Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Snow Falling on Cedars is a novel I recently finished. It was a book I chose to read because Ms. Bandman strongly recommended it and because I needed to read a Historical Fiction novel. Ms. Bandman said that the tenth graders used to read it as one of their class books and that it is a very good story. I was actually surprised at how interesting it ended up becoming. It was intricately weaved with several different characters' points of view. The author effortlessly shifted from character to character making the book very interesting. The plot was also very interesting and educating. It really gave me insight on how the Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II and how their life was so dramatically affected. Within this novel, the Japanese living on this Island off the coast of Washington were given a little more than a week to completely pack up the essentials and leave. They didn't know exactly where they'd be going, what they're life would be like after they got "there", and if they'd be able to return to their homes. If someone came into my house and gave me 10 days to completely pack up, I couldn't do it. It's unthinkable. How can the government just lock everyone up into camps because of their race? Another thing that really bothered me was that the whole book was centered around this grand trial for a murder. And the reason that Japanese people took such a big role in the book is that the man accused of the murder of a well-known German fisher man, Carl Heine, is a fellow fisherman Kabuo Miyamoto who happens to be Japanese. Not only that, Carl's father and Kabuo's father were landlord and tenant respectively. Carl's father leased 7 acres of his land to Kabu's father many many years ago with a set payment plan. Kabuo's father missed the last payments when he was forced to go relocate to the camp and Carl's father died shortly after so Carl's mother sold the farm from under the Miyamotos. Kabuo returned to the island after fighting in World War II and he tried to get his family's land back but was denied. So, the belief of the island was that his bitter hatred towards the Heine family prompted him to kill Carl. This of course, was not true, but his race and the bitterness of the town towards Japanese people made Kabuo's life so much more difficult and I felt bad for him--I really did. Another part of the book I really liked was that there was this other character who took a very big role in the text--his name is Ishmael Chambers. He is the editor/owner/main writer for the Island's paper and he has an interesting past that really gives him an edge that I really liked. He fought in the war, lost an arm, and had a love affair with one of the other characters when he was younger that really made the novel have an interesting twist to it.

Overall...it is a great read. The length is a little scary, but honestly...I loved it.

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat

I finished my literatures circle book, The Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat a long time ago but completely forgot to blog! It was an amazing read. It was actually a memoir because Marina was a political prisoner when she was a teen, not much older than I am now. It was heart wrenching and amazing and hard to put down. So many great adjectives can be used to describe this book. I loved it. My mom actually read it last year when my brother read it for his english class' literature circles. She cried after finishing it in two hours and really loved it. The fact that the book is nonfiction and all the events Marina had to go through really connected me to the memoir. I think that in any circumstance when a book is relateable and real it makes the whole reading experience so much more riveting and interesting. Every chapter made reading it so much better. From flashbacks to tragedies to disasters, the book kept me interested. Also, I really loved how I read it as a literature circles book because I was able to communicate with other people in my group and really discuss the text and evaluate certain things. Though our group meetings weren't very long it was really good getting feedback from people who were really going through the same experience as yourself. I recommend this book to anyone! It's so incredibly good. A parent could like it, a teenager could like it, male or female: this book is incredible for any reader.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

I just finished Into the Wild by John Krakauer and I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot. It took me way too long to read, something I am NOT proud of, but I think I came through in the end and finished it. It was a very interesting story about a real boy/man named Chris McCandless who, in 1992, decided, after graduating from Emory, to go on the run. He gave up all his savings and created a new life for himself. He became Alexander Supertramp. Krakauer went in depth and found out all about McCandless' odyssey. He got all the letters and the accounts from everyone McCandless met. He did his homework alright. And, after just being assigned to write one article for Outside magazine, he went further and wrote this book. Krakauer included personal anecdotes from his life as well as sufficient research about McCandless from the time he was born to the day he died. Not only did he research, but he also went in to the Alaskan bush McCandless saw his last days in. That's devotion right there. I really enjoyed this book because it wasn't a run of the mill biography. It was intricate and interesting and sometimes hard to follow. The whole epic journey McCandless took reminded me so much of Holden Caulfield. For example, one quote claims that

"Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris's case. More even than most teens, he tended to see things in black and white. He measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code"

(122). McCandless was a quirky character who I was really intrigued by. He saw things differently and his refusal to conform, which leads to his downfall, is refreshing and so incredibly interesting. I recommend this book to ANYONE--adults, teenagers, boys, girls, dogs, etc. It was a book I'd read again for sure.

End of Quarter Blog

The third quarter is almost over. Wow, time flies by in your sophmore year of high school! So, my genre plan for the fourth quarter is to read a play, poem or a historical fiction book. Just for the simple reason that I have not completed that genre requirement yet. I have absolutely no idea what book I will be reading but I'm sure my classmates or good old Ms. Bandman has a good idea for me. I have actually branched out a lot more this year than last year in independent reading. Last year, I wouldn't even take a second look at Jane Eyre and this year I ended up loving it. Also, I'm tending to read less and less of the easy breezy reads--though I am guilty every now and then. I do prefer a good realistic fiction every now and then. Looking for Alaska was a great read as well as Nicholas Spark's The Last Song and The Wedding. I do enjoy reading Picoults books as well (Handle with Care) but sometimes I don't want to start reading a book that I know will make me cry eventually so I'm trying, as of recent, to stay away from her books. Hmm...what else does her blog sheet say....what was my favority book this quarter? I'd have to say The Time Traveler's Wife. I absolutely LOVED that book it was interesting, well developed, and riveting. I found myself reading a book instead of watching tv which sometimes is a very surprising thing for me. I think that I didn't just choose this book as my favorite because it was better comparing to what else I have read this quarter, I think I would have chosen it either one of the other two quarters if the same question had been asked. Well, I think that this is all for now....


Allie

Blog Book Review of The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I read a review entitled "Timeless Love" written by W.R. Greer. I completely agreed with everything the author said. One interesting point that the author did bring up was his or her criticism of the book. The fact that the author has criticism of the book doesn't surprise me, it's the part of the book he or she is critical of. Greer says

"My only complaint is that, whether a realistic depiction or not, love in this novel is something from which recovery never seems to happen."

What Greer means is that the love in this book is so incredibly powerful that it's impossible to recover from. While reading this book, I never stopped to think about this evaluation of the book. I was so immersed in loving the book and everything about it I never stepped back to think of some sort of criticism about any general theme within the book--such as the reoccuring love. Another thing I really loved about this review was that the author uses the best possible descriptions for the book and how Audrey Niffenegger, the author, wrote it. Such as this one quote,

"Ms. Niffenegger does an admirable job portraying their life together, and exploring a love built over a lifetime that courses deep through both of them."

Greer is extremely respectful towards Niffenegger and gives her the respect she really does deserve because the book is like some extremely difficult quilt that is so intricately sewn together that no one else would ever be able to remake something even close to similar. I'm not one to really read book reviews, but the review I just read was very well written.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I started reading The Time Traveler's Wife a few weeks ago after I watched the movie at a hotel in Florida. The book is absolutely amazing. It's a bit mature for some audiences but I love it. I finished Handle with Care around two weeks ago during a blackout that made it near impossible for me to do anything but read next to a candle--sort of a fire hazard, but I was careful! Handle with Care had a good ending, it was actually very surprising and heartfelt. Most of Picoult's novels are extremely similar but I was happier with this novel as opposed to others. More about The Time Traveler's Wife...the book is amazing so far. It's a little confusing but after you get past the whole time traveling debocle, it's a very fast paced novel that jumps from time to time. It's not an easy read because of this jumping back and forth from plots and places and not to mention people but it's still a great read. I've found myself in the past few days being bored and instead of turning the tv on to watch some menial tv I open up my book and read for an hour or two which is new for me--television is usually my go-to when coping with boredom. I'm probably going to go read right now even though a couple of hours ago I was just reading for an hour...

I guess the spring brings new things...

Allie

Handle with Care week 2

I finished Dear John by Nicholas Sparks since the last time I blogged. It was a good book, but a terrible ending. I hope they change the ending for the movie because the one that he wrote was just not what the reader wanted! Anyways, on Thursday night I had finished up all my homework and really didn't have anything to do so instead of watching some boring, uninteresting show on TV to idle my time. So I read. I don't know exactly how much of Handle with Care I read but I have read enough to know the book is rapidly picking up and there's rising action. I really like the book and I've heard from other people it's a good book but I'm still sort of waiting for the real dilemma.

Gotta go
Allie

New Book: Handle with Care

When I was in Florida, I got a lot of reading done. I finished The Last Song as well as The Wedding. Both of these books are by Nicholas Sparks. I also want to read The Notebook and Dear John because there's a movie coming out which looks amazing. Right now I am reading a book called Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. The book is very interesting. One thing that Picoult does well as an author is really research her topic. This one is about a girl who has OI, Ostesomething Imperfecta meaning her bones are so brittle that they will break very easily. The book follows the stories of each character. The girl who's sick, Willow, has a sister named Amelia and her life is very difficult because while all the attention is given to Willow she's left to try and raise herself and be her own mom. I started reading it on the plane and I didn't get very far but I think that they are starting some sort of a lawsuit which could potentially become very interesting.

Allie

2 books down!

Over the weekend I finished both Jane Eyre andddd The House on Mango Street!! Exciting, I know! I just started The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks after my mom bought it, read it, and cried from it yesterday. She said it was really good. Kimmy Goldstein, my friend, also read it over break and really liked it. I've seen a lot of the movies that are based on Nicholas Sparks' books and have loved them. Especially A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. My mom also read The Wedding by him and liked it. Jane Eyre started to feel almost like an investment for me. I'd put so much time and effort into reading the book that I was waiting for the reward to finally come. It did...the ending of Jane Eyre was cute and unexpected and the book overall was very good. Was it long? yes. Did it take an extremely long time for me to read? yes. Do I regret reading it? no! Ms. Bandman was right. It is a classic that is wordy and long with small type but nevertheless it's a good book with a great story and a lot of twists and turns--kinda starting to sound like the Odyssey. The House on Mango Street was an extremely short read. It was 110 pages to be exact but it was nothing like I expected. It contained over fourty chapters! It was a book that was made up of one to three page chapters filled with vivid imagery of observations or experiences the main character, Esperanza Cordero either saw or went through. It was an overall good book. The only reason I read it was for Global but I did really enjoy it.

Off to read The Last Song!

Allie

Jane Eyre again (hopefully I'll be done by this weekend)

Having a long break ahead of you doesn't leave you with thoughts of 'oh i should definitely finish my book' but more of thoughts like 'hey, this gives me a chance to spend time with friends'. I did read during the break but I also took part in a lot of other activities (snowboarding, celebrating Christmas, skiing, etc.) So, basically, reading was not on my top list of priorities, I am sorry to say. But I did get a lot of reading done on the nights of this week because I feel as if my reading of Jane Eyre is some sort of an investment. I've already put so much time and energy into the long droning book that now I am ready for the payback. My plan is to finish up the last 60 or so pages this upcoming weekend. Hopefully I can fufill that plan!

Off to shovel,
Allie