The Summer I Fell in Love With Reading

The Summer I Turned Pretty By Jenny Han. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty is a book and a TV series on Prime Video. The book series is The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer. When I first started reading The Summer I Turned Pretty, I fell in love with the storyline and characters. The main character is Isabelle Conklin, Belly. She has liked Conrad Fisher since she was twelve. But he has never shown much interest until this summer. Jeremiah is Conrad’s younger, better-looking brother. Jeremiah has been a better friend to Belly forever. While also having a fat crush on her. When Belly finds out she realizes that Jeremiah might be a better choice, but she can’t get her mind off Conrad.

The author makes the storyline very engaging and easy to follow. She uses flashbacks to help us understand where the story is headed. I will say I didn’t like the ending because she ended up with the brother I didn’t want, but it's ok. The plot goes back and forth between loving Jeremiah to loving Conrad. I think that this makes the story 10 times more engaging.

I read these books over the summer and I couldn't stop reading. Every day I had my book with me and a water bottle. I was entertained for hours on end. Until the sad day when I finished all 3 books. 

-Zoe

Is It Ethical to Eat Meat?

 https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/is-it-ethical-to-eat-meat/ 

Eating meat is a quintessential part of societies all over the world. What would the world be if not for a juicy hamburger or bacon with eggs? The giant turkey leg is one of the most iconic snacks in Disneyworld, the land of magic. But, with the increase of vegetarians worldwide, and more people having the choice to live solely off vegetables, the practice of eating meat comes into question. Is it ethical to eat meat? This question, although ancient, has grown over time, with overwhelming evidence to go vegan or vegetarian. However. while eating meat in today’s society is unethical, that doesn’t necessarily mean people have to give it up. 

There aren’t a lot of points meat-eaters can make. One of the most common ones is that any carnivore or omnivore does it – without them, herbivores would run loose, overpopulating habitats worldwide, or even the opposite – they’ll go extinct. However, this argument is flawed in that if the demand for livestock goes down the natural supply of livestock naturally decreases. Some people have the choice to reduce animal suffering – yet many don’t. From an anti-meat eating viewpoint, eating meat just for pleasure, just because it tastes good, is rationally and morally unjustifiable.

Another argument is that humans have been eating meat for at least 2.6 million years, according to Smithsonian paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner (Nature). Why change that? In addition, animals have been domesticated for thousands of years, with humans and animals living side by side. In Nick Zangwill’s, “Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat,” he argues that we must eat meat because domesticated animals rely on us – just as we rely on them. In the past, with disregard to current extremely cruel factory farming, humans have given animals, in general, good lives. To put it plainly, he states that a happy cow that is raised to be slaughtered is better than no cow at all (Zangwill). The major counter-argument to this is that, no matter how they come into life, no animal wants to suffer. Farmed animals lived without us and some people are now able to live without them as well.

There are countless reasons to stop or decrease meat intake; health, environmental, and in particular, animal welfare. Livestock production takes up a fifth of the world’s carbon emissions and requires tens of times of land and water (Nuwer). There are countless horrors of factory farming, and that’s one of the driving reasons why people go vegan. However, most don’t. That’s because each person is a blend of their cultures – many of which have meat consumption engrained deeply within them. People were raised eating meat, they have family recipes and comfort foods. To expect people to be in a position where they can let go of a part of themselves is unreasonable. 

The community of vegans and vegetarians is a culture as well, and people are free to enter and leave that community – just as someone wouldn’t push their religious views on someone else, meat-eating should be treated similarly. People are not fully rational and most people choose to do so. It takes time to change; people in future generations will not have the same connection to meat as we or our ancestors have. Through these changes, “ethical omnivores” have been born – people who are opposed to factory farming and support free-range farming and other more “ethical” ways of meat consumption. And while there may not be any form of “ethical” animal farming, it is still a colossal step from a few centuries ago, when scientists like Rene Descartes, called animals unconscious and unable to feel pain (Smith). Because it’s unrealistic for people to drop parts of their cultures, I believe that people don’t have to give up eating meat, at least not immediately, even though meat consumption is inherently unethical. 

-Max

Works Cited

Nuwer, Rachel. “Raising Beef Uses Ten Times More Resources than Poultry, Dairy, Eggs or Pork.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, 21 July 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/beef-uses-ten-times-more-resources-poultry-dairy-eggs-pork-180952103/.

Pobiner, Briana. “Evidence for Meat-Eating by Early Humans.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 2013, www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/evidence-for-meat-eating-by-early-humans-103874273/.

Smith, Jack. "Vegetarianism and Veganism: Animals and Moral Status." The Missouri Review, vol. 39 no. 2, 2016, p. 179-190. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/mis.2016.0031, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/623544/.

Zangwill, Nick. Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat. Cambridge University Press, 2021, Cambridge University Press, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-american-philosophical-association/article/our-moral-duty-to-eat-meat/8FBE9042D1AFDBDE56F6CE1B56D25C82.

Boromir: Lord of the Rings

 

By: Erik Fahnestock

In the book Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring there is a very interesting character and deep character named Boromir. To give a little backstory most of the free peoples of middle earth (Elves, Men, and dwarfs) have been fighting off Sauron's forces from the land of Mordor in the east, and Boromir's city/kingdom is on the front lines of the war. Gondor, Boromir's hometown, and more specifically the city he grew up in, Minas Tirith, is right on the border of Mordor, this leads to much fighting and resistance from where he is from.

Boromir is a great warrior and son of the Stuart of Gondor, Denethor, at the time there is no current king so Denethor is the main ruler of Gondor. The war between Mordor and Gondor is worsening and Boromir wants answers, so he goes to the city Rivendell, an Elvish city that is located in the west and is the house of Elrond, one of the wisest Elves, or any being, at the time. After he makes the long journey to Rivendell he is invited to the council of Elrond where he finds that the ring of power has been found, and he chosen to be part of the fellowship.

The one ring is a very tempting thing, it speaks to you of power and desire, that if you could obtain this ring you would be the most powerful, and Boromir is merely a man, so he is tempted. Boromir expresses temptation and longing for the ring throughout the book and almost feels intitled to it, he feels this because his hometown, Gondor, is contributing the most in the war against Sauron. The point that he's coming from is actually quite sensible, his people are suffering the most in the war and he thinks that it can help if they use the power of the ring for good, but they can't, the reason for this is that the ring was made by Sauron and the ring is Sauron, Sauron is the ring. What this means is that if they tried to use it Sauron would know exactly where it was, as he did not know where it was, and would be able to retrieve it very easily, leading to him gaining full power again.

In the end of the Fellowship of the Ring Boromir pleads Frodo, who is the ring bearer, to give him the ring, and eventually resorts to attacking Frodo, which leads to Frodo putting on the ring, telling Sauron ad his servants where he was. In this situation Boromir is very desperate, he just wants what's best for his people, who knows if he genuinely wanted the ring for himself, maybe he would've used it the best he could, for good, but he let temptation take over him. This can relate to things in our life, we might think that something is good and will help yourself and other, but you don't see the bigger picture and the other factors it might effect.

How do you define “family”?

 How do you define “family”?

By: Emma Hendricks

Trying to define family is sometimes difficult for me. There is close family and family you see every once in a while. Additionally, for me there is family who I’ve never met but my dad still wants me to acknowledge and talk to. So awkwardness is  a given. A small amount of my family lives in Illinois with me but the rest are spread out in different areas. I can visit them occasionally but it still is a bit weird since. I don’t see them and know them like my everyday family.

I think that a huge part of defining family is how they treat you. My close family is able to joke around with me and have fun and isn’t uptight and awkward. With some of my other family we argue a lot and it just isn’t as enjoyable to hang out with them. You should be able to feel comfortable and free to mess around and not have to hold yourself back. When you’re upset they’ll know just how to cheer you up. And  they know everything you like and do. 

There’s also my family in New York who I’m technically not blood related to in anyway but we still visit them. It’s always a little bit odd to visit them because we only see them once every two years and when we do its for a few days. They also aren’t very inclusive with my mom or I which really puts the cherry on top for things to be uncomfortable. But then there is the opposite, my dad Patrick. I get to visit him around once a year, twice if I’m lucky and even though I don’t see him a lot he knows just how to make me feel at home every time. He has all the traditions for us to do when I see him and there is never an awkward moment no matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other.  

So I would say that defining family isn’t so simple but that your family should make you feel included, and allow you to have fun and be yourself. Because there really is a difference between family and just people that you call family because you are related. It’s defined in the way they treat you and understand you as a person. In my opinion I consider family I talk to the most and I’m confortable with all the time to be my true family. Otherwise they just seem like people who happen to be related to me.

Lifeboat 12 - Wars, Family, and Torpedoes. The story of Ken.

Cadence Scheunemann

    Lifeboat 12 is the story of a thirteen-year-old boy named Ken trying desperately to escape from different things. The three main things he is trying to run away from are World War 2, his family, and a big fat torpedo. Ken lives in England smack dab in the middle of a life of war bombings and ration tickets. Ken has a small family of three. His dad works a job that makes little and asks much of him. Ken's mum died during Ken's birth and his father ended up marrying Ken's nanny, Nora, and having Margaret, Ken's little sister. One day, an important envelope comes to Ken's house, telling the family Ken is eligible to escape England on a boat headed for Canada. The boat is huge and festive, but on the fourth day of their voyage, a German U-boat sends a torpedo hurtling at the ship. Ken has to learn to survive through it all. In Lifeboat 12, Ken narrates his story in first person, in poetry form. This helps to lead us to the idea that Ken is telling us his story in fragments as he would have thought it at the time.

    Ken is trying to get away from his stepmum at the beginning of the story because he feels she treats him differently since he is not her kid. Ken often compares his relationship with his mum to the relationship between Margaret and his stepmum. Ken even thinks, "I feel like a hand-me-down my stepmum doesn't want" (Hood 8). In this situation, Ken feels upset about the way his mum is treating him and this makes him want to run away from his family. Later on, when Ken finally gets to go away on a boat to Canada, his stepmum doesn't even wave goodbye as she walks away from him at the train station. This solidifies Ken's wish to leave his family behind.

    Near the beginning of the novel, Ken is affected by World War 2. Originally, only rumors of battles and bombs reached Ken's ears. One of the only ways the war affected him was through his food, and ration stamps making it hard to eat yummy things. Soon before Ken needs to leave to catch his boat out of England, Germans begin to bomb his home nearly every night. The first night the bombs hit, Ken and his family need to hide under their kitchen table, unable to make it to the shelter in time. In this instance, Ken thinks, "This is it. Hitler has taken over Europe. And now he's coming for England. He's coming for us"(Hood 17). The fear in Ken's tone implies he is looking for a way out of the war. The rest of the nights Ken is still in England, he has to hide in the bomb shelters every night. The bomb shelters are stuffy and filled to the brim with people, leading Ken to fantasize about his new life in Canada. The war makes him wish he could run away from England.

    After safely boarding the SS City of Benares (The ship), Ken enjoys four blissful days of ice cream, games, and lifeboat drills. However, in the middle of the night on the fourth day, the ship is hit by a German torpedo. Ken runs to his lifeboat, just like he practiced, but he ends up missing his boat, #8. Ken is desperate to escape the ship. With encouragement from some other boys, Ken jumps into lifeboat #12, desperately trying to run away from the sinking ship. 

    Please read Lifeboat 12 to find out what happens to Ken!