Over the summer, you were asked to read at least two novels of your choice.
1) Briefly tell me what you read, including the titles and authors.
2)
I want to know what you liked about the books, what you learned and,
more importantly, what matters to you about the books' content.
*Make
sure to adhere to proper conventions and proofread your response. If,
for some reason, you did not read two novels, tell me about two novels
you have read and answer the above. This blog post must be completed by
2:30p.m. on Friday, August 26th, 2016.
19 comments:
Over the summer I read No Summit Out of Sight by Jordan Romero. It tells the story of the youngest climber to summit the 7 summits. Jordan had to overcome many obstacles, but he would not let them stop him from achieving his goal of reaching the highest point on each continent. The other book I read was River's Edge: The Weezer Story, which told to struggles and triumphs of the rock band, Weezer. I liked No Summit Out of Sight because it taught me that if you work hard for a goal even if it's climbing the highest peaks. I did not like Rivers Edge as much because of the way it was written. I enjoyed the content, however it felt like reading a 500 page article, rather than a book. This taught me that even though the content is good, it is how you deliver it that matters.
8/23/16
The two novels I read over the summer where The Book Thief by Markus Zusak which took place during WWII when Hitler was in control of most of Germany and had Hitler youth camps the main character Liesel Meminger was on train ride with her mother and younger brother on there way to meet their adoptive family. Liesel’s younger brother later died on the way due to sickness. Liesel makes it to her adoptive parents house and later now moves in. She has a hard time fitting in but later makes new neighborhood friends, and watches the world around her change as the control of Hitler forever changes her life and the lives around her. I also read Hangman’s Curse by Frank E. Peretti About a team family of investigators in called in to find out about a ghost that haunts a high school after a high schooler hangs himself the death is linked to the ghost Able Frey. The team later finds out there is more than meets the eye when they go deeper in the case.
In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak I liked how well the author had explained the time period and how the events in history of that time had affected all of the characters in the book. In Hangman’s Curse by Frank E. Peretti I enjoyed how the author had let one lie affect a whole community. What I learned from The Book Thief was never let a opportunity with the ones you love slip by and what I learned from Hangman’s Curse was what you say to people matters no matter what. I what I look for mostly in a books are the hooks that make the book interesting and what you to keep turning the pages, until you find out the end.
The two novels I read were The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan and The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson. With both books, I enjoyed the fantasy plot line. That is really the only thing that matters to me in a book, a good plot line. In The Hidden Oracle, and all of Rick Riordan’s other books, I love his voice. It is like a conversation was written down, and I need to incorporate more voice into my writing.
Even though they are not novels, I also read Quiet by Susan Cain and The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely. Quiet is about how to be an introvert in a society with an Extrovert Ideal. I learned about a lot of ways I as an introvert can thrive in the western world. The Upside of Irrationality is about the unexpected benefits to how humans defy logic. I enjoy reading the experiments, their results, then seeing how I have and how I can take advantage of impracticality.
Over the summer I read two novels, I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan and A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks. I really enjoyed the plot line in IKWYDLS and the fact that is was very suspenseful and had a lot of suprising twists and turns in the book. It kept me entertained with what I was reading and helped me finish the book faster, so I could see what happened. What I learned from the book is that you should always live up to your mistakes, and don't ever assume nobody knows your secrets, because blackmail could come your way. A Walk to Remember was a story that got me engulfed in the characters lives from the start. I was fascinated with the two main character's relationship from the beginning to end. I loved the way the story unfolds, and I was shocked at the ending. What I learned from this book was that taking a relationship slow and being there for the ones you love is always rewarding. What I think matters about a book's content is getting to know the characters on a deep, personal level so that you can understand their actions on a deeper level. However the books I read this summer I both greatly enjoyed.
I read Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger and The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The former I had enjoyed very much, I'd decided to read it because I took an interest in WWI literature after reading Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and having it be among my favourite reads so far, although I did notice a difference in the way scenes were being described and the general formatting of the book, the one I read this summer being written closer to a diary format. Storm of Steel, like All Quiet on the Western Front, is a first person narrative of a young German soldier and his time in the trenches. The second of the two books is also definitely among my favourites, I love the way that the story of 6 university students studying classics was told and unraveled, almost backwards in comparison to many books with such subjects as this one. I am very glad I've read these books, I want more similar ones!
Over the Summer I read The Book Thief and If I Stay. I truly enjoyed reading The Book Thief because a majority of the world believes that Jews were the only ones who had suffered durning WWII and this book shows a certain sympathy for a young german girl. It showed me that not only were Jewish families were split apart, but also German families. Liesel, the main character, was taken away from her mother and her younger brother had died, so as a result she grew up in a foster family. She learned to get used to her new daily routines such as; school, soccer in the streets, reading in the basement with her Papa, and always eating pea soup for dinner. I truly enjoyed The Book Thief and I intend to read another book from that time period such as Anne Frank's Diary.
In the book If I Stay I read about Mia looking over the highlights and downfalls in her life. In the beginning of the book her family has a snow to which they decided to stay home. But later on they felt the need to go to out, which resulted in a terrible car crash. The family was rushed off to the hospital and put through several procedures. Mia finds that she is out of her body and doesn't feel any pain. In the next 12 hours she observes her brother and two parents dying, her heart stopping on the operating table and her boyfriend rushing off to cry. She has many family visitors, some emotional and some who talk to her as if they were having a normal conversation. I always enjoy a good love story but I like that their more than just gushing love in this book.
Throughout the summer I read two novels. The first novel was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book was about a boy who found cassette tapes that explained why she ended her life. I personally found this book depressing but also very interesting. I'm sure you can understand why I found it depressing. I learned what can drive a person to ending their life. The second novel I read was The Book Thief by markus zusak was about a young girl that lived in Germany during WWII. The girls family hide a Jew which was very dangerous during this time period. The girl and the jew become friends and teach each other how to read meanwhile the girl was stealing books from the mayors wife to give to the Jew to read. I enjoyed this book because usually books about WWII are in the eyes of a Jewish person but it was in the eyes of a young innocent german girl. I learned that during WWII it was a struggle for everyone not just Jewish people.
I read two novels over the summer, American Sniper by: Chris Kyle, Jim DeFelice, and Scott McEwen. This book was written about the most lethal sniper in American history. This book helped me get a better insight to what people in the military had to deal with. My dad was in the military and he tells me stories and I never truly understood how he felt. I also read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, this book was about two men on their travels away from a farm where a disabled man was wrongfully accused of rape.I learned more about the Great Depression while reading this.
During this summer I read the books "Painting the Black" and "A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". In "Painting the Black" a kid stopped playing sports because of an injury when he was younger. After making a new friend he decided to try out as a senior in highschool. He had to work really hard but he ended up making the team. It made me learn that if I try really hard at something I can accomplish it, even if it is against the odds. The book "A hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" made me think about what could be out there. It had been a while that I read a science fiction book so it was a good change. It just made me think about other kinds of books I can read and how creative sci fi books can be.
I read two novels throughout the summer, The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. This book was about an adventure to Smaug's cave and on the journey there they encounter many problems and Bilbo finds something that is a really useful "weapon". If Bilbo didn't find the "weapon" they might have never lived throughout the journey. The second book that I read was called V is for Villain. This book is about a kid called Brad Baron that lives in the shadows of his heroic brother, his brother has almost every superpower you can think of and Brad is just extremely smart. One day he got into an accident with other "meta humans" in gym and broke his neck, after that he meets a girl that leads him down a road of villainy.
One of the Novels I read was "The accidental afterlife of Thomas Marsden" by Emma Trevayne. The story was about a young 11 year old boy who was a grave-robber, and he is destined to help the last remaining faeries get back home. It is about team-work, courage,kindness, and the will to help others in need. I loved how the story ended (I won't spoil it!) and how well-written the book was. The second book I read was the classic "Peter Pan" By J.M. Barry. It is my favorite story of all time, and I finaly read an advanced-reader version, and it was so perfect and It had more details than the children's story, and made it so interesting! I learned that you should always be brave, and stay a child at heart. This book was by far my favorite book I read over the summer.
Over the summer, I read two novels. The first was True Letters from a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan. I loved this book, at first there was a twist in the story that took me by surprise but everything came together and worked out in the end of the book. By reading this book I learned that many kids in high school and in their teenage years in general are afraid of being who they are. They don't want to be judged or lose their friends. I got through this book fairly fast because I enjoyed it so much. What mattered to me most about this books content is how the main character, James Liddell changes and grows up throughout the story and learns that it is okay to be yourself.
The second book I read this summer was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This is one of my favorite books. I read this book in a day and a half because I loved it so much. What I learned from this book is that you should make the most of what you have. Don't waste your time on small things and focus on the important moments in life. What matters to me most in this book is the friendship between Augustus and Hazel. They go through everything together and can always count on one another.
This past summer I read two books. The first book I read was The Crown by Kiera Cass. It is the last book in the Selection series (The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, and The Crown). The whole idea of the series is that a royal heir has a “competition” to find a fiance. The first three books follows Prince Maxon Schreave and America Singer. In the last two books it follows princess Eadlyn Schreave and 35 different men that try to win her heart. Eadlyn has to pick one lucky suitor that she will marry. The second book I read over the summer was The Siren by Kiera Cass. The premise of The Siren is that the ocean is a living vessel that needs to drown people to live. The ocean picks certain people to become sirens that sing to lure ships into the water and sink them. The sirens live like normal human beings when they aren't sinking ships, but they can’t talk. The main character, Kahlen, meets a guy that she falls for, but she can't be with him while she is still a siren. I really enjoyed both of these books because I liked the whole selection series so far, so I was interested in other books Kiera Cass has written. I liked how I felt like I was it a different world while reading both of these books.
The two books that I read over the summer were The River, and Brian's Winter which were both written by Gary Paulsen. One of the things that I really like about these books are the ways that he describes being in nature. In the River Brian was going back to the place where he had gotten into a plane crash and had to survive on his own for 50+ days. I really liked how he wasn't to worried to go back and was willing to show the man how to survive. Brian's winter was what it was like during the winter when he got stranded in Hatchet. I learned that nothing will be the same and you have to be ready for unexpected changes as well as the ability to stay calm under pressure.I always get really excited to go up to the mountains after I read books like this.
This summer I read two books this summer which were The Trials of Apollo and Magnus Chase and the God of Asgard and both books are written by author Rick Riordan. In The Trials of Apollo the god Apollo is cast out of Olympus and has to help a demigod that is in need of his assistants while being a human (with no special abilities) and when he actually starts to try to help her do the right thing I think that part of the story is great (even if it was later on in the book and the rest of the book he was to stubborn to help). In the story Magnus Chase and the God of Asgard, Magnus Chase becomes a viking warrior and has to help save the world from falling apart by keeping a wolf tied up. I really thought it was cool how Rick Riordan incorporated some of the Greek novel series into this one and I really hope that he has all the people in his books meet up for maybe one series to end each series in its own way.
This summer I read 4 books. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All of my books were written by J.K. Rowling.Since I had not read those books in 3 years I noticed a lot more small details that I had not noticed the first time I read them. I really liked the books because, even though that I have already read them, they have so many unexpected plot twists that I wanted to keep reading. That is what is most important to me.
Over the summer I read two books, The rule of thoughts by James Dashner and The Road by Comarc McCarthy, These two book were a lot different. Over the two books I like the road better because the rule of thoughts just felt like it was just made to get money and I didn't have that much interest in it. The thing I liked about The Road is the different writing Technics. Instead of giving the main characters names it was just the boy and the dad so this could be happening to anyone. The other thing is that since its a post-apocalyptic wasteland the normal rules don't apply. This applied to the grammar as well because through the book until the end there were no quotation marks and commas weren't used.
Over the summer I read two books, The rule of thoughts by James Dashner and The Road by Comarc McCarthy, These two book were a lot different. Over the two books I like the road better because the rule of thoughts just felt like it was just made to get money and I didn't have that much interest in it. The thing I liked about The Road is the different writing Technics. Instead of giving the main characters names it was just the boy and the dad so this could be happening to anyone. The other thing is that since its a post-apocalyptic wasteland the normal rules don't apply. This applied to the grammar as well because through the book until the end there were no quotation marks and commas weren't used.
Over the summer I read two books. The first book I read was called "An Abundance of Kathrines" by John Green, which was about a boy named Colin, who dated 19 girls named Kathrine, and when the 19th girl dumped Colin he decided to go one a road trip with his best friend. He found a girl named Lindsey there and eventually started dating her. My second book is called "This is the End" about a school shooting at a high school. This books was told from five different points of view in the school and was a very interesting and terrifying book. What I loved about these books was how well the authors made the books unique to them. John Green made the book almost informational because the main character was very intelligent and told many facts. I thought my second book was unique because the author made the book from different perspectives with people in and out of the school.
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