Blog #10

BOOK REVIEW: EDGE BY JEFFERY DEAVER

I read the novel Edge Jeffery Deaver as my choice for the genre fiction book. This book is a classic detective novel where the agent tries to solve the crime and find the criminal. I understand how crime and detective novels are going to have a lot of dialogue but I think many others will agree with me that this book has too much of it. I was surprised when I started reading because it was actually an interesting plot line and I thought it had unique characters. Once I started reading however, I realized that this book does not have much other than the overwhelming dialogue. I found it boring once the characters only spoke to each other, where the goal was to describe the plot to the reader. I understood the plot of the novel, and hearing in my head the characters restate the plot over and over again left me to feel the book drag on and on and on. I think that this book could have a greater amount of action, without over explaining what is happening in the story.

Overall though, I found my book to be awfully boring. I did finish this 500+ page book, but it was a slow read. By looking at Goodreads, I have noticed that Deaver has written many other novels which honestly seem to have more interesting plot lines then this one. I think this novel could have been one of his lower-selling novels but I still think the writer's language and use of craft in the novel could be beyond better.

Overall, I thought that the novel was boring and awful; and I am not normally one to critique novels and their craft (knowing I can not do anything better) but I am also not a published writer and published writers should entertain their audience not bore them and try to drag them along through the story. I would give this book a 1/5 stars and wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone unless you love dialogue, and lots of it. :)

Top 5 Books

I have read many books, and this was a hard list to come up with. But here is what I came up with as my top 5 books--ever.

1.Room, by Emma Donoghue
2.The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
3.The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
4.The Fifth Wave, by Rick Yancey
5. The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau


These are some of my favorite books ever. There are many more books that I would like to put on this list, but I could only have five, so here are my "top 5".

The first book on my list, is Room by Emma Donoghue. I loved this book because of the unique perspective, told through the view of a 5-year old. I liked the language used in this book and how nothing was named properly. This added some depth to the book. The story in a short summary is this mom and this little boy who basically live in a room. The book tells about their life in the room,. The boy has never been outside of this room, and he doesn't know the world outside of the room. I think this book is a book for everyone. I would recommend this book to teens mainly because of the setting and style of the book. Overall, though I think anyone and everyone would enjoy this book because of the perspective.

The second book on my list is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book is (yes a tragic) love story between two people. A girl named Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters otherwise known as Gus. It tells of their life, and the struggles of their lives. They travel to Amsterdam together, this being Hazel's "last wish".  Hazel Grace has cancer, and has to battle cancer in the novel. However, at the end of the novel something unexpected happens. This event will change Hazel's life forever. I love this book, and although I am not normally into sappy love stories that are  basic, I really enjoyed this novel. Why? This novel was different somehow. It had an unexpected twist at the end and I really liked it. (Although I do not support it.) I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good love story with an unexpected twist. Unpredictable is how I would describe the book. So, if you like anything unpredictable this would be a great book for you.

The third book on my list is The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. This book is basically about a bunch of kids that go to an arena and fight to the death, with one victor standing. There is more to the book than this, a love story, challenging of the government and so on. But in the simplistic form, the book is mainly about this death match. I enjoyed the novel because I liked the fast-paced action and suspense of the novel. I think that the action in the book wasn't too repetitive because although Katniss Everdeen, the main character, suffered many challenging problems the problem was not repeated every time she ran into an obstacle which I liked. I enjoyed how it was mixed up a little bit. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books with fast-paced action and strong suspense. People of all ages would definitely like this book. I read this book in 5th grade, when it was super popular and the fandoms of this book were actually unbearable. But, anyone would like this book in general.

The fourth book on my list is The Fifth Wave, by Rick Yancey. This book is about the world becoming invaded by aliens. Cassie Sullivan has to survive this invasion and find her brother who has gone astray. Along the way she meets Evan Walker, someone who has brought her in when she was hurt. Of course, like every other YA novel a love story occurs. Shocker, I know. However, I believe that this book has unbelievable suspense that adds incredible depth to the book. I really enjoyed this book, and although it was over 500 pages I read it in the span of a weekend. It was a quick-read because you would just flip the pages and keep on going, you never really wanted to stop reading.I would recommend this book to people who enjoy science fiction and YA novels because this is basically what the book is. Also, if your into aliens I would definitely read this book. Overall, this book was number four on my list because it had so much action ad suspense.

The fifth and final book on my list is The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau. This book is about a girl named Malencia Vale, otherwise known as Cia, and how she must survive the testing a process where she will be placed in a new world and have to travel tons of miles to Tosu City, this will mark the final stage of the Testing. If she completes this she will be assigned to a University and she will learn and grow farther. Before this third stage of the testing she also must pass several written tests where she will test her wits and strength of her mind. I enjoyed this book because of the action in the book. I also liked Cia's internal thoughts and her mind and voice. She had good humor and educated thoughts. I enjoyed the characters in this book because I thought they added a lot to the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an unexpected book because this book is filled with unexpected twists and turns.
Overall, this is my top 5, hope you enjoyed!

The Best Book I Have Read Over the First Quarter

My favorite book from the 3rd quarter was The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau. 5 out of 5 stars and a 10/10 recommend. This book takes place in a dystopian society and is a science-fiction novel. The major theme of the book is although you may succeed and stray away from your values you will ultimately succeed further if you follow your morals and values. I loved this book because although it was similar to other books that I have read, it had very different characters. It's similar to many popular science-fiction novels such as Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth or The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. In most YA science fiction novels that I read the main character is a smart, beautiful, girl that thinks that she is worthless. This makes me want to shoot my brains out. Honestly, this character has appeared in so many YA novels.  This is driving me crazy because they are all perfect human beings who are "worthless" and "weak".

 Please, I'm glad that this book has many better characters.

The Testing, takes place in a dystopian society where students after high school have two choices: live with their family at home or move on and go through the testing where--if they pass-- they will move on to a university. The main character is a teenage girl named Malencia. Throughout the testing the main protagonist, Malencia (otherwise known as Cia), will battle both against her opponents and the forces of nature. The testing lasts for about a month, and this is no easy task to complete. She will come to the world, she will come to society, she will come to the testing. There is no guarantee she or anyone will come out alive, after all, the government is trying to select the future generation that will lead the society. The testing rules are simple, that is if your smart. You come, you survive, you leave. You will go in and take many paper written or applied tests. For example, you may have to sort plants from poisonous and safe. Then you may have to eat whatever plants you classified as "safe". (This happens in the book, sorry spoiler!)

Cia will begin to not only question her society, but also question the authorities and the morals of her government. She will not only ask what her society can do for her, but what she can do for her society.

Overall, I would recommend The Testing to anyone and everyone. I believe that this book reaches out to a variety of audiences because of the characteristics of the main characters. These many characteristics make the characters very easy to relate with. This not only keeps the audience drawn in, but also gives the audience some emotional connection with the characters.

Click here for more information.

3rd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

Over the course of the third quarter I have read many books varying in levels of difficulty. Here's a list of all of the books I have read this quarter:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Edge by Jeffery Deaver
The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau


I had made two goals for this quarter. My first goal was that I would read an entire series in order to see how character change over the course of a few novels. I have not yet read an entire series, but I am in the process of reading The Testing trilogy and I have just finished the second book and am hope to obtain the third novel by next week. My other goal was to read 8 books next quarter. (Which happens to be this quarter) I have read 9 books this quarter, including Fahreneheit
451 and I am glad that I have reached my goal. I think that I set a realistic goal for
 myself because I am currently on the softball team (YAY!!!) but I have practices 6 days a week. I normally don't get home until 6-7 and on top of my other homework I lose some of my reading time. However, I am excited that I have reached my goal for this quarter.
My new goals that I want to meet would be 1) I want to read a book from the perspective of a different place around the world  (probably, I Am Malala  by Malala Yousafzai) and 2) I would like to read 1 more book from the mystery/crime genre. I have read a crime novel, (Edge by Jeffery Deaver) and I enjoyed it because I liked the fast pace and quick action, and I think if I read at least 1 more book from this genre I will really enjoy the genre more.

Blog #8

When I first read these articles on why/ why not you should read YA novels, I thought Jonathon Franzen was trashing all of the YA novels, After I had reread the article I realized that he wasn't trashing YA novels but he was actually criticizing adults who read the YA novels. I think that Franzen is oblivious to other people's views because in the article on women writer's he suggests that "She has no case. So she tweets." Here he is referring to Weiner, a women writer. I believe that women writers are unacknowledged when it comes to writing because they aren't seen as writing "good literary material" and many people see them as unqualified to write literary materials just because they are women. Especially, since he has not even read any of Weiner's work, how would he know what her writing talent is then? He has not even tried to read any of her novels just because other people say that she is not a good writer. I think he should at least read one novel written by Weiner because he needs to understand how her writing is probably good and he needs to give the writing a chance.

In the second article, "Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner Speak Out On Franzen Feud: 08/026/2010" I think that Weiner and Picoult were well-represented and shown as strong female writers with good work even if it was not considered literary and material for adults. All adults must get sick of literary book after literary book and they need a good thriller or mystery to read every once in a while. I don't think that adults are "too old" to read YA novles because YA novels can be read by a variety of audiences and shouldn't be considered only for teens. I also believe (I may be biased) that YA novels are better because they are more enjoyable to read, and overall have a better plot then many literary novels. Overall, from the second article, I believe that women should be represented more as strong female writers and authors who write good, quality material.

Lastly, in the third article, I think that Ruth Graham negatively critiques YA novels because they are not mature enough and too fake for adults. I believe that  YA novels are often times very mature because they bring up real life situations and they show possible solutions for the problem. They also teach-in my opinion- good life lessons. They show how someone, not just young adults, could solve a problem. I also think that what you read can change, but you shouldn't become a different reader. Most likely, you still enjoy the same genres or novels and they still seem new and fun to you. However, Graham thinks otherwise.

In conclusion, don't make inferences on a novel written by women or YA novels that are considered too young for many adults, before you read them.

Blog #7- Genre Fiction

Blogpost- Writing

The book I chose to read for the genre fiction unit is Edge. Edge is an image of a classic detective novel, where there is a case trying to be solved and naturally a detective on the case. If I were to try to describe my book, I would say that it is like a modern Sherlock Holmes. This book is written by Jeffery Deaver, who has also written many other books.

Although there are many characteristics of a "classic crime novel", one of the top 2 most common trends and necessities in crime fiction novels are the use of suspense, by having the main character be solving the crime and he story is told through their eyes. In the first article, it discusses this and says how you can not write a novel, specifically a crime fiction novel and not have suspense and a powerful protagonist solving the crime. Edge, my book, has this and all of the suspense you could hope for it to.

The next thing that you could hope for in a crime novel would be a seemingly flawless crime but on closer inspection by the all-too-good detective there is one flaw that leads to the weakness of the crime. So far, I am about a fourth of the way through the book, and the crime is just being introduced but I do think that this will be the case in my novel. (no pun intended) I have read some other crime novels and this definitely is expressed, and a key point in most novels.

Some other novels that are considered stories of the classic crime and detective novel plot include:

~A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

~The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne

~Watson’s Choice by Gladys Mitchell

Articles:

http://www.britannica.com/art/detective-story-narrative-genre

https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/1050-hard-boiled_detective_fiction_and_the_private_library.html

http://m.wisegeek.com/what-is-crime-fiction.htm