Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Then novel "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins is a non-fictional, auto-biographical book about John's life and his experience with his top secret job. This was not a very good book for me and their were many weaknesses. One of these weaknesses was the fact that he kept on talking about the same subject. I know it is an autobiography and you are suppose to talk about your life but you can spice it up a bit. You can change it up, maybe have a chapter or two about something other than your life, possibly about your family or friends. John's life of working in a secret spy organization was fun to read at the beginning but that was all he talked about most of the chapters. Like I said before, even though his book is based upon his job he can make it a lot more interesting by changing it up a bit. Talking about something other than his life and job. It was cool to find out how he cheated countries out of money and how he did it but it seemed like as the book went on he couldn't think of anything else to write about. It was like he was trying to force himself to write about things he talked about before just because he wanted to extend his book to attract more attention from book buyers. That probably is not the reason why but that what I thought he was trying to do. Another weakness in the book was how it did not seem real. His job seems fake and I have a hard time believing him. I really can not imagine a job that the government does not know about. I also can understand how they keep on cheating countries out of millions of dollars by doing the same routine. I think that Perkins is trying to spice up his life experiences by adding things that are not true. He probably had a job similar to what is explained in the book but I think he over emphasized it a little more than he should of. If this job is really out there shouldn't the government have found out about it by now, now that there is a book about it. And how would the workers get paid, what would happen if they stopped tricking countries into giving them money and how are they still a secret spy organization after doing this for so many years? Shouldn't at least one country figure out what they are doing. I also think that if this job was real, it is probably a very short time job because they can only trick countries so much times until they find out what they are trying to do. After they find out what would they do, they would be broke and have to shut down their company. The final weakness of this novel is how boring it was to me. After reading about the same thing over and over again, I got really sick of it and did not want to read it anymore. It was very annoying and I had to force myself to finish the book. This book was not one of my favorites and i hope that the next book I choose will be a lot better because I really want to read an interesting book that I will enjoy.

I would recommend this book for a more older audience because it has a wide range of vocabulary. It does not seem like a book a high schooler would read and I did not have fun reading it. A lot of the book was hard for me to understand because of the big vocabulary and I had to read certain parts numerous of times to understand the meaning. The only type of people that I can see reading this are people who like biographical books that include intense lives of others. Me and my partner did not have any fun reading this book and we really hope that we will not choose another book like this because I don't know if I can handle another one of these. The only high school student I can see reading this book are the more mature students that like to reading books about real life spies. Other than those few people, I really can't see anyone liking this book and have fun reading it. It seems so unbelievable and fake about how one organization can trick countries out of a huge amount of money. You must be the smartest people in the world if you think you can pull that off. I will not recommend this book to any of my fellow students because most of my friends are interested in the same books as I am and I know they will hate to read this book as much as I did. Well I did not hate it, it just is not going to be one that I will talk about a whole lot. My last book was more interesting even though it was repeating a lot as well. But that author added some interesting parts in between so the reader wouldn't get bored out of their mind. That's what this author needs to do if he wants his books to have a lot more success. Lately the books that I have read are very bad and I hope the last book I pick will be a lot better. This time when I choose a book I will put a lot more effort into picking out a book that I will enjoy much more than my previous books. This book was full of negative parts that were very painful to read but their were some positives to it. I really liked reading about how John tricked countries to paying him and his techniques but it did get somewhat boring in the end. At first this book was good but as I got deeper in it just never got any better. I really hope that I can finish this school year with a fun book that both me and my partner will enjoy reading.

Lit. Circle Letter

In the final part of the "Economic Hitman", John Perkins talks more about his crazy life and the organizations he is working for. This section is not all that much different than the first two and it was very boring. It basically talked more abut his experiences from his jobs and some stories to back it up. There were some parts to the book that were interesting and fun to read, for example when he tells the reader how he got money out of other nations. Those parts were probably the best parts to the book. I was extremely tired of reading this book because I was not interested in it. I was bored and had no motivation to really get it to it. A couple of parts caught my eye but other than that, the book was not good at all. I would rather read books that have a true story, like the last book I read. I think this book made me realize that I would rather read about fictional books that non-fiction. I really was not interested in the book and I had to force myself to read it. I hope that the next book I choose will be closer to the type of books I enjoy reading.

In the third section in the book I didn't have too much positives about it. John Perkins talked more about his life events and how he cheated countries out of their money. It was cool to figure out how he received his money but after a while it got a bit annoying. This was basically how the rest of the book was like. This book doesn't even seem like a autobiographical book because it doesn't seem real that there is actually a job out there that actually does this. I will ever believe that there are secret jobs that the government do not know about until I confront it during my lifetime. If the government does not fund this organization, then how much money do they make and if they can't get enough money they want what would they do? If this is real, it does not seem like it will last too long because they can only trick so much people in giving up money. This was not a good book for me but hopefully someone else will enjoy it. This book just is not the type of books I enjoy to read but I know there are people that will enjoy this book very much.

NBA Playoffs

Now that the NBA playoffs are about to start, I would like to blog about the incidents that are going on between teams. Recelently the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder and I was extremely upset because the Lakers are my favorite team and I want them to win it all. These two teams will also be matched up in the playoffs as number 1 and 8 seeds, the Lakers being number 1 and the Thunder being the number 8 seed. The Lakers arem't doing so good right now and are on a slump entering the playoffs while the Thunder's are on a really good role winning a lot of their games. They also have the scorring champion in the NBA who averages about 30 points per game but the Lakers have Kobe bryant who is one of the best players in the world. So this will be a great series to watch to see who will come out the winner. I of course will be rooting for the Lakers who are the defending champions in the NBA and are looking for the repeat but it won't be easy. They have had to battle injuries and many other problems that have prevented them from reaching their expectations. This series will also be a very good one because there have been recent comments that might have fired up some players and a coach. The Lakers coach, Phil Jackson was fined by the league of $70,000 in the last two weeks for comments related to the NBA's officials, but Jackson decided to talk back and prove his pint he said "You can't do that anymore in the NBA". They don't allow you to do that. I guess it was last year, I wasn't aware that the rules have changed, but they tell me that last year they stopped letting coaches spin. You have to be very honest and straightforward and never have any spin with what you say". He was trying to say that the refs. did not allow him to say certain things trying to prove his point. He continues to say "I think we can get to be robotic like that. You guys would probably enjoy us just having stock answers to give to you, 'Everybody played and they played hard.' Things like that." Which means the same thing but just using different words.

Jackson's most recent fee came as a result of his statement about Oklahoma City's and the leagues leading scorer Kevin Durant, saying that the "referees are treating [Durant] like a superstar." And "As far as the calls that he gets on the floor, I think a lot of the referees are treating him like a superstar; he gets to the line easy and often. He's got the ability to create fouls. That's a big part of scoring, to get to the foul line."Durant was very angry about the comments from the Laker coach and felt disrespected, he said "Because it's taking away from what I do.That's part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that's just taking away from how I play. That's disrespectful to me."On Friday, Jackson said he did not hear Durants responses but he doesn't understand why he is getting mad by saying he "was just straight forward and honest about the game. I really didn't know what he was upset about. It really wasn't that upsetting. He shot the most free throws in the league; he made the most free throws in the league. He shot the most shots in the league; he made the most shots in the league. I voted for him on the All-Star team; he made the All-Star team. We know he's a great player, congratulations." Jackson was fined earlier in the month for comments after a game against San Antonio. He said the "referees turned against us" after technical fouls were given to Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant. He also singled out veteran official Bennett Salvatore by saying, "With Bennett you don't know what you're going to get."Jackson paid $12 million to coach the Lakers this season and was asked if the fines could be a tax write-off at the end of his media session Friday. Because of all this drama happening between the Lakers coach and Oklahoma's best player, this series is going to be a very fun one to watch. It starts on Friday and I can't wait to see my team win.

Lit Circle Letter

In the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" a man named John Perkins, who is also the author of the book, talks about his life and how crazy it has been. I liked many parts about this book so far but I am having a tough time reading this book because I'm not really into these types of book. The book is non-fictional but it seems unreal because of the things Perkins went through during his life is crazy. He is a college drop out who avoids the army multiple times and ends up in many different spy organizations and does many other things in between. I usually like reading auto biographical books but this book does not seem like one. I do not really believe that there are secret spy organizations that are not run by the government and cheat countries out of trillions of dollars. If it is true, then shouldn't the government had found out about it already? In my opinion this book would be a lot better if it was fictional because I would not be frightened about these "hit men" possible taking trillions of dollars out of the U.s.

There are a lot of things that I like about this book including how there are secret spy organizations out in the world. It might be a little hard for me to accept that there really are these type of companies but they are still fun to read about. I also like what they do in the companies. For example, Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe to get trillions of dollars. And the use fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder to get their money. I think that it is really cool how they can do this for so long and never get caught by the government. They must have a very strict company that does everything to perfection. Which makes this job an extremely difficult job to get. You probably need to be one of the smartest person in the world to get a job like this and Perkins was. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire under two high school teachers who graduated from excellent colleges. Perkins started off going to a local public school but as he got older he was switched to a private school because his parents wanted to get him away from the girls at public schools who they called "sluts". He was transferred to an all boy private school and stayed until he finished high school. He was both the top student academically and athletically at his school and received two scholarships for different reasons. Brown University gave him an athletic scholarship and Middleburry gave him a academic scholarship. He wanted to go to Brown but was forced to go to Middlebury because that's where his parents graduated from. After a tough time in college he decided to drop out and his parents were extremely mad but he did not care and moved on. He later went back to Boston University to avoid being drafted into the army and got away with it for a couple of years. But when he graduated he had to deal with possible getting drafted to the war in Vietnam. He avoided that by getting a job that his wife's, dad's, friend gave to him and the army was not a possibility ever again. He joined the peace corps with his wife and soon after landed a job at a secret spy organization. In my opinion, Perkins screwed up his life multiple times but because he was so smart he always got another chance. Life seemed so easy for him because he basically got everything he wanted by not trying. This proved to me that being extremely smart will always work out for you in the end. I like this book so far even though it is hard to believe. But it is fun and I hope it gets a lot better in the final section.

4th Quarter Writting Goals

In the last quarter of the year I would really like to improve my writing ability in many ways. I have always had a hard time thinking about what to write about and it gets harder every time. I started writing about my sports team and that can only go so long becuase they always come to an end. Then I started writting about my life which was good at the beginning bt once again I ran out of significant events that happened during my childhood. Finally I started to write about other sports teams and thats where I am today. Its working out pretty good but I don't really like wrting about other sports because they have nothing to do with me. I really want to expand my writting genres so I can become a much better writter. I would also like to improve my repeting problem. I tend to repeat a lot of things in my writing jsut so I can reach the minimum of 500 words. Its been very hard for me to write 500 words when I run out of ideas and I want to find a way a way to avoid this problem. I would finally like to improve my ability to get out of writers block during the fourth quarter. Like many people, I have had a huge problem with writters block and I do not know how to get out of it. I have tried many different ways to see if it will help but nothing has. And I know my writting has gotten worse because of it. At the beginning of the year my writting was much better because I was fresh and had a lot of topics to write about. But as the year went on, writters block has made my writting not as good. For many of my blogs, I just tey to make up random sentences because writters block has limitied my ability to think about what to write. This last quarter might be very bad for me because of all the problems I am having right now but if I can find a way to get rid of these problems I will have a lot of success.

In the last quarter of the year I would like to write about my life again and my basketball team that I am currently playing on. I will probably be writting about my basketball tournements and how our team is coming together because this is our first time palying with each other. I would like to write about my life again because I had a lot of fun writing about my life and the events that happened during my childhood. In my opinion the best blogs I have written this year was about my life and how it was influenced by past experiences. I really believe that by going back to the blogs that have gotten me this far into the year will help me a lot in improving my writting ability. This last quarter of the year will be very exciting because I will find out if this risk will be a successful one or be a very bad idea. I still don't know what I am going to write about for my first blog but I have a lot of things going on during spring break that I would love to post on my blog. This year has gone by very fast and I can't wait until summer comes along.

Touching Spirit Bear monthly review

In the novel "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen is a fiction book about a young, angry boy named Cole Matthews is caught up in a life full of crime. But he has never been convicted of a crime until now. One day Cole got angry with a fellow classmate and decided to beat him up. Not only did Cole beat him up but he also caused the young boy named Peter to require facial surgery. Peter was never the same. He now has to choose on whether he wants to go to jail or participate in the Circle Justice, a group of people who try to help out kids like Cole. Cole insists that doing this will never help him change but he figures it is better than going to jail. The circle decides to isolate him on a island of Alaska where he will spend one year trying to heal himself from his anger. The island is said to have a spirit bear that is suppose to help someone find out what life really means. But when Cole faces the bear, he is mauled until he almost dies. He is rushed to a hospital where he is treated until he is ready to face the circle for another meeting. At the meeting the circle decides to give Cole another chance on the island. This time he knows he can't mess up so he takes full advantage of this opportunity. He does many things on the island to help him change including sitting in a freezing pond thinking, carrying a rock to get rid of his anger, and carving a totem pole. Near the end of Cole's sentence, Peter joins him because he needs a lot of help as well. In the end the fight once mote but this time Cole is the one beaten up and they both decide to forgive each other for what they have done. I would recommend this book for middle school students because younger students tend to enjoy adventurous/ fictional books. I can tell because I would have loved to read this book in middle school instead of the books that were required. This book is very interesting but I think that I should read something more realistic, maybe a non-fictional book.

There were many weaknesses in this book in my opinion. But the most significant was the repetition. When Cole was stuck on the island he was told that if he ever wanted to get rid of his anger he would need to walk to a freezing pond every morning, and carry an "ancestor rock" up a hill and to push it down to release his anger. So for about the last five chapters, Cole would follow this pattern every day and it got a little annoying. It seemed like every chapter would be about Cole doing this routine every day, cooking dinner, look for animals, dance around a fire, and carve his toteom pole. After a while the book got extremely boring and I wanted to stop reading it. Another weakness of the book was the ending. At the end of the book Peter and Cole were involved in another fight. This time Peter beating up Cole. Cole did not fight back because he wanted to show to Peter that he has changed and that he would never hurt anyone again. After the fight, they both broke down crying and it seemed like they finally forgave each other for what they have done. So they went back and carvedt he final piece on Cole totoem and the book ended not telling us if Peter every forgave Cole for what he did. The ending of the book was one of the worst i have ever read. The author could have added a lot more to the end that would have made this bovel much more entertaining. The author could have told us what happens to Cole when he returns home and faces his sentence. I really wanted to find out if Cole went to jail or not and if Peter will ever forgive Cole for what he did to him. I also wanted to see how people thought about Cole after he has made a dramatic change from his experience on the island. There were a lot more weaknesses in this book that made me not enjoy it as much but I feel that these two were the most important parts the author should have improved.

I think the author's style of writing is very unique. The book started off interchaning events every chapter. The first chapter started of when Cole was locked up on the boat about to go to the island. The second chapter talked about Cole's life and what he did before he was forced to go on the island. It kept on interchaning until it was Cole just on the island and there was no more information needed about what happened before. It is a unique style that I do not like that much. I guess it is cool that he wanted to try something different than most books but it was hard for me to concentrated on one event when the next chapter is going to talk about something completely different. I would get really into COle's adventures on the island and want to read more but the next chapter would be about Cole back at home and that really threw off my focus because I would have to switch my mind to a different subject. I would have just written it like most other books, starting off with Cole at home and what he did and then Cole on the island. The book would have made a lot more sense and would be a lot easier to read. The book was not that interesting but I enjoy it some what. I liked a lot of parts including Cole's complete transformation for bad and angry kid to a ver caring and nice kid that won't hurt anybody. It was also cool to read about the spirit bear and what it did to Cole. In the authors note he said that the spirit bear was real and has helped many people and still does. That was a very cool fact to know. I did not really like this book all that much and will probably not reconmend it to any of my classmates but it had some good parts to it that I enjoyed. I hope my next book will be a lot more interesting to read.

Lit Circle Letter

In the final section of the novel "Touching Spirit Bear" the author gives the reader a very interesting conclusion. There were many parts I enjoyed in the conclusion of the book but there were also many parts that I felt were boring. I really like how the author brings Peter to the island in Alaska after he tried to commit suicide two times. I also like how the author made the book come full circle by the way Peter and Cole acted at the end. The book started off by making Cole the angry, crazy criminal who beat up a helpless boy in Peter. But as the book progressed they switched, Peter became a angry, suicidal boy that beat up a helpless Cole. It was funny how the author decided to do that and I enjoyed that a lot. I also like how the book made the island a place for someone to find the reason of life. All the main characters in the book have experienced anger in their lives and I liked how the author decided that all of them will go to the island to heal themselves. It was interesting to read about why Edwin, Cole, Peter and Garvey decided to go to the island.

The conclusion of the book was very interesting but there were many parts I did not like about it. One of the parts I did not like was the repetition. When Cole was on the island all he did was wake up to soak, look for animals, carry the ancestor rock up the hill, carve his totem pole, eat, and dance. The book kept on repeating itself even when Peter came in the picture, they did the same routine. It would have been more interesting if the author changed things up. I also did not like how the book ended at all. It was a very bad ending. Cole just got beaten up by Peter and it seemed that they were finally going to forgive each other but you will never know. The book ended soon after that incident when they finished carving the last spot on the totem pole. It would have been more entertaining if the book went on to show what happened to Cole after the banishment, whether he will go to jail or not, and to see what happens to Peter. I would have liked the book a lot more if it continued and possible have had an epilogue of Peter and Cole life after the island.