Tuesdays With Morrie Review

Here is the link to the review: http://www.cnn.com/books/reviews/9805/06/index.html
Stephanie Bowen says "Morrie speaks to every person because he is every person. He had led a simple yet meaniningful life that inspires you to live yours to the fullest. Perhaps his story is more powerful because you're not only taking in his wisdom, but you are experiencing his death." I personally loved this book and I completely agree with this statement. Morrie is a regular human being, who was very wise and helpful. He was also very optimistic, even through his terrible situation. He was a regular person. the only diffrence was that he has a very diffrent outlook on life then most people. He also had a similiar life style to most people,"simple yet meaningful" as the Bowen says it is, but he was opptimistic through everything. I also agree with what she said about the book being so powerful because you didn't only learn Morrie's wisdom, you also experienced his death. In addition to this statement, I think it makes it as powerful as it is because of the way he handles his body's deterioration and knowing that he was dying very quickly. Most people, when they heard they had ALS, the disease Morrie had, would have given up on life, but Morrie kept going. I think that is what the book so powerful and his optimism.

Tuesdays With Morrie By Mitch Albom

I just finished this book and absolutely loved it!!!! This is also my second memoir that I have finished in a row. I realized that I really like depressing memoirs. This book was one of the best I've ever read. After reading this book, I have a new outlook on life. Morrie is incredibly sick and dying very quickly, but he makes the best out of his illness and keeps moving forward and sharing his wisdom. Most people would give up on life once they found out they were going to die and had a specific amount of time left with the people they loved, but not Morrie. He is rapidly losing control over his body, but instead of giving up keeps on going. Mitch Albom reconnects with his beloved professor, Morrie, after sixteen years without seeing him. He was very close with Morrie during college, but afterwards began to only focus on his career and material things and lost touch with Morrie, but after seeing a special on TV about Morrie he finds his old profesor and begins to reconnect with him. Every Tuesday, Mitch flies over to Morrie's home and they talk about a specific topic like family, death and forgiveness. Mitch's values begin to change after he begins to talk with Morrie. As he sees Morrie's body deteriorating , he sees that Morrie's spirit is always there. This was a very touching and inspiring book and I'm very glad I read it!

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I started this book a week ago. I had heard from people that it was good and I wanted to read a mystery. Also, I knew it became a successful movie. When I started reading, I realized that it was really hard to get into. A few things happen at the same time and it just switches to random things. For example, they talk about the curator case and Robert Langdon, the curator got killled and Robert Langdon is supposed to help figure it out, and then they switched to these random people. It was really confusing. I decided to abandon it. I also realized how long it was, and I knew that I would not finish it for a while.

The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

I absoulutely love this book! I am incredibly close to finishing it! (I only have 50 pages left) This book is about a family that is living in poverty and they travel around the country to flee people who are after them. These people are not mentioned much but were mentioned a few times in the beginning. It is the story of a girl, Jennette, grwoing in poverty and traveling with her lazy, but artistic mother, her drunk father, her artistic sister, Lori, her tough little brother, Brian, and her cute, perfect little sister, Maureen. They usually have a very unsturdy home and not a lot to eat and not a lot of money. They lived in one nice house, but they decided they didn't like it anymore and left. At this point, they are living in a larger shack with no indoor plumbing and tons of holes in the ceiling. They have had, at several points, nothing to eat and having to look in the garbage at school for food. They struggle to find money too. Their dad usually spends most of their money on beer and cigarettes, while their mom lies around the house or paints. The dad sometimes does "odd jobs" as Jennette calls them, but does not have a steady one. He ruins important things in their lives like burning the Christmas tree and presents and taking all of the money out of the kids money stash. The mom has had jobs as a teacher, but this time just got too lazy to actually do the work. On the other hand, Lori, Brian, and Jennette are trying very hard to get money and are working and trying to make good lives for themselves. This book is a memoir and I have no idea how Jennette and her family survived living like this. I really don't think I would have been able to. It kills me that millions of people live like this now. This book took place in the 1960s and people still like live this. Some of the prices in this book really surprised me like an apartment for $75 a month and that she could get 4 gifts for her family for a dollar. I think that it has the title it has because these kids just want a steady home and the Glass Castle is the house their dad promised to build them, but never did. I love this book and I can't wait to finish it!

The Pact

This book is still amazing! I have about 100 pages to go and am very excited to find out what happens in the end! Throughout the part I read, Gus and Michael begin to talk a lot about what has happened in their lives. They both really need to talk about Emily's death and Chris's jail experiences, but their spouses refuse to talk about what has happened. James is acting like nothing happened because that is how he was raised: in a bad situation, pretend like it never happened. Melanie is trying to keep her daughter's death off her mind as much as possible and refuses to talk about it. This is very understandable, but how can you keep something this important and upsetting to yourself for so long? Melanie also does not want to believe that her daughter was suicidal, so she assumes that Chris killed her. She treated him like a son before Emily's death and really cares about him. She is taking her anger out on Gus. She refuses to even speak to Gus because she "thinks" that Chris killed her daughter. Additionally, we learn that Chris never even knew that Emily was pregnant and Chris's lawyer, Jordan, is using this as one of the main defenses. This would most likely be the only reason Chris would actually kill Emily: he wouldn't want her to have the baby and then would have killed her, but he didn't even know. Jordan's investigator, Selena, also goes to Emily's school to talk to Emily's art teacher, Emily was a great artist, about Emily. She sees a painting of skulls, red and black that is labeled "Self portrait". This is a very good sign that Emily was suicidal and did kill herself that night and Chris didn't. He loved her more then anything and said he would have married her if she would have had the baby. Emily knew that he would do this (she wrote it in her journal), so that might have been the reason she killed herself.

The Pact

I am still very much enjoying this book! A lot happened in the section I read! The police suspect that Chris has killed Emily, so he is in jail. You can tell by how freaked out he is and how was freaking out when he got taken away that he didn't do it. You also start to see the relationship between Emily and Chris close to her death. They have a fight and then Chris does something stupid with another girl and realizes what he really wants; to be with Emily. Emily is incredibly upset about the fight and cuts Chris's initials into her wrist. You realize how important he is to her. They are "two halves of a whole" as Emily's mom says. Chris said that Emily was suicidal and that he gave her the gun that she needed to kill herself, but he tried to talk her out of it and did this by showing her that it could happen when she wanted, to scare her. But, she did it anyway. I think that she was suicidal when she knew that she could not be with Chris. This book is called "The Pact" maybe because Emily and Chris were destined to be together forever and maybe for something that happened. Maybe there was a pact between Chris and Emily about her death.

The Pact

I have gotten to the 100 page mark of the book and I am continuing to really enjoy it! Jodi Picoult switches from funny flashbacks to the depressing present times. This is perfect for me because I like books and other things like movies and tv shows that are funny but also have serious and depressing parts. This is also a very good format for the books in general because after the sad parts, there is a funny part to cheer you up. I think Jodi Picoult did a great job with this. There are many relationships in this book. Both couples, the parents, usually have great relationships. The story behind Emily and Chris's relationship is really cute. They both really care about each other at every age. They never went through the "cooties" stage. They both deeply care about one another and will do anything for each other. In one scene, they have their first kiss on New Years at midnight. It is really sweet and romantic! In the present parts of the book, Melanie, Emily's mom, will not speak to her best friend of 17 years and neighbor, Gus, Chris's mom. The police think that Chris killed Emily because he was seen next to her body and next to the gun. Everyone knows this is not true, but Melanie still won't talk to Gus because she doesn't want to believe that her daughter was suicidal. She knows that Chris would never do anything to hurt Emily, but she just doesn't want to believe the truth.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

I recently started The Pact by Jodie Picoult and I like it so far. I have gotten several recommendations for this book, which is the main reason I started it. I also wanted to read another Jodi Picoult book ( I have already read My Sister's Keeper and very much enjoyed that!) I like this book because I really like realistic fiction and books where creepy/scary things happen. This book takes place in a small town and there are two families, the Hartes and the Golds. The Hartes' have a son, Chris, and the Golds have a daughter, Emily. The families are neighbors. So far in the book, you see the spark of the relationship between the Hartes and the Golds. some parts of the book take place in the future and some in the past. They also show the families' relationships with each other now. I can tell they are very close; they have table reserved for them Friday nights at the Chinese restaurant, which I thought was really funny. The book also talks about how Emily and Christopher were in an accident and Emily got shot. Jodi Picoult describes the bullet hole in detail, which really freaked me out. Emily and Chris had been dating at the time of the accident, after they had already grown so close throughout the years, but at this point in the book, I don't know what Chris's reaction is. I am excited to find out and and to keep reading!

Speak 3

I just finished Speak and I really liked it!!!! Melinda is a very shy character throughout the book, but at the end she really starts to come out of her shell. She makes another friend, Ivy, who she was friends with before she lost all of her friends. She also sticks up to Heather, after Heather dumps her as a friend and then wants Melinda to help her decorate for the Prom, and she sticks up to Andy, who raped her. He gets really mad at her and then tries to rape her again but she fights back and screams and eventually gets him away. The lacrosse team comes to help her and she befriends them too. Also, throughout the book, you see how her art evolves. She needs to make art about a tree and struggles with this the entire time.  At the end, she finally perfects this tree, the last minute of school. This was not the best book to be reading at the beginning of high school because Melinda has horrible experiences though her freshman year, but she grew a lot from her freshman year and I hope I do too. I very much enjoyed this book!!

Speak 2

I am over halfway through this book and I still love it! A new character has been introduced. His name is Andy Evans. Melinda is incredibly uncomfortable around him, but he sweet talks her, making her even more uncomfortable. I think that the night she called the cops something really bad happened between her and Andy. I think he may have taken advantage of Melinda's naiveness. Their relationship reminds me of Amy and Ricky's relationship in the show "The Secret Life Of The American Teenager". Ricky does almost the exact same thing that Andy does and Amy acts equally uncomfortable around Ricky as Melinda does around Andy. Another very interesting event happened in the part I read. Melinda's friend ,Heather,dumps her as a friend. She claims they were never friends just because they never had sleepovers. They were very good friends though. Melinda went to Heather's house several times and also helped her with projects and also supported Heather's modeling. Heather probably doesn't want to be Melinda's friend because Melinda is an outcast and Heather wants to be popular.

Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

I am reading Speak. It isn't the best book to be reading at the beginning of high school but I have been wanting to read it for a while. I heard that there was a really surprising and horrible secret at the end and I have been wanting to know what it is for a long time. I am a little over 40 pages into it and I really like it so far! I really like books with pretty terrible problems or realistic fiction and this book suits both! I think that it is terrible that just because Melinda called the cops at a party, being incredibly responsible, all her friends and the rest of the school hate her. She must have done something else too or something else happened that night because at least a few people, definitely her best friend Rachel, would have understood why she had called the cops. I am really excited to keep reading and to find out what happened!

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