Divergent: Beginning of the book

I have been told multiple times to read Divergent, by friends and mostly my older sister Antonia. Back before the movie came out she had just finished the last book and told me how it ended, that made me not want to start reading the book because I would be mad at the ending of the series. Over the summer I saw the movie, so I know how the book goes. Since school has started all of my friends have been urging me to read this book, but I never wanted to. As more and more people told me to read it, I started wondering what would be different in the book from the movie. So now I have decided to read it to see what all the fuss is about.

I haven't read very much of the book yet because I have been busy this past week. So far the author has described everyday life for Tris, the main character, and her family. Then she talked about the aptitude test, which determines what faction Tris will be in for the rest of her life. After Tris takes the test she discovers that she is unique. She could fit into any one of the five factions, so she is called divergent. In her society this is a bad thing, so she isn't allowed to say anything about it, and has to decide for herself what faction to choose.

Everything I have read so far has been pretty close to how it was in the movie. I am excited to read more and find similarities between the movie and the book. Even though I know what is going to happen the book is still really interesting. When I finish the book I will be able to decide which one I like better, the book or the movie. Judging from what I have read I think I will like the book better because it is a lot more descriptive than the movie is.

Finished Death Be Not Proud

Death Be Not Proud was not the longest book I've ever read, but it was still a great book. One of the things I enjoyed about the book was that it was full of suspenseful moments. There would be moments where the family was waiting for test results, or during surgery. Every time another doctor walked in, it makes the reader think something bad is going to happen. Even though the book wasn't THAT suspenseful, it was a nice touch. I knew how the book was going to end, but the character changed so suddenly, and then the book was over.

I thought it was interesting that this was a true story because it seemed like something that would be in a movie, or a fiction book. It was so unreal. The technology we have today is so advanced compared to what they have to use in the book. Sometimes I would want them to use some kind of easy surgery but I have to remember that they don't have the technology to do what we do today. I would recommend this book to someone who likes to learn about the journey of someone with a life threatening condition, or just anyone who wants to read about Johnny's story.

The next book I am going to read is going to be Divergent. I have already seen the movie, but I haven't read the book and everyone says it's better than the movie. I don't usually read distopian novels, but my sister does, so she has a ton of them. I'm excited to see what they did differently in the movie, and what I think they should have done. Overall I'm excited to read this book, partially because I can't read anymore non-fiction for a while.

Death Be Not Proud: Halfway through the book

As I mentioned in my previous blog, my book is about a boy who develops a brain tumor. My mom was recently in the hospital because she had a numbness in her arm and her face was drooping. As I was reading about Johnny Gunther's symptoms they sounded similar to those that my mom had when she went to the hospital. This made me remember how afraid I was that my mom had a tumor in her brain, when later the doctors concluded it was MS. This helped me connect to the book because I knew how the family felt when Johnny was having all of these symptoms before he went to the hospital.

In the book Johnny is interested to know more about the tumor in his brain, and so is his family. This is exactly how my family is right now. My mom, my dad and I just recently went to a presentation and dinner at Montgomery Inn about a medication my mom could possibly take. My mom has been to 4 events like this and we believe that it is a helpful way to learn what we need to. From this I have a basic understanding of what to expect from my mom, how she will act, and things like that.

This book is great because I can really relate to the feelings of the author. I can relate to the uncertainty, confusion, and the feeling of being afraid of what will happen next. As I keep reading I'm interested to see how the family handles all of the information, whether they will look on the bright side, or not. I think that as the book goes on I will keep finding more and more connections. Here are links to MS symptoms and brain tumor symptoms for you to compare.

Brain tumor: http://www.abta.org/brain-tumor-information/symptoms/
MS Symptoms

Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther

When Mrs. Noble told us we had to read a non-fiction book as one of our three books this semester I didn't know what I was going to do. I don't usually read non-fiction because I find it boring. I decided to read the non-fiction book first to get it over with. I had no idea what kind of book I wanted to read because I didn't want to be bored as I was reading it. I went home and asked my dad what he recommended and he brought me Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther. Whenever my dad would talk about it I always figured it was a fiction book, but it's a memoir. It was written in 1949. The author's son, Johnny Gunther, died of a brain tumor at the age of seventeen. His father wanted to tell the story of what happened to him, but he didn't want it to be a book on a sickness, he wanted to show people how spirited and positive Johnny was from the time when he was diagnosed to when he died.

Even though I am only 30 pages into the book, through the writing I can tell how much the author loved his son. The author took me right into the story and I feel like I am there getting to know Johnny as he grows. I'm interested to read more about his life and everything he went through to try and survive the illness that, at this time, doctors didn't know much about. I'm excited to learn about how the doctors thought, what the chances of survival were, but also about how the author felt in the last few months of Johnny's life. Whether he was optimistic, or only thinking about what was going to happen next. I think this is going to be one of the few non-fiction books I enjoy.

Even though I know how the book ends I'm still expecting some surprises. The author said at the beginning that the story was about the time before his death and how strong he was. As I read a little more of the book, I noticed he asked a lot of questions about what the doctors were doing. Even after his first operation he had a fantastic memory and was every intelligent. I'm excited to learn more about what he went through and what his family went through while they were trying to fight a disease the doctors still didn't know much about.

This is one of the only pictures available of Johnny Gunther. In the picture he is seven years old.