Welcome to your summer reading blog! Here, you will post reactions to your reading, three times for each text. Please read the posts of other students and comment on them.
Please do not give a simple plot summary. Think deeper and write something interesting that explains your own thoughts that others might find valuable.
Defending Jacob was a huge surprise.
ReplyDeleteA Long Way Down is also a good read. Nick Hornby's style is always engaging. Was the payoff worth it, though?
ReplyDeleteA Long Way Down is a little confusing because the perspective changes between four people. I could not believe that even though Maureen's son is a "vegetable" she hasn't gone on a vacation or went out to a restaurant in nineteen years. I think even though she says she wants to die because of Matty, when she goes on vacation with the other three, she will miss him and maybe realize that living with him isn't such a terrible thing. It might just do her some good to be away from Matty for a while.
ReplyDeleteYeah--I agree--maybe ask yourself why the author felt it necessary to change the perspectives. Would it have been better if he didn't?
DeleteI agree that A Long Way Down was somewhat confusing due to the fact that perspectives are changed. At the beginning, I had a hard time remembering who was who when I began to read a new person's experience. It was very interesting how JJ and Maureen ran into Jess's ex boyfriend when they weren't looking for him at that point. It was also weird how Martin's girlfriend wouldn't believe what anyone was telling her.
DeleteI agree A Long Way Down was also confusing for me druring the begining. I found it hard to keep track of all four peoples lives. I also found the story interesting because all of these people who were very different and did not know each other befor on a personal level some of them knew the TV show host but even though they did not know each other in the begining they all ended up helping each other out.
DeleteDefending Jacob is a very good, suspenseful book because of all the events that have happened. I can imagine what it's like for someone to be accused of doing something bad like in Jacob's situation. When Jacob's father found the knife in Jacob's room, the father was surprised because it was hard to believe that Jacob could have killed Ben Rifkin.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that he could have done it? Why do you think his father is so sure of who his son is?
ReplyDeleteParts of A Long Way down are very interesting, such as the 90 days from January 1st (90 days for someone who is suicidal to overcome those thoughts). This takes them from Winter to March 31st, which is Spring. I find this interesting because Winter is a cold and dark time (daylight hours are reduced, and days are darker). The characters in the book are also going through very dark times in their lives, and when they meet, they go through those times together. After the 90 days, they are feeling much better about themselves, and they are in Spring, which is a warmer and lighter time of year. In a way, it is like a metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI liked the part of A Long Way Down where the four realize that they wanted to commit suicide not because of life, but because they were "outcasts" of life. They all had many issues that prevented them from living normal and fun lives, so they wanted to end theirs. For example, Maureen has to constantly take care of Matty, has no job, and never does anything for herself. She has no life other than Matty, so she wanted to end her life. They wanted to believe that they didn't want to live, when they really were trapped and needed to live.
ReplyDeleteAlong that same line I found it interesting when they were all on top of the building again and that other person was on the ledge and jumped off and then I belive that it was Martin who said after seeing this he realized that none of them realy had it in them to jump that none of them were as desperate as that guy was.
DeleteThe Ghosts of War is very nice. I like it a lot. The first chapter is kind of boring, but at the same time intriguing because it got me feeling the emotions of 9/11. When he tells about how he did not lose anyone personally he still felt a sense of duty. I respect Ryan for this because he stands up for his country and does something about the attack, instead of watching it all happen in front of him. I think that he’s going to have to fight in war instead of doing construction like he said he was.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how Revolution weaves together two stories of girls living in different time periods.
ReplyDeleteThe historical details of the French Revolution really provide a good background to Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities which we will read this year. The description of the guillotine, the crowds surrounding it, the catacombs, and the mystery of the heart were really captivating.
I also think that anyone with a love for music would enjoy this novel as well. Music is the narrator's outlet that helps her get through a lot which I think a lot people can relate to.
I just read chapter one in HOLE IN MY LIFE. The book starts off with the author in prison so I’m guessing that he got caught. But I understand why he took the job. $10000 in 1972 was a lot of money plus even though he got arrested he made millions of dollars just writing about what happened. In the first chapter he tells about when he was in prison he saw a kid get shanked with a fork and I thought it was intense.
ReplyDeleteGhosts of war is really starting to get interesting know. Ryan just entered basictraining and it is horrible for him. He is learning alot of new things. Such as, to work as a team and in war if one person messes up then you all mess up. The first phase of basic training shows who really has the potential to be in the army when they put them through hell and who ever can not take it is out.
ReplyDeleteIn the second chapter it shows how the author’s life changes a lot and foreshadows how he ends up in jail. He drinks and smokes in high school and he got kicked out of his house. He had to sleep in his car for a night and lives in a motel.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the book Ghosts of War,
ReplyDeleteRyan Smithson really described his impact on the war, and how he took it in. He it right after he got out of highschool and really wanted to be a part of the war to show how much he appreciated the country.
I never really thought about war in the way he thought about it. It changed my opinion about everything!
It would be a different world if there was no such thing as war. It would probably change a lot of other peoples lives too.
I've only read a few chapters about this book, but my first impressions of Ryan was that he's really hard working and he really cares about defending his country.
Ghosts of war is turning out to be a really good book. I am noticing that Ryan is not expecting Iraq to be like the press says it is. The army is tough and he only gets 2 hours of sleep, every 12-16 hours. The army is one team and they keep eachother from quiting. So if one quits they all quit.
ReplyDeletePaper Towns I Like the irony in the story were his two parents deal with troubled kids and are able to find out there problems and how they know so much about everyone but they know nothing about their son.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I find it that Paper Towns starts to get to repedative when he is trying to find her because it keeps on changing from him thinking that she is alive to she is dead and I think that it just bounces back and forth from these two ideas to much and starts to get boring.
ReplyDeleteI can not find out how to make a seperate post so I am just going to put all of my blogs here. Paper Towns I belive that it was a good book and had a very interesting story to it but I realy did not like the ending that much because for me it was to predictable that she was not going to come back and that he was not going to go with her because of the fact that they were so different. In my opinion I do not think that the ending was not as good as the story.
ReplyDeleteA Long Way Down had an interesting plot with all of the different people becoming freinds and helping each other out. This shows how when people help each other out they can do things, and prevent things that they would have not been able to do on their own. Like preventing each other from jumping and if it were not for JJ and Maureen they would not have found the person that Jess was looking for and if it was not for them Jess probably would not have found him and be able to talk to him.
ReplyDeleteI find Ghost of War to be a very interesting book because you can hear about war on the news but all that tells you about is what bad thing happened during it and it does not tell you what the soildier's think about. Also the news tends to only tell you the bad things that happen durring the war but in this book it gives you why a soilder wanted to join the army and his look on the war and also some other soilders opinions and since they were actualy in the war they would now the most about it so I feel that it is telling you alot of things that the news and other sources do not.
ReplyDeleteI like how in Ghost of War he describes why he joined the army. I like this about the book because I belive because of this it allows you to get to understand him and other soilders better and why they are doing what they do. It gives me a better understanding of why we are fighting in the war and why we are there.
ReplyDeleteIn Ghost of War I wounder what that figure that he saw when he was cured from his PTSD. I wounder if it was and if he belives that it was actualy real or if he belives that it was just all in his head and he just had to realize that he was back home and that he had nothing to worry about. I find this extremely interesting on how he got over his PTSD imediatly by this figure.
ReplyDeleteIn mu opionion the beginning of Revolution was to slow. They took about fifty pages to introduce most of the characters and their personalities and what important things happened to them. I belive that they took to long to get to the main story of when she is in Paris and finds the journal. I belive that they should have made the beginning shorter and get to the main story faster.
ReplyDeleteIn Revolution I belive that she always wanted to read the journal and got so involved in it was because the story reminded her a little about her brother. How what happened to the prince was unfair just like what happened to her brother was unfair. Also that she wanted to find out exactly what happened to the prince and why it happened. I also belive that in a way she thinks that by reading it someone will find out the truth so someone els will know what happened so they also will know that what happened to the prince was unfair and in a way she wants this for her brother also.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that in Revolution all her father wants her to do is to do well in school so that she can get into a good college so she can get a job besides just playing her guitar but all she wants to is to play her guitar and she realy does not care about to much els and this is why her and her father don't get along to well. I belive that it is saying that sometimes people will not understand your views and ideas but this does not mean that they are wrong.
ReplyDelete