Romeo and Juliet

 

I find the story very interesting. To understand it, I have read some scenes more than once and I have interpreted it differently every time. I have seen it as weird, sweet, creepy, and beautiful all at the same time. I hope we get the chance to compare our views on the story with other people in our class. It will be interesting to see what other people opinion on the book are. For example I know one person who finds it so unrealistic that it bothers them. I find it fascinating how different the story is from how we view life today. I also think it is interesting that this is the one story that has been told by so many different people/directors in so many different countries.
(see CPR book summary in previous post from January 27) 

Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

        I just started this book over the weekend. I am not far enough in to give a full summary of the book. The part I am at right now is just after Annabeth got off the floating ship and reunited with Percy Jackson. From the cover of the book I can predict that Percy and Jason are probably going to fight at some point. There is probably going to be a second part to the prophecy of seven. I predict that this part of the prophecy will be about two enemies, one a son of Neptune and one the lost hero. They will turn against eachother and lose sight of the common goal, which is to destroy Gaea's army. But then in the end they will come together to fight off the army. I do not think that they will defeat the army in this book because there is still a fourth book, House of Hades.

Best Sellers post #6: Readicide

               I completely agree with Jodi Picoult when she says, “I don’t think readers have to choose between literary and commercial fiction…” Students should not be told what they have to read.  When you force someone to do something, they automatically don’t like it, this is a rule in life.

                Classics should not be totally thrown out of school curriculum; however, we should not have to take so many tests and worksheets about them. I think that if teachers just let kids read the book and did not stop them every chapter to take notes and quizzes, then students would enjoy them more. Classics are called classics for a reason. Reason being that people liked them and they taught you something important. But back when they were written, do you think students had someone breathing down the back of their neck making sure that they understood every single aspect that the school thinks they should know. Schools should let us figure it out on our own, compare how we interpreted the book to how others did. Not tell us how the school thinks it should be interpreted. I think that the school is bossy when it comes to reading. They tell us “you are going to read this and like it” and “my way or no way”.

                Schools want kids to read books to gain a better intelligence, but also to learn an important fact about life. Who says that books like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter do not contain valuable information about life? Adding things like that to a class might strike up more interest in reading. It might make kids excited about going to class instead of dragging their feet down the hallway. Classes should be more like book clubs. A place where you can openly discuss what you are reading with others who are reading the same thing.

Silver Linings Playbook by Mathew Quick

Over winter break I finished this book. It is about a married man named Pat and how he always believes in silver linings. He believes that life is like a movie and every movie gets worse before it gets better. This is the idea that helps him to face all of his challenges. One thing you need to know about Pat is that he is mentally unstable. He has been in the"bad place" ever since his "apart time" with his wife Nikki has been going on. Pat truely believes his wife will come home to him soon. Of course by home, I mean his parents house. That is where he moved when he got out of the bad place.
When back in his home town he meets Tiffany. She is a widow with serious word choice problems. Throughout the book you will discover that Pat and Tiffany have more things in common than you would think. I think this book is not very complicated to read, it just has a lot of swearing in it. But don't get me wrong, it is still a really funny book. I also really like how the plot of the story is not what you usually read. It is very unique.

Best Sellers post #5: Adapting Silver Linings Playbook

 

The movie would have to include the scene before the dance when Tiffany keeps having to tell Pat not to talk to her because it shows you how important the dance is to Tiffany. The movie must also include the actual dance. The dance song will have to be playing and they will have to have the actress that is able to portray the intenseness of the dance. In the movie they must also include to after portion of the dance. When Pat and Tiffany are so happy and they have all their family and friends cheering for them.
The adaptation can leave out the scenes where Pat is in his therapists office and talks to him about football and Pat goes to the football game at the end with his brother and he is on crutches. these scenes are not very relevent to the plot line of the story. They are just about football, not about the problems that Pat has.