My First book that I read that was out of my comfort zone was Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. This teen romance novel tells the story of a young pair of teens named Eleanor and Park and how they struggle to keep their first relationship afloat despite the discrimination and harassment from both their classmates and Eleanor's abusive stepdad Richie.
Personally, although I really didn't like the idea of reading some sappy teen love story, I thought the book was well written and could really send the reader on an emotional rollercoaster if they really got connected with the characters. Some of the strengths of the book would have to be its writing style and ability to sympathize with most people around the main character's age group who may be experiencing some of the problems that the main characters are going through within the novel. This book's writing style is one that switches narration between Park and Eleanor at each new chapter. Due to this unique style of writing, the story is told from both perspectives, appealing to a wider range of readers. Next, the book really sympathizes to those who are going through problems or who are feeling a little bit down by telling an inspirational story of overcoming obstacles in an effort to help each other. Since Eleanor is the new kid at Park's highschool, she has to deal with constant bullying based on how she looks and tells about how she is able to deal with them. Some of the weaknesses that I found in this book would have to be its somewhat guessable plot and the fact that there isn't very many plot twists or elements that would make it more interesting. I feel as if the pace of the novel was pretty monotonous and that I could in some cases know exactly what would happen before I read that far in the book. Also, considering I really enjoy books that keep me on the edge of my seat, this book really wasn't too enjoyable for me to read overall. If anything, I'd probably recommend this book to young adults who would preferably be in high school because I feel that the book goes over some sensitive topics that younger readers may not be comfortable with reading and that it would be the time when the reader would connect most with the plot of the book.
This book was way out of my comfort zone given my background in solely reading sci-fi or action/thriller books. This book slowly ended up growing on me and although it wasn't my absolute favorite book, it wasn't the worst book I've read. This book didn't have too big of an impact on my reading preference but I feel like it was a genre that I would eventually end up reading anyways. Honestly, I really didn't enjoy reading this book and I probably won't be reading another book within this genre anytime soon unless it is necessary for school. I would much rather be reading a book that makes me want to keep reading rather than one that felt like more of a chore than fun.

For about three days of class, we watched the movie Jane Austen's Book Club. Personally, I didn't particularly enjoy the film considering I'm not one who particularly enjoys books and also thought the movie was pretty boring.Some of its strengths were that it showed how books can be used to express ones emotions through the constant quoting during the film, and the fact that books can be a way of meeting new people and bringing people together. The whole plot of the movie revolved around the idea of relating to and discussing Austen's books which can be considered both a strength and a weakness in my opinion. On one hand, people who have read the books can easily relate to their ideas and on the other hand, people who have never read the books are left clueless.  In the movie, each character was supposed to represent the main character of the books they were reading, however, we had never actually read anything by Jane Austen. I can't really take much from this movie either way because not only did I not understand what they were talking about, I also wasn't able to watch most of the second half of it either.

During the movie, there were some points where each character stepped out of their comfort zones in order to expand their horizons. One person who displayed this attribute from the start of the film was Grigg, the lone man in the book club. For starters, he chose to join the book club that was all about a genre of book that he knew nothing about. He was invited to the club by Jocelyn and was brave enough to read an out of comfort zone book as well as try to be in an all girl club. In Grigg's case, he ended up thoroughly enjoying the new genre and really was enjoying the book club and spending time with the girls. Another time that Grigg stepped out of his comfort zone was when he gave Sylvia a chance at going on a date. Unlike the other time he stepped out of his comfort zone, this lead to Sylvia actually going back to her ex-husband and Jocelyn ended up falling for Grigg in the process.
This movie expresses the power of books and their ability to help people and bring them together. One example of books helping people through their lives would be when Sylvia ends up trying to make her marriage work with her ex-husband again because she read the book Mansfield Park in which the main character is tempted in falling in love with another person but ends up staying true to her heart and marrying the person she originally loved. This book club also manages to bring together six unlikely friends together to get to know each other and discuss ideas about not only books, but about their lives as well.

For this group reading project, we decided to read The DaVinci Code, a book which fell under the suspense and thriller genre. I would describe this genre as an action book that somewhat verges on the edges of horror and detective fiction. These books usually center around one major conflict and small events that build up tension and eventually lead to a grand event at the end of the book that makes everything come full circle and is the major confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist. What specifically appeals to me about these books are the fact that they usually leave you on the edge of your seats and make you constantly think about how the author will be able to tie everything into a sound conclusion. Furthermore, I also enjoy how the authors are able to create somewhat of an emotional connection to the main characters as the book progresses which make the stressful and dangerous situations they get into impact you as a reader. Within this genre, I have read a multitude of books such as the Divergent series, To Kill a Mockingbird, some of John Grisham's novels. In the future I might read a few more books by Dan Brown such as Angels and Demons. What I found interesting about this genre was that movies such as Austin Powers were considered as suspense.

For our book we read The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Some of the genre traits that were evident throughout the book were the villain's perspective, the peril and danger that the main characters were in and the high risk behind their adventure. I honestly consider this book to be one of my favorite books of all time because it really kept me guessing at how it would end, but also was written in a way that I could almost believe that the story was real. I would definitely recommend this book to others because unlike most other thrillers that may be set in a place that doesn't really exist, this book involves real events in history and it really showed that the author researched the topic immensely in order to write this story.
One of the genres that seemed to interest me the most had to be the graphic novel genre. Considering that they are starting to become more popular, I have taken an interest into reading them but have never really gotten the chance. I feel as though it will be a different experience entirely from reading a normal book because I won't have to try to picture everything happening in my head as I read. I plan to read the book Watchmen later as well as the Scott Pilgrim series because my friends have said that they were all really fun to read. I learned that these books are not like comic books and that they can be about anything unlike the common thought that they are all about superheroes.