Atomic Habits is a self-help book that explains the process of forming habits and how to break bad habits. Pretty much, the small, incremental things you do in life, whether it be good or bad, will compound to make a big impact on your life (aka. habits).

I appreciate the way the book organizes the information of forming habits into four distinct steps. Some of the advice kinda strikes me as something really obvious such as making a good habit more convenient to do.

Foer, a journalist, had set out to find out the capacity to improve human memory by working with other memory athletes. He used memory techniques that take advantage of how the brain works biologically and honed those skills. Eventually, all his practice to improve his memory would be put into motion in the United States Memory Competition, which paid off.

Moonwalking With Einstein is an interesting book because along with his journey of becoming a memory athlete himself, there is some cultural, historical parts on memory techniques and the competition, which dates back to the Romans and Greeks. It gives context and showed the prominence of memory in cultures. The approaches shown are backed with scientific findings, and the topics that seemed unrelated to memory are well explained in how they connected back to the main topic.

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving their memory since this book offers helpful tips and approaches to memorizing typical things like grocery lists. This book does have quite a bit of filler content, as it could have been written to be shorter. For a casual reader who wants to learn something new and dig into something entertaining, I would recommend this book.

Anna, 15

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After a plane crashes, a group of young schoolboys are left stranded on an uncharted island. There are no adults that survived. The group of boys enjoy the liberating feeling of no supervision. Without an adult to tell them what to do, they can do anything they desire. However, everything is not as great as they imagined once arguments break out and order starts to crumble. Fear starts to creep into the minds of each boy as their hopes of being saved diminish.

Personally, I thought that Lord of the Flies was an excellent novel, even if it's assigned to you by your English teacher. The story gives off a message about how children act and how they try to survive with no adult to guide them. Their independence can be related to children this day in age. The story conveys an important message while at the same time, it also delivers a great story about adventure and persistence.

I would encourage all readers to try this novel, even if it hasn't been assigned to you by your English teacher. This book will relate to teen readers and it will be engaging for them. The author helps you create such a deep connection with his characters. This coming of age novel teaches you the values of trust, true friendship, and sanity.

Gavin, 15

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