The Bees Knees

 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...

 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...

 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...

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...

 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...

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...

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...

                I know what you’re thinking, “Wow, she hasn’t done anything about FNaF in a while,” and it’s going to stay that way for a while. But let’s dive into today’s target…               Have you ever recalled a memory that you know has happened but when you talk to someone else who was there, they don’t remember it ever occurring? Then you try to explain how it has to have happened because of [insert point a] and [insert point b] but they still can’t recall that moment? But what if you had a best friend one day and the next no one remembered they even existed?               Memorial is a Webtoon about a high school boy, Minhui, who forgets the face, name, and just about everything about his crush except that she was just talking and walking with him at school yesterday. In fact, when he looks for her name i...

 by Sophia Chen Funeral Songs for Dying Girls  is a book by Métis author Cherie Dimaline about a girl living in a cemetery who is in love with her childhood best friend and finds out ghosts are real. It sounds incredibly cliché, I know. I thought so too, when I first picked it up off the shelf a week or two ago. But the cover was irresistibly interesting, and the last line of the blurb -- "But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love" -- caught me so off-guard that I knew I had to read the book to find out what was going on there. It's safe to say I didn't regret that decision. Firstly, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls  is an excellent read, just in terms of prose. I've never read one of Dimaline's books before, but this book made me want to check out more of them. The dialogue was funny but als...

 When trying to think of a blog post, I was stuck on what I should write about. Then, I realized that so many of my posts have been about mangas and ranking them. However, I never even stated what I deem a "good" manga! This post will basically be skimming my brain to see how it works! I will talk about Waiting for Spring  by Anashin, since I believe this manga is one of the best I have ever read. I think many things go into being a good book, let alone being a good manga. As someone who is very picky about what she reads, my brain goes through various "checklists" that send off signals, telling me I will enjoy it. First, we have the first thing that most people notice: art style. To put it simply, if someone doesn't have a good art style, I will not enjoy it, no matter how many other boxes they check. If it has a bad art style, I will refuse to read it. An example of this is Classmates by Asumiko Nakamura. On the other side of the spectrum, you have Waiting for...

(DISCLAIMER: This review is NOT based on the paperback version of the book. This is based off of a different online version which holds the same plot and same story as the book!!!)               If I asked what defines good and bad, I’d get a lot of different answers. Good and bad are what individuals like to ponder yet can never actually define them or what makes them different. The book Not Even Bones paints a terrific picture of how vague and undefined the line between good and bad is.               Starring Nita, a young woman who strives to go to college and who loves dissecting bodies maybe a little too much, this book narrates her journey of attaining power and the struggles of how she reaches that goal. From killing probably hundreds of people on an island where no one who was held captive there ever made it out alive to tell the tale, to taking ...

Hello all. This month, I will be covering "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. I first read this book back in 5th grade for an online literature course, and recently re-read it in my free time. Despite being quite dense, I think the themes within this story are very prominent, and has topics that we can all relate to. Although this story is actually a written play, the book version is read in the form of a script.  This story takes place in the 17th century, right in the middle of the horrific Salem Witch trials. The main character's name is John Proctor,  who was a dramatized version of the real-life John Proctor who was murdered along with his wife during the Salem Witch Trials. Towards the beginning of the story, he finds himself facing multiple accusations. Truthfully, he actually had an affair with another woman named Abigail, and has been hiding the secret for a year. While I won't tell you the verdict and spoil the ending of the story, the play revolves around a lo...

by Sophia Chen I'm sure you've heard about it already, but if not, The Twilight Saga is a series of four books (plus a few bonus novels) by Stephenie Meyer about a shy, awkward damsel in distress and her dark and mysterious vampire boyfriend. (There are also movies, but I prefer to go by the motto 'the books are always better.') If you're looking to read The Twilight Saga , you should obviously read them in order. Doing otherwise would be... ineffective, to say the least. However, I had no other ideas for a book blog. So in this post, I'm rating the books in the Twilight Saga (which I read in 5th grade) from worst to best. Starting with, drumroll please... Life and Death. 1. Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined For anyone who doesn't know, Life and Death  is basically Twilight  (the first book), gender swapped. Now, while I can normally appreciate a good gender swap fanfiction, the key lies in the word good . This is not a good book. The new names are horrib...

 Hello everyone! My review this month is on  Turtles All the Way Down  by John Green. It was a christmas gift and it is one of my favorite realistic fiction novels so far. The book's protagonist, Aza Holmes, has OCD and struggles with "thought spirals", which are essentially her getting stuck in her own thoughts and being unable to escape them. While she battles with an unrealistic obsession over a very rare stomach disease  C. diff , she ends up drinking sanitizer after kissing someone just so she can feel clean. She regularly doesn't feel normal and is insecure, often believing that even her best friend doesn't like her. She falls in love with her childhood friend, Davis Pickett, whose billionaire father recently disappeared. However, the combination of her mental health issues in addition to Davis's stress over his father makes it difficult. Towards the end of the story, Aza and Davis both experience their own traumatic and life-changing event, causing Aza ...

                As much as I love FNAF, taking a break is always* a good thing. Therefore, today I’ll be talking about a book I read in elementary school. It was one of the best books I’ve ever read. This book caught my eye with its title written in swoopy-swirly lettering on its spine while I was aimlessly browsing through my town’s public library.                                                                                                                                       *Always is a relevant term. If you have other things, you need to be doing and you’ve been taking a “break” for the past hour, it’s pro...

 I got quite a few books over winter break and have already read most of them! I decided to rank them and give recommendations on which ones I think are the best. 1. Death Note Death Note is about an extremely smart high school senior, who is bored with his life. Light Yagami, the protagonist, then finds a notebook that simply has the words "Death Note" on the cover. He picks it up and when he gets home, he opens it to find rules on it. It says that if you write someone's first and last name in the book, the person will die in sixty seconds from a heart attack. This leads Light to start writing criminals' names in the book, which makes the police force start suspecting that someone is magically murdering them. It turns into a police chase, with Light working alongside the police as a "detective" on the case. This manga was extremely interesting and an amazing read. I got the entire set and blew through them so fast. I watched the anime first and it was such ...

by Sophia Chen As a child who grew up on Percy Jackson, I've always been very into mythology. Not to be narcissistic, but I'd say I'm a bit of a... well, a bit of an  expert , on ancient Greek mythology specifically (outside of PJO, most of my knowledge has come from extensive Wikipedia browsing sessions). Therefore, I'm always looking for new and exciting book adaptations of mythology. I've read several in my time as a Greek mythology nerd -- much more than several, in fact, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites (and non-favorites). So, in no particular order: 1. The Song of Achilles  - 7/10 CW for mcd, non-graphic depictions of violence, war, explicit sexual content, implied sexual assault, slavery Those of you on the literary side of TikTok (also known as "BookTok") have probably heard of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles . It seems to have gotten really popular in recent years for whatever reason, even though the book is almost our ...

     In my last blog, I finished reviewing the Moon Base Alpha (MBA) trilogy with Waste of Space , which was followed by Spaced Out , with the initial installment being Space Case . In this blog, I hope to compare and contrast the MBA books with each other. I’ll try to minimize any spoilers, but I can’t guarantee it, as it becomes harder and harder to express my opinions of the books. If you neither read the MBA books nor my previous blogs about the individual MBA books, I highly recommend that you go ahead and read them. But this shouldn’t be too hard since it’s practically impossible to put down the book after digging into it!      To summarize, the MBA series is about a boy (a bit younger than we are) named Dash living with his family, who were among the first 27 settlers on the moon, specifically on a base called Moon Base Alpha. The Moonies (the term used to call those settlers) consisted of families whose parents were world-class...

 Killer Queen The Address by Fiona Davis Set in the 1880s, The Address is about a woman (Sara) who fails her apprenticeship and decides to work her way up to the head maid of a posh hotel in London. When she does, she is shocked to meet Theodore, one of the few architects of a new apartment house in New York. They started talking and this led to a job offer. This job takes her to America where she lives with him and his wife and children. 100 years later, we then focus on Bailey, Theodore's granddaughter. She is a former party-goer, fresh out of rehab, and is looking for a fresh start. She never saw a dime from Theodore, since she needed proof of genetic linkage, which she didn't have. Many aspects of this book remind me heavily of Killer Queen. Killer Queen is about a high-class girl who is rather posh and stuck up. To put it in Freddy Mercury's words, "I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well". This book has many aspects of that, so I thin...

*Disclaimer* The FNaF books do not directly connect or relate to the FNaF Games or the FNaF Movie!               After many, many, many nights of bone chilling dreams and nightmares, both in sleep and awake, Delilah has had enough. Everything she’s done to try and stop from waking up at 1:35am has failed and left her worse than before. From getting fired from her job because she kept on having panic attacks every night, to pushing her best, and only, friend away from her, she’s ready do anything to stop Ella from getting to her.               So, when working the night shift, then sleeping at her best friends house, then sleeping at a motel, then driving around town doesn’t work, Delilah parks her car across a bridge, leaves everything but her flashlight, and runs. She runs, and runs, and runs until she sees an old construction site. Then, using her upper...