Well here's today's (1/31/2011) blog assignment from Mr. Hill...
Without a doubt, my favorite author has to be Meg Cabot. I've loved every one of her books that I've read so far. If you've never heard of her, she wrote the Princess Diaries series, which was later made into the two movies starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. There's no way I could ever pick my top two favorite books by her, they're just all so good! This past summer I really got into her books especially her two series called Queen of Babble and The Heather Wells Mystery Series. I think what really draws me to her books, and makes them all my favorites, are her characters, because they're all so easy to relate to. How the characters act, what situations they go through, and how they handle everything allow the reader to make an instant connection with the book. Like when I read the Heather Wells Series I could find a character who was extremely similar to someone else in my life. Meg Cabot's books will forever be on my Favorites List, and if you haven't yet, I suggest you try one of her books!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Reading: The Hunger Games
All right, picking up in Chapter 5 of The Hunger Games , this summary starts on page 64 and goes through 102.
Cinna and Katniss discuss things like what she will wear to the opening ceremony, which unfortunately has to represent the districts main industry (remember District 12 is famous for coal mining). Katniss is in her ‘coal-mining’ outfit that is equipped with a cape, which Cinna wants to set on fire during her chariot ride to the stadium.
When Peeta shows up he sees that he and Katniss are dressed identically. Once the chariots start to move Cinna lights both of the competitors’ capes on fire. That would make me so nervous. Seriously, one slight movement could send your body up in flames. Luckily for them Cinna’s plan actually works and no one dies (phew! what a relief). This whole chariot deal seems like a parade for beauty queens. People are throwing roses to the competitors, while the competitors themselves are blowing kisses to the crowd . They arrive at the President’s house and listen to him give a speech. After this ceremony the competitors are taken right back to the training center. On the ride back Katniss and Peeta get a little flirty with each other, and once again Katniss must remind herself that she cannot feel anything towards Peeta. However, Katniss tries to play Peeta’s feelings by kissing him.
The team arrives at the Training Center, the place in which the contestants will be staying at. Katniss admires the luxuries of her room that she has never gotten to enjoy before. I bet right now Katniss has that feeling you get when you walk into a really fancy hotel room. Hopefully you understand where I’m coming from. I love staying in hotels because everything is so different and unique to the hotel you’re staying in.
Katniss and her ‘posse,’ consisting of Effie, Cinna, the other stylists, and Haymitch, attend dinner with the other contestants. During dessert Katniss recognizes one of the serving girls. Effie tells Katniss it’s impossible to know the girl because she is an Avox (someone who has committed a crime and has to have their tongue cut out). Peeta interrupting telling Effie that Katniss must have mistaken her for a girl who attends the same school as them, however, Katniss knows Peeta is wrong.
Instead of returning to their rooms after dinner, Katniss and Peeta head to the roof, where Peeta begins to question Katniss. He asks her where she knew the Avox from. She tells Peeta that one day while she and Gale were hunting around the Seam they saw a boy and a girl. The two were dressed in rags and were running. She could see from her hiding spot in the woods that a hovercraft came and speared the boy and brought him into the craft. Then, a net was sent down and the girl was hauled into the craft as well. During all of this chaos, somehow, the girl and Katniss managed to make eye contact.
Peeta wonders where the two are at now and where they were going. After the Avox story Peeta questions Katniss about Gale, however, Katniss tries to avoid the subject.
When Katniss returns to her room the Avox girl is retrieving Katniss’s dirty clothes. Before she falls asleep Katniss thinks back to that day in the woods, thinking about how she should have done something to help her and the boy she was with.
At breakfast the next morning Katniss discovers that once again, Peeta is dressed identically to her; this irritates her. We’ve all had those days where you get ready for school, and then after one or two passing periods you see someone else with the same shirt on as you, and you run to your friends looking for a sweatshirt to wear over it so no one notices. Haymitch begins to talk strategy with Peeta and Katniss because their training starts today. Peeta reveals his strengths are baking bread, while Katniss reveals her strengths are hunting with a bow and arrow. Peet slips in a comment from his mother, who happens to think Katniss will win because she is a ‘survivor.’ He then tells her that she doesn’t know the kind of effect she can have on people. Is this foreshadowing maybe?
Haymitch tells Katniss that she must keep her bow talent a secret during training. He advises them to learn useful skills during their sessions and to stay by each other’s side. Katniss returns to her room replaying the breakfast conversation with Haymitch and the fact that she and Peeta now have to act as if they were friends.
At training the District 12 competitors are the only two from a district to be dressed alike. Getting a good look at all of her competition, she notices that even though most of the kids are bigger than her, they are less well fed than she is. In training they get the option to go to combat stations or to learn survival skills. Because Haymitch told them to stay together, Peeta and Katniss opt to learn survival skills. The group learns to tie knots, camouflage, start a fire, and make a shelter, however, they don’t partake in weightlifting or archery (remember they’re not supposed to give away their strengths). Throughout the day Peeta and Katniss keep on faking their friendship.
The following day in training they notice that a little girl from District 11 named Rue has been following them. This girl reminds Katniss of Prim. Later Katniss struggles over the idea of “are she and Peeta really friends or not?”
On the last day of training they have their private sessions with the Gamemakes. In her session she practices with a bow and arrow, aiming at a practice dummy covered in targets. Mad that none of the Gamemakers are noticing her, Katniss shoots an apple in a pig’s mouth that is lying on the buffet table nearby. Furious from the attention deprivation, Katniss storms out of the gym.
Well that’s all for this time. Come back and read the rest of the summaries from this book to see who really will win the Hunger Games! Thanks for reading.
Cinna and Katniss discuss things like what she will wear to the opening ceremony, which unfortunately has to represent the districts main industry (remember District 12 is famous for coal mining). Katniss is in her ‘coal-mining’ outfit that is equipped with a cape, which Cinna wants to set on fire during her chariot ride to the stadium.
When Peeta shows up he sees that he and Katniss are dressed identically. Once the chariots start to move Cinna lights both of the competitors’ capes on fire. That would make me so nervous. Seriously, one slight movement could send your body up in flames. Luckily for them Cinna’s plan actually works and no one dies (phew! what a relief). This whole chariot deal seems like a parade for beauty queens. People are throwing roses to the competitors, while the competitors themselves are blowing kisses to the crowd . They arrive at the President’s house and listen to him give a speech. After this ceremony the competitors are taken right back to the training center. On the ride back Katniss and Peeta get a little flirty with each other, and once again Katniss must remind herself that she cannot feel anything towards Peeta. However, Katniss tries to play Peeta’s feelings by kissing him.
The team arrives at the Training Center, the place in which the contestants will be staying at. Katniss admires the luxuries of her room that she has never gotten to enjoy before. I bet right now Katniss has that feeling you get when you walk into a really fancy hotel room. Hopefully you understand where I’m coming from. I love staying in hotels because everything is so different and unique to the hotel you’re staying in.
Katniss and her ‘posse,’ consisting of Effie, Cinna, the other stylists, and Haymitch, attend dinner with the other contestants. During dessert Katniss recognizes one of the serving girls. Effie tells Katniss it’s impossible to know the girl because she is an Avox (someone who has committed a crime and has to have their tongue cut out). Peeta interrupting telling Effie that Katniss must have mistaken her for a girl who attends the same school as them, however, Katniss knows Peeta is wrong.
Instead of returning to their rooms after dinner, Katniss and Peeta head to the roof, where Peeta begins to question Katniss. He asks her where she knew the Avox from. She tells Peeta that one day while she and Gale were hunting around the Seam they saw a boy and a girl. The two were dressed in rags and were running. She could see from her hiding spot in the woods that a hovercraft came and speared the boy and brought him into the craft. Then, a net was sent down and the girl was hauled into the craft as well. During all of this chaos, somehow, the girl and Katniss managed to make eye contact.
Peeta wonders where the two are at now and where they were going. After the Avox story Peeta questions Katniss about Gale, however, Katniss tries to avoid the subject.
When Katniss returns to her room the Avox girl is retrieving Katniss’s dirty clothes. Before she falls asleep Katniss thinks back to that day in the woods, thinking about how she should have done something to help her and the boy she was with.
At breakfast the next morning Katniss discovers that once again, Peeta is dressed identically to her; this irritates her. We’ve all had those days where you get ready for school, and then after one or two passing periods you see someone else with the same shirt on as you, and you run to your friends looking for a sweatshirt to wear over it so no one notices. Haymitch begins to talk strategy with Peeta and Katniss because their training starts today. Peeta reveals his strengths are baking bread, while Katniss reveals her strengths are hunting with a bow and arrow. Peet slips in a comment from his mother, who happens to think Katniss will win because she is a ‘survivor.’ He then tells her that she doesn’t know the kind of effect she can have on people. Is this foreshadowing maybe?
Haymitch tells Katniss that she must keep her bow talent a secret during training. He advises them to learn useful skills during their sessions and to stay by each other’s side. Katniss returns to her room replaying the breakfast conversation with Haymitch and the fact that she and Peeta now have to act as if they were friends.
At training the District 12 competitors are the only two from a district to be dressed alike. Getting a good look at all of her competition, she notices that even though most of the kids are bigger than her, they are less well fed than she is. In training they get the option to go to combat stations or to learn survival skills. Because Haymitch told them to stay together, Peeta and Katniss opt to learn survival skills. The group learns to tie knots, camouflage, start a fire, and make a shelter, however, they don’t partake in weightlifting or archery (remember they’re not supposed to give away their strengths). Throughout the day Peeta and Katniss keep on faking their friendship.
The following day in training they notice that a little girl from District 11 named Rue has been following them. This girl reminds Katniss of Prim. Later Katniss struggles over the idea of “are she and Peeta really friends or not?”
On the last day of training they have their private sessions with the Gamemakes. In her session she practices with a bow and arrow, aiming at a practice dummy covered in targets. Mad that none of the Gamemakers are noticing her, Katniss shoots an apple in a pig’s mouth that is lying on the buffet table nearby. Furious from the attention deprivation, Katniss storms out of the gym.
Well that’s all for this time. Come back and read the rest of the summaries from this book to see who really will win the Hunger Games! Thanks for reading.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Reading: The Hunger Games
All right, here’s another summary from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. This time it’s up through page 63.
Katniss and Peeta are taken into custody and are allowed time to visit with their loved ones before they leave. Prim and her mother visit Katniss, which gives Katniss the time to leave Prim with specific instructions while she’s gone. Gale and Katniss have already made an arrangement; he is supposed to get the family herbs while she is gone. On the other hand, Prim makes Katniss promise to at least try to win during the games.
Peeta’s father then visits Katniss and gives her a sack of cookies and promises he’ll watch over Prim from her. Next Madge, the mayor’s daughter and an acquaintance of Katniss, comes in and gives her a circular gold pin that has a small bird on it.
Katniss recognizes the bird as a mockingjay. Funny how one of the other books in this series is titled Mockingjay. Also, in the picture I put on here, I'm assuming the gold pin represents the one from Madge. Lastly, Gale visits her. He tells her that she needs to find wood as soon as she gets into the games to make a fire and a bow. Gale boosts her confidence telling her the games are just like hunting with him in the woods.
The two competitors are forced to leave their families and to board a train that will take them away to the games. On the train they, along with Effie Trinket, eat a luxurious dinner while watching the other districts’ reapings from the day.
Haymitch shows up to the dinner drunk, and Peeta and Katniss help Haymitch to his feet and back to his room. Peeta tells Katniss he’ll take care of and clean Haymitch. Katniss makes a note of how kind Peeta is acting, but she forces herself to forget about it, just like the bread incident; in addition to this, she also threw the cookies from Peeta’s dad out the train’s window.
Katniss has a flashblack to the year when Peeta gave her family the bread; when she got hope from a dandelion, and was able to feed her family off of those. She also tells of how she found the root, in which she was named after, in a pond. She knows these katniss roots are eatable, because when she little her father always told her, ”As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve.”
Katniss wakes up and attends breakfast. During the meal Katniss discovers a starting hatred towards Haymitch. She believes he isn’t good at supporting the District 12 tributes or at finding them sponors. I bet we can all think of someone who is similar to Haymitch. When Katniss branches out to asked Haymitch for advice, he simply tells her to “stay alive.” Well duh, obviously she’ll try to do that, but can’t you give her a little more help there buddy? Peeta, Katniss, and Haymitch come together and make a pact; they promise that if no one interferes with Haymitch’s drinking, he’ll try to stay sober enough to help them during the games, if the kids do exactly what he says.
When the train arrives at the station there are people everywhere who have been waiting for their arrival. Katniss has a little moment by herself and realizes that Peeta might actually have a plan for these games, and that his plan most likely involves killing her.
Once off the train Katniss is at the Remake Center getting her legs waxed, but she’s already been cleaned and had her nails done. After Katniss’s wax is finished, she has to wait for her stylist, Cinna. He is the new stylist for District 12 in the Hunger Games.
I’ll be back with more summaries on The Hunger Games as soon as I can! Thanks for reading.
Katniss and Peeta are taken into custody and are allowed time to visit with their loved ones before they leave. Prim and her mother visit Katniss, which gives Katniss the time to leave Prim with specific instructions while she’s gone. Gale and Katniss have already made an arrangement; he is supposed to get the family herbs while she is gone. On the other hand, Prim makes Katniss promise to at least try to win during the games.
Peeta’s father then visits Katniss and gives her a sack of cookies and promises he’ll watch over Prim from her. Next Madge, the mayor’s daughter and an acquaintance of Katniss, comes in and gives her a circular gold pin that has a small bird on it.
Katniss recognizes the bird as a mockingjay. Funny how one of the other books in this series is titled Mockingjay. Also, in the picture I put on here, I'm assuming the gold pin represents the one from Madge. Lastly, Gale visits her. He tells her that she needs to find wood as soon as she gets into the games to make a fire and a bow. Gale boosts her confidence telling her the games are just like hunting with him in the woods.
The two competitors are forced to leave their families and to board a train that will take them away to the games. On the train they, along with Effie Trinket, eat a luxurious dinner while watching the other districts’ reapings from the day.
Haymitch shows up to the dinner drunk, and Peeta and Katniss help Haymitch to his feet and back to his room. Peeta tells Katniss he’ll take care of and clean Haymitch. Katniss makes a note of how kind Peeta is acting, but she forces herself to forget about it, just like the bread incident; in addition to this, she also threw the cookies from Peeta’s dad out the train’s window.
Katniss has a flashblack to the year when Peeta gave her family the bread; when she got hope from a dandelion, and was able to feed her family off of those. She also tells of how she found the root, in which she was named after, in a pond. She knows these katniss roots are eatable, because when she little her father always told her, ”As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve.”
Katniss wakes up and attends breakfast. During the meal Katniss discovers a starting hatred towards Haymitch. She believes he isn’t good at supporting the District 12 tributes or at finding them sponors. I bet we can all think of someone who is similar to Haymitch. When Katniss branches out to asked Haymitch for advice, he simply tells her to “stay alive.” Well duh, obviously she’ll try to do that, but can’t you give her a little more help there buddy? Peeta, Katniss, and Haymitch come together and make a pact; they promise that if no one interferes with Haymitch’s drinking, he’ll try to stay sober enough to help them during the games, if the kids do exactly what he says.
When the train arrives at the station there are people everywhere who have been waiting for their arrival. Katniss has a little moment by herself and realizes that Peeta might actually have a plan for these games, and that his plan most likely involves killing her.
Once off the train Katniss is at the Remake Center getting her legs waxed, but she’s already been cleaned and had her nails done. After Katniss’s wax is finished, she has to wait for her stylist, Cinna. He is the new stylist for District 12 in the Hunger Games.
I’ll be back with more summaries on The Hunger Games as soon as I can! Thanks for reading.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Reading: The Hunger Games
Now that Twilight is done and over with, I’m moving on to Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. Now I have to admit I’ve had to start the book over at least two times because I just couldn’t really get into the beginning. A few of my friends have read the series and have only great things to say about it. After the third time starting it I finally got into it. Here’s a summary through page 34.
The setting is in this place called Panem, which is made up of twelve districts. The control and rules the government has on these districts reminds me of the movie The Truman Story and the book The Giver because the people are several monitored and told how to live their lives. Katniss, the main character, lives in District 12 with her mom, her younger sister Prim, and her sister’s cat Buttercup. District 12, also known as the Seam, is by far the worst district to live in because it’s exceptionally poor, and the citizens are used to a life of starvation. This made me think of all the third world countries there are, and how awful the conditions are. Also, we, as Americans, don’t realize all that we really have compared to the people living in places, like Haiti.
A majority of District 12 citizens are coal miners. Katniss’s dad was a coal miner, who unfortunately died in a mining accident, and ever since he died, Katniss has had the responsibility caring for her family. I can’t imagine all the work she has to put in to provide for her family entirely on her own. I mean she’s only sixteen years old. I’m seventeen and I don’t even have a job! I don’t know how she manages to do it. To provide her family with food, she illegally leaves the District to go to the meadow to hunt. With the help of her father’s bow and her friend Gale, Katniss is able to hunt several animals in the woods. Often times the two friends will take their game to a place called the Hob, a black market where they are able to make money and trade for other food. Gale and Katniss are very close friends. Everyone has to have a ‘Gale’ in their life! While hiding out in the woods, they begin to talk about what it would be like to run away and the Hunger Games.
For the people of District 12, along with a few of the other districts, the Hunger Games are anything but a holiday. As an attempt to prevent rebellions from the districts, the capital (Panem’s government), holds this huge event known as the Hunger Games. This event is basically a ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario in which the contestants fight till each other’s deaths. Each of the twelve districts are required to provide the games with a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18, these competitors are selected using a lottery system. Additional ‘tickets’ for the lottery can be bought in exchange for oil and grain, also known as tesserae. All of the competitors’ ‘tickets’ are cumulative. Katniss has taken tesserae every year till now (remember she’s sixteen). So now, Katniss will have twenty ‘tickets’ in the lottery (in the book the lottery is referred to as the ‘reaping’). In some cases, like Gale’s, he’s has to provide for his family of five, children may have around forty ‘tickets’ in the lottery. Other districts, however, take pride in participating in these games, and have their children bred to ‘play.’
Katniss returns home, puts on her mother’s fancy dress, and even lets her mother do her hair. Going into the reaping ceremony Katniss is determined to do everything she can to protect her younger sister. I’d do the same thing, I love my little sister, and wouldn’t want her to go to the games and die. Everyone in District 12 is gathered around the square for the drawing. All of the children from the district are herded into designated areas determined by age. The mayor, Mr. Undersee, gives his repedative speech about the history of Panem, and the capital’s escort, Effie Trinket introduces District 12’s only winner, Haymitch Abernathy. Once all of that is done Effie draws the names from the lottery. While Effie is fishing around for a name in the lottery bowl, Katniss goes over her odds of being chosen in her head. She picks a paper and reads a loud the name, “Primrose Everdeen.”
In a panic Katniss takes off running towards the stage volunteering to take Prim’s place in the Hunger Games. Even though volunteering is not usually apart of the reaping, it is however, accepted. Prim’s reacts by clinging onto Katniss begging her not to go. Effie draws the Peeta Mellark as the boy competitor.
Katniss flashes back to her first memory of Peeta when he was beaten by his mother for giving Katniss a few pieces of bread for her family in their time of starvation. She was amazed that Peeta, not even knowing her, would do something like that for her. Remembering the current situation, Katniss convinces herself that she needs to forget about what happened with Peeta so she can focus on the games,but she thinks to herself "there will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do."
Well that’s the end of this summary (even though I hated stopping here, because it's finally getting interesting) this is all I have time for today! Thanks for reading.
The setting is in this place called Panem, which is made up of twelve districts. The control and rules the government has on these districts reminds me of the movie The Truman Story and the book The Giver because the people are several monitored and told how to live their lives. Katniss, the main character, lives in District 12 with her mom, her younger sister Prim, and her sister’s cat Buttercup. District 12, also known as the Seam, is by far the worst district to live in because it’s exceptionally poor, and the citizens are used to a life of starvation. This made me think of all the third world countries there are, and how awful the conditions are. Also, we, as Americans, don’t realize all that we really have compared to the people living in places, like Haiti.
A majority of District 12 citizens are coal miners. Katniss’s dad was a coal miner, who unfortunately died in a mining accident, and ever since he died, Katniss has had the responsibility caring for her family. I can’t imagine all the work she has to put in to provide for her family entirely on her own. I mean she’s only sixteen years old. I’m seventeen and I don’t even have a job! I don’t know how she manages to do it. To provide her family with food, she illegally leaves the District to go to the meadow to hunt. With the help of her father’s bow and her friend Gale, Katniss is able to hunt several animals in the woods. Often times the two friends will take their game to a place called the Hob, a black market where they are able to make money and trade for other food. Gale and Katniss are very close friends. Everyone has to have a ‘Gale’ in their life! While hiding out in the woods, they begin to talk about what it would be like to run away and the Hunger Games.
For the people of District 12, along with a few of the other districts, the Hunger Games are anything but a holiday. As an attempt to prevent rebellions from the districts, the capital (Panem’s government), holds this huge event known as the Hunger Games. This event is basically a ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario in which the contestants fight till each other’s deaths. Each of the twelve districts are required to provide the games with a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18, these competitors are selected using a lottery system. Additional ‘tickets’ for the lottery can be bought in exchange for oil and grain, also known as tesserae. All of the competitors’ ‘tickets’ are cumulative. Katniss has taken tesserae every year till now (remember she’s sixteen). So now, Katniss will have twenty ‘tickets’ in the lottery (in the book the lottery is referred to as the ‘reaping’). In some cases, like Gale’s, he’s has to provide for his family of five, children may have around forty ‘tickets’ in the lottery. Other districts, however, take pride in participating in these games, and have their children bred to ‘play.’
Katniss returns home, puts on her mother’s fancy dress, and even lets her mother do her hair. Going into the reaping ceremony Katniss is determined to do everything she can to protect her younger sister. I’d do the same thing, I love my little sister, and wouldn’t want her to go to the games and die. Everyone in District 12 is gathered around the square for the drawing. All of the children from the district are herded into designated areas determined by age. The mayor, Mr. Undersee, gives his repedative speech about the history of Panem, and the capital’s escort, Effie Trinket introduces District 12’s only winner, Haymitch Abernathy. Once all of that is done Effie draws the names from the lottery. While Effie is fishing around for a name in the lottery bowl, Katniss goes over her odds of being chosen in her head. She picks a paper and reads a loud the name, “Primrose Everdeen.”
In a panic Katniss takes off running towards the stage volunteering to take Prim’s place in the Hunger Games. Even though volunteering is not usually apart of the reaping, it is however, accepted. Prim’s reacts by clinging onto Katniss begging her not to go. Effie draws the Peeta Mellark as the boy competitor.
Katniss flashes back to her first memory of Peeta when he was beaten by his mother for giving Katniss a few pieces of bread for her family in their time of starvation. She was amazed that Peeta, not even knowing her, would do something like that for her. Remembering the current situation, Katniss convinces herself that she needs to forget about what happened with Peeta so she can focus on the games,but she thinks to herself "there will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do."
Well that’s the end of this summary (even though I hated stopping here, because it's finally getting interesting) this is all I have time for today! Thanks for reading.
My Dove
Dove Chocolates absolutely make my day, especially since I get one every time I have advisory! These little chocolates are my favorite, because of their inspirational sayings imprinted on the wrappers and, well simply because, they taste sooo good. No matter how many of these candies I haven eaten, I have yet to get one that has a saying I've already gotten before. Due to my curiosity, I thought I'd check out the Dove Chocolate's website. They have a section of the website devoted entirely to the "Dove Promises" (you can even suggest your own quotations). Although some of these quotes seem cheesy, they sure do beat this year's drug facts that replaced last year's motivational quotations in the school's handbook! Anyway, I hope you "cherish each day," "do not waste a moment," and enjoy a Dove Promises soon.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Reading: Twilight
So I finally finished Twilight , and it took me that whole time to realize that I had been reading the last book of the Mediator series first! Oh well, here’s your summary through page 245, or the end of the book.
Suze hears a scraping at the barn door. It’s loud enough that Jesse and Paul, who’s even asleep, hear it too. Instantly, they all know exactly who it is, it’s Felix. The next thing they know, Felix is climbing up the ladder to the loft. When he reaches the top ”his head was turned in the direction of Jesse’s supine form – he didn’t see anything else. “ There’s some more vocab for Mr. Hill! As Felix gets closer to the three Paul grabs Suze giving Jesse the opportunity to take care of Felix on his own.
Jesse and Felix start rambling on in Spanish, and Paul translates their every word into English for Suze. Felix admits that it was Maria who sent him to take care of Jesse. The two square off (I’m picturing the typical scene from like an old western movie when the guys circle around each other), and Suze is still being restrained by Paul, who claims that it’s a ‘fair fight.’ Not soon after Paul declared the fair fight, Felix pulled out a knife. Suze warns Jesse by screaming ‘knife,’ giving away her and Paul’s hiding spot in the loft. However, Jesse manages to pull the knife he kept in his boot. Now that there are knives involved Suze is worrying that someone is going to get killed, but Paul reminds her that someone dying is what they want to happen. With a few more words, their hiding spot is completely blown. Felix snatches Suze from Paul and has her with his knife to her throat (such a classic image in any CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, or action movie). Of course the next logical thing happens; Felix orders Jesse to drop his knife or he’ll kill Suze. Jesse shows his love, and drops the knife. Paul tells Suze to shift, but this completely confuses Suze. She finally understands Paul, and realizes that Felix is touching her and she just has to picture a place where she can shift back to. But Felix tosses Suze and charges towards Jesse.
Suze falls on a lantern that was left in the loft, it broke, and all of the hay set on fire. Sound familiar? It’s kind of likeThe Great Chicago Fire story, the about the cow who broke the lantern and set the barn on fire, right? The fire spreads quickly and Suze is secluded from the group by an orange ring of fire. Meanwhile, the boys are still fighting and Paul is still hiding in the corner of the loft. Jesse twists Felix’s arm behind his back, hits him across the face, and sends Felix flying over the ledge of the loft. His body hits the floor and the sound of bones breaking echo throughout the barn. Jesse did it, he killed Felix, and now he’ll be able to live. The next thing Suze saw was Jesse wrapped in a blanket coming through the smoke and flames. Oh how precious, Suze risked her life time traveling to save Jesse’s life, and now Jesse’s risking his life to save Suze’s! Once again from the corner, Paul keeps telling Suze to shift. Jesse tells Suze that they’re going to have to jump from the loft, but as the floor boards begin to break underneath them, they count down from three and jump. Instead of falling to the ground Suze feels like she’s flying, but really she’s shifting. Ok jumping from a barn, really? I don’t know if I’d be able to do that, well maybe I could, but only if my life was on the line. That ‘free falling’ feeling freaks me out kind of.
After Suze comes to from her flying/shifting, she sees the familiar backside of her house. Then Paul is kneeling over her and shaking her. He does this because when he came to she wasn’t moving. Suze claims she’s fine until she remembers Jesse, but since Jesse didn’t die she shouldn’t be able to remember him. When Suze tries to get up from the ground she sees Jesse lying in the grass a few feet away. Both Paul and Suze are confused as to how Jesse, the real and alive Jesse, ended up in the real world with them. She tries anything and everything to wake Jesse up but nothing works, and even though he has a pulse, he’s still unresponsive. Suze orders Paul to go into her and get her mom’s car keys so they can take Jesse to the hospital.
When the three arrive at the hospital, Jesse is immediately hooked up to an oxygen mask. The doctors ask Suze the routine questions like what kind of insurance Jesse has, what his Social Security number was, and if he has any family around. After Jesse is admitted, Suze calls FD to tell him how the real Jesse is now in the hospital. Paul and Suze fill FD in on what has happened. FD suggests that Paul goes and finds his grandfather, Dr. Slaski, who is still in the hospital while he comforts Suze. He leaves and now it’s only Suze and FD by Jesse’s bedside. FD tells Suze he can help with Jesse’s insurance situation so he can get more tests done. He leaves and now Suze is left. She sits down next to Jesse’s bed and starts crying uncontrollably, wishing that her dad’s ghost will appear. Someone calls her name and right as she looks up to lash out at whoever is calling her name, she realizes it’s Jesse, but only in ghost form.
Suze is confused as to how there could still be a ghost Jesse when the really Jesse was lying in the hospital bed next to her. Jesse doesn’t even know what has happened to the ‘real’ him and asks Suze to explain why he’s lying in a hospital bed. He’s furious that Suze went after Paul, even after he’d told her not to. She gives detail about how Jesse killed Felix, how the barn caught on fire, and how she shifted and brought him to the present with her. Jesse reaches over to kiss Suze, but in the process his hand slips and touches the leg of his living body. Instantly Jesse is sucked away and into the body. “Jesse’s body had come forward through time, yes. But not his soul, because two of the same souls could not exist in the same dimension.”
FD enters the room with the good news; he tells Suze that he has figured out a plan for Jesse’s insurance, and that she shouldn’t give up hope. While comforting Suze, FD tells her that “you did what you did because you loved him, Susannah. You loved him enough to let him go. There’s no greater gift you could have given him.” Even though what FD says is true I don’t know if I’d be able to go through everything Suze has gone and is going through. To just have the one thing, or in Suze’s case, the one person you really love ripped away from you like that, life would be completely different.
Suze once again brings up the saying ”If you really love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you.” Then, miraculously, Jesse’s hand begins to move on the bed and his face is refilled with color. His breathing and beating of his pulse become visible. I was excited when I found out Jesse survived. I felt bad for Suze and thought she deserved a happy ending.
The scene switches completely from the hospital to Suze’s bedroom. It’s the day of the Mission’s Winter Formal. Answering her mother’s call, Suze leaves her room with her hair done, her beautiful dress on, and ready to meet her date. Of course she has the perfect stair case to make her entrance on. You know the kind with the landing where you can stop and give everyone in the room the chance to admire you. However, instead of making the planned entrance, everyone in the room is preoccupied with something else. The next thing she noticed made her begin to cry; she saw her dog rubbing up against and sniffing her date. No surprise, Jesse is her date, but she’s surprised that her dog can smell her date. This is a major sign to her that he really is alive and in the present just like any other human being. It appears that Jesse has made a good impression with everyone there, except Suze’s mother. The only flaw she finds in Jesse is that he is too old for Suze because he’s college aged. To prove her mother wrong, Suze pulls the ‘girls mature faster than boys so technically we’re even” card.
The couple leaves and heads to the Mission where they run into FD. He tells Jesse that he has found him a job as a tour guide at the local Historical Society Museum, where he’ll be able to tell everyone how the city was like way back when. Of course this job is only temporary until he is able to get accepted into medical school.
At the dance, Suze bumps into Paul who tells her she was right about everything( If only every guy was man enough to admit those words). It turns out Dr. Slaski is it out of the hospital, is doing fine, and is ‘reclaimed’ by his grandson. Suze tells Paul that she knows he put Ms. Gutierrez’s money into the church’s “most neediest fund” (I know most neediest is terrible grammar, but it’s what they call it in the book) and was able to donate it to Ms. Gutierrez’s family. Then (the big emotional climax) Paul tells Suze that he should have known all along that they’d never work out. He realizes exactly how much Suze really does love Jesse and how much she would go through to save him. Paul explains how he’s never felt that way about anyone before, let alone Suze, and it’s never been enough to risk his life to save someone.
Suze and Jesse slow dance the night away, until they’re interrupted by her father’s ghost. She talks to her father and thanks him for sending Jesse’s ghost (Jesse told her that if her father didn’t tell him to go to the hospital that she would have lost him forever). The two have a predictable father-daughter conversation about her disobeying her dad and going back in time. Suze and her father both realize that it’s time for him to move on, but that means he’ll lost forever.
When she’s done talking to her father, Jesse tells her that he could see her father, which means that Jesse is now a mediator just like Suze. (Sarcastically) Oh how romantic now the two can save the ghost world together! She spends the rest of the night held close by Jesse soaking in every piece of evidence leading to the fact that he is real.
Phew, that was a long one! Over all I enjoyed this book, well except for the ending. I think Meg Cabot could have finished up with more of a bang, rather than just letting the story flat-line. Stay tuned for summaries from the next book on my list, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Suze hears a scraping at the barn door. It’s loud enough that Jesse and Paul, who’s even asleep, hear it too. Instantly, they all know exactly who it is, it’s Felix. The next thing they know, Felix is climbing up the ladder to the loft. When he reaches the top ”his head was turned in the direction of Jesse’s supine form – he didn’t see anything else. “ There’s some more vocab for Mr. Hill! As Felix gets closer to the three Paul grabs Suze giving Jesse the opportunity to take care of Felix on his own.
Jesse and Felix start rambling on in Spanish, and Paul translates their every word into English for Suze. Felix admits that it was Maria who sent him to take care of Jesse. The two square off (I’m picturing the typical scene from like an old western movie when the guys circle around each other), and Suze is still being restrained by Paul, who claims that it’s a ‘fair fight.’ Not soon after Paul declared the fair fight, Felix pulled out a knife. Suze warns Jesse by screaming ‘knife,’ giving away her and Paul’s hiding spot in the loft. However, Jesse manages to pull the knife he kept in his boot. Now that there are knives involved Suze is worrying that someone is going to get killed, but Paul reminds her that someone dying is what they want to happen. With a few more words, their hiding spot is completely blown. Felix snatches Suze from Paul and has her with his knife to her throat (such a classic image in any CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, or action movie). Of course the next logical thing happens; Felix orders Jesse to drop his knife or he’ll kill Suze. Jesse shows his love, and drops the knife. Paul tells Suze to shift, but this completely confuses Suze. She finally understands Paul, and realizes that Felix is touching her and she just has to picture a place where she can shift back to. But Felix tosses Suze and charges towards Jesse.
Suze falls on a lantern that was left in the loft, it broke, and all of the hay set on fire. Sound familiar? It’s kind of likeThe Great Chicago Fire story, the about the cow who broke the lantern and set the barn on fire, right? The fire spreads quickly and Suze is secluded from the group by an orange ring of fire. Meanwhile, the boys are still fighting and Paul is still hiding in the corner of the loft. Jesse twists Felix’s arm behind his back, hits him across the face, and sends Felix flying over the ledge of the loft. His body hits the floor and the sound of bones breaking echo throughout the barn. Jesse did it, he killed Felix, and now he’ll be able to live. The next thing Suze saw was Jesse wrapped in a blanket coming through the smoke and flames. Oh how precious, Suze risked her life time traveling to save Jesse’s life, and now Jesse’s risking his life to save Suze’s! Once again from the corner, Paul keeps telling Suze to shift. Jesse tells Suze that they’re going to have to jump from the loft, but as the floor boards begin to break underneath them, they count down from three and jump. Instead of falling to the ground Suze feels like she’s flying, but really she’s shifting. Ok jumping from a barn, really? I don’t know if I’d be able to do that, well maybe I could, but only if my life was on the line. That ‘free falling’ feeling freaks me out kind of.
After Suze comes to from her flying/shifting, she sees the familiar backside of her house. Then Paul is kneeling over her and shaking her. He does this because when he came to she wasn’t moving. Suze claims she’s fine until she remembers Jesse, but since Jesse didn’t die she shouldn’t be able to remember him. When Suze tries to get up from the ground she sees Jesse lying in the grass a few feet away. Both Paul and Suze are confused as to how Jesse, the real and alive Jesse, ended up in the real world with them. She tries anything and everything to wake Jesse up but nothing works, and even though he has a pulse, he’s still unresponsive. Suze orders Paul to go into her and get her mom’s car keys so they can take Jesse to the hospital.
When the three arrive at the hospital, Jesse is immediately hooked up to an oxygen mask. The doctors ask Suze the routine questions like what kind of insurance Jesse has, what his Social Security number was, and if he has any family around. After Jesse is admitted, Suze calls FD to tell him how the real Jesse is now in the hospital. Paul and Suze fill FD in on what has happened. FD suggests that Paul goes and finds his grandfather, Dr. Slaski, who is still in the hospital while he comforts Suze. He leaves and now it’s only Suze and FD by Jesse’s bedside. FD tells Suze he can help with Jesse’s insurance situation so he can get more tests done. He leaves and now Suze is left. She sits down next to Jesse’s bed and starts crying uncontrollably, wishing that her dad’s ghost will appear. Someone calls her name and right as she looks up to lash out at whoever is calling her name, she realizes it’s Jesse, but only in ghost form.
Suze is confused as to how there could still be a ghost Jesse when the really Jesse was lying in the hospital bed next to her. Jesse doesn’t even know what has happened to the ‘real’ him and asks Suze to explain why he’s lying in a hospital bed. He’s furious that Suze went after Paul, even after he’d told her not to. She gives detail about how Jesse killed Felix, how the barn caught on fire, and how she shifted and brought him to the present with her. Jesse reaches over to kiss Suze, but in the process his hand slips and touches the leg of his living body. Instantly Jesse is sucked away and into the body. “Jesse’s body had come forward through time, yes. But not his soul, because two of the same souls could not exist in the same dimension.”
FD enters the room with the good news; he tells Suze that he has figured out a plan for Jesse’s insurance, and that she shouldn’t give up hope. While comforting Suze, FD tells her that “you did what you did because you loved him, Susannah. You loved him enough to let him go. There’s no greater gift you could have given him.” Even though what FD says is true I don’t know if I’d be able to go through everything Suze has gone and is going through. To just have the one thing, or in Suze’s case, the one person you really love ripped away from you like that, life would be completely different.
Suze once again brings up the saying ”If you really love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you.” Then, miraculously, Jesse’s hand begins to move on the bed and his face is refilled with color. His breathing and beating of his pulse become visible. I was excited when I found out Jesse survived. I felt bad for Suze and thought she deserved a happy ending.
The scene switches completely from the hospital to Suze’s bedroom. It’s the day of the Mission’s Winter Formal. Answering her mother’s call, Suze leaves her room with her hair done, her beautiful dress on, and ready to meet her date. Of course she has the perfect stair case to make her entrance on. You know the kind with the landing where you can stop and give everyone in the room the chance to admire you. However, instead of making the planned entrance, everyone in the room is preoccupied with something else. The next thing she noticed made her begin to cry; she saw her dog rubbing up against and sniffing her date. No surprise, Jesse is her date, but she’s surprised that her dog can smell her date. This is a major sign to her that he really is alive and in the present just like any other human being. It appears that Jesse has made a good impression with everyone there, except Suze’s mother. The only flaw she finds in Jesse is that he is too old for Suze because he’s college aged. To prove her mother wrong, Suze pulls the ‘girls mature faster than boys so technically we’re even” card.
The couple leaves and heads to the Mission where they run into FD. He tells Jesse that he has found him a job as a tour guide at the local Historical Society Museum, where he’ll be able to tell everyone how the city was like way back when. Of course this job is only temporary until he is able to get accepted into medical school.
At the dance, Suze bumps into Paul who tells her she was right about everything( If only every guy was man enough to admit those words). It turns out Dr. Slaski is it out of the hospital, is doing fine, and is ‘reclaimed’ by his grandson. Suze tells Paul that she knows he put Ms. Gutierrez’s money into the church’s “most neediest fund” (I know most neediest is terrible grammar, but it’s what they call it in the book) and was able to donate it to Ms. Gutierrez’s family. Then (the big emotional climax) Paul tells Suze that he should have known all along that they’d never work out. He realizes exactly how much Suze really does love Jesse and how much she would go through to save him. Paul explains how he’s never felt that way about anyone before, let alone Suze, and it’s never been enough to risk his life to save someone.
Suze and Jesse slow dance the night away, until they’re interrupted by her father’s ghost. She talks to her father and thanks him for sending Jesse’s ghost (Jesse told her that if her father didn’t tell him to go to the hospital that she would have lost him forever). The two have a predictable father-daughter conversation about her disobeying her dad and going back in time. Suze and her father both realize that it’s time for him to move on, but that means he’ll lost forever.
When she’s done talking to her father, Jesse tells her that he could see her father, which means that Jesse is now a mediator just like Suze. (Sarcastically) Oh how romantic now the two can save the ghost world together! She spends the rest of the night held close by Jesse soaking in every piece of evidence leading to the fact that he is real.
Phew, that was a long one! Over all I enjoyed this book, well except for the ending. I think Meg Cabot could have finished up with more of a bang, rather than just letting the story flat-line. Stay tuned for summaries from the next book on my list, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Reading: Twilight
There's nothing like a snow-day to catch up on your reading! Here’s a summary of Twilightup through page 200.
We left Suze and Paul in the barn sitting in the loft waiting for Jesse to arrive at Mrs. O’Neil’s (the woman who lives in Suze’s house during the time). Suze tells Paul how Jesse doesn’t want another chance to live, and what he is doing is wrong. Paul is mad that Suze is more interested in Jesse than she is in him. She tells him it’s “because he’s honest, and he’s kind, and he puts me ahead of everything else.” To impress Suze, Paul tells her that he’d risk his life to save hers. He also brings up the point that Jesse really isn’t ‘risking his life’ for her because he’s already dead, so he doesn’t have anything to lose. During their conversation it becomes clear that Paul definitely has some feelings for Suze. This whole part of the book seems as if it was ripped out of some huge movie production. The two fall asleep, and when Suze wakes up Paul is there with a pie he had stolen. Once they’re finished, Paul says he has a surprise for her, but it turns out it’s not really a surprise. He ties her up with rope, stuffs a handkerchief into her mouth, and ties her to a pole in the loft. Suze tells Paul that she hates him and will never talk to him again because he’s tying her up like this. Paul brings up the point that she won’t have any memory of being tied up, going to the past, or knowing Jesse when she wakes up the next day. Then he left, most likely to go find Felix Diego.
While being tied up, Suze has a lot of time to think. She goes on ranting about how “a world without Jesse” will be like “a world without my one purpose for living.” Typical “oh-woe-is-me” scene in any book, soap opera, or movie of today’s time. Then she mentions the old saying, “women need men like fish need bicycles.” I first came across this saying last year when I did my research paper over the women’s rights movement. I used the saying as the title of my paper, and my teacher didn’t understand it, most likely because he's a male. If you’re like my teacher and don’t understand it, it basically is saying that women don’t need men to survive and that they can be unless.
Still being up in loft, Suze hears Jesse’s voice coming towards the barn. She tries everything she can to move towards the edge of the loft so she can see Jesse, Jesse the human, not Jesse the ghost. She wanted to see him so bad she banged her legs against the floor boards to make a noise. Then the predictable “who there?” she bangs her legs again and Jesse comes up the loft stairs and sees her tied up happens. Parts like these, especially in scary movies, drive me nuts. I know I’m not the only who thinks “if you hear a creepy noise don’t go looking for where it came from just leave.” She spends what seems like forever and a day noticing all the real like qualities Jesse now possess (compared to when he’s dead). She notices his weight, his body heat, his voice, his eyes, his ability to take up space, his muscles, etc. Jesse unties Suze and asks her the predictable questions of can you speak, what is your name, and who left you here. Suze tells him not to worry about her, but Jesse insists that he’ll have whoever did this horsewhipped. After she’s untied, Jesse starts trying to figure out where exactly Suze has come from. Stupidly, Suze replies using Jesse’s name, problem is he never told her his name. She tells him that they haven’t met, but she knows about him. With this, Jesse goes back into the “guess-where-she-came-from” game. Suze shows him the little portrait she has of him. Seeing this Jesse freaks out because he knows there has only been one copy of this made. She tells him that she knows there’s only one copy, which belongs to his (at the time) fiancé Maria, and that he’s there to marry Maria. Being totally creeped out, Jesse demands to know exactly how Suze knows all of this information (he thinks she’s a friend of Maria’s). She tells him that she’s a mediator from the future and that she’s there to stop him from being murdered. I read this sentence like three times, because she says she’s there to stop him from being murdered. What the heck? She’s not planning on stopping Paul from saving Jesse, which means she’ll never meet Jesse in the future! .
Suze admits that she could never sit there and watch Jesse get murdered after she had seen him alive. After hearing this, Jesse suggests that Suze goes to see Mrs. O’Neil while he goes to find a doctor because he thinks Paul hit her on the head when he tied her up. I don’t blame Jesse. If someone came up to me and said they knew stuff about me and that they were from the future I’d think she was nuts too. Trying to prove herself sane, she tells him that Felix will come tonight, he will strangle him, he will throw his dead body into a grave, and he will be found when Suze’s family puts a hot tub in their deck. She tries everything to convince Jesse that he needs to go back home, but Jesse absolutely refuses. He intends to go to Maria’s the next day to break off their engagement. Suze explains how she used his picture to go back in time and how Paul is trying to find Felix to stop him from murdering him. Jesse still doesn’t believe Suze, and now she is frustrated because she is risking her brain cells to travel back and save his life. I’d totally be frustrated too if I was Suze right now. Jesse doesn’t even give her a chance to really explain what it is and why she’s doing everything. Suze realizes that there is one thing she, and only she knows about Jesse. Suze reminds him that when he was at her house (the movie date night) he told her that he wanted to become a doctor; except he could never become a doctor because he has to take care of his family’s ranch seeing as he is the only son. Because he’d never told anyone that, he was stunned and now he believes that she is from the future.
They go back and forth over whether or not Jesse should leave tonight or stay (Suze, of course, suggesting he should leave, and Jesse suggesting he should stay). They finally reach a conclusion, Jesse will stay tonight, claiming he’s protecting Suze, but he will leave the next day. Jesse asks Suze why exactly she’s trying to save him and instead of say “because I love you” she answers saying “because it isn’t right what happened to you.” Lame! I wonder what would have happened if she would have actually told him why she was there. Next, they hear a voice asking for Jesse, and they knew it definitely wasn’t Mr. O’Neil.
The voice belongs to Felix. He tells Jesse that Maria’s father has sent him to make sure he has everything and is comfortable during his stay. Then he leaves the barn. Seeing as Maria’s father has never sent anyone to visit Jesse before, he realizes that Felix really is out to get him. If I was Suze I’d definitely throw in an “I told you so!”
Paul enters the barn and climbs up to the loft to find Suze and Jesse. Jesse asks if Paul is the guy who tied her up, and when Suze confirms that it was Paul, Jesse takes off and starts fighting Paul. Finally Jesse backs off and when Jesse gets off of Paul “his shirt had gotten unbuttoned a little in the melee…” Figured Mr. Hill would like that bit of vocab. Anyway, Suze explains to Paul that Jesse knows exactly why the two of them are there, and he learns that Suze has changed her view about Jesse’s murder.
While they’re waiting for Felix to come back, Paul falls asleep and Suze and Jesse have a talk. In their conversation Jesse is positive that he will kill Felix. He also asks Suze why she’s trying to save him, again. This time she responds with “because it’s what I do.” Jesse asks if Suze does this for all the ghosts she meets, and she tells him that his case is a special one. You have to admit, it is sweet of Suze to risk her life to not save Jesse’s, although now she’s trying to save it. He thinks Suze is extremely brave for staying in the loft even when she knows something bad is going to happen, no matter what the outcome. Suze explains that she isn’t brave, and that the only reason she shifted was to stop Paul from stopping Felix.
Thanks for reading! I’ll put up another post soon because I’m anxious to figure out what happens between Felix and Jesse.
We left Suze and Paul in the barn sitting in the loft waiting for Jesse to arrive at Mrs. O’Neil’s (the woman who lives in Suze’s house during the time). Suze tells Paul how Jesse doesn’t want another chance to live, and what he is doing is wrong. Paul is mad that Suze is more interested in Jesse than she is in him. She tells him it’s “because he’s honest, and he’s kind, and he puts me ahead of everything else.” To impress Suze, Paul tells her that he’d risk his life to save hers. He also brings up the point that Jesse really isn’t ‘risking his life’ for her because he’s already dead, so he doesn’t have anything to lose. During their conversation it becomes clear that Paul definitely has some feelings for Suze. This whole part of the book seems as if it was ripped out of some huge movie production. The two fall asleep, and when Suze wakes up Paul is there with a pie he had stolen. Once they’re finished, Paul says he has a surprise for her, but it turns out it’s not really a surprise. He ties her up with rope, stuffs a handkerchief into her mouth, and ties her to a pole in the loft. Suze tells Paul that she hates him and will never talk to him again because he’s tying her up like this. Paul brings up the point that she won’t have any memory of being tied up, going to the past, or knowing Jesse when she wakes up the next day. Then he left, most likely to go find Felix Diego.
While being tied up, Suze has a lot of time to think. She goes on ranting about how “a world without Jesse” will be like “a world without my one purpose for living.” Typical “oh-woe-is-me” scene in any book, soap opera, or movie of today’s time. Then she mentions the old saying, “women need men like fish need bicycles.” I first came across this saying last year when I did my research paper over the women’s rights movement. I used the saying as the title of my paper, and my teacher didn’t understand it, most likely because he's a male. If you’re like my teacher and don’t understand it, it basically is saying that women don’t need men to survive and that they can be unless.
Still being up in loft, Suze hears Jesse’s voice coming towards the barn. She tries everything she can to move towards the edge of the loft so she can see Jesse, Jesse the human, not Jesse the ghost. She wanted to see him so bad she banged her legs against the floor boards to make a noise. Then the predictable “who there?” she bangs her legs again and Jesse comes up the loft stairs and sees her tied up happens. Parts like these, especially in scary movies, drive me nuts. I know I’m not the only who thinks “if you hear a creepy noise don’t go looking for where it came from just leave.” She spends what seems like forever and a day noticing all the real like qualities Jesse now possess (compared to when he’s dead). She notices his weight, his body heat, his voice, his eyes, his ability to take up space, his muscles, etc. Jesse unties Suze and asks her the predictable questions of can you speak, what is your name, and who left you here. Suze tells him not to worry about her, but Jesse insists that he’ll have whoever did this horsewhipped. After she’s untied, Jesse starts trying to figure out where exactly Suze has come from. Stupidly, Suze replies using Jesse’s name, problem is he never told her his name. She tells him that they haven’t met, but she knows about him. With this, Jesse goes back into the “guess-where-she-came-from” game. Suze shows him the little portrait she has of him. Seeing this Jesse freaks out because he knows there has only been one copy of this made. She tells him that she knows there’s only one copy, which belongs to his (at the time) fiancé Maria, and that he’s there to marry Maria. Being totally creeped out, Jesse demands to know exactly how Suze knows all of this information (he thinks she’s a friend of Maria’s). She tells him that she’s a mediator from the future and that she’s there to stop him from being murdered. I read this sentence like three times, because she says she’s there to stop him from being murdered. What the heck? She’s not planning on stopping Paul from saving Jesse, which means she’ll never meet Jesse in the future! .
Suze admits that she could never sit there and watch Jesse get murdered after she had seen him alive. After hearing this, Jesse suggests that Suze goes to see Mrs. O’Neil while he goes to find a doctor because he thinks Paul hit her on the head when he tied her up. I don’t blame Jesse. If someone came up to me and said they knew stuff about me and that they were from the future I’d think she was nuts too. Trying to prove herself sane, she tells him that Felix will come tonight, he will strangle him, he will throw his dead body into a grave, and he will be found when Suze’s family puts a hot tub in their deck. She tries everything to convince Jesse that he needs to go back home, but Jesse absolutely refuses. He intends to go to Maria’s the next day to break off their engagement. Suze explains how she used his picture to go back in time and how Paul is trying to find Felix to stop him from murdering him. Jesse still doesn’t believe Suze, and now she is frustrated because she is risking her brain cells to travel back and save his life. I’d totally be frustrated too if I was Suze right now. Jesse doesn’t even give her a chance to really explain what it is and why she’s doing everything. Suze realizes that there is one thing she, and only she knows about Jesse. Suze reminds him that when he was at her house (the movie date night) he told her that he wanted to become a doctor; except he could never become a doctor because he has to take care of his family’s ranch seeing as he is the only son. Because he’d never told anyone that, he was stunned and now he believes that she is from the future.
They go back and forth over whether or not Jesse should leave tonight or stay (Suze, of course, suggesting he should leave, and Jesse suggesting he should stay). They finally reach a conclusion, Jesse will stay tonight, claiming he’s protecting Suze, but he will leave the next day. Jesse asks Suze why exactly she’s trying to save him and instead of say “because I love you” she answers saying “because it isn’t right what happened to you.” Lame! I wonder what would have happened if she would have actually told him why she was there. Next, they hear a voice asking for Jesse, and they knew it definitely wasn’t Mr. O’Neil.
The voice belongs to Felix. He tells Jesse that Maria’s father has sent him to make sure he has everything and is comfortable during his stay. Then he leaves the barn. Seeing as Maria’s father has never sent anyone to visit Jesse before, he realizes that Felix really is out to get him. If I was Suze I’d definitely throw in an “I told you so!”
Paul enters the barn and climbs up to the loft to find Suze and Jesse. Jesse asks if Paul is the guy who tied her up, and when Suze confirms that it was Paul, Jesse takes off and starts fighting Paul. Finally Jesse backs off and when Jesse gets off of Paul “his shirt had gotten unbuttoned a little in the melee…” Figured Mr. Hill would like that bit of vocab. Anyway, Suze explains to Paul that Jesse knows exactly why the two of them are there, and he learns that Suze has changed her view about Jesse’s murder.
While they’re waiting for Felix to come back, Paul falls asleep and Suze and Jesse have a talk. In their conversation Jesse is positive that he will kill Felix. He also asks Suze why she’s trying to save him, again. This time she responds with “because it’s what I do.” Jesse asks if Suze does this for all the ghosts she meets, and she tells him that his case is a special one. You have to admit, it is sweet of Suze to risk her life to not save Jesse’s, although now she’s trying to save it. He thinks Suze is extremely brave for staying in the loft even when she knows something bad is going to happen, no matter what the outcome. Suze explains that she isn’t brave, and that the only reason she shifted was to stop Paul from stopping Felix.
Thanks for reading! I’ll put up another post soon because I’m anxious to figure out what happens between Felix and Jesse.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The New Year
The Worst Ways to Start Off a New Year
1. Having the flu on New Year's Day, and having it last about a week
2. Getting rid of the flu, but then getting strept from eating a friends mac 'n cheese at lunch
3. Missing three days of school, then having to go in before school everyday for a week
4. Getting rid of strept, but then getting an allergic reaction to something I don't know
I'm usually an optimistic person so I'm looking at these and thinking that hopefully, my year can only get better.
1. Having the flu on New Year's Day, and having it last about a week
2. Getting rid of the flu, but then getting strept from eating a friends mac 'n cheese at lunch
3. Missing three days of school, then having to go in before school everyday for a week
4. Getting rid of strept, but then getting an allergic reaction to something I don't know
I'm usually an optimistic person so I'm looking at these and thinking that hopefully, my year can only get better.
Reading: Twilight
Same deal as usual, a summary over Twilight (through page 158). Let the summarizing begin…
Suze is in her kitchen cleaning the dishes from dinner when her dad, her actual ghost dad, pays her a visit. He’s heard of the whole Paul-Jesse life changing situation from the other ghosts. Even her dad is convinced that Jesse deserves another chance at life. Suze breaks down and tells her dad about how she really wants to save him, but at the same time she wants to have met Jesse. Honestly, if I was Suze I don’t know what I would do, but maybe it’d be an easier decision if I was closer with my dad. Luckily for Suze her dad tells her that he’d love to live again, but at the same time he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Suze, and he believes that Jesse would feel the same way. The father-daughter moment is ruined when David, Suze’s younger brother, enters the kitchen. He knows that Suze is a mediator and he suspects that she might not be alone.
The scene shifts and Suze is telling FD about everything that has happened so far while he’s be gone, but mainly the situation between Paul, Jesse, and herself. He brings up the point that in order for Paul to shift he would have to be in Suze’s bedroom, because that is where Jesse was killed, and that Paul wouldn’t be allowed into her room unless he broke in.
Saturday night, Jesse comes over to Suze’s house for a little “date night,” even though they can’t really leave her house they settle for watching a movie. You have to love the typical home-movie date night. During the date Jesse mentions that he saw Paul at the Mission (the school and church at which Jesse lives in. It occurs to Suze that Paul is going to attempt to shift to see Felix from inside the Mission. Suze gets up and leaves in a hurry to go to the Mission to try to stop Paul. Jesse stops her and asks her to explain the situation, and he tells her that she shouldn’t go; making it obvious that Jesse wants a second chance at life even if it means not meeting Suze. If you really think about it, if you were Jesse what would you want? If you died at age twenty would you want to go back and see how much of your life you could improve? However, this is not the case. Jesse warns Suze that Paul is dangerous and that he should be the one to go and stop him. Now Suze is relieved that Jesse would rather stay with her than live again. She has those butterflies that every girl gets when a boy does or says something sweet, and you want to hold onto those few seconds forever, and you replay them in your mind on a repetitive loop. The two fight Jesse would rather stay with her than to live again. The two fight over who would be best to go and stop Paul; Jesse thinks he should go because it’s too dangerous for Suze, but she thinks that she should go because Paul is doing this because of her.
Jesse left to deal with Paul, and Suze was not going to be able to just sit around all night waiting. She decided to take the portrait of Jesse and tried to shift back from her bedroom, and it worked.
Suze went searching for Jesse once she realized that the shift had been a success. Turns out when mediators shift the people can see them. While looking for Jesse a woman inside the house sees Suze and orders her to leave.
After being kicked out Suze goes into a barn behind the house hoping to find a horse, but instead she finds Paul. Suze finds out from Paul that Jesse is still alive and will be in town the next day. Paul begins to lecture Suze about how she can’t wear pants and be modern while they’re shifting because the customs have changed a great deal. He even tells her that Jesse probably wouldn’t even talk to her if he saw her “modernized” during his time period. Paul and Suze spend the night in the dry barn with the horse trying to kill time waiting for Jesse to arrive.
Thanks again for reading, I know these probably seem long and boring. I high suggest reading the books, they’re a lot more interesting than my summaries!
Suze is in her kitchen cleaning the dishes from dinner when her dad, her actual ghost dad, pays her a visit. He’s heard of the whole Paul-Jesse life changing situation from the other ghosts. Even her dad is convinced that Jesse deserves another chance at life. Suze breaks down and tells her dad about how she really wants to save him, but at the same time she wants to have met Jesse. Honestly, if I was Suze I don’t know what I would do, but maybe it’d be an easier decision if I was closer with my dad. Luckily for Suze her dad tells her that he’d love to live again, but at the same time he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Suze, and he believes that Jesse would feel the same way. The father-daughter moment is ruined when David, Suze’s younger brother, enters the kitchen. He knows that Suze is a mediator and he suspects that she might not be alone.
The scene shifts and Suze is telling FD about everything that has happened so far while he’s be gone, but mainly the situation between Paul, Jesse, and herself. He brings up the point that in order for Paul to shift he would have to be in Suze’s bedroom, because that is where Jesse was killed, and that Paul wouldn’t be allowed into her room unless he broke in.
Saturday night, Jesse comes over to Suze’s house for a little “date night,” even though they can’t really leave her house they settle for watching a movie. You have to love the typical home-movie date night. During the date Jesse mentions that he saw Paul at the Mission (the school and church at which Jesse lives in. It occurs to Suze that Paul is going to attempt to shift to see Felix from inside the Mission. Suze gets up and leaves in a hurry to go to the Mission to try to stop Paul. Jesse stops her and asks her to explain the situation, and he tells her that she shouldn’t go; making it obvious that Jesse wants a second chance at life even if it means not meeting Suze. If you really think about it, if you were Jesse what would you want? If you died at age twenty would you want to go back and see how much of your life you could improve? However, this is not the case. Jesse warns Suze that Paul is dangerous and that he should be the one to go and stop him. Now Suze is relieved that Jesse would rather stay with her than live again. She has those butterflies that every girl gets when a boy does or says something sweet, and you want to hold onto those few seconds forever, and you replay them in your mind on a repetitive loop. The two fight Jesse would rather stay with her than to live again. The two fight over who would be best to go and stop Paul; Jesse thinks he should go because it’s too dangerous for Suze, but she thinks that she should go because Paul is doing this because of her.
Jesse left to deal with Paul, and Suze was not going to be able to just sit around all night waiting. She decided to take the portrait of Jesse and tried to shift back from her bedroom, and it worked.
Suze went searching for Jesse once she realized that the shift had been a success. Turns out when mediators shift the people can see them. While looking for Jesse a woman inside the house sees Suze and orders her to leave.
After being kicked out Suze goes into a barn behind the house hoping to find a horse, but instead she finds Paul. Suze finds out from Paul that Jesse is still alive and will be in town the next day. Paul begins to lecture Suze about how she can’t wear pants and be modern while they’re shifting because the customs have changed a great deal. He even tells her that Jesse probably wouldn’t even talk to her if he saw her “modernized” during his time period. Paul and Suze spend the night in the dry barn with the horse trying to kill time waiting for Jesse to arrive.
Thanks again for reading, I know these probably seem long and boring. I high suggest reading the books, they’re a lot more interesting than my summaries!
Reading: Twilight
More summaries from Meg Cabot’s Twilight (through pg 125). As usual, my opinions and connections are bolded, ready? Here we go…
Paul is still convinced that Suze is planning on killing him so she can have Jesse in human form. When I first read this I thought of the movie called The Mummy and how the dead emperor guy needs living humans’ body parts to recreate a new body for himself and his princess girlfriend. The two go back and forth arguing over this for a while and there isn’t a real clear “winner” of this argument and it goes unfinished because it is interrupted; Jesse breaks up the conversation and starts beating up Paul and Suze starts yelling at Jesse to let Paul go, except Jesse is invisible and everyone at the school thinks the two are going insane.
Paul tells Jesse of his plan to save his life and Jesse thinks he’s making up the whole idea. Suze starts to worry wondering if Jesse really would want Paul to save his life. She gets nervous when Paul starts telling Jesse that he’s wasting Suze’s time because with him she’ll never be able to have a marriage, kids, grandkids, or be able to spend time with him. Jesse will just spend his time watching her die, just like he had to with his family. During this conversation Jesse mysteriously disappears and Suze thinks that they, her and Jesse, will just finish up the matter later.
As a punishment for having skipped class, Suze has to manage the bake sale at her school during the art auction. To raise money for a new basketball court, the school is having an art auction. Suze’s attention is drawn to the auction once someone bought a belt buckle that Suze’s brother had found in her house for eleven hundred dollars, turns out that someone who bought it was Paul. Maybe this is a foreshadow as to how Paul will travel back in time using this old belt buckle as his ‘anchor’ to Jesse’s time period. Paul admit he knows that the belt buckle isn’t Jesse’s and that he won’t be able to change Jesses, but he reveals that he plans on going back and stopping Jesse’s murderer.
We learn again of Jesse’s history and how he died, only this time more in detail. Felix Diego, the owner of the belt buckle, was asked by Jesse’s soon-to-be-wife and also his cousin to kill him. Felix did so and Jesse’s body was never found. Suze tells us of how Paul had been visited by Maria and Felix and how he had summoned them. She goes through this whole entire scheme of how she can stop Paul from reaching Felix again.
Suze goes to Paul’s house and insists to talk to Dr. Slaski again, only this time Dr. Slaski seems unwilling to help her. Suze explains the situation between Paul, Jesse, and herself and Dr. Slaski is on Paul’s side. He believes that Suze and Paul should be together because they are both mediators. He brings up the point that Suze needs to talk to Jesse about whether or not he wants a second chance at live or not. Suze asks Dr. Slaski about being able to transfer a ghosts soul into a living body, and his response is that Suze doesn’t have the guts to actually go through with that plan and kill someone for their body. Instead he offers her a new solution but before he can say exactly what it is he goes unresponsive.
Suze rushes down to tell Paul who claims that Dr. Slaski has OD’d on his medicine. She thinks this is ridiculous because Paul hasn’t even seen him yet, but Paul leads on that he helped his grandfather OD. What kind of person would help a family member OD? I mean let’s be serious here. Paul claims he did it because he knew Suze would come over after the auction to ask Dr. Slaski for help, and Paul didn’t want that to happen. Reading about family members betraying each other like this makes me think of all the crazy soap operas that people watch these days, like The Young and the Restless. The people on that show are always out against everyone else.
I’ll end here giving you a little suspense and the opportunity to ponder on what might happen to Dr. Slaski. Did Paul really OD his grandfather? Was it enough to kill him? Thanks for reading!
Paul is still convinced that Suze is planning on killing him so she can have Jesse in human form. When I first read this I thought of the movie called The Mummy and how the dead emperor guy needs living humans’ body parts to recreate a new body for himself and his princess girlfriend. The two go back and forth arguing over this for a while and there isn’t a real clear “winner” of this argument and it goes unfinished because it is interrupted; Jesse breaks up the conversation and starts beating up Paul and Suze starts yelling at Jesse to let Paul go, except Jesse is invisible and everyone at the school thinks the two are going insane.
Paul tells Jesse of his plan to save his life and Jesse thinks he’s making up the whole idea. Suze starts to worry wondering if Jesse really would want Paul to save his life. She gets nervous when Paul starts telling Jesse that he’s wasting Suze’s time because with him she’ll never be able to have a marriage, kids, grandkids, or be able to spend time with him. Jesse will just spend his time watching her die, just like he had to with his family. During this conversation Jesse mysteriously disappears and Suze thinks that they, her and Jesse, will just finish up the matter later.
As a punishment for having skipped class, Suze has to manage the bake sale at her school during the art auction. To raise money for a new basketball court, the school is having an art auction. Suze’s attention is drawn to the auction once someone bought a belt buckle that Suze’s brother had found in her house for eleven hundred dollars, turns out that someone who bought it was Paul. Maybe this is a foreshadow as to how Paul will travel back in time using this old belt buckle as his ‘anchor’ to Jesse’s time period. Paul admit he knows that the belt buckle isn’t Jesse’s and that he won’t be able to change Jesses, but he reveals that he plans on going back and stopping Jesse’s murderer.
We learn again of Jesse’s history and how he died, only this time more in detail. Felix Diego, the owner of the belt buckle, was asked by Jesse’s soon-to-be-wife and also his cousin to kill him. Felix did so and Jesse’s body was never found. Suze tells us of how Paul had been visited by Maria and Felix and how he had summoned them. She goes through this whole entire scheme of how she can stop Paul from reaching Felix again.
Suze goes to Paul’s house and insists to talk to Dr. Slaski again, only this time Dr. Slaski seems unwilling to help her. Suze explains the situation between Paul, Jesse, and herself and Dr. Slaski is on Paul’s side. He believes that Suze and Paul should be together because they are both mediators. He brings up the point that Suze needs to talk to Jesse about whether or not he wants a second chance at live or not. Suze asks Dr. Slaski about being able to transfer a ghosts soul into a living body, and his response is that Suze doesn’t have the guts to actually go through with that plan and kill someone for their body. Instead he offers her a new solution but before he can say exactly what it is he goes unresponsive.
Suze rushes down to tell Paul who claims that Dr. Slaski has OD’d on his medicine. She thinks this is ridiculous because Paul hasn’t even seen him yet, but Paul leads on that he helped his grandfather OD. What kind of person would help a family member OD? I mean let’s be serious here. Paul claims he did it because he knew Suze would come over after the auction to ask Dr. Slaski for help, and Paul didn’t want that to happen. Reading about family members betraying each other like this makes me think of all the crazy soap operas that people watch these days, like The Young and the Restless. The people on that show are always out against everyone else.
I’ll end here giving you a little suspense and the opportunity to ponder on what might happen to Dr. Slaski. Did Paul really OD his grandfather? Was it enough to kill him? Thanks for reading!
Reading: Twilight
Ok, so here’s an update on Twilight by Meg Cabot, this time it’s up through page 88. Once again the summary will be in black and my opinion will be in bold.
Suze ditched school and went to Paul’s house to talk to his grandfather. Dr. Slaski’s attendant tries to convince Suze that he is not well and cannot talk to her, but Suze, knowing he’s completely fine, insists on seeing him anyway. When she walks into his room Dr. Slaski appears as if he is in the slow process of dying. He’s drooling, hunched over, and won’t talk to anyone. He claims all of his sickness “had been brought on by spending too much time in the ‘shadowland’.” Once Suze and Dr. Slaski are left alone they talk about mediators (Dr. Slaski is one too). He’s gone to the ends of the Earth looking for answers about their “gift” but no one seems to believe his adventures. This is so relatable because we’ve all been in a situation where something outrageous has happened and no one has believed the stories we’re telling.
Anyway, Suze and Dr. Slaski discuss the concept of being able to shift between dimensions. Dr. Slaski tells Suze that in order to ‘shift’ to the past she needs an ‘anchor,’ something that attaches herself to the person she wants to visit. The anchor has to have been in existence during the time period you’re wanting to go back to, and you have to be standing where the person had once stood. The tricky thing is that you need to pick a spot that you can easily ‘shift’ back to. Suze learns that she can only go back in time if it’s to help a ghost that she has mediated before. At this point your little light bulb goes off and you wonder if she’ll go back and try to help Jesse. However, she instantly thinks of going back to save her dad from dying. She realizes that she’d have to go to the park to do this because she’s moved from the apartment from where they lived when he was alive, but since then she’s moved across the country. Dr. Slaski warns Suze that she can’t alter the future because everything would change, but she thinks the change will only make things better. She realizes that if her dad wouldn’t have died lots of things wouldn’t have happened in her life, like she wouldn’t have a step dad or step brother, she might not have moved, and she might not have met Jesse. When I read this I thought of some things that might not have happened if I didn’t do something or meet someone.
Dr. Slaski explains to Suze that the longer she stays in the past the harder it will be for her to recover in the present. Meaning the longer she stays in the past the more brain cells will be lost. After finding this out Suze puzzles over why Paul would want to go back if he knew the consequences. Finally she puts the puzzle together and thinks that Paul wants to go back and save Jesse from dying.
After talking to Dr. Slaski, Suze calls FD and tells him about how Paul’s figured out how to prevent Suze from meeting Jesse in the first place. She explains the process of shifting to FD just like Dr. Slaski had recently explained it to her. FD thinks that Paul is being generous and is risking his life to save Jesse but Suze thinks it’s all just a big joke. All of a sudden it dawns on her that Paul can’t go back and save Jesse because he doesn’t have anything to anchor him to Jesse. FD tries to convince Suze that she should give Jesse another chance at life and that “if you love something, let go, because if it was meant to be, it will come back to you.” I’ve heard this quote before, or well something similar to it hundreds of times before, but I’ve always been too afraid to actually try it.
Suze goes back to school and is caught by a teacher, Sister Ernestine. She lectures Suze about skipping class and Suze tries to get out of trouble by saying she needed to run to the drugstore for a “medical emergency” (all girls everywhere relate to this, we all know we’ve pulled that card at least once). Suze bumps into Paul and tells him about her visit to his house. Paul admits that he’s trying to go back to save Jesse’s life and Suze stays calm knowing that this will be impossible. She makes it extremely clear to Paul that killing off Jesse from her life won’t make her like Paul any more that she does right now. However, Paul believes that Suze is secretly plotting to him and transfer Jesse’s soul into his body instead.
Again, sorry for so much detail, but I want to keep you in the loop! You never know what information might be important later on in the story. Thanks for reading!
Suze ditched school and went to Paul’s house to talk to his grandfather. Dr. Slaski’s attendant tries to convince Suze that he is not well and cannot talk to her, but Suze, knowing he’s completely fine, insists on seeing him anyway. When she walks into his room Dr. Slaski appears as if he is in the slow process of dying. He’s drooling, hunched over, and won’t talk to anyone. He claims all of his sickness “had been brought on by spending too much time in the ‘shadowland’.” Once Suze and Dr. Slaski are left alone they talk about mediators (Dr. Slaski is one too). He’s gone to the ends of the Earth looking for answers about their “gift” but no one seems to believe his adventures. This is so relatable because we’ve all been in a situation where something outrageous has happened and no one has believed the stories we’re telling.
Anyway, Suze and Dr. Slaski discuss the concept of being able to shift between dimensions. Dr. Slaski tells Suze that in order to ‘shift’ to the past she needs an ‘anchor,’ something that attaches herself to the person she wants to visit. The anchor has to have been in existence during the time period you’re wanting to go back to, and you have to be standing where the person had once stood. The tricky thing is that you need to pick a spot that you can easily ‘shift’ back to. Suze learns that she can only go back in time if it’s to help a ghost that she has mediated before. At this point your little light bulb goes off and you wonder if she’ll go back and try to help Jesse. However, she instantly thinks of going back to save her dad from dying. She realizes that she’d have to go to the park to do this because she’s moved from the apartment from where they lived when he was alive, but since then she’s moved across the country. Dr. Slaski warns Suze that she can’t alter the future because everything would change, but she thinks the change will only make things better. She realizes that if her dad wouldn’t have died lots of things wouldn’t have happened in her life, like she wouldn’t have a step dad or step brother, she might not have moved, and she might not have met Jesse. When I read this I thought of some things that might not have happened if I didn’t do something or meet someone.
Dr. Slaski explains to Suze that the longer she stays in the past the harder it will be for her to recover in the present. Meaning the longer she stays in the past the more brain cells will be lost. After finding this out Suze puzzles over why Paul would want to go back if he knew the consequences. Finally she puts the puzzle together and thinks that Paul wants to go back and save Jesse from dying.
After talking to Dr. Slaski, Suze calls FD and tells him about how Paul’s figured out how to prevent Suze from meeting Jesse in the first place. She explains the process of shifting to FD just like Dr. Slaski had recently explained it to her. FD thinks that Paul is being generous and is risking his life to save Jesse but Suze thinks it’s all just a big joke. All of a sudden it dawns on her that Paul can’t go back and save Jesse because he doesn’t have anything to anchor him to Jesse. FD tries to convince Suze that she should give Jesse another chance at life and that “if you love something, let go, because if it was meant to be, it will come back to you.” I’ve heard this quote before, or well something similar to it hundreds of times before, but I’ve always been too afraid to actually try it.
Suze goes back to school and is caught by a teacher, Sister Ernestine. She lectures Suze about skipping class and Suze tries to get out of trouble by saying she needed to run to the drugstore for a “medical emergency” (all girls everywhere relate to this, we all know we’ve pulled that card at least once). Suze bumps into Paul and tells him about her visit to his house. Paul admits that he’s trying to go back to save Jesse’s life and Suze stays calm knowing that this will be impossible. She makes it extremely clear to Paul that killing off Jesse from her life won’t make her like Paul any more that she does right now. However, Paul believes that Suze is secretly plotting to him and transfer Jesse’s soul into his body instead.
Again, sorry for so much detail, but I want to keep you in the loop! You never know what information might be important later on in the story. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Reading: Twilight
So now that I have to being reading outside of school again, I've picked up Meg Cabot's Twilight, from The Mediator series. No, this is not the typical vampire Twilight, this time it's ghosts. Instead of doing set paragraphs of summary and then connections, I'm smashing them together but I'll put my connections etc. in bold. I'm big on detail and exaggeration,so this might belong, but I'm through page 62 and this is how it goes...
As an intro into the book Susannah Simon, the main character, tells her story of how she loved getting up to watch cartoons every Saturday morning. I totally relate to this buzzing feeling of Saturday morning excitement! One Saturday her dad announced he was going to the park, and asked if Suze wanted to come with him. Seeing as she was into her cartoon she rejects her dad's offer without even looking at him or saying good-bye. Suze and her mom find out later that he dad died from a heart attack while he was jogging through the park. After she gets the news all Suze can think about is if she had the chance what could she do to go back and prevent everything from happening to her dad (we tend to blow off the intros into books, but, seriously, remember this people!)
The actual story starts out during the night with a mysterious feeling towards it. Suze is searching for this rock, and once she finds it she begins to dig looking for whatever is under the rock when a shadow appears. At first Suze thinks its the cops, but it turns out to be this kid Paul Slater. It ends up that she knows Paul, and that Paul has taken the box, which was supposed to be under the rock, because it is filled with $2,000. This money belongs to a lady named Mrs. Gutierrez, who is dead and left the money for her children. There's an obvious tense relationship between Suze and Paul. Paul tries to walk off and talk the money but Suze tries to reason with him so he'll leave it with the kids. While she's trying to reason with Paul, the name Jesse keeping being brought up as if he's Suze's boyfriend, but she keeps mentioning how he's been dead for like one hundred and fifty years or so. They fail to reach a compromise and Paul takes the money anyway. The whole time I was reading about this Paul kid I couldn't stop thinking about how I have an extremely similar relationship with one of my friends, friend is a confusing term because we have the biggest love-hate-brother-sister-relationship going on, but hey I love the kid!
The next day Suze goes to school and Kelly, the most popular girl queen bee of her school, starts telling her about how Paul asked her to their winter formal and is taking her to this fancy five star restaurant for dinner blah blah blah, the kind of stuff girls like to rub in other girls' faces (this is so true to real life. honestly, no one cares where you go for dinner, I mean food is food). We find out that Paul is your typical A-winning-rich-model-student of a jock too, so to anyone who doesn't know him he basically sounds perfect (we can all think of a few real life examples to fill this one, no names though, please). Suze is so confused as to why Paul's asked Kelly because he has basically been stalking her, Suze, and asking her to go to everything and everywhere with her.
Anyway, Suze gets called away from the conversation with Kelly to talk to Father Dominic (we'll call him FD for typing purposes). FD says that he has to go to San Fransisco because this guy died choking on a hot dog (I wonder if it was from a hot dog eating contest or something like that, they never say) and he wants her to take care of his cat while he's gone. He also mentions something about avoiding the lust from Jesse while he's gone saying that, "Temptation is difficult enough for anyone to resist, particularly the young, who haven't fully considered the consequences of their actions." Let's face it, we've all heard this 1,000+ times from parents, other relatives, church leaders, teachers, etc., so we all relate here.Then FD goes on a rampage about some ghost girl he fell in love with from the Middle Ages and how their relationship failed miserably. Suze is optimistic though and believes and her and Jesse are not "destined to follow the same path."
At this point it's revealed to us that Suze, FD, and Paul are mediators; Suze and Paul know "particularly the little-known fact that mediators can bring the dead back to life." I don't watch the show, but while I was reading this the first thing that popped into my mind was the show The Ghost Whisperer and how Jennifer Love-Hewitt talks to ghosts and such.
Later, Suze and Paul go back to his house for their "mediator lessons." This totally made me this of the show The Wizards of Waverly Place, how they always have their "wizard lessons" (that sounds dumb, but hey my little sister watches it!). While they're there Paul shows Suze his grandfather's, Dr. Slaski or Mr. Slater (they call him both), book called The Book of the Dead, Dr. Slaski is a mediator too but he insists that they are "shifters" not mediators. We also learn that Dr. Slaski is faking to be extremely mentally sick because Paul's father basically disowned him, but only Suze knows that Dr. Slaski is fine.This reminds me of my grandparents, if you know me you know why, and if you don't believe me you don't want to hear the over dramatic family stories. Anyway, Paul shows her these passages talking about the fourth dimension, but she's completely unsure of why she's having to read it. Paul tells her it has something to do with Jesse, and this just makes Suze start to worry like crazy. The two bring up this agreement that they've made that Paul can't do anything to hurt Jesse even though we all know he's like madly in love with Suze. It's brought up because Paul wants to try and doing the fourth dimension time-traveling stuff, and Suze thinks Pauls going to try to hurt Jesse. Paul goes to take Suze home and we learn that Paul still has Mrs. Gutierrez's money and he says that he won't give it back because he really needs it but won't say what for. Paul just keeps telling Suze that she'll find out what the money is for later.
Now it get's interesting because Suze stole her mother's car and drove to her school to see Jesse, yeah we finally figure out who he is. Apparently he's some super hot, stud-muffin, nineteenth-century, dead gentleman who lives at the school in the rectory by FD (I forget exactly where it happens but we learn that Jesse was arranged to be married and his "wife-to-be" was in love with someone who her father didn't think was good enough for her so she killed Jesse in hopes of being able to marry her "dream man"). Suze starts to relay her day and such about how Paul's been a total jerk and is plotting to do something to Jesse. Now we learn that Jesse and Paul hate each other both for various reasons and Suze absolutely hates the fact that the two boys constantly fight over her. Jesse reminds and tries to convince Suze that he's a man and can handle Paul on his own if he tries to do anything to hurt him, or Suze for that matter. Right there, I see why she loves him. He's a total cute sweetheart, it's probably the old-school gentleman in him. Then they go into a makeout scene, that I'm not going to describe, because we all know what those look like. If for some reason you don't please walk through the hallway during any given passing period and you'll see. Suze starts to ask Jesse about the passages Paul showed her earlier, and asks about the fourth dimension, but all he tells her is that it is 'time.'
The next day the students are taking aptitude tests in their homeroom classes, like the ones we all take in advisory and hate with a burning passion because they give you careers like tattoo artist and magician. Suze starts day dreaming during her test thinking about her future, which she already knows. Her future will consist of being a mediator and whatever else if she decides to get a side job. Then she begins to have a mental break down about Jesse because she realizes that he doesn't have a future (obviously because he's dead, he can do whatever he wants). She has a flashback to a previous conversation she's had with Jesse about his life and jobs from the nineteenth-century.
Tests are finished and turned in, Suze and Paul are talking about time traveling and how it's like Back to the Future where you can't change things that have already happened because they will alter the future. Paul insists that they should be able to messed with a dead person's past because the person is already dead and their future couldn't be altered..stupid Paul, every knows that if you do that it'll just alter the future of those around.
Well if you actually read ALL of that, I'm very proud. Generalizations are not for me and I don't see a career in Cliff Notes or Sparknotes for me! Thanks for reading, and look for more later.
As an intro into the book Susannah Simon, the main character, tells her story of how she loved getting up to watch cartoons every Saturday morning. I totally relate to this buzzing feeling of Saturday morning excitement! One Saturday her dad announced he was going to the park, and asked if Suze wanted to come with him. Seeing as she was into her cartoon she rejects her dad's offer without even looking at him or saying good-bye. Suze and her mom find out later that he dad died from a heart attack while he was jogging through the park. After she gets the news all Suze can think about is if she had the chance what could she do to go back and prevent everything from happening to her dad (we tend to blow off the intros into books, but, seriously, remember this people!)
The actual story starts out during the night with a mysterious feeling towards it. Suze is searching for this rock, and once she finds it she begins to dig looking for whatever is under the rock when a shadow appears. At first Suze thinks its the cops, but it turns out to be this kid Paul Slater. It ends up that she knows Paul, and that Paul has taken the box, which was supposed to be under the rock, because it is filled with $2,000. This money belongs to a lady named Mrs. Gutierrez, who is dead and left the money for her children. There's an obvious tense relationship between Suze and Paul. Paul tries to walk off and talk the money but Suze tries to reason with him so he'll leave it with the kids. While she's trying to reason with Paul, the name Jesse keeping being brought up as if he's Suze's boyfriend, but she keeps mentioning how he's been dead for like one hundred and fifty years or so. They fail to reach a compromise and Paul takes the money anyway. The whole time I was reading about this Paul kid I couldn't stop thinking about how I have an extremely similar relationship with one of my friends, friend is a confusing term because we have the biggest love-hate-brother-sister-relationship going on, but hey I love the kid!
The next day Suze goes to school and Kelly, the most popular girl queen bee of her school, starts telling her about how Paul asked her to their winter formal and is taking her to this fancy five star restaurant for dinner blah blah blah, the kind of stuff girls like to rub in other girls' faces (this is so true to real life. honestly, no one cares where you go for dinner, I mean food is food). We find out that Paul is your typical A-winning-rich-model-student of a jock too, so to anyone who doesn't know him he basically sounds perfect (we can all think of a few real life examples to fill this one, no names though, please). Suze is so confused as to why Paul's asked Kelly because he has basically been stalking her, Suze, and asking her to go to everything and everywhere with her.
Anyway, Suze gets called away from the conversation with Kelly to talk to Father Dominic (we'll call him FD for typing purposes). FD says that he has to go to San Fransisco because this guy died choking on a hot dog (I wonder if it was from a hot dog eating contest or something like that, they never say) and he wants her to take care of his cat while he's gone. He also mentions something about avoiding the lust from Jesse while he's gone saying that, "Temptation is difficult enough for anyone to resist, particularly the young, who haven't fully considered the consequences of their actions." Let's face it, we've all heard this 1,000+ times from parents, other relatives, church leaders, teachers, etc., so we all relate here.Then FD goes on a rampage about some ghost girl he fell in love with from the Middle Ages and how their relationship failed miserably. Suze is optimistic though and believes and her and Jesse are not "destined to follow the same path."
At this point it's revealed to us that Suze, FD, and Paul are mediators; Suze and Paul know "particularly the little-known fact that mediators can bring the dead back to life." I don't watch the show, but while I was reading this the first thing that popped into my mind was the show The Ghost Whisperer and how Jennifer Love-Hewitt talks to ghosts and such.
Later, Suze and Paul go back to his house for their "mediator lessons." This totally made me this of the show The Wizards of Waverly Place, how they always have their "wizard lessons" (that sounds dumb, but hey my little sister watches it!). While they're there Paul shows Suze his grandfather's, Dr. Slaski or Mr. Slater (they call him both), book called The Book of the Dead, Dr. Slaski is a mediator too but he insists that they are "shifters" not mediators. We also learn that Dr. Slaski is faking to be extremely mentally sick because Paul's father basically disowned him, but only Suze knows that Dr. Slaski is fine.This reminds me of my grandparents, if you know me you know why, and if you don't believe me you don't want to hear the over dramatic family stories. Anyway, Paul shows her these passages talking about the fourth dimension, but she's completely unsure of why she's having to read it. Paul tells her it has something to do with Jesse, and this just makes Suze start to worry like crazy. The two bring up this agreement that they've made that Paul can't do anything to hurt Jesse even though we all know he's like madly in love with Suze. It's brought up because Paul wants to try and doing the fourth dimension time-traveling stuff, and Suze thinks Pauls going to try to hurt Jesse. Paul goes to take Suze home and we learn that Paul still has Mrs. Gutierrez's money and he says that he won't give it back because he really needs it but won't say what for. Paul just keeps telling Suze that she'll find out what the money is for later.
Now it get's interesting because Suze stole her mother's car and drove to her school to see Jesse, yeah we finally figure out who he is. Apparently he's some super hot, stud-muffin, nineteenth-century, dead gentleman who lives at the school in the rectory by FD (I forget exactly where it happens but we learn that Jesse was arranged to be married and his "wife-to-be" was in love with someone who her father didn't think was good enough for her so she killed Jesse in hopes of being able to marry her "dream man"). Suze starts to relay her day and such about how Paul's been a total jerk and is plotting to do something to Jesse. Now we learn that Jesse and Paul hate each other both for various reasons and Suze absolutely hates the fact that the two boys constantly fight over her. Jesse reminds and tries to convince Suze that he's a man and can handle Paul on his own if he tries to do anything to hurt him, or Suze for that matter. Right there, I see why she loves him. He's a total cute sweetheart, it's probably the old-school gentleman in him. Then they go into a makeout scene, that I'm not going to describe, because we all know what those look like. If for some reason you don't please walk through the hallway during any given passing period and you'll see. Suze starts to ask Jesse about the passages Paul showed her earlier, and asks about the fourth dimension, but all he tells her is that it is 'time.'
The next day the students are taking aptitude tests in their homeroom classes, like the ones we all take in advisory and hate with a burning passion because they give you careers like tattoo artist and magician. Suze starts day dreaming during her test thinking about her future, which she already knows. Her future will consist of being a mediator and whatever else if she decides to get a side job. Then she begins to have a mental break down about Jesse because she realizes that he doesn't have a future (obviously because he's dead, he can do whatever he wants). She has a flashback to a previous conversation she's had with Jesse about his life and jobs from the nineteenth-century.
Tests are finished and turned in, Suze and Paul are talking about time traveling and how it's like Back to the Future where you can't change things that have already happened because they will alter the future. Paul insists that they should be able to messed with a dead person's past because the person is already dead and their future couldn't be altered..stupid Paul, every knows that if you do that it'll just alter the future of those around.
Well if you actually read ALL of that, I'm very proud. Generalizations are not for me and I don't see a career in Cliff Notes or Sparknotes for me! Thanks for reading, and look for more later.
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