Flood

The book Flood is a sequel to the book Virus. Both are by the same author, Diane Hoh and both deal with the same characters, albeit in a different kind of dilemma.

Diane Hoh creates tension in the first sentence of the novel, Flood. The sentence reads "The water rose higher...and higher." This immediately lets the assures the readers that the devastation of this book will be a flood and not a virus like the first one was. The beginning of the book focuses on Kate, who is currently working in a library. She is awaking from a nap as the constant rain tapping on the windows and surfaces caused her to become drowsy. She had not even noticed that she'd fallen asleep apparently as it took her awhile to remember where she was. The author also makes use of personification to show how fearsome the water is. After Kate wakes up from her nap, she starts to get scared by the constant rainfall which is described as being "stubborn, so persistent, climbing even higher.

Flood Part 2

Diane Hoh, author of Virus and Flood describes the levels of intensity of rainfall in order for readers to better understand the seriousness of the matter. The rain started at11:23 in September. When it started, it was a pleasant, refreshing autumn shower. The following day however, the rain became more violent as if "throwing a temper tantrum." After this change in rain pattern, the wind also started to grow hostile, tearing off the limbs of trees. The skies also turned an ominous black color. After all of this happened, the rain become a strong deluge, flooding all the streets, lakes, and rivers. This, in turn causes a lot of accidents for drivers which is one of the main causes for the overflow of patients for the hospital. The other cause is the disease, cholera which is located in the rainfall.

Med Center Part 4

So I kind of forgot to mention some essential characters. Callie and Tina. You could say that Callie and Tina are the rivals of Susannah and Abby as neither works at Med Center and there seems to be some heated tension between the two groups of friends. Jeremy Barlow is also introduced as a wealthy genius who quit high school in his sophomore year for some unknown reason. Although, he is best friends with Callie and Tina, he is still romantically interested in Susannah but she just rejects him every time.

Tina is one of the first victims of this virus and is the first to be pit into a coma by it. Susannah and Will know that Tina is good friends with Jeremy and Callie but they can't reveal any information as that info is confidential to those outside the hospital. Susannah finds it hard to keep the truth from Jeremy as his questions get more and more worrying.

Med Center Part 3

Tensions rise as Abby's little brother starts to have similar symptoms to those that have the mystery virus. This causes Susannah, Abby, and Abby's mother to panic. However, Abby's brother is taken to the doctor and ironically, he actually has the flu instead of the mystery virus.

However, Susannah's brother Sam starts to get sick. Sam has never been sick in his life so he immediately dismisses this possibility when he starts getting terrible headaches, thinking aspirin would fix it. Not only has Sam never been sick, he is also seen as the superstar of Grant, Massachusetts as he is incredibly athletic and very smart as well. When he is dancing at a club, his face starts to redden, his movements become erratic, and he starts a series of violent coughing. He still believes himself to be ok until he passes out on the ground. Afterward, Susannah and will call an ambulance to take him to Med Center as he is diagnosed with the exact same mystery disease that is plaguing the town.

Why We Can't Wait Part 2

I am on the second chapter of Why We Can't Wait. Dr. King states that the streets have become a battlefield. The Negroes have decided that enough is enough and the time to make a stand is now. Dr. King compares this current moment to the French Revolution where the battlefield is so very quiet before the planned attack. His main comparison though is the submerged social group, wanting justice for their cause, and creating a powerful uprising that shook the base of the enemy group. He compares the entire African American race to the submerged social group as their situations are parallel with them being the undermined group.

Med Center Part 2

As the book goes on, more characters appear. A genius, calm doctor who Susannah admires is introduced,( he's the love interest of course) along with Susannah's best friend Abby. Susannah likes Abby's family more as even though they are of the middle class, their family interacts much more than Susannah's does. In fact, Susannah considers herself part of Abby's family and vice versa.

Anyway an unknown virus starts to cause people to fall ill. When Med Center gets their first case they notice that some of the symptoms are similar to the flu so they just leave it at that. However as more and more people are brought in with the exact same symptoms, they realize they have an epidemic on their hands and they have no idea how to cure this mysterious disease.

Med Center

This new book I'm reading has 2 parts, Virus and Flood. I am currently reading Virus, since the name sounds cooler than Flood.

So this story takes place in Grant, Massachusetts. The story starts off by introducing a teenager named Susannah Grant. It is revealed that the town is named Grant as her ancestors founded the settlement. Because of this, her family is very well known and very wealthy. Despite all the wealth, Susannah hates her family as they are never able to talk since her mother is always ill and her father is always working. Her reputation as being the daughter of the wealthiest family in town has also ruined her relationship life as men would be fearful when they heard her last name. That is another reason as to why she hates her wealthy life. To try and live a normal life, she volunteers at a hospital called the Med Center and makes friends there who don't care about her background or wealth.

Why We Can't Wait

My newest read is titled Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. It chronicles King's life as well as the life of Rosa Parks as they try and make a difference by protesting in non-violent ways for equal rights of African Americans.

The first portion of the book tells how a young Martin sees the world at the time and notices how unfair everything is for African Americans while Caucasians treat them with disrespect. One of his most important observations was when he was playing a game of baseball with other African American and Caucasian friends. He noticed that the young people of different races didn't mind playing a fair game of baseball with each other while getting along. However, the mother of one of the Caucasian boys calls the boy away from everyone else as she doesn't want him playing with African Americans.

Good Omens, Part 5

The incorrect prophetic son of Armageddon, named Adam has made friends with a girl named Pepper. Her real name is , but she prefers to be called Pepper, because she likes that named more than her real name. Adam, Pepper and some of their other friends were discussing the existence of witches along with the Spanish Inquisition. The discussion was rather humorous as they were all wondering why it couldn't have been a British or Latin Inquisition. Afterward, they try to re-enact a moment of when the Spanish Inquisition captures a witch and they try to go through the entire process. The process was to capture the witch, torture the witch until she admits to being a witch, and then killing her by either drowning her, burning her, or guillotine.

Afterward, Adam goes home and questions Anathema as he suspects she is a witch. It is also shown that Anathema and the hell-hound are very disappointed that Adam is not the prophetic child.

Good Omens, Part 4

Something I really like about Good Omens so far is their interesting and colorful cast of characters. The fact that an angel and demon are best friends also makes for a great story. I'm always intrigued by different things like that, yin befriending yang and all. In a way it can refer to the actual possibility of people who are exact opposites becoming friends. I feel that if that actually happens, it could make the world much more peaceful as different types of people could understand the differences in people other than themselves. Haha how ironic, discussing how the world could be more peaceful in a blog about the Armageddon. Perhaps that is what the story is meant to state that point to the readers, hinting that if life were more like this, the world could be better. Angels could retire and own antique shops and become best friends with some demons and so on. But anyway back to the story.

A witch named Agnes has just been introduced. I wonder how she will contribute to the Apocalypse. She runs a bike shop which I find to be very odd indeed. Still the fact that there is a witch existing in the time of Angels and Demons makes this book even more interesting.

Ahh it appears that Agnes helps Aziraphale and Crowley locate the correct son of Armageddon. With their new location the angel and devil set off.

The Amulet of Samarkand, Part 3

The magical resistance appear to be mere humans but they are humans who are resistant to magic and demons. So their group name is like a double entendre. That kind of surprised me. But it's pretty cool how they function. They use magical artifacts and handmade weapons rather than actual magic. They also appear to be quite agile and powerful as they were able to best some of the most powerful demons with only their skills.

When I'd first heard of the magical resistance, I thought they were just ordinary people who were against the use of magic. I figured that they didn't stand a chance against actual magicians. But after learning about their natural resistance to magic and their physical abilities I realized that they could actually rival the power of a magician. It was also revealed that they're not only resistant to magic attacks but attacks from demons as well. This means that they could pretty much own any supernatural force and come out of the battle virtually unscathed. Needless to say I look forward to the upcoming 3-way battle that will feature the magicians, the magical resistance, and Nathaniel along with his 3 demons.

The Amulet of Samarkand, Part 2

The Amulet of Samarkand only gets better the more I read it.

Nathaniel is still using Bartimaeus and other demons to destroy his father's reputation. In the meantime his hunger for power and knowledge is consuming him and is making him more and more like his father, not caring for anyone else but himself. However while spying on Lovelace to make sure that everything goes according to plan, Bartimaeus hears of a coup planned by some members of the magical resistance. Their goal is to kill the Prime Minister named Rupert Deveraux. So after making his father seemed paranoid by having him turn against all his friends and acquaintances, Nathaniel creates a plan that calls for 3 powerful demons in order to stop the coup and save the life of the prime minister.

Good Omens, Part 3

After the birthday party incident the book continues to get interesting as Crowley and Aziraphale realize that the nurses made a mistake in switching the prophetic child of the Apocalypse. They realize this when the demonic hound finally arrives and the child decides to name it. The Apocalyptic child is supposed to give the hound some sort of evil name like Stalker or Hell. But instead the child simply names the hound "Dog" because it is a simple name.

So Aziraphale and Crowley set out to find the actual child of prophecy and meet an unusual girl with a bike named Phaeton.

Good Omens, Part 2

This book never ceases to amaze me. I love the fact that while the Apocalypse is on the verge of occurring, Aziraphale (angel) and Crowley (demon) are just doing nothing but watch. This book is filled with much sarcasm and laughs. There is also dark humor involved as well.

Currently, Aziraphale and Crowley were hired as magicians for a birthday party. The boy is an 11-year old named Warlock. Aziraphale expressed excitement as he loved performing magic while Crowley didn't really care much for magic. Anyway Crowley made a handkerchief appear in the pocket of one of the armed guards, however when the guard pulled it out he accidentally knocked his gun out of his holster and it landed at the feet of Warlock. Happy with his "gift" he pulls the trigger and shoots one of the adults at the party. Afterwards, chaos ensues as there is a scramble to get the gun away from Warlock and the demonic hound finally arrives.

Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand part 1

Yeah so I'm skipping around in reading these days as I am interested in reading a lot of different books and I don't have a lot of time to do so.
So this new book titled the Amulet of Samarkand is the first of a magical trilogy of books called the Bartimaeus Trilogy. The first book focuses mainly on Bartimaeus along with his view of the world as he is constantly summoned to the human realm in order to complete the tasks that ordinary wizards and witches couldn't do along with a new wizard named Nathaniel who summons Bartimaeus. And yes this is another magic series but it doesn't sound Harry Potter-ish at all. In fact other than the fact that both series involve magic of some sort, they are nothing alike.
Bartimaeus is known as one of the most ancient and powerful demons from his plane. His best ability is to shapeshift to whatever form he wants to. Alhtough he, like all demons, weakens when he remains in the human realm for too long.
Nathaniel is the magician that summons him. Nathaniel is 11 years old and knows some rather complex and powerful spells for a wizard his age. In the beginning of the book, Nathaniel harbors an intense dislike for his foster father, Lovelace. Bartimaeus is summoned to help Nathaniel get revenge from being abused and mistreated from his father. He uses Bartimaeus to steal from Lovelace in order to make him think that he is being targeted by some sort of organization. However, Lovelace has no idea that the one causing him all his grief is his son.

Good Omens Part 1

I am reading a book called Good Omens that was written by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman. This book is about to the prophecy of the Apocalypse, only it is a more of humorous version of that prophecy. It is similar to the movie, The Omen.
The story centers around an angel from heaven named Aziraphale and a demon from hell named Crowley. Despite being from opposite worlds and being opposite beings, they are best friends and are not interested at all in the coming of the Apocalypse. All they do is just watch as the events happen in the order they're supposed to, not participating at all.
If you've seen The Omen then you will probably recognize that the events that happen to Damien and his family are the main theme of the story. Good Omens is similar to it except that the events that surround Damien are more of the background theme instead of the main theme. Currently, Aziraphale and Crowley are drinking wine while reminiscing about their fun lives in the real world and how they will miss it all after the Apocalypse destroys it. Meanwhile the demons who were sent to the real world to assist Damien are making their move, doing things like getting Damien the monstrous hound from hell and testing if he is really the prophetic son by seeing if he gives the hound a monstrous name or not.