NOVEL CLUB

Title of book: “East of Peculiar”

There are 379 pages in the book. I am now on page 124. I read a little bit slow in this two weeks because so many things to do to prepare for presentation and final test. I understood about 75% of what I read.

Although I just read about 1/3 of this book, I think I can talk about the main idea of this novel. The book is the story of Hannah, a strong-smart woman, who is changing her own life. She is so intelligent and has a supper strong mind. She wants to be a resident manager for Valhalla Springs, instead of a normal worker in her old company with a normal life. Therefore, she stopped her boring job and go to a difficult and challenging way in order to become a power person like resident. After she went through every difficulty, she has learnt that she has to believe in the bright future and expect every good thing will happen.

I recommend this book for you guy next quarter, because I think this book helped me a lot of in my improving my reading skill. There are a lot of vocabulary and challenging but it has good organization, so it was quite easy to understand what is going on. My purpose for reading this novel is trying in challenge thing, get experience in reading book, and building my vocabulary, and I think I just got it after a short time to read this book. I recommend you to try in this, because I think you will like it and get so many advantages for your reading skill. ^ _ ^

Most valuable vocabulary words that I just learned:

Diagnose (v): to find out what illness someone has, or what the cause of fault is, after doing test, examinations etc.

Cottage (n): a small house in the country.

Appreciate (v): to understand how serious or important a situation or problem is or what someone's feelings are.

Glorious (adj): having or deserving great fame, praise, and honor.

Typify (v): to be a typical example of something.

Representative (adj) : typical of a particular group or thing.

Compartment (n): a smaller enclosed space inside something larger.

Diminish (v): to become or make something become smaller or less.

Suspicious (adj): thinking that someone might be guilty of doing something wrong or dishonest.

Breastbone (n): a long flat bone in the front of your chest which is connected to the top seven pairs of ribs.

Riffle (v): to move and quickly look at pieces of paper or the pages of a book, magazine etc.

NEWSPAPER REPORT 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/sports/playmagazine/601physed.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=swelling+this&st=nyt&oref=slogin

The article that I chose was “Swallow this” by Gretchen Reynolds in New York Times. The article talked about the relationship between workout and nutrition. If you workout and eat protein, glucose enough, your muscles will develop to be bigger and stronger. In spite of this, if you workout so hard and spend a lot of time in the gym but don’t eat healthy food enough, your body will be so tired and weaken. Beside that, choosing the drink after workout is very important, too. Both of the foods and the drinks have a really huge effect in your body. The drinks actually have to be really rich of carbohydrates and protein. Therefore, workout with a healthy meal and drink is so good for your body, and your health.

I chose that article because I like everything about human health, and nutrition. It is my favorite topic; moreover, it helps me a little bit in study about keeping healthy. This article’s information is not really new with me. But some processes in this article are very interesting, and it helped me understand more about how important of workout and good nutrition. I think I have learned a lot of appropriate and exciting information

NEWSPAPER CLUB

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004393522_apjennabushwedding.html


The article that I chose is : “President Bush in Texas for daughter Jenna's wedding” in Seattle times and written by Deb Riechman. Deb Riechman said about that president Bush was so excited and happy to look forward to his daughter’s wedding in Texas. She is Jenna Bush, and she will hold a private celebration. It will be just between Bush family, Henry’s family (her boyfriend’s family), and friends; instead a big wedding in the White House. Also, there are some interviews with president Bush and someone who know him. They make many funny prediction about that. In short, this article shows how the president was interested and hopeful this event.

Why did I choose this Article?
Because President Bush is so well-known whole the world. I am really curious and like finding out some information about famous people. Therefore, I tried to find an article talk about the presidents, the actors or actresses, the directors of some big companies, and inventors. I think this is really interesting and wonderful to know more about them, and the story about president Bush’s daughter attracted me a lot. In addition, the title of this article was so interesting and exciting. That why I decided to choose it.

EAST OF PECULIAR

Number of page in the book is 379. I am now on page 70. I read 27 pages this week. I understood about 70% of what I read. I think now I can recognize what is going on this story.

The novel didn’t mention about some people whom Hannah have family relationship with such as her husband, parent, or child. It just talked about her co-worker and her friends. So I think the character that I would not like for a co-worker was IdaClare Clandy. She is a secretary. She is not only Hannah’s co-worker but also her friend.

I didn’t know about Clandy a lot because she just appeared at beginning of chapter two, and the author just mentioned about her a little bit. But in chapter 4, she is described more carefully. Every detail in this chapter makes me think she is doing something which is so bad. I recognize her dirty plan through her dialog with David (the manager). She is so confidence but too arrogant, and she is a hypocrite.

Vocabulary worlds:
Suspicious (adj): thinking that someone might be guilty of doing something wrong or dishonest.
Breastbone (n): a long flat bone in the front of your chest which is connected to the top seven pairs of ribs.
Riffle (v): to move and quickly look at pieces of paper or the pages of a book, magazine etc.
Twiddle (v): to do nothing while you are waiting for something to happen.
Appreciate (v): to understand how serious or important a situation or problem is or what someone's feelings are.

NEWSPAPER'S CLUB

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004377852_adopt28m.html

The article that I chose is “Political upheaval in Nepal slows adoptions for families from Puget Sound area”. It was written by Nancy Bartley. This article said about the process of some people to adopt the abandoned children from Nepal. But it had some problem and became really difficult. When the Maoist had the seats in Nepal's Parliament, they stopped international adoptions with some inappropriate reasons for financial incentives. Tanner, King and some parents were awaiting their children very concerned and tried to do everything to bring their child home. Finally, they got success in due with Nepal’s government, and now they live with their child really happy.

Why did I choose this article?
I really love children; therefore, I thought this topic is very interesting. I feel a little bit sadly because this article said there are a lot of children in Nepal who were abandoned by their parents. But it was so lucky. Some American love them and want to adopt these children to their home. I think the program international adoption is pretty wonderful. That do not only help orphan to have the better life but also help someone who can’t have child find happy in their life. I hope this program won’t stop forever, and every children whom were abandoned find someone really love them.

EAST OF PECULIAR

Number of page in the book is 379. I am now on page 47. I read 22 pages this week. I understand about 65% of what I read (it still has a lot of new vocabulary words, and really challenging with me).

When I read that novel, the most significant thing that impressed me in this book was the case that Hannah came to her new job in the first day at National Bank. She met Tiffany Meade, a new account, and Tiffany introduced her about every thing in this company. After that, she was received her personal identification number– pin code – for automated teller machine at Valhalla, and the warning form Tiffany that she must not let anyone know this code include her husband or her friends. Because Hannah didn’t have husband, she ignored that and said: “Thanks for the warning, but I don’t have a husband, much less, or “something”.

I chose this because two reasons. First at all, I was really interested and attracted by this National Bank within the automated teller machine. I really like that. I wondered how great that job was, and how modern it was. It made me imagine that I have a personal ID number at the big company. I thought it was so excited, and fabulous. In the other hand, Hannah’s answer was so strange. I thought she was so successful, and confidence. But in this case, she showed that she was really lonely. I surprised about that.

Vocabulary words:
a. primarily W3(adv): mainly
b. typify (v): to be a typical example of something.
c. representative (adj) : typical of a particular group or thing.
d. compartment (n): a smaller enclosed space inside something larger.
e. diminish (v): to become or make something become smaller or less.

EAST OF PECULIAR

There are 379 pages in the book.
I’m now on page 25.
I understand about 65% of what I read.

The novel talks a bout a woman’s life. She is Hannah Garvey, and she’s 43 years old. She lives in Valhalla Springs, a central Missouri retirement village described as “East of peculiar”, in Chicago. She is working for a coffee-bar, but she hates her career, hates her clients, and her employers, and she decides to quit. She wants to join in voting to become the resident manager.

There are a lot of characters in the novel: Hannah, and her friends include Tom, Rob, Jack, Jeez, Delbert, and some people who are described as Hannah’s neighborhood, or someone whom she know. I just read chapter 1, and there are not so many information about them, but I think the most interesting character is Hannah. The author talks about her a lot. She is main character in the novel. She’s so confident and makes the decision fast. I like the way that she solve the problem, it is so smart.

I think the next chapter will talk about some things that Hannah has to solve after she quit her job, and tries in a really new-different-life. May be it will describe more about these characters, and something that affect her life or her success.

Vocabulary words and definitions:

a) Diagnose (v): to find out what illness someone has, or what the cause of fault is, after doing test, examinations etc.
b) Vision (v): ability to see.
c) Cottage (n): a small house in the country.
d) Veranda (n): an open area with a floor and a roof that is attached to the side of a house at ground level.
e) Glorious (adj): having or deserving great fame, praise, and honor.

The green mile

The novel that I chose was The green mile. It was written by Stephen King
There are 536 pages in his book, and I'm now on page 30.
I understand about 70-75% of what I read.
The first, my host family recommended me to read the book name " Kite Runner", but this one was so difficult with me. I read about 3 chapters in this book, but I just understood about 50%, and I think it's really bad. So I tried to find another one. Finally, Na introduced me to read Stephen King. I think this book is good, and I could understand more than 70%. So I make my decision to read this novel.
I have read 3 chapters in his book. It introduced me that the author is the main character. He is a head crew, Harry is another crew who helps him in his work. There are two prisoners : Delacroix, Coffey whom that story talks about. In addition, the writer described some thing on the prison and some activities that they do everyday.
I think the next chapter will talk about why Coffey and Delacroix was caught to the prison.
I think I'm going to like this book, because this story made me be so curious about what will happen next.

Something about me

Hello ! ^ - ^ ! This is Anna.I'm 17 years old. I'm learning English at Seattle Central Community College to improve my Engligh skills. I think English is really usefull languege which I can use in the future. It will help me to find a verry great job in a big international company and have a lot of friends who come from different countries. I love listening music, reading book and chatting with my friends. My bad hobby is that I go to the bed so late if someone calls me, or chats with me, althrough I know I will be very verry tired in the tomorrow morning. To describe myself, I choose some adjective that I'm honest, happy, alittle bit shy, and I aways enjoy in every thing that I do.I live with a great vietnamese family. They are so pretty nice, helpful, and always willing to help me when I need the help, or I have some problems.I think they are my second family in the US. About 2 days ago, I got really terrible flu. I felf verry bad, alone, and missed my mom, my dad so much. They didn't only made me be better by give me some medicine, cooked soup for my but also tried a lot to talk with me, made me happy , and so on. I love my life in Seattle. Every things are so fabulous. ^ - ^