My new book.

I'm reading a new book called Game Of Shadows by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. The book is about the use of steroids in sports. One part of the book that really made me think was right in the beginning; they were talking about all these Olympic Athletes. I learned that on top of unhealthy amount of exercise (at least about 7) these athletes take incredible amounts of drugs and, legal and illegal. One such story was of female runner Marion Jones. Jones ingested about 35 things a day that helped her train. These included creatine monohydrate, vitamins A, C, E, D, B1, B2, B6, B12, omega- 3 fatty acids, dextrose, tyrosine, folic acid, and ZMA tablets. My first reaction after hearing all of these things was that it was incredibly unsafe. After that the book named a lot of the athletes that had healthy problems because of the all these drugs. I guess that this book has so far given me a peek at the darker side of Olympic sports.

finished with the book, last thoughts.

I have finished the book. Towards the end of the book you can see a lot of togetherness between the two families who's daughters were mixed up. I was really surprised because the two families seem to be friends now. They have spent a lot of time together between doing spots on the news, and writing this book. I think that it was sort of beautiful in a way to read about this bond that these two families share and the fact that they became so close because of a tragic accident and a case of mistaken identity. The end of the book reminded me of the book reminded me of the saying "It's always darkest before the light" because in the span of two months, both families had the experience of losing a loved one, but have grown as people and have recovered using each other.

Starting to really get into the story.

This week in the book I read about one of the families reactions when they got the call from the hospital about their daughter being alive. It was different than the reaction I would expect. For one, the other daughter that was living in the house was convinced that the call was a prank call and they should just go back to sleep; it's not like she does not care if her sister was alive, she just thought that this was some jerk that was playing a horrible joke on them. The daughter, Carly, would not let her mother even think that the news was real. While Carly thought the call was fake, the mother had mixed feelings. On one hand, nothing could make her happier than to have her daughter back, but at the same she does not want to fully believe that her daughter is actually alive because she does not want to go through the pain of losing her daughter again. I talked about this because it was completely not what I expected to do. I would expect them to immediately run to the car and speed to the hospital.

My New Book A.K.A OFFICIAL BEGGINING OF THE SECOND MARKING PERIOD!

To kick off the second quarter I have found a book that I am really exited to read. It is funny because it the book is an in-depth look at this really big case of mistaken identity that I had actually heard about on the news a few years ago. I decided to read this because I remembered how sad it was when I saw it on the news but forgot pieces of the story. The case was of these two girls who hit each other in their cars. The two girls happened to look exactly the same (and were not related. One died in the car crash and one lived, but was in a coma. Somehow all the cops and family members mistook the two girls because there faces were messed up in the crash. The family of the dead girl thought that their loved one was in a coma and the family of the girl in a coma thought that their loved one had died. You can probably imagine what it was like when the girl came out of her coma. But the thing that really interests me about this story is the idea that you think your loved one was almost dead and then find out that she was dead all along. Or that the loved one that died tragically has been alive the whole time. So yes I'm really exited to read this book.

The "epic" story about me reading a whole book in one week!!!

Because last Friday was the official end of the marking period and I only had credit for two book's (one really long one), this week I had to read a whole book; and I actually did it. The book I read was called The Body Of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci. I know the name of the book may give a weird picture in the reader's head but the book was really good. The book was about a guy named Victor "Torey" Adams. Torey had a great life in his old town until a person he knew from his school, Christopher Creed, went missing mysteriously. Christopher's body was found by Torey who went in the woods to look for him and ended up tripping and fell onto the dead body, which is pretty gross to even think about. When Torey told everybody that he found the body there was obviously people that would think rumers like that Torey killed Christopher and such. It was things like this that made Torey want to leave town; so for his senior year as a student, Torey went to a boarding school. Soon after the year at the new school starts people start to learn about Torey's past, It was as if Torey could not run away from what had happened. Throughout the book the reader sees Torey trying to contact people that knew more about the "insedent". One quick thing that I thought was funny was that i was able to make a connection to The Cather In The Rye because in the first chapter, Torey was sitting in his room when another boy from the school, Leo, barges in and starts spying and touching things in Torey's room. It reminded me of the part of Catcher when Ackley would come into Holden's room and start touching everything.

uhhh. the search continues.

I finished the last Pendragon book last week and right now I am in that weird state where I finished a really good book and need to find a really good new book. So I don't really know what to talk about in this blog post. I think with the remaining blog post i will try to figure out what I will read next. I was just thinking about the book The Giver. I read it a few years ago but don't remember what happened. So I think thats what I will read next. Sorry if this blog post was not that good, but I at least wanted to keep up with the blog entries.

Last Post About Pendragon: Book 10!

It took a little bit longer than I thought it would, but I finally managed to finish the book. I really don't want to give away big things about the book so I am going to summarize the series and basically relate the series to the hero cycle. One thing that I like about this series is that in the end (SPOILER ALERT) the travelers win the war and Bobby goes back to normal life with Courtney. I really like how the series starts with how Bobby and Courtney kiss for the first time right before Bobby finds out that he is a traveler; and it ends with Bobby and Courtney sitting together and she starts to read to him the journals that he had written over the years that he had been gone. This about the book is similar to the hero's return home in the hero cycle. Another aspect that the Pendragon series can relate to is the idea of a sidekick. There are a bunch of people that can be sen as sidekicks in the series; these people include all nine other travelers, Mark and Courtney. And finally, I feel that the Pendragon series relates well to the idea of a mentor for the main character. Bobbies mentor has been hisUncle Press. Uncle Press was the one that told Bobby he was a traveler and showed Bobby how to handle saving whole worlds. Uncle Press also came back as a spirit during this last book to teach Bobby about Solara.

How Do The Travelers Understand Each Other?

This week I wanted to talk about a cool aspect of the Pendragon series that in no way makes sense. Obviously, the people on different planets speak different languages, and in the beginning of the series it was explained that all the travelers would hear each language as the language they know. But I always wondered what would happen if one traveler wrote something to another traveler, would the letter come to the person in their own language, or in the traveler who wrote it's language? Another thing, now all of the worlds are mixed, so are the people from each planet able to talk to one another?

One thing that happened this week in my reading was that Elli Winter, the traveler from Quillian, realized that she will have to come face to face with her daughter, Nevva Winter, who (a few books back) joined Saint Dane in his idea of destroying the travelers and making a new universe. Elli now has the mindset that she wants to literally kill her own daughter. Even though her daughter helped an evil man kill millions of people on all of the worlds, I could never think of anybody truly hating their child. Luckily, Bobby told her that she will try to use mother guilt to bring Nevva back to the good side of the battle for all there ever was.

Week 4 of reading Pendragon: Book 10.

During this week's reading, Bobby and Spader have traveled to the territory of Zadaa, where they met up with Loor and Saangi. They found out that they would have to travel to the far away Fortress of Mooraj because there were exiles being held there. Mooraj was an old training ground for warriors, but now it served as a prison to keep the exiles. the four make the long journey to find that the outside wall surrounding Mooraj is heavily gourde with powerful looking warrior guards. The four realize that even though they have all been taught well to fight, (except Spader) there is no way hat they wold be able to fight off all of those warriors. They scan the area around them and find an underground entrance to the prison. once they reach the underground entrance they find that it is filled with water. That is where I am at in the book right now. This week especially, I wanted to talk how happy I am that the story is re-visiting all these old areas that the characters spent time in at some point. I remember in (I think it was) the fifth book when Loor and Alder bring Bobby to this training ground and beat his butt for months and months to make him into a warrior. Even though I don't remember much about the actual part in the book I remember reading that part and thinking it was so cool and i kept visualizing all this warrior training. Even though I really like where this last book is going, I am really happy to be able to reconnect to old worlds and characters.

Week 3 of reading Pendragon Book 10.

Since I have written my last entry, a lot has happened. I left off when Bobby and Patrick where first getting into this walled kingdom. They look around and realize that this giant place in the middle of New York City has such historic treasures as the statue of "David," the Mona Lisa, and the Eiffel Tower. The two realize that they had appeared back on third earth five years after the Ravinians had taken control of all the territories in Halla. They find out that the Taj Mahol seems to be the capital of this elitist civilization. When they enter they find it to be empty. They start to walk in the building and when they reach the center they find Saint Dane sitting on his throne at the top of a large staircase, with Nevva Winter right next to him. Bobby and Patrick hide behind a column so they will not be seen. Three henchmen walk in dragging five exiles from different territories. they are about to kill the exiles when Bobby and Patrick come out from hiding and start a fight with the henchmen. Saint Dane is very surprised to find out that Bobby now had the power he had, making them equal. Bobby and three of the exiles manage to escape. they steal a helicopter and fly away from the walled Ravinian home. once he is able to relax a little, Bobby realizes that the exile flying the helicopter is Mark Diamond. Mark is Bobby's nerdy best friend that had become an exile when the Ravinians gained power. But he was not nerdy anymore, he was confident and strong. I read more in the book this week, but i only decided to write in the blog about this much because it really shows how time has changed. Bobby feels like the whole time on Solara took at most an hour, but when he gets back he realizes that he was actually at Solara for five whole years! I think that this idea is an example of why I love the series so much. Just thinking that somebody was in a different universe for an hour and turns out that was gone for five years makes me extremely interested.

Week 2 of reading Pendragon: book 10.

I decided that I was at a good spot in the book to write about. again, note that a bunch of the words in this entry will not be recognizable, I will try to explain as much as possible. After leaving Solara, Bobby and Patrick, the traveler from third earth, go to third earth. Third earth is earth in about a thousand years. When they return it is not the third earth that Patrick had left. The two realize that they are at the zoo (or more like where the Bronx zoo was) because there were random animals walking around; and a polar bear that nearly kills them. They start to walk to where the old subway station/flume was in second earth. when they get somewhat close, they realize that the Ravinians (Saint Dane's group of "elite" people) had made a gigantic fortress. the wall surrounding the Ravinians fortress was about a thousand feet up. The two look for many ways to get on the other side of the wall and fail. Patrick is the first to admit that the two would have to transform into gians birds to be able to fly over the wall. Bobby willingly agrees that it is the onlt way across, even though this will somewhat deplete Solara of some of it's energy. Well, that is all for now, because as of right now that is where i am in the book. I can't wait to read some more of it!

Pendragon, 80 pages in.

Because this is the last book of the series i knew they would give the answers to all the big questions that we have had since the first books; I never thought that we would learn the answers so soon. Right when the book started Bobby and the other travelers were in a place that they had never seen before. they soon got reunited with the people in their lives that had either died or disappeared. it was then that the travelers were brought to Solara. a planet made up by the spirit of Halla. It was here where the Travelers learned the reality of their existants and all about saint dane. they learned that they were created from certain spirits in Solara, ones that showed certain atributes like dedication, willpower, and mental strength. I'm very happy that all these answers were given away so quickly because I really didn't want to wait until the end of the book to find out the answers.

Overview of the Pendragon series before i start reading the final book.

I just wanted to write this entry to sort of give you a preview of the Pendragon series before i start to read, and make entries about, the final book in the ten book series. Pendragon is about a boy named Bobby Pendragon, who's Uncle one day surprises him as he is about to go to his basketball game. The uncle tells him that some friends need help. Bobby willingly agrees to help without knowing what he was about to get into. Uncle Press, thats his name, drives Bobby to the city and pulls up at an abandoned subway station. the two go down into the station and Press walks onto the tracks. Bobby is scared, but goes down as well. the walk for about ten minuets and arrive at a door with a star branded into it. they walk threw the door and Press yells a word Bobby has never heard before. all of a sudden the big room that they were standing in comes to life and the two get carried on air to another world.

That was the first fifty pages of the first book in the series. Pendragon is a "traveler" who has to go from world to world and stop these worlds from going into total chaos. I love the series, which is why I'm about to start the tenth and final book. Just remember that if you see a word that you don't understand that it is probably because it is not a normal word that we use on this planet.

Books i read over the summer: the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Over the summer I read the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, By Stieg Larsson. The book is about Mikael Blomkvist, a publisher ho was recently on the losing side of a libel case. Because of the bad press brought on by his trial, he decides to leave the magazine, Millennium, that he owns one third of. He soon gets an offer from Mr. Vanger, an extremely wealthy and old man; the offer is that Vanger wants Blomkvist to do some detective work and find out who killed his beloved niece Harriet 36 years earlier. Blomkvist can't refuse this offer because Vanger is offering him 200m,000 Kroner a month for a year, and if Blomkvist solves the case than Vanger will give him five million kroner. I liked the book because i was able to get really into it, like i really wanted to know who killed Harriet. I recommend this book to anybody who Likes mystery.

Books i read over the summer: Monster

Over the summer I read the book Monster by Walter Dean Myers. It is about a boy named Steve Harman who was arrested for assist in murder. Most of the book takes place during Steve's trial. the issue is whether or not Steve was part of he gang that killed the man or if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I really liked the story, but i also enjoyed it because the book is written as a script. For example, there will be parts where it will say randomly "WA [wide angle] shot of the prosecutor." the book was cool because you get to hear how these gang members are trying to prove that Steve was a member of the gang just to get him thrown in jail. I loved the book mostly because i'm very interested by crimes, trials, and court scenes all together. I would recommend this book to people that are interested in things like court trials, otherwise you will think this book is slow.