Blog #47 – What are you reading?
Since we’re studying American writers from the turn of the century, I figured that now would be a good time to talk about stuff that we’re reading. Your job is to share a book that you’re currently reading, have read recently, or plan to read soon. Tell us why you picked it, and give us a brief summary of the book. If you’re planning on reading a book, tell us more about why you want to read it / what you’ve heard about the book (essentially, what piqued your interest in it). (The Jungle is NOT an option, but another book for another class is acceptable).
1. The Murder of the Century – Paul Collins — this book is a true story that reads like a quick crime novel. Parts of a 
man’s body are found scattered around the New York City area, and this eventually leads to two suspects being tried for murder: the man’s mistress and the mistress’s new boyfriend. The book goes into lots of detail about the competing New York tabloids, The Journal and the Herald, run by Pulitzer and Hearst as they compete for readers w/ sensationalized headlines and gruesome stories. It’s also the story of immigrants coming to America trying to find a better life but running afoul of the law. Highly recommended.
2. The Other Wes Moore – Wes Moore — a story of two young men named Wes Moore who both grew up blocks from each other in Baltimore in the 1970s and 80s. Both lost their fathers at a young age. One man was sent to military school when his mother wouldn’t put up with his skipping school and failing grades. The other man got involved in the drug trade, especially crack as it became infamous in the 1980s. 
He was involved in shooting an off-duty cop and is now serving life in prison. The other Wes graduated from high school, went to college, became a Rhodes Scholar, and served in Afghanistan afterwards. He regularly appears on MSNBC and is a child advocate. The book came about because the soldier/college graduate wanted to find out more about his imprisoned namesake. It’s a good book that explains the pressures of growing up a young, black male in today’s society.
3. Bertrand Russell in 90 Minutes – This is one in a series of books that helps someone learn more about philosophy in a short amount of time. Bertrand Russell is an English philosopher who tried to show how math is logically sound in a book that took him ten years to write. The problem was, about halfway through it, he discovered
that math had a paradox within it that defied logic as he saw it. So, he had to reclassify his illogical discovery and reconfigure his book. Russell has written several books that I’ve read including The History of Western Philosophy, Why I Am Not a Christian, and The Problems with Philosophy. While I was doing some research on Russell, I also discovered a graphic novel about him called Logocomix, so I’m going to be reading that book too as soon as I get it.
You can list one, two or as many books as you want. The word minimum is 200 words, so please have this done by Friday night at midnight (February 8. 2013). Thanks.
The book that I have most recently read is “Gone With the Wind” by Margret Mitchell. This book is super long but it is an amazing novel! It all takes place during the civil war and the main character is a southern belle named Scarlett O’Hara. Before the war Scarlett had the perfect life. She had the best suitors, everyone loved her (the men at least) and she had experienced no real heart breaks. But when the war comes everything that Scarlett once knew disappears. She has to come to terms with the fact that she can no longer have the life she once had. She experiences heartbreak, death, hunger, and having to fight for what she wants. I think this book is very interesting because it begins right before the war starts and ends years after the war ends. Throughout this novel you can she the amazing character development that Scarlett goes through. I love this book because not only is history involved but romance is also present, which makes the story even more enjoyable to read. And the character of Scarlett is one you will love to hate. It took me a long time to actually finish the book because it was so long, but in the end definitely worth it! Its safe to say that Gone With The Wind is my favorite book.
I read the dead and the gone. It is about a post apocalyptic world, where the moon has come closer to the earth, causing detremental effects on weather patterns and every day life. The main character, Alex Morales, and his two sisters, have been separated from there parents by this tragic event that effects the whole world. His dad is in Puerto Rico visiting his moms funeral, and his mom is stuck at the hospital she works at. As the book progresses, Alex has to help him and his sisters survive the streets of New York as the whole city is in a panic. There are three main themes throughout the book, family, god, and survival. The book was really good, and it is sequel to the book Life as we knew it, but they aren’t linked, it’s weird. Another piece of litarary genius I am watching, is the Crucible. I don’t know if this counts, but I think I’m already done with my 200 words, so if you want to hear about my analysis of it, read on. The Crucible is a play depicting the Salem witch trials, and it went more in depth of what, then what we did in class. The story is the same, but the girls were accused of being witches first, because they were dancing naked in the forest, and the reverend of the town finds them. The girls then accuse the low life’s of being in Kahoots with the devil, and they a bewitching them. One of the people in the town also finds a way that he can make money off of the witch crisis, and accuses people to take their land. Where I am in the play, the people are just starting to think that the girls are lying, but they just keep turning it around and saying that they are being controlled by the devil, and that they are witches. So far it is a good play and I also recommend it to everyone, and we should watch it in class
First off, I would like to make a personal statement before actually completing this blog. I don’t really read books in my free time because for the most part, I feel as if I don’t have to time, or that there are other things that I’d much rather do. I know that reading broadens your knowledge and possibly perspectives but as a highschooler, I feel as if there are enough things in my life that reading a book would just add to my agenda. I don’t want to have to feel like I need to constantly be reading a book. Just saying, so rant done, and now the actual blog. To find an interesting book to possibly read, I googled it. I couldn’t really find anything; possibly I was just being lazy. Then I remembered that a couple of my friends had read, It’s Kind a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. It sounds like an interesting book. It appeals to probably more teenagers than adults because it’s about this kid named Craig Gilner who enrolls in a very academic based school. When he finds out that most of the kids are smarter than him, he starts to feel the pressure of trying to be at the same level or standard as the other kids and this turns into a downward spiral of depression. His suicidal attempt gets him checked into a mental hospital where he starts to deal with his own anxiety and the story leads to a happy ending. This sounds like a great sort of read. Even though the book is probably sad in some aspect, the title leads me to the book; It’s Kind of a Funny Story. How for example, is it in any way a funny story? In addition, it might be interesting because I have known people who have been and are currently stuck in this terrible thing that we call depression, a few of them being my own family. So possibly, maybe, I’ll check it out at the library. It may be one of those books that draw me in and I just won’t be able to put down.
I haven’t been able do a whole lot of reading as of late, due to a very packed schedule, but when I have had free time, I’ve been enjoying a wonderful book titled Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. It is the fourth and final book in Paolini’s debut series and has undoubtedly been the best of four very good books. Many people know the series already by its first novel Eragon. Inheritance is basically the closing of the story of the Elezmeran war between the oppressive empire led by the relentless King Galbatorix and the mountain dwelling group of rebels known as the Varden. Throughout the series, the main character, Eragon Shadeslayer has been eliminating Galbatorix’s main leaders, and has even confronted his lost brother, Murtagh. What makes Eragon so special is that he has the power to both control magic and communicate with dragons. However, the reason Glabatorix has been in power for so long is because he and Murtagh possess the same powers. In a shortened summary, the book is the ending of the war and Eragon’s confrontation of Galbatorix. However, I haven’t gotten to that part of the book yet, so if you want to know what happens, you will have to read the book for yourself! But before reading Inheritance, I strongly suggest that you read the first three books in the series, Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr.
Earlier this year, I read the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell for the summer reading requirement for English. Outliers is a non-fiction book where the author examines the factors that lead to success. In each chapter, Gladwell examines a different factor that contributes to success. Gladwell argues that success is determined not solely by hard work and dedication, but also by society by writing about the lives of extremely successful people and the path they took to get there. For example, Gladwell explains how Bill Gates became so successful and how lucky Bill Gates had to be in order to become so successful. In another chapter, Gladwell examines Canadian hockey players and something that most of them have in common. Gladwell noticed that over 50% of professional Canadian hockey players had birthdays in the last three months of the year. Gladwell examines this peculiarity and finds that this is true because hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year. Players born in December play in the same league as players born in January. Because the players born in December are usually larger and more mature, they are more likely to be placed in a higher league and therefore receive more training than their younger teammates. Sorry this is a little late
The book that I recently read and loved was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi from 1962-1964. Things are very different in this town; it is one of the most racist towns in America during this time. This book is the story of three young women and their extraordinary effort to change that. The first is named Aibileen, she is a black maid raising her seventeenth white baby. Aibileen has become slightly bitter after losing her son who died at a work accident while his bosses ignored him. She loves the girl she is raising more than anything because she knows they’re both broken inside. Then there is Minny, Aibileen’s best friend. She too is a maid, but she is young and has a bit of a sassy mouth which makes finding employment challenging at times. Lastly there’s Skeeter. Skeeter is 27 years old and has just come home after graduating from Ole Miss. Although she lands a job as a house cleaning columnist for a local newspaper she wants to write more, something truly great. She would normally talk to her maid Constantine about this but she is M.I.A and no one can tell her where she might be. This is when she seeks the help of Aibileen and Minny who she feels might have at least known Constantine. Although she cannot get the answer from them right away, the three start working on a controversial book in the meantime. This book tells the story of several black maids from Jackson from their point of view instead of the white person’s. Despite the danger the three are risking in doing this, they do it anyways because they know it’s time to break the social and political wall between blacks and whites.
*sorry its late I thought I did it earlier
The book that I have most recently read is The Age of Ra, by James Lovegrove. It is a science fiction book that has been excellently written. The setting of the book is in a place known as Freegypt; it is named Freegypt because it is the only place in the world that has been able to remain independent of the gods’ influence. The Egyptian gods from common mythology that most people know have defeated all other gods and now control the majority of Earth. Because the Egyptian gods are still at war with each other, the world is broken into multiple different warring factions that have allegiances to a specific god. The main character is a soldier in the British military, Lt. David Werwynter. On a mission that he and his men are sent to do in the Middle Eastern part of the world they get attacked and he gets captured. The book describes the struggles he goes through and the new views and ways of thinking that he adopts from his journey and the people that he meets. The main group of people that he has encounters with is a humanist group that follow the words of a man known as the Lightbringer. The Lightbringer has vowed to shake the human race form the hold the gods have on them. Oh his fantastic journey David Westwynter finds out that he is much more a freedom fighter than he had once believed.
I haven’t read any books other than The Jungle and The Great Gatsby lately, but I do wish to read several. I want to read Life of Pi, which is about a young Indian boy, named after a French public swimming pool, who’s lost at sea with an adult Bengal Tiger after the Japanese ship he’s on going Canada sinks taking his family and their array of animals with it. I want to real Life of Pi because I saw the movie and I really enjoyed it, my Godfather and Kacey also recommended it to be good. The movie has some great hidden messages about society, and by reading the book I’m hoping to get more insight and understanding.
Another other book I’m hoping to read, or rather finish reading, is Pigs in Heaven, by Barbra Kingsolver. Pigs in Heaven is the sequel to one of our summer reading books, The Bean Trees. I want to read Pigs in Heaven because I loved the first book so much. The first book is about a young girl just out of high school, who wished to reinvent herself and not become like so many other girls where she’s from, young, barefoot and pregnant. Marietta, who renamed herself Taylor, actually in away ended up becoming what she was running from, a mother. On Taylor’s journey to Tulsa, Arizona, a stranger at a dinner places a baby in her car and leaves. For lack of a known name the baby, who we later find out is named April, is named Turtle. To cut my long entry short, as much as Taylor didn’t want to be a mother yet she and Turtle formed an unbreakable bond. At the end of the novel Turtle is legally, so the authorities think, adopted by Taylor. The sequel, Pigs in Heaven, is a continuation into the eventful lives of Taylor and Turtle, when they go on a road trip and Turtle witnesses a man fall into the Hoover Dam.
I am currently reading The perks of Being a Wallflower which is my favorite book. Its about this socially awkward boy who is struggling with the shift from middle school to high school on top of the fact that his best friend recently commited suicde. He feels very alone until he meets these cool weird seniors who teach him that its good to be like he is and that he shouldn’t be afraid of people. I like the book because of what it means and the style in which it’s written which is a series of letters to an anonymous stranger he met in passing at school the story shifts in a way i feel alot of teens can relate to which is why i enjoy.
I’m reading Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain which is an older book that is about a young boy named Finn. He doesn’t have a mother, and his father is abusive, so that so far he struggles to deal with his dad. I’m reading this book because we are supposed to for English class although I have always wanted to because I heard it was a good read and funny at times. The book is about the boy Finn who runs away from home and the problems he encounters along the way including his dad who wants all the money the Finn found in a cave making him rich. So far it seems a like a really fascinating read and I enjoy it. Another book that I have recently read was Call of the Wild which is a about a kid who graduates and decides to go and live off in the wild and survive without money and society. He gives away all his money, neglects to tell his parents, And runs off to Alaska, It’s a slow moving book put a certain parts picks up and is violent. It was a slow and long book so I wouldn’t recommend it to students but to adults it’s one that they should pick up.
I recently read the book “Battle of the Fang,” by Chris Wraight. The book is set in the year 32000, and humanity has spread throughout the galaxy, conquering an empire as large as the galaxy. In this period, humanity’s finest warriors are the Space Marines, genetically-enhanced super soldiers eight feet tall and stronger than ten men. The Space Marines are subdivided into thousand-man Chapters, one of which is the Space Wolves. The Space Wolves are based on the world of Fenris, an icy-cold, inhospitable place, perfect for training the greatest soldiers humanity has ever known. When news arrives that the arch-enemy of the Space Wolves, a traitor named Magnus the Red, the entire chapter and much of its attendant fleet go after him, leaving only about a hundred men and a single ship to defend the planet. It turns out that Magus has laid a trap, and a huge warfleet attacks the planet while the rest of the chapter is away. The single ship manages to escape, and brings word to the others that the planet is under attack. Meanwhile, the troops below fight a desperate battle to hold off the unending waves of Magnus’ troops. When reinforcements finally arrive, they find a mere twenty men holding off more than two million. Magnus himself leads the final assault, and the attackers break through to the inner chambers of the Space Wolf fortress. The leader of the Space Wolves, Master Ironhelm, makes planetfall and attacks Magnus in a suicidal battle to try and give the rest of his men time to clear the fort. After a mighty battle, Ironhelm manages to wound Magnus, and with his dying breath, Ironhelm tells him to leave, for no one can best the might of the Space Wolves. The attackers are driven back, and the fortress rebuilt, ready again to serve mankind.
The book I am planning to read is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I’ve always wanted to read the book because of its fame and prestige, but I also want to learn more about the 1700s and the 1800s when women had few rights and were suppressed. I love comparing the present with the past, and seeing how much we’ve accomplished in such a short time. As I started reading the book though, I was instantly hit with a wave of anger when reading how the men seemed to place the women under a microscope, but not for their personality or intelligence, but rather for beauty and their worth as a trophy. It was annoying reading about the women themselves trying to turn themselves into trophies for men, yet at the same time I also felt pity because that is all that they knew. Knowing that it was a different time period I can’t force the present ideals on the past because that wouldn’t be fair. Along with anger and pity though, self-confidence and something almost like haughtiness came over me when I compared myself to the women written in the book. It sounds horrible and I never thought this emotion would come over me, but I couldn’t seem to stop it. I learned some things about myself when that wasn’t even what I was aiming for when I decided to read Pride and Prejudice, and I want to read more and see if I will uncover some more things about myself, if not just for the story.
My fascination with eggs began at a young age. From the nostalgic days of old when I first tasted my first omelet, to last weekend, when I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, eggs have always been a important pillar in my life. When thinking of what I read recently, only one title comes to mind. This of course was Green Eggs and Ham. This enticing novel was written by one Doctor Seuss. And of the three doctors who inspired me in my medical career (Dr. John Dorian, Dr. Seuss, and Dr. Dougie Howser), I believe that Dr. Seuss was the most influential by far. Green Eggs and Ham is an enticing story of a young boy trying to convince his ill-mannered friend to eat more protein. The protagonist of the tale is named Sam-I-Am, he is a man of few words, but is committed to improving the well-being of his friend. The antagonist is an unnamed fellow who simply refuses to eat more protein of the green variety. Throughout the novel, Sam goes back and forth with the unnamed man, constantly pleading and begging him to simply give the eggs and ham a try. The stoic man refuses again and again, even going as far to yell at Sam and telling him to leave the man alone. Sam attempts to compromise with the man, offering him a choice of where he may eat the green eggs and ham, like in a house or with a mouse; he still refuses. Eventually, our valiant hero finally convinces the man to try the green eggs and ham. The man actually turns out to like the green eggs and ham, and even goes as far to say he will eat them on a boat, and even with a goat. After reading this book, I not only learned something about like, but also about myself. Maybe Dr. Seuss is trying to tell us something about ourselves, or maybe about how we shouldn’t judge at a single glance, but we will never know for sure.
Over the past three months, with the massive load of schoolwork I’ve been enduring, and daily practice with the ski team, I’ve had no time to sleep, let alone read (and enjoy) a book. As soon as this week is over, I will be done skiing every day and I will finally be able to pick up a book and thoroughly enjoy it. I’m not sure what book that is going to be yet, but I am sure it won’t be difficult seeing as I’m book deprived. Some books I’ve read in the past year (not including the books I’ve had to read for school) are Animal Farm, I am Legend, Airman’s Odyssey, and Call of the Wild. My favorite of this group is a dead tie between I am Legend and Call of the Wild, both of which I have since re-read. My All time favorite book is Catcher in the Rye, which I read for the first time in seventh grade. I really like this book because the style of writing is really easy to read, and the characters are really easy to relate with and care about. In the next week or so, I hope to have read another book that I will be able to enjoy as much as the books I listed above.
i am about to read the murder by the century. On Long Island, a farmer finds a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discover a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumble upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime are turning up all over New York, but the police are baffled: There are no witnesses, no motives, no suspects. The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives
headlong into the era’s most baffling murder mystery. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus. Reenactments of the murder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in the streets of Hell’s Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikely trio–a hard-luck cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentric professor–all raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial: an unprecedented capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim whom the police couldn’t identify with certainty, and who the defense claimed wasn’t even dead. The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale–a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that have dominated media to this day.
I am currently reading Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I actually picked it up because I kept hearing references to it in a TV show, and wondered what it is about. It’s an anti-war book about Billy Pilgrim, who either hallucinates or travels through time, sometimes fighting world war two, and sometimes living out the rest of his life. He even claims to have been abducted by aliens at one point. It jumps from one time to another in a blink of an eye and Vonnegut is sarcastic and funny, even concerning the dark topics the book covers. Cat’s Cradle is the next one I plan to read.
The last book I read was NYPD Red by James Patterson and Marshall Karp, the newest Patterson book. It’s about the NYPD task force whose main function is to deal with the cities high and mighty. The serial Killer, the Chameleon is filming a movie where several higher-ups in the movie business are killed a myriad of ways, from being poisoned, to being blown up with a Molotov cocktail. He targets those he believes ripped off his idea. It was one of Patterson’s better books, as the killer was interesting and main character was good.
Carolyn
I have recently read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck set in the 1930’s, the Joad family travels from Oklahoma to California on Route 66 hoping to have a wonderful life filled with opportunity. After the family is kicked off of their land by their neighbor, they go to their uncle’s house, and they see handbills about how wonderful California is and of all the opportunities there are. They decide to travel there along with thousands of other migrant workers thinking that there will be so much awaiting them. While they are on this journey, they go through many hardships such as unfair treatment and death. Grandpa dies of a stroke on the journey and the family gives him an illegal burial. Later on, while on the journey, Grandma dies and Ma doesn’t tell anyone until the next day. During the travel, they stopped at a river for a night, and one of the sons decides to leave. When they get to California, they do not find what they were hoping for. They neither find work nor do they find a home. Rather than earning lots of money and living a happy life, they are starving. The migrant farmers all live in Hoovervills where they are treated very badly. Police men come and try to cause trouble. They beat people and punish them for no reason. However, they never give up hope. The family goes around from place to place looking for opportunities to work and earn money. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck added intercalary chapters which broaden ones perspective of the time period. It takes the readers focus from the story of the Joad’s, and puts the family’s journey into perspective. They show that this is not only happening to them but also to millions of other migrant farmers.
Sofia C.
The book I’d really like to read next is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. The jist of the story is that a boy and his family move from India to Canada, but on the boat capsizes in a storm on the way there, and young Piscine (or Pi) is left by himself in the middle of the ocean with a Bengal tiger, a spotted hyena, a Grant’s zebra, and an orangutan. Eventually, only the tiger (named Richard Parker) and Pi are left on the boat, and the vast majority of the story depicts their journey together in search of land. The reason I want to read this book is because I recently saw the film adaptation, and absolutely LOVED it. The film was truly inspirational, and I think the book would be the same. The question that the reader/viewer is left with at the end (I’m not going to spoil it and say what it was) is really one that makes you think about what you believe and why. I also think the movie does a really good job of being faith-based without being too preachy or obnoxious. It was very interesting to see all the different components of Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam and how they help Pi in his journey. Since everyone knows that the book is always better than the movie, I’m excited to read it and understand/appreciate the story even better.
Although it’s very sad, I typically don’t like to read, and I only do if I have to. But, whenever I want to read something, my go-to books that I know will never disappoint me are novels by Ellen Hopkins. They are interesting, unique, and never fail to intrigue me and keep me reading. Ellen Hopkins’ books are written in free verse poems which make them far more interesting for me to read than a “regular” book. Although all of her novels are amazing, my favorite one is Burned. Burned is about a young mormon girl, named Pattyn (after the famous general), who is struggling to find her place in the world. Throughout the novel, she questions her family, her faith, and her capacity to give and recieve love and happiness. After continuing to struggle in her own community, she gets suspended from her school and she is sent to rural Nevada to live with her astranged aunt. She finds acceptance there, but her problems continue to linger in her life. As you travel with Pattyn through her daily struggle, you will laugh, you will cry, and you will feel everything she feels as you continue to read this wonderful 544 page book.