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

How the World Ran out of Everything

     Recently I read a nonfiction book about a new book that came out in 2024 called How the World Ran out of Everything. This is a book about the supply chain and how the year 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic affected it.  

 

    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.  

 

    On top of talking about the supply chain issues and the different sections, Goodman writes about how he feels this could have been avoided. Goodman spent part of the book arguing that the shipping and supply chain world focuses too much on short-term profits and minimizing inventory to reduce the risks. Instead of having low inventory Goodman argues that if more companies could increase their inventory, it would leave them less vulnerable to these sudden surges in demand.  

    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
 

 

 

 

A Wonderful Tragedy

  

Olivie Blake, known for her atmospheric, detailed writing and complex characters, introduces readers to a fresh retelling of the classic Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare with her book One for My Enemy.

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

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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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!