wrongdoing (Dante was innocent). Also, Tony’s mom seems to have a form of depression or something, because she leaves the house to “get better” for months on end. And finally, the team’s best player switched teams to their cross-town rivals after getting his ego hurt.
Despite all the odds, the team managed to come out on top. And I think the ending is predictable but satisfying. It’s halftime of the national championship against their cross-town rivals, and multiple players are injured. Tony has to step in so they can run 5 players. At the very end, Tony hits the game-winning shot to make his team the national champions. If you like lots of actual basketball gameplay and statistics, then I recommend this book to you. One of my favorite scenes is tryouts, where Tony talks a lot about his own and other players’ stats. I also enjoy Tony’s game style. He isn’t focused on hitting threes or driving for layups, but passing is his strong suit. I think that goes to show how selfless he is as a player and person. So if you like a good sports book and easy read, I recommend Shot Clock for you!
Luke
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
1960
Hello Everyone!
Today I want to talk about yet another nonfiction book. I recently finished a book called Countdown 1960 by CNN news anchor Chris Wallace. This recently published book focuses on the Year 1960 as hinted in the title but also relates it to modern-day society.
In the year 1960, a lot was going on within the United States but the main focus was the presidential race. It all starts on January 2nd when John F. Kennedy announces that he is going to be running for President. The book goes through a lot of decision-making that went into Kennedy's run to the Whitehouse such as his selection of Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate.
Although wanting to give a historical background, Countdown 1960 doesn't just focus on the surface politics of the presidential race. Wallace introduces influential characters at the time such as civil rights activists, Hollywood actors, and other world leaders. He uses these characters to further explain the significance and show the many factors impacting the election of 1960. I feel he does a good job of using these important figures as a way to add analysis to the book about the election.
I definitely enjoyed reading this book although there are many books out there about this topic and nothing major stood out to me about Countdown 1960 compared to what other books about this topic have presented me. I would recommend this book if you are interested in history as I think it is an informative read. Furthermore, if you are interested in history books this book is part of Chris Wallace's "Countdown" series which includes Countdown to Bin Ladin and Countdown 1945. I haven't read these books yet but I will definitely try to get my hands on one of them for a nice spring break read.
Thanks and have a wonderful day, Jameson
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Hidden Figures Book Review - Brandon Lee
This blog post will be on a book I recently read called Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly. This book is an amazing true story about three African American females who worked at NASA and greatly assisted their early exhibitions to space. despite the odds of segregation, they fought with will and determination to pursue their dreams and set societal milestones. Kathrine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson were able to share their own personal stories about suffering against racism and sexism. Their contributions not only impacted themselves but also people all around the world inspiring and setting a role model to students and adults all around the world. This book widely recognized the actions and contributions of these three hidden figures who have not been given enough recognition for their actions.
While reading this book, I really enjoyed the auto-biography like theme of the story. Showcasing the individual points of view of these three people really made this book interesting to read. everything from the story to the foreign settings for these women also made me want to finish this book quicker to see how the other mathematicians would view and accept her when she was heavily discriminated against at the beginning of the book. There were multiple instances of them being segregated like having to use an old and dirty coffee pot that everybody would treat poorly and having to use a "Colored bathroom" which was about half a mile away. They were also denied help and were often handed all of the extra work while getting paid less than most of the other Men. However, one of the aspects that I enjoyed about this book was the few characters who were able to support these three people. Interestingly enough, these few people were not people who worked alongside them, but people like the astronauts and their bosses who recognized this book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book which inspires many students and adults around the world to fight with determination and perseverance against the odds and would recommend this book to people who are interested in non-fiction books this this.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
To Kill a Mockingbird
Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog and today I will be reviewing a book I read last year for the banned books project, To Kill a Mockingbird.
To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. The book is set in the 1930’s in a fictional town Maycomb County (despite being a fictional town- it’s supposed to be in the Southern United States.) The story is written through the lens of Scout, who at the start of the story is 6 years old (the book continues for a few years, at the end she is likely around 8 by the end). At the beginning, Scout enjoys spending time in the summer playing outside with Jem (her older brother, who is almost 10) and Dill (a friend of hers who is also 6) who regularly comes to visit. Another hobby of theirs includes watching Boo Radley- a mysterious neighbor who is known for only leaving the house at night which has fascinated these children. However, this summer is not like any other when an innocent black man in his 20’s named Tom Robinson gets sent to court after being accused of raping a white 19 year old woman, Mayella Ewell. Regardless of the way this court case goes, everyone understands that there will be plenty of conflict afterwards. The conflict is increased when Bob Ewell attempts to hurt Scout and Jem because their father Atticus Finch is defending Tom Robinson in court. This sad, chaotic, and extremely abnormal summer causes Scout to realize the devastating impact race had on society at the time.
Overall, this coming of age story was certainly worth reading despite the fact it’s been banned a lot due to the language and themes of the book. The story tackles a sad, yet true theme of racial injustice. The characters in the story are depicted well and while reading I understood the type of person who they were, which then would come to play an important part. The book was well written and had plenty of descriptions and detail. If you haven’t read it yet, I definitely recommend it. Overall, I would rate it a 9/10. Thanks for reading my blog!
-Naomi
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
How the World Ran out of Everything
The author Peter Goodman talks about the many sections and goes into the details of the supply chain including international shipping, ports, trucking, railroading, manufacturing, and the role of large corporations.
I enjoyed reading this book as it increased
my knowledge of why everything that I ordered was taking forever and why prices were increasing and I recommend that you all check it out!
-jameson
Monday, January 20, 2025
A Wonderful Tragedy

Here is the official description:
“In New York City where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan.
After twelve years of tenuous
coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing
stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster,
fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected
conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to
stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside
out.
If, that is, the enmity between empires
doesn’t destroy them first.”
-(copied from GoodReads)
While the idea for this story can by no means be considered truly original, Blake almost immediately encapsulates readers despite the plot being repeatedly done. With ever-alluring intergenerational relationships, depicting the subtle horrors of entrapment within a self-inflicted cycle of failure, it becomes nearly impossible not to get swept up by the wonder and pure drama of the story. At first, seemingly only two sides are introduced to the decades-long conflict, but the farther one reads it's apparent that not only is each respective family drowning within secrets, but each generation as well. While the youngest members of both families are forced to become nothing more than collateral damage to their older sibling’s fight for a chance at redeeming their lives lost to familial duty, the matriarchs are forced to reassess whether they indeed acted correctly all those years ago. As the novel progresses, with everyone fighting for their own chance at a happy ending, characters ultimately reevaluate even the morals and loyalties which had previously governed their every decision. And though myself and many others find issues with the not fully developed magic system, or inconsistencies in plot near the end, I would still highly urge anyone looking for a well-written tragedy to consider One for My Enemy, as I entirely find it to be a wonderful book for entertainment.
-Karina
Berceanu
Monday, January 13, 2025
Why Nintendo should make a Super Smash Bros Ultimate book guide
Hello everyone, I’m back with an unusual twist of subject matter for a book blog: a video game. And I know you’re probably thinking, “Wait a minute! He can’t do that!” Oh but I can. I am going to argue on why Nintendo - the company that created the Nintendo Switch and my favorite game, Super Smash Bros Ultimate (or SSBU) - should create a guidebook on playing the game. First, let me give you some background information.
SSBU is the fifth rendition Nintendo has created of Smash Bros, following some amazing and some not-so-amazing games, such as:
Super Smash Bros 64 - this game started it all and therefore did mostly well, but didn’t garner a large and dedicated fanbase due to unbalanced characters and being unable to customize most aspects.
Super Smash Bros Melee - This Gamecube game really set of the series, gathering much attention and enjoyment from fans. This is the only version of Smash still with large tournaments besides SSBU.
Super Smash Bros Brawl - The Wii version. There isn’t anything too crazy about this game; I own it and can’t think of anything worth mentioning. It has a very small fanbase and known for some of the worst matchups in Smash history.
Super Smash Bros 4 - This game was run on the 3ds and the Wii U and had a great run, but died shortly after Ultimate’s release.
SSBU is a fighting game with playable characters from many common franchises you can recognize, including Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda. This game features 89 playable characters that can battle up to 8 at a time on different fighting maps. Many different aspects go into what makes a character good, such as attack damage/speed, air/ground speed, and even weight/flight angles. I think a book could help sum up most of the relevant information needed to best utilize SSBU, so people don’t have to gather all of that info themselves, there not being a good source online.
Increase Play
Releasing a new mainstream book of a 7 year old game would gather more fans to buy or play more of SSBU, resulting in an increase of revenue for Nintendo not just from the book sales, but from video game sales and extras. I legitimately think this would be a great money move to make.
Increase player knowledge
A SSBU book on how much damage and knockback your favorite character’s strongest move deals would add some useful knowledge to that player’s game style, making them eventually better at the game and enjoy it more. The book can and should also include the best stage a character can play on, helping you either school your friends or gain tournament info.
Tier list
The smash bros community has made many tier lists themselves, but none would have the prestige of an official Nintendo Tier list of characters. This can assist in deciding which character you most want to play and/or learn how to beat. Just remember you should play whatever character you enjoy most, not just because they’re good. I main Kirby, one of the worst characters in the game, but love playing him! (I also believe Kirby is better than the unofficial tier lists say, which is why I’d appreciate a Nintendo-made one.)
There you have it folks! Maybe Nintendo will take notice of this blog due to our amazing previous posts that you should check out and create an amazing Smash Bros guidebook (doubt it). I hope I’ve encouraged at least someone to try my favorite video game. Just give it a chance! Thanks for reading!
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