Fire!

         

Recently, I have restarted the Inheritance series, by Christopher Paolini. There are four books in this series. These are: Eragon and Eldest and Brisingr and Inheritance.  Currently, I am on the third book, called Brisingr, which means "fire" in the Ancient Language (a language used in the book). Even though I am re-reading this book again, it still has all the suspense and thrill from the first time I read it.
         I would rate this book a magnificent 9.5/10. Paolini does a great job of telling a story of a regular peasant boy whose life completely changes when he finds a dragon egg, one of the last in existence. We follow Eragon, the farmboy, and his dragon, Saphira on an amazing journey across all of Alagaesia, the land in which this story takes place. The main conflict in the series is to overthrow the vicious King Galbatorix, who has been ruling far too long for any man.
         My favorite character would have to be Murtagh. He is a witty character who knows what to say at what time. Also, he has grown up struggling with trying to escape from his past, which is revealed more and more as the series goes on. He needs to live with who his father was, and tries to forget, and change the assumption that people make as soon as they learn who he is. He once tells Eragon, "A son does't choose his father." (Paolini, 97)
         My favorite scene in this book would be when Eragon becomes, "A Rider in Full." During the earlier parts of the book, he lost his sword, so he had to be fighting with various weapons. For example, he fights one of his most fearsome enemies with a stick. This would be my favorite scene because before this, it seemed like Eragon was somewhat crippled, and at a disadvantage. After he gets his sword , we understand that he is truly powerful, and ready to face the challenges that he was destined to.
         I would recommend this book for people who mainly enjoy fantasy. This is because there isn't a single part of this book that is realistic. It is about dragons and elves and dwarves.

                           This video is a second opinion on Brisingr. 

Open: An autobiography

          Over the past couple of days, I read an autobiography by one of the greatest tennis players of all time: Andre Agassi. This book covers his entire life, the ups and the downs. What makes this book stand out compared to the other autobiographies of other tennis players is that Andre didn't have an easy time to get to the top. He had more issues than almost any player. The journey that he goes through and all the pain that he endures is an inspirational story.

          I would rate this book a perfect 10/10. It was one of the greatest books I have ever read, and there isn't one change I'd make to it. Andre does a good job of incorporating multiple moments of comedy, while also including a substantial amount of conflict. 

          I would recommend this book to other tennis players, because they can make a couple personal connections with the book. Other athletes would also be able to make the connections, but not as clear. 

          My favorite character in this book would be Andre, because he is a witty and clever person. He is someone that had to go through a lot, but everything ended up all right. One example of his attitude is when he is playing a match and is not too happy, and doesn't want to be there. So, he thinks, "Since I can’t fly away, at least this tennis ball can fly away. Be free, little ball. I whack it high above the stands and out of the stadium." He simply whacked the ball out of the stands, for no reason whatsoever. 

          Overall, this is a great book and can be read by anyone. A definite great read.  

Percy Jackson

         

Over Spring Break, I have read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. This series includes: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. Ya. I don't have a life do I?

          My favorite book of this series would definitely be the 5th one, The Last Olympian. This  is because this book has all the final battles and endings to everything, since it is the last book. There is also an event in this book that makes Percy a LOT stronger, which I enjoy, since he is the good guy. 

          I would rate this book a perfect 10/10. There is one very large, overall conflict, and Riordan does a really good job of adding just the right amount of humor, mostly using Percy's silly personality. There is also a lot of suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
          My favorite character would be Percy, because of his importance to the story and also his silly personality and his witty humor. If Percy had a different personality, the story would be completely different and there would be almost no humor in the story.
          I would recommend this book to anyone, no matter how old. It is appropriate for all ages, and has the suspense and good humor to appeal to all ages. 

Columns

          In English class, we were assigned a couple of columns to read, and make a blog post about it. When I started reading these blogs, I was quite bored. I didn't know what I would make my post on, until I read the last two columns. These columns were both by Dave Berry, and they were both funny. So, I decided to do my post on these two articles: "The Mother of all Parties," and "A Ruff and Ready Playmate."
          His first text, "The Mother of All Parties" was about how some parents take their parties too seriously, and spend too much time and effort into them. He mentions someone that, "removed the ceiling with a chainsaw."(Barry) Ya. Really. The diction in this article is not elevated, but more of a casual one, like he is talking with friends. This could be used to appeal to more people, and make him sound friendly. He, like most column writers, gives us his opinion on a situation, but gives it too us in more of a humorous way. By using his own daughter, and the fact that she is about to turn four, is one strategy that can make us relate to him, which can make it funnier that it really is in my opinion. The syntax, or sentence structure that he uses, is interesting. There are definitely no bad examples of syntax in this column, since Barry is a veteran of column writing. His use of syntax is interesting when he starts writing SENTENCES IN ALL CAPS. This is definitely interesting because it is a way for Barry to let us know how emotional and it also puts emphasis on what he is saying. One example of this is when he is imitating his wife. He says, "BUT WE WILL HAVE A YELLOW BRICK ROAD." Obviously, this is a silly thing emphasize, but also added humor because it was so silly to capitalize.
          Dave Barry's second column article was called "A Ruff and Ready Playmate." This article was about dogs, and why dogs were the best pet. Since I also like dogs, I wouldn't disagree with him. His reasons though, were what gave this article humor. He says that when a dog passes by 5 light stands, and starts barking furiously at the sixth, which is exactly the same, the dog is actually saving us from a dangerous entity. Something that I picked up while reading this article was the use of rhetoric. Or more specifically, the personification part of rhetoric. One example of personification that Barry uses is when he says that the light thinks, "Whew, that was close. "(Barry) This is a clear example of personification because as we all know, lights cannot think, but humans can. In this text, Barry also uses CAPITALIZED words, but were more for actions, or sounds. For example, "WHOOSH," or "WHAM." This article was also humorous and fun to read.

                                     This here, is the legendary Dave Barry.

Heroes of Olympus

          So most people in my class will be posting a blog about their column reading that we had to do, but I won't. I didn't just read the columns, I also re-read the Heroes of Olympus series.
         In this series, there are five books: The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus. In this post, I will be talking about "The Blood of Olympus," because it was my favorite in the series. In this book, we continue to follow the journey of our 7 heroes that were selected to defeat the giants and the Earth Mother, Gaea. There are many great challenges in this book that they have to overcome, each one harder than the last. Another main conflict in the book is that the Greek and Roman camps have discovered each other, and are preparing for war, which would be fatal to everyone.
          I would rate this book a definite 10/10 because there is nothing wrong with this book, in my opinion. The perfect amount of conflict in this book was balanced with an also perfect amount of humor, mostly from the ever funny Leo. This also brings me to my favorite character. My favorite character in this book would definitely be Leo, because of the humor he brings to the book and also the importance of him to the story. He also makes a sacrifice that may have saved the world.
          I would recommend this book for anyone. This book can appeal to audiences of any age. You must read the beginning of the series to understand this book.

Theme Handout

Fahrenheit 451 Theme handout

Elise Wexelblatt, Grace Tang, Serena Troung, Shashank Reddy, Olivia Jounge, Elena Polasko

Theme: Individual self-expression is important.

Timeline:

• Montag is solely focused on his job and won’t listen to anyone else
• Montag meets Clarisse and sees how she expresses herself
• Montag begins to see how pointless and meaningless his life is
• He feels trapped in society and wants someone to listen to him
• Montag meets Faber and learns what expression is
• Montag begins to express himself and rebel against the government
• He finds people who will listen and he begins to express himself

Quotes:

• “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9)
• “We must all be alike. Not everyone free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.” (Bradbury 55)
• “I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if i talk long enough, it’ll make sense.” (Bradbury 78)
• “He would be Montag-plus-Faber, fire plus water, and then, one day, after everything had mixed and simmered and worked away in silence, there would be neither fire nor water, but wine.” (Bradbury 99)
• “Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon.” (Bradbury 158)

How is this theme important to our understanding of the story?

This theme is important because we can see how certain individuals will risk it all to express themselves in a broken society where expression is blocked.

How does this theme connect to modern-day society?

In modern-day society, we have easy access to expressing ourselves, and that expression is an important part of our daily lives.

End of Fahrenheit 451

       Over our early spring break(except colder) I finished the book that was assigned to us back a couple weeks ago. It was called Fahrenheit 451. This book was about a man named Guy Montag. He was a fireman. In this book, firemen don't put out fires... they start them. These men are hired to find books of anyone that has any, and burn them because the books were illegal. Montag slowly becomes more and more curious as the book goes on ands starts taking books from the places he burns. He eventually gets caught, and has to burn his own house down. He runs away and finds sanctuary in a place where there are people like him...book lovers. 

        My overall rating of this book would be a 7/10. It was not bad for a book that was assigned at school. My favorite thing that Ray Bradbury did in this book was his accurate predictions of what would happen in the future. Another fireman says,"everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending." This surprised me because this book was written over 50 years ago, yet Bradbury was able to tell us what is happening in our lives right now. Everything is being shrunk down. Some of my least favorite things would be some of the boring scenes in the book. For example, there is a scene where Montag visits a friend and I don't think that  helped develop the book at all.  There were some scenes that if this wasn't a school book, I would have skipped. Also, this book lost a point because it was a school assignment. That makes everything worse. 

       I would reccomend this book to people that aren't reading for fun, but for a little more meaning, and for people that are patient enough to read boring books. If you are a kid that only reads to enjoy, or for action, don't read this. Overall it is a nice book, but not the kind I like and am used to. 

What happen to Mrs. Phelps

          I stumbled out of the house, still crying from... what? Why was I crying? The poetry was not important. Mr. Montag only had it because he had to show us how funny and useless books were.  Why did the book make me so emotional? Only my family can make me feel as sad as that poem did. Was it because the poem reminded me of Pete?

"Ignorant armies clash by night."

         Was Pete part of the ignorant army? Will he be OK? Mr. Montag seems to know everything. I sure hope he was happy after reading that poem, because I sure wasn't. Firemen shouldn't be able to bring books home. They shouldn't. No... they sure shouldn't. I think I will ask the other firemen to take away that rule. They should only burn the books, like they were made to do. These terrible books were not meant to be shared with the rest of the world. I wonder where the firehouse is. That poem was quite interesting, though. It made me curious... What did the rest of it say? I must ask Mr. Montag. I will go over there now.
          When I reached the front of his house I heard him and Millie arguing. I wonder what they were saying? I leaned a little closer and pressed my ear to the door. I suddenly realize that the door voice would tell them that I was here. I leaped back just in time. Millie opened the door and shrieked.

"What are you doing here!"

"I must speak to your husband." I tell her.

I push past her without another word. Mr. Montag is there  on the floor surrounded by books. It is my turn to shriek now.

"Mr. Montag! You are only allowed to have one book a year!"

He looks like a startled deer in front of headlights. He is stumbling with his words until Millie comes to save him.

"He borrowed books from all of his other firemen buddies. He is getting some kind of unhealthy obsession with books."

I explain to Mr. Montag what I feel about books and he takes a big sigh. He seems to be turning thoughts over in that big head of his.

"I guess we need to have a talk." 

He shows me some strange green device.

"I want to introduce you to a friend of mine: Faber." 

City of Bones

City of Bones

          Recently I have read only one good book. It is called City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare. I had just recently finished the first book in the series, and haven't gotten the chance to read the second book yet, which is called City of Ashes. This was a really good book about a teenage girl named Clary Fray who is normal until she witnesses a murder. Normally, people wouldn't write a fictional book about this. What makes it special though, is that the murdered guy was actually a demon, who can disguise themselves to look however they want. Nobody can see the demon and the killers, who are called Shadow Hunters because they hunt in the shadows and kill demons. Clary's world is twisted that night, and she is thrust into the world of demons, vampires, faries, werewolves, and other magical creatures. For a full summary of this book, click here.

          This is a really well written book with many plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat for most of the book. There are many different characters that are both funny and also important to the story. My favorite character would definitely be Jace. Jace is one of the shadow hunters that Clary sees that night. He is a humorous person and also important to the plot. One funny moment with Jace would be when Clary and Jace are out, and Clary mentions that there are girls looking at Jace, he responds by saying, "Of course they are, I'm stunningly attractive." Jace is also an important character in the book, and is one of the main characters. He is normally quiet about his past, but as the book goes on, we learn more and more about him. 

          I would rate this book a solid 9/10. This was a book that I really enjoyed. The only thing that wouldn't make this book a 10/10 would be the fact that there are some scenes in the book that I think are completely unnecessary. For example, there is a scene towards the end of the book in which Jace and Clary go to the greenhouse and just talk, for an entire chapter of the book. It doesn't have any value to the book, in my opinion. Other than that, I think this was one of the best books I have ever read. 
          The kind of people that would like this book would be the kind of people that enjoy mystery, violence, and fantasy. I will have to say though, that I would not recommend this book for younger kids, because there is mild suggestive behavior, and there is also a lot of swearing. Other than that, any age group can enjoy this book. There is also a movie that has been released based on this book.