The book:

“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card

Suggested for:

Anyone who likes intelligent science fiction and plans on seeing the movie this fall.

Clog rating:

While Berkeley is full of intelligent people, some of whom may have even skipped a grade or two, there is nothing quite like the genius of the children in Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game.” It is absolutely incomprehensible to us to imagine being given the responsibility to lead the world’s forces against the aliens at the ripe ol’ age of 11 — but this is exactly what Ender Wiggin is made to do.

Born as the third child into a world with strict birth regulations, Ender is faced with adversity from the get-go. He is purposely bred with the intent of making him the commanding officer that his world so desperately needs. Taken from his family and moved to the spaceship training camp before his seventh birthday, Ender learns quickly that he is on his own, and the teachers surrounding him are only going to push him to try to attain greatness. And Ender delivers. Ascending through the ranks years before the other children, he proves that he may just be worth all of the hope that everyone has placed onto him.

Beside Ender’s story, there are the interesting lives of his brother and sister. Both are as intelligent as Ender but don’t really have a purpose for it. Peter and Valentine make their place in the world apart from Ender and yet always remain motivated by what he has been chosen to do. The interactions between Ender and Valentine serve as the only normal humanizing moments we get with Ender. They try to remind you that these are in fact just children — not even in their teenage years — and yet they are trying to save the world.

As weary as we tend to be about book-to-movie adaptations, the film version of “Ender’s Game” will be hitting theaters in November and looks promising. From what we can glean from the previews, not only are the actors bringing the characters to life in an appropriate way, but the action is sure to be visually stunning. However, as with all movies based on books, we highly recommend reading this novel before seeing the movie. The book is excellent and is sure to make for an interesting movie experience.

Image Source: textbookread under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: prepare yourself for ‘Ender’s Game’ appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Winter is coming. Well, not actually winter, but the end of summer break is quickly approaching, with its ominous threat of class looming in the distance. Not to worry — here are some friendly reminders (and some more here!) of why the end of summer and the start of school are far from the worst things that could happen to you.

1. August and September bring the summer heat — finally. Although May, June and July constitute most of our break from school and are therefore deemed “summer,” the beautiful weather that really should accompany summertime typically makes its appearance in Berkeley beginning in mid-August and lasts through October. While there are certainly warm parts to these earlier months, we’ve all noticed by now that the weather isn’t very sunny majority of the time. But come school time, the gorgeous and highly anticipated sun shall return.

2. School isn’t starting just yet. We understand that the start of August seems to bring with it the cloud of school and the air of urgency of the end of summer. Well, school doesn’t actually start until the very end of August, so there’s plenty of time left to fit in all those summer plans that haven’t quite become reality yet. It can be especially fun if you plan on coming back to Berkeley early and have missed all your favorite places.

3. New classes mean new opportunities. Going back to school doesn’t have to be all bad; it can also bring with it an array of new additions to your life. The start of the semester brings all new classes with some new professors and the possibilities of new friends. Class doesn’t have to be looked at as something that is taking away from the fun aspects of life; rather, they can be seen as something that can add fun opportunities as well.

4. Football! While we understand that not everyone loves football (or really even understands what’s going on), the Cal home games are pretty awesome. Whether it’s the collective excitement at the beginning of every game that results in enthusiastic cheers or the stellar halftime shows put on by the marching band, the games create a sense of school spirit and collective enjoyment that can be extremely hard to come by in a school with more than 35,000 students.

5. Midterms don’t start for a few weeks. Even once school has started again, the time to buckle down and cram before midterms doesn’t surface for at least a few weeks. The start of school can still be filled with exploration and social time after class and on the weekends. Take advantage of the slightly lighter schedule while it lasts.

So while school is drawing near and the end of summer can be seen on the horizon, it does not mean that bad things lie ahead. There is still plenty of summer to be filled and excitement of the new school year to anticipate. And, personally, we can’t wait to have a little more sun around these parts again.

Image Source: ~Wei~ under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post 5 more ways to beat the end-of-summer blues appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The book:

“The Wild Things” by Dave Eggers

Suggested for:

Anyone who loves the children’s book and wishes to add depth to the beloved story.

Clog rating:

“The Wild Things” by Dave Eggers came to be through one of the most confusing lines of conception: This full-length novel is based on the screenplay of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Eggers and Spike Jonze. The screenplay is, of course, based on the children’s book of the same name by Maurice Sendak. Basically, this book is the adult version of one of our favorite books from childhood.

And this novel does not disappoint. Just like the film adaptation, this story gives so much more depth and intricacy to Max and his fantastical experiences with the beasts on their faraway island. While the premise and simplicity of the children’s picture book remains throughout, this adventure explores Max’s troubled home life and illustrates just why it becomes the reason for his initial departure. His snarky sister and her douchebag friends would be enough to convince us that we should sail away too. By delving into Max’s familial relations, both in the real world and with the family of monsters he meets, his character becomes instantly relatable for any person struggling to negotiate their place in the world.

From the moment that Max arrives on the island after an impossibly long journey across the open ocean, the reader is inclined to assume that this is all a figment of Max’s imagination and a temporary reprieve from his reality. However, this assumption gradually changes as you, along with Max, get to know the creatures that inhabit this place. The beasts are given realistic and unique personalities that come to define not only themselves but also how they interact with everyone else. They are so wonderfully conceived and articulated by Eggers that their place in reality becomes hard to question. The relationships that Max forms with these monsters seem just as meaningful and important, if not more so, as those that Max forms with his actual family.

While this book is a very quick read, you still left the book feeling like you have completed an adventure with Max and are sad to see him return to reality without you there beside him. The novel serves to return us to that coveted feeling of childhood innocence and exhilaration with the unexpected encounters of life. Isn’t that what everyone wants out of an excellent book? Just to escape the stresses of college life and sail away on a quest for excitement? This book delivers that in spades.

Image Source: Crossett Library under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: explore where “The Wild Things” roam appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Remember the days when summer signified three months of wonderful nothingness? School was over until August or September, and the warm days stretched on endlessly in front of us, promising way too much relaxation and a whole lot of free time. Alas, by the time we get to college, summers just aren’t the same. The three months become filled with internships, volunteer work, paying jobs and anything else that could be substantially useful to our resumes. So this begs the question: Why add a summer class to that lineup and remove any of the lingering signs of summer? In case you’re weighing your options for next summer (or are just wondering), we’ve come up with some pros and cons:

Pro: The class sizes are usually smaller.While the classes at Berkeley are usually pretty large — typically ranging from about 100 to 600 people, the summer classes are made to accommodate fewer people. Most classes have less than 100 people, and only the basic classes, such as Chem 1A, still fall within a few hundred. The smaller group of students can allow for more engaging discussions that involve the whole class and don’t just consist of a professor orating from the front of a lecture hall. It also means that it is significantly easier to get to know the professor and establish an academic relationship with them.

Con: It can take away that summer feeling. Adding a summer class to your repertoire can stifle even the smallest glint of summertime. Having to attend class in our months off — even if it’s just two or three days a week for a few hours — can make the school year seem never-ending and take away our one time to let our brains take a breather. Summer days don’t seem so carefree when you’re aware that you’ll have to cut activity time short so that you can get to English by 2 p.m.

Pro: It’s a productive use of your time. Just taking one class can serve to lighten the next semester’s course load or remove some of the concerns about graduating on time. It’s commonly used to help complete the requirements of a supplemental minor. It can be especially useful when the prospects of an internship or job are slim and you don’t want to go home to loaf around for three months. Taking a class can be added to a resume just like work experience can.

Con: It can be pretty pricey. Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean that tuition is any less ridiculous. Just taking one class runs typically upwards of $1,000 — not including the cost of living and eating in Berkeley for the summer.

Pro: It can allow for some intellectual exploration. While during the regular school year, most of us are entirely focused on remaining on our intended paths, the summer allows for some freedom in class choice. It seems our duty as students of a fantastic university to branch outside of our comfort zones and explore the multitude of classes offered to us — and the summer is the perfect time to seize that opportunity.

Whether you’re looking at a class out of necessity or just out of interest to fill one of your summers spent here, the classes can be quite rewarding. It can be used as a time for growth as an intellectual and for the creation useful academic relationships. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a death sentence for your fun in the sun, if you can manage your time correctly.

Image Source: Ken Colwell under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The pros and cons of summer classes appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The book:

“Paper Towns” by John Green

Suggested for:

Anyone who enjoys excellent reading and a moving story about discovering yourself and how to understand those around you.

Clog rating:

Regardless of how many years you are now removed from it, there are very few of us who don’t remember the giddy and surreal feelings that accompanied the ending of our high school years. There were so many unknowns and so much to look forward to while still wanting to enjoy every last cliched moment before graduation. Once everyone had left for college, it soon became apparent that most of us didn’t really know the others we went to school with for four years and that we honestly hadn’t even known ourselves. In “Paper Towns,” John Green explores the last-ditch effort of Quentin Jacobsen to understand what exactly makes up the girl he’s loved from afar since his childhood: Margo Roth Spiegelman. As he nears the end of his senior year, Quentin realizes that Margo is such an enigma that no actually knows who she is, and he makes it his mission to find out.

Quentin’s quest takes shape following one unexplainable night of unexpected adventures with Margo. While they’ve lived next door to each other throughout their childhoods and used to spend hours playing, Margo and Quentin haven’t been close in years — not since she became the queen of the monarchy that is the teenage social stratum. But one night she knocks on Quentin’s window and whisks him away for a night that challenges his personal boundaries and makes him realize that everything may just be a little too straight-forward inside their town — like it’s constructed of perfectly cut out paper.

When Margo disappears the day after their escapade, Quentin worries that the seemingly random night may have been her last hurrah before deciding that she couldn’t stand living the cookie-cutter lifestyle anymore. His concern leads him to obscure clues that Margo has left, seemingly hoping that Quentin will be the one to find her — although which state she’s in is unknown. As he races to find her before time runs out on graduation, Quentin not only learns that there is a lot more to the beautiful and elusive girl from next door but that there is a lot more to himself than just being an exceptionally well-adjusted teenager.

Aside from the relatable story of self-discovery, Green makes the book beautiful through his writing. There are countless quotable moments (as proved by their frequency on sites such as Tumblr and Pinterest) that stick with you and bring a sort of profound quality to the story and its characters. Green illustrates insights into the teenage mind and manages to put into perfectly fitting words what most of us felt when we were faced with the end of high school and all the multitudes of unknowns. While not as popular as Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Paper Towns” is a worthwhile read that is just as moving and heartfelt.

Image Source: Alexandra Marie under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: Discover yourself in ‘Paper Towns’ appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Unless you don’t have access to the Internet, a television or old-fashioned gossipy gawkers, you know that a baby boy was born to Prince William and Duchess Catherine on Monday, to the great excitement of the entire world. It seems like an awful lot of frenzy over a baby that is third in line to the throne of one country. (Well, if we want to get technical, it’s actually the Commonwealth Realm, but the average person only recognizes England.) And it’s a throne that, even once ascended, doesn’t really wield much more than traditions and pomp and circumstance. Whether you were waiting anxiously (as we were) to hear whether it would be a prince or princess or couldn’t have cared less, the information outbreak was impossible to avoid.

So why did the birth of just one little human being make it to the front of major news outlet like the BBC and the New York Times? It’s the fantastical nature of it all. It’s a real life prince — like the ones some of us dreamed of marrying or becoming when we grew up. It was released Wednesday that he has been given the moniker His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis. We can feel the class emanating from that child already.

While the obsession with celebrities still baffles us, the mania over the royals far exceeds the collective confusion as to why someone would name their child North or Cricket. William and Kate don’t seem to just be another form of entertainment for the masses but rather embody more of a fairy tale come true — in real life. People don’t watch them to feel better about their own lives (in comparison to the train wreck of some celebrities) or to gawk at their extravagance. They genuinely seem like lovely and classy people who happen to be royal.

So the world stops in wonder and awe to celebrate — on an enormous scale — the arrival of the Prince George, because it seems to be right out of a storybook. While the reality of the world and of most of its leaders is that they only time they are really discussed in the media is in relation to what they’re doing right or wrong, this child is part of a long line that brings us all back to traditions and out of politics. The closest we come to such excitement is whether the Obamas will get another dog, but we know that in three years, there will be some other family whose pet ownership we’re concerned with. Even those of us in Berkeley who couldn’t be further removed from the effects of the royal line in London can feel the wonder at the birth of a boy who, if he turns out anything like his father, will become a real life Prince Charming.

Image Source: gem_106 under Creative Commons.

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post Why all the hubbub for the royal baby? appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The book:

“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind

Suggested for:

Anyone who is looking for a psychologically enveloping novel that makes you sympathize with the murderer (for once).

Clog rating:

Upon viewing the title of this week’s novel, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” some assumptions can be made as to the nature of the story. However, most — if not all — of them are wrong. The main character’s name is not Perfume (it’s actually Jean-Baptiste Grenouille) nor is that the name of any other character in the book. And he doesn’t murder people with some sort of aerosolized poison in perfume form (which is where our minds first went). The story that author Patrick Suskind weaves is much more complicated and intriguing than that.

Grenouille is a man who is born without his own scent. He gives off no odor of any kind, which is made even more impressive by the fact that the novel is set in France right around the time of its first revolution. As the town in Europe with the largest population and subpar bathing habits, everything and everyone of the time stank — but not Grenouille. This anomaly is made up by his inhuman sense of smell. He can not only take in the everyday scents that the rest of the populace can, but he can pick apart what his nose takes in, decomposing it into the smallest units of odor and the most basic elements of smell.

From his childhood onward, Grenouille becomes enraptured by the countless smells that he can discern and sets out to build an encyclopedic knowledge of all of these pieces. His turning point occurs when he encounters a smell that makes him feel emotion for the first time. While before this instance he had never experienced any sort of real feeling for anything other than revulsion at some of the stinks surrounding Paris, the girl that he comes across slicing plums brings him to his knees and makes him desperate for more. He realizes that true happiness lies within the perfect scent given off by this girl.

The rest of the novel unfolds the tumultuous journey of Grenouille. It follows him through his initial training in perfumes with the bumbling master Baldini — training that only serves to heighten Grenouille’s desire to acquire more knowledge. As he departs, he manages to take a seven-year rest in a cave on a mountainside to escape the persistent odor of other humans. The realization that he possesses no scent of his own drives him onward to the town of Grasse, where master perfumers are made. Here he begins his process to elicit the perfect odor from the most beautiful girl in town.

The constant juxtaposition of the innocence of Grenouille’s intentions and his resulting murderous actions make for very interesting and quick reading. The narrator lends himself to Grenouille’s perspective, which allows the reader to actually believe that he or she understands why Grenouille does the terrible things that he does. We should also mention that the ending of this book is quite unlike anything we’ve ever read (or probably will ever read again) and definitely induces the shock factor.

Image Source: Danica Steinhauser under Creative Commons.

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: Inhale ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’ appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Ah, Facebook — that ever-present part of our lives that serves to ensure us that we have access to the constantly updated information of what everyone we know is doing at all times. It’s hard to picture life without Facebook these days — it has become so ingrained in our generation’s culture. Who wouldn’t tell you that it is absolutely common practice to almost immediately virtually stalk that cute guy you talked to in class via Facebook? Or comb through an ex’s pictures to see what he or she is up to (and hope that it’s lame)? Or just get lost for some inordinate amount of time scrolling through your news feed catching up on the unimportant facets of everyone’s lives? While it’s nice to be able to see what that girl that you were kind of lunch buddies with for half of third grade is doing with her winter break, it just seems a bit unrealistic that everyone connected to you on Facebook is actually your friend. Do we all really care what the people we went to junior high and high school with are doing now that we’ve finally escaped most of them? This is both the upside and the downfall of our friendliest foe, Facebook.

Facebook has become the go-to form of social communication. Almost all party invites are sent out through it as well as invitations to important events. The element of human contact has been all but lost in the creation of events. Rather than waiting for RSVP notes or calls, you can just check how many of your friends have clicked “attending.” While this saves a ton of time and money, we can’t help but be a bit nostalgic for the rush of excitement that would accompany receiving mail that was sure to hold a beautiful invitation inside. The fanfare isn’t quite the same when you see a notification pop up.

However, these days it seems that there may be a growing realization that virtual life is not all it’s cracked up to be. More and more people are deactivating themselves and reinserting themselves into reality. Maybe people are finally fed up with the constant flow of seemingly useless information that absorbs so much of their time. Or maybe it’s an attempt by some to further their hipster cred by removing themselves from Facebook — before it’s cool. Either way, it’s too soon to tell if maybe the novelty of Facebook and all of the information that it brings are just not as interesting anymore, and we’re making our way back to the old-fashioned ways — you know, texting and tweeting and the like.

Image Source: Dave Rutt under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The faults of living in the Facebook era appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The book:

“The Year of the Flood” by Margaret Atwood

Suggested for:

Anyone who enjoys both pre- and post-apocalyptic stories in the same novel.

Clog rating:

Everyone knows that there are countless stories about the end of human society and what would happen in its aftermath. To find one that rises above the rest and forges its own place among the many is unique and quite satisfying. In her MaddAddam trilogy, Margaret Atwood attempts to do just that and, in our opinion, has succeeded with flying colors in her first two installments. The second, “The Year of the Flood,” gives the backstory of how the different strata within society found themselves just before it all was devastated by a catastrophic plague that left the world in ruin (as is explored in the first novel, “Oryx and Crake”). In this novel, Atwood manages to tell a whole new story that ensnares the reader while bringing to light and explaining some of the questions raised in the previous book.

The story mainly follows two women, Toby and Ren, who have managed to survive the “flood” of plague that seems to have decimated the rest of the visible world. Their dual narrations alternate between updates of the present and explanations of their pasts and how they came to arrive at their current state. Both stories revolve around the fanatical religious sect that calls itself The Gardeners. Each of the girls’ stories has been radically altered by their interaction and reliance on the religious community and its leader, Adam One, at different times in their lives.

The Gardeners stand for an extreme return to the basics. They adamantly reject all of the technological advances that have become so commonplace for the time and strive for self-sustainability, regardless of how that makes the public view them. The novel is broken up by the occasional motivational speech from Adam One in celebration of some sort of sacred holiday of their creation, always accompanied by a long and unsatisfying hymn. Although they are seen as outsiders and regarded as weirdos by the whole of common society, they are also quite accepting and wish to extend their aid to all who require it, as long as they can at least feign some faith in the cause.

The story takes the reader through the tragedy and the aftermath. It also manages to pull in pieces from the previous installation (also highly recommended reading) and have them make sense in the scheme of what has previously taken place. Toward the end of the novel, the story meets up with the end of the last book and provides just enough new information to pull in the reader and make him or her desperate for the final book — set to be released later this summer.

Image Source: Friends Shop of the Greenville County Library under Creative Commons.

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: Experience ‘The Year of the Flood’ with Atwood appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The book:

“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

Suggested for:

Anyone who loves video games and would love to know what it’s like to basically live within one. Or anyone who appreciates 1980s pop culture references.

Clog rating:

While books are our virtual reality of choice, video games provide a welcome escape for multitudes of people from the monotony of everyday life. To outsiders of the gaming world, the endless amount of technical jargon and infinite virtual adventures can seem daunting (some might even say boring). But in “Ready Player One,” Ernest Cline manages to write a story that takes place almost exclusively within a virtual game and is still incredibly enticing and continually enthralling.

Set about three decades in the future, the novel finds itself in the aftermath of the basic collapse of society due to the energy crisis and resulting crash of the economy. While this story is set in the future, it is by no means difficult to imagine what that world must be like and how it came to be that way. The protagonist is 17-year-old Wade Watts — his name being a shout-out to the similarly named superheroes of comic books. Wade’s reality is harsh, and it doesn’t seem like he’s got many opportunities for improvement. However, his savior takes the form of the largest online reality ever created, the OASIS. Once he puts on his visor and hepatic gloves, he can be someone else — someone who might have a chance of improving his circumstances.

The story revolves around the hunt for a legendary Easter egg hidden inside the game by its creator. This egg gives the finder the entirety of creator James Halliday’s multibillion dollar fortune and the controlling share of the company that runs the OASIS. To a guy like Wade, who barely scrapes together enough to eat, this is quite the opportunity. But the task is daunting — there are thousands of worlds that exist in the OASIS and just a brief limerick to start you on your quest.

To be able to find the keys that unlock the three gates guarding the egg, the players have to intensely study and research Halliday’s life and interests. Most of these revolve around Halliday’s obsession with the 1980s. Tasks include beating multiple rudimentary video games from the decade and being able to personally act out entire movies — like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” The hardest part of the search is dealing with the millions of people who act as competition — one of which is an incredibly powerful corporation that clearly has no qualms with going as far as murder to ensure it wins.

Cline creates an incredibly complex virtual world that can be appreciated by the biggest of gaming nerds and an endearing character whose personal growth and struggle bring a sense of pride to the reader. He navigates the complexities of our changing society and how our online lives are slowly replacing human contact but also illustrates that the most important relationships and the greatest changes can only be enacted in real life. This book is definitely a must-read, especially if you’re up on your ’80s culture and can appreciate the multitude of references sprinkled throughout the novel.

Image Source: Belio MGZ under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

The post The Book Nook: Join the OASIS in ‘Ready Player One’ appeared first on The Daily Californian.