outside reading 7

Bittersweet Sixteen
By: Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman

For this outside reading assignment I read the book 'Bittersweet Sixteen' by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman. This book is about 2 best friends named Laura and Whitney who's lives are changed when a new girl named Sophie comes to their school. Whitney has always been the most popular girl at Tate Academy and everyone knows she is going to have the best sweet sixteen birthday party, until the new girl Sophie comes to their school from L.A. and changes everything. The characters in this book deal with the change by trying to get used to it and making the best of it. Laura and Whitney start by trying to become friends with Sophie and soon Whitney and Sophie have decided to have a combined birthday party and everything seems okay again. Then another change happens and the two girls get into a huge argument and make their parties seperate again. This event changes the entire school; suddenly people have to choose between the girls and Laura, who has become best friends with both, trys to stay in the middle until the two decide she needs to pick side. When Laura can not pick a side the whole school turns on her and she is forced to deal with this change. I think this book shows that the best way to deal with change is to let it happen and go along with it because if you don't things will get out of hand.

Karasoyv, Carrie. Kargman, Jill. "Bittersweet Sixteen." New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. 22 February, 2009.

outside reading 6

Privilege
By: Kate Brian

For the outside reading about hope I choose to write about the book Privilege by Kate Brian. This book is a series of the the Private series by Kate Brian. In this book the main character Ariana Osgood is sent to the Brenda T. Trumbull Correctional Facility for Women because she murdered one of her classmates, Thomas Pearson. Ariana had a whole plan for her life and it did not include wasting her life in the Brenda T., so she plots to somehow escape and live the life she should have had. Everyday when Ariana is sitting in the Facility she is always hoping she will make it back out into the world some day and eventually she does. I think the book shows that no matter what you hope will happen, as long as you want it bad enough, can happen if you work hard for it. Even though it was a bad thing for most people that Ariana escaped, it was what she hoped for and because she never stopped working for it, it happened for her, and that is what I think Kate Brian is trying to tell the readers.

Brian, Kate. "Privilege." New York: Simon Pulse, 2008. 17 February, 2009.

outside reading 5

How China Got Religion
By: Slavoj Zizek

For this outside reading assignment I read the article called, 'How China Got Religion' by Slavoj Zizek. This article focuses on almost all of China's religions and talks about each one and how the government of China is a lot different then it was many years ago. A long time ago China was a country thats government was mainly focused on religion but now it has a seperate government and economy. I think this article was good but it was also very long and had too many facts that I do not think were necessary to put into the article. Another thing that this article talks about is how some people like Falun Gong want their religion to be seperate from the state control. Over all I thought this article was very interesting and I'm glad I had the chance to read about this because I didn't really know anything about it before.

Zizek, Slavoj. "How China Got Religion." New York Times. 11 October, 2007. 15 February, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/opinion/11zizek.html

outside reading 4

Female cops test traditional gender roles in Afghanistan
By: Mark Sappenfield

For this outside reading assignment I read the article 'Female cops test traditional gender roles in Afghanistan'. This article was about female Afghans searching for equality in their country. The Afghanistan police department is an occupation dominated by men and as women try to make it into it they are faced with a frustrating lack of opportunity. There are some 80,000 men working in this department and no more then a few hundred women. In most countries the gender role in the job area has been fixed long ago but in places like Afghanistan they are still having difficulties with the change. I do not think this article was very well written because it offered little information was filled with useless facts that made the article very long.

Sappenfield, Mark. "Female cops test traditional gender roles in Afganistan". The Christian Science Monitor. 7 January, 2009. 6 February, 2009.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0107/p01s03-wosc.html

outside reading 3

Paradise Lost
By: Kate Brian

For this outside reading assignment I finished the book Paradise Lost by Kate Brain. This book is a great example of a culture different from mine because the girls in this book go to an exclusive boarding school names Easton Academy. The girls in this book have all the money in the world and never have to worry about how much things cost. In our culture we have to worry about saving money for things like college, clothes, and for some even food. In some ways I also think the people in this book are somewhat like the people at my school because everyone cares about what the wear, what they look like, and what others think of them but the real difference is that in this book the girls have all the money they want to make sure they have all the newest and coolest things.

Brian, Kate. "Paradise Lost." New York: Simon Pulse, 2009. 8 February, 2009.

outside reading 2

Paradise Lost
By: Kate Brian

For my outside reading this week I read a new book called Paradise Lost by Kate Brain. This book is the 9th book in the series of the Private novels. In this book Reed Brennan is on vacation trying to forget everything that had happened to her over the past year. Reed finally starts having a good time until everything she got away from comes back to her and she is faced with the feeling that she is being watched. Everyone tells Reed she is just being paranoid and only thinks that because that is what happened to her last year so Reed tells herself that they are right and shes just being crazy. A few days later Reed has the same feeling and again she pushes it aside. I think this book is a perfect example of someone overcoming struggle because no one has been through as much in one year as Reed Brennan has, and managed to overcome it all. I think in other texts, the characters are faced with predictable challenges and it is obvious that they are going to overcome it but this book shows someone really struggling just to make it through one day at a time.

Brian, Kate. "Paradise Lost." New York: Simon Pulse, 2009. 5 February, 2009.

outside reading 1

Hurricane Relief for Haiti & Cuba
By: The Global Exchange

Over the month of November, Cuba and Haiti have been hit with many devastating hurricanes. In Haiti over 1,000 died and about one million are homeless due to flooding. In Cuba, 30,000 homes have been destroyed and the land is ruined. I thought this article was very well written because it starts by stating the facts about how the hurricanes and tropical storms have devastated people and their homes and also tells information about the storms. This article is not very long and does not waste time with useless information. Compared to other natural disasters, this one is probably up there on the list of ones that has affected people the most. In the article it lists some things that you can do to help them with the problems they are facing and it also tells you what other countries are doing to help.


No author. "Hurricane Relief for Haiti & Cuba" The Global Exchange. 10 November 2008. 1 February, 2009.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/hurricanerelief.html