Friday, September 27, 2013
Blog Post #2-Initial Response
Well, we're a few days in to reading our personal reading books. By now, we've read both in and out of class. In your post tonight, share with the class your initial response to the book. Who are the main characters? Where does it take place? What does it seem to be about? Be specific in your response and provide details.
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My main character in my book is Andre Agassi the professional tennis player. The book takes place all throughout Andre's life starting at “The End” and then sequentially going in order from when he wasseven years old. Initially when I picked out the book I thought it was going to be all about Andre's life as a professional tennis player, and about how much he loved tennis as a sport which contributed to the win of his eight grand slams. But in controversy in the first couple of pages in the book it starts out with Andre's last US Open and him getting up in the morning to get ready for what could possibly be his last match ever if he losses. It is narrated in first person, and he talks about how his body is worn out from all the tennis and how he has severe spinal problems. Then he goes into talking about how he never liked tennis and how he was forced into it, but at the same time he does not want this to be his last match yet he does want it to be his last match. This really struck me because I first believed that he loves tennis as most professional athletes love what they do, but he does not. The chapter ends with him playing potentially his last match, and he narrates it point by point and the suspense had me clinging to each and every page. The chapter ends with him winning that match and inevitably going to have to play again. The next chapter starts with him at age 7.
ReplyDeleteMy book, "The Realm of Possibility" is about twenty different people's lives, written in poem and song, who all go to the same school. In the first 43 pages I have read, I have met three of these people. The first one, who's name is Daniel, is gay. His boyfriend, Jed, and him are together and Daniel is trying to smoke. There seems to be no specific reason for this other than trying something new and risky. Daniel seems nervous yet happy to be with his love. At one point, a group of boys walks past them and yells a couple of obnoxious things but neither of them seem to be bothered by it. they seem happy together and that's all that matters to them. he second person's name is Mary. My first impression of her is that she has anxiety and/or depression. Her boyfriend is with her and she doesn't want him touching her or even talking to her. Her boyfriend takes her on a romantic picnic and all she does is complain. She then confesses after a while that she needs help. The third person's name is Diana, who's section is full of songs and is titled, "Songs for Elizabeth." I cannot tell if she is in love with Elizabeth, because most of the songs are romantic, or if she is just a really, really close friend. Because this book is about all different people, it doesn't take place in one setting. The book is narrated in the first person which helps to see from each person's perspective better and makes it more interesting to see what they are thinking and doing and why. This book seems to be about the different life stories of kids all from the same school and I am inferring that at some point they will cross each others paths.
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ReplyDeleteThe book Tim Tebow Through My Eyes is about a boy named Tim Tebow. He is from Jacksonville, Florida and is a football prospect. Tim is crazy religious and goes on multiple retreats to the Philippines. He loves giving to the community. In eighth grade Tim went to a high school football camp for quarterbacks and was voted as the best one. When Tim gets into high school his expectations are high. He expects to be the starting quarter back for the varsity team. His expectations were shot down when the coach told him that he is too big and athletic to be a quarter back and the coach moved him to linebacker and running back. Tim was furious but he could not wait until the season ended so he could have a go at quarter back one more time. Over the summer in between seasons he had met with the coach and it was obvious they were not on the same page. Tim moved schools and he started on the varsity team at quarterback as a sophomore. He led his team to a state championship. Tim was noticed by several colleges and was pretty much the future of football.
ReplyDeleteTwo Minute Drill by Mike Lupica is about a boy named Scott who tries to be a gifted athlete but just can't. Although he is not athletically gifted, he is acedemically gifted which make his parents very proud. He has a passion for football and would do anything to fit in by being good at it. He just moved to a new town with his parents and it is hard for him because he has a hard time fitting in. He was shocked when a kid named Chris tries to be his friend. Chris is the most popular kid in the sixth grade and never in a million years would Scott expect him to make an attempt to be his friend. He convinces Scott to join the football team and he does, of course, because he wants to fit in. He is okay being the guy who rides the bench as long as he's apart of the team and is friends with the coolest kid in school.
ReplyDeleteMy book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is about a boy, Christopher John Francis Boone, with Asperger syndrome. It is written very different from other books. It is narrated by Christopher, so you get a full sense of what his thought process is of situations and how he thinks things through. The chapter are also only numbered with prime numbers. The chapters alternate between the narrative of the story and Christopher's thoughts/anecdotes/facts from his past life and his personality. I believe it takes place in England in the modern time period, but I am not sure. Its about Christopher's adventurers trying to get to the bottom of the case about the death of the dog. Christopher starts out by being accused of killing the dog and disrespecting an officer and goes to the police department jail where his father has to bail him out. We get a strong understanding of how Christopher's mind works, for example he likes the jail cell because it is square and simple. We also do he does not understand emotion or lies.
ReplyDeleteThe book "Looking for Alaska" is a story about Miles "Pudge" Halter's who is searching for his own "Great Perhaps". Miles thought he couldn't find his own "Great Perhaps" while being trapped in Florida Public School, so he decided to change it up a bit and follow in his fathers footsteps by attending Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. Pudge meets the crazy Colonel, his roommate and the gorgeous Alaska Young. The first moment Pudge set his eyes on Alaska his heart was stolen by her common love for books and mischievous attitude.
ReplyDeleteFor the personal reading assignment I have began reading "Will Grayson Will Grayson" by one of my favorite authors, John Green. So far, I have been introduced to a few of the characters who are high schoolers from Chicago. The story seems to switch narrators throughout the story to very different people. In the first chapter, the narrator introduces his new friend ironically named Tiny Cooper. Tiny is an openly gay large football player at Will Grayson (narrator's) high school. Unlike Will, Tiny is very open and outgoing while Will likes to stay to himself, and avoid people as much as possible. He finds that by doing that, he manages to stay away from conflict, emotions, and specifically stay away from crying, which he hasn't done for years. Friends with Tiny, are two more characters Jane Turner and Gary. Jane Turner's sexuality is questioned so far in the store, but like Tiny, Gary is openly gay, but more alike to Will. Gary too likes to stay to himself which Will finds a relief to balance out his relationship with Tiny. As I continued to read, I found that the story quickly changed narrators, I'm guessing to the other Will Grayson. This Will comes off as a juvenile high schooler without a care in the world. He seems to be continuously back-talking his lost, try-hard mother who just wants to connect with her son. While a little unclear, it seems that the second Will Grayson is also gay due to his instant messages with a boy who he seems to care a lot about. He seems to quickly change personalities entirely when talking to this boy Isaac, and becomes more sentimental and open. Although this book seems a little bit different with the different sexualities that I do not know entirely about, I am interested to see what will become of both of the Will Graysons, and excited to see what will occur when they meet. What will happen when 2 kids with completely personalities, but same names, collide paths?
ReplyDeleteThe novel that I chose, "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins is about a girl who most of us know from Collins' very successful prequel, "The Hunger Games" named Katniss Everdeen who has just returned from a very gruesome and horrific, but successful, competition in the games, and she has to face the hardships and life-changing events that happen because of her performance. President Snow, the leader of the nation, is not happy that Katniss forced the gamemakers to allow two winners instead of one, for he believes that it was an act of defiance; he thought that she was trying to spark a revolution to overthrow the capital. Where I am now in the story, Katniss has already caused riots in District 11 which the capitol is probably not too happy about. Some other main characters in the story include Peeta, the other winner of the games and a fellow District 12 member that Katniss used so that they would both live. There is also Gale, Katniss' friend that she had been hunting with for most of her childhood but hadn't seen much since she got back, but had had a romantic relationship with when she saw him. Katniss also has a mother and a little sister who haven't played much of a part in the story so far, as well as Haymitch, who is like an advisor to Peeta and Katniss, and Effie, an official who Katniss doesn't really like. The story takes place in some kind of post-war world in America where a revolt made it so that the government had to split up the country and create the Hunger Games to keep the people in line. This shows how harsh the government is in this story, and this shows evidence about how the president could be very harsh on Katniss who might cause major problems later on.
ReplyDeleteIn the book "Atonement", there seems to be two main characters; Cecilia and Briony. They have very different views on their lives. Cecilia sees her home and her family boring and intolerable while Briony sees them as the many characters to fit her plays and stories. The book takes place during 1935, before World War 2. When the story starts, everyone is making preparations for Cecilia and Brioiny's brother Leon's return home. While getting ready, Cecilia is filling up an expensive vase with water to fill it with flowers, but it breaks and she doesn't know what to do. I think that the breaking of the vase has more importance than we know, and we will find out the amount of importance later on in the book. During the first couple of chapters we see how the two girls minds work, and it looks like Briony's mind is very mature for a thirteen year old, and Cecilia has a mind that is surprisingly juvenile for someone who just graduated from Cambridge.
ReplyDeleteThe novel, "The Blind Side", starts off with the author talking about how important the left tackle is to a football team. He describes that the quarterback is the highest paid player on the team and everyone knows there names, while the left tackle is the second highest paid player but no one really knows who they are. The author tells us about a player named Joe Theismann who was brutally hit from his blind side by one of the NFLs greatest players, Lawrence Taylor. He starts the book off this way to tell us how important the left tackle is to a team and how important it is to a QB. The next chapter is about a scout named Tom Flemming, who picks the All American teams each year for high school. The All American game is a football game with the countries finest high school seniors going against one another. He describes seeing one of the best highlight tapes he has ever seen but is surprised that he has never heard of the kid in the tape, which is Michael Oher. He tries to find more about him but can't seem to find anything and when he goes to meet with Michael he refuses to talk and won't play in the game. The last couple paragraphs in these chapters tell us the Michael does not even realize he is a talented football player and really does not understand at all his importance to football.
ReplyDeleteIn the Book, "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins, this is the second book of the hunger games series. From the the first book that is very action packed their is a girl named Katniss Everdeen who has very tough and will fight for the lives of her people. She volunteered herself to be a tribune that will fight for their lives to get food for their people. They other character was chosen by random choice he was a boy also on their team. Together they fought against other people to death in a area that was watch from all their people and loved ones. They defeated all the other tribunes but they were forced to fight each other but they did not because of their deep love for each other. So they title and are now the winners of The Hunger Games. This novel is so far starting off on how her lives will be after The Hunger Games and some things will probably happen to keep the reader going with much action just like the first book.
ReplyDeleteIn my book, "Lone Survivor", Marcus starts off by telling the reader about how he is driving around to the families of all those in his squad and having to tell their families how their son died. By doing this instead of going straight into the story, the author makes the reader want to read on and find out what is going on and how Marcus got to that point in his life. After this interesting and confusing prologue the author dives straight into the story as he tells us the mission that Marcus's squad is going to go on. The author sets the scene in Afghanistan and talks about Taliban and al Qaeda. This makes me curious because I predict that these two groups will have a major effect on the story because of the foreshadowing used by the author when describing these two groups of terrorists. It is interesting to find out about the Arab culture as seen by the American military being described in the first chapter. As the author describes all the preparation that the team goes through and all the gear they have makes me want to keep reading to find out how each piece is going to play out in the book.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. This book so far from what I have read is about fifty beauty queen contestants looking to win the Miss Teen Dream pageant. Something goes wrong of course. On the way of the plane ride there, their plane ends up crashing on a tropical island. I can tell that this book will be full of stereotypes. This is because usually girls who are competing in something like this are looked at as being stupid. This shows that while they are stuck on this island, will they have any hope of surviving? I can tell that none of them have ever been in this type of situation before, probably coming from wealthy families from around the country, so they have to survive like they never have had to in the past. Will this group of girls be able to survive together knowing their backgrounds and what they are used to doing?
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. The main character appears to be a thirteen year old girl named Briony, because the author uses first person narration to recite the story in her point of view. However, despite her diverse vocabulary and her sophisticated thought process, I actually assumed that she was younger than her actual age of thirteen, simply because the things that a child is expected to be interested in and entertained by were entirely different in that era (pre World War II). Now due to things like technology and looser morals children are expected to be far more socially mature than I found Briony to be. Another character that seems to be critical to the story is Briony's older sister Cecilia who has just graduated from Cambridge. Cecilia seems to be somewhat lost in terms of her ambitions and her motivation to achieve them, while Briony has something of a set focus and is a perfectionist in the actions she takes towards achieving it. Briony appears to be more interested in the prospect of an exciting life away from home with a romance right out of a fairy tale while Cecilia is somewhat confined to the home of her parents because of these lost ambitions (she makes herself think that her presence is wanted at home) and before her encounter at the fountain the reader is led to believe that she is willing to marry someone very boring with too many unorganized ambitions of whom she has known for years. One of the main reasons that I believe Cecilia will ultimately be so critical to this story is the fact that Briony sees her take off her clothes and plunge herself into a fountain before one of her oldest friends. This helps Briony to come to the realization that life is not all about fairy tales and that soon she will have to face the adult world and the here and now way of life. I predict that this display that Briony has witnessed on behalf of her sister and the realization that it has sparked in her will lead to both her experimentation with the same thing and make her do something perilous as well because in the summary on the book flap it says that an action she takes after witnessing this event will impact the actions she takes for the rest of her life. Also, the title of the book is Atonement, which means to make amends for a wrong doing that you have committed, so possibly she will do something that she finds to be very mature and perceives to be socially common place but that will have severe and long lasting repercussions.
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. The main character in this book is Beatrice, and her brother Caleb and her friend Rachel seem like they will play a big part later in the book as well. This book seems very interesting. From what I have read, it seems like it is a New World Order sort of thing, like it used to be the world we know today, but something happened that changed everything. One part in the book that hints towards this is on page 24 when Beatrice says, "Sometimes, on the streets near my house, I can see places where the yellow lines used to be. We have no use for them now that there are so few cars. We don't need stoplights, either, but in some places they dangle precariously over the road like they might crash down any minute." Earlier in the book Beatrice had said that they couldn't really afford a car, but the roads were so bad and dangerous to drive on that it didn't really matter. This brings up many questions, like what happened to the world they used to know? Why is everything organized the way it is? Why are cars so sparse now?
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. The plot seems to be one similar to the Hunger Games in the sense that the world has come to a crash. People are in five separate factions according to their personality. They choose their faction. The main character is a 16 year old girl named Beatrice Prior. Initially the book starts out with Beatrice choosing her faction, or at least being tested for it. She is put to the test and what the test is, is it a simulator to see what your reaction would be with different scenarios. Also she could not prepare for this "test" in any way, shape or form. So she walked into things blindly and was surprised that it isnt a written test of some sort. The simulator takes her to the same room, but no one or nothing was in it except a basket of cheese, and a big knife. She didn't know what it was for so she didn't choose any. A few seconds later she hears a voice saying choose one of them, she doesn't and they disappear. After that a dog appears in the corner and starts running at her. she remembers that dogs can smell fear so she lays down and calms the dog down. Then after they are comfortable with each other a girl appears in the other corner and the dog gets up starts running then Beatrice jumps on the dog. then the stimulation is over. A lady in the booth that she was in tells her that what just happened was very unique. Then she says that her results were not a specific class. It was "Divergent". It was a cliff hanger so I already am pretty excited about this book. The book takes place in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book "The Million Dollar Throw" by Mike Lupica. The main character in this book is named Nate Brodie who is a 13 year old boy from Valley, Massachusetts. Nate is an amazing quarterback and a huge fan of Tom Brady in the NFL. Another main character is Abby who is Nate's best friend and know to be the prettiest girl in school. She has a problem that she goes blind at times. Nate and Abby have been friends since kindergarten. Abby has always been there for Nate and cheering him on during all of his football games. Abby loves to draw even though she is blind. Nate is known as the best young quarterback in the state. The story takes place in a town where Nate and Abby go to school everyday like every other kid there age. This story seems to be about to thirteen year olds who have been friends for a very long time and they are always there for eachother.
ReplyDeleteThe book I
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen. Since the book is an autobiography the main character in story is a Navy Seal named Mark Owen who was a member of the team that killed Osama Bin Laden. In the beginning of the story he takes the readers through how he climbed up the ranks to become a member of the all exclusive Seal Team 6. This story does take place throughout the world depending on the mission or assignment he is on. In the prologue he is in Afghanistan about to raid the compound containing Osama Bin Laden. Also, he flashes back to when he was a lower rank and trying to get upgraded from just a regular Seal into the more prestigious Seal Team 6. In this flashback he is in Mississippi going through raid simulations, but in the author's note it did mention that many of the locations, names of the people, titles of the missions, etc. had been changed in the book to ensure the security of the United States so these locations are most likely not the real sites of the events. The main character, Mark Owen, seems extremely committed to his job and always tries to be even better at something than he already is. For example, he said that his dream ever since he was a kid was to be a Navy Seal but once he had reached that goal he no longer wanted to just be a Navy Seal but also he wanted to be a member of the team that contained the best of them. This exhibits the determination and drive that this individual has that allows him to preform so well. Overall, my story has been very enticing so far and I look forward to hearing more details about how he became who he is today.
ReplyDelete"A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey is a semi-fictional memoir. It take place in Minnesota and recalls his experiences and encounters of being a 23 year-old alcoholic and substance abuser and going to a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am on page 74 of the book and I am enjoying it so far. I like his use of voice in getting his point across. He talks as he thinks; and every new thought is a new paragraph. The dialogue doesn't use quotation marks and isn't separated from his thoughts in the text other than by the start of a new paragraph. I like how he chose to deliver the story because when you read it, you get to experience what James, the author and main character, is going through and you look into his thoughts and see how they connect. In most cases he is very blunt and straightforward with what he is feeling, but even still it is easy to put yourself in his shoes without any ambiguity towards his emotions. At times it is almost easy to connect with his experiences (even though I am not a drug user or alcoholic in rehab) because of what he is thinking and how he connects it to his emotions and I know I have faced somewhat similar views.
The book that I chose to read was No Easy Day by Mark Owen. To introduce the characters and the plot, Owen brings the readers into how he really got involved with Seal Team 6. To start with the prologue, he states how he has complete trust in his team, and always believed they had his back. This really brought me into the story because it introduced the characters of Seal Team 6 in an interesting way without giving up too much information. In chapter 1, he talks about all the training he had to go through and specific exercises he did which led him to become a Seal. This not only made me feel like I was there, but also helped me to understand the character more. Also in chapter 1, Owen exceptionally describes the complexes he was at, whether it was in Afghanistan for simulations, or in California or Mississippi for training, it really helped to set the scene. When progressing on in the story, Mark decided to share how he came about being a Seal, and what activities happened besides pulling off actual missions. He mentioned that he knew he wanted to be a Seal when he was 13 when his father taught him how to shoot. Not only did Mark want to become a Seal, but be the best there was. Owen describes how you must do all your training via the training guide, and how even if it didn’t feel right, you needed to pull through. From what I can tell, Mark Owen is a real badass, and sounds like someone who I would want as a role model type figure, sacrificing lives for the greater good.
ReplyDeleteThe novel I chose was the hunger Games Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. One of the main characters is Katniss Everdeen who has just returned from a gruesome but successful hunger games. Where i am in the book right now president Snow has just suppressed the rebellions is district eight and have executed some of the rebels who started it
ReplyDeleteThe main character in my book, "Catching Fire," is Katniss Everdeen, former Hunger Games victor, and her fellow victor Peeta Mellark, and their entrance into a special type of Hunger Games where each victor form the previous 25 years are pinned against each other in a battle to the death. I think that President Snow will inevitably emerge furious with Katniss and Peeta as they will most likely outsmart the capitol once again.
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