Final Post

Book: Divergent

Overall I enjoyed the book. The book kept me on the edge of my seat, combining action with drama to create a reading experience which enticed the reader and kept their interest, even through the rare and not many slow parts. The author also used metaphors and similes to show the reader and take them through the mind of the main character. However, while most aspects of this book were very good, one aspect in particular made the book much more difficult to read. That aspect is that with the metaphors and similes came some language which was just difficult to understand, creating some times where I was unable to visualize what was happening simply because I didn't understand how to compare these two words, and to put down the book in the middle of a chapter or sentence and find the book in a dictionary detracted from my attention to the book, creating a less pleasurable reading experience. Even after saying this, I do believe this was a very good book, and would recommend it to most people looking for action along with an enticing story.

*please note I had this done on the 22nd, but apparently I didn't click publish.

Overall I really did enjoy my reading. It kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing the whole time. Also, the topics were very fascinating and touched upon information that isn't widely talked about due to its controversy. What I liked most about this book was that I was able to learn so much from it. Some of it is fiction, but other parts of it really made me think and ask questions. I liked reading this better than an assigned reading book because I picked it out based on my interests. In the personal reading I was good at identifying the several changing themes that occurred as the story went on. I was also good at tracking how Professor Langdon changed as he uncovered new secrets. I still need to work on identifying literary devices and realizing there significance to the overall theme. I could also work on keeping up with the reading consistently instead of cramming it all at once. This way instead of rushing, I could slow down and enjoy the book. In the end I really found this book interesting and would recommend it to others.

Final Post Ender's Game

I found the book Ender's Game to be confusing. It was somewhat hard to follow with all the characters and terms like "Buggers". Most of the time they didn't explain what these terms mean and it gets even more confusing. I was told it's like The Hunger Games, but I didn't see any similarities. Despite this the book is pretty interesting if you can follow it. If you're intereted in aliens or books about saving eaeth this could be for you.

Final post Lone Survivor

I enjoyed reading the book, Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell even though I am normally not a big reader. At times I can feel like reading is more of a job then something to do during my free time, yet Lone Survivor was different. I enjoyed this book due to the fact that it was written based off an experience giving it a certain type of depth that I usually cannot find. Because this book was based off a true experience I found that it was sometimes hard to stop reading due to the fact that all of the crazy feats talked about were done by a real person. After hearing Marcus's amazing story, I realized that the theme of this book was to really embrace and acknowledge brotherhood because it is deeper then any friendship. The only problem I encountered was time management due to tests and projects. While I was able to finish the book there was definitely nights when I skipped reading in favor of another subject's homework. Next time I hope I can avoid these problems by starting the book earlier on. Overall, I really enjoyed this book due the detail and the story told and appreciated reading it. 

Unbroken Final Post

I really enjoyed reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand because I do not usually read biographies during my free time. It was surprisingly interesting to read a non- fiction book opposed to a fiction book and I liked the fact that the author went to a lot of detail about World War II, not just Louie's life. While the detail could make the story a bit slow at times it was good as a whole. By the amount of detail in the book, I could tell that Hillenbrand had done thorough research. Reading for pleasure was different from reading assigned books because it was easier to focus on the big picture of the book instead of focusing on small details. On the other hand, when reading on my own, I feel like I might have missed small defining details in the story that I would not have overlooked if I was reading an assigned book. I think I tracked the character development well. When looking back on the book, it is clear that Louie started out having no direction in life to having a goal of becoming a successful runner. After World War II, he was left without a goal to focus on because of his injured ankle and he changed from being a tortured war victim to finding himself through religion. I think I need to work on keeping up with the reading or maybe choose a book that is more suspenseful so I want to constantly keep reading. With this being said, I am glad I pushed myself to read something out of my comfort zone even though it took some effort to get through.

If I Stay Final Post

Overall, I believe that this was a very emotional book (especially when I ended up crying in class) This book moved me and has been leading me on a new path of thoughts in my life when things seem to become bad. I realize that things could be worse and I have to hold onto all of the good in my life like friends and family to pull through. When Mia decided to stay, I thought that it was a hard choice for her but all it took was her looking at the good, especially when Adam was by her side begging her to stay. He even wrote a song about her because he had a reason to. In the whole book, Adam talked about how he only wrote songs about things that made him sad, but when he was finally able to write one about Mia, the only person who fully understood him and made him the happiest person he's ever been, Mia woke up in the bed feeling their hands holding. This was one of the first books I've finished in a year or two, since I usually have put other books down because I realized that I did't like them as much as I thought. However, this book I would recommend to anyone, especially those looking for a good love story and one that will make them cry. Honestly, I couldn't have chosen a better book for this project.

If I Stay Mia's Decisions

When I was in the middle of the book, I stopped at the point where Mia figured out that staying is all up to her and herself alone. Mia is a girl who is very fond of her parents and would do anything to stay with her boyfriend Adam. However, if she wakes up then she will be an orphan after the crash killed her parents and little brother. She's going through the ideas of how to stay and leave, her thoughts are what control them. At the times she's thought to herself to give up, her body in the hospital would become fatal. Right now, she has decided that there's no point in living with the idea of her parents being in the grave and that her future wouldn't be much because of her family condition now. She'll be put into foster care for her senior year of high school then go off to college. Or her grandparents will take care of her in that time.  When Adam came to talk to her, she realized how much pain he was in because of her but all she wanted to do was hold her hand. What led her to be able to want to give into letting go was when her grandfather came to her bed. He held her hand and told her it was ok if she let go and died because it was such a hard decision and life ahead of her. Plus, his own son (Mia's father) just passed away from the accident so he would understand. So once she started to give up, her body had to go into the emergency room again in critical condition. Mia's thoughts effect her body's stability and ability to live without her spirit in it. I think that Mia is only looking at the bad when really, she needs to be looking at all of the good that happened to her.