Monthly Review #2: The Last Song by: Nicholas Sparks

Hey everyone! Thanks for coming back to read my monthly review. Like I told you last time, I decided not to write about The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. I want to write about The Last Song by: Nicholas Sparks. Just so you guys know, right now I am extremely tired and got home an hour ago and just finished dinner, so please excuse me if I made mistakes. I will go over this again when I am less tired and make the corrections, so for now, just bare with me. So lets begin my review.

For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

I feel this book is more for teen girls because it has teen drama and romance in it which most guys I know don't want to read. There were parts in the book where I cried, but I can't tell you why because it would spoil it for people who have not read the book yet. The drama included people getting arrested, arson, love triangles, and the usual. Use your imagination if you don't want to read it, but it is a really good book. I recommend it to all teen girls. I mean, we all need a few tears now and then. I read so many books that made me cry and that tells me the author did a really good job writing the book because I was able to visualize it in my mind and it felt like I was watching a movie. I would cry because most of the time it was because the book was about teens who have been diagnosed with cancer or other diseases and died. Even though they all were similar, they were still different in their own way because they each had their own story to tell. So anyway, the guys might like the book, but I doubt it. They usually read about action or nonfiction, so I will just stick with the girls.

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

I like the author's style of writing in this book because in the beginning, he started out near the end of the storyline, and had the main character reflect on her events during summer that changed her life. Then he went back the the very first day of summer and from there, he alternated between characters. So it would be Ronnie (Short for Veronica and the main character), then it would sometimes be Steve (Ronnie's dad), other times Will (a guy that I'm not going to talk about), and once in a while Marcus (a strange and freakish teen). He alternates between the characters so we will get a feel of what each character is feeling. And as you continue reading the book, you learn about things that happened in the past or you see one event in different perspectives. It's like one moment your reading about how the church accidentally burned down, and later on in the book, you learn from a different perspective about how the church burned down by one of the characters (again I would love to tell you guys everything, but then you wouldn't want to read the rest). I personally like this style because it makes you feel that more than one author wrote this. And also when you read the book, you can tell how differently they all think. One moment your reading about girl stuff, and the next it's about cars or something.

Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.

The character that was the most interesting to me would probably be Steve, Ronnie's dad, because no matter what situation he was in, he was always calm and he listened to his kids. He didn't judge them, he always believed them. He always does what's best for his kids. He let them do whatever they want because he knew they were good kids. They were responsible and smart enough to make the right choices. Even when Ronnie was arrested for something she didn't do, he stayed calm and listened to them. He's not the type of person who interrupts their children and grounds them without hearing their side of the story first. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer which spread to his pancreas and lungs. To keep his mind off of the pain, he decided to play the piano. He loves the piano almost as much as he loved his children. He used to teach at Juilliard in New York, and he was Ronnie's first piano teacher. She used to love the piano as much as he did, but when he 'left' his family, Ronnie's swore she would never play the piano again and that she hate it. So anyway, the proof that he loves them is that he was willing to give up playing the piano for her happiness even though it was his only source he had for avoiding the pain in his stomach.

I'm sorry if this is a really bad review. I warned you guys like a month ago that I am horrible at these kind of things. Plus the fact that I'm exhausted. If you guys are lucky, then I might come back and fix it, but for now it would have to do so I don't get a zero. So anyway, that's all I have for today folks. Come back in two weeks because this coming week is STAR Testing, so that means no blog. So in two weeks, I think it would be time to do The Journal Of Chloe Saunders (Part 5), but I'm not sure. It depends on if I'm at my dad's house, or my mom's. Oh well. We'll just deal with it when the time comes, so for now, wish me luck for my testing and see you in two weeks. Until then, see ya!

Book Review #3-The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by: Mark Haddon

Hey everyone! Thanks for coming back to read part three of my Lit Circle Letter to Grant. Just a heads up. For the book review that is due Friday, I won't be writing about The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by: Mark Haddon. I will be writing about a book I was reading independently and just found out I was able to do this. I so did not want to write about this book because I have nothing really to talk about. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoy reading my letter to Grant. And for next month's Lit Circle Book, Grant and I will not be working together because he does not want to read the girly books I want to read, so I might work with Melissa. So now, back to my letter.

The third part takes place after he finds out his mom is still alive. When I mean after, I mean way after. It starts out with him at the train station. It's obvious that he doesn't know what to do because you see him wandering around mindlessly and he doesn't know how to use trains. He's also afraid to ask for help since he doesn't enjoy communicating with strangers. Later on, a policeman finds him wandering around and helps him get money from his credit card, buy a ticket and get on the train. After a while, he finally made it to London and finds his mom, and his dad suddenly appears there and the parents start arguing about who deserves to take care of him.

That's all I can say because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who still hasn't read it. So all that's left to do is end the show for today. I hope you come back to read my monthly review. Until then, see ya!

Spring Break and Holocaust/Unity Week

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I talked to you guys. I had so much time during the Spring Break to sit back and relax. I stayed up all night watching my anime since I never seem to have enough time during the school year. I did about 1/4 of the homework assigned to me. Guess which assignment it was. One out of the two pages of worksheets my Chemistry teacher gave me. The other worksheet I saved for Monday when we came back from break during lunch. So let me explain how my week went. The first weekend during the Spring Break, my dad, step-mom, sister, step-brother, and I went to the cemetery to visit my step-grandpa's grave. We prayed and lighted in-scents (not sure if I spelled that correctly) to place around the grave. On Monday, I just hanged out and watched TV or anime. Same on Tuesday. Wednesday, I was forced to help watch my cousins at the movie theatre and watch, "How To Train Your Dragon". Thursday, I went to work at All Star. The kids had fun playing with my Chinese yo-yo and spinning plate. Friday I also had to work, but only in the afternoon. Saturday, everyone went to my Auntie's house to celebrate her birthday. On Sunday, I went to my uncle's house to attend a baby shower for twin boys. That was all I did for my Spring Break.

And just so you know, I will be continuing with "The Journal Of Chloe Saunders" every other week. Or whenever I am at my mom's house because at my dad's house, where I am right now, does not have Microsoft word, so it does not have the font I want to use for this story. The computer at my mom's house have it, so I will be typing it there. When I'm at my dad's house, I will find something to write about. But it would be really hard to find something to write about that reaches 500 words. Maybe I'll write another story which does not involve using Microsoft word.

This week was so easy because the sophomores got to miss periods 1, 2, and 5 on Tuesday to watch Schindler's List, and periods 3 and 4 on Wednesday to listen to Helen speak about her life during the Holocaust. Thursday, was kinda normal, except during our language class where we got to see the Foreign Language Talent Show in the Little Theatre. Today, The periods were shorter because of the Talent Show for Unity Week which was this week. I'm planning on entering the talent show at least once before I graduate. It's funny, the only times I performed on that stage was when I was in middle school at Lincoln, but now that I'm at Alameda High, I'm not performing on it anymore. If your wondering what I did on that stage, I did the Chinese yo-yo with Iris and Dionna.

That's all I have for you today folks! Come back next week and we can finally continue with, "The Journal Of Chloe Saunders". Until then, see ya!

Book Review #1 and #2-The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time by: Mark Haddon

Hey everyone! Book review #1 and #2 are together in one post because of Spring Break. I hope this book review is better than my other ones.

The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time, written by Mark Haddon, is about a fifteen year old autistic boy named, Christopher John Francis Boone. He is very intelligent because he knows every countries in the world and their capitals. He also knows every prime number up to 7,057. He doesn't react well with human beings, so he can easily relate with animals. One day at seven after midnight, his world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, killed with a garden fork in the middle of the lawn. The reason he is out in the middle of the night is because he enjoys the idea of being the only person in the world. So anyway, Christopher was initially accused of killing the dog. This accusation causes Christopher to embark on a path, following his favorite fictional character, Sherlock Holmes', footsteps and solve the mystery of the murder of Wellington the dog. During this adventure, Christopher learns about things he thought he would never have to face. He learned about the dissolution of his parents' marriage. Now he faces two problems. The crisis growing within his own family, and the problem of finding Wellington's killer. But later we discover that the two problems are related.

In the beginning, Ms. Shear's ex-husband was the main suspect. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Ms. Shear is the owner of Wellington. Oops, sorry. So anyway, He was the main suspect because he probably killed the dog to get back at Ms. Shear for previous issues. Christopher's dad did not want him, in any way, involved in the mystery, but later finds that his very own father killed the dog. The reason for his actions were because he wanted to get back at Ms. Shears. Ms. Shear's husband left her around the same time as Christopher's mother's "death". So, guess what happens when two very lonely and truly sad people of the opposite sex shares the same feelings. They get close, and I mean really close. But in the end, she showed more affection toward her dog than him. Christopher's father confiscates the book he uses to write down his clues and hides it. Christopher goes looking for the book and finds it, but also finds letter written to him by his mother. So the truth is, his mother is actually alive and is currently living in London. His dad had to fake the death so Christopher's feelings won't get hurt. She left them because she felt that she couldn't stay with them without hurting the ones she loved. She has a big temper while everyone else in the family are very mellow people. So what do you guys think will happen next. If you lived part of your life thinking that a loved one is dead, but later learns that they are alive and living somewhere else. What would you do? Duh, you would want to see them again, so that's what Christopher did. He went to London to live with his mom. So now he embarks on a new adventure. One that is more challenging because he has asperger's syndrome. For those of you who do not know what that it, it is an autism spectrum disorder, and people with it therefore show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.

That's the end of my book review. It really is a good book. I encourage all of you to read it. The only part I don't like is the fact that they murdered a dog because I am a huge dog-lover. But other than that, The book so far is great. I hope you come back next week to read about part 3. Until then, see ya!

New New Statement of Purpose

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!!!

Hey everyone! This is an assigned blog post, so that means you'll have to wait until next next week to read about Chloe and her other roommates. I'm not writing a blog post next week because we are on spring break. Yeah! Today felt like it would never end. The clock was slower than ever. And the teachers had the nerve to give us homework during our break. Can you believe this. Homework on our break from school. How can that possibly be a break. Are they trying to ruin our lives? I'm probably going to wait until the very last second to do them. Oh well. I don't know what's going on in my teacher's head, but I'm not going to let it ruin my week of no school, so anyway, the blog post this week is about my goals for the 4th quarter. What I plan on doing differently, what I'm going to keep doing, blah blah blah. The usual stuff. So I might as well get through this and get on with my spring break. I plan on hanging out with my friends except for Thursday and Friday when I have to go to work. But anyway, I'm going to have as much fun as possible. I so don't want to go back to school and have to take the STAR testing and my chemistry final. I'm going to hate it. Oh yeah, I forgot about my blog. Sorry about that. Here's my goals for this last quarter.

My goals for this quarter is to continue with "The Journal Of Chloe Saunders" and maybe try to write my own book. First I need a topic where there is a lot of things to talk about. Make the characters for my book, and also figure out a storyline. It will be a very difficult challenge, but it will greatly improve my writing skills. If anyone has any good topics, please post them on my comments. That will greatly help me improve my writing. I read so many books, I feel I can actually write a good book, but that won't happen without practice. I will surely hit a writer's block along the way, but eventually everything will all work out.

I guess I will try my best to continue doing this even when the school year is over. It probably won't be as frequently as now, but I will try my best. I hope you guys will continue reading my blog. I love reading about magic and romance, so most likely I will write my stories about that. It will be interesting how I will do that. That's all I have for you folks this week. Please come back in two weeks to read The Journal Of Chloe Saunders (Part 5). I will be introducing some new characters to you. So be sure to comment my posts. I want to know what you think about my posts so far. Have fun during your spring break and see you in two weeks. Until then, see ya!