Other Books I'm Interested In

I really enjoy reading books like The Fault in Our Stars. There are a few others that I am interested in reading also like the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman. It is about a girl who is seventeen year old girl who is faced with a lot of obstacles and hard choices; what I got out of the summary is that she really loves music but has a boyfriend/family/friends she'd have to leave behind if she wants to follow her dream. In the summary it talks about how one February morning her and her family go for a drive and that suddenly changes and leaves her with only one choice now and that this is the only one that matters. I predict that maybe her family got into a car accident and then she felt that she couldn't leave her family after such a tragic event occurred. I plan on reading this next.
Another book I am interested in reading is Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. I have read her book The Truth about Forever and I loved it. This book is about a girl, Auden, and she ever since her parents' started fighting and got a divorce she hasn't been able to sleep at night but then she gets the chance to spend a carefree summer with her new family on her dads side at the beach in the town where they live. While they're there for the summer she gets a job at a clothes boutique that introduces her to the more "girly-girl"lifestyle that she had been missing out on. She also meets a boy who is also feeling the loneliness she is and they became good friends who sound like they might even become more than that.

Taking Chances

Life is full of making mistakes and learning from them. Life is also about taking risks and facing your fears. Love can be one of those mistakes/risks some aren't willing to take especially if you're Hazel and not want to break anyone's heart if you know you won't be living for too much longer.
Now that Augustus and Hazel are finally on their trip they are really getting non-stop time together. On their first night of getting settled into the hotel Hazel's mom told her to put on a pretty dress and get ready for Augustus to go to dinner. At first she was very hesitent to it and wasn't really all for it but after she saw him dressed all nice and in his suit she got very excited to see what the night had in store for the two of them.
After the car ride they arrived at an extemely nice waterfront resturant and began their meal, it was really sweet to see how Hazel had really opened up to have a relationship with him but she still has some resistence against it just because of the simple fact that she doesn't want to break his heart.
Augustus had a girlfriend, Caroline, that also had cancer and passed away. Hazel doesn't want him to have to go through that situation again.
During dinner Hazel asked about Caroline and Augustus was trying to explain to her that he didn't like her all that much and he just stayed with her because she really liked him and was dying of cancer which in a way I think is nice but then again I wouldn't want someone to be with me just because they feel bad for me.
After the whole night of going to a fancy dinner, looking at the stars and all the heart to heart conversations they had my all time favorite line that was said was when Augustus said to Hazel,
 "It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."

 

Reflecting

In the book The Fault in Our Stars the main character Hazel Grace has lung cancer and has been suffering for a long while now. She is constantly in and out of the hospital for treatment and death scares that she could die very soon. Hazel is well aware that she will not be living a normal teenage life or a very long life for that matter due to her sickness. More towards the beginning of the book she seemed very bitter and cold about it, who wouldn’t, but now that she is hanging around this very easy going boy who she really is starting to like a lot she seems more open to talking about it and she occasionally even makes little jokes here and there about it. In my blog posts I’d like to pride myself in doing a lot of describing and trying to express how Hazel comes off, how she acts in certain situations and also how she seems to be changing as the book goes on.

The purposeful diction and syntax I think I used in my writing to enhance the characters voice are low/informal diction because I feel it is easier to connect with your reader if you use a little more informal dialog because that is how people tend to feel more comfortable reading.

Next I feel that I use abstract/concrete diction because Hazel Grace is always thinking and talking about death and if she will die. In one of the chapters she and Augustus talk about afterlife and all these made up things that you cannot physically touch or see. In other situations they discuss real life things that they believe will be with them after they pass away.

Lastly, I have used punctuation and sentence length in my writing to enhance the meaning of the book.  I think that adding something so simple like punctuation and a difference in your sentence length is so affective because it adds emphasis, and makes your reader pause and think about the meaning you are trying to create.

The Trip

So after finding out that Hazel was very sick, more than usual, she finally got home from the hospital. Agustus was so excited to take her on the trip with him, he cares about her so much. Hazel was very upset to find out that she couldn't go until she gets better but then one day when she was reading in her room all by herself Agustus decided to text her and tell her that he was so excited for the trip- she was so sad she had to tell him she still wasn't able to go but then her mom told her that the doctor cleared her to go and they just wanted to wait and make it a surprise for her. She was so excited that she could finally go! Now I am at the point where it is the day before they leave for Amsterdam and Hazel, Agustus and her mom are trying to get everything ready. I can't wait to see how the trip goes!

Krista Ramsey

Krista Ramsey seems like a very intelligent women who really knows how to write. I recently read her article 'Raising kids to embrace the world, then they do'. This article was about taking your kids to the airport to fly off to college and you're just staying strong and then as soon as you get back into your car- the tears start coming. She also touched on how kids are always complaining and smoldering under loads of high school homework and parents continue to tell them that it is worth knowing and learning later on. Parents also continuously tell us that there are amazing jobs to have, places to see and live. And then we finally listen- we go to college somewhere in a different time zone or spend our summers somewhere far away and finally realize that it was worth it. After reading Krista's story I think teens take a lot of what we have and what we are given for granted, our parents have to deal with how moody and how much we complain and yet it still breaks their hear when we leave. All in all reading this story made me want to be more thankful and be a better daughter.

Conflict

Hazel is really starting to like this boy Agustus more than she had ever planned in the beginning. When they kept hanging out she really wanted to kiss him but she was afraid if she did he would want to get more serious and that is the last thing she wants. Hazel texted him later that evening and told him that she wanted to kiss him but couldn't and he said okay. Now he wants to take her on this trip to see this author that Hazel wants to meet and they were planning to go but one morning Hazel woke up screaming due to not being able to breathe, she spent the next few days in the hospital- Agustus never once left the waiting room since only immediate family could see her the first few days. When Hazel was ready they let him come see her and he told her that the trip will be on hold until she is better and able to travel. 
I think Agustus is a really sweet boy and that Hazel will eventually want to put the fact that she has cancer and that he had cancer aside and not be afraid to fall in love. 

Chapter 3

Hazel Grace has lung cancer and hasn't been enrolled in school for 3 years because her doctor has been thinking she would never last this long so her parents and family want her to enjoy her life while she still has it. Her parents think that it is best for her to attend a cancer discussion group with many other teenage kids. Hazel really does not want to go but she does to make her parents happy. While she is there and everyone is introducing themselves she notices that this boy, Augustus keeps starring at her and she doesn't know what to think. Eventually they begin to have a conversation and he immediately asks her to hang out that day. At first she didn't really want to and didn't know if she felt comfortable going to hang out with a boy she just met. He offered for her to come over to his house so she stepped to the side to tell her mom that she was going to her friend's house and would be  home at ten. When they got to Augustus's house his parent's were making dinner for all of them. While they were waiting for dinner to be ready they went downstaires so he could show her the basement and start a movie.
After they ate dinner and watched a movie it was already 10 and it was time for Hazel to get home so Augustus drove her home. On the way to Hazel's house she began to realize that she really likes him and wants to continue spending time with him.

The Fault in Our Stars Predictions

I haven't gotten too far into the book yet but The Fault in Our Stars is about a girl, Hazel, who has cancer and is really depressed and is supossed to die. She meets this boy named Agustus and he falls in love with her but she is keeping herself very distant from him and telling him she can't fall in love with him and he can't fall in love with her. I predict that she will eventually open up and realize that she has to live day by day and focus on all the positive things in life verses just constantly being negative.
Hazel seems like the kind of girl who used to be a very happy teenager and just wanted to have fun until cancer became a burden on her life. If I were Hazel I completely understand where she is coming from and why she is feeling the way she feels but I also think that I would look at the situation a little differently then her and I would try to do everything I'd ever possibly want to do before I died. Hopefully as this book goes on and I get more into detail she will become more positive.

Characterization

Clarisse is a teenage girl who just moved next door to a man named Montag. She is a very optimistic girl that always wants to know more in a town where most people don't know much or care to know much. On top of her curiosity she is very confident and bold and isn't embarrassed or hesitant to say what she is thinking. I think Clarisse is different from many people in her society because she thinks differently then the rest, she unlike many people want to know the background knowledge about some things that have seem to go unknown. Montag, her neighbor, is a firemen. Clarisse thinks many people are afraid of firemen but I don't think she personally is.
"Oh they don't miss me, I'm antisocial they say. I don't mix. It's so strange. I'm very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn't it? Social to me means talking to you about things like this." (pg.33, Clarisse)
"Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity. It was a look, almost of pale surprise." (pg.9, Montag)
The way I picture 17 year old Clarisse is a tall, skinny blonde girl who seems very adventurous.