Nonfiction

Dec

2023

Dragon Hoops

by Gene Luen Yang

The last time I read a graphic novel was in 6th grade.You could imagine the excitement I felt opening this book, thinking it was a boring novel with no pictures, to a page full of colored panels. The story is a narration provided by the author, Gene Luen Yang, documenting the magic of basketball. It takes place in a private high school in California, whose basketball teams are supposedly one of the best in the entire state. As a young boy, Gene never had any strong likings to any sports that require balls; he liked writing comics and stories much more. Now as a math teacher, one day he overhears his students talking about the new selected members of the boys basketball team. He couldn’t understand why people loved watching and discussing people throwing balls in hoops. When he decides that his next book will be about basketball at his school, he takes it upon himself to accompany the team to all their scrimmages, games, and eventually, the state championships.

I love reading graphic novels. I really liked the author’s art style. It’s cartoonish (gives a kiddish vibe), while also being able to adhere to more serious circumstances if needed. The colors are vibrant and aesthetically pleasing, which is helpful for keeping the mood light and happy. The author also had a segment where he drew a kid’s hair a certain way to emphasize that the kid was Punjabi, not African American.

The book also touches on some topics such as racism and sexism, things that the old and new high school players faced. For example, it brings light onto the discrimination experienced by female basketball players when basketball was first invented as well as the discrimination the first few Chinese basketball players faced. I liked how we get to learn more about individual players and we see how each player adds to the team, eventually making one of the best high school teams.

I recommend this book to young and grown adults, mainly because of the very grown-up problems that our main character faces. How will he balance teaching, drawing, and family?

I played basketball once in elementary school and I wasn’t very good at it. When I was reading this book, I realized how interesting basketball was and I was inspired to learn more about basketball by doing a little bit of research online. I even went to the gym to practice shooting some hoops; most of which I didn’t make, but it doesn’t matter.

Jan

2023

Three books I read recently and why I liked them

I was asked about some books I read recently on a high school application. Here are my answers:

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I read this dystopian novel and three other books in the series for literature class this semester. The story was surreally close to our world right now. It describes a lockdown triggered by a natural disaster. The characters’ experiences and emotional reactions were very relatable. A lesson I learned is that even when the entire world is bleak and desolate, you can find a community that accepts and helps you. Another lesson I learned from one of the characters is that if you are bold enough to persevere, then everything will work in your favor.

Educated by Tara Westover. I first read the book a couple years ago and recently reread it as I am thinking about my own education going forward. Initially, I was shocked by the “weirdness” of Tara’s family and impressed by how she broke the boundaries and escaped. Then I started to realize that choices all have consequences. It taught me to value every opportunity for education and do my best.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. I’m reading this novel right now. The story is very captivating as it is told from multiple perspectives over thousands of years from ancient Greece to the space age future. I learned that knowledge is precious. It takes a lot of low-probability events to line up for knowledge to survive history. The book touches on many issues concerning our world today, like climate change, poverty, virtual reality and AI, and social isolation. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I look forward to seeing what happens at the end.

Oct

2022

Six Wives of Henry VIII

by Alison Weir

The book The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir is a historical book about the true story of King Henry who was notorious for how he treated his six wives. The book has a chronological timeline including all of his wives, which is very helpful for history buffs, and for novice like me if I want to look back on a date I forgot.

As I was researching this book, I found that the author wrote this book to debunk the myths about 16th century Britain. She said that there have been many books about King Henry’s marriages but not one of them (in her opinion), “ …have fully and/or thoroughly explored the essential human character of each of Henry’s six wives.”

I liked how the author wrote each of the wives’ lives with so much detail, from birth to death. Each wife took just over 100 pages, which is a manageable length because there aren’t so many words that you want to stop and read another book. After reading about one wife, then you can take a break and come back for another one later. The information is also very educational because if you’ve ever studied Henry VIII in school, you would’ve heard about his life and feel intrigued to learn more.

Another thing that I enjoyed were the pictures inserted into the middle of the book. It showed every wife (with captions) and relatives of Henry VIII. It was interesting to see what each wife looked like and put a face to the stories you read. Even though all of them are lined up on the book cover, you don’t know which one is which, so the inserts were really helpful.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the book. I would recommend this to teenagers because younger children may get bored after a while.

Jun

2022

Lies My Teacher Told Me

by James W. Loewen

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen (young readers edition) is a great book that tells you more about the topics you may have been briefly told about in school but did not delve deep into. People whom you see as glorified heroes in history textbooks are revealed to possess human qualities and flaws just like the ordinary people in this book.

For example, in this book, Loewen says that we’ve probably heard of Helen Keller as an inspiring, hardworking role model. But he says that we’ve only been exposed to her first 20 years of life. Many of us don’t know what she did when she was older. Turns out she became a socialist and developed strong beliefs about class equality and justice.

I started this book to learn more about American history and I learned much more than I would have in my history class. This information can help me out in scholastic bowl. The first clues they give you are often the hardest and least known ones. Knowing more about each person is very useful.

This book also changed my views on certain people. An example is Woodrow Wilson. When you think of him, you think of the person who created the League of Nations after World War I. What you wouldn’t think of was how racist he was and how he was the inspiration for the movie The Birth of a Nation, the movie that sparked the Ku Klux Klan to return.

Overall, I think it is very educational. I learned a lot and hopefully more young adults will read this book to know who these people really were.

Nov

2021

Red Scarf Girl

by Ji-Li Jiang

Find Red Scarf Girl in your local library

In the book Red Scarf Girl, a Chinese girl named Ji-Li is growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. Chairman Mao, the leader of China, orders everyone to remove any signs of the four olds. Ji-Li has always supported him, so she enthusiastically helps take everything down. One day, everyone finds out that Ji-Li’s grandpa was a landlord so people come to search her home and arrest her dad for no apparent reason.

Later, she is asked to create a presentation about Mao at a big exhibition, and she is thrilled. She works very hard, and nails the rehearsal. But, the government asks for her to testify against her father and she refuses, knowing that even though she believes in the revolution, she can’t lie about her dad. That gets her into big trouble. The guards search her home again, and send her to work in the rice fields. When she gets back home, she has to sweep the streets because the government has found a letter from her mom about how much she hates it.

Thirty years later, Ji-Li is finally happy. She moved to America after her father got released from jail, which was quite a while.

This story was actually a real life story about the author’s childhood during the mid-1960’s. This book was definitely interesting, and very educational. It let me into the life of a girl during the Cultural Revolution, letting me experience it with much detail.

I really liked this book because there were many surprises. I never really knew that much about the Cultural Revolution in China, but now I know a whole lot more. It was a very exciting book to read, and the details were very well described. The author uses many similes, and metaphors that you don’t usually see in other books.

Jul

2021

Moonwalking with Einstein

by Joshua Foer

Moonwalking with Einstein is about the author’s journey from knowing nothing about memorization to becoming a World Champion of Memory. Joshua creates weird images in his head to help him remember what something is, where and when. He wrote things such as Einstein karate kicked five times to the groin, which helped him remember the 5 of spades.

Some of the vivid images Joshua used included “Michael Jackson defeated the salmon sandwich with three punches.” I enjoyed reading that and picturing it in my head because you wouldn’t see that in this world. It’s out of the ordinary. I like unusual things that you don’t come across often. That makes it unique and memorable.

Another part I liked was the introduction. It said, “On average people squander forty days annually compensating for the things they’ve forgot. Joshua Foer used to be one of those people.” I think it’s motivating because later in the book, after one year of training he ended up as the Memory Champion. That means I could train for one year and become a champion, too.

I thought it was boring that Joshua spent 30 pages talking about an 84-year-old retired lab technician (E.P.). Joshua explained that whenever EP went on walks, he would go the same way each time, but if he turned the wrong way, he would be completely lost. He used the example to show that people have different kinds of memory. E.P. has dementia. Even though one part of his brain shut down, the other parts are still working with intact spatial memory. There was a lot of repetition in this chapter. It would have been fine if it took just 10 pages.

Overall, this book was interesting in exploring the unusual and weird ways our mind works and how they can be useful in boosting memory abilities. But it felt boring when the same technical points are repeated over and over again, which I thought was excessive.

Nonfiction

Dragon Hoops

Three books I read recently and why I liked them