A Penguin's Readings (Mostly History And Science)- Mariam Abuhamra by Mariam Abuhamra https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7 Always Waddling Along Happily en-us 2018-09-04 16:03:11 UTC 2018-12-02 19:41:42 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-uploads.storage.googleapis.com/309061131/9708704bdcc58e5df81632a01d78f024/book_fair_clipart_8.png The Origin of Species Unraveled (9/9) mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279177769
I am currently reading, believe it or not, The Origin of Species. Yes, I know, I know, I’m a nerd, or at least a nerd in the making. Contrary to popular belief, it is not boring, and if you are one of those readers who think it is keep reading; I’m sure you’ll be convinced The Origin of Species CAN be a joy to read. I chose this book because I was interested on learning about concepts that were briefly skimmed in my science classes; number one on the list happened to be natural selection. Where better to find a book on natural selection than the source that firsts introduces the concept? I am also reading another book about finches and current finds on natural selection which helps me to compare The Origin of Species to advances in the same theory. Exciting, right? Did you know that The Origin of Species has almost nothing to do with finches, or at least, that’s what the introduction said. I was utterly amazed when I figured that out because it makes you realize how wrong 80% of population has it with Darwin and his finches (no mistake finches still played a role in the formation of the theory of natural selection). I hope you like pigeons though because there are plenty of those. I love the book so much and recommend it to anyone who is interested on figuring out how the theory of evolution is different in some senses to natural selection. Who knew, right? How can anyone love a book filled with numbers, beaks, facts and dates, you might ask. Well, firstly penguins are very interested in beaks, and secondly wouldn’t you agree that it is more than that. You are looking at discovery, the words of a man who lived in an entirely different environment with a magnificent thought that was so alienated, that is still alienated even though we learn about it in biology, that he took care to use such cautious words, like “might”. It’s like you are talking to Darwin himself. It’s like traveling back to the 1800s in London and standing by his side watching as he carefully writes the words that would continue to exist for the next 200 years. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this book and yet Darwin continues to amaze me with his finds and I’m continuously at disbelief about what natural selection means. I judge books by writing style and something about the way he writes makes it hard to close the book. His speech is elegant and analytical about all the details that fiction writers just love to miss, no offense to people who like fiction but that is just the way I see it. You travel to an unfamiliar time and witness a man overcome countless difficulties, familiar to fiction, except that you can leave from it and see the effects of that world in your world, all around you, you know that it happened that it’s real. I will continue the task of reading this vastly-known-as-boring book and will continue to report all the amazing findings that I can’t wait to discover.
 
WARNING
The historical sketch is a bore and will make you run away if you don’t realize that the sketch does not mirror the writing of the rest of the book. If you want background information then reading it is fine, but if you are afraid that you don’t have enough will to complete it, skip to the 1st chapter (I won’t tell anyone).
]]> 2018-09-09 17:16:35 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279177769 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279182002 2018-09-09 18:02:02 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279182002 Beginning of The Journey mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279182894 I took a well-deserved break from Darwin and am now exploring the world of uncle tom’s cabin. You might remember it from history class. Technically it’s not nonfiction but it’s close enough anyway. I’m curious about what in this book had the strength rupture a country, yet I’m disappointed in that I haven’t found out yet. The slaves, first of all, mostly have pretty good lives, no slashes or ironing or death threats even; that is what I call a happy beginning. Which probably means the author means to make readers feel good and then tear them down with agony. That’s what I call setting up proper heart break. Uncle tom has just been introduced in the story. I did not expect him to be an actual character but when I found out who he was he wasn’t who I expected. I had thought that he’d be energetic and young, but no he was an old man who sat in a cabin and couldn’t run away because he wanted to be a trustworthy Christian. IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!!! This is how I feel right now. If you don’t want to be imprisoned and worked to death, as Aunt Chloe explained quite well, you don’t walk strait into the hands of the slave trader. The place the plot is in now is frustrating but the author is amazing. She managed to make Haley obviously a bad guy without having him do anything wrong. You could see the devil look in his eyes without her ever telling you it was there. I’m really excited about what will happen next and the possibilities are endless.

]]> 2018-09-09 18:12:25 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279182894 Lost in the Desert 10/25 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279183831 This book is an easy read with an interesting plot for those interested. It begins with Amani, who is a girl who can point a gun like she can breathe, and who, consequently, is desperately trying to run from her home in the Arabian desert. At first, I thought it a simple book about a girl wondering through desert with nothing but a gun, I was wrong. I really like the main character, mostly because I like characters who will think like humans. that is, leave people behind even though they know it's wrong. It's romance and is filled will desperate children making a joke of their desperation so they don't have to face the truth. I never really had a strong reaction of emotion though so if you are looking for tears you won’t get it. Personally, I think the author could’ve tried harder on the look of the setting but they did an amazing job setting up twists and turns. They would be telling you hints without you catching on until another character says it plain out. Also, I’m confused. The book ends in a cliffhanger but the ending is satisfying enough to where you don’t have to read the second book. However, for the people who die. Not one funeral of any sort was ever mentioned. Cremation, or burial, except when the sand engulfed people but that was different. I mean someone died and no one mentioned it, not that there was much left over to bury. Maybe they should’ve made a funeral using something he owned. Either way, I love reading about children too grown up to be children because it makes me want to think more before I give someone my name. It was a great read and I recommend it for people who love romance in war and strong women figures.]]> 2018-09-09 18:22:02 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279183831 Getting Ahead 10/27 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279184007 Reading to kill a mocking bird was not at all what I expected. It began blandly making me think it was a mystery, the way it talked about Scout’s neighbors. Also, I read through 50 pages thinking that scout was a boy until I realized she was a girl. My favorite part was the court case and it was the first time I read about it. it put all my feelings when I watched Judge Judy into plain black and white, except about a much more important subject. I disliked the ending because I had no sense of closure. I felt as though I had just been carried through a very specific part of scout’s life and then was abandoned. What I loved about it, was the feel it gave me of their society. I could understand how each person was feeling and how foreigners were received. What really touched me was the bluntness of scout when she wanted something. While I was reading it, my friend begged me to read context about it first but I refused. She said that it was impossible I’d understand it the way I read it, and for a lot of what she said, she was right, but I can say right now that I still appreciated the writing of harper lee. I especially enjoyed the accents and now every now and then I’ll accidently try to use some words like “Pardon me misses” which is met with an odd look every time it leaves my lips. Definitely a recommendation for people who just want to read.]]> 2018-09-09 18:24:03 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279184007 Short Story Long 10/28 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279184038 I read 5 pages before I realized that I had watched the movie for the book. However, I was inclined to read the book because, yes, I wanted to get a bingo, but also because those five pages had made the story sound different. Since it was in first person, I read things about homer Hickam, the main character, that I had never picked up from the movie. I found joy in finding those little details that I never realized watching the movie. For example, Homer’s actual feelings towards the people around him. It reminded me of how terrible I am at understanding people’s emotions. Also, I related a lot to Sonny. In many ways, I can see how my parents are like his and it makes the things he says hit me closer because I’m thinking, “He understands the pain of having two parents that are at odds and a father who tends to always need to work to sustain himself.” Also, it gave me a sense of closure at the end that I never got from the movie. Especially since in the Epilogue you figure out what happened to everyone afterwards. It isn’t really exciting but you get a lot of good laughs from it. Especially from Homer’s mom. The book also shows more aspects of the time that homer was living. Like how the blacks had a separate school and church, and how everyone regarded the church. I love how you can see big events like the election of John F. Kennedy through the eyes of West Virginians, people who were there voting in and watching the election. I can’t help but feel that some of the joy of reading the book was stolen from me as a result of watching the movie, yet it felt great when I knew something was going to happen and it happened. ]]> 2018-09-09 18:24:17 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/279184038 The Origin of Species Unraveled 9/16 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/281937355 This is week 2 and I am still reading the Origin of Species. New update, if you don't have good vocabulary, you might want to try reading lower level books to develop it because jumping in to Darwin’s world with poor vocabulary is like jumping into a dragon's den without a sword or shield; you are going to get burned. Currently in the book, Darwin is introducing variation under domestication and trying to connect it to the possibility of natural selection. The more I read, the more skeptical I become. This is because, although he provides great facts and research that prove the existence of human selection, it doesn’t provide as a strong base to prove the existence of natural selection. After all, there are numerous concepts that play true within human civilization, however become false the moment we enter the realm of nature. Therefore, his weak connection between the two is solely based on logic, which is questionable in its own right. It makes me wonder why he never decided to do more extensive research in nature, rather than becoming a pigeon collector. Also, he mentions how the slightest variations could create a drastic change in balance. I have a difficult time both imagining and processing it. For example, if the concepts introduced in a controlled society should be so applicable to nature, at least as implied by Darwin, then the same should be true vice versa. Therefore, if my fingers were to somehow become slightly taller, it should create an unbalance in my environment that would affect my ability to function as efficiently as I was originally able. However, if you have not realized for yourself, any changes caused by the slight variation of my finger length would be minimal and indifferent to my ability to function. His facts don’t match up, but that’s most likely because I haven’t finished the book. Hopefully, with time he will explain these flaws with the two hundred something pages within his book left. Stay tuned for more information because I told you to and you know you want the answers to these questions as much as I do.]]> 2018-09-16 14:42:27 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/281937355 The Origin of Species Unraveled 9/23 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/284785918 This is week 3 and now I urge anyone reading this book to take it slowly, because I have found it very easy to get lost between Darwin's words. Now Darwin has begun to describe what his remarkable theory of natural selection is and the viewpoints of other natural scientists within his time period. Although I have been skeptical of his evidence up to this point, his logic has compelled me more than I had expected it to. It makes me understand as to why it took until the 1970s for anyone to actually go into nature and prove or disprove Darwin’s theories. His logic is so detailed that he has created a vivid image in my mind of how the British red grouse comes to be considered as part of a Norwegian species. The facts, or supposed facts, have twirled around my head throughout the week and I have come to the conclusion of confusion. I predict the rest of this book to be very repetitive especially since I doubt that he has any true evidence besides pigeons. You may be wondering, will it’s nice that your confused but why. It isn’t the logic that has confused me, it is his structure. I’m struggling to understand where he is leading me with his book and I find that a fundamental issue. If I don’t know where he is going then he has failed to convince me of anything thus far. Often times, I’ve had to read the same sentence 5 times before I could understand what he was attempting to say. Perhaps because I’m not thinking about this with the mindset of his targeted audience, and so I am only confused because Darwin had never written it with the intent of having a tenth grader read it in the 21st century. Perhaps with the repetition I predict, I will finally come to understand the mind of Darwin and his odd theory that seems to only be common sense nowadays.]]> 2018-09-23 19:06:48 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/284785918 The Origin of Species Unraveled 9/30 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/287371155 The pattern Darwin uses to prove his theories is consistent and now identifiable for me. I appreciate that every time he introduces a new concept he introduces it in the following order, theory, claims, evidence, reasoning. This also gives me room to critique him on his so called “evidence”. Where I am in the book, he is describing the diversity within a genus can be caused by the size of the genus. Regarding his evidence, it isn’t even directly related to his theory. It shows how a certain genus is like in relation to another topic and then he magically connects animals eating to a genus being diverse; it drives me crazy. I’m beginning to wonder that perhaps the only reason Darwinism exists is because a man had found a theory that was perceivable, that was logical, and therefor became true. This is exactly what many scientists must avoid in my opinion because it halts the enthusiasm of discovery since people believe you before you have truly discovered anything. It prevents us from completing the scientific process which prevents us from finding new discoveries in the process. It drives me mad, because somehow Darwin, in all his modesty, actually warns us of this truth, that he doesn’t have the evidence he needs, and then has people arguing about it for centuries without ever going into nature and finding out for themselves. It is because of the ignorance of these scientists, such as Darwin, that the science of Evolution is, many times, disregarded as a science, robbed of its intricacy. Darwin is just as much to blame as any other scientist who looked at his book without a spyglass. He shouldn’t have written this book, he should’ve passed his findings to his peers and he should’ve begged them to find real evidence. Sadly, that isn’t what he did, and now, we have found ourselves in a physics, chemistry, and biology rich world, that exists without evolution. Thanks a lot Darwin!

]]> 2018-09-30 19:22:16 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/287371155 Take 2 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/298097120 Harriet Stowe did not disappoint. She grabbed my heart and twisted it in ways I didn’t know possible. Then when I thought there couldn’t be worse, she shows me something else that is truly dreadful. The end of the book was sorrowful, and I finally saw its power to break apart countries. I had to repeatedly tell myself that the book was fiction for me to remember that Eliza and Evangeline were never real people. Although, perhaps there were others that lived very similar lives. This is not to say the book was as grand as some people make it to be. While reading it, I realized it’s influence was at times confusing. This was probably because she was trying not to break the barrier of reader acceptance. At one point, I found the turns and characters too much to handle, and it was giving me a headache about what would happen to poor, old Tom, so I didn’t want to finish reading it. Against myself, I read on and pitied every character I met in the pages. It made me think about what my priorities were, and what I was willing or unwilling to do. It made me think on a deeper level about the religion a followed, and whether I was devoting sufficient time to it. The last thing it made me think about was slaves and their freedoms even though it seemed to be her priority. This is probably because I was already agreeing with her before I even began reading the first word, and I find this might have even been true for many people who had this book fall into their hands. Even so, Stowe accomplished her task, she created and impact, that affects us to this day. This is because she put every battle that ever crossed the mind regarding slavery into black and white. She wrote it clear and made the thoughts organized so that in the end you are nodding your head, not melancholy, but with enthusiasm. She brought out things in me that I had hidden deep in my thoughts, and for that I’m grateful. Now if only someone could tell me the answer to the mystery as to why people decided to put peanut butter in candy.]]> 2018-10-29 15:52:19 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/298097120 The Iron Trial 11/10 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/302893642 Magisterium is definitely not a book that I’d usually be found reading, but I love to rant about books and this is a book to rant about. The iron trial is a, both frustrating and terrible book. it is mostly terrible because of pony boy, but it’s well written. The greatest twist was when I figured out why Call was supposed to be killed, but I had never expected it to be the reason. My sister warned me that I would never figure it out unless I read it, and quite sadly, she was right. I encourage you to read about a third the book and then make a bunch of crazy theories because it’s fun. You will never guess it. when I figured it out, I lost my breath, and it made me want to read the second book really badly. Personally, I love Aaron, he’s awesome, but annoying sometimes. Also watch out for pony boy, don’t trust him. I really hate Celia. I mean she is so naïve, and I feel like in the future she is going to get in the way of something big because of her naivety. You may be wondering why I read a fiction book. Well, I learned, and I can deny it no longer, that I am terribly insensitive to the people around me, mostly because I can’t read people. I just don’t understand them at all. My friend told me it was because the way in which I thought was very logical and by reading fictional books I would be able to experience some patterns in behavior and connect them to the real world. So that basically means that I’m reading this solely for phycological reasons and bingo. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun hating characters like Jasper and Celia who get in the way of everything on the way. Although, I think the character I hate the most is Alastair just because I barely know enough about him.

]]> 2018-11-10 18:22:05 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/302893642 all the rest 11/18 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/305747869 This is a five-book series and it was an enjoyable and easy read. If you like Percy Jackson and Harry potter, it’s basically a mix of the two. I read it mostly because my sister forced me to, but I enjoyed it all the same. I was so mad at the end because there was this piece of information I so desperately wanted to know, and I never got. Also, the book annoys me. It centers around the topic of death, a confusing and uncomfortable topic for most. The story got more irritating as it went on, but I am satisfied because most of the people I hated died. Callam hunt is a very annoying character to me. Especially because of the fact he always has to mention his broken leg, and he always seems to just be aching for petty. My favorite part though was at the end when I was able to guess what was going to happen before it did, it felt like a moment of enlightenment. Maybe, I’m on my way to being one of those people who can know what you are about to do before you even know. Personally, some of my favorite characters include Jasper and… nope can’t really think of any others right now. I mostly like Jasper because he hates Call, but he eventually becomes too sappy for me to bare. Tamara is an ok person I guess, but she’s to accusing of everyone; it’s really annoying. Something tells me there is going to be a continuation to this series, and I hope I’m right.

]]> 2018-11-19 01:46:18 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/305747869 Lots of Death 12/2 mariamiyah1 https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/310205637 This Book was filled with Death. I mean you barely know a character before their dead. It’s just so… frustrating. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. going aside all the death, I love the survival in the forest thing, absolutely loved it. I liked seeing how she survived and the fact that she had to rely on strategy and strength for survival, more importantly strategy. Also you get to see multiple perspectives. Y the time you finish half the book you’ve already seen it from the view of 5 different people. It annoys me that time move so fast though. The book covers 9 years worth of information and before you know it the characters are getting gray hairs or aren’t children anymore. It was hard for my brain to keep of with the aging process. The main character is my kind of character. She’s annoying whenever she refuses to push the boundaries of her strength sometimes but I love her selflessness and her willingness to do anything for her family’s sake. What I didn’t understand though was that even though she had seen so much death, literally anyone can die, she never knows what to tell people when their family members die. Can’t she just tell them what she wanted to be told when she witnessed death? Originally, I got this book because I though it was about a queen ruling a country, making difficult decisions regarding warfare and whatnot, but I found something that I believe to be much more valuable information, how to survive in the wild? How to defeat your enemies, and how to be resourceful? These are the things I found and the things I find valuable in books.

]]> 2018-12-02 19:16:51 UTC https://padlet.com/mariamiyah1/th2dh7l2lqx7/wish/310205637