Currently

Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen
Pages this week: 150
Pages this semester: 526

Sentences of the Week:

1.) Her eyes bulged out of her head when she said that because she had a condition called a thyroid, which was located somewhere in her leg.

2.) There really was a shitload of kids. That's because the neighborhood was chock-full of what Granny called "products of Catholic marriages."

3.) "No matter how poor we are," Mother said, backing into the parking space in front of Shuster's Shoes up on North Avenue, "we still need shoes." She winked at us. "They're important to our souls."

I liked sentence one because I'm a nerd and thought the fact that Sally thinks the thyroid is in the leg is funny. The second sentence I found humorous as well. The third sentence is my favorite because it is SO TRUE! I love shoes!

Whistling in the Dark

The stepfather, Hall, in this book is really getting on my nerves! He is such a jerk! He's a drunken fool that hits his kids (Sally, Troo, and Nell), that aren't even his kids! Above all that, he has a 'mother' tattoo on his arm. Mama's boy. Ew. He even started to yell her name when he fell over drunk after hitting Troo! This guy screams pompous idiot. Also, the girls' mother has been in the hospital for a couple days now, so the girls have to watched by Hall. It is a horrible situation altogether. Another thing that's going on in the book right now is that the oldest sister, Nell, has to cook dinner for all of them, and since Hall is spending all the grocery money on beer, there isn't much food to cook with. All in all, I don't think it's going to end well for these little girls.

I Should Probably Blog

I started a new book this week called Whistling in the Dark. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it or not yet. I'm still in the "oh my gosh The Kite Runner was so great phase" if that makes any sense to you at all. Have you ever read a book you like so well that the next book you read pales in comparison? Well I think that's what I'm going through. Or maybe I just need to give Whistling in the Dark more of a chance. It could potentially be a good book. I haven't gotten far in it yet, but so far it's about a little girl and her sister. Their father dies, and her mom remarries a guy they hate, and they have to move into the city. So far, I'm not too found of the mother. The first few pages in the mom was talking about how you can tell all about a person just from his or her last name. Crazy judgmental right? Yeah that's what I thought too. And the girls' stepfather seems to be an asshole. A real big jerk. He's acting like their new 'daddy' and acts like he has every right to boss them around. In my opinion, he is stepping on some major toes, 1: because he has dated their mother for all of a month, and 2: because he is not their father, or anything near father material. So pretty much he is a jerk. The end.

Side note: I applied to Ball State today!!! I still have to write an essay for Purdue, but hopefully I get that done soon! Eeek, I hope I get accepted!

Sentences of the Month

1.) "Children aren't coloring books. You can't fill them with your favorite colors"
2.) It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names.
3.) I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middles of the night.

These are my favorite sentences because all of them hit a nerve. With the first one, I feel like parents put so much pressure on their kids to be perfect and make them feel like they never measure up. The second one I like so much because I think it is a great analogy. The third sentence I thought was a very interesting insight about how forgiveness works.

Currently

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (finished!)
Whisting in the Dark by Lesley Kagen
Pages this week: 63
Pages this semester: 386

New Book Ideas?

The worst part about finishing a book is trying to find one to read next. Nothing is seeming to spark my interest much. I'm sick of the typical girly lovey-dovey novels, and I'm looking for something different. Maybe I'll try to find a funny book to read. I could always go for a good laugh. But I also like books with a good meaning and theme behind it. So I really don't know which direction I should go. So if anybody actually reads my posts, it would be FABULOUS if you could give me a couple suggestions on what to read next. Please and thank you!

The Kite Runner

I finally finished The Kite Runner! It was so so so good! I highly recommend it. It is a story about friendship, growing up, and overcoming your past. It has many themes in it, such as ethnic tension, loyalty, betrayal, coming of age, courage, forgiveness, guilt, the love between father and son, the effects of war, religion, and redemption. The book didn't end exactly how I wanted it to, much like most things in life, but it did have a good ending. I have never been so moved by a book before. It dragged me around emotionally, tossing me from happy to sad and everything in between. This is a book that I'm probably going to end up reading again (and that never happens). It was so unlike anything I had ever read before. It was actually written well too, unlike most teenage girls novels, cough cough *Twilight*.

Excerpt representing the theme of religion:
I throw my makeshift jai-namaz, my prayer rug, on the floor and I get on my knees, lower my forehead to the ground, my tears soaking through the sheet. I bow to the west. Then I remember that I haven't prayed for over fifteen years. I have long forgotten the words. But it doesn't matter, I will utter those few words I still remember: La illaha il Allah, Muhammad u rasul ullah. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. I see now that Baba was wrong, there is a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find him.

I fell in love with this excerpt. The corridor of desperation he is talking about is the hospital, where he is begging to the point of tears that everything will be okay. It also represents that in time of need and hopelessness, people turn to God. They beg. They turn to Him for help. They turn to Him when all else has failed. They turn to Him in as a last resort, as a fleeting hope of desperation.

So overall, I pretty much love this book. Read it.

Claims of the Day

1.) In this scene you see Blake Griffin dunking a basketball, his expressions show his immense, powerful, and colossal body floating in the air, putting the extravagant crown into a short time of faint, quiet, and peaceful time before they erupted into a thundering and noisy crowd.

2.) Disney's colossal use of space, attractive setting, warm colors, and the adventurous and gleaming

 action the poster gives makes this movie a must see.

 

3.) Team iLuminate’s performance on NBC’s Americas Got Talent the groups jerky but elegant movements, strange and breath-taking choreography, and rapid roaming use of space.

 

4.) In Fighting Gravity’s final Performance on America’s Got Talent, the voiceless and light dancers use graceful, upbeat, and a unique technique that expresses a new and an explosive futuristic type of dance.

5.) In this beautiful beach painting, the sparkling water to the clear gleaming sky, the vast openness of the ocean, and the author’s use of graceful, yet precise lines and textures illustrates the dreamy peacefulness the author attempts to portray.

The fifth claim was my favorite!

Observe:
fierce, goofy, fun, bright, precise, graceful, sharp

Tone:
aggressive, energetic, explosive, lighthearted, playful

Claim: Catherine's use of goofy clothing, fierce jumps, and precise gracefulness express a sense of energetic and explosive dance that has a playful attitude.

Currently

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Pages this week: 100
Pages this semester: 323

Sentences:

1.) "He's selling his leg?"
Farid nodded. "You can get good money for it on the black market. Feed your kids for a couple weeks."

2.) My face was burning. What was the old saying about the penny? My past was like that, always turning up.

3.) "In the west, they have an expression for that," I said. "They call it ethnic cleansing."

I liked the first sentence because I thought it was so odd. Things were so bad, people were so poor, that they would sell their leg to feed their children. I'm not sure why I liked the second sentence, I just did. And the third sentence represents racism, a theme throughout this book.

Currently

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Pages this week: 22
Pages this semester: 223

Sentences of the week:

1.) It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names.

2.) I didn't know what or whom he was defying. Me? Dr. Amani? Or maybe the God he had never believed in.

3.) He put films up on the viewing box in the hallway and pointed with the eraser end of hid pencil to the pictures of Baba's cancer, like a cop showing mug shots of the killer to the victim's family.

I liked all of these sentences because they all had to do with cancer, and cancer is a touchy subject for me and many others I know. I felt like these sentences were all very true and very well written. They hit a nerve of mine as I read them, so i felt the need to write them down.

Time Management Skills : Nonexistent.

I haven't read much this week, in fact, I've read a total of 22 pages, oops. I keep meaning to read, I really do! I actually really enjoy reading The Kite Runner because it so different from anything that I've read before. It is interesting and very well written in my opinion. The reason I have not stuck my nose in it lately is simply because I have no time to. Between my seven classes (three of which are AP), soccer practice/games everyday, homework, household chores, and work, I don't have time to sit down and enjoy the book. I feel stressed beyond belief and stupid for not taking a study hall this year! On top of all that, thinking I'd be fine getting an after school/soccer job was just ridiculous. I thought I could handle the work load this year, and now I am getting daily headaches as a result. Can headaches even be stressed induced? If not, I have no clue what is causing all of these awful headaches.

Also, I must admit that I am not a big fan of these required blogs. All I really do when I blog is rant about random stuff that nobody really wants to read, but I have nothing else to write about and I've got to get my 600 word quota in by Friday. So in all honestly, it is a lose-lose situation. I don't want to write this, and nobody wants to read this. So whats the point?

Like Satan, cancer has many names.

I was sick from school today, and I really should have caught up on my reading, but I never did. I am so behind on my reading it's a joke. Procrastination at its finest. I should be done with my book by now but I'm just barely over half way. What I've read so far is that Amir (the main character) is about to get married, and his father is about to die. So emotionally, I am happy and sad at the moment. This book is constantly affecting my emotions, and I can't decide if I like the emotional roller-coaster or not. I find it somewhat irritating and intriguing at the same time. Amir's father, Baba, is sick with cancer. I hate cancer. Nearly every body's life has been affected by cancer somehow. Everyone knows someone or knows someone that knows someone who has had cancer. Unfortunately, I know multiple people, five that I can think of at the moment. Two that have died from it, two that are struggling through it now, and one that has survived it. And all of them suffered from different types of cancer too (pancreatic, brain, breast, prostate, and throat). In my book, The Kite Runner, there was a line that said, "It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names." I couldn't agree more. Cancer is a merciless killer that affects it's victims emotionally, mentally, and physically. I hate cancer.

Currently

The Kite RunnerPages this week: 100
Pages  this semester: 201

Sentences of the week:

"It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime, Amir" he said.

"Zendagi migzara," he said. Life goes on.

For me, America was a place to bury my memories. For Baba, a place to mourn his.

I liked the first sentence because I thought it was a very true statement. I liked the second sentence because I thought the phrase was fun to say. The third sentence I liked just because.

The Kite Runner

I have been so busy this week that it has been hard for me to find time to read! I have about 50 more pages to read to meet my quota for the week, and just one night to do that. I REALLY need to improve my time management skills. Anyhow, Amir and his father, Baba, move from Afghanistan to America when the war breaks out. America turns out to be a great fit for Amir. He graduates from high school, gets in to college, but most importantly, has run from his past. From Hassan. Unfortunately, America hasn't been as good for Baba. The only job he can manage to get is at a local gas station, a huge contrast to his highly successful business in Afghanistan. Baba misses all his old friends and acquaintances and huge parties, but he sacrificed all of that so Amir could have a better life. I was wrong before in earlier posts, Baba really does love Amir. He may not understand Amir, but nevertheless, he loves Amir.


One thing that I really like about this book is all the Afghan words periodically thrown into the text. The words are put in through dialogue and normal narration and makes the overall book more interesting. For example I learned that zendagi migzara means life goes on, naan means bread, and salaam means hi. It is all so interesting!