Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A New Blog

In honor of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), I have started a blog on which I will collect all of my poetry. There are thirty or so poems that I have written since August up there now. All of them are raw and unedited, so don't expect great quality. Comments and critiques are always appreciated and I will continue to update after NaPoWriMo.

The link is below. Enjoy and happy reading!


http://aprotestagainstdeath.blogspot.com/

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Finding Lubchenko by Michael Simmons

Sorry about the lack of paragraphs, guys. The HTML is being funky. I'll fix it when I can. No Spoilers. Title: Finding Lubchenko Author: Michael Simmons Year of Publication: 2005 Genre: Fiction Pages: 280 First Line: "So this is basically a story about a murder." Summary: "Let me offer a preliminary description of myself. I was a poor kid trapped in the surroundings of great wealth and oppulence." So says Evan Macalister, the slacker anti-hero of Michael Simmon's new novel. Since his tightfisted millionaire father never gives him any money, Evan "liberates" equipment from Dad's business and sells it online. But when a man is murdered at the office and Mr. Macalister is accused of the crime, Evan is faced with a terrible dilemma. he alone can clear his father's name -- but only by revealing his own theft operation. And then he'll be grounded forever. There's just one thing to do: find the real murderer himself. Armed only with a cryptic e-mail from someone named Lubchenko, Evan sets off on a quest that catapults him and his two best frineds into a world of danger and international intrigue. Source: Back of book Review: Another reviewer, Jen Robinson, compared this book to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and I think that's a great analogy. She examines this analgoy a bit more closer (and I recommend reading her review, especially after you read the book, but before is fine, too) and makes it really interesting. In any case, this story is slow-moving in the first half then quickly pick sup the pace and moves too fast for the second half. However, the story is interesting and, especially in the climax, almost overly-complicated. That said, I reccomend this to older teens because of that. Besides this, the voice of Evan is very strong and the book comes off as someone is telling you this story, rather than you are reading it in a book. It makes it personal and interesting for the reader, and it is easy to relate to Evan, even though he's unlike anyone you've ever met. Worth the time it took to read, but nothing absolutely spectacular, despite the clever witicisms and general idea. Worst part: The odd pacing was frustrating. Best part: Characters were pretty well developed for the kind of novel it was. Grade: B Other Books by This Author: The Rise of Lubchenko

6 / 100 books. 6% done!