And Now back to our regularly scheduled blog posts...

Wow! It has been more than a few weeks since I last wrote a blog post! All of the games and activities I planned for the end of the fall semester distracted me from this page.

Over winter break I made the commitment to try to read 4 books. After about a week of break I realized that wasn't going to happen, but I did read 2 books: Verify and Crank.

Verify was the dystopian story that I didn't even realize I needed. It takes place in Chicago about 75 years in the future (which, really, is the main flaw in the book...it's too soon!) In this seemingly perfect society, the American government has made owning and using paper illegal and put all books and school materials, etc on tablets and screens to "help the environment." But in reality, the government has used this excuse to gain control of all the information available to the people. They have removed key pieces of history (like ALL of World War II) and information (the definition of "verify" and "revolution") to keep people in line and make them stop questioning the decisions made for them. The fact that this takes place only 75 years in the future (a time when I hope that you are all still alive and remember these things) is the main flaw in the story line, but if you can ignore that glaring detail, this book portrays for us the kind of world we could end up living in if we stop questioning what we are told and don't verify the information with which we are presented.

For those who don't already know, Crank is a novel written in verse (poetry) that tells the story of Kristina (and her alter-ego, Bree) as she struggles with an addiction to meth. This quick read tells the tale of how easy it is to fall down the hole of addiction and how hard it can be to climb back out. Kristina (/Bree) face a rough road of twists and challenges due to her reliance on the drug to feel good, happy, and able to face the world. If you haven't read this yet, I recommend it for anyone once. Then, if you like it, continue the series to see where she ends up!

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Well, those are my reviews of the books I read over break. I ended up getting so busy! First with Hanukkah and Christmas (my nephews are Jewish, so we do both), then extended Christmas celebrations. Finally I had friends visiting from Virginia and we did a little tour of Los Angeles for them. 

I got to go to The Last Bookstore in Downtown LA for the first time, and let me tell you, it was amazing! Here are some of the pictures of this book wonderland.