Something

"Stop!" I kicked and punched as the thing masquerading as my mother seized me. 

My brother watched silently from the doorway as she started dragging me towards it. I screamed again as tears started flowing from my eyes.

"Help me!"

He just looked at me and frowned. "We have to do this, Claire. It's for your own good."

My eyes widened. They had gotten to him too. I sobbed and screamed, struggling harder. It was of no use. She was too strong for me to get away. In desperation, I screamed one last time and tried to kick her away. She gripped me harder.

 "Oh my god Claire just do your homework."

Pride and Prejudice

Most of you have heard of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and if you are anything like me, have probably dismissed it as 'one of those boring old classics'. However, when you read it, you will find that it is an amazing book. You will probably have to look some words up in the dictionary, but that is a small price for a good book.

Pride and Prejudice is a story told through the eyes of the second eldest daughter of a middle-class family in 19th century England -  Elizabeth Bennet (Lizzy). Young and spirited, she makes a great heroine that you will want to stick by for the rest of the book.

The story starts when the charming and rich young gentleman called Mr. Bingley (along with his friend Mr. Darcy and sisters Mrs. Hurst and Miss. Bingley) takes up residence nearby. Nearly all the girls in the neighborhood want him as their husband. Mr. Bingley favors Jane, Lizzy's eldest sister, and a proposal is expected soon.

On their very first meeting at a ball, Elizabeth hates Mr. Darcy. For one, he is arrogant, full of pride, and he thinks that all the commoners are beneath him. Elizabeth also overhears him making a comment about not wanting to dance with her due to her being "not handsome enough to tempt me."

A new officer, Mr. Wickham, arrives in the militia stationed nearby. He is charming, handsome, and liked by all he meets. He tells Lizzy that Mr. Darcy had cheated from him the fortune that was to be his, and Elizabeth's opinion of Mr. Darcy sinks even lower. She is now determined to hate him.

Meanwhile, Mr. Collins, her cousin, who is to inherit Mr. Bennet's (Elizabeth's father) estate after his death due to his having no other male relation, comes to stay with the Bennets. He is a silly kind of man, empty-headed and tending to make long, tedious speeches. He also thinks very highly of his patron, the Lady Catherine de Bourgh. He has come to pick a wife from among the Bennet daughters. His initial choice is Jane, but after Mrs. Bennet tells him that she is probably to be engaged soon, he starts to favor Elizabeth. He proposes to her but is rejected completely. Instead, he marries Elizabeth's friend, Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte only wants to marry him to financially secure herself; her parents are unable to give her much money after their death. Moreover, she is plain and unlikely to get another marriage proposal.

After Charlotte and Mr. Collins leave for London, Mr. Bingley suddenly departs too, leaving Jane broken hearted. When he does not return for a long time, Elizabeth is convinced that his sisters, who want Mr. Bingley to marry Mr. Darcy's sister, are trying to keep Jane from Mr. Bingley. Jane's health is declining every day, and to improve it, Elizabeth sends Jane away to London to stay with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner.

Elizabeth soon goes to London herself with Charlotte's father and sister to visit her and Mr. Collins. After her being there some time, Mr. Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, come to visit their aunt, who is Lady Catherine de Bourgh. From something that Colonel Fitzwilliam unknowingly revealed, Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy has been the main factor of separating Mr. Bingley and Jane. She grows even more mad at him and hates him even more.

Mr. Darcy reveals his affection for Elizabeth and proposes to her. She refuses him, telling him that she does not like him and accusing him of the deprivation of Mr. Wickham's fortune and of the separation of Mr. Bingley and her sister. He leaves, upset and angry. The next morning she receives a letter from him, revealing that Mr. Wickham was actually the culprit and that he is not at fault. He also explained his motives for separating Mr. Bingley and Jane. Elizabeth was forced to accept the fact that they were true, and, upon some reflection, decided that perhaps she had judged him too harshly.

After some other circumstances (including Elizabeth seeing Mr. Darcy again at his house and estate - Pemberly, and her sister, Lydia, eloping with Wickham and being brought back by Mr. Darcy) Elizabeth realizes that she loves Mr. Darcy and had completely misjudged his character. However, she already rejected him. Does he still love her?

Pride and Prejudice is a novel bursting with richness. It tells us about pride - Mr. Darcy's pride in his money, rank, and social position and Elizabeth's pride in her own quick judgment. Mr. Darcy's pride leads him to have a prejudice against all that are outside his social circle. Elizabeth's pride leads her to form a judgment of Mr. Darcy too quickly and thus be prejudiced against him. They both need each other's help in overcoming this pride and prejudice. The novel also describes how family is important in the education of children. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's negligence results in Lydia's foolish and immoral behavior. However, Jane and Elizabeth have better role models in the Gardiners and so develop better virtues and are more sensible. Also, Mr. Darcy is kind and generous like his father.

It is clear that Jane Austen is against the position of women in her time, when most women had to marry for the sake of securing their finances (like Charlotte Lucas in the book). She believes that, like Elizabeth, women can be as smart and sensible as men.

Overall, I think that this is an absolutely great book and everyone who can read it should. This novel has a lot to teach and everyone can benefit from it. If you don't understand what it is trying to teach you, you'll understand the story. And if you do understand what it's teaching, that's great!

A Torch Against The Night

A Torch Against The Night is an amazing book. It is the sequel to An Ember In The Ashes, written by Sabaa Tahir.

I will not write a more detailed summary because it would be 1) Very hard to write and 2) Really long - about 10 pages, maybe more. Apart from that, any summary wouldn't do this book justice. I will only say that it follows Laia and Elias as they try to save Laia's brother from the most secure prison in the Empire while Martial soldiers hunt them down. This doesn't cover all of it, though.

Like you probably would have guessed by now, I have a very high opinion about A Torch Against The Night (and An Ember In The Ashes). 

The first thing about it is the plot. There is no good book without a good plot. And this book has an amazing plot. It ensnares you and doesn't let you go. It captivates you. You have to finish the book. To hell with the fact that it is more than 400 pages long. You won't be able to sleep before you finish it. 

The next thing is the writing. I need book with good writing. It captivates you as much as the plot. It makes you laugh and cry. And this book made me laugh and cry so much. Well actually it made me cry more than laugh, but still. A Torch Against The Night makes you think about what would happen next. It makes you feel the characters. After reading it for the first time I was thinking about it for months.

I really recommend this book to anyone who is able to get hold of it. Trust me, if you do not read this book, you are missing out on a lot (but you should read An Ember In The Ashes first). When you read this book, all other books will probably feel like they are not that good anymore. It is deep and amazing and hard to digest (for some people). I still cry when I think about it.

Wadi Al Lith

A little less than 200 km southeast from Jeddah (in Saudi Arabia) is a beautiful oasis called Wadi Al-Lith. It is an unusually warm area due to the magma chamber underneath. Unlike the stereotypical oasis, it is not a smallish lake with palm tees and camels around it. It has a large area with many beautiful streams surrounded by thick, lush vegetation. You can see varieties of birds hopping about, dogs lying down, and cows grazing contentedly. There are also camels with their herders, and tiny minnows swimming in the steams.

When we entered Wadi Al-Lith, we immediately saw a heard of camels (with their herder) eating leaves peacefully and drinking water from the stream.

The lush green of the oasis was a breathtaking sight, especially after the harsh beige of the rest of the desert.

A cow grazing in the desert is a pretty surprising thing to most of us, but the cows here seem to love this oasis.

Along with the cows, another unusual occupant of this oasis are the dogs.

This oasis might not seem like a perfect place for a bird, but in fact there are quite a lot of birds to be found here, eating the insects disturbed by the grazing cows. From a woodpecker on the ground-

-and an egret by a stream-

-to a finch and it's nest, the oasis is a pretty good place for birds (in a desert). 

Apart from the animals and birds, there are fish to be found in the streams, too. Tiny flathead minnows, flitting about the stream, are perhaps one of the only fish found inland in the Kingdom.

To me, however, the thing which I like most about Wadi Al-Lith is not the animals, or the fish, or not even the birds. It is the beautiful scenery, the lush green trees and grass, and the beautiful sparkling streams.

At last, we got a final look at the beautiful oasis of Wadi Al-Lith before leaving it.

Wadi Al-Lith is a wonderful and beautiful place, and part of it's beauty is the fact that it is mostly undeveloped. If you get a chance to go and visit it, you really should. 

But please do not throw your trash there. The area has lots of garbage bins provided by the municipality, but they are largely ignored and garbage is thrown almost everywhere. 

Let's keep this area beautiful so more people can enjoy it.   

Harry Potter - The Cursed Child

The Cursed Child is an amazing new play written by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne. It is based upon a series by J.K. Rowling. The very first thing that you need to know about this play is that if you have not read the Harry Potter series first, you should not start on this one.

The Cursed Child takes place when Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow up and have kids. This is some background information: Harry is married to Ginny, and they have three kids- Albus Severus, James, and Lily. Ron has married Hermione and they have two kids- Hugo and Rose. Voldemort is dead in their world and things are running normally. Harry is the head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Ginny is the editor of the sports pages of the Daily Prophet. Hermione is The Minister for Magic while Ron runs the joke shop Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

The Cursed Child is mainly about Albus, Harry’s son. He becomes Scorpius’s best friend. Scorpius Malfoy is Draco Malfoy’s son. Rumor has it that Draco and Astoria – Scorpio’s mom – couldn’t have a son. So they used a Time-Turner to send Astoria back in time. The rumor is that Scorpio is Voldemort’s son. The rumor is not true. So anyways, Albus is Scorpius’s best friend and when they go to Hogwarts, Albus gets sorted into Slytherin. Through the years, Albus gets teased a lot. He has father-son issues.

One night before he goes back to Hogwarts, Albus hears Amos Diggory tell his dad that he heard that the Ministry acquired a Time Turner and that Amos wants to bring Cedric Diggory back. Harry lies and denies the fact that they got a Time Turner at all. When Albus hears this, he gets mad. He wants to save Cedric Diggory. The next day on the Hogwarts Express, he runs away with Scorpio to go to Amos and tells Amos what he wants to do. Amos does not trust them at first, but his niece, Delphini Diggory (they call her Delphi) convinces him.

With Delphi, the two friends steal the Time Turner from Hermione’s office and go back in time to try to save Cedric Diggory. They try the first time and when they go back to their time, things have changed a lot, but Cedric is not saved. The second time when they try and come back, everything is disastrously wrong. After they fix everything and restore their own reality, they decide the Time Turner is too dangerous. They decide that they want to destroy it. They hand over the Time Turner to Delphi and start to discuss ways to destroy it.

Suddenly Scorpio starts having suspicions about Delphi. Why did she never go to Hogwarts? Why did she want to help them? Who was she really? Delphi just laughs and magically binds them. She tells them that she is going to restore the Dark Lord and that they were going to help her to do it. She also tells them that she has spent her whole life on this. She takes their wands and snaps them in half and then she takes them back in time to the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. They try to escape and she breaks the Time Turner.

So now Albus and Scorpio are on their own, stranded in time, and with no way to get back. They do not even have their wands. How will they get back? And who is Delphi really? Because now it is clear that she is not Amos Diggory’s niece. Why is Delphi so obsessed with getting Voldemort back? Reading the book will answer these questions and much more.

I really love this play. Even though I almost cried a couple times in the beginning. Reading this play I feel as if I am right there watching it happen and feeling what the characters feel. It is absolutely wonderful. One important thing I learned in this book is how, even if they are forced apart, the truest of friends will always find a way to be together.

So anyways, happy reading 😊