Read or be Read

  Shaq Uncut: My Story     One man has always held the claim to the most "dominant" in the NBA, and that man is Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq is not just one of the largest people to ever exist, he also has one of the most intriguing stories to tell. He grew up poor in New Jersey, lived on a military base with his father, and terrorized opposing high schools in San Antonio, all before he became a household name. Throughout his 19-year career in the NBA, Shaq won four championships, and he played for six different teams, meeting all kinds of unique individuals. Shaq Uncut: My Story, an autobiography of Shaquille O'Neal featuring Jackie Macmullan chronicles The Big Diesel's playing career and personal life.     Shaq believes he has many large influences in his life, one of which is his maternal grandmother. He attributes much of his generosity and gratitude to her, he spent much of his early life with her. Shaq's biological father did not play a role in his life, but h...

     Never Judge a Book by it's Cover The best and worst books I read because of their cover    It is without a doubt that we're all quite familiar with the phrase "never judge a book by its cover" whether we're actually talking about books or in its metaphorical sense. As much as I agree with this statement and think that there are many great books out there that have not so great covers; I do find myself guilty of often, at least initially, picking books up with pretty cover art or even pretty titles. This is something I've always done and I'm sure whoever is reading this has done this at least once too. Whether it's just because prettier books catch our eye or we have a bias that the better the cover the better the book, sometimes we just tend to pick up the prettier colorful book than the plain brown one with just a few words. And with that, I pose the question of; is that always such a bad thing? This is my experience with some of my favorite, and...

           Over Winter Break, I finished the last book in the Trials of Apollo Series by Rick Riordan. In this post, I will be talking about the complete series.   Super Brief Summary:      Apollo is kicked out of Olympus because Zeus blames him for starting a war with Gaea (who is the Primordial goddess of the earth). Zeus transforms Apollo into a mortal and gives him the name Lester Papadopoulos. Although Lester can still see through the mist, which disables normal mortals from seeing gods, monsters, and other supernatural things, he is not given any powers. Lester joins with demigods from both Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter. They need to defeat 3 evil roman emperors that have become Immortal, rescue people they have captured, and fight the monsters they brought into the world. My Opinion:     I must say, I was not expecting too much from this series, so I was surprised to find an abundance of action, excitement, and ...