Mark Leynes The Life of Pi

Today, I will be writing a review and summarizing the book called “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel and it was 354 pages. The book “The Life of Pi” is fiction explaining his life's  story. I’ll start off with Pi explaining his life in Toronto; during his high school and college. When he was younger his life was troubled in India, but he gets through this by learning zoology and religion. He met Francis Adirubasamy, a competitive swimmer, that was a business colleague to his father. Pi had a brother named Ravi and at an early age they had seen how dangerous animals could be. Pi also studied a couple of religions all at one time. Pi’s family decided to move to Canada, and go by ship with many animals. 

     While sailing the boat starts to sink and the crewmembers threw him on a lifeboat. Pi has found only some animals that were on the lifeboat with him and the tiger eventually gets on the boat. They keep going through the water and find an island. Pi finds human teeth around the fruit and believes the island people are cannibals. They went back to the sea and Pi was sent to a hospital. Pi tells his story on the ocean. 

     Most of the writing was based on Pi’s life and how he survived with a tiger as his friend.The book was decent; it was not in my interest, but to some people it may be fascinating. If you like survival books and some interesting times with animals this could be for you. 

The art of the heist: confessions of a master thief

Based on the books i read the first semester, the one that caught my attention was called “The art of the heist: confessions of a master thief”, which is a true crime book by Myles J.Connor Jr, a son of A decorated policeman and a grandson of a Mayflower passenger William brewster, connor grew up in Milton,  Massachusetts. Through his juvenility he developed a love for Rock and Roll, and art which helped him later on when he committed several crimes and unsolved rapes, he says he would never date someone younger than him, but in fact according to the evidence collected, it demonstrates he does. This story takes place mostly in the 70s and 80s in Boston and it’s mainly about his trials and time in prison, he also talks a bit about his family in the beginning of the book. While he was in prison he tried to escape jail several times and the details are very wildly unreasonable, when he mentions that he outwit the guards in Maine jail with a soap gun that he carved out as a sculpture of art. Given these points, I consider that this book is somewhat related to the corruption of law enforcement back in the 70s and the writing was simplistic with dynamic characters. If you are into true crime stories, I would suggest reading this book. Although It was not what I'd hoped, but yet wasn’t bad, I liked it because it makes you visualize how the crimes were prosecuted.

Ready Player One- Mark Montoya

So far this has been the only year where I have actually read anything outside of school and enjoyed it. If I'm being honest when it has come to SSR time in the past years I would never take the reading seriously and I can say it feels good to finish a whole book. But y'all didn't come to hear my boring story, no you came to hear my book review on my favorite book from the last semester huh? Alright fine I'll stop boring you with my story and tell you about the book that I have chosen for this review which is Ready Player One a Science Fiction novel by Ernest Cline. The book was really fun and really long for me anyways it was 372 pages to be exact also it’s just an all around good read, well only if you like the 80s and are a little bit geeky. So the book yeah its about how the world has gone to trash and everyone is hating the real world but can escape to the OASIS. The OASIS is a free vast virtual world where people can be/ do anything they have ever wanted, in the OASIS you can be anything from Hello Kitty to the Incredible Hulk and go anywhere from your favorite movie to Mount Everest. You see all this through the eyes of a high school boy named Wade Watts and how the OASIS has changed/ help his life and those around him. Well with the help of the Easter egg the is left in the virtual worlds of the OASIS by the creator James Halliday, who ever fines this Easter egg will receive untold riches and full control of the company but thing is that it's available to every user on the OASIS. There are bad people that want to make the OASIS a place with ads and just ruin everything for the people using it, also ruin what Halliday has created for self gain. So Wade with his high level intelligence of the 80s and everything about James Halliday has to go through very difficult obstacles that are ahead of him and his friends which some he meets along the way, to be able to have a better life and save the OASIS from the bad people that are trying to mess everything up for everyone. With my love for the 80s it has really been one of my top favorite books of all time due to the fact that I had such a great time reading this book and that the author owns a freakin Delorean which is one of my dream cars!! Thank you for taking the time to read my review and I hope this book can bring you the same laughter and fun experience that it has brought to me while reading this book.

The Dog Stars

The book that I decided to read in the first semester was a book named, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Dog Stars is a 320 page post apocalyptic novel that has climatic events. Dog stars is about a man named Hig and his dog who are going through an apocalyptic event (really crazy how it started). It is just them trying to survive the world, but it is very struggling for them to adapt to their surroundings. They grow through man trials together trying to keep each other alive. Hig is a man who wants to try and make a world a better place but he doesn’t know how. Throughout this apocalypse Hig is trying to find his spiritual regeneration. Meaning trying to find himself again spiritually and mentally. Trying to be able to overcome this toxic world that he is living in. The way he overcomes everything in this novel is breathtaking. Their are many climatic moments in this novel that will keep you on the edge of your seats. If you’re a reader who likes drama, trill, and action THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. I enjoyed the way this novel had me impatient for what’s gonna happen next. Just the way Peter Heller writes it grabs your attention. The way he is able to express the situation in the novel made me imagine myself in that situation that Hig going through. I felt connected with Hig in a way. As in we both are trying to overcome these challenges to better ourselves. If I was able to change the book I would change Higs dog to a son to make it even more dramatic. Like Hig teaching him how to survive and the techniques he will have to learn to be able to be on his own.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Out of the four books I read the past semester, the one I enjoyed the most was a short 224 page novel titled The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky. The novel is set in the 1990s following an introverted student by the name of Charlie who is going through his freshman year of high school and all the challenges he faces. The book is set up as a series of letters that he writes throughout the year. He never sends them, but based off the first page we understand that he writes these letters to help himself get better since he is struggling with mental health. Throughout the book, Chbosky writes about the issue of mental health, sexual and drug abuse which helps bring light to what teenagers have come across in their lifetime. The book introduces all these issues that you would not expect to hear coming from a freshman in highschool, issues so intense that require trigger warnings.The book was adapted into a movie a few years prior and it does a decent job portraying the story considering the author directed the movie; however, if you want to truly feel the emotion behind, I suggest reading the book because it offers something the movie can't. This book does mention and talk about issues like suicide, sexual abuse, and drug abuse so if you do decide to read this book, this is a trigger warning. Even though the book is upsetting at times, I would highly, highly recommend this book if you are into mature YA books. It is a very short read considering it's only 224 pages long, but the storyline of it is just amazing.

-Marcela Perez

The black hand

So the book I read was called the black hand and was based on a man called “the boxer” also known as Rene. He got influenced by his older brother who joined  the gang arta 13. Later at the age of 11 he started selling drugs to kids at school. Basically he started off really young with doing all of the gang stuff and when he got older he was like the main one in the mafia. People knew who he was and were frightened by what he could and would do. To me he was a reckless guy because he would date older women that were with men and didn’t care. He wasn’t afraid. He ended up getting married and having children but after he got put in prison. He then was still fine because in prison they had gangs and the biggest gang there was the mafia. They would do whatever to survive and that’s how they saw it. They were vicious enough to kill just for saying one thing wrong, they had no mercy and they would sneak in weapons by shoving it into their rectum. Later on as Rene is getting older he’s realizing this is not what he wants for the rest of his life. One guard realized Rene was changing and wasn’t the same cold person. He said that a member of the mafia wouldnt even try to remember important date for example birthdays, Valentine’s Day, and anniversaries. In the end rene talks to some important people that are willing to help him get out of the gang and he’s really scared because of what they do to people who leave. They give him protection and he ends up leaving having a better life.

Reviews

          The first book I read was called the "Dragon Heir" by Cinda Williams which was a fantasy novel about a young man who lost his parents and has magic and lives with a magic school. The other characters are students who fight evil, they all gather and find ways to stop the end of the world from happening all in all an interesting book however it was far below my skill level so it was a little to simple for me and in hindsight may have chosen a book that was more interesting/mature. The next book I read was "Paradox" by Catherine Coulter, this was a murder mystery and follows a female cop who witnessed the murder in a small peaceful town. The plot goes as is, witnessed the murder follows leads and even has the character develop a relationship which later would bloom even more; the story was very compelling and much more of higher level reading as opposed to the ladder. I enjoyed both books but the second by far outweighs the first, I suggest reading Paradox if you are entertained by murder mysteries and such with a mix of romance this bool would be for you. 
           Consider the following when deciding to read either of the books, the plot on both was simple one was just more entertaining and had more detail and realistic component to it, however the other was more magical and a bit childish. 

                           -Daniel Kerlagon