These Books Among Us

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas (646 pages) My Rating: +5 Stars Date Read: 8 May 2016 Synopsis: Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court--but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people. Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms--and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future--and the future of a world cleaved in two. With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights. My Review: Wow. Just wow. There are going ...

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (342 pages) My Rating: 2 Stars Date Read: 5 May 2016 Synopsis: The Pilgrim's Progress has inspired readers for over three centuries. It is one of the best-loved and most widely read books in English literature and is a classic of the heroic Puritan tradition and a founding text in the development of the English novel. The story of Christian, whose pilgrimage takes him through the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and the Delectable Mountains, is full of danger and adventure. Together with his trusty companions, Faithful and Hopeful, he encounters many enemies--the foul fiend Apollyon, Judge Hategood, Giant Despair of Doubting Castle--before finally arriving at the Celestial City. Bunyan's own experience of religious persecution informs his story, and its qualities of psychological realism, and the beauty and simplicity of his prose combine to create a book whose appeal is universal. This edition includes the illustrations that ...

Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri (416 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 28 April 2016 Synopsis: Dante (1265-1321) is the greatest of Italian poets and his DIVINE COMEDY is the finest of all Christian allegories. To the consternation of his more academic admirers, who believed Latin to be the only proper language for dignified verse, Dante wrote his COMEDY in colloquial Italian, wanting it to be a poem for the common reader. My Review: I enjoyed reading this part of the Divine Comedy the most so far. In Purgatory, there seem to be even more historical connections, but instead of telling them that they have no redeeming qualities, there is more a theme of hope. It was refreshing to see that not everything was just damnation and a lack of sorrow. There was actual repentance in what they had done. Plus, Virgil gets put in his place more often in this part because he does not really know Purgatory as well as he knew Hell. It was interesting to see how Hell and Purgatory were s...

Border Bandits: Hollywood on the Southern Frontier by Camilla Fojas (249 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Read: 27 April 2016 Synopsis: This title is an examination of how major Hollywood films exploit the border between Mexico and the United States to tell a story about US dominance in the Western hemisphere. My Rating: This book primarily focused on films set on the border of California and Mexico, specifically in Los Angeles and San Diego. Again, it was interesting to see how films document or change real life in their creations. Immigrants who want to get into the industry are often type casted and not given many opportunities to do much else. Some of the films discussed touched on that subject. This book focused less on the crossing of borders than what happens after. Fojas wanted to inform her readers about the struggles immigrants continuously have to deal with even after they get across the border. The chapter that was most interesting to me would have to be...

Culture Across Borders: Mexican Immigration and Popular Culture by David R. Maciel and Maria Herrera-Sobek (272 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Read: 27 April 2016 Synopsis: For as long as Mexicans have emigrated to the United States they have responded creatively to the challenges of making a new home. But although historical, sociological, and other aspects of Mexican immigration have been widely studied, its cultural and artistic manifestations have been largely overlooked by scholars—even though Mexico has produced the greatest number of cultural works inspired by the immigration process. And recently Chicana/o artists have addressed immigration as a central theme in their cultural productions and motifs. Culture across Borders is the first and only book-length study to analyze a wide range of cultural manifestations of the immigration experience, including art, literature, cinema, corridos, and humor. It shows how Mexican immigrants have been depicted in popular cult...

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (446 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Read: 26 April 2016 Synopsis: Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do. But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of th...

Soundless by Richelle Mead (268 pages) My Rating: 3.5 Stars Date Read: 14 April 2016 Synopsis: In a village without sound… For as long as Fei can remember, no one in her village has been able to hear. Rocky terrain and frequent avalanches make it impossible to leave the village, so Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom. When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink. Many go hungry. Fei and all the people she loves are plunged into crisis, with nothing to look forward to but darkness and starvation. One girl hears a call to action… Until one night, Fei is awoken by a searing noise. Sound becomes her weapon. She sets out to uncover what’s happened to her and to fight the dangers threatening her village. A handsome miner with a revolutionary spirit accompanies Fei on her quest, bringing with him new risks and the possibility of romance. They e...