The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

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The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeanette Walls describing her turbulent childhood years, and how she and her siblings survived poverty and neglect against all odds. Her father was an alcoholic who she longed to trust, but who let her down time and time again. Her mother was an artist with her head in the clouds, with little grip on the realities of hunger and child safety. The Walls family lived a “nomadic” lifestyle, often voluntarily living without a roof over their heads. Despite the many struggles of their childhood, the Walls children became successful in life. They succeed in spite of their parents.

The tone of the novel is set when within the first chapter, Jeannette burns herself cooking food over an open flame (at age three) and her father subsequently breaks her out of a hospital. What follows are the many, some humorous, several depressing, exploits of Jeanette’s father Rex Walls. One of the main focuses of the memoir is Jeannette’s relationship with Rex, who cares for her deeply, but who can’t give up alcohol for his children. An ongoing question that the reader must ask is whether this love is genuine, and whether his stated care for Jeanette justifies his many flaws. Rex always promised his children that he would build them a house made entirely of glass- a glass castle. It is up to the reader to interpret whether this castle was ever intended to be built.

This book truly is a must-read. It is not simply a novel; it is a recording of real life. It is full of danger and emotion, and brimming with moments that will make you laugh, and (quite often) cry. If you are looking for a page turner of a success story, look no further.

-Mirabella S.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It can also be downloaded for free from Overdrive. 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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Image result for the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxyThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy starts off on a normal Thursday – until, of course, a repulsive alien race arrives with the intention of destroying the entire Earth in order to construct a new galactic bypass.

Seconds before Arthur Dent is vaporized along with the entirety of his planet, he is lucky (or unlucky) enough to be saved by his friend Ford Prefect, who is actually a researcher for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which is exactly what it sounds like), and who has been stranded on Earth for the past fifteen years.

As Arthur and Ford travel throughout the galaxy, they team up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed, slightly insane president of the galaxy; Trillian (Zaphod’s girlfriend), the only other human being left in the galaxy; and Marvin the Paranoid Android, an extremely intelligent but extremely depressed robot.

Together, this unorthodox crew will travel across the galaxy in search of the universal question of life as well as the answer to the question no one cares about. They will face indescribable horrors in the form of Vogon poetry and two white mice; they will almost die, then improbably survive, then almost die again; but above all, they will remember the mantra of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: DON’T PANIC!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is an extremely entertaining novel that truly combines humor and science-fiction into one unforgettable book. Adams makes up for a lack of plot with an overabundance of satire and hilarity that will leave the reader racing from cover to cover faster than they can say ‘Magrathea.’ Fans of science fiction, humor, or reading in general will immediately fall in love with this prime example of imaginative fiction.  

-Mahak M.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is available for checkout at the Mission Viejo Library. It is also free to download from Overdrive. 

Generation One by Patticus Lore

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Generation One by Pittacus Lore is the first thrilling book of a new series that takes place in the same world as the best-selling Lorien Legacies series. It can be read without reading the previous series, and it starts a year after the end of it. To win the war that occurred in the Lorien Legacies series, humans allied with the alien called Garde, who used a special energy called the Loric energy in order to defeat the occupation of earth. Now, this energy has caused human teenagers across the globe to develop special powers called Legacies.

In order to control and develop these powers, and to protect ordinary people, the United Nations has set up a special academy to train them in the hopes that they can help all the people of the Earth. The book follows six teenagers from all corners of the globe and their journey to the Academy. Some of them had been there for a good amount of time, but some were late bloomers when it came to developing their powers, so they arrived later.

Taylor Cook is peacefully living her life in South Dakota on her farm with her Father, only hearing about rumors of teenagers suddenly developing powers. She does not think it could ever happen to her, but that all changes when she is able to heal her Father in a tractor accident. Sent to the academy, she meets others like her who are being trained to save the world one day. Her Legacy of healing is very rare, and it is something that makes her a target to other groups.

I have read a wide variety of science-fiction novels, and this one is definitely one of the best ones. It was a non-stop, thriller ride with the right mix of teenage lightheartedness. Generation One was able to develop and trace each character throughout the story. By doing this, the reader can see the significance of each character and how they contributed to the storyline. The end is satisfying in relation to what occurred in the book, but there is definitely room for more with the sequel, Fugitive Six.

-Anmol K.

Generation One by Patticus Lore is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

Event Review: The Phantom of the Opera

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This past month, my band class played The Phantom of the Opera at our Fall concert and must I say, was it a big hit! In order to prepare for the music piece, we also watch the live musical that was performed at the Royal Albert Hall. The “opera” itself is absolutely amazing. The vocals, the dancing, the acting, the string music, and the costumes–everything about the musical was breathtaking.

The musical was based on the 1910 French novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux. It is basically about an opera house in Paris that is essentially “haunted”. As they are rehearsing for an upcoming play, the backdrop wall falls down frightening everyone. What does not help is that the owner of the opera house suddenly retires… Hmm, that seems a bit suspicious does it not?

The main soprano and star of the play Carlotta storms off the stage in fury as the directors do not seem to do anything about it. Carlotta is soon replaced by Christine Daaé, a chorus girl who is taught by her “Angel of Music” who is actually the Phantom of the opera house who lives under the opera house (creepy isn’t it).

Then everything from that point on goes hay-wire. The opera house continues to have suspicious occurrences because of the Phantom which scares everyone off. Eventually, the Phantom gives up terrorizing the opera house, and everyone continues on with their lives and everyone lives happily ever after.. or so they think so.

The musical is absolutely amazing even though it is slightly creepy. If you enjoy fantastic  singers singing to amazing music, I recommend the musical

-Phoebe L.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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The Maze Runner is about a group of teenagers stuck in the middle of what appears to be a maze. This book is the first of a series of four books. All the books tell the story of escaping the maze and finding out who put them there and why.

The first book of the series tells the story of Thomas and his escape. Everything seems normal when he wakes up in the glade. However, things soon change drastically. Grievers, the monsters that are usually in the maze, start entering the glade. Soon everyone in the glade realizes that they have two choices: escape the maze or die. They quickly form a plan to escape the maze.

However, some people chose to stay thinking that they would be rescued straight out of the Glade. Those that went succeed in escaping from the maze and find who put them there. It was a group of scientists called WICKED. They are then taken by a group that tells them about a sort of disease called “The Flare” that killed half the population. They are taken to some sort of camp to recover from all the results of the maze. As is revealed in the epilogue, there were lots of other Glades with other people living in them.

-Emilio V.

The Maze Runner series by James Dashner is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

TV Review: Fresh Off the Boat

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Fresh Off The Boat is by far my favorite television show to watch. It is so funny and at least for me, very relatable. It also stars Constance Wu who is one of my favorite actresses. Every episode of this show is always something new but yet extremely funny and relatable in a new way. It is also a very family friendly tv show, unlike many recent shows so, it is something that everybody can watch and enjoy.

This show is about a Chinese family who moves from Washington D.C’s Chinatown to Orlando where, they know nothing about the culture. The mother in the show, Jessica Huang, is like your typical Asian mother and as the show progresses, you get to see how she immerses herself in this new culture. The sons Eddie, Emery, and Evan all have extremely different personalities and each act like the different types of kids that you see growing up.

There are five seasons of this show, but as it has gone on, it feels like it has lost some of the Asian culture that made it so enjoyable in the first place. It is still a really good show but, the first season is by far the best with each subsequent season seeming to progressive farther and farther away from the representation of Asian culture that was the basis of the show when it first started. Though, after having watched the new episodes that are coming out in season five, it seems that the show is starting to go back in the direction of Asian culture that made it so relatable in the first place.

The best part of this entire show, is the grandmother, who only speaks Chinese but yet is the funniest character in the show. She is just so unlike any other character I have ever seen represented in media. She is so superstitious while extremely American at the same time which makes her my favorite character.

Overall, this show is great and is perfect for families to watch. I love it, and would recommend anybody who just wants to watch something comedic to watch it.

-Ava G.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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The Graveyard Book is about a kid who lives in a graveyard due to the murder of his parents. Bod Owens, short for Nobody lives in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts and mentored by an apparition neither from the world of the living nor the dead named Silas.

As the book goes on, readers learn more about the man that killed Bod’s family. It turns out that he was hired, and is part of an organization called the Jacks of All Trades. As Bod explores the graveyard and learns to do things like disappear or phase through things he comes to the realization that he will soon have to go out into the real world. This realization scares him because the man that killed his family hasn’t been caught, and is probably still looking for him.

Silas and Mr and Mrs. Owens prepare him for a confrontation with the man, and it comes sooner than expected, and with more men from the Jacks of All Trades. Bod picks them off one by one, and finally comes face to face with the Jack that was supposed to kill him. Using his knowledge of the graveyard, Bod traps Jack and escapes. After this, he starts seeing the ghosts less and less often, until he can no longer see them.

-Emilio V.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

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Written in 1898, The Awakening follows the main protagonist Edna Pontellier. Edna begins to feel somewhat out of place and out of touch with the morals and customs typically followed by the other women in her community. Her view on femininity and her roles as a mother begin to deviate from the norm, making her feel even more out of place from the other women. The novel follows her journey into discovering herself and her attempts to break free from society as she slowly becomes “Awakened”.

Under the surface of this novel, however, is a discussion of women’s roles in society during the late 1800s / early 1900s. Kate Chopin uses various characters– Edna herself included– throughout this novel to help reflect some of the social norms and attitudes to women’s place in society during the time she wrote the novel. Oftentimes hailed as one of the earliest works and novels on feminism, this book clearly highlighted to anyone that read it that women were being subjugated and that there were plenty of women who were unhappy with the traditional motherly role expected of them. Because of Chopin’s controversial portrayal of this fact, the novel would often be censored. Over time, however, this novel would grow to become recognized for its brilliance and its importance in discussing femininity and women’s roles in society.

-Kobe L.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

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The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey is about an alien invasion split into five parts. Nobody was expecting the first wave to happen like it did. People saw a mothership and thought maybe the aliens were peaceful. However after the first wave, which cut off all electricity, people realized the real intentions of aliens. Now that there is no electricity anywhere on the planet, the aliens invade earth and kill tons of people.

After that, aliens dropped a massive metal rod onto a fault line with so much force that it caused lots of earthquakes and tsunamis. The third wave unleashed a genetically modified virus created by the Others to wipe out most of the earth. The virus succeeds, and 97% of the earth is killed. The fourth wave was when the aliens made contact with those that were lucky, or unlucky, enough to survive. They inserted themselves into the minds of people and took out the remaining humans.

Finally, the fifth wave takes place. This wave is about the young soldiers trained by the alien infested humans. The soldiers’ job is to wipe out any humans left that somehow survived the fourth wave. The story follows Cassie, and her journey through all five waves trying to stay alive and rescue her brother Sammy.

-Emilio V.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. 

Book List: Exploring New Genres

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I used to find myself generally only reading books from two genres, and constantly rereading the same books. However, when I started trying out new books in different genres, I expanded my love for different styles of writing and discovered some really wonderful books. Although I still love fantasy and realistic fiction (and rereading), I also enjoy other genres. I think reading or at least exploring new genres is a great way to discover some extraordinarily good books that I may never have chosen to read had I not strayed from my usual genres. Here is a list of books, each from a different genre, that I recommend. I hope this may help you discover new books and genres you love or maybe just help you if you are looking for a good book to read.

Fantasy: The Goose Girl (Book 1 of The Books of Bayern) by Shannon Hale: The Goose Girl is based off of the Grimm fairy tale with the same title, however, Shannon Hale greatly expands on the world, history, and story while still maintaining the feel of a fairy tale. I really loved the way Shannon Hale augmented on the original story, and the characters are complex and well-developed. Although this book is the first in a series called the Books of Bayern, The Goose Girl ends well as its own story too. I really love this series and Shannon Hale’s writing style.

Dystopian: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker: (This book could arguably be fantasy too). The Age of Miracles follows a young girl named Julia as she goes through the usual self-discovery of a middler schooler while, on a larger scale, the “slowing” starts. This is when the earth begins to rotate steadily slower, the effects of this growing more dangerous by the day and causing major changes in Julia’s life and the world. I liked this book because it wasn’t like the other dystopian books I had read. Although the slowing is is occurring throughout the novel, the story is a bit more like a realistic fiction because Julia’s experiences are characteristic of a normal girl at her age. The book also happens during the apocalyptic event, while a lot of other dystopian novels take place after an apocalyptic event.

Magical Realism: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton: This beautiful and unique book is narrated by Ava Lavender as she tells her family story beginning with her grandmother’s, then her mother’s, leading up to her own. Ava’s mother’s side of the family was very unique and were known for strange things to happen to them. This carries through the family, for Ava is born with wings. This anomaly puzzles everyone and draws the dangerous attention of some. This book left me in awe at how a beautiful yet harrowing story could be told with such consistent, poetic, and exquisite narration.

– Mia T.