Book Review: The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

The first thing you are probably wondering about is “Why are there two books in the title?” To answer your question, these two books are books by the same author, H.G. Wells put in one.

The reason I choose this book is because I read the book ‘War of the World” also by H.G. Wells and I wanted to read other books by him. Also, when I was young, I read ‘The Time Machine’ modified for young readers. I really enjoyed these two since they are both topics that I like. They also have exciting adventures like: time traveling 800,000 years to the future and finding out a formula for invisibility that drives a scientist mad. I would recommend this book to you if you like futuristic themes with lots of action.

Book Review: Brisingr

Recently, I just finished reading a long fantasy book called the Brisingr.

This book is the third sequel to the fantasy book Eragon.The book starts off with the main character Eragon, and his cousin Roran, going to invade a village to save Roran’s girlfriend and eliminate to the forces of evil keeping her captive. Then Eragon tries to get Roran’s girlfriends’s father to give them their blessing so they can get married, but he wouldn’t allow it…. I won’t spoil the ending but if you ever wondered what the title of this book means, it mean fire.(Eragon named his sword fire)

This is probably a good book but I thought it was confusing with all the weird names and villages. This is usually why I don’t read fantasy books. I would recommend this book to you if you have read the last 2 books, for some of the names of the people and villages will reappear in this book. I would also recommend you to reread this book to understand the details.

To conclude, this is a long and concluding book but if you read it carefully, it will be thrilling and exciting.

Book Review:Holes

I just finished reading a book called ‘Holes’.

The book starts off with a boy named Stanley being falsely accused of a crime and sent to a work camp. All the kids who commit crimes are sent there to dig holes as a punishment.  Stanley believes he is sent to the camp because of his great-great grandfather who tole a pig from a gypsy and had his descendants cursed. Later in the book, Stanley makes friends with a lot of the books and is given the name ‘Caveman’, since he is big. Stanley experience in camp has him, teaching a boy how to read, finding seeds that belonged to a counselor and getting him punished the the Warden.

The weird thing about this book is: no matter how many times I read this book(twice), I still have trouble figuring out its genre. Anyways, the reason I chose this book is because when I was young, I saw part of the movie and older kids reading this book. Now that I am older, I decided to finally read this book.

Anyways, that concludes my review on this book. I would recommend it to you if you like books about a kid digging holes, running away, teaching others how to read and flashbacks of how his great-great grandfather got the curse.

Basketball Volunteer

During the last 2 weekends, I was doing basketball volunteer work. The volunteer work I did was helping mentally challenged kids to play the game of basketball.

The first Sunday I went there was the first time I have ever done volunteer work. They started of with running exercises. What we basically did was run laps. After was the stretching. What we did was stretch our legs, arms, v-sit, jumping, etc. Then we finally got to use the basketballs. It was dribbling exercises. Then we gave the basketballs the the mentally challenged kids who were called the athletes since this basketball project is called ‘Special Olympics Basketball’. Our job was to rebound their shots since they might sometimes be scared of the ball. Finally, we played a game. However, playing with the athletes was different than playing with regular people. We had to pass differently, run slower, no long shots and no blocks. At least they had a game where coaches and volunteers went against each other. I was the youngest in my game and I made the first shot. After, I talked to the coordinator who told me I should play in advanced basketball. So I switched to advanced for the next Sunday. Now I am going to talk about the experience in advanced basketball The stretching and running exercises were the same but the games and practices where different. Instead of the athletes  shooting and us rebounding, we did passing and shooting/teamwork exercises with them. When we played a game, we could play normally.

Overall, I think this is a great experience to help mentally challenged kids and learn more about basketball.

Book Review: Ultimate Special Forces

Recently, I have just finished a book called the Ultimate Special Forces.

The reasons why I like this book is because I played video games like Call of Duty 4 which is based on modern warfare and now, I finally get to read about it. What makes this book unique and interesting is the fact that it doesn’t just have words and chapters like novels, but has pictures of the soldiers, guns, tanks, aircrafts, etc with a little bit of description. Also, if you wanted to learn more about WWII, this book says most of its history. In this book, there are 4 different sections: WWII, modern warfare, types of guns and the different types of special forces. I would recommend this book to you if you like to learn about modern warfare and the different types of special forces.

Book Review: The Code of the Samurai

I have just finished reading a non-fiction book called the ‘Code the of Samurai’.

The reason I chose this book is because I practice Kendo and I think the samurai are like kendokas(people who practice kendo). When I first read this book, I knew it was going to be a good book, and it was. The reason I found this book interesting is because I’ve always wanted to know more about the samurai and the warriors of Japan ever since I started practicing kendo. This book isn’t like any other book with a story. Instead, it has 3 parts with sub chapters that explain each code. I think this book gave me a lot of information about the samurai and their lives. I would recommend this book to you if you want to learn about the warriors of Japan or if you practice kendo.

Bali Part 3

Continuing on part 2

On day 3, we went to 2 places Tanalot, to sight see and Jimbaran Bay, to eat. Tanalot is another temple like Uluwatu, known for its sunset view. However, it doesn’t have the Kecak Dance like in Uluwatu. Instead, it has a faraway temple surrounded by strong waves. Near this temple, there is an outdoor market. When I went to a store to buy a camouflage helmet, I saw a lizards on the wall that moved but seemed to be flat. During the night, we went to dinner at the beach which was called Jimbaran Bay. There were tables set out and the front, we told the chef what we wanted to order. At this place, there were only grills fish and fries. I found it very hard to see at our table however, for it was very dark. That was probably the first time I had eaten at a beach.

And that concludes my Bali entries. We did stay for at least 2 more days but we just stayed in the hotel to swim and relax.

Bali Part 2

Continuing on part 1.

The place we went to first was Uluwatu, a temple with sacred monkeys. This temple is mainly known for its beautiful sunset and also the fact that it was the oldest temple in Bali, which is the reason why we went. When we first entered, we had to wear a silk belt around us. Actually, people were required to wear both the belt and a long skirt called the Saron but there weren’t enough so we couldn’t wear one. I didn’t want to stay at first because I don’t like to sightseeing. The main reason why I hate sightseeing is because it takes forever and by the time we finish, it dark. Plus, my dad takes too many pictures which is annoying and I hate being in pictures. Anyway, in the temple, there were monkeys, lots of them. We even seen them steal people’s hats and glasses. We mainly went there to look at the sunset but we were sidetracked by a show with men saying ‘zha, zha, zha’ or something like that. This is call the Kecak Dance.

Here’s a video of the performance:

Book Review: The Ultimate Alien

This is the third book review that I am writing. The book I am writing a review about is called ‘The Ultimate Alien’.

This is a science fiction short stories book by many different authors. It means this book is made up of many different mini stories. However, all the stories have to do with an alien of some sort. When I first picked this book from the shelf in the store, I though this was going to be an interesting science fiction book about an alien. However, when I read it, I saw that it was short stories by many different authors which is what I didn’t expect. Also, I didn’t find it that interesting either. It was sort of confusing since it was many different stories and once you finish one, the book jumps to another one.

Bali Part 1

Recently, I just came back from an exhausting, crowded overnight flight from Bali.

The first day I went there, was at night. So I didn’t really see much except the fact that the hotel had a lobby out in the open. The next morning, I had to wake up early in order to eat breakfast with food I didn’t really like except for the steak. The first day, we had a tour of the hotel. There, I could, swim at the beach or pool, eat cookies or sandwiches. There was also a chocolate fountain where you could get a strawberry and dip in the fountain to eat. Every, I would swim at the pool and I didn’t swim at the beach since the ground was too sandy. For some reason, the water at the lagoon(swimming pools near the villas) was salty and the water at the other swimming pool wasn’t. Anyways, on the first day, we had to go sightseeing already which I didn’t want to.

Read part 2 to find out where I went for sightseeing.