Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Third Quarter Book Blog:

I would have to say Outliers is one of my favorite books that I've read so far. After reading his bestseller called The Tipping Point, I was intrigued and I was reeled into reading more. The Tipping Point analyzed why certain tv shows like Sesame Street were incredibly successful or why certain epidemics spread rapidly across a group of people. Outliers focuses on individual that stand out from the rest of society such as professional athletes, celebrities, billionaires etc. The books digs into the core re-occurring patterns (such as the year that the individual was born, where they grew up, their family background, upbringing, practice) and he places support done by numerous researchers, scientists, analysts to back up his beliefs. He formulates many theories that are very true when you think about it and these beliefs get you inspired and motivated to get up and ponder about people. Outliers doesn't just provide statistics, examples, charts and data, but it is very entertaining because it's almost like listening to a speaker or a movie and that's what I personally enjoyed. It also inspires me to work hard and see what I was meant to do. Now I look at people with a different perspective and I can actually pick out an outlier. It's a must read.

The Reader

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Wow! The Color Purple is definitely an extraordinary book written in a different voice. The "voice" the reader is reads through is in the mindset of Cecile, who a black woman with an extremely hard life. She was raped by her own father and she is practically a slave.

This connects to the whole theme of what our class was learning about in global; about different genocides around the globe. We spent weeks researching a topic from Armenia, Northern Ireland, Sudan, Rwanda, the Rape of Nan-king or Cambodia and then we presented to the class these ethnic conflicts. But to sit in class and just absorb the millions of deaths of innocent men, women and children just horrified me. Something that stood out were the frequency of rapes taking place and this just reminded me of the Celie and the most unthinkable crimes people commit. It explains a lot of history and why people are the way they are and the resentment they have against people because of the life that they faced.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key was an alternating story between Sarah Starzynski--a ten-year-old Jewish girl growing up in Paris during the Vel' d' Hiv (which is short for Vélodrome d'Hive) roundup-- and a journalist named Julia Jarmound.

The story begins when French policemen come knocking on Sarah's door to take her family away to an indoor complex that held Jews in France during the Holocaust. She hides her little brother (Michel) in a hidden cupboard and promises with all her might that she'll go back and get him out. At the time Sarah is very naive and she believes that everything is going to be ok and she'll be able to go back and get Michel. Little did she know that that was not the situation and her family was being taken to Vel' de' Hiv (which is short for Vélodrome d'Hive) and it is located right outside of Paris and later to be sentenced to death in Auschwitz.

So you're probably wondering what Julia has do to with this story. Well, Julia is an American-born woman who moves to France and works a journalist and one day she's asked to write about the tragedy back in 1942. Now the Vel' de' Hiv roundup was a dark part of France's history and not many people wanted to be reminded of because it wasn't the Nazi's who were carrying out these horrible deeds but local, day-to-day French policemen so she really doesn't have any idea what the conflict was about going into this. So as she researches and investigates, she comes across Sarah's story and how it is linked to her own life. At the same time, she has her family issues going on like marriage complications, debating over whether or not to abort her second child and a family secret.

What I think Tatiana de Rosnay did really well was that she beautifully orchestrated a modern day "movie" plot to events in history and that's what made the story appealing to me.

Also to keep in mind, this book wasn't one of those "feel good" books. Most of the time the story switched from gloomy to moderate and then back down to gloomy but that's mostly because the Holocaust was a very unpleasant time. Overall, this book was phenomenal and I'd probably recommend it to females.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

I am half way finished with The Notebook and it's been a wonderful experience. The Notebook written by Nicholas Sparks, and it is a love story between Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson.

Allie comes from a wealthy and elite family, who lives lavishly and her parents get upset when they hear that she is in love with farmer. They automatically feel that Noah is unsuitable for her and they refuse to accept that fact that she loved him.

The book takes off when Allie pays a visit to Noah and at this point she's engaged to another man named Lon who is a successful, well-known and rich lawyer. And the reason she goes back to visit Noah is because she "checking" to see how Noah was (because they have been apart for fourteen years). Allie never had the same fire with Lon as she did with Noah during the summer she spent with him and he was just so special to her that the more time she spends catching up with Noah on the time they were apart.

In this book there's quite of few things I could connect this to. I mean the most obvious one is the relationship between a rich and poor. The girl's family is rich while the boy is poor and there's a conflict between the two because the rich family doesn't want their daughter to be around some peasant boy with no status or recognition in life. These themes can be related to stories like Aladdin where the odds are against the couple because society says that they can't be together. A second connection I have is to my Global History class. The book takes place during World War Two and it mentions how Noah served in the war in Europe and our Global class is just learning about the war and it was just great that I was able to know the context behind the setting.

I also took note of Nicholas Sparks's writing style. Although I have only read one of his books, I actually went to go see Dear John--which was also written by Sparks-- in theaters two days ago. As I was watching the movie and reading the book, I could see some correlations between the two. Both story lines involved a love story, letters, time, being apart from one another, and a love that was created in a short period of time.

Can't Wait for my next book. It's called Sarah's Key and I'm hoping to finish more books over break:)

The Reader

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

I just finished Crank a couple of minutes ago and it was interesting but I didn't really love the topic. Crank is written by Ellen Hopkins and it is about a girl named Kristina Georgia Snow who struggles through her teen years to crank which is more commonly known as a drug called methamphetamine. Before crank, Kristina was a smart, quiet and a normal teen but when she takes a trip to visit her dad in New Mexico, she is introduced to boys, crank and "Bree" who begins to take over her life.
In the beginning of the book, I was really confused who Kristina was and who was. Later I realized that Kristina struggled with a dual personality conflict. Kristina is the quiet, perfect, reserved and obedient little angel that never breaks any rules and Bree is the complete opposite. She is fearless, aggressive, care-free, daring, wild, promiscuous and fun. Kristina was so contained and restrained from a free lifestyle that she allowed "Bree" to take over her because of her curiosity, desire to do what she wants when she wants, and desire to be unrestrained from rules and regulations. But of course, there's a price that must be paid and Kristina's life begins to go down the drain. She faces the irresistability of crank (and other drugs), the highs and lows of using drugs, the experimentation with sex which eventually leads to a rape, unhealthy relationships with her family and friends, excessively smoking, unplanned pregnancy, horrible relationships with her mother and peers, struggle to keep up with her grades and all the negative effects of using drugs.
The genre of this book is poetry and I was surprised to see how affective the book was. One part that stood out was when Kristina internally thinks to herself, "Who loved me more?/ Who loved me most" and I think this quote really summed up the reason people go looking for trouble and that's because they are lost and they look for love in the wrong places. I feel like this was a common theme for people; that they look for something to fill their happiness and that's why they involve themselves with alcohol, sex and drugs. Kristina's parents are divorced, her family is quite broken and she was probably in desperation of breaking the chains that stopped her from doing what a typical teen does (party, boyfriends, fun, feeling beautiful and sexy, wanted and more importantly loved).

Personally, I think all girls can relate to having a tough time growing up with their mothers because now their little girls are starting to have their own opinions and they are starting to become more independent and it's hard for them to let go of the child who is transforming into a young lady.

This book is definitely one that puts the reader in the position of a teenager and the book flies by because the pages are very short.

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This book was definitely a thriller and it made me want to keep reading throughout the course of the book. I love Dan Brown's writing style of switching to different character's narration and the suspense he creates after each chapter. I did have a little hunch that Trevor Strathmore was behind everything because he wanted to get closer to Susan but I never would have guessed that he was North Dakota and he hired Hulohot to kill Tankado and he was so selfish that he wanted to be able to unlock Digital Fortress to get closer to Susan.

I really enjoy books that just fly by because they're so intriguing and this is definitely one of those books. This was also a great book to read because you really didn't know what was going on until you got to the end of the book and pieced the puzzle together.

The Reader

I found some connections in the book to some of my classes. Connections that occurred in the story and in global class include the fact that missionaries, like Mr. Brown, were sent out to villages such as Abame to share the gospel and spread the language and culture of the west. The missionaries built a church and slowly began to preach about who God and Jesus are. Not only did the villagers believe the white man’s ways were foolish, they also killed other fellow villagers who converted to this new faith. Missionaries such as Reverend James Smith took a different approach in trying to spread the gospel. He was extremely strict and was completely closed minded to the village culture.

I enjoyed how the book showed the struggle of growing up and the challenges a son faces with his father. Nwoye faced his hardships in trying to win his father’s love and he never met his father’s expectations. This must have been so hard for Okonkwo to see because I’m sure that all he wanted was for his son to end up with a successful life, unlike the life he had growing up with his pathetic father.

I am also very glad that I picked up a completely different region of the world to read about and I got a glimpse of the traditions and cultures of African society. I learned that yams were an extremely important crop because it’s hard to prepare. I became more knowledgeable about the different goddesses and spirits (such as Ani the earth goddess and the source of fertility) the Africans may have believed in to explain natural phenomenons.

--The Reader

Things Fall Apart

Currently, I'm reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and I'm reading this book for Global. This is a book about the events that take place in African villages (yeah I know, a place we don't really talk about in our daily conversations nowadays). The main character is Okonkwo. Okonkwo grew up with a father named Unoka; a lazy and irresponsible man who drank excessively and was known throughout the village to be the person who owed the most debt. Okonkwo grew up with a poor father figure and thus was further motivated to work hard in life for the things he wanted so that he wasn't looked down upon by others. Okonkwo finally made a name for himself when he wrestled a man called the Cat who had been undefeated and unbeatable. Oh and if I forgot to mention, if there's one things loved more than all the rest, it's achievement. From that point on, the book shows different conflicts that arise in the villages

So far a lot has happened but I'll tell you my thoughts. It's a pretty interesting book. The thing I like is that the book has a mix of an African folktale and a traditional story. It's a fairly fast read and I'm enjoying it...

The Reader