Don't Quote Me (#34)

I saw this image recently and felt the need to share it with you guys because I know many people in real life that are stuck in the same place in life, and don't do anything to change it-especially when it comes to the people they surround themselves with. Your friends are the family you choose, so you have to choose wisely and it's okay to change them as you change too. Think of your life as a house, and every couples months or years new people come in and out and live with you for awhile. They all teach you something, and are apart of you no matter what. So it's really important be reassess your relationships with your friends and making sure that they are complimenting your life, not causing trouble in it. I heard somewhere that the five people you surround yourself around the most, you inherently mimic them. So you want to mimic amazing people that embrace and help you through your life, as you want to help them.

I think this is extremely important for teenagers like myself to realize that the people you like last month, aren't always the people for you, and that's okay. You don't have to be negative and go out of the way to totally ignore them, but always allow new people in your life.

Review: Flying Lessons by Natalie Cooper

This is my very first short story review and I'm very excited and worried at the same time because this is a first and I'm afraid the review might be too short. Though, I love challenging myself, you have to fall before you can fly.:)

Natalie Cooper's writing is nothing spectacular I have to say, but she made me care about a character in only nine pages. That takes some skill, right? Her writing didn't include any showing off vocabulary that sometimes I love in authors, but I'm glad she didn't. She made the story easy to follow and made you want to know what was going to happen. Cooper didn't go out and say what was happening which I like. The one quote that I really loved that she wrote in Flying Lessons was," I was alone, like a single sailor looking out onto a vast ocean. Except my sea was not one of waves, but made up of people-each one staring at me, waiting for me to speak." I'm not sure why I love that quote but I do, and I feel like that sometimes when I have to give speeches in class. I feel like Natalie Cooper writes in a very personal place with outstanding details that many can relate to.

I love the characters, especially Mom Mom. I don't know. Maybe it's her personality. Maybe it's the feeling you get that you're grandmother is just like her. Maybe it's the specialty that made my eyes prick near the end.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Review

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Publication date: 1/10/2012

Pages: 336
Age range: 14 - 17 Years
Product dimensions: 5.84 (w) x 8.54 (h) x 1.14 (d)

Summary

Hazel Grace has cancer in her lungs, so it's very hard for her to breathe. She walks around with an oxygen tank that pumps gasps of what you would expect to be oxygen. Hazel has to go to a cancer group in The Literal Heart of Jesus at a church because the church is shaped like a cross and they meet in the basement where the two lines meet. The main character Hazel meets charming and incredibly handsome Augustus Waters who had cancer at the cancer group. They meet and talk with Hazel's friend that has eye cancer. Most of the time cancer support group will be a terror and act of boredom for them, but since Hazel meets Augustus he starts to change Hazel's opinions about dying and cancer. Augustus is a high schooler who has an amputated leg which caused major distress on his basketball team. He acts as if he knows it all and what he doesn't know is what will happen to him by meeting Hazel. They bond over the same book that Hazel recommends An Imperial Affliction by Peter van Houten. As a cancer perk Hazel and Augustus set off to find out the answers where the book leaves off in Switzerland. 


I just have to get this out first, this book is the best book I have read in a loooonnng time. I have never laughed or cried so much while reading this book and I just could not put it down. I think I fell in love with Augustus somewhere in all the mess of the book and it was terribly difficult when the story end. I will always refer to this book if someone says to me that fictional characters don't mean anything. Having said that, you might guess that this book has taken me far out of my comfort zone. I've never read a "sad" book or the "cancer" books in my life and this was a good place to start. I'm kind of mad at John Green now because no book will match up to the expectations from reading this novel. I've also learned quiet a lot about... a lot of things by reading this book. I knew that this book was very hyped up and it did meet my expectations and I will love to read another book written by the incredible genius that is John Green.