Book Review: Neverwhere

"And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness.monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he know," (quote from back cover).
Neverwhere caught my attention and interest with its wide variety of characters and creatures. The theme of the book that i think is used would be "keep an open mind." Reasons being because throughout the entire book, Richard Mayhew constantly questions, doubts, and believes everything is not happening, which almost costs him his life multiple times. Also this characteristic begins to get on Door's nerves that he acts so ignorant at times. And one more reason being that none of that would have happened if Richard did not stop to help Door. Meaning that you should make the best of life because interesting things will happen.
The setting of the book plays a major role in impacting Richard. First of all, everything seems the same, to an extent, making Richard have to trust that things are different. Also there are new places inaccessible to Richard before, which plays with his logic and sanity. thirdly, among these places, magic exist around places of the environment, further messing with his mind.
Now, on the topic of connections to other things, the only book I would think comes close to the creativity of this would be Alice's adventures in Wonderland. And I like how they use real places in Britain, connecting the book the the real world.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to the explore the boundaries of imagination and sanity.

Argument: Death Penalty

Assertion/Claim (Topic Sentence) = Main Idea

• The death penalty should be legalized 

Evidence -Concrete Detail:

• Keeping Criminals alive means prisons being overcrowded with no room for more people.
• Commentary 1: With prisons being so full and crowded, some criminals (who might even be worse than the ones already there) won't be able to stay or even go to prison, causing them to be on a parole or whatever else it may be.
• Commentary 2: Also much taxpayer money goes to criminal living expenses in prison. With so many people in prison, the amount of money that goes to that is extremely high. 

Evidence -Concrete Detail:

• With prisons being overcrowded along with just basically keeping killers and such alive means giving them another possible chance to kill again like many have done so many times before.
• Commentary 1: It would give closure to suffering families because they will know that they will never kill again. That they are no longer in the world somewhere.
• Commentary 2: And with so many more criminals being put in prison and being put on parole. There is a chance of escape giving them more opportunities to do what they have done before. Or maybe worse. 

Opposing Claims/They Say:

• It's barbaric and unlawful.
• It's not an effective crime deterrent.

My Rebuttal/I Say:

• Capital punishment is a better deterrent than they may think. Some people would rather not risk their life to commit a crime. And it is more barbaric to give a killer a chance to do it again. Or let a suffering family live knowing that the person who murdered their loved ones is still out there somewhere.

My Paragraph

The Death Penalty should be legalized. Keeping Criminals alive means prisons being overcrowded with no room for more people. With prisons being so full and crowded, some criminals (who might even be worse than the ones already there) won't be able to stay or even go to prison, causing them to be on a parole or whatever else it may be. Also much taxpayer money goes to criminal living expenses in prison. With so many people in prison, the amount of money that goes to that is extremely high. With prisons being overcrowded along with just basically keeping killers and such alive means giving them another possible chance to kill again like many have done so many times before. It would give closure to suffering families because they will know that they will never kill again. That they are no longer in the world somewhere. And with so many more criminals being put in prison and being put on parole. There is a chance of escape giving them more opportunities to do what they have done before. Or maybe worse. They Say It's barbaric and unlawful. And It's not an effective crime deterrent. I Say Capital punishment is a better deterrent than they may think. Some people would rather not risk their life to commit a crime. And it is more barbaric to give a killer a chance to do it again. Or let a suffering family live knowing that the person who murdered their loved ones is still out there somewhere.

My Thinking:
This is mostly inductive due to such interjection of my opinion.
Source: 

• Death Penalty: Pros And Cons

Wounded Warrior Project

The wounded warrior project to me is quite obviously a good way to help soldiers hurt from war, physically or mentally, with the problems they have.
They say it is a good way to spread the reality of war and awareness of what really happens and what people go through. And I agree with that. It is a very efficient and helpful way to show people the truth and have them help.
They also say it's a good way to help these warriors go through life after war better. And I agree with that to an extent, since obviously not everyone will support this venture.
Because of the help and information this program provides, I support the wounded warrior project.

Inference about Running

Even though Forest and Henry were both obviously running, there motives were far different from one another's.
Forest ran to save his platoon, and his close friend Bubba. A very honorable and courageous reason. While the reason for Henry's running was quite the opposite. He ran out of pure fear. "He ran like a blind man" because the realization of war finally hit him. Even though there actions were similar, the reasons for them were far from the same.

Dark Secrets 1: Legacy of Lies

'I couldn't believe Matt had abandoned me. Then I thought, he knows what's happening. He started these wheels moving. That instant I was pulled into the darkness.' Legacy of lies interested me with it's complex and suspenseful story, although confusing at times, leaving you unable to ever begin to predict what's next.
The setting of the book helps the overall mood of what happens. For example, them being in an old mansion helps with the mysterious feel. Also them being in a town where they have known everyone gives a sense of false security in a way. And one more way is that there is a place they are specifically instructed not to go, which in a way makes it obvious that there is an important meaning behind it, making it a classic mystery.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes classic mystery and fantasy elements in a book, along with unexpected plot twists.

War is...

War is a vicious cycle, people kill people to keep people from killing people.
War is never ending, as long as people have independence
War is mourning, someone will miss them
War is inevitable death, lives will be lost
War is hollow hope, permanent peace cannot be achieved
War is expanding, getting more advanced
War is uncontrollable, everyone is in danger
War is hate, both sides harbor sometimes pointless conflict
War is an exchange, take a life to keep a life
War is necessary, to save your own life

thoughts on 9 11

When the events of 9/11/2001 happened I was 6 years old. I had no Idea what had happened and the impact it had made on our nation. I honestly had no knowledge of the happening until quite a few days later. I vaguely recall first hearing of the attack from my mother who had seen it on the news that day. I might have seen the broadcast as well but I have no memory of it. Even though it had no impact on me at such a young age, at this day in time I understand the unbelievable impact that the event had on everyone in America. But if I think about it, right now in our daily lives, there has been little to no effect since the terrorist attack. People have been more aware of possible threats and are being more careful, but here there is not much influence from 9/11. Now in larger cities such as New York, and L. A., and even in smaller areas, airport and train security has increased  dramatically due to the events, I have not experienced this first-hand but I have heard stories. But besides that not many things  have changed, at least in my life.