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Flame in the Mist & Smoke in the Sun

 by Sophia Chen Hello people. Originally for this week's blog, I was going to recommend books for API Heritage Month, but frankly, I'm very seldom satisfied with the Asian rep we get in YA -- or any American mainstream books, for that matter. So I'll just recommend one, or rather two: a duology, made up of the books  Flame in the Mist and Smoke in the Sun  by Renee Ahdieh. Flame in the Mist  is part romance, part fantasy, part historical fiction. Typically I don't really enjoy historical fiction novels that involve magic, because I kind of like to keep my genres distinct for whatever reason, but I did enjoy this one regardless. It's a novel about an aristocratic girl named Mariko, who lives in a fictionalized version of imperial Japan who is betrothed to some prince or other. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), her caravan is attacked on the way to meeting the prince for the first time and everyone except her dies tragically. Instead of returning to her home, she decid...
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A review of Barron's AP Computer Science A prep book - DJ

 Hello everyone, the past five days of my life, I have been extremely invested in a particular piece of literature—to the point where it is all I read the moment I get home. "What is this fascinating book?", you might be asking. Well I shall make you wait no longer. This book is none other than the Barron's AP Computer Science A prep book. Second in the Barron's book series, I decided to pick this one up after finishing the first book in the series last year, Barron's AP Calculus BC Premium prep book, since it was so fascinating. While I had originally planned to read this earlier, I didn't have time to start until last Sunday due to an interesting phenomenon known as procrastination. Nonetheless, another interesting thing called the AP CSA Exam deadline spoke true words to me, so I did end up summoning the motivation to read it after all. Now, I will share with you my completely unbiased observations. Having been student's choice for 80+ years, Barron...
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An Overview of the album "Who Really Cares" by TV Girl by Addison Wright (Pt. 2/2)

 If you're reading this blog, you probably have already read the first one, so I'm just going to jump straight into this one! 1. Cigarettes out the Window "Cigarettes out the Window" is one of their most popular songs from this album. It has a different feel to it, however. It doesn't have the same "repeating-factor" and dream-like feeling as all of their other songs do in this album. It still has the calm vibe they are known for, still tackling intense topics with harsh words and a calm vibe. This song explores the topic of loneliness because, at this point, the main character has already accepted that the one he loved has left. The sampling in this song is one of my favorites. They took an old Hollywood movie clip while playing the instrumental in the background and it really just encompasses the whole vibes they were going for. My favorite lyric is: "She'd disappear for an hour and a half / And when she comes back she'd brush her teeth...
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Reading is to writing, as writing is to reading: Gail's TED talk

I have no idea how many people in this class write just for fun, but I sure know I do! Often I’m writing something that never gets finished, but something I’ve noticed about my writing is how it changes.               My writing style changes depending on my mood, the way I want the story to go, and so on, but it also changes slightly based on books, stories, or podcasts I’ve read/listened to. For instance, I was once making a chapter book but every time I felt like that was the end of the chapter, I checked how many pages it was and forced myself to write more. Then, I found a book where it was a new chapter every few pages, then it was every 20 pages, then it was one page, and I realized that I didn’t need super long chapters. If I said that was the end of the chapter, well that’d be the end of the chapter even if was just one page.               Then I...
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An Overview of the Album "Who Really Cares" by TV Girl by Addison Wright (Pt. 1/2)

 TV Girl has become one of my favorite musical artists since the time they first blew up on social media. They have had quite a few popular songs, like "Not Allowed", "Blue Hair", and "Lover's Rock". However, only one of those is from the album in which we will be looking at today. (The songs will not be in album order because as I was writing these, I realized I had my Spotify on shuffle ;-;) 1. Taking What's Not Yours This song was the song that made me want to write this review. The instrumentals, the lyrics; everything about this song flows so nicely and smoothly throughout the entire song. This song is about breakups and how hard it is to separate the memories from the emotions behind them; how hard it is to forget about the good times you had together.  Some of my favorite lines include: "Like a Roman Coliseum |  A dry and worthless monument to our love" " You know where to find me |  And I know where to look" Overall, thi...
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My Favorite Books by Genre

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by Sophia Chen As a reader, I dabble in several different genres (mostly fiction though), and in each genre I've explored, there are inevitably some good ones and some bad ones. On this blog I've mainly focused on realistic or semi-realistic fiction, but I thought it would be nice to recommend some books of other genres, for the folks who aren't into that. So, without further ado, my favorite books in a few different genres: 1. Historical Fiction - Stacey Lee,  Under a Painted Sky It's difficult to choose a favorite book out of the ~400 I've consumed over the years, and so I ordinarily avoid the question when it pops up in conversation. One definite contender, though, is Under a Painted Sky  by Stacey Lee -- more specifically, the audiobook version. I first read Under a Painted Sky  while rifling through my sister's stack of library books (I had a penchant for stealing from her when we were younger; I really don't know why). I couldn't tell you what abou...
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Show your work - A review by DJ

Recently, my dad recommended me the book "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon. It combined a lot of infographics and quotes in the form of newspaper poetry to give many artists and creators ideas for developing ideas and sharing them with the world. As an aspiring musical artist, this book gave me a lot of useful advice when connecting with my audience. His main ideas are encouraging people to show their work in the form of sharing their progress and ideas, stating that maybe successful artists aren't afraid of showing their step by step process. He used examples such as a very famous ribs food truck, who described the detail of his step by step process in making his famous ribs on live television. While most artists like to "gatekeep" and keep the secrets to themselves, Austin's argument was that knowing the process is one thing, but mastering it is another.  Austin also encourages artists to have a website and a blog where they update their audience on the pro...
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