Mockingjay!!!

Hey guys, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I had a great time in FL and I came back Monday and got to have a whole 'nother Christmas with my MI family! :)


So this week I continuted to read Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I'm a little over half way through. I'm a slow reader :P. It's really good though! But I think I liked the first two books better. Nothing THAT exciting has happened YET. I'm not in a very suspenseful part right now, so I have little motivation to keep reading. But I will anyways :) I can't believe what happened to Peeta! I hope he gets better!! And the districts are completely falling apart, hopefully the book will end on a good note. I hate it when books--especially series--have a bad ending :(. BUT DON'T SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME!!!


Anyways, have a great New Year!!!


~30N!k@~ :) =^.^= ;)

The Book With a Super Long Title: Act 2 & Mockingjay

Haha, I couldn't remember exactly what the title was for that book because I don't have it sitting right next to me, but you all know what I'm talking about. Anyways, I thought it was a decent play. I don't know if I'd actually want to see it though. I really did not like Beatrice, especially at the end when she went crazy and killed a rabbit. I felt proud of Tillie, though, for winning and I still was upset that Beatrice wasn't proud. Ruth wasn't very nice to either of them. I kind of understand how she felt though. Like how her sister and mother were always being laughed at. I wonder if she ever got laughed at? Overall, a good play. It was nice to read something different for once.


As for free reading, I'm still working on Mockingjay. It's been a week and I'm only 1/3rd through the book. Oh well. I'm planning on finishing soon. I really like it so far except that it's kind of repetitive and slightly predictable. I don't want to say much because I know a lot of you have already read it/are going to read it. *cough* JENNA *cough*


I hope everybody's breaks are off to a good start! Mine sure is! I'm in Florida for the week visiting my Mom. It isn't as hot as I hoped, but still very warm :) Somewhere in the 60's I think. It doesn't really matter, as long as I get to wear my flip flops<3 :) lol. HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! :)

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds--Act 1

I read the entire first act because I couldn't find where the first scene stopped. I think it's really cool that we're reading a play. I've never read one before. As for the story itself, I don't really get it. The characters all seem a bit odd. I don't understand why Tillie isn't allowed to go to school, even though she's really smart. And why Beatrice is so against everything school-related. And I don't understnad Nanny's role in any of this. I feel bad for her, though, because they yell at her all the time. I'm proud of Tillie for winning 1st place in the science fair, but I felt really bad that her mom got mad at her for that. I'm glad my mom isn't like that. So I guess it's a decent story, I'm interested to find out what happens with the whole science fair thing.

Also, I've continued on reading Mockingjay this week. I love it so much! I went like a month after reading the 2nd one to read the 3rd one even though my brother owns it. I don't know why I did that! It's such a good book!!! :)

ONE. MORE. WEEK. :)

~ 30n!k@ ~

First Week of December

Happy December everyone! :) Hope you're all enjoying the snow--even though I'm definitely not. I haven't had much time to read anything this week, but I read Ivy's 17 page, not double-spaced novel excerpt a few times and it's AWESOME!!! I loved it so much! It's really good and I think you all need to read it!

Oh, and don't forget to flush icecubes down the toilet, leave a white crayon by your window, put a spoon under your pillow and whatever else you're supposed to do!!!

~Monika :)

The end of: The Catcher in the Rye

      The Catcher in the Rye was a good book. It really was. Probably not one I'd pick up and read on my own, but I did enjoy reading it. I really did. Even though I didn't really see an obvious central conflict, it was still interesting. It was more of an on-going ramble of Holden's life over the span of a few days. I found a lot of parts to be quite random, but sometimes it's the random stuff that makes a book more interesting. Holden was a likeable guy. I'm still unsure of whether something was seriously wrong with him or if he was just different. I didn't appreciate all of his swearing, but I liked the way he thought about things. The ending was happy, but kind of abrupt. I liked how the whole story was a giant flashback though. I'm still curious about what happened next, but J.D. Salinger probably wanted it that way.

      Overall, a great book. DEFINITELY better than Habibi or the Odyssey. It really was. ;)

The Catcher in the Rye. Chapters 7-12

I still like this book A LOT better than The Odyssey, mostly because it's much easier to read and understand. Holden has a lot of weird "mood swings", I guess. Like how he didn't want to talk to anybody and then he was up so late and just wanted to call somebody. I can't believe he called some random girl he didn't even know. And if I were that girl, I'd be so mad at him. Another thing that really bugs me is that he still hasn't called Jane. Why is he so fast to call the girl he doesn't even know, but scared to call Jane, who I understand to be a close friend. Holden is kind of a sketchy character, but maybe I just need to get to know him better. I want to keep reading, but I must restrain myself and go work on my novel. :)

~30n!k@~

The Catcher in the Rye. Chapters 1-6

So far, I really like this book. It's SO MUCH better than the Odyssey or Habibi, that's for sure. I don't really appreciate all the swearing though..and Holden uses the word 'really' A LOT. He is a likeable guy, though. He really is. (ha) He is easy to relate to and understand. I don't think he is dumb, I just don't think he cares that much. I actually thought he was pretty smart. I think he is telling the truth, but the whole unreliable narrator thing we did kind of makes me think he isn't. I think somebody suggested that he has ADHD, which I was wondering about too. I wished he would've talked to the girl though and I hate his roommate! What a jerk! Ackley is okay, just kind of disgusting..

~Monika~

To Build a Fire. October 19-26

Hey. Thought I'd try to get all my homework done except the short story today so I can focus on it over the weekend. I posted on our group site and I need some suggestions for my short story! I am HORRIBLE at thinking of ideas. Once I have the idea, I'm okay, it's just the initial plan that kills me.

Anyways, I read To Build a Fire by Jack London (and I'm really glad there wasn't "side-questions" throughout the entire story this time!) I noticed LOTS of man vs. nature conflict, basically the entire story. At the beginning I was thinking: "Ok, it must be VERY cold." And as the story progressed I was like "Yeah, Okay, I get it, IT'S COLD!!!" I think the man had the thought 'it was certainly cold' way too many times!!! I never really understood why he wasn't at camp though...maybe I missed it? I was so frustrated when he tried like 10 times to get a fire going and never really succeeded.

Overall, the story wasn't one of my favorites. I knew he was going to end up dying anyways, because it goes along with our current short-story "theme". Even though I'm totally not a dog person, I at least hope he made it back to camp.

The results are in: Most people visited my blog on Monday, which would make sense. Be sure to vote on this week's poll.

Random Bit of Information I'm Sure You Want To Know: My birthday was yesterday (and so was my brother's.) I had an AMAZING day, but it would have been better if it was a PATH day! :)

~Monika :) <3 =^.^= :D XD

THE END OF THE ODYSSEY!!! :D and The Most Dangerous Game.

Yes! I am sooooo very excited about finishing the Odyssey. There was A LOT of killing in this week's reading and I don't think Ulysses had to be that harsh about it all. I'm glad that the family is back together again, although I wish he would've told Penelope who he was as soon as he got home. Overall, the story wasn't as bad as I thought, but I still found it challenging to pay attention in some parts. Happy to finally be done!!!

The Most Dangerous Game was yet another "horror" story, I'm sensing a theme here. This story also reminded me of The Hunger Games, like how they have to hunt each other. The Hunger Games actually has a reason behind it though, The Most Dangerous Game is just some lunatic who decides all other prey is "too easy" to hunt. It's bad enough to hunt humans, but he has a TRAINING CENTER?! Even though it was predicatable, I'm glad Rainsford killed the guy. He deserved it.

Question: Did we have to answer all the questions?! I did all the ones on the sides of the pages, but not the ones at the end. HELP!

Random Bit Of Information I'm Sure You Want To Know: My birthday is on Thursday. :D

October 5-12. :)

I had a good week this week. :) I finished the second Hunger Games book, Catching Fire, and it was just as I expected: AMAZING!!! It was kind of predictable, though, with who was going to survive and all. The author (Suzanne Collins) and I have a love/hate "relationship". I love her for writing these books, obviously. But, I hate her for leaving me at the edge of another cliff!!! I MUST READ THE 3RD BOOK. haha.

Books 13-17 of the Odyssey were okay. I'm so glad that Ulysses finally made it home! I don't really understand why he's pretending to be a poor guy though. We watched part of O Brother Where Art Thou last week and I really like it so far. It was very funny, especially the part about being in a tight spot. The movie had many similarities to the Odyssey.
1)The first line of the movie was: O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story (or something like that) which is very close to the first line of the Odyssey.
2)The washer-women are similar to Nausicaa and her maids washing clothes in the river.
3)Pete being turned into a toad is like when the goddess Circe turns some of Ulysseys's men into animals.

We also read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson this week. I had many questions throughout the story and I'm still left with many. Why do they do the lottery? Why do the men draw the slips? Why were they throwing stones at the lady who got the black dot? The story was kind of creepy and I don't really like thinking about it. The story kind of reminded me of the Hunger Games, though. Like how they have the reaping and then something bad happens to them.

Random Bit Of Information I'm Sure You Want To Know: MY BIRTHDAY IS IN NINE DAYS! :D

~Monika <3 :)

Sept. 28- Oct. 5 Reading!!

This week, I finished The Hunger Games and got through half of Catching Fire. It's sooo good!! Lots of un-expected twists! I'm getting quite nervous though....really nervous....


The Odyssey was decent this week. LOOOOOOONG story-within-a-story! Just when I thought he was finally done telling it, he starts up again. I'm thankful for finally being filled-in on everything though. The whole story is starting to come together and I just want him to get home already!! That giant lady was creepy though...lots of gross scenes this week...bleh..


A Good Man is Hard to Find wasn't very good. I mean, it was well written, but I hated it! I didn't see a point in the story and it didn't really explain where they were going or why. Horrible ending!!(I hate cliff hangers)Why did the misfit talk to the grandma forever if he was just killing her anyway and why did everyone else get killed in the woods? Was he really her son??? I was left with a lot of quesitons after reading it, but maybe that's how the author wanted it to be. At least the beginning captured my attention. Oh, and I found the grandma's flashbacks somewhat interesting. Other than that, it definitely wasn't one of my favorite short stories.


~Monika :) ;) :D <3

Sept. 21-27 Reading!

I FINALLY GOT THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I'm ALMOST done with it :(, I hope to finish tonight or tomorrow. Definitely one of the best books I've ever read and I highly reccomend it. Very suspenseful and exciting! A lot of you have probably already read it and for those of you who haven't (YOU SHOULD!) I don't really want to give away anything. It's one of those books that you just can't put down.


As for this weeks Odyssey reading, I think it's actually started to pick up the pace. Most of the book so far has been setting up the story, talking and planning. Finally Ulysseys gets to leave! I was pretty mad at Neptune for being so mean to him though. Lots of new characters were introduced this week, but I don't think they'll last. I wonder when Ulysseys will get home? I thought it was cool how Homer randomly starts talking about Nausicaa and then goes back to Ulysseys and ties them together. But, it worried me when she said he was the kind of guy she'd want to marry.


So that's it for this week's reading, I can't wait to see how the first book of the Hunger Games ends and what surprises the next couple books of the Odyssey holds.

This Week's Reading

Okay, so I don't really know why I titled this post "This Week's Reading" because basically the only thing I read this week was books 2-4 of The Odyssey. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to read the Hunger Games, but when I put a hold on it at the library a few weeks ago there were 53 people before me! So if anyone has a copy they can loan to me, that would be awesome!! I don't really want to start a different book and then finally get the Hunger Games because I can't read two choice books at once. I get everything confused and then I never end up finishing one of them.


Anyways, the Odyssey was a lot easier to understand this week. :). I didn't have to do quite as much re-reading and I think that's mostly because of the 'active reading'. Writing my questions and thoughts down really helped me think and understand.


I don't really like how conversations in this book are usually a paragraph (or more!) said by one person and then the other person responds in the same way. And most of the time people are just ordering each other aroud. "You will do this, and then you will do this." So on and so forth. It just doesn't seem like a real conversation and it gets boring. I think that might be becasue the story was told over and over through generations and finally somebody wrote it down.


Also, it seems kind of weird that everybody lets complete strangers into their home and feeds them a feast gives them gifts and then has them stay overnight. But I guess that's just how they are.


Other than that, I enjoyed reading The Odyssey this week (although it did take me a REALLY long time!) Can't wait to see what happens next...

The Odyssey--Book 1

So after reading the first book of  The Odyssey by Homer a couple of times, I have come to a conclusion. I am confused. I had to re-read and re-read and re-read some more and it still doesn't make much sense. There were so many people involved, I couldn't keep them straight. Also, it was written in really old english that I had trouble understanding. Hopefully, as the story goes on it will get easier to figure out.

What I Read this Summer!

This summer, I didn't read as much as I usually do over the summer so I'm kind of mad at myself for that now. But here's the couple books I managed to read:


When the summer first started, I was already at the end of the 4th Harry Potter book, (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling) so I continued on with the series. I read almost the entire 5th book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) before I decided to stop. I LOVED the first book, and each book after that just seemed to go down hill. Finally, it just started to seem too predictable and boring, which isn't what I want in a book.


After that I made a trip to the library to try and find some more interesting books. I read The Summer I Turned Pretty  by Jenny Han. Definitely one of my favorites. I think I liked it because I could relate to it well and it had a lot of twists, which really kept me hooked. I finished it in less than a day. Great book! But I wouldn't recomend it for a boy...


Another good book I read was Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee. This book is about a girl who really excels in school and goes to college at age 11! She doesn't really have any friends and she's just trying to fit in. Also really good and I flew through it as well.


Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer was good too. I picked it up because I was attracted to the giant cupcake on the front :) and because the book was mainly about a woman who starts taking baking classes and begins to enjoy it and I LOVE to bake! There was a lot of romance involved too (which you could probably guess from the title) so definitely don't read it if your not into that kind of stuff. Yeah, I know, I read a lot of girly books.


A couple days ago, I finished reading The Clique by Lisi Harrison, the first of a series of five. I wouldn't say it was the best book ever, but it was decent. Not sure if I'm going to finish the series yet.


So those are the books I read this summer, but I think I might have forgotten some. I also read the newspaper practically every day, I'm really into that. And still waiting to get my hands on a copy of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I know the 4th one just came out and from what I've heard, they look really good. Can't wait!!