John's Reading Reviews

  *SPOILER ALERT      Mr. Penumbr as 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan has received a lot of praise from many different publications and is also a New York Times bestseller. The story follows the perspective of Clay Jannon, a website designer who lost his j ob at a startu p due to the Great R ecession. While trying to find another job so that he can pay his bills, Clay stumbles on a For Hire sign in the window of a bookstore. Upon entering, Clay meets Mr. Penumbra, the eccentric owner of the bookstore who hires him to work the night shift. Although there weren’t many customers, Clay did start to notice some weird things going on in the store. Penumbra instructed him to take meticulous notes on anyone who comes into the store and the people who do come often come at random times and seem to be in a hurry for the next book from the “ waybacklist ” ; which makes up the majority of Penumbra’s store. Over time, Clay starts to unravel the secrets of the bookstore, an...

View on Vocaroo >> My name is John Moreno, and I believe in the little things . While most people like to talk about all the big things or trips that they went on, and how rewarding an experience it ended up being, I always find myself finding more meaning in the little things . When I talk about the little things I’m referring to the small experiences along the way, that usually make the big things meaningful. For example, I went to Mackinac Island over the summer. And rather than remembering the big parts of the trip, the things that stuck with me were more common, like finding a place with a cool view of the water to just sit and relax , or even just playing catch on a grassy area right next to the marina. Even when I’m not on vacation, a lot of the memories that I have of the summer also revolve around the little things , like relaxing on the beach, hanging out with friends, and even driving around late at night. My point with all of this is that, to me , w hat ma...

  The Literacy Project was a considerable success, although I had to make some changes to my original plan. Originally, I planned to create an Instagram account and post different book suggestions, but as we only had two weeks to do the p roject, I did not think that an account would be able to garner a large enough following for the idea to have any impact. So, to ensure that the campaign reached the largest number of people possible, I decided to create posters that I placed around the sch ool in high-traffic locations . This means that all that people have to do is look at the poster and read it. To do this, I made the poster as eye - catching as possible, with a bright red background that stands out from the mostly maroon and white color scheme of the other posters around it.     The poster itself talked about all of the good parts of reading for fun and how it can also translate into reading for school. it talked about how the main reason that school book...