Read or be Read

                                                                                     A Palate of Orange .  By Steph (SPOILER WARNING) - Note that the experience you gain from reading Orange will always be beautiful, even through spoilers. However, if you wish to dive into this story with the raw surprised pleasure of discovering something new, I suggest stopping here.  Tw: mentions of suicide   What would you do if you woke up one day with a letter written by yourself 10 years in the future? Would you ignore it, throwing it away and laughing at the absurdity? Or would you take it, reading it just to relieve your curiosity? What if, when you read the letter, it told you to prevent your biggest regrets… about some...

      I had first read Falling Kingdoms  by Morgan Rhodes for the first time during quarantine, in an e-book form online. I had really enjoyed reading it, along with the following 5 books in the rest of the series. After I had finished reading the series I moved on to other series, so it was certainly a surprise when I saw them at my local library. The first time I saw these book, I hadn't actually noticed at first that I hadn't read these books before. The covers were intricately detailed, and the synopsis sounded interesting. After I started reading the first few chapters, I realized I had read this book before, but I still decided to continue reading it nonetheless. I really enjoyed rereading this book, and it brought back many pleasant memories from when I first read this book.     This book is written from the perspective of four different characters, but all of the storylines are interconnected so it isn't hard to stay on track with the plot. The book...

      For my week's book review, I will be talking about a book I found to be extremely enjoyable, Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman. When browsing through the Urbana public library I stumbled upon this simple book with a title I didn't quite get at the time (or more so the connection of the title to the story). I skimmed the summary on the back and reluctantly took the book with me. The summary made the book seem entertaining however I didn't have my expectations set incredibly high as I couldn't really see what made this book so special. A couple days passed and I realized the book was still sitting on my shelf, so I decided to at least give it a try before it had to be returned. I can't tell you how glad I am I did. I finished that book in one sitting and by the time it was over it was like I had just gotten off of an extreme rollercoaster ride of emotions. As an enjoyer of realistic fiction, pieces like this always catch my attention, however, very little if not non...

                    Ethiopian runners have been known for amazing feats in distance running for nearly a century. From Abebe Bikila's stunning victory in the Men's Marathon of the 1964 Olympic games in Rome (which he ran barefoot) to Kenenisa Bekele who held the men's world record in both the 5,000 (from 2004) and 10,000 (from 2005) meter runs until 2020. Michael Crawley (the author of the book) is a Scottish anthropologist and runner. He is curious how Ethiopia raises so many runners with astonishing abilities and wants to experience the magic and mystery of running in Ethiopia. He also wants to teach the world about Ethiopian runners as so many people overlook them.        Michael decides to travel to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where he will join a team of veterans and rising stars to run with them and learn about how they train and become so good in their sport.     Crawley takes...