Thirteen Reasons Why and Before I Die

            Thinking of books that I’ve liked that I’ve read in the past Thirteen Reasons Why and Before I Die comes to mind. Though these books have to be two of the most depressing books you’ll ever read, they are worth the time to read.

            The first book I mentioned, Thirteen Reasons Why is by Jay Asher and is about why Hannah Baker committed suicide. The book is from the viewpoint of Clay Jenson where he had just returned home from school to find cassette tapes on his front porch, it turns out that they were from Hannah Baker where she had recorded herself saying the thirteen reasons why she committed suicide and why the people the tapes were sent to are the reason she committed suicide.

            It’s a really sad book. Clay the whole time in it is all like if I would have just did this or if I just would have said this to her, see because Clay had a crush on Hannah, but was to chicken to act out on it. The reason why I like this book is because its reality teenagers commit suicide everyday from bullying and I just thought that this book was expressing how teenagers feel and how others feel after they’re gone. Though, this book is sad, it’s worth reading to even understand the signs of someone committing suicide or for a good read.

            Now the second book I mentioned is by Jenny Downham which is about a girl named Tessa that has cancer. The story is about what she wants to do before she dies or also known as her bucket list. The main things on her bucket list are of fame and to have sex (yeah, parts of this book aren’t that appropriate.) The book was extremely depressing, another thing on Tessa’s bucket list was to stay alive to see her best friend’s baby, as you can see as I said it was really depressing you can probably guess what happened.

            The reason I think that this is a book worth reading is it’s like Thirteen Reasons Why in the aspect of it’s a great read, but also just for the readers to live their life to the fullest, you never know when you’ll die, so it’s best to live by yolo.

            Now going through recent movie (this was about a year ago keep in mind) I came across the movie Now Is Good, I clicked on the movie because it had Dakota Fanning in it, but after reading the summer I realized I had either seen the movie or read something like it, after looking it up I came to realize that Now Is Good is based upon the book by Jenny Downham, though they have different names.

 The book was way better than the movie, but I admit the movie made me ball my eyes out by the end of the movie because Tessa (Dakota Fanning) seems completely emotionless about the fact that she is going to be dying soon, and then you come to the end of the movie, and it just hits you like a rock. Overall, I hated the movie (only because it made me cry), but it was a good movie to watch, definitely like a chick flick, but with an actually sad ending.

I think that these two books are probably the two most depressing books, but they are also the books with a great story to tell, and for the readers to learn something from them; that is why I think that both of these should be on the list of young adults to read. Maybe these books will make going through whatever your going through a bit easier to understand. 

If I Stay

            One of my all time favorite books is called If I Stay by Gayle Forman. I actually started reading the book because the cover of it looked somewhat interesting it was all blue and with a tree on it.

            The book is actually extremely depressing. It’s about how this girl named Mia was in an accident and can’t remember what happened during the accident only everything before it, with her family and Adam (her boyfriend.) I admit the very end of this book I was crying because the author does an outstanding job of making you feel the emotions of the characters. I just really liked this book and was kind of confused by the ending, I thought maybe she had died or something, then I realized there was a second book called Where She Went that was in Adam’s perspective.

            Apparently, there is going to be a movie that is based upon the book that is coming out in 2014; which I can’t wait to watch, but till then I’ll just have to stick with the books. Anyway, the second book like I said is in Adam’s perspective and it’s telling of his ‘rock star’ life and how he comes into contact with Mia 3 years later after the accident.

            I honestly don’t know what else to say about this book it was really good and I think that all teenager girls would love this two books, they are adorable and are things that can happen in real life situations (okay, not the out of body experience), but it tells of the love of family and friends; which in turn proves to be a great story.

            I preferred the first book to the second; most people I’ve spoken to that have read these two books liked the second one better, but I preferred the first because it seemed more realistic to me. The second book it was more of a complete fantasy, it didn’t seem that realistic to me compared to the first book. But I recommend reading both of the books because they both are really good and were two of the most meaningful books I’ve read that stand out to me.

I honestly don’t remember anything meaningful about the way it was written or the vocabulary of it; just that it’s a fantastic book series and that girls in high school and college should definitely read it. I think that the books change your way of seeing friends and family in my opinion and even the way you see your own life, anyway its great books and should be read.

Pride and Prejudice

            One of the classic books is called Pride and Prejudice and is by Jane Austen. It’s a pretty sophisticated book, they talk very formally in it. There are also a few movies and shows that are based upon the book, I watched the newest movie of Pride and Prejudice and enjoyed it.

            Pride and Prejudice at first was really annoying to me because the talking in a formal way, because while reading the book I had this weird voice for the characters…Anyway, at the beginning I didn’t like it, I only really read it to get my pages read for my class. After about 100 pages, I began to actually enjoy the book. It’s kind of a slow book at first, but once you get to the part about Mr. Collins asking Elizabeth to marry him, it speeds up from there. I thought it was really weird that he was asking his cousin to marry him, but then I realized this book was made to represent the past when things were different and it was socially acceptable to marry your cousin.

            I’ve heard people talk about the book as being one of the most romantic books ever, and really it doesn’t get all gooey and romantic till the end of the book in my opinion. Anyway, the book is actually worth reading, and you’ll find out when reading it that you kind of have to force yourself to read the first third of the book before it gets a little bit interesting.

            Pride and Prejudice is one of those books that besides being a romantic book, it’s really all about judging people. Elizabeth judges Mr. Darcy based on what people said about him, or how he acted before she got to know him. She also does the same with Mr. Wickham she judges him based upon his charm and didn’t see through the lies of his deception. But I think the main meaning to this book is not to judge people, not be prejudice against someone, as well as the first part of the book there’s a thin line between cocky and having pride.

            Now onto the movie I watched. I really liked the movie, though the clothes and how they talked so formally kind of irritated me, but once you get past that it was a really cute movie. I think that the characters of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth had a good actor and actress for their role in the movie. I didn’t watch the older version of Pride and Prejudice, so when I’m talking about this movie I am referring to the newest version of it (which I think is like 2001 or something.)

I definitely suggest reading the book and then watching the movie because it puts everything together once you have compared the two and realize how cute the story is. I think that only girls would enjoy this book, really of any age in my opinion, but most definitely only girls and not to guys. 

Cirque Du Freak Series

            Cirque Du Freak is one of the most interesting book series ever. Yes, it has to do with vampires, but it was popular before Twilight was popular…Just saying. So I wouldn’t judge all vampire books just because of Twilight or other love story vampire series.

            So Cirque Du Freak is a series that contains 12 books with each book only being about 200 pages each; which is what like 2,400 pages total? Not that big of a read, so is definitely a series to get into. I started reading these books in like 6^th grade, but people in high school can still enjoy them too. Like my brother read the books as well, and I started rereading the books in high school, but then just got too busy and gave up on that. But my guess is that from about age 10 to 20 is the ideal ages in which to read this series. I’m saying this because it’s pretty simple to understand what’s going on and isn’t too much of a hard read which might just drive some people insane, but I think it’s a well-written series with a great story behind it, and a lot of action.

            The series is made by Darren Shan, which I believe he has some longer name that I am unable to pronounce. Is series is just a really good read, and I recommend it definitely to middle schoolers and just for people who don’t like too much of a hard read. This series is filled with action, fighting, adventure, and even some humor in parts (not much because Mr. Crepsley is very serious.) I enjoyed these books very much in middle school.

            Basically, the story is all about how Darren Shan took a spider from Mr. Crepsley when him and his friend Steve went to the Cirque Du Freak (which is just a circus of ‘freaks’) and it bit his friend Steve, and Darren was forced to become the Vampire’s Assistant by getting turned into a half vampire. That’s just quick synapses of the first book, I won’t go into the other books, and you’ll just have to read the series to figure out what I mean by this being an awesome series.

            The characters in the book are fun to read about and the series as a whole works very well together. Another thing is the series wouldn’t even take that long to read, the words on the pages are not super small and the vocabulary is easy to understand, so my guess it if reading the series non-stop it’d take about two hours for each book totaling only a day’s worth of reading, or two at most. So I recommend this series highly, it is and will be one of my all time favorite series. 

Lord of the Rings

            My last blog post (if anyone actually reads my blog posts), made me realize I should do a blog post about Lord of the Rings! I have never read the books and many people are like your totally missing out, but I just haven’t gotten around to actually reading the books, like with all the other books I say I’m going to read and I just never do. But anyway to talk about the movies, these are probably the most epic movies, and though the first one came out in 2001 these had to be some of the best movies that came out around that time. I remember first watching these movies when they came out, when I was only four; I even then thought these movies were intriguing and awesome. Who doesn’t love a good adventure/fantasy trilogy?

            Now where do I start…These movies are amazing, why? Because they just are, I shouldn’t have to explain myself, but I will. First off the actors did a brilliant job of playing their characters, I say an applause for Elijah Woods who plays Frodo Baggins (the carrier of the ring), Sean Astin who plays Sam, Ian McKellen who plays the great Gandalf, and all the actors in these movies they just do a great movie. If not for the actors this movie wouldn’t have been as good, they just did a marvelous job.

            Now obviously we have to give credit to the great author of the whole trilogy which was J. R. R. Tolkien. The books are separated into three books, but have two books in each book. The first one is called The Fellowship of the Ring, the second called The Two Towers, and lastly The Return of the King.

            Personally, out of all the movies I liked The Return of the King the best, maybe because they had the huge battle at the end of the movie where the three characters of Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom),  and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) were counting how many of the enemy they were killing. Best part of the movie is where Gimli says to Legolas after he takes down a whole elephant, “that only still only counts as one!” I could not stop laughing. Another part I’m not sure in which movie it’s either the first or the second, but Gimli says to Aragorn, “Aragorn, let’s go find some food.” Ahhh I love these movies.

            I think that everyone should see these movies, it has a bit of romance to it, a lot of fighting and war, and some humor (like some of the quotes from the movie that I said above.) These are definitely some movies to see, most people already have because they have been out for so long, but if you haven’t seen them yet, I definitely suggest that you do, these are on my top movies list. And even though they were made back in 2001, 2002, and 2003 they are still amazing.

Rise of the Fellowship

            So last night after hours of homework I decided it was time for a break and began to try to find a movie that interests me. After looking through about twenty-five movies I came across the movie Rise of the Fellowship. Now me being a huge Lord of the Rings fan I decided to check it out and clicked on it. After reading the summary I realized it did have to do with Lord of the Rings, but was about gaming. I was interested in it and began to watch it.

            Now I can’t stress this enough, this is the dorkiest movie I have ever seen in my life. They literally took all aspects of being a nerd and a geek and put it right into this movie. So I only recommend this movie to people who like nerdy movies and will not at all make fun of the fact of gaming as a huge thing going on for nerds, because that is what the movie is all about. I honestly after about an hour into the movie I asked myself why I was watching this, but I had to finish it to see if they had a happy ending for the four nerdy characters; which they in fact did.

            This movie was actually pretty entertaining because no offense to the actors or director, but it was just such a stupid movie. I honestly have no other way to put it, but in defense of the movie any movie about gamers I would probably not enjoy at all, because gaming is of no interest to me. I think that people going to a convention for gamers is a complete waste of time, but I suppose some people are really into gaming and want to meet other people who are just like them. I thought it was hilarious how they tried to put Lord of the Rings aspects into the movie by having the flash drive (usb drive) on a necklace around the main characters neck like they did with Frodo in Lord of the Rings with the ring.

            I thought the sound effects in this movie were kind of humiliating, I mean the whole movie they are basically doing a knock off version of Lord of the Rings and trying to make the quest to get to the gaming convention; putting all the different parts of Lord of the Rings into the movie was kind of strange. I don’t know if they did that to make it seem like a quest like Lord of the Rings, were making fun of it, or were just trying to get more people to watch it.

            This was one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Maybe it would be good to some people (including gamers and Lord of the Rings fanatics), but the movie just didn’t go with me, and I didn’t like it. You don’t have to take my word for it, go watch it, but if you haven’t seen the Lord of the Rings movies I’d make sure to do that first because then the whole movie won’t make sense of them trying to take different scenes from the three movies and put into this movie. 

Youngster Books

            So because I love children books and I’m looking at my book shelf right now to figure out a good book to right about I’m just going to talk about some of the books that are shorter chapter books and more of late elementary school/middle school books.

            The first book I’m looking at is called Shiloh, this book’s author is Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and is one of the cutest stories about a boy and his love for a dog that he calls Shiloh. I believe when I was in 4^th grade my teacher actually read this book allowed to us, it really is a cute story. It focuses on Marty who finds a young beagle in the hills which he then names Shiloh even though the dog belongs to Judd Travers who is a bad guy. Honestly, this is a little kid book completely, but I enjoyed it when I was little and recommend it to children who are just starting to read.

            Now some other good books that I read when I was a kid was a series called Dear Dumb Diary by Jamie Kelly. These books are highly entertaining and I thought was hilarious it kind of reminded me of the Junie B. Jones books that had her writing in a diary as well. Anyway basically the girl writing in the diary just goes over her days events. I don’t know why, but series like that just tend to capture the attention of young readers, like my little brother absolutely loves the Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. I think just reading other people’s problems as a young kid just captures the attention of kids, because they like to relate to it. Anyway, for kids definitely the books that have to deal with writing in a diary or journal normally capture the attention of youngsters and I agree they were really cute as a kid.

            Another series that I loved as a kid and I think that younger kids will love as well are the Cam Jansen books. These are mystery books where Cam Jansen tries to figure out the mystery behind different things like who stole the diamond from the diamond store, these stories are just really cute and totally fiction, but are interesting and make you think (for a kid anyway.) Cam Jansen just has to say click to remember a certain image and can recall it, having photographic memory.

            These are just some of the little kid books that I just don’t want to get rid of because I loved them too much as ay youngster and think that any little kid will love these books as much as I do, so if parents are trying to figure out what to get their kid, I think books like these are a great gift, besides reading keeps the mind fresh and ruins your eyesight! 

Ender's Game

            So a movie that has been out in theaters for awhile now I recently saw, just as it was about to not be in theaters anymore. I went and saw Ender’s Game. The movie is a total science fiction movie and has to do with what if aliens tried to take over the world and what not. I thought it was a really cool movie, but then again I absolutely love science fiction movies because I feel like there’s an actual point to them in contrast to romantic movies where its point is to make you feel bad that you can’t have a gooey love story like that.

            Ender’s Game is indeed a science fiction movie and is intriguing. The story revolves around the character Ender Wiggins who is highly intelligent and compassionate. I think the actor did a great job at playing the character; he acted like how I would think the character would act like. The actor is Asa Butterfield and has also been in other movies like Hugo and the Boy in the Stripped Pajamas as well as the television show called Merlin (which had been annoying me the whole movie where I recognized the actor from.)

            My favorite part in Ender’s Game was the very end of the movie, (spoiling the end of the movie) where Ender had just played the last simulation and then figured out after he had beat the simulation that it wasn’t actually a simulation, but he had indeed destroyed all the aliens. I liked this part because I totally saw it coming, I don’t know about other people, but I guessed that because they wouldn’t dedicate that amount of time and have the simulation be so intense and then go into another battle. So I thought that because they were spending so much time just on the last simulation before the big battle that the simulation was the big battle. .

            Ender’s Game like most movies is based upon a series, which I just looked up and am highly confused as to which series it is based upon because there are apparently thirteen novels. But anyway if the movie about alien invasion interests you there is a series by Orson Scott Card; I liked the movie, but I really don’t have any interest in reading the books, but I’ve heard they are really good, so if the movie interests you or it sounds interesting there is also a series.

            Overall, I loved the movie, but hated the end of the movie, I thought they had such a great movie going on and then they ruin it by having to have a happy ending for the aliens. Other than that though the movie was amazing and was definitely a great science fiction, adventurous, and action movie to see. 

Catching Fire

            Catching Fire was an interesting movie. I liked the movie and actually thought that the second movie was even better than the book had been; which is rather odd because usually I enjoy the books more than the movies, but in this case it’s different.

            Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins and in my opinion is a rather slow book and doesn’t get interesting until the very end of the book. The series is definitely a must read to both young adults and adults as well as to males and females.

            The movie I went and saw over break about a week and a half after the movie came out in theaters. I think that my favorite part in the movie was when Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) takes her bow and arrow and shoots the arrow into the sky at the force field that was keeping all the contestants of the hunger games inside the arena. I liked this part because the electricity from the thunder getting transmitted through the cord to the arrow was cool and the part in the movie as itself was rather intriguing.

            Contrasting the movie to the book; I thought that the book went into a lot of details that were just rather boring (they are important though), but they were just rather boring in my opinion. That’s why I like the movie so much because it cut out a lot of the boring details at the beginning of the book and in the movie had more of the story line directed towards the actual game itself and not focused so much on the prior events in the book.

            The Hunger Games Catching Fire movie actually exceeded my expectations on how the movie was going to turn out. It’s really cool in movies now and days because of the quality of the movie itself and in Catching Fire all the details are very defined and just make the movie all that much better.

            If I were to suggest a movie that is from 2013 (so far) I would definitely suggest seeing Catching Fire because I think that it is the movie of the year. But like any series or trilogy you have to see the prior movie before seeing the second movie or it won’t make too much sense. But back to the point; Catching Fire has a lot of action and a cute/tragic love story which appeals to the males and females.

            I overall liked Catching Fire and can see it again and again and still think it is as great as the first time I saw it. The movie is definitely worth seeing, and the trilogy is worth reading because it is a very interesting, unique, and well-written trilogy.