Reading in the Elementary- Blog 3

I read from the book, Big Girl by Danielle Steel for about 30 minutes. 

At the end of Victoria's sophmore year, she spends her summer working for a modeling agency, which she thoroughly enjoys and where she develops a great respect for models in that industry.  She goes on to date a few more boys and ends up losing her virginity to a boy she doesn't even care greatly for.  Victoria poors herself into her studies and applies for 8 private schools in New York, which is her dream job.  After 7 rejection letters, she recieves an interview from one of the more elite schools looking for a substitute for 1 year while a teacher is on maternity leave.  Victoria is thrilled with this opportunity and receives an interview on Valentine's Day in which she flies to New York for.  She loves the city and loves the school; it is a top notch school, although it is severely underpaid.  Victoria has excellent recommendations and grades; the only thing the school is looking to find out is if she is the right one for the job.  The interview goes well, as Victoria is honest and enthusiastic, and all thats left is to wait. 

I am enjoying this book.  Personally, I can relate to the main character because she wants to be a teacher and make a difference in the lives of children; this is quite similar to what I'd like to do with my future.  I am at the point in the story of Victoria's life where she is approaching graduation and deciding where she is going to go in life, which also has much to do with what I am dealing with also. 

Reading in the Elementary- Blog 2

I am reading Big Girl by Danielle Steel.  I read for 1 hour this week. 

  The next portion of this book that I read was about Victoria's summer at home before she went off to college.  She couldn't wait to leave because she had felt like an outsider in her own family for as long as she could remember.  But at the same time her parents were much nicer and sensitive because for some reason that Victoria couldn't understand they didn't want her to leave; Victoria's main reason for not wanting to leave was Gracie, for she couldn't bear the thought of leaving someone she loved so much.  Eventually the time comes and Victoria leaves for college.  College was exactly everything Victoria had wanted; most of all she wanted to focus on her studies because she saw them as her ticket to freedom.  Victoria got on this pattern of doing extreme dieting a couple weeks before she would return home, enough so that it was noticable for her mother to point out.  When Victoria came to the decision that she wanted to be a teacher, her father was immediately against it; he wanted Victoria to be able to get a job and a job that payed well enough.  Victoria also worked hard to get an internship, which would allow her make some money, get some experience, and not have to go back home for that time.  Eventually her family made it up to visit her, which meant a lot to Victoria .  Victoria met  a boy in the middle of her Sophmore year and the two fell in love with each other.  One night Beau, Victoria's boyfriend, admitted to her that he was Gay and even though he loved her that this would never work and so the two ended things (because Beau had wanted to; Victoria still felt that if you loved someone you could make it work).  This breakup confirmed Victoria's deepest fear, the one that'd she'd struggled and delt with all her life, that she was not wanted or loved.  The only person that truly seemed to care for Victoria was her younger sister, Gracie.

I'm enjoying this book.  I feel like self image along with lack of confidence is something that a lot of girls struggle with.  The fear of being alone and not wanted is something that everyone deals with at some point in their life (some more than others).  It's been interesting learning about the different ways I can identify with different characters in this book. 

Reading in the Elementary- Blog 1

I am reading Big Girl by Danielle Steel.  I read for 1.5 hours this week; pages 1-41. 

Thus far this book is about a girl who is born to two parents who are completely focused on centering their lives around what other people think of them.  The father, Jim, is the dominant male and likes to be in control of everything in his life, big part due to how he was raised.  Jim married Christine who was raised to be the "perfect" wife (she cooked, cleaned, and obeyed), she basically was devoting her life to please and praise Jim.  Christine's only failure in Jim's eyes is that she was unable to produce a son, which Jim so strongly wanted and was the one thing he could not control.  The main character in this book is a girl named Victoria and she was mistreated from the start.  Her father didn’t care too much for her because she turned out to be a girl, when all he wanted was a boy, and she wasn’t attractive (she didn’t look like either of her parents).  Since Victoria’s mother lived to please and serve her father, she never stuck up for Victoria or treated her the way one would think a mother ought to treat a daughter.  After seven or eight years Christine and Jim try again for a boy and end up with a girl again, but this time the baby is beautiful, perfect, and resembled it’s parents (according to Jim and Christine).  Jim made it known to his oldest daughter that she was basically their trial run.  Despite her parents lack of love, Victoria promises to love and take care of Grace, her younger sister, and to never let anyone hurt her.  Victoria takes good care of Grace as she is growing up too.  Though, Victoria has a difficult childhood and adolescence, everyone around her has made her feel like she isn’t good enough or not welcomed, even those who should flawlessly love her (her family).  She decides to go far away from her home in California to start a new life at Northwestern. 

I think I am going to enjoy this book as it deals with the idea that being different is ok and that we all need to accept who were are, for not a single one of us is identical to the other.  While reading this week, I have been re-assured in the idea that not everyone is fit to be a parent. 

Intro to Reading: Final Post- Reflection

This semester's reading went alright for me;  could have gone better, but it wasn't too bad.  I enjoyed the freedom we recieved to select our own reading.  I ened up selecting something quite different from my usual reading material for the majority of my reading, which resulted in an interesting and entertaining experience, one that I feel I definitely grew from as a reader.  I enjoyed a book that really made me think; the story jumped a lot and was often scattered and it took until the end before I was able to start connecting the dots.  In order to stay more on top of things for next semester and to get more out of my reading, i'm going to make it my goal not to leave the reading and blog posting until the day it is due; this way I will be able to spend more time digging deeper into the reading and have be more effective in growing as a reader.  I think as a reader, I have improved.  Most of the time I made sure that I took the reading slow and worried about reading at my own pace rather than the number of pages I could get through in a certain amount of time, which helped to catch details I may have otherwise missed and gain a greater deal more of comprehension with my reading.  I also think by trying to explore different types of literature, I was able to grow as a reader because it was my decision to stray away from my norm and try something new, which also helped me to gain a greater perspective of my understanding of literature. 

Intro to Reading Blog 10

I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk for about 1 hr. 

The book went on to talk about support groups and why the author likes them so much.  The author and Tyler are slowing taking different businesses and coorporations down one at a time.  Tyler and the author create an assult committee designed to remind guys of the kind of power they still have through the work of violence. This overall plan of Tyler's is known as Project Mayhem.  The orginal goal of this project was to teach each man in the project that they each held the power to control history.  It was ultimately about taking control of the world.  They believed that project Mayhim was going to save the world through an idea of destruction and re-birth.  And they begin with the further planning of the project involving each individual who decides to be a part.

This book has brough forth a new kind of literature than I am used to reading and it was really interesting journey for me.  Glad I was able to read about it and learn more about the book, this author, and myself. 

Intro to Reading: Blog 10

I am continuing to read Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk.  I read this book for 1.5 hours. 

The book goes on to talk about how Tyler has begun to make lots of money through a deal he struck with Nordstrom in holiday soap making.  During this portion of the book, the author begins to realize more and more that Tyler is up to something, something big, but when the author tries to confront him about this, Tyler simply says, "if you love me, then you'll trust me.  This isn't something you need to know about right now." Tyler gets the author into a mess when he uses Marla's mother to send him her fat in order to make good soap; Marla finds out and loses it.  In the next part, the author talks about the illegal acts that are going on at his work.  The author gets busted by his boss for typing up fight club rules when he leaves the original copy at the copying machine, but is able to slyly get away with it through denial.  The author begins to discover, through one of the therapy groups he is attending that fight club has been expanding (branching out).  In the next part of the book, Marla thinks she's found a lump that might be a sign that she has cancer so she has the author of the book come over and check it out.  The author checks it out for her and confirms that it is nothing. 

This book is very interesting one to read, as it jumps for one event to the next.  It is something hard to keep up with.  I know when I reach the end I will be able to piece it all together, but right now it is kind of hard to do that.  This book is good for me because it makes me think, which I don't often dig real deep into my thinking ability when reading a book.  Even though I can't understand it all yet, I am comprehending it as I've got that movie strip playing in my head. 

Intro to Reading: Blog 9

I read Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer.  I read this week for 3 hours. 

This book focuses on finding one's vocation through listening to one's heart and the inner voice within.  It talks about understanding your limitations and potentials and learning to really listen.  It goes on to talk about how we often have to suffer and journey into the darkness of things before we can reach the light and be made stronger.  This only makes our relationship with God stronger and is a necessary part of life.  The book also has a segment on depression.  It talks about the meaning of depression, the author talks about what it is like for the person in depression, and what it's like to be the onlooker into another's depression and how an onlooker can sometimes only make things worse through encouragement.  The result of depression is meant to be a journey towards God.  The book also talks about leadership and community.  It tells how in order to be a good leader you can't be power hungry, rather you have to lead and serve those your leading from your heart, and that is where your power as a leader lies.  Also being a good leader means taking risks and seeing failure as a learning opportunity.  Book emphasises how community is meant to help encourage one another in their inner works to the Lord (such as meditation, journaling, silent prayer...spiritual disiciplines) and be with one another in their aloneness.  The author ends the book with a reflection: our lives are like the four seasons in that it is a never ending journey one that we can not control, thus we need to learn to let go. 

This book was very inspiring to me and really was something that I could relate with a lot at this point in my life.