The Fault in our Stars by John Green

This week I read the book The Fault in our Stars by John Green. This book was about a 16 year old girl, Hazel, who has lung cancer where fluid fills her lungs making it hard to breathe. She also has tumors in her lungs making the fluid that much worse. She has to always be hooked up to an oxygen tank or else her she has trouble breathing. she has been pulled from school, has an over protective mother and the only thing she does away from her house is she goes to a cancer support group. One day at her support group though she meets seventeen year old Augustus. He is an ex-basketball player and amputee. He had had cancer in his leg and had to have it amputated. He came to the support group to support his friend Isaac, who is a regular and is going through a tough time, but also meets Hazel. They hang out after the first support group and from that blossoms a friendship. 

This was a really good book. It is a different read from what I am used to but I still enjoyed it. There is parts of this that have some more mature content but I think everyone could read it. I suggest this book. Its really good and worth reading.

Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff

This week I read the book Black Ships before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff which is basically a retelling of the Iliad. The Iliad is the story of where trojan prince Paris goes and steals one of Greece's kings, king Menelaus, wife Helen and takes her for his own. Menelaus than calls upon all of Greece's mightiest kings and they sail to troy to take back Helen and burn the city. The war than rages on and many men from both sides are lost. Gods interfere from time to time to speed up the war. The war takes nine years to finish but eventually it comes to the an end. Odysseus comes up with a clever way to end the war. This book was a reasonably okay book. I had heard many retellings and this was an average one. Its an extremely easy read. I suggest it for anyone who likes mythology and action. Overall its a fine book but not great.    

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This week I read 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book is about a girl who has killed herself and has left behind 13 tapes each of them containing a reason why she killed herself. In each tape there is a person in there which is the main source of the reason. Hannah (the girl who killed herself) mailed these tapes to the first person mentioned in the tapes. Her only rule was that you listen to all the tapes and then mail them to the person after you on the list. If you did not mail them on then she had a way she set up of putting the tapes out in a public fashion for everyone to hear. If you were the last person then you can keep them forever. This book focuses on a boy named Clay who has received the tapes and listens to them to hear why he was a reason she killed herself and what the other reasons are.

This book is a very sad and depressing book but it is written extremely well. I enjoyed this book meaning it was a very powerful read but very sad. This is an extremely easy read though and not hard to get through at all. It is only 288 pages. Overall this is a good book that is worth reading.

Next week I am going to read Black Ships before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Elanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

This week I read the book Elanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. This was a very good story and I liked it a lot. This book it about two kids who are sixteen years old. The book is set in 1986. Elanor is a "big girl" who returns to her home of Omaha after being kicked out for a year. She has bright red hair and that leads to kids nicknaming her Big Red. Her house is a very small house where she has multiple siblings and an abusive stepfather. Her family is extremely poor. Park is a reasonably wealthily fairly popular half-korean kid. Park would be an extremely popular boy if it wasn't his liking for comic books and different genres of music. On the first day of school though Elanor sits down next to Park and out of that springs a friendship that becomes much more.

I thought this was a very well written book and a realistic book about stereotypes, peer pressure and bullying. It focused a lot on real world issues and I thought that was very interesting. This is a more mature book for a little bit older kids. I think a couple of kids in the class are ready for it though. Overall I feel if you are ready for this book and understand everything this is a very good book.

The Client by John Grisham

This week I read The Client by John Grisham. This book is based in the outskirts of Memphis where eleven year old boy Mark Sway and his younger brother are hanging out when a new lincoln pulls up near them. Out of the car comes a man and he pulls out a boys body. Specifically dead. Mark finds himself caught in between worlds of a mobster and a the justice and he is one of the few who actually knows the whereabouts of this missing boy. This book was a really good and intriguing story. When reading it you get caught up in this crazy world of this young boy and the things he just accidentally saw that could change his life. During this book pictures are painted in your mind about what is happening. Its a really good and extremely interesting book. I suggest it for everyone in the class. It's not extremely intense. There's not really anything that is inappropriate. It is 576 pages so a reasonably long read. The story is very interesting and it really hooked me early. Overall I would defiantly suggest.

Next week I will read Elanor and Park.

Book Blog: Fahrenheit 451

Over spring break I read the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This book is about a dystopian society. The main character in this book is a "fireman" named Guy Montang who job instead of stopping fires is to burn books or start fires. Guy has always loved his job until one night when walking home from work he runs into a seventeen year old girl who is not like everyone else. She and her family have just moved in next door. They start to talk and she asks peculiar questions like "why do you burn the books, when they are full of history and knowledge?" and makes statements such as "you know once fireman's jobs were to prevent fires not start them." These questions strike Guy in a peculiar way making him rethink his career and life. Then this girl asks him the question that makes him think the most "are you happy?". Guy realizes he isn't happy and thats when he starts to change his life.

This book is a very interesting and in some ways meaningful read. It goes through how lives change. Its more of a serious book then some others I have read but still really good. This is a 165 pages so a very quick read. I would suggest this book for a lot of people.

Next week I will read The Client by John Grisham.

SOL 31/31: Showers

To quote Kramer on Seinfeld The Shower Head Episode,

“A bath is like sitting in your on filth”.

Showers sprinkles nice hot clean water,

And it cleans your body and washes everything a way.

A bath is good for about four seconds before you realize,

“There is dirt and grass floating in the water around me”.

Showers can become baths but better.

All you have to do is sit down.

The scalding water trickles down your body

And it warms you up and cleanses your body.

On a cold wet day.

The ones everyone dreads.

Where the wind howls like wolfs.

There is nothing like get out of your wet cold clothes

And letting the steaming water warm you up.

It comforts you like a cushion.

It makes life better and all good.

Your worries wash down the rain with the dirt.

You doubts go away.

Happiness and calmness returns to your body as you sit there,

Your mind blank.

There is nothing to think or say or do.

You forget about your deadlines and due dates,

Your work, school, enemies, everything.

And you are put in a trance you never want to leave.

Each time you try to get it out end up staying for longer.

When you do get out all you can think about.

Is when you are going to be able to take that next long,

Comforting,

Warm,

Shower.