Peak

Hey guys, I am pleased to tell all of you that after 23 days of 2015, I have finally started a new book. I have stared reading "Peak" by Roland Park. I'm about half way through the book and I can certainly tell you that it deserves its numerous awards. "Peak" is about a 14 year old boy that moved from Montana to NYC because him and his mom went to go live with his stepdad. By the way,  Peak is also the name of the boy. It is a very unusual name. It was given to him because both his mom and his birth father are climbers. Peak loves to climb and he hates his new life in NYC. So he starts scaling skyscrapers, yes scaling skyscrapers!, And gets caught he has to go live with his real dad for three years. His dad lives in Thailand! Peak living with his dad is supposed to be strictly for rehabilitation purposes. But his father, Josh, has other plans. He is secretly planning to have Peak become the youngest person to climb Everest. Peak was shocked at the news,“For a climber, saying that you are stopping by Everest is like saying that you are stopping by to see God.” Climbing Everest should be a great opportunity to not only make history but to also for Peak to get to now his father.

Peak also features many interesting sub plots along his way to summiting Evrest.

My personal favorite one is his school work. After Peak is arrested, he is asked to keep a journal and complete it for school, not that anyone actually believed that they would allow Peak back into school or anywhere in the U.S.A for that matter,. It's cool to see the tiny mini stories in comparison to the actual book. Little things like this is why I would definitely recommend that you guys read Peak.

         

Why do You Read?

Why do you read? Do you like to learn and be informed? Or do you just want to escape from reality and relax a little bit? I personally read for a lot of different reasons. Mostly I read for pleasure and making myself think. When I read fictional stories I like to ask myself a lot of what if questions to make it seem more real. Like what if the events of the Hunger Games happened or there actually was a such thing as wizards. Reading gives me an escape and lets me travel into my imagination and thoughts. However, I believe that reading for pleasure is not possible when people are forced to read. When kids are forced to read books with a time limit and a genre that they don't enjoy they end up growing up to hate reading. This is why I read for pleasure at a calm pace, unless the story is really interesting, where I can absorb all that the text has to offer. Reading is a privilege not a right, some people can't afford books or can't even read! So its important not to take it for granted. Knowledge is power.

I read because I'm bored and want to hear the stories of different people from different background from a different world where I can just dive in and learn about their stories. I want to go to a fictional place where anything is possible and nothing is out of bounds. I read to learn and study what, when, where, why, and how. Finally, I read because I love to read.

Semester 1 Reflection

What's up guys? This semester is coming to a close and its always nice to look back and reflect on what you've done. So that's exactly what I'm doing!
     This semester I read 6 books, including summer reading, 3 independently and 3 in class books. Although they aren't all entreating, they are all fun to blog about. My personal favorites were Divergent and Game Changers. Game Changers being a sports book and Divergent being more of an action, dystopian literature book. I myself am more into sports books than action books. Why? I have a deep fear of getting attached to a character and then that character dies. I also feel a closer connection to the characters in a sports book because I also play sports. I chose. These kinds of books because these were all I knew and I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone. Now that I have had a semester to be exposed to different kinds of books, I like way more types of books.

      Looking back at my previous blogs, I noticed a major improvement. I now use more variety of sentences, add quotes and widgets, as well as engage with you guys while I'm blogging. All of which are in the criteria for a "Superior" blog post. Things for this type of blog include: using diction, sentence structure, and engaging style. I have improved in all of these areas  but I still am not at the the place I want to be at. Comparing then to now there is major improvement.

     This is only the beginning of what I hope will be a long blogging career. If I am going to have a long career I need to have improvement. I want to complete the three goals I have set for myself. Number one, I want to start including diction and figurative language in my posts. Looking back I don't think I ever did that. Number two, I need to post on time. There were big gaps between posts sometimes and a superior blogger would never do that. Finally number three, I want to start adding videos to my blogs. in the past I didn't because I saw it to be time consuming but now I know that it is useful in describing books. All of these technics will help me become a superior blogger and I cant wait to try them out next semester.

   

          

The Sequel

As you guys know I really enjoyed "Divergent" and knowing that there was a sequel. I had to get my hands on it.

I did some reaserch on the book and some critics say this book is even better than the last. On Goodreads it was rated 4 stars. I was also looking at some of the quotes from the book. My favorite being,"Cruelty does not make a person dishonest, the same way bravery does not make a person kind." Good to see that Tris hasn't changed I guess. 

I can't wait to start reading this book. Between Tris' personality and the plot of the last book. I can't imagine what excitement Veronica Roth has in store this book.

A Long Way Gone

As you know from my previous post I have taken an interest in Multi cultural memoirs, The next book on my " To Read List " was " A Long Way Gone " By Ishmael Beah. As the reader, I saw a young boy who had a bright future being altered into a killing machine. Ishmael is afraid of fighting and had nightmares about dying. In Chapter 2 he has a very graphic description of one of his nightmares. He is pushing a wheel barrel with a corpse inside. The body has been riddled with bullets. When he unwraps the body he is looking at himself.

In the book Ishmael lives in Sierra Leone when it is going through a civil war. I took this dream as foreshadowing of events that may become true. Either he would become a soldier, or he would be killed. Tension builds and Ishmael joins the army," I am tired of living in fear " joining the army was one of the biggest turning points in the story. Slowly, Ishmael became a monster, " Killing had become as easy as drinking water " While in the army Ishmael did things that in the past he would have viewed as unthinkable.

Romeo and Juliet

In our English class we have started one of the greatest love stories of all time! Romeo and Juliet. Let me just tell you reading this for the first time is not what I expected

Even though this incredible love story is well known, I came in knowing as close to nothing as possible about this book. I was really expecting a really Disney like story. A brave strong handsome man meets a damsel in distress and they get married happily ever after blah blah. But actually in the prologue it is said they both die. That's not the only difference. Romeo isn't exactly my definition of a stereotypical macho man. in Fact he is a very emotional and passionate boy. We get introduced to him as a sad depressed kid. His mom says about him that he stays in his room and closes the curtains to make an artificial night. I absolutely hated Romeos personality. He is the type of guy that even the smallest thing can make or break his day. It will be interesting to see if Romeo becomes a dynamic character or just stays static.

Shakespeare was a very special writer to say the least. he is very passive aggressive and uses a lot of very crude humor. Including my favorite so far "Look my naked weapon is out." Shakespeare also does an amazing job giving each of the characters their own distinct personality. Romeo is emotional Juliette is obedient The Capulet's like to party and the Nurse and Mercuric are very talkative. A lot of times how talkative some characters are makes the play hard to understand. Characters can talk for dozens of lines and only five could be important. But some times the other lines could be funny. It is easy to see why Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer of all time.

A Different Kind Of Story

In my English class we read a class book " The Color of Water" by James Mcbride.

At first I wasn't very exited to read the book because Memoirs just aren't my thing I like action, sports, and adventure. But hear me when I say that this book is an exception.

At first I was very curious about the title of the book. Why would he call it that? What was the meaning? My questions were answered when Ruth, James' mother, answered James question about God, " God is the color of water. Water has no color." This was interesting because the book was heavily centered around race and religion it also uses many allusions.  Always talking about how Ruth Is out of place her being a white Jewish girl living in a black neighborhood.

Ruth was a very interesting characterin my opinion she was the main character even though it is narrated by James.She is very isolated coming from an abusive father and a family that ultimately ignored her. Her childhood really shaped her as an adult and the way she raised her kids. Despite all the hardships all of Ruth's children became successful.