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Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan intertwines the stories of three musically gifted children who are exceptional harmonica players. Friedrich in Nazi Germany, Mike in the Great Depression, and Ivy during World War II share uniquely captivating stories. The characters experience hardships and discrimination and are forced to cope in their everyday lives. The musical prodigies, however, are unaware that they are fulfilling a prophecy set in motion by a mysterious young boy named Otto.  On the surface, Friedrich is a normal schoolboy in Nazi Germany. However, his family hides their jewish sympathy and even keeps medical secrets from Friedrich, which causes life to become increasingly difficult after Friedrich’s sister declares her allegiance towards Hitler. Friedrich, an apprentice in a harmonica factory, discovers a mysterious harmonica with an M engraved on it. To cope with his increasingly dangerous circumstances, Friedrich loses himself in music and is known to his peers as “monster ...

Quite recently, I read A Mathematician's Apology , an essay written in 1940 by the famous English mathematician, G.H. Hardy. The essay serves as sort of a "defense" for Hardy, with his concern being to explain to the regular layman why he spent his entire life doing mathematics and discuss the beauty and satisfaction that mathematics provides. Hardy wrote this essay when he was 62, which was when his mathematical prowess was slowly dying down. Hardy uses this essay to explain why his branch of mathematics, number theory, is the most beautiful branch of mathematics as back then, it barely had any practical use and mathematicians who would practice number theory mostly did so for the aesthetics of it. Hardy believed that branches of mathematics whose findings could be applied to real life and had any practice use were ugly and dull He says that applied mathematics would give material satisfaction but in the long run, doing pure mathematics that only possesses mathematical ...

It covers a lesser-known society and time period The book covers the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age and the achievements of scholars during that time period. Many people in the Western world have not heard of the Golden Age of Islam and are not aware of the intellectual achievements that happened during this time. The Golden Age is a crucial part of human history, as it helped preserve thousands of years of knowledge during Europe's Dark Ages, thus allowing future European scholars to continue their studies. These European scholars would also then have more data and research on their hands because of the progress that occurred while they were suffering during the Dark Ages.  Even though it is a history book, it is written in a novel style making it much more engaging A lot of time history books can feel like textbooks, making them rather boring with the excessive number of dates and specifics they shove down your throat. This makes the reader far more involved in the...

Why you should read Fake ID by Lamar Giles 1. Fake ID is a creative thriller.  Fake ID revolves around a character going by the alias of Nick Pearson. Unfortunately, Nick’s father constantly cooks up scams and frauds to make some quick cash. Over the past few years, Nick has been protected by the government’s witness protection program, but the FBI has made it known that this is Nick’s father’s last chance to become clean. Moving to Stepton, Virginia is the family’s last hope. After meeting Nick’s student guide at his new school, Eli, he becomes increasingly interested in Eli’s “Whispertown” story that gradually unravels the entire town of Stepton.  2. There are unsuspecting plot twists.  Although there are many twists in Fake ID, they would also spoil the book. Right from the beginning, the book does not disappoint. For example, in the second chapter, Eli mentions “Whispertown” for the first time. Later, when I thought I would be able to figure out what “Whisperto...