Mariah

I am currently reading the nonfiction book __Stick Figure__. It is about a young girl who at the young age of 11 becomes anorexic. So far it is really funny because she is a very smart and sarcastic girl. It is really depressing to see her faced with all the pressures of growing up in southern California. Everyone wants to be perfect, and by second grade all of the girls are more concerned with makeup and clothes than anything. I am really enjoying it right now, although I am only a few chapters in. I can't imagine what it would be like to be that concerned with your weight and other petty details like that just in grade school. I feel really bad for the author not only because she is under all this pressure, but also because no one understands her. She is very intelligent and "unique" and no one knows quite how to deal with her. I would truly hate to be in her situation.

I am not having a problem reading this nonfiction text. It is written much like a fiction novel, so it is very easy to understand. It is the diary of a young girl, but she is very smart and it is written in a much more advanced way. I am able to read it just like that of a nonfiction because of the way it is written.

I don't really feel like getting a picture so I'll just put a song lyric. Its pretty obvious, but I have had this stuck in my head for days so. "Come on can you count all the notches in your belt? I'd rather not, lets just say I'm starving myself." Pretty outright but oh well. Its from At Least I'm Not As Sad As I Used To Be by fun. by the way.

2-2-10 The book I am reading now is, __These is my Words__ by Nancy E. Turner. I actually am done with the book already, and I loved it. It is the diary of a girl named Sarah over a 20 year span. It tells of her life traveling by covered wagon and starting anew in the Arizona territory. It takes place from 1881-1901. I didn't think I was going to like it at all because of the style it is written in at the beginning. She is basically self educated, and her language at first is very beginner. As the book goes on she learns more and more through her obsession with books and knowledge, and by the end she is able to write just as good as any educated people of her time. To my great surprise I fell in love with this book and cannot wait to start the second of this three book series. I think that my favorite thing about this novel is that it is written as a diary. This allows you to get a really close and personal look into the life of Sarah Prine. Rather than having an outside point of view, the journal makes you feel connected to the character. It feels more like you are there with her and not just observing from a distance. . This first image is the cover of the book. The second is an image depicting life as a covered wagon traveler in the 1800's. A large part of this novel is their journey through the territories, so I feel that this image is a good representation of this novel.

Civil war research paper Abraham Lincoln quotes:

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 * Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.
 * Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.
 * My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth
 * No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent
 * The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.
 * Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
 * Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Union General William T. Sherman said this shortly before beginning his brutal March to the Sea
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over

"It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it." General Lee to General Longstreet .