Let's Talk About...Gallagher Girls

Image from Pixabay, text added later

This week, we're featuring the book "Only the Good Spy Young" by Ally Carter and the rest of the series. I've raved about this book in a previous review, and it's high time since I featured it in a "Let's Talk About" post. So here it is! The synopsis is of book 4.

Cover Courtesy of Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis: When Cammie Morgan enrolled at the Gallagher Academy, she knew she was preparing for the dangerous life of a spy. What she didn’t know was that the serious, real-life danger would start during her junior year of high school. But that’s exactly what happened two months ago when Cammie faced off against an ancient terrorist organization dead set on kidnapping her.

Now the danger follows her everywhere, and even Cammie “The Chameleon” can’t hide. When a terrifying encounter in London reveals that one of her most-trusted allies is actually a rogue double-agent, Cammie no longer knows if she can trust her classmates, her teachers—or even her own heart.

In this fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series, the Gallagher Girls must hack, spy, steal, and lie their way to the truth.as they go searching for answers, recognizing that the key to Cammie’s future may lie deep in the past.

Here are the questions:

1. Which character do you most resemble?

Well, I like to read and learn as much as Liz does, and I'm honestly more of a behind-the-scenes type of person than the get-out-there-and-fight kind, so I'm going to go with her.

2. Do you own any fan-related memorabilia?

I own Only the Good Spy Young, but other than that, sadly, I don't own anything :(. Maybe I'll get some copies of the rest of the books later, though :). I also want a Gallagher Girl notebook/planner to write in with quotes, etc., but I don't know if there's anything like that out there. This may be good reading journal inspiration, though!

3. Which of the six books is your favorite?

I love the featured book above and the last two books. I read the one above first, so it's bound to be my favorite, but the other two were written exceptionally well, too.

4. Which class would you most look forward to at the school?
Covert Operations, of course! There's so many awesome skills to learn from there. I'd also like to learn as many languages as possible in other courses so I could spy on other people's conversations. Heh heh, just kidding.

5. What's your favorite part about the books?
I love the friendship of Cammie, Bex, Liz, and Macy. I also love the Gallagher Academy itself. If only one could take such cool courses at school...

6. Which book cover is your favorite?

I like the cover of LYKY the best. It looks nice and uniform, as sometimes the font seems a bit off in the later covers. Also, I like the simplicity of the white background.

Cover Courtesy of Goodreads

That's all for this week! Stay tuned for more posts :).

Chemistry of Life: Diffusing the Tension

I was having a conversation with some friends about how one uses the expression "diffusing the tension" to describe making an environment less stressful. You can guess that I immediately connected this to my Chemistry of Life analogies. So today, you can hear all about tension and how "diffusing the tension" is an expression that really does make sense.

When something gets stressful, one notices the tension increasing. Let's use pressurum from my new periodic table of feeling elements (which I need to update onto my blog, as I realized there were problems with my old one), abbreviated as Prs, as our example.

What one needs to realize is that there are always lots of Prs atoms in the room, floating around, doing nothing. They're all spread out, as if they were gases. When something gets stressful, they clump together and form double bonds (meaning they bond with each other) to form molecules of pressure/tension/stress. Their presence is now felt more by people in the room, because the concentration in an area seems much greater.

While the Prs atoms form molecules, they also release heat, like a normal reaction. That's why some people get sweaty or nervous as the stress in the system increases. The Prs molecules themselves stop moving around so much and clump up together, like solids, and keep releasing heat.

There are ways to diffuse the tension. If someone new comes into the room who is not stressed, they usually become a bit nervous or pressured by looking at the situation. What's really happening is that the Prs molecules are going from an area from high tension to low tension, and start to spread out a bit more. As they continue to do so, the molecules diffuse by using energy in the environment (so people are not sweating anymore). The concentration of Prs molecules balances out again.

This is applicable to real cases. When people keep thoughts bottled up to themselves, they become more stressed. If they share their thoughts with others, the Prs molecules spread out and diffuse to others, which may cause them to be a bit stressed, but not as much, and it helps both people to interact with each other.

This cycle repeats again and again, with tension building up and then getting released.

I know this was a bit complicated, but I hope you understood why people can use the term "diffusing the tension" now in relation to science! Stay tuned for more chemistry of life if you enjoyed this one :).

Happy New Year, New Year's Resolutions, and Happy Birthday to my Blog!

Happy New Year everyone!

Courtesy of Giphy

I hope everyone is excited to start off the new year with their resolutions! In case you need some inspiration, here are the ones I have in relation to blogging and reading.

Also, what a coincidence. My blog turned three two days ago! It's the perfect time for some resolutions :).

1. Read at least 100 books this year.

2. Read three classics.

3. Meet an author (and get their autograph).

4. Write at least 100 blog posts.

They're all relatively simple, but I think they're good goals to aim for this year. What are your resolutions for 2018?

Blogging and the Books in 2017

The year is now at an end! There are only two more days until January first, so here's an update on what I've done this year in the aspects of blogging and reading.

Including this post, I've written 101 posts this year!

Courtesy of Giphy

Woo-hoo! I have met my unofficial goal of 100 posts, doubling the amount of posts I've written compared to 2015 and tripling the amount of posts I'd written in 2016!

I know, I'm literally so awesome.

Courtesy of Giphy

I also chose a new template for this blog, and started adding blockquotes. I'm thinking of uploading my new book reviews onto Goodreads in 2018, which I've already done to most of my book reviews.

In addition, I managed to read some great books this year. I read about 85 books in total (I kept track of 77 of them, but I haven't written down the last few ones so 85 is my estimate), averaging about 7.1 books per month, or 1.6 books per week. I suppose that's fine, but I want to read a bit more next year.

I did manage to keep my reading journal from February through November, which I think is a pretty good accomplishment. I'll be using it again in 2018, and it's likely going to look pretty similar (aesthetically speaking).

Here's a list of some of the books I read this year that I enjoyed. If you haven't read any of these, don't worry! It isn't too late to read a good novel, as someone famous once said.

"It isn't too late to read a good novel"-Me

The links lead to my reviews, if applicable.

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

Spy Ski School and the rest of the Spy School Series by Stuart Gibbs

Stef Soto, Taco Queen by Jennifer Torres

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Frazzled by Booki Vivat

Jacky Ha-Ha by James Patterson

Revolution is Not A Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine

Only the Good Spy Young and the rest of the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

All Shook Up by Shelley Pearsall

Real Friends by Shannon Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, colored by Jane Poole

Can You Spell Revolution? by Matt Beam

Lemons by Melissa Savage

The Silver Mask by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

I also finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (I might have a couple of pages left, but I'm 90% sure I'm done...either way I'll aim to finish it by January first).

I think 2017 was a pretty great year. I started writing books down for my to-read list, got more page views, posted more often than previous years, and had a lot of fun.

A shout out and thank you to all of my followers! I appreciate every single person who reads my blog deeply! Y'all are the best audience a not-a-prima-donna-girl could want!

How was 2017 for you?

My Christmas Wishlist for 2017

I actually had misplaced my reading journal, which had all of my to-reads. Luckily, just in time, I found it yesterday, so here are some books on my wishlist (which I know is a bit late since Christmas is in two days, but maybe I can just get them later? Santa's supposed to be really nice... :)).

All covers courtesy of Goodreads.

1. Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

2. Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

(I actually thought this title was Piercing Me Together when I first saw it...which sounded very painful! Oops!)

3. The Shamer's Daughter by Lene Kaaberbol

4. Fallout by Todd Strasser

Other than books, I don't really want anything else but some more polymer clay. Perhaps a cute plushie or two would be nice. Also, I need to drink hot chocolate and bake gingerbread cookies! Yummy!

What are your plans for Christmas? What are some items on your wishlist? Any Christmas traditions? Tell me below!