Title: Cinder 
by: Marissa Meyer

Book Summary: 
If you don't know much about cyborgs or Lunars before reading this book, you're not alone.  But you will fully understand who they are & why their identity is so important in this post WW IV world, set in New Bejiing. Cinder, adapted from the original fairy tale of Cinderella, is a mechanic who is forced to live with her unkind stepmother & two stepsisters.  Her world is crazy, as letumosis (a worldwide illness) threatens to wipe out everyone, including her & her family. It's a pandemic similar to coronavirus, but with more fatalities. 
Cinder is resentful toward her stepmother and planning her escape the night of the prince's coronation ball. But she ends up meeting the prince and even kindling a relationship with him,as he makes efforts to convince her to come to his ball. She is determined not to make an appearance until she learns that there is some vital information Prince Kai needs before making a decision about uniting his kingdom with Queen Levana (who is Lunar.) 
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Quotes: 
"It was made out to be some sort of honor, giving your life for the good of humanity, but it was really just a reminder that cyborgs were not like everyone else. Many of them had been given a second chance at life by the generous scientists & therefore owed their very existence to those who had created them." 



My Rating: 5! (even though the cyborg & technology bit/SCI-FI genre were weird at points.)

Title: Atomic Habits
Favorite Quotes/Passages: 



My Rating: 5/5! This book was INCREDIBLE & helped me shift my mindset when it comes to setting goals vs. forming habits. 

Title: American Spy,  by: Lauren Wilkinson 

Summary: 
Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer working for the FBI in 1986, so it's during the Cold War. She wants to be a lot like her older sister, also a fed, who got conscripted into the army at a young age, with dreams of being a spy. Marie has a lot of qualities that land her a job to undermine Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, who is mostly a Communist. It gets tricky when she actually falls in love with him though, & she will do anything to spare his life. ...but it might be too late.
This book successfully weaves together the themes of racism, family & politics. 

Quotes: 
"It was like he saw a version of you that was superior to the version you saw of yourself. It was very generous. And it was inspiring, that reminder of the better angels of your nature."  

"If they don't want you, don't fight their wars. 
It's that easy, huh?" (Marie to her sister Helen about working in intelligence.) 

"Democracy isn't a thing you conform a society to. We can't just import a system from the West. Real democracy has to develop in response to the needs of that society."  


My Rating: 
4.5/5 out of 5 (it was a pageturner! Fairly clean & not much language.)