Month: December 2023

The Harry Potter book series has been important for many people around the world. Since I was little I read the books in Spanish and watched the movies multiple times, but I have always wanted to read the books in Rowling’s original English. Currently I have just began the third book ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ and I found a funny section which criticized how in the middle ages everyone was accused and burned for being witches.

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizards would perform a basic Flame-Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burnt so much that she allowed herself to be caught no fewer than forty-seven times in various disguises. (p. 3)

The way Rowling flipped on its head the way we viewed magic users in the past and that the witches and wizards simply humored the muggles in their attempts to burn them.

In the book of《Black Boy》that was written by Richard Wright, the girl Ella try to tell the story of Bluebeard and His Seven Wives to Richard but his Grandma found them and hysterical to them.

“You stop that, you evil gal!” she shouted. “I want none of that Devil stuff in my house!”

Her voice jarred me so that I gasped. For a moment I didn’t know what was happening.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Wilson,” Ella stammered, rising. “But he asked me-”

“He’s just a foolish child and you know it!” Granny blazed.

The Grandma showing the disrespect to the poor young lady who’s trying to show her kindness to Richard, and because Richard’s race and cause all the disrespectful behavior from family to the child. This reflect the background of that age was showing their unkind face to all the color races.

The book I was reading is The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo, is a book that tells the story of a 50s actress with a lot of twists.

“No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kidding themselves, but they’re also painfully unoriginal.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I found this quote very true because there is times in life that you can either lost or win so just saying your one or another is dumb.

The book I read If he had been with me was a wonderful book with a very sad ending but that left me with a lot of knowledge and lessons on how to appreciate time with the ones you love.

“I can see some of the roses still blooming in my mother´s garden. Brown on the edges and bright in other colors, their petals drooping downward, dying just as their lives have begun.
They stayed past their time, and I´ve realized that I have too.”

This is an authentic and very true quote from the book that I loved because many things seem impossible until you try them out for yourself.

My next IRJE is on a book I’m currently reading, Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery. The protagonist Emily is a young girl who is orphaned after her father dies of tuberculosis and is taken to live with two of her aunts. She loves nature, has an active imagination, is quite animated, and adores writing, especially writing poems. Emily also doesn’t properly understand the expectations that her aunts have for her behaviour, which often gets her in trouble with her Aunt Elizabeth.

In the following quotation, Emily describes her walk after mailing a letter at the post office.

“She found the walk home very enjoyable. It was a bland day in early April and spring was looking at you round the corners. The Wind Woman was laughing and whistling over the wet sweet fields; freebooting crows held conferences in the tree tops; little pools of sunshine lay in the mossy hollows; the sea was a blaze of sapphire beyond the golden dunes; the maple’s in Lofty John’s bush were talking about red buds. Everything Emily had ever read of dream and myth and legend seemed a part of the charm of that bush. She was filled to her finger-tips with a rapture of living.

‘Oh, I smell spring!’ she cried as she danced along the brook path. Then she began to compose a poem on it” (p. 227).

I chose this quotation because I loved the creative way that the author described Emily’s surroundings. Not only is it very descriptive, which makes the scene easier to visualize, but it connects with Emily’s personality and the way that she would view everything. She is very romantic, in the respect that she is very inclined to romanticize things, and this passage captures that as it claims that she sees all the wonderful things of myth in the bush’s charm. The passage also shows how she is able to entertain herself on her own by writing poems and exploring things in her head. She is very artistic in this way, and it can be recognized in the metaphors and creative language used to describe what she sees and how exhilarated she feels to be there.

I enjoyed reading the book I wrote about in my past journal entries, so I kept reading the sequel for my next book due to its incredible story. The book I’m reading is called “Heaven Official’s Blessing 2” (天官賜福) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (莫想童秀). In part of the story, we have three heavenly officials trying to solve the case of the missing brides. Whenever a couple decides to marry at Mount Yujun, the bride disappears during the wedding procession. People say that the reason why this happens is because a ghost groom kidnaps them. They plan to catch this creature by sending a heavenly official disguised as a fake bride. They started the procession by entering the woods at the mount, but when they were already in the middle of the forest, they were attacked by a creature called binu. Xie Lian told them to leave and that he’ll take care of it. When they left, he met someone unexpected…

Yet, unexpectedly, what came wasn’t the anticipated attack or any murderous intent but something else.

The curtain of the bridal sedan was lightly lifted, and from underneath the bright red veil, Xie Lian saw the person had extended a hand to him.

The fingers were well defined. A red string was tied on the third finger, and on that long, slender, fair hand, it looked like a bright and colorful affinity knot.

Should he give his hand, or no? (p.88)

I chose this quotation because it introduces a relevant character for the storyline. While reading this part of the book I was really intrigued, I tried to figure out who the person mentioned was before the author said something about they on the story. 

Lois Lowry novel THE GIVER, talks about a boy who is 12 years old and lives witch his family in communities. One night, like usually they talk they feelings on the dining table. Ther the protagonist asks his sister how school was in a norther school. She responded:

I felt strange. Because their methods were different. (p.8, l.10)

I can connect with this statement, because I was there. When I chance school for the first time, I noticed the most of feeling strange. But what I learned is to compare the new and the old method and look what is the easiest and compared the compared time.

“Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard” by Rick Riordan is an exciting adventure that mixes Norse mythology with humor. The story is about Magnus Chase, a teenage demigod who is the son of the Norse god Frey. He learns about his heritage and goes on a quest to stop Ragnarok. It’s a great book that introduces interesting gods, monsters, and diverse characters. It’s not just about action, but also about friendship, family, and personal growth. One quote from the book that shows its tone is,

“Dead or alive, the truth won’t rest. Swords may cut both ways, but words can wound in one.”

This quote reminds us to be honest and responsible for our actions. With its fun story, relatable characters, and the author’s funny take on mythology, it’s a book that everyone can enjoy.

When I got to read the ” Leadership ” book by Sir Alex Ferguson; one of the first chapters talked about the power of listening.

“God gave us two ears to hear twice; he only gave us one mouth.” (p.18)

For me, this quote encourages a mindful approach to communication, emphasizing the importance of listening. With the metaphor of two ears and one mouth, it suggests that we should listen twice as much as we speak. This highlights the value of active listening, empathy, and the careful use of words. This quote promotes humility by inviting us to learn from others and create a shift towards more considerate and understanding interactions. In essence, it serves as a reminder to approach communication with thoughtfulness and a genuine desire to contribute.

“The Kite Runner” is a book that I have been reading lately, it has a very interesting beginning which makes me want to continue with the book. It is a good way for me to read this book so that I can have better understanding on how to write a good story or essay.

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.   p.1

This is how the book began, It tells us how the author became who he is from the age of twelve which makes me interested in knowing what happened and what his personalities are like.

I finished reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.
Eddie, the main character dies. And throughout the story, we meet who Eddie used to be, and some of the people he did or didn’t know but somehow changed his life. Each one tells us an important part about his life. Eddie was a kind-serious man who worked at Ruby Pier. When he dies, he meets like the book says, five people. The first one a blue man, who tells Eddie what will happen in heaven and what is the purpose of the two of them meeting.

“People think of heaven as a paradise garden…But the scenery without solace is meaningless. “This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is peace you have been searching for.”
Pg 35

The blue man tells this to Eddie, and I actually understood why.
Why did the author decide to write this? It’s easier to move on, when you have closure of something. When you understand why it happened the way it did and why it ended.
I have always preferred to understand the reason of being of things specially when I’m intrigued by something.
How can you be at peace in heaven if you don’t understand why things happened in your life the way they did?

In this quote from the book The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Avery Grambs is describing how life at the Hawthorne house has been for her.

In the past six weeks, I’d been shot at, blown up, kidnapped, and paraded around as the living, breathing embodiment of Cinderella stories. To the world, I was a scandal, a mystery, a curiosity, a fantasy. (p. 203)

Avery knows the consequences that comes with becoming an heiress but she still goes on to solve forgotten mysteries which everyone around her advises her against. Still, despite all she’s been through, she still goes ahead to uncover hidden truths.

Right now I’m reading a book called The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. This book is a combination of science and love which is a Romance Fiction.

The midnight library by Matt Haig is about a 35-year-old woman who attempts suicide but fails, but on the process, she wakes up a library, that library is between life and death. In that library there is infinite books, and each one of them are her life, but in different. scenarios whenever she opens a book, she can go into it and life the life she is living in that book.

you have many lives as you have possibilities, there are lives where you make different choices. And those choices lead to different outcomes. if you had done just one thing differently, you would have a different lifetime story. and they all exist in the midnight library. They are all as real as life.

I like this book so far because I like how it illustrates life, and how any choice you make can change your entire life.

In this quote from “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield expresses a fantasy where he stands on the edge of a cliff overlooking a field of rye. He imagines himself as the “catcher in the rye,” with the responsibility of preventing children playing in the field from falling off the metaphorical cliff that represents the loss of innocence associated with growing up. This reflects Holden’s desire to protect the purity of childhood in a world he sees as phony and corrupt, showcasing his yearning for a simpler and more authentic existence for children.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going, I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

In this quote J.D. Stalinger actually mentions the name of the book in a conversation Holden had.

The book I am currently reading is “I Am Malala”. I had heard from this woman before but I have never payed real attention to her or to her story but it its really interesting how she started and all she has achieved until nowadays.

“Who is Malala?” he demanded.

No one said anything, but several of the girls looked at me. I was the only girl with my face not covered.

That’s when he lifted up a black pistol. I later learned it was a Colt. 45. Some of the girls screamed. Moniba tells me I squeezed her hand.

My friends say he fired three shots, one after another. The first went through my left eye socket and out under my left shoulder.

I slumped forward onto Moniba, good coming from my left ear, so the other two bullets hit the girls next to me. One bullet want into Shazia’s left hand. The third went through her left shoulder and into the upper right arm of Kainat Riaz.

My friends later told me the gunman’s hand was shacking as he fired.

By the time we got to the hospital my long hair and Moniba’s lap were full of blood.

Who is Malala? I am Malala and this is my story.

(p. 9 Prologue, Yousafzai, Malala. Lamb, Christina. I Am Malala. 2023)

I choose this quote because when I first read it, it shocked me the fact that a man could fire a gun to a girl in a school bus and during the day with all the other kids around her without even caring in the persons he could kill. This quote just reaffirmed that the persons are cruel and nobody cares about anything else but themselves. Why killing a girl?, it makes literally no sense to me, killing someone is the worst thing a person can do. It’t completely unfair because they don’t have the fault for anything, they haven’t even lived. I can imagine how would I react if someone stood in front of me with a gun and fire it.

For the past few weeks, I have been reading the classic novel “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. The book is set in mid-19th century London and is about a young orphan boy named Oliver Twist. The novel exposes the unsavoury lives of criminals during the time and the inhumane treatment of orphans. To escape from Mr. Bumble, the workhouse official, and his abusive treatment, Oliver Twist walks seventy miles to arrive in London, naively hoping for a better life. After walking for seven days fatigue and hunger set in and he collapsed in a small town near his destination, London. Oliver Twist finds himself being invited by the Dodger, a skillful pickpocket into Mr. Fagin’s lodge. Mr. Fagin as we learn later is an older Jewish man with a described unpleasant appearance who teaches young orphaned or abandoned children the art of pickpocketing. Here, Oliver Twist is being taken care of by Mr. Fagin and he notices a box of riches his first morning there while eating breakfast.

“Oliver thought the old gentleman must be a decided miser to live in such a dirty place, with so many watches; but, thinking that perhaps his fondness for the Dodger and the other boys, cost him a good deal of money, he only cast a deferential look at the Jew, and asked if he might get up” (P.56).

This quotation explains Oliver Twists thoughts on the abnormal amount of riches Mr. Fagin has. He believes that Mr. Fagin lives in such a run down slum because he has a good heart and wants to keep supporting the Dodger and the other young misfortunate boys. Oliver’s thoughts in this quotation lead us to assume he is very naive and still does not understand the cruelty of people especially when money is involved. Charles Dickens also portrays Oliver’s naiveté by the way he soon forgets the box of watches not even wondering how one living in such a place could come by such riches.

I am reading Down and Out by George Orwell which is about the author living a poor life in the streets of Paris and London, tramping by streets, passing time with “screevers,” or street artists and drunks. in this quotation, George Orwell discusses poverty with one of his friends, Bozo. This showed me a new perspective, as it showed the unimportance of materialism.

“Well, I’ve found just the contrary,” I said. “It seems to me that when you take a man’s money away he’s fit for nothing from that moment.”

“No, not necessarily. If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, ‘I’m a free man in here'” — he tapped his forehead–“and you’re all right.”

Bozo is saying that in the end, life is all about mindset, and if you have a positive outlook on life everything will be all right. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor. What really matters is mental freedom.

In a kingdom where religion rules all, witches are hunted by an elite group of law enforcers called Chasseurs. Lou, a witch in hiding, is a criminal using her witch abilities and learned skills to thieve and steal what she needs. To use the magic of a white witch you must trade for it. Lou brakes her fingers to trade for the magic to unlock doors unlike blood witches who wield the connections that blood holds. Magic has a smell though, and because others can sense when magic is used she very rarely uses it unless absolutely necessary or she deems it safe. She is walking home from a narrow escape after stealing from a well known lord when enemies from her past attack her in the street. She is a very talented fighter and a very capable woman of taking care of herself. This is an excerpt from the attack.

“Wait! Please!” He forced them closed, but I kept pressing, curling my knuckles beneath the lids and into the sockets. “I’m sorry! I-I believe you!”

“Stop!” Grue’s footsteps pounded behind me. “Stop or I’ll-”

“If you touch me, I’ll blind him.”

His footsteps stopped abruptly, and I heard him swallow.

(pp.73)

This scene showed just how powerful Lou is without her power, she was able to fend for herself and subdue two full grown men. She did sustain many injuries but she came out on top, without having to give up her stolen treasures or any information. I love powerful women in books and this scene started off the book with a show of her competence and independence.

I have just started reading the classic novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love it so far. When I asked my mom if she had ever read it she paused, looked me dead in the eyes, and said she wanted to jump off a bridge when she was reading it in high school. It was too olden day for her. Personally, I love the olden day ambiance. If I could live in any time period I’d love to live in the 1800s. I also believe that the old English style will help my writing skills.

On page 23, Elizabeth, who is a Bennet daughter, is at a ball when a Mr. Darcy asks her to dance. She responds with,

Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing. – I entreat you not to suppose that I moved this way in order to beg for a partner.

This comment from Miss Elizabeth was beyond surprising to not only the reader but also Mr. Darcy. This rejection is unexpected considering it is a social norm for a women to leap at the attention of a possible suitor. But she did not. The author also mentioned that Elizabeth scrutinized Mr. Darcy for only asking for her hand because of the way she was moving. I perceived this in the sense that she was dancing in a more intimate way than women usually do at balls. Moving forward, the author has made it clear that Elizabeth, the eldest of the Bennet children, is not looking for a suitor and has a strong sense of independence.

I recently finished the historical fiction ‘A Postmistress from Paris’, written by Meg Waite Clayton. The novel takes inspiration from the remarkable true actions of Chicago heiress Mary Jayne Gold who, along with American journalist Varian Fry, organized an operation to smuggle artists and intellectuals out of France during World War Two. The book is structured around the perspectives of the protagonist Naneé, who meets Eduardo Moss, a Jewish German photographer, and his daughter Loki. A recurring theme throughout the novel is art, which acts as a grounding tool the prisoners embrace to stay alive and bring light into their worlds. Clayton submerses the reader in a haunting story where art is a beacon of hope in a time of terror for these artists. As described in the following quote, voiced by Eduardo Moss, he recalls the importance of what being an artist truly means.

“It was something that was hard to see until you had some measure of success, but it wasn’t success that made one an artist. One was an artist. One was successful or not at selling work, but the sale of art no more made a man an artist than it made him a man. An artist simply was (pg.122)”

This quote portrays the deeper sense of what art was and is. During WWII, artwork became a way to document the atrocities and preserve memories to display the truth to the public, of the events that were being concealed. As this was one of the reasons artists were targeted by the Nazis, in an attempt to control and punish them. The quote expresses the relation to the title of an ‘artist’, not based on whether one is successful or not, but simply doing it out of passion. The novel demonstrates how art breathes new life into each character during harsh thoughts and the inevitable tragedy they were experiencing. By acting as an outlet of expression, the book shares how people can connect through art, no matter their success, relating to others and invoking a sense of confidence in themselves through their pieces. In the context of the novel, Eduardo voices how his photography binds him to another, memorializing his own moments and memories for eternity.

In American Gods –written by Neil Gaiman- the character Shadow, fearing that he’ll be sent back to prison, recalls a memory where he talks with one of his inmates, Johnnie Larch. Johnnie tells him about the time he was released from prison, and because his driver’s licence had expired, he couldn’t board a plane and was sent back to prison for threatening an airport worker.

“And the moral of this story, according to Johnnie Larch, was this: don’t piss off people who work in airports.

“Are you sure it’s not something like ‘kinds of behaviour that work in a specialized environment, such as a prison, can fail to work and in fact become harmful when used outside such an environment’?” said Shadow, when Johnnie Larch told him the story.

“No, you listen to me, I’m telling you, man,” said Johnnie Larch, “don’t piss off those bitches in airports.” (p. 19)

I like this text because it clearly illustrates both Shadow’s and Johnnie’s personalities. Johnnie comes off as crude, blunt, and uneducated, while Shadow comes across as calm, polite, and reserved. This contrast makes the book much more enjoyable to read, as well as allowing me to better understand their motivations and values.

For the past two weeks I started reading a book named “Call It What You Want” By Alissa DeRogatis, This book has brought me lots of emotions and most of them where of angriness, frustration, and sadness. The main character, Sloane is a young girl stuck with the same guy for years, she can’t get over him which causes her a lot of problems during her young adult life. Since she broke up with  Ethan for like the 20th time, she compares every guy with him and can’t no longer be happy with neither of them. Sloane only wants to be with Ethan.

No one talks about the morning after a breakup enough. Swollen eyes.Waking up— if you were lucky enough to sleep— wondering if it was just anightmare. Realizing that it wasn’t. The pain in your heart re-appearing. No‘good morning’ text. No ‘I’m sorry I fucked up’ voicemail. Nothing. Thatwas your new reality. A cold bed, an empty stomach and an ache in your chest that you fear will never go away.

The quote from the text talks about the morning after a breakup, I related to this quote because I have felt this exact same feeling as Sloane, the feeling of an ache in your chest, unable to breath. I do not want to have this feeling ever again, even though it goes away after days is something I don’t want to experience again.

The excerpt I chose to focus on for this IRJE is taken from the book Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. In this snapshot of the fictional world, the protagonist is writing about their confusion – both towards their identity and their figurative appearance. It is clear that the character is struggling with internal conflict, and this letter captures the struggle many face in navigating the judgements of others while living a life authentic to themselves.

Do you ever feel as if you wear armor, day after day? That when people look at you, they see only the shine of steel that you’ve carefully encased yourself in? They see what they want to see in you – the warped reflection of their own face, or a piece of the sky, or a shadow cast between buildings. They see all the times you’ve made mistakes, all the times you’ve failed, all the times you’ve hurt them or disappointed them. As if that is all you will ever be in their eyes. How do you change something like that? How do you make your life your own and not feel guilt over it?

This excerpt can be considered relatable to many, including myself, as it perfectly captures the struggle between being wholly yourself and putting on a mask or, as the character puts it, armour, to portray yourself as the version you want others to see. Vulnerability is difficult; it takes courage to let down your armour, to welcome people to see you as you are. It also highlights the impact of first impressions and prejudgements. The protagonist states that everyone “sees all the times you’ve made mistakes, all the times you’ve failed, all the times you’ve hurt them or disappointed them. As if that is all you will ever be in their eyes.” Shortly after, they question how to change such undeviating perceptions. I, myself, have struggled with shaping the way others view me once they think they know exactly who I am. The fear of being defined by past errors or disappointments can be paralyzing, which can in turn prevent personal growth and the ability to redefine oneself. This is why it is so important to remain open-minded and to take on your life as your own, and no one else’s.

The quote I chose is

“All you have to do is act like you’re normal and okay, and people start treating you that way,”

I chose this quote because I think that it focuses on the issue of how others opinions of us and their relationships with us might be influenced by the way we look. There may be two sides to this. When we’re not at our best, it might, on the one hand, be a survival mechanism, a way to avoid unwanted attention. However, it may also work as a mask, a means of keeping our actual emotions and experiences hidden from the outside world, which eventually can become harmful and lonely. I also think that with this quote we can tell that is okay not be okay all the time, and we should be able to express our feelings and not feel the need to pretend.