App Time!

Goodreads

            This is the ultimate app for Book nerds. I like to call it Netflix for the intelligent individual. But whatever you call it, it is amazing. Basically it is a digital book catalogue. There are several places within the app to discover new books. There are some unique categories of books that are constantly changing such as Dystopian YA or Best YA Fiction. They also have the typical biography, fiction, cooking, arts, and much more. My favorite section is Classic. I have found so many good books there.

            My favorite part about the app is the fact that it is not just a catalogue. You are encouraged to rate the books by giving them stars and writing reviews about them. (I usually don’t write there because I post reviews here!) It is also nice to read what your friends or other authors and experts have to say about a book you are thinking of reading.

            The reason I compare Goodreads to Netflix is the instant queue. Just like Netflix you get to customize your list of books by marking books: Read, To-read, and Currently reading. But you don’t only have those lists, you can make many more to get a high level of personal personalization. Some of the ones I have on my account are To-re-read and school, plus a number of traditional categories.

            The final feature I would like to highlight is the challenges. This is a newer feature I believe, but I am thoroughly enjoying it. This year I am working on the 50 books in one year challenge. I’m just about halfway done, but I hopefully can get cranking and knock out the last 25 books.

            Well I hope this has been a help to you! I know I love Goodreads and I hope you will too. It is the perfect app to organize and prioritize your reading list.

Until Again,

         Lance Fillmore

Think Smart

It is said that the human brain is only able to access 10% of its capacity imagine what you could do with 100%. Just kidding the book that I'm reviewing isn't about being able to stop the world or learn Chinese in five minutes or anything like that, but it is about neuroscience so lets get started.

 Think Smart is written by Richard Restak M.D. and let me just start out by saying I really did like this book. Its purpose is to give a prescription for improving your brains performance. It lays out different strategies for helping to improve your brain. Now some of you may be thinking that this sounds boring, but it is actually a quite enjoyable read, granted I personally am fascinated by the study of the brain and cognitive development so I especially found this book intriguing. But even if you are not super into neuroscience this book is still enjoyable, mostly because of the writing style. Richard Restak does an excellent job of combining easy to understand vocabulary and really good information. Overall it is a well written, informative book, I would highly recommend it to any one.

Go Get 'Em!

We are living in a time where being lazy is normal. It's not even that were always lazy. We're just not always Go-Getters. I heard about The Go-Getter from Dave Ramsey. He said it was a required read for the members on his team so I decided to give it a shot. And let me tell you I was not dissapointed! Peter Kyne, the author, was very popular when he was writing in the early 1900's. He is well known for his book about the three wise men translated into a wild west tale, but he is perhaps most famous for his short story character Cappy Ricks and how he finds a Go-Getter.

This is a very short story with some very powerful principles. I really don't want to tell you much about the parable because it is so short, but I will tell you you don't want to miss reading this! And right now you can get The Go-Getter from Dave Ramsey's store for only $5.00! It's normally $15 so you don't want to miss this deal! Whether your young or old all of us can learn so much about how to do more and be a Go-Getter!

Until Again,
Lance Fillmore

The Phantom Tollbooth

A while back I was listening to the quiz show Wait, Wait Don't tell me and I heard an interview with the author Norton Juster. The Book he was discussing was called The Phantom Tollbooth and it sounded fascinating! I decided then that I wanted to read the book, but I had a hard time finding it. Well this year we moved to another city and that meant another library to scour. The first book I checked out - Well one of the first. Who goes to the library and just checks out one book?- Anyways the first book I checked out was The Phantom Tollbooth. So after years of waiting I finally read it. So let's dive into the content.

The Watchdog

The story is about a little boy named Milo, who never wants to be where he is, but never cares to go anywhere else. One day he finds a toy toll booth in his room that transports him to a magical land filled with all sorts of amazing creatures. There is a WatchDog, Spelling bee, Math-a-magician and many other people. Milo sets off on a quest to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason. Along the way he encounters many perils and learns to use all his senses. He discovers that there are many wonderful things in the world and he can explore them all. It is a delightful  story and masterfully executed.

The book focuses on wordplay and is very fun to read especially if you enjoy a good pun. There are many quotable lines throughout the story and some very thought provoking statements. One of my favorite lines from the book is said by Princess Reason, "What you can do is often a matter of what you will do." Another one by the same person is, "You often learn more by being wrong for the right reason than being right for the wrong reason." Both statements are simple yet so profound. Though it is a children's book, there are many lessons for adults to learn as well.

Stylistically the book is crafted well. The use of many adverbs really gives you the feel of being in the new land. The dialogue is well written and like I said the use of words is very appealing. Milo, himself, develops much throughout the story, but the rest of the characters are fairly flat and static.  But I think you'll find that doesn't really matter much especially as you approach the end of the book.

Over all I was very impressed. I half expected to find a cheesy kids book, with juvenille jokes, but I am happy to say that I was wrong. The humor is elevated making this book a wonderful read for children and adults alike.

 Until again,
Lance Fillmore


You can grab your copy of  The Phantom Tollbooth here.

Chris, Crichton, and Castles (Don't Judge Me for Alliterating)

The past can often seem very distinct and separated from the present. We, humanity, often glorify even the bloodiest of battles. We make heroes of villains and change the facts as we chose. Often it doesn't matter because we don't have enough facts to make an accurate judgment of the past, yet we do it anyways. My point is we often make history what we want it to be.  Well what if we didn't have to. What if we could travel to the past and observe what really went on in the pages of our text books. This is part of the premise in Michael Crichton's sci-fi adventure novel about the past.

Chris, Stern,Kate, and Marek are part of a archeological team unearthing the ruins in the Dordogne river valley of France. Professor Johnston, one of the leaders at the site, has been visiting the mysterious ITC, the company funding the dig, hedquarters in New Mexico. But when the team in France doesn't hear from him at the scheduled time, they begin to get suspicious. Their suspicions are founded when they discover a 14th century manuscript with the words "Help Me" written in perfect English. Through a series of events, (I'm trying so hard not to reveal to many details.), the team is sent back to 14th century France to save the professor. The only catch... They just have 37 hours to complete the task. That might not seem to hard, but don't forget the is a dark period in history. Slaughter abounds and it is a whole new world. This book combines so many aspects that different readers will enjoy such as: Archeology, Knights, Castles, Science Fiction, and a heartless CEO.

While I enjoyed reading this book there were just a few things that bugged me. My biggest problem was with the story's main villain. He seemed almost cartoonish in his wish to exploit and control the archeology and the surrounding land. Maybe I'm just misreading his intents, but them seem very juvenile and not really deserving of his end. On the other hand his passive attitude about death and those he injured was disturbing and well crafted and justified his end better than his plans for exploitation. I also found a few of the characters just sort of lackluster. Yet there was good character development throughout the story which I think makes up for it.

A big part of my enjoyment of this book was the science aspect of it. While the author gives enough detail for you to know what's going on. He doesn't drown you in a sea of useless information. He is quick and to the point.

While there are a few downsides to the book, there is much more to be gleaned from it about our view of history and the time in which we live. As much as we enjoy history, We're never going back the past is in the past, so we must do all we can to make the most of the present.


Lance Fillmore (PSEUD)

Get Timeline Here

Author's note: If you enjoyed the book... Do not watch the movie version!!!! That is all.- 07/16/14

Code of Silence

        When a group of three friends witness the masked robbery of their favorite restaurant, attempted murder of the co-owner, and are threatened with the murder of them and their families by one of the thugs they decide to enact a Code of Silence. This means that they will not tell anyone about what they have seen, especially the police, for fear of a dirty cop. They will have to lie to parents, teachers, police, and pretty much everyone they come in contact with until they can come up with a plan. But it is not as easy as you may think, for as the book says living a lie comes with a price.

            

          This is the dilemma that the characters face in Tim Shoemakers book Code of Silence. A few weeks ago I came across this book while at the library it sounded interesting enough so I decided to give it a try, and I’m glad I did. While the whole premise is intriguing and the action is really suspenseful what I really liked were the relationships between the three friends, it was written in what I would call a third-person omniscient point of view so you really got to know the thoughts and feelings of every character. Another thing I really enjoyed was how developed all of the characters were. Each of them had their own personal feelings about what they were doing. Their turmoil over what they are going to do is evident. In times of trial you can see the points of each character so it does not feel unjustified when a character acts a certain way. Also all of the main protagonists had good solid backstories which helped make them to be more believable. 

           

          This book also excellently delivers on action and suspense. I don’t want to spoil anything but let’s just say it can get very intense. I can’t recall anything that I really did not like about this book. One thing that is interesting is the relationship with God in this book, mainly that there isn't much of one until the end, through character foil you can see those who run to God during trials, and those who run away from Him. The way this was delivered seemed realistic and relatable. Also just to clear it up I wouldn’t necessarily label this book as “Christian fiction” because the focus is on the mystery and the lies, with the relationship with God as an underlying theme.

         

          Overall this book is well-written, realistic, with relatable characters and suspenseful action; this is one to put on your reading list. 

Olympus

 (Editor's Note:  Please welcome to the Booket Blog, our good friend Benjamin Reich. He enjoys writing and offers keen literary analysis. He will be posting on the blog more frequently, so that means more content for you the reader! All right on to the article.)
 When Karl Huber decides to run away from home he makes the decision to go to another world, a virtual reality video game world. Now his family and some newfound friends have to track him down in the video game world to find out where he is in the real one, all while facing the perils and other players in the world that is Olympus.

   This is the premise given to us in Scott Somerville’s book Olympus.  Having read this book twice I can say that I thoroughly enjoy it. In the book the video game Olympus is played inside of a cyber-suit which transports the player into the video game world. This allows the player to be fully immersed in the videogame world, and in the case of some more advanced cyber-suits even live in it. This alone brings up some interesting questions about how real video games should be, especially since technology similar to this is already being developed.  The book also brings out intriguing questions surrounding alternate reality, about the morals involved in a fake world where there are no “real” consequences.

 

    As far as negatives go at times it can feel a bit “preachy” against video games and a few other things, but for the most part there are two sides to the argument. Sometimes the dialogue can fall a bit flat, but for the most part it’s well written.  One of the biggest details I noted both times I read that just kind of bothered me is that when they are in Olympus only one of the characters has a suit that can simulate pain, yet there are a few instances where it seems the other characters are in pain. For example at one point a few characters are underwater and it make mention several times that their lungs were bursting, that just makes me think “, Why can’t they just take a breath in the real world?”  At moments like that it just kind of takes me out of the moment.

    Overall it is a good read with well written characters, intriguing story arcs, as well as interesting looks between the real world and the video game one. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to give it a read.

-Benjamin-