This book suprised me with its violence. Looking at the cover, a nice baby blue shade makes it seem peaceful. However, the book starts out with a very dramatic scene of the main character's murder. It goes into very graphic detail about what her murderer did to her. He made a large hole under ground that looked like a cool fort. Then one day as Alice, the main character, was walking home, he showed her the cave, trapped her inside, raped her, and then killed her by cutting up her body. After this very frightening opening plot, the author then goes into explaining the life of the main character. The author tells how she was a very sweet young girl who absolutely loved photography. However, the author also talks about the murderer; how the murderer started out killing animals, then eventually it led him to kill humans. She talks about how the murderer was not neccisarily a bad guy, he tried to stop himself, but he just couldn't.
After he killed her, he was able to cave in the huge hold so that the evidence was burried. Another interesting part about the plot was that the author spends a lot of time describing what heaven was like for Alice. Alice meets other people who were murdered up in heaven and they help her cope. She also is able to look down on her family and see what they are going through after her disaperance.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
March 14th: An Exposition of Images
This is the original book cover:
These are images that could appear in a movie about the book: souls, human hideouts, surgeries (future technologies), the city, lovers, etc.
These are images that could appear in a movie about the book: souls, human hideouts, surgeries (future technologies), the city, lovers, etc.
Monday, March 5, 2012
March 6th: Blog Entry on Novel Three
Book: The Host
Author: Stephanie Meyers
This book, similar to Years of Wonder, is a story about two different towns. This book is much more complicated to explain because it involves many more characters (souls and humans). However the plot is very creative and has many unexpected twists and turns.
The book starts out when "Wanderer" a soul, gets placed into the body of a human host, Melanie. Most Souls are not used to the vivid human feelings because in their previous lives they lived as plants or animals from different planets who have much less emotions. "Wanderer" had lived on many different planets before and thought she was ready to take on a human host. Most human hosts are easy to suppress. However, Melanie was a totally different story. Wanderer began to feel the same feelings that Melanie felt- Anger towards the hosts, love for her family, etc. The Wanderer could not suppress these emotions and at times she could even hear Melanie's conscious speaking to her. After a few years as living as a soul trying to suppress her host, "Wanderer" was very unhappy because she still felt Melanie's emotions.
Eventually Melanie was able to get Wanderer to run away from her fellow hopes and seek out other humans (Melanie knew where their secret hiding place was). Wanderer eventually found the other humans and at first they all hated Wanderer. Some of them even wanted to kill her. However, Melanie's former lover Jared would not let them kill her because he could see that Melanie was still inside. Wanderer became part of the humans group and learned to live with them. A lot of them grew to like Wanderer who later became named Wanda. Wanda would share critical information with them about the operation of souls taking over the humans planet and bodies.
Wanda fell in love with a guy named Ian. However, Melanie hated it because she was in love with Jared. Wanda knew they could not share the same body anymore and she had to give the body back to Melanie so that Melanie could be with Jared. Wanda snuck away to a doctor to get her soul removed and to essentially give up her life for Melanie. While Melanie was under Ian put her soul into a babys body so that he could save her life. The four love birds went on to live happily ever after.
Author: Stephanie Meyers
This book, similar to Years of Wonder, is a story about two different towns. This book is much more complicated to explain because it involves many more characters (souls and humans). However the plot is very creative and has many unexpected twists and turns.
The book starts out when "Wanderer" a soul, gets placed into the body of a human host, Melanie. Most Souls are not used to the vivid human feelings because in their previous lives they lived as plants or animals from different planets who have much less emotions. "Wanderer" had lived on many different planets before and thought she was ready to take on a human host. Most human hosts are easy to suppress. However, Melanie was a totally different story. Wanderer began to feel the same feelings that Melanie felt- Anger towards the hosts, love for her family, etc. The Wanderer could not suppress these emotions and at times she could even hear Melanie's conscious speaking to her. After a few years as living as a soul trying to suppress her host, "Wanderer" was very unhappy because she still felt Melanie's emotions.
Eventually Melanie was able to get Wanderer to run away from her fellow hopes and seek out other humans (Melanie knew where their secret hiding place was). Wanderer eventually found the other humans and at first they all hated Wanderer. Some of them even wanted to kill her. However, Melanie's former lover Jared would not let them kill her because he could see that Melanie was still inside. Wanderer became part of the humans group and learned to live with them. A lot of them grew to like Wanderer who later became named Wanda. Wanda would share critical information with them about the operation of souls taking over the humans planet and bodies.
Wanda fell in love with a guy named Ian. However, Melanie hated it because she was in love with Jared. Wanda knew they could not share the same body anymore and she had to give the body back to Melanie so that Melanie could be with Jared. Wanda snuck away to a doctor to get her soul removed and to essentially give up her life for Melanie. While Melanie was under Ian put her soul into a babys body so that he could save her life. The four love birds went on to live happily ever after.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Febuary 27th: Submit a map
Book: Years of Wonder
Author: Geraldine Brooks
This is a map of England. If you look closely, you can see London near the bottom right, and a city called Notts, towards the center. The plague was spread from London to Notts in 1666. The fact that the author chose to set this book in the year 1666 is interesting to me because 666 is the number of the devil, and religion plays a large part in this book. In fact, the people living in Notts were Puritans who believed the plauge was from the witches.
I looked up "England 1666" on google, and found something interesting. I found that this book was based on events that really took place in England 1666. There was an actual plague in London that caused the Royal Courts to evacuate the year before, but they returned on Febuary 2nd, 1666. Another interesting thing that happend during this time in England was Issac Newton invented differential calculus. It is interesting to me that the author chose not to mention anything about this in the book.
Author: Geraldine Brooks
This is a map of England. If you look closely, you can see London near the bottom right, and a city called Notts, towards the center. The plague was spread from London to Notts in 1666. The fact that the author chose to set this book in the year 1666 is interesting to me because 666 is the number of the devil, and religion plays a large part in this book. In fact, the people living in Notts were Puritans who believed the plauge was from the witches.
I looked up "England 1666" on google, and found something interesting. I found that this book was based on events that really took place in England 1666. There was an actual plague in London that caused the Royal Courts to evacuate the year before, but they returned on Febuary 2nd, 1666. Another interesting thing that happend during this time in England was Issac Newton invented differential calculus. It is interesting to me that the author chose not to mention anything about this in the book.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Febuary 21st: Blog Entry on Novel Two
Book: Years of Wonder
Author: Geraldine Brooks
PLOT: This book takes place in a small village near England in 1666. In the book, the main character, Anna, tells the story of how her village was destroyed by a plague that was brought to town by a man from London.
The book starts out from Anna telling the reader what the town is like in the present times (destroyed), then she goes back to describe how it got to be that way. Anna starts out by telling how she let a man, Mr. Viccars, come board in her house. Mr. Viccars, however unfortunately gets sick (with the plague) and dies very quickly. In his last moments of life, he asks Anna to please burn all the clothes he had made because he was afraid he might have infected them. Anna wants to take his advice and burn the clothes, but they are so beautifully made that his customers refuse to let them burn and naively decide to keep them.
Within a day her neighbors infant dies of the plague, then people all over town start to feel sick as well. The only two town "herbalists" are accused of being witches and causing the plague, and they are both killed. Leaving the town with no skilled doctor or herbalist to help save the sick.
The book goes on to tell about losing many people in the town, Anna becoming lovers with the Rector, Anna saving and adopting a little girl, Anna fleeing the town with the little girl, and Anna being pregnant once she is gone and having the Rectors baby. The book ends with Anna walking away in a new town with her two daughters (adopted, and birthed) in a new town because they escaped the sickness of the plague.
Author: Geraldine Brooks
PLOT: This book takes place in a small village near England in 1666. In the book, the main character, Anna, tells the story of how her village was destroyed by a plague that was brought to town by a man from London.
The book starts out from Anna telling the reader what the town is like in the present times (destroyed), then she goes back to describe how it got to be that way. Anna starts out by telling how she let a man, Mr. Viccars, come board in her house. Mr. Viccars, however unfortunately gets sick (with the plague) and dies very quickly. In his last moments of life, he asks Anna to please burn all the clothes he had made because he was afraid he might have infected them. Anna wants to take his advice and burn the clothes, but they are so beautifully made that his customers refuse to let them burn and naively decide to keep them.
Within a day her neighbors infant dies of the plague, then people all over town start to feel sick as well. The only two town "herbalists" are accused of being witches and causing the plague, and they are both killed. Leaving the town with no skilled doctor or herbalist to help save the sick.
The book goes on to tell about losing many people in the town, Anna becoming lovers with the Rector, Anna saving and adopting a little girl, Anna fleeing the town with the little girl, and Anna being pregnant once she is gone and having the Rectors baby. The book ends with Anna walking away in a new town with her two daughters (adopted, and birthed) in a new town because they escaped the sickness of the plague.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Audio Sotries: 02/05/12
1. “I looked in those big green eyes, and I was a done deal.”
http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/peter-and-jacqueline-headen/
This story absolutely tugged at my heart. What caught my eye in the first place was the title of the story. It is a phrase that describes love at first sight. When I heard the beginning of the story I thought it was going to be about a couple who met and got married immediately. However, it turned out that this couple was unfortunately split up for thirty years before they found each other again.
Peter said that when he was deployed in Vietnam for three years, he carried a picture of Jacqueline every day. He said that whenever he was having a rough day, he would just look at the picture and immediately feel better. Jacqueline on the other hand had gotten into a bad marriage with another man and was deeply unhappy. She said that the minute everything ended, she knew the only person in the world who she felt loved her was Peter. When she called him, their love was immediately rekindled even after thirty years without contact.
I think this is a beautiful story and it deserves to be shared with many people because it shows true love. Even after thirty years of being apart, they are still just as attracted to each other as they were when they first met. I hope to meet someone like this in my future.
2. “Does it bother you to think of home?”
http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/sarah-and-joshua-littman-2/
This story interested me because I saw that it was about a boy with asperger’s syndrome. My cousin has this syndrome as well. There are different degrees of aspergers so it was hard for me to tell which degree the young man in this story had. He sounded like he didn’t have it as much as some kids that I know.
One part of this story that I absolutely loved was his mother. His mother had the sweetest, wisest, most encouraging personality I have seen in a long time. In fact, she reminded me a lot of my own mother. I thought that this young man would most likely be very lost without his mother. In the story as she is giving him advice, you can see that she pushes him to be his best, but gives him a lot of space so she doesn’t stress him out. This, in my opinion is a real gift and most parents don’t have it.
I thought it was interesting how he talked about not enjoying college and it made me wonder what aspects of college he didn’t enjoy. I wonder if it was purely the schooling that he didn’t like or if there were some social aspects of college that bothered him too. I think that kids can be cruel to other children with this disability because most kids don’t understand it and how it works.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)