Blog Reflection

For my old blog post, I will be using the first blog I ever did, which is The Fault in Our Stars book review! 

For the better blog post which I think I did best on, I am using Insurgent Reading Skills! 

In my very first blog post, I believe that the only introduction paragraph that I had was barely existent, and was very week as well.  All it said was that I read the book over the summer (Highlighted).  In one of the last blog posts the introduction paragraph is still very brief, but I feel that it gives the reader quick information they need to know.  Instead of just saying that I have read the book or am reading the book, I say that I am reading the book, as well as what the book is, the series that it is in, as well as what genre the book would fall under in my opinion. (Highlighted)  My way of telling the readers about the book also has changed, which improved my blog posts.  In my first blog, I would say something small about the event, and put a quote here or there, and then move on. (Highlighted)  But, in the other blog post, I would put a detailed description of the event so the reader would understand more about the book, and then use a quote where I felt necessary, and then explain the quote to help the reader understand.  (Highlighted)

            One thing that I struggled with on this assignment was keeping up with the amount of blogs that we had to do.  As I improved, the more detail I wanted to put into my blogs, which meant that I had to spend more time on them.  Because of this, I would not be able to finish the blog post that I wanted to do in the amount of class time that we had to work on the blog.  I tried to overcome this by trying to spend as much free time that I had to work on my blogs.  A strength that I have in my blogs would be the amount of detail that I have in them about the book and the author.  I set a reading goal of 20 books, which was way too high for me, because I only read 5.  This is because I had lots of different activities going on, as well as other homework to do, so I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would like to read.  I used goodreads.com to keep track of my reading goal, as well as to see what my friends where saying about a book that I wanted to read, and to try and update them on the books that I was reading or have already read.  I improved as a reader over this trimester by being able to understand different types of literature and being able to make real world connections. 

Older blog post: The Fault In Our Stars Book Review 

Over the summer, I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Hazel, one of the main characters, starts out as a shy girl who may have depression.  Early on in the book Hazel claims that depression is not a side effect of cancer, but of dying; "But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying." (Green, 1).  She rarely leaves the house, only to go to the cancer support group that she attends, where one week, she meets Augustus Waters.  Acting shy around others was how Hazel acted, but when she was invited to go to Augustus's house that same day, she couldn't say no.  Hazel starts coming out of her shy and depressed shell and becomes more and more outgoing throughout the book.  This is because of her interactions with Augustus.  Later on in the book, when Hazel and Augustus get the chance to go to Amsterdam, Hazel claims that she would have never done this before, but she ended up going with her mom and Augustus. She becomes more outgoing when interacting with other characters, as well.  When she goes to the mall and a little girl asks her what is in her nose, Hazel even asks the girl if she wanted to try them on.  "'Would they help me breath, too?'  'I dunno.  Let's try.'  I took it off and let Jackie stick the cannula in her nose and breathe.  'Tickles,' she said." (Green, 51) Becoming even more outgoing through interactions with other characters is how Hazel becomes a more complex character as the story continues on.  One of the main themes in The Fault in Our Stars is love, and Hazel contributes to that theme because she ends up falling in love with Augustus.  "I fell in love the way you sleep, slowly, then all at once." (Green, 122).  
The Fault in Our Stars article 
This article does give away spoilers, so I suggest that if you want to know just what the book is about, you should read the first 2 paragraphs.  This article explains everything that happens in the book, without all of the details that John Green includes in his book.

Better blog post: Insurgent Reading Skills

Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.
In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there have not been any world wars, or any wars, where people were injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

Insurgent Reading Skills

Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.

In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there has not been any world wars, or any wars, where people where injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

Insurgent Book review

WARNING- SPOILERS!!!

So I finally finished the book Insurgent. The ending was something of what I predicted, except for the fact that Peter and Marcus are both not dead. I predicted that Peter would work for the Erudite, which he somewhat did, except for he ends up saving Tris' life and helps Tris and Tobias escape the Erudite compound.
 

What happened from where I last blogged about up to the end of the book is the Erudite and traitor Dauntless break into the place where lots of the Divergent (people with an aptitude for 2 or more factions) are staying, along with lots of other survivors from the war who are not traitors, are staying. They shoot simulation-transmitters into a bunch of people staying, but only the non-Divergent people are affected by it. Tris and Uriah, a non-traitor Dauntless, start to look for Divergent people before the Erudite find them. They end up getting caught, and taken to where they are keeping the other Divergent people. Eric, a Dauntless-traitor, who used to be a Dauntless leader, tells the guards to keep a gun on Tris at all times. He then comes back to where the Divergent are, and tells them what is happening. He says that they can only take 2 Divergent to Erudite headquarters for studying, and the rest will be executed. A little boy sitting next to Tris gets shot in the head by Eric, and Tris, grabbing the knife she had in her pocket, attacks Eric, and stabs him in the stomach. The Dauntless who are not traitors then surround the area where the Divergent are being held because of help they got from one of the Erudite, and they save the Divergent. Tris helps remove the needles that transmitted the simulation serum, and then everything settles down. But, in a good action book, things never stay that way. Tris wakes up to Christina, one of her old friends that was a Dauntless initiate with her, and gets dragged but to the roof to see 3 people, Marlene, Hector, and a young girl standing on the edge of the building. They are under the simulation that they were shot with. Marlene announces that this will happen every 2 days until a Divergent is given to Erudite. Tris and Christina save the little girl and Hector, but Marlene jumps off of the building to her death.
 

During the funeral service for Marlene, Tris is overcome by grief and guilt, and leaves the service, where Christina finds her and tells her that she forgives her for shooting Will, who was Christina's boyfriend. Tris had to shoot Will because he was under the simulation in the first book, Divergent, and if she didn't shoot him, he would shoot her. Tris then finds her way to Tobias' room, where he makes her promise not to go to the Erudite headquarters. She says she won't, but after he falls asleep, she leaves and goes anyway. Upon arrival Dauntless traitor guards take her to a cell. Among the guards is Peter. He escorts her everywhere that she goes. Jeannie, the leader of the Erudite who is responsible for all of the simulation attacks and deaths, tells her that as soon as she gets what she wants from Tris, which is a divergent-proof simulation, that Tris will be executed. Jeannie preforms a series of tests on Tris. Peter is escorting her to one of the tests where they run into an injured Tobias, who got captured by the guards. Tris thinks that he came to save her. After one of her tests, Tobias is forced to give Jeannie information on the locations of some of the factionless safe houses. After another one of her tests where Tris actually attacks Jeannie, she calls Caleb out, who is Tris' brother. Tris becomes extremely hurt and views him as a traitor because of this. He was giving Jeannie all the information she needed to know about Tris. After Tris attacked Jeannie, Tris' execution was planned for the next day. They perform the execution, where she is injected. Tris hears the heart monitor go dead, but she knows that she is still breathing. Peter closes her eyes and wheels her out of the room. He starts to run and then gets to Tobias' cell. He explains that Tris is paralyzed for one minute and they run. They end up escaping, where Peter explains that the only reason he saved Tris was because she saved him. They go to the Abnegation section of the city, which is another faction, and meet with the factionless and the Dauntless. One day while Tris is walking around the city, she runs into Marcus, who convinces Tris that her parents died to try to keep whatever Jeannie wants a secret. Tris, believing him, goes to the Amity headquarters with Christina and Marcus to update Johanna. The Amity then holds a meeting and vote to stay out of the war. Johanna and several others then leave the faction because they want to help. Christina and Tris then talk to the Erudite people who were staying in the Amity headquarters, and convince them to help Christina, Tris, and Marcus on getting the information stolen and to give it to all of the factions. Tris leads a group into Erudite headquarters, where she and Marcus then go up to Jeannie's private laboratory after realizing that the information won’t be on a public computer after an encounter with Caleb. On the way up to the laboratory Christina, Marcus, and Tris run into Edward. They fight, and it leaves Christina and Edward injured. Tris and Marcus continue on, and come to a dead end where there are two different doors. They split up, and Tris walks into one of the rooms. There, the room recognizes her, and gives her a set of directions. If she gets through the door on the other side of the room in 5 minutes, then she is allowed to pass. Tris starts to walk towards the door when she gets blocked by herself. They must fight like they did in the initiate training for Dauntless. Tris realizes half way through the fight that whatever she would do in the fight; her image will do as well, so she begins to think of what she would do ahead of time, instead of just reacting. She passes the simulation, and goes through the door, where she finds Tori threatening Jeannie. Tris tries to talk her out of killing Jeannie, because Jeannie is the only one who can access the computer that Tris needs. Tris and Tori fight, and Tori bites Tris. Tris had knocked Tori's weapon out of her hand, but Tori pulls out a knife and stabs Jeannie. Tori then continues to call Tris a traitor, and has her taken away to be tried. Uriah then takes Tris downstairs where all of the traitors where being held for trial. Evelyn, a Factionless leader, then announces a new form of government where there are no Factions. The Dauntless become very upset about this, but find they are powerless because the Factionless had all of their weapons. Tobias then walks into the room, and kisses Tris. Tris begins to hope that all of the secrets that they had between them are gone. Then, a video plays, featuring someone named Amanda Ritter. She says that the factions where created in Chicago and they were sealed off from the rest of the world. But, once the video was played, the Amity would open the gates and they should all enter the world. She says that they should all forget their past, and that she would be entering the new world under the name of Edith Prior. The video ends, and the room erupts in voices.

In the blog that I posted before, I had asked some questions which I know have the answer too.  The questions that I asked where: what happened to Marcus and Peter? The answer to this question is they both live, and Peter does act like he has sided with the Erudite, which I predicted, but he eventually saves Tris, which is going against the Erudite, which is something I did not predict.  What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? They all live, but Caleb sides with the Erudite, and Tobias, Tris, and Susan all stay on the other side of the war, the "good side".  Will the war end? It seems that the war has ended, but I can predict that there might be another war because there is a third book, and I don't think that book is just going to be about their new life without factions.  Who will win the war if it does end? The "good side" (Tris, Tobias, factionless and the good Dauntless)seem to have won the war, but only the factionless got what they wanted, and the Dauntless are kind of upset about not having factions anymore. How will the war end if it does end?   The war ended by Jeannie dying and the good Dauntless and the factionless capturing the "rebels", and everyone seeing the video about there no longer being any factions. 

Insurgent Reading Skills

Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.

In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there has not been any world wars, or any wars, where people where injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

Siege and Storm

I just started this book today, and I can already tell that it is going to be a great book, just like the book that comes before it (it is the second book in a series), Shadow and Bone.  The book starts out with a chapter called before- which isn't actually a chapter, because chapter one comes right after it.  It tells the story of how the main characters Alina and Mal get to where they started in chapter one.  Leigh Bardugo does a great job of capturing the readers attention in the first paragraph of the story, just like she did in the first book.  "The boy and the girl had once dreamed of ships, long ago. before they'd ever seem the True Sea.  They were the vessels of stories, magic ships with masts hewn from sweet cedar and sails spun by maidens from thread of pure gold.  Their crews were white mice who sang songs and scrubbed the deck with their pink tails." (Bardugo, 1).  The author uses a metaphor to help the reader imagine the scenes that the boy and the girl (Mal and Alina) had dreamed of, by comparing men to mice.  She also captures the readers attention and helps them imagine the scene by saying the ship was magical and then proving her point by claiming that the ship had masts hewn from sweet cedar and the sails were pure gold.
I am only on page 40, but already there is action going on.  The Darkling- who is the antagonist of the story, has already found Alina and is attempting to capture her.  I know what happens, but I dont want to put it on the blog in case someone else is reading the book currently or wants to read it.  I'm telling you right now, if you haven't read Shadow and Bone yet, go and read it now.  It is a really really really good book with lots of fantasy in it.  If you read this book you will expose yourself to an awesome author and an amazing series.  The way that Leigh Bardugo writes makes her books seem very suspenceful and they are action-packed.

Shadow and Bone theme and summary

I've been reading the book Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.  First off, let me say that this book is awesome!  The author includes strong imagery into her book to allow you to envision each scene as if it where happening on a TV screen in front of you.  She also uses other styles of figurative language to increase the understanding and visualization of the book. An example of this is "He nodded at me and spread his arms wide.  A tense silence descended as his hands filled with dark, swirling ribbons of blackness that bled into the air.  He brought his hands together with a resounding crack.  Nervous cries burst from the crowd as darkness blanketed the room.... Light flooded the throne room, drenching us in warmth and shattering the darkness like black glass. The court erupted into applause."  (Bardugo, 105-106).  This shows the authors great style of imagery, as well as an example of figurative language.  In this passage, she uses a simile, "...shattering the darkness like black glass." This helps you envision the blackness that surrounded the main character, Alina, and the Darkling, who is referred to as he in the passage, shattering as the light that Alina produces overpowers the Darklings black shadows. 

One of the themes in Shadow and Bone is no matter how hard you struggle to reach great power, you won't get it unless you have good intentions.  I say this because the Darkling tries to reach power by claiming that he wants to destroy the Fold (very big, bad place), but instead he wants to expand it to take out his enemies so he can control everyone.  Alina resists his power though, refusing him the pleasure of having power over everyone, so the Darkling never got what he wanted.

To summarize the book, Alina starts off as an orphan with her friend Mal.  They grow up together and get drafted into the army together.  But, Alina is a junior map maker and Mal is a very good tracker.  The army must travel through the fold in order to get supplies.  On their trip through the fold, they get attacked by very vicious animals called volcra, where Alina discovers that she has a power unlike any other Grisha, who are humans with supernatural powers, the Darkling being the most powerful, and she gets taken into the Grisha world.  She trains with many teachers to learn how to fight and also control her power, while the Darkling tries to get her onto his side.  Convincing her that he wants to destroy the Fold, Alina works even harder to master her power.  The Darkling claims that an amplifier, which is something that can amplify a Grisha's power, would help her.  So, he sends a tracking group from the army to search for it.  Once they get close to finding it, Baghra, who is the teacher that helped Alina master her power, warns her that the Darkling has no good intentions, and seeks ultimate power over everyone.  She gives Alina supplies, and helps her run away that night.  She runs, and almost gets caught twice.  When she was hiding the second time, Mal finds her.  He starts to take care of her while trying to find what the Darkling wants Alina's amplifier to be.  They find what the Darkling wanted , but the Darkling gets his hands on it as well, and gives it to Alina, where he can start to control her.  The Darkling takes her to the Fold to attempt to expand it, where Alina overcomes the Darkling's power and she saves Mals life.  They both escape form the Fold and go into hiding in a forest near a town.  In the chapter titled After, it shows that Mal and Alina make it onto a ship, going to the other side of the sea. It says that there where many different rumors that they heard claiming that Apparat, who was like a priest, had disappeared, foreign troops were surrounding their borders, and the 1st and 2nd armies where threatening to go to war with each other.  They also heard that the sun summoner, who is Alina, was dead.  The book ends with the line " They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on the other side of the sea." (Bardugo, 356).

Oh Look Another Zombie Movie book review

Oh Look Another Zombie Movie by Spencer Walsh book review 

So, this post isn't about an actual book.  My friend Spencer Walsh enjoys writing and he just wrote this awesome book.  It’s called Oh Look another Zombie Movie.  The way that he wrote out the story is in a script-type fashion where the scenery is described in italics before the scene starts.  I feel that this makes the story even more interesting due to the fact that you can imagine the scene playing out in your head as if it were an actual movie.  The story is a comedy about zombie-killing lieutenants, captains, FBI agents, and other various people.  In his intro, he states that the story is written "South-park" style, where everything is fair game.  This is very true, due to the fact that almost anything can and will happen in his book.  If you think of it, it’s probably somewhere on the next page.  This book has lots of sarcasm and humor.  It’s a very fast-paced book, where you are pretty much on the edge of your seat waiting for the next big thing to happen. As many new characters are introduced, some characters leave through crazy deaths.  You will literally laugh out loud at some of the lines inside of the book, such as this one: "English Translator: Hello I am Barry, Mr. President. I am your English translator.

President: Nice to meet you Barry but who are all these people?

English Translator: Yeah, we couldn't find someone who spoke the Persian language and English and my second language was Japanese. Then Japanese to Spanish. Then Spanish to Dutch. Then Dutch to Swahili. Then Swahili to Finnish. Then Swahili to Mandarin. Then Mandarin to Italian. Then Italian to Hebrew-

Dr. Brooks: We get it! There are a lot of languages!" (Walsh, 82).  
I would highly suggest everyone read this.  As I've said numerous times, this book is very comical, as well as witty, and has a fun theme of a zombie apocalypse.  I've been trying to link the story to this post for about an hour now and it won't work, so if you want to read it I could email it to you, but I'm going to keep trying to find a way to link his story onto the blog, because it is a must read! Sorry I can't post it! 

The Kite Runner reading skills

The Kite Runner reading skills

I just started the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I'm only on page 40, so I can't tell you much. To me this book is very boring so far. I'm going to try and finish it, because I'm sure it picks up towards the middle. Plus, I don't have every right to say that the book is boring, because I'm only on page 40, as I said before. But, to me, the book needs to have a hook, something that makes the reader want to keep reading. The first line in the book, "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975." (Hosseini, 1), to me is a very good hook. It leaves the reader think what happened to make this person who they are today, as well as, what is this person today? The author begins to explain about their life before that summer, including many flashbacks, as well as lots of references to the title. To me, a powerful hook is very important, which the author included, but the author does not continue with his suspense and powerful writing. He just writes how things happen, which, in a nonfiction book, is very important, but I also think that he should state things in a more interesting way. Add in more powerful diction. There are lots of foreign words in this book, which make it a more difficult book to read and comprehend.

I'm currently wondering, because I have gotten to the point of the book where there was an attack, why there was an attack and gun fire in the middle of the night near the characters home. That question was answered on the next page, as the main character was interacting with another character, "'Have you heard the news, boys?' Assef said, his grin never faltering. 'The king is gone. good riddance. Long live the president!" (Hosseini, 39). Here the reader discovers why there was gun fire and lots of exploding the previous night before.

I predict that there will be a war between the people and the president, who turns into a dictator and tries to control the country, and the main character is forced to fight in the war for a little bit, but then moves away with his family. One thing I know for a fact is that the main character moves 5 years after, I'm assuming, the war starts. I assume this because in the opening line it says that this event made him who he is today in 1975 and in the author’s biography it says that he moved to America in 1980. "Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980." Using this textual support, I can predict that either he moved away or his family also moved with him to the United States because of a war. I predict that there is a war because of the gun fire exchanged and the bombings that happen on page 35, "Something roared like thunder. The earth shook a little and we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire... A white light flashed, lit the sky in silver. It flashed again and was followed by a rapid staccato of gunfire." (Hosseini). Because of all of the gunfire and bombings that went on that night, I can assume that there will be a war. I say that because their king had the throne taken away and a president took over the government and the people where happy with the government that they had, so they will probably retaliate because they dislike the new form of government.

I can make a text-to-word connection to this book because this has happened in many countries where there was a war due to their president, king, or dictator being thrown out of the government and the people revolting due to disliking the new ruler, and the government fighting back. One specific example of this is the war that happened in Afghanistan, as well as Israel, and even back into colonial times with the American Revolution, and the French Revolution.

I can make a text-to-text connection to this book because there are many other books that are written about war over government, such as A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, and My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban - A Young Woman's Story by Latifa are a few examples.

I can't make any text-to-self connections, because I have not been through any type of war, or anything similar to what the main character has gone through in the book so far.

Khaled Hosseini has a website!! Go check it out to see all of the books that he's written and the book that he is currently working on too!! Khaled Hosseini

The Host characterization

The Host Characterization

I finished the book The Host by Stephenie Meyer because everyone was reading it last year and I decided it was time to see what everyone was talking about, and what the movie was about.   

Melanie Stryder is a human rebel who was captured before the book began.  She was implanted with a soul named Wanderer.  Melanie's consciousness survives being taken over by the soul and she resists being taken over completely even though the soul is inside of her.   She likes to retaliate to lots of problems with violence, which her soul doesn't like due to most souls hating any type of violence.  She is very protective over the things she loves, like her brother, Jamie, and her boyfriend, Jarred.  "I knew nothing of what passed for beauty among these strangers, and yet I knew that this face was beautiful.  I wanted to keep looking at it.  As soon as I realized this, it disappeared.  Mine, spoke the alien thought that should not have existed."  (Meyer, 13).  This quote shows that Melanie is protective over her boyfriend, which was the picture that the soul was looking at.  

Wanderer "Wanda" is the soul that was placed into Melanie's body.  Wanderer is like the typical soul,  she is naturally altruistic, horrified by violence, and finds it difficult to believably lie (to humans). She hates upsetting people and so suffers endlessly trying to be as little of a burden as possible.  She finds herself to start feeling how Melanie feels during her time spent in Melanie's body.  She starts to feel sympathetic towards humans, and even starts to feel love towards Melanie's boyfriend and brother, which makes her different.  

Ian O'Shea is one of the people to fall in love with Wanderer.  He claims that he is in love with her personality and does not care how she looks, so when she changes hosts, he does not help pick it out.  He gets annoyed with how she is so selfless towards others, afraid that it will eventually hurt her as well. 

Jarred Howe is Melanie's boyfriend.  They met when they where raiding the same house for food.  At first he thought that Melanie was a soul, and when he found out that she was human, he was so excited that he kissed her, making them both fall in love.  He claims that Wanderer took Melanie's life, but starts to grow on her when he sees her comforting a dying friend.  He also cares for Melanie's brother Jamie when she was captured, making him a parental figure towards Jamie.  

Jamie Stryder is Melanie's little brother.  He wants to be treated as an adult- meaning going on the raids with their group.  He is one of the only ones to like Wanderer immediately  viewing her as a substitute sister.  

This is a video of the author Stephenie Meyer talking about her book and movie! 

Divergent book recomendation

Divergent Book Recomendation

Over the weekend, I read the book Divergent.  I finished it today.  This book is absolutely amazing.  It captures the readers attention in the first paragraph, "There is one mirror in my house.  It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.  Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair." (Roth, 1).  When I read that, some questions came into my head. Why is there only one mirror? What it a faction?  Why only that one time can this person look in the mirror one time?  Those may even be questions you are asking yourself, and if you decide to keep reading, which I highly suggest you do, you will find those answers.  This book, both action, adventure, and a hint of romance, will be very hard to put down when you read it.  If you have read this book already, I'm sure you would agree with me that this book is one of the best books ever published.  The main character, Beatrice, is very fun to read about.  Hearing her thoughts and words takes the book to a whole new level of awesome.  You get to read along as she goes through dramatic changes throughout the book, making her a dynamic character.  This book is a series, which means I will be hunting for the second book, Insurgent, ASAP.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has a taste for adventure, danger, action, and just a dash of romance.  If you think "Eww, romance no way and I going to read that!", you are wrong.  Read it, now.  There isn't a ton of it in there.  Its not a love story, I promise you that.  More like the opposite of a love story.  So, READ THE BOOK.  NOW.

The Fault In Our Stars book review

The Fault In Our Stars Book Review

Over the summer, I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Hazel, one of the main characters, starts out as a shy girl who may have depression.  Early on in the book Hazel claims that depression is not a side effect of cancer, but of dying; "But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying." (Green, 1).  She rarely leaves the house, only to go to the cancer support group that she attends, where one week, she meets Augustus Waters.  Acting shy around others was how Hazel acted, but when she was invited to go to Augustus's house that same day, she couldn't say no.  Hazel starts coming out of her shy and depressed shell and becomes more and more out going throughout the book.  This is because of her interactions with Augustus.  Later on in the book, when Hazel and Augustus get the chance to go to Amsterdam, Hazel claims that she would have never done this before, but she ended up going with her mom and Augustus. She becomes more outgoing when interacting with other characters, as well.  When she goes to the mall and a little girl asks her what is in her nose, Hazel even asks the girl if she wanted to try them on.  "'Would they help me breath, too?'  'I dunno.  Let's try.'  I took it off and let Jackie stick the cannula in her nose and breathe.  'Tickles,' she said." (Green, 51) Becoming even more outgoing through interactions with other characters is how Hazel becomes a more complex character as the story continues on.  One of the main themes in The Fault in Our Stars is love, and Hazel contributes to that theme because she ends up falling in love with Augustus.  "I fell in love the way you sleep, slowly, then all at once." (Green, 122).  

The Fault in Our Stars article 
This article does give away spoilers, so I suggest that if you want to know just what the book is about, you should read the first 2 paragraphs.  This article explains everything that happens in the book, without all of the details that John Green includes in his book.

John Green- Author of The Fault in Our Stars interview