Among Others

      Among Others, by Jo Walton, is one of my favorite books of all time. It's hard to categorize: it's a little bit name-dropping and reviewing other books, a little bit Tolkien imitation, a little bit Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in tone, and a dash of YA drama. The protagonist, Mor, is smart, witty, and magical, all the things I want to be. Unfortunately her family is dangerous and complicated- and magical on top of that.

My Favorite Part:
     One of the coolest and most well executed aspects of the book is the magic of it all. To me, it makes sense in that the magic is so practical. The author gives the impression, through explaining the magic as Mor, that she's thought it- the explanation of the magic- through and come to believe it as fact. The magic may or may not exist, even though it certainly does to Mor. It appeals to the past selves lingering in me, that wrote letters to my personal fairy and awaited my magical awakening with mixed feelings that it wasn't going to happen but maybe it will happen, secretly knowing it wouldn't, but maybe... 

Who Should Read It:
     I hope it wouldn't horrify Jo Walton, but I think the family issues, the drama, and the setting make the book well suited for teens, as long as they love books. Book lovers, especially high school and shy book lovers, can appreciate a fellow introverted book lover's story, even if we haven't read the books they love. And we can identify or at least empathize with Mor's feelings towards her relationships.
     I've read some reviews recommending this book to voracious sci-fi readers only. I disagree; I am not personally into Sci-fi personally and Among Others still opened my mind and heart. I think it depends on the reader- I would guess that only people who identify as readers would like this book, because one of Mor's most prominent traits is that she reads (a great percentage of the book is Mor's thoughts on what she's reading). So if you can't identify with loving reading, this is not the book for you; however, I don't think it is necessary to have read specifically science fiction. I expect that, one day, after reading some more of the books she references, I will reread Among Others and discover a deeper layer in the allusions Mor makes, but I didn't find the book any less complete for not understanding the references the first time around.


     I read Among Others in 6th grade and immediately bought it after finishing. I reread it regularly and I can genuinely say that it brings me joy. Overall, I think the story comes together in a kind of ethereal and perfect way. The writing and language are beautiful, and it's also just a fun read. I can see it's not for everyone, but I'd encourage any book lover to give it a try.

Viral Souls

Once upon a time, there was a girl. Like all people at one time or another, she yearned for a grander world and a sense of purpose. Her world was sweet, and simple as one’s world can ever be, and real, but she was affected by what she read and watched and she felt deep in her heart that there was excitement to be had somewhere, elsewhere. And then, when she found no fairytale excitement, she grew up, as most people eventually do. She created a sweet family, and settled into a simple job, and lived a real life. And then her children left, and she retired, and she was alone in a house meant for family.

Once upon a time, there was a woman. She lived across the street from my bedroom window in a house meant for family, the kind with a chimney, and a bathroom and a half, and  screen doors on the patio that expose the living room. When I was younger, like all children, my curiosity controlled my actions: I would peer in through the screen doors from my bedroom window, and although her sons often visited on holidays, I would see she was lonely. And then one day, she was gone. I remember, as I awoke the day she left, I was hit by an all consuming knowledge that settled in the place a soul resides. I knew her, suddenly, as she knew herself. I remembered in my heart all at once every trial and every accomplishment we had ever experienced, every benevolent kindness and every flagrant iniquity, every love and every loss. All at once, I felt her yearning for a grander world, stronger than I had yet felt myself, and I felt us accept the real world. I felt her loneliness as my own for a great while, and finally, I felt how she could not leave peacefully, so she chose me, the girl who peered in through her screen doors when I thought she could not see.

Once upon a time, a fairytale unfolded within a high school. You did not notice, because the tale was not your own; indeed, it could not be, for you chose to grow up early, and accept your sweet, simple, real world for what it was. You did not know that a girl with two souls desecrated her sweet, simple, real world and crafted a grander one, with true love at first sight, and a villain, and a purpose, and comedy and tragedy beyond anything in your world. You did not know that your classmate experienced a great trauma in early childhood, resulting in her two souls, or that she brought so many of your classmates into her grander world. You did not know, when you noticed her at your high school reunion, that she was in her seventh and last happily ever after. When she approached you, you could not know that she had chosen you. But when you finally knew her the way she knew her two selves, you left your sweet, simple, real world, too.

Silver and White Scales

I found this fiction writing from last year. It was based on a dream I had remembered. I am open to any constructive criticism!

            Her eyes slowly flutter open, taking in the warm, pink, early morning light that filters through the glass window. Her smooth hair fans around her head and falls perfectly as she turns onto her elbows. The girl gently lifts herself off the floor and walks, feet barely grazing the floor, toward the bold front door. Her mind is sluggish and her thoughts are repressed, but I can still feel them. The back of her consciousness tells me this is her cousin’s house. Jill’s. I wonder: why am I seeing this? A harsh knock breaks my focus and turns me back to the girl. She squints through the peephole. “Jill?...” A soft voice calls from the girl, trailing off like a wisp of cloud in the sky.

             My perspective zooms, refocusing in high definition on another girl with dark hair and dark brown eyes. Jill looks so much like her cousin.

            “It’s your turn, Becca,” Jill says, speaking through the door. For…? Jill smiles up at the eyehole. Becca opens the door and is led by Jill up the street to a man in a Dodgers jersey. A blue glare cuts through his glasses. Again I wonder why I am seeing this. The vision seems random, like a child’s dream, but I wait. I’m sure the purpose will soon be revealed.

“Hi Becca. We need your help.” The man gets right to business (unusual for this… Mr. Waters. Becca’s 4^th grade teacher). “We need your help, Becca,” the man continues-I wonder who ‘we’ is-“because the city is in trouble. Camarillo is being terrorized by a dark force, powerful and dangerous. They lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike. As crazy as it sounds, there is a dragon haunting this city.” Becca’s eyes widen.

The misbelief written all over her face pours into her words, “A dragon?” A dragon? My heart trembles. I know why I am seeing this now: the vision is a warning.

“A dragon.” Mr. Waters confirms with a soft nod. “Please, Becca, we need your help.”

“How could I help?” Becca asks incredulously, not as ‘how can I help’ but as ‘how could I, Becca, possibly stop a dragon”. Apparently Becca isn’t all that selfless. Not when her life is on the line. The muscles around my mouth twitch upward. She sounds like me. So many humans believe selflessness is a virtue, when selfishness, to some degree, is required to survive.

~ ~ ~

Suddenly, the view changes and I see Becca and Mr. Waters alone in an imposing stone tower that looks over Camarillo. Becca shakes her head, confused and unbelieving. I watch from the window behind them, beating my heavy wings to stay afloat. The reflection off my gold scales is blinding and I make no effort to stifle the loud beat of my huge red wings, but the city pays no notice, oblivious and ignorant. Baring my fangs, I knock twice on the glass pane. Knock. Knock. Slowly, Becca and Mr. Waters turn, Becca’s heart beating loud enough to hear through the glass. Smirking, I blink slowly and- like I predicted- Mr. Waters disappears to a building across from the tower. Becca is frozen in fear and awe, but I am patient. I will wait for as long as it takes.

~ ~ ~

Finally, the fear drains from her eyes, shadows shooed away by the realization dawning on her face. Her thoughts are jumbled. I see visions of silver, a sleek dragon, a ring… Unable to decipher her tangled mess of a mind, I focus back on her physical form. Determination sets her mouth into a hard line and lights a fire in her brown eyes. With inhuman force, she launches herself at me, fists outstretched- like Supergirl; like in the little pictures humans watch. She crashes through the glass, barely fazed. Her consciousness practically screams at me, and for a moment I am stunned. I have enough sense to move out of her path, letting her fly past me, falter, and drop. I turn away before she hits the ground; it’s almost lunchtime and I don’t want to upset my stomach. How could she think she could beat me? I’m a dragon, born of the Wastes and trained in the Dying Kingdom. I am astounded by her foolishness. Perhaps not so much like me after all. What could she possibly hope to achieve with that little punch?

 I find out as hot blue flames roar beneath me. The dragon from Becca’s thoughts glares up at me, her white scales like a breaking wave across pure strength. Powerful silver wings launch the dragon who replaced Becca up surprisingly fast. Before I can think, claws rake my sides and Becca’s mind laughs at me. A flash of silver, a heart of gold makes up a sharp blade that pierces my unbreakable gold hide (and of course, an actual blade, dipped in the Stix). Flames blur my vision and I use Becca’s sight to find her and claw at her. My razor sharp talons bounce off. With a swipe of her tail, Becca knocks me off balance and I fall to Earth, barely conscious. Becca watches my descent, her heart bursting with triumph, mind burning with disgust. At the edge of my sight, darkness creeps in. I crash into the ground, the last image to flash through my mind: a ring of black stone on a white talon layered in silver. A talon sharp enough to pierce an impenetrable hide. My vision fails and my consciousness flees.

~ ~ ~

I enter Becca’s conscious. I stay at the back of her mind, observing. She is in human form again but is staring into a mirror at silver eyes and silver hair in the place of brown. The silver leaves her face as she removes a ring- that ring- from her finger. Her reflection scrunches and her eyes look far away, as if answers hang in the air. Dark bursts into the room. My eyes open; the vision abandons me, but my eyes might as well be closed for all the good they do me. My orange flames lick the darkness and my situation is illuminated. Black bars form a cage around me. Something tells me they’re made of the same stone of Becca’s ring and unbreakable, unbendable. I’ve been abandoned; no hearts beat. They left me to rot in this place. A glint of orange glances off a smooth pane of glass. A wicked smile spread across my features.

Civic Mirror Applies to the Real World

Civic Mirror is such a great teacher because it imitates real life and in doing so gives students the ability to make choices imitating those in real life.

I am but a humble student so fair warning: this is just some of my take away. I learned how to play the game, and now I am trying to process how to translate that to my life outside the classroom. In my eyes, this is how the game represents the intricate web of choices people can make and why.

People have needs to live.
The game represents those needs with units that players need to keep their family members alive.
For example: school is represented with Education units you can buy and "consume", Food with food units that look like apples. Insurance, Healthcare, Medicine, Police and Security, Electricity, and Art and unnecessary fun stuff are all represented by units. Consuming those units give you points. Home and Shelter are represented by hexes. You can own it and live there, or rent a place from someone else.

There is a Government to protect the group of citizens in the country
Students vote on representatives in Congress and a President, who chooses one National Judge. Their powers and the operation of the government all follow a simplified version of the US Constitution.

People are invested in their success in life.
In the classroom grades are given for (hopefully) participation (but possibly success with Hidden Agenda goals- read on)

People have a perspective; people want the world to be better and they normally have their own idea of how to get there, which motivates them.
Students are assigned a Hidden Agenda, a secret set of goals to reach by influencing fellow citizens and the game.

Stuff is owned by people, and sold to other people. 
Units can be sent to other players through the game's trading system.

There is a system to keep order; the government creates laws and enforces them. There are punishments for people who don't follow rules.
The "Summer Season" allows people to accuse fellow students of wrongdoing. In "Fall Season" the National Judge presides over a case and three student jurors decide if the accused is guilty. Lawyers can be hired and arguments are made. The judge decides the punishment if the crime was committed.

Cool Card Trick

When I went to Tech Trek I learned this cool card trick that works every time. I am still trying to understand the mathematics of it. All you need is a 52 card deck. The value of the cards goes A=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J=11, Q=12, K=13.

In the end, there will be three piles in front of you, two with their top cards face up and one with its top card face down. You will count the number of cards in your hand and know the value of the remaining face-down-top-card.

Setting up the piles:

1. To start a pile you put the top card of your shuffled, 52 card deck down on the table, face up. You count the value of this card, then place down cards until you get to 13. 
1. For example, if you pull an 8 of Spades, then you count that as 8. Then you would place 5 more cards down face up, regardless of their value. Then you flip the pile over so you can no longer see any value or suit. 
2. Here's another pile: Say you start with the 4 of Hearts. You count that as 4, then place down 9 more cards face up, regardless of value. 
2.  You continue creating piles until you can't. For example, say you have one card left in your hand. If it's a King, you count it as 13, and make a one card pile. If it's not a King, you keep it in your hand. Or say you have 3 cards remaining in your hand. You pull the top and it's a 5. You don't have enough cards to complete the pile, so you hold the 3 cards.

The Beauty of It:

1. Now that you have your 4+ piles, you select three. 
2. Then you pull away the rest and reincorporate them into the deck you hold in your hand of the remaining cards. 
3. You count out 10 cards and put them into a discard pile. 
4. Then you flip over the top card of one of the piles. You discard the amount of cards of the value of the top card you just revealed. 
5. You do the same with another pile; Flip over the top card and discard the corresponding number of cards.
6. Now, if you count the number of cards in your hand, that will be the value of your remaining face down top card!

Civic Mirror Advice

This past year in school, my class ran through a simulation called Civic Mirror. It was one of my favorite school experiences and I got pretty involved.

Each student is randomly assigned a Hidden Agenda. In the US they are Liberal, Conservative, Fascist, Capitalist, Socialist, and Environmentalist. The Hidden Agendas represent motives/mindsets of real world people with a set of goals that you try to reach. For example I was Liberal. My goals were to keep income and property taxes above 0%, make sure the government owned from 20-40% of the hexes that produced units/ living places, make sure the government owned all the hexes that produced units people would die without (or that everyone in the country got the units they needed to stay alive), and that an election had occurred in the last year. So as a liberal I was protecting taxes, maintaining a healthy balance in government vs private owned businesses, making sure everyone fulfilled their essential needs, and ensured democracy was protected.

I am a bit of a geek, nerd, dork, so it wasn't hard for me to get involved in CM. I would wake up looking forward to it. Honest. Being so enthusiastic helped me succeed, I think. I participated and spent time outside of class with it. If you aren't enthusiastic, here's some advice:

1. Participate- the easiest way is by being elected or appointed to a public position, but you can also start a charity, bank, or news service, etc.
      I was elected to the government and it kept me busy. I put a lot of time into the position and that in turn gave me a lot of power. If you do become part of the government and you know you'll be able to do more than two- four years you should start small. Rising from House Rep, to Senate, to Pres. is more impressive than Pres. to private citizen/ a less dominant position in the government (obviously all branches should be equal, but President can be more prestigious than Justice or Senate President, especially in a middle school- high school classroom).  The government positions should be paid, so just voting on legislation will 1) earn money, 2) score you HA points, and 3) earn you participation points for your actual grade.
2. Read your manual and Constitution. Knowing what's up and what you can and can't do on your own, without waiting for the teacher or other students to reprimand you, gives you a headstart.
      Because I read the simplified version of the US Constitution, I also learned a lot about the rights in the US and the powers of each branch. For example, (I didn't end up using it in the game) but if laws regarding taxes were brought up in the Senate and you don't like the law, you can try to overturn it in Court because it was passed unconstitutionally- only the House can initiate bills regarding revenue. I had a lot of fun overturning/ repealing laws in my first year because they weren't Constitutionally passed. When I started as Senate President the next year I was more prepared and able to pass some great bills (for me and my HA, but also to improve the overall well being of my society/ country in the game).

If you are enthusiastic:
I crunched the numbers and came up with some cold statistics to present in my debates. It helps to know how many units are available in each type, total, so you can calculate how to help the most people. For example, our class needed x Education units, y Health, and z Food. Because you start with <x Edu., >y Heath, and =z Food, the least fortunate (in connections or money) would not be able to get Education units. I brought this to my classmates attention and passed a law limiting the amount of money you pay for a unit and making distribution more equal. Another issue is the environment. If you develop too many Wilderness Hexes (look like trees) people will start to die. But if our class didn't develop an Education hex eventually, people would suffer from not being able to get units. So I crunched some more numbers, and found that our community could spare a few houses, so we developed the houses into other hexes.

Ambitious Summer Reading List

If you are looking for an ambitious reading list to fill your summer, here are 23+ works. Credit to  China Rich Girlfriend  for the highlighted books... you can find all the CRA recommended reads here: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/06/crazy-rich-girlfriend-kevin-kwan-excerpt or with the search "China Rich Girlfriend reading list".

(Crossing my fingers I'll finish it. I pledge to finish at least half the books on this list.)



Dune by Frank Herbert
Midnight Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Little Manila is in the Heart by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
Snobs by Julian Fellowes 
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
People Like Us by Dominick Dunne
The Power of Style by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins (this is out of print)
Pride and Avarice by Nicholas Coleridge
D.V. by Diana Vreeland
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi
Jane Austen—complete works beginning with Pride and Prejudice
Edith Wharton—The Custom of the Country, The Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers, The House of Mirth
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Anthony Trollope—all the books in the Palliser series, beginning with Can You Forgive Her? 
In Search of Lost Time- Proust
The Heavens- Sandra Newman
“Calligrammes”- Apollinaire
“Les Fluers de Mal”- Charles Baudelaire
Le Pere Goriot- Honore de Balzac
The Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
America is not the heart- Elaine Castillo
Hollywood Costume: Glamour! Glitter! Romance!- Diana Vreeland
Social Creature- Tara Isabella Burton
Among Others- Jo Walton
Les Miserables- Victor Hugo

For Spanish learners:
(Crossing my toes I read these in Spanish:)

La Vida Imaginaria- Mara Torres
La Casa de los Espiritus- Isabel Allende
Como Para Agua Chocolate- Laura Esquivel


Any more suggestions?