If I Stay

I've gotten a little into the book, and I can honestly say I know why everyone loves it. So far, everything is so normal. I love that Mia has such a normal life; the boyfriend, the parents, and her little brother Teddy. I think that with Mia's parents being "punk", or used to be punk at her age, is a nice touch. She is different in her own ways from her family, not only her cello loving (instead of guitar. drums, etc) but how she also looks different from her family. She says that when her dad jokes about how she isn't realy apart of the family, and got switched when she was a baby, she kind of takes it to heart. I'm sure a lot of people have thought this, or feel like this a lot in their lives.

Mia can relate to me, and many others; this is another thing I really love about the book. As a suggestion, anyone who reads this book should try to connect Mia's life with theirs. For me, it's the feeling like you're not apart of the family. Sometimes I feel like my family are all fighters, and gregarious people. They are hard workers, which I do admit, I think I am (more like I hand it to myself). I am not a people-person at all; I do have my moments where I love talking, but that's not a lot of times. I do have to say, I feel like I'm a complete different person compared to my family.

You can feel like this, but just remember the most important part: It's not if you feel you're not like them, it's the fact they care. Always remember that!

If I Stay

I know, almost everyone has read the book or seen the movie already... I wanted to read the book, and watch the movie. Of course, I enjoy reading so much, I'd rather read to the book over watching the movie any day. I saw the previews, saw the book in stores, and in my classmate's hands. I was intrigued to read it; almost itching to. Now, I've finally found that no is is reading it, and I can. I'm really excited to see what happens in the book since everyone liked it.

I have a couple predictions maybe: I think (from the previews) she will stay alive. Although, with her choosing to live, she might have hard times she faces and wishes she chose the other option. She will miss her family, and wonder why she is even alive to begin with (taking a guess). I know that if I had the choice and chose to live, I would want my life to go back to the way it was before; it's just a thing that is too hard to deal with. Regardless on my beliefs, I think I'll really like this book.

Imaginary Girls

I tried reading this book for about a week, or a little bit over. I thought I was going to like it; it sounded intriguing. There was right away conflict about a dead body being found, and a bond of two sisters being broken. From what I understood, Chloe seems to have this sort of thing against her sister (I'm not sure how to describe it). They were pulled away from each other for some time. I think that is the mystery of this book, to find out why Chloe was taken away.

From what I read, it seemed to be really weird. One of the things I really didn't like about it was how it was set up; Chloe was an excellent swimmer and her sister Ruby told everyone out of how proud she was. I find it unrealistic that two sisters could get along so well with the age difference, not to mention Ruby is supposed to be the one in the spotlight. Why would Ruby put Chloe higher than her? There is a place where they swim (and are not supposed to) that has "swallowed" whole towns. It's just a little too far fetched for me...  It isn't as appealing as the summary on the back of the book is. I didn't like the plot, is what I guess I'm trying to say (as harsh as it sounds). If you like that kind of thing, you should read this book.

This Song Will Save Your Life

The theme of This Song Will Save Your Life's theme to me is to not care whether you have friends or not. You shouldn't try to change yourself for anyone, especially just to fit in. You may not be happy the way you are, or want a new group of friends, or more friends. That's okay, but you shouldn't try to change yourself as a person. Never lose sight of who you are. And things will always get better.

The conflict of this book is Elise vs everyone at her school. Man vs Society. Her bullies, her tormentors, (which is about everyone in school) make her life a horrible mess. They constantly bully her because of the way she looks, the way she acts, the way she is, and because she doesn't have many friends. Basically, for no good reason.

Tolerance

Tolerance:  Willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own.

Someone could be more tolerant of others by trying to put themselves in the person's position. Imagine being one race, religion, or anything different from a lot others, and being told mean intolerant things. Everyone would not want that to happen to them, obviously. It doesn't feel "good" in a way; it feels like a thousand little knives puncturing you with negativity. 
Tolerance to me means not caring in simplest terms. Not the bad kind of not caring, but more pushing it aside. "I know you're (whatever race) and do things pretty differently than me, but that doesn't matter. I'll talk to you because I like you." A lot of races, or more people of specific races, don't allow their children, cousins, or anyone be in a relationship with someone outside of their race. People are entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, but it may be for a specific reason (a false assumption) of the race. "This race is very different than ours; they don't understand our language, our food, or anything else." Sure, they might not understand, but it's what is inside. No matter your religion, race, sexual orientation, anything...It's about you as a person; who you are inside. 
You're perfect the way you are.

This Song Will Save Your Life

This book is about a girl named Elise who doesn't have any friends. She has never been the popular girl, and never had any friends. She was always ignored, or picked on. So during the summer transitioning from freshman to sophomore in high school, she decided she had about enough of it. She spent the whole summer reading magazines, blogs, and looking at what was popular. Fashion, the way you act, the music you listen to, your makeup, physical appearance could all be changed. But Elise noticed that no matter how much she changed herself, she can't change her personality. She'll always go back, always be the girl who has no friends... So she gives up. When a bad day happened, and nothing is working, she decides to commit suicide. It doesn't go as planned, but she managed to cut herself. The book fast forwards months after this, and her parents know about the incident. She tries to put her mind at ease by taking a midnight run. She discovers an under ground party called Start, with dancing, sweating people. Elise talks to some people and she notices that it gives her a different vibe. So she keeps going back to forget her troubles, and eventually becomes a DJ. She goes to Start every Thursday to make the attacks at school disappear.

Elise is a kind, misunderstood girl. She is nice to everyone; even the girl's who put her down at school. I don't understand why she wouldn't be able to make any friends. She loves her family to death. Her half brother and sister, her mother, her father, and her stepfather. She is loving to the new friends she makes at Start. Overall, I think she would be a great friend if I could be friends with her. She seems funny, too. Like an average girl, and not what everyone wants her to be. Elise is the opposite of what is expected; what is wanted. It's really cool to read a book with the main character finding another out lit to fill in the bad stuff for school.

The Mayor Of Castro Street

I'm still reading The Mayor Of Castro Street, it's a pretty long book. I'll be doing the sign posts Again and Again, and Tough Questions.

I noticed while reading this book, although it isn't really directly tied to (related to) Harvey, it was something that occurred a lot. When Harvey was alive (50's), homosexuality was greatly frowned upon. If you were gay, you were automatically pushed aside, teased, or even physically hurt. This brings me to the first Again and Again: Men kept their orientation to themselves, due to the fear they had of straight men, or anyone who wasn't as accepting. A second one was gay bars, clubs, or anywhere a lot of them went, were often raided. What I mean by raided is police officers would go into the places a lot of gay men were, and beat them. It was illegal to even serve a gay man a drink at the time.

Now for Tough Questions, I found a tough question as soon as I read it. Since I am both researching Harvey for an essay project I have, I've been looking at tons of different sources with information about his life. All of them, including my book, pretty much say he wanted to put both of his lives together. His lives as in his gay life, and his family life. Things would become to difficult to combine; If he did, his family/friends life would become ruined. People would attack him, tease him, and possibly break off all connection with him. He was a popular, smart, and athletic person in high school, so it would definitely be hard if he did it. If he did do it, getting something off your chest is always a good thing. You feel better about yourself, and maybe he was happier with the gay lifestyle he hid.