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A Guide to Coming Up with Creative Titles            By Andrea Li  The title of an essay or book is always the first thing the reader will read, making it extremely important to come up with a catchy, creative title to draw the reader in. The title should make the reader want to know more! I think we have all been there, getting to the end of an essay and seeing the word “Title” centered at the top of the page. After all the work on the essay, we then have no idea what to put at the top to summarize our writing and give it a name. Here are two steps to help come up with a great title! 1. Brainstorm a list of possible ideas.       Write down all the titles that come to mind, regardless of whether they are good or not. It will be helpful to think about the underlying theme of the essay or book, symbolic settings, events, or objects, and also particularly interesting phrases or lines that come up. The title will spark more curio...

 By Ankita Bhargava Contains minor spoilers for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit A book that you've probably heard of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Another book that you may have heard of the Hobbit . A book that you may not have heard of is the Silmarillion . The Silmarillion is a collection of stories written by JRR Tolkien about the world of Lord of the Rings , but edited and compiled into a cohesive story after his death. The book contains stories such as the creation myth of Middle-Earth, Sauron's predecessor Morgoth as well as some explanations for things that happen in Lord of the Rings, such as who Gandalf really is, and how the rings of power were created. However, you don't need to have any knowledge whatsoever of either the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit to read the Silmarillion ! The book is able to stand on its own, with a distinct plot and storyline. The book doesn't reference anything from either the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit , so...

By Rose Benjamin NOTE: This post contains major spoilers from Serafina and the Black Cloak and the three other books in that series by Robert Beatty. The Serafina series by Robert Beatty takes place near Asheville, North Carolina in 1899. It tells the story of Serafina, a young girl with unknown parents who lives, secretly, in the basement of the Biltmore Estate mansion. The appearance of a man in a black cloak that regularly swallows people led Serafina to save the estate's children from something sinister and discover her own true identity in the process. In the second and third books, Serafina, along with a growing number of allies, battles similar enemies and weapons. Each main character has a very different personality, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze some of them based on their actions throughout the series. Serafina Serafina is, of course, the main character in the series. At the beginning, she wonders what has become of her mother. Her father-- her foster f...

 Abaddon's Gate - James S.A. Corey Contains spoilers for The Expanse books 1 and 2 By - Karl Vu Abaddon's Gate  is book 3 in James S.A. Corey's The Expanse  series. The Expanse is a sci-fi space opera takes place in the future where humanity has colonized almost every single planet and some asteroids and dwarf planets in the solar system. To explain Abaddon's Gate , I need to give a short summary of what happened in books 1 and 2. In book 1, Leviathan Wakes , our main character Jim Holden and his crew help a rogue detective throw the once populated asteroid Eros, now infected with an alien molecule, into Venus. In book 2, Caliban's War , Holden and his crew, a Martian soldier, and scientist find a group of people on the moon Ganymede using the alien molecule to infect children and change them into super soldiers. Holden and the martian soldier break a bunch of the kids out and nuke Ganymede into oblivion. In Abaddon's Gate , we find out that the alien molecule t...

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything  By Andrea Li Photographic memory ( noun ) : the ability to remember information or visual images in great detail. Whether it’s from a book or movie character, you have probably wondered if photographic memory actually exists. Can people really take “pictures” in their mind and remember everything?  In Moonwalking with Einstein , the author, Joshua Foer recounts his time as a journalist covering the USA Memory Championships. As he interviews the expert mnemonists about how their memorization works, he is surprised to hear one contestant claim that the memories of all mental athletes are “quite average.” They, like the rest of us, forget why they walked into a room, or where they put the car keys. Yet how could a normal person memorize a deck of playing cards in less than a minute, and be able to recite that same deck ten years later backwards?   With the help of a skilled mnemonist Ed, Josh lear...