Choose one of the prompts below and reply to this post. After the
prompt, give the name and author of the book, as well as a short
explanation or comment. Feel free to comment on your classmates'
choices! Don't forget to sign your name. Deadline: Monday, September
10th at 10 a.m.
-the most unforgettable book I have ever read
-the book that made me love reading
-the first book I remember
-the book that has made the strongest impact on me
-the best book I read over the summer
-the best graphic novel I have ever read
-a book that I read over and over again
-one of the funniest books I have ever read
-my favourite book
The book that made me love reading was the first book of the "The spook" series, which is "The spook's apprentice" ; the book is set in a middle-aged fantasy imaginary country which is a type of setting that I generally enjoy for the readings I pick. The book is actually the memories in the form of a journal of Thomas Ward, who thanks to innate skills is becoming the Spook's apprentice ; the work of a spook in the story is to fight all the creatures such as witches, ghosts or goblins. This therefore offers a lot of action during the majority of the book, although it's not the only feature of the story. This first book offers a lot of suspense, and as it is written in the first person pronoun, it makes it easy to understand what the narrator thinks and feels throughout the story. This first volume also hints at a lot of secondary plots which are developped in the rest of series. At the moment, there must be something like 17 books, and they are, in my opinion, very entertaining to read fro those who like suspense and action and I keep reading the series as it was one of my favorite saga as a child. (You can actually look for it in the class library at the back)
ReplyDeleteEddy
I read over the summer "Dreams from my father" written by Barck Obama when he was 23 years-old. In this novel Obama describes his childhood and teenagehood family situation and insists on the Afro American discrmination problem in the United States. His writting is very fluid making the novel easy to read. He uses a wide range of vocabulary - enven swear words - making the reader feel very close to the 15 years-old feelings of frustration, incomprehension, lack of fatherly presence etc. Obama's writting is incredibly honest and straight to the point thus forming a passionating and intersting novel to read and making the reader rethink completely his vision of the Afro American discrimination issues.
ReplyDeleteI greatly advise it, short, intersting and easy to read.
Chahin Houmour
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite book is "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice. This well-written novel is about the life of a vampire, tired to be immortal and dangerous for the others. Throughout the book we learn about his transformation and life after becoming a devil creature. The style of the author is just bewitching. Indeed, she plunges the reader in a very dark yet sensual atmosphere from the very beginning and manages to build up suspense until the end. I think that the tratment of the major themes ( religion, love, humanity, immortality and sufferance) of this gothic novel is interesting and shows to the reader that immortality without love is more like a curse than a superpower! M'llal-Boulaguigue Yasmine.
ReplyDeleteThe book that had a strong impact on me during my childhood is 'Someday Angeline' written by Louis Sachar. I read the french version : 'Des poissons dans la tête'. This book made me realize how much I liked to read, but why ? Well I don't know. Maybe it is for the style ? Maybe for the endearing characters ? Or simply for the story ? (It is more likely because I thought I was reading a grown-up book.) Anyway, throughout the book we follow the clever and sensible kid Angeline Persepolis struggling to be understood by the people surrounding her. I can't really advise it to you all as it is a children's novel, but just think about it if you need a gift for a child !
ReplyDelete- Joséphine
One of the most unforgettable books I have ever read is "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs. This novel is the first of a collection of three with "Hollow City" and "Librairy of Souls". I watched the movie adaptation at first thus leading me to read the novels.
ReplyDeleteTo make a brief summary (without much spoilers), in this book, we follow Jacob an average british teenager. After his grandfather's death whom he was very close to, he is led to an intriguing remote island in the middle of nowhere. There, he discovers the ruins of an orphanage which used to be Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children. However,as impossible as it seems, Jacob quickly finds out that these children might still be alive and moreover threatened. On top of that, it appears that he has a major role to play to save them.
I paticularly loved this novel ( and its two sequels) because I never got bored. The mix between real and imaginary settings, the gloomy atmosphere, the appealing characters, the photographs illustrating the story throughout the novel, the slight touch of humour, the suspence created and the fact that I could very easily put myself in Jacob's shoes made of this novel a memorable reading. I therefore truly recommand you to read it !
Héloïse TARNAUD
The first book I remember enjoying reading was "The Witches", written by Roald Dahl. This book is a children’s fantasy novel and depicts a world in which witches disguise themselves as regular women who seek to kill all children on earth. Child-hating witches’ societies secretly exist in every country and plot terrible things in order to get rid of children. This book is about the experiences of a young boy and his grandmother who live in this world. This book is one of the first (I think) that I couldn’t stop reading. I got very involved in the story and I remember identifying me to the main character (who was approximately my age). This story definitely made me love reading.
ReplyDeleteLéa
The book that made me love reading is a children's novel called "35 kilos d'espoir" by Anna Gavalda. This book is about a young teenager named Grégoire; he hates school so much that in middle school he has already repeated two grades. His parents are too busy sniping at each other to notice their son's unease. The only place Grégoire enjoys is his grandfather Léon's place where he can hide from the rest of the world. However when one day he is expelled from his school Léon reacts very badly and doesn't want to protect him anymore. Grégoire slowly understands that he has to grow up now and move forward. I loved this novel because it describes well the discomfort of some children in school who can't find their place even if they are really smart. It also depicts how a child doesn't necessarly want to be an adult and how sacry growing up can be. I think it's a beautiful novel for children.
ReplyDeleteBahia
The most unforgettable book I have ever read is "Pauline" by Alexandre Dumas. This novel is the most beautiful romantic story I've ever read. Pauline meets Horace de Beuzeval during a hunting session and soon she gets married to him. A few months later, Horace has to leave with his two friends for a hunting session in Normandie. Pauline is scared because the newspapers say that in this region there are dangerous bandits. She's very anxious so she decides to join her husband, who's very annoyed so he leaves for two days with his friends. During those two days Pauline is terrified and it becomes worse when she finds a path that goes to a secret room. There she finds an english woman dead and she understands that the Normandie's bandits are her husband and his two friends. Horace doesn't want his wife to tell everyone the truth so he captures her into a cell in an abbey, where he gives her a choice of dying slowly by starvation or killing herself rapidly by drinking the poison he left next to her. She's almost dead but Alfred de Nerval, her old secret lover, finds her and escapes with her. the whole next part of the book is about Pauline who suffers and who's very ill and Alfred who loves her more than anything and stays by her side trying to help her become better. She becomes healthier but at some point Alfred receives a letter from his mother saying that Horace is going to marry Alfred's sister so he leaves to challenge Horace. Alfred wins but Pauline gets more ill than ever. Alfred takes her to Switzerland and Italy to look after her. Despite his best effots, in a last breath, Pauline promises to Alfred an eternal love and dies. This book is very emotional. When I read it I was feeling all the suffering but also all the love and fidelity between those characters. To me it's the most emotional love story that made my cry again and again.
ReplyDeleteOlessia
The book that had the strongest impact on me is actually one I read over summer, and is called "You" by Caroline Kepnes. It tells the story of a man, Joe, who falls in love with a girl named "Beck". But there is a twist ; he is so obsessed with her that he starts stalking her until he get the opportunity of actually interfering with her life and relationships.
ReplyDeleteThe plot is interesting, but the reason I will remember this book is the author's style ; everything is told from Joe's point of view, and in his eyes, everything he is doing is completly normal. The reader will sometimes forget that he is doing horrible things, thinking he is just "protecting Beck". When I put the book down after finishing it, a strange feeling of being oppressed followed me for an entire day. The only other author capable of making me feel that type of thing only with words is Poe. But in the end, I really enjoyed the book, so I would recommend it to everyone !
-Elise
The most unforgettable book I've read is "When bad things happen to good people" written by Harold Kushner. I appreciated that the author was talking about people he had met and tried to help when they were in need. This book opened up my mind about everyday life and how not everything goes according to plan. It was very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteJuliet
The book that had the strongest impact on me is probably George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-four". In an after-nuclear war society ruled by a totalitarian party, we follow Winston Smith, a worker at the Party, in his obedient citizen's life. Between the threat of the Thought Police and the permanent knowing that "Big Brother Is Watching You", we discover the somber aspects of a society highly inspired by ones that used to or still exist in the real world.
ReplyDeleteOf course the plot itself is extremly interesting and the suspense creat throughout the whole novel grabs the reader's attention from the first to the last page. But what really affected me was a whole other dmension of the book. The fact that the story could actually apply to other situations, already existing societies, and that it made me reflect on our own way of living. I wouldn't say that it completly changed my perception of the world, of course not, but it did trigger my views on some subjects. "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is the best dystopian novel I've ever read, therefore I'd recommend you to read it too !
-Solène
In "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", Stephen Chobsky offers us a poignant view of what could be called 'growing up' in a coming-of-age story. Charlie is a freshman who tries to find his place between family dramas, young love, and devastating loss. Through letters addressed to his "dear friend", we follow his evolution from adolescence to adulthood in his strange world. I perfectly know that this book is now so important to me because I used to share many similar difficulties with the main character by the time I was reading it, making it particularly affecting. Besides the fact that Charlie is writing down his deeper feelings and inner thoughts, the reader has a very interesting access to a depressed and silently helpless adolescent's mind, which made the story very realistic. I'd say that I recognized myself in Charlie's way of seeing and analysing the world and the people around him, and that's what touched me the most and made this book one of the most important to me.
ReplyDeleteAlice
The best book I read over the summer was "The Colour out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft. It's a horror story set in New England during the 1920's. A geographer from Boston is tasked with making a survey of a sparsely populated valley that is to be flooded by a dam. During his travels, he comes across a ruined farmhouse surrounded by a wasteland area where nothing grows. Curious, he asks around and is told by one of the last residents the terrifying story of the strange meteor that unleashed madness upon the farmstead 40 years before...
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this book because, while it is very short, it manages to convey a really powerful atmosphere. The descriptions are very vivid and the mix of scientific elements with supernatural events adds to the unsettling feel of the story. Finally, the fact that there is no explanation to the mystery is really compelling because it drives you to find your own based on the different events. I would recommend it if you like this type of book.
-Florent
The book that made me love reading will come as no surprise : Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone.
ReplyDeleteNot only was it the first book I ever read in full and on my own, but is also a book that I still read to this day; I instantly fell in love with the wizarding world and Harry Potter made me realise that I could live a new and different life with every book I read. I tried a load of other books before this one, but the philosopher's stone really forged my passion of reading.
I think that one of the most unforgettable book I ever read was Le Message written by the Egyptian-French author Andrée Chedid. This short novel is set in a anonymous city torn apart and devastated by a war. Marie - a young woman - has a rendez-vous with Steph - her boyfriend - on a bridge on the other side of the city from where she lives. But while she was stepping through the streets, she received a bullet right between her blade bone. Gathering her last strengths when an old couple reaches her, she asks them to carry the message to Steph that she loves him and that she was coming. A young man, Gorgio, will take care of her while the couple tries to catch Steph before he leaves town if Marie did not show up. Hope carries us from the beginning till the end of the story, and it is the last thing that seems to survive in the atrocity of the war. This novel is intense and breath-taking, and it definitely had had a strong impact on me when I read it. You know I had this weird feeling when I finished it, the feeling that means “you’ll remember this book because the sensations you get while reading it was so unique”. If you are craving to get this kind of feelings, you definitely need to read this book. And I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteJacinthe
One of the books that had the strongest impact on me is the Diary of Anne Frank written by Anne Frank. I read it for the first time when I was about 14. Since then I have read it several times in different languages. In that period I was really interested by historical novels and especially if they took place during the First and Second World War. This autobiographical piece of work touched me a lot because it is very realistic and told by a young girl of my age living in my hometown. Therefore I could really imagine myself in her situation, a terrifying one, and I shared some thoughts she expressed about her relation with her family and growing up. The strong empathy I had for this girl and her family, the interest I had in her story and the way they went trough the war became even stronger when I visited the place in Amsterdam where they hid during the war years. It was a really intense visit because you can recognize everything she describes in the diary and it is even smaller than you can possibly imagine for a living place. You become claustrophobic and anxious when you know that two families lived there and did not have the possibility to go out and had to stay silent all day long.
ReplyDeleteJilie
One of the books that had the strongest impact on me is Der Steppenwolf (the Desert Wolf) by the German author Hermann Hesse. This novel relates the life of an old lonely man suffering because of his impossibility to reach a noble, philosophical ideal of himself. He is thus often harsh towards himself and manages to finds only moments of relief in music. One day, he meets a young girl that teaches him to enjoy the simplicity that he had despised for so long. Therefore, this old man learns to dance, to party and to enjoy an evening with company : things that he had never done before. But, troubled with this new image of himself, he often questions this way of living that he still does not completely understand.
ReplyDeleteI found thoughts that I could have thought in this book and things I could have said, but Hermann Hesse forms them in so elegant a way that he made me reflect a lot and progress in my thinking while feeling close to the main character and his difficulties.
Not one of his easiest books to read but certainly not the most difficult, I highly recommand it.
Colin Mauchamp
One of the books that had a stong impact on me is The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld. This novel is set in prison and we follow the point of view of multiple people, from the prisonners to the lawyer trying to save them but also a fallen priest. This book was very interesting for me because it taught me some things about life in jail that I never thought of. Furthermore it gave me the oportunity to view people in prison and the ones working around them from a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy to read but great for reflection.
Marie-Lou
The best book I have read over summer is Demian or The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Hermann Hess. This story is about Emil Sinclar's philosophical journey in which he will need a guide. At the beginning, we learn that Sinclair views the world as two realms : The "world of light", which is represented by the warmth of his family and his house, and the "world of dark", which is portrayed as chaotic, hideous and violent. Even though he feels content in his "world of light", he can't help but feel attracted to this "world of dark", which he will "enter" because of an incident. He will meet many guides throughout this journey : he will first meet Demian, who is the guide who will be the first and last to help him reach a sort of self-realisation ; he will also meet a musician called Pistorius, who will help him with his spiritual guidance, and he meets his last guide, Eve, who is Devian's mother, for whom he will have strong feelings. The theme of religion is omnipresent in this novel, from the story of Abel and Cain to Abraxas, a god who is both good and evil. I totally recommend this novel, as it shows the evolution from an innocent child to a grown adult with a unique point of view. This book is not really hard to read, but it is quite difficult to truly understand.
ReplyDeleteLisa
One of the books that really forged my love of reading when I was a child is the series "Rainbow Magic" by the group of author Daisy Meadows. Two friends, Kirsty and Rachel, are spending the holidays in a camping and discover a small colour fairy. She tells them that her sisters are lost and the fairy world lost all its colours. The girls need to find all the fairies but the goblins always go in their way. After that, the girls will live many magical events every time they see each other again, where a group of fairies is in danger. I think this is the book that made me love fantasy, I found the girls very relatable in the way that they were children like me, but they lived with the chance of having discovered their magical friends. It made me want to read even more than I did before.
ReplyDeleteCéline
I read the Spook apprentice last year following Eddy's recommandation and I immediatly liked it.
ReplyDeleteThe Spook is a powerful and hated man charged to cope with dark forces of his world so that common people are safe.
Its breathtaking and suspenseful atmosphere is hooking the reader throughout the book, who's trying to find all the answers to the mysteries of the plot. The characters, both courageous and sensitive are complex hereos that we tend to love and hate at the same time. This novel is without hesitation the best I've ever read and every moment from the beginning to the end is made creepy and mysterious all through foreshawing, echoes and appriopriate imagery !
An excellent choice !
Colin P
One of the funniest book i have ever read is "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (or H2G2). I read it after watching the movie to see if there were details that were skipped in the movie that were more explored in the book. The book turned out to be not as good as the movie at all (for the plot and characters were way more interesting in the movie)but some unforgettable quotes stuck in my head, like the proof God doesn't exist, based on the existence of the Babel Fish (a leech-like fish that you place in your ear, and it eats people's words regardless of the language, and defecates them in braiwaves the host's brain can read. In other words, you put it in your ear and it translates any language for you)
ReplyDelete<>
Please note that the non-existence of God depends on the Babel Fish's
Marlene
As far as I can remember I always loved reading, but the book that really striked me and made me want to read more was The Hunger Games written by Suzannes Collins that I read during my first year of middle shcool. The dystopian novel really appareared to me as an addictive and interesting book. The story in addition to be very well written was also thoughtful and made me reflect on the inequalities of our world.
ReplyDeleteRomane.
One of the most unforgettable books i have ever read is "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of The Universe", by Benjamin Alire Saenz.
ReplyDeleteThis amazing read follows the story and friendships of Ari and Dante, two 16-year old loners. One is a very introvert, dark and angry teen with a heavy past ; the other is an archetype of the "popular guy in american highschool movies", with a flawless body and an even more interesting personality, but for whatever reason can't find friends. If both protagonists seem at first as total opposites and absolutely not destined to a powerful friendship, they'll learn, together, the secrets of their own universes and create an unbendable, unbreakable bond.
Despite treating a common theme in teenager novels, Alire Saenz managed through his amazing characters and writing to make this book a thought-provoking masterpiece that made me love reading again last year. I'd recommend this book to absolutely anyone, confirmed or rookie reader, and especially for the people who are still looking for their true self, whose minds feel lost at times, people that will identify with the main characters.
A book that I read over and over again is Miles from nowhere by Nami Mun. Though I haven’t read it an inimaginable number of times, it is one of the only books that I have read more than once (which is for me a very rare thing since I usually don’t enjoy reading books over again). The reason being that when I first read it I didn’t fully understand it. Indeed I was in my pre-teen years and wasn’t able to fully understand some of the themes developed in the book which are very raw as it follows the story of a
ReplyDeleteNew-York teenage girl who runs away fom her toxic home and goes through the hardship of being homeless. Yet the voice is so gentle that it almost acts as a shield both for the narrator herself and the reader. I don’t know why but a feeling of missing out on something new always made me come back to my book shelf to pick Miles from nowhere, maybe an endless mystery in the character or a continually different perspective.
Abela
the best graphic novel I have ever read is l'arabe du futur by riad sattouf . this graphic novel narrates the childhood of the author in france libya and syria and made me think a lot.
ReplyDeletecharles