Things Reading Can Do for You!

There are many things that reading can do for you to benefit you! Here are a few!
1. Reading can bring you peace and tranquility. If you're reading about something 'peaceful', your blood pressure lowers and makes you happier calmer. This can help you sleep as well.
2. Reading brings knowledge to you, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, you learn something every time you read. This is kind of a 'given' point but here's a little food for thought that I heard in LifeHack.org's 10 Benefits of Reading article: "Should you ever find yourself in dire circumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else- your job, your possessions, your money, even your health- knowledge can never be taken from you.
3. Reading can reduce stress levels. Immersing yourself into a great book and just letting it take you away to another dimension can ease all your troubles, despite what they might be.
4. Reading can improve your ability to remember things. When you're reading, you must remember events, themes, characters, scenes and many other things. The more you read, the more you start to notice these important things more often and it will also reflect in your life and not just your reading.
5. Reading can help your writing ability. When you read more often, you become familiar with different writing styles and that reflects itself in your writing as well.
Theses are some of the reasons why reading can help improve your life! If you would like to read more, here's a link to 10 Benefits of Reading: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html
Picture Citation: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/37788084343754848/

Featured Five

These are some of my favorite books and a brief description of each.

1. The Divergent Series- These books have huge Adventure and Romance components within them. The love story of an instructor and trainee who then exceeds the instructor and goes on an amazing adventure. This series is definitely popular, but for a good reason. If you want to read more on this book, here's a link to a detailed summary: http://www.shmoop.com/divergent/summary.html
2. The Hunger Games- This is yet again a very popular series, again for a wonderful reason. This is mainly a dystopian- adventure series but it does include some romantic scenes, this is definitely a wonderful series, but might not be for all people. If you want to read more on this book, here's a fummary to it: http://www.shmoop.com/divergent/summary.html
3. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane- This is more of a younger child's book but it't a wonderful tale of love and adventure and magic and really, who can't use a little magic in their life? If you want to read more on this book here's a link to a summary: http://www.katedicamillo.com/books/edward.html
4. Between Shades of Gray- I already wrote a blog post about this earlier in the blog, but this book is obsession worthy. It is a thrilling and spine-prickling historical fiction story of a family's struggles during Stalin's rule in the USSR. If you want to read more on this book, here's a link to a summary: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7824322-between-shades-of-gray
5. The Outsiders- The Outsiders is a classic tale of the struggles of poor gangster- greaser boys who grew up in the 1950's without parents. This is an easy read for all sorts of people. This is a universally good read. If you want to read more about this book, here's a link to a summary: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/outsiders/
These books are great reads and there is a little bit of everything in here for people! Hope people enjoyed these!
Picture Citations: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231804.The_Outsiders
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37186.The_Miraculous_Journey_of_Edward_Tulane

Between Shades of Gray

**Spoiler Alert

Between Shades of Gray is an inspiring and heartbreaking story from the perspective of a 15 year old girl named Lina based when Stalin was in rule and evacuated Lithuania. You follow Lina throughout the gut-wrenching story of torture, endurance, and even a little bit of romance. I highly recommend this book to anybody looking for an interesting, roller-coaster of a read.
The story stars out when Lina and her family were sitting in their house, waiting for Father to get home and they hear a pounding on the door. The NKVD were at the door to take them out of their house and evacuate Lithuania. They put them in the back of a truck as they picked up more people along the way to the train station. There were hundreds of carts connected together, forming a gigantic train holding millions of people, squished against each other in each cart. Lina looked at her mother and brother and knew that from then on nothing would ever be the same. They were stuck in their cart for weeks, months even. They grew close to everyone who was in the cart around them, even the bald man who complained about everything and was convinced they were all going to die. Lina, the main character in this story, loves to draw and she is amazing at it. She learns that if she draws everything she sees on a handkerchief and passes it along, it could possibly get to her father and only he would know her signature. Just after they get off the carts, she begins to pass the handkerchief along. Every cart was emptied and the people grouped within them were sold, except for Lina's train car. They were hurried to a truck and brought to a bath house and then to a village. They worked endlessly during the day and got a small piece of bread each day for their work. They worked there for months and months and then they are brought to a new village. This story has components of love, heartbreak, hardship, determination, family, and humor embedded into it. This is definitely a must read.
Picture Citation: https://sarahspring2016.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/between-shades-of-gray/

Introduction

Books, books, and more books! This blog will be about the best books around lately in all sorts of different genres. From romance to fantasy, this blog covers all. There will be an overall rating of the book at the start of each blog and a brief summary explaining the story and then a paragraph explaining the goods and bad's of the book. Reading is a place of calm for many people to get away from their worries and emerge themselves into a whole other world. This blog will give people the opportunity to go out and find those worlds. Some books that I'll be featuring on this blog are 'The Divergent Series', 'The Hunger Games', 'Between Shades of Gray', and more. So here's the official welcome to Book Talk!
Picture Citations: https://sarahspring2016.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/between-shades-of-gray/ 
http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hunger_Games_trilogy
https://bookriot.com/2013/10/14/beyond-bestsellers-youve-read-divergent/