the last post. get some.

Why must all good things come to an end? Like this blogging business.

I enjoyed this unit because without it, I wouldn't have read nearly this much in 12 school weeks. I read 4 books, totalling 34.6 hours of reading. The books I read were Sarah's Key, Two-way street, The Testament, and Forget you. The most challenging book was The Testament. It was very long and during the busy school year it was sometimes hard to find the tme to read it. Both Two-way street and Forget you were girly teen books and i loved both of them. I found that i read those books much faster than The Testament. Sarah's Key was also very good and I did a book review on that one so here comes easy test points coming my way. How's your wife?

The Theme of My Book

The theme of the Testament is that money can't buy love. Mr. Phelen had so much money he didn't know what to do with it all. But when he died, he had no support from his family, and and a daughter that no one knew about, and who was in no contact with Mr. Phelen. Even with all that money, Mr. Phelen felt incomplete because there was no love in his family. So there you go...you can't take a u-haul to heaven. Don't get wrapped up in material posessions.
Total reading time = 23.5 hours

BIBLE PASSAGE!!!

1 Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

This passage fits my book well because Mr. Phelen's entire adult life had been about the money that he'd made. With all that money came all sorts of family issues. It is surely a root of all kinds of evil.

Total reading time = 21 hours :)

5 pics!

Money!


 the Briazilian jungles

 Mr. Phelen before he committed suicide

 Mr. Phelen's Will

 The importance of family love

kjhfkasjhf kjahdfksdh

hey! my goal was to keep up with you mr. strusz, but i'm fallin apart, barely breathing, with a broken heart, that's still beating...okay those are lyrics from a lighthouse song. so i'm not being as faithful to reading as i thought i would be...but nonetheless, i'm still plucking away. My total reading time is approximately 18.5 hours.

Whatever I Want.

Since this week we can talk about whatever we want, i will talk a little bit about Nate O'Riley. He is the newest character in my book, "The Testament". Nate used to work in a wing of the Phelen building, but after numerous drug and alcohol incidents, he was sent to Walnut Hill, which seemed to be like his own rehabilitaion center. Neither T.V nor magazines were allowed there, since they promote alcohol and drugs. Therefore, Nate spent his time working out and eating healthy, losing 14 pounds. Mr. Phelen's right hand man, Josh Stafford, went to visit Nate to tell him the news about Mr. Phelen's passing.
Let's go back in time a couple days shall we? Mr. Phelen's will stated that his estate (11billion dollars) would go to his illegitimate daughter named Rachel Lane, who apparently is in the jungles of Brazil doing missionary work. Josh could find very little information on her. But that would not stop him from following Mr. Phelen's wishes.
Ok, so back to where Josh visits Nate. Josh asks Nate to go to Brazil, find Rachel, and tell her about the large sum of money she has received. Nate is hesitant at first, but then agrees to go.
If I had been in solitary for a while, I would jump at the opportunity to go on an adventure to a different country. So Nate should be pretty excited! And I'm also excited to read more of this book to find out what happens next. Time read this week 45 min. (sad, i know Mr. strusz, I'm sorry)

THEME SONG BABY

So this week we need to pick a theme song that would go with our book. Well, i recently started a new book on Monday called The Testament, by John Grisham. I'm only on page 68 out of 500, and therefore havent gotten very in depth with it. The book starts off being narrated by Troy Phelen, a very rich, old man worth around 11 billion dollars. He's had numerous marriages, children, and divorces. He has tried many times to write an appropriate will that would divide his estate evenly to his scattered family members. On the day that he plans to sign his will at a press conference type thing, he pulls out a different will that cancels everything his previous will says. After that, he gets up from his wheel chair and jumps off the railing of the balcony of his building, falling to his death. I know...crazy right?!
The song that i've decided to pick is "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles. Troy Phelen was so filthy rich, but he felt so repulsive inside because no one in his family loved him. He could buy them pretty much anything in the world that they could've wanted and it wouldnt matter one bit. In the famous words of Paul McCartney, "I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love."

habits and stuff

So....i watch T.V and go on facebook a lot. Reading the book "Two-Way Street" by Lauren Barnholdt definitely took me away from those "habits". I started reading it on a Thursday morning, and by Friday night, i was done with the 288 page book. This book was not as serious as the last book I read, "Sarah's Key". It was about a 17-year-old girl named Courtney and her ex-boyfriend Jordan. The two of them embark on a road trip to the college they are both attending in the fall. The thing is, they planned this road trip while they were dating, so after they break up, the trip is still on, and now it's all awkward and weird. But the book is really addicting because it takes you back to when the two love birds first talked to each other and hung out, and the narrator switches off between Jordan and Courtney. It's also very accurate to the way that high school boys and girls think. I zoomed through this book. Whenever I wasn't doing anything important, I was intensely reading. I think I even skipped eating supper Friday night because i was so determined to see how it would end! I loved everything about this book and liked reading it more than going on facebook or watching T.V. Total reading time=14.5 hours

Last Time I Was At A Bookstore...

I cannot tell a lie, so i will confess that it has been a while since I have been to a bookstore. But on the plus side, normally when i go into a bookstore i can spend hours in there, looking through all the different books. I have a crush on Barnes and Noble, and currently i have a $15 gift card to that wonderful store!!!! The last book store i was in was probably Walden Books in the mall. I was probably reading the backs of all the "teen girly" books because those are the kinds of books that i love reading...not that i dont not like reading books with actual substance, but i prefer to read mindless love stories. I learned a lesson from the last time I was in Walden Books: make sure your phone is on silent or vibrate! Because Sarah Neumann decided to call me and the ring tone was set to A Bay Bay...talk about embarrassing...i got a few glares from the legit book people there.
Sarah's Key was amazing!! I finished it over break. In fact Mr. Strusz was just in the room while i was talking it over with Mrs. Zahn. She enjoyed it also! After i was done reading that one my total reading time was just over 9 hours.

first post

Hello. There are two parts to my book. It switches off between a little Jewish girl, Sarah, and her family being rounded up in France during World War Two, and an American journalist living 60 years later in Paris. Before getting taken by the Fench Poice, Sarah locks her younger brother in a bedroom cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as they are let go. But things aren't looking good for sarah and her family as they arrive at an arena where thousands of other Jewish families are being taken. The police won't let anyone go anywhere. The conditions are horrible. Sarah is determined, though, to find any way possible to rescue her brother. Julia, the American journalist, is hard at work researching the "Vel' d'Hiv'", the name given to this massive roundup of people for work. So far I have read approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Hey Mr. Strusz, I'm fixing this because I "didn't meet the theme". Hmmmm relating this book to real life? Well the summer before my freshmen year my family and I took a trip to Washington D.C. While we were there, the time came for the baby to be born....ha gotcha! But seriously, while we were there we visited the Holocaust Museum. It was so fascinating! When you begin your tour, they give you this pamphlet of a person involved in a concentration camp, and by the end of the tour you know if you survived or not. After we were done and just walking around the lobby area, there was a lady sitting at a desk, and my dad being the outgoing guy that he is, went over and started talking to her. Turns out SHE was put in a camp when she was a little girl. She still had the tatoo number on her arm. Talking to her was one of the best experiences i've ever had. All I had known about the holocaust was what i had read in books and learned in classes. But talking to her, and hearing how real it actually was, oh my goodness, it was absolutely unbelievable. I wish I would've gotten a picture with her, but that is something that i will never forget.

My Book Is...

The first book I will be reading is Sarah's Key. I hear it is a good one. I can't wait to sink my teeth into this.