Over a two and a half week period, I finished a 356 page novel called Bitter End by Jennifer Brown. This novel is told in first person point of view from the perspective of a high school senior girl named Alex. Alex lives in a small modern day town. One night, when Alex was eight years old, her mother ran away from the family to go to the Colorado Mountains and tragically dies in a car accident on her way there. Alex being so young and having lost her mother, plans to go to Colorado with her two best friends, Bethany and Zack, to find out why her mother left her and what was so important that she would just leave without telling anyone. Meanwhile, as Alex tries to cope as a normal teenager, she falls in love with a new boy named Cole who adores …show more content…
When reading this book, I made goals of how much I wanted to read in the amount of time I had such as reading a chapter in less than ten minutes. Making these goals helped me read faster and it became easier for me to get through the book. I read this book mainly during SSR because I wanted to practice reading in a somewhat loud environment because in real life, I can’t always be alone in complete silence to read so I tried making myself more familiar with that kind of environment. The other book that I read was An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. This book was about a teenage child prodigy named Colon who only dates girls named Katherine. After being dumped by the nineteenth Katherine, he goes on a roadtrip to clear his mind and ends up in a small town called Gutshot where he learns that his future is about more than dating Katherines and that it’s about not repeating a cycle but starting new and different ones. I am still very interested in teen dramas and some new skills I have acquired are reading faster and reading in somewhat loud environments. Some goals I am setting for next quarter are to read more books by Jennifer Brown because I think she is an amazing author, to continue to push myself to read in louder places, to steadily read and comprehend what I’m reading faster, and to read for longer periods of
Since the start of this quarter I have been reading the novel Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight and I am currently on 153. This book is about Amelia Barron and her alleged suicide. Right before Amelia jumped from the roof of her private school, she was caught cheating on a test. Amelia’s mother, Kate, is in disbelief that her sweet, perfect, obedient daughter would turn recalcitrant, and in even more disbelief that her daughter would commit suicide. When Kate gets an anonymous text stating that Amelia did not jump, she set out to find out what really happened to her daughter. This book jumps from three main perspectives; the perspective of Kate after Amelia dies, the perspective of Amelia before she dies, and various sources of social
For my Second Quarter book report I chose a series by Jen Calonita. Belles is a trilogy about a southern girl named Isabelle Scott. Her mother died when she was only six years old and because no other family members were known about at the time she lived with her grandmother in Harborside. Ten summers later, her grandmother’s health began to fail. To get away from the stress of her home life Izzie would go to the beach with her friend Kylie Brooks where she meets a cute surfer named Brayden Townsend.
My reading experience in junior-high and first three years of high school were not so much different. I had never been enthusiastic to read about predetermined topics assigned by my teacher and they continued to assign predetermined reading topics that made me feel frustrated and at times uncomfortable. But there was positivity that came out of these repulsive and devastating books, such as Lord of The Flies by William Golding or The Night by Elie Wiesel. Lord of the Flies caused me to confirm that humans must have rules and a government to help
Over the summer i read a lot of novels but my favorite one has to be Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. This fantasy book is about a ten year old girl named Winnie Foster. Winnie lives in a small town called treegap. She was tired of her parents always being mad at her and giving her a hard time in her life so she runs away from her house with her horse into the woods. One day later, while in a wooded area her family owns, she sees a boy about 17 years old drinking out of a spring. He tells Winnie his name, its Jesse Tuck.
Since the last time I have journaled I have finished Magic hour by Kristin Hannah and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. Magic Hour is about a feral child who was found in the small town of Rain Valley. It follows the police chief, Ellie, and her sister, Julia, while they try to figure out how to help this child. Julia is a psychiatrist who is working to get the girl to speak, while Ellie is trying to find whom the girl belongs to. Just Listen is about Annabel, the youngest sister of three in the Greene family. The family seems like they have a perfect life. The girls all model, Annabel is popular at school, they live in the perfect neighborhood, and they appear to everyone like the perfect family. The reader quickly discovers that this is not the
Laura Hillenbrand publishes the marvelous story of Louis Zamperini’s life in 2010. Louis (Louie) Zamperini accompanies Russell Allen (Phil) Phillips, Francis (Mac) McNamara, and Mutsuhiro (the Bird) Watanabe throughout their journey for survival. Angelina Jolie brings the story to life in “Unbroken” (2014). Playing Louie’s role is by Jack O’Connell, Phil by Domhnall Gleeson, Mac by Finn Wittrock, and the Bird by Miyavi. The book delivers deeper detail than the movie, especially on Louie’s strengths and struggles, which is why one will prefer the book.
Learning how to read literary works like a college professor can be tough, so when feeling lost like Dante while reading a confusing book, it helps to have a Virgil guide us. Thomas C. Foster, author of How to Read Literature like a Professor thoroughly guides his readers to look for similar literary elements or ideas from different works and make connections. His idea for this book comes from his love for books which thrived as a child and leads him to inspire others with his works. Actually, it even inspired me. This is an informative book that revolves around the idea of creative thinking, which has opened my eyes and made me like the book even more than I did before.
Reading a book is in many ways the same as exercising the muscles in your arm, as you are feeding your brain new information and ideas of life. Life is short and I believe that you should always be positive and do the things that you want without people telling you that you are wrong. The following Novels have taught me various aspects, which I have and still am using to make my life a memorable one as well as a positive one.
This young adult fictional novel takes place in the diverse state of Oregon. At 10:12 a.m. an ambulance takes little brother, the protagonist Mia to the nearest hospital and the antagonist being death. Death is considered to be the antagonist because it causes the death of her two unique, affectionate, parents, brother and her. It’s up to Mia to make a choice between two alternative choices life or death. The conflict that Mia deals with is man vs. herself. Mia has "everything," a family, an almost perfect boyfriend, a future to attend Juilliard, a nearly picture-perfect life, but with a difficult choice dealing with her life isn't an easy one to make. Mia struggles making her life changing choice
While I could usually get the gist of the chapters and identify his main objective, I felt like I got a little lost trying to stay focused in the midst of his tangents and various, long examples. Yet, I would still say that my experience reading Kerr's work was a positive challenge for me because it got me outside of my comfort zone. Both content and the writing style allowed me to practice critical thinking and analysis, which lead me to make connections between the novel itself, my other courses, and my own life in general. Some skills that I learned were to be an active reader, read and analyze objectively, and think about the text in the bigger picture. I practiced the skill of active reading by highlighting quotes that stuck out to me, writing my own questions and thoughts in the margin, and relating examples and statements together throughout the text. To read and analyze objectively, I took a step back from my own opinions, reading Kerr's writing thoroughly and completely before making my own stance. While I disagreed with some of what he wrote, looking at it from an objective perspective helped me to see his whole point before I turned away from it. Finally, I related it to the bigger picture by looking at certain moments in my life, especially by connecting it to my faith and religion. This skill also was developed through the many discussions, among my classmates and professor, that we held each
After a while I was able to read “The Rainbow Fish” on my own. Once I was able to do this, I was no longer interested in this book. I wanted to move on to something else, and this cycle continued. One simple book started my journey with Books, and reading in general. Something specifically about rainbow fish that affected my current attitude about reading is the challenge it gave me. I could not read very well, and Rainbow fish had what I thought were “big” words at the time in it. So I wanted to be able to read the big words in the book on my own. Instead having someone help me, or read it to
I remember vividly, scrolling through the isles and shelves of books looking for my next adventure. I had already read Swiss Family Robinson, and Robinson Crusoe, so I regarded myself as an accelerated reader compared to my classmates, but the task I was about to undertake would prove far more daunting than anything I had attempted thus far. As I walk throughout the isles I see the books getting thicker and thicker. I thought to myself that maybe
Happy endings are everyone’s favorite. They are so perfect, yet so dull. The reader can sometimes find itself more intrigued by the difficulties that a character faces than by the happiness the character achieves. The audience wants to feel the characters, not just see them. With her unique structure and style, Margaret Atwood undermines character complexity and their actions to favor the fact that all stories end the same way and what matters is how and why they get to that point. This is the theme Margaret Atwood conveys throughout her short story “Happy Endings”.
If one were to look at my varied reading habits, they would be struck by the diversity and over all unusualness of my mind’s library. I hardly remember the plot of the first book I read, but it was called Lonesome Dove. It wasn’t the actual first book I read, but I don’t really count the McGregor Readers from kindergarten. I read it in first grade because of my Grandmother’s fascination in the T.V. mini-series that was playing during the time. I wanted to be able to talk to her about it so I went to the public library that weekend and picked up a copy. Well, I actually didn’t pick it up, it was too heavy. It took me over two and a half months to read, but with the help of a dictionary and my grandma, I finally read it from cover to cover. I can’t really say that I understood it, because I don’t recall what it was about. But I do remember that it was quite an ordeal. Since then I have read many books. I enjoy fiction the best, especially those that are based on society, but have a small twist that leads to an interesting story. Some of the stories that I remember best from that early time in my life are Tales from Wayside Elementary School, Hatchet, The Godfather, and The Giver. I think that Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is the only book that I’ve read more than once. I liked the situation that Brian was put into, lost in the wilderness, with nothing more to fend for himself with than his mind and a trusty hatchet. The adversity he faces and his undying drive are what fascinated me most. Since that time my reading habits have grown into a different style. I have usually only read what was assigned to me during the school year because that was all I had time to do, but I have always strived to put forth extra effort. For example: last year for English 3 AP we had to read an excerpt from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. Although that we only had to read a small bit, I checked the entire book from the college library and read it all. Although the way that Franklin rambled on and on about his “Franklin Planner” was somewhat boring, the way he describe his life was pure poetry.
I have gained some insight from certain readings. "Who Shall I Be" really struck me in a good way. It talks about the reality of positive and negative consequences resulting from some sort of change. Changes can be dangerous at times. Not physically, but mentally. I guess it could be physical in some situations. I feel I have become a more mature reader since high school. Reading experience leads to reading success. That’s my opinion. I used to not be able to focus when I read, but you just have to stick it out and read and read and read. I feel I am a focused reader now, I try hard. I have also gained mental reading confidence. You break that down.