Blog 14

I have finished the 3rd and final book of the Hunger Games.  Mockingjay was full of surprises.  Without going into too much detail this book was truly the best out of the 3.  At times it brought tears to my eyes.  Other times it made me smile and gave me goose bumps.  The ending was the perfect end to the story.  I really enjoyed all three of these books and can't wait to see the move that will be coming out in March of 2012.  I hope that the movie can do the book justice.  I have told many people about the books and have lent my copies out to those who wanted to read it.  I can't explain how it feels to talk with someone about the books that has enjoyed them as much as I do.  I even told my sons 4th grade teacher about it and she finished the first book in a week and is waiting on her copy of Catching Fire from Amazon.com.  I am glad I got to be in this Reading class and got to meet Stephanie.  I am excited to try other books on your list.  Thanks for getting me interested in reading again.

blog week 13 Free choice

I have just started the book Room.  It’s about a little boy who is 5 and his mother who have been locked into a room by his mother’s kidnapper.  The boy has never seen the outside of the room and his mother does her best to make things as normal for him as possible.  I am not too far into the book yet but it seems like it will be pretty interesting.  If I could ask the author a question about the book it would be if the book was based on a true story?  My assumption of the book is that the woman was kidnapped and her kidnapper is the father of her 5 yr old son.  They are being kept in a room where they eat, sleep and play.  The mother I don't think is in good health but still finds the strength to get up every day and teach the boy different things and play with him.  They have also made toys out of different things that other people would consider to be garbage.  For example a string threaded through a bunch of egg shells that is kept under the bed.  The boy knows when his mother is visited by the stranger at night.  He says that the room temp. is different.  I am trying hard to find the time to finish this book.

blog week 12

•             Write a review of the book. Would you recommend it? Why or why not? Would you have changed any element of the story?

   I don’t enjoy reading much but after reading the Hunger Games I couldn’t wait to read the second book in the series, Catching Fire.  The book picks up right where the first one left off.  I was excited to get started to find out how people in the capitol would respond to the double suicide attempt made by Katnise and Peete. 

   Both books are filled with action and excitement.  I found myself gasping out loud at time and tearing up when something tragic happens.  The writer does a great job of helping you get to know the characters without the boring introductions that seem to go on forever in other books that I have read.  At some points in the book I felt as if I was right there with them.  Many times I would find it hard to put the book down.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat and eager to keep reading just to see what will happen next.  Although you know the book is fiction, it seemed so real to me while I read it. 

  I personally don’t know of anything I would change about these books.  They are easy to read and even easier to lose yourself in.  Me being a non-reader am now on the third and final book in The Hunger Games series and have loved every word of them.  I am super excited to know that there will be a movie coming out this fall based on the books.  I am hoping that the movie will be as good or even better than the book are.  I totally recommend them for anyone to read.

week 11 blog

• What did I learn from the text?

I read in the Bridging the Gap book about how it is important to get enough sleep.  I stay up late at night and get up early.  There is no way around that but I think I will start trying to get in a nap now and then after what I read. 

Sleep is important for many reasons.  Mentally it gives your brain time to debrief in a sort.  Not sleeping can cause you to become delusional and irritable.  This can affect your life in many negative ways.  Being grouchy with friends and family is how it affects me.  My youngest son always says, “I think someone is needing a nap!” when I am tired. 

Being stressed can cause you to need more sleep.  After a long day when I sit down to relax I tend to get tired quickly.  The stresses of the day are draining and make you tired. 

Not getting enough sleep can physically take its toll on you as well.  Being tired can affect the way you drive or even walk causing you to be unaware of what is going on around you. 

I am going to try to get more sleep.  Between school, homework, kids, and my house work that don’t leave a lot of time to rest. Some people go on with being sleep deprived for so long that their body will finally just stop and force itself to sleep so you can get the rest that is needed. Even a quick 15 minute nap can make a difference in somebodies mental and physical wellbeing. 

week 10 blog

.  Mirror mirror on the wall. Do i love peete at all? He is my friend and has been with me till the end Through good and bad he is always by my side never once asking anything of me.  But most of the time I wish he would just leave me be.  Our time may  be cut short because of the game we are forced to play.  If I have to be the one to kill him our families will be in such dismay.  The game is what brought us together.  We depend on each other so we won't have to surrender.  Sharing kisses here and there just for show hoping that someday the gamemakers will let us both go.  Only one can win we both are aware but if we both will the President care.  We do our best to play the game but once we finally get home we both know that things will never be the same.  But still we do what is expected of us just so our families won't suffer.  They have no clue we don't really love one another.  Holding hands in public, stealing a few looks here and there, and smiling at everyone that passes.  If only they knew how much this isn’t true.  To Gale my friend, my rock, my partner in crime.  It is you I really want and I think about you all the time.  No matter what I have to do to keep them all from harm I will always remember what it felt like to be in your arms.

Room

Over spring break I read alot of emails concerning Iraqi Dinars.  Most of the emails were dialog between different people within different groups.  This made it hard at times to follow what was being said.  I did learn that the Iraqi government is in place and that the Iraqi Dinar was to be revaluated making the dinars worth way more money then what they are now.  Several people in these emails have been waiting for this to happen for years and it seems as if the wait will soom be over.  Some of the emails were from chat rooms that had several different opinoins on when the RV would take place and at what rate.  I have spent 1500.00 buying 1,650,000 in Iraqi Dinars so when it finally is revalued I will be able to exchange the currency and make alot of money from it.  Can't wait till the end of the month to see what the RV will be.  I look forward to the emails i get everyday to read and learn more and more about the country that our government is working so hard to make it a better place for the Iraqi people.  When this is finished our soilders will be able to come home.

blog 7

·         What “big questions” or issues does the text tackle

The book Liar has a huge question.  Can you believe Micha's truth or is it also a lie?  How can you tell?  As I read the book I found myself asking is this the truth or is she telling another lie.  Thoughout the book she says she it telling the truth for the first time but then later on says that it was a lie.  I can't say what was true and what wasn't.  For example, she talks about her brother Jordan and how they never get along.  How she has hated him from birth.  Then later she admits that she has no brother and that it was a lie.  But then again she says that she did have a brother that had died in an accident but never goes into detail.  I can't help but wonder if she killed him.  I don't recall her giving any details at all about her brothers death.  So I guess I still don't know if it was the truth or another lie.  This book proves that you can't trust a known liar.  How can you tell if someone is being truthful?  How can people tell if I am being truthful?

write a letter to one of the chareters in the book

Dear Micah,

          I have read your book and I have a few questions for you.  At what age did you start lying?  Do you remember your first lie?  In your book you keep saying that you aren’t going to lie anymore but then as I read further into the book you say “ok that was a lie”.  I wonder if you can even tell the difference between the truth and a lie.  You mention a brother Jordan and how much you dislike him.  Even as a baby you hated him and wished he wasn’t born.  Then later in the book you say it was a lie.  Shortly after that you say that telling us that you lied about telling that Jordan was a lie.  I don’t recall in the book you saying what happen to Jordan.  Just that it was an accident and it wasn’t your fault.  I can’t help but wonder if that too was a lie and if whatever happened to your brother was your fault? 

     I also wonder how you can keep all your lies straight.  It seems to me that it would just be easier to tell the truth rather than try to keep up with which lie you told to who.  I enjoyed the book but was confused at times.  I wonder how truthful you really are about not lying and if you have even lost yourself in all the lying.  What is the point?  And out of all the lie you could tell the one that really gets me is when you tell people that you are half girl and half boy.  Why?  It seems to me that being a liar like you would be totally exhausting.

Sincerely,

June

week 5 blog. Free choice

The strangest part of the text in the book Liar by Justine Larbalestier is how she keeps jumping from different times in the story.  She goes from before to after to family history.  At first it was kind of confusing for me to read.  But after about the first four or five pages I was able to keep up a bit more.  I have never read a book that jumps around so much before.  I found myself wanting to hurry and read the before so I could get to the next after part or reading the family history part quickly so I could get to the before again.  The writing style is much different than I am used to but by the end of the book I found myself enjoying the different kind of writing she used.  I think it made me finish the book quicker than I would have if it was all in a nice and neat order.  The writer gives you bits and pieces at a time making you want to know more.  It was also different how the writer didn’t use chapters like other books I have read.  She wrote in three sections.  I think that was easier since she went from after to before then to family history ect.  She was able to tell the story bit by bit rather than from beginning to end.  I enjoyed reading what I call mini chapters.  It kept me from getting bored with reading about the same instance for a long period of time.  I will definitely be looking for other books that are written this way.

Blog 4

·             Micah is the main character in the book Liar.  She is a liar.  I think that she is worthy of praise.  In the book she has taken a lot of verbal abuse from her peers and ignores it.  I am not sure I could be that strong.  I think by keeping her friendship with Zach a secret tells a lot about her character.  She seems to be a person that can keep things to herself.  I know she is a liar but I feel that is just her way of dealing with the life she has.  She comes from a loving family that don’t have much and I think that is part of the reason she lies.   Since one of her teacher assumed she was a boy she chose to be one.  I don’t really think that was a lie.  She just let people assume that she was.  No one even asked her if she was male or female nor did they seem to want to know her well enough to know.  She mentions in the book that she wishes she was invisible.  To me that tells me that she is trying to hide form something.  Rather it be illness, her family heritage or the fact that her friend Zach is dead something about her is different.  She seems to be a smart girl.  I am not sure why she lies or maybe saying she is a liar is a lie as well.

My reading style

I normally don’t enjoy reading novels.  It is hard for me to choose a book that keeps my interest.  It seems to me that most books that I have chosen have a boring beginning so I lose interest and never finish them.  One of the books that I was able to finish was East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  The only reason I chose the book is because it was on Opera’s’ book list and on sale for 50% off.   The book was amazing but if it had not been exciting in the very beginning I would have set it aside and never finished it.  I chose this book to do my assignment mini book chat on.  Not only because it is one of the few that I have finished but because it is one that I truly enjoyed.  My favorite parts of a book it the dialog.  I enjoy reading the conversations between charters.   I tend to get bored easily when it is just paragraph after paragraph of details of the setting.  I sometimes find myself skipping ahead if there are a lot of paragraphs that don’t have dialog in them.  I am sure that I have missed a lot just because of that.  I like to read the covers of the books too to get an idea of what’s inside.  I am more of a romance reader I think then a sci-fi reader.  I am really looking forward to reading Liar with the whole class.  Maybe reading with others will keep me focused on the book.  I think it will be cool to hear how everyone portrays the book and what their opinions are and what happened and what they think will happen next. 

Its all about me

  My name is June.  I am a 30something year old wife and mother of 2 that has decided to go back to school and change my career.  I am going to school to try to become a Surgical Tech.  I am new to blogging and looking forward to learning more about others in my class.