Summer Reading Book 2

Title: My Sister's Keeper

Author: Jodi Picoult

When I first started this novel I expected it to be a bore fest and one that would be a preachy testament to a girl having cancer and the repercussions her family has to endure. While I was right about the latter, this novel actually made me tear up and think about what a family has to abide by when struck with a tragedy such as cancer. The novel is divided by different point of views and I loved reading the older son's (Jesse), and the younger daughter's (Anna) point of view the most, because of my being a teen girl as well. I can definitely see why they would seem invisible in a house full of alertness for their middle sister Kate.

I found the adults chapters to be sort of a drag to read, because they didn't really seem to take into account the teens feelings. However, I did like reading the dad's (Brian) because he seemed to be aware of his childern's feelings. The mother, Sara, made me so angry because of her being so blind to Anna and Jesse and too much involved with Kate's life. I understand that being a parent can be hard, but ignoring the needs of your other children's lives is really the works of a selfish mother if I ever read one.

Campbell (the lawyer) and Julia's (guardian ad litem) chapters kept my attention, but I was so annoyed by their tumultuous realationship that I dreaded any time I saw their chapters and read with a bored exterior. Campbell , I liked somewhat, because of his sarcasim and witty comments. Julia, I liked her more because of the way she reacted to Campbell's douchbaggieness and her lesbian sister Isobel, (whom I love).

All in all, I give the book a 94 and I did enjoy it, but there were times I dreaded picking it up to read. If you like books that make you think about life this is definitely one to pick up, and if you love Jodi Picouolt then, you will most likely love this novel.

Summer Reading Book 1

Title: Crazy in Alabama

Author: Mark Childress

In eleventh grade English class we had to watch the movie version as part of our end of the year movie month and I really loved it! Miss Evans suggested that we read the book as she says that it is the better of the two. I being the one to take suggestions for anytype of book began to read it as my summer reading. I really enjoyed reading Peejoe's sections, as being a teen myself, could definitely understand all the confusion he was feeling at a time in history that many of us have only read about. Lucille's sections hit my feminine side and made me laugh very hard at her sexual experiences as well as sexual awakening. Much like the movie, with a few things added, I had different opinions about how I felt about the story itself. I give the book a 94/100. The movie however, I give a grade lower [90/100] for its subtractions of scenes I feel they should have added as well as extended, such as, the court scene with Lucille and the judge.

94/100 (94%)

Month 5

May (1 book)

Book Title: City of Bones

Date finished: May 13

Author: Cassandra Clare

Pages: 485

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry; March 27, 2007

Type of book: Young adult fiction

Received at/from: Joseph Norris

Interest in book: Wanted to see what everyone was going on about.

Favorite characters: Jace Wayland

Feelings when finished: I didn't really like the book, because it reminded me a little too much of Twilight and Harry Potter. However with that being said I did like the story itself, while Jace, my favorite character in the book, did come off as an asshole with his arrogance and ways he put Clary and her best friend Simon down. At first I will admit it was funny, but then it got too redundent.

Other works by author: City of Ashes, City of Glass

Rating: 8.5/10 85%

Month 2 Reviews and comments

Month 2
This month I did read, but switched so many times from one book to another that I initally just ended up reading just three full length books. Here are my reviews:

A Streetcar Named Desire- 100/100
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- 100/100
Dead Until Dark- 100/100

So this month, I really enjoyed the three books I read.


Book 8

Dead Until Dark
Charlaine Harris
Started: February 6, 2009
Finished: February 14, 2009
Pages: 292

Plot:
Dead Until Dark is a vampire-mystery novel written by author Charlaine Harris. It was originally published in 2001 in paperback. It is the first book of the The Southern Vampire Mysteries, and focuses primarily on a young telepathic waitress from Bon Temps, Louisiana named Sookie Stackhouse, who begins a romantic entanglement with her vampire neighbor amongst a series of murders of young women in town.

My Rating: 100/100

My Thoughts:
I absolutely loved this novel! This is an example of what all vampire novels should have in it. The main character Sookie is so awesome and cool I couldn't help but love her. Her wit and sarcasm is as charming as the book it self. Highly recommended!


Book 7

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams
Started: February 8, 2009
Finished: February 8, 2009
Pages: 208


Plot:
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is the story of a Southern family in crisis, focusing on the turbulent relationship of a wife and husband, Maggie "The Cat" and Brick Pollitt, and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of patriarch and tycoon "Big Daddy" Pollitt. Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family, but finds herself suffering in an unfulfilling marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, has neglected his wife and further infuriates her by ignoring his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his near-continuous drinking date back to the recent suicide of his friend Skipper. Big Daddy is unaware that he has cancer and will not live to see another birthday; his doctors and his family have conspired to keep this information from him and his wife. His relatives are in attendance and attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, hoping to receive the definitive share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth.

My rating: 100/100

My thoughts:
I really loved this play! More so than A Street Car Named Desire! What I like most is the horrible ways the family treats one another, because let's be honest most families treat each other like that. The realization of greed in American society speaks through this awesome play. Definitely a good and fast read.



Book 6

A Street Car Named Desire
Tennessee Williams
Started: February 2, 2009
Finsihed: February 6, 2009
Pages: 141
A.R. Points: 4

Plot:
Widely considered a landmark play, A Streetcar Named Desire deals with a culture clash between two symbolic characters, Blanche DuBois, a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban immigrant class. The play presents Blanche DuBois, a fading but still-attractive Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others, but most of all herself, from her reality, and an attempt to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives at the apartment of her sister Stella Kowalski in the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named "Desire". The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves. Explaining that her ancestral southern plantation, Belle Reve (translated from French as "Beautiful Dream", though the correct French phrase is actually Beau Rêve), in Laurel, Mississippi, has been "lost" due to the "epic fornications" of her ancestors, Blanche is welcomed with some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband Stanley. Here "epic fornications" may be interpreted as the debauchery of her ancestors which in turn caused them financial losses. Blanche explains her supervisor allowed her to take time off from her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves, when in fact, she has been fired for having an affair with a 17-year-old student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she has engaged in—and, along with other problems, has led her to escape Laurel. A brief marriage marred by the discovery that her spouse, Allan Grey (commonly misspelt as 'Allen'), was having a homosexual affair and his subsequent suicide has led Blanche to withdraw into a world in which fantasies and illusions blend seamlessly with reality.

My Rating: 100/100

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed reading this play in class. Defintitely a favorite.

First month's books

1. Night by: Elie Weisel [100/100]

2. Dear John by: Nicholas Sparks [75/100]

3. The Reader by: Bernhard Schlink [100/100]

4. Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust by: Melton Meltzer [85/100]

5. Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by: Hanna Jansen [95/100]

Total rating: 91%