Dear John Green

Dear John Green,
You are simply one of the most amazing writers I have ever come across. Your writing style is one that is unmatched and your ideas are so creative. Never would I have thought to write about such a story of two cancer patients falling in love nor would I thought that that plot line would result in such a beautiful novel. But clearly I was proven wrong. I loved it.
The Fault in Our Stars, to put it simply, made me cry. Not just one tear or two, but multiple, a waterfall of tears. The imagery and description made me feel like I knew the characters personally and created a strong bond between the reader and the characters.
The relationship of Hazel and Augustus was also my favorite and the twist at the end was very unexpected. As much as the end made me cry, there is no other way I wish it would've ended. The way it came unexpectedly was the best part.
It is actually crazy how much I loved this book. It has now become one of my new favorites and I would not mind rereading it over and over and over again. And the quotes in your novel were very touching as well. For example I

loved the quotes...
1. On page 311 John Green writes “My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”
2. On page 313 it is said  “You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”  
3. On page 260 John Green writes “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”  
4. On page 311 the words “The marks humans leave are too often scars.”  appear and
5. On page 260 it is said "But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”  
All of these quotes were very thought provoking and beautiful. They made me look back at myself, at society, at life and see what we take advantage of. These quotes were my very favorite because they made me think. This whole book made me think. Had I not of read this book, have seen these quotes, have felt the emotions the characters felt, I wouldn't have sat down and looked at how grateful I should be. These quotes helped me analyze my life, something all books should do, and especially why I loved THIS book. The last one was one of the quotes that made me overemotional because of the change in events and the way she looked at their time together in such a positive way during a negative time.
All in all this book was fantastic, lovely, amazing, perfect and great and I am so happy I picked it up. I couldn't even put it down for a while and I loved it way too much. So thanks for bringing such a perfect novel into the world for everyone to enjoy. I know I enjoyed it.
Here are a bunch of people's letters to respond to your fascinating novel.
Sincerely,
Sneha Gundavarpu

Krista Ramsey

Wow. The writer, the writing, everything was so relatable and touching. The column I read was about a young girl, Tyann Adkins, who was murdered, brutally. Just a regular school girl killed in the middle of the day. Very sad.  You can access the link to the column here.

"A niece was going to do Tyann's hair, she said. She'd be buried with a pearl necklace. And someone would do her nails." (Ramsey)
I really liked this quote because it tied the whole article together. In the beginning she described Tyann as a girl who liked getting her hair and her nails done as well as was always seen with a pearl necklace. I loved how in the end it tied the beginning to the end,  giving us a clear picture and a sense of closure. It helped us, as the reader, imagine and connect with Tyann, as she was a teenager like us. The sentences were short and down to the point so they were emphasized. The diction was low and casual so there wasn't much thinking, just straight and down to the point. It was also connotation because all of these items had an emotional value to Tyann and her family. Finally you see a repeated use of hair, nails, and pearl necklace throughout the column which were things that personified Tyann and made her different as a person.

Ramsey's style is always to have low and casual diction. She also tend to summarize/ connect the beginning and the end all in the last sentence of the column. She makes to posts relatable and allow to readers to connect with what she's writing as well as raises their awareness about something. Her writing is very blunt and down to the point. I said earlier about the quote I liked in Tyann's article (it was the very last sentence). Relating to that I also liked the end of "Super Bowl QBs score points for Great Style" where she said "Whatever the score in the game, they'll both look like winners." This really summarized the column which is what I fell like Ms.Ramsey tends to do with her last sentences, to conclude the whole column and wrap it up.

If I could ask Krista Ramsey 3 things they would be...
1. When did you decide that you wanted to be a professional writer?
2. How do you come up with your ideas?
3. What normally inspires you the most, and how do you get rid of writers block?

That's all. Thanks for reading :)

The Fault in Our Stars

Okay okay I know I'm reading this book super late.
Yeah yeah I understand that everyone read it a year ago and that I'm the only person in the world who hasn't read it.
But in reality, I'm so glad I picked up this book because it's better late than never.
I've gotten to about the first 50 pages. Let's just say the first 5 pages were good enough to get me hooked. So for this post I'm simply going to introduce the characters, at least the ones I've been introduced to so far.

Hazel: Hazel is a nice girl. Although depressed and sarcastic, she has a heart of gold. The story is told in her point of view. She is also highly intelligent and loves to read. She doesn't think too much of herself and believes she is unattractive. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was young and had a miracle recovery, though is yet to fully recover.

Augustus: Just introduced in the story, Gus attends the same support group as Hazel. Described as very attractive, he catches Hazels eye and he is also smitten with Hazel. Also had cancer and as a result has a prosthetic leg.

Mom: Hazels mom is very supportive and is the reason Hazel joined the support group.

Isaac: Augustus's friend who introduced him to the cancer support group and is almost blind, due to cancer. Also dislikes the support group.

So these are the main characters I was introduced to. I'm already in love with this book and encourage you to read it :)

Book Thief

Wow.
This book simply leaves me speechless.
It's written so creatively and there is so much emotion it's almost magical.
I can say for sure though that I was not too pleased with the ending even though it was extremely well written.
Basically this book is about a young girl who is sent away to a foster home in Nazi Germany. Told in the perspective of death, this book takes us through the life of this girl. It shows us her ups and downs, from harboring a Jew to stealing books to secretly learning how to read. This book is an eye opener, something that simply proves to us how lucky we really are.
I loved this book for many reasons.
1. I loved the way the book was told. The fact that it was told in the point of view of death gave it a unique flair.
2. The story was different. It's a simple as that. The story line was amazing with different twists and turns at every corner. Things that you would never expect happen.
3. I loved the main character. I loved her innocence and her drive and I really felt as though I could connect to her.

Overall I really loved this book and I recommend it to everyone!

Hello English 1B

Well guys, it's been a whole trimester since I've done a blog so let's hope this goes well. I'm going to write a new blog on a book I just read. Well obviously since this is what the blog is for. Anyway I'm going to start by introducing the book...

The Color of Water
By James McBride

I haven't gotten too far into the book but so far it is absolutely perfect. It's extremely inspirational and very eyeopening.  Basically this is a story about an African American person raised in an African American society. He belongs to a large family and doesn't have a father. However, unlike his peers, there's something strange in his family. His mother is not African american, a sight unseen in this part of town. To start I'd like reiterate the large amount of stereotypes in place during this time period. This whole book is a recap of the memories of the mother, which had been locked away for too long, and his life with his mother. I'm truly enjoying this book and being introduced to these characters. The book looks like it will take a turn for the worse so I fear that one of his siblings or his mother will die :( However it seems thrououghly fascinating so I cannot wait to keep reading!

My Growth as A Reader and Writer

{ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS}



Throughout my blogging experience, I feel as though I have grown as both a reader and a writer. As a reader, I was able to follow the books I read more easily and as a writer, I was able to place my thought process on paper in a fun and somewhat simplistic way. This growth is shown through the two blogs which I have displayed above. I have also learned to incorporate more images, links and quotes, in my newer blogs rather than my older ones. As you can see, in the earlier blog post, I have only incorporated one image of the cover in my novel. However, in the later blog post, I incorporated a summary, which was taken directly from the book, therefore making it a quote, as well as incorporated an image. This gave the reader a wide spectrum of ways to interactively read my post as well as make it more visually appealing. I also wrote longer posts near the end and felt as though I did not need to constrict the number of words in my blog post. This allowed me to be free with my writing and reading skills, therefore making me expand my writing skills. I also did not just give summaries of my book. In the beginning I simply gave a summary and what I was feeling, however near the end I gave a summary, my thoughts on the novel and predictions to what I believe is going to happen. These predictions were also true predictions, not just “they’ll all live happily ever after” predictions but predictions that I thought would really happen, as displayed in the death I predicted in Allegiant. The content of my writing had developed as for my ability to write more had expanded as well. My writing also consisted of fewer grammatical errors. For example, in the newer post I underlined my book titles but in the older post I did not. This is an easy grammatical I could of fixed, but was unaware of until I read more blogs and novels and understood the need of doing this. These are just a few of the many ways I believe I have improved as both a reader and a writer, and this is shown throughout my blogs.

I struggled a little throughout my blogging experience though. I was unable to come up with new material on the same book for multiple blogs. For example, had I have been reading the same book for more than a week, I was unable to blog about different things about it. I found it difficult to find new things to blog about on the same book. I now realize I good have blogged about predictions, questions, characters, theme and so much more, but for some reason I didn’t feel as though I could at the time and I did not. I would find a new book to blog about each time and if I was blogging about the old books multiple times, then my blogging quality would deteriorates as well as my enjoyment level. I worked through this struggle by, well, reading more, and reading other peoples’ blogs to get ideas about what more to blog on. I did have some strengths and one of the ones I had was the ability to make my blogs somewhat simplistic, so that all audience could read it, but also enjoyable so people would not get too bored. I also enjoyed the fact that I would add the tagline “thanks for reading” after every blog post of mine. I did, just barely meet my good reads reading goal. My goal was twenty books, and that is exactly the amount of books I read, 20. I used good reads mainly to track the novels I was reading but also to gain suggestions on new book that I could possibly enjoy. I found that aspect of good reads very helpful if I was ever in need of a good book suggestion. I improved as a read for I believe my reading speed has increased and I have learned to love all the books that I have read. I am also now able to more easily analyze the books I read, a quality of an improved reader.

The Gift...

YAY!

The Gift was so much better than the first book and I was very pleasantly surprised. It started off a bit disappointing but it was really really good. It kept me on edge and I didn't want to stop reading it. Now I cannot wait to read The Fire the next book in this series.

I especially enjoyed how the characters felt more realistic in this book. In the last book, the characters were so "perfect" that it was almost unrealistic. But, in this book, the characters have many flaws, make bad decisions, fall in love, betray each other, lie, steal, and also make good decisions and save people.

The characters really developed throughout this novel. In the beginning of the book, both Whit and Whisty would have done whatever they could do save everyone, even if it was illogical. However, near the end, they learned not to trust everyone and that sometimes, it matters more to do good for everyone rather than a few people and they make risky, yet calculated decisions.

This book ended in a huge cliffhanger, so now I'm wondering what will happen in the next book. I have a few predictions...

1. I think the main characters will end up saving the world, I mean, that happens in almost every book doesn't it?

2. I think that Whit will get over Celia. She's a lost one now, I mean it's not realistic to still love her.

3. I think Byron and Whisty will end up together. As much as she hates him, I think she'll end up admiring him later.

4. I think that their parents will not have died, and somehow come back to life

and finally...

5. I predict a death. I don't know whose but I think it will be someone important who will die and I think that will be devastating to the story.

Well thanks for reading :)