What genre is my book?

           It took me about a month to read The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson (since I was so preoccupied re-reading the Harry Potters) but it was worth it. This book was fast paced and interesting. one thing that stuck out to me the most was that it seemed to be a mix of non fiction and realistic fiction. I noticed this in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as well.
           The Girl Who Played With Fire is about how Lisbeth Salander is accused of murdering three people. Now she and Michael Blomkvist, who is her former lover and a reporter for Millennium magazine, must find out who is behind all these deaths.
           This book is divided into four parts, each telling a different section of the story. In between each of these parts is a fact about algebraic equations, since Lisbeth loves math. Also in the previous book there were facts about sexual harassment between each part which made sense since the book was about how a girl escaped sexual harassment's.  
           What I think Steig Larsson was trying to do was keep us interested with a unique story based on a significant topic and give us facts on the topic as well. This way we are drawn in by the story and learning about an important topic.

The Wonders of Harry Potter

                After completing The Deathly Hallows I was left with a bittersweet feeling.  It is the same feeling I had the first time I completed the final Harry Potter novel.  It was hard to believe it’s really over, and all I felt like doing was restarting the series all over again.

                While reading the epilogue I could tell this was one of J.K. Rowling’s earlier writings.  It resembled the writings of The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets.  It seemed a bit more amateurish than the writings in her later novels.  There’s a sense of whimsy and childishness in her writing in The Sorcerer’s Stone.  Of course that could be because of the content. 

                The Sorcerer’s Stone is all about an eleven year old wizard discovering a whole new world, discovering his true destiny.  Along with Harry we journey into Hogwarts and learn about all the magic within it.  What I found most surprising is while re-reading The Sorcerer’s Stone, not once did I feel bored.  It was just as engaging as the first time I read it.  Full credit to J.K. Rowling for creating such a work.  Even though I knew of the dark turns Harry’s life would take in the future, I still couldn’t help but wonder along with Harry.

                Reading the first novel made me realize all over again what makes Harry Potter such a wonderful series.  No matter how many times I read it, I discover something new along with Harry.  The world J.K. Rowling created might be fantasy, but the emotions the characters go through are very real.  This is why it has connected with millions of readers across many generations.

Why do people have sex to ignore thier problems?

           The title of this blog post may seem a bit weird, but its true. Most people have sex in order to ignore their problems or emotions. I've seen in movies, TV shows and it is happening in the book I'm currently reading, The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.
           Lisbeth Salander is pretty much like your typical heroine. She doesn't care about what anyone thinks and would do anything to save her friends. However she makes foolish decisions. In the previous book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth worked on a case with Michael Blokmivist and saved his life. They developed a close friendship and even slept with each other a couple of  times. Also in the last book Lisbeth slept with Mimmi, a lady she met. At the beginning of this book Lisbeth decides she is never talking to Michael again and considers him dead.
          Lisbeth goes back to Mimmi during this book and constantly sleeps with her while Michael tries to contact her to see what's wrong. Also when Lisbeth and Mimmi go to a restaurant , they see Michael and this upsets Lisbeth. She suddenly wants to go back home and sleep with Mimmi some more. Michael is confused and just wants to be friends with Lisbeth again.
          As shown in the book, Lisbeth is obviosly upset with everything that is going on and uses Mimmi as a distraction. Instead of using sex as a relief, Lisbeth should talk to someone about what she is facing and try to fix it. Constantly having sex has no way to solve someone's issues.

Mothely Love: Annoying, But Saves Your Life!

            Mothers, I’m sure I’m not the only one who often feels annoyed by them.  They nag you, and say you can’t do this, can’t do that.  J.K. Rowling probably felt this way at times as well.  However, reading through the Harry Potter novels, we can tell how much she values the love and sacrifice of a mother.  In this series, a mother’s love is the most powerful magic of all.

                Harry Potter, the boy who lived, is who he is because of the sacrifice his mother made when he was just one year old.  His mom Lily stood between him and Voldemort, which gave Harry the protection to survive the killing curse and become famous throughout the wizarding world.  Lily’s sacrifice went on to protect him in Privet Drive till the age of 17.  No Death Eater or Voldemort could harm him as long as he called Privet Drive his home.

                In the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we again see the power of a mother’s affection.  After Voldemort uses the killing curse on Harry in the forest, he sends Narcissa to check if he’s dead.  However all Narcissa cared for was reaching the castle to find her son Draco, so she lied to Voldemort, and corfirmed Potter dead.  Again it was a mother’s love that saved him.  A mother, whether a Death Eater or in the Order of the Phoenix, puts her child before everything else, even her own life.

                During the final battle we see another very motherly moment.  Through out the whole series Molly Weasley is represented as an ideal mother.  Her world revolves around her family.  She is the opposite of Bellatrix, who has no motherly qualities, and only thirsts for blood.  In the battle, when Bellatrix attacks Ginny, Molly becomes infuriated and yells, “Not my daughter, you bitch.”  This was one of the best dialogues in the series.  Molly soon kills Bellatrix, showing how fierce a mother can become to protect her child.  Molly defies the typical idea of a ‘housewife’ and goes on to kill Voldemort’s most powerful follower. 

                J.K. Rowling lost her mother at a fairly early age.  The affect of it seems to have rubbed off on her writing.  She appreciated a mother’s presence than most of us ever can.  A mother’s affection, sacrifice, and power is a key theme throughout the series.  A mother, who ever she may be, puts her child before anything and everything else. 

Like Mother, Like Daughter- NOT!

            Aah! I'm am SO relieved! I've reading The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan for the last three weeks. Well it was worth it, it was an awesome book. The Lost Hero is about how Jason Grace, son of Jupiter has to go on a quest with Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus and Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite to save Hera and Piper's father from a group of giants. In my previous blog post I mentioned that Demigods are judged by their parents and it isn't right. Now I will be backing that up with some evidence from the book.
           Piper McLean is the daughter of Triste Mclean- an actor and Aphrodite. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. She is married to Hephaestus-god of fire,crafts and blacksmiths yet she loves Ares- god of war and is constantly having children with mortals. Piper, however is the complete opposite of Aphrodite. She couldn't care less about how she looks and she believe in staying with one guy. For her that guy is Jason Grace. The only thing that Piper and Aphrodite have in common is the fact that they can charmspeak, which is the ability to persuade someone to do whatever you tell them to do.
           In conclusion, not everyone demigod is like their parent. Just look at Piper, she is completely different from her mom. Infact most demigods didn't even believe she was related to Aphrodite. So if you ever meet a demigod and happen to know how their godly parent is, don't judge them!

The Lost Hero

            One of my favorite series in the whole world is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I love it because of the way Rick Riordan draws you into the story and keeps you in. When I heard he was making another series based on it I was so giddy. My sister pre-ordered The Heroes of Olympus One: The Lost Hero a month before it came out and I have been waiting eagerly for it. When it finally came I was jumping up and down. I read the blurb and was drawn in immediately. Unfortunately I was so happy I got the book I wanted to make the story last and keep the book in perfect condition. I would read a couple of pages at a time and put the book away just to keep the story in my head for a long time. I didn't realize until recently that this was a very stupid thing to do, considering I have a blog post due on it and I have to make a connection to social change/justice/action. Now only 126 pages into the book I will write the best blog post I possibly can.
            The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan is about how Camp Half Blood is facing many problems now right after they have fought in a war against the Titans. Mount Olympus is closed, Percy Jackson went missing, Hera is kidnapped and three new demigods have showed up not knowing what is going on. One of the demigods, Leo gets claimed and is constantly seeing ghosts,Piper is still not claimed and get weird dreams and prophecies at random times, while Jason the last demigod lost his memory, still isn't claimed and seems to be Roman while everyone else at the camp is Greek.
              One injustice that I noticed in the book was that some people get made fun of because of someone's family background or what thier family income is. Piper is constantly made fun of because her clasmates think her father is a Cherokee and doesn't make a very high income. Fortunately for Piper her dad is really an actor but thier family keeps it a secret inorder to keep Piper safe when it is only hurting her more. Also in both the Percy Jackson series and The Lost Hero the demigods are thought to have all these stereotypical personalities because of the godly parents they have. Even though most of these demigod's personalities are connected to thier parents it isn't right to be making assumptions based on silly stereotypes because it really can be hurtful to others.
               You might be thinking that this blog post is pretty bad, but I think it's great because it is based on The Lost Hero

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo # 2 *Spoilers*

            Ugh! I am so mad at myself right for not finishing such an awesome book before writing my second response on it. Oh well. Right now in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I am noticing much more than I was last week. And once again it is about how Henrik Vanger hires Mikeal Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander to solve the mystery of how his niece, Harriet, went missing over forty years ago.
            Freaky, right? You know whats else is freaky? The fact that at the beginning of every section in the book there are statistics about how fourty percent of women in Sweden get harrased by a man and most of the time doesn't tell anyone. At first I was just like, "Why in the world would Steig Larsson do this?" I was very confused when reading this. All it made me think was that the author was trying to prevent me from ever going to Sweden. Then around 500 pages in the book I finally understood. All these facts were leading up to the climax, when Mikeal finds out it was Martin, Harriet's own brother, who sexually harassed and even tried to kill her. Luckly she got away but to where it is still unknown. After reading this part I finally understood the point of supplying those statistics. It was to show how get sexually harrased is common in Sweden and that Stieg Larsson is against it.
             One more cool thing I noticed in this book was that Steig Larsson shows the book at an angle that it makes it seem like Mikeal was the hero when it was really Lisbeth, like E. B. White did in Charlotte's Web. When she saves Mikeal from being harrassed and eventually killed by Martin you could tel she was the true hero. Mikeal, however was a very important character as well and the story couldn't have been done without him.
             To conclude, I would like to say that even though I didn't complete The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I am already thinking of it as one of my favorite books. How can I not with all these amazing techniques Steig Larsson is using?