Reading logs – 1.10

Reading logs

Text 1

Title 〜 The Harper Effect

Author 〜 Taryn Bashford

Text Type 〜 Extended written text (novel)

Date Read 〜 August 2019

The Harper Effect is a novel about a 16 year old professional tennis player who is navigating the challenges of teenagehood. Harper Hunter has had a crush on her neighbour Josh since they were 13. Josh started dating Harper’s older sister Aria shortly after Harper left the junior circuit for the pro circuit. When Aria and Josh break up Harper struggles to keep her feelings to herself and ends up blowing apart the bond of sisters that she and Aria have had. When it comes to tennis, Harper has been dumped by her coach and has a first-round ‘jinx’ meaning she never makes it past her first round. Things start to change when she meets the talented German coach Milo. Milo takes her onboard and trains her and her new mixed doubles partner Colt together. Colt and Harper form a strong friendship, but Colt still remains closed to the rest of the world. Milo helps Harper to understand that winning is a mind game, and that tennis isn’t a war, it’s a match.  After things blow up at home between her and Aria and Jacob, Harper and Colt, and Haper and her parents, Harper starts to focus more on winning for herself. Not for anyone else. Colt distances himself from Milo and Harper after his dad dies, so they continue around the tennis circuit together. In the end, time heals the broken relationships Harper has, and she and Colt reunite, but not as just friends anymore. She finally has the life she has worked so hard for and everyone is happy.

Aria was an interesting character in this book. She was fiercely passionate about music. I felt like I related more to her than I did to Harper because of my interest in music as well.  Aria was incredibly focused on her music though. Arias decision to give up the con for Jacob showed how much love can affect everyone, and how even when you have worked so hard towards something your whole life love can make you willing to throw it all away. I felt like Aria was interesting as well because like me she gave Harper and Jacob the benefit of the doubt and didn’t want to believe that there was something going on between them even though deep down she was unsure. I relate to this because I am not the type of person who will ask if something is going on, I will stick in the background making up a situation in my head and then getting mad at myself for thinking badly of someone else. Like Aria found out, however, these thoughts about other people are often right.

Colt has a tattoo on his arm that says “Choose to win”. He talks about this a lot, and along with Milo, he helps Harper to realise that it’s not about tennis it’s about life. I believe that it’s not just fictional choosing to win. Every athlete, every artist, everyone can choose to win. And it’s not just about beating someone or coming out on top. It’s the small choices too. I think people tend to overlook that they can choose to win. It really easy to get stuck in a downward spiral about life, but we all have the choice to do something about it and find the good. I have taken this message away with me and am trying to use it in everyday life. It is very useful for helping me motivate myself, and it has helped me learn that motivation doesn’t just appear out of thin air, you have to have something to do with it. “The morning hour has gold in its mouth” this is another thing I have taken away from The Harper Effect. Milo tells this to Harper when she is complaining about training so early. I think it’s a really good message because it can put your life into perspective. Personally I know that I ultimately feel better when I wake up early, regarding I’ve had a good sleep. The hours of the morning when it’s really peaceful are some of the most peaceful hours you will ever experience.

I think one of the main challenges that Harper dealt with in The Harper Effect was the broken bond between her and Aria. Sisters or siblings in general usually have some sort of strong bond between them and although at my age, and probably other ages too, siblings don’t always accept or show that they have a bond it is still there. It’s something we are born with. Even though Harper and Jacob made the wrong decisions many times in regards to Aria, Harper eventually put a stop to things. It was too late because she had already hurt Aria, and also Jacob a little bit, but she did the right thing in the end. The strength of family bonds showed when at the end of the book Aria was the one to make amends with Harper. It made me hope that even if we had a massive fight me and my brother would over time be okay. There are some siblings in my family that don’t talk, and this book made me think about how hard that would be. Wouldn’t it be a challenge to have someone that you love or loved and never talk to them? Harper and Aria proved that if you love each other you can heal your friendship, it just takes time, and you have to be willing to put yourself out there.

The Harper Effect was a very clever title for this book. Some of Milos advice for Harper when she was on the court playing tennis was to go to a place in her mind that had ‘a warm bath effect’. Harper had a place in the woods that she used. She named it purple time. Colt had never had a ‘warm bath effect’ moment, he just used to make himself really angry just before he went on court, but after he started playing tennis for the love of it not because he needed to, Harper helped him find one. “It’s the night we climbed the Mother Tree in the dark…….I felt small and grateful…..The warm bath effect?…..Except I’ve renamed it the Harper effect.” Harper had had an effect on Colt. She helped him become more open, see the good in the world, and upsize the child in him. He also helped her to become more grateful and hardworking for what she had.  

I would recommend The Harper Effect to everyone over the age of maybe 13. The reason for this is that it is a really good book, but it might have some too adult ideas that people under this age might not get or be able to handle. I think Taryn Bashford aimed for it to be read for a teenage audience of maybe 14 – 19. This is because it is very easy to relate to being this age. However, it has some really good life lessons so I would recommend it to anyone. It helps put your life into perspective and really makes you want to play tennis. 

Text 2

Title 〜 Turtles all the way down

Author 〜  John Green

Text Type 〜 Extended written text (novel)

Date Read 〜 June 2019

Turtles all the way down is a novel about a girl called Aza Holmes who is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Aza and her best friend Daisy are trying to figure out the mystery behind billionaire Russel Pickett. His son, Davis Pickett used to be friends with Aza, but time has separated them. They start talking again, but Davis becomes suspicious of their reasoning for suddenly wanting to see him again. Aza is controlled by her fear of contracting c.diff, a micro bacterial infection.  After a while of them hanging out, Aza discovers what “the jogger’s mouth” means. She tells Davis, and a body is found there, assumed to be his dad, Russell Pickett.

I thought Davises brother Noah was an interesting character. Noah was always playing video games, and I wonder if that was to get away from the harsh reality of his dad leaving them.  He was fairly quiet and reserved for most of the book, but he cared about his dad and he was scared. Noah asked Aza “Will you let me know? If you find anything out about dad, I mean.” This made me realise that he felt alone without his dad. I found it hard to relate to how he was feeling because I have both my parents, and we have a really good relationship. I did, however, feel sadness for him. 

From this book I took away the message that you should never take family for granted. Some people in this world who have both of their parents and a good functional family dynamic tend to overlook how lucky they are. I think it’s okay to be down like Aza when she gets into a thought spiral, and it’s okay to have friends who don’t have an as great family relationship as you.

Aza has to deal with the challenge of having OCD every day. When she was a kid she used to stick her fingernail into her thumb just so that she could tell she was real. Aza had the challenge of fighting against her thoughts and living the life she wanted to. The thought spiral of having to take off the plaster and check her cut wasn’t infected even though she was running late and she had done it 5 minutes ago. I feel like everyone has some kind of thought spiral in their life, not all as extreme as Aza’s but everyone has something they struggle with. 

Turtles all the way down is used in this situation to mean that after one though comes another, and under that thought, there is another. Of these thoughts, there is an infinite number of them never-ending. This was a really clever title because it has so much meaning regarding the book. It is appropriate because that is how Aza’s thought spirals work, they go all the way down.

I would recommend this book to people who are 14 or over. The book is good and has very deep characters, it just takes a lot to read and to get anything out of it. It is a hard book to get into, but it is worth the read. 

Text 3

Title 〜 DNA

Playwrite 〜  Dennis Kelly

Text Type 〜 Play 

Date Read 〜 July 2019

DNA is a play about a group of friends who are trying to cover up that they killed someone. They were all good friends with Adam, but they were bullying him making him walk on the grill, and he slipped and then he fell. Everyone gets more and more stressed out as the play goes on. They accidentally frame an innocent postman and Adam who somehow survived his fall comes back so Phil decides that he needs to actually die. 

I thought Leah was an interesting character because while she went with the crowd she was the only one who was fighting against her friends to save Adam. Leah is the character who really took on board what had happened and she got weighed down by it. Like Leah, I feel like I am the type of person who takes everything on board and weighs up the full seriousness of situations. Always being conscious about how others are feeling can be draining at times, but I feel like it makes you a better person, and in the long run, it does matter to me that I have tried to do what’s right, not what is easiest.

A message I took from DNA was that it can actually be harmful to be a bystander. Again, Leah was there when Adam died, she wasn’t intending to be, and even though she didn’t like what was happening to Adam she was still a part of it.  This meant that internally she had part of the guilt which being the type of person she was would have meant there was a lot of weight on her shoulders. If Leah had stepped in and said okay that’s enough when her friends were bullying Adam, maybe they wouldn’t be in this massive mess, and if they were at least she would have tried to help. I think a lot of people of all ages in the world are guilty of being a bystander. Being a bystander can be harmful even if the bullying doesn’t seem like a big deal. The good thing about Leah in DNA is that by the end she had had enough and started to stand up for Adam when he was discovered to still be alive. We see this in Leah’s last scene when Phil says to her “Everyone is happier. What’s more important; one person or everyone?”, Leah replies “It’s Adam, Phil, Adam!”

Everyone had to deal with the challenge of coming to terms with what they had done in their own way. Cathy got more violent, Brian got crazier and crazier, and Leah just got more and more stressed. Leah got so stressed that she had to leave. This was the biggest challenge that Phil faced. Leah had always been there for him, and he had never responded to her. She had sat there for years with him, talking to him. He was so sad when she left. I think this reflects the idea that if you are close to someone if you love them you have to let them know. If you never share how you feel you will end up like Phil, who only spoke after it was too late.

The title DNA was appropriate for this play because during the play, the DNA evidence that Cathy had got screwed them up. She was supposed to get it from a random man, but she looked for a man that fit the description that they had made up. “What we wanted was to cover up what had happened, not frame someone else.” The name DNA for this play was unique. This made it interesting.

I would recommend watching this play if it is performed. It is not appropriate for younger audiences because it is very dark, but it shows an interesting perspective about society, so would definitely be interesting to watch. The script of this play however if you wanted to read it may only be available to drama students and companies.

Text 4

Title 〜 Where it all began

Author 〜  Marian Keyes

Text Type 〜 Written text (Article)

Date Read 〜  1/10/2019

Where it all began is an article that briefly explains how Marian’s love of makeup began. One of her earliest memories is watching her mum use beauty products and marvelling at how cool they were. When she was about 12, Marian used makeup for the first time. She smothered her face in foundation. She thought she looked fabulous and instantly fell in love with using foundation. Marian got a job writing makeup columns for a magazine, and she received lots of free makeup, however, after a while, the magazine closed down and she returned to buying her own makeup. She remained interested in any aspect of beauty and still loves anything that is new or exciting.

“I looked…well, FABULOUS! My whey-white Celtic skin was bright orange.” It interested me when Marian Keyes wrote that she loved looking orange instead of her natural pale Irish skin tone. I feel like a lot of people around the world also feel like this, and they try to cover up their freckles or skin tone to ‘look better’. I love makeup, and experimenting with it just like Marian, but personally I feel weird if I don’t look like my natural self. This made me realise how lucky I was that I like my skin tone and that I also like when I get freckles because it’s usually because I’ve been out doing something fun like surfing. It also interested me when Marian wrote: “foundation was my bridge to the outside world.” This helped me to understand why she liked wearing foundation. When I am really tired or if I have a performance I will put on mascara because it makes me feel more confident and I feel like I don’t look so tired when I wear it. The only reason I don’t wear it every day is because I usually rub my eyes or smudge it some other way so that I look like a panda.

One of the messages I took from this text is that we are influenced by our parents more than we think. Marian’s love of makeup came from watching her mum as she carried out her skin routine and applied makeup. If we look at the world there are lots of examples out there of kids pursuing the same things as their parents. Actors like Blake Lively, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Anniston all have famous parents. Everyone is their own individual person, but we can’t help it if we want to do similar things to the people we love.

When Marian Keyes first got into makeup she didn’t have a lot of money, so affording it was a challenge. In her teenage years, she sometimes shoplifted the odd makeup pencil or lipstick. This is something that looking back she isn’t very proud of. She prioritized makeup in her twenties so often struggled to find spare money.  I feel like money is a challenge for most young people who are at college or flatting like Marian was. Makeup is expensive but it does make you feel good so I understand why people end up spending a portion of their paycheck on makeup. If I was Marian I would have bought a cheaper brand of lipstick instead of Chanel. She went to rehab for 6 weeks and came out of it with a better view of life and makeup. 

The title of this text was very appropriate. Where it all began suggests that it was something ongoing in Marian’s life that is still important to her. I think where it all began is a much more interesting name than something like ‘my obsession with makeup’.

I would recommend Where it all began to anyone wanting to read a fun relatable article. Even though it is quite short, it gives you a sense of understanding. If you like makeup this article will be a fun read.

Text 5

Title 〜 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air S1 E1

Created by 〜  Andy Borowitz, Susan Borowitz.

Text Type 〜 Visual

Date Watched 〜 7/4/2019

In the first episode of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Will Smith moves out of his hometown Philadelphia to stay with his rich Aunt and Uncle who live in Bel-Air. Will sticks to his Philly self much to the annoyance of his uncle Phil who wants Will to “straighten out and learn some proper American values.” Will meets the family and starts to hang out with his little cousin Ashley who really admires him. 

I thought Wills cousin Ashley Banks was a really interesting character. She was interesting because she was different. She seemed like she was the only one in their family who hadn’t taken advantage of having money. I found it hard to relate to Ashley because we come from completely different worlds, but I feel like there are a lot of people out there who could relate to her. Ashley is the youngest child and I think her dad wants her to be a polite young lady.  Ashley is more interested in doing other things, and she sees Will as someone fun and different. There are people in this world who are constantly ruled by what their parents want, and what they think would be good for their child. I don’t relate to this because my family has always encouraged us to be independent, but I recognise that this might be happening to Ashley.

I took the importance of family away from this episode. Will was getting into trouble in his old neighbourhood, so his mum made the decision to send him to her sisters in Bel-Air to try to get him to turn his life around. Uncle Phil tells Will “Your aunt and I went to a lot of trouble to get you out here.” This quote shows that even though Will is a serious trouble maker and he has been seriously annoying Uncle Phil ever since he arrived Wills family is willing to do what it takes to help him go down a better path in life. This made me reflecton……

The whole of the Banks family had to adjust to life with Will. It was a challenge for all of them and for Will. Will was used to doing things his own way, but his rich family in Bel-Air had other ways of doing things. Uncle Phil was challenged by Wills behaviour, but Will was also challenged because suddenly he was expected to dress up in a tux for the dinner, cut down on his slang, and shake hands properly. I think Will was a little bit out of line, but to be fair I don’t think he had bad intent in the way he acted, he just wasn’t used to acting politely. This episode made me realise that it is okay for change not to go smoothly, because the point of it is to gain a different outcome, and it wouldn’t be change if you didn’t have to adjust to something different.

I love the title of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This is because it sums up what Will thought of himself, and it shows what his reputation was like in Philadelphia. When Will first meets Geoffrey he tells him that he doesn’t think he should call him Master William. “What would you prefer?” “Check this, His royal Freshness.” Wills response to Geoffrey’s question reflects his attitude and why he is called the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

I would recommend the fresh prince of bel air to everyone over 13. The reason for this is that on Netflix it is an R13 series, and it is one of the most entertaining TV shows I have ever watched. It is filled with comedy and life lessons, and you feel like you actually get to see a part of what someone else’s life is like. 

Text 6

Title 〜Teeth

Author 〜  Marian Keyes

Text Type 〜 written text (article)

Date Read 〜 7/10/2019

Marian Keyes wrote this article about how her teeth have been through her life. Between the ages of 20 and 30, she was mentally not doing too well at life, so the last thing on her mind was going to the dentist. One time in rehab she was eating a chocolate bar when she heard her tooth crack, so she went to the dentist only to have a root canal done. Her visits to the dentist became regular as more teeth broke, and she ended up getting a lot of procedures done only to have them break. 

I was interested by Marians story because at my age it is not often that someones teeth are needing work because they have been neglected. “My teeth cause me nothing but misery and it’s entirely my own fault.” It is good that Marian Keyes can see that she didn’t take good care of her teeth because I feel like there are people in this world who drink a lot and who don’t take care of their health who have bad teeth. These people aren’t doing anything about it, and not that its a bad thing them not taking care of their teeth, they just must cause them so much pain. 

This article made me realise that going to the dentist and taking care of your teeth are important. I felt like it was relatable because like Marian I have also had my fair share of time at the dentist. I have never liked going to the dentist or currently the orthodontist. As a child it was because I felt awkward, but now it is because I’ve been through a lot of pain with the orthodontist. My teeth were a bit special, so I had to have an operation to make them come down through the roof of my mouth, and now every time I go to the orthodontist i am reminded of that pain. 

I feel like it would have been challenging for Marian Keyes to go through all of the procedures she did at the dentist. Not only does going there when you are an adult cost a lot of money, but it is also incredibly time consuming. I respect her for trying to make her teeth good and healthy again though because it does take a lot of patience.

I would recommend this to someone who has either neglected their teeth or has spent a lot of time at the dentist because it makes you feel like you are not alone, and some of her experiences are really funny.