I recently started and finished the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio in a period of 12 hours. Yes it is that amazing. Here is my review of it on goodreads:

                                   This book. THIS FREAKING AMAZING WONDEFUL BOOK!!!! I can't get over this book right now. The amzing story. The amazing writing. The amazing... well, everything. Everything about this book is truly utterly amazing. Stories like these make me re-evaluate my own life. Honestly I view myself as a pretty decent human being but after reading this book I realize how many times I didn't quite make it there. I never did anything as bad as what happend to August in this book but there have been times that I haven't been a star human. This book absolutely needs to be required reading material for middle schoolers just so they know how not to act. I'm pretty sure that if I had read this book before high school there would be a lot of different things in my life. But enough about me. R.J. Palacio introduces August, I funny average middle school (even though fifth grade isn't really middle school) student who just wants to fit in. Unfortunately for him that is completely impossible because he has an unfortunate face abnormality that isn't completely specifeid in the book but I can draw a pretty good picture of it. The book follows August as he treis to be accepted by everyone in the school. Which most of the kids there don't seem to mind it that much... except Julien. Now a lot of you people out there probably absolutely hate Julien. Well I can tell you that is niave and you are wrong. If you want to blame anyone for what happens to August blame his mother. His mother is the most awful human being that probably has never existed. I mean in the beginning of the book I also hated Julien. By the middle of the book I hated a lot more people than Julien but I'm not going to get into that. But by the end of the book I only hated his mother and maybe his father. I mean they are the epitome of snobby rich New Yorkers. God they are just awful. Anyway, although he can never fit in he can truly be accepted and loved by the people around him, but the question is does he? If I haven't yet convinced you that this book is amazing know this: I started this at 5:00 p.m. March 25th and finished it at 3:00 a.m. March 26th. I didn't even stop to use the bathroom.

In a word, a slice of perspective

By: Mary Schmich

            While reading the column In a word a, slice of perspective the author, Mary Schmich, wants us to feel both sympathetic and deppressed. I know this because she uses phrases such as "Corpses rot in the mud." and," ...the death count rises as inexorably as the moon." This shows the depressed side of the pieces by bringn up situations most people would not want to hear about that are revolting/ depressing. This piece alsom makes us sympathetic because she brings up her younger sister who" is mentally disabled, who on an average day literally trembles with medicine..." This makes us sympathetic of her daughter who most likely cannot do anything on her own and will be stuck that way her whole life.

             The author wants us to remeber how no matter how little we have someone, somewhere out there has less. I know this is true because she says in the last paragraph" There's always somebody with more... [but] a lot of us have potato chips to spare." This shows how there is always someone with more than you but also you will always have extra for someone else. She doesn't want anyone to take there portion for granted and keep living the way we can.The people who let the person who has more than them to define themselves is always the mosre depressed.

            The purpose of the column is to show how good you have it compared to the others. The authore quotes her mentally handicapped sister who said " Compared to them... I have a lot." This shows that even if a person in her position realizes that she has a lot then you must be able to also. You have to realize that you have a lot more than many people. She wants us to stop asking for more and more and be happy with what we are given.

             The author uses diction throughout her column to further the goal of the piece by repeating the word portion throughout the piece. Although it seems most of the time she is using it negatively, when she describes it she uses words such as fortune and fate, which seem positive. So truly when she uses this word really she is trying to point out that the little these people have can actually be seen as a lot. 

            The column relates to real life in many ways. It shows that we should be wary of what we complain because most likely someon out there doesnt have anything like it. It shows that people like Kanye West or Justin Beiber could contribute to society much more if they donated to charity or other rather than give us their crappy music and gossip. Although you life at some points might seem tough there are people out there who have gone through worse and you can make it through it

I did end up finishing The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan and this is my personnel review on goodreads:
"It was pretty good. Its classic Riordan with the funny dialogue and deep characer developement. For me though there is just to much in this series. You've got the whole Leo being able to produce fire, then Frank can turn into diffeerent animals, then Hazel's whole alive dead alive thing and her "magical gems,then Nico's whole situation which is cool and everything but I feel like he came up with the idea halfway through the series,Reyna's whole giving strength thingy, and finally ANOTHER FREAKING LOVE TRIANGLE between Reyna, Jason and Piper. GOD DANGIT theres to many of them. Always with the freaking love triangles ughhhhhh. I'm not even goning to get into it because I get to worked up. Anyways all of those things listed are just kinda to much. I would have gone without them personally, there just so wierd and needless. Overall the dialogue between the characters are mostlyy good. There are a couple areas where I might have cringed a little (I'm looking at you "water boy" blehh) but most of it was fine. There were some ooey gooey parts that did seem to seep out of the twilight series and dribbled into this book but I guess that is for all you hopeless romantics.There are two parts that I loved and need more of, Reyna and Nico and Piper and Annabeth. Reyna and Nico just seem to click, I mean they work weel together and they're just two amazingly strong characters that need more time in the spotlight. I would kill for a spin-off series based around them. Piper and Annabeth are like the best friends that most girls wish they had. They just seem to get each other ya' know. There is a little goopey dialogue in there I could do without but it kinda fits. So to wrap it all up, I would suggest this to people looking for an easy read to blow through till there next book but if you are looking for a series that will keep you on your toes till the very end look somewhere else."