Divergent

I just finished reading the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. I read it in less than 2 days IT WAS SO GOOD. I would recommend this book to legitimately anyone. It was really good. I was reading a different book before I started this one, but i wasn't really enjoying it too much. Anyway, the book is kind of like The Hunger Games, but with only 5 factions. The main character is Tris (Beatrice). She takes a test at the school to determine which faction she will be in for the rest of her life. She has a special case, her test results were inconclusive. She is "divergent." She decides to pick the faction no one would expect. There is some romance between charters, sabotage, betrayal and lots of action and tough choices. I am really looking forward to the second book. I'm also soo excited for the movie to come out in March! This was one of the best books I've read in a while, and I'm really not a huge reader. Again, I would recommend it to anyone!

Farenheit 451

Currently in class, we are reading the book Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. So far, the novel is actually pretty confusing. I think that I could make a lot of predictions at the point in the book I'm at.The main character, Montag, has just met this woman named Clarisse and she is considered crazy in their society. She knows more about the world than usual people within the society. But she has mysteriously and suddenly disappeared.Also, Mildred, montag's wife, was sick from an overdose on sleeping pills. Mildred seems to me like kind of an airhead, she's out of it. So Montag is a fireman, and instead of putting out the fires, he starts them. The whole idea is that the government is trying to hide its people from the knowledge within books. So a fireman's job is to set fire to books, household with books, and people who own the books. Ever since Montag had met Clarisse, he had seen his job and life a little differently. When he and his men were burning down a house with living people inside it, he really wanted to save the woman inside.

I think that I could probably make a lot of predictions at this point. For example, Clarisse had disappeared very suddenly and unexpectedly.  I think that she disappeared because she knew too much about the past of the society, and the government. The government obviously probably was not happy about all of the knowledge that Clarisse had. I also think that Mildred might start to get on Montag, because I think he's going to change. Mildred seems like a minor character now, but I think she will become a bigger character lateer in the book.

First Post of Tri 2!

My favorite book that I read last trimester was The Vanishing Game.I made a previous post on this book, you can click here to get more information and a summary of the book. I liked this book a lot because of the genre and the writing style. The book was a thriller, mystery and romance novel. I really like it when books have a mysterious storyline, but I also like mystery. Sometimes it's hard to find a book with both. But I found this one! The book haunts you while you're reading it; sometimes I had to sit back and ask myself, "What the heck just happened..?" I also enjoyed the writing style.

The writing was very casual. As i posted previously, reading these books made me realize that I really like reading books that have a writing style where you feel like you're having a conversation with the author. For example James Patterson often has his writing in that style. I also liked the fact that the writing was still really good quality, even though it was casual. It still sounded "professional" but not too professional. Hard to explain. I really enjoyed the book, and I would reccommend it to any teen.

Blog Reflection

Over the course of the trimester, my writing has changed. I notice this because in the older blog post, I constructed one paragraph of writing that really could have been broken up into different paragraphs. In the more recent post, I separated the writing into different paragraphs, which made it look less crammed and sloppy. Another way I have improved is that in my writing, I gradually started to sound more casual, as if I were just talking to reader. I realized over the first trimester that I really like books that you feel like you are having a normal conversation with the characters. I also feel that I have begun to blog about more things than the topic on the rubric, as I did in the first few weeks. I started blogging about more than just the books I was reading. For example, my older post was all about the book I was reading, nothing else. Whereas my newer post was about something that I felt a lot of different people could have varying opinions. I also feel like in the older post, I didn’t sound the way I would have wanted to when I look back on it. I feel like in the newer post, I sound like myself, but at the same time I stay on topic and provide the right information about the subject. This brings me to my next points.

Something I struggled with through this experience was not making my posts long enough. I would run out of ideas, and end up writing pointless information about my book to fill the two paragraphs minimum. But I realized that there was a lot more to write about in a post than just the book. I realized that you could relate it to real world things today, or throw in some of my own opinions. Having these ideas, I would go beyond the minimum of two paragraphs. I think a strength I had with blogging was that I could keep the reader engaged. I would often get comments on my blog posts from people telling me that they felt like they were talking to me, or that they were really interested in the book or subject I was writing about. I never met my reading goal unfortunately. My goal was to read six books during the first trimester, but I came really close and read four. Goodreads was actually helpful to me, because I would visit it to see what book recommendations it would give me. I started reading my most recent book, The Postcard Killers by James Patterson; because I saw the Goodreads had recommended it to me from the books I had already read. I think that I have improved as a reader because as I mentioned before, from reading different articles and book samples, I realized I liked writing where you felt engaged with the characters. This made me discover my love for James Patterson’s writing. All of the books he has written have had really casual writing in them. I had already read the book Maximum Ride and really enjoyed it. I looked into more of his books later on. Overall, I really enjoyed having a blog where I could freely write about reading.

 

 

School Uniforms

Yes, this is a random topic. It came up in my history class a few days ago and it got me thinking. Should we have school uniforms? Many schools  in America already have school uniforms. I don't really have an opinion, but there are good and bad reasons of uniforms.

School uniforms could be beneficial because every day, you wouldn't have to struggle with the idea of what to wear that day, you would just wear the same outfit every day. They would be beneficial to the teachers because the uniforms could be designed however the school board likes. Which probably means no pockets for cell phones. The uniforms could also promote more support from the students of their schhol. Also, there would be no dress code. There would be less reasons to bother mom at home to bring you new clothes. Another reason is that no student would be judged by another, because if you tell someone that they looked stupid, that means you look stupid too. Moving on.

The uniforms could be bad to have because the kids at school get no freedom of their clothing choice. Also, providing uniforms (not to metion extra pairs of them too) would be very expensive to the school. We are already in debt from the spending on sports (cough marchingbandisnotasport), and even more on school lunches and several other needs of the school. The costs would also be bad on any families that are already having financial issues. Students would be very upset if we got uniforms. I'm pretty sure that I can envision "The Kindest School In America" throwing a protest. Especially if the change is made really suddenly and out of no where.

I really would lean towards no school uniform, because I really don't see that there are any issues with the dress code that we have now. The only risk of turning down uniforms is that you probably see a lot more skin than necessary when warm weather starts to kick in. Yuck

 Click here for an article that covers information on school uniforms.

If You Find Me Predictions

I have just started reading the first few pages of the book If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. The action of the girls being hauled away by strangers is already taking place. On page 7. So far, I haven't been totally impressed by the book, but I 'm going to need to read into it a little further to determine my feelings for it. The only thing that really bothers me about the book is that the grammar is very poor, purposely. The girls have no education and talk very southern-like. For example, the author decided to make EVERY -ing word end with in'. So instead of walking, the narrarator (who is the main character) says walkin'. And that drives me nuts.

Anyways, predictions. I think that these girls are going to be taken away from everything they feel comfortable with; the woods, nature, etc. and are going to be suddenly thrown into a modern environment. They may have to learn to use technology such as cell phones (if that is the seting in the book), meet new people, and go to school where they will learn to talk the right way. I think that the girls will resist at first, maybe hate everyone, not talk to anyone including teachers and adults. But as they adapt to the new environment, they may become more comfortable with the people around them and learn to use new ways to be more modern and well- put together people. But along the way of all of these new changes, I think that Carey  will dig deeper into the situation of the untimely death of her mother and why her mother has been so closed up. Carey's mother abducted her, but I'm not sure if it was for Carey and Janessa's benefits, or for their mother's benefit. I think that maybe Carey was about to be given up for something/someone, and her mother resisted. So she took her babies into hiding in the foret. I don't know. I'll have to keep reading to find out. :0

Romeo and Juliet Movies: Similarities and Differences

We have watched a few scenes of the movie Romeo and Juliet, both the more recent version and the older version. There were really not too amny similarities between the two films. Some similarities are: In both the movies, all of the characters from the actual text are there; Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Lady Capulet, etc. Another similarity is that both of the movies follow the same script, the original text. Another similarity was that the scenes were all in order the same way, but there were some variations in the ways that the directors presented the scenes. This brings me to differences.

There were a lot of noticable differences in the movies. An obvious one would be that the newer one had more recent celebrities, such as Leonardo Dicaprio. Another difference is that the newer movie was a lot sillier than the old movie. For example, the beginning scene of the older movie was a pretty contained fight scene. In the newer movie, the fight scene was very violent, and the references were'nt as serious. An example was when the one man pulled out a gun that said "sword." Additionally, the charaters in the old movie were true to the text; clothes from that time period, correct and formal use of the Shakespearean language. The characters in the new movie were a little different. For example Tybalt was a drag queen. And Romeo's character was high on drugs when he was attending the party. Eeverything was just a lot more modern than the older movie. Their Shakespearean language was also very scattered and blurted. It did not seem very natural. Overall, I think that the old movie did a better job of explaining the true story of Romeo and Juliet, while the newer one just got the gist of the story in a silly way.

Romeo and Juliet

In class we are discussing the epic love story, Romeo and Juliet. I'm super happy because I just read a book about a love story, that had a lot of references to the story. We have watched and read the first couple scenes in class, an I'll just say that Shakespeare is a cornball. His romance lines are really cheesy while he has his characters "wooing" women. I think that some of the lines he uses are very confusing! I get that he likes to be poetic, but I wish he could be poetic and make a little more sense, too. So far, Romeo has met Juliet, but he was just obsessing over a woman that he claimed he was in love with. I really hope this guy isn't a player because he sounds pretty loyal to the women he thinks are attractive.

If You Find Me

I have just discovered a new book, If you Find Me by Emily Murdoch. I've never heard of it before, so I thought I'd give it a try :) So, from flipping through the pages and reading the inside cover, I decided the book would be somewhat of a mystery... The main character's name is Carey, who has lived in the woods with her mother who abducted her ten years ago, and her sister Jenessa. They are depending on even the smallest things for their survival. Once their mother dies, someone takes them out of the forest, and thrust her into a new life of high school, new clothes, and everything possible to make her feel like she's a new person. Carey must find out why her mother abducted her, while her haunted past keeps her wondering. She must keep Janessa close, and her secrets closer, or else she may come to see her new life come crashing down.

I think this book sounds pretty interesting. I'll let everyone know how it's going after I've read a little it of it. (=^_^=)

Finally Finished Warm Bodies!

Yes, I've been posting a lot about this book.... But I have just recently finished it! I really enjoyed this book. It had really great imagery; it could paint a picture in your mind as you read further into the book. I updated my Book Recommendations post... I added this book to the list! Warm Bodies is probably the perfect book to be reading right now, it's like a Romeo and Juliet! But with R and Julie. I watched the movie before I read the book (sorry) and as I read the book, I noticed that there was s much more description in the book than the movie. In the book, there were a lot of scenes that were never in the movie, and vice versa. In the movie, R is played by Nicholas Holt, and Julie by Teresa Palmer. If you're interested in reading the book or watching the movie (read the book first!), here's a quick trailer you can check out:

Shakespearean Language

In Honors English, we are discussing how to read Shakespeare's work, because... it's really confusing. We read and analyzed a piece written by him where he was trying to "woo" a woman, and it made almost no sense, except for the fact that he was obsessed with this woman. For example, on of the lines in the text was "I will unrip my very bosom to you." To me, that seems a little extreme for being in love with someone. But it is very persuasive. Throughout the piece, Shakespeare uses his fancy words to impress and compliment his woman. It got really creepy after reading like 3 pages of that, but if you were that special lady, you may have thought differently. Obviously if a man said that to a woman now, she would probably run away. And never come back, ever.

Another page we looked at was an entire page of insults that Shakespeare threw around in his writing. Some of the phrases are pretty deep. For example, I came up with the combination,"pribbling, rump-fed maggot pie." There are probably over one thousand different combinations you could make on this list. Fishified, clapper-clawed popinjay. I just looked up popinjay- Its a woodpecker. Wow what an insult! Wart- necked, goatish pigeon egg. Wow.

Book Suggestions?

As you know, I've recommended a few books for you people to try; can you give a few to me? :) I'm really close to finishing Warm Bodies so I really need a new book. I was thinking about reading the book Perks of Being a Wallflower or The Fault in our Stars. I've heard that they are both very inspirational. Let me know! ^o^

Warm Bodies... Characters!

So right now, as you know, I'm reading the book Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. I'm really enjoying it. I am very close to finishing it, so I know the characters pretty well! The first main character is R. R is a zombie that lives in the airport. He has a bubbly personality, but he doesn't really know how to... talk. He occasionally gets a few grunts and groans. R has a big heart, and hates the fact that to survive, he has to eat people. This is what makes him different; he enjoys the presence of the living humans, finds then fascinating.
"Living speech has always been a sonic pheromone to me. I've yet to meet another zombie who shares my appreciation for those silky rhythms." (Marion 15)

Another main character is Julie Grigio. Julie has a lot of courage. She is only scared of R for the first five minutes she's with him. Then she learns how to be around him, and even gets a little bossy. She likes adventure; she dragged R along on their "daring" adventure to get pad thai noodles from the airport lobby, and enjoyed the thrill of driving a convertible on a plane runway. Julie is a very confident person, but she's only like this because of her boyfriend, Perry (who R has just devoured), who brought out the good side of her after her depression stage. Julie accepts R for who he is, which makes him fall in love with her.

The Interlopers by Saki

In class, we finished reading the short story, The Interlopers by Saki. The story was about two men, Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym. the two have been enemies ever since chilhood.  The story has a mountain plot. First, the two men are off to the forest, confident in themselves that they are going to permanently put an end to one another and taste victory. When they meet, due to the bad weather, a tree crashes down on them. They are then trapped with each other without a choice, because neither of them can manage to escape the woody mess. The two men then have a small conversation and realize what a good friendship they had been missing out on. They agreed that they would become good friends. Just as they were making a peaceful agreement, one of the men thought that they saw their crew coming to rescue them. It turned out the silhouettes were a pack of wolves.

The ending really leaves you hanging. You don't know if Gradwitz or Znaeym survived, if they were eaten, or maybe their crew came later. If I were theauthor, I probably would have ended it something along the lines of the two men's crew coming at the same time because they had teamed up to find their masters. Then the two groups would have been good friends, and they would look back on their hate for each other as a joke. But that's just because I like happy endings. (/^o^)/

Book Recommendations

One of the books I would reccomend to any teen would be The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers. This was the book I chose to read over the summer, and, unexpectedly, I really enjoyed it. Meyers kept you on your toes the whole time throughout the novel. The book is a combination of mystery, thriller, and romance. I thought that it was really well written because there was more action/puzzle/mystery than a sticky romance.  The main character, Jocelyn, completed the book because I think that many teens could relate to her and her personality. For a summary, check out my previous post about it!

Another book I would recommend is the Maximum Ride novel. This book is just part of one f my favorite series. The books were so good, I read all 7 in less than a week! Maximum Ride, or Max, has a group of siblings, or as they call it, a flock. All of the kids are half bird, so they have wings. This was due to a science experiment gone wrong during their childhood. The kids go through many adventures together and reunite with old friends that are now enemies, separation, and even mysterious clones of themselves at one point. That got confusing. I had to wait almost an entire year to read the last one, though. The last book, Nevermore, was not as good as the others, but still check them out. The books include humor, some romance, betrayal, and supernatural beings. This was one of the best series I've read, and actually got me more interested in reading in general.

Warm Bodies

In the book, Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, characters develop fairly quickly throughout the novel. The main character, R, is a zombie. He roams around the same abandoned airport every day, has a best friend, M, and has a pretty dark life. Until one day, when the living came and invaded the airport, trying to shoot the corpses down. R has a change of heart (if he had a beating one) and decides to rescue a girl, Julie. What Julie doesn't know is that, like, 10 minutes ago, R devoured her boyfriend, Perry. Julie is very scared and shy when R first abducts her. Throughout the novel, R wonders why he rescued her. Was he different? Was he crazy? Julie learns to adapt to his life and becomes close with R. They make several daring adventures for frozen pad thai noodles or taking a still- working car out on a drive. I am currently at the part in the novel when R and Julie have just become very close. Julie is showing her bubbly, giggly personality, and R is getting warmer. Literally. What I have noticed about the novel's characters is that they are very similar to the ones in Romeo and Juliet. For example, R for Romeo, Julie for Juliet, and M for Mercutio, Romeo's closest friend in the story Romeo and Juliet. I'm enjoying the book and can't wait to finish! :)

The Vanishing Game

In the book, The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers, the main character is Jocelyn. At the beginning of the novel, Jocalyn was having a hard time trusting people after what had happened to her twin brother, Jack. Jack had supposedly died in a car accident ealier in the novel. Jocelyn kept to herself, and was self conscious. The only other person that was close to her and Jack was her best friend, Noah. She has secretly been in love with Noah all 10 years she's known him. Jocelyn was quiet at the beginning of the novel, and Noah brought out the lovey- dovey, playful, fun personality in her. Jocelyn realizes that she just needed to meet the right person to go back to being herself. A quote from the book is, “’So, what the heck happened to you, Jocey?’ Noah said, calling me by my childhood nickname. You don’t look like you. What’s with all the makeup and blonde hair?’ ‘I grew up, what’d you think?’ I inched back and looked at him. I’d always loved his voice and eyes” (Myers 13). This quote shows that Jocey has become self- conscious, and she has a "thing" for Noah. ;) This brings me to theme. 

The theme of the book is that small things can make a big difference later. An example from the text is that the three kids (Jack, Jocelyn, and Noah) came up with a silly name for Jack, Jason December, when they played together at the foster house. Later, Jocey's entire life turns around when she receives a letter from Jason December. Also, they called themselves "freaks" as kids, which they all used as a joke. A quote from the text, “His fingers began to tighten around my throat again. I salvaged every last bit of strength I had and croaked, ‘Third freak!” Noah dropped his hands like I was made of hot coals. He stepped back and just stared, astonished” (Myers 11). This quote shows that a little joke they had in their childhood saves her life in the future when she tries to reunite with Noah.