Isle of the Books

Often, the focus of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet  is on the two lovers whom the book is named after. While reading, my focus was often drawn by the other characters and the lessons that are imparted by them. These are the ones that caught my attention, with no particular order given as they can be seen throughout the entire book. 1. Listening to poor advice . In the beginning of the play, Romeo is lamenting his lost love. Mercutio, his friend, tells him the best way to move past it is to change his affections. Go to the party the Capulet's are hosting! Maybe you'll see someone there who you'll be attracted to instead. Mercutio essentially tells Romeo to find a rebound. While Romeo did need to move on after being rejected (he's in a really bad state and has been for a while), he really should have sought wiser council. Ultimately the poor choices that follow are his own, but it shows how life-changing accepting poor help can be depending on what it is. 2. G...

Reading DeWitt’s books has made me realize that I don’t dislike reading romance–I dislike romance only stories. I like action + romance. I need a plot besides the romance in order to enjoy the story. And her books provide just that. In Gods of the Sea , we get a captivating storyteller who happens to have plans of his own, a wayward navy soldier who’s fascinated with the supernatural, a pirate captain who struggles with his own morality, and a duty-bound enigma who has seen deep darkness.  I’m in it for the romance, but I get a cool fantasy story full of mythical adventures and roguish pirates, too. One of the aspects I loved about this story is how each of the four men each portray a different facet of what love is through their respective journeys, as well as what’s healthy and what’s not with the concepts of true feelings vs obsession. I also highly appreciated Esmeralda. She’s strong, in both her character and her personality, but yet she shows her emotions and is willing to be...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July! An Unpresentable Glory is by Eleanor Gustafson and is Christian contemporary. “I trusted you, and some day, you may know just how much you hold in your hands.” Linda Jensen leads a relatively quiet life in Westchester County, New York, as the owner of a highly-acclaimed garden. Inherited from her parents, the garden is her pride and joy. What is not so joyful is finding a strange man sprawled near her delphiniums! The mysterious man is sick, unable to do anything more than drink water—and beg for secrecy. Ignoring all alarm bells, Linda sees to his needs, but her caring act takes on unexpected significance, an unpresentable glory. Seeds of trust, and perhaps love, are planted in Linda’s garden haven. But as secrets are revealed and scandal hits the headlines, the act of caring for this man threatens to tarnish both of their reputations. Like weeds in Linda’s garden, circumstances threaten to choke out their fledgling relationship,...

Instead of writing a book review, I decided to do something different. I'll be looking at the books I've read so far this year and picking some of my favorites from them (which is hard since lots of them are really good). Each selection will give a brief description of what it's about and why I picked it. This way allows me to showcase several books without having to write that many reviews, and then there's possibly something for everyone. As I was scrolling through my read shelf, I wanted to put several on the list. I've read a lot of single issues of comics this year, so I won't be putting multiple in the same series up, and I've also tried to pick a books from different genres. They are in no particular order. 1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys The story follows Lina, a fifteen year old girl who is deported from Lithuania during World War II to labor camps in Russia. Throughout her journey, she fights the conditions of Siberia and hopes...

Hello everyone! So I was thinking recently about how the comments work on blogger and how some people use a platform for their blog called Disqus, which got me thinking: What is the best system for interacting with bloggers on their blog? My main problem that I have with the comment system that comes with Blogger is that I don't know when someone responds to my comments, which also means when I reply to someone, they don't see what I said either. Of course, I could check back on the posts I commented on, but that takes a lot of dedication. If there's a setting someone has found to remedy this, please let me know. That brings me to Disqus. It works way better because they email you a notification when someone responds, which means the conversation can be kept going. The only downside is that you have to create an account to use it, which isn't that bad, but for some people it's easier to use the system already on the blog. I have looked into downloading this for ...

Mickey Malloy, Wonder Boy! , by Laurisa White Reyes, is a children's book, geared for ages 6-10. " Mickey Malloy is just your average kid who loves comic books and superheroes. When a mysterious package arrives with his name on it, he finds a strange contraption inside. Urged on by his friend, Juanita, Mickey pushes the thing’s button and gets ZZZZZZAPPED! Suddenly, he ism’t a normal kid anymore, he’s Mickey Malloy, Wonder Boy! The human magnet! But what seems like an awesome superpower gets Mickey into more trouble than he could possibly imagine. "-Goodreads The premise of the book interested me because it's about a normal kid who gets what he thinks might be a superpower, only to see his day go downhill. Mickey just wants to be able to walk around again without being a human magnet and I wanted to see how he would handle this new ability, which led to me reading it in one sitting. I haven't read a kid's chapter book since I was that age, so I forgot th...