That was Then, This is Now

I recently finished That was Then, This is Now by SE Hinton. This book is a story about a 15 year old guy named Bryon and his best friend/adopted brother Mark. Since they were little Bryon and Mark have been super close but when Bryon starts to grow up and spend more time with his girlfriend Cathy the two start to grow apart. When Cathy's brother, nicknamed M&M runs away to a commune, or a group of people living together who share responsibilities and processions they try to find him. Bryon catches Mark dealing drugs and calls the cops so Mark is very mad at Bryon because Bryon got him in trouble and he already had a criminal record. I do not want to give away too much, like what happens to M&M because I think that people should read this book themselves, but if they do decide to they should first read the first book in the Series called The Outsiders.

Angel: part 2

I finished reading Angel by James Patterson, the Doomsday group, or DG, who wants to kill all the humans and replace them with genetically enhanced people, that they call Advanced, superhumans, better, Etc. they think that just because they have some superpower they are better, at the end of the book a bomb goes off at at a doomsday group rally and Angel is captured. At the end of the book angel, a nine year old kid with wings and who can read people's minds, starts to cry. the last sentence in the book is... At least she was human enough to cry. through out the book the "flock" is very emotional and the people in the DG are basically brainwashed and creepy with no emotion except, "kill the humans", i think it's very important to understand that even though humans have no superpower, we have things that go beyond that, we have things that are more important than power or ability.

Hunger Games

I started and finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in about a day and a half. I will never, EVER look at books the same way again. Every book I read will now be compared to The Hunger Games. This was the best book I have ever read. I couldn't put it down.
What the general plot is, is Katniss Everdeen is a tribute (player) in the Hunger Games of Panem, the country America became after the third World War (or a war along those lines). Panem is a very poor country thats been divided into 13 districts, but the Hunger Games are an annual competition between the districts where a boy and a girl from each district is chosen at random to go into an arena and literally fight the rest of the 23 kids to the death. Whoever is the last living is the winner, and is showered with riches and gifts after a life of poverty. Katniss goes with a boy named Peeta from her district and they eventually become allies and decide no to kill each other.
Suzanne Collins does an incredible job with suspense, figurative language and Katniss's dark, sarcastic humor. This book is incredible and Collins writes in a way that addicts the reader to the book from the first chapter.

The eleventh Plague

After completing this book I was very disturbed I thought this was an awful book about a post apocalyptic times. I don't like thinking about these types of events that may happen, do not read this book unless you are fascinated by death and what may happen. I deeply regret reading this book!!

Ship Breaker

     I am currently reading the book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. The book is set on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the near future. In the book, global warming and frequent, intense hurricanes have rendered most of today’s means of transportation unusable, and there are many ships, mostly oil tankers, washed up on the beaches of the Gulf. On these ships are people called ship breakers, paupers who sleep in ramshackle huts and shelters made out of sticks and leaves during the night and work at extracting valuable materials (copper, steel, oil, etc.) from the ships. The ship breakers are divided into two categories: heavy crew (strong adults and teenagers), who carry heavy materials and pieces of the ships’ hulls, and light crew (children and small teenagers), who crawl on the insides of the ships to find smaller things like copper wire. In contrast to the poor ship breakers are the rich inhabitants of cities, who travel in fast “clipper ships” that use the jet stream for wind power. So far in the book, there hasn’t been much about the rich. The main character of the book is a light crewman in his early teens (his exact age hasn’t been revealed) named Nailer Lopez. When Nailer is working in a ship’s air ducts, the duct collapses and he falls into a pool of oil. When another member of his crew, Sloth, finds him, she leaves him there to drown so she can have the oil for herself. However, Nailer manages to swim down and open a door in the side of the ship, which lets the oil out and he falls into the water. Sloth is then fired from the crew, and Nailer breaks his arm falling into the water.

     So far, Ship Breaker has been a fairly fast-paced book with compelling characters and an interesting view of the future. I would recommend it.

The Eleventh Plague

Later in this book we find out that the reason there is nothing in America and most of the world is because of a deadly plague that stuck most of the world during a massive world war involving most countries in the world but mainly between America and China. Stephen is finding he way to the Settlers landing where he will meet friendly people just like him.

Steve Jobs

As I read more and more of this Steve Jobs book, I realize how much information I don't know about Steve Jobs. I thought that he was a fairly normal kind of person, with the exception of his rough childhood. I am finding that we went through a lot of steps, development, and discovery to become the person he was at Apple. Many of his very unique characteristics, such as his Zen Buddhism spirituality, carried with him for the rest of his life. At apple, some of his leadership skills, skills of perfection, and other traits may have actually have been a result of this Zen Buddhism spirituality period of Jobs life. This author really goes deep into why Jobs was so successful, as well as all the obstacles Jobs has overcome, where he developed his character. Also, the author talks about how special, neat, and amazing this process was, and how it was very unique. I would recommend this book not only to anyone who want to know a little more about Apple, Steve Jobs at Apple, or computers, but also about Job's many different characteristics and traits. This book makes it seem almost impossible that such a, in a way, strange, man could become the CEO of Apple; one of the best computer companies in the world.

The Scorch Trials Pt. 2

For independent reading I am currently reading, The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. This is the sequel to, The Maze Runner, one of my favorite books of all time. *SPOILERS* A brief Summary of the events so far: The gladers wake up in the strange building that they were brought to by the mysterious people who rescued them, Teresa is exchanged for Aris a new kid from “group B” a counterpart to (the main character) Thomas’ group. The gladers learn they are infected with a mysterious disease called “the flare” which slowly makes people loose their minds and turn in to zombies. They learn that they will have to face another test to obtain the cure to the disease, crossing a 100 mile dessert in two weeks. They soon commence on their journey and discover that this second task will be as if not more challenging than the first. With their numbers dwindling, they meet up with some other survivors. Thomas and a new girl, Brenda are separated from the rest of the group and decide to try to cross the city that the gladers had discovered moments before they had encountered the survivors. It’s a race against time for Thomas and Brenda to get to the end point and get the antidote before the flare consumes them. So far this book has really grabbed my attention, and I have not had a boring moment yet. I think the book will have many more plot twists and turns before the ending, which I am sure will be a good one.

The Federalist Papers (post 2)

I didn't make it through too much more of the book, but they did cover some interesting topics, including the necessity for unity among the states. Basically, they said that the states needed to be united to defeat foreign powers and to prevent them from easily taking over the US. Alexander Hamilton was the main one who was saying stuff in the few articles that I read, and it was very difficult to understand his writing, so I didn't really get through too much each night. Still, by rereading, I was able to understand the writing pretty well, so I would still recommend the book, but if you want to read it, you need to have some interest in the topic, because otherwise you would end up pretty bored and confused. Also, you do need to have a lot of time set aside to read this book because you will probably only be able to read through a few pages a night, as I was also only able to do that before I fell asleep. Still, overall, a great, difficult read.

The Way We Play The Game

As suggested by Mrs. Godlewski I read the article in SI about Jack Jablonski. i found the beginning of the article to be somewhat humorous. and found i very interesting how the writer tells how her husband continuously tells her "i forgot to tell you but..." and then incorporated that into the story to lead it into the Jack Jablonski part of the article. the article gave a very good description of jacks situation and i really thought that this article was written very well.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

I recently read The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It is the story of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect's (a human and alien) journey across the galaxy. Ford, a galaxy hitchhiker, is stranded on earth and hitches a ride out with Arthur on the ships that are about to destroy Earth. They then miraculously get on a ship with the president of the galaxy, who stole the ship, and his girlfriend and adventure to a planet and people that are waking up from a 5 million year slumber. Also, it is learned there that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. Quite a confusing book.

There are many times when the book goes off on random rants from the The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (an actual book in the book) about random people from random places that have nothing at all to do with the story or plot. Sometimes, you don't know what just happened in the book, so rereading is a necessity throughout the story. If you are thinking about reading this, know that some parts of it are so outlandish it's crazy, for instance that mice secretly run the earth and that a major industry is planet creation for the rich and wealthy to live on. I would recommend this book to all looking for a very mellow, fun read to take a break from serious books, which it is the opposite of.

American Assassin

I have just recently started to read the book by the Minnesotan author Vince Flynn. I just started the book today and have read for the entire day because it is such a good book. I'm unclear of which is the first book he wrote but i am reading the prequel of the series which he wrote after a few other books. the main character Mitch Rapp who is 23 is sent to a training camp with 6 other ex-military men, while he is only a lacrosse player at syracuse. about a 130 pages in it gives a full description of his background and why he wants to become an assassin. the reader learns that his long time girlfriend was killed by terrorists on a plane. The intended readers is definitely not for younger readers as both my parents have been reading the series for a while, also it can also soon be found because of the immense amount of swear-words throughout the book. if anyone is interested in an action packed book with a lot of fighting and killing then this is the book for you!

The Way We Play The Game

I just read the article about Jack Jablonski by Karen Schneider, and I have to say, I was definitely intrigued. When I first heard about the accident, I honestly didn't see what the huge deal was. My thinking was that the incident was sad, but so are a lot of the other things you hear about on the news, so I didn't understand what made this unfortunate event so important. Maybe I did not connect with the accident because I don't play or watch hockey, or because I did not know how rare and severe Jack's injury was. But by hearing some of my classmate's reactions and feelings, and by reading this article, I now better understand why this was so shocking, and so terrible. He sounds like the kind of kid that was popular among his friends, and was respectful towards all. Accidents like these shouldn't happen to good people. In fact, my parents and I talked about a similar topic the other night. My mom beat cervical cancer a few years ago, and my dad is currently fighting the cancer known as lymphoma. My parents said that they often asked themselves, "Why me? I am a good person, and yet I got this awful disease." But, my parents also reasoned, "Why not me?" This way of thinking about an accident or illness really stuck with me, because it explains that bad things can happen to anyone, no matter how good of a person he or she is. The accident also touches the hearts of a lot of the parents of hockey players, because they know it could have just as easily been their kid. When I first heard about Jack's injury, I didn't know how rare it was for a high school player to become paralyzed playing sports. It mentions in the article that Jack asked his mom, "Why me?" But, overall, it seems Jack faced his troubles bravely and he was able to in part due to the gigantic wave of support he received from all around the world. His determination is really inspiring, too. He apparently said that his goal is to skate again one day. This idea may seem far-fetched, however, I think that will all the advances in medical technology, that dream may become a reality in Jack's lifetime. I also believe that we will continue to hear about Jack for a bit longer, because he is such a wonderful person and deserves to be recognized for his bravery and determination.

The Way We Play The Game

I just read The Way We Play The Game. This article written by Karen Schneider is about Jack Jablonski, and his major injury of his spinal chord and how Karen and others feel about this topic. I can understand how she is nervous when anyone has anykind of physical contact. I would be as nervous as she is too if I had a kid in the game. I once played on a hockey team too, I wasn't nervous at all about anything happening to me, but if I still played and read this article after, I think I would be way more cautious about the way I played. I can't even imagine being in the situation that Jack or any of his family members or the young man who collided with him are in. Not being able to do anything for him to walk again, being his parents and witnessing him ask if he'll ever be able to play hockey again, must be so emotional for them. And being the young man that collided with him, he must feel so unbelievably bad, but if I were Jack I wouldn't want him to feel bad about it at all, I wouldn't want to put someone else in a bad situation too. My brother went down one time and didn't get up for about ten seconds which felt like five minutes, my brother finally got up and my dad was so relieved but still concerned. I know understand why he was so concerned. On another note the of way writing in this article was amazing, I could literally picture everything that was being said and told.

War Horse

War Horse is about the love between a horse, Joey, and his owner, a young boy named Albert. When Joey is sold to the army and dropped into the middle of the horrors of World War I, his heart aches for his owner Albert. Joey is trained to carry heavy equipment and to carry hurt soldiers off the battlefield, who are about the same age as Albert. As Joey witnesses the hardships of war, he wonders if he will ever meet Albert again, let alone if the war will ever end. Through the story Joey loses many friends that he has made throughout the war, and it is hard for such a young horse to work all day next to gunshots and piles of wounded soldiers. As the book progresses, the author, Michael Morpurgo, keeps the reader intrigued in the hunt for Joey and Albert to finally meet again. This is a great story that shows how miracles can happen if you don't give up.

The Way We Play the Game

Recently, I read the article about Jack Jablonski, written by Karen Scneider, Cade's mom. I read another book this quarter too, but this nine-page article really struck me hard. It focuses not only on Jack, but also on the gut-wrenching experience of being a hockey mom and the love boys have for the dangerous game of hockey. As I read, I felt like I connected with her story. I don't even play hockey, but some of my friends do, and something like this could have happened to any of them, but it happened to one 15-year old, brave, Minnesota hockey player.

While reading, I could literally feel my heart sink. It described how hockey has gotten out of hand. It also gave details about how Jack Jablonski is feeling, and how sad it is for the kid who checked him. I feel more than horrible for both of them. It's almost impossible to believe how unlikely the chances were that he could become paralized from a check. The kid hit him just wrong and he hit the boards just right. Mrs. Schneider makes a great comparison with protons in her writing.

Aside from being devastating, the article was also uplifting. Jack has so much support and there are many people who want to make it safer out there on the ice. I finished reading the article with the hope that new goals will be accomplished in the sport.

Nineteen Minutes

Recently I've been reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I'm only about a little under a quarter of the way through at the moment, nonetheless I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

I read My Sister's Keeper by her last year and from these books I've been able to look at Picoult's really unique writing style. She starts out the book switching between the viewpoints of countless, seemingly unrelated characters, like Patrick the cop, Josie the daughter of a judge, and Lacy the pregnancy course teacher. While switching between the viewpoints may be confusing at first, she weaves their stories together quite well and at different points, allowing the reader to ease into it.

Picoult also does a great job of creating realistic and believable, yet still original, characters that really help push the story forward. Currently there's been a student shooting at Josie's school which has drawn Patrick and Josie's characters together since Josie was injured. Even though I've only just started this part the event showed a lot about Patrick's character, how he wasn't even supposed to be in the building but he felt the need to make sure everyone was safe, and he's always pushing himself to do better. If he's able to save ten people's lives, he'll still look at how many lives he wasn't able to save and will continue being hard on himself. It seems like Patrick's character is never satisfied with anything he does and I'm interested in seeing where the rest of the story takes him and the other characters.

Warriors Don't Cry

This weekend I devoured what is now my favorite book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals. In this book, Melba Patillo Beals recounts her scorching experience of integrating into Little Rock High School in Arkansas during the late 1950s. What I adored about this book is that Melba Patillo Beals presents this book more like a story. Technically, it is characterized as a memoir, and most memoirs that I have read bear an essay aspect to it, where the author mulls over this experience. But she reads this as a story. She provides very little reflection, but when she does, it is brief but as well very powerful. Because it was read like a story, I found it fast paced as easier to read; I whizzed through this book as a result. Another thing I liked about this story was the whole plot. It was glutted with suspense because integrating was dangerous. The threat of being attacked by racist whites against integration always loomed high. The plot was also ornamented with a huge sense of misfortune happening to the character. Her friends rejected her because she was integrating to a white school and pulling a dangerous stunt and at school hateful words and bad treatment bashed her. This misfortune aroused an interest in the book in me, because as the character was afflicted with a lot of trouble, and I wanted to see what she did to deal with this trouble. Apart from amusing me, the book also preached a lesson. People meted out bad things to Melba always; a man attempted to rape her, acid was hurled at her eyes, and she was pelted with hateful words. But she never dared to cry. Her diary entries exhibited feelings of sadness, but she never cried and kept her head high and fought like a warrior. That lesson is something that I as well as others can emulate in hardships; to keep on persevering and fight; never to be weak and cry.

The Fabrics of the Cosmos: part 2

Having read the bulk of the book over the past few weeks, it has made me wonder, What book am I able to compare this to? It is interesting because there are few books like it. For one thing, it is certainly not a textbook; it is much more flowing and smooth, like Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 5. Also it covers more broad topics on particle theories, entropy, and the like. There is no plot so to speak, but it connects ideas through chapters like To Kill a Mockingbird. I find it to be one of those books that is long(at over 500 pages) and complicated but has very good writing and, not so much a plot, but more a flowing connection of ideas between different theories and celestial predictions. Even connecting String Theory and the Multiverse Theory is smooth as silk. This book is than comparable to a super-car, everything works and it goes brilliantly.

the article about Jack Jablonski

I read Cade's mom's story about Jack Jablonski for this reading check. It was an article about how Jack's injury affected hockey and the changes that more people want because of his injury. I thought that the article was very well written and justly explained the hockey scene, (I used to play hockey and know it very well.) One thing that I think it could've done better was write more about Jack and put the focus more on him to get more sympathy from a national audience. I think that it would create more of a stir and cause more rules to get changed. The article talked more about what rules were going to get changed. I am very glad that the name of the kid who hit him has not been shared. I know that this kid feels terrible. Accidents do happen and Jack has said that we shouldn't blame him, which means that we should focus not on the person who hit him, but what kind of a hit it was. I have had an accident sort of like this, but on a much, much, smaller scale and I know that it feels terrible to be the kid that caused it. Overall I think that it was a very well written article and it showed people Jack's battle on a national level and I think that it is very important that we do that.

The Eighty-Dollar Champion

The Eighty-Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts was an amazing book. It is a biography about Harry deLeyer and his horse Snowman. Harry is a dutch immigrant who moved the the United States after World War 2. He had lived in occupied Holland and was moving to the United States with his wife Johanna. He had always had a gift working with horses but since horse back riding was expensive he started working on a small-leased tobacco farm. Eventually after many jobs he ended up as a riding teacher at a small girls school. He was heading up to a horse auction on the weekend but arrived late and by the time he had gotten there all the horses had already been sold. The only horses left were the horses on their way to the slaughterhouse. He only had eighty dollars to buy a new school horse so decided to look around and he found a horse that caught his eye and bought him. A few years later the horse, Snowman, had won two national championships and was considered one of the top jumping horses in the world. This was an amazing story and by the end I had fallen in love with Harry and Snowman. My only complaint would be that in the beginning of the story there was alot of history and background that made the beginning of the story very slow but once I got into it I was hooked. This book really showed the amazing relationship that can develope between people and animals. At one point Harry had sold Snowman and Snowman jumped over pasture fences for weeks to get back to him. It really shows that magical relationship and how sometimes how the real champion isn't always the obvious one.

Go for the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning, in Soccer and Life

I read and finished the book Go for the Goal: A Champion's Guide to Winning, in Soccer and Life, by Mia Hamm on a plane from Phoenix. This book is a memoir of Mia Hamm, the greatest women's soccer player of all time. It takes you all the way through her earliest soccer career, playing as a child with the boys, to winning the Women's World Cup in 1999. It gives many small anecdotes about the game and her experiences playing it. More than that, it shows how to be a winner, which is a important skill for everyone to learn.

Mia does a great jobs of making the themes in her book easy enough for children or teenagers to understand, while still talking about subjects like winning and losing. The only problem that I have with the book is how often times she said that what she did was perfect, sounding almost egotistical. I know that she also said that she wasn't the best player in the world and named players who she thought were "better" than her but I didn't really feel as though she was being completely honest. And even if she was, she almost always prefaced it or followed it with saying how many other people, players and fans, consider her one of the best players, men or women. She also likes to point out that she has scored more goals for her country than any other player, man or woman, and says it more than once.

All and all, this is a great book for anyone who loves soccer (as I do) or simply wants to read a book about good life lessons.

Never Have I Ever (Part 2)

I read more of Never Have I Ever and it's getting really good. Sara Shepard has a way of keeping you totally engaged in the book by adding a bunch of mysteries and secrets to unfold. A chapter I just read was about a "lying game", or a prank, that Sutton played on her friends. In the book, Sutton is dead, and her sister Emma is taking her place, but for this chapter, there was a flashback on the prank Sutton pulled. She was driving her friends, Char, Mads, Gabby, Lili, and Laurel to a party. It was dark and they were passing over a train track when the car ran out of gas. The girls tried opening windows, unlocking doors, breaking glass, but they were trapped inside the car and a train was approaching. Laurel got out her phone, called 911, and told the police their situation. But, the train was approaching too quickly. While all the girls were panicking and realizing the end of their life was near, Sutton reached to the dashboard and released the choke. The car rolled off the tracks, Sutton unlocked the doors, and everyone fell out just inches away from the train rushing by. Then Sutton exclaimed, "Wasn't that the best prank ever?!" Later in the chapter, we find out that Gabby was missing right after they got off the train tracks. So, Sara Shepard uses little mysteries and dramatic and intense scenes that make the book addictive and hard to put down. I also think, the train track lying game will be a very important part in the book that shows Sutton's daring personality.

The Red Scarf

If you are seeking a novel that possesses a cast of complex, charming characters, brimming with scenery that comes to life, and excellently-wielded dialogue than look no further than The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall.

The Red Scarf is the story of Sofia Morozova, a prisoner of Davinsky Labor Camp living in 1933 under Stalin’s brutal, communist Russia. It is after she befriends the dreamy, compassionate Anna Fedorina, who’s failing health, drives Sofia to plan a risky escape and find Anna’s friend, Vasily. Though, Sofia has never met Vasily, she is convinced he will help Anna.

Things I really liked about The Red Scarf are the complexity of the characters. Furnivall is excellent at showing rather than telling and efficiently wields dialogue to tell more about the characters. This book remained interesting throughout the story not only because of the characters, plot, and word choice but also because of the greatly varying sentence structure.

Furnivall’s unique word choice and skill at painting scenes is apparent throughout the whole book. She also utilizes an interesting writing style, using many different techniques to clue the reader on not only what is happening but also the emotion it carries for the characters. The whole story has an almost dreamy quality to it. Furnivall’s word choice, characters, plot, and use of dialogue make for a powerful, almost addictive novel.

The Red Scarf is engrossing, taking its readers back in time to 1933 in Stalin’s brutalistic Russia, to the melancholy labor camps in isolated Siberia, where hundreds are forced to work and shot as soon as they are no longer useful to the proletariat. Through Sofia’s journey, The Red Scarf shows you both the capacity of humans to commit horrors and the warm compassion and altruism of humans.

My only critique of The Red Scarf is the ending which seems rushed and a little slapped together. Overall, The Red Scarf is a heady blend of charming characters, gripping plot, excellent word choice, and shows off Furnivall’s complete command of dialogue.

MockingJay

I am almost finished with the last book of the Hunger Games series. Suzanne Collins has a very good way of surprising you through out the entire book. She knows exactly how to surprise the reader without changing the whole direction of the theme of the book. The last book is about the war against the Capitol. The way Suzanne Collins portrays the characters is amaizing. She was able to show how the previous Hunger Games have changed them, but she was able to do it in the way as if it would actually happen. She showed that the characters where still the same people in the story but the have different motives and different attitudes. For example Katnis Everdeen, the main character in the story, in the first two books all she wanted was to either survive the Games for her little sister Prim or make sure Peeta is alive by the end. Now in the last book her main objective is to kill President Snow. She has had obsticals along the way but she always finds away to get around them. I am excited to see how the series ends.

A Farewell to Arms

I just finished reading A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway. It is set in World War I, on the Italian front. It is from the point of view of an American ambulance driver who falls in love with Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. This novel has a tragic ending, resulting in the death of Catherine's son. It ends with the reader feeling like the tragedy of this love will always last, but one thing I couldn't help notice was how the narrative voice gives a sense of hope. It is spoken in past-tense in the 1st person, like someone is telling the story. Another thing I noticed about A Farewell to Arms was simply the personalities of the characters. Maybe it was just the time period. On about the 2nd time that Catherine and Henry, Catherine acts as though they have been in love for months. This offers a very frank view of their love, described by Hemingway.

The Son Of Neptune

Recently I have started reading the book The Son Of Neptune by Rick Riordan. This book is the second book of its series, Heroes of Olympus. I have read the first one in its series, The Lost Hero which was a great read, then this one came out a couple of months ago and I just got around to buying it. So far its a great book, except for one thing, every chapter or so, Rick Riordan, switches your point of view to a different character, which he had also done in the previous book as well, and I never grew to fond of it. Now some people might see it as a benefit to see the story from different points of views, but the characters that Rick Riordan skips around to are all in the same group, and he could just as easily fallow one character and have that character be in the mystery of what the other characters are thinking, which would make the reader haft to do more thinking for themselves, and try to figure out what that characters thinking. Rick Riordan had writen a series be for this called Percy Jackson And The Olympians, which is related to this new series. in the old one Rick Riordan wrote in first person which made it that much better.

into thin air

I have decided to stop reading this book Into Thin Air even though i haven't gotten that far into it yet. I have gotten just about one-hundred pages into it, and the think i don't really like about it is how the author kept on trailing off into little side story's, or to go into depth on telling somebody's back story. This kind of writing doesn't keep me intrigued enough to really get engaged in the book. But I have herd so many people say such good things about the book, and that i would love it, so I might come back to it later and read through it, and hopefully it will get better. I'm not saying its a bad book so if you're interested go ahead and read it. One thing that made the book stand out is that by words, or names that some people might not know, or are interested in, there is some sort of symbol next to it like*. Then at the bottom of the page in small writing it will have that symbol, and then either more information or a definition, which I thought was kind of neat.

The Rockstars Daughter

I am currently reading The Rockstars Daughter by Catlin Duffy. This book is about a 15 year old girl named Taylor who lives in Hollywood. Her mom was a backgroud singer in commercials and an extreme partier. Taylor's dad is Chase Atwood who is a famous singer in the band Pound. Taylor has only met her dad twice because he is always on tour. Taylor is the complete opposite of her mom and dad. She loves school and reading, she plays the violin and never cared about fashion. She even asked her dad to send her to boarding school since her mom dosn't have lots of money. A couple weeks into the summer Taylors life changes drastically. Her mom was having a party as usual and early in the morning taylor heard the ambulance and saw her mom being dragged out of the pool. She was rused to the hospital but died that afternoon. Taylor was taken to child services and the only family she had was her grandparents in Minnesota. After spending a couple days at child services her dad came and gainded full custody over her. She went on tour with him and his wife Jill and their kid Kelsey. Along the way she meets Jake, whos mom is a groupie and he sells t-shirts at the concerts. They fall in love and when the band goes to detroit, who Jake lives, he takes her to a night club and things get out of hand. I think the book had a good beginning but in the middle it gets slow when its talking about the tour and all of the benefits and what Talyor thinks of the new changes. Overall I think the book is very good, but a little slow at parts.

Blog Post: Fearless by: Francine Pascal

I just recently started reading the book Fearless by: Francine Pascal. This book is about a girl who is "fearless". She participates in martial arts, and can break codes in four different languages. Gaia doesn't fit in with anyone in her school and has some trouble trying to be like everyone else. The story kicks into gear when Gaia falls in love with some guy and is trying to win him over. Soon though she realizes that someone is hunting her down for her special "powers" and skills. Gaia isn't worried and is prepared to run off her "hunter" because she is fearless. So far I am really enjoying this book. But I have a problem with the setting and the character description. The book starts off right away describing the main character Gaia Moore's life- but it lacks the setting. Since the setting isn't clearly stated it is hard for my mind to really feel engaged when reading. I feel like there is a missing piece to the story. I also think that Francine Pascal spends most of her time describing Gaia and lacks describing the other people in her life. For example, Gaia's parents went missing when she was younger and the author doesn't describe their disappearance. I think this effects how I comprehend the book. I wish the author gave more description about all of the other characters in the book, described the setting more and went into further detail with Gaia's life. Overall, I am liking this book (disregarding the negatives) and I am eager to continue reading and figure out if Gaia's hunter will find her or not.

Trapped: How the world rescued 33 miners form 2,000 feet below the chilean desert

I recently checked out and read Trapped by Marc Aronson. This book is about the San Jose Mine that collapsed in the Chilean Desert last summer. I really liked this book, and it was very well written but I have a problem with the people in it. When people tell this story it's a miracle recovery story about how people all over the world worked together to save these men. It wasn't actually like that. Nobody tells you about how mad people were, or that it took a long time to get the drills and workers out there to begin drilling. Nobody tells you that there were three sets of drill teams. The first was a big, slow drill, nicknamed the "turtle", run by a NASA crew. Then there was the fast and efficient drill that started second, nicknamed the "rabbit", run by Tom Foy and Brandon Fisher's small Pennsylvanian drilling company, Center Rock Inc. It would drill as small hole, then change drill bits, and get bigger and bigger. Third was Plan C: "the Transformer", a 141-foot-tall giant drill run by a Canadian team. Although it started last, it was the most likely to succeed, if the other drillers ran into trouble, it would surely get there. The thing that bothers me is just how competitive it was. Not everybody worked "together" to succeed, it was a round-the-clock race, and outside of the Chilean Government, nobody really got to help decide what would be the best option. The people from all over the world were cheering for all the teams, but to them it was a race, a chance to show their skills, not a goal to rescue them. Although I'm sure their goal was to rescue the miners, it seemed that the author portrayed it as a race, and I didn't really like that take on it. But if you also didn't understand what the heck the newspaper articles were talking about, read this book, it really helped me understand more about the processes of rescuing people in a mine.

The Chosen

I have just recently finished The Chosen, an interesting book about Reuven Malter, a very religious and Jewish child growing up in New York, who explores the culture of the Hasidim contrary to his own religious beliefs. ( A recap of my last blog about this book: Reuven was hit in the eye with a baseball by Danny Saunders, causing him to be hospitalized for some time. There, he befriends a blind child by the name of Billy. Reuven is mad and Danny and criticizes him for his religious beliefs. However, when Reuven uncovers his father has a secret relationship with Danny, and that Danny is kind and thoughtful, he befriends him.) Reuven and Danny spend lots of time together exploring New York City, and Reuven goes through immense changes in character, from an isolated child who thinks little of others, to a more thoughtful, accepting, and deep person. During this time, Reuven communicates with Billy's dad, only to learn Billy's operation was unsuccessful, and that they moved him to Albany. Reuven sits on his balcany, stunned. He is unsure of the world around him, unsure of God's will. Danny and Reuven continue to study and read at the library together. Roosevelt dies, and Reuven grieves, wondering where God is. The War in Europe ends too, but the celebration is halted when they learn of the concentration camps. Reuven and Danny part ways for a while on account of David Malter's beliefs, which hurts Reuven immensely. Danny and Reuven attend college, and after two years, they discuss their relationship again. The book ends oddly with the revealing of the fact Danny will not become a rabbi like Reuven. Overall, I really liked the book, but I found the ending to be unsatisfying.

The Death Cure Pt. 2

I finished The Death Cure, the final book of The Maze Runner series. The book really ends the series nicely and with some twist. There was lots of suspense as I followed Thomas' quest to cure the flare. Thomas and friends escape from WICKED out of not trusting them. They go to Denver to find a man by the name of Hans that can remove the chip that lets WICKED control them. When they get there they get into a city of people who are not infected with the flare, but they here a rumor that the people there really are infected it's just that they take this thing that holds off the effect. Infected people get into the city and the group looks for Gally who is alive. He introduces them to a group called the Right Arm who wants to protect the immune instead of cure the sick. Thomas gets captured by WICKED and they are going to kill him by taking his brain which would be the final step to finding a cure. He is saved by the Right Arm, but the building falls apart, and Teresa is killed. It turns out that the leader of WICKED wanted the immunes to go to a certain location. This location is a paradise isolated from the world. The suspense really gets high. I literally could not stop reading this book. I would recommend this book to you if you hadn't read it yet.

Warriors Don't Cry

Suggested to me by Ms. Green, I am currently reading Warriors Don't Cry. This book is a memoir written by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine. I am almost finished with the book and throughout reading it I often caught myself criticizing the author for being so repetitive. It seemed that every few pages she would mention answering the phone to hate calls, being cursed at, spit on, and screamed at; then I remembered that this was a memoir. I found myself getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over again and failed to realize that Melba Beals had to face the same repetitive treatment over and over again every day of her life. Where as I could put the book down and stop "hearing" this harassment, there was no escaping it for her. This was her life. This book is truly inspiring as it follows Melba Beals as a 15 year old African American girl and her fight to integrate Central High School. This book has truly touched me, and I would like to thank Ms. Beals for - as Atticus Finch would say - letting readers crawl into her skin and walk around in it as she, at the age of 15 took a stand against one of the most prominent inequities that existed during the 1950s and '60s, segregation.

Dumb Witness

During my vacation in Florida, or more specifically, on the plane back, I read Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie. Frankly, I wasn’t ecstatic to read it, but merely purchased it because my mother was pushing for more “classic” literature. The tale follows Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings as they try to solve a case for one who is now deceased, Miss Emily Arundell. She trips down the stairs one night, the cause of which is deduced by all around her to be the ball of her beloved dog, Bob. However, inexplicably, she is stultified by the fact that she never felt even the slightest kiss of the ball. She then concludes, correctly, that someone within her family is trying to murder her and take her considerable fortune – in order to quell such a plot from happening, she creates a will that gives all her money to her servant, Miss Lawson. Shortly afterwards, apparently from a chronic liver disease, she expires. Basically, Poirot and Hastings go from character to character that was present at the time of the killing, using many seemingly superfluous details. I will not go into detail, as they investigate seven or eight family members. However, they conclude that Mrs. Tanios tried to make her plummet fatally down the stairs and put lethal doses of phosphorus in her pills. Unfortunately, there is little character development for M. Poirot, as he is the main character of a long series, where he presumably evolves over books, not chapters (I haven’t read any others). One thing I don’t like is that I never learn who the murderer was until the very end – some might argue that that’s good. I, however, beg to differ. It is irritating to read a murder mystery that doesn’t really help the reader have even the slightest idea of who the culprit is. All in all, I found this book quite entertaining. However, I do wish that the characters weren’t so static. If you like mysteries, Victorian-era England, or both, this book for you. If not, you might want to pass.

The Looking Glass Wars

When a friend recommended this book, I wasn't that interested. However, I was desperately in need of a good book, so I tried it. When I got into the first chapter, I was hooked. I would read into the night, because it was very intense. It is basically a take on Alice in Wonderland, but a lot spookier. It claims as being 'the real version,' and that Alice in Wonderland was only the basis. It turns a lot of the characters into bad characters, and deepens their character. If you liked reading Alice in Wonderland, but if you found it too babyish, you'll enjoy this book.