Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This book was amazing! I loved it! My dad got this for my mom to read and I ended up picking it up because I just wanted to look. I read this book in a day. This book made me really appreciate my mother. My mother never made me forcibly practice clarinet or piano for hours. The most I ever practiced either was one hour at a time. The relationship between Amy and both of her daughters was very interesting too. I thought it was especially interesting how different her relationships were with both of her daughters. She has a pretty good relationship with her oldest daughter, Sophia. Sophia listens to what she says and they work together every nicely. Her other daughter, Lulu, wasn't as cooperative with Amy. The differences between these two girls stood out to me. I also thought it was interesting how her husband did not really do any parenting with either of the girls. I know that they both agreed to the Chinese style of parenting, but the girls and Amy were always screaming at each other and the girls had a very small social life, so I thought that Jed, the dad, would want to intervene. Iwould if there was that much screaming in my house. Overall, I absolutely loved this book!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Reading this book was an interesting experience. I got this book last year when it was on sale at Barnes and Nobles because I thought I needed a classic for English. I picked this particular book out because my favorite actress, Kate Winslet, is in the movie. Overall, I did not enjoy reading this book. Although it had an interesting plot and characters, the Old English writing style made it very difficult for me to focus while reading. The only way I could successfully read this was if I had nothing else in my mind, which was a problem because I have songs stuck in my head constantly. I also felt like there were a lot of things that could have been said in 5 sentences, but took a page to explain. I really do not like books that drag on, so this was not very good for me. The parts of this book I liked were the plot and the characters. The plot was interesting and I liked it. The characters were relatable and I liked how close Marianne and Elinor were. They cared deeply about each other and helped each other through their respective difficult situations. Overall, I did not like this book, but am very proud of myself for getting through it.