The Lovely Bones

This was an interesting book to reread after the first time reading it awhile back, but it is still one of my favorite books. I like the supernatural part of the book how Susie is kind of in this in between part. She's not in heaven, but she is not alive. I enjoy how she tells the story through what she see's . I also like the fact that the whole time throughout the novel we know who the killer is. I kept reading this book because I wanted the family to finally find the killer. I also liked Susie's character , but I hated how she physically could not do anything to help out the family with her killer. I enjoyed the suspense that the book had, especially when her sister went searching around their neighbors house, who happened to be the killer. He came home in the middle of her searching through the house, and the whole time I was reading I was hoping that she'd get the heck out of there already. Also not to sound weird I liked how the killer die because it was kind of like karma. I was happy he tried to escape from his problems , but yet in the middle of trying to get another victim he just happens to take one wrong step and he's dead. Overall I enjoyed this book a lot, and I love the story line the author made up.

The Fault In Our Stars

I decided since I can not wait for this movie to come out that I will blog about it. This is my all time favorite love story , next to The Notebook of course. John Greene portrays this love story so well that you can not help but fall in love with the characters. Hazel Grace is such a relatable character for a teenage girl. She is a stubborn and confused with her emotions and the world which is how every teenager feels at this stage. We all got through this stage in our life times which makes he so relatable and like able. Now Augustus is the type of guy that every girl wish they had. I fell in love with him right away. John Greene creates this guy that makes you wish you were in Hazel's situation. We all want a guy that wants us like Gus wants Hazel. Although he dies kind of suddenly, Hazel still has a positive outlook on there relationship. She calls it their little infinity. Even though they were both fighting horrible cancers , they still found a way to live through it together. In a little over two hundred pages, Greene makes us fall in love with Hazel and Gus's " little infinity". I can not wait to see this movie and fall in love with them all over again.

Tuesday's with Morrie part 2

As a teenager, these subjects that were discussed in this book was sometimes beyond my comprehension. I understand that in life that everyone dies and we all move on eventually, but everything leading up to it I have not even thought about yet. It has not crossed my young because in my head I am so young that death is far away for me, but in reality it is not. Death is right around the corner for everyone. It is bound to happen at some point. That is a strange concept to think about at the age of eighteen. I believe that even when I am sixty that will be strange to think about. Unlike Morrie, I do not fully belief that when my time comes I will be as ready as he was. I am glad I read this book though. I recommend it to every high schooler and anyone older also. It is a book where reality hits you and hits you hard, but it is helpful. Because of the concepts in this book I have learned to put down my phone more when I am around people and actually talk to my family members at dinner instead of being on Twitter and Instagram all the time. I try to text less and call more if I can because I believe that verbal communication is lacking in our generation. I try this new thing called eye contact more instead of looking on my computer or phone when I am interacting with people. This book has really changed my outlook on my second half of senior year also. It has taught me to enjoy things while I can for as long as I can. Morrie had so much wisdom in one little human being and I am glad Mitch Album decided to share it with the world. I am glad I read this book and it opened my eyes to many things. I recommend you read if you have not yet!

Tuesday's with Morrie

This book was a real eye opener for me. The topics that were touched on in this book made me more open to things in my life. The overall book is about this man named Morrie who is dying of ALS or Lou Greigh's disease. One of his favorite students from college finds out about this and decides to finally visit his old professor. Morrie had so many wise words to say that they decided to write a book on him and meet on every Tuesaday because they were "tuesday people". Eventually Morrie does pass away and his student published his "final paper" which was their book. In this book their were topics including marriage, family, love, and of course death and dying. I could only read sections of this book a little at a time because what they were talking about were a lot to take in. One of my favorite quotes from Morrie, which is actually on my blog, is "Don't cling to things because everything is impermanent". To me as a teenager, this jumps out at me because of all the technology that my generation is addicted to and the whole Iphone phenomenon going on in the world. It makes you take a step back from life for just a second and realize how addicted we are to materialistic items. When in reality we should be focusing on our relationships with people with face to face conversation , not texting or tweeting to each other. When we are about to die, it's not going to matter how many twitter followers you had or which cool Iphone you had last. The only thing that matters is the people around you. Also Morrie talked about relationships and family and explained that they will be the last thing you see before you leave this earth, so cherish them while you can. Do not leave this earth with a single regret. Make that effort to repair a broken relationship you one cherished before it is too late.

Doctor Sleep

I am not that far in this book yet but so far so good. I thought it was funny seeing Danny all grown up and acting exactly like his father. Drinking every night and going out and starting trouble. I thought it was interesting how he does not like his "shinning" anymore. Instead of embracing it , he ignores it . He does not think of it as a gift anymore. It is more like a curse now. It does not surprise me that he has become more like his father with all that had happened at the hotel. Also drinking does help his "shinning" die down a little. I feel like as I read more of the book , Danny will realize how much he is being like his father and stop it one way or another. I also thought it was funny how when he was in the one women's apartment and he meet the women's kid that he asked what the cocaine was. I hope that this book gets creeper or more scary eventually too because that is why I enjoyed "The Shinning" so much. This book has a slow start so that is why I have not gotten that far in it , but I feel like it will pick up eventually. I was also confused at the beginning of the book. I could not tell if the side story was apart of this book or apart of another one of King's books. I've also been reading "Salem's Lot" in class when I do not have my "Doctor Sleep" and that one is good so far. It has a slow start to it also in my opinion. But overall I can't wait to get more into this book and see where King takes me next.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

There are many themes throughout this movie but a very obvious one is love. There are two love stories going on. One between Jen and the man she meet in the desert who held her "captive". The other one is between Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien. There's also a love between daughter in father in the beginning , but it's not as promindent as the other love stories in the movie. Both couples are afraid to be open with their love, which I think is part of the "Hidden Dragon" in the movies title. Unlike Jen and her lover, Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien don't decide to be open about it until the end where Li Mu Bai dies. Jen decides to keep her love on the down low because of her rank in society and his rank. Technically they can never be together. As much as Jen does not want to love him , she can not help it . In the end , Jen jumps off a cliff because of a tale that her lover told her about living the life you wanted and that is how the movie ended. This movie I thought was an overall good movie just hard to follow at times. The ending with Jen jumping off I believe has so many different meanings and the director did that on purpose. He wanted you to think whatever you wanted to think.

"The Fault in Our Stars" Part Two

There was one surprise in this novel that for some reason I really did not see coming and that was the death of Augustus Walters. For some reason I was lead to believe that Hazel would be the first because I thought she was more ill than Gus. But John Green fooled me and I'm going to be honest I was not very happy since I prepared myself for Hazel to pass away first. I do understand why he did that though because one he wanted to keep the reader interested . And two I believe that the element of surprise is a theme of this novel. Since it is about cancer patients, it would be acceptable for the theme to be about that because they live off a day to day basis. They never know when something will go terribly wrong or even terribly right. Also the ending of this novel I liked how Van Houten actually comes to Gus's funeral and tries to make things right. Also thought it was adorable how Gus tried to finish the novel Van Houten wrote before he or she passed away. It all mixes in with the theme of the element of surprise and how you just never know for sure how things in life are going to go or how they are going to end or even when they are going end. The way Gus and Hazel ended their conversations with "Okay" I thought was a nice touch too. I believe that it's much better than saying "forever" or even "bye" , but it is a reassuring word. That no matters what happens to them in the future they will be okay. Everything will be okay. And it shows that they believe that nothing lasts forever , but there isn't maybe a real "ending" to anything either. No "good-byes" or anything along those lines. Even though it's a small part of the novel I think it served a bigger purpose and it wrapped into the novel's over all point very nicely. I could honestly read this novel over and over again and I believe that is what I'll be doing tonight. Restarting "The Faults in Our Stars" by John Green.

"The Fault in Our Stars" Part One

I usually do not like love stories or books because they make for unrealistic standards for love and guys in general but I enjoyed this book a lot. I wanted Hazel to fall in love with Gus. I wanted her to stop being so stubborn and just let herself love him because even though I could not actually see him I imagined him to be quite attractive and he just sounded perfect. Then again I totally understood Hazel. How she did not want to hurt him when she died. The same way she knew she was going to hurt her parents when she passed. I could relate with her in my own way. I see and understand why she was hesitated with her relationship with Augustus. Little did she know that she was not the sickest one in the relationship. I also understand her obsession with finding out the ending to An Imperial Affliction, which I also wanted to know the ending to. Personally I usually cheat and look at the end at a book and skim over the last few pages so it would've eaten me on the inside not knowing the ending to a book. So I can related to her frustration she feels when she actually goes to meet the author and he ends up being a drunk. I think John Green did it on purpose though because in reality we really do not know the ending to anything. We won't know when relationships end or when our life even ends because life is full of surprises, which is what I believe that this whole novel is based off of. I thought the whole time that Hazel was going to be the one to die first not Gus. And yes I did get a little teary eyed when that happened. Also I thought that we as readers would know the end of An Imperial Affliction even if Hazel didn't exactly know the ending. Although this wasn't an attack packed book or a scary on your feet book I still could not put it down. I wanted to know if Hazel and Gus were going to fall in love and live happily ever after. Of course that could not be the case because they both had cancer but that is what I wanted for them. I loved the character Hazel that Green produced because I feel like an teenage girl can relate to her in all different ways.

The Shinning

Sadly I have not gotten around to actually finish this lovely book yet because me and my father have had nightly quarrels over who gets the kindle or not and lately he's been winning. Any who, I only have twenty percent left so I'm close to finishing it. This book makes me want to read all of Stephen Kings books because of how scary this book actually is. The images are so surreal with the way he describes the women in the bathtub coming out and grabbing at little Danny's neck, or the bushes changing positions every time Jack or Danny looked behind their shoulder. It gives me shivers up my spine, but I love it. What has been bothering me though is Jack's character. I can not relate to him what so ever , and I think that I dislike him very much. He denies the fact that he is going insane and the Overlook isn't helping very much. How can you sit there and watch your precious son get hurt over and over again and still make excuses about it. I know his alcoholism hasn't helped much either. In fact it's the only reason I even understand him a little bit. The timing of going of the hotel during that winter didn't help because I don't think he was sober long enough to go through something like this. The mix of this creepy and crazy hotel and the alcoholism has made him consider more than once whether to kill his own wife and son or not. King has made me in love with Danny even though he's only a character in book. He seems like one of the smartest, most determined and loving kid characters I have read about lately. I think that's why I despise his father so much because in my opinion I don't think he tries hard enough to fight for him and fight enough to keep his family and sanity together. Danny is such a daddy's boy and loves him so much and Jack in my opinion just takes advantage of it. Wendy is even jealous of how much Danny loves him even after everything that Jack has done before and during their stay at the Overlook. I do feel like eventually when I do finish this book that maybe Jack's character will make a little more sense. I can not wait to finish this book finally and move on to his new one Doctor Sleep .

Where are you going, Where have you been?

This story honestly creeped me out, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because it gave me that feeling of worry and fear for this girl and for me personally I love stories or movies that can do that. All I was thinking it that I hope she doesn't go outside and please don't open that door. The fact that this character "Arnold Friend" knew everything about her and everything about where her family was made me have goose bumps. I like the mystery of not knowing if he was real or not also. At some points in the story like when he would be talking to Ellie or the way she described him at the door I would think he was real. But then at other times like when she would describe his voice saying it sounded like the one that was on the radio or when she described that something Arnold said sounded like song lyrics she had heard I began to believe that he really wasn't real and the sun was getting to Connie's head. But that's what I seemed to like about the story. The fact that you really didn't know if Arnold was actually there or not. I think the title has a lot to do with this story and the theme in general. In my mind the question "Where are you going" is one of the questions that little voice in your head asks you before you make a bad like Connie was going to do. "Where have you been" is a question you ask someone who has been out of it or in a day dream type state. In my opinion the very general theme is to trust your gut feeling. If you have a feeling something is off then go with that feeling and don't let other people or things distract you from that feeling.

In the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo there are many useful quotes that add to the theme and the novel as a whole. The first quote I believe has significance is the quote “Everyone has secrets. It’s just a matter of finding out what they are”. This whole book is revolved around unknown secrets. It’s considered a mystery novel for a reason. Every character you run into in this book as secrets. Salander’s whole life is a secret because of how secluded she makes herself from the world that people have no idea who she really is. People just judge her because of her looks and the way she acts but no one really knows how she is on the inside until almost the end of the novel. Blomkvist becomes one of the only people who even try to know her in that way. Salander’s life is the epiphany of that quote. Also Martin who is one of the two serial killers throughout the book keeps a lot of things to himself. For example the fact that he is one of the serial killers Blomkvist and Salander are trying to find because of his great uncle Henrik. Him and his father shared this sadistic side that no one know about except their victims and his siblings. He hid it for years and years before it was discover the afternoon he lured Blomkvist into his basement and tried to murder him. Also another quote that I believe is vital to the work as a whole is, “ It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on. She had also learned that every time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation just got worse. Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using whatever methods she deemed necessary”. This quote goes with one of the main themes throughout the book of violence against women. In my mind this quote shows how strong one of the protagonist Lisbeth Salander really is. She has seen abused and has been abused but yet still finds a reason to move on and the strength to do it. The amount of violence this character endures is nothing like a normal woman should even encounter. To me her character and story is the main point and example of that theme of violence against women.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Part three

The author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is very interesting author to me. I began to notice that Larsson seems to go into detail about very simple things and also have a lot of little side stories. For example at the beginning of the novel when you first meet the one of the protagonist Blomkvist it starts out with his trial and then moves on to how he got there in the first place with when he first received the information he got in trouble for then the author goes into detail with that. After that he goes into detail about Blomkvist and where he works and that’s when you finally meet our second protagonist Lisbeth Salander, which is in fact the girl with the dragon tattoo. In my opinion this author jumps around a little bit at the beginning of this book. In this novel there is also a bit of a plot twist. As you’re reading this book you come to find out that Blomkist and Salander’s so called “murder victim” is not dead at all. In fact she’s quit alive and she is actually hiding. Once Blomkist figures this out her contacts her and finds out her side to the story. Also another kind of plot twist in the novel is when Blomkvist meets up with Martin Vanger at his house and Vanger lures him into the basement and attempts to kill him. We find out that Martin and his father where in the fact the serial killers that Blomkvist and Salander have been looking for this whole time. Martin’s dad Gottfried was the one who molested and abused both his children and inducted Martin into this type of practice also. This is also at the climax of the novel, and Salander comes to the rescue and saves Blomvist just in time for them to escape. Martin ends up trying to fall them in rage of what happened but ends up dying in a car accident. These two plot elements are important to the overall theme of this novel because to me the theme is violence against women in Sweden at the time. Martin and Gottfried are the best example of this theme because of how the treated women who they apparently loved and the victims that they killed also.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Part Dos

This novel seems to have a lot of mystery and surprises in it. One of the things that I found surprising so far is actually the way Lisbeth fights back with her new guardian. I know Lisbeth is not the kind of women to let someone control her like that for too long. I did not expect her to do the things that she did do to him. I expected her to just record it and black mail him with it. She took it a step farther though and this was the shocking part to me. She basically tortured him the same way he did to her, which I found surprising. How could you ever do that to someone? It's just gruesome and unheard of. I do not want to go too much into detail about what they did to each other but he raped her and abused her and she did to the best to her ability the same thing back to him. Both scenes are definitely not the best scenes in the book but they are important. Although what she did to him wasn’t right I was glad she took a stand for herself and defended herself instead of letting him walk all over her. She showed for once the strength of a woman in this book. Throughout this novel women are usually downgraded and seen as victims but in this scene it changed. Men were shown as weak. The fact that Lisbeth had the physical and mental strength to do that to this guy was surprising to me too. Later on in the novel you find out that this isn’t the first time she has stood up against another man. The other man that she happened to stand up against was her father. The only reason she found courage to do it though was because of her mother. He was abusing her mother physically and mentally and she didn’t like it at all. Lisbeth decided one day that it was enough and lit him on fire. Also what was surprising to me was that their missing woman wasn't even missing or dead. She was hiding. I'm usually really good at guessing situations like that in movies but in this book it came as a kind of shock for me.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

When my mother found out that I was reading this book she wasn't the happiest person with me. All she knew about the book was about the rape scenes. Which is what most people think when they hear about this book. In my opinion I didnt mind these scenes throughout the book. I wasn't completely okay with the fact something like that was going on but in a way it added to the book. I think it opens peoples eyes to the fact that these situations do indeed happen in the world. Not a lot of authors put scenes like that in there books for a reason because of how gruesome it really is. It's not like a movie and you can just turn your eyes you have to actually read it. This made the book more interseting to me. I think girls my age should definitly be aware that this happens all over the world to many of teenage girls and women. Many people think this novel is sexist and against wommen but I think differently. Even though throughout the novel women are abused , but I still believe that this isn't a novel degrading women I think it's a novel suppporting women. It's saying how horrible things happen to the best of us and again I think it opens people's eyes. Even after my mother and even my grandmothers warned me about how graphic the novel was at those scenes I still had interset in reading it. I do understand and identify with the authors reasoning with putting those kinds of scenes throughout the novel. It does make me symphazie more with Lisbeth and her struggles throguhout her life because it's not the first time in the novel when she got abused that she experienced abuse. She's in this whole mess of a sitaution because she lit her father on fire because he was in fact abusing her mother. She was standing up for her and thought that was the best way to end it. She went through all of this just to protect her mother. While I was reading it i was hoping that she would get back at her parol officer in some way or another. She could've done it a little bit differently but in the end he ultamitly got what he desesrved and what she felt he deserved. Instead of telling teenage girls not to read this novel I would actually recommand it to this age group more to become aware of what happens in the world.