The Da Vinci Code

Author: Dan Brown

Rating: 8/10

This book is the second book in the Robert Langdon series. When Langdon was giving a lecture in Paris, Benzu Fache, the head of the DCPJ, asked Langdon to identify the symbol on the murdered Louvre curator's chest. Langdon then discovers that the man was trying to leave a dying message with anagrams and his 'invisible pen'.
Working with Sophie Nevu, a cryptographer of the DCPJ (who also turns out to be the curator's granddaughter), Langdon tries to understand the message the curator left for them. They try to seek help from a British knight called Leigh Teabing, but then discovers that Teabing actually betrayed them and was the one that payed the assassin to kill the curator. Following Nevu's grandfather, they found a cryptex, one that the curator made himself. They visit Britan to try find clues for the code that opens the cryptex, and finally succeeds.
At the end of the book, Langdon returned to America and Nevu found her grandmother and her younger brother who she believed to be dead.
I like the author of this book very much, but I have to say the Da Vinci Code was not as good as I thought it is, because it's just like another 'angels and demons' type of 'treasure hunt', only the subject is different. I don't think the book is as exciting as the first Robert Langdon book, and there's less 'suprises' along the way.
But the book is also quite interesting, after reading it I spent hours on the internet searching about the paintings and other information, to check if the things in the book are really true. A few parts of the book is -I think- a little offensive to catholics, but because I don't have a religion I believe in, I won't take sides.

Angels and Demons

Author: Dan Brown

Rating: 10/10

This book started with Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbolist, getting a call from a unknown man who's name was Maximilian Kohler, a particle physicist. Langdon was annoyed to be waken up at 5, so he hung up. But then, the fax machine started to beep, and Langdon found that on the fax there was a picture of a dead man, on his chest, someone had branded him. The symbol was an ambigram, and read as 'Illuminati'. Konler then contacted him on the fax, and got him a flight to Switzerland.
Landon then found out that Maximilian Kohler was the director of CERN (European organization for nuclear research). He said that the dead man was called Lenoardo Vetra, and Kohler found the body in Vetra's apartment when he noticed that Vetra haven't been to the meeting he scheduled with Kohler that morning. Langdon told Kohler that the Illuminati was a anti-religious organization funded a long time ago, the word 'Illuminati' ment 'the enlightened ones' in English.
Then Lenoardo Vetra's daughter, Vittoria Vetra arrived, Kohler asked what Lenoardo and Vittoria Vertra were doing in their lab, so Vittoria showed him. They smashed super thin beams of protons to create antimatter. When Antimatter touches it's 'twin' matter, they will annihilate, sending out photons and heat. Vittoria told Kohler that they made a quarter of a gram of antimatter, which they stored in a underground lab. But the antimatter got stolen, so they need to find it and plug it back into the LED in CERN, or the antimatter will touch matter and burst. The result is devastating. The antimatter seems to be in Vatican city, so Vittoria and Langdon immediately flew to Rome.
After arriving at Vatican city, they found out that some believer of the Illuminati is going to blow up Vatican city, because it's the city of God. The killer of Vetra called the leader of Vatican city, and said that he was going to kill one pope every hour, until midnight, when the antimatter will blow up. Langdon and Vittoria found the four churches the assassin was going to kill the popes in, but they didn't catch the assassin himself.
But after all, the antimatter was taken away (not exactly away, it was on a helicopter a few thousand miles above Vatican city) and it blew up, but caused no damage.

I liked this book a lot, because I just learnt about antimatter from one of my books. It's much more efficient than nuclear energy, but it costs ton to produce a single gram. The characters were all quite interesting, and there were a lot of surprises in the story. I got so into the book that I finished it in two days...

The five people you meet in heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Rating: 9/10

I like the beginning of the book, because it starts at the 'End', where Eddie died. Eddie is a maintenance worker at a amusement park (Ruby Pier). He was walking beside a train, when the train stopped in mid air. The people on the train were screaming. Eddie's old, so he told his co workers to try get to the emergency release. But the train fell. It nearly fell on a girl, but Eddie pushed her out of the way and he got crushed under the train.
Eddie then went to heaven, and met five people. They all got something to do with his life, and Eddie understood his life much better. The first person was the blue man, he turned blue because he drank too much silver nitrate. Eddie accidentally killed him when Eddie was five. At Eddie's birthday, his new football went across the street. So Eddie ran to get it, but the car the blue man was driving nearly hit Eddie. The blue man was so nervous (because he nearly hit Eddie) that his heart stopped pumping.
Then Eddie met his old general, and the general told him that he shot Eddie's leg. Eddie went mad because he hated his leg after it got shot, because he could never sit properly or walk properly. The general asked if Eddie will forgive him. Eddie agreed.
Then Eddie met a lady. He didn't know who she was, but she told Eddie that her name was Ruby, and she was the wife of the man that built the amusement park. She told him how Eddie's father died. The report said that he died on his bed in the hospital, but Ruby knew more. She said that the night Eddie's father died, he tried to crawl out of the window, saying Eddie and his mother's names. But he didn't make his way out, in the morning the nurses found his body on the window. They didn't want to have rumors about this, so they carried him back to his bed. Then Ruby told Eddie to forgive his father, because his father never got along with him. Then Ruby disappeared and Eddie went on to see the forth person.
The forth place was different. Eddie was in a great hall with twelve doors. Every door he opened, there's a wedding. He didn't recognise anyone until the last door. It was Eddie's wife. She told him about her past, and how she got her brain tumor. Eddie wanted to stay with her forever, because his wife died young. They talked for a long time, then Eddie realized that his wife was the same as when they married, so he asked if she can make herself turn older. So his wife turned 40, three years before she died. Then the wind started to blow, and Eddie went on to his fifth person.
The fifth place was at a river. Children were playing. Eddie saw an Asian girl, she told Eddie to go to her. Eddie asked her if he saved the girl under the train, the Asian girl said he did save her. But Eddie also killed the Asian girl. Eddie asked how, and the girl said that Eddie bombed her house while she's still in side it. Eddie thought of the time of the war. They have to destroy everything. The enemies and them might become friends if it isn't a war, but it is. Soldiers died, so did other innocent people. Eddie didn't want to think about it. The girl told him everything. Then, Eddie went to meet with the person he choose, to tell that person the story only he knows...

I didn't want to summarize the book, because it's quite mixed up, so it's really hard to explain (I tried my best). My favorite character is Ruby, from the pier, because she seems to be the only one that made sense. The rest are too unreal.

The Cay

Author: Theodore Taylor


Rating:9/10


This is one of the two books we read in class, and I liked it a lot.
Phillip is an American boy, and his father works at a island named Curacao, for Shell. It's the start of World War 2, so German submarines are all around the island. No one can leave the island, and no one can come in.
Phillip and his mother, Grace, also live on the island. His mother said she's going to take Phillip back to America until the war is over. Phillip didn't want to go, but he still ended up on the ship going back. The ship was old, so the Germans might not attack it. But after the ship left the island, they were torpedoed. Phillip was separated from his mother, and he fell into the sea.
When he woke up, he found that he was on a small raft, with a black man called Timothy. There was also a cat, Timothy told him that it was the chefs cat, named "Stew" cat. They have a keg of water and some biscuits and two bars of chocolates. Phillip wants to drink, but Timothy only gave him a few drops, he says that they need to save the water, if no one finds them.
They kept drifting, sometimes when there's flying fish, Timothy will catch a few and share with Phillip, eating them raw. But after three days, Phillip lost his sight. Once he fell into the shark-infested ocean, Timothy dived down to grab him back on the raft.
They saw an island. After a week or so Timothy spotted an island. Phillip wanted to stay on the raft, but Timothy made him go to the island. Timothy toured the island, he said there's no one on it, it's not too big, and there's palm trees all over the island, also some fish in the reefs. But this little island is in the "Devil's mouth", making it impossible for ships to reach them, because the island is surrounded by shallow water and corals. They made a hut on the island and stayed there. Once or twice they heard air crafts, but they never got rescued. But after a few months a Hurricane hit the cay, and Timothy saved Phillip by sandwiching Phillip between himself and a big palm, which he put the water keg and his knife on. After the storm, Phillip discovered that Timothy passed away, Phillip made a grave for Timothy, now he need to survive on the island himself.
He heard an aeroplane, so he made a fire. The aeroplane left, but a small boat came, and took Phillip and Stew Cat away from the island. Phillip had three surgeries, after the third he was able to see again. His mother decided to stay on Curacao. After that Phillip talked with the black people on the island, some of them knew Timothy, and he felt close to them.

I like this book because people in here change. They don't start at a personality and end in the same one. Phillip changed, he disliked Timothy at first, then he started to like him, because he saved his life. My favorite character is the cat... Because it doesn't really cause trouble (except for the jubi part).

We are the weather makers

Author: Tim Flannery

Rating: 10/10

This book is a non fiction about global warming. It's a very interesting book, and I really enjoyed reading it. Some things in this book is frightening, and it really makes you want to try save the environment.

The book first talks about the atmosphere, then it moves on to CO2 emissions, then the creatures that are extinct already or is becoming extinct, after that the problems, and finally the solution.

The atmosphere is divided into four major layers. The carbon dioxide, methane, and other green house gases float in the layers. The interesting thing is that the first layer is actually 'upside down', because it's warmest at the bottom and cools by 6.5 celcius per vertical kilometer travelled upwards.

Now days people burn up coal to create electricity, but the thing is that two thirds of the eectricity generated isn't used, so it's wasted. And coal is causing a lot of the green house effect. Now petrol is running out, people are deciding to use Nature gas, which is ninety percent methane, which is another type of green house gas. It is more heat trapping, but lasts less in the atmosphere, making nature gas the most environment friendly fossil fuel, but just think about this: everyday, twenty cubed kilometers of liquid CO2 is being forced back into the ground, which makes the place dangerous, because no one knows when the gas will force its way through the ground again. An accident happened in central Africa, causing death of thousands, because at night a lake nearby started bubbling CO2.

a lot of creatures are already extinct because of CO2 emissions, including the golden toad, the giant wolly rat and other animals. Scientists predict that after fifty years, or even twenty years, the polar bear is going to become extinct too. The Antarctic was once their territory, and now there's even drowning bears found.

There's some problems. First, the ozone hole known as the Kyoto hole. It's expanding slowly, but if we cut CO2 emissions now we can stop it from doing that. If there were no ozone layer, than the ultraviolet light from space will shoot at us, tearing our DNA apart and killing us immediately. It's terrifying, so let's start now, reducing CO2 emissions in homes and save the environment. Second, the Gulf corrupting. The gulf is a giant current flowing over the world. Scientists say there's about one percent chance of the gulf corrupting this century. Again, the results will be devastating. If we start reducing CO2 now, four in every five species of animals and plants will be saved. Third, the Amazon forest. If this forest breaks down, thousands of species will loose their habitats and die.

And now the solution. Nuclear is being considered, but it's too dangerous to be instored on cars, but it can be used to run cities and other big regions. Wind and solar power, because the planet is becoming hotter, why not use solar energy? And wind. Some say that the machines will hurt the birds, but scientists have actually made ones that lets birds nest on them. There's many ways to save the planet, if everyone try, earth will be saved.

There's one quote at the end of the book that I like very much:

I have done my best to provide a user's manual for the climate change of planet Earth. Now it's over to you.

Hunted

Author: Russell (not sure of the first name)

8/10

This book is about a boy named Brind and two of his hounds(Glaive and Gabion), there's also a French girl called Aurelie.
Brind is the dogboy for the landlord-Sir Edmond. he is found when he's a baby in the woods, and the landlord made him the dog boy, but he seems to be like the dogs, because he can eat raw things and also grunts like dogs do. He knows the forest so well it's like his backyard.Brind's now fourteen and grew up with his hounds, he also has a way of communicating with them. Glaive is the head of the dog pack, and his son is Gabion(who isn't big like the others, but skinny and small). Aurelie is the landlord's step daughter, the landlord's wife found her and raised her up.
But one day, Brind found the landlord's wife in the mud, and brought her back to the house. Before she died, a priest came, to bless her. The priest then said that Aurelie and the dogboy bought the 'plague' to the house, and the two are forced to leave, Brind took Glave and Gabion with him and they left to find Sir Edmond's sister, hoping she would help them.
On their way, they passed a town, so they went in town, hoping that someone can provide food for them. But there's no one there. When they went in the church, they found that all the town's people are killed by the plague, all are in the church. So they set off again.
Then they found another town, untouched by the plague, so they went and found some food. But suddenly the priest showed up, and they are then thrown into the river. Luckily they all survived, so they escaped. They found a hut in the forest, and rested there. But soon, Aurelie got the plague too, and it seems like there was no hope of saving her, but the dogboy got herbs in the forest, and she recovered.
Finally after a few weeks they reached Sir Edmond's sister's mansion, but a group of thieves were chasing them, trying to kill them. Just in time, the landlord came with the rest of Brind's pack of hunting dogs, and the thieves were killed by the dogs. The landlord regretted that he forced them to leave, and they were back to the home of the landlord and all was well again.

I liked this book, because it's not really fantasy, and it has some exciting parts in it too. But I didn't like the way it was written, I think it should be better if it's written in first person.

Wolf songs

Author: Many

9/10

Wolves are one of my favorite animals, and this is a non fiction book about them. It's not like an encyclopedia, but has many short stories written by researchers who study wolves. The book is not too long, so it's easy to read.

My favorite short story is one about a wolf family in the UK. The story said that the male wakes up at four AM, and go off hunting, while the female takes care of the pups (when wolves find a mate, they're mate for life). There were another male wolf who's older that takes care of the pups while the female takes a nap. The author also said that he somehow started to call the male George, the female Angelica, and the 'uncle' Albert. He said that the wolves lives in a chamber that foxes dug (It seems like all the wolves in that region all lives in holes foxes dug, and the foxes don't mind as well, the two species normally live in peace), after they found a chamber, they just expanded it a little and moved in.

There was another article about how wolves act in some situations, especially their tails. For example, when wolves are very excited, their tails will rise to the same height as their spine, but unlike dogs, their tails don't wag when they are happy. But their tails do fall down and get dragged on the ground if a wolf is upset.

After reading this book I found that wolves just isn't like a dog, unlike what I thought before reading this book. They're really different. It seems like dogs don't have some of the posture and elegance a wolf has.

I've been trying to find some other non fiction books like this, but didn't have much success... Hope to find something soon......