Classic Blog Post #3 To Kill a Mockingbird

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird              
Author: Harper Lee
Genere: Classic
Number of Pages: 309
Pages Read So Far: 159

When Jem and Scout were bored of tormenting Boo Radley, AKA Arthur Radley, eventually, it led to property of Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose. Mrs Dubose lived with a Negro girl in constant attendance. She was very old and was on a wheelchair. There was a rumor saying that she kept a CSA pistol concealed among her shawls. She got mad easily and she was vicious. She insulted Atticus by calling him "nigger lover" and Jem got really mad. When Jem became twelve, he got some money and he went to shop to buy himself a miniature steam engine and he bought Scout a twirling baton. On their way back Jem went to Mrs Dubose's garden and destroyed all the camellias. He eventually got in trouble and his punishment was to read to Mrs Dubose every day for 2 hours. Jem had to read her the book Ivanhoe. After his punishment was over, Mrs Dubose died. Atticus told children that Mrs Dubose was a morphine addict. Atticus still honored Mrs Dubose, but Jem couldn't understand him, because Mrs Dubose was always insulting Atticus.

Jem was tweleve, and he started to grow. Cal called Jem Mr Jem. One day, state legislature was called into emergency section and Atticus had to leave for almost two weeks. When Atticus was gone, Cal decied to take them to church. Not their normal church. Church for negros. "'Mister Jem, you absolutely can't wear that tie with that suit. It's green.' ''smatter with that?' 'Suit's blue. Can't you tell?' 'Hee hee,' I howled, 'Jem's colour-blind.'" When they go to the church, some people are not pleased with Jem and Scout's visit to their church. Unlike to white people's church, this church was very small and not luxurious. They didn't even have a hymn-book. At the end of the session, they raised some money for Tom Robinson's wife, Helen and her three children. Cal explained to children that Tom Robinson is in jail because he was accused raping Mr Bob Ewell's daughter. 

One day, Aunt Alexandra visited their house, and she said she is going to stay for a while. She perfectly blended in and almost looked like she was here for the first time. One night, Scout heard something and thought it was a snake. But, it was Dill. Dill did not visit this summer because he got a new father, which was a young lawyer, but turned out that he beat his son and locked him in basement. but he escaped, and made a long journey to Maycomb.

#3 What do you love/appreciate most about the protagonist of this novel? Give 1 example of whom she/he reminds each of you and why.

This book's main protagonist is Scout. AKA Jean Louise Finch. She is very intelligent, caring, and also loving. What I most love about Scout is her intelligence. Scout could read "Mobile Press" before she could even go to school. Scout reminds me of Elizabeth, from Pride and Prejudice. Surprisingly, my mom was about to say the same thing. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth is described as intelligent, loving character like in this book, Scout.

Blog Post 2

Question: Why did you an your partner choose this novel? In the first pages, are you both pleased with the section? Explain your feelings.

My partner and I chose this book because it was a classic that sold a lot of copies. Also both my parents read it and said that it was the best book they ever read.

My first thought of the starting pages is that the story seems like a tale or myth. But as you get into it the story feel kicks in.

Addition blog :) - I added this for extra credit :) If its ok!

Chapter summaries 1-14

                      The beginning of the book takes place in a little village in Hamburg Germany, in 1864. The main characters are Axel and professor Liedenbrock. Axle is the professors nephew. He is the main character in the book. Axle, so far in the book, seems very demanding (just like his uncle the professor). His uncle, professor liedenbrock is very demanding. He likes to get things done right, correctly, quickly. There is no messing around with him. If you do mess up, you dug a hole that you can’t get out of. In the first few chapters Axle is forced by his uncle to help him get to the center of the earth. His uncle (the professor) was so determined to find out the code, (that Axle will accidently figure out later).

Professor Lidenbrock found a message written by a sixteenth century alchemist named Arne Saknussemm. The message was a coded message written in ‘Icelandic’ language (an old ‘dead’ language spoken in old Iceland). Professor Lidenbrock could read the runes, but he could not figure out the code.

By an accident, Axel figured out the key to the code, but he was scared to explain it to the professor. Axle cracked it by just reading it backwards. In the message, Arne Saknussemm claimed that he had traveled to the center of the earth (which he thought was highly impossible). He also explained how to get there. Axel hoped that the professor would never learn what was in the message, for he knew that Professor Lidenbrock would surely want to make the journey himself, however, the professor refused to eat or sleep before he cracked the code, nor did he allow anyone else in the household to eat until he cracked it. As a result, hunger forced Axel to explain the key of the code to Professor Lidenbrock.

As Axel suspected, Professor Lidenbrock was determined to make the journey himself, and he commanded, he didn’t tell him, he commanded Axel to pack his stuff and come along. Axel tried badly to reason with the professor but he ended up going. He also discussed the matter with Grauben, who Axel loved a lot. Unfortunately, Grauben encouraged him to undertake the journey. She promised to marry him when he returned.

Huckleberry Finn (2)

Title: Adventure of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Pages: 284
Genre: Adventure

Everybody thought that Huck was killed since they could not find him. People thought that his dad had killed him, and some thought that Jim had killed. Jim want Huck to dress like a girl and go to town to find some news. He does, and meet a woman who tells him that there is a reward out for Huck's dad and for Jim, and people are hunting them. The woman finds out he is a boy, but she let him go. Huck runs back to Jim and tells him the story. They hurry up and take the raft along the river. They find a wrecked steamship, and try to get on board. They hear three robbers. Two of them are preparing to kill the third. Huck and Jim wants to get the sheriff, but the raft has broken loose in the storm. They try to get down the river for the raft and the luckily find it. They got a lot of books from the steamship and Huck reads some of them to Jim. They get into a funny talk about language. Jim thinks if all cats talks the same and all dogs talk the same, why doesn't all men talk the same?
Jim and Huck are on their way to Cairo in Illinois. Huck is in the canoe and Jim is on the raft. In the fog they get away from each other. Next day they find each other again. Huck wants to go ashore and leave Jim, but get a moral crisis, because he feels he has stolen Miss Watson's slave. Jim tells Huck that he will save up money to go back and buy his wife and his two children from Miss Watson. Suddenly a huge steamboat comes straight towards them and their raft gets smacked. Huck and Jim get separated. Huck makes it to the shore. A man points a gun at him and asks him who he is. Huck answers, "George Jackson". He is taken to the man's house where he gets dry clothes and food. Huck stays with the man's family for a while.

Blog #2: Why did you and your partner choose this novel? In first pages, are you both pleased with the selection? Explain both of your feelings. We chose this novel, because my mom have heard about it and that it was really good, but when we started reading it, we found out that the level is too hard so we decided to choose another classic that is easier for us both.

The Little Prince part 2

"The Little Prince"
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Genre: Adventure
128 pages

The summery of the book starts off by a pilot crashing his plane in the Sahara dessert, where he walks all alone worried of his troubles until he meets a little blond boy, who asks him if he could draw him a sheep. He immediately likes the boy and they become friends. As the little prince and airplane pilot (narrator of the story) talk the pilot finds out that the little prince came from a planet know as asteroid 325 but on earth know as asteroid b-612. Soon the pilot will find that he is more then intrigued about all of the wonderful stories and adventures the little prince had had while coming upon earth

The quote which i choose from the book and truly LOVE is the following:

“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.” 

I love this quote because it explains how everyone was once a child but only a few remember how to have fun and love as much as they did when they were so small. It also shows how when your mad at a child for doing something bad parents may forget that they themselves have done something like that in their lives

Me and my mom chose to read the book "Little Prince" for very different reasons. My mom had grown up to love this book and therefore had a very nice feeling when reading it, she especially loved how the book "Little Prince" is for all ages and could be understood as the path of life, and all of its downs and ups. Such as; when the narrator is in the hot dessert with sweat poring down his body as a negative situation, or when his life changes when he meets the little prince as the positive. Me as well as my mom love how different problems or just object are symbolized with different characters such as the snake in the book. I wanted to read the book because I did read it two years ago and loved it but now when I tried to remember some of the symbolized literature I couldn't

Wuthering Heights: Post 2

Title: Wuthering Heights

Author: Emilie Bronte

Pages: 260

Interview: 

Why did you chose this novel? Explain the first few pages. Explain feelings.

My mum and I have been searching for an interesting novel for both of us for a long time. We wanted to read Jane Eyre but then my mum thought this one would be a bit easier so we chose this one. The first few pages were really a bit hard to understand but once we re read it a couple of times it was a lot better. 

It focuses on two neighboring families, the Earnshaws of Wuthering Heights and the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff are the main characters of the story - both are very similar in nature: selfish, headstrong, stubborn, and vindictive. They are also in love, but Catherine feels that Heathcliff is below her and instead marries into the Linton family. Heathcliff sets out for revenge, basically, but driving Catherine mad until she dies from exhaustion. Though Heathcliff seems to deeply regret and take full blame for Catherine's death, you are under the impression that Heathcliff feels that if he cannot have Catherine, no one else can either. 

The story then follows Catherine's child, also named Catherine. Heathcliff, who is still not satisfied enough still extremely bitter, is determined to ruin not only Catherine, but her daughter as well. Eventually Catherine's father falls ill and dies, leaving Catherine an orphan. She marries Heathcliff's son (named Linton - all the cross naming is quite confusing, but when you're reading the book it isn't so bad), and Catherine becomes more like a servant at Wuthering Heights. In the end, Linton dies, Catherine falls in love with her cousin, Heathcliff goes insane and perishes, and everyone lives happily ever after... more or less.

Dracula Week # 2

Dracula
By Bram Stoker
1/27/13
Horror/Suspense




For my recent book report, me and my partner, my mother, are reading the Classical novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I picked this novel because my personal favorite genre is mystery/suspense and Dracula is full of suspense and horror. Another reason I picked this novel was because of the raving reviews I had heard from others. On famous book review websites, such as the reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles, nearly everyone said that it was one of their all time favorites and it had an intense, wonderful plot. My mother picked "Dracula" because of it took place in Romania, a neighbor of Serbia. My mother thought it would be interesting to see what Romanian culture would be like because she herself has never been to Romania. She also picked this novel because she saw how I took great interest in it and she  thought it would be an interesting novel, so we together decided to read it. So far while reading the book, I have been absolutely astonished by Bram Stoker's capability of describing characters and events in such a wonderful, yet subtle way. Dracula's plot so far has been suspenseful. Not a single page has seized to captivate my attention. My only complaint so far would be how Bram Stoker changes perspectives a little too fast, without giving the reader an explanation, but other than that I have found Dracula wonderful. My mother has been pleased so far by Dracula. From the beginning, the Author has been able to build suspense with many intriguing details such as the fact that all of the villagers he has met have all warned him not to go into Count Dracula's mansion.

Quotation:
"As the Count bent over me and his hands touched me, a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal."

This was when Dracula got really close to him and he felt sick. I think the author was trying to show that Count Dracula was a sick, evil creature who's only intent is to kill others.

Catch 22 by Luka Brown

Title: Catch 22

Author: Joseph Heller

Catch 22: Catch 22 is when a person is caught in a situation that no matter what they do they cannot escape. The main character, Yossarian, is caught in just this situation. He wants to leave the war and to stop flying but if you don’t do 55 missions then you have to stay. The only other way to leave is to prove that he is insane. There is only one catch though. People that go to war are considered crazy, but if you want to leave then you are considered sane. This is called Catch 22. If you don’t really understand this it’s ok because I don’t really understand it ether.

The storyline to the book is all topsy turvy. From what I could understand it is about a group of insane generals you just tell about their time in the war. It goes from Yossarian trying to leave the war to Major Major’s anti alfalfa growing fields. It talks about the tall of Hungry Joe and Lieutenant shiesskofp (not sure how to spell it) obsession for parades. This is the story of Catch 22.        

The reason why we choice this book was because of me and my dad’s similar interests. Catch-22 is one of those books that really dig deep into real life. It shows all of life stupidity and me and my dad love those kind of things. While reading those first few pages we realized that this book was a great one. My dad says that it makes him laugh at just how some stuff in life all you can do is point and laugh at because of its stupidity. What I feel about the book is quite similar to what my dad feels like. There are just some things in that book that makes you stop reading and start to giggle inside yourself.  

Blog Post #2

Title: Oliver Twist
Author: Charles Dickens
Pages: 360
Genre: Classic
Plot:

My mom and I are reading 2 chapters by 2 chapters and so far we're both enjoying the book. Here are some key things abut chapter 3 and 4. In the parish, Oliver has been flogged and then locked in a dark room as a public example. Mr. Gamfield, a brutish chimney sweep, offers to take Oliver on as an apprentice. Because several boys have died under his supervision, the board considers five pounds too large a reward, and they settle on just over three pounds. Mr. Bumble, Mr. Gamfield, and Oliver appear before a magistrate to seal the bargain. At the last minute, the magistrate notices Oliver’s pale, alarmed face. He asks the boy why he looks so terrified. Oliver falls on his knees and begs that he be locked in a room, beaten, killed, or any other punishment besides being apprenticed to Mr. Gamfield. The magistrate refuses to approve the apprenticeship, and the workhouse authorities again advertise Oliver’s availability. The workhouse board considers sending Oliver out to sea as a cabin boy, expecting that he would die quickly in such miserable conditions. However, Mr. Sowerberry, the parish undertaker, takes Oliver on as his apprentice. Mr. Bumble informs Oliver that he will suffer dire consequences if he ever complains about his situation. Mrs. Sowerberry remarks that Oliver is rather small. Mr. Bumble assures her that he will grow, but she grumbles that he will only grow by eating their food. Mrs. Sowerberry serves Oliver the leftovers that the dog has declined to eat. Oliver devours the food as though it were a great feast. After he finishes, Mrs. Sowerberry leads him to his bed, worrying that his appetite seems so large.

Blog #2:

Why did you and your parnter choose this novel? 

My mom and I chose this novel because my mom said that this book was required for everyone to read and when she read it she enjoyed it and thought it was very meaningful. 

In the first pages, are you both pleased with the selection?

My mom and I are both very pleased with the selection because so far I learned a couple new words and really enjoy the theme so far. However my mom brings back memories fom when she was little while reading this book and realizing different points of view then and now, so she enjoyed it too.

Underworld

Title: Underworld
Author: Meg Cabot
Pages: 309
Genre: Teen


"The important thing is to forgive, my father had once told me. Only then could we move one" This is what Pierce is saying to herself trying to forgive John for keeping her in the underworld

Underworld is the second book the the trilogy Abandon. It is about a girl called Pierce Oliviera that is kept to underworld by her.... friend? Boyfriend? Well she is not sure either. Her... friend, is called John and he is the leader of the Underworld. He is keeping her here for her own safety, as he says, but she doesn't want to stay. At this point of the story Pierce is being 'watched' by a creature from underworld and she is trying to find out why she is kept down there.

This book is really interesting but the problem is that I didn't know it was from a trilogy so I need to stop reading it and start the first one. Although I don't understand much, I really like it.



Partner Questions (Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

Why did you and your partner choose this novel? In the first pages, are you both pleased with the selection? Explain both of your feelings. 

My mom and I chose to read The Christmas Carol for my book report because it is a good classic and we both watched the movie and liked it. As we keep reading, we figure out that it's not as similar as the movie and has different twists and it's harder to read. Since my mom reads more slowly than me and she has no time to read, I have moved ahead and during the February break she is going to try and catch up with me. The first few pages that we read, we both thought it was a very difficult book to read but it is very well written and I want to keep reading it because it's very interesting. It has interesting vocabulary words that are new to me and my mother but we don't mind.

The Hobbit

Genre: Fantasy  
Pages:101/305
Author: J. R. R. Tolken
So far my mom and my sister and I are really liking the book. My dad just decided that he would like to read with us to but not as formally. I said that I wanted to read The Hobbit because it sounded very interesting I like a well written book. My mom once read this book when she was young but she cannot remember any of it, but she liked it. My sister also likes fantasy books so we agreed to read it. We all liked the first pages and were glad we chose to read this. Each sentence is filled with mystery, excitement, and  adventure. You learn more about each character at every turn of the page. I learned that Bilbo is actually very dedicated for example he fell in a cave and thought, "'Go back?' he thought. 'No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go'"(Tolken 69). I really liked this quote because of its meaning. It is all about dedication and not going off coarse. Bilbo Baggins the main character was traveling with a group of people and went through a path through a mountain infested by goblins. Bilbo was attacked and fell down into the depths of the cave and riddled with a creature called Gallum who had a ring he refers to as precious. Bilbo found this magic ring and took it with him,

Black Beauty blog 2

  Title: Black Beauty
Author: Anna Sewell
Pages: 100/250

     So, in the next part of the book, many interesting things happen. First, Black Beauty has to ride his master during a stormy day and in the middle of the flood. Luckily, everything goes well. Then the next day, Black Beauty's master receives a letter that a man is interested in one of his servants, James who is also taking care of the horses. They accept the offer and James leaves to his new master. His replacement is a 14-year old boy Joe who is a hard working boy.
    Oh, I forgot to mention two other very important things which happen in the meantime. Both of them are bad. The first is that one night while the horses were sleeping, a fire started in the stable. Luckily, the other man who takes care of  the horses saw it on time and managed to come and save the horses before it was too late.
    The other important thing that happened before James left is when the master's wife got very ill and James had to ride to the doctor as fast as possible and get some medicine as well as to call the doctor to come check the lady. He, of course took Black Beauty with him. It was a long and difficult journey to there. To make things even harder, it was raining. When they arrived to the doctor, the doctor agreed to come check her. This meant that there was another hard gallop in front of Black Beauty. By the time they got home, the horse was dead tired and wasn't feeling well. He didn't feel good for a couple of days. In fact, some people    even thought he would die but he didn't.
     Soon after James left, the master and his family had to leave as well because of the mistress's health, They decided to give Black Beauty to some friends of the master. Black Beauty soon found out that living there would not be an easy task. The new master was a female and she had very high standards. She was more strict than the master he had before.

  #2: Why did you and your partner choose this novel? In the first pages, are you pleased with your selection? Explain both of your feelings.

  Well, it was me who wanted to read this book. I told her that it should be a very nice story because I watched a cartoon based on this book and I loved it.   We are both very pleased with this novel. It was a good thing we chose this book. I like it because it tells a nice story in a calm voice. Also, the book is not too aggressive  but not too boring. My mom likes it because it is full of messages and it shows the good and important traits which should be used.

    

Blog number 2

Title: Enders Game
Author:Orson Scott Card
Number of pages:325
Genre: Science Fiction

In the first 100 pages of Enders Game many things happen... First we learn about Ender Wiggins, a young six year old genius who keeps on getting bullied is chosen to be part of the very select general forming school in space. All of this happens in a future where human race prepares for their final war against Buggers (aliens). But Enders life gets more and more complicated as the most important generals as the director of the school do every thing to test his limit, make him tuffer and make him an outcast. Each time that Ender overcomes a problem as making friends, he is thrown into a new difficult situation as being put in a group with older kids and a horrible general.  Now he is thrown into his third new group, the "Salamander" group, Will he make friends? Will he finally have a nice general?
What I love the most about this book is how we can see the conversation of the Generals about Ender at the beginning of each chapter: "With Ender we have to strike a delicate balance. Isolate him enough that he remains creative-otherwise he'll adopt the systemhere and we'll loose him.At the same time,we need to make sure he keeps a strong ability to lead" page 27


Why did you and your partner choose this novel? My mum and I were looking through the novels that I owned as War and Peace and Tom Sawyer but relized that they were too difficult, so I went into Mrs.Hancock's classroom and looked at her books. I found Ender's Game and saw that it won the New York Time's Bestseller Award, I read the summary and it appealed to me, so I took it. My mum and I read a chapter of the book and really enjoyed it.

In the first pages, are you personally pleased with the selection? I personally adore this book, if I didn't have to wait for my mum I would have already finished it.For me this storry is a good combination of drama, psychology and action and I can't wait to read more. My mum's a bit less of a fan of the book then I am but she still really enjoys it. Even if she finds how they treat children in the future horrible, my mums percepective is that they all only care about children as tool, even the parents, and my mum hates that.

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Dissapeared

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages Read: 64
Pages In Book: 392

This is an amazingly strange book so far. First of all, a fit, one hundred year old man, climbs out of his window, twenty minutes before his birthday party, even the mayor will be there. The book is set in Sweden, and often goes back in time, although this has only happened to me once so far. The man, named Allan is very unusual, but I suppose we will find out that later. What I have learned so far about his early life is that he lived in Russia. His father died when he was an adolescent because he didn't give up a small patch of land to the government  he was shot. His mother died some time later of old age. The only other thing that I know about the rest of his life so far is that he started up a dynamite company, and while testing out a new kind he accidentally blew up a man who drove his new car onto his testing site, it was describe vividly with little bits going everywhere. He was sent to an asylum but freed after a few years. Anyway, back to the present. Alan steals a suitcase that a man, who turns out to be from a criminal organization called Never Again, owned while he was taking a dump. He then gets on a bus and goes as far as his money can take him. At the stop a man ownes the station, he is called Jonas and invites Allan to stay with him for the night. While they are eating their dinner, the man from the criminal group turns up, he is called Jonas and he is angry. But Allan sneaks up behind him and conks him out with a wooden floorboard. They finish their dinner, with Jonas at their feet, unconscious. After they have had a drink they decide to put him in the freezer room, where the meat is usually kept. Now they decide to open up the suitcase, and find 50 million inside. The next day, they are both sober and realize that the freezer fan was left on. Jonas was in there and it was below zero. When they open the door they find his corpse hunched in the corner, staring vacantly into the distance. This is a rather shocking way of finishing a book, but I will admit, it made me want to read more.

Treasure Island

"Sixteen men on the dead man's chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

Title: Treasure Island

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson    

Pages: 187

I have started reading this book, but haven't finished yet. My father and I are reading it together, or we're discussing it as I read. So far, I have been introduced to some characters, such as the main character, Jim Hawkins. He lived and worked in an inn, where his father was very sick. His life changed the day a very strange pirate came along.

The pirate's name was Billy Bones, however he wanted to be referred to as 'captain'. He paid Jim to keep an eye out on some pirate that he was scared of. However, there was another man, also a pirate, called Black Dog, who was obviously a threat to Billy. Jim so far has no idea why Billy is scared of the man with the wooden leg, or Black Dog. He didn't know either what the man's history was, however he knew it was horrid, because all he wanted to do was drink it away, even though the doctor made strict rules that he wasn't supposed to. It was rum that made the pirate fierce, and drinking too much was a big risk for him. If Jim's parents had known what kind of trouble this pirate would've been, they would have never let him stay in their inn. For all they knew, Billy was hiding something dangerous, and Jimmy was under great risk of getting in the middle of it. 

I have a feeling that half of the time the book has a bit of humour in it, while the other, there are some parts which are more serious, such as fighting scenes. I'm enjoying this book, especially when the pirate sing, 'yo ho ho and bottle of rum.'

I like Jim Hawkins because he seems so innocent. He works in an inn where he serves people drinks, and he obviously knows right from wrong. Nevertheless he obeys the 'captain.' I am not really sure that he reminds of anyone. This book is Jim Hawkins retelling the adventure he had with the pirates.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth #2

Pages read: 34

Genre: Science Fiction

Author: Jules Verne
Pages 209

Dad and I have started reading a book called Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne. As many of you may know Jules Verne is a French writer, so both of our copies are translated. Funnily enough they are both different translations as dad is reading his on the kindle and mine is a two decade old paperback. This book started off describing a mad German professor from his nephews point of view. It then moves on and gets to the meat of the story. The professor has just bought a book called "C12 Icelandic chronicle of Norwegian princes!", he is about to start reading it, as he usually does with his strangely unusual books, when a piece of paper falls out, a code. He tries to crack it for days, not eating or sleeping, he is that kind of person. Little does he know, around midway through his intellectual game his nephew cracks it, purely by accident. He is waving the paper around when he sees it, all you need to do is read it backwards after applying the failed rule that his uncle worked out. But the secret is too dangerous for the professor to know about as the nephew knows that he will want to do it right away. It describes how to reach the centre of the Earth.

Dad and I both chose this book because it's is a very old book, and translated from French. We like French books because we both speak the language we also both enjoy science fiction novels. We knew this was going to be interesting, and we where right. We both love our translations for different reasons, Dad's being slightly more interesting than mine. Dad's was translated in 1877 by an Englishman at the height of the British empire. This means that he thought that he was always right and that English people where at the height of scientific achievement  Dad loves all of these little looks back at history. In the introduction the cocky Englishman even said that he had "corrected" all of the mistakes that Jules Verne had made scientifically. Another interesting thing is that Jules Verne views the professor as a mad German, Dad inferred that this was the stereotype then just as it is now. My book on the other hand is more pure with less changes by the translator, which is why I like it. Something that we both liked was how the professor was described. He was a mineralogist but he also had fits of "bibliomania" and was a polyglot. We both had quotes that we enjoyed too. Dad's was "he came bowling down the stairs like an avalanche" and mine, a little longer than Dad's, "in mineralogy there are a great many barbarous terms, half Greek and half Latin, which are difficult to pronounce and which would take the skin off any poet's lips." Both of our feelings are positive towards this book, we are definitely enjoying it now, and I am sure we will continue to read and enjoy it until the last page.

Pride and Prejudice Blog #2

Title: Pride and Prejudice
Author: Jane Austen 
 Genera: Fiction, Classic
Pages: 397
Pages read: unknown because kindle does not give pages 

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters." - page 1

What Happened so far:
So far in my novel what has happened is there has been an introduction of the characters from Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their 5 daughters. Also it is about how a man named Mr. Bingley is moving to the town where they are from and Mrs. Bennet's goal is to merry one of them to him. Mrs. Bennet was arguing with Mr.Benette that he must go and introduce himself to Mr. Bingley. He says he will not but in the end goes and pleases Mrs. Bennet. I have left off where they are now at the ball and one of the daughters, Elizabeth Bennet is talking about how stuck up a man named Mr. Darcy is at a ball. He will not dance with anyone except some very few people and also how he hates to dance. She is not at all pleased with Mr. Darcy

Blog post number 2:

The reason my mother and I chose to read this novel is becuase, first off, my mother always wanted me to read Jane Austen's novels because she knows how much she enjoyed them when she was rouhgly my age. Also because we both love period novels and we figured that this would be a perfect choice for us. I asked my mother if she is pleased with the novel so far and she told me that she is really enjoying the novel however, becuase she is reading it in serbian she said she doesnt like the trnaslation and thinks that whoever translated it did a bad job, so she said in the future she would read it in English. SInce I am reading it in English I dont know what she means but I am really enjoying the novel. SOmetimes there are words I dont know so I have to look them up but its a realy good interesting and captivationg novel. I cant wait to read more!

Pride and Prejudice 2

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
13 of 360 pages
Classic Novel

Quote from the book: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This is the first line of the book, and it is basically also is what the first three chapters are all about: men, who own a lot of money and land, can only want one more thing, which is a wife, and most women would say yes to marrying a rich man, as long as he has the most necessary of behaviors.

What happened until now: Mrs. Bennet finds out that a rich, young man is moving into a house close to her own, and immediately thinks about how she can get him to marry one of her five beautiful, young daughters. She talks to her husband Mr. Bennet about it, who is not that enthusiastic, although he is still willing to visit the young fellow and invite him for dinner.         
In return, the whole Bennet family gets invited to Mr. Bingley’s ball, and he immediately grows fond of Jane, the oldest of the Bennet sisters. Lizzy, short for Elizabeth, who is the second oldest, is not so lucky, although she listens to a quick conversation between Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, an even richer man, who no one likes though, because he has such bad manners and is so fond of himself. Mr. Bingley mentions Lizzy as one of the most beautiful girls at the ball, and asks Mr. Darcy why he wouldn’t ask her to dance, which he just brushes off with a simple “she’s handsome, but not good enough for me” answer.

This book so far is very interesting, and the style of writing is different, but not as hard to read as I thought it would be. I really enjoyed reading these few pages, and it wasn’t confusing at all, like some books at the beginning; I understood nearly everything that happened.

Blog Question #2: We chose this novel, because it seemed interesting, and it has to do quite a bit with women marrying men against their will, and my mum really enjoys reading book that are about women’s right, or something similar to that. I really enjoyed the first few pages, as I said before, they were really easy to understand and read, but it was still interesting and exciting. My mum, who doesn’t know English too well, said that she also enjoyed the first pages, and that they weren’t too hard to understand for her, either. The first pages already gave me an idea of what I can do for the final book report project, and I chose to do the Dinner Party.

Blog Post 2

,Or the whale
Moby Dick
Classic

My mom didn't find the book in the Serbian version yet so i will just tell you what happened. Once there was a man who didn't know what to do with his life. He was sad and the only thing that could stop him from going on to the street to hit people was the calming sound of the ocean. Then one day there was an opening on a boat to be the sailor. Then he thought about it but he cant remember what made made him even join the crew. The day he was going to the ship he put his blanket under his arms and went out. He could see lots of people on the docks, some sleeping and some leaned on a barrel. The ship was going to go and hunt whales. There was a certain feeling he had when he thought about this topic. My mom looked at the book a bit and for her it seems like a nice book that she would like to read.

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostojevski

Pages: 700

Classic

My mom and I have chosen to read “The Idiot”, written in the 19^th century by Fyodor Dostojevski, who is one of the greatest Russian writers of all time.

Since this book is a bit hard to understand at my age, we decided to make a step forward together, to make an effort, to get out of my comfort zone, and to read more complex literature. Besides that, it has a very interesting characters, setting and plot.

 The main protagonist of the book is the prince Myshkin, whose life is thrown into love triangle with beautiful Nastasya Filipovna, and Rogozhin, a friend he met in a train while going back from Switzerland to St. Petersburg. Prince Myshkin is a synonym for a “purity of a truly beautiful soul”, that was drawn into a web of blackmail, betrayal and murder.

On my side, I am very pleased with this choice, since for the first time I have encounter with something new, and I have a feeling that I am reading a book for adults. The setting is very complex, with a lot of different character, who are in a weird way connected to each other.

My mom is happy that I like and enjoy the book, since she was reading it for the first time at my age on her own, and it was difficult then for her to understand many aspects of the book. A while later, when she read it again, already mature, she had a proper understanding of it. She thinks this project is a great idea since it gives us an opportunity to have fun and enjoy together in this remarkable book.

Classic Blog Post #2 To Kill a Mockingbird

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird              
Author: Harper Lee
Genere: Classic
Number of Pages: 309
Pages Read So Far: 109
                                                        

Before the day for Dill to leave, they decided to do something fun. They were going to Miss Rachel's fish pool. After visiting the pool, they decides to sneak into Radley's house to see Boo Radley's face. Eventually, they alert Mr. Nathan Radley, father of Arthur Radley, AKA, Boo Radley, and he fires his shotgun in the air. The kids were really scared, and had to get out, fast, but Jem's jean got stuck to the barbed wire, but had to run away. The neighbors that heard the gunshot, gathered in front of the Radley's house, and Jem and Scout deciedes to go out, because they think they might look suspicious if they don't go out. Eventually, Atticus finds out Jem without pants, and Jem says we were playing strip poker. That night, Jem sneaks out from his bed and decides to go retrieve his pants because if Mr. Nathan Radley finds out, he fears that he is going to shoot him. Despite the danger, Jem manages to retrieve his pants.

School has begun, and it is a another boring year for Scout because she is not learning anything from school. But her one favorite thing is that Jem and Scout both ends at same time 3 pm. On their way back home from school, Jem makes a confession to Scout that when he sneaked upon Radley's, he found his pants folded. Suddenly, they found something in a tree, in a knot hole where they found a Indidan coin. It was a figure of 2 boys. Carved with great detail. They are anxious to find out who's hole that is, so they write a letter. After that day, they found the knot hole filed with cement. And Jem asked Mr. Nathan Radley if he filled the tree, and he said yes because the tree is sick. But the kids do not believe it.

Mrs. Radley died this winter. No one actually missed her because she seldom got out of the house. And, it snowed for the first time since 1885. And Scout thought it was the end of the world. Eula May, telephone operator of the town, told Atticus that today is going to be a snow day. So for the free time, Kids decides to build a snowman, but their is little snow. So Scout borrowed some snow from Miss Maudie, and built a fine snowman. That night, There was a fire in the town, and some of the houses burned down including Miss Maudie's. When kids were watching the fire, they mysteriously had a blanket on, and later, Atticus told Scout that it was Boo Radley who put blankets on them silently, and Scout almost pukes.

Atticus being a lawyer, he has to defend a "Nigger" named Tom Robinson, and some of the people hates him for defending a nigger. Like the Cecil Jacobs kid from the school. He made fun of Atticus for defending him and Scout almost fought with him but walked away. For Christmas, they went to the finch farm, and met the families. For christmas, both of them god air rifles and Jem got a chemistry set. And Scout thinks he could make a "invisible ink" and write to Dill with that ink. 

Francis Hancock, 8 year old grandson of aunt Alexandera, tells Scout that Dill doesn't have a home and he just gets passed around from relative to relative. And, he calls Atticus "Nigger lover" for defending a black person, and eventually, they have a big fight.

Jem thinks Atticus is too old because he is nearly 50. When they god a air rifle for christmas, Atticus told Uncle Jack to teach the kids shooting because Atticus is not a "Shooting person". but, Atticus tells this at the dinner table to Jem. "'I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Jem asks Miss Maundie if that is true, and she is positive because mockingbird mean no harm to us and sings us beautiful songs. She also says that Atticus is not that dull because he can do many other things. Like he can play Jew's harp, and also was a checkers champion.

Later that day, While Jem and Scout decided to go real hunting, they find old dog Tim Johnson, Mr. Harry Johnson's dog, and turns out that it is a mad dog. So Sheriff, Mr. Heck Tate comes and waits for the shot, but he hasn't shot in 30 years. So Atticus volunteers to shoot, and he hits the dog. The bullet was little bit off to the right because all the finch's right eyes are better than left eyes. And from Miss Maudie, Jem learns that Atticus's nickname was Ol'One-Shot, because once, he shot 15 times and got 14 doves. So Jem learns his father is not that old. yet.


#2 Why did you and your partner choose this novel? In the first pages, are you both pleased with the selection? Explain both of your feelings.

My mom and I chose this novel because when I was looking for classics to read, my mom recommended me this great classic, telling me that she had read this multiple times, and she told me it is better when you read it again. I always wanted to read this book because I've heard of lots of people telling me how great this book is. And she told me you must read this book because it is just so good piece of work and I agree with her. In the first pages, I and my mom was very much satisfied with the book we chose. For me, this book has been written beautifully, and my mom agreed with me.