Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This is the first book in the Harry Potter series. I have read it before and since I just had to read two books I didn't want to, I decided to read one I knew I liked. I think this will be fun to read because whenever I read a book I have already read I pick up on new details instead of only paying attention to the main events in the story. I still don't know why I like this series so much but for some reason it is one of the only series of books I liked enough to read all of them. I think it's partially because of the style of writing and how J.K. Rowling describes the people and places. Even just reading the book I can hear the characters talking and see them doing everything described. this is one series I really fell in love with, I even purchased the first book in Spanish and I am reading it along side of the English one to expand my Spanish vocabulary to prepare for my trip to Spain in June.

Another thing I really like about the book is how each individual character is so different. You have Harry, who is courageous and kind, but at the same time he has a darkness inside him that he has yet to understand. There is also Hermione who is one of the most intelligent characters in the book. After reading the beginning of the book again I realized that the reason Herminoe is so smart is because she feels the need to work harder than everyone else. In the book there are Pure-Bloods, Half-Bloods and muggle-borns who are sometimes called Mudbloods by the other two because they don't have magical parents. Since Hermione is muggle-born she feels like she missed out on some of the knowledge the other kids acquired in their homes with magic parents. The first time I read the book I didn't pick up on this, but now that I have read it more than once I am catching more details like that.

I am interested in seeing how many more details I missed when I first read the book. Even though I know what's going to happen in the book I still am able to enjoy the book because it is something I am not forced to read. To me, being forced to read a book makes it seem like homework and I can't enjoy the book. As I read this book I will feel less forced and really get a chance to enjoy myself.

Divergent: Finished with the book

I would have taken longer to read this book but since I was sick for two days this week I had a chance to read and finish the book. I wasn't surprised by the ending because I knew how it was going to end. I really liked the end because it makes me want to read the next book, which will make me want to read the last one. I really enjoyed watching the characters develop in a way I couldn't when I saw the movie. In the book I could read what the characters thought and see their changes there instead of just in their actions and what was being said.

If I had to pick a favorite between the book and the movie it would be the book. It was fun to read the book and visualize what I saw in the movie but I liked being able to visualize what I thought the scene would look like for scenes that weren't in the movie. I wish I would have been able read the book before I saw the movie because I feel like I would've been more interesting to be able to come up with my own picture of what the people and places looked like, instead of seeing what someone else thought it looked like. I am still glad that I finally decided to read this book because I think it's even better than the movie. Movies are good if you want to see a book come to life but sometimes seeing the movie is not enough to really get into the story and understand the characters. In most cases of the book and movie adaptation the book is better, but the movie is sometimes just as good as the book and that's what I think about Divergent.

I don't think that I am going to read the sequel yet but I will sometime. I want to read something that I know I will like for my choice book. I tend to enjoy reading more if it's something that I'm not forced to read. I may not start a book right away but when I do start a book I've been wanting to read I am able to really get into it.

Divergent Middle of the Book

I haven't had much time to read this week but I read some at school and when I had extra time at home. I'm really surprised at how close the movie is to the book. The actors look exactly like the author describes the characters. So far I don't really have a favorite between the book and the movie, but I think the book is more descriptive. All of the characters are different from one another, it's interesting to read about all of the personalities in the book.

My favorite character is probably the main character, Tris. She is confident, and strong, but at the same time she's sensitive and cares about the people she loves. The author is very descriptive and it really helps to visualize all of the characters. There have been some books I have read when I have a hard time trying to visualize the setting and the characters. I find those types of books good and bad at the same time, because you can leave it up to your imagination but at the same time, that may be a hard thing to do.

Overall I'm excited to read more into the book and find more similarities and differences between the book and the movie. I don't usually read this type of book because I don't find the topic that interesting, but I am really enjoying the book. Even though I know how the series ends, because multiple people have spoiled it, I like to see how the characters get there.

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.