The Red Pyramid

Rick Riordan is an incredible author that does a wonderful job introducing a host of people to ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods, goddesses and history. I first learned of him when I read the Percy Jackson (the Lightning Thief for those of you who only watch movies - although what are you even reading this for if you only watch movies?!). Percy Jackson and his friends were the main characters in an awesome series dealing with the old Greek gods, goddesses and heroes. It was interesting reading about them. (In fact, I went out and bought a reference book telling the old stories of those gods and goddesses after finishing the Percy Jackson series.)

A second Greek/Roman series was introduced through the Heroes of Olympus series (only the first book has been published so far - the second one comes out next month). That series has already proven to be just as interesting as the first Percy Jackson series.

Now, though, Riordan has also tackled the old Egyptian gods/goddesses/magicians. I'll admit, for a bit I wasn't interested in getting into this series as well. I had my Greeks and Romans, and was perfectly happy learning about them, and seeing the new adventures of their human heroes. The Egyptians were just too much. However, last weekend they had Book 1, the Red Pyramid, sitting on the shelf at the library, and I figured I'd try it. (It helped that my oldest daughter also really wanted to read it, so we were going to be getting it anyway.) I was pleasantly surprised. I figured it'd be alot of the same sort of Percy Jackson adventures. However, this one is different enough that it's a whole different series. While you can tell it's the same author (his humor comes out often, and is hilarious), the approach to this series seems different - and the "players" in these books have different personalities and powers. So far, I've liked them, so we'll continue with this series (although, I probably won't post about every book in the series...sorry...)

The Disappearing Spoon

This one was a very fun and interesting read. It's a non-fiction book written by a scientist about the periodic table of the elements. Basically, the author takes all of the elements, and tells the interesting stories about how they were discovered, what's made them famous, how they all fit together, etc. The only chemistry class I remember taking during my education years was a class in seventh grade taught by the biology teacher. I don't think I've had anything more than that. (Although, the periodic table is on the wall in almost every classroom I teach in at BSU!)

I'll have to admit, reading this book sometimes made my brain hurt. It'd be much easier to understand the stories if I had a litle more knowledge of the elements themselves, and how the table is organized, etc. But, the author "dumbs" it down enough for someone like me (educated, fairly smart, extremely humble) to understand. (Although, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not at least a little interested in science.)

The stories were usually pretty funny. I actually came out of this one thinking that I needed to find a used chemistry textbook to learn a little more about the elements that make up our world. I guess that's a sign that the author did his job!

Ender's Game

I first read this book a long time ago, when I was in high school (and it first came out). It's an interesting Science Fiction novel about future wars with earth's enemies - the Buggers. Ender is a 6 y.o. boy who gets recruited (in fact, his parents were allowed to have him specifically for this purpose) to go to Battle School, and train to be a leader in the war with the Buggers. Along the way, he makes several friends.

At one point, way back when, I believe this book was on the US Marine Corps required reading list - I tried to look around and verify this, but it doesn't appear to be on the list now. In any case, there's plenty of "battle" scenes in the book - all through games that the kids play at the Battle School. This was the first in a series of books that come later, about the development of the Universe after the last battle. It was a good book. One of my favorite moments comes after Ender leaves battle school and all of his friends. You'll have to read it to know what I'm talking about...:)