Month: January 2025

This is an excellent book for persons that want to improve in yourself; this book makes me realize that you don’t need anyone’s opinion to interfere with you. This book also makes me realize that you decide in what you suffer and how you do not need to care about stupid stuff.

Everybody wants that. It’s easy to want that. A more interesting question, a question that most people never consider, is, “What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?” Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.Pg.36

I will recommend this book to everyone.

Right now Im reading “The boy in the striped pyjamas” a novel written by John Boyne which is an historical novel of the world war II, specifically talking about the Holocaust, the story focuses on the friendship of 2 young boys. Bruno, the son of a very important Nazi officer and Shmuel, a Jewish young boy who is a prisoner of a concentration camp, this books symbolizes the innocence of Bruno and Shmuel being kids without understanding he horrors of World War II leading to the end of the book with the horrendous scenario of both kids being send up to the gas chamber

“The soldiers. The ones with the guns. They’re bound to know where your father is.”

In this quotation Bruno is telling Shmuel to ask the soldiers for help to find Shmuel´s father. The quote portraits the innocence of Bruno of what is happening around him, to Bruno, soldiers are just people with uniforms that serves his country by the side of his father, without knowing that they are part of what is causing harm to Shmuel´s family

Before the moment of this quotation Bel and her friend named Ash we discussing how it was weird her mother had returned from 16 years of being missing. Rachel (Bel’s mom) reappearing had made Bel feel but of relief and skeptical of the situation, especially when Bel sees the inconsistencies in her mother’s account of the past years. Ash is one of the crew members filming the documentary about Bel’s mother’s reappearance. And Bel confides in Ash about her suspecting that her mother faked her disappearance and reappearance.

“She would have needed a reason, Bel, to go through all that effort. People don’t just decide to disappear. She’d need a motive. A reason.” (page. 201)

In the quotation Ash is telling Bel that her suspecting her mother faked her whole situation may not be as crazy as she thinks. Ash is explaining to Bel that she needs to find out the reason or motive for why her mother would fake it all or who is responsible for helping her do this.

Good Girl Bad Blood by Holly Jackson is the sequel to good girls guid to murder where pips friends Connor comes to her with her next case. Connors brother Jamie went missing and his family believes that something has actually happened to Jamie instead of going Mia for a few days. Before pip accepts the case she tells Connor she cant go down that road again because of the danger she was put in last time she solved a case like this, she decided the case multiple time and agreed to go to the police to try to get them to open the case and look into it the conversation with detective hawks went

pip missing persons, Jamie Reynolds from Fairview

Hawkins yeah I saw it, what about it

pip why aren’t you doing anything about it

Hawkins I’m sure you know how it works, pip. I wont patronize you by explaining

pip Jamie shouldn’t be filed as low risk, his family believes in serious trouble

Hawkins well family hunches aren’t one of the criteria we trust in serious police work

this leads pip to accept the case working to find Jamie with his family and uses her new podcast ( a good girls guide to murder) to push Jamies disappearance and ask for help from the public.

I am currently reading Hunger by Michael Grant. And in this quotation they Sam and Astrid are talking about stuff and he brings up her little brother who is 4 years old and severely autistic.

“So. Anyway. How’s LP doing?” Astrid looked at her brother, who was perched on a kitchen counter stool and gazing mutely at Sam. Or, anyway, in Sam’s direction – she could never be sure what he was really looking at. She wanted to tell sam what had been happening with Little Pete, what he had started doing. But Sam had enough to worry about. And for a moment – a rare moment – he wasn’t worrying. There would be time later to tell him that the most powerful person in the FAYZ seemed to be… What would the right term be for what Little Pete was doing? Losing his mind? No, that wasn’t quite it.

I found this quote interesting because it is in my opinion quite funny, like, is he losing his mind? No not exactly. Oh well ok thats fine then. I just find it funny. But it is also an incredibly important moment in the book because despite the fact that he is 4, he is literally the most powerful person on the FAYZ which he, himself created.

I am currently reading a book called The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. The story continues after the betrayal as their friendship falls apart, and Amir gets distant from Hassan. Amir still feels like his father is disappointed in him for not meeting his expectations, so he goes and wins a local kite-flying competition, in hopes to earn his dad’s approval. However, Hassan is assaulted by a group of bullies and Amir doesn’t do anything to help. the guilt of not stepping in stays with him for the rest of his life. The soviet nation then invades, and forces Amir and his father to run to the U.S. , where they begin to live a completely new life in San Francisco. Amir grows up, becomes a writer and marries a woman called Soraya, but the guilt stays with him.

The quote below is a lengthened version of a quote from the book.

I had one chance to make up for my failure. I could choose to do what was right and make things right between me and hassan. But i didn’t. I had no idea what was going to happen after that moment, but i already had made my choice. I had chosen to keep my distance, to keep my secret, and doing so, I would break something inside me forever, I would do anything to make up for it. pg 111

This quote shows the thoughts of Amir, and his internal battle with guilt after the event involving Hassan. Amir has finally realized the full potential of what he has done and the impact it has had on Hassan and others.

I just started a book called The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. In the beginning of the book, he exposes us to Amir, a young boy coming from a wealthy family in Kabul, Afghanistan. He talks about his childhood and his relationship with Baba, his dad. Amir fells as though he isn’t living up to the expectations of his father and he may be disappointed in him. We also get introduced to Hassan, the son of the family’s servant – Ali, and Amir’s best friend. Amir feels like he betrayed Hassan and feels guilty when he got assaulted by Assef, and he was unable to protect him.

“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. I had just turned twelve, and i was a coward. I had seen Hassan’s face in that alley, staring at me, waiting for me to act. I was twelve years old, and I did nothing.” pg 1

This quote marks a significant pivot point in Amir’s life, and it brings guilt to him for many years after. He talks about how his lack of actions made his eyes open, and he began to feel guilty, as if he betrayed Hassan. He felt weak and useless – especially when he said he did nothing, twice.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince, by J.K. Rowling (no I did not steal this from Nathan I had this idea originally) is the 6th book in the Harry Potter series. In this specific book, Harry Potter and Dumbledore go on an adventure to destroy Horcruxes, which are parts of Voldemorts soul, the wizard they are trying to defeat. Towards the end of the novel, Dumbledore dies, which throws a huge wrench into everything and causes Harry to get extremely heartbroken, but also mad, and even more hungry to destroy Lord Voldemort. So him and his 2 friends throughout the whole series, Ron and Hermione, decide to go and hunt down and destroy the remaining 4 Horcruxes. They’re hunt is detailed in the last and final book, though.

“Not while they are merely drifting peacefully below us,” said Dumbledore. “There is nothing to be feared from a body, Harry, any more than there is anything to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who of course secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” (p. 478)

The part of this quotation i am going to be talking about is the last sentence, I just included the rest because it is all one phrase said. I think this sentence really makes you think about what it really is you are afraid of, when you are afraid of something, or when you are anxious about something. Because if you really think about it, you’re not scared of the dark, you’re scared of what could be lurking within it. This could be said for a lot of other fears. For example, you’re not afraid of elevators, you’re afraid of what could happen when you’re inside one (unless you are afraid of the actual machine in which case that’s more unusual), you’re not afraid of spiders, you’re afraid of what they might do to you, you’re not afraid of heights, you’re afraid of falling, or what happens if you fall, and so on. Of course there are some fears that stand alone, such as the fear of throwing up, or the fear of being homeless, etc. But those aren’t what we are talking about. I think this sentence really makes you dig deep into your fears, and find out what you are really afraid of. Because if you think about it, not everything is what it turns out to be.

For my IRJE #8 I have chosen the book “LEBRON LIFE LESSONS FROM THE KING.”. This book talks all about LeBron James and his childhood dreams of growing up and becoming a basketball player. It talks about all the struggles and achievements he’s experienced and also talks about the steps it takes to achieve your goals. This book also contains so many inspirational quotes that are very motivating. I’ve chosen this quote for IRJE #8:

“I put my blood sweat and tears in the game”

LeBron has been playing in the NBA for 21 years now, and I think thats part of what makes him so successful. All this experience in the league and learning from every mistake over all those years makes him play like the legendary player he is. On top of that, it shows how dedicated to the sport he is, as he’s been playing for 35 whole years in total. It shows that if you put your blood, sweat, and tears into something, then you will make it happen. It’s just the process of getting there and all that dedication and motivation that stops people.

This book is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This book was written by J.K Rowling. Mrs. Weasley was waiting in the front yard for her husband Mr. Weasley. When he had arrived she hugged him and the Daily Prophet fall out of her hand. It was picked up by Harry Potter and it had a photograph of the Dark Mark. The Dark Mark was a symbol of a man Voldemort who is the bad guy in this book. They all went to the small kitchen. The person who wrote it Rita Skeeter made it seem like is was all the Ministry of Magics fault.

‘If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen”( p.125).

I chose this quotation because I found that it was cool how Rowling wrote this. I find that it has a lot of detail and made it very convincing that it could have been the Ministry’s fault. I like how Rowling used words like alleging or emerged to really help put a picture in our heads. I also like that it makes us want to keep reading because it has that it remains to be seen which makes me want to keep reading and find out if it was true.

In the book Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect by Rotella is going through that facts and thoughts that golf isn’t a perfect game. Golf is hard as it is with the playing portion but the hardest part of the game is the mental part. Maintaining a positive mindset is so important because without it your game will crash into pieces. You need to be able to regroup after hitting a bad shot or not worrying about it and forget about it. You can’t dwell on the bad things. You need to get over it.

If you don’t trust right now, you will have to go through a period of conscious awareness until you learn the difference between the feeling of trust and the absence of trust. You will have to work at developing thoughts and habits that promote trust. You will have to learn to focus your mind on your target and your preshot routine rather than on swing mechanics. (p. 44)

This quotation explains how trusting what you’ve built in your golf swing is so important. You can’t go out to the first tee on a tournament and try something a bit different. To play well, you need to trust what you’ve practice. When playing at a high level, you’ve already hit hundreds of thousands of golf balls and those golf balls you hit were leading you to this moment where you show what you have worked on. So trusting what you know and what you learned will lead you to success in golf.

Right now I am reading a book called Fear and it was written by Michael Grant. In the book, a girl had fled the town because she thought she could not stay among the other people because there was a rule set in place that said ‘if you do something bad you have to leave the town’. However, she was forgiven because she saved many people. Still, she decided it was best for her and the rest of the people if she left. Right now she is living in the forest and she is in her camp just thinking about what she did.

Guilt was a fascinating thing: it seemed not to weaken over time. If
anything it grew stronger as the circumstances faded from memory, as the fear and the
necessity became abstract. (p. 18)

I like this quote because it is something that everybody has experienced. Also, it makes me think about how memories can warp to make it seem worse than it actually was depending on how long ago it happened.