My favorite book of 2014 was If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I chose this book because it stood out to me in a different way. I felt more connected to this book than any other book I've read before.
This book is about a girl Mia who is about seventeen years old. When her family gets into a car accident, leaving her in a coma and the rest of her family dead, she is faced with the decision to live or to die. Mia doesn't know how she will live without her parents and little brother but doesn't know how to leave her boyfriend Adam. Mia is a cello prodigy and before she met Adam, cello was all she did. Throughout the book it flashes back to her life before the accident and showing us what an amazing life she had, then back to the hospital where left and right something was going wrong.
What I like best about this book was how real everything seemed. I felt as if I experiencing the book myself, not about being in a coma but being on the outside with her friends and family.
The part of this book that will stick with me is the part where her grandfather is talking to her in the hospital. Mia's dad was in a rock band for a very long time and it wasn't until her little brother was born that he decides to quit and be more with his family. Mia always though that her dad quit his band and stopped what he loved so much because Teddy was born. But it wasn't until he realized that Mia wasn't playing cello to get anything, she was playing purely from the heart. That's why he quit his band. He sold his drum set to buy Mia a cello so they wouldn't have to rent one anymore. When her grandfather tells her this, while she was still in the coma, it showed her that she wasn't so much the outcast of her family. She never realized her dad cared so much about her that he would give up something that was such a great part of his life. This will forever be my favorite part of this book.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Best Book Read in 2014
My favorite book that I read in 2014 was Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen. It really captivates some of the expectations that modern-day society sets for young people. It truly shows how much pressure teenagers and young adults are put under and what some of the consequences are for pressuring them.
I decided to write about this book because its message struck me the most out of all of the books I read in 2014. It had a kind of mystery to it and just kept me intrigued. It showed the side of someone being pressured by society and family, and masking their true feelings to please everyone...but themselves.
Annabel is a model, has been since she can remember. At a shoot, she looks like the girl who has everything, whose life is perfect...but a picture can hide a lot. Annabel's life is pretty much the opposite. Annabel doesn't want to be a model anymore, but it brings her mom so much joy after losing her mother that Annabel can't bring herself to tell her mom that she's done with modeling. Her best friend, Clarke, from the sixth grade left Annabel once Sophie, the new girl, entered their friendship. Once Annabel and Clarke's friendship was through, Annabel and Sophie became closer. But this friendship doesn't last long. After something went down at a party celebrating the last day of classes, Sophie is out to get Annabel. Sophie starts spreading nasty rumors about Annabel, all which are fake, yet everyone believes her...making Annabel lose all of her friends. On the first day of school, Annabel is reminded of what went down by seeing Sophie and the cause of it all, Will Cash. Will is the reason Sophie hates Annabel now. But she also sees someone else that she is curious about...Owen Armstrong. He's the quiet boy who's always listening to music. After getting into a fight with Sophie, Annabel runs off. Owen found her in the bushes next to the school and made sure that she was okay. After that, they became friends and started hanging out more. He changed her perspective on life. He told her that she needs to be honest and tell her family that she doesn't want to be a model anymore, which she eventually did. Owen was different. He always told the truth, while she almost always lied. Feelings soon start to develop between the two, but the author never really goes into detail about their relationship. Annabel is finally happy with her friends and doing what she wants, not what someone else wants her to do.
I liked how real the book was. It described the life of a girl who wasn't happy with her life. She was doing something that she didn't want to, just to please those around her. She was lied about, judged, and discriminated for something she didn't do. But, like in Cinderella, with a little bit of struggle and hard work, everything will end up being better.
The thing that will stick with me from Just Listen is how relatable it was, not only to me, but to anyone who has experienced being bullied or made fun of. It shows how things like rumors or "jokes" can affect people, but true friends could be made in the process. True friends that will stand up for you and help you through bad times, to show you that you are not alone. This is what is going to stick with me after reading Just Listen.
I decided to write about this book because its message struck me the most out of all of the books I read in 2014. It had a kind of mystery to it and just kept me intrigued. It showed the side of someone being pressured by society and family, and masking their true feelings to please everyone...but themselves.
Annabel is a model, has been since she can remember. At a shoot, she looks like the girl who has everything, whose life is perfect...but a picture can hide a lot. Annabel's life is pretty much the opposite. Annabel doesn't want to be a model anymore, but it brings her mom so much joy after losing her mother that Annabel can't bring herself to tell her mom that she's done with modeling. Her best friend, Clarke, from the sixth grade left Annabel once Sophie, the new girl, entered their friendship. Once Annabel and Clarke's friendship was through, Annabel and Sophie became closer. But this friendship doesn't last long. After something went down at a party celebrating the last day of classes, Sophie is out to get Annabel. Sophie starts spreading nasty rumors about Annabel, all which are fake, yet everyone believes her...making Annabel lose all of her friends. On the first day of school, Annabel is reminded of what went down by seeing Sophie and the cause of it all, Will Cash. Will is the reason Sophie hates Annabel now. But she also sees someone else that she is curious about...Owen Armstrong. He's the quiet boy who's always listening to music. After getting into a fight with Sophie, Annabel runs off. Owen found her in the bushes next to the school and made sure that she was okay. After that, they became friends and started hanging out more. He changed her perspective on life. He told her that she needs to be honest and tell her family that she doesn't want to be a model anymore, which she eventually did. Owen was different. He always told the truth, while she almost always lied. Feelings soon start to develop between the two, but the author never really goes into detail about their relationship. Annabel is finally happy with her friends and doing what she wants, not what someone else wants her to do.
I liked how real the book was. It described the life of a girl who wasn't happy with her life. She was doing something that she didn't want to, just to please those around her. She was lied about, judged, and discriminated for something she didn't do. But, like in Cinderella, with a little bit of struggle and hard work, everything will end up being better.
The thing that will stick with me from Just Listen is how relatable it was, not only to me, but to anyone who has experienced being bullied or made fun of. It shows how things like rumors or "jokes" can affect people, but true friends could be made in the process. True friends that will stand up for you and help you through bad times, to show you that you are not alone. This is what is going to stick with me after reading Just Listen.
My favorite book from this past year wasn't very hard to decide. My favorite book this year was A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin. I chose this book because it was the longest book I've ever read in about a week, and the writing in it is amazing.
A Game of Thrones is mainly in the land of Westeros. With a couple characters across the narrow sea in the free cities. Westeros itself is then divided mainly into two main geographic regions the North and the South. It starts with the main-est character, Eddard (Ned) Stark, the lord of Winterfell, a great house in the north. Who is visited by his childhood friend and king Robert Baratheon. Robert Baratheon comes to visit Ned because his Hand, full title is "The Kings Hand", has recently died, and Robert wishes for Ned to be his new hand. Now the story is hard to tell without spoiling the book because it is so long and is written in a POV style, meaning that every chapter is written in a character's point of view, changing character every chapter. But it seems that Jon Arryn's, the late Hand, death may not have been what it seems. His wife who is Ned's wife's sister writes to her saying she thinks her husband was murdered by the Lannisters, Another great house that holds a lot of power in the south. This is getting very close to spoilers so I'm gonna end it with this. This book is a constant twist and turning story with death, backstabbing, bribing, and murder. In short, no one is safe when they play the game of thrones.
One of the amazing things about the book is how much it pays attention to detail. Every new setting will have at least a paragraph or two just describing everything from the drapes to the food, and many more with all the characters.
The thing that will always stick with me in this book is not a single scene in particular, though I could name a few but they would be massive spoilers, but its plot will always stick with me. It is so in depth with so many different points of view that your given every chapter and how it refuses to follow a normal story. Literally no character is safe from death in this book. I'll leave it at that, because spoilers.
Details: A Game of Thrones is the first book in the series, A Song of Ice and Fire, which has 6 books out now and I think 2 more still to be written. It is also a VERY maturely written book, with a lot of bad language and "Adult Situations" that would give it and R ratting if it were a movie.
A Game of Thrones is mainly in the land of Westeros. With a couple characters across the narrow sea in the free cities. Westeros itself is then divided mainly into two main geographic regions the North and the South. It starts with the main-est character, Eddard (Ned) Stark, the lord of Winterfell, a great house in the north. Who is visited by his childhood friend and king Robert Baratheon. Robert Baratheon comes to visit Ned because his Hand, full title is "The Kings Hand", has recently died, and Robert wishes for Ned to be his new hand. Now the story is hard to tell without spoiling the book because it is so long and is written in a POV style, meaning that every chapter is written in a character's point of view, changing character every chapter. But it seems that Jon Arryn's, the late Hand, death may not have been what it seems. His wife who is Ned's wife's sister writes to her saying she thinks her husband was murdered by the Lannisters, Another great house that holds a lot of power in the south. This is getting very close to spoilers so I'm gonna end it with this. This book is a constant twist and turning story with death, backstabbing, bribing, and murder. In short, no one is safe when they play the game of thrones.
One of the amazing things about the book is how much it pays attention to detail. Every new setting will have at least a paragraph or two just describing everything from the drapes to the food, and many more with all the characters.
The thing that will always stick with me in this book is not a single scene in particular, though I could name a few but they would be massive spoilers, but its plot will always stick with me. It is so in depth with so many different points of view that your given every chapter and how it refuses to follow a normal story. Literally no character is safe from death in this book. I'll leave it at that, because spoilers.
Details: A Game of Thrones is the first book in the series, A Song of Ice and Fire, which has 6 books out now and I think 2 more still to be written. It is also a VERY maturely written book, with a lot of bad language and "Adult Situations" that would give it and R ratting if it were a movie.
My favorite book that I read in 2014 would have to be Wringer by Jerry Spinelli. This is my favorite book because I like to read about some of the things that were considered to be normal back then and weird now. This book takes place in a small city that have weird festivities. A couple of them being: Pigeon Day and The annual punching for when it is your birthday. I like it because Palmer goes against his father and his friends when he decides to keep a pigeon and take care of it each and every day. When Palmer gets his punches for how old he is his mom gets all mad and his father explains to her that he too went through the same treatment. He explains to her that this is acceptable. When pigeon day is coming up Palmer has became friends with Wringer ( his pet pigeon). He doesn't want to become a Wringer like his father and asks multiple times why do they have to kill the pigeons when they didn't do anything to them. He gives Palmer the same answer every time saying that is best for them. This book is really cool because Palmer does everything that is considered weird in that town. He is not like the others and doesn't really fit in. And for these reasons Wringer was my favorite book I read in 2014.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Best Book Read in 2014
Last year, I had read many dystopian-fiction books which I had enjoyed. My favorite book from 2014 was The One Safe Place, by Tania Unsworth. The story takes place on Earth in a nearish future when the world is considerably warmer.
There is less water, and whatever water that is left is owned by the rich. Devin, the main character, is raised by his grandfather, on a small, isolated farm. Once his grandfather dies, he inherits the land but realizes he cannot maintain it by himself; he is too young. He leaves for the city, and approaches orphaned street kids. He joins them, and becomes friends with a girl named Kit, who is a few years younger than him, but is very independent. Kit is a very good scavenger, and steals food. Stealing food is one of the only ways the street kids can eat. Other kids talk about a place for needy orphans where there is unlimited food and a place for them to stay, which Kit thinks is fake. A few days later Devin meets a boy named Roman, who says he can take them there. Elderly people come to the home to go through a process where their mind can be switched to one of the kids' minds so they can live life for an amount of time as a kid. They can forget about their worries and act like children. "...but it’s soon clear that it’s no paradise. As Devin investigates the intimidating administrator and the zombie-like sickness that afflicts some children, he discovers the home’s horrific true mission. The only real hope is escape, but the place is as secure as a fortress."(http://www.taniaunsworth.com/book/the-one-safe-place/)
I liked the twist that this story had: the home for the needy children was the opposite of what they thought it would be, and they had to fix it. I thought it was interesting how they would switch minds so they could live another life; somebody else would have to witness the pain from their real lives. The part of this book that will stick with me long after I've read this book is that the things that happened in this story are very realistic and can actually happen. The earth can run out of water if it keeps heating up, and if there is any, it will be hard to obtain and expensive.
An image that demonstrates my connection is a lady waiting for a dentist's appointment. This was also the inspiration for the author, Tania Unsworth's, book. She was in the waiting room waiting for her name to be called, and was nervous. She thought about how it would be nice if someone else could take her place in the exam chair, so they would "suffer all the discomfort, while her mind could be enjoying a small vacation somewhere else. It would have to involve some kind of mind-swapping procedure." (http://www.algonquinyoungreaders.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Unsworth-AE41.pdf) That was the same idea for the book, where suffering, elderly people could switch minds with a healthy, young child.
There is less water, and whatever water that is left is owned by the rich. Devin, the main character, is raised by his grandfather, on a small, isolated farm. Once his grandfather dies, he inherits the land but realizes he cannot maintain it by himself; he is too young. He leaves for the city, and approaches orphaned street kids. He joins them, and becomes friends with a girl named Kit, who is a few years younger than him, but is very independent. Kit is a very good scavenger, and steals food. Stealing food is one of the only ways the street kids can eat. Other kids talk about a place for needy orphans where there is unlimited food and a place for them to stay, which Kit thinks is fake. A few days later Devin meets a boy named Roman, who says he can take them there. Elderly people come to the home to go through a process where their mind can be switched to one of the kids' minds so they can live life for an amount of time as a kid. They can forget about their worries and act like children. "...but it’s soon clear that it’s no paradise. As Devin investigates the intimidating administrator and the zombie-like sickness that afflicts some children, he discovers the home’s horrific true mission. The only real hope is escape, but the place is as secure as a fortress."(http://www.taniaunsworth.com/book/the-one-safe-place/)
I liked the twist that this story had: the home for the needy children was the opposite of what they thought it would be, and they had to fix it. I thought it was interesting how they would switch minds so they could live another life; somebody else would have to witness the pain from their real lives. The part of this book that will stick with me long after I've read this book is that the things that happened in this story are very realistic and can actually happen. The earth can run out of water if it keeps heating up, and if there is any, it will be hard to obtain and expensive.
An image that demonstrates my connection is a lady waiting for a dentist's appointment. This was also the inspiration for the author, Tania Unsworth's, book. She was in the waiting room waiting for her name to be called, and was nervous. She thought about how it would be nice if someone else could take her place in the exam chair, so they would "suffer all the discomfort, while her mind could be enjoying a small vacation somewhere else. It would have to involve some kind of mind-swapping procedure." (http://www.algonquinyoungreaders.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Unsworth-AE41.pdf) That was the same idea for the book, where suffering, elderly people could switch minds with a healthy, young child.
Best book in 2014
I decided to write about the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green because the book made a big impact on how I view my life day by day. This book is about a girl who has cancer but she is not your typical teenager. She never wants to go out, she always sits at home and watches her favorite shows all day long. Her mom makes her join a "therapy" group where she meets this boy. At first they start off as best friends but then it turns in to more than friends. They go on a trip together and Agustus brakes some sad news to Hazel. One thing I liked about this book is that it gave you a whole knew way to look at the world and to appreciate the time you have with the people you love because they could be gone in a heartbeat. Something that will stick with me for the years on is the fact that Agustus clearly cares about Hazel in a very special way and shows in to Hazels parents, his parents and others that are just strangers. There is a Scene in the book where he says "I'm in love with you Hazel Grace Lancaster." This shows he really cares about her by using her full name and in many other ways. https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEV7rBq7VUDG4A_RwPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBv
Monday, January 12, 2015
Best Book Read in 2014
In thinking about the books I have read since September, I really had a hard time narrowing down my favorite book, or the book I think everyone should read someday. I think I have to narrow it down to The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz. Many of you may recognize his name, mainly because he is the author of the fast-paced Alex Rider series (Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Point Blank, etc.). I have been into mysteries lately, and I was looking for a novel that was not in the genre of "Young Adult". I saw this author's name come up on a new book search, and I was intrigued-- I had no idea he also wrote for adults. Upon further reading about him on Goodreads, I noticed that the novel House of Silk is the first Sherlock Holmes novel commissioned by Arthur Conan Doyle's estate (he's the guy who wrote all the Sherlock Holmes mysteries). So it had to be good, right? Well, it was.
The main story in the novel is an art dealer, Edmund Carstairs, comes to Sherlock Holmes for his help to ferret out a criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America, where he was doing business. What seems to be an easy case of revenge, actually twists and turns from poisoning, to murder, to well... something really hideous-- a dirty little secret of the House of Silk. So much happens, and there are so many twists and turns, it's truly hard to summarize the novel very easily.
I think I was hooked immediately by the language and word choice of the author, Anthony Horowitz. He had a way of writing that was full of imagery, I could see everything in my head, without it being overly wordy or hard to follow. I liked that characters like Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, made appearances in the novel, especially because it reminded me of the BBC show Sherlock, and I really liked how Horowitz was able to weave in some details from the life of Sherlock Holmes that would only be apparent to real Sherlock Holmes fans, such as Sherlock's opium addiction. The novel and the writing brought so many images to my mind from movies, tv shows and short stories dealing with Sherlock Holmes.
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An image or an idea that will stick with me for a long time, and that makes me want to get other Sherlock Holmes and mystery fans to read this book, is the way the plot twists and turns, bringing characters together in ways that I truly couldn't see coming. The art dealer, Edmund Carstairs, has an affiliation with one of the young orphan street boys Holmes employs and is later murdered. The American woman Carstairs marries is not exactly who she purports to be. The criminal from Boston, with whom Carstairs is involved in the murder of his twin, is here for reasons I could never see coming-- even after he is murdered in London. It truly kept me thinking and connecting characters and plot pieces.
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