Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels (Classic Starts Series) by Jonathan Swift, Jamel Akib,  Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Gulliver’s Travels has not only a profound ideological content, but also a relatively perfect art form. First of all, Swift used fictional plots and fantasy techniques to depict the reality of Britain at that time. At the same time, he also created a colorful, fairy-tale fantasy world based on the reality of Britain at that time. Swift’s fantasy world is based on reality, while the contradiction of reality is more prominent in the fantasy world. After the coup d ‘etat of 1688, for example, the Tories and the Whigs fought for power and attacked each other, when in fact they both represented the interests of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Swift captured the essential characteristics of parliamentary party fighting and created the high-heel party and low-heel party in Lilliput.

These fictions make reality stronger, more concentrated, more typical, and more universal. The artistic charm of Gulliver’s Travels is also here. Swift’s fantasy and reality are harmonious and unified. Swift’s fantasy and reality are harmonious and unified, and Gulliver’s experiences are different in Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and Houyhnhnm. But they were all reasonably arranged without any flaws. Every time he went to a fantasy country, he was treated differently. He made his works have a sense of artistic reality, which has a great appeal, so that satire can achieve a high effect. When the author mercilessly satirizes and criticizes the parliamentary politics and reactionary religious forces in Britain at that time, some of them are straight sarcasm, some use the tongue of foreigners, some are metaphorical sarcasm, some are animal sarcasm, all of which are funny.

The combination of fantasy and reality also adds a unique artistic charm to the novel. Although the author presents a mythical world like a fairy tale, it is based on the reality of social life in Britain at that time. Due to the author’s precise, delicate and apt description, people can not feel that it is a fantasy, as if everything is true. For example, when describing the proportional relationship between small people and adults, and between people and things, the ratio of one to twelve is always reduced or enlarged. The little man of Lilliput is twelve times smaller than Gulliver. And the lords of the Brobdingnag were twelve times larger than Gulliver. One of Gulliver’s handkerchiefs would be a carpet for the Lilliput Palace. Brobdingnag’s peasant’s wife’s handkerchief, draped over Gulliver, became a sheet.

In describing the operation of the flying island of Laputa, the architecture of palaces, and the structure of towns, the author also intentionally uses the knowledge and data of mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. In this way, the authenticity, harmony and symmetry of the partial details of the characters are transformed into the reality, harmony and unity of the whole picture and scene, which greatly enhances the sense of reality and appeal of the work. The author’s writing is simple and succinct. In Lilliput, for example, Gulliver transcribes an official proclamation extolling the king as the king of kings, with his feet at the center of the earth and the sun above his head, etc. Gulliver, in brackets, calmly explained that the perimeter was about twelve miles.

With this explanation, the boundless territory that reached the four poles of the earth shrank abruptly to a mere dozen leagues around it. The contrast is hilarious. The words in parentheses reveal the author’s simple and matter-of-fact style, which he does not seem to be commenting on, but rather to explain to us objectively and faithfully the scale of Lilliput. Although the scenes of Lilliput and The Land of The Houyhnhnms vary, as do the circumstances of the heroes, the layout and style of the whole novel are consistent. Every time Gulliver went to sea, the causes and consequences are explained in detail, the complicated plot is described in order of time and space, the text is concise and vivid, and the story is unique.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney

I just finished The Meltdown,the 13th book in the Diary of a Wimpy kid series, and I really enjoyed it. I liked The Diary Of a Wimpy kid series as a whole, I own the whole series and when I found out a new book was coming out I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. Sometimes I wonder how it would be living in a colder place where it snowed like where Greg Heffley lived, as I live in California. This book really portrayed the pros and cons of it. I found interest in the neighborhood feud and Greg’s point of view on snowy and hot weather. Also how he deals with it. “I don’t know which is worse, a planet that’s too HOT or one that’s too COLD” (Kinney, 53)

I really appreciate Jeff Kinney’s books and how I can relate to Greg, as he is also going through middle school. Like when he forgot to do his project and has to compromise. Greg’s life gives an interesting twist on middle schoolers while still being very relatable and enjoyable to read. “Speaking of SURVIVAL, right now, I’m just trying to get through middle school”( Kinney, 9)

I really love the whole series and love how it keeps me so interested even after so many years. I can always count on it to put a smile on my face. I really enjoy Kinney’s writing style and how amusing his stories are. Can’t wait for the next book!

-Rudy H.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library

Diary of a Wimpy Kid the Meltdown by Jeff Kinney

Whenever a new Diary of Wimpy Kid comes out, I am super excited to get and to read it. This one did not fail to disappoint me, I ended up finishing this book in a day! Jeff Kinney/Greg Heffley does a good job fluently jumping from subject to subject. When you start reading the beginning of the book, Greg talks about the wacky weather in winter, then he talks about his school about 10 pages later. Jeff Kinney makes these transitions so natural, so you will barely notice it.

Another great thing about this book is you  don’t have to read the books before it to understand what is going on. You can get this book, which is book 13, and not have read the other books in the series and you won’t get confused! This book keeps many of the original characters from the first book, but there are many side characters in the book, but I don’t want to spoil anymore. Personally, this was one of my favorite Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. My sister thought that Jeff Kinney was running out of ideas, but disagree. I think there could be many more books. But known shall be greater than this one. Thanks for reading this review.

-Brandon D.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid the Meltdown by Jeff Kinney is available for checkout form the Mission Viejo Library.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

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

Lunch Money by Andrew Clements

Lunch Money is the story of Greg Kenton’s comic book business in middle school. Ever since he was a kid, Greg has liked making money and having money. He mows lawns, shovels snow, and walks dogs for money. When Greg finishes fourth grade, his dad tells him to put his money into a bank where he’ll earn interest. Then, in fifth grade, Greg forgets his lunch. A school lunch is two dollars and he only has one dollar and fifty cents. He asks his teacher if he can borrow fifty cents but she says no. Then the teacher asks the class if anyone has an extra fifty cents that Greg could borrow. Most of the class raise their hands and Greg realizes something. He calculates that around a hundred dollars in extra money comes into the school every week. Greg then makes a plan to sell candy and gum. However he soon stops because the students take the candy and gum into classrooms which is against the rules and could get Greg in trouble. Instead of flat out stopping, Greg starts selling toys, but soon the kids get tired of the toys. Greg then also stops selling toys right around the end of fifth grade, but he has an idea. By the start of sixth grade, Greg has multiple handmade comics that he’s ready to sell. He chooses comics because they’re like books and teachers love books. He names his comics Creon: Return of the Hunter. However, like always, his neighbor Maura Shaw copies his idea and also starts making her own comics. This leads to a big fight between the two. Eventually the two come together to make comics. The principle soon finds out and tells them that nothing is allowed to be sold at the school. In response, Maura and Greg go to a city council to argue the school’s decision. The compromise they come to is that Maura and Greg get to make a store in school for their comics, but the school gets 10% of their sales. The council agrees and the comics continue to be made.

-Emilio V.

Lunch Money by Andrew Clements is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Overdrive

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is probably one of my favorite series, but Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway made it official. This book is like all the other books times two. It shows the Heffley’s true nature as a clumsy, ridiculous, frazzled family. It is similar to The Long Haul, but different at the same time. The book also features some new, funny characters that increase the humor in the book a lot! This book also has a lot more interesting twists and turns than 1-9.

One thing that makes this book interesting for me is that it does not take place in Greg’s town at all. Most of the books feature Greg in his hometown, so this book helped mix it up a bit. Most of the characters the other books generate are not that likable or funny, their main purpose is to be stupid. But the characters this book makes, are always funny! Another good aspect of the story is setup. The book gives us a nice back round story on how Greg and his family get into this trip. This is a very good book overall, and I recommend you get it.

Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

In the wake of the unrelenting movements spanning across the globe on gender equality, an achingly honest account on the female experience rises from contemporary beginnings. Leni Zumas masterfully crafts together a mosaic of triumph and misery through the lives of five women:

  • A desperate list-making biographer whose anguish feeds her fire
  • A student brighter than the sun, knee-deep in an undesirable predicament
  • An exhausted wife/mother, carrying in her hands her breaking marriage
  • An arrested mystic guided by her own lunacy
  • And finally, an unacknowledged polar explorer of the nineteenth century.

In brash, burning, and heartrending prose, Zumas teaches us the interconnectedness of one life to another and the vibrancy of hope in tumultuous times. Set in a United States where abortion is banned and IVF illegal, Red Clocks is a novel of forward thinking and revolution. It’s witty and full of relatable quips – a reflection of life’s pitfalls and mountains and written with the hand of a skilled writer.

Zumas writes inside the heads of her characters – each sentence a gunshot ringing clear in the minds of the protagonists. Each woman wielding her own flaws, dreams, and faulty beauty, the reader gains a true and sometimes alarming insight into their lives. The novel is incandescent with the fire of the strange, sparking with the light of life.

Ultimately, through pain and reward, the women of Red Clocks learn their own lessons in the novel’s revelation. While its mature themes are not for everyone, there are countless aspects to love in Zumas’ political, hilarious, and gorgeous testimony to the horrors and beauty of a woman’s life.

-Esther H.

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Image result for sweet thursdaySweet Thursday is basically a continuation of the book Cannery Row. In this book, Mack and his friends are trying to save their dear friend Doc from his unknown depression.

Fauna, the new owner of the brothel was introduced. She is pretty, kind and most important, smart. Even though she doesn’t know how nice and helpful she is. Fauna really detests it when people say “I love you” to her. It was very shocking to me that such an amazing woman isn’t married.

If you ask me who is my favorite character in this book, I will certainly point my finger at Suzy. Again, she is another new character in this book. Suzy is a very wild girl. She is frank, uneducated but also can be very girly when it comes to the man that she loves who is Doc. This whole entire book really touched me because I didn’t know that Suzy can be respectful to Doc. But thanks to God that Doc realized he loves Suzy and brought her back to him. I am really excited to see another gold star on the wall of the brothel which has the name “Suzy” on it representing that she is married.

-April L.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck is available for checkout from the Misson Viejo Library.

Forever With You by J. Lynn

foreverwithyou_jlynnAll of J. Lynn’s books are amazing, but this may be her best yet! The book begins with Stephanie, a girl who just moved into town. She has trouble moving boxes into her apartment, and Nick is the one who helps her out. Stephanie later goes to Mona’s, the local bar, and finds Nick working. They have a one night stand, and they are supposed to be well on their way out of their lives; however, something happens so they have to get together again.

Stephanie has never been in love, but that does not mean she does not believe in it. Her past comes up, again and again, that makes her scared of love. Even when Nick falls straight into her lap, she does not recognize that this is true love. Nick as well has a past that permits him from staying in a relationship; he is known to have flings, and nothing more, and just like Stephanie, he is scared to be in a relationship. But, for the first time, he sees something in Stephanie that he has not noticed in a girl before. “As long as I’ve known him, he’s never been serious about anyone. He’s probably going to need a substantial learning curve when it comes to not saying things that are going to pi** you off.”

Sure enough, Nick and Stephanie get back together after their one-night stand. Stephanie falls for him but is scared that he does not feel the same way about her. Nick, too, is scared to love Stephanie, because he felt the connection from the first time they met, but is he able to convince her that he loves her? “Nick seemed to sense just when I needed him. Even if he was asleep, his arms would tighten around me, sometimes, when my recklessness woke him, he would talk to me until I fell back asleep, distracting me with some of the crazy things he’d seen while working at Mona’s. He was simply there for me, and I let him in completely. And there was no denying how much I loved this man.”

This book has so many plot twists (in a good way), and even though there are MANY sad moments, there are also funny, laugh out loud ones. If someone is looking for a heartwarming, sad, laughable romance, this is the one for you!

-Hailey N.

Dirty Rowdy Thing by Christina Lauren

Yet again another perfect book by the duo Christina Lauren (Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings). I will admit that when I first started this series I was sad. I was worried that this would not be like the series before it. But that is not the case in the slightest.

This book follows Harlow and Finn. Harlow is one of Mia’s friends that we meet in the first book in this series (Sweet Filthy Boy). Harlow and Finn ended up getting married just like Mia and Ansel, except they annulled it the next day.

Harlow connects with Finn again, this time in her home town. They both are going through a difficult time, and they use each other as a distraction. After each encounter they have with each other, they tell themselves that it means nothing to them and that they are just friends. But as time goes on, they both realize that it means more to both of them than just a distraction.

As always with Christina Lauren’s books, we get such a nice sweet ending! Do not skip this one!

-Skylar N.