December Roundup

This month has been a leave of absence for your blogger... so my apologies, but I've taken a bit more liberty in choosing what I read instead of reading for my blog. This has a relieved a lot of stress for now, but I've gotten around to visiting some very sweet local bookstores.

They've been selling new, used, and antique books since 1975 and are basically crammed foot to ceiling with book. It also smells delicious. 

 Happy Holidays! (whether it be Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, or nothing) I know at the top of my book wish list is Knowledge is Beautiful (some very cool infographics//that I will buy with my grandparent's yearly gift of a book store gift card).

Morals

This is simply a post about morals. Nothing exciting or earthshattering, but I wanted to make my blog a little more diverse than just books. Maybe I’ll do a couple more posts like this, maybe I won’t. Let’s wait and see. (Inspiration of this book came from a response about Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell)

Morals are tricky… they aren’t universally agreed upon. We can see that from the many different people, religions, countries, and institutions who all don’t agree. It seems that we live in a world where you are expected to know right from wrong without a universally agreed upon right or wrong.

Sure, there are the standard laws that must people agree on— don’t kill, don’t steal, be nice, don’t physically hurt someone… but what about those tricky/controversial issues? The separation of church/religion and state, gay marriage, abortion, immigration, these all seem so inherent that we can’t talk about it.

The world seems divided now, there are political parties that refute everything, there are religious organizations that refute two or three but somewhere along the line contradict themselves. It seems to me that everyone is trying to put everything into a white or black box of right or wrong. Recently in class our teacher asked us if we thought there was a gray area. I immediately think “Well, of course there is.” Our teacher goes on to say that rather than there being a gray area most of the time it us deceiving ourselves with thinking we are doing something gray rather than doing something wrong.

But I think otherwise. Picking up your own trash rather than picking up both yours and your friends isn’t wrong because you are pulling your own weight. My teacher comes back with the point that don’t we all live in the same world. You have to come to the conclusion then that you have a different sense of right and wrong. The gooey, icky stuff is morality— a long debated tradition of war and head turning.

Morals are defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “A person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.” Notes how it says “a person’s” not teacher, religion, nation, or school— morals are self-determined yet we are always so scared to say otherwise, something against our environmentally imposed morals.

So in the end, this was just an editorial about morals. A little exploration into my brain about how I think right and wrong is often characterized by the world around us, at least me anyways. I know my “morals” are somewhat different than my parents’, teachers’, and school’s. I know some of my friends would question me if I expressed my morals. I know I have morals for how I think other people’s morals should be structured, but what in the end does any of this mean? Morals, are simply there, not to be regarded for public critique, but rather a private issue, one shunned in polite conversation. 

November Monthly Review

Winter is here! The magical land of snow and frost, but here the weather has yet to cooperate. Earlier this month we had a bunch of snow sitting on the ground, but now in the beginning of Decmeber we have none.*Sigh* My book reading pace has slowed a bit lately because of all the work, but really the internet has been taking over too much of my life. November really lost me on scheduling, but I am slowly catching up and I am excited to participate in The Perpetual Page Turner 2014 Book Survey.

Posts

October Monthly Review

Review Ruins DNF

Creatures of the Night Tag

Meet the Blogger//Thing That Bother My Inner Reader

Review Mortal Heart

Book Club: Moon Over Manifest

Room by Book// Mortal Heart

Room by Book//Mortal Heart

Room by Book is a feature done by yours truly where I bring my love of interior design and books.

Gravity Stool by Jolan Van der Wiel
Handcarved Menagerie Dining Table by Anthropologie
Eloquence One of a Kind Antique Armoire Flemish Pale Seafoam by Layla Grayce
Mortal Heart (bookcover) by Robin LaFevers (Goodreads)

Mortal Heart is set in the wind-swept and what I think is romantic land of Britanny. Now Britanny is a part of France, but still retains its individual culture, along with its own design heritage. The stool I originally saw in The Globe and Mail and was fascinated. The Gravity Stool would be something a nun would sit on as it looks like a rough, ancient stone stool. The Menagerie Dining Table represents the medieval time period with the animals the nobles would've hunted and the duchess would've loved the curious animal carvings. Annith is a lover of simplicity, but still would need a place to hide her weapons-- what better place than her seafoam dresser? These three components are not from one place in the book, but a lookbook from the entire Mortal Heart.

Book Club: Moon Over Manifest

The big news: my school has an 8th grade book club. How cool is this?! I was dead excited that we get to talk about books over lunch once Friday a month with some great muffins. The past month we read Moon Over Manifest.

One of the downsides of blogging is that you hardly ever, if ever, get to have a live discussion about a book. What I love about our book discussion is that we got to talk with my friends over a YA book in a facilitated discussion.

SPOILER ALERT for Moon Over Manifest

Some Points We Came Up With

• The three story lines of Moon Over Manifest (Abilene, Ned and Jinx's letters, Hattie Mae's newspaper column all enriched the story and without it the book would have been dreadfully boring.
• The background characters were not fully integrated into the story meaning that you would not remember them. When reading the book the characters seemed rather fluid and not entirely concrete.
• Shady was the ideal criminal for Abilene. He showed that even if one had done committed a crime of bootlegging a criminal could still love. Shady didn't become his crime, but rather he was a person.
• The Newberry Medal changes some people as writers. It is about finding a unique children's book, yet it is chosen by a bunch of adults.

Review Mortal Heart

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers Amazon | Goodreads

Published by HMH Books for Young Readers November 4, 2014

444 Pages

#3 (Last) in His Fair Assassin Trilogy

Source: Library

Bookologist Analysis: The Mortal Heart was simply an avalanche of all things a book needs. It had the emotional tirade that made you cling to Annith. There was a reason to finally find peace in a world of assassin nuns. The answers to the questions I had suspected were answered. The maze we were lead down was something that I found love in. It was simply all that I had hoped for and more.

Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn't mean she has...

A labyrinth that is what Mortal Hart truly was. There was a string laid down by Annith that we followed to find her unique story. Annith, Sybella, and Ismae are all their own individual heroines— ones driven by a duty to Mortain and to find their own paths in life. Annith was a conflicted soul that was pushed like a baby bird into the air and her story was one of learning how to fly. She managed to find herself in the world that she had never seen outside of the covenant.

Annith is my type of girl— one who would be my best friend. She has a respect for authority, but still knows that she will leave the covenant knowing what is best for her. She meets men who have done terrible atrocities, yet still she sees there humanity and loves them for their choice to find redemption. Annith is not simply a girl, but a role model that I wish I could’ve lived with.

For me the book leapt out of from the pages and danced into a world. Mortal Heart explained the history of Britanny into something that made sense with the covenant’s presence. Mortain too in this book was more fully explained and we got to see his humanity.  The nuns as well didn’t see that far this time. They were people and had made mistakes, but had also raised plenty of strong-willed girls.  The hellequins (followers/hunters of Moratin), nuns, and Mortain all made a full circle in this book.

This book has made come to where I wanted to see Robin LaFever leave us. She left us with an open door she may decide to write more books with. She left us with three strong, feminist three heroines who all having different stories and trials are all inexplicably linked. The eloquence first starting with Ismae has become the dark Sybella to the willful Annith has come into a smooth, satisfying circle of love, death, and triumph.

Meet the Blogger//Things That Bother My Inner Reader

A continuation of my feature "Meet the Blogger" where my readers get to meet me. This is a list of things that annoy me when other people commit book-related crimes. These crimes are things that would be outlawed if us, bibliophiles, ruled the world... just wait till we do. We will become a reckoning (haha Ruin and Rising parapphrase).

Creatures of the Night Tag

I wanted to do a sci-fi/fantasy tag for Sci-fi November and then Anne @ Anne Books tagged me to do the Creatures of the Night tag, originally created by Katytastic  on Youtube.

Vampire

Confession Time: I’ve read a bunch of vamp books when I was younger (11-12). I honestly don’t know why I read them, rereading most of them I find that the plot and writing are not to be desired. I usually try to keep those books away from reviews on my blog in case of judgment. The most notable series with vampires would be the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer and Vampire Dairies by Richelle Meade.

Werewolf

I’ve never really read a book focused solely on werewolves. Most likely the most memorable one is once again the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer or Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.

Zombie

Nope… zombies bring back too many memories of the Plants vs Zombie app. That game just ruined my perception of zombies.

Ghost

Ghosts… off the top of my mind the one that comes to me is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I simply adored Headless Nick and Rowena Ravenclaw. Ghosts are dead, so I’m not particularly drawn to them.

Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster

Here is the essence of fantasy the witches, warlocks, wizards, and spellcasters. My favorite is Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. The classic portrayal is still what comes to mind first when I think of witches and wizards.

Fairy/Fae

————————————————————————————————————— ——————————— (blanking out)

Demon

My only books with demons in it are The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments, both by Cassandra Clare. (same I have to agree with Anne)

Angel

The books I remember that feature angels most prominently is Hush, Hush by Becca Fritzpatrick, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Embrace by Jessica Shirvington, and Hidden by Marianne Curley (my favorite one based in Australia).

Alien

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (review here)! Great, amazing, phenomenal book series with aliens *-* (again have to revert to Anne’s original idea here)

Superpowered Human

Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me is the favorite superpowered human is the first sci-fi one I could think of. It is about Juliette who has superstrength and other gifts. After a little more pondering I can think of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs that is featuring Jacob and a slew of other children that are born with gifts like seeing monsters or a fire starting gift.

I tag:

Holly at Lost in a Library

Jack at A Note from the Margin

Hawwa at It Was Lovely Reading You

Mini Reviews: NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette

NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette by Nathan W. Pyle Goodreads|Amazon

Standalone Comic/Graphic Novel

Published April 15, 2014 by William Morrow Paperbacks

Source: Library Paperback

Bookologists Analysis: I sincerely loved this short little book about tips from large hometown.

Living in New York City for five years as a transplant from Ohio, illustrator and T-shirt designer Nathan Pyle was fascinated by the unique habits and unspoken customs New Yorkers follow to make life bearable in a city with 8 million people (and seemingly twice the number of tourists). Nathan decided to draw his favorite tips and etiquette lessons and post them on the internet, where his 12 original panels went viral immediately and became the basis for this hilarious illustrated book (check out the fully animated ebook, too!).

In NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, Pyle reveals the secrets and unwritten rules for living in and visiting New York including the answers to such burning questions as, which cabs should I try to hail? What is a bodega? Which way is Uptown? Why are there so many doors in the sidewalk? How do I walk on an escalator? Do we need to be touching right now? Where should I inhale or exhale while passing sidewalk garbage? How long should I honk my horn? If New York were a game show, how would I win? What happens when I stand in the bike lane? Who should get the empty subway seats? How do I stay safe during a trash tornado? Each tip is a little story illustrated in simple black and white drawings.

Visitors and newcomers to New York will love it because the advice is smart, funny, and not condescending. New Yorkers will love it for its strategic and humorous approach to mastering the daily chaos of the city.

For me reading this book brought a lot “YES” shrieking moments; since I lived in New York when I was younger. This book was a short, cute book that was a quick read.  I was amused by the short little quirky suggestions that Nathan W. Pyle brought as a Midwestern transplant.

I managed to read the book all in one sitting. Some of the tips were a little obvious as they can be moved to any situation— simply they are manners for the metropolis. Maybe, someday we could all just write short little illustrated books about unique places we live.

Review Ruins DNF

 Ruins by Dan Wells Amazon | Goodreads

Published by Balzer + Bray March 11, 2014

464 Pages 

# 3 in Partials Sequence 

Source: Library Ebook Collection

Bookologists Analysis: I missed something. I just didn't find what I need in this book. Somehow I lost what I needed in terms of friends. I feel the need to apologize to Kira that I finish her journey with her.

Kira, Samm, and Marcus fight to prevent a final war between Partials and humans in the gripping final installment in the Partials Sequence, a series that combines the thrilling action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Blade Runner and The Stand.

There is no avoiding it—the war to decide the fate of both humans and Partials is at hand. Both sides hold in their possession a weapon that could destroy the other, and Kira Walker has precious little time to prevent that from happening. She has one chance to save both species and the world with them, but it will only come at great personal cost.

 

I had waited for Ruins in a momentum. At first I had finished the rest of The Partials Sequence in one big gulp. I had found the books one of the best sci-fi books that I had read in such a long time. I picked up Ruins because I had had nothing else to read from my library’s ebook collection and was flabbergasted that I had forgotten its release. I felt that Ruins had this tension that I was just waiting for all of it to explode into this book of eloquence and drama. The characters had spellbound me into this need for humans and Partials (engineered being to look humans but with superior DNA). I don’t know where all of this went wrong. The characters didn’t pull me in like they had before and I didn’t feel the requirement to keep on reading. For about two days I forced myself to keep on reading this book that I thought I would fall into bookish heaven with but I didn’t.  Ruins I felt started on to high of a note to demand any sort building into an explosion of plot. I think I missed something along the way. I’m disappointed in myself that I couldn’t find it myself to keep on reading the book that I had so desperately waited for. It’s a part of being a mood reader where you just can’t force it on yourself. I could not discover the necessity in me to finish Ruins. I highly recommend the Partials Sequence though because the plot is there. Somewhere along the way I missed the bomb going off. Rating: DNF

October Monthly Review

Wow, October was stressful. I did not see so many things coming up in school. I may have neglected my blog for a couple of days. I also had my blogoversary and spent some time with Summer and Anne on a panel. Overall, I managed to get out of a huge reading slump, have a loose schedule for blogging. But this month is Sci-fi Month hosted by Oh the Books! I plan doing a couple posts this month. Yay!

Posts this month:

September Monthly Review

Mini Reviews: Never Ending

If YA Were a School

Review Silver Shadows

Short Story: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Blogoversary Panel

The Book Club: Graceling

Posts I Enjoyed This Month:

Could I Please be Quiet, Please? from Jack (A Note From the Margin)

101 Things I Love from Amber (The Mile Long Bookshelf

The Book Club: Graceling

The big news: my school has an 8^th grade book club. How cool is this?! I was dead excited that we get to talk about books over lunch once Friday a month with some great muffins. The past month we read Graceling. The book choice disappointed me a bit since I had previously read the book and detested it.

One of the downsides of blogging is that you hardly ever, if ever, get to have a live discussion about a book. What I love about our book discussion is that we got to talk with my friends over a YA book in a facilitated discussion.

SPOILER ALERT for Graceling

Some points we came up for after all reading Graceling

•          The characters are pretty shallow, but may be developed better throughout the series. You can tell because it is very simple to predict Katsa and Po’s reactions. There was also the classic romance formula of “boy loves; girl has resistance or anger, but gives in at the end.”

•          Romance didn’t exactly help the book, but without there would be no plot otherwise. The romance was also a bit rushed for the fact they had sex the first they kissed.

•          The idea and setting were very original in terms of high fantasy.  Yet, we almost always see jealous kings and several kingdoms.

•          We all wanted to be graced though. I was, of course, the only person grace with killing, though according to the quiz in the book you could be grace with relationship, intellect, fighting, and calming.

•          Bitterblue would’ve been a complex character to know with her trauma and recent events. Without the influence of Katsa and Po we could’ve seen a little more of the girl, and what it was like to save her. (There is a companion book called Bitterblue)

Blogoversary Panel

I'm officially one! Happy blogoversary to myself! I had a live panel (on Google Docs) about eight days ago with Summer and Anne about blogging. To celebrate my blogversary read on:

Amelia: Hey! Would everybody like to introduce themselves? I’m Amelia a 13 year old from YA Bookologists who lives in the US.

Anne: Hey (: I’m Anne from Anne Books, I’m 14 and from Germany.

Summer: Hi! I’m Summer from MissFictional’s World of YA Books, and I’m from the US and 16 years old.

Am: So… I mean how cool is it to be able to a have live panel about book blogging in three different time zones?

An: It’s really amazing! And you two are even from another continent!

S: That is SO cool. Plus, Anne, I love Germany, just wanted to put that out there XD.

An: Haha :D Well. And I would love to visit the US at some point.

Am: I think everyone loves Germany. So how did everyone get into book blogging? I started because I was bored before Halloween.

S: You know when you search up a book, and the Goodreads page comes up? Eventually I made an account on Goodreads, and I noticed that a LOT of people had book blogs, so I was curious and during winter break I created my blog. :)

An: For me it was because I just started watching booktube at the beginning of the year and then through this discovered some book blogs like The Mile Long Bookshelf or Feed Me Books Now. And then I wanted to start myself (: So I did in June. (I think it was June)

Am: I have to say that TMLB and Feed Me Books Now were probably the first book blogs I found.

  

S: Oh! I love their blogs! Especially because they’re teen bloggers

An: Me too! So much inspiration for a newish blogger like me

Am: Out of curiosity how old (blog) is everyone? I’m turning one. It’s a blogoversary celebration.

S: Almost 2 years old in December!

An: About half a year now. Well. I know. Really new.

S: Also, happy blogoversary Amelia!

An: From me as well!

Am:Thanks guys. So Summer, you’re the oldest one here. How do you balance life and book blogging?

S: I feel like in the past month, I’ve been a really crappy blogger in terms of that, but it took me a while to get a hang of the whole balancing reading, blogging, and life. I’ve started to set times for blogging, (on the weekend) and try to read whenever I can (yes, in-school reading is hard but super beneficial). It took time, at least for me, to learn how to balance all three, but it just comes with practice.

An: For me it was hard as well at the beginning because of school but now I just do my routine: Manly pre-writing the post through the app because I can do that wherever I am, then finishing it on the computer and then mostly scheduling it.

S: I do that too (even though the app kind of sucks sometimes)! Just doing a few paragraphs on a car ride or whenever you’re free really adds up.

An: Yes. Or when I’m waiting for my friend before school :D e.g. I just wrote 4 reviews on Thursday and scheduled them all like the Star-crossed one which was published today.

S: Oooh, the scheduling feature is every blogger’s best friend.

An: Yup. You can SO say that.

S: But sometimes, if I’m feeling a blogging/reading slump, it’s kind of hard to muster up the motivation to write a post. I don’t know if you’ve felt it yet, but it’s a bit difficult to overcome. That’s why I downloaded the app-- so it doesn’t feel like a chore if I want to jot a few sentences down instead of stressing about writing an entire post all at once.

An: Yes I knew that once in my summer holidays. I read so many books but because why ever wasn’t able to just turn on the computer and write a review… So there went the app!

Am: Don’t get me started on slumps. But I prefer to write a couple of words when reading the books then expanding later in a post.

An: That’s great when you’re able to write while you’re reading but I’m so unable of doing this. Don’t know why… Probably because I would be forced to put the book down :D

Am: I do it just before reading or when I’m taking notes or checking twitter and just a write a word or two. Summer what do you do? Why do you all like book blogging?

S: I usually open up a word document and basically rant (especially if the book was extremely bad or amazing.)

Am: Word for the win!

An: To be honest? I don’t have an answer to this.. But I think it’s because of like everyone else’s answer: To share my love for books to the world and to get to know people who are fascinated by books like I am and share my opinions on books and bookish stuff to the community.

Am: I do it for the fact that I always wanted to be able to make my “mark” on the internet. I liked books and it was a way to convey my passion.

S: I think it’s because whenever I would want to discuss a book with one of my friends, they wouldn’t really be interested, even if they liked reading. You know that feeling when you just have to let your opinion out on something? Yeah, that’s what drove me to create a personal blog.

Am: I’ve found that everyone in the blogging world is very opinionated and that we all respect those opinions. Many of us are people sitting behinds books and laptops that come from normal households/families. Most of my friends don’t read a lot or much YA.

An: Summer I so know that. Most of my friends read books I recommended to them but when I finished them: Nobody even knew about that book because of Germany -.- And even I dragged my friends to read in English!

Am: Anne, you are phenomenal at English to be able to read and write at the level of blogging and reading YA. Do most of us hide our blogging? I know I do because only a few close friends know that I run a blog.

S: Yes, Anne, your English is perfect! Amelia, I think my family and some friends know about my blog now, but at first, it was a complete secret (only my mom knew). But one day I was at my cousins’ house and they Googled my name, and my blog came up. So that was an embarrassing day for me. XD honestly have no idea how my friends found out, they even found my blog’s Twitter account somehow. >.> <.<

An: Really? Thanks :* I know my family and friends say that I’m good at it but they are Germans.. So yeah :D And to the hiding thing: Yes. I think now after half a year of blogging only about one close friend knows it because I send her some time a link to one review because she was at the time reading this book (: And to be honest I don’t know how I should say them I have Anne Books…

Am: I mentioned it off hand to my friends and they just took in stride with what I did in my free time (though no free time exists).

S: My mom is bit annoyed that I have an online presence, but according to her it’s good on college apps so ;)

An: Well that’s great Summer! I don’t know if it’s something good for in Germany ._. (how much I hate it sometimes..)

S: Youshould come to America for college!

Am:College application- blogging is good experience in terms of responsibility,deadlines, and figuring weirder stuff out (coughs- html).

S: I agree. Just the fact that you’re so dedicated and that you write so much (which colleges love) makes you unique from other high schoolers.

An: That would probably great but I think the UK would be better because it’s nearer to my family.

Am:I was also thinking about maybe the UK for college. In  conservative parts of the US though there is still prejudice for World War II because of some strange reason (people in some the US don’t understand the concept of 70 years). The WWII historical fiction is also way over done in the US.

An: I now! In France it’s terrible! I heard you just need to mention you are from Germany and you get a face ._. But for the html part: I have computer science (just needed to look up that word) in school and we need to do a homepage  as our long term project.. Do you guys do your layout by yourself or how?

S: What ven?? It’s been years, people, get over it.

An: They hould. But France and Germany were enemies for so many years until the end of WWII I think so I don’t even know..

Am: I learned html from some websites that have a basic template that you can modify. The best way is to look at a blog’s page source.  I copy and paste it and then screw around with it to get what I want. I use basic Blogger templates though.

S: For html, I suck at it. Google is my friend whenever there’s something weird with my blog or if I want a new design, because I can’t for the life of me figure it out myself. Amelia, I also use the basic templates! I would much rather have my own design and be more in control of how my blog looks.

Am: It was really fun talking with you guys and I  think we should wrap up soon. SO to close everything up what is everyone reading right now? I’m reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum.

An: It was an amazing panel Amelia and you’re right that we should do this again! I’m currently reading two books: First Goddess (a re-read) by Josephine Angelini and second Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini as well.

S: Thank you, Amelia, for holding such an awesome panel, and Anne, for being such a cool panelist! Being a person with a very short attention span I’m actually reading 3 books at the moment: Crushed, by Eliza Crewe, Exquisite Captive, by Heather Demitrios, and I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak (a re-read!).

Short Story: Short ReviewThe Murders in the Rue Rogue

I've been reading some Edgar Allan Poe and would like to share some of my thoughts on his short stories.  I wanted to analyze certain aspects of short stories. Poe being the inventor of American gothic horror is simply a master of mood and feeling simple felt the right person to analyze.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe 

Goodreads|Amazon

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been claimed as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination". Similar works predate Poe's stories, including Das Fräulein von Scuderi (1819) by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Zadig (1748) by Voltaire.

C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mysterious brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.

As the first true detective in fiction, the Dupin character established many literary devices which would be used in future fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter".

The syntax in the first few pages of The Murders in the Rue Morgue is very confusing. You must make inferences for why Poe feels the need to discuss the difference between chess and checker players; to many of us it doesn't make a bloody difference. Poe uses it as a subtle tap on the shoulder in the right direction. By using a mellow example of analytical thinking in checkers he is explaining that Dupin thinks already on a much higher level. His words are meant to makes us feel confused in why checkers and chess strategies are involved in a grisly murder. The syntax makes a full circle at the end of the book showing us why this introduction is so needed to understand the mechanics of Dupin's logic.

Review Silver Shadows

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead Goodreads | Amazon

#5 in Bloodlines

Published by Razorbill July 29, 2014

Source: Library Hardcover

Bookologists Analysis: The continuation of a romance that spans against all conformities and expectations. Yet, still the book did not conform.

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

In The Fiery Heart, Sydney risked everything to follow her gut, walking a dangerous line to keep her feelings hidden from the Alchemists.

Now in the aftermath of an event that ripped their world apart, Sydney and Adrian struggle to pick up the pieces and find their way back to each other. But first, they have to survive. 

For Sydney, trapped and surrounded by adversaries, life becomes a daily struggle to hold on to her identity and the memories of those she loves. Meanwhile, Adrian clings to hope in the face of those who tell him Sydney is a lost cause, but the battle proves daunting as old demons and new temptations begin to seize hold of him. . . .

Their worst fears now a chilling reality, Sydney and Adrian face their darkest hour in this heart-pounding fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series, where all bets are off.

Silver Shadows was driven by an unknown force; it was unexpected.  I was stopped short by simply the metamorphosis of Adrian and Sydney since the first book. The setting had changed from a boarding school to a reeducation center to where ever Adrian chose to travel. Somehow we saw a world that’s been built tore down due to simply the fact that Sydney was taken by Alchemists in The Fiery Heart.

For everyone in this book it was a spiral. Adrian without Sydney twists back into his other lifestyle- drinking, gambling, and partying. I can’t pity Adrian for the fact that he stops trying to look for Sydney, but Spirit is getting to him and it won’t be pretty when we see him out of control. Sydney his unraveling her compassion even more in reeducation because of that many more people suffering. Their connection is not the same as Rose and Dimitri; it’s not fire and fire, but rather passion and love. The story of Adrian and Sage continues on, for better or for worse. 

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