#5 Da Vinci Code

The reason I put Da Vinci Code as number five is because it is utter crap. Now normally I don't say that because of the effort put in by the author to make a book good, but Dan Brown obviously didn't put that in. He has no sources, the characters we're all lifeless, and he based most of it on religion, not actual facts. Most of the book was dumified cause apparently the topic is too complicated for us. He leads the reader through every single clue to an obvious conclusion that I guessed from the beginning . Maybe this book got famous because people felt like they know information about a top secret organization, or they felt like they solved something big, but I don't know why anybody would read a book that would have made a historian cry because of all the false facts. This book was probably meant to be a novel to read over the weekend and not really put thought into, but throughout the book, the feeling I got from it was repetitive and condescending. We shouldn't even call it a book, it's just a place where Dan Brown tells us about how much he knows about old art history. Well, he should do more research because most, if not all, of his facts are wrong. Him not adding a bibliography at the ending kind of hints at the fact that everything he wrote was BS. He's not good at writing either. Maybe if he had been I wouldn't be so rude to him, but he's not. Most of his chapters end in cliffhangers, to the point where you kind of expect them. And all the dumbifying made the book seem stupid and lifeless. I looked at some of his other books, well the discriptions, And they all have the same plot.  Not to mention the characters. They were so oblivious that it was funny. They shouldn't be experts at everything, and it's not coincidental if the main character is an expert at everything needed to solve the case. If I, a fifteen year old high school student, know more than all the adult characters in this book, who are all experts at apparently everything, that's not good. So, all in all Da Vinci Code is not a book I would recommend. It's lifeless, boring, and dumbed down. To the people who called it 'action packed' and 'a must read thriller', you need to read some actual books. Maybe they were the same people who reviewed Twilight.

April book rankings

These are the rankings for the books I read this month:

1. Insignia

2. Scrawl

3. Blackwatch

4. Between the lines

5. Da Vinci Code

I'll be writing why I had these rankings in the next few posts.

Ted Talk with Will Richardson: Response

In this Ted Talk, Will Richardson talks about how schools are stopping the independence of classes, and making them all uniform. This stops students from learning as well. Instead of being a place for students to grow learning what they want, school is being turned into a test prep. Because of this, school becomes not only uninteresting, but it also stops the individual growth of students.
I agree, classes should be used to let students learn what they actually want and will use in life, instead of being the same exact thing that everyone else learns. Lets say a student wants to be an English teacher, how will calculus help him/her? Or if a student wants to be a Doctor, how will learning French help him/her if he/she is going to stay in America all his/her life?
My point is that schools should try to make students want to learn the subject, they shouldn't all be boring and the same. Or else kids just memorize the information for the test, and then forget it. Classes that involve the student, and that are interesting, make kids learn better. Plus, not all kids learn the same. What good would giving kids the information via the same method be if they all learn differently?

April Book List

For April, The books I'll be reading are:

Scrawl by Mark Shulman
Blackwatch by Jenna Burtenshaw
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Between the lines by Jodi Picoult


I'll be reading these during the week and then I'll post my rankings and why.

#1: Ripper

by Stephan Petrucha

The Ripper takes place in the late 19th century, around the time of Jack the Ripper. Carver Young is an orphan who loves solving mysteries and wants to be a detective. He eventually is adopted by Detective Hawking and starts to look for his real dad. But while doing that, he gets caught in the search for Jack the Ripper, who has come to New York. Carver and  his friend from the orphanage start trying to solve the case too. But what if Jack is not who Carver expects? I liked this book because the author really took you back to the 1890s and it was easy to visualize everything because of the authors attention to detail. I also like the case of Jack the Ripper and how much research was done for this book. My favorite character was Carver because he was relatable in the sense that he was thrown into new experiences without much preparation and had to get through them just like we are, but our experiences are a lot different than Cravers.

#2: Ashes

by Ilsa Bick

Alex is a teenager with a brain tumor. Her parents are dead and she lives with here aunt in Chicago. Despite all the medical treatments administered on her, the tumor isn't going away and she's going to die. So she runs away. She runs to a forest where she and her dad used to camp. There she meets an old man , his dog, and his granddaughter, Ellie, who is an 8 year old brat. After she storms off because of a temper tantrum, a huge zap happens, at least that's how Alex described it. After everything settles down, Ellie returns back and they find out that the old man is dead. They have to stick together after that. Alex realizes the tumor is, for the moment, gone, and she has a super ability with smell. She can smell peoples emotions and such. While walking through the forest, they stumble upon zombies. They run away after that. Later, when they both almost die from wild dogs and a zombie, a boy named Tom saves them and takes them to his camp. After that, it's the three of them. They decide to go North to Minnesota but on the way they're robbed. The robbers also take their truck, Ellie, and her dog after shooting Tom on his thigh. After that, Tom is weaker and Alex has to take care of them both. But the wound gets infected and she has to go ahead to a town to find help. She eventually does, but when they return Tom is gone, kidnapped or murdered. Alex has to return to the town, and live there peacefully, but she doesn't like it. She gets closer to Chris, a boy there, but can't forget Tom. After a while, she runs away from the town, but she finds something worse. Which I shall not tell you or else I'll be spoiling too much. I liked this book because despite being in an apocalyptic world where zombies are taking over and the survivors are trying their hardest to survive, she still has some of the same problems as us, annoying kids(Ellie), confused feelings for boys(Tom and Chris), and rebelling against the leaders(the town of Rule). Connecting with a character helps understand the book better and connect with the character. It's also just a good book, the way it's written helps readers imagine everything that's happening. 

#3: Stick

by Andrew Smith

Stark is a boy who was born with one ear. His other ear is squashed up against his head. Not only that, but he's very lanky, earning him the nickname Stick. His parents abuse him and his brother, Bosten, but that's what they're used to. That's their normal. They're really close, and they have a bond between them that doesn't break. When Stick finds out Bosten is gay, he doesn't really mind, but a few weeks later when his dad finds out, it becomes a big deal. Bosten runs away, and Stick leaves to find him. This book is a bit like The Perks of being a Wallflower in the fact that Stick and Charlie learn about what's considered normal. They start off as really shy kids, Charlie because that's his nature and Stick because he's self conscious about his ear. But slowly they start to grow up, physically and mentally. Stick gets a crush on his best friend, Emily, and Charlie starts liking Sam. They learn from their crushes. They both have problems in their lives; Stick is abused by his family and Charlie has PTSD from being molested as a child. Yet they still manage to overcome the obstacles in their path. Stick is a good book for people to realize that we're not all the same, and that people everyday get subjected to abuse and yet we still have to move on. I liked it because, like Rage, it faced problems in out world head on.