hi everyone! i just got my MCAT score back today and need help with my school list. i'm also debating whether or not I should apply this cycle or retake the MCAT. here are my stats:
GA resident. Asian F. GPA: 4.0. MCAT: 512 (scored lower than 519 FL avg) :/
- Research: 1500+ hours (worked in 2 separate labs, 1 publication, 3 poster presentations, ongoing project with upcoming senior thesis)
- Clinical: 300+ hours (MA over the summer at primary care office in my hometown, volunteering in hospitals and specialist offices in college town)
- Shadowing: 200+ hours with family med, OB-GYN, dermatologist NP, neurologist, and vascular surgeon
- Community service and leadership: 700+ hours (most of my hours are for a leadership position in a service org, the rest is with volunteering with the homeless population and mentoring/tutoring elementary and middle school students in my college town)
- TA: completed 200 hours as a peer mentor for Honor college students & anticipated 200 hours TA for intro to Biochem class
- Award/Honors: Phi Beta Kappa, President's Gold Volunteer Service award, undergrad research scholarship from university
Family ties to CA, TX, NY, VA, MA, and FL. Prefer to stay in-state or in the Southern US close to family or to any of the states listed previously :) I'm interested in OB-GYN, surgery, or primary care so I want to keep my options open. This is a very rough school list, and I'd like to narrow it down to feasible 20-30 schools!
MD: Emory, MCG/Augusta, Mercer, Morehouse, South Alabama, UAB, MUSC, USC (South Carolina - Columbia or Greenville), UNC, Wake Forest, FIU, FAU, UMiami, Nova Southeastern MD, UCF, UF, USF, Eastern Virginia, VCU, Virginia Tech, Albany, Albert Einstein, New York Medical College, Rochester, Kaiser, Loma Lima, UCSD, UCLA, UCSF, Tufts, Rosalind Franklin, Loyola Stritch, Rush, George Washington, Georgetown, Howard, Dartmouth, Tulane
Reaches: Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Mt. Sinai, Harvard
DO: PCOM (GA campus), VCOM, LECOM, Nova Southeastern DO
Thank you so much, everyone!
Note: I make fun of books and authors, so if you really can’t take being poked at, Spindle Manor will do the poking for you with their long, sexy legs.
Table of Contents: ctrl + f:
Updates: #
Stats: ^
Recs: *
Conclusion: @
Answers: ~
Theme: Ö
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Welcome back to Reviewless Review Recs of May! A short introduction to this post: Every book is recommended, regardless of how bad it is or not. You have the brain capacity to decide if you like it or not, don’t let a stranger make a decision for you. I speak in the second POV and describe what the book is actually about, and not the false advertising of publishing companies. I do this with shitty jokes and satire and try to convince you to pick up the book, regardless of how I feel about it. Unlike Hoover, all books deserve a chance….Sigh, OK, fine, fine, Barbara. Even….Even...Eleventh Cycle. ARE YOU HAPPY, NOW, B- ___________________________________
May:
May was filled with disappointment that a jury vote existed and the king of Finland didn’t win Eurovision. The world unanimously cried, but couldn’t be that mad that Loreen won.
Except this bitch.
I fucking wanted Alika to win
so badly. I even voted and paid for the first time to give all my votes to her. Her song spoke to me and touched me that it’s never too late to go back to my work.
If Bomanz from
Black Company can become a famous sorcerer at his rickety age, maybe we can too!
My favorites of Eurovision (from music videos only, I feel like every one of my favs bombed someway except Finland, France, and Norway):
Estonia France Austria Czechia (wtf was that live performance...) Finland
In ACTUAL book news, I’ve been waiting patiently for the library to hand me the newest Mark Lawrence book that I’ve been waiting literally 3 and a half weeks now, but I still get bumped down on Libby...for some reason. Eh.
Also since I managed to finish “She Who Rides the Storm”, I
finally started “Elantris”
. Was a long time coming but was saving it for a while and thought it was finally time to tackle Sanderson. I started
Way of Kings with the paperback version and boy, that was a mistake for my ADHD…
And, that’s why I got a Kindle last year.
Anywho, let’s get started!
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Some Updates: #
- I started comparing last month’s stats with this month, just to see how everything is progressing cause I like working with numbers!
- As requested by a user, I have made the recs longer
- At the end of each Rec, I put a theme song that I thought fit each book appropriately. You can tell how much I loved Eurovision this year.
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Stats: ^ Books read this month: 10 (+3)
Books I started: 13 (=)
Total amount of words I read (approx): 1,050,508 (-414,261,565)
according to last month...I read way more. Not sure why the numbers are this drastic Books published 2010+ : 8 (N/A)
Mary Sues & John Smiths: 11, give or take (7+)
YA books: 5 (+4)
Good smut scenes: 1 (+1?)
I think it was in the Witcher, say what you will about the series, the man knows how to write smut Light Novels read: 0 (-2)
Books that felt Souls-like: 6 (+2)
Audiobooks: 4 (N/A)
How many brain cells I lost: 529 (+500)
Brain cells gain: 175 (N/A)
What other stats do you guys want to see?
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Guessing Game: Want to know the real rating I gave each of these books anyway, even though the true spirit of this post is to decide for yourself anyway? I know there’s one of you fuckers in here, but here, guess the ratings and the answers are revealed at the end. You anarchist, you.
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Reviewless Review Recs: \*
Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb: Read if you're in the ages 14-18, as this is possibly the most edgiest thing you might read about fictional Italy. Two teens are trying to solve a murder mystery in an alternate universe where Catholicism reigns supreme. Wait.
As an adult, this is a living personification of
that one prozd video.
If you ever played Phoenix Wright, you’ll figure out the murderer in 5 seconds. If you haven’t, then maybe this would come as a surprise.
Atheism is talked about on the nose, you can't stop thinking about “Friends” because of "Roz" being mentioned every other second, and our intrepid MC goes to horny jail every other second when she's literally fighting for her life and not focusing on a gun that could disembowel her.
PTSD of war is represented by the male MC who probably once could have been the trope of the “nice guy” in school that you never had interest in, but 3 years later, because he sported 5 o’ clock shadow and has a baritone voice, he’s automatically hot.
Oh, and there are token bi, POC, and elderly people, but they’re only mentioned for a few pages, so don’t expect that much diversity. You think Archer, Maas, and Lobb could actually be friends with each other given how they write their books. A secret society.
cough
Ö Theme: Heat Waves – Lime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOokFwrmri4 Ö Runner up clip: Moist maker (this sandwich is actually GOAT, made it several times): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9FG4kg8HNU ___________________________________
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman : Read if Percy Jackson wasn’t edgy and dark enough for you and need something similar. Uniorinically, this is actually not satire but an actual (sorta) rec. Structure is similar to Jackson but with none of the jovial themes and tropes. Think “Lightning Thief”, only dark and edgy with grotesque monsters and, not urbanite Greek deities, but evil people from the Crusades era.
You keep thinking you’ll meet the 4th character in the Sanderson reunion tour, but there’s actually only 3 characters that are on this journey, not 4. So that Italian will actually
not join us even though you liked his character a ton and curse at yourself at a potential LGBT partner dude. One day.
You will also find yourself crying, not because of how the story ended, but how the epilogue ended and boot up AO3 to fix everything.
You probably should(n’t) give this book to your aunt for reasons you know in the back of your mind but your evil AF. Maybe offer this to at Christmas and explain that it’s a book about a pilgrimage...(which isn’t totally wrong) but you’re a little bastard that is gonna get an ass whopping next Christmas, but it’ll be worth it.
Ö Theme: Alika- Bridges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO9g5t3VSuw ___________________________________
Time of Contempt (Volume (???)) by Andrzej Sapkowski (Witcher) Read if you want to see Geralt turn into a woke ally Boomer, Yennefer going to relationship counseling, and Ciri gets her wish in more ways than one. If you’re comparing Witcher books with each other, quality has gone up since
Blood of Elves if that’s what you’re concerned about. We also see the Abyss Watchers making an appearance and then you think of Jerma’s Rat song in your head for inexplicable reasons.
This book is mostly about Yennefer trying to employ questionable (albeit understandable) parenting tactics on Ciri and being caught up in the after math.
As usual, book is dated towards rape, but the only saving grace is it’s “off screen” and not in your
face, “Eleventh Cycle”, knock that shit off Let’s be real, you can’t treat this series as a separate unique book to it’s own, it’s more of a long ass story that Sapkowski decided for marketing reasons to space it out in 300+ page books.
If you ask me what makes this more interesting than the previous books, it will be like asking me which regional orange looks different and bitch, I don’t got energy for that shit.
Ö Theme:
Rats Birthday Mixtape ___________________________________
The Curse of the Spectre Queen / The Rise of the Snake Goddess by Jenny Moke Read if you like to imagine Indiana Jones as a teenage girl, but loves books. Instead of meeting hot girls, we meet hot 1920s men, which you get to decide how good or bad that is.
The BAMF slays and you wish we had her as our Jones instead of our shy book loving MC, but hey, at least this MC has at least
one quality to her that has way more personality that anything Shannon can hope to write in her stories. (Yes I know she writes her books as if they were history books, that’s not the point, Meredith)
Spectre Queen’s plot is literally about another book that will make you hug trees and will lead our characters across to Ireland. The next book is about a girdle, that you literally had to Google wtf a girdle was. You first thought it was a grill.
You wonder if the publishing agency struck a deal with the Irish and Crete travel agencies.
You also make a startling discovery that these characters are your OC from high school and middle school and your love interest OC from college mashed up into an adventure book that is oddly less erotic than anything Maas could create. You get to decide how good or bad that is.
Ö Theme: Indiana Jones Theme Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog ___________________________________
Mordew by Alex Pheby Read if you want to read an MC
bland as hard tack inherit powers that don’t make sense till past the 70% mark. You want to read a dark
YOUTH ADULT novel. Can’t find anything that’s edgy and dark enough for you? Well, here it is!
Dark mansion with Igor from the Velvet Room
with an obvious villain being obvious, befriending a young boy that supposedly wants the best for him.
What can go wrong?
There are Souls-like elements weaved in, but you’re not going to see much of it. It’s mostly a vibe/fart than a plot or atmosphere.
What this book is pretty much: boy wants to help dad, there are weird monsters living in the mud, and a mansion that totally wants to abduct/help kids. Totally. Oh, and be aware, animals die in this book. A lot. An entire species is pretty much annihilated for teenage hormonal reasons that won’t make sense even if you’re still a teen. (Yes, I was one too and I also didn’t go on genocides. Thanks, Dad, you are a gem.). Oh, and someone fucked an anthropomorphized hedgehog along the way. Yeah. That happened.
If you go into this book,
DO NOT READ THE BLURB! It ruins the whole plot of the entire book. If you buy/rent it, don’t you dare flip to the back side. Just open to the first chapter and start reading. You’re welcome, Matt.
Ö Theme: La Zarra – Evidemment
Unironically, I think this song fits rather well with Mordew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfbEFH9NvQ
Ö Runner up clip: Running in the 90s:
You know why... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ0xBCwkg3E ___________________________________
She Who Rides the Storm by Catelin Sangster Read if you like Sanderson and wished he focused more on the characters rather than the world building. You also like the ooey gooey feeling of finding a red/blue ship that you wished was the main pairing, but you’ll have to settle them being the side ship.
Oh god, why, every single time?! While it does have a romance tilt to it, this book focuses more on finding a cure for a mysterious illness and two of the characters are refugees from a religious cult that loves sunshine and that one weird horse mount from the
Empire Strikes Back that you couldn’t take the auroshees seriously because of that.
Imagine that desert bar scene in
A New Hope, but make it a
whole book. But make it about a heist as a side plot that is barely touched on until the last 20% of the novel.
You also love doing puzzles in your spare time as you’ll be doing a lot of piecing together of the plot and world building from chapter to chapter. Unlike my problems, this one is pieceable and the last remaining piece is dangled over your head until the next book.
...Sangster is probably going to make you pay $20 for this singular piece, ain’t she?
Ö Theme: First Aid Kit - The Lion’s Roar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqS1MV_xA_I ___________________________________
Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain Read if you want to have a blunt conversation with Bourdain about food, the faults of the kitchens, what not to do if you want to be a chef, and to be transported to the deepest, darkest alley where you might be knifed, but goddamn, the best chicken heart can be found here.
If you’re a bitch that’s easily spooked by curse words, then this probably isn’t for you. Though...you can sneak this to your cook boyfriend if you want to break up, because he already read the fucking book, Berta, I thought you knew him better by now!...Now you can finally segway to break up. Congratulations!
You’ll see the workings of a mind that was suffering. That was the reflection of this entire autobiography. Suffering and food. That’s life in reality, ain’t it?
Don’t expect cohesion or a semblance of logical flow of pacing. This book, like Mr. Bourdain’s mind, was a cluster fuck of erotically describing food, the dark corners and reality of the cooking world, and shitting on people because they were dicks.
He is sorely missed, and this isn’t a bit, but I still mourn his loss to the world. The world needs him again.
RIP to the GOAT.
Ö Theme: Okami – Sei-an (Aristocratic Quarter II) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxXsEqNBTYE (Because he’s timeless and immortal even beyond death) ___________________________________
Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy Read if you got tired of everything happy and sunshine in Percy Jackson and wanted
blood, death, knives, SKELETONS, AND 12 year olds that are surprisingly self aware of the fact that they’re a
teenager. You want less consumerism and capitalism than what Percy Jackson pushed down your throat. Finally, no mentions of those fucking gold arches,
Riordan.
Oddly, no parents are dead in this book. In every YA book you read, there is at least one parent dead, gone to get milk, or playing
Tears of the Kingdom. Pleasant surprise for this narrator.
You are also a person that hates world building that lastS for pages and pages. There’s none of that in this book. Expect pages of dialogue like it’s a transcript of my parent’s arguments.
Mom, I don’t agree with you. No, I don’t agree with you either, Dad.
You fucking little….Just plant the damn fig tree, for fuck’s sake. From other sources, apparently the book series gets darker as books go on, so take that as you will. Listening to Eminem and Linken Park between books may increase levels of angst in the subsequent books.
Side effects include: angst, a potentially bi-found family that lasts 10 seconds, fear of skeletons, mourning for fictional characters, and teenagers being oddly logical.
Post script: This would actually make an excellent autumnal book cause of spoopy skeletons.
Ö Theme: Lose Yourself – Eminem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YuAzR2XVAM (I was yesterday old when I realized “Mom’s spaghetti” lyrics was this song)
Ö Runner up clip:
Spooky scary skeletons ___________________________________
The White Rose (Volume 3 of the Black Company) by Glen Cook Read if you liked having Charm flashbacks of Volume 1, but want a great dopamine rush in Volume 3.
Night Circus got nothing on this book for reasons you’ll figure out later. Expect a lot of weird crack shenanigans such as talking rocks just to name an example. The Lady’s character is fleshed out a lot more than previous volumes. Twists and turns are aplenty and Croacker complaining he’s too old like an old grandpa shopping 10 AM at a Walmart.
Funny enough, Morgenstern is a lot related to this book in more ways than one. Move over, lady, Cook was the original writer of
Night Circus, caramel popcorn and candy apples be damned! We’re eating crusty bread and thickened stew, bitch!
You’re not going to be at the edge of your seat until the last percentage of the book, but it’s worth the dopamine rush and emotions that are given in the end, long after you put the book down. You will find yourself wandering around the library wondering how you returned from a reality of flying manta rays and talking rocks...to old ass Swedes loitering in the lobby, discussing where to fika next.
You’ll need a lot of Monsters to process your emotions tonight.
You also finally figure out where Miyazaki got the inspiration for the Storm King in
Demon Souls. All this time, you got mad at Miyazaki for inserting a giant manta ray for disappointing climax reasons. No. He may have understood
Black Company more than we thought.
Coleydoesthings is also screaming at the top of her lungs by the end of the book, crying into her body pillow.
Ö Theme: MSR – Lord of the Wolves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izFwwGx-wmo (Someone help me on the EX Stages omfg)
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Conclusion: @
I’ll be traveling soon, so the books might be on the short side, but my dumbass quality will remain. Just sprinkled with a lot of curry, chapati, and a big helping of obesity.
God, my thighs can’t take anymore of America.
I think I’ll have fun reading
Elantris cause it’s literally a love letter to Soulsbourne and I might learn a bit from it! Can’t wait for it!
I know it’s not book related too much, but what were y’alls favorite in Eurovision?
(Did anyone feel like Armenia just spent money to send that girl an expensive Tinder profile?) ___________________________________
Answers: ~
Seven Faceless:
2/5 Between Two Fires:
3/5 Time of Contempt:
4/5 Curse and Snake:
3.95/5 & 4/5 Mordew:
1.5/5 She Who Rides the Storm:
3.9/5 Skullduggery:
3/5 Medium Raw:
4/5 White Rose:
4.5/5 If you have any constructive feedback, I’m open to them! Hope you enjoyed this month’s Recs!
Link to Blog Post:
https://cannedbreadblog.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/ladyelfriedes-canned-books-reviewless-review-recs-of-may/