blog #6

In the book "Someone to Love" by Sarah Dressen, The main character and her best friend go to their friend's funeral. The funeral brought back many sad and happy memories of their friend and they cried. The main character's mom is worried about her and her friend because it's the last week of summer and she is affraid this will start their school year off badly. They spend the rest of summer together just hanging out and remembering thier friend almost everywhere they went and everything they did reminded them of him and how they really miss him. That is what has happened in the part of the book that I have recently read.

blog #5

I just finished reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. In my opinion it was one of the best books ive read all year. I actually read the whole thing and could understand it for the most part. The only thing that was confusing about the book would be the parts where Billy time travels because I could never tell when he was. This book overall was about Billy Pilgrim and how he got "kidnapped" by Tralfamadorians which are little alien type creatures. He time traveled to the past future and present and went through many adventures. He also learned many things from the Tralfamadorians, many lessons. I enjoyed this book alot.

blog #4

I am reading Slaughterhouse five for my end of the quarter reading. This book is very interesting to read and has a lot to do with the war. The first character I read about in chapter one was named Yon Yonson and he worked in wisconsin. He had a daughter named Nanny and a wife. He was writing a book that he was gonna call Dresden but after meeting with Nancy she led him to change it to the childrens crusade. The second character was Billy he is kind of crazy he keeps traveling to the past, future, and present. He has a daughter named Barbara and a son named Robert. He claims he was captured by Tralfamadorians and wrote a letter about it. He was in the war with Weary (another character) and there are many stories about the war and Weary. Weary died from a disease in his feet because his shoes had been stripped off his feet in the war and he had to walk long distances in just cloggs. This is a little of what I have read so far in my book.

blog #3

In the book im reading, "someone to love", the main character is spending some time with her best friend after getting back from camp and shes comforting her because of the recent death of their good friend. She is describing her and how she is known has her best friend hayley not just hayley. There is a funeral that they are getting ready to go to for him and hayley is trying to decide what dress to wear but her friend had been up all night crying. They went to the park and it brought back memories of him and hayley started talking about how he used to be a little nerd and he left school and came back taller stronger and tanner and was the "guy to date". He started going out with girls out of his league and didn't fit in so he went back to hanging out with his old friends and thats when they became good friends.

Blog #2

In the book that I am reading; Someone to Love, by Sarah Dessen, the main character had just reunited with her best friend after being sent to a camp for the last week of summer. The book then flashed back to when her mother had picked her up from camp early to come home to be with her friend because one of their best friends had just died in a motorcycle accident. Her and her mother had always been very close they'd do everything together and never got sick of eachother. Her mom is a therapist and would write about their relationship and talk about it at school presentations etc. She'd also brag about it when her friends would complain about their children. But at the beginning of the summer it all fell apart. Her and her best friend started hanging out with a girl named Ginny who was trouble. They started doing things they'd never even think about doing before and She started losing her relationship with her mother and now got annoyed of her easily. That is what happened so far in my book.

Blog #1

For my outside reading book, I chose to read the book Someone to Love by Sarah Dessen. I chose this book because I have read a couple other books by this author and I really liked them. So far in the book it starts out with the main character at a camp and getting a phone call from her best friend in the middle of the night. She told her she needed her to come home from camp because their best friend had just died in a motorcycle accident; her best friend's love. Her friend really needed her comfort, so right away in the morining she had her mom come get her from camp and she visited her friend right away and they just sat there thinking and talking. That is pretty much what has happened so far in this book.

blog #14 love

There are many texts about love. One of the most famous texts would be Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This text shows deep passionate love another text would be A midsummer night's dream by William Shakespeare because it shows different types of like such as infatuated love and true love. Texts based on romances are sometimes good to read but can mostly be a little more boring than other texts in my opinion.

Blog #13 war

An example of a text that has war in it would be Saving private ryan. It is a movie that has a lot of war battles in it and soldiers fighting for their lives and land/people. It is very intense and good. Also Patriot and Gladiator are examples of texts that include war. There are soo many books and movies that are war based. All of them are very intense to watch and read because there is a lot of action and excitement. Those are a couple examples of texts that include war.

blog #11 global issue

I read a text about global warming on cnn.com. Global warming is a big global issue now adays. It effects everything and pretty much everything is the cause of it. The air polution from cars and factories are a very big cause of global warming along with smoke from fires, cigerettes, etc. Along with air polution there is also water polution/ contamination that is part of it. Oil spills and liter. Ways that we can help "slow" polution would be to carpool more often to save gas and to make sure to pick up liter around you and don't liter and try to just not polute the air and water. But that is an example of a text about global issues.

blog #10 holidays

Holidays have many different meanings and can vary in religion and culture. An example of a text that shows an example of a holiday would be the movie a christmas story, because it gives the traditional christmas example and explains kindof what an old fashioned family would normally do during christmas. This is more of a christian based holiday and there are many other ways people celebrate christmas along with all the other holidays. Different religions have different holidays than other religions along with cultures. This is an example of a holiday text.

blog #9 Bollywood

Bollywood texts are very interesting whether youre reading them or watching them. One example of a Bollywood text is the movie Bride and Prejudice. This movie doesn't take place in India but it makes it look like it does and everyone dresses Indian and follows the culture but it is mixed in with the American culture as well making it a bollywood film. The music is different and interesting in a bollywood film and very colorful. They wear sarees and buy fresh things from the markets like spices and fruits and sing some indian based songs and some american based songs giving it a bollywood twist. I think that Bride and Prejudice is a good example of a Bollywood text.

blog #8 extra credit paragraph

I saw Slumdog Millionaire and noticed that it was similar and different to the book Nectar in a Sieve. The character in both Slumdog and Nectar were lower class. They reinforced that the Indian caste system was very difficult to live in because once you were born into a certain class, it was hard to get out of it. In Slumdog Millionaire Salim and his brother were born in the slums and the only way Salim brought himself out of that lifestyle was through winning money from the show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In Nectar in a Sieve, Rukmani remained as a peasant because of the lack of money and because she was born in that class. Also the movie and the book showed how important spices and color was to them. In the movie almost everyone was wearing very colorful outfits including sarees etc. just like in Nectar in a Sieve. And at all the market scenes in the movie spices were being sold. Rukmani gave her daughter a maroon and red Indian wedding dress. Both the movie and the book showed me better how the slum and peasant lifestyle were like. In both they lived in mud huts, drank dirty water and lived off of little food. They also used the term rupees for money. I think that this would be very hard to live in and a very difficult time filled with many struggles. Being a slum/peasant would not be fun and sounds like a hard life.

blog #7 change

2009 is supposed to be the year of changes. Barack Obama is the new president and is planning for many upcoming changes. The gas prices have already changed very many different times over the year. Obama also is the first African America president in the U.S. which is a very big change. The United States has been lead by a republican president for the past eight years and the past two presidential terms. Barack Obama is a democrat and a democrat leader should change the U.S. pretty dramatically. Our economy is in a recession and Obama plans to change that. So Obama is an example of change.

blog #6 hope

A text that includes hope would be Nectar in a Sieve. This is a good example because there is a large amount of hope in this book. Rukmani and her family have to have a lot of hope especially during all the suffering throughout the book. Including the death of their son, the starvation, and the monsoons. They have to keep hope that things will get better through the suffering and hard times. This book is a good example of a text that includes hope.

blog #5 religion

An example of a text that includes religion/spirituality/belief/non-belief is Siddhartha. This is a good example because it has a lot of different examples of religion, belief, and spirituality in it. Like when Siddhartha and many characters in the book show their belief in Buddha and the eight fold path plus Nirvana. These are examples of spirituality/belief/religion. This is why the book Siddhartha is a good example of a text that includes religion/spirituality/belief/non-belief.

blog #4 genders

I watched a movie called Life on the Frontier. It showed the different rolls of women and men on the frontier in around the 80s. They all had different rolls depending on their gender. The women did most of the cooking and cleaning and gardening and the men did the almost everything else such as building things and milking the animals etc. The men and women had different roles back then then they do now. This movie showed the rolls of gender.

blog #3 cultural differences

Siddhartha is an example of a text that shows cultural difference. They have different beliefs and clothing. Their names are even alot different than any of the names in the u.s. such as givanda and siddhartha. They pray differently and follow the eightfold path and live their lives in order to journey to nirvana. That is why I think that Siddhartha is a pretty good example of a text that shows cultural differences.

blog #2 struggles/difficulty

I found that in the book Marley and Me, the characters all struggle with Marley especially his owners and at many times it is very difficult to take care of him. But after getting to know him and just being patient with him they got over the struggles and difficulties and everyone just learned to accept his level of energy etc.

blog #1 natural disasters

There was a natural disaster in march of last year. A heavy winter storm covered Ohio in more than 20 inches of snow. The blizzard conditions shut down many roads and highways and air travelers across the state were stranded. High winds whipped the snow into 3-foot-tall drifts in some places and people couldn't see for less than a quarter mile. There are many natural disasters in the world and this blizzard is an example of one.

In Marley and Me, Marley gets really sick and runs away and they find him and take him to the doctor. They knew Marley may not be with them long and that made them very sad but they still enjoyed the time they had left with him. He got sick again and the family said their goodbyes and then he took Marley to the vet to put him asleep. It was a very dramatic time but they got through it and burried him in their yard and said their official goodbyes to Marley. It was a very good book and I watched the movie right after finishing and it was a lot like the book and really sad, funny, and good.

OR blog #24

Next in the book Marley and Me the couple started fighting alot because of all the stress with the kids and Marley etc. They almost gave Marley away but decided they couldn't live without him. After a while they decided to move to a bigger house to start their family fresh and have more space. They loved it they had a pool and everything they had fun whether it was in the snow or the sun. And the fighting lessened. Marley was getting older and older and it was harder for him to get around and do the things he used to enjoy doing like jumping around and getting into messes. But they still enjoyed Marley and his company and loved him alot.

OR blog #23

After a while in the book Marley and Me they couple realized that Marley had gotten a lot better and they wanted to start a family. They tried for months and months and finally got pregnant but she went in to check on it and found out that she wasn't actually pregnant. They tried again and finally had a baby boy. Marley was very good with the baby and let him play with him and was calmer around him. Eventually they had another baby boy and then a baby girl. This brought daily arguments between them, a lot of stress, etc. The wife had to quit her job to stay home with the kids and Marley.

OR blog #22

In the book Marley and Me the newly wed couple had just brought home the puppy but the wife had to go somewhere for business for a little bit which left some bonding time for him and the new puppy. They were listening to Bob Marley in the car on the way home and decided Marley would be a good name for the puppy. At first Marley was just a hyper puppy but they quickley realized that he couldn't be left alone for any amount of time and was very affraid of storms and tended to destroy everything in its path. After a while they learned to deal with it and Marley got a little better after getting used to them and "trying" training classes etc.

OR blog #21

Im reading the book Marley and Me so that I can watch the movie to have another view of it. This book is about a man that didn't really want a dog or even thin of having one. He just got married and they are a very happy couple. His friend at work suggested getting a puppy for his wife and see if they can handle one before starting a family. He surprised his wife by taking her to a house where a kind of crabby old lady had a dog that had had puppies and said they could pick one out. The lady offered them a dog for less money than the others and it looked perfectly healthy and fine so they took it. That is what has happened so far.