Log #5

Reading Log 5

A bathroom, 20 bottles, a bathtub filled with acid, and a dead woman body in it. The woman has been soaked in the acid for at least three days. You barely recognize whether its a human body or not. There are no finger prints, no face and no skins. Perhaps the killer was too smart to had done this. The crime scene is thrilling, not because of the wild sex party before she died, but because of her death was part of a meticulous plan. NYPD is going to have a lot of work tonight, since they will need to figure out who the woman is, and figure out who the killer is. Was she raped? Was she kidnapped? Or, was she a piece of a greater conspiracy? It turned out, the killer did raped the victim, and sexual maltreated before she died. However, the murderer was not a man, it was a woman. Why? We have no clue yet. And she will not be the last one who dies…

“I am pilgrim” was indeed a well-written fiction crime novel, and you can tell that by reading only the first few pages. The author carefully constructed every detail and establish great characteristics of the people in the book. As you carry on reading it, you get to see the reality of our world: the world is full of justice, as well as injustice. It’s like coin tossing, and it’s impossible to predict which side we may get. When reading this novel, you actually feel the desperation and sin within human nature. People do kill others for no reasons. Or perhaps, for so called “greater master plan”? I’ve read few crime novels before, but this one is unique, which get me more interested in reading more novels like it. I really hope to see more well-compiled novel, and cannot wait to see read more pages.

Three best presentation

1.Sally-Brooklyn

I do love the way Sally deliver a presentation. Through her speech, we can sense how confident she is and how well-organized the structure is. Moreover, she made good use of questions and personal perspectives to help audiences reflect on and resonate the book. 

2.Sindy-If I stay 

The second presentation I was impressive strongly is Sindy's. Same as Sally, she used questioning strategy to evoke audiences' interests. In addition, the quotation that she mentioned appeals to me; thus, after class I browse the information about the novel instantly. Touching and sorrowful it is. Life is all about decisions, because there is no true or false but result. I feel so. Encountering dilemma is quite usual thing in my life, which is one of main challenges happening all the time.

3. Roy-I am Malala

Roy is kind of a model, to be honest. As I know, he was always being prepared; originally, Roy wasn't counted in the first week's sharing but he was still willing to be a volunteer and revised his PowerPoint in time. And before Roy's presentation, I believe everyone must have heard about Malala's story. The one have influenced the system of gender quality, the one have raised people's awareness of what happened to her country and what is women rights. As Roy stated. I also have a dream to become the one who is influential and who can make a great difference for the world.

Log #5

In Order to Live

Yeonmi Park

The book that we chose as our group reading material is “In Order to Live.” It’s a story about a North Korean girl’s journey to freedom. Compared to other novels, the book is based on the real story. It’s a biography which describes the girl’s wish of getting rid of the control of North Korean.

        In the first three chapters, the author describes the way her family live in Hyesan. People in North Korean live close to nature. Without television, they have their own way of predicting the next ‘s day weather. When the lights come, people will even feel excited and jump up and down. This is the way that people in North Korean live.

        Not being able to image the live in North Korean, I am astonished by the underdevelopment in North Korean. The convenience of the internet and the universalness of the public facility are common in everywhere. We may not even feel gratitude when we read with lights. This makes me think of the lives that my grandparents and the ancients used to have. Nowadays, we take many things for granted. I think there are many people living the same lives as the author’s in many places. Moreover, I like the way the author describes her childhood. The descriptions are so vivid that I would like to read more.

Log #5

In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park
　　The book we chose in our group is In Order to Live. I'm glad that our group members reached an agreement immediately of which book we want to read. It's a book talking about a young North Korean woman and her family who escaped from their hometown and search for their own freedom. At first, I was afraid that I could not understand the  story clearly because I am not familiar with North Korean's history and politics. However, the author explain really detailed and clear. During her description, I got a basic knowledge of  the tense between North and South Korea and the inhuman ruling system in North Korea.
　　After reading three chapters, I am quite surprised at the attitude of  people living in North Korea toward their government. I think they are all against their government and want to escape like Yeonmi Park. Nevertheless, many of them respect their president and protect him a lot. I must say that I admire Kim's ability of convincing his citizens that all he do is for all  the people's good. I am curious about how the young woman and her family run away from North Korea and I will keep reading the book.

Log #5

Wuthering Heights

Author: Emily Brontë

The book we chose for our group reading project is Wuthering Heights. It’s a classic literature, which was written by Emily Brontë. The book is very famous that I think everyone has heard of it before, and I am no exception. However, although I have known this book for a long time, I have no idea about its content. I know nothing about the book excepting its title. This time, I am very happy that I have the opportunity to read this classic novel.

As far as I have read, I think all the people in Wuthering Heights are very wired. Mr. Heathcliff, the host of Wuthering Heights, was a reserved and unsociable man. Mrs. Heathcliff, a girl who was under 17, was his daughter-in-law. I wonder if there were some accidents happened in Wuthering Heights before because both of their mates were dead. Besides, Mr. Heathcliff looked at Mrs. Heathcliff in a hatred way. Moreover, Mr. Lockwood detected “Hareton Earnshaw”, which was the name of a servant in Wuthering Heights, among the carving at the door. I think that it’s definitely unusual to carve the servant’s name at the front door. I believe there must be some secrets in Wuthering Heights. Also, I am curious of the real relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw. I think they were maybe not just father-in-law and daughter-in-law as well as master and servant.

Currently, I still have no idea about the relationships of those characters and the secrets of Wuthering Heights. However, I believe that there must be something unusual and astounding there. I can’t wait to know the truths and see what’s going to happen in the further chapters.

Three Best Presentations

Sally — Brooklyn:

        I like Sally’s presentation because she not only introduced the story in an attractive way but also connected to her own experience. What’s more, she shared her thoughts and feelings about homesick, and it also bring my interests in her sharing because I am homesick as well. Therefore, I like her presentation the most and she also attracted me to read the book.

Julie — If you could see me now:

        I think Julie really made a good use of PPT slides. She introduced the story very systematically with it. I can understand the relationships of the characters in the story easily.

Tiffany — Before I go to sleep:

        I like Tiffany’s presentation because the way she introduced the story is very interesting. She was the only person who mentioned the Chinese title of the book and her feelings about it. She also said that she never read the book before going to sleep because of being afraid of waking up and forgetting everything. Her presentation made me want to read the book very much.

Three best presentations

1) Sally - Brooklyn

The way Sally gives the presentation is a real model for all of us to learn from. When designing a product, a good story can always help you sell your design. I think it is same for giving a presentation. Sharing your own story and true feelings can really touch the heart of the audience and draw their attention. Also, Sally's voice delivered a very genuine sensation to me. It was like she really wanted to share us something from the bottom of her heart.


2) Louis  King Lear

I was impressed by the performance of Louis. He was very confident on the stage. He had a clear and organized structure of his presentation. I believe he must have practiced it for many times before. During his presentation, there were few pauses and hesitation in his talk. The whole process was very fluent and easy to understand. He really gave a very good presentation.


3) Henry Blood on Snow

Since the first class until now, you can tell that Henry is a very hard-working and well-prepared person. He highly participates in the class and gives response all the time. Even though he can present in the next week and get more preparedness of it, he still volunteered to present earlier. The phrases he chose to use and the intonation of his voice made us understand his story clearly and easily. I think it is a very important key for a successful presentation.

log #5

Book : Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Author : Thomas Hardy

Page : ~32

"Tess of the d'Urbervilles", published in 1891, is a novel by Thomas Hardy. The story is mainly about the sexual moral of the late Victorian England in the 19th century. In the first chapters, the main character- Tess - had already been through the nightmare of her life. A sad and tragic experience I could never imagine but probably happened commonly in the real world. 

The family of Tess was not a wealthy family. One day, her father was told by a parson that their family name, Durbeyfield, had a connection with a noble family of D'Urberville. So she was sent to visit the D'Urberville and claim their relationship. By doing this, they might have got some interest of this wealthy family and made their life better. There she met her cousin, Alec, and the tragedy happened. He was attracted by Tess, and he raped her while she was sleeping. She even got pregnant and had a baby afterward. What was worse, her baby was dead because of illness. 

I had seen the movie of this story filmed by BBC. The story was the one that made you think deeply after watching it. Sexual harassment happens often every day in our world. Our society is now a more open-minded one. We will protect the victims and give them a hand to come over the sorrow. But this book gives us the opportunity to peek at the society in the past and their reaction towards sexual harassments. Tess may be considered as an unclean woman even though she was innocent. This is very sad.

I chose this book because I am working on a news project of the rape in India. They share quite similar ideas. From reading news articles and watching a movie, it gave me a different way to see how the harassment happened around us. I also had similar experience which I shared once in class. I was slightly harassed by the Indian twice when I was in India. Relating to my own experience, I had much stronger feeling when doing this project. I also learned that we as women need to fight and protect for ourselves. Do not stay quiet when you are being invade.

Log #5

           The Winter’s Tale is about where King Leonotes suspected that his wife Hermione and his friend Polixenes are having affairs, so he sent his wife to prison, caused her to death and left his daughter, Perdita, on the sea shore. After Perdita got save by a shepherd and grow up, the son of Polixenes, Florizel, fall in love with Perdita. Then, King Leonotes finally found out that Hermione was not dead at all.

            In this tale, jealousy and suspicion is a total contrast to forgiveness and mercy. I think it is to emphasise the importance of the mercy. Because King Leonotes was lack of mercy, his family broke apart, his son died, his wife got hurt mentally, and his daughter got lost. On the other, because of the merciful shepherd saved Perdita and raised her up, she met with her father, Leonotes, she met her mother, Hermione, and she fall in love with Florizel which made Leonotes and Polixenes friends again.

            This tale also shows the bossiness of the power. King Leonotes did not listen to Hermione and even send her to prison. It is somehow like how the majority of our society will attack the minority and sometimes give them pressure not to speak for themselves. I really has a feeling about this situation because when I was in senior high school, I was bullied by my classmates. In my class, there were two types of students, the diligent ones and the lazy ones. Of course the diligent ones were the minority. There were only 5, and I was one of them. For example, whenever we were to divide into groups in our art classroom, the majority always occupied the best seats and left the ones that had a bad sight to us.

               In conclusion, I think the tale is to remind people to be merciful and always thought about the consequence of the decision we made. Also, it is to evoke the consciousness of fair and just.

Log #5

THE RED PYRAMID

PAGES : 311/516

The story continued from a very enticing sub-title "A bad trip to Paris". Who doesn't like to go to Paris. I myself have always been wanting to go to Paris. I love to picture myself strolling around the small alley in Paris. Admiring the beautiful architecture and the warm- soothing street lamp radiating through the entire alley. Well, like a lot of people says, visiting a place as a tourist is different than as a non-tourist.  Just like Sadie and Carter in the story, they had to travel from one place to another to escape from something life-threatening. And Paris just happened to be their next destination. 

I think this story keep changing locations. From London to Washington to Egypt then to Paris. Well, the writer's description is epic. We got to know enough details of from every place to differ them from each other. But in my opinion, every place especially country has their own culture and lifestyle. Still, it's quite confusing when the writer tried to mix all of it together. 

From the reading this week, I learned that Sadie and Carter have already got the grasp of their power -unconsciously. Another scene where they used their power was when they were battling the enemy's pawn in Elvis Presley's hideout. Well, I think the story got ridiculous when the writer explained about Elvis Presley being a magician. Which made Sadie and Carter had to sneak into his tomb to obtain the important magic item. Even though, I have a better picture now of how Presley's hideout like without going there. But I think how the writer trying to connect the real world and his fiction is little bit risky. But overall, it's still a good book to read. 

Three best presentations

1. Sally
I love Sally's presentation the most. The reason why is because, first, she give a question to the audience at the beginning and catch the audience. Next, she bring out the connection between the book and her own experience. By using this kind of method can make the audience feel more close to the story. To sum up, her presentation is flowing and interesting that can make the audience read the book.

2. Sindy
Sindy's presentation give the audience many quotes in the book she has read. Through reading the quotes she had introduced to us, I found that I have some similar connection with the book. Thus, it really evoke my interest to the book. Also, she introduce the book fluently and clearly.

3. Regina
She is the only person who didn't use power point in her presentation. But, I think that she still did a great job. For instance, she bring the book to the class and shoe us what exactly the book looks like. Also, she prepare the movie trailer about the book to the audience, though it didn't show to us successfully. Finally, she use a gleesome atmosphere to talk her book and this make the audience won't feel bored.

Three Best Presentations

    First, I was impressed by the presentation of Alice. The book of her introduction is called “Still Alice”, so it really makes a connection for me between her and her book at first glance. As for her introducing way, I think it’s clear to roughly understand the plot of the book without being a spoiler. When it comes to the main issue of the book, I think I am really interested in family issue as same as this book. Being a successful female professor but suddenly suffering a disease with memory could be a big shock to me if I were the main character. Thus, I would like to grab the book from the shelves to take a look at the plot.

    Second, I was impressed by the presentation of Jerry. Though I don’t get all the points of his presentation, I think his main point is that nothing may be everything, and everything may simply be nothing. It’s like philosophical way to explain how the universe works and how the world works. My feedback is that we should have our own perspectives toward every little thing until we pass away and never think that we will finally find the correct answers to every question. Questioning and thinking indeed inspires human’s thoughts and intelligence.

    Third, I was impressed by the presentation of Cindy Cheng. Her book of presentation is called “Seriously……I’m kidding”, and the author is the well-known host of Allen show. Within the chapters she introduced, such as Nonsense, Cover Girl, Stuff, etc., I can learn some little lessons about our daily life that we never notice ever. Take Stuff the chapter for example. I am a person who is fond of collecting all of the stuff in order to keep the memories between me and others, so it’s really tough for me to discard the stuff. Letting it go is really a lesson for me to learn in my whole life. 

Log #5

Book: The Fault In Our Stars
Author: John Green

   This is the book we chose. My impression of this novel came from its movie. Honestly, I think this is a love story; however, I personally believe I am not a romantic person. Thus, it will be a challenge to finish reading this book.

   The main role of this book is a sixteen-year-old girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster who has diagnosed with lung cancer. One day, she met Augustus in her support group where teenagers with different kinds of cancer have a meeting sharing their feelings and encouraging each other to fight the diseases. As I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking of what would I react when one of my friends or even myself had cancer in youth ages. I'm not sure whether I have the courage to face it. So I wonder how Hazel deals with it.
 
    Both of my grandparents on my mom's side died of cancer. I have witnessed how the disease changes a person to another one. Patients having cancer need to be conscious of their diets and living habits. They need to be strong for themselves and family. My grandmother is a great example. Having breast cancer, I seldom heard her complaining. She always wore a smile. I can never forget what she bravely had a surgery and comforted me after she woke up. She said,"I'm fine" with a warm smile. I am so proud of her courage and optimistic attitude.

    Though I have mentioned I am not a person who loves love story, I am still looking forward to reading it, since it reminds me of my grandmom!

Log #5

In order to live - Yeonmi Park 

          We live in a convenient, unrestrained country now. We have lot of choices to decide what we want, what we want to do. Have you ever thought if you live in the country without freedom? What you can do is to praise one leader. This book, In order to live, was talking about a true story of thirteen-year-old girl, Yeonmi Park, fled from North Korea with her family. I was so sympathetic over every unfair treatment she and her family encountered. For example, once, her mom, who was very loyal to the leader, was informed the rumor of North Korea. Then a large group of men who were sent from the headquarters came to their house asking her mother about where the rumor came from and threating her not to mention such a bad rumor that could stigmatize their country; if she did that, she would die. It was so terrible that I couldn’t imagine how tough life the citizen of North Korea lived.

            Despite the fact that Yeonmi Park, the main character, wrote her ordinary life on the book, but I thought it was the contrast that the life she lived in North Korea and other country. When people who lived in North Korea, they had to worry about the shortage of electricity and paid attention to what they were talking about. If they spoke something wrong, they would be punished. I think I am lucky enough to live in a freedom country; I can do lots of things without so many restrictions like them. I hope her story can be heard by lots of people. How she escaped from the North Korea, and the life she lived in there. This novel is worth reading for anyone. 

Log #5

Book: Seriously...I'm Kidding

Author: Ellen Degeneres

Page: Finished

    I finished the book through these weeks and after finishing this book, I have to say I inspire Ellen even more than I did before. I'd like to share the chapters that give me a lot of reflections.

    The chapter I love the most is The Secret of Life Part Two (Part One only has one word, Kale.) Some people might live their lives like it's the first day because they would be in awe of everything around them, just like babies do. Babies do have an incredible sense of wonder and I think of my niece. The first time when my whole family went out for dinner and the waiter place a menu for her, she was thrilled. She kept going over the menu and couldn't stop talking or trying to pronounce the words. It was adorable but also refreshing to me seeing my niece got so excited simply because of a menu. As we grew older each day, we lose that sense of wonder. There are just few things that could amaze us. I guess that's why I like to see my niece so much not just because she's cute but she also reminds me that sometimes we need to hold on to that sense of wonder so that we don't miss some incredible things in the world. On the other hand, some people might live their lives like it's their last so they would be more appreciated to things around them. I think it's true as well. Sometimes we don't have the courage to tell the truth  because we are too afraid of the idea of losing. Nonetheless, if we live our lives as our last, we wouldn't have to be afraid at all since there's nothing to lose. We would dare to try new things and cherish what we have. The point is, whether we choose to live our lives as our first or last, like Ellen said, what's more important is we should live our life fully without any regrets. This is why I love this chapter the most because I really get to think about how I want to live my life. It also gave me the strength I needed to step out from my comfort zone and live boldly.

    This is a book that is full of inspiring words and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is fed up with the life they're living now and wants to make a difference with it.