Vivian's Book Pavilion

Flame in the Mist By Renee Ahdieh The stars could fall - the moon could crash from the heavens - and Mariko could not care.     God bless my little, tiny heart…I’m completely on fire. I can feel my blood burning while reading the book. And even though I read the first half of it about a half month ago and finished it just now…I can still feel the flame burning right through me. I need the Smoke in the Sun now!!!!!!!!! Oh god…I hereby declare…Renee Ahdieh now ranks even higher than Sarah J Maas. Her books are must-read!!!!!! I command you, yes you, you, and you. Read her series right now!!!!!!! Why does she always write duology???? I need more of her books!!!!!! The Wrath and The Dawn is absolutely one of my favorite retelling of all time…and now? Flame in the Mist is as great as TWATD series!!!!!   The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals

The Struggle to be an All-American Girl      By Elizabeth Wong     I know, I’m horrible. But I’m not dead…I’m just lazy. So…before I finish my currently reading, I’ve decided to give you something short. A little reflection on what I thought on my school reading.     It's still there, the Chinese school on Yale Street where my brother and I used to go. Despite the new coat of paint and the high wire fence, the school I knew 10 years ago remains remarkably, stoically the same.     Every day at 5 P.M., instead of playing with our fourth and fifth grade friends or sneaking out to the empty lot to hunt ghosts and animal bones, my brother and I had to go to Chinese school. No amount of kicking, screaming, or pleading could dissuade my mother, who was solidly determined to have us learn the language or our heritage. Forcibly, she walked us the seven long, hilly blocks from our home to school, deposing our defiant tearful faces before the stern principal. My only me