Recommending 21 Books 8/11- Alexis Roberson

 Top 21 Books I Recommend Reading:

1. The Maze Runner by James Dashner 

• The Maze Runner

• The Scorch Trials

• The Death Cure 

2. The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater

• Shiver

• Linger 

• Forever

• Sinner

3. Shadow Falls: After Dark by C.C. Hunter 

• Reborn 

• Eternal 

• Unspoken

4. Legacy of Orisha by Tomi Adeyemi 

• Children of Blood and Bone 

• Children of Virtue and Venegance 

7. Divergent book series by Veronica Roth

• Divergent

• Insurgent 

• Allegiant 

8.  Fallen by Lauren Kate 

• Fallen 

• Torment 

• Passion

• Fall In Love 

• Rapture 

• Unforgiven 

9. The Storymakers by Betsy Schow 

• Spelled 

• Wanted 

• Banished 

10. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth 

• Carve the Mark

• The Fates Divide 
  
  

11. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer 

• Twilight 

• New Moon

• Eclipse 

• Breaking Dawn 

12. Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia 

• Beautiful Creatures 

• Beautiful Darkness

• Beautiful Chaos 

• Beautiful Redemption 

13. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

• The Hunger Games 

• Catching Fire 

• Mockingjay 

14. Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale 

• The Merchant of Death 

• The Lost City of Faar

• The Never War

• The Reality Bug

• Blackwater

• The Rivers of Zadaa 

• Quillan Games 

• The Pilgrims of Rayne 

• Raven Rise 

• Soldiers of Halla 

15. Red Queen Series by Victoria Aveyard 

• Red Queen

• King’s Cage

• Glass Sword 

• War Storm 

16. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan 

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

• Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters 

• Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse 

• Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth 

• Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

17. Seraphina Series by Sheena Hutchinson 

• Seraphina’s Awakening 

• Seraphina’s Initiation 

• Seraphina’s Venegance

• Seraphina’s Revolution 

18. The House of Night by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

• Marked 

• Betrayed 

• Chosen

• Untamed 

• Hunted 

• Tempted

• Burned 

• Awakened 

• Destined 

• Hidden

• Revealed 

• Redeemed

19.  The Giver by Lois Lowry 

• The Giver

• Gathering Blue 

• Messenger 

• Son

20. Harry Potter Franchise by J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter books in order:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 

21.  The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

• Cinder 

• Scarlet 

• Cress

• Fairest

• Winter

• Stars Above

Just A Little Something- 7/11 Alexis Roberson

 Everyone should have a favorite quote.  My favorite quote is, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” Albus Dumbledore says this in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

 It first started with me writing it on the white board in my english teachers class. For those who went to the Caraway Elementary, it was Mrs. Debbie. If you don’t know Mrs. Debbie, she is a huge Harry Potter fan and had all of us kids read it.  I looked it up and really liked it. It’s now become my favorite quote from the series. 

Whenever I painted my door, yes I really did paint my door. I painted the quote on my door in white lettering. I will have to repaint it soon, you can see it, but I should go over it again. This quote has inspired me daily. I always remember it whenever I’m having a bad day. Even though there is darkness (the bad day), as long as I turn on the light (positive thinking) happiness will be found. 

With that quote in mind, I always set myself goals. Fear (the darkness) stops you from achieving great things in life. When you let that fear go and chase after you dreams you’ll see the light. For example, I was always afraid of trying out for cheerleading. I am not a great tumbler, matter of fact, I can’t tumble (I’m learning). 

 I always let that fear keep me away from cheering. This year however, I decided to step out of my comfort zone. I found happiness in the darkest of times, if you will. I set my goal for not letting fear stop me from getting the things I want out of life. However, the fear does keep me from wanting to tumble. I get so nervous, I’m slowly working on that fear. 

I’ve set other goals for myself as well. I am always trying to be more confident in myself. I struggle with that on daily basis. I am always reminding myself of how I could be more confident, and more open to people. Most of you know that I don’t talk much, I am a really quiet person. I prefer writing, rather than actually talking to someone else. So, my goal this year is to also speak up more. That's it for this blog post! I am actually excited to write some more! Don't forget to look at the bottom as well.

The Twin Review/Changes - 6/11 Alexis Roberson

 If you have been keeping up with my posts, you know that I have currently read The Twin. I was procrastinating on reading it, but I actually had time to read it. I finally finished reading it the other day. I have to say, as much as I enjoyed reading the book. I did not particularly like the ending of it. I know I mentioned it in my last post, but I wanted to go more in depth in this one. 

SPOILER FOR THE BOOK THE TWIN 

Theres a lot I would like to change in The Twin, however, I would choose the ending out of all of it. I do agree that the book is amazing, but Iris was so annoying. She was always sabotaging Ivy, and you knew it too. I wouldn’t be able to have the patience and time like Ivy. I think she handled it well (even though she is fictional). I would not have been as nice as Ivy. If one of my sisters deliberately tried to hurt me, or sabotage me, I would get full on mad. I am still ranting about this book from my last post, because its just that good. I am still mad at the ending. 

The ending goes with Iris literally having evidence thrown on Ivy. Ivy had a “breakdown” and she was sent into a hospital, where Iris visited her. Ivy, of course, didn’t want to see Iris, after her admitting she killed their mother, and her friend Kat as well. Ivy basically ends up in an institute, where everyone thinks shes the crazy sister, and no one believes her about Iris. While Iris is living Ivy’s life. 

I got so frustrated with this book, I had cool off. As a reader, I was waiting for Ivy to strike back, take some defense for herself, but it would always backfired. I still read it, because I was already too deep into reading the book. The main thing I would change about the ending is Ivy getting her revenge. I was rooting for her the whole time, and nobody believed her. I would have liked to see Ivy finally outsmart Iris, and they all see Iris for who she really is… a cold blooded murderer. 

I find it sad that the only reason Iris even killed their mother was because she was in “love” with her moms boyfriend. She was scared that her moms boyfriend was going to leave, because of mom. It was his “cover” for seeing her. I would change that too, that grossed me out. I didn’t need to read that.  Overall it was pretty good book. I only got frustrated that Ivy (the good twin) didn’t get the happily ever after like I was hoping for.

Rant time- 6/11 Zoey McGowan

 If you have read my last post, you knew this was coming. So I’m going to talk about my nephew again. He is about to start kindergarten and I am not ready. I’m so used to him being at my house all the time it’s just going to be weird to see him going. My mom quit her job a few years back to watch him and I know she’s super upset. He has grown so much so fast. Okay now I sound like a mom, so next topic. BOOKS. I mean come on we all saw this coming. So I was reading this series that has four books. The thing is by the 3rd I had no clue what was going on. Which I suppose might be my fault. When you get big paragraphs of information I tend to skim over it. It’s just a habit, I think I want to get through the books so fast I tend to rush. I just want to get through the book so I can move onto the next. Don’t get me wrong I love books there are just so many out there and new ones coming. Right now I’m reading the Renegades series by Marissa Meyer. It is just a type of book I've read before. I've read a book about her before and it wasn’t my favorite. I think it was because the writing style was so different. Just something about that book I didn’t like. However I’m glad I read this series because now I have a new favorite author. I’m hoping to like her other books too. I’ve also gotten into fantasy heist books. They are just so fun to read. You never know what is going to happen, it’s a big mystery to the reader. Especially when they have multiple points of view. It’s just so cool to see how the author writes as the different characters. Also I love the fantasy aspect, it is definitely my favorite genre. I do sometimes like a good dystopia and sci-fi book, but something about the magical world of fantasy always draws me in. I used to not even know what fantasy was. I read mysteries for the longest time until my sister introduced me to the shadowhunter books. It was on vacation and I read all six that week, then went home and binged the tv show every night. Then I read a spin off series of the book and binged read another 900 something page book in a day. I just love those books so much, they were one of my favorite books I’ve ever read along with Six Of Crow (another heist book). Okay I wrote a lot more words than I planned for this, but if you’ve read this far I hope you enjoy it!

Just another update- 5/11 Zoey McGowan

 

It has officially been one whole week since I’ve been at the beach. Man do I miss it. Just the feeling of being away from all your troubles just sounds so nice. Well let’s talk about the 4th of July. My sister's birthday was the day before so it was a get together for both. Normally my whole family would be there but my aunt, uncle, and cousins went to a baseball game in Atlanta. He got to see his all time favorite baseball team. Even though they didn’t come I’m glad that they had fun.Like most at least I assume had family over and swam. Then we went to see fireworks. Since I hadn’t seen my nephew the week prior I of course had to ride with him. We were going to get ice cream before at the dairy queen but right when it was our turn in the drive though they told us it was close. Of course this did not sit well with my head-headed brother. So we went to Andy's and then went to see the fireworks. Which was alright I suppose. I've never been a huge fireworks fan, but they were nice. It has also come to my attention that I am a little behind on my post. It seems I am only on number five with six more to go. So if you see a double post you know why. We don’t have that long til it’s time to go to school again. I hate saying that, I miss my friends and band of course but the rest of it not so much. Waking up at 6:30 is just not my thing. However this summer no matter how late I stay up I always seem to be up early. Whether just myself waking up or the fact a five year old is yelling at me to play Among Us with him. I mean I remember when Among Us was a thing, but man is this boy addicted to it. Even when he isn’t over he calls me to play. But I don’t mind, I love the little guy, so it’s not that big of a deal. It only bothers me when it’s super early lol. 

Summer So Far- 5/11 Alexis Roberson

 Well, where to start off with this blog post. I have cheerleading practice tomorrow, and after that I will have cheer camp for the whole week. I already know I'm going to be stressed out, and most importantly worn out too. I'm excited for it though, but at the same time dreading it. It's my first year doing anything as a cheerleader, and so I'm really nervous about it all. 

In my last post, I mentioned reading this book called The Twin. I finished up the book I was reading. The Twin by Natasha Preston. I have to say, as soon as I started reading it, it just pulled me along. You would think it would be boring, but I was surprised by the storyline, and was rooting for the main character Ivy Mason. Long story short, its about these two twins Ivy (you see her perspective, main protagonist), and her sister Iris (the main antagonist). Their mom dies an accidental death, and Iris has to go live with Ivy and their dad. Ivy is overwhelmed by everything changing, and she goes to see a therapist named Meera. However, she wants to become "sisters" with her twin, because they were never really close to begin with. They were separated after their parents divorced. 

Anywho, Iris starts to cause problems in Ivy's life, and nobody really believes Ivy despite knowing her for all of her life. I would be pretty disappointed too, if everyone I grew up with and who knew me, didn't believe a thing I said. Then, some newcomer came and everyone believed a master manipulator. The book definitely had me on my toes, and I couldn't wait to be able to read another chapter. I was anxiously waiting to see the ending. I have to say, I was not satisfied at all. 

SPOILER FOR THE TWIN BOOK

I didn't like how Iris basically took over Ivy's life. She admitted to everything, killing their mom and her old friend Kat (who knew the real Iris and how she really was evil). I was stressed throughout this whole book. I loved it but I will definitely not be reading it again. Its not that its not a good book, I just can't handle the stress the author put me through. I was patiently waiting for Ivy to try and outsmart Iris, but it always seemed to backfire on her. I am looking forward to seeing if there is a part two to this book. I don't think there is, hopefully there will be. If not the author should definitely consider it. I would love to see Ivy get out of the institute and prove that Iris is a phony and murderer. I really didn't like Iris, and the author did a good job of portraying that. 

I would like to leave off with I have been inspired to create my own blog. I thought it was really cool to have your own. So, I did, and I called it "The Journals of  A Teenager Girl." I thought that was nice and write like I am writing in my journal. I also put my own books on their too. Just because, why not, I mean I am writing a blog post for school after all. Why not make one for myself to continue later on. Until next time!

                                                                                 Sincerely,

                                                                                      Alexis Roberson 

the happiest summer yet-5/11 Emily Fitzgerald

 Hi everyone, it's been a little bit since I blogged last but I've been enjoying my summer so so much. There have been so many new beginnings that I love and appreciate so dearly. My gluten-free life has been getting so so much better and my body is working like new. The lifestyle is extremely hard to live, but it made me realize that I am so strong as a person and that's always great. I recently got a new car and I just came home from a 9-day trip yesterday. We went to the lake, Branson, and then the lake again. I most definitely got a little homesick but it was still an amazing trip. I needed that 2 week break from cheer for sure also, simply because I started to get super tired. It's always good for the soul to rest for once and while. I started to realize how truly blessed I am as a persona and all the things I have in life as well. It feels great to go back to real life though, I missed my blogging posts as well. I feel like blogging is my escape if that makes sense. Blogging helps me be thankful for the amazing life I truly live and it also helps me write everything down which is always good. I personally feel like, with all of the choices I made in my life, I continue to make my younger self so proud of me which is absolutely amazing. I turn 17 in about two weeks and that freaks me out every day. The reason why it freaks me out is that I don't think I'm ready to grow up, but I have to work on getting ready. I feel like many kids my age are also scared about growing up, and we really don't have that long left until we graduate from high school. Many of the kids at our school grew up with us when we were longer, and we might not ever get to see them again after high school, which is so wild. Anyways I hope yall have a fun time blogging;)