It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - Book Review

Title: It Ends With Us

Author: Colleen Hoover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publish Date: August 2, 2016

Rating: 2.8/5

Summary(blurb): Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up-- she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, and maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily, but Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan-- her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - Book Review

   

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - Book Review

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddon

Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries

Publish Date: May 1, 2003

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, fifteen-year-old Christopher is autistic and everyday interactions and admonishments have no meaning for  him. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his picket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructed universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally. 

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng - Book Review

   

See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng - Book Review

Title: See You in the Cosmos

Author: Jack Cheng

Publisher: Dial Books

Publish Date: February 28, 2017

Rating: 5/5

Summary(blurb): All eleven-year-old Alex wants is to launch his iPod into space. With a series of audio recordings, he will show other life forms out in the cosmos what life on Earth-- his Earth-- is really like. But for a boy with a long-dead dad, a troubled mum and a mostly-not-around brother, Alex struggles with the big questions. Where do I come from? Who's out there? And, above all, How can I be brave? Determined to find the answers, Alex sets out on an extraordinary road trip with his dog, Carl Sagan-- named for Alex's hero, the real-life astronomer. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he'll uncover-- secrets that will turn his universe upside down.

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - Book Review

 

 The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - Book Review

Title: The Catcher in the Rye

Author: J. D. Salinger

Publisher: Little, Brown

Publish Date: July 16, 1951 

Rating: 4.5/5

Summary: Holden Caulfield is a sixteen-year-old boy who just got kicked out of his private school due to bad grades and failing performance. Holden, reluctant to break the news that he got expelled from yet another school and thus having nowhere to go, just roams around New York for two days before breaking the bad news to his parents at home. The entire book is Holden's narration of what happened during those two days-- some things, but nothing exciting. However, Holden is a severely angsty teenager and seems to be very disillusioned and jaded about the world.

*This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera - Book Review

  

 They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera - Book Review

Title: They Both Die at the End

Author: Adam Silvera

Publisher: Harper Teen

Publish Date: September 5, 2017

Rating: 3.7/5

Summary(blurb): On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad  news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure-- to live a lifetime in a single day. Uplifting and devastating, charming and haunting, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut novel the New York Times called "profound". It's a story that reminds us there's no life without death, no love without loss- and that it's possible to change your whole world in a day.

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper - Book Review

 

 Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper - Book Review

Title: Out of My Mind

Author: Sharon M. Draper

Publisher: Atheneum Books

Publish Date: May 1, 2012 

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school-- but NO ONE knows it. Most people-- her teacher and doctors included - don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows... but she can't because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind-- that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice... but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven - Book Review

 

 All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven - Book Review

Title: All the Bright Places

Author: Jenniver Niven

Publisher: Ember

Publish Date: January 6, 2015 

Rating: 4.2/5

Summary(blurb): Theodore FINCH spends each day thinking of ways he might doe, but every day he also searches for- and manages to find- something to keep him here, and alive, and awake. VIOLET Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her older sister's death. When Finch and Violet meet on a ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. Soon it's only with Violet that Finch can be himself. And it's only with Finch that Violet learns to start living. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. A heart-wrenching, unflinching story of two teens who find each other while standing on the edge.

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - Book Review

 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - Book Review

Title: The Midnight Library

Author: Matt Haig

Publisher: Canongate

Publish Date: August 13 2020 

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself tranported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choice, what is the best way to live? 

**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.

Elemental Exasperation

Elemental Exasperation

I was in eighth grade when I realized that since element symbols were made out of English letters, they could be combined into words.

For example, the element symbols of Krypton, Yttrium, Platinum, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Iodine, and Tellurium spell out ‘Kr Y Pt O N I Te (Kryptonite)’. The elements copper(Cu) and tellurium(Te) make the word ‘cute’, ‘C Ho Co La Te (chocolate)’ comes from Carbon, Holmium, Cobalt, Lanthanum, and Tellurium, and so on.

Yet,

I cannot spell anything I would like to spell with these elements.

I can’t spell ‘Lego’ or ‘Drum’ or even ‘DJ’ with the elements. Believe me, I’ve tried. Nothing’s worked.

After experimenting with numerous combinations– I wasn’t ready to give up– I concluded that the primary reasons for the unspellable words was that the Table of Elements did not have an element with a element symbol of “E” and another with “D”.

When I first learned about the periodic table and chemical symbols, I was told that element symbols are usually the first letter of the element name, and if the first letter is taken by another element, then it’s the first two letters. For example, hydrogen has the symbol H, and helium has the symbol He because only the first letter- H- is taken by hydrogen. The same goes for many other element pairs- sulfur’s symbol is S while silicon’s symbol is Si. Boron’s symbol is B while Beryllium’s symbol is Be.

But why, just why, did scientists decide to give Europium the symbol of Eu and not E? When they had another chance with Einsteinium, why was it set as Es and not E???? And the same goes for Darmstadtium, Dysprosium, and Dubnium!! Why are there symbols of Ds, Dy, and Db with not a single element of D????????

My only hope is to synthesize two new elements and give them the symbols of D and E respectively.