13 Reasons Why

So the book, 13 Reasons Why, is about this girl called Hannah, and a guy called Klay. play really likes her but doesn't have the guts to tell her. But then Hannah commits suicide before he could tell her how he feels. After her suicide Klay receives 7 tapes, but since the book is set in modern day and tapes wearnt that common, so it took him some finding to buy a tape player. But when he starts he hears that he will never see her again, but in those stories. There is a meaning behind them, that tells the 13 reasons why she took her life. During the story it switches back and forth from the 13 reasons why and the tapes.

This book was extremely interesting and taught you a lot about life and death and how you should never take stuff for granted. 

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS 2011

The guinness worlds record is a book, that tells you all the new records that people have done over the years. They have options what you can look, at like different categories. (Super stunts, human size medical records, Fish, and sea life, and then my favorite sports) Like one thing in super stunts, is a guy on a trail bike, and he made a record of jumping 48 bars, with his back wheel only. Another record was in human size. The smallest man in the world is, from India, he is 57 cm or 22.5 in. I think that this book, is one of the coolest books ever and teaches kinds stuff that happens around the world in a really fun way. :D

The guinness book of records is great, and i would highly recommend to read it. Its for all age groups and is just plain fun to read. 

Sports nutrition

Recently, I stopped reading a lot, but I have been reading a book on nutrition for the past couple weeks and I found it very interesting. The book is called advanced sports nutrition and it covers a lot of the bases that athletes should know about nutrition. It is quite an easy read, but is fun because I am interested in the topic that it presents. I have scanned through this book several times, but now I am reading it in detail, and taking my time with it so that I can learn more.

Honestly, I would recommend that any athlete reads this book in order to optimize sports performance.

I learned a lot of stuff from this book, like the individual use of each mineral, vitamin and supplement

The Fault in our Stars

Title: The fault in our stars

Author: John Green

Genre: Teen Fiction

The Fault in our Stars is about young 16 – year old Hazel Lancaster; the thing that is different about Hazel is that she has terminal cancer. She was pulled out of school, when she was diagnosed at 13-years old, so she doesn’t have many friends. Yet later, at age 16, Hazel is diagnosed with clinical depression (something she calls a side effect of dying) and must go to a cancer support group. Though at first this seems to be a bad thing, but there she meets Augustus Waters. Augustus is a boy, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Together they become good friends, and then Hazel also meets Isaac, a friend of Augutus’, at the cancer support group.  Together, they go to Amsterdam, to meet Hazel’s favorite author. This all happens thanks to Augustus, and all is good to them, until Augustus’ cancer starts getting worse again. The rest of the story talks about the struggle that Augustus and Hazel have to face.

I really enjoyed this book, and its story. The journey that Hazel must face with her disease connects you greatly to the characters of the book, taking you along on their life’s story. The way John Green writes really helps you get deeper the story and the rawness of the feelings of someone struggling with a disease such as cancer. Something I really found sad though is the ending of the book, not only was it surprising but it was very sad due to the fact that you really start to understand and like the characters. The book The Fault in our Stars is very like the book Before I Die by Jenny Downham, so if you enjoyed that book, you will enjoy this novel.

Author: Charley Rosen
May 27, 2012

East Finals a battle of past vs. future

This articles is a preview of the Conference Finals series match up of the Miami Heat vs. the Boston Celtics. It has a small recap of last year's Semifinals series match up, where the two teams faced off, and Miami won in 5 games. 

This article moves on to show the chances, and how the Boston Celtics can "Beat the Heat", and later showing how the Miami Heat can beat the Celtics' big 3+1. At the end they state what the fans should be waiting for through this series.

Rarely-known Experiences

This book is about all the weird and crazy things that happen to people, from taking off all their clothes near the top of Everest to crashing into a moose, suffering concussion, 2 black eyes and a neck fracture; then immediately getting amnesia and forgetting about the incident and proceeding to drive 25 miles to work in a car that's missing most its windows and a roof.

It is completely non-fiction and is part of a sequel, describing the odd events that can take place in ones life. The book is almost 300 pages however it is easy to read and very interesting. I would recommend this book if you enjoy tales of real events or you just need something to read for 5 minutes

The Tao of Pooh

Title: the Tao of Pooh
Author: Benjamin Hoff
Genre: Philosophy, Comedy
Pages: 155

     The Tao of Pooh is a funny yet very philosophical book about Taoism. It actually has nothing to do with China and shows the world's best philosopher as our all-time child favourite... Winnie the Pooh! Each chapter is basically dialogue between the author and Winni the Pooh. It goes very much something like an extract from oner of the books, then the author talking about philosophy, Pooh not understanding it and the author then explaining how it ties in. One such example is where Eeyore has just been "Bounced" into a river by Tigger. The other animals, annoyed at Tigger's bouncing, decide to take him to a forest and leave him there. However they all end up getting lost, and Tigger being able to bounce so high just finds his way back whilst the others desperately try to find their way. The aithor then goes on to describe how we all have something special within us and no matter how bad it is, it is a gift. Pooh goes on to ask how then, is everyone else leading Tigger into the forest a lesson. The author then says that the more we try to stop others from achieving their dream and being who they are, the further we stray from who we our ourselves.
     That's just one lesson though, there are countless others which I would love to describe, but I don't have the time to. If you want to see them, read The Tao of Pooh or The Te of Piglet(which describes the power of the small and the things that impede the path of a great life). The Tao of Pooh was on the whole very humorous and a very enjoyable read.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Fiction

The book the Hunger Games takes place some time in the future. The book is in first person. The main character is Katniss Everdeen. The Americas have been split up into 12 different districts. These districts used to fight against each other, but have stopped. To punish the districts for killing each other they annually hold the Hunger Games. Each districts picks one boy and one girl to fight in the Games. The 24 kids ages ranging from 12 to18 are put into a climate and must survive there and kill off the others. The last one who survives wins. Now is the time for the picking of who will be fighting in the tournament. In some districts such as district 12, where Katniss lives, the people there hope that they do not get picked to fight in the games because they do not have much practice and they do not want to die. In other districts however they train to fight and want to be chosen. These districts are more like district with the higher numbers such as 1,2,3,4, and 5 because they live in a richer place where they have a better diet and have money and time to train. In districts like 11 and 12 they fight for their food and many starve to death.
So far in the book I have noticed that Katniss's good friend Gale likes her. She does not notice at all even though she gives out these obvious hints that he really likes her. She easily disregards them and I hate it when I get it and she does not. Later that day at the picking for who will be chosen to fight in the Games the girl representative that is chosen was Katniss's younger sister Primrose. Katniss could not just let her younger 12 year old sister die so she volunteered her self to go and fight in the games. Out of thousands of tickets being chosen and Primrose only having one hers was the one chosen. It really seemed unfair. The boy representative chosen was Peeta. Katniss had seen him around at school but nor really noticed him or paid any attention to him. After she had said her good bye's and made sure that her mother and sister were to be taken care of she was put on a train to be taken to the Capital. During the Train ride she realized how much Peeta has helped her in the past. Just before she got on the train to leave Petta's father had brought her a bag of cookies. A few years ago Petta had given her family bread when they were starving. And then on the Train when their mentor threw up and they were both going to clean him up, but Petta said that he would do it all by himself. It was after that when Katniss actually realized that he and his father had been really helping her out all of this time.
While reading I was thinking aloud why Petta had been doing all of this for Katniss and my younger brother who had recently seen the movie and has no idea how to keep a secret just blurted out that he was doing that because he likes her. Earlier today he did a similar thing and I hate that he is giving away much of the book, but I am in love with it.
Yesterday I read it until I fell asleep and all the time that I have today I am reading it because it is an awesome book that I am becoming addicted to. I then cannot wait to see the movie because it is quite similar to the books with I really like because I hate it when they leave out or change things in the movies so that they are really different than the books.
Anyways I really like the book and I reccomend it to all of you because it is such an awesome book that I had to STOP reading to write this post so if you have not read it READ IT and if you have read it or are reading it you are awesome and I hope you are liking it as much as I do. :)

Lolita

Title: Lolita
Author: Vladimir Vladimirovic Nabakov
Genre: Tragic/drama



The book Lolita is one of the most famous and well-known books of the 20th century. It was published in 1955, and was originally written by Nabakov in English, and later translated into Russian. I really love classics by Russian authors, and I thought that this book would be an amazing read. Frankly, it is gorgeously written, but the theme and the overall topic of the entire book was, and continues to be, very controversial. I would not, at all, recommend this book to young readers. Lolita is a very heavy novel, that talks about pedophilia and kidnapping. The narrator of the novel, whose point of view the novel is written in is a very troubled and difficult character, whose name is Humbert Humbert. When he was around thirteen years old, he fell, as he describes "hopelessly and shamelessly" in love with a girl just a few months older than him. Unfortunately and tragically, this girl, Annabel, died very soon after her summer with Humbert ended, by catching a dangerous and fatal bacteria called typhus. This has left Humbert scarred for life. Even he believes that it was Annabel who has sparked his unnatural obsession with nymphets, or young, teenage girls. In the first pages of the book, Humbert describes his troubling childhood and college life. His mother was struck my lightning, when he was only four years old, and he was basically raised by his father. Humbert's father used to own a very luxurious hotel, and from what I could gather, they were very wealthy. He was a Swiss citizen, who had both French and Austrian roots. Humbert was educated in both France and England. As a child, he was a very good student, abd went to an elite school. However, after Annabel, everything seemed to start going downhill for Humbert. At college, he had many experience with prostitues, and was even married to a woman who left him for a Russian cab driver. Despite all the failed attempts to erase Annabel out of his mind, he couldn't. So far, I can see that the plot of this novel will be very intricate and complicated, but I am really courious to see what other dark personality traits Humbert could be hiding.

ORR

Title: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Author: John Boyne
Genre: Historic Fiction

John Boyne

I really enjoy reading this book. It is really interesting of how Bruno the nine year old boy sees Auschwitz. He does not know what is going on. I read a lot of pages of this book this week and I am almost done with it. I think that I can finish it soon. Here is a summary of what I read.
Bruno kept on going to his friend Schmuel on the other side of the fence. Bruno still does not understand what is going on on the other side and why Schmuel does not let him come to his side. Bruno keeps on asking if he could come over by getting through under the fence but Schmuel just says that this is not a good idea. Bruno knows Schmuel now already for a long time and finally sees that something is wrong with him. Schmuel does not look like him, he is much skinnier, he has a grayish and dirty skin, each day he wears like all the others on his fence side a striped pajama and every time Bruno brings him food he immediately eats it. The two boys talk each afternoon and Schmuel tells interesting stories. His family and him used to live in one room with another family. There was an older boy in the other family called Luka, who kept on hitting Schmuel for no reason. Bruno still does not understand what the people are doing here so he asked Schmuel why they are here. Schmuel answers with another story. One day he came home from school and his mother was making an armband for him. His mother said that he always needs to where it when he is outside. On the armband there was a star like that.
 
Then Schmuel and his family had to leave and got into a different place of town. Soldiers built a wall around that part and that's were he lived for a long time and now he is in Auschwitz.
Later in the book the ruler of Germany at that time, Adolf Hitler, came to Bruno's house for a dinner. Bruno comment on that dinner was that he was the meanest guest they ever had. Later it is also Bruno's dad's birthday. All the soldiers were invited as well as Oberleutnant Kotler who was a soldier who Bruno hated. He ordered his friend Schmuel from the space inside the fence to come and clean the glasses. Bruno and Schmuel could not believe that they met like that. Bruno took out chicken and started eating it. He offered some to Schmuel but the skinny boy just started shiver and could barely speak. He kept on looking to the door. Bruno never saw him like that and when he finally convinced Schmuel to have some chicken, Schmuel got even more scared and that for a reason. Oberleutant Kotler came in and started yelling at both of them. He made Schmuel continue his work and told him later that this action will have consequences when they are back inside the fences.

That's how far I am right now. This book is the best. ;)

Satan from the 7th Grade (Szatan z Siódmej Klasy)

Title: Satan from the 7th Grade
Author: Kornel Makuszyński
Genre: Classical Novel
Pages: 275

This book, which I'm currently reading, is a polish classic novel. I have been carrying the book around me for the past 4 years, and I kept on forgetting about it. This time I actually managed to read it all. It's a very interesting story about a young boy, which is very clever and he spends his summer at a country house, presided over by The Professor.The novel tells us the story of the mystery from the time of the Napoleonic Wars - a puzzle, which Adam and the Gąsowski family will have to solve.When the Professor asks Adam (the main character) to solve the mystery, he is more than happy and very excited to search for the treasure. I really liked the book, because it reminded me of those polish adventures I used to have when I was younger, where each day of the summer was a new story beginning. Where my friends and I would go outside, and pretend to be someone else to solve a mystery. That's what I really liked about the book - it reminded me of earlier childhood. 
I really enjoyed reading this novel, although it was quite difficult to understand the language, because it was written in old polish, and it was hard to understand a couple words. Over all, I would recommend this book to teenagers, young adults and adults.

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

Book: The Little Prince
Author: Saint-Exupéry
Pages: 96
                         
This week I read the book "The Little Prince". I enjoyed this book it is usually known as a childrens story, but while reading it during french this week I realized that the story also has a message to it. It to me appeared to be showing the different stages of a persons life.

The story is basically about a little prince who crashes on Earth and while trying to get home he explores all elements of the world and meets many different people including; a pilot, a writer, a king, a drunkard, and many others. The story is told from the pilots point of view, he is recalling meeting a little prince while stranded in a desert island.

Because I read this in french it was slightly hard for me to understand but i've read it in english before so that helped. Its a short but fun read to I would definetly recomend this book to people of all ages. 

City of Bones

Author:  Cassandra Clare
Pages:  442
Genre:  Fantasy

          This gripping novel is about an ordinary girl called Clary who starts seeing demons and vampires and beings that aren't supposed to exist.  Her mother disappears and her house is filled with monsters.  She becomes involved with a group of demon-slayers and eventually discovers that she is not as normal as she thought she was.  In fact, she may have demon-slayer blood.  The book follows Clary as she learns the truth about her parents, her long-lost brother, and really, her entire life. 
          I really enjoyed reading this book, and I would give it a 5/5, but there were some things that bothered me a little about it.  I kind of felt like the author just had so many good ideas that she wanted to use, but she could not filter some out, so you just get hit with betrayal after betrayal, monster after monster, and a love triangle is thrown in as well.  Some things were predictable, but I felt like I was shocked too many times to really enjoy the book at its fullest.  For example, Clary falls in love with a demon-slayer, and then it turns out that he is her brother.  That was just one surprise too many for me.  Other than that, I think that City of Bones is a great book and anyone who likes reading about vampires and werewolves and demons should definitely try it. 

 

Title: If I Stay

Author: Gayle Forman

Genre: Young Adult 

Rate: 5/5!

Comments: 

This week I’ve been reading such a beautiful novel. It was so overwhelming that I ended up crying at the end!
Sometimes people say that you can’t judge a book by its cover- and I agree with that. But, in certain situations, such as this one, I chose this book BECAUSE of its cover. The title “If I Stay” makes me wonder what the character is talking about. Where will she stay? What will happen if she doesn’t stay, and most certainly- what’s the occasion about? All of these factors got me intrigued and I just HAD to read the book. The main character is Mia, a normal girl living in her teenage life. The first few chapters of the book begin as if there will be no plot- because she seems to have an awkwardly normal life with no problems. She’s in love, she goes to school, her parents are strict, and she has many friends. This was my first impression: I’m sorry… but I don’t see the problem here. That was where I was wrong. Mia has a decision to make. This was the part where I got super interested in the book. After a car accident that has killed her, her parents and her little brother, Mia’s spirit is left to wander the rooms of the hospital her body is in. Still coming to terms with her loss, she revisits her most precious memories, about people that are gone, and about the people that are still around, and she is getting ready to decide if she stays, or if she goes. I was freaked out at this stage because I was imagining myself in her position. I wanted to stop reading the book- but I couldn’t; the book was just too good to be true. I will not mention whether or not she stays or leaves- that’s a secret, you’ll just have to read the book! There are many things I have loved about this book so it is hard to pick just one. If I had to choose, Mia’s passion for her cello was my favorite part! The way she unexpectedly fell in love with it because it seemed almost human-like to her. The saddest and most tragic part of the book were her grandfather’s words and his impression on her decision to leave:“It’s okay,” he tells me. “If you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.” His voice cracks with emotion. He stops, clears his throat, takes a breath, and continues. “But that’s what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It’s okay if you have to leave us. It’s okay if you want to stop fighting.” I couldn’t handle the tears in my eyes as I read this paragraph! It’s so beautiful! I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who likes to read sad novels!