Hello world and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! For the past couple of weeks in my English class, we have been reading the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. This book is by far one of my favorites that I have ever read in any of my English classes. I have learned so much from this novel, such as what it is like to grow up during Mao's Cultural Revolution. The author has given me such a vivid idea of re-education that it is almost like I have lived through it. The two main characters of the book, known as the unnamed narrator and his friend Luo, have been living through it for months. Just reading about their day to day adventures and experiences gives me such a large idea of what re-education is like. I think that learning about a historical time in a fictional novel is more intimate than reading it straight from facts because when there are characters and someone for you to relate to and be apart of is something that draws people into the novel and becomes more intrigued by it. It also lets people experience this time as if they were in the book themselves, which is something really special. I overall love this book so very much and I will be sad when it comes to an end.

To end this post, one of my favorite quotes from the book itself,
" P.S. I just remembered something funny I wanted to tell you: since your visit I've come across several people whose second toes are longer than their big toes, just like ours. I'm disappointed, but that's life."
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next time!

Hello everybody and welcome back to another week of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! This past week was the last week of my first quarter into my sophomore year, to say the least I was surprised at how fast this year is already going by. English is of course my favorite class as it has always been and it will probably always be. I believe that so far into the year I am doing very good in my class thus far. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. It was just something that I was good at I guess. I have noticed that I am very good at adding notes here and there in the conversations that can add a new idea to what we were discussing. I feel like I participate a lot but I definitely could participate more than I do now. I could benefit from myself by practicing my vocab much more than I do. I do really good on the quizzes the week with the new words but I struggle a little with remembering the old ones. Overall I feel that this first quarter of the year has been very successful and I am excited to continue the year with this good feeling! I also cannot wait to get to know my classmates more and learn new things everyday that will help me better understand literature!

My quote of the week is in the image above! 

"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend" -Henry David Thoreau 

Thank you for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope you will read again next week!

Hello world and welcome back to another week of, you guessed it, Sierra's Weekly Sayings! So this week an event has been brought to my attention, National Banned Book Week. In all honesty I had no idea this week even existed. I knew that some books were banned in the past but I never knew that it had a whole week dedicated to them. I took a look at the most recently challenged book list of 2015, and I am a little surprised about the novels that have been listed there. Out of all  the books on the list I have read three of them. Perks of Being a Wallflower, House on Mango Street, and The Complete Persepolis. I kinda agree with these three books being on the list. I have only read each of these books only once but the first time I did, I will admit it was a bit confusing, especially The Complete Persepolis. All three of these books each had different themes to them but they were all complex in their own ways. They all had a lot of ideas that might be difficult for people to understand because no one can fully understand what message the Author is trying to get across. I believe others might view these books as dangerous because it is showing people that it is ok to be different and that we are not all the same. Everyone is unique and in some cultures being different or standing out is considered dangerous. I am willing to risk everything in order to be able to read a book deemed illegal by my community. I would only stop if it ever put anyone I care about in harms way. I think the main reason I would still read it would be that I do not care what other people think and I would do it to be different. I love being unique and I would not trade who I am for the world.

Never forget to be unique and that it is ok to break the rules every once in a while, but for good reasons only. To end this post, a quote that I think is perfect for this weekly blog.
"A reader lives a thousand lives before they die, the ones who never read, live only one" -George RR Martin
Thanks for reading this weeks addition of Sierra's Weekly Sayings! Hope you read again next week!