Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Debunking the Myth

Watkins 1
Morgan Watkins
Mrs. Parkinson
English III
12 April 2016
On Dumpster Diving
       Lars Eighner seemed very educated. Based on the fact that I had to look up almost ten words in the dictionary showed that. He was a Dumpster diver and he himself debunked that myth of Dumpster diving. He speaks very highly of Dumpsters, saying in the first paragraph,  "Long before I began Dumpster diving I was impressed with Dumpsters" (Eighner 712). When he said this, he showed us that he was us, looking at Dumpsters, but he admired them instead of being disgusted by them. He later introduced a specific stigma that new Dumpsters, or scavengers as he liked to call them and himself, "cannot erase from their mind" (Eighner 718). This new scavengers cannot get over how gross it all is, but then, it passes with experience. True scavengers, have only a few "precious" (Eighner 720) courtesies. One of them is that they hate to have good stuff go to waste, so what they will do is set it out in plain sight for other scavengers to have, a sort of community, even when the other scavengers are competition.
      The way that Eighner talked about the scavengers so highly and how intricate their lives actually were, it made us realize that Dumpster divers are actually scavengers, and they are educated and they are smart--they have to be smart--so that they can pick out what's good and what's bad. Eighner completed debunked the stigma using his tales of scavengers, but mostly using himself. 

Monday, March 14, 2016

Dreams

Morgan Watkins
Mrs. Parkinson
English III
15 March 2016
Dreams
    For so long, George and Lennie had a dream: A dream to “live off the fatta the lan’ ” (Steinbeck 14). They were working towards this goal to buy a plot of land for sale that has kept them motivated for a long time. The only thing was, George never thought it was going to happen. It was just a nice dream that comforted Lennie. But as soon as Candy offered his money and his will, George and Lennie realized “This thing they had never really believed in was coming true” (Steinbeck 60). The visualization of a goal, helped make their dream happen. This visualization is similar to the cross country coach telling us to set our goals for the season; especially the BHAG—Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Our coach has us set these huge goals to reach during our season that we think might be unreachable. Our picturing of this BHAG actually gives us a better chance of reaching it. In this case the house and the farm and the land was the BHAG. And George and Lennie—with the help of Candy—are that much closer to making it a possibility.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Tableau

Morgan Watkins
Mrs. Parkinson
English III
7 March 2016
“Tableau” by Countee Cullen
Countee Cullen titled a scene between two kids—one black and one white—“Tableau”, which is a picture or scene that is striking. Striking can either mean impressive, noticeable, or both. The boys are both noticeable and impressive when they are getting judged and stared at behind “lowered blinds”(5) by the “dark folk”(5), as the author compares them to “That lightning as brilliant as a sword”(11). And yet, they do not think of themselves as noticeable or impressive. “Oblivious to look and word / They pass, and see no wonder”(9-10). The boys are in pleasant oblivion. Just as they ignore, we should ignore. Do not listen to the whispers and the gossip and be in that pleasant oblivion.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Analyzing Writer's Voice in "House on Mango Street"

 I have just read the first chapter of House on Mango Street. It's about a girl with a big family who can't afford to live in a house and they move to a house on Mango Street. I have found three aspects of writing voice in this writing piece:

   They often employ techniques of narrative
In this piece, I found that there was movement; in the beginning, the author introduces her story and describes the house they just moved to and then at the end of the piece, the author transitions to her argument of wanting a "real" house: "I knew then I had to have a house. A real one." (5). The author also uses imagery to give us an image in our heads of the house on Mango Street: "It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath" (4). The author also uses dialogue to move the plot along. In the example used in the text, someone confronts the main character about her house: "Where do you live? she asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there?" (5) This moves the plot in the direction of her wanting a new house that people won't look at and judge. She wants a house she "could point to" (5).

   They deliver interesting information
In this writing the author made the audience want to know more. In the beginning of the chapter, the author talks about how she has moved to many different places: "We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can't remember" (3). This makes the audience interested in what the authors life was like in that she had to move so much to so many different places that she couldn't even remember them.

   They exhibit perceptivity. (Show keen insight or understanding)
The author was always keen on imagery and describing the things around her. She described the house on Mango Street in great detail but what was interesting was she wrote all of those details in contrast to the house that she always dreamed about. "Hallway stairs" instead of "real stairs" (4), "no front yard" instead of  a "great big yard" (4).

Friday, November 13, 2015

Meaningful Vignette Moments in Catcher in the Rye

Holden was talking about his old roommate, Dick Slagle, and how he had cheap suitcases. Holden hates cheap suitcases, probably for the reason he hates a lot of other things; it’s phony. One detail I drew from this moment was when Holden was describing how Slagle described Holden’s things as bourgeois: “Everything I had was bourgeois as ----. Even my fountain pen was bourgeois. [Slagle] borrowed it off me all the time, but it was bourgeois anyway” (108). In this moment what I believe Holden was trying to tell us was people ridicule things that they wish they would have, but know they would never get. In this case Slagle wanted to have Holden’s things like the pen or the expensive suitcases or anything that was “bourgeois” of Holden’s, but instead he has the inexpensive suitcases and no fountain pen and nothing that could be considered “bourgeois”.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

Catcher in the Rye 9-10
Morgan Watkins

In Chapter 10, Holden showed complex characteristics as a character that were exposed in this part of the book. One of the first instances in which he shows his complex character is when he was ordering a drink at the bar in the club that was located at the hotel he was staying at. He ordered a drink and when the bartender refused to give it to him without ID, Holden gave a “very cold stare, like he’d insulted the ---- out of me” (69). This shows annoyance and anger out of Holden which is not complex in and of itself but when paired with Holden’s next reaction, is complex. After the bartender kept refusing, Holden then “asked him very nicely and all” (69) and he finally accepted the bartender’s choice and realized how the bartender would be affected if he had given Holden alcohol. He acknowledged the punishment when he says, “They lose their jobs if they get caught selling to a minor. I’m a ----- minor” (70). This shows how complex of a character Holden is and how he can be all tough in one moment and totally sympathetic and sorry and accepting in the next. These complex characteristics can apply to the Romantic ideals that apply to Holden as a character. One way Holden’s characterization supports the Romantic ideal of the emphasis on feeling and intuition is Holden goes with whatever he is sentiment about in that moment: wanting alcohol and then not wanting for the bartender to get in trouble. He doesn’t think through it, but he goes with his gut. In this instance, Holden goes with his gut and tries to lie to get alcohol from the bartender, but as soon as he realizes the bartender won’t give it to him, he changes his mind and goes with a Coke. Trying to lie and then changing his mind all do with going with your gut and not thinking about it which is what Romanticism is about: feeling and intuition over reason and intellect. As you could see, Holden does not try to reason through what his gut tells him to. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Something different...

So I wanted to mix it up since it's the LAST BLOG POST! I am going to blog about a book, that I haven't read yet.. Let's see how this goes!
 So I have always wanted to read to Kill A Mocking Bird. Apparently, it is not about physically killing a mocking bird. Thank goodness! And it is supposed to be a love story. I am ready to read this!
It is not about what the title says it to be. An example of not judging something by its cover. But I wondered why she decided to name it that.
So in a Yahoo!® answer(which is probably not the best source) they refered to a line in the text, "Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
I'm guessing that this was a pretty important line in the text. But the only way to understand is to read it!

Woah...what just happened?

Have you ever read a book where in the beginning, you have no idea what's happening? I bet you have. But have you ever had a book where, a guy commits suicide, the main character wakes up in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head and no memory, and the doctor gets shot in the chest by a mysterious woman with spiked hair? I don't think so; unless you've read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
"Langdon watched in horror as Dr. Marconi staggered backward into the room, falling to the floor, clutching his chest, his white lab coat drenched in blood." (25)
That was the last sentence of Chapter One of The Lost Symbol. This author sure knows what he is doing, because from that point on, I was hooked to that book. You have to have good beginning to get your reader hooked. Without a good beginning, it will be slow and it will be hard to get your reader to keep reading your book. I have personally stopped reading books because it was so hard for me to get into it. If you ever right a book, and I highly doubt you will, but just in case, write a good beginning that stays with the reader and makes them blog about it!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

(When I die young) 2x

If any of you are not Twilight fans, then do not keep reading because you will not like this blog very much. This blog does not talk specifically about Bella, Edward, or Jacob, though it does have to do with their way of life. If you are a Twilight fan then you might have heard about the book that Stephenie Meyer wrote off of her book Eclipse; The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Bree Tanner made an appearance in Eclipse when the Cullen's were fighting against the newborn vampires. Bree Tanner was one of those vampires. But then she got burned by the Volturi and died. Well this book shows her life after she got turned into a vampire and before she got burned by the Volturi.
Bree was 15 when she got turned into a vampire. She has been a vampire for three months and she just recently met Diego who was one of the older, tamer, vampires and Riley's (the boss) right hand man. But when she met him, he actually talked to her and made her think and not about blood which is on her mind 24/7.  She, of course, ends up falling in love with him, and I think Diego is doing the same. But, Bree does get burned by the Volturi so her romance can't last forever. But maybe her romance with Diego will spark and they will die loving eachother.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Lego Lifesavers


When they say Krista Ramsey makes the invisible visible, they were right. I mean, who thinks about Legos? Ramsey's column, Locking into the magic of Legos, was very insightful. She talks about how Legos are great for kids and for parents. Kids develop good characteristics when they build Legos that they learn all on their own. Parents get quiet and alone time that they sometimes do not realize they need.
One line that really stood out to me was when she was talking about how kids are so involved with other stuff that Lego's are a good thing to sit down with every once in a while. "They're in a world beyond learning objectives and select soccer, safely out of reach of arranged play dates and online language programs." Krista Ramsey is using a listing technique to try to put an effect on the reader on how the children these days and what they do for fun is very serious with a lot of pressure on them. They need something simple and something they can use their imagination with; like Lego's.
Krista Ramsey's writing style is meant to bring out your emotions; sadness, humor, thoughtfulness, curiosity.
Some questions I would ask her:
Did she know she wanted to be a columnist and how did she know what to do in college to be a columnist writer?
Did she experience a lot with her voice and writing style before she found the right one?
Do the situations she writes about just come to her, or does she go out and find them?

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Pigpen Cipher

Usually, I read because I love the adventures books take me on, and how they help me escape from the real world. But reading The Lost Symbol, I realized a whole other reason I read.
My dad tells me that whoever reads is really smart because you are gaining knowledge and getting smarter. Well, I don't know that if you read you automatically become smarter. (But I am smart and I read a lot so it just might work!) But I can definitely agree that you are gaining knowledge when you read and that is the other reason I read. To gain knowledge. And I have realized this when reading The Lost Symbol. Want to know what I learned? ↓↓↓↓↓↓
The Pigpen Cipher! When I saw this, I thought this was so cool! In the book, the main character, Robert Langdon, discovers a small pyramid with this code on it. This was the old Masonic code that the Masons used to write in code. But since it was so easy to break they went to another code.

Using the key above try to decipher this:




Hilarious right? But if you do not have an incentive to read books, read them for new, cool knowledge. And start with this series by Dan Brown!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Cunning Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is not a book you hear a lot of freshman are reading right now. Even I wouldn't usually read this kind of book but the reason I am reading this book is first of all, I like mystery and Sherlock Holmes is all about mystery. Second of all, I have recently finished all the seasons that are out right now of the television show Sherlock on the channel BBC. That show is one of the best TV shows ever in my opinion. I wanted to learn more about Sherlock Holmes because all I knew about him was everything I learned in the TV show; which is not always accurate. So I went straight to the source of the television show which was the book. So I am now on page 348 of 1712. The book is made of a collection of short stories about Sherlock's adventures. The story I am currently on is The Five Orange Pips.

A funny thing about the character Sherlock, is he can take things in from a scene and know almost everything about it. You would think there is absolutely no possible way he can know that, but then he explains it. Then your thinking, "Anybody can do that!" But this mostly happens in the TV show because I can see what is going on. But this makes Doyle that much better as an author because not only does he just say Sherlock does this and figures this stuff out, but he also explains this and makes it seem real which means not only is Arthur Conan Doyle as smart as Sherlock, but he is smarter. But a good example of this is in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, in the book, when Sherlock was describing the murderer based on things found at the crime scene:
"'[The murderer] Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears thick-soled shooting boots and a gray cloak, smokes Indian cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt penknife in his pocket.'"

So you're probably wondering just how he knew that much about the murderer like he was looking at a picture of him. He does explain what he just said but I am just going to show you a little snippet:
"'And the cigar-holder?'
'I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt penknife.'"

After I read stuff like that I am just thinking, "How did Doyle think of that?" In the TV show I can see what is going on which makes it easier. But someone had to write this and think this up! It is not that easy to just think up a thing like that which makes Doyle that much better as an author because not only does he just say Sherlock does this and figures this stuff out, but he also explains this and makes it seem real which means not only is Doyle as smart as Sherlock, but smarter.

So I would also suggest watching the television season Sherlock, because it is not just a mystery show, it is a comedy!



Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Saving Wishes ~ G. J. Walker-Smith

So in this book the main character is Charlotte Blake (a.k.a. Charli). She wants to get out of the small town of Pipers Cove. Probably the most boring place she will ever be. She wants to go out and explore the world. She does not want to be held up in a small town. Then she meets Adam. He comes bearing a postcard that she made. Or more took a picture of. She said, "Fate brought you here." (pg. 108) She believes it is fate that brought him here bearing this beautiful postcard that she made that came all the way from New York to Australia. I am just going to go out on a limb here and say they are going to end up together! Wouldn't you say so? But I am only in the beginning and they are sort of coming together already so what is going to happen the next 800 pages? (It is not as big as you would think since there are more pages on a smaller screen; I am reading this on my phone)
I believe that something is going to happen to make the other person mad or something happens where they can't be together any more or Adam leaves because he has to go back to New York some time. Isn't that almost what always happens? Then sometimes they get back together
or they don't but I will have to keep reading to find out!

Monday, October 28, 2013

My Sister's Keeper ~ Jodi Picoult

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. BEST. BOOK. EVER. This book is so good and soooo well written! The author is amazing and you feel like you are living each characters emotions! What the author does is she writes each chapter in first person. But each chapter is a different person! So you get the whole book from all the perspectives in first person, which is really helpful in this book because you need to know what is going on to understand. I have almost cried several times during the duration of this book. One of those times I was in class and the only reason I didn't cry was because I didn't want to embarrass my self...
Anyway! Imagine you were only born so you could be used to help your sister get through cancer. You would feel a little used right? Well that is how Anna Fitzgerald feels. She has to go to the hospital every time Kate, her sister, goes. Well, she won't let that happen anymore because she is suing her parents for the rights of her own body. (oh no she didn't!) The only confusing thing is, she is best friends with her sister! So why is she doing this? And that is one thing you are just to have to find out. :)
I have heard the movie is a real tear jerker too! Almost everybody that I have asked has watched the movie and have cried. I really want to watch it now!!! But below is the trailer so enjoy :) (you might even cry at the trailer; that's what I did)
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Bone Season ~ Samantha Shannon 3

Okay, throughout the whole book, I will admit that I have been a bit confused...I was always thinking: what, how, why? But I just came across a memory of the main character that possibly explained the whole book!
"'Do you have any idea what clairvoyance means?'
Clairvoyance. The forbidden word. I glanced around the restaurant, but nobody was looking. Or listening it seemed.
'Unnaturalness,' I said.
Jaxon smiled thinly. 'So the Archon calls it. But do you know what the word means? From the French.'
'Clear vision. A kind of extrasensory perception. Knowing things that are hidden.'
'And where are they hidden?'
I hesitated. 'In the subconscious?'
'Sometimes yes. Or sometimes' --he blew out the candle in the middle of the table--'in the æther.'
I looked into the smoke drawn to it. A chill spread through my chest. 'What's the æther?'
'The infinite. We come from it, we live within it, and when we die, we pass back into it. But not all of us are willing to part ways with the physical world.'
'Jax,' Nick said, keeping his voice low, 'this is meant to be an introduction, not a lecture series. She's sixteen.'
'I want to know,' I pressed.
'Paige--'
'Please.' I had to know.
His expression softened. He sat back in his seat and sipped his water. 'You choice.'
Jaxon, who was looking at us with raised eyebrows, pursed his lips before continuing. "The æther is a higher plane of existence," he said. 'It exists alongside the corporeal plane. Clairvoyants--people like us--have the ability to draw on the æther.'
I was sitting in a restaurant with two unnaturals. 'How?' I said.
'Oh, there are an infinite number of ways. I've spent fifteen years trying to categorize them.'
'But what does it mean to 'draw on the æther'' Asking questions about clairvoyance gave me a sinful little thrill.
'It means you can commune with the spirits,' Nick clarifies. 'The dead. Different voyants can do it in different ways.'
'So the æther is like the afterlife?'
'Purgatory,' Jaxon said.
'Afterlife,' Nick said." (pg, 186-188)

THis wasa when she got introduced to her"gang" of people. They were trying to explain it to her to try and get her to join them. She did. So now, if you ever read the book, which I highly recomend you do, you will be ahead of the game. :)

Monday, October 7, 2013

Relativity ~ Cristin Bishara


Looking at what I have read so far, I think that the cover has something to do with space and wormholes and lighting and that stuff. What I don't understand is the the saying on the front cover:
"What would you give up for the perfect life?"
I thought a little bit, and then I got to thinking. This book is about alternate universes and exploring them. I think maybe the main character found the perfect universe to live in and wants to abandon her own universe. But she has things in her universe that she won't have in the perfect one. How bout' that theory?
I think there is something, not entirely the same but similar to this story. Have you ever seen or heard of the movie groundhog day? Apparently it's quite hilarious. But that's besides the point. What strikes me as familarr to this story is he keeps on waking uop in the same place over and over again sort of like alternate universes. Here's a clip:

In this clip, he knows he will keep waking up each day at 6:00 am and he gets REALLY annoyed at his alarm clock. But the point is that he wakes up on the same day. This kind of reminded me of this book.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Bone Season ~ Samantha Shannon 2



This is the kind of book that you need to sit down in front of a fire and get as comfortable as possible with some hot chocolate in your hands. I am just saying you have to set aside time to read it so you can get into the interesting part. I am not that far into it, but I am in the transition from where you are bored to where the action begins. As I read this I kind of understand, but then they introduce a character that I was supposed to know but didn't. But you can still understand this enough to enjoy to the book. I am going to try and break this down. I might actually understand the book more after I write this.

The main character, Paige Mahoney, is sort of a criminal.
"From the age of sixteen I had worked in the criminal underworld of Scion London---SciLo, as we called it on the streets. I worked among a ruthless gang of voyants, all willing to to floor each other to survive. All part of a citadel-wide syndicate headed by the Underlord. Pushed to the edge of society, we were forced into crime to prosper, And so we became more hated." (2)

Paige is on a "wanted list". When Paige went to go visit her father and take a break from the criminal world, she was on a train when Underguards came and searched the train. This was bad. So she used her power to try to disorient them so she can make a run for it. Instead she ends up killing one of them and damaging the other one badly.
"I'd killed him, I'd killed an Underguard.
His companion hadn't been so lucky, He was on his back, his eyes staring at the ceiling, a slithering ribbon of saliva down his chin. He twitched when I came closer, Chills crept down my back and the taste of bile burned my throat. I hadn't  pushed his spirit far enough. It was still drifting in the dark parts of his mind: the secret, silent parts in which no spirit should dwell. He'd gone mad. No. I'd driven him mad." (19)

She then runs away to go to her fathers house. Once she gets there and stays for the night, the people come to get her.
"They had come for me.
They had finally come.
I was on my feet at once, throwing a jacket over my shirt and pulling on my shoes and glovelettes, my hands shaking. This was what Nick had trained me for: to run like hell. I could make it to the station if I tried, but this run would test my stamina to the limit. I would have to find and hail a cab to reach Section 4. Buck cabbies would take just  about anyone for a few bob, voyant fugitive or not." (29)

She tries to run away from them but they end up capturing her and putting her in some sort of cell. Then they take her to the welcome orientation for Sheal I.
"It was deathly cold outside the room, and the threadbare carpet did little to improve the temperature. It must have been red once, but now it was faded and stained with vomit. My guide led me through a labyrinth of stone corridors, past small barred windows and burning torches. They seemed too bright, too raw, after the cool blue streetlights of London." (37)

They assign them to "trainers". That is where they train there gifts to use them to their advantages. Paige gets put with the Warden. Everybody says she should be really grateful because he rarely takes interests in humans.
"'I have good news for you, Paige Mahoney.' Nashira placed her hand on her companion's arm. 'You have attracted the attention of the blood-consort: Arcturus, Warden of the Mesarthim. He has decided to be your keeper.'
The Rephaim looked at each other. They didn't speak, but their auras seemed to ripple.
'It is rare that he takes interest in a human,' Nashira said, her voice as quiet as if she were entrusting me with some closely guarded secret. 'You are very, very fortunate.'
I didn't feel fortunate. I was sickened.
The blood-consort leaned down to my level. A long way down. I didn't look away.
'XX-50-40.' His voice was deep and soft. 'I lay claim to you'" (55)

Paige goes to the wardens house and explores around and he explains shortly what she is supposed to do.
"'I will be away tomorrow. You may acquaint yourself with the city in my absence. You will be back my dawn every day. You will return to this room at once if you hear the siren. If you steal or touch or otherwise meddle with anything, I will know'
'Yes, sir'
The sir just slipped out." (58)

After she explores the surrounding city she comes back and lays down and fakes sleep when she sees the Warden come in. She goes into his room to look at him and sees he is injured. She has an argument with herself in her head. Should she kill him? Or should she save him? Or should she just ignore him? She decides to save him.
"I had three options. I could sit here and watch him die, but I sensed it might be better to save him . I was reasonably safe in Magdlaen. The last thing I wanted to  do at this stage was move. He hadn't hurt me yet, but he would. to own me he would have to subjugate me, torture me, make me obey by any means necessary. If I killed him now, I might save myself. My hand reached for a pillow. I could do it, I could suffocate him. Yes, come on, kill him. I flexed my fingers, grasped the cotton. Kill him!
I couldn't. He'd wake up He'd wake up and break my neck. Even if he didn't, I wouldn't be able to escape. The guards outside would string me up for murder.
I had to save him." (83)

Now here come the inferences...
The second time Paige goes out in the city she asks some questions. Like why we have to take pills and what they are for. She gets some answers but those answers leave even more mysteries.
"'Right.' I watched her smoke. 'Do you know what's in the pills they give us?'
Tilda nodded. "The little white one is a standard contraceptive. Surprised you haven't seen it before.'
'Contraceptive? What for?'
' To stop us breeding, obviously. And bleeding. I mean, would you want to punch out a sprog in this place?'
She had a point. 'The red one?'
'Iron supplement.'
'And the green one?'
'What?'
'The third pill.'
'There's no third pill.'" (86)

I think that the third pill has to do with her special trainer, the Warden.She has to train with him, so maybe this will give her extra powers while training with him. The Warden also mentions something how she can't see the spirits. "'You do not have the spirit sight,' he observed. 'That will be a disadvantage here. Unless you have some means of compensating, of course. Perhaps a stronger sixth sense.'" (58) Maybe the pill will help her develop the "spirit sight".

I cannot wait to find out!! :)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

What I Didn't Say ~ Keary Taylor

Imagine this. You are a senior and you can't talk. At all. Nada. You're mute. This is the situation for Jake Hayes, except he wasn't always mute. On the night of the big homecoming game, he went to a party and got into a car crash with a t-post speared right through his vocal cords. He's alive but he can't speak. Which is really bad because his life goal was to say "I love you" to Samantha Shay. "My biggest regret is what I didn't say..." Now he would never be able to. But what he couldn't say, he made up for by actions. "There was a lot of pain in that kiss. There was so much hurt and so much fear in it. I felt tears rolling down the both of our faces. But, in that  kiss, there was even more want. We both wanted to smother out that pain, to not have so many horrible things in the all too recent past, to just be normal, to do the types of things we were supposed to be dealing with besides death and disability." 

Anything can change your life dramatically, and it is up to you to try and make it the best you can make it. Or it will be harder to live through.

At first, Jake had a hard time dealing with being mute. “Not being able to talk sucks. There's no doubt about that. There's a lot of times when I almost feel like I'm trapped inside of myself. Like if I don't talk or yell or scream or laugh I'm going to explode. A lot of the time it almost feels like I'm suffocating." At first, he was just trying to get a grip on things. But then he found Samantha. And Samantha found him. "It would have been really easy to spiral down into drugs or alcohol that year, for both of us. But instead we were there, together. We'd taken all the bad things that had happened to us and turned them around into something good and bigger that the two of us." They both helped each other live through what they couldn't have lived through alone. Sometimes you just need that one person to help you through life.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Bone Season ~ Samantha Shannon 1

When I first saw this cover I was like, "What in the world...?" Then I thought it looked a little like a clock. But then I thought, "What does a clock have to do with the story? From the little I read, can't seem to make a connection from the cover to the book. But I have heard that the book is kind of like a new Hunger Games. So then I thought about the clock arena in the second book of hunger games, Catching Fire. Probably no relation, but I won't see until I read the book right? And when I read the book I will let you know how it went!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Revived ~Cat Patrick 2

So I have finished my book Revived by Cat Patrick. This book is basically about a live saving drug that will save you once you are dead. But it won't work on sicknesses like cancer. I really liked this book and there wasn't any parts that I felt it was too slow to read. I was always on the edge of my seat. It's a soap opera book. Every single thing going on makes you gasp and makes you feel like it can't be fixed but it can and will somehow that you would have never thought of. And what seemed to be impossible; is possible. Like the TV show Castle:



I think the kind of people who would like this book are people that really like the idea of impossible things made possible. People who like a good drama, romance, and fiction rolled up in a book.
★★★★☆