A Rose for Melinda By Lurlene Mcdaniel

This book is about a girl name Melinda who loves Ballet, and her best friend Jesse-since first grade-. She truly had the perfect live until Jesse parents had a divorce and he had to move to California with his mom. She did not loose him because they kept contact through email. So everything was still fine. During summer she became friend with a new girl in town Bailey and she was moving up in her Ballet world. She got accepted to A Program in Washington and that was great. Her parents decided to let her go and she enjoyed it until one day she fainted. At that point her whole life Stop. She was diagnosed with Leukemia.

     Surprise, she became sick and was unable to dance Ballet. Her parents was at lost because they could not understand why her, she also was wondering why her. Through tough days she and her parents decided to try a new drug on her. The drug worked she achieve remission. She got out of the hospital and went home but she has to keep up with her chemo. Jesse came to visit her and things got interesting between the two. She started dancing again and the she got accepted to a Dance theater.

       Things did not continue  so great, the leukemia reappear and she was sent back to the hospital, chance of another remission is poor, they could not reuse the same drug they use the first time on her cause it would be too toxic. The best suggestion was a transplant which can also kill her. They are going to have to kill her immune system. She became sick after the surgery and since her immune system was down, she had a seizure and she died.

        This book was hard for me to read, the hardest part was after she got Leukemia, it was devastating. I got to see all side of the story from the dad to the mom and also Jesse, her friend Bailey and got to see how hard it was on Melinda on her own. With not being able to do what she loves and being loss, feeling like her life just stop. I got to see a slim view of how hard it is for the people that have cancer. I think the authors' purpose for writing the book is to provide a clear view of how the family struggle and how it is unexpected it was for Melinda to have cancer and how everyone was affected by it. The author used chronological pattern in telling her story, the entire book was in a letter and e-mail format which is why I was able to connect with each character more, and know how they are feeling.

The Host By Stephenie Meyers

At first It took me a great deal of time to summon the zeast to read this book, But as I read it, I started to like it and after an hour has passed. I could not take my eyes away from the book for a minute.

The Host is about how the human race is being taking over by parasites(centipedes called souls) from a different planet. One girl name Melanie Manage to escape with her little brother when she realize that her dad was taken over by one of the parasite. On the way she met Jared and they became Lovers.They had to separate because Melanie saw her cousin on TV as one of the few humans that hasn't been possessed and wanted to go find her in the way she got caught  and was given to the Wanderer a parasite which was to take over Melanie's Body. And at that the story unfold showing the difficulties Wanderer had when it comes to control  Melanie, and also the secrets of why Melanie was not " fading"  and what happen to her in the end. You will have to read the book yourself  to see what happen to the Wanderer and Melanie. It is a fantastic book and I enjoyed the two days it took me to read it.

I believe that the author wrote it to entertain the readers and also to convey what gift it is to just have a body and to really love it because sometimes people tend to take their body  for granted, Stephanie Meyers said so herself.

Hamlet By William Shakespeare

In my English class, we started reading Hamlet and after each act, we would also watch the reenactment of that act.

Hamlet is a story about the revenge of A late king son on his uncle- the present king- due to the fact that he thinks the Uncle killed his dad. Hamlet started out with Hamlet best friend Haratio seeing the ghost of the late king-Hamlet's dad- and announcing to Hamlet who in return wanted to see for himself. The ghost announced to Hamlet that  in fact he is his father and that he cannot move on due to the fact that the one responsible for his death is sitting in his chair at the throne and is married to his wife, Hamlet's mother who quickly after the death of the king married the uncle. At that the story unfolds.

In my opinion I would say that Hamlet is not likable because of the language that it was written in and Old English is very difficult to understand, but after getting past the first act, I find myself wandering what is going to happen. I think Hamlet is mentally challenge, that opinion is also based on what I saw in the movie, I also thought that Hamlet would be younger and more handsome in the movie. I also am eager to see how  the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet is going to be revealed.

Beowulf

An epic poem about a warrior named Beowulf who went to the land of  Herot in order to assist the king Hrothgar in battling a monster that is evil but intelligent name Grendel. Grendel was  terrorizing the Hall of Herot built by the king for his warriors. Ripping the head of the warriors off, drinking their blood and fleeing back to his home. Beowulf who at the time was the greatest warriors know through out the land of Danes battle Grendel fairly and succeed on killing him by ripping his arm off and keeping it as a trophy. Grendel mother seeing the pain afflicted to his son, goes off and rip the arm  of one of the king friend which result in Beowulf battling her and winning by trusting a giant sword to heavy for average human to carry into her chest and killing her. For his pride he goes off find Grendel, who was at his last breath and cut his head off as a trophy of the battle. Fifty years after the battle Beowulf, King of his land dies in a battle with  a dragon and ask for a Tower to built in his name.

I Did not like Beowulf at all. The cause for that would be the fact that Beowulf should not be considered a hero because he did not fight for the people, but for his own glory. The king Hrothgar is an dependent person who could not save his people and was scared of fighting Grendel. In addition Beowulf is unpleasantly disgusting. Who keeps body parts of monsters as a trophy!?

If I were to take notes, The style that I would use would be the outline, because it is easier to write down what is happening by using the different parts as titles and writing down the most important details under it.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

My results on the "What Kind of Reader Are You" test were Fiction and Speculative Fiction. I believe the results to be accurate. I  mostly read Fiction because I enjoy losing myself in a world of realistic fantasy. In other words, when reading a romantic novel, I completely submerge myself in the characters' world, and even put myself in their place. I can talk to myself, get angry, or even cry when reading.

Yet, the last piece I enjoyed was a summer assignment completed for this upcoming year. I read the first chapter of  the book "Principles of Economics" by N. Gregory Mankiw which presents the Ten Principles of  Economics. The first principle discusses how people face trade-offs as well as relating Economics to a household itself. It also explains how Efficiency and Equality affect us as a whole, and how they apply to a societal government.

When I hear the word Economics, I am usually turned off by its notion, but after reading this piece, I found out that this topic really interests me and introduces me to new thoughts concerning the different trade-offs in my own life.