Staircase Wit

Four siblings are promised a huge amount of money from a trust fund, which they will receive once the youngest of them celebrates her 40th birthday. They call this fund 'The Nest', and they have always been impatient to receive it. Then one day, the siblings are shocked to find out that most of the money is gone because of the eldest brother's scandal. This is an intelligent and witty story about a dysfunctional family, a reflection of how people can get lazy and unimaginative when they feel that huge amounts of money is their birthright. This is a story filled with selfish, greedy, but interesting characters. While the characters are not particularly likeable, the novel is a pleasure to read.  

Super happy with my new Onyx Boox Nova 3, which lets me do the following without the glare of normal cellphone, tablet, and computer screens: 1. Read ebooks; 2. Read the news; 3. Browse websites, especially those with lengthy text; 4. Access the content of my Scribd and Kindle Unlimited subscription; 5. Jot down notes; 6. Annotate on PDFs; and 7. Download Android apps. So yes, you can access your email, your files on Google Drive, etc. It's about the size of an iPad Mini. It does everything a tablet does, but it feels like you're reading on paper.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, and President Coriolanus Snow's origin story. While the Hunger Games trilogy showed us the life of a teenager from District 13, Ballad offers the perspective of an ambitious and self-entitled teenager who grew up in the Capitol, bitter and disgruntled because his family lost all their money after the districts' First Rebellion. Coriolanus Snow is a complicated and interesting antihero. He is calculating, but he somehow still has a moral compass. He always thinks ten steps ahead, but he can still fall in love. While there are so many other characters from the Hunger Games trilogy with more colorful back stories, The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes is still an entertaining read. Worth reading if you're a fan of the trilogy.