I'm now reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie. It is written by Mitch Albom. The author lives in Michigan with his wife and had published seven books in total. He is also a sport colimnist and served on many charitable boards. The reason i'm reading this book is because Stephanie recommended to me. It have 192 pages, so hopefully, i'll finish it in 2 weeks.

I read the first 100 pages of the book and it's really sad. The professor was going to die but he still lived his life to the fullest. From the book,I learned a lot about death and the importance of life. I will remember to live my life to the best of my ability. Everyone should enjoy their life.

This is a picture of icicles!!!! In my life it is just frozen water that i like to play with but in the book it have more meaning than that. To Susie, icicles means a softer way to die. For Mr. Harvey, it means death. He died from icicles!! That very weird to me. I didn't know you could die from it. What happen is that, he was talking to some girl and when the girl left. An icicle just suddenly and mysteriously break off and hit him. Then he died. It sounds very not realistic. well, at lease to me.

The pictures made me feel sad, they reminds me of people leaving.
Here's a quote from the book:
“When the dead are done with the living, the living can go on to other things,“ Franny said. “What about the dead?“ I asked. “Where do we go?” (p. 145)

This quote is said by Fanny who try to help Susie find her heaven. Susie, however, cannot forget about Earth and cannot let her family go. She is unsure wnat to do or where she belongs.

There's alot of irony in the book. The events just happen the opposite way that you think it would.
In the beginning of the book, Mrs. Flanagan said to Mr.Harvey “What do you have in here? A dead body?”The dead body is really in there and the reader thinks that Mrs. Flanagan might find out but she didn't. After Susie die, she went to heaven. When you think of heaven, you think of a happy place, but in the book, her heaven was unhappy and lonely. Susie's dad went to the cornfield to kill who he think is Mr. Harvey but the ending came out just the opposite. Susie's dad was attacked instead... I think that the irony in the book made the story interesting:D

The book The Lovely Bones is about a fourteen years old girl name Susie Salmon. She is murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey in Pennsylvania. After that, she went to heaven and she watches her family's reactions about her own murder. Her dad suspects Mr. Harvey but there was no evidence, so the police can not do anything. Susie did not let her family go, she followed them everywhere and her family can sometimes even see her.
I like how this book is written. The point of view is really different from other books. The narrator is both a character and someone dead. Susie is fond everywhere in the book, some parts of the story is from the past, while others are in the present. The language used in the book is very emotional. It feels really casual, nothings seems formal. There's always thoughts and memories which made the book really easy to relate and understand.

I'm done with the book Howl's Moving Castle, so i decide to read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I decide to read it because many people were reading it and i just simply found it in the library. Alice Sebold lives in California. Her husband Glen David Gold is also a writer. Besides this book, she also wrote a memoir and the title is Lucky. The book have 328 pages, so it will take me about 3 weeks.

Little Saucepan:D
Mary-Ann has hurt her finger,
And Dafydd the servant is not well.
The baby in the cradle is crying,
And the cat has scratched little Johnny.
A little saucepan is boiling on the fire,
A big saucepan is boiling on the floor,
And the cat has scratched little Johnny.
Little Dai the soldier,
Little Dai the soldier,
Little Dai the soldier,
And his shirt tail is hanging out.
Mary-Ann's finger has got better,
And Dafydd the servant is in his grave;
The baby in the cradle has grown up,
And the cat is 'asleep in peace'.
A little saucepan is boiling on the fire,
A big saucepan is boiling on the floor,
And the cat is 'asleep in peace'.
This is the song that Calcifer sang to Sophie in chapter three of Howls Moving Castle. It made Sophie to fall asleep. She do not remember the song except the words "Little saucepan". To me the song just does not make sense. :( In the book Calcifer is a evil fire demon. "thin blue face, very long and thin, with a thin blue nose and curly green flames as hair." However, he is so adorable in the movie, he is tiny and shaped like an teardrop. He is my favorite character for the movie. :D

This a really nice video i found on youtube, so enjoy:D
The book and the movie are so different:(
I like the video a little bit better because it's easier to understand and because i saw it first. I like moving castle and find the door pretty amazing. It can open on four different locations. The locations are determined by which color is turned facing down when opening the door. For the first half of the book; which is before howl moved and changed the castle the doors opens on the following location:
Blue: Porthaven A seaside town where the real castle is situated. Blue for the sea!
Red: Kingsbury The capital and the home of the King. Red for royalty.
Green: The moving castle!!! Always moving on the hill above Market Chipping. Green for grass!!!
Black: Wales Howl's sister Megan's front drive. A weird mysterious place... Black for darkness...

Howl's Moving castle... Summary for the first 100 page :D
This story took place in Ingary, where magical things happen. Sophie the main character lives in the town of Market Chipping, Ingary and she is the oldest of the three. When her father died, her two younger sisters went out to seek their fortunes. However, Sophie was forced to stay and take care of the hat shop. On May day, Sophie went to visit her sister Lettie and on way she met Howl. Now the magical adventure began... When Sophie was back in the hat shop later that day, the Witch of the Waste came to the shop. She came to buy a bonnet but was very not pleased, so she turned Sophie into an old lady. Sophie do not want her family to see her like that, so she decide to leave. She must seek her own fortune. She walked for a long time until she saw the moving castle. She got in and fell asleep instantly because she was soo tired. She met a blue fire demon, which was really cute in my mind, not scary at all... Sophie stayed in the castle as a cleaning lady and kept herself busy all the time. This is a really good book, it's really interesting:D

I'm now reading the book Howl's Moving Castle. The reason i am reading it is because that i liked the movie and hoping that this book will be just right for me. The author is Diana Wynne Jone, she lives in Bristol, England. She wrote many books in her life including Power of Three, Fire and Hemlock and Stopping for a Spell. This book have 329 pages, so it will take me about 3 week to read it. Thanks to Stephanie for letting me borrow the book. :D

I'm done with the book The Secret Life of Bees. I will not write a summary for this book on the blog because i think that it will just spoil it for anyone that will read it. However, i will say that the book had a happy ending. The main character Lily learned to forgive both her mom and herself and she lived happily ever after. The characters in the book confused me. So if you are planning to read this book, it would help you if you already know the characters... Making this character profile helps me understands the book myself. so enjoy~

Lily Melissa Owens

The main character in the book. She is 14 years old and lived alone with her cruel father and her housekeeper. Her mom died mysteriously and this book tells a story where she learns about her mom and herself.

Rosaleen

She is the Owens family’s housekeeper. She is African American and is like a mother to Lily.

T. Ray Owens

T. Ray is Lily’s father. He is cruel and made Lily's life miserable. He never pays attention to Lily and hates everything she does. Yelling and disciplining Lily
harshly are the only two things that he ever does to her.

Deborah Owens

Deborah is Lily’s mother, she died when Lily was only four years old.

Mrs. Henry

Mrs. Henry is Lily’s teacher.

August Boatwright

August is the bee keeper that lives in a bright pink house. She is also the African American women that let Lily and Rosaleen stay in her house.

May Boatwright

May is August's sister. She is very emotional and suicide during the summer that Lily stayed with them.

June Boatwright

June is August's other sister.

Zach

Zach is an African American teen that works for August.

Neil

June married him after May died.

Queenie, Violet, Lunelle, Mabalee and Cressie

People that are part of the "Black Madonna" group and always come to August's house.

Otis and Sugar Girl

I do not know who they really are but i think that they are married to each other.

I'm like about more than half way done with the book The Secret Life of Bees. The story took place in South Carolina in 1964, where racism is a huge problem. Lily's mom died when she was still very young, so she now lives with her dad and Rosaleen. Rosaleen is African American but Lily is simply white. One day, Rosaleen went to the town to vote, on the way she insulted three racists. Because of her skin color, Rosaleen was sent to jail. Lily got punished for going with Rosaleen at home by her dad, so she decided to run away and also find her mom. Lily helped Rosaleen escape and so they went to Tiburon; where Lily's mom lived before. They were taken in by three bee keepers. There, Lily entered a world honey, bees and her secret life. This book reminds me of the book The Joy Luck Club. Both of the book focus on the relationship between mother and daughter. The relationship was never perfect in any of the two books. In the Joy Luck Club, the mom and the child often have hard time understanding each other. In this book, however, Lily is searching for this mother and daughter relationship.

I think that the symbol in the book The Secret Life of Bees is the bees in Lily's bedroom. In the story bees are described to have a "secret life". In Lily's room there are a lot of bees, however they are mostly unseen. In the book, it states: "There's a swarm of bees in my room! But when we got there, they'd vanished back into the wall like they knew he was coming." P4 The secret life of the bees represent the secret life of Lily. She lives in the secret of her mother's past and she's always searching for a mother that will love her. Mom to Lily is like the queen bee to the worker bees, she is the "unifying force of the community".P1 Without a queen, bees will show a sign of "queenlessness". In the book, lily's life is also messed up from the death of her mom.

I decided to read the book The Secret Life Of Bees next by Sue Monk Kidd. I chose to read this book because Stephanie said it was really good!!! This book have 302 pages, so it will take me about 3 weeks. Sue Monk Kidd was born in Sylvester, Georgia on August 12, 1948. The Secret Life of Bees is her best known novel. This novel took her three and a half years and was published in 2002. It was surprising that the author worked through her twenties as a nurse; not a writer. I not yet know what this book is about but i know that it is also based on her experiences just like "The Bell Jar." I'm looking forward to reading this book! Thanks to Lauren for letting me borrow her book. :D

I finally Finsh the book "The Bell Jar"!!!! The book was soo good and i love it!!!!
At the end of the book, Esther no longer want to suicide and had more hope toward her life. When she was at the funeral service for Joan; one of her best friend, who is also mentally ill, she heard herself saying in her mind " I am I am I am". Last time she heard this in her mind, she was wanting to commit suicide and use it as a way to protest against her life. Now i really think that it means the opposite. She is saying it in a more positive way and she is willing to live. In the book, Esther said that Joan is just a reflection of herself. so maybe, Joan's death also represent the death of Easter's suicide thoughts. What happened in this chapter, reminds me how that the author of this book actually suicide. I think this book is like the author's hope that her life will get better and it's her way to encourage herself to make the best out of her life...

"Every time I tried to concentrate, my mind glided off, like a skater, into a large empty space, and pirouetted there, absently." (Chapter 12)

"I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and shadow at the back of people's eyes and smiles, and shadow, miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth." (Chapter 12)

I think that this two quotes basically summarized Esther's inner feeling. They are her thoughts or feelings when she is in depression.During chapter 9-13, Esther is in really deep depression. She never wants to do anything, she thinks that there's no point of doing them. For weeks, she didn't sleep, wash her hair or wash her clothes. She think that everyone else is "silly" because she thinks that there's no purpose of life; everyone dies at the end anyways. Esther start to try to kill herself, and she almost did. Her mom later on sent her to recieve lots of treatments. One of them is the shock treatment, which she especially hate. The thoughts and feeling in the book were so well written because the author went through all this in her life. It made the story more touching, sad and weird at the same time.

The book The Bell Jar is about a girl name Esther Greenwood. She won a fashion magazine contest and live in New York for that summer...


Here's a character profile for the characters i know so far:

Esther: A really smart student and also the main character of the book. She doesn't have any confidence in herself. ( I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel. p3)

Betsy: She also won the fashion magazine contest. She's always cheerful and happy.
It is described that she is a "bouncing blond ponytail and Sweetheart-of-Sigma-Chi smile."

Jay Cee: Ester's boss and editor pf the Ladies' Day magazine. ( Jay Cee had brains, so her plug-ugly looks didn't seem to matter. p6)

Constantin: Interpreter at the United Nation. The gay that Esther likes.

Doreen: Also one of the interns at Ladies Day. Esther's good friend in New York. She is funny and outgoing.

Frankie: Some random person Esther met in the bar.

Mrs. Greenwood: Esther's mother.

Buddy Willard: A Yale medical student. He is two years older than Esther and wish that Esther would marry him. He is smart, athletic and good-looking.

i decided to read the book " The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932. She wrote many poetry book and won the Pulitzer Prize. She had two children and died at the age of thirty-one. Surprisingly, "The Bell Jar" was the only novel she wrote! If i read 100 pages each week, it would take me 3 weeks. I would expect to learn about her life because it is a semi-autobiography. It is a semi-autobiography because it is about her life,but the names of people are changed.

HI!!!! Welcome to my english blog :D For the reading project, i want to read the book "The Bell Jar" by Syvia Plath. However, it depends on if i can get the book or not...I want to read this book because the reader review was really good. They were all positive comments and it have a perfect grading. I'll tell you more about the book when i'm sure i'm reading it. (=^.^=)