Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky


I just finished reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It is about a young boy, Charlie, who is just about to enter high school. Charlie had a tough time last year because his best friend, Michael shot himself. Charlie is entering the year by writing to this "friend". I don't really know who the "friend" is but the reason Charlie is writing to the friend is because, "...she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have..." 

Throughout the book Charlie makes friends with two seniors, Sam and Patrick (sister and brother). They take Charlie under their wing and teach him "the ways of life and good music". They introduce Charlie to all their cool senior friends, Mary Elizabeth who is quite a pill, if you ask us. With a tattoo and belly button ring, she's a teenage American Buddhist, and she has a lot to say about the matter; Alice who likes vampires and stealing jeans at the mall even though her family is rich, and then theirs Bob, he throws a lot of parties and smokes a lot of marijuana. They all have a lot of fun and they party and do drugs and other crazy things. 

In the end, Charlie gets the girl (Sam) and they all go off to college. 





Sunday, February 10, 2013

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling


The book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling is all about Harry finding himself selected to be apart of the Triwizard tournament. The Triwizard Tournament is a magical contest held between the three largest wizarding schools of Europe: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Durmstrang Institute, and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, each school being represented by one Champion. Selected Champions compete in three tasks - traditionally judged by the Headmasters or Headmistresses of the competing schools - designed to test magical ability, intelligence and courage. Champions compete for the honour and glory of winning the Tournament and for the Triwizard cup and a monetary prize. Harry has to face dragons, mermaids, and magical mazes. The first few chapters of the book were mostly him getting ready and processing the fact that he's in this race for good, but then in the third or fourth chapter Harry has to face his first challenge. He has to battle a dragon to win the golden egg (the golden egg has the clue to the next challenge.) Harry barely defeats the dragon and he now has to figure out what the next challenge is by opening the egg underwater. He then finds that the next challenge is having to save one of the four students that are trapped underwater by creepy looking mer-people. Harry ends up saving two students and wins that challenge. The next challenge that Harry must face is the labyrinth. In side the labyrinth is where the triwizard cup is hidden. Harry and Cedric Diggory both make it to the cup and touch it at the same time. But, as it turns out the cup is a portal to a mysterious graveyard with surrounded by death eaters. Death eaters are slaves to the most evil wizard in the world, Voldemort. That is when Voldemort is awakened by one of his most loyal servants, Wormtail. Voldemort then kills Cedric and faces off with Harry himself. But then Harry, him being in a graveyard finds himself with the help of his dead loved ones. He then takes the portal back to Hogwarts with the dead body of Cedric Diggory and the triwizard cup. In the end, there are two tests that Harry had to face. One, being the Triwizard Tournament and the other being the test of his loyalty to his friends and family.