What I thought..

I really enjoyed Catcher in the Rye and it was by far my favorite piece of literature we have read so far. One of the things that make me feel this way was Salinger was able to make me relate to the book. The novel could very well have happened and this really appealed to me. Another aspect of the book I found enjoyable is Salinger's use of diction and how he was able to fabricate Holden's curious and outgoing characteristics. The plot was really interesting and the part I liked the most was the theme of saving kids from growing up and facing the hard truth of the world.

I like First They Killed My Father, but like others have stated I was really annoyed by the misleading title. I thought it was very brave for the author, Loung, to write about her experiences and am very glad she did. This helped people know how it was during this time and it is not something you can get out of any history book. I really liked how Loung was able to get her feelings across to the readers and I had to take breaks from this because of all the terrible things that had occured.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the novel Inherit the Wind. The whole religion vs. science was a very fascinating topic that still affects us today. I remember in bio how our teacher had to explain that we didn't have to believe in the theory of evolution. I thought it was coo how they were able to take a real very controversial court case in to a play. It was very creative how they were able to take a shocking 20th century event and able to spread the details in a way that people could understand what the case was about and what happened Drummond's cocky yet understanding characteristics really appealed to me because it showed he had a lot of confidence, but still respected and listened to what others had to say. All in all, it was a great book.

Although A Midsummer Night's Dream was a great play, I don't it was Shakespeare's masterpiece. I really liked how there was a subplot with the actors and also the faeries. The quarrel between the king and queen was very hilarious and I thought it was interesting how they caused so much trouble over little things. I really like the quote "true love never did run smooth" I really liked this because it is absolutely true. I thought it was funny how the lovers all got mixed up and started to have weird love connections with each other. Although I hated Helen's needy attitude, I think that she played an important role in the story.

What can I say about My Antonia? It had a lot of things to both love and hate about it. One of things I couldn't stand was Mr. Shimerda's suicide. I know that times were hard for them in a brand new country, but I was angry because I did not see a good enough reason for him to have given up hope because he still had a family to think of. On a different note, I loved to see how Antonia prospered in the town and was able to make lots of friends. I as well as everyone else have faced hardships in one way or another and I loved the way Antonia overcame this because it was both inspiring and realistic. Jim's kindness is one the reasons why I wanted to keep on reading because it helped him accomplish a lot, but his naiveness caused lots of problems for him. Although it had its ups and downs, Cather's novel was a fascinating read.

First Semester we were able to read a variety of literature. I liked each book for different reasons, and am glad we were able to have a taste of different styles of writing across different periods of times.