Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Share 2 books and one skill/hobby in Comments section here. From Mike Lohre

Students, let's share the 2 books we most want to read with the rest of the class and one specific skill or hobby you'd like to pursue or learn.  Briefly describe who wrote each book and what its main theme or subject is.

The truth is that we are often inspired by our peers more than anyone else.  Let's share our ideas here in the Comments section to this post so we have all our ideas in one place and can reference each others ideas.

19 comments:

  1. The two books I most want to read are Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America's Canine Heroes by Maria Goodavage and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.

    Maria Goodavage is an author of the blog Soldier Dogs where she talks about military service dogs. The book was inspired to be written because the widespread story of Cairo who was the service dog that helped lead the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden.

    Orson Scott Card is an American Novelist who wrote the very popular novel Ender's Game. Speaker for the Dead is the sequel and is based around what Ender does after the Formic Wars in Ender's Game and takes place 3,000 years in the future.

    The skill I want to learn is to be able to drive a car with a manual transmission.

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  2. The two books that I most want to read in the next year would be The Shining by Stephen King and a new book coming in 2015 called Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen.
    Stephen King is an author of many famous bestseller books, many being turned into movies. The book The Shining is the third published novel by Stephen King and the first hardback bestseller he has ever written. The horror book is based on Stephen King's own personal dealings with visiting a hotel and dealing with alcoholism. Many people have heard of The Shining by the movie made in 1980.
    Sarah Dessen is an American writer who has had many of her books being named the best books for young adults. The book Saint Anything will be out in 2015 that talks about joy and complications with family, first love, and friendships.
    The skill I want to learn in the next year is coaching volleyball. A couple of weeks ago I was asked to coach a fourth grade team by my former high school volleyball coach, but sadly had to pass it down because it didn't fit in with my school and work schedule. Volleyball is a sport I love, and I would love to be able to coach girls of any age how to learn the love of the game.

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  3. Two books that I want hope to read in the next year are One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and Coming of Age in El Salvador. One Thousand Gifts is about all the little things in life that get ignored during everyday life. It is Voskamp's diary basically of the small details in life that she is thankful for. For example, the way soap bubbles look in the sunshine when she washes dishes, or when her husband comes in from a long day at work and kisses her cheek. I think it will be really interesting because a lot of people do not take the time to appreciate all the little things in life. Coming of Age in El Salvador sounds like a very interesting book. I really enjoyed the excerpt we read for class and I believe I would like to read the whole book. One hobby I would like do is finish all the paintings I have started. I seem to always be running and never have time to sit down and paint, which is something I really enjoy doing. Painting is a great stress reliever and way to express myself without words.

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  5. I wont limit myself to just two books over the year, what i will do instead is list the next two books that I will read. The first is the Feynman lectures of physics by Richard Feynman and the second is The history of the Peloponnesian war written by Thucydides. The Feynman lectures are a series of lectures that Richard Feynman gave to a sophomore and junior physics class at CalTech over the course of a year.
    It is in three volumes that covers the broad subject of physics in moderate detail.
    The second is Thucydides account of one of the most prolific wars of his time. He was a general during the war between Athens and Sparta. Before a unified Greece, there were a bunch of warring "city states" that would fight over control of more area. The two biggest of these city states were Athens and Sparta. This is considered to be one of the earliest works of historical literature.
    The skill i want to learn is to play the violin. I have always admired the violin and thought that one day i would pick it up and learn. I love the simplicity of the four strings and the innumerable combinations that those four strings can be used to create.

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  6. Two books I want to read in the next year are The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toys by James Paterson. The Great Gatsby is a story that revolves around Jay Gatsby who owns a large mansion in New York along the river. The story is told from Nick Carraway’s perspective who lives next to Gatsby, who throws large elaborate parties frequently. Toys Is a story about James Bond and Jason Bourne were topped by a man named Hays Baker. Then a world battle erupts and Hays is the only one who can save the world. One hobby I want to start doing again is mountain biking. I used to mountain bike when I was young around 11, and then I stopped. I love the outdoors and I think it would be just the thing to get in shape, enjoy the outdoors, and clear my head.

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  7. Hey, so my two books that i wish to read throughout the next year is the Hobbit, and the Qur'an. I wish to read the Hobbit because the last movie is coming out the December to me and i want to see it on the premiere night like i have seen the previous two, and to me the books always beat the movies, but I do not want the movie to ruin anything for me. Also, the Qur'an is for my own personal insight, as to better understand that religion myself, as religion is an important thing to me. The hobby/skill I wish to acquire is to learn to play the guitar. I already play the piano, trumpet, and i understand most percussion, but i have never had the opportunity to learn the guitar.

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  8. two books is Divergent and Insurgent because I saw the first movie and really want to read the whole series because just like the hunger games series i am hoping the Divergent book series is better than the movies. one skill that i want to learn, i didn't put this on my paper, but I want to learn how to really play piano and guitar because i want to be able to play and sing by myself and not need someone to play for me

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  10. Although for the most part I do not enjoy reading, I have fallen in love with Rick Riorden's books. Maybe it's the old mythology, maybe its the action and excitement, or even that I feel like I can see myself in their shoes. The first of his books that I would like to read is Blood of Olympus (which I am in the process of reading). This book was just released on the 7th and is about Percy Jackson and his accomplices who are all half human, half god and their struggles to save the world from monsters and the Titans. The second set of books that I would like to read are the Kane Chronicles which is about Carter and Saddie Cane who live between the worlds of Egyptian Mythology and Modern America. Rick Riorden is a Texas teacher and now writer who write adult mystery novels and mythology books. He is one of the authors who writes each chapter with different narrators. My skill that I wish to acquire is to become better at solving physics problems! Right now that is the only thing that is kicking my but in school and I would like to change that!

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  11. The two novels that I’d most love to read go, to an extent, hand in hand; though I already own them, I have not yet given myself the chance to sit down and read them. The first novel is Sappho’s Leap, a historical fiction written by Erica Jong. The novel is based on Sappho of Lesbos, a famous historical Greek female musician and lyrical poet who is believed to have lived around 630 BC – 595 BC. In this particular novel the author entwines historically accurate information and fictitious mythological stories to create a novel intriguing to anyone who loves historical fiction. Throughout time, Classical Archaeologists and Historians have attempted to piece together the story of Sappho and have uncovered their little information on her through the few Greek documents from the Hellenistic period that briefly mention her, and through the fragments of her own poetry. Unfortunately, none of her musical compositions survive today, and only one complete poem has been found, the rest are only fragments of poems lost in time. The second novel pertains to the same topic as above, and is a book of poetry where classicist and author, Anne Carson, has taken the fragments of Sappho’s poems and translated them from Greek to English in a book of poetry called, If Not Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Lastly, one of the skills that I would most love to learn is Calligraphy. I have always loved to write letters, and personally I believe that Calligraphy when done with quill and ink is an absolutely beautiful art.

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  12. Two books that I Would like to read are Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry and The Order to Kill by James Dasher. Gathering Blue is the second book in the giver series which is a dystopian novel about a society where your life is controlled by a communist government that decides what you will do in your life gathering blue is about a girl in another town where the only thing keeping her alive is the fact that she know how to sew and it is her job to take care of an old dress. The Order to Kill is another dystopian novel but is a prequel in the Maze runner series that goes through the events that tread to the disaster that causes what happens in the Maze runner series and how the organizations that is in the books was formed. One skill that I like to do is solve rubiks cubes, these come in different sizes such as 3x3 4x4 5x5 and more, they also come in different shapes with ones that are pentagons instead of squares, and I would like to be able to solve them faster.

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  13. One of the two books i want to read is called The outpost, its a military story of one of Americas deadliest battles during the war in Afghanistan. It is written by Jake Tapper. The other book i want to learn is called I wear the black hat It is written by Chuck Klosterman and is a interesting cultural book on why we are obsessed with calling someone a bad person so quickly. One skill i want to learn more is how to play guitar, i have a buddy who is going to help me learn.

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  14. My two books are, The Hobit and Seabiscuit. My skill I'd like to learn is how to check a check engine light.

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  15. The two books that i want to read in the next year are the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I'm not exactly sure what The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about, which is why i want to read it. I know it is a classic and i would like to find out why this is. I do believe i have an idea what it is about from the class reading but would like to find out more. The outsiders i have actually read before but it was a very long time ago in middle school. It is about "greasers" and preps and the constant fighting going on between them. Also the relationships between characters have their own problems and issues. I want to read it again because i loved it so much and want to refresh my memory about it. And lastly, the skill i want to learn is guitar. I have always wanted to know how to play and thought it would be an amazing talent to posses.

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  16. The two books that I would like to read by the end of next year are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As we watched The Hobart Shakespeareans in class and the fifth grade students shed tears about how emotional the book was, I was inspired to read this book. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the second book I chose to read by the end of next year because a lot of my friends were assigned to read that book for class, and after dreading being assigned homework to read they ended up recommending the book for me to read.

    The skill I want to learn by the end of this year is guitar. I played violin from 5th grade-9th grade and thought it was amazing, and I feel like it won't be too hard to learn how to play. Also, since my younger sister knows how to sing, maybe ill be able to go around the world with her when shes famous. ;)

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  17. The two books that I hope to read in the future are Mass Effect: Deception and Mario Puzo's The Godfather. And I hope to get back into writing short stories and refine that skill.

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  18. The two main books that I want to read in the near future would be Primordium and Cryptum which are both books based set in the Halo game universe. It talks about the origin story of the most technologically advanced race ever known to man called, the forerunners.

    Then, one skill that I want to learn to do is how to draw. I want to learn how to draw very complex drawings just because I've always wanted to be an artist ever since I was a kid.

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  19. The two novels I would want to read are How We Got to Now and John Adam the book. I like history books, I like book that reflect on how we got to today, the first book, is about tech and how past achievements effect today. And John Adams made many offices on the US Government. I addition I want to learn Perl. Perl is a programming language that looks interesting. It feels cryptic when typed.

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