Silver

Okay, maybe it's dumb to write a blog  post about a book I'll most likely never finish.  Too bad, because it's really good too.  But when we were a my aunt's house, I had nothing to do so I picked up a book sitting on my cousin's pencil case and started reading it.  It was pretty good- it's called Silver.  There's a bunch of kids at a boarding school, and after a science experiment goes wrong a disease spreads around campus that turns people into cyborgs within hours.  Then, it's like an outbreak of intelligent zombies.  I got far enough into the book that the climax has already happened, and some of the main characters are being infected, but not far enough for it to end.  This really bugs me!  I want to read the rest of it!  Maybe it's at the library...

Crunch

I'm going to start this post out with a slightly annoyed disclaimer.  Stop making fun of me for the book I'm reading, people!  No, it's not a third grader book!   Ever heard of 'don't judge a book by its cover'? Jeesh.  I will say that it is probably more of a middle school than high school book.  But that doesn't mean I can't read it!  The only reason I am is because the author, Leslie Connor, wrote the only book I've been able to read four times and still enjoy.  It's Waiting for Normal, by the way.  I figured I'd read another one of her books.  Don't eat me.
I just had to get that out.  I'm really enjoying this book, Crunch, so far.
I'm only on page 28, but it's already interesting to me.  There is no gas, for whatever reason, in the United States, and Lil and Dewey's parents are stuck out of state, meaning they have to care for their younger siblings.  It's kind of like science fiction meets realistic fiction: I'm not quite sure how to describe the genre, actually, because even though I've been thinking about it a lot the question is still hanging in  my mind.  No gas in the US, or maybe, the world?  Sci fi.  But the intimacy of the family connections makes it sound more like realistic fiction, especially when you look at quotes like this: "We cook together tonight at your place?  Pop and I took the boat out early this morning...'" (Connor 23) Life is going on as usual, just... no gas.  Almost as if the shortage is a subplot, and the main thing is kids taking care of their younger siblings.  It's an interesting perspective, since the gas shortage sems like such an outlandish thing you'd think it was going to be the main plot.  But again, I'm not that far into it yet so maybe I really can't say.
But you know what I can say?
Not.  A.  Third.  Grader.  Book.
Give me a break, people.

The world is not a wish-granting factory.

I'm putting down Shadow of the Hegemon.  I just can't take anymore disappointment from Orson Scott Card!  I told myself I would finish the series, and the book I was reading in my last post, but honestly, I can't anymore.  The whole series went downhill after the focus was off Ender's time at Battle School.  If you're going to read the Ender's Game books, read Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, A War of Gifts, and STOP.  Don't fall into the commercial trap, only created to make Card money when his writing had gotten lazier and less exciting.
Anyway, I need to stop bashing poor Card (it's not his fault he needs money; honestly, this is modern day America we're talking about here), and start praising John Green.  Awhile back, a friend said John Green was one of his favorite authors and so I started looking him up.  Then, I started hearing all these great things about a book called The Fault in Our Stars.  So I looked it up, as is my nature.  I am one with Google.
It turned out John Green wrote it!
Let me just say how impressed I am with his writing style.  It's new, and refreshing, after reading Card for so long.  I can't even crack a joke about it; that's how much in awe I am.  At one point while I was reading, I came to a realization.
All.
These.
Different,
Wonderful,
Philosophical,
Incredibly real,
Characters.
Were brought to life...
By one person.
One man.
This man.

He's... just an ordinary guy.  How is it possible?  I'm nearly envious.  Is he real? He is. 
That picture is the picture of a very real, very talented man.
Can anyone ever work to write as well as him?  To make characters just float off the page and into your life?  When I write, I certainly try.  But my characters blend, they become too much like myself.  Maybe one day, I'll be able to write like him.
But today, it is amazingly unreachable.

Ender's Toilet

Yup, back to Ender's Game books, with The Shadow of the Hegemon.  Well, I'm glad that I'm reading this book at least, because although it was mentioned in every single Ender's Game book, I never actually knew what the Hegemon was.
The Hegemon, it turns out, is a world government that is just barely keeping different nations in the world from killing each other.  Lovely.
"So what does the setting really look like?" is the question I've been asking myself over and over.  Especially since most of the books took place in outer space and only mentioned Earth, my curiosity was piqued.  What does Earth really look like if people are living out here in space?
It's a little sad that after fifteen minutes of searching, this picture is the best thing I could find to describe the state Earth is in in this book series:

One quote on page 51 says, "There wasn't a thing he could say to change this situation.  If Greece were fighting a war, they'd set Bean and Nikolai to work, making plans, charting strategies" (Card 51). Bean and Nikolai are kids, not even teenagers yet.  The world has to be in a really awful situation to send kids to war.  Wow.  That just isn't something you do!  Can you imagine our society doing that?  I'm amazed.  I picture a broken planet, nations just barely holding onto a shred of peace before it all goes down the figurative drain.  And the fact that the war with aliens has ended only makes things worse, since the same kids who fought in the war are back on Earth.  To summarize, the planet has no more reason for international cooperation, and each country is now armed with children that are military geniuses.
FLLUUSSH.

Takahiro

One of the characters in Shadows, which I'm still reading and really enjoying, is a werewolf.
"Really?" You groan and sigh, "Another werewolf story?  Just when the last post was starting to draw me in to read it.  Megan really does write fantastic blog posts."
Well, read it anyway.  Takahiro, or Taks, is no... what's his name?  Oh, yeah.  Jacob.  Jacob Whatever-his-last-name-is.
Takahiro is silent, and intelligent.  He can be closed off at times, but he will always honor a committment even if he isn't up to it, and is open when he's ready.  He respects people's boundaries, and knows his own.  Also, he is not a stereotypical werewolf.  The full moon doesn't bother him.  It's stress that causes him to change, when it becomes too difficult for him to manage.  Before you tell me he should just handle is better, let me tell you that his mother is dead, he had a difficult transition from Japan to, inferrably, the U.S. or Canada, his father has disowned him, and evil magic is on the rampage in their town.  And he's a werewolf!  If that isn't stressful I don't know what is.
He does not kiss immpressionable teenage girls on whim, instead letting them decide when the time is right.  He does not run around killing vampires and showing extreme anger issues when he turns, instead lying on the floor and not wanting to hurt anyone.  He is civil -imagine that- around other boys who may like the main character, Maggie.
Above all, he is not Jacob Whatever-his-last-name-is.
If you want proof, here it is, on page 173, "He pulled out a fresh piece of origami paper... then he started showing me what to do.  After I made a mess... he gave me another piece of origami paper to mangle.  Then he gave me a second one."  He's patient and helpful. 

Shadows

I've finally decided to take a break from the Ender's Game books (I won't say series, because it really isn't- it's just a lot of books centered around the same setting and/or idea.  Does that make sense?  If you want a clearer explanation look here.  It isn't the most recent chart, but gives a visual of what it kind of is.)
Anyway, I'm off topic.  Shadows, the novel I'm reading now, is one of the best I've read since the first Ender's Game.  So far, it's been absolutely packed with action and suspense.  Maggie thinks she is a normal girl... but is she?  Her stepdad comes from OldWorld, where magic is still used, and Maggie can see the magical shadows around him (gruuaa) that no other NewWorlder can.  What can she do about it?  When a cute, magical -literally- boy steps into the scene, he turns her life upside down and changes everything she thought she knew.  That's as far as I've gotten right now, but I can't wait to read more!

Earth Unaware

This is another Ender book.  This isn't as good as the quality of Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow- it's more on the level of Ender in Exile.  But, the story is developed so much more throughout the other books that they're worth reading, even if they aren't as good.  To make myself more interested because I  hate abandonig books, I'm writing about the best thing in this novel so far.
So, what is the best thing?  In my opinion, it is defintiely the relationship between 17-year-old Victor and his 9-year-old apprentice, Mono.  They both live on the ship El Cavador, and are a family of asteroid miners.  Victor develops and improves upon tools in use for mining, and does mechanical repairs.  He is very skilled, and keeps Mono's interest in what he is doing well.  He is also a kind teacher, but still knows how to instruct well, despite his young age.  This is shown by a quote that comes from a conversation between Victor and Mono on page 28, which says, "Mono was on an emotional high.  'You'd be rich on Earth, Vico.  Stinking rich.  All these ideas of yours.  They'd pay you a million credits.' 'I'm seventeen, Mono.  I'd be lucky to get an assembly-line job....  Besides, you and I did this together.  The stabilizer was both of us.'"  This exemplifies their close family relationship and the skill of both of them by mentioning the last job they worked on together and both of their faith in the skill of the other.

Cia Vale

Cia Vale, the main character in The Testing, is a very intriguing character.  She has so many different sides to her that it's hard not to think about her, even after you've turned the last page of the novel.  If she were a real person,  I think I'd really enjoy talking to her about some of the seemingly insane desicions she made throughout the testing process.  Before she went in for the testing, her father told her to trust no one, yet as soon as her journey began she found herself falling in love with another boy from her colony.  She blindly trusted people,  without even considering their possible motives.  She and the boy from  her colony, Tomas, grew to be friends with a boy from another colony, Will.  During that fourth and final phase of the testing, the candidates were dumped in post-apocalyptic Chicago and told to find their way back to  the original testing site in Tosu City, which we can infer is probably somewhere near or a little bit south of present day Kansas City, Missouri.  She and Tomas meet up at the beginning, in Chicago, and about halfway through find Will.  Tomas urges her not to let him come along, yet she does anyway.  This surprises me and is something I'd definitely like to ask her about.  She was so wary of traps Testing Officials set for them, and was careful not to trigger any, but easily trusted other people, when several candidates had already proven to be deadlier than the traps.   Also, she consistently ignored her father's warning not to trust people, but always thought carefully about his advice for other aspects of the Testing.  When Tomas and Will both proved themselves to be incredibly untrustworthy, she deserved it.  But then, she still couldn't bear to stop loving Tomas.  Instead, she fell into total denial, and blamed Will even though it obviously wasn't him.  Her quote on page 308 proves this.  It reads, "No.  My heart doesn't want to believe it.  Tomas wouldn't" -oops, spolier, can't give that away- "...unless he didn't have a choice.  I left Will and Tomas together.  Isn't it more likely that Will, a proven..." (spoiler) "was the one to do it?  Maybe there was some kind of altercation.  Maybe...."  Is she just too in love with Tomas to bear the possibility that he did something horribly wrong?  Why couldn't she even act slightly wary around him after her realization of what really happened?  Wasn't it enough to make her stop being so lovesick over him?  I really do want to know what she was thinking.

Your Time is Almost Up.

Recently, I've started reading The Testing.  It's a dystopian novel- like lots of more recent books, but that doesn't mean it isn't good- and it's about a girl, Cia, who gets chosen to test to try to get into the University.  I found it interesting that in the whole country, there is only one college to go to.  It's so different from what we know, where there are tons of colleges throughout the US and many of them aren't even that selective.  For example, a quote says, "Five of us from my grade were selected and tested.... I was the only one who made it to the University." (Charbonneau 6)  This quote shows that you have to be incredibly smart in order to even be selected for Testing, and even better to get into the University.  However, in Cia's world this makes sense, since society is coming out of a war and the land has been completely ruined, only the best and smartest minds will be very useful to putting things back in order.  The life we know is nothing like this.  Almost anyone can go to college, and most of the time there isn't a special test you have to pass.  Your application just has to look good to Admissions Officers.  But like I said before, for us this makes sense.  The US is not completely destroyed; we aren't in the process of rebuilding society from scratch.  Maybe the most intelligent minds will be more useful, but everyone can have their place in the country.

Ender in Exile

This book is plenty good, but the worst thing about it is just that it isn't on the same level as the others in the story.  The other stories used technical and scientific ideas and terms, yes, but they weren't overused to the point where they cluttered the story.  With all of this, the novel becomes less of an exciting and suspenseful read- it doesn't make me as anxious to get home, flop onto my bed, and read.  While I will say that it was a great book to be reading after I finished each final exam (and it was probably part of the reason that motivated me to focus on them so I could finish faster), there are some sentences that are completely overloaded with futuristic science that we can't possibly understand.  A quote on page 123 states, " 'The inertia supression on this ship is superb.  In fact, we are already accelerating at the rate of two gravities, and yet the only apparent gravity is imparted by the centrifugal force of the spin of the ship.' 'Which is odd,' said Valentine, 'since centrifugal force is alos inertial, and you'd thinkit would also be supressed.' 'The supression is highly directionalized, and affects only the forward movement of the ship.' " What does all that even mean?  Directional suppression of inertia?  Centrifugal movement?  They're spinning?  Don't you have to go through astronaut training for that?  (They didn't.)  It wouldn't be as noticeable if Orson Scott Card took some time to explain all of this, like he did in the previous books where there was less material like this anyway, but he doesn't.  All in all, the tone of the novel is just nore monotonous.  Here is a link to a reader who agrees with me:
http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=8063

Honors English 1a Blog Reflection

Throughout the course of the trimester, my biggest struggle was just with coming up with topics to blog about.  I wasn’t always sure how to answer questions on the prompt page, and I was afraid that if I came up with a topic of my own then I wouldn’t have a good blog post, or it wouldn’t be long enough.  As time went on, I tried to become more comfortable with the idea of the blog, and move more away from topics already set in stone.  Instead, I morphed together different prompts based on what I felt went with the novel I had read or was currently reading.  By the end of the trimester, sometimes I didn’t even look at the paper, preferring to blog about whatever was most prominent in what I was reading.

My greatest strength with blogging was describing whatever I was reading well, I think, so I didn’t confuse people who hadn’t read the book.  Most of the time, I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who hadn’t read the book and read the post from their perspective before publishing it.  If anything was confusing, I included a better description of what was going on and read it over again.

The quality of my writing has grown over the trimester in many ways, one of which being my ability to sound more like myself while writing.  As seen in my blog post "Doomed", my tone was very robotic and had little authentic voice.  This is best shown from this quote in the beginning of the post, which says, “The book I just finished reading is Doomed, by Tracy Deebs.  The main character of the novel is named Pandora.  Her father has been gone for ten years, and her mother consistently warns her to have nothing to do with him- to not open any mail, any message, any gift, or ever talk to or see him.  But on Pandora's 17th birthday… Pandora opens an email sent to her by her father, since her nature at the beginning of the novel is very curious and prone to temptation.”  Yes, I described Pandora’s qualities, but I didn’t try to relate to anything about me or that I know, or to even get into detail besides basic description.

As I got further into the trimester, my writing had more of a voice and I began to sound like a real, unique person.  Although my writing style in the blog posts developed a very laidback tone, it still gave the readers more of a chance to learn about me instead of just having an objective summary.  This can be seen in a quote from my blog post “Ender’s Game", where I wrote, “Science Fiction has always been my favorite genre to read and write, and I thought the concept of the story's plot was so exciting.  It intrigued me that in the beginning of the story Ender is only six years old- just a little kid, and the idea of six year olds training for battle is such an anomaly in our time that it hooked me in and held me there.”  Here you can see more about my personality, my likes and dislikes, and how I relate the book to what I know.  I still describe what the novel is like, but instead of through and objective point of view it can be heard through mine as if I were speaking.

Ender's Shadow

This is the sequel to Ender's Game.  I haven't read it yet, at least not in the sense that I've picked up an actual copy of the book, but I did read the prologue, which was shown as a sneak peek in the back of my copy of Ender's Game.  In the first book, Ender is shown training an intelligent, younger boy named Bean, who seems to be almost exactly like Ender was in the beginning- bright, rebellious, and with ideas other people haven't thought of.  The prologue of Ender's Shadow seems to center around Bean's early childhood, so I think that instead of focusing on Ender, the nest novel will focus on Bean.  It will be interesting to see his perspective on Battle School, the place where bright kids train for war.
I thought it was really cool to see in the prologue how different Ender's and Bean's situations were before Battle School.  While Ender lived in a home with his family, and seemed to be a bit wealthier, Bean had no home.  He lived by himself in the streets, finding food whenever he could, and spent most of his life close to death.  Until he was four, he didn't even have a name, and it was given to him by a nine year old girl that held some control in the streets.  Yet, both Ender and Bean saw the world so similarly, in ways other people did not.  Ender never seemed to pay attention in class, yet knew evekrkything, and Bean was poorly off even for a street urchin, but is portrayed to use the same basic logic even at age four in the same way Ender is by the quote, "But finally he realized:...He had understood it from the start.  The reason all these kids handled everything so stupidly was because they were stupid.  They were stupid and he was smart.  So why was he starving to death while these kids were still alive?  That was when he decided to act."

Ender's Game

What interested me and made me want to pick up this book:
I feel a little guilty saying it since I like to consider myself well-read, but I had never even heard of this book before the movie came out.  I haven't seen the movie yet and won't until at least when I'm done reading the book, but lots of my friends saw it, and I kept hearing so many good things about it.  It became as well known and as much talked about as "Frozen" has more recently.
Once I heard the basic plot of the movie, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the book, mainly because I'm just a nerd like that and if given a choice between a movie and a book I will almost inevitably choose the book.  I'm really just not into movies.
Science Fiction has always been my favorite genre to read and write, and I thought the concept of the story's plot was so exciting.  It intrigued me that in the beginning of the story Ender is only six years old- just a little kid, and the idea of six year olds training for battle is such an anomaly in our time that it hooked me in and held me there.
Another thing I feel guilty about is saying how much the cover drew me in.  But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to get drawn in by the cover of a book, especially if there are so many other good things about it.
This, of course, is a movie poster and not a book cover, but the picture of the boy in a flash suit (what they where to train for battle) is the same, and so is the font and color of the text.  This is easily one of the coolest covers I have ever seen on a book.

The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe, Romeo and Juliet

I'm finished with The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe now, so here is a summary (without spoilers): Gabe Ashe's house burned down, leaving his family no choice but to move in with his grandmother.  He soon finds a friend nearby, Seth Hopper, and they play a game in the woods between their homes, calling the forest Howler's Notch in their game.  They pretend to be Robber Princes, taking back innocent babies that The Hunter stole from villagers.  They play this game all summer, but when school begins Gabe finds other friends, and tells Seth that the game is stupid and he won't play it anymore.  But is it really just a game?  After Seth and Gabe fight, ending in Seth telling Gabe that The Hunter will come for him, strange things start happening.  Thefts, explosions, and dark figures hovering over beds at night become the main topic of conversation among kids at school.  Seth, Gabe, and their friend Mazzy look into these occurrences, leading them to believe that The Hunter is real.  But what is he?  Are their lives at stake?

Romeo and Juliet:
I've never really enjoyed reading romance, but I find it almost funny so far.  Romeo exaggerates his feelings for Rosaline, yet so quickly switches to loving Juliet the moment he sees her.  I think Mercutio is strange, and keeps the mood of the play from being too deep, at least for now, and takes your attention away from the fact that everything is leading up to Romeo and Juliet eventually committing suicide.
However, I also find many things confusing.  The Middle English language, in particular, is very difficult to understand, and it's also hard to comprehend the figurative language Shakespeare used.  I always feel like I've missed something important in the plot line, and find myself reading back several times only to find that I can't figure out where my thoughts got off track.

The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe

So far, the best thing about The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe is the basic idea behind the novel.  I say this meaning that it is fast-paced, interesting, and incorporates an idea of demons that has been in humanity forever, but in the story is presented in a fresh way.
In the novel, the name of the demon is The Hunter.  Gabe and his friend Mazzy, and his neighbor Seth, can't be sure in the point of the book where I am if The Hunter is real.  Seth is a firm believer.  The Hunter originated in a game between him and his older brother David.  David ran away, convinced that The Hunter was real and after him, and Seth missed the game so much that when Gabe moved in the summer before eighth grade Seth could hardly wait to play it again.
When school starts, Gabe makes new friends and they help him to be convinced that Seth is a freak, and not someone Gabe should be hanging around.  Several strange occurrences happen at school that Seth is seemingly behind, but only Gabe and Mazzy believe Seth when he pleads innocence, while the rest of the school only wants to make him even more of an outcast.
Something else must be behind everything, something greater than Seth.
I believe that The Hunter is real, but instead of a moster that has always existed, I believe it is something accidentally conjured up by Seth, Gabe, and Mazzy.  All three of them came from rough times in their lives, and all three try to convince themselves that they are fine when they really are not.  Before David ran away, other things were happening in his life he couldn't deal with, such as people making fun of him at school.  The Hunter didn't start bothering him until these prior things occurred.
So, what do you think will happen next?  Is The Hunter a demon that's always been there?  Is there even a demon at all?  Or is it just a product of their minds?

The Chaos of Stars

Isadora is the daughter of Isis and Osiris- two Egyptian gods.  Because they could have chosen to make her immortal and didn't, she thinks they don't love her, and she has learned to harden her heart from feeling any kind of love.  She has always lived her life only through the guidance of her birth star- Orion. 
Her mother feels danger has come, and when the opportunity comes for Isadora to go to San Diego, she gladly takes the chance to be away from her parents.  There she can follow her passion of interior design and make new friends.
But, even in San Diego her mother can reach her, and forces her to work at an exhibit in a museum about Ancient Egypt.  Isadora hates it at first, but soon gets into the work, softens her heart, and fins out that things aren't always what they seem...