Science fiction is probably one of my favorite genres to read. The genre is a fascinating realm containing aliens, science, and adventure. This novel combines all three into an amazingly fast-paced setting. The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu is a fantastic and exciting book and it’s one of my favorite books I have read all year.

The Lives of Tao tells the story of Roen Tan. After a hard night of partying Roen wakes to hear strange voices in his head. Turns out, an ancient alien race called the Quasing inhabited Roen’s head overnight. His particular Quasing, Tao, is a Prophet, who wants to return to his home planet. Unfortunately, so do the Genjix, another faction of the Quasing and they’re willing to sacrifice the human race to achieve the same goal. Roen becomes trained in martial arts and old-school espionage to stop the Genjix and save the human race.

I really enjoyed Roen. Initially, he is really bothersome. He constantly whines about his boring job and he does nothing to improve his situation. Once Tao becomes a part of Roen, his character changes. Roen gains the motivation he lacks and becomes more aware of his surroundings. Roen in the end becomes a really engaging character because of his journey into becoming a Prophet agent. The bond that Roen and Tao have is heartwarming. Tao acts as his coach, friend, and father. Tao is brutally honest which furthers the development of their relationship.

Learning about the Quasing’s alien race and their history is also appealing. Each chapter page details a small paragraph regarding the past lives of the Quasing. It’s a complimentary feature of the main story. Another interesting tidbit is the Quasing have inhabited various historical figures such as Genghis Khan, Nazi guards, and members of the Roman empire.

The action sequences in this novel are fast-paced and gritty. It’s easy for my mind to wander and imagine Roen fighting various Genjix personnel. My favorite fight scene is at the Chicago Night club. I just imagine the dark club atmosphere with the neon lights as punches are being thrown and drinks and shattered glass litter the floor.

The Lives of Tao is a bewilderingly gritty, dark, and action-packed science fiction novel. The Quasing are fascinating creatures to learn about. Wesley Chu is an author I’m keeping tabs on because he knows how to write an exciting action sequence. The characters are intriguing and the writing is superb.

My next book is probably going to be horror related. That’s probably in honor of horror film director Wes Craven who passed away today! Scream will be one of my all-time favorite franchises. Now I’m going on this horror book kick which is perfect since October is right around the corner.

I haven’t posted a book review in a couple months. I have been in a funk in which reading doesn’t sound fun to me. Sometimes that happens when I read too many books at once. Anyway, my boyfriend bought this book for my birthday. I have wanted to read it for a while, so this brought me out of my funk. I love Rainbow Rowell’s books! I read Fangirl a couple months ago and I fell in love. I have her other book Landline sitting on my bookshelf too. Eleanor & Park is a great book. It touches on many different themes including young love, physical and emotional abuse, weight, bullying, and self-esteem. Reading this book, made me go back to when I was a sixteen-year-old in high school.

The novel introduces Eleanor. She is starting school in Nebraska. The bullying starts as soon as she gets on the school bus. She finds the only seat on the bus which is where she meets Park. At first, they can’t stand each other. Eventually, they start reading comics together on the bus. Their relationship develops and their feelings for each other become much stronger. I really feel for Eleanor, especially because of her home life.

I love the way Rowell writes her books! I always become infatuated with the story and the characters. With Eleanor, I really understand her insecurities in herself. I have struggled with my self-esteem and my self-worth. I have never been bullied relentlessly like Eleanor has, but I can relate to her in some way. Besides Eleanor, I really like Park. He is a genuine guy. He likes her beyond her appearance and he loves her sassy comments. I also love Park because he’s patient, active, and independent. One of my favorite chapters is when Park puts on eyeliner. His father gets upset with him, but Park does it because he wants to and he doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

As much as I loved the book, I didn’t love it as much as Fangirl. It’s not that it was a bad book, it’s just Fangirl was so amazing that it’s hard to top it. However, because of this book, I’m a much bigger fan of Rainbow Rowell. I will read anything she writes.

I love being at home. My favorite reading spot is easily the screened-in porch. It’s beautiful and warm and the noises of all the birds and animals in my backyard bring me peace. After finishing my last book, I felt like I needed a break from reading. So when I came home, I didn’t bring any of my books. Yesterday, my mom pulled out this Gillian Flynn novel and told me how interesting it was. So I started to read it and I was hooked. I spent the entire day reading.

The story is told from the perspective of Camille Preaker. She is a reporter and her newspaper is floundering due to competition. Her boss, Curry sends her back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to investigate the murder of Ann Nash. While Camille’s there, another girl named Natalie Keene is also killed similar to Nash. Camille is staying with her mother Adora and she meets her half-sister Amma. Camille needs to write a crucial story for her paper while discovering what’s really going on in Wind Gap.

*Spoilers*

CW: Self Harm, Drug Use.

There was a lot that annoyed me about Camille. First, when she talks to detective Richard Willis she mentions how if a woman is drunk, it’s her fault and it’s not rape. She goes on to state how she thinks that it isn’t a crime to have sex with someone who is drunk. That really annoyed me because I completely disagree with her. That is sexual assault because she was not sober enough to definitely say she wanted to have sex. Camille also does drugs with her half-sister Amma who is only thirteen. You’re thirty years old and you want to do drugs with your thirteen-year-old sister? That part really angered me.

Amma is also not very likable. She’s mean to a lot of the girls in her school just for being different. She is doing drugs, drinking alcohol, and having sex at thirteen years old. She knows how pretty she is and she uses that to her advantage.

Adora is also an interesting character. She constantly tells Camille how much she doesn’t love her, but when Camille is sick, she is a motherly figure. It’s revealed that Adora has Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Adora poisons her daughter Camille just so she gets attention and feels needed by her daughters. At the end of the book, she’s arrested so that’s a relief.

I was also disappointed in Richard Willis, the detective from St. Louis. He sleeps with Camille to get more information about her mother. Then he claims to love her and when he sees Camille’s scars for the first time, he leaves and never talks to her again. I just want to slap him.

This novel is fast-paced and the writing itself is really interesting. If you’re looking for a gothic, modern, and dark novel to read, this is definitely a book you should finish. It’s relatively short so finishing it in a day is to be expected.

My stack of books to be read is slowly decreasing. The latest book I read, The Catalain Book of Secrets was a book I picked up during my bookstore hunt in Minneapolis over spring break. I saw this book on a shelf and I was entranced. The cover is absolutely beautiful. The purple and blue colors are really pretty and the mansion itself is a huge part of this novel.

This novel takes place in Faith Falls, Minnesota. Catalain is a well-known family in Faith Falls particularly because they are capable of performing magic. Each family member has a unique gift with magical abilities. Ursula has the ability to make incredible potions. Her two daughters: Katrine and Jasmine also have unique abilities. Throughout the novel, there is a Catalain family curse. It starts with Ursula and it’s detailed in the first chapter. This family curse threatens to take away the Catalain magic and the happiness of the women in the family.

I really enjoyed Jessica Lourey’s writing style. Her writing has a lot of imagery and it’s easy to imagine the fictional small town. Since I’m from Minnesota, it’s nice to read a book that captures Minnesota’s beauty.

I really loved the Catalain women. This book has very strong female characters in it. It also shows that each of the characters has had their hardships and how they handled them.

Normally, this isn’t a book I would choose for myself to read. I really enjoyed it! The characters are great, the setting of the story is told really well and I really enjoyed the writing of the story. I recommend this especially if you live in the Minnesota area.

Summer is one of my favorite seasons because it allows me more time to read. I probably spent at least three hours reading yesterday to finish this book. L.A. Confidential is a book I picked up when I went bookstore hunting in Minneapolis. I finally got around to reading it. Unfortunately, this book was really disappointing. This is one instance where the movie is ten times better than the book.

L.A. Confidential takes place in the 1950s. The story revolves around police officers in the Los Angeles district. Ellroy introduces way too many characters to keep track of. However, the three main characters worth noting are Bud White, Jack Vincennes, and Edmund Exley. The three characters are all police officers in various districts within the police department. Bud White is working homicide and he purposefully goes after men who beat women. He goes against the rules and beats criminals who he feels deserve it. Jack Vincennes was working under narcotics and then gets transferred to Ad Vice which deals with pornography-type crimes. Finally, Edmund Exley is the “goody-two-shoes” cop. He follows every single protocol. He is essentially the opposite of Bud White. The novel revolves around the mystery of the “The Nite Owl” homicide. In 1953, various people were murdered at this nite owl coffee shop.

The problem with these characters is that I honestly dislike all of them. Bud White is violent and very sexist and disgusting towards women. He sees them as objects and calls women whores all the time. Now, that may just be the time period in which the novel takes place, but still, I really dislike Bud White as a character. Jack Vincennes is just a fame-hungry police officer. Edmund Exley is the good guy cop who only cares about making his way up in the police force. None of these characters are characters I appreciate.

The story itself is rather confusing. Ellroy introduces all of these different police officers and criminals and it’s really hard to keep track. If I would have known that before starting the book, I would have written down every single character and why they are related to the story.

Another problem I had with this book is how slow it was. My favorite part of the movie is when Exley and White team up to solve the crime and end the corruption in the police department. That doesn’t happen until the last 50 pages or so. All this build-up wasn’t even worth it because when everything was revealed about the nite owl, it took a while for me to fully understand what was going on.

I could probably keep going about how much I disliked this novel. If you love the 50’s time period, police corruption, and gangster activity, watch the movie. The movie is fantastic and it does a great job at keeping things interesting.

The latest book that I finished is based on one of my all-time favorite video games. This book, Bioshock: Rapture, is a prequel novel based on the video game. Before I talk about the plot of this book or go into my review, I’m going to talk a little about the video game because that will provide some insight into the book.

BioShock takes place in 1960. The protagonist in the game is named Jack. After his plane crashes in the Atlantic, he finds shelter in a lighthouse. Upon entering the lighthouse, he discovers that it’s a secret entrance to Rapture. Rapture is an underwater city created by Andrew Ryan. When Jack discovers the city, he finds that the city has deteriorated. Atlas, a man in Rapture, becomes Jack’s guide as he explains what has happened to the city. One cause of the city’s destruction is plasmids. Plasmids are chemicals that you inject that give you powers such as shooting electricity, throwing fireballs, and telekinesis. These plasmids are what caused Rapture’s downfall. Over the course of the game, you meet characters and discover what really happened to this broken city.

This book starts before Rapture was created. Major characters in this novel include:

Andrew Ryan: Ryan is the creator of Rapture. He creates Rapture because he believes that the world will die at the hands of a nuclear holocaust.

Bill McDonagh: McDonagh is a British engineer, and he is recruited by Andrew Ryan to help create the city and protect it.

Frank Fontaine: Fontaine is a criminal who sneaks his way into Rapture. He is the main antagonist in the story, along with Andrew Ryan. Ryan and Fontaine are constantly fighting over the right to rule Rapture, and this causes conflict within the novel and impacts the city.

Brigid Tenenbaum: Tenenbaum is a geneticist. She helped create the plasmids and the ADAM responsible for the destruction of Rapture. She was also a scientific assistant in the concentration camps in Germany during World War II.

As a huge fan of video games, I knew I had to read the book. The book itself starts off slowly. It introduces key characters, and it takes some time before Rapture is built. Once Rapture is built, the book gets interesting. More characters in the video game are introduced, and slowly, Rapture falls apart. I really liked how most of the characters were portrayed. Andrew Ryan seems like a good person at first, but he refuses to let anyone leave Rapture, and this causes most of the citizens in Rapture to start revolting. As violence increases in the city, Ryan refuses to address the issue. I consider Ryan to be a dictator, and as much as he preaches free speech in the city, he refuses to listen to people who don’t agree with him. I also really like Bill McDonagh. He is an interesting character because he knows that Rapture is slowly going downhill, but he respects Andrew Ryan. This internal conflict is shown throughout the story, and I found it really fascinating to read about.

My Goodreads rating is three stars. I liked that this book gave new insight into the world of Rapture; however, I didn’t like this book as much as I thought I would. I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the video game, but if you’re not interested in Bioshock, you wouldn’t find this book interesting.

I absolutely cannot wait to write this review because I loved every single page of this book. I finished this book last night, and I felt satisfied. I absolutely love Rainbow Rowell as an author, and I will definitely read more of her books!

Fangirl is about Cather Avery. Cather, who goes by Cath, is going away to college, and she is nervous. Cath is also the biggest Simon Snow fan ever! In this world, Simon Snow is huge! Cath writes fanfiction all the time, and her website she writes for, is popular. This book is about her experiences in college and how she grows as a person.

I absolutely love Cath as a person! She’s really shy but extremely passionate about what she loves. I would say that I relate to her because of how geeky I am.

Cath goes through many other personal experiences, including the hospitalization of her father, her mother trying to reappear in her life, and dating. I feel like these experiences really shape Cath, and it shows how close she is to her family. Cath is an easy character to relate to, and that’s probably why I love the book so much. I’m constantly rooting for her.

This book made me want to keep reading, and I read almost half of the book in a day. I gave this book five stars on Goodreads, and I even added it to my favorite bookshelf. This is my favorite book I have read in 2015 for sure.

Libraries are the most beautiful buildings. Wednesday I was feeling adventurous and I wanted to study somewhere that wasn’t my room. I decided to take a trip downtown to the county library. I had actually never been to this library before. It surprises me because I have always wanted to go, but I had never gotten around to it.

As soon as I arrived, I immediately headed up the stairs and I found a table on the second floor. On the second floor where I sat and studied, there was a huge dome with stained glass art. It’s spectacular! I ended up cranking out a lab report for two hours, but the library is peaceful. I would much rather go to the county library than the campus library. It’s nice to get away from other college students. After I was finished with homework, I wandered through the shelves of old library books.

The bookshelves themselves were pretty cramped but they were very ornate. The library reminded me of a building that could have existed in the 1800s. I like that they didn’t just tear down the building and instead kept restoring it. It shows that this building has been a part of the history that Winona, MN has to offer.

I have such a huge book backlog right now, but I managed to find some books to check out. I also opened up my Winona county library card. I checked out Rest in Pieces by Rita Mae Brown. It’s about a woman solving murder mysteries with her cat! How great is that!? Cats are amazing creatures. Finally, I checked out The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien.

I’m not sure that I will get around to reading three library books before they’re due, but I will definitely take more pictures of the library and upload them when I go back.

It’s a lovely Saturday morning and I have my cup of coffee nearby. It’s the perfect time to write a book review about the latest book I read: The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver.

I was in high school when my mom had a movie playing titled the Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. I never knew that this movie had a book until very recently when I was browsing Goodreads. I knew I had to add this book and I finally purchased this a month ago.

The novel stars Lincoln Rhyme, a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He is a forensic scientist and very well known in New York for his intelligence and arrogance. He is injured in an accident three years ago and he is a quadriplegic. At the beginning of the book, we see that he is losing his will to live and even seeks out a doctor to help end his life. His old partner from the police department, Lon Sellitto, comes to Lincoln with a new case. A man has been found buried but his skin had been sliced off to the point that the bone of his finger had been exposed. Lincoln, intrigued with the case, comes back to solving crimes. When working on the case, Lincoln meets Amelia Sachs. They form a unique bond that progresses along with the story.

I didn’t really have any complaints with this book at all. It was fast-paced and I didn’t see the ending coming at all. Then again, I never finished the movie so it was still a surprise for me. I rated this book four stars on Goodreads because I thought it was fantastic and I really adore Lincoln as a character. I plan to read more of this series when I have time!