Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

This sequel to Incarceron is incredible.
I admit I was confused as the end came upon me, but I was so eager to reach the end, to devour the story, to find out just what would happen to Finn, Claudia, Attia, and Keiro. Is there a way to free the prisoners? Can Era be ended? Would Queen Sia be overthrown? Is Finn really Giles? I read Incarceron about six months ago, I think, and I do not really remember books, so I thought it was great that Fisher made it easy enough to remember what happened in the first book.
Finn is Outside with Claudia and Jared; the Warden (Claudia’s father) is Inside with Attia and Keiro (but not in the same place). It’s been two months and Finn is still having a difficult time calling up any memories prior to his imprisonment. Relations with the Queen are complicated; she wants to look like she supports Finn and truly believes he is her stepson, but she still thinks her son Caspar should be able to take the throne. Finn is not the ideal prince; he is having a difficult time being at ease with the court and the finery and trappings of luxury. He wants the Portal fixed so he can fulfill his promise to Keiro and Attia. Claudia had expected Finn’s memory to return and his fits to end, but neither has happened. She begins to question if Finn is really Giles. With Jared, Claudia is doing her best to repair the damage done to the Portal when the Warden went Inside.
Attia and Keiro are searching for Sapphique’s legendary glove, which will give the wearer the ability to Escape. Attia finds it with a magician in a traveling circus and when she steals it from Rix, she discovers her life has just gotten a little more complicated. When the Prison offers to make a deal with whoever has the glove, there’s a race between the characters who know of its existence to find the heart of Incarceron to deliver it.
Meanwhile, Jared is offered the opportunity to find a cure for his sickness which would mean betraying Claudia. A Pretender has arrived in court claiming to be the real Giles–and having the ease, courtesy and attitude to carry it off.
The pace of the novel picks up after a fire in the palace and the narration switches between those Outside and those Inside swiftly. The quick pace of the novel leaves the reader eager to find out what happens next, but I felt I missed or didn’t fully comprehend everything that I was reading. There are some great surprises (about the Era and Incarceron) in the book and it is a thrilling read right to the end.
The ending does feel a little abrupt; I thought there were going to be three books (it’s probably from reading so many trilogies of late) to the story so when I got about two thirds of the way into the book and realized it was going to finish in this book, I was excited. I was a little disappointed at how quickly the book ended, though. I would have liked to see an epilogue or one short chapter taking place a few months later, but I suppose I am picky. The novel ended on some really great imagery though (and I teared up a little at the end).
All in all, Sapphique is a fantastic read. I recommend both books to readers(it will be much easier now to recommend them with both books out) who like action, dystopian fiction, very strong female characters, and not so much romance (but a little). It’s an awesome story. Check both out and let me know your thoughts!

Science Nerds

For the scientifically inclined of you, there’s a brilliant British website called Science Oxford Online. The main page has fifteen different photos, all connected to an article. There are twenty-two pages of fifteen photos ranging in topics from “Why the thumb of the right hand is on the left hand side” to “Amber reveals new secrets from dinosaur DNA” to “The 3-D Human Genome”. The amount of material on this site is incredible and it’s presented in a unique way. There is always a link from the Science Oxford Online site to the site where the article is from, so you know your source. You can click “randomise” to get entirely new articles, you can filter by subject, and you can search.

If anything, it’s amazing for the pictures. And it might help you out with your next science paper.

Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart

Oh, Ruby.
I was admittedly sad when I heard Real Live Boyfriends is the last Ruby Oliver book (first is The Boyfriend List, second The Boy Book, third Treasure Map of Boys, but I loved it and I thought it was fantastic and a great way to end the series.
There is so much more to Ruby than boys (past and present) and panic attacks. The book opens during the summer before Ruby’s senior year at Tate Prep. She’s dating the wonderful Noel (who is a Real Live Boyfriend; one who listens to her, calls her back, spends time with her, and doesn’t make her completely insecure), enjoying spending time with Meghan and Hutch, and just loving summer.
Then things begin to go bad … her grandmother dies (which sucks and destroys her dad), Noel goes to visit his brother Claude in New York City which he does every summer, but halfway through the trip Noel stops calling or emailing Ruby (and misses her birthday), and Hutch is leaving to spend the semester in Paris (heavy metal Hutch? In Paris?). And while some unexpected events occur (Nora approaches Ruby), the constants of school, working at the zoo, and Doctor Z don’t change (nor does Ruby’s clashing with her mother).
Noel and Ruby get in an argument (during a college prep class, unfortunately) and the relationship ends. Which makes neither happy, but when Ruby finds out that it’s not that Noel doesn’t love her, but something else entirely, the relationship gets back on track. Ruby realizes that her relationships with everyone will change in the next few years, going to college has a tendency to do that to people. But Ruby also realizes that she has the ability to deal with that, and if it gets too tough, she has people to help her out. And of course, her lists.
Real Live Boyfriends *Yes, boyfriends, plural. if my life weren’t complicated–I wouldn’t be Ruby Oliver is a quick read; it’s a lot like Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series in that the book focuses on Ruby and her friends but it feels that Ruby learns a little more about herself in her stories than Georgia does in hers. The Ruby Oliver series are the types of books that don’t make huge, grand statements about humanity or growing up, but just tell a story about being a teenager and how sometimes it’s hard to navigate being a teenager. I love the Ruby Oliver series and though I’m sad it’s ended, I know that Ruby’s heading in the right direction (even if she doesn’t know what direction that is).

Interested? Check it out. Read? Let me know what you think.

College Majors 101

Sooner or later you’ll be faced with a few choices: 1) Are you going to college? and 2) Where are you applying? (Which you’ll get asked A LOT when you’re in the process of applying.)

So how do you make your college decision? Or if you’re in college, how do you choose a major? College Majors 101 has been created to help you with the “major” decision. The site first breaks the majors into categories, or schools. You can choose from Life Science/Medical, Art/Design/Performance, Liberal Arts, Engineering Technology, and Pre-Professionl. From there, you pick a topic you’re interested in (pre-med, graphic design, history, aviation, hospitality management) and the site will give you a blurb about the topic (which you must have some idea about if you’re looking into it), lists of accredited schools, associations, news, the opportunity to learn more about your topic, and what I think is pretty cool, links to different companies/organizations that hire people with that major.

In addition to finding information about different topics, there’s the option to “get recruited”, which you can use to get contact information for specific universities you are interested in. There are a bunch of videos from the different universities talking about their programs. I know there’s a bunch of college websites out there (including the few already reviewed) but this one is nice because it helps you focus your search based solely on your interest.

Tongue-Tied

Interested in brushing up on your language skills or learning a language for a trip? Try the library’s database Mango Languages to improve or learn a foreign language. It offers a variety of different languages from the more traditionally taught Spanish, French, and German to the less frequently taught Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and Russian among others (Farsi. Wouldn’t it be cool to speak Farsi?).

When you click on the link from the library’s homepage, you’ll be prompted to enter your Barrington Area Library card number and PIN (usually the last four digits of your home phone number). If you don’t have a Barrington Library card you can use Mango Languages in the library.

You can create a login on Mango Languages so that you can track your progress and move to more advanced lessons as you get more practice. If you don’t want to create a login (one too many password to remember) you can still do lessons but you will have to start from the beginning each time you enter Mango Languages.

Macworld AppGuide

Can’t get enough Apps for your Apple products? The magazine Macworld has created a guide to all the available apps for Apple handheld computers. It has reviews so you know whether or not to spend money on an app, has categories to narrow down the 275,000 apps, there’s even a link to iPad compatible apps. For each app that you look at, there’s a description, age range, and list of similar apps (always nice when you REALLY like an app and can’t quite get enough).

College Results Online

If you find the college search overwhelming, start with a site like College Results Online. Like other sites (including Campus Compare, reviewed here) College Results gives you the opportunity to compare schools on a number of different levels.  You can search by locale of the school (if you know whether you’d rather be in a city or a rural area), size of the school (if you want the big campus experience versus small intimate school), NCAA division & athletic conference (if you’re an athlete),  public versus private, and diversity. If you have a specific college or university in mind, you can look up that school and College Results will give you a listing of similar schools (to perhaps broaden your search), which is nice. Price tag the biggest concern? You can search for schools based on price. Want an academically challenging school? You can search for schools that admitted students with higher test scores.

The only drawback to this excellent site is that most of the data (coming from the National Center for Education Statistics, a reliable source) is from 2008. Which means the statistics will change a little, but also means the tuition costs will most likely have risen. If you’re just beginning your college search or are nearing the end, check out College Results Online.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick opens with high school sophomore Nora, living alone with her mom (her father died about a year ago), Nora’s best friend Vee, and sudden new classmate, Patch.
Oh, the mysterious dark male student. Nora is determined to not get involved with boys, wanting to get out of high school and on to college and no guy is good enough for her. But Patch, suddenly her new biology lab partner, draws her in and tempts Nora to do things Nora would not do before. Nora’s the safe girl, the well-behaved girl, but Patch is the dangerous one, hanging out in pool halls, riding motorcycles. He feels wrong for her but she can’t keep away, despite many warnings for her to stay away, including from the school psychologist Nora’s been required to visit since her father’s death.
Well it comes out that Patch is a fallen angel (there’s the paranormal bit). I admit I was a little skeptical when I first started to read: girl in school, slightly loner-ish, absent parents, meets dark mysterious boy with a secret, turns our to be supernatural, girl is constantly in peril … it was reading a lot like Twilight. Though I appreciate the story Stephenie Meyer is trying to tell in Twilight (and the other books) I am not a huge supernatural love story fan.
However, Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush is different. I like Nora. I think Nora is well developed and Patch was more developed at the end of the book. Vee could use a little more of the storyline (but that’s because I like her), more of the fallen angel stuff could be revealed (as I’m sure it will be in the next books), but overall, I’m intrigued to read the next book and the first thing I did when I finished Hush, Hush was put Crescendo on hold at the library. The pace of Hush, Hush picks up towards the end and there are some moments of suspense that make you want to keep turning the pages. I liked it. I liked it enough to want to read the second one, which is pretty good for me.
Overall, I recommend Hush, Hush, especially if you’re a fan of the supernatural romance bit. It’s a light fluffy read, perfect escapist literature. Find both books at the library.

Center for Creative Photography Digital Collections

For those of you who are photographers or have an interest in photography, the University of Arizona has a fabulous collection of photography, including many items by Ansel Adams. The University’s Center for Creative Photography now has a number of its prints online. You can view images by artist, collection, or image (which is arranged by title). The only drawback is that in order to view the image larger you need to have an account. It’s still a great place to see a huge number of Ansel Adams photographs, many of them very different from the nature photographs I’m so used to seeing.

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

The author of The Luxe series has begun a new series set about 30 years later. Bright Young Things opens in late spring of 1929, when best friends Letty and Cordelia have finished the school year and are ready for new adventures in the world. While their guardians may have plans for them, the girls have different ideas. Living with her strict aunt and uncle, Cordelia is convinced her father is the famous bootlegger Darius Grey who currently resides in New York. Letty wants to be a singer and knows New York is the place to be. So the two sneak out of their Union, Ohio town and take an eastbound train to New York City.
Everything, of course, does not go according to plan. Barely a full day in New York and Letty and Cordelia get in an argument and the two separate, Cordelia to find her father and Letty left to be alone and fend for herself.
Letty is not left alone long, thanks to a worker at the speakeasy she just visited and so Letty gets a job as a cigarette girl. Cordelia does find her father and is quickly (and easily) accepted into the family fold, which includes older brother Charlie, who is dating socialite Astrid Donal.
Astrid, whose mother is on her third marriage, is a privileged young woman who stays out all night and sleeps til noon and uses her charms (and pouts) to get Charlie to do what she wants. She really does love Charlie (so she claims) and it’s a very tense relationship with a many break ups and reconciliations but they do care about each other. Astrid takes to Cordelia right away and Cordelia is pleased to have a new friend, since she doesn’t know what has happened to Letty.
Letty is getting along all right and has met a very kind young man, Grady Lodge, who takes her out and shows her the city. Letty also acquires Good Egg, a greyhound whose racing days are over. When Cordelia and a young man she meets (and is expressly asked not to spend time with) return to the club where Letty works as a cigarette girl, Letty can’t stand the idea of not being a success as Cordelia is in her new clothes and with her posh gentleman friend. So Letty gets up on stage and belts out a song but before she and Cordelia can be reunited, Cordelia is whisked away.
What I found predictable about this book are the bad turns of events that were so obvious to me (and perhaps it has to do with reading Godbersen’s Luxe series and knowing there’s always going to be something to bring the story down) that I just wanted her to get to that point. I will say it ended on a better note than some of The Luxe novels, so I’m hoping this series might have a better ending than the other one. I can’t help it, I like happy(-ish) endings. I didn’t think Bright Young Things was as engrossing as The Luxe books, but I don’t doubt that the story will pick up in the next title (as I’m sure there will be a next title as there are too many loose threads to end the book just as it is, not to mention the impending collapse of the stock market in October of 1929). Though I wasn’t as hooked as with previous Godbersen books, she can certainly tell a story that teenage girls will love to read.