We haven't focused much on the blog recently, so time to get back at it! You had some scheduled personal reading time in class this week and some of you are reading ardently outside of the class. Let's update each other where we're at.
Your response should remind people what your book's title is and who it's by OR if you have a new book, what you're reading now. Tell us how the reading is going. What have you noticed about character development? What details have stuck out to you about what you've read so far? What does the book seem to be about theme-wise?
Your response should touch on all of those questions, so I would imagine about a page in length. If you just started a new book and don't have that much to report, comment on the last one you read.
I'm reading Safe Haven by Nicolas Sparks, the book is a little slow but I can also see the beginning of character development and also start to predict theme. As the character Katie has begun to get used to her new home in South Port she is beginning to open up to the people around her. Katie has become friends with her new neighbor Jo and has even started to talk to Alex (the guy she ends up falling in love with) Katie has started to get comfortable but still has reservations about feeling safe. Katie is running from her abusive husband and worries that he will find her. Katie's struggle to feel safe might be applicable to people in general and how people who are running from an abusive relationship can have a hard time feeling safe. Alex has been able to pick up on some ques that Katie has given like how she plays with a ring on her finger that isn't there and how she is so protective of having anyone know anything about her. Alex connects what he sees in Katie and the women he helped who's husbands abused them. He is able to empathize with Katie and seems to have an understanding about what she is going through and wants to make he feel safe. He even goes so far as to worry about if people are talking about her because he doesn't want her to leave. This can also be another theme in that people in general who have had experience with tragedies can empathize with people going through the same thing and want to reach out and help or protect them. I think the book has been slow so far and now I'm hoping that it will start to pick up as Alex and Katie's relationship progresses because so far I've been a little board with it because the author has spent a lot of time setting the scene.
ReplyDeleteI am finished reading the book Unwind. The book begins and you find out why each of the three characters are being Un-wound and how they find out. these three characters suddenly meet up with each other in a turn of events, and each one is determined to live. they go threw so many trials together and in the end they don't get unwound. they meet up at a camp that tires to save kids deemed to be unwound and struggle to make it threw after they are captured. The book switches from person to person as you begin to know a little bit about what each person has gone threw and how that influences there decisions. If i had to rate this book i would give it a 5/10. Although the content of the book was good, the ending was horrible. it sort of just ended and you really didn't get any clarifications.
ReplyDeleteI am reading One Day by David Nicholls, the novel has a unique writing format, which I find unique and interesting. Each chapter is one day over the corse of years, that the two main characters see one another. This writing format interests me, because it displays how different each character is from the last chapter and explains what has happened over the period of time it has been, since they had seen each other last. After reading the first couple chapters it is quit evident that that 2 main characters are over going major changes as the years go by. Emma, who starts off as a shy, and intelligent girl is slowly changing into an writer, who is not very successful. Dex, starts out as a lively, fun guy who is only looking for excitement, and he gets a job as a TV host and becomes famous. They both live very different lifes, but they share something in common, their secret love. They have always been best friends, and their extremely different life's, stop them from feeling more than just a friendship. But as their live's progress they always find themselves meeting up again, because fate is on their side. When thinking about the overall theme in the novel, is fate does has its way, because without fate their friendship could not be maintained.
ReplyDeleteMoneyball is the story of the Oakland A's, a baseball team in the city of Oakland. It is about their struggles with finding affordable players, as they have new capital to compete against teams in wealthy cities that can afford the best players. They came up with the concept of not just buying players but buying actual wins. This theory was come up with by the Oakland A's general manager Billy Jean. He was a prominent baseball player and play professionally for the New York Mets and Oakland A's. And here brand a statistics specialist who helps him with his new theory. They are able to find good players by looking at the statistics which other teams don't. By looking at the undervalued players they're able to pick them up for less money. This theory is not only scrutinized by other baseball teams but it almost ends up losing Billy his job. Billy, who is highly superstitious, never watches the games for fear that it brings bad luck on his team. This combination of having extreme superstitious police and terrific ability to read statistics helps the Oakland A's when it over 82 games during the regular season. After that Billy is looked at as a very successful general manager and offered the highest salary ever paid for general manager by the Boston Red Sox. Billy turned it down to stay in the city of Oakland and help his team try to obtain a World Series title. His massive winning shrieks and miraculous team have changed the game of baseball and have scouts, teams, and managers look at it today.
ReplyDeleteWhere Men Win Glory is a biography told about the ex-NFL middle linebacker Pat Tillman. I am at the point in the book where John Krakauer, the author, is developing Tillman's personality and how he reacted to what life threw at him. While Krakauer is developing Pat's personality he tells about the wars in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and the man of Osama bin Laden. I think it is interesting how he is showing the line of what led Tillman to turn down a career in the NFL in order to serve his country. Currently the book is taking place in the 80s and 90s. It is showing how Osama developed from a rich Saudi young man who funded the Al-Qaeda operations and training someone who went up in arms for this Jihadist organization. Pat however is a young man with a modest upbringing and is a star in school and on the field, he was a scrappy kid with a strong personality. I am very interested to see how Pat Tillman's life progresses and how he turns into the NFL player and military officer he as known as today. I am also interested in seeing how the Al-Qaeda story line progresses to see what really inspired Tillman to jump into the U.S Army and become an Army Ranger.
ReplyDeleteI finished the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was a beautifully crafted moving peace of literature. I noticed major character development through out the book from the two main characters, Clare and Henry. They transform from a young couple who don't have too many worries in the world, to this serious family. It was a very interesting progression to watch I enjoyed to make the journey with them. Henry DeTamble was always time-traveling due to a genetic condition in which he does it involuntary. Jumping in and out of Clare's life it made it difficult for them to remain serious about their relationship. As they tried to settle down together times kept getting worse. Henry decided to change that and so he and Clare got married. They kept trying to find a cure for Henry's disease and nothing seemed to work. Henry soon time-travels to the time and place of his death, which is much sooner than he would like. He keeps this secret from Clare until their daughter, Alba, who is also a time-traveler accidentally tells her. Although she doesn't know the exact time he will disappear to his death, they cherish every moment with each other. The theme of this book is that no matter what time, space, and even death cannot truly separate us from the ones we love, merely delay it. It was so enchanting to read about them because the two of them didn't even need to talk, they just enjoyed being in each others presence. As the reader you could tell that they really loved each other, that kind of love you cannot find outside of a book. In the end Henry time-travels to his death and leaves a note in which Clare finds later. She reads it and it talks about how he traveled ahead to his death before and he walked through a door with pure, white light spilling through. He saw a woman on the other side and it turns out it was Clare and he gets to spend an eternity with the woman he truly loves. This book brought me to my knees, I was in the mercy of this book. I suffered a great emotional roller coaster at the hands of a paperback while the world continued to spin around me, I being completely oblivious.
ReplyDeleteI have just finished "Two Minute Drill" by Mike Lupica. These book is about a boy named Scott. He is in sixth grade and has found it difficult to fit in because of his intelligence and the fact that he is not athletic at all. He constantly gets picked on and has no friends until a boy named Chris Conlan tries to be his friend. Chris is the polar opposite of Scott which makes Scott feel good about himself because the most popular kid in school wants to be his friend. They both mature slowly as the book goes on physically and mentally. Chris matures acedemically while Scott matures athletically. But both of these kids are hiding secrets. Chris is dyslexic and doesn't want to be put in special education classes while Scott is a really good kicker but doesn't want anyone to know because he's afraid he'll mess up. They play on the same football team throughout sixth grade and they go through the ups and the downs as a team. Both Chris and Scott battle through injuries, bad plays, and losses but get through as a team. They stay friends throughout the school year and they eventually tell their secrets they've been hiding. Although Chris was put into special education he still had his same old friends and Scott became well respected as an accurate placekicker.
ReplyDeleteI am reading the 2nd book of the Hunger Games series called, Catching Fire. I am pretty far into it, and I think it is a great book. It is very exciting, and makes me want to keep reading the book until I finish it. I have read the first book already, and moved to this one. It is about a girl who is living in a poor district, who is ruled by the capitol controling all of the other districts. (there are 12, katniss is the 12th). But every year, a boy and a girl are picked randomly from each district. The 24 kids are then brought to an arena to fight to the death, until there is one person standing. Katniss has already been through the Hunger Games already, and is being forced into a second Hunger game. She has to find a way to survive for another game. The book has been getting very exciting lately as she has been entering the Hunger Game.
ReplyDeleteI am reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. The reading is going well so far and I am enjoying it, but the story is slow moving. Although, I am starting to see hints to the development of Miles (the main character). He is a very introverted teenager that does not have many friends, and when he arrives at Culver Creek (his current boarding school) he is immediately forces into making a friendship with his roommate, the Colonel. The Colonel shows him the ins and outs of this high school and introduces him to all of his friends, specifically, Alaska and Tuksumi. Those of which are misfits as well. Originally Alaska strikes an interest in Miles because she is very strong willed, knows what she wants, is motivated to get what she wants, and does what she wants. This is intriguing to Miles because he seems to be very afraid of life and what others will think of him, and Alaska doesn’t care what others opinions are of her. Miles, even if he knows what he wants, he would never say it because he would be afraid of the consequences. You can start to see that he is getting more comfortable with himself and becoming slightly more socially aware of his surroundings. Where I have left off he has just gone to his first school sports game, and he actually enjoys himself, and so far in the story Miles has switched schools comfortably. Lastly, Looking for Alaska seems to be heading in the direction thematically about the struggles people face when being challenged by social pressures. I feel like Miles has been faced with social pressure throughout his life and will continue/start to face it more and more throughout this book. He has struggled to fit in for his entire life and I feel like that will be an ongoing difficulty that he will face.
ReplyDeleteReading The Fault in Our stars has helped me to appreciate my life right now. Most of the characters INcluding Hazel are dieing of some illness. She has no long term goal besides beating cancer which she is not optimistic about at all, Which while some look down on I think is not a bad philosophy that we could all learn something from. I the beginning of the book she just seems depressed with no purpose other then to take up space watch TV and read books, which is not a bad idea for a person to do in order to build themselves mentally before they pass on, but as the story goes on and she finds a companion in Augustus she realizes that she needs to focus on her happiness now. In my own life I would like to exercise the same philosophy and try to become more happy by finding joy in the little things in life. One thing that is really bugging me so far in this book is Augustus. He doesn't seem real to me. He clams to be healthy and recovering from some sort of bone cancer but seems to gravitate towards girls who have fallen terminally ill. No guy who isn't dieing or giving up on life constantly goes for girls he knows will break his heart, if he really does end up loving them, through no fault of their own, twice in a row. My theory is that Augustus is mentally unstable, has a sick mind and enjoys praying on the feelings of dieing girls, or he is going to die so he wants to give these girls one last go at love.
ReplyDeleteI am reading A fault in our Stars by John Green. I am already hooked on the book, and it makes me realize I shouldn't take what I have for granted and I should be grateful for what I have, not upset about what I don't. So far, I have noticed that Hazel is letting her cancer take over her life. She always says she doesn't want to be one of those people that "becomes their disease", however that is what she seems to be doing. Throughout the beginning, she spends a lot of time watching TV and has lost contact with most of her friends from school. If I were her I would want to live every day to the fullest so any day if something went wrong, I would know I lived the life I wanted in the time I had. Once Augustus Waters comes into her life, everything slowly starts to change. Her purpose before seemed to be to survive cancer, but she had no other purpose for living, until Augustus. I think all of this is saying that you should make the most of every second you have and live your life aiming towards a purpose, because you never know what could happen. At any second, your life could change completely.
ReplyDeleteThe title of the book that I am reading is Hole in my Life by: Jack Gantos, this book is a memoir on Jacks life. The reading is going very well, I am enjoying the book very much. It has caught my attention because the author is humerus and honest. So far he isn't such a great person. He was living alone while he was going to school. I haven't heard anything about his family, because of being alone all the time he has a fake ID. He drinks a lot and in the place where he is living he plays poker with these people and they all drink together. He has really no guidance in his life so he keeps on doing illegal stuff. Then, he when he first mentions anyone in his family was when his dad arranged for him to start to live with the Bacon family. So since he was so used to living alone he was always going out drinking with his friends. Then one night he came home and was hammered and threw up every where. Since the parents couldn't take the way he was always acting they told him to pack up his things and get out of his house. He was living in his car next to a dumpster for a couple of days. Finally, he found an apartment that he went and looked at and rented it and finally got a place to stay, but he was all alone again. A prediction that I think would happen again is he will try to find help and get his life back on track. But then he will screw up and get in more and more trouble.
ReplyDeleteI am reading The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne, it is about a German boy who is living in Berlin. In the beginning Bruno's family moves from one house to another because of Bruno's father job. Bruno's father is a Nazi and is involved with the war that is going on. At this point in time the Nazi's are killing Jew's and keeping some of them in concentration camps. Bruno doesn't know what is going on and is basically clueless about the whole war. Bruno meets a Jewish kid that is behind a huge fence and is in "Pajamas" which are really the concentration suits for the camp. Bruno doesn't realize that his dad is apart of keeping these people in the concentration camps and doesn't really know why the kid is behind the fence. I am going to continue to read this book so I can finish the story.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading Francona by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy. So far, I think it's a great book. The book is about Terry Francona's life and mainly focuses on when he was the Red Soxs manager. I think it is interesting learning about Francona's personal life, considering I already know what happens on the field. Terry has a very interesting family; his father, Tito Francona, was also a professional baseball player. In addition, his son is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marines. I haven’t gotten that far into the book, but I can wait to read on and possibly find out more about the beer and fried chicken in the 2011 season.
ReplyDeleteI have recently finished the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, and i would like to say that it was very good. It was jam packed with adventure and action. Veronica made me feel like I was actually there. If I could choose which faction I would choose, i would be in condor. I would be in condor because I find honesty very important, and it helps with trust. The main character, Beatrice chose Dauntless, even though her parents are in abnegation. When you turn 16 in this society you get to choose a faction that you want to be in, and many people would like to stay with their family members. Beatrice had a tough decision with choosing if she wanted to stay, because she wanted to stay with her family members, but she didn't love being an abnegation anymore. She finally made the decision after a while, and she realized that she could be both a abnegation, and a dauntless. people that can be both are called divergent, hence the name of the book.
ReplyDeleteI am about 1/2 way through the book, The Fault in Our Stars, a novel by John Green. The main character, Hazel Grace has cancer and meets a boy who she seems to be falling in love with. At first she seemed quiet and awkward and did not have friends. Things have changed for her seeing that now she has a boyfriend . They connect through when she shared her favorite book with him. They soon become obsessed with it and email the author stating that they have questions about the "unsolved ending". The author agrees to come visit them and discuss the ending. Augustus and Hazel have a mutual friend named Isaac who also went to the support group that I mentioned in my previous post. Isaac is loosing the one eye that he has left. I am at the part where Hazel and Augustus are going to Amsterdam to meet the author. They soon discover that he is a mean drunk and ignores all of the questions poor Hazel has for him. I feel bad for hazel because she is dying and she truly loves this book and she is unable to get the lasting questions she has to the author she loves.
ReplyDeleteI have recently finished the book Looking For Alaska by John Green. This was an amazing book, but was a little bit slow. Aside from that, I thought it was great. The story is based around an awkward teenage boy named Miles "Pudge" Halter. Before he came to Culver Creek Boarding School, his life was really just one big nonevent; he had only one friend and his main goal in life was finding the "Great Perhaps". When he arrived he was instantly forced into becoming friends with his roommate Chip "The Colonel" Martin, who showed him the ins and outs of the anything-but-boring school. With the help of the Colonel, Pudge gained the friendship of Takumi, Lara, and the incredibly fascinating Alaska Young. Alaska lets him into her world and shows him all the fun he could really have while staying at the school. This is Before. But After, nothing was the same in Pudge's eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe book that I am reading for this project is called "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Leviathan. The reading has been very good so far! I have not gotten up to the part yet where the two boys, both named Will Grayson, meet yet, but I am almost there. I think that both of the boys are definitely developing and growing because they are becoming more mature and know what the right things to be accomplishing are. Some details that have stuck out to me so far are mostly how both boys are figuring life out. Going to concerts with their gay best friends and trying to figure out who it is that they like.
ReplyDeleteIn the book I'm reading, "Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks, Amanda just got to Tucks old house, and while she walks around she starts to remember all the good but few times they had together. She remembers what happened when Dawson and her were together all the way to when she came to visit Tuck for the very last time. Amanda explains to us how she remembers Tuck as he was. Then it switches to Dawson and how he was still driving from the airport after landing back in his home town. He decides to stop, get food to eat then when he gets back in the car he thinks buying flowers would be the right thing to do.
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