Of all the choices on the list, I chose Looking for Alaska because everyone had been talking about how good it was. All of my friends had read it and told me I needed to too. Also, I am a huge fan of John Green, the author of this book. I read The Fault in Our Stars last year and I absolutely loved it so I figured I would like another book of his, too. A personal connection I had was that sometimes I'm not very good with change and it takes me a while to get used to things, just like it did with Pudge at his new school. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially teenage girls because I feel like we enjoy books with more drama and some romance in them, but anyone could enjoy it.

"I didn't sleep that night. Damn was slow in coming, and even when it did, the sun shining bright through the blinds, the rickety radiator couldn't keep us warm, so the Colonel and I sat wordlessly on the couch. He read the almanac. The night before, I'd braved the cold to call my parents, and this time when I said, 'Hey, it's Miles,' and my mom answered with, 'What's wrong? Is everything okay?' I could safely tell her no, everything was not okay. My dad picked up the phone then."

In this section of Looking for Alaska, Pudge (Miles) is going through struggles. Something tragic happened to him and the whole school just two days before and he isn't really handeling it that well. He already was struggling a bit just adjusting to the new school, but then this event occured and it all changed. If you want to kmow what happened, read the book to find out!

While reading, I am noticing Miles' desire; to find a 'Great Perhaps' at his new boarding school. Although Miles really likes Alaska, she already has a boyfriend so she made him a deal. Alaska will find him a girl when he finds out more about the labyrinth, so that is a goal and desire for the both of them. I really like how the book is set up. John Green wrote it in first person; Miles' view. He does a great job of showing emotions and thoughts flowing through his head, which really engages me in the book and makes it a lot more interesting. Each chapter is written in the counting of the days before and the days after. I don't know what it is counting down til yet, but I can't wait to see!

The book I am reading is called Looking for Alaska by John Green. One of the main characters is Miles Halter, who is a junior in high school, starting his first year at Culver Creek. At the campus, Miles' roommate's name is Chip. He gives himself the name of "The Colonel". He is very intellegent and is a natural leader. He gives Miles the nickname of Pudge and takes him to meet his old friend Alaska. The minute Miles sees her he begins to develop feelings for her. One of the conflicts developed in the beginning of the book is that Miles and Alaska get kicked out of religions class. It has me wondering what other trouble those two are going to get in throughout the book. So far I'm enjoying this book and I am excited to see how the story develops because I am a big fan of John Green and I know it will be great.

   As I was reading today, I noticed that Clay keeps saying "It's just a school project." When his mom asks him what he is doing. He was searching for the location on the map that Hannah told him to go to when he ran into his mom, and she kept asking where he was going. He continued to respond with those simple words, "It's just a school project."
   I think that is the most important line in that chapter because no matter how hard he wants to tell his family and friends what he's doing, he keeps it a secret. He is so caring for Hannah that he can hide everything from people, no matter how bad it is eating him up inside, and that is something you love to see in a character, which allows you to look up to him.

    As I read through Thirteen Reasons Why, I have been notcicing how down-to-Earth Clay is. He is so honest and caring to everything and he is very sensitive to what people say, especially about Hannah. He is very emotional after his loss of Hannah and that effected him so much as a person and in his actions/ way of living, even though he didn't know her too personally. Well, now he does through the videos and I think that is what is ripping him apart; he feels guilty because of her death, because he thinks he was a part of it, especially because Hannah mentions him in the clips.
    I really love the character that Clay has become. He is doing anything and everything for Hannah and to figure everything out for the world to know, and it is inspiring to read because most of the people in the world are very selfish and would just try to accept the fact that Hannah died, but Clay is very selfless and is always watching out for people and to look for answers. I am so excited to read what happens next!

    One thing that I have noticed about the author's way of writing and the way the book is set up is that it goes back and forth between Hannah talking in the tapes and Clay giving his feedback. I have learned to love the way this book is set up because it shows us Clay's reactions to everything Hannah says and it makes the book even more suspenseful. That is another thing that the author does well; suspense. He always keeps the readers on their toes and stretches out the stories to make us wanting to read more, and it works. I have not been able to put this book down and in my opinion, he is one of the best authors that I have read from. Jay Asher, the author, does a great job at capturing everyone's voices throughout every little story in the book, and especially Hannah's. Yeah, he is a male author, but I think that no one could capture Hannah's voice better than he did. He made her seem so realistic and it allowed us to connect with her.

  One connection I have that I have been noticing through the book is that my mom's friend commited suicide. I knew the girl and her name was Evelyn. She seemed perfectly normal, like the average human to everyone and not even her mom knew she was going to take her life. Her mom and everyone else thought she was just a happy, perfect girl. She seemed to have a perfect life to the people who didn't know her well. She was beautiful and had a great, loving family. They had lots of money and had a lot of fun together, so it seemed to me like she was fine but she wasn't. We have to remember fun and money can't buy everything.
  This reminded me of my book because everyone at Hannah's school thought she was just an average, or even above average, perfect girl with nothing wrong. She was very pretty and the people at her school named her the prettiest girl in the school. She was always happy, or atleast seemed like it. Everyone who went to school with Hannah thought she was perfect, just like Evelyn. So, what is making these girls want to take their precious life?

   Right now, I am on page 118. I feel like this book is getting more interesting page by page. The character of Clay and Hannah are both develpoing well. Hannah has been showing more and more of herself through each and every one of her videos. As Clay listens in to them, he gets more worried and connected to her. When he talks to people about her, he is very protective and sticks up for her words and thoughts. All he seems to do is listen in to the videos and find more clues about why she commited suicide. He is basically dedicating his life to her. That shows me what a great character he is because even though she's gone and doesn't know what part he had in the suicide, he keeps trying to find more clues and he cares about her a lot, even though he barely even knew her when she was here.
   Hannah has been revealing more and more clues and thoughts that were going through her head. She has been showing more emotions and we are getting closer to finding out why she did what she did. I am so excited to keep reading this book and see how Clay develops through the story and to see more reasons Hannah felt the way she did.

  While reading my book today, I found one line that stuck out to me. Hannah was talking to Courtney in the tape and she said, "I don't think you do this intentially, Courtney. And that's why I put you on these tapes. To let you know that what you do affects others. More specifically, it affected me." At this point in the book, Hannah is talking about how Courtney uses people, and used her, for popularity to be the 'Most Popular Senior'.
  In the book, it swtiches back between Hannah's words and Clay's thoughts, while he pauses the video. In this part of the book, Clay thinks to himself, "'Courtney does come off as genuiely sweet. Hearing her story here, on these tapes, must have killed her.' A shiver crawls up my back. 'Killed her.' A phrase I will now drop from my vocabulary."
  This quote is very important because it shows how everyone's actions effected Hannah's death. Clay barely knew her, but still even he can't talk about her suicide without shivering.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/08/krista-our-kids-tell-the-story-of-why-preschool-is-a-must/5328181/

               In the column I read, the author tells the readers how it is very importamt for your child to attend preschool, She talks about how they learn quicker in the long run and pick things up faster later on.

"At an art table, Ashlyn arranges and rearranges handfuls of brightly colored feathers. "I'm going to make a collage of a parrot," she says, cheerfully unaware that collage isn't really a 5-year-old word. Her vocabulary is just one of the things that's exploded since she started preschool two years ago. Now she ranks advanced or very advanced on every measure of kindergarten readiness. She can connect letters to sounds. She's doing beginning addition."

I think this is the best quote because it really shows the reader how quickly the kid who went to preschool, is picking up on the things a lot faster than usual in kindergarten. It shows us that if a kid that age can learn things quickly, it will change their life forever, by them getting in the habit of being ahead and quick learning. 

Something that I noticed about Ramsey's writing style, while reading the three columns, is that she asks a lot of rhetorical questions, like, "Did your child benefit from preschool? Would he have done just as well at a caregiver's house? Would your daughter have made the transition to kindergarten as easily without it? Would your grandson have read as quickly had he not gone? Could your niece have developed the same social skills at home?"

Questions: what made you want to be a writer?

What's your favorite writing style?

What's your best way to brainstorm ideas to write about?

Right now, I am on page 70 and I am loving this book. It is getting more and more interesting. Hannah, the main character, had sent out a map, and every time she talks about a place in her video, Clay finds it on the map and goes there. Every clue/film gets more interesting, and most of the people she talks about had no idea they were a part of the reason she took her life. Hannah barely knew most of the people she talks about in the films and I find that pretty strange because you would think they knew eachother very well to have that big of an impact on her. I was surprised when I found that out because I thought that the people causing her actions were her family and friends, or enemies, maybe bullies, but she was the coolest girl in school, so it gets me wondering. What made her want to take those awful actions?

The book that I'm reading is called Thirteen Reasons Why. I usually don't like to read books but I just really love this one so far! So far, it is about a girl named Hannah Baker who committed suicide and sent out 13 films explaining why she killed herself. Clay Jenson, one of the main characters got the films, even though the only people who got them were if they caused her suicide. He says he barely knew her so it got me to thinking why he received them. I think it might have to do with bullying or something similar to that and I'm really excited to find out! I really recommend this book. It's really good so far.