Slamence

Ok, so I am kind of in limbo between Speak and Slam. I finished Speak and I have started Slam. Speak ended just the way I expected it to end, which was all happy and Melinda gets over the fact that she got raped and everything is all happy and fabulous. I would Probably recommend this book to any fan of life and the view of other people and how their lives can be so different than yours, yet very much the same. I have yet to see how Slam plays out but so far but it seems to be going pretty smoothly.

Speak was an enjoyable and it deserves praise because it is a solid piece of writing. Though I somewhat enjoyed it, I am not exactly an avid reader of the whole depression my life sucks sort of literature. I think that anyone seeking a book that has a lot of symbolism and is something will get you thinking about life, Speak is on the top of my list. Not saying everyone should read it just the select few who enjoy dark books.

Slam is definitely a different book. It was written by Nick Hornby and it is more of a coming of age novel than Speak is, though Speak is classified as a coming of age novel as well. But Slam is more about finding yourself and deciding who you are and how you are going to treat people for the rest of your life. This book definitely emanates the concept of having to take years to build a relationship or a reputation, and taking seconds to have it all come crashing down on you. In this case of course, it's with a girl.

Is there an answer to life's problems? Yes and no. There are answers to the little problems such as did I miss the bus? Do I have enough money to buy my lunch today? But the bigger problems are much different. Questions such as why are we here? What is our purpose? Where did we come from? Those are the big questions because they are the hardest. Who knows why we're here? People say they do but they don't have any proof now do they. Who care why we're here. We should just try to make the most of it while we are still here. Peace, this is my last blog post.

Silence

I'm reading the book speak and I'm telling you, the other night I was reading it and I got a headache because it was that depressing. Seriously I felt sick because it was so depressing. Speak is about a girl named Melinda and I'm not quite sure why but she can't talk to people and she is a social outcast. What I do know is that something happened at an end of the year party in the end of the school year the previous year. But she called the cops for some reason and now all of her previous friends hate and don't Speak to Mel. She has one friend but they are very different people. Her lack of speech has caused her throat to be messed up and she bites her lips and has scabs all over her lips.

Melinda is going through the sort of typical figuring out who I am type of phase in her life. She feels very lonely and she can't even talk to her parents about what happened at the party. I think that this book is called speak because she simply has told no one what happened, yet everyone will hate her until she comes out with the truth on why she called the police that faithful night.

To add fuel to the fire, Melinda's parents constantly fight and that adds bars to her phycological cell. She feels trapped and she is not brave enough to own what happened to the people that resent her. She tries to channel her emotions through artwork but that doesnt work out to well. In fact two of her old friends have said good things about her in a sort of broad way. On of them complimented her artwork and the other said she should join the basketball team. But I don't know what's going on in her head because her best piece of artwork was made out of turkey bones...

I hope the feel on my book lightens up because if it doesn't I am going to put it down. I feel like she is going to tell everybody and all of her friends will love her once again and everything will be happy and her parents will stop fighting. Prove me wrong, book.

Finishing the City of Dreaming Books

So I am just wrapping up my reading of the City of Dreaming Books and since my last post, my opinion has changed drastically. I now think that my current book...is...the...most...epic...thing...ever. Granted I predicted the rest of the entire story but I guess that's what happens when you've been reading for as long as I have. :)
My entire view of this changed when the book actually got very interesting. Walter Morris totally made a different spin off the rest of the book it's almost as if the weave of his word were making a sock, now they are making a very cool hat or something. But the captivation of his writing totally changed at a certain point, though I couldn't exactly tell when! At one point you just sort of get this epic feel to his writing and you don't want to put it down. All I did was read during the time that we visited the book fair during project R.E.A.L.

City of Dreaming Books

Though I am not quite finished with this book, it is still fun to write a blogpost about. So this is a first that I've read from Walter Morris's collection, and so far I'm enjoying it. In a way it sort of reminds me as a roller coaster that has yet to be finished. That said it works in two contexts. The actual story where the reader is interested in the book, is very bumpy. I think one of the books few flaws so far is that at some points it isn't just very interesting.

I would say that the majority of the beginning of the book is quite boring. That is all to say on the type of reader you are. I personally am the type of reader who is seeking captivating contents from beginning to end. And what may be boring for me, might be interesting for someone else.

As for the rest of the book, it sort of smoothes out on a high note. The concept of the City of Dreaming Books is very outgoing and very unique. I mean the main character is a high class dinosaur who reads a lot of books! I know that sounds pretty silly but you have to read the book to really comprehend it. At some points it is a very emotional book as well, it sort of seems that everything he touches tumbles down metaphorically speaking. I would definitely recommend it.

Well I guess it's time to wrap this up, but seriously you gottsta read this book. Just sort of skim past the first bit and you'll be on a fantastical adventure. Remember kids, it's called constructive criticism so don't hate.

Romague and Montalet

So in this blog post, I am going to write about Rome and Juliet. The movie. The modern one with Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah you get the point. So I think that this movie is really good, I just can't understand why they made it all modern with guns and stuff. It's like if it was made in the sixteen hundreds, keep it there. Make it look like it took place a long time ago. It annoyed me that you could see a coke billboard in the background and you had all these people not talking in pros. Its like the people of Verona were stuck in a time bubble. Time just sort of stopped when Shakespeare died. Oh that was deep.
But it just sort of seemed like it was annoying to see cars when you see Romeo talking like Shakespeare. Maybe that's just me, but it pissed me off. Another thing that I observed was I saw a lot of violence on the Capulet's side of the family. I made that inference because I always saw the Capulet boys looking for trouble, and Tybles was at the head. Whereas the Montague's are usually trying to avoid something. I think that Shakespeare is showing that one family wants all the power and the other is fine with the way things are.
Altogether, this is an impressive movie. It is well directed, and I'm sure some people love the fact that it is set in a modern society. For some people I'm sure that its the best part. But the acting was great even though in the movie, Juliet seemed to be a little out of it. And did Chris Rock play Mercutio, it kind of seemed like it.

The Mysterious Blogpost Society

I think that I will start this post by telling you that if you have never read the Mysterious Benedict Society, you need to read it immediately. Like right now. Seriously go out and buy yourself a copy right now. I'm not even kidding. Ok but really this is a fabulous book. And its about something that you might not expect. It is about misfit heroes. What I mean by that is there are some kids, unlike the rest who don't fit in. It may because they are smarter than the rest, or maybe its the fact that their parents are dead and they act stranger than they would if they were still alive. And yet in this book, they save the day.

Our three young heroes start with Reynie Muldoon an extraordinary bright eleven year old boy who decides a test which promises "special opportunities."While taking the test, Stick Washington and Kate Weatherall join Reynie. He grew up in an orphanage where all the kids made fun of him for being bright. He decides to put his skills to the test and ends up meeting adults, including Mr. Benedict himself and is given a top secret mission with Kate, Sticky, a girl named Constance whom he did not meet at the test.

This mission bonds our four characters and they develop a powerful friendship which is tested by Mr. Benedict's twin brother and his machine. These kids really show an affection for each other, which is probably because they have never really had true friends considering that they were all runaways or orphans.

ILOVEEVERYONESBLOGBUTICHOSETHESETHREEEEE

http://me-blog-explosion.blogspot.com/2011/01/camel-im-on-camel-as-happy-as-can-be.html?showComment=1297121090399#c4224627619721878752

Ok, so this was written by Louie, and I liked this poem so much just because I could really hear his voice as if he were actually talking to me. He does a great job of expressing his voice, just because you can tell that he was laughing(I was crying) when he wrote this poem. Its really a funny poem, great job Louie.

http://epiceyebrows.blogspot.com/2011/01/cloudless.html

So, this is Mollies blog, and unlike Louie's poem hers is more serious, and it made me feel like i was laying in a field cloud watching. Now that may sound cheesy and cleched but that's what it got me thinking about. She did a great job of giving and image, and even though the post is called cloudless,, I still thought it was like watching the big puffs of imagination float by.

http://kegflog.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-super-deep-rhyming-poem.html?showComment=1297120682036#c5973784945433858806

This last one is Eddies, and I really like it. It seems like I am watching a movie when I read this because I can see the scene shift from every stanza to a different location, like in the first one i see a graffiti artist spraying on a wall, then I see him jumping from one backyard to the next trying to escape the police. Then you can see him staring vat scratched in tallies on the wall.

Poetry Art Response

An explosion of color

swirling swooping and diving

a dead soldier

blood pooling

Red brown and pink

the fallen angel

shot down by grief

griefs barrel still smoking

Yellow green and orange

the dead father

saying his last words

a fallen man

Purple black and blue

the silent woman

beaten by her husband

a broken widow

An explosion of feelings

blood swirling swooping diving

all of these people

fallen heros

Bloggin on da poetry

Love and Death

by Sara Teasdale

Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,
And shall my soul that lies within your hand
Remember nothing, as the blowing sand
Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep
When winds along the darkened desert sweep?

Or would it still remember, tho' it spanned
A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned
The vacant ether with their voices deep?
Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,
Nor yet alone, beloved, shall we see

The desolation of extinguished suns,
Nor fear the void wherethro' our planet runs,
For still together shall we go and not
Fare forth alone to front eternity.

Ok well I really think that this poem shines a lot and it kind of reminds me of the poem, ''Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. I observed that the poem was about love and death, but also it was sort of about depression. An eternal suffering. A never ending flame. I also observed that it is also partially about the never ending universe. I mean like, there could be a thousand heavens, or just one, you know? And at the end I observed that its like this life that has been going on forever, and then it just disappears into non-existence. So it is almost like someone after all this time is finally being released to a place where they can just rest in peace. I think that the author of this poem was trying to talk about those people who feel trapped, and their life is just like a labyrinth. A labyrinth of suffering. She is probably trying to direct this piece of writing to people who kind of feel depressed or sad all the time and people who just think life is a drag. She also talks about space and time as well. SOOOOOOOO the message that she is probably trying to send to the reader is that life is short, and we need to unravel all of its mysteries throughout our lives, and that we need to live life to the fullest before we die. It makes me think about all of those mysteries, and how we as people just sort of live in our own worlds, and maybe we will all like explode when twenty twelve hits, and maybe there are aliens watching us, but thats what life is about. We live to find the mystery. I think that this might be the greatest poem I have ever read, or one of the best at least. I love it so much because it is a really fun book to unravel, once you start you just cant stop! It really ties all of the things that people wonder about every day. I am very curious to know what was going through Sara Teasdales head when she was writing this. Was she on drugs? If so that is a bit disappointing. I find that when poets are on drugs it kind of seems like they cheated. I don't know maybe thats just me.

I can write a reasonably good article about this now

OK so i finished Going Bovine and let me just tell you and I probably say this about every book that I read but that is one hell of a book. The ending is kind of confusing and the beginning is a bit pointless, so it is one of those things where it is a bit crunch on the outside, but it is nice and soft and delicious in the middle. Don't you just love those kind of books. :) The reason that I tell you this is that it is a bit hard to grasp in the beginning. its kind of like a sidewalk that was never finished being paved and is difficult to walk on because you keep tripping over bumps and stuff.

Actually the end is probably the best part because Libba Bray really gives one of those endings that I really love where basically you get to make the decision of what happens to the character, Cameron. Now, I would have preferred to really have found out because she just sort of give you a bit of a cliffhanger there that kind of pissed me off, but otherwise it was a great book. I also really cracked up at the cover but you sort of have to had gotten pretty far into the book to fully get it. Honestly, I would recommend this book to whoever likes sort of fantastical realistic fiction, simply because it has so many aspects to it that the average teenager could relate to it and at the same time have a good time reading it because of all the fantastical twists.

So yeah pretty much I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone because I am sure that you will have a great a time as I did reading it. I mean, who wouldn't love a book about a kid with mad cow disease. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO if you have read this blog-post then that definitely means that you are absolutely required to read this book.(Not really)

Going Cow

Ok so I am not completely finished with this book but you know what I have seen of it so far is pretty... interesting. It's this book about this sixteen year old kid who like completely bugs out all the time and is pretty messed up cause he is always smokin' dope and stuff like that. So he starts to get these like freaky visions of fire giants and and a lot of other things and he seems to be going insane. And as it turns out he has mad cow disease!

So I looked it up and it turns out that bovine means of,relating to, or somehow affecting cattle. This is just my opinion but I think that is kind of a twisted tittle. Basically the author is saying "Going Cow" as her tittle. I mean that is pretty smart but it sort of seems obnoxious at the at the same time. I mean I'm not going to be all like oh this is so like important and stuff because it is just the tittle, but at the same time I sort of feel like it is actually pretty meaningful because it makes up the whole book, and I have read very few books that actually sum up the book in the tittle. I mean there are other aspects of course but it i still pretty accurate. Most books are just like one word saying a vague part of the book.

So yeah I still have a bit more to read but the book so far is pretty inspiring. Like the whole tittle thing is a really good thing to take away from this book when reading it. The idea of the concept that a book is made up of its parts, you would never really think about the tittle being most important. This book makes me think that Libba Bray actually put some thought into her tittle and that is something that everyone could work on as writers.

Watchmyheadgetconfusedmen

Ok so this is my blog about the book Watchmen which is a really good book that is about superheroes heroes and the world in a struggle to keep the fabric holding everything together in whole. Though this was a great book, it still confused be because there was just to much going on at one time it was hard to take in. The illustrations were beautifully drawn and I would recommend the book to... well anyone really.

The book kind of boggled me because maybe it just wasn't really at my reading level, but I am kind of thinking that it might be more than that. I am sort of thinking that the author WANTS it to be confusing in a way. Because the whole book revolves around the end of the world. No one really knows what to do or what happens around the world, especially all of the main characters.

The main characters don't really have anything but themselves throughout the book, and most of the time you just see flashbacks of all of their hard lives or whatever. Alan Moore actually does a decent job of showing the relationships of all the characters and he actually shows the complexity of their beings very well.

V for Vi loved this book!a

OK, i will come right out with it, this is a great book. The illustrations are portrayed beautifully and the dialogue is flat out inspiring. The words woven together in this book spin gold. If there were two buttons that said great and stupid, I would create a button with the word "epic" under it. The book also sends a really strong message witch is that there will never be a perfect world. There will never be just one person that is going to have an entire country balanced in their hand. Thats where V, one of the main characters comes in. He shows just how imperfect the world can be. He blows up stuff. He creates chaos, then anarchy. In this book England is under the clutch of an idea of a perfect world. V shows how imperfect the world can be.

He wants to create anarchy so that a country, can be free. As he says to another character later in the book, you can shoot flesh and blood, but you cannot kill, an idea. That is what I think is so important to remember if you ever read this book that life shouldn't be a record that just replays itself over and over again.

I would probably recommend this book to anybody that likes action mystery because the whole time you are reading the book you keep asking yourself, who is V? V is the character that always wears a mask during the book, but you never actually know who he is. My personal theory on this book is that I don't think that he is just a person, but a symbol, an... idea.

'Arry Pottaer(Thats the way Ms.Welch says it)

Hello, welcome to my blog. Tonight we are here to talk about something very special, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This book is the close to a marvelous series, in which Harry now finds himself with a task left to him that is nearly impossible. In order to stop Moldywart he must find the seven pieces of his soul, which lie in places that he has no idea where. Though two are already gone, the next five must be found before the wizarding, and muggle world fall into Voldemorts grasp. Harry sets off on an adventure the two that have been with him since the start, Ron and Hermione.

As time goes on, the trio start to resent each other, but not in the way that you might think. A certain object that contains one of the five remaining pieces of Voldemorts soul is being passed around by the three and it is taking bad effects on their moods. At one point, Ron leaves after him and Harry have a fight. But don't worry he comes back. Anyway the way that J.K. Rowling uses so much good description it feels like you are sitting right there, wanting to knock some sense into those guys. Ron is pretty emotional, based on the fact that he the locket affects him worst.

As time goes on Harry starts to lose his faith in Dumbledore, as the path he set in front of Harry becomes even more puzzling by the minute. Harry starts to lose faith in most everything except for his friends. I mean he isn't thinking about suicide or anything but his world just sort of seems a little, empty

THAT BUM!

Hello I am a Jack, and im gonna talk about Paper Towns. Paper Towns is by the same author who wrote Looking For Alaska John Green. I admire many of his books which are two out of three basically. This composes a lot of what a lot of people wonder about which is life's mysteries. Mostly, what goes on in other peoples heads. In this particular book there is one character who i despise. Margo Ross Spiegleman. She is just as selfish as to run away from home because she is bored at home! Who the hell would do that?????

Margo leaves her whole family and the main character Quentin scratching their heads wondering where she went and at the same time being sad about it. She leaves Quentin stupid clues to figure out where she is. Just leave a note and say don't look for me, or just don't leave at all! Jeez it isn't that hard.

Otherwise i really enjoyed this book, but i thought that the end was like really corny. I mean like it's that kind of ending where the character walks away into the sunset with the other character wanting to run and stop them but they were afraid that they would "ruin the moment." I mean like really? If you actually love her just go and get her you bum!

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps."

Once I had started the book, “Looking For Alaska,” I became unable to put it down. It is by far the best book that I ever read. But because of my love for this book, grew hatred when I was done. You cannot have a light without a dark, and that is what this book is about.

Miles, or “Pudge,” as he is referred to in the book, starts out as your average fifteen year old boy, obsessed with dead peoples last words realizes that he doesn’t want to just live in the gray. “I go to seek a great perhaps,” dying words from a true poet named Francois Rabelais. Miles decides to head off to boarding school, to seek his great perhaps. And oh boy, he finds his great perhaps. Miles arrives at school, and immediately makes friends with his roommate, not over five feet tall, named the colonel. But the one person that most of Miles life revolves around at Culver Creek School, is a spontaneous, beautiful, amazing girl named Alaska young. Alaska becomes his guide into a great perhaps. At the same time, Alaska steals his heart.

Alaska, being the amazingly bright person that she is, introduces Miles to many things like literature and and quotes. But mostly booze and ciggarettes. She showed him a new quote that she revolves most of what she does around, simon bolivars dying words, "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?" And Pudge surly thinks about that and in the end, the answer is straight, and fast. Miles and his crew gets busted on campus for smoking, drinking in the dorm rooms, honestly the type of things that you would expect from a group of rag-tag early teens. At one point in the book, Miles admits that the day they pulled a prank on the head master, with all of his first true friends, was the best day of his life. And in that moment, he realizes that he has found his great perhaps.

Suddenly Alaska steals away something that will always be locked up inside Miles Halter for the rest of his life. Careless decisions end tragically, and something inside Miles snaps. Alaska blows out the flickering candle of life inside Miles that can never glow again by any normal flame. A promise that she abruptly disentigrated. So they decide to pull the best prank of all Culver Creek history. They pull the prank in honor, and in memory.

Mockingjay

Do you want to know what I think about this book? Do you really want to know? Well, I think that it's amazing. Lately, everyone has been hating on saying it's such a bad book but I am here to tell you that it's not just a good book, its a magical book. Collins uses so much description that flows so beautifully that you feel like you’re standing right next to Katniss as she grips the cold hands of a lost one and you know there is nothing you can do. I will be honest, this book is pretty depressing, and you know it isn't real, but you can't help thinking that there is something that you can do to help Katnisses struggle.
The whole plot revolves around a new world, a thousand years or so in the future, but the world has been wiped out. The story revolves around a girl named Katniss who lives in district twelve. Just an ordinary citizen under the dictatorship of the capitol. But then things start to change. Katniss suddenly finds herself as the head of a rebellion against the capitol. Things mostly turn out for the worse between the loss of her home, and the many people she loved, gone.
One of the many great things about this book is that it also has so many turns that you may find yourself dizzy. Someone may die so quick that you will find yourself rereading until your brain processes the fact that someone just died. I liked the ending though but ill let you read it yourself to see what happens ; )

Mockingjay

The Theif Lord

The Thief Lord. Its a good book. I liked it. No I'm kidding you probably just had a heart attack. OK but really this is a great book. To start with, the whole story takes place in Venice which is pretty awesome. The story revolves around two brothers who have run away from their aunt to live in Venice. The brothers are twelve and five and have been taken in by a small group of runaway children. The leader of their contraband goes by the name "Thief Lord.''He supposedly steals things so that the band of thieves can get by.
The love between the two brothers is what i think shines the brightest in this book. Prosper, the eldest of the two brothers, Bo being the youngest, have always loved each other more than anything. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!. Helpless little Bo is stolen from Prosper by his aunt, who was part of the reason the two ran away in the first place. Prosper is so devastated that Bo is gone that not even his bestie Hornet can cheer him up. The thing is with those two is that they don't have a whole lot they can hold near and dear to them. The only thing that they really have is each other. So to have that to be taken from them is well, you can imagine how that might feel. People now a days take their family for granted, but if your someone like Prosper or Bo, who have only had each other since birth, you don't take that kind of thing for granted.
Anyway, sorry that was so depressing but on the bright side, something great happens at the end! But ill leave you to find out for yourself. ;) I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who likes action adventure fantasy type books. Have fun reading!

Alright so this is how it is. I was reading the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and there really is a lot in that book to think about. The author, C.S. Lewis became a catholic late in his life and put a lot a lot of things in his book that resemble catholic terms and people and such.

Aslan, the great lion and savior, sacrificed himself for the good that he saw in someone that everyone else overlooked. Aslan was later resurrected. Aslan resembles Narnias Jesus Christ. He is the son of a king or lord or something like that in a distant land. By some distant land its an allegory for heaven.
I think that this story has a lot of themes like the struggle between good and evil and shape shifters and the wise teacher and the darkness and things like that. I think that Edmund would be a shape shifter because C.S. Lewis sort of hints that Edmund has something going on inside him, like a conflict on weather he should join the path of evil, or the path of good. Aslan is a wise lion who teaches the four kids the value of life and how to see the good in people. The White Witch is the darkness that is sort of acting a character who shows greed and evil throughout the book.
There are so many things that come into this book that C.S. Lewis sort of hints and points out that he wants his readers to discover throughout the book, that a lot of people don't think about. When Aslan sacrifices himself, he is doing it because he sees a shinning light in Edmund that no one else can see and is willing to give himself up for him. Everyone is so close minded, that they don't look at people to see who they really are.
In the end, when they all stumble back through the wardrobe, and no time at all has passed in our world, I think that's a great twist because it seems perfectly logical that in a different universe there could be a totally different time zone. And in that universe there are things that people here, now would only take as a joke, like talking animals or magic or things like that.