Reading+Reflections

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I think that Anna Fitzgerald is a girl that is too mature for her age, and this can be a problem for her parents and even for herself. At the age of thirteen years old she has an extensive vocabulary of health-related words that even some adults don't have an idea of what these words mean,and she is aware of situations like her older brother,Jesse, smoking pot, or her mother Sara having a compulsive disorder for buying clothes through mail. My opinion is that this maturity and self-sufficiency has been influenced by her mother because Sara pays more attention to Kate who has leukemia, so she is always worried about the needs that Kate has, but not the ones that Anna has; and this is the problem because Anna feels that she is always put aside of the family, and she is only a "warehouse" which the family uses to get stuff that Kate needs to stay alive.=====

Juan S. Betancur
While reading more and more of MY SISTER'S KEEPER I keep thinking that Anna is extremely mature for her age, even more mature than his brother Jesse who is older, she may seen that she is doing something impulsive and crazy, buy in reality she knows exactly what is happening, and now all the consequences of her actions. Also, a new character enters this story, Julia Romano, my opinion is that she hasn't taken sides yet because she is hearing both sides of the story, but she definitely is amazed by the independence that Anna Fitzgerald has at such a young age. Other situation that caught my attention was the way that Sara Fitzgerald (the mother) has taken everything related to Kate's condition. Since her little girl was diagnosed with leukemic cancer, she eats,thinks,sees, and breaths Kate 24/7, and that she has left behind the education of her other kids. Parts of the book like where she says to Jesse things like "Your sister, is incredibly sick. I'm sorry if that interferes with your dentist's appointment or your plan to go buy a pair of cleats. But those don't rate quite as high in the grand scheme of things right now. I'd think that since you're **ten**, you might be able to grow up enough to realize that the whole world doesn't always revolve around you", and Jesse replies back "Yeah, right, she's sick,""Why don't **you** grow up? Why don't you figure out that the world doesn't revolver around **her** " words like these made me think that she failed at raising her kids, because she has more than only 1.

Juan S. Betancur
While reading, and approaching the end of MY SISTER'S KEEPER, i kept thinking about 2 things. The first one is the attitude that Bryan Fitzgerald has taken in everything related to Kate's condition. I think that his calmness is linked to the though that he already accepted that his daughter Kate is going to die, soon. He stays in the middle of the situation trying to not take sides, but is really hard to not do so, Sara implies that he should be with her in all this legal process because he is her husband, but in other side Anna is his daughter so this stops him. The second one is, how Jesse has grown up without any of his parents around, to give him an advice or to watch over the things he does. He has been disappointed so many times through his childhood that he doesn't trust his parents anymore, and that his parents have "forgotten" about him so he can do whatever he wants, like drinking, smoking, burning building up, and stealing stuffs. It has reached to a point in which Jesse stole a car from a judge, got caught and was in prison, and the one got him out was his sister, and after he got out none of his parents say anything about it.

Juan S. Betancur
My opinion about MY SISTER'S KEEPER was good, until it get to the point where Anna dies, because I wasn't expecting this. I think that Anna dying in a car accident instead of a risky surgical procedure in order to remove her kidney is a bad ending for the book. The story of Anna trying to become medical emancipated from her parents takes a big amount of the book's length, and the author spend a big time explaining all the procedures and problems that this decision brings to Anna, and to her family. So I feel that I read all these pages for nothing, since Anna is the one who dies, and not Kate, and that Kate ends up receiving the kidney that she never wanted ,and that Anna fought to not give out.

Thank You for Smoking Reading Reflection # 5 Juan S. Betancur

Nick Naylor is a person that as he said " would do anything to pay the mortgage", I do not think that he is evil, or that he has no values and that should die for what he is doing as a lot of people in the book say; i think that he is just doing his job, and his job is being the spokesman of one of the biggest industries in U.S if not the biggest, the tobacco industry. He doesn't have the best job in the world because unfortunately tobacco has a big impact in the national death statistic but he has to protect them by making histories up and lying on national television. What I really admire is the virtue that he has to talk people out of their thoughts, a lot of times he doesn't even have a valid argument, but he finds the way to turn around the situation and a lot of times make other institutions that are attacking look bad as he did in the Oprah show with Ron Coogan from the FDA, even the guest that program brought to tell cigarettes are bad for you, ended up in Nick's side. I also think that Nick's boss shouldn't be in that position because two things; first one he was about to fire one of the best employees that he has because not much people can stand in a national tv program and start lying and proving people with true facts wrong as he does; and second one is that he thinks that Nick's ideas are stupid and that he is wrong most of the time but at the end the Captain agrees with the ideas that BR tells him, but that are Nick's.

Thank You for Smoking Reading Reflection # 6 Juan S.Betancur

I keep reading this book and I still am amazed about the ability that Nick has to manipulate people as he does. I would recommend him to quit his job because being a "Merchant of Death" may bring him a lot of profit like the Captain raising his salary from one-oh-five a year to two-five-oh a year for all that he has said in the programs, but the money is worthless if he is dead, I think that being a few step away from death as he was after he was kidnapped and overdosed with nicotine from the nicotine patches is a life changing situation in which you have to start questioning if you job is worth you life. I think that his kidnapping wasn't a disaster after all because of two things; first one he didn't die, and the second one that around the first pages of the books, the MODs talk about how Bobby Jay got a history about an old lady that said that a homicide in a church could be stopped if she just had her handgun with her so Nick says he wishes a man would walk up to him and tell him "If I hadn't smoke 3 packs a day for 40 years I would be death by now",but after the kidnap he is able to say if I haven't been a smoker I would have die from those nicotine patches. . Also i find ironic that somehow all those quit-smoking nicotine patches did help him quit, even though it goes against his desire to do so, because every time he attempts to smoke a cigarette he starts feeling sick so he has to stop smoking,so you can say that the spokesman from the tobacco industry quit smoking.

Thank You for Smoking Reading Reflection #7 Juan S. Betancur

While reading the final pages of the book I think that all the luck that was with Nick at the center of the book, just left him and he ended up going to jail and loosing his job, which he deserved from being the main reason that teenagers started smoking, and that a lot of the adult population in U.S died.One thing I have to say is that the movie, and the book are really different. The book explain and tell a lot more than in the movie. For example, in the movie never tell that Nick goes to jail and that he marries Polly and have children. Also in the movie Nick spends a lot more time with his son than in the book. I also think that the biggest irony in the book is that the Merchants of Death Squad end up doing jobs that are opposite to their first one, for examples Nick writing a book about all the things he did while he was in the tobacco industry, and the later saying in national television that everything he said was false and telling people to not smoke; or Polly joining the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome foundation after she gets pregnant from Nick. And the last is that at the end of the movie, reporters ask Nick that what is he going to do when his kid Joey turns 18, the legal age to buy cigarettes and he says that he will buy him his first pack, in the book they don't mention what happens to his kid.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Reading Reflection #8 Juan S. Betancur

This book is a really special book because is written in the perspective of an authistic kid. The first thing that I noticed while reading this book is that the chapters are not written in order like 1,2,3,4,5 but in prime numbers like 2,3,5,7,11 so this is a signe that this is no ordinary book. The book talk about an austhictic kid which name is Christopher, he is not able to understand peoples' facial expression like sadness, happiness or when a person is angry which makes it really difficult for him to have a conversation with anyone, also he takes orders really literal so if a person tells him to not talk for ten hours, he will not say a word. The plot of the book is really simple, but what is really catching about this book is the way that this kid cannot perform simple tasks like going out and talking to strangers just to ask questions about something like where the train station, also this kid is extremely smart but he gets stuck in simple tasks. This books shows us how hard is to live with a condition like authisim. The main example in this book is when Christopher who is the main character, finds out that his father was the one who killed his neighbor's dog ( which is why the book is called 'The curios incident of the dog in the night-time") so he associates him with a murder, after he finds out he starts worrying about his dad killing him. This show us that authistic people cannot differentiate between a dog's life and a human life, also he doesn't think about the emotions that his dad has to him which would make him unable to kill him.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. Reading Reflection #9 Juan S. Betancur

The first part of "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" tells us short stories about people who start losing some of their scenses as they start aging, nevertheless this does not mean that they become dependant to other people, or that their life style is affected in a bad way, otherwise they gain other hidden abilities that most of the people who have all their senses never use and are not even aware of. Some short stories like "The hands" and "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" can give examples of what I said. In "the man who mistook his wife for a hat" I think that is amazing how this music teacher is able to complete his daily routine by singing songs to himself that keep him aware of what he is doing, this man lacks the ability to see things around him and this is why he is unable to do activities while he is not singing, or hearing any kind of music. This story show the lose of a primary sense like the sight but the gain of a new one as this musical ability is. I think that the most amazing fact is that all this stories are real, but oneself is not aware that people can have a normal life because of this "new" senses, this tell us that we do not use full power of our brains and that we could do much other activities if we did.

The Hot Zone Reading Reflection #10 Juan S. Betancur

"The Hot Zone" has been one of the best book I have ever read. I got so much into this book that I had to keep reading in my free periods at school and even after school and at work, I did research on most of the diseases that the book talked about, looking up symptoms and treatments, this is how much I liked this book. This book open the eyes of the people who read it and show how easily an unknown virus can spread through out the entire world and almost cause one of the worst outbreak in the story of one of the most technological advance countries as United States of America is. I asked a lot of people in my school and i also asked parents if they knew what ebola was and none of them were aware of such a catasthropic virus. I came to the conclusion that most of the worst known viruses come from Africa and I think that it is because of its vast populition and diversity in animals, anyways, the symptoms of ebola really amazed and scared me at the same time, I think that rottening inside your body while you are still alive is one of the most painful and horrible deaths that a human being can experience. I think that the whole continent of Africa is really lucky because it wasn't wiped out by this virus which has a mortality rate of 90% and that it was finally contained and treated. The 2 parts of the book that I enjoyed the most reading were, first; the part which the author goes to Yambuku Hospital in which he finds a wiped out small hospital right next to a church in which people from the village were treated. The way that he describes the maternity ward as a place in which there was nothing but blood splattered in the walls, and stretchers full with infected blood a "Hive of hot agent"; this description just make me want to get into an orange suit and start investigating this place, if I was asked to work in a Biosafety level 4 environment i would accept without thinking it twice, and I would be more than happy to work with Nancy Jaax dissecting death monkeys. The second part that caught my mind also was the monkey house, when all the monkeys were dying so the doctors had to give them euthanasias, I think that the thrill that working in this environment gives you would be amazing and that few people would do this; I would fall into the category of the few that would want to do so, I think that finding a job in which you are excited about doing is even more important than the monetary aspect. Out of all the books that Mr. Brunelli has made us read, I am 100 % sure about saying that 'The Hot Zone' has been the best one.