Book Review 6- Angel by: James Patterson

Angel by James Patterson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Book Review 6- Angel Maximum Ride



by: James Patterson





INTRODUCING...

Maximum Ride: Angel by James Patterson. It was published in February 2011. It’s fiction. So far this book doesn’t have any awards yet, but it’s predicted to win the best-selling award. It has 291 pages inside. It took me 2 days to read. Maximum Ride is the main character while Iggy, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel are the supporting characters. This book takes place in France in the present day.



The Story

The story takes place in France in present day. The protagonist is Maximum Ride. The main character had to actually make a lot of choices particularly in this book. She had to make the choice of either choosing Fang as the love of her life or the new member Dylan as the love of her life. She is still confused on who she should choose at the end of the book. Another choice she had to make was whether to have her sister and her brother disarm a bomb by themselves, or to have their whole flock escape while the city of France blows up. The major conflict in this book was whether Max could stop the Doomsday Group alongside her ex and his flock. The antagonist in this book is this “Doomsday Group” that plans to wipe out the human race and instead have the new generation of genetically mutated children take over the world. The other characters in the story are Fang and his new flock of genetically mutated teens.



Analysis

One theme I found in this book was about moving on. After Fang leaves the flock, Max is heartbroken. However in the book, Max learns to just move on with her life and stop moping around. Another theme I found was trust. After Max’s mom suddenly disappears out of nowhere, she is convinced that her mom is secretly in alliance with the Doomsday Group (Patterson 148). After Max comes to this conclusion, she learns to never again trust another adult. Before, she couldn’t trust anybody but her mom. She doesn’t even fully trust in some of the members of her flock. She makes a pact to never trust an adult ever again (Patterson 148). I believe in this book the message that James Patterson wanted to get across was to just keep moving on with your life. You shouldn’t stop yourself from living or stop yourself from enjoying life. The characters conveyed the message perfectly by showing how the two flocks differ from each other. They always argue and fight about things. But they learn to just move onto a bigger picture than just to get along. They fight for a greater cause which is saving the world. I did have a disagreement with the decision that Fang made. Fang decides to choose a clone of Max as his partner in crime. If I were him, I would have just stayed with Max and his original flock. The characters’ actions help better the understanding of the message because they are two very different groups of individuals. They have different personalities, powers, and attitudes. So, you wouldn’t think that moving along was possible for them. But in the end, they somehow do get along.



Recommendation

Reading this book will not just feed your hunger for action and romance, but it also leaves you with an open-mind on society in the real world. The book doesn’t actually seem too far-fetched. It could sometime happen in the future. Even today we’re already starting to mutate sheep and horses. How long before they mutate humans? I want the reader to read this book because it will start something in them. I know it did for me. It jolts you like Gatorade because it starts curiosity in you, it gets your brain visualizing, and it’s just so engaging. I would definitely recommend this book to others.



Conclusion

All in all, I loved this book to pieces. I’m glad I waited for this book to come out. I wished that it was longer too. I found this book to be just perfect. It wasn’t worse than the book before lik soe of the books I’ve read in other series. It just keeps gettin’ better and better. James Patterson will definitely be my all-time favorite author because of this series.



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Book REview 5- The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Danica A.

1-24-11

English I

Mr. Williams



Book Review 5- The Great Gatsby

by: F. Scott Fitzgerald



The Beginning

Let me just start by saying that this was by far the most confusing book I have ever read. It was still a pretty good book though. So, when I read the first chapter I was like, " Oh this seems easy! I know all the words so far." Pretty soon it turned into this, "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS BOOK?! Who's saying what, who's who, and what just happened?" This kept playing through my head like a broken record. It just droned on and on without stopping. It was horrifying. Then I decided maybe it isnt how the book is written, it's how I physically read it. Turns out, reading it off the computer was more difficult to read than reading it from a physical book. The first few chapters were now bearable to read instead of dreadful.



The End

This part of the book just got 100x better because I can go back and re-read what happened so I fully understood what's going on.It actually wasn't so bad reading these chapters. To my disbelief, I was starting to get into this book. What this book had a lot of was symbolism in it. For example in the book Nick Carraway says, "I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him..."(Fitzgerald 120). Nick says this at the very last page in the book. After Gatsby dies and all. Nick reflects on this past summer with this quote. It kind of summarized the whole book actually. Nick was trying to say that Gatsby was hoping for something that will never come. That dream that is unattainable. Daisy was Gatsby's green light in this book. Another quote that stood out for me was when Nick talked about the morals he has grown up with. "Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope." (Fitzgerald 2). This quote means that he will keep his views of others to himself in hopes that the person will change. In hopes that he wouldn't have to tell that person. But keeping it to yourself might take forever because not everybody can change.



Total Review

Very educational and suprisingly good book. It made me feel smart reading this type of literature because I don't usually read a lot of those. This was my first time ever reading a truely classic book. I liked it. Very powerful book that taught me a lot of things that went on in the 20's. How people were like. How life was. All in all, I would most definitely recommend this book to someone. Four out of five is my rating for this book.







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How To Write An Essay

Essay Writing for Dummies on Prezi

Communication is Key!

    To me, communication is a form of connecting to other people, places, things, and events through the means of media, music, words, emotions, books, gestures and images.

   I personally do not like communicating with a lot of people through words. I like to communicate through how I write in stories or playing music because I can better express myself in words and sounds better than I talk to people. It's not that I'm anti-social or anything, I just feel that I can better communicate through other means. My family and my best friends could easily communicate with me without even saying a word. We know exactly what the other is feeling or what other's say just through looks and facial expressions. I love how we have our own language of talking to one another that no one else probably has.

   Communication is so important for our society today. We wouldn't get anywhere without communicating in some way or another. I'd bet that even cavemen communicated with each other to build that fire. Even animals communicate too. Communication is everywhere! People communicate everyday in a lot of ways. I don't think there is one single day where we haven't communicated through to someone. That's because even if you don't talk to someone, the other person can still get the message that possibly you're not on good terms? Everyone texts and calls each other on the phone. That's communication. Everyone webchats and facebooks. That's communication. Everyone watches T.V. and listens to the radio right? That's communication. To me, communication is one of the most complicated and interesting topics that I love. Everyday there are a numerous amount of new ways to communicate.


This picture is a great way of showing exactly how we commmunicate with each other around the world.



This is a great video of how advanced communications are getting nowadays.

Roaring Twetines Sports S.I.P

Danica Arma
1-20-11
English I
Mr. Williams

Roaring Twenties Sports

          During the 1920's it was when happiness and joy changed the way everyone acted. It changed the way they dressed, the way they spoke, and the way they had fun. After the war ended, no one knew what to do. They were bored, restless, and had nothing to do. They didn't have giant supermalls like we do today. They didn't have Wii or XBOX to go to when they get bored. They probably didn't even have a TV to watch anything on because they just started coming out. What else was there to do? Sports. Whether a father and son  were just playing catch or whether they would watch it on television, sports was flourishing everywhere. This was the Golden Age of sports.

         Some of the major sports that were getting popular were baseball, boxing, golf, and tennis. Even in the Great Gatsby, Nick's girlfriend Jordan played a lot of golf. Tom Buchanan also played a lot of golf. Although golf was popular amongst the rich, baseball was popular amongst the commoners. They loved the action. They loved the suspense. They loved... the violence. Since men were the predominant audience for watching sports, they loved the violence. This was the main bad side about sports because there are kids watching and listening to the game on the radio when all of a sudden you hear Babe Ruth is smoking a cigar and spitting out some tobacco while is up to bat? What kind of role model was he? In this time period, where new ideas were spewing out, new ideas were influencing people, and old traditions are being forgotten, anything's acceptable; even smoking on live public television for every single kid to look at. The parents didn't stop them from watching because they didn't know what all those things can do to you. Cancer was rare, lung disease was unheard of, and toothbrushing was only an idea of the mind. However, not all the people in sports were bad role models. The great American football player Jack Dempsey was a good role model for those aspiring to be in the NFL.

          There were also the good side of all these sports figures emerging. New opportunities for jobs were created. If you're going to make a team, you're going to need coaches. Also, there were more oppurtunities for kids to go dream big and get a job as a proffesional athelete instead of bumming out in school all day.

           Today, rarely are there any athletes who play because they're passionate about sports. They only became for the fame, the money, and the women that line up just to see them. They don't care whether or not the don't get the promotion. Real, genuine atheletes are passionate and enthusiastic about sports. That's why they always compare them from the atheletes back then, to see if they were as good as them. They deserve to be what they are today, legends.

      

Lou Gherig                                     Jack Dempsey                    Babe Ruth

Dream Quote/Adage Essay

Danica Arma
1-19-11
English I
Mr. Williams

“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.”

Marsha Norman

To me this quote means that the person inside you, the person who you really are on the inside, is trying to give you signals or pictures of yourself on the inside. What you’re thinking on the inside. What you want in the inside, where your soul is. The dreams are the pathway for your soul to talk to you, to connect to you. When the quote says “... from the book your soul is writing about yo,” it means that that book is who you are or who you want to be on the inside.

Everybody in the world dreams. The bad people dream. The good people dream. Politicians dream. The President dreams. That’s how we got here today didn’t we? If Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t have the dream that all men and women will be equal to one another? He followed that dream. He followed what was right for him and his soul. His dreams led us to what we have today. If President Obama never had a dream to become a president, he wouldn’t be in office today would he? President Obama’s soul was writing his book about him. He was going to be smart, a good person, a kind soul. He is what he is today because of his dreams.

This quote remindded me of Cinderella. I absolutely adored her. She’s one of my favorite Disney characters right under Mulan. I’ve seen the movie maybe a 100 times, I’ve seen her in Barbie doll form 1,000 times, and I’ve been moved by her by about a million times. She came from a widowed dad, a wicked step mom, 2 horrible step sisters, and her only friends are little animals. How could she go on like this? She does somehow. She had a dream too. She dreamed of going outside and dancing. She dreamed of traveling and chatting with her dad. She dreamed and longed to get away from the step mom and two step sisters. In the end, she gets it all. Cinderella even said, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.” It took all her heart to get to her happy ending. Without her dreams, where would she be now?

I don’t get dreams often. When I do, it’s always something random and unexpected. Sometimes, I know exactly what they mean. Sometimes, it’s like trying to read hieroglyphics. If I wouldn’t have dreamed though, I wouldn’t be in the Medical Arts Program. I woudn’t have such a great family. I wouldn’t have such great friends. I wouldn’t have such a great life. Almost everyone I have know has said, “Push beyond your limits. Go up above and beyond what you’re supposed to do. Reach for the skies, the moon, whichever is higher.” Where would I be without these dreams? I think I would have been a loser. No motivation, hates people, and hates his life. I feel pity for that person. They should always just dream. It’s right there inside of them, they just don’t know it yet.

The perfect song to this essay     ( ***Don’t worry! It’s not bad or anything!*** )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSn8V_m9HvI&feature=related

Roaring Twenties S.I.P. - Sports (Presentation)

Sports in the 1920's has just started to gain in popularity. Sports like golf, tennis, and baseball gained in popularity. It was no longer just for the higher classes. Everyone started to join in sports. Sports teams were being made and coaches were being hired. Atheletes were starting to rise and become recognized for their talents in sports.

Famous Sports Figures

Lou Gherig (Great American Baseball Player)

Born in June 19, 1903 in New York City.

Achievements: Hit four home runs in one game

Won the Triple Crown in 1934

Holds the record for most Grand Slams in a career with 23.

Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Just to name a few.

Grover Cleveland Alexander Great American Baseball Player

Born February 26, 1887

Played for the Chicago Cubs, Cardinals, and Phillies :D

Achievements:

Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938

373 career wins

Pitched 90 shutouts

Babe Ruth  Great American baseball player

Born in February 6, 1895

Achievements:

7x World Series champion (1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1927, 1928, and 1932)

714 homeruns

Hall of Famer in 1936

First player to hit 60 plus homeruns in a season

Bill Tilden (American tennis player)

Born on February 10, 1893 in Philly!

World's #1 player for 7 years.

Won 138 of 192 tournaments

Winning percentage: 93.6

Suzanne Lenglen a French tennis player

May 24, 1899

won 31 Championship titles between 1914 and 1926.

One of the first internatinal female sport stars

Gold Medal in Olympic Games (Grand Slam)

Many people all over the world thought the 1920's were the "Golden Age" of sports. After coming back from the war, what else were people supposed to play and look forward too? Sports. They were all game unlike today which is now all about the money, the steroids, and the media. I guess it was where all this had to start. This was the era where the true genuine sports players have been deserved to be called what they are today. Legends.

Book Review 4- The Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Danica A.

1-10-11

English I

Mr. Williams



Book Review 4- The Last Sacrifice



by Rachel Mead



In The Beginning

I nearly fainted because of how good the beginning was. It wasn’t dull or boring or too lame at all! It was the exact opposite. The beginning has the character stuck in jail when her father comes in to comfort her. Then, right from that point on there were multiple explosions and a prison breakout had started. Now that’s what I call a bombastic beginning. I immediately fell in love with the book.



In the Middle

If you thought that I thought the beginning was awesome, imagine what I thought about the middle. Exactly that. I believed it to be the most heart warming, hilarious, cute, and heart wrenching storyline I have ever read. One of the quotes that made my heart go all fuzzy was when Dimitri uttered these words to his beloved Rose Hathaway, “He shook his head, the smile rueful now. "’Because sometimes, a person can get so caught up in the details that they miss the whole. It's not just the dress or the hair. It's YOU. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me.’" (Mead 250) This happens while they’re hiding from the people that are trying to take them back to Court for being wanted fugitives. They are roommates in this little room in at a friend’s house in the woods. She gets dressed while he walks in to take a shower. He is taken aback by seeing her in a lovely dress. This was very important to the story because this is where Rose finally finds out that he has loved her all along and cannot resist the magnetic pull that’s pulling them to each other. He finally realizes this too. And at that moment that they both realize this, I was moved to tears because FINALLY he confesses this.



The End

The ending was spectacular. Even though I thought it was a little bit cliche, I absolutely loved it. I just thought the part where everyone is all happy and is together with the people they were always destined to be with was a little cliche. But, how it got to that ending was really amazing. It was so unexpected because they had all these puzzle pieces in the beginning and didn’t know what in the world they had to do. They didn’t know where to start, where it ended, who was doing this that cause whatever this is to effect that? Those kinds of questions. But somehow, they solved it in such a way that didn’t make me doubt how that actually happened. However, this quote basically sums it all up. "I opened my eyes and met his dark, earnest gaze. "’It's okay,’" I said. "’It's okay now. I'm here I'll always be here for you.’" Rose says this at then end when both her and Dimitri are assigned to be the guardians of her best friend and her boyfriend. Actually, it wasn’t cliche at all. Maybe a little.



Rating

I give this book a 5 out of 5. No doubt will I ever forget this book. The Last Sacrifice was written very well and was easy to follow unlike a lot of books I have read that had the same theme. It did not follow the traditional “vampire” theme that I thought it would. No extremely boring speeches about how vampire they were. No love dovey romance every single page of the book. No lame battles. I will definitely recommend this book to any girl out there with a passion for a good vampire romance book.



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Goodbye 2010. I'll miss you.

Where has the time gone? Feels like it was only yesterday that I was unrapping presents. Feels like yesterday I was only 14. Feels like just yesterday I was watching TV with my brother. I don't like to leave things behind. It's just human nature I guess. But, I 've never left anything behind at all. I don't like too. It's like giving away a part of me. And when this year went past, it was like it was being torn apart from me. I didn't like it. If only our minds could take snap shots of every single happy moment in life and just catalog them so we can view them years later. I would like that very much. I don't like starting new years. I don't like anything to change. I guess it lies deeper than the fears of having a new year. This was a weird blog post. But, oh well. Life just goes on.