This month I read the book One Eye Laughing, The Other Eye Weeping by Barry Denenberg. One Eye Laughing, The Other Eye Weeping is a historical fiction book about Vienna, Austria when it was occupied by Hitler’s association. The main character’s name is Julie Weiss and her family lives in the capitol of Vienna, Austria. Her family is very rich as they have many dinner parties and elegant house decor. As the war got worse, the Nazis came to Julie’s house and took her mother, father, and brother. When they got back they told her that the Nazis made them work while people yelled slurs at them. Then her mom committed suicide. Julie’s father decides the best decision is to sent her to America. She then lives with her aunt in New York, New York. She then begins her acting career. I loved that even though in the darkest times, Julie still found light in those times and persevered through it showing that she is brave and she is determined to not get herself all upset. One of my favorite quotes from this novel is, “

“I HATE borrowing books from the library. I don’t like being compelled to return them by a certain, specified time. . .All last night I imagined I could hear the book loudly ticking away as I tossed and turned, vainly trying to go to sleep. TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK, READ ME NOW, OR TAKE ME BACK.” This quote stands out to me because, like Julie, I don’t like being forced to do something at a certain time. I like having control like Julie. Julie loves being in control especially because there are lots of things she can’t control.

Another book I read this month was Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book is about a girl names Beatrice. In this dystopian novel Beatrice has to choose between five factions, Candor, the honest,Abegnation, the selfless, Dauntless, the brave, Erudite, the intelligent, or Amity, the peaceful. She takes the test and figures out she is a divergent which is very rare and dangerous. She now must live her life hiding this horribly dangerous secret. She chooses Dauntless and goes through their vigorous training barley passing. She makes friends and deals with betrayal. She faces hardship during the war at the very end of the book. One of my favorite quotes is, “Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear and become free from it. That’s the point.” This is my favorite because I can relate to it and it is very powerful for me. This shows that you can still be scared of things but they will no longer hold you back from other things in life, therefore you are set free from it. Beatrice also can be very fearful sometimes. Beatrice is a very intelligent person because throughout this book she is always finding solutions that save lives.