Wild

I'm still not very far in the book, Wild. It began to talk about the first leg of the trail which is the Mojave Desert.

When I was reading how Cheryl was blindside about the conditions she would have to hike, it reminded me when my brother went hiking in New Mexico.

He went with about 8 other people and they hike 90 miles in 10 days. They prepared for months. Hiking more each day and carrying more weight in preparation. All of their equipment was strapped to their backs during the hike. A good 40+ pounds.

I thought that was crazy. Cheryl was hiking by herself with no training at all. It's hard to believe that she could lift her gear. This shows if you have the right inspiration and determination you can do anything.

Dealing with Grief

How do you deal with your grief? Do you stuff your face with ice cream? (Which is a very good option) Maybe you close the door on the world?

Or how about hiking more than 1,000 miles? Yeah, I didn't think so... Cheryl Strayed did just that. No, Cheryl is not a made up character in a book. She is the author of the autobiography, Wild.

 Wild is about Cheryl's journey of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I think its "wild" that a person with no experience would hike 1,000 miles. Alone.

Cheryl is driven by the grief of losing her mom. Losing someone can make you do crazy things, but I would argue that it's a little more than that. I believe that Cheryl is having a battle within herself. This is evident when Cheryl writes, "I've been so many things already. A loving wife and an adulteress. A beloved daughter... An ambitious overachiever and aspiring writer... I'd become a high school cheerleader and homecoming queen and then I went off to college and became a left-wing feminist campus radical" (Strayed 5). Cheryl doesn't know where she belongs. I believe the death of her mom triggers Cheryl to go on this aberrant journey to find herself.

This is very hard for me to wrap my head around. My inner battles consist of trying to figure out what to eat. I also have never lost someone extremely close to me. So, what I'm trying to say is I don't know how someone would come up with this idea, let alone do it. I guess if you have the right motivation you can do anything. This is why my parents often bribe me with things, like food.

 I'm not very far in this book, but I think Cheryl will have more inner battles. I also predict there will be times where she feels like giving up. Personally, I would yell, "I'm out of here! Peace!" after the first couple miles. This is why this story is so miraculous. How could someone do this? Maybe you could if you had a larger group of people with you to lean on. But, Alone? Count me out...

Wild is becoming a movie, unfortunately there is not trailer out yet, but I did find the book trailer. Check it out below:

P.S. Reese Witherspoon will play Cheryl in the movie. I can't wait because Reese is an amazing actress! :)

Review of "This I Believe"

So, I finally finished This I Believe! Keep reading for my thoughts on the book. :)

Overall, I really liked this book!!!! It's hard to criticize this book as a whole, since there is a new author and new concept every chapter. I thought I would share what some authors did really well and what others lacked.

I really liked the approach Jason Sheehan took in his chapter, There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Barbecue. His whole chapter is about barbecue. Yes, barbecue. Sheehan literally wrote, "I believe in barbecue" (217). You must think he is out of his mind, but I think it's genius. It grabs your attention because you want to know why he believes in barbecue of all things.

Frederic Reamer uses a different technique to draw readers in. He uses a personal story (like our creative non-fiction) and appeals to our emotions. Reamer's opening two sentences are, "Last Tuesday morning I stared across the table at a woman with severe scars lining her otherwise gentle face. Her raging husband carved those scars and sliced off her ear when she told him she wanted a divorce" (188). The reader instantly feels sorry for the woman and develops anger towards the husband.

While some authors had attention grabbing introductions, others lacked that. Mark Shields starts his chapter by saying, "I believe in politics" (220). He has already lost half of our attentions. The rest of the chapter couldn't sustain my attention either. Shields does not include a personal story and just talks about the skills of politicians.... Yawn.

I would recommend this book to people who would give it a chance. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who is younger than 14. I hope some of you will give it a try!

Connections to "This I Believe"

Even though "This I Believe" is about people's personal stories and beliefs, it's very relatable. I have connected to many of the chapters.

In Robert A. Heinlein's chapter, "Our Noble, Essential Decency", he talks about all the people he believes in.

What really struck me was when Heinlein wrote; "I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime. Yet for every criminal, there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly men," (Heinlein 120).

If you watch the news, the majority if the headlines are consumed with negatives things. We are focused on the handful of people who do horrible things.

I think most of us can connect to this. I have teachers who give the whole class a talk about our bad behavior, lack of focus, determination, etc. 99% of the time, in their speech, the teachers say "And it's only two or three of you who are doing this." But the rest of this class still gets lectured and possibly punished just because of these few kids.

Currently, Mason High school is being looked down at because a few people decided to vandalize the school bathrooms. And in my gym class, we are constantly being lectured about our lack of effort. It's really only two or three people who refuse to jog four laps because they might get sweaty. Like seriously??? There are people who have to walk miles and miles everyday just for water. You can run four laps.

This book actually connects to what we are currently learning in English. These chapters that people write have similar characteristics to creative non-fiction:

• Author's voice
• Persuasion 
• Personal stories/connections
• About 3 pages

Temple Grandin's chapter in "This I Believe"

I'm loving This I Believe! Most people wouldn't even give the book a second look when they found out it was about people talking about their personal philosophies. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical at first. I thought it would be people just blabbing on and convincing you on their believes. But i was wrong...

I know I mentioned this in my last post, but it's just so cool that there is  80 different authors in the book! 80 different stories. 80 different opinions. 80 different ideas.

One of my favorite chapters in the book so far is Seeing in Beautiful, Precise Pictures by Temple Grandin. Some of you may know who Temple Grandin is. If you don't, she is a doctor of animal science, a professor, a best selling author, and an engineer. I almost forgot! She is also autistic. There is a movie about her! Check out the trailer below:

In her chapter, Temple writes; "Here's how my brain works: It's like the search engine Google for images. If you say the world "love" to me, I'll surf the Internet inside my brain. Then, a series of images pops into my head. What I'll see is a picture of a mother horse with a foal; or I think of 'Herbie, the Love Bug' ; scenes from the movie Love Story; or the Beatles song 'Love, love, all you need is love...'" (Grandin 87)

I think Temple writes about how her mind works to show the reader that just because you are different and your differences may hold you back, you still can accomplish anything. Most people didn't believe that Temple could do the things she did because she was autistic.

I've seen the movie, Temple Grandin and it's a really inspiring, so you guys should check it out! :)

"This I Believe"

My older brother gave me this book he had to read for English a couple years ago. He thought I would like it. He was right...

"This I Believe" is different from any other book I have read. It's about the philosophies of different people.  In this book, there is about 80 different authors. They each have a little chapter in the book about 3 or 4 pages long describing their beliefs.

It's actually more interesting than it sounds. The authors describe how events in their lives changed or formed their beliefs. Other authors in the book, just described their beliefs. For example, Sarah Adam's chapter is called "Be Cool to the Pizza Dude". She writes about the reason you should be nice to the pizza delivery man. Elvia Bautista writes about how the murder of her brother affected her. She puts flowers on every grave in the cemetery. "I go because I believe that no matter where you came from or what you believe in , when you die, you want flowers on your grave and people who visit you and remember you that way," (Bautista 18).

Some of the authors in "This I Believe" are regular people like you and I. But there are famous people who are included in this book. Which is kinda cool to hear what they believe in. Some of these famous people include; Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Helen Keller.

"The Life of Pi" Book Review

It took me a little more than 3 weeks to finish "The Life of Pi". I would give this book two stars. Keep reading to find out why. :)

"The Life of Pi" is about the life of Pi Patel. (Hints the title "The Life of Pi") Although you get an overview of Pi's entire life, the book is mainly focus on Pi's survival on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

When I first started reading this book, I didn't think it would be very realistic. I mean who can say they were stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger? Other than that, the book is very realistic. I think this hurts the quality of the book in a way because nothing keeps you on the edge of your seat. For example; Pi talks about the sharks that are always swimming around the lifeboat, but they never attack. Realistically, sharks don't usually attacked humans or boats unless threatened. I was excepting the sharks to maybe bite off a piece of the lifeboat, but they were harmless the whole book.

Overall, I thought the book was very boring. Honestly, I struggled to get through it. Most of the book contained LONG paragraphs because there was no dialogue. (Pi was the only human on the lifeboat)

I would not recommend this book to people who get bored with books easily. Unless you are expecting to get stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, (the book is a good survival manual) I would not read this book.