Book post 4

I'm still reading the book Kasher in the Rye.  A lot has happened in the past couple chapters.  Moshe has gotten a ticket for vandalism and spraying graffiti.  He also has started using harder drugs like inhalents and acid.  He has begun selling drugs too.  "'I'm fucked, man.  That kid  Justin had a fucking heart attack.'  It seemed hard to believe.  This tiny piece of paper had somehow short-circuited a kid's fragile little coronary system."  (Kasher 122)  Moshe didn't know that acid wasn't good for people with heart problems, and had accidentally sold acid to someone with a messed up heart.  I've heard a lot of things about how bad acid is for you, like how some of the chemical can get stored in your back and when you crack your back a certain way you release the chemicals which can make you trip years after you originally took acid.  Moshe just doesnt seem to know when to quit.  He is messing up his life more and more.  He talks down on people older than him saying they are losers who won't get anywhere in life, but the sad thing is that it doesnt seem like he is going to go anywhere in life either at this rate.  Moshe has a lot of growing up to do if he wants to turn his life around.

Post #3

I am still currently reading Kasher in the Rye.  Moshe just told one of his old friends who moved out of Oakland and into a suburb that he smoked weed.  His friend, Richard, told Moshe that he had to quit smoking weed or they wouldn't be friends anymore.  "'I can't be your friend if you do drugs.  You have to choose.  That shit of me.' I never saw Richard again." (Kasher 66)  Doing drugs can destroy families and friendships.  Weed shouldn't come between friends.  This book also brings religion into play.  Moshe's father is forcing him and his brother to be jewish.  "My brother and I went the exact opposite way with Judaism."  (Kasher 69)  Since Moshe is being forced in to being Jewish he is rebeling against his fathers wishes.  I as a child was not baptized by my fathers wishes because he wanted me to choose my own religion.  I think that this was very bold and smart of him.  Religion shouldn't be forced upon someone. 

Post 2

I am still reading the book Kasher in the Rye by Moshe Kasher.  He is about twelve years old at this point is has no friends.  He is looking for social acceptance since he is currently an outcast.  He turns to smoking and stealing cigarettes from the local food mart.  He then starts hanging out with older boys who also smoke cigarettes.  They then start hazing him and making him do horrible things in order to gain their acceptance.  "Every P.A.G. initiation ritual I went through was somehow deemed insufficient afterward and then they'd ask me to perform some other pain ritual or sexual humiliation in order to be acepted in."  (Kasher 59)  This can be related to alot of people who go into college wanting to be accepted.  Someone joins a fraternitiy because they want to be accepted by people but then they have to do painful and humiliating things to themselves.  Do you really want to be accepted by people who justt want to see you get hurt? Also Moshe smokes weed for the first time.  "I smoked and smoked and every hit chipped away another part of my life...puff puff... gone were my worries."  (Kasher 62)  People think that smoking weed will just make all of your troubles go away.  People use marijuana as an escape from reality, but not all of the long term effects of weed are known.  I find that this book is very interesting.  Even though I don't have a hard a troublesome life like Moshe does, there are some parts of this book that I can relate to.

New book

For my outside reading I am reading the book Kasher In the Rye, by Moshe Kasher.  This book is the story of Moshe Kasher a young troubled boy from Oakland, California.  At this poing in the story we have found out all about his family.  Both his parents are deaf and he, his mom, and his big brother ran away from their father at around age 4 because he was abusive.  We also learn that Moshe has anger management issues and must see a therapist.  "Six-year-old therapy looked like this: Ruben would hand me a Nerf sword and I would beat him as savagely as I could around the legs, buttocks, and genitalia." (Kasher 12)  Moshe would attack people, even complete strangers, this became so bad that his mother had to put him on a leash everytime they went out.  Also while he was a baby, Moshe drank a bottle of his mothers perfume and had to be taken to the hospital, which can easily be assumed that it is foreshadowing what is soon to come.   This book is kind of slow in the beginning but later on it starts to pick up with drug use and more violence.  I am really excited to keep reading this book.