I pick a book a couple ways, the most common way being my friends recommendations. It's great to find a couple of friends with the same taste in books as you and then you can keep recommending books to each other. Another way I pick a book is just looking at the recommended books list for teens on websites or at the library, or bestsellers. These books, especially if they've won an award, are recommended, so they are probably good.
I don't really have an ALL TIME favorite book for right now anyways, but a great book that you all should read is called The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater. This book is about a teenager named Blue who one day meets a couple of boys from a private, rich academy. These boys that go there are mysterious and mostly avoided, and called Raven Boys by the rest of the town. But when Blue meets four of these boys and gets swept up in their obsession, she rethinks who they are. This book is great, the pollen is great, the writing is great, and mostly the characters are great, so I'd totally recommend this book to people in our class.
Over break I read The Mediator by Meg Cabot. 16-year-old Suze has a secret-she can speak to ghosts, and always had been able to. Nobody else knows but her. When she gets the news that her mom is remarrying and their moving from their home of NYC to Northern California, she is relieved in some ways because she gets to get away from-literally-the ghosts of her past. But moving to San Francisco offers a whole bunch of new ghosts like Jesse, the 150-year-old Spanish cowboy who part-time actually lives in her room, to the most problematic of all, the kid who's spot she took at her school, Heather, who committed suicide after being broken up with by a guy. Suze meets Father Dom, someone who has the same abilities that she does, and she tries to help ghosts while also surviving her new life.
This book was REALLY good. Maybe my review doesn't make it sound like it was, but you all should read it. My favorite character probably was (all of them!) Suze: she was actually a main character that wasn't perfect and that I actually liked instead of being one of those perfect main character that gets everything right, if that makes sense. This book does have a few mature topics, and some (not a lot) of language, but not that much-it's pretty appropriate for anybody in our class.This book was great and I would recommend it to people who like a mix of adventure, sci-fi/fantasy, and realistic fiction.
Next Books that I want to read:
Road Rash
Claire Ange
The Martian
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Eleanor and Park
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Significance
I refuse to believe that I am insignificant.
Why not? I am one in billions, standing on a tiny speck of safe ground in the middle of the universe, stretching on for billions of billions of light years, miles, kilometers, to who knows where. 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies all containing even more of these things, to be exact. But still I refuse to believe that I am insignificant.
Why? Because I'm not. By saying I'm insignificant you would be saying that people are insignificant. I mean, if we're insignificant, why are we even alive? Why would there have been a scientific miracle to bring independently thinking, feeling people alive on this circle of rock known as a planet. Was it a coincidence? I just don't think that I'm insignificant. I mean, if I did something horrible, like die right now, it wouldn't effect the world. The stars wouldn't fall from the sky and the world wouldn't collapse and people wouldn't fall to the floor dead. But I hope that people would care. I mean, what do we have to live for, if we're all insignificant? If we can't do anything with our life, are we doomed to just walk around aimlessly, fulfilling our ambitions to just realize that they are all futile in the point of the universe? I don't think that that works. If we are so insignificant to the universe, is in insignificant to be significant to our happiness. (Okay, that makes no sense. Please proceed in the reading of the beautiful text. But think about it. Are our biggest achievements insignificant in the grand scheme of things? I'm saying no, but that the whole point of this SOL).
And even if life is all a coincidence, I say we make the most of this chance to be alive. I mean, being alive is a great thing. In the people are the things that make us happy, that make us like living. our friends, family, and the things that people do and make, like music, or art, or just a kind thing that your friend says to you, or when someone who you hardly know smiles at you in the hall. So don't ever believe that you are insignificant to anyone. Because while we are alive, no matter how small compared to the universe we are significant enough to maybe try and make those 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies a better place. We all have a very limited time on this Earth, and we are all significant to do something, if we try. Don't let it slip
Hey so-Gavin did a contrasting view to this blog post called "Insignificance." You should go check it out. Right... Here http://gavinrollsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/sol-13-insignificance.html
Sry I couldn't do a hyperlink. It's not working.
Why not? I am one in billions, standing on a tiny speck of safe ground in the middle of the universe, stretching on for billions of billions of light years, miles, kilometers, to who knows where. 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies all containing even more of these things, to be exact. But still I refuse to believe that I am insignificant.
Why? Because I'm not. By saying I'm insignificant you would be saying that people are insignificant. I mean, if we're insignificant, why are we even alive? Why would there have been a scientific miracle to bring independently thinking, feeling people alive on this circle of rock known as a planet. Was it a coincidence? I just don't think that I'm insignificant. I mean, if I did something horrible, like die right now, it wouldn't effect the world. The stars wouldn't fall from the sky and the world wouldn't collapse and people wouldn't fall to the floor dead. But I hope that people would care. I mean, what do we have to live for, if we're all insignificant? If we can't do anything with our life, are we doomed to just walk around aimlessly, fulfilling our ambitions to just realize that they are all futile in the point of the universe? I don't think that that works. If we are so insignificant to the universe, is in insignificant to be significant to our happiness. (Okay, that makes no sense. Please proceed in the reading of the beautiful text. But think about it. Are our biggest achievements insignificant in the grand scheme of things? I'm saying no, but that the whole point of this SOL).
And even if life is all a coincidence, I say we make the most of this chance to be alive. I mean, being alive is a great thing. In the people are the things that make us happy, that make us like living. our friends, family, and the things that people do and make, like music, or art, or just a kind thing that your friend says to you, or when someone who you hardly know smiles at you in the hall. So don't ever believe that you are insignificant to anyone. Because while we are alive, no matter how small compared to the universe we are significant enough to maybe try and make those 7 billion people, 8 planets, 100 billion star systems, and 100 galaxies a better place. We all have a very limited time on this Earth, and we are all significant to do something, if we try. Don't let it slip
Hey so-Gavin did a contrasting view to this blog post called "Insignificance." You should go check it out. Right... Here http://gavinrollsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/sol-13-insignificance.html
Sry I couldn't do a hyperlink. It's not working.
The Summer of Letting Go
This week I read The Summer of Letting Go by Gae Polisner. This year Francesca is supposed to turn 16-and she gets to spend the summer at her family's summer house, extremely close to the beach. But ever since her brother Simon drowned, Frankie can't let go of the fact that she knows that it was her fault. Her mom also blames her for it, and that doesn't help her already interesting home life by the fact that she thinks that her dad is having a super-obvious affair with the lady next door, Mrs. Merrill. Her best friend, Lisette, is growing farther away from her and has a new boyfriend, Bradley who Frankie has always had a crush on. This summer would have been interesting enough without her meeting Frankie Sky, a four year old boy who resembles Simon, Frankie's little brother. Frankie starts wondering if they, somehow, could be connected.
This book was amazing! My review doesn't give it enough credit, but it's really amazing and has great writing that made you really connect to the characters. My favorite character was Frankie, because she was really connectable, like insecure like a real teenager not surreal like a normal book character. I'd call this book great realistic fiction. The ending is so bittersweet and I'd recommend this to almost everyone in our class.
This book was amazing! My review doesn't give it enough credit, but it's really amazing and has great writing that made you really connect to the characters. My favorite character was Frankie, because she was really connectable, like insecure like a real teenager not surreal like a normal book character. I'd call this book great realistic fiction. The ending is so bittersweet and I'd recommend this to almost everyone in our class.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Being Sick
Being sick sucks. I woke up with a really bad throat ache and my head felt like it weighed 100 pounds. All I wanted to do was fall asleep, but my headache stopped me, so I kinda just lay in bed and read and drank this horrible tasting tea-thing that was supposed to help me get better. My mom insisted on bringing stuff home for me so I could do homework, but there's really no point in doing that if I'm too miserable to do homework anyways. At least I got to finish my book. My friends were all texting me telling me how lucky I was to be at home, and to skip school, but I don't really care about skipping school if I feel horrible. It doesn't help that it's the week before EXPO and we have two math tests and I'm missing the staff basketball game which is like the most fun thing ever of the year. Oh well though. This is why being sick sucks.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Under the Never Sky
Aria is a teenager who definitely has a big problem-she has been exiled from the alternate reality place that she calls home, through actions that in no way were her fault. Also-she can't get in contact with her mother who went to work on a top secret project. Knowing that she probably can't survive in the wastelands outside of her community, Aria panicks-until she meets Perry.
Perry is an outsider-not just in his small group of family and friends, but also in the literal sense. He and his family live in a tribe outside of the gated in complex of Reverie, a place home to people called "dwellers" who spend more then half of their time in a virtual reality. When his nephew is kidnapped by the Dwellers, Perry starts a journey to find him and do whatever it takes to do it.
Aria and Perry meet each other, and have to stop judging and stereotyping each other to start an alliance at first just for their own separate reasons that takes them through many adventures and eventually develops into a friendship and makes them see that there is value in both of their separate lives and bad things too.
This book was very good, actually. I didn't really like the characters, and the writing is only okay. But the storyline is so good that it kind of makes up for it. My favorite character is probably Perry or Brooke/Cinder (you'll have to read the book to find out who they are). I'd call this book adventure/sci-fi/teen-book style, and would recommend it to people in our class (there are not a lot of mature topics but some language).
Perry is an outsider-not just in his small group of family and friends, but also in the literal sense. He and his family live in a tribe outside of the gated in complex of Reverie, a place home to people called "dwellers" who spend more then half of their time in a virtual reality. When his nephew is kidnapped by the Dwellers, Perry starts a journey to find him and do whatever it takes to do it.
Aria and Perry meet each other, and have to stop judging and stereotyping each other to start an alliance at first just for their own separate reasons that takes them through many adventures and eventually develops into a friendship and makes them see that there is value in both of their separate lives and bad things too.
This book was very good, actually. I didn't really like the characters, and the writing is only okay. But the storyline is so good that it kind of makes up for it. My favorite character is probably Perry or Brooke/Cinder (you'll have to read the book to find out who they are). I'd call this book adventure/sci-fi/teen-book style, and would recommend it to people in our class (there are not a lot of mature topics but some language).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)