What I Plan on Reading Next.

The next book in The Hunger Games series, Mocking Jay, will defiantly be next in line so I can, of course, finish the series. I also plan on reading Life of Pi which apparently goes into different types of religions and beliefs of the world, a subject interesting to me. Then I may read The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, if I can get past the first chunk and get into it, because people have said great things about it. I have an exiting set of books ahead of me.

2 Quarter Annotated Bibliography

Collins, Suzanne. Mockingjay. Detroit: Thorndike, 2010. Print.

2 books

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is gruesome story that tells of a young girl, Katniss, and the awful decisions she is forced to make during a brutal civil war in a future land, Panem. Katniss became a hero in the first two books due to her defiant gesture in her first Hunger Games, threatening to kill herself and the other potential winner, Peeta. After being sent to the Games again, she is broken out by District 13, who wants to use her as a war hero to rally around and with, she proves herself good at this but only if she is in a live battlefield, which fuels her want to kill the enemies leader, President Snow. This book is an excelent read as it intesivifies not only on the character's war lives but on their personal lives as well. Katniss is the main character of Mockingjay, she's also the spark that sets of a revolt against the Capitol, District 13 was ready to rebel, they just need someone to set into motion. This book proves that no matter the numbers, people always need a leader.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: a Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.

2 books

Life of Pi is a funny, unusual, thought-provoking, novel written by Yann Matel which tells of teenage Pi Patel and his quest for truth in religion and survival. The story begins with random and unusual tales of Pi's life, for instance he tells of his father's zoo and facts about animals, which eventually leads to Pi's love of religion and strong belief in God. Pi's family is forced to move to Canada for political reasons, they take all their zoo animals with them. The ship sinks and Pi is stranded with a tiger, hyena, zebra, and orangutan on a small lifeboat. Religion is a major theme in Life of Pi as the reason Pi stayed reasonably sane on the life boat in the middle of the ocean. Rituals and storytelling saved his human mind as he explores Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism.

Sykes, Charles J. Dumbing down Our Kids: Why America's Children Feel Good about Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add. New York: St. Martin's, 1995. Print.

2 books

Dumbing down our kids is serious, nonfiction, rant by Charles Sykes arguing that our public schools spend too much time and money on less important subjects such as driving ed, P.E., and sex ed rather then academic studies such as math, science, and english. He doesn't stop there but claims american families don't teach enough to their children thus their want for the schools to teach more. A theme in the book that isn't argued, obvious or talked about much is doing things yourself, not shoving it on to others. He shows this by telling how much time american schools spend on other things that aren't academics that should be taught by families themselves, therefore the families are shoving their responsibilities on to public education, which Sykes shows to be not worth it in the long run.

Reading Reflection

My reading habits this nine weeks were surprisingly excellent, thanks to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Making it work was easy thanks to books that never got old(The Hunger Games Series) while reading non-fiction, or rather attempting to read non-fiction, like Dumbing down our kids was much harder thus why I didn't finish. Inking my thoughts was fun but only in thought provoking books such as Brave New World. However with fiction books inking was extremely difficult, when I read the goal is to escape wherever I am and join the world of the book, stopping to write kills my imagination. Overall how often I read surprised me and I can do it again next quarter.

Annotated Bibliography

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print. 2 BOOKS

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins tells a depressing tale of humans, so consumed by power that they send children, from there own districts, 12-18 to fight to the death in an intricate and complicated arena. Katniss Evergreen, a teenage girl in district 12, lives her life as usual, helps provide for her family and hunts with her friend Gale. Then, as every year, the reaping comes. This is the time in which the contestants in the games get chosen by random. By the most unbelievably unluckiest stroke of luck Katniss's little sister Prim gets chosen in the reaping. When Katniss volunteers to take her spot as the female contestant she realizes that survival in the games is very unlikely. There can only be one winner, one who survives. The Hunger Games is brilliantly worded and perfectly paced, the reader never knows what to expect. Haymitch, Peeta and Katniss's advisor in the Games, plays a seemingly small role yet none the less important. He represents what Katniss and Peeta would seem to turn in to if they continue to let the Capitol do as they please, he won the games when he was a child yet it brought no happines. He lives alone and is an alcholic, this character alone tells the reader they have to do something about the government.

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print 2 BOOKS

With all the odds against her Katniss Evergreen, an extremely poor teenage girl sucked into an intense battle for the entertainment of a corrupt government, has won The Hunger Games. The only problem came at the end of the games when Katniss and Peeta, Katniss's partner in the games, decided to commit suicide therefore killing the last two contestants in the games in order to "stick it" to the capitol, they could't live without a winner. Without knowing it Katniss sparked a revolution. President Snow, leader of the Country, commanded Katniss to win over the country, saying she only did the stunt with the berries because she was madly in love with Peeta. She fails at this soon enough and finds out that, again, she has been called into the games, this time a Quarter Quell, which said that all the contestants were to be drawn from the pool of victors in previous games. This novel is a perfect sequel to the previous book. It acclimatizes but doesn't loose the plot. Katniss is the main character of Catching fire, she's also the spark that sets of a revolt against the Capitol, the people already have already more then enough reasons to rebel, they just need someone to set into motion. This book proves that no matter the numbers, people always need a leader.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print

Brave New World is a very unusual novel by Aldous Huxley, it tells of a the earth into the future were all humans are created like robots and Henry Ford is God. A man named Bernard decides to take a women named Liana to the savage reservoir. The savages are humans that weren't created, born like you and me. They view an unusual display of Indian people and meet a man named John, who they happened to know was his boss's son, a despicable act, to have a son in this time. The whole generation is caged by soma, a drug that flattens their emotions, of course John doesn't do the drugs as he is a savage. His body is free so he cries freedom and throws the soma out the window in one instance. The deepness of cloning, drugs, love and communism run extremely deep. John, the savage in the novel, can be paralleled to Jesus Christ, in that Jesus saved man and John attempts to save man threw crying out against soma. He no doubtingly represents us in that he wants freedom and emotion in life, not just a lifeless flat life that humans seem to be fine with in the future generation.

Socratic Seminar Reflection

Reflecting on my Socratic Seminar I realize that my performance was poor, not only because I failed to react to others ideas and opinions but because words barely came out at all. In the question 2 seminar, the one discussing Mond and John's talk in chapter 17, I did bring up a few points on soma and how it caged their emotions, made them dull when they should have been emotional, forced their lives to be lifeless, and how later John would cry freedom and throw the soma out the window. This idea would later be extended by Ms. Huff, saying that John could have represented Jesus Christ in that Jesus saved man and John tried to save man through crying freedom from soma. Making the thought go even more extended I continued saying that the two are more alike in that they would both be whipped and killed in the end. The most enjoyable part of the seminar was learning about other's thoughts and feelings on the book. I learned, from Becky, that soma was real and even has similar effects with the fictional version. The most important thing the seminar did was to relate the fictional novel to the real world and how the two have more in common that I had thought or like to think. How soma is real and how we, as in scientists, are moving toward clones in that we can clone bulls and other animals and how we can change embryos to select certain genes that don't cause cancer. If changing one thing was possible I would force myself to tell my thoughts and ideas much more often. If that single area would improve the seminar would have been perfect.