First Semester Reflection

         It is the end of the first semester everyone, yeah, winter break here we come. For this blog I will look in the past at all the books I have read this semester. The books I have read were Divergent, Flags of our Fathers, Manuscripts found in Accra, Son of Two Bloods, The Study in Scarlet, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. The reason why I chose these books were because of multiple reasons. First being peer preferences, some of the books, like Divergent. Second reason is because of suspense, the suspense of figuring out who the murderer is. This appears in the Sherlock Holmes series. The last reason is well just for fun in reading something new, like the Son of Two Bloods and the Manuscripts Found in Accra.

        The posts that I made are also something that I would like to tell you about. When I first started blogging I wasn't sure of what to do, I made it seem like an actual assignment instead of something that is there to express myself. It took me until my 4th blog post to realize that I am taking this way to seriously.  Compared to the holistic rubric out of 6 the best I made would probably be a 3-4.

        Now the big question, how can I improve? I set myself three goals. First, I want to make sure that I include more of the prompts in my blogs, let it be thematic or character or any type. Second, I want to make sure that I be more open about my books, not just talking about the pros but also the cons. Lastly, I want to be able to make connections with my book, let it be the world or I.

       This are my thought son my progress during the first semester, I hope to hear from you the next.

                                                                                                                                                     

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Hey guys, hope everyone is feeling good, getting a two day week and all. For this blog I will be talking to you about another Sherlock Holmes adventure that I found to be interesting and worth sharing. The Hound of the Baskervilles is also another well known tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  For those not familiar with this adventure here is a GoodRead link to the summary. 

By now you probably have read the summary, if needed be, and now I will talk to you about my take on the book. The reason why I am taking the time to talk to you about this book, is because in this book Holmes and Watson don't go and solve a murder, but instead he goes and investigates a mysterious as of a legend of a devil-beast. This is probably Holmes' most terrifying case for him and us. When I say that you may think that I am joking with you but, "presume nothing" as Sherlock would say. The book is one that I would recommend to everyone who'll love a good suspense novel and also a little scare. 

Well hope that brings the mood of everyone in a positive manner.  Hope you'll be eagerly waiting for my next blog post, until then enjoy. 

The Study in Scarlet

Hey guys, how is everyone today? I bet that most of you are hoping for it to snow.  On the topic of for this blog post I am going to go back into the past on snowy day when I was really bored and I decided to read a book. The book I decided to read was the infamous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but we all know that there are a lot of books in that series so the one I will be talking to you about is The Study in Scarlet. This is well known because this is the very first adventure that Dr. Watson experienced with Sherlock Holmes. For those not familiar with this book here is a link to a GoodReads summary.

By now you probably read the summary, if needed be of course; now I am going to tell you my take on the book. The series as a whole is really interesting, because of the methods Holmes uses. In most detective stories the protagonist stumbles on clue by luck but Holmes, unlike other detectives, uses actual facts and reasoning to solve his mysteries. There is one down side to a person being as smart as Holmes, and that is the person's ego. Sherlock Holmes is one who likes to be over smart, stubborn, and acts as if he knows everything. There is a line that is world famous and that is, "Elementary, my dear Watson". At first this may seem that Dr. Watson must be a complete idiot, which can't be right hence the title Dr., but it is because of Holmes' ego. 

The series is one that I highly recommend to all those who like a good suspense and also look out for my next blog post. See you all next time.

Son of Two Bloods Connection

Hello everyone, for this blog post I will be talking about the Son of Two Bloods by Vincent L. Mendoza. The Son of Two Bloods is about Vincent's life and how he was a half Mexican and half Creek Indian Because of his multicultural background he was questioning about himself for he didn't feel like he was fitting in either in  culture. Later on he would join the Marines during the Vietnam War. His military experiences would help develop Vincent to understand that there are people who are suffering more than he is, and by suffering I mean not knowing when a grenade will hit the battlefields or even in those in fret for those who are fighting. He also realizes he is the bridge between those two groups. Lastly he had to deal with his wife's death.

All that had happened to Vincent, would probably be really overwhelming, not just for him but to anyone, let it be you, the reader, or me, the blogger. So reading this book was really insightful to me as a human being, who like most, has somewhat of an ego. I'd recommend this book to pretty much middle school students or higher.

Now that I gave you an synopsis to the book and what I thought of it, let's get to the main point of this blog which is to take this book and connect it to society. The connection I made with society was with the wartime effects. Almost all the soldiers during the Vietnam War were excited about the war and were getting ready to kick some butt, but it was when the first shot was shot people had a different mindset. This article relates to Vincent cause he also was one of those people who was excited about the war and was ready for the action, but he was disappointed he didn't get it. The website for the article is https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/war_peace/media/hpsych.html.

For this post that is all I will be talking to you about look out for my next blog post. Until then, good bye.

The Color of Water

 

"God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color."                                                               -Ruth McBride

         
        Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks these names were known throughout the nation as African American weasels to some but heroes to the rest. These people were political activist during the African American Civil Rights Movement and are known because that thought the ages.

        

        The Color of Water takes place in New York City in the early 1900's during the Civil Rights Movement, where a white mother and her 12 black children live. If you know your history, being a white person in this setting is just like a death trap. The book is formatted in a way such that you get to hear from the author, James McBride, and his mother, Ruth McBride.

       Now that you have gotten a quick background of the book, here is what I think of it. Something that all of you guys must have realized is that life had been difficult for James, having a mother of different color, not knowing where she is from, at that young of an age his head must have felt like he was in an asylum, most people would. Also having to worry about his 7 older siblings (I don't think the 4 younger caused many problems) and also what people might do to his mother, being different that is.

           Ruth's past wasn't pretty either, having to be discriminated by everyone for being Jewish. Remind you of someone, I'm think of James and how he is discriminated by his race. Also what happened in chapter 5 (no need for specifics) was and also chapter 11 were probably REALLY scarring for her, giving her a reason to hide her past from her children, if you know what I mean. Right now I'm on chapter 12 and am continuing to read The Color of Water, I hope to see you next time once I got even further into the book.

Divergent

“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”  - Veronica Roth

Sadly I wasn't able to get a hold of  The Book Thief , instead I read and finished everyone's favorite Divergent. For those that don't know what the book is about (which probably isn't many), I will give you a quick summary. The book takes place in future Chicago, after a war. To make sure that such a catastrophe doesn't happen again the people decided to place each person a faction depending on their skills. The 5 factions are Abnegation (the selfless), Erudite (the intelligent), Dauntless (the brave) Amity (the peaceful), and Candor (the honest). The main character's name is Beatrice Prior, who was born in Abnegation. When she took the test to see what faction is got the result Divergent. Throughout the story Beatrice learns to hide the secret from the government otherwise she will die. 

After reading this book I would give this book a 5 out 5 stars, because it really utilizes all the literary lenses we as Honors English I students were taught. The theme of this book can be related to all book that take place in a dystopian setting there is no such thing as a perfect world. Even though it would seem like it would work out there will be arguments and fights between people. For those who haven't read this book I will strongly suggest it to you all. 

Manuscripts Found in Accra Part 2

“Only he who gives up is defeated.  Everyone else is victorious.” - Paulo Coelho

         Great news, I have finally finished the Manuscripts Found in Accra. As told in my previous blog post Manuscripts Found in Accra Part 1, the book really connects to real life thoughts and actions. The book describes how we as humans feel about ourselves and how to respond to those feelings.What I would say the theme is that life consists of challenges but there are ways of overcoming those challenges.
     
          I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. The reason why I didn't give it a full 5 out of 5 is that instead of actually having a in-depth plot it was more of a question and answer type format.  Some quotes in the book that were inspirational in the book including the first are:

• “Scars speak more loudly than the sword that caused them.” 
• “If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself.” 
• “Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.” 
• “Don't try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough & that makes all the difference.” 

I hope that all those who are reading this blog will consider the Manuscripts Found in Accra  to be on there to-read list.

This video consists of an excerpt of the Manuscripts Found in Accra itself.




For those interested the next book that I am going to read and blog about is The Book Thief if I can get my hands on it. I have heard many reviews and recommendations about this book and hope to have those same feelings towards the book that everyone that recommended it did.

Manuscripts Found in Accra Part 1

             

      

      For my Independent Reading I decided to read the book Manuscripts Found In Accra by Paulo Coelho. The reason I chose this book was because it was the first book that I picked off my shelf which I hadn't read.  What really got my eye were the quotes found in the book. The quotes were philosophical but they were easy to understand. 

     What differentiates this book from others is that this book doesn't have a easily determined conflict like other books do. So far from what I read this book is about a world where religion rules and people have different belief on everything, even the date.This takes place when the people of Jerusalem are awaiting an invasion from the crusaders.  During this period manuscripts were found near Accra. These manuscripts held information which can solve the world's problems. In each chapter of the book a part of those manuscripts are described by a person named Copt. So far from what I read I think people who like to think about life would fall in love with the book, and that judgement was made after I read only 3 short chapters.

                                                                                 

HELP!!

            Greetings to everyone looking at this post of mine, but I'm in dire need of your help. It was brought to  my attention that I needed to get an independent reading novel, which I was never good at at any point in my life.  So I am asking for your help to find me a book.

             For you to know a bit about what I like to read, the following books are books that I gave a 4-5 star rating on Goodreads.

1. Angels and Demons
2. The DaVinci Code
3. The Lost Symbol
4. Inferno 
5. Sherlock Holmes

      By these books you probably realize that I am into suspense and mystery. So with this information I hope you can recommend  a book that will spark my inner fire, and gives me interest to read more.

Flags of our Fathers

Flags of our Fathers
Heroes of Iwo Jima


"'I want you to always remember something. The heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn't come back.'" - James Bradley

For my Summer Reading Project I read the book Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley. When I was looking for a book, I tried to look for a book that would take its meaning to a deeper level; this book succeeded in doing just that.

This book was written by the son of a WWII corpsman. The story came from after the death of one of the main characters, when the author looks through some old photos and found a picture (shown on the cover page). After some thorough research the author found out who the people were and their part in the historic event of the flag raising of Iwo Jima.

Throughout the book the authors show how each Mike Strank, Franklin Sousley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, and Jack Bradley develop  and how the war has made an impact on their lives and families.


Below is a Goodreads article that gives you another overview of the book and also gives reviews about the book given by those who read the book.

Book Review: Goodreads

Lastly I found a YouTube video of the author giving a speech about The Flags of Fathers.