Blog #7

The Secret Life of Bees, is a story of a 14 years old girl, Lily Owens, who lives with her unloving father, T.Ray and a few memories of her mother. All the memories she has of her mother was the items she found in the attic and little stories from her father. One day T.Ray and Lily got into a big argument and he told her she was an abandoned kid. In search for the truth, Lily went searching for the Boatwright sisters. August Boatwright, told Lily that Deborah was having a metal breakdown and she has no choice but to left home for awhile and came to live with August. When Lily heard that her mother left home and abandoned her own child to escaped from sorrow, this angered Lily.

One of Sue Monk Kidd's argument is "forgiveness". At first Lily was very angry at her mother for leaving her behind with T.Ray but at the end of the story she learned to her mother, T.Ray, and herself. 

In life, there will be time when you're betrayed by someone you love but learning to forgive is the right antidote in curing our broken heart.

Blog #6

I am Vietnamese and proud to be one. There are times when someone would asked where I'm from, and I would answered Vietnam. And guess what question come next. ...

The next question would be "North or South?" ... Does it matter where in Vietnam I'm from? I understand the lost of American soldiers during the Vietnam War, but that war doesn't have anything to do with me. I find it's wrong to ask whether I'm North Vietnamese or South Vietnamese because all I know is, ever since I was born, Vietnam has always been Vietnam, and nothing else. There are time when kids would described me as ching-chong or chow mein because they thought it's funny. I find it ignorance.

Being a different race isn't always a bad thing, it's what make this world interesting. So we should be proud of our own race because that's what make us special.

Blog #5

The Box Man tells a life of a homeless man. We can assume that the Box Man is happy with his life. People might look down on him or see him as a lonely man, but he is happy with his own life. He has standard and pride in picking his own box and be comfortable in it. Unlike him, the other two women was abandoned by their own kids. They didn't chose to be lonely, yet they are lonely. 

It's okay to do things like other people are doing and sometimes it is even better to make our own decision. The moral of the Box Man is to teach us in making our own decision. To follow our decision (dreams) as long as we're happy. It is our own choice, our own life, doesn't matter what other people or society think.

Blog #4

The Box Man tells a story of a homeless man and two lonely women. They are different in a way because the Box Man chose to be alone, away from all people. Unlike him, the two lonely women didn't have a choice. Even so, they all are the same, they all are lonely people.

Just like unpopular and popular people (not celebrities but the people at school). They both are different yet similar in away. The unpopular people are the one that disappears from the crowd, the one that are least noticeable. Unpopular people are the one with few or little of no friends. They are lonely creature that need attention.

The popular people are the one that stand out from the crowd. The one that are not shy, the one that make all the bold moves and the one that make the different. They received most of the attention from the crowd, whether or not if it's love or hate.Yet, deep down, they too might be a lonely creature. I'm not saying all popular people are lonely, but MOST of them are lonely inside. Popular people are the one that do things just to get attention because they're tired of being unpopular.

I personally believed these two group of people are different but ironically similar.

Blog #3

What is it like to grow up without a mother? Out of all the books I've read this summer, the Secret Life of Bees would be my fave. It's about a little girls growing up under a mean father. He hasn't done anything for her, all he does is yell and yell every times she brought up the topic of her mom. They got into a big argument and T.Ray , her father, told Lilly that her own mom abandoned her when she was little. This angered Lily and she decided to run away from home with Rosaleen. On this journey, Lily learns about racism and love. 

I would recommend this book to anyone with a similar life or not. The book is well written with lots of emotional parts.

Blog #2

Normally I don't read nonfiction books because I think it's boring. I did read other types of nonfiction like journals, articles, biography but these are the three nonfiction books that popped up in my head right now.   

List of my nonfiction books:

1.  Diary of Anne Frank
2. All But my Life
3. Founding Brothers

The first nonfiction (diary book) I've read is the Diary of Anne Frank, during 8th grade. The book is basically about Anne's diary that she recorded during her time in hide out. When I first read it, I didn't like it, but slowly toward the middle of the book, I find it interesting. I started to wonder what it is like to be a Jews then. Is believing in different religion is a wrong thing to do that Hitler just have to pick on them?

Out of all nonfiction books, All But My Life is most interesting one. I personally love that book. Gerda Weissmann Klein gave lots of details that we can just picture it in our head. The book has lots of emotional scenes like when she has to part from her family and never see them again. I can't even imaging what I would do without my family there to support me. This book also show that not all Nazi are bad, because one of Gerda boss (can't remember the name now) helped Gerda when she was sick. By that, we can assumed that there are warm heart-ed Nazi too.  

The last recent nonfiction book I read is Founding Brothers. It's a historical book through six different point of view. It jump back and forth a lot and I didn't like it much. But through the book, I did learned some important American history events.

Blog #1

My name is Hoai Nhi. I love pink, it's the most prettiest color on earth. I really hate crowded, noisy places. It makes me go insane. Reading and sleeping is what I love to do. I think without the bad guys, this world is "perfecto" =]