#2 Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 2006

After staying in Italy for ten days Liz succumbs back to loneliness and depression. Only Liz does not refer to them as "loneliness" and "depression" but as Loneliness and Depression. She personifies them as two cops with whom she was very familiar with after several years of enjoying their company. Loneliness is the nicer cop but is still ruthless and Depression is the brawn of the two. In the night that followed she wrote to herself in her notebook to bring herself much needed comfort. She wrote, "I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me." When she awoke the next morning both Depression and Loneliness were gone. 

When I was little I was always the odd one out. I was always targeted by bullies for being over emotional and never had more than one or two friends at a time until I reached fourth grade. Loneliness was kind of a given, and so was depression to tell the truth although I don't suppose I can quite call it that. It was more like continuous sadness. But had my loneliness and sadness became Loneliness and Sadness, I believe I would have prevailed a lot better. I was not lonely, Loneliness was stalking me. I could never be sad, Sadness could only spy on me. It is much easier to fight someone else than yourself and with the superhuman strength all children have, Loneliness and Sadness would have never stood a chance.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 2006

I could summarise this book in six words: THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER! But since each of these blogs have to be at least two hundred and fifty words, I might as well give you a bit more background information. This book is an autobiography of Liz Gilbert, a woman in her thirties who has everything she is supposed to want in this world except happiness. After a painful divorce and an equally disastrous love affair Liz decides to travel the world for a year; four months in each India, Italy, and Indonesia in order to help and more importantly discover herself. 

By page thirteen of this book I decided I liked this woman. By page fourteen I decided we were soul sisters. On such said page thirteen Liz began to talk about her religious views and I briefly had to put down the book for a moment. While I was gone I started thinking about my religious views. When I came back and read the following page Liz had written the exact same thing I had just thought to myself. (Insert Twilight Zone music here) We both believe that God (or whatever your head god is called) does not care who you are, what religion you study, or what your ethnicity is. As long as you devote yourself to a life time of humility, kindness, etc. This is exactly what I felt about my own beliefs and the exact problem I have always had with Christianity. I have always had many non-christian friends and countless times I asked the question, "What about the people who don't believe but are still good? What about them?" and never have been able to find a satisfying answer. She explains her religion as taking all of the best qualities from each god and applying them all to one. The answer she gives to those who ask her about her beliefs is, "I believe in a magnificent God." 

#3 Star Trek by Vonda N. McIntyre 1986

I would like to announce that I have finished Star Trek. *bows at the applause* Thank you, thank you all very much. Star Trek no matter how nerdy it sounds was a very good book. It put a very big emphasis on the value of our differences and uniqueness.  At the closing point of the book Federation Space (a.k.a the good guys) and the Kilngon Empire (a.k.a. the opponents) came to a temporary truce in which the interstellar circus the Enterprise was carrying preformed. The Klingons were both appalled and offended by the 'witchery' in the magic act to the point where they did not enjoy the rest of the show. But the very last act, a modern rendition of a scene in Hamlet that the Federation found less appealing than the original, was adored by the Klingon Empire. That one, seemingly insignificant, act very well saved the two places from an act of war. It might be a cliche to say that small things can make the biggest difference but that is what applies here.

 A mixture of entities and characters are essential for the checks and balances necessary in smooth operations. Captain Kirk said himself that the reason he and Commander Spock made such a good team was the fact that they were so different. One person can preform a job that another one can not and this helps structure the way we live. Our dependence on each other goes far beyond the people we know. Being good at one thing does not mean we will be good at another. The last line in this book illustrates this when Spock tells doctor McCoy  on behalf of the circus's illusionist, "You are a doctor, not a magician."

#2 Star Trek by Vonda N. McIntyre 1986

One of the best underlying messages I see in Star Trek is the acceptance of culturally different people. Being a xenophobe is enough to get you kicked out of the Starfleet and all different forms of beings have to coexist. Mr. Spock is always trying to decipher human emotions and one of the more predator-like crew members was outraged at the fact one man kept a wild cat as a pet. One secretary took her nervousness to the extreme but once you realize that she had a troubled past, was trying to support her two younger brothers, and hiding the fact that she was really three years younger than she said she was, that nervousness becomes understandable. 

Closer to the end of the book the Enterprise stumbles across a species no one has encountered before. They travel in a far more advanced ship; one that takes on the form of a small world. Their kind did not build it and nor does anyone run it. There are no leaders either, they live their lives as the please. Communicating is difficult because neither species can make sense of the other. 

Understanding others is what I pinpointed as the books theme.  Even in ordinary situations and every day conversations it is essential to know the character of the person whom you are speaking with. Otherwise offence could be taken from things not intended to be offensive or the point you are making meaningless. Like everyone would always tell you when you were little: It is good to be unique. We each add something different to the world that makes our lives run as we know it.

Star Trek by Vonda N. McIntyre 1986

I know that Star Trek is not the 'insightful' book I need to be reading for AP Language and Composition but this was the book I was reading at the beginning of the year and it is the book I am determined to finish. 

The book is about Captain James Kirk's first mission upon the U.S.S. Enterprise. James is given the honor of Captain after a brilliant (and completely reckless) move at the battle of Ghioghe. But the mission he gets is not exactly what he had in mind: ferrying an intergalactic troupe of circus performers. But Captain Kirk can't just simply go out into space without an adventure. An outlawed renegade named Koronin acquires a ship when she kills its owner in a duel. She then makes way for the Federation Limits... exactly where the Enterprise is heading. I predict that James Kirk will finally prove himself to his skeptical, unwilling crew as he shows them that he is capable of the necessary leadership. I think the book has done a very good job with pacing itself. I have seen other forms of Star Trek with Captain Kirk's unwavering faithful crew and it is nice to see just how that trust was formed. It is also paced well in its plot. It keeps you interested and content. All the while it pulls you in because you know that the climax is yet to come and has to be bigger and better than all of which came before it.