Books

Book 23: The Titan’s Curse – Rick Riordan

In book three of the Percy Jackson and the Olypmians series, everything starts out as quickly as in the other novels. Grover has been following up on a couple of potential half-bloods at a military academy and needs Percy and Thalia’s help. He also brings along Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, who sacrificed herself to make sure Luke and Annabeth could get to camp, but was rescued from the tree by the Golden Fleece.

The two half-bloods are Nico and Bianca di Angelo. Little is known about them and as the story progresses Riordan drops little hints that they have some how fallen out of time for a long period of time, such as asking Bianca who the president before last was and she says Roosevelt. They are able to get Bianca and Nico from the school, but Bianca is offered to join the Huntresses of Artemis and accepts the position abandoning her brother to Camp Half-Blood. In the process however Annabeth disappears and is ultimately held hostage by the Titan Atlas. She takes the weight of the sky on her shoulders to supposedly save Luke, but this doesn’t work. The goddess Artemis is later tricked into taking the sky from Artemis.

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Books

Book 22: The Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan

This is the second novel in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and was just as exciting and as quick a read as the first book. With the beginning of this book the reader finds Grover on his search to find the legendary Pan, god of the wild, and Percy trying to survive yet another school year in the mortal world. Giants attack Percy and he discovers that his friend over this past year is a cyclops named Tyson, whom we later find out is his half brother when Poseidon claims him similar to the way he claimed Percy.

As they make their way to camp, they find out how much things have changed and how dangerous the world has become for half-bloods. Luke, a son of Hermes, has poisoned the sacred pine tree and the camp’s protections are slowly fading. Meanwhile, a full grown, incredibly dangerous cyclops holds Grover captive, and also has in his possession the legendary Golden Fleece. We discover that Grover bound himself to Percy so that if he dies so does Percy creating a greater sense of urgency.

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Books

Book 21: The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan

What an intriguing novel. It is the first book in a series of five novels in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. I have wanted to read this book since I first heard they were making it into a film. I did not realize at the time what sort of novel it was, who it was geared towards or the more specifics of the series, but I liked the general idea of it.

In this first novel of the series we meet a host of mythological characters and find out that the gods of Olympus and all of their connections remain alive. This is the story of Perseus (Percy) Jackson and the other Heroes who are half-bloods, half-god half-mortal. The reader is quickly thrown into the action when a teacher/monster attacks Percy and he realizes that he is not like other kids his age. Fast forward to where Percy and his mom encounter his best friend Grover (a satyr) at their rented beach house and the story gets fully underway.

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Quotes

Quote from US History for Dummies – Steve Wiegand

“Dark and imposing, with eyes that glowed like coals and a deep but pleasing voice, Webster spoke for hours.” – 137

Quotes

Quote from The History Boys – Alan Bennett

“Can you, for a moment, imagine how depressing it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude? History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.”