Riley and her live in heaven

Radiance by Alyson Noel. First Scholastic printing, January 2011

Genre: a novel 

Riley Bloom left her sister, Ever, in the world of the living and crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. Riley and her dog, Buttercup, have been reunited with her parents and are just settling into a nice, relaxing death when she’s summoned before The Council. They let her in on a secret—the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure; Riley has to work. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher,Bodhi, a curious boy she can’t quite figure out.

Riley, Bodhi, and Buttercup return to earth for her first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But he’s never met Riley…

The workings of afterlife, called “Here” in this case, are commonly disputed and the perfect basis for world-building. You can do anything with it that you’d like – it’s fiction! Alyson’s take on the afterlife in Radiance is like nothing I’ve read before. In fact, it’s like nothing I’ve ever considered or heard of. The concept of there being levels and goals you must reach to in order to get to the next level is an intriguing, almost video game-like one. Immediately, there’s a goal, there’s a purpose, and I, as a reader, know where the book is heading.

"You do know you can manifest a whole new wardrobe right? We’re really not bound to the mistakes of our past. So go ahead, knock yourself out. Just close your eyes and ask – What would Joe Jonas wear?"

I pick this book because the topic it seems interesting to me what happens after you die?. And I related this story with what happened to my mom and her sister. My aunt that I never met, died very young in her twenties, she was older than my mom. My mom admire her, my mom always said that my mom was very pretty and she likes her personality. My aunt died in a car accident too just like Riley. My aunt's name was Beatriz Silvia Duran Alicedo and my mom named me Beatriz Silvia Quinteros Alicedo. 

I give the book 5 paws.

Decisions

Choice is an act or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities. Through life we all need to make a lot of choices big  or small ones. Sometimes you will be satisfied with your choices  and there will be times that you will be regretful because the choice that you make.Each decision that we make can have a huge impact in our life. In the book the Old Man in the sea, the main character Santiago trough the story needs to make a lot of decisions. But the main decision that he needs to make is whether or not to catch the marlin. Finally  confident he decide to catch the fish. This decision brought positives and negatives results.

He first  chose to be perseverance and  patient, deciding to try again and again until he catch a fish. “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish" (9). 84 days, it was how long had gone with out catching a fish.Without catching any fish Santiago couldn't make any money. But this didn't stop Santiago, he was very devoted to his fishing, he stay hopeless and thought optimistic.

He decide to go deep fishing Even do he is lonely (without Manolin) and old. Santiago, unlike other people has faith so he decides to go deep fishing. "Today I'll work out where the schools of bonito and albacore are and maybe there will be a big one with them" (30). He was determined to fish and break his streak of unluckiness. He was not going to allow the loss of his partner to stop him from doing that. This decision have a huge impact in the story because is when his hole adventure began.

Until he finally saw  a marlin and try to catch it he give everything. He stayed in ocean  for days until catch the fish. Although he should not have decide to catch because he got many severe cuts and a fairly painful hand cramp for his decision to catch the fish. “The bird had flown up when the line jerked and the old man had not even seen him go. He felt the line carefully with his right hand and noticed his hand was bleeding,” (55-56). He was at the moment satisfied  with his choice and he believed in it. His choices until now doesn't have good results.

Then he decides to catch the big fish.One negative outcome of Santiago’s decision is that the marlin ends up getting taken away from him, leaving the old man very disappointed. “The old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish,” (102) as he watched the shark take the marlin away from him. Now the old man had put so much hard work into catching the marlin, and he did not even get to keep it. He had lost the thing he wanted most, and had put all the work in for nothing. Though he did not actually get to keep the fish, he still had the credit and pride that came along with catching a fish that big. Also, people would not consider him as unsuccessful or like a bad fisherman anymore because he was able to capture such a large fish. But he did not care he knew that the decision that he make was right that was fight until you could not anymore.

Through this novella, Santiago need to face a lot of decision. In life we need to make a lot of decision too big or small ones. But all of them are going to have a good or bad impact in our life. “There may be a thousand little choices in a day. All of them count.”-Dr. Shad Helmstetter