Review: S.T. A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett

About the Book: Greer MacDonald has just started as a scholarship student at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged pupils as STAGS. STAGS is a place where new things–and new people–are to be avoided. And in her first days there, Greer is ignored at best and mocked at worst by the school’s most admired circle of friends, the Medievals.

My Thoughts: I immediately wanted to read this book once I read that it was Gossip Girl meets Hunger Games. I am a big Hunger Games fan and I saw many comparisons, the big one in my opinion is the Medievals being similar to The Careers. Also, while reading this book, it felt like I was reading from a diary because Greer is telling you her story about the murder. Also, the cover gives me President Snow- Mockingjay 2 vibes. This has been optioned for a movie with the screenwriter from the Hunger Games writing the screen play for this movie and I can't wait. 

About the Author: M. A. BENNETT is half-Venetian, and was born in Manchester, England, and raised in the Yorkshire Dales. She is a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she specialized in the study of Shakespeare’s plays as a historical source. After university she studied art and has since worked as an illustrator, actress and film reviewer. She also designed tour visuals for rock bands, including U2 and the Rolling Stones. She was married on the Grand Canal in Venice and lives in north London with her husband, son and daughter. Follow her at @MABennettAuthor on Twitter and at m.a.bennettauthor on Instagram.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

February Wrap Up

I got through 8 books this month and I am currently reading three. Not the best but it was great for how short the month is. I read a mix of good and not so good books. I have read a total of 17 books so far this year and I feel myself slowing down. I have not been wanting to just sit and read anything. Also, I am not going to be doing a review on Dollhouse by the Kardashian sisters. I didn't enjoy the book and it was a waste of time and that is when my reading started to slow down too. 

1. The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith

2. Infamous by Lauren Conrad

3. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

5. 10 Reasons Not to Fall In Love by Linda Green

6. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky

7. New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

8. Dollhouse by Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian

Review: ready Player One by Ernest Cline

About the Book: In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. 

My Thoughts: When I first started watching Booktube videos a couple years ago, this was the book that was getting a lot of hype. Everyone loved it and I wanted to read it too. It has a lot of 80's references and I knew that I would understand those references because I was born in 1990 and I had an older brother born in the 80's and growing up in the 90's my parents would play a mix of music, mostly 80's. My brother had some of the game systems mentioned and I would play them when he was at his dad's for the weekend. 

One of my resolutions this year was to finally read this book because I want to see the movie, and when it popped up on Blogging For Books, I grabbed it. Now one of the cons I have about it is that there are some boring parts when he is describing a game in detail. I already know what most of these games are about. Also, the text in this book is very tiny and it has a lot of words on each page. I am enjoying the quest and adventure. I would describe this book as Percy Jackson meets Gamer( movie). That's how I described this book to Cayce. I told him to just think of the movie Gamer that stars Gerard Butler.

About the Author: Ernest Cline is a novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. His first novel, Ready Player One, was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and appeared on numerous “best of the year” lists. Ernie lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

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Review: New Boy by Tracey Chevalier

About The Book: Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat’s son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day – so he’s lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can’t stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players – teachers and pupils alike – will never be the same again.
 
The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers.

My Thoughts: I have never read Othello, so I have no idea if this is a good retelling of the Shakespeare tragedy. It is from the POV of some sixth graders and it focuses on the arrival of a new kid. This new kid shakes things up quite a bit because he is African. He is the son of a diplomat and has been the new kid at different schools for the past few years. He befriends the golden girl Dee in the Sixth grade and they have a spark. Ian, the class bully is bothered by this and wants the new kid to know that he runs that playground and preferably the whole school. 

It just brought me back to my sixth grade year, where there were groups on the playground that we all stuck with and where we hung out and who to watch our for. Who was the popular ones and who were the outcasts. 

About the Author: Tracy Chevalier grew up in Washington, DC. She received her BA in English literature from Oberlin College before moving to London in 1984. She later attended the University of East Anglia in Norwich, where she received her MA in creative writing. Her works include The Virgin Blue, The Girl With a Pearl Earring, and Remarkable Creatures.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

School Week 27 Photo Diary

We had a long and productive week. I think it was only long for me because of the weekend. As I am writing this, I am still exhausted and have not been really productive or relaxed as I have been wanting to be this weekend. We did get a lot of learning in this week. I was going to start them on something new at the end of the week, but figured it would be better to do on Monday because it will fit. But that will be in the next post.

Monday 2/12: I did plan on starting early and I did get up after Cayce had left for work, but then I stupidly went back to bed, and overslept. They had their pop tarts for breakfast and we ended up starting at 10:45. Ariana did more workbook pages and Sammy did Easy Peasy while Addy watched Super Why.

After Addy got done watching Super Why, she did her Easy Peasy while Ariana did some reading and Sammy also worked on her Easy Peasy lessons.

We ended our day with reading library books.

Tuesday:We had our early start that I wanted for Monday morning. Sammy started at 7:40 when she got done eating her pop tart and then I started Ariana and Addy when they got done with their breakfast. Addy started her day with drawing and Sammy started her day with Reading Eggs Mathseeds lesson and then she decided she wanted to work on Reading Eggs worksheets. Ariana did more workbook pages. She is flying through that workbook.

After a few ore hours of each doing reading time and Easy Peasy, we watched a show on baby animals on Netflix.

Addy made a little shapes booklet.

Even though Sammy started her day early, they all finished their days at the same time. Ariana finished her day with Reading Eggs. Addy completed her morning work and calendars and weather graph.

Wednesday: We had a very late start to the morning. They did their morning work and then we started a new show called Hidden Kingdoms and it was cool. Then we watched two more episodes of Baby Animals In The Wild. Afterwards, Ariana did reading time. Addy did Easy Peasy lessons and Sammy did some Reading Eggs spelling sheets. After an hour, they did other work. Addy got some Valentine's Day coloring pages while her sisters worked on spelling lessons.

Airy ended her day with Reading Eggs worksheets. Addy was still coloring at the end of the school day and Sammy finished her day with reading to me.

Thursday: We started our day at 9:30. We had a "concert" where we all just sang songs for the fun of it. That's how they woke me up.. singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes at the top of their lungs. Then we watched more Netflix and then I pulled up an episode of Liberty's Kids on Deborah Sampson and then after, I had Airy and Sammy draw commemorative stamps for her. Addy re-watched Leapfrog during this time and she was singing along and dancing..

We finished our day with reading time and reading the rest of our library books.

Friday: I was happy that Friday was finally here. I once again woke up with Cayce and then went back to sleep and we had another late day. They had morning work and Netflix. When we got done with watching our shows, I had Sammy and Ariana do a free write that had to include an animal that they had seen today in the shows we watched. They did great with their stories but I have realized that their writing is getting repetitive and that has to be fixed. While they were writing, Addy finished her Valentine's day coloring pages and then she finished her day with Easy Peasy lessons. She moved on to the letter T and got to make a train craft today.

Sammy and Ariana finished their day with reading to each other. After the school day was done, I felt the exhaustion and happiness that we had a great week without any meltdowns.

Review: 10 Reasons Not To Fall In Love

I bought this book a couple years ago after I found it on Amazon being sold for a penny. I read the synopsis and figured that I could save it for when I needed something to cheer me up. I planned to read it right when I got it, but that didn't happen. I have been staring at it on my shelf and then I finally decided to read it this month for Valentine's Day. I had completely forgotten what it was about.

As I started reading it and the dialogue, I learned that this was set in England and realized that if I read this when I first got it, I would not know what in the hell this characters would be talking about and their jokes. I thank the British YouTubers that I have been watching for learning their slang and lingo.

I read this book in two days. I could not put it down. It is so cute and fluffy mixed with some dark times. It is about Jo, a single mom to a two year old son named Alfie. She is still learning how to move on with her life and be the best mom that she can be. Alfie's dad walked out on them on the night of his first birthday and he is turning 2 and she has finally decided to go back to work as a news reporter. That sold me right there and I connected with the character on this fact because that was my dream job growing up.

One day, they meet a man called Dan. He is a balloon sculptor and Alfie is instantly smitten with "balloon man". We learn throughout the rest of the book that he lives on a boat and then there are parts in the book that are focused on his childhood and these are the dark parts. These parts of the book made me cry. I was so heartbroken for Dan and how he had all these issues going on and yet he just wanted Alfie and Jo in his life.

I loved this pairing and this author has hooked me with this book. I will be looking at her other books. I know that this is a stand alone novel, but I hope that one day she will write another book with these characters, maybe from a grown up Alfie.

The only thing I have against this book is that there wasn't an epilogue and that I wish there was more to this story. I need more of Dan.