Parallel Book Review

Parallel by Lauren Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Parallel by Lauren Miller © 2013
Release date May 14, 2013
 Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Teen
 Abby just got for a major Hollywood film and regrets missing her final days as a senior and the beginning of freshman year at Northwestern. The night before her 18th birthday she falls asleep only to wake up the next day at Yale living her parallels life.
Our central character Abby is an insecure, methodical, critical, wish-washy teenager. Not all at once, however these do seem to be her central traits. I had a hard time liking her only because most of the time she was a bit high-brow, but then after showed the weakness of a teenager. Yes she is a teen, but like most teens they think they are little adults and have most everything figured out if it all falls to plan. In knowing that she is a teen and with credit to Miller for accurately portraying that, Abby was easier to handle, just not likable. The only characters worth a damn are her Yale roomy Marissa and astronomy professor Dr. Mann.
What Dr Mann proposes is that in a parallel world we may take a different journey, but all roads lead to a final destination. In the story that chapters go from year 2008 to year 2009, with the parallel a year before and the next being the result Abby experiences a year after. The timeline is very important, some may have a hard time following the timeline, but if you pay close attention to the dates it’s straightforward.
The lure of the book is the sci-fi aspect of worlds colliding and the stars and ideas of multiple universes. That all get pushed aside for teenage melodrama and the struggle of choosing which brother to date and supermodel gorgeous yet brainiac best friend. On the whole this is more like a teenage soap opera with a sci-fi element thrown in and used only as a means to rack up the drama and make it seem more insightful. That could only mean I liked it. They say you should never underestimate the knowledge of a teenager, but I can’t help but feel that this is something that would appeal mostly to an under 23 crowd. It is enjoyable just not praiseworthy.


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Carls Jr Jim Beam Burger Review

Finally caved in and bought a Carls Jr. Six Dollar Burger mostly because I had a coupon for BOGO. Apparently you have options at CJ when you buy a burger. You can get a regular version, double patty, or a Six Dollar which means the use Angus beef. The coupon is not a buy one get one of equal or lesser value, rather it is buy one and get the cheapest version free.

I was under the illusion that if I bought a Six Dollar I would get another Six Dollar for free, but no they gave me the regular version. The only person I should blame is myself, it may have said that on the coupon.

Six Dollar Burger

This is the Six Dollar burger and it was how much? Guess.

Base price $5.49                                Tax Price $6.12

The whole premise of these burgers was supposed to be that you get a restaurant quality six dollar burger for less than 6 bucks. Oh Well.

Regular Jim Beam Burger

When I first opened both burgers I couldn’t see a difference. They are both the same circumference and appear to have the same amount of fixings.Both Burgers are dressed in Jim Beam BBQ sauce, French fried onions, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and bacon. Both burgers appeared to have the same sesame seed bun.

Both burgers only contained one piece of bacon. Call me stingy, but they could've put 2 slices of bacon on the Six Dollar version.

Regular version on left
Six Dollar version on right

When cut in half you can more clearly see the difference in the 2 burgers. The Six Dollar version has a thicker patty and was dressed with more crispy onions. The bun on the premium version is also a bit thicker. They put 2 tomato slices on the quality version, whereas the regular version only got 1. Also the Six Dollar burger had 2 slices of cheese and regular had 1.

Taste

The Six Dollar version does have the better tasting Angus beef and with the thicker patty was a better burger. The bun on the premium version was good and sturdy, but still fluffy to the bite. Must mention that the thickness of the bun may be attributed to extra yeast, noticed a more yeasty flavor in that bun than the regular bun.

In both burgers you are overwhelmed with the Jim Beam BBQ sauce. Very sweet and a bit spicy. The spice was mellow; you can taste it and get a slight sting to the lip, however it won’t put off those who don’t prefer spicy. The spice is very mild. Not a hint of bourbon was detected in the sauce. My guess is that they put in a teaspoon per 40oz.

The only things you can really taste in the burger are bread, meat, sauce, and onions. Everything else cancels out to the onion and sauce. I write this more than four hours after and am still burping up onion flavor.

Overall I did really like the burger, but I would just make it again on my own and alter the portion of dressing.                                                                    

4 out of 5

Book Review

Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So to start off, the only reason I wanted to read this book is because of True Blood. The man on TB that played Marcus Bozeman (Dan Buran) played Steve Dark in the videos. This is not the typical sort of book I would pick up, but I do like twisted stories. The writing isn’t terrible like some seem to think. There are plenty of literary figures who write worse than this and I enjoyed the book, story, plot, characters. I suppose it was a bit cliché and there were major errors that one could point out, but it was enjoyable. My only gripe with the book was the videos. They weren’t necessary to the novel. Most of the videos weren’t even accurate. Example Cyber Bridge 3 with the Dark Arts agents wearing masks even though he already knows what they look like. Bridge 15, just after she was abducted and was wearing pajamas on the table and looked completely unharmed although she just came from a car wreck which required multiple surgeries and minutes before he cut her face. You don’t need to watch the videos. I will pass on the rest of the series, but I am glad to have read it, because it was entertaing.

View all my reviews

Sleeping Beauty Trilogy

Beauty's Punishment

Best chapter "Soldier's Night at the Inn".