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.

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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

"Point of View- Rick Rielly

The writer I chose was Rick Reilly, who worked for ESPN Sports after writing some columns. Reilly writes about one thing: sports. I was drawn to this columnist because I like sports, I personally have played softball for around 7 years and living around sports from a young age I have developed a liking for them. Although he has written many columns on various sports, I chose two specific columns by Reilly the first one being “The Weak Shall Inherit the Gym” and the second one being “Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug!”.

Reilly uses many writer’s craft in the columns however the most prominent technique is syntax. He communicates his point of view, sports, through short-sentences in order to create play-by-play action similar to that in a sports game. Through this short-sentence syntax structure he is able to mock the overprotective people in the world and create humor in the piece. He begins by saying “Marbles. WInning others’ marbles is overly capitalistic.” He later continues this same trend later in the piece by saying “Kick the can. Unfair to the can.” (Weak Shall) This allows him to add humor to the piece by mocking the overprotective people and their ideas on “bad games”. Reilly also mentions at the beginning of his second piece, how cheerleading is causing injuries around the world, and yet is not a “true sport”. He states, “Every Friday night on America’s high school football fields, it’s the same old story. Broken Bones. Senseless Violence. Clashing egos. Not the players. The cheerleaders.” He continues the short sentences to emphasize his previous point of cheerleading not being a sport. In this article, rather than mocking the overprotective people in the world, he mocks the cheerleaders in the world. By saying “Broken bones” and “Clashing egos” to repeat how cheerleaders are not competing and how cheerleading is not a sport. In both columns, Reilly uses short-sentenced syntax to mock society’s views on sports.

Articles!

The Weak Shall Inherit the Gym

Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug!

Movie vs. Book

I read and watched Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The book actually wasn't as bad as I originally thought it would be. I somewhat enjoyed the book. The plot was okay, but I did wish that there was more action in the plot and more suspense. Overall, the book was okay. I watched the movie also. It stinks. I know it's an older movie and all of that but I would expect something! It was awful!!! They actors they casted were bad, they have Clarisse and Mildred casted by the same  woman. This, in my opinion was wrong. Clarisse and Mildred are too separate people and should therefore be casted by separate people also. Clarisse is someone who notices the world around her and appreciates what she has. Mildred, on the other hand, doesn't appreciate anything that she has. She also always wants "another TV" or wall screen or whatever she calls of in the book. She doesn't really care for anyone's opinion either. Although, she is reluctant to agree wit Montag and hide the books, Mildred still never listens to Montag's thoughts or opinions. She regards him when he asks her how many pills she has had, to make sure she is okay, and she just says "a few." In the book she drives me crazy, and in the movie she also drives me crazy just because the casting was off.

The plots of both the movie and the book are similar, the details are off but the majority of the main events are the same in both. This was nice, but they kind of downplayed the key events in the book. These elements were very essential to the book, like Beatty's death for example. This was one of turning moments in the book, and in the movie it did not play out as I imagined it. It seemed in my head that it was a lot more thrilling, and then in the movie it just seemed like it was there, and it was honestly boring. I think part of the reason that I didn't like the movie as much would be because I had already known what was going to happen, but even the small parts that I didn't remember still seemed to predictable to me. 

Overall, the book and the movie are very similar, yet different also. I do think that the novel was better because I liked how I imagined things in my head better than the film portrayed the characters and key events. If you want to watch the movie click here. If you want to watch the trailer click here. 

Trailer and Movie Expectations

The book I decided to read is called Fahrenheit 451. I wanted to read this book for two main reasons, 1) I had to read it anyway for school and I thought that I might as well knock out two books I have to read by combining the books into one book and 2) Even though this was a school book,  I read the back of the book and it actually seemed remotely interesting, unlike most you-have-to-read-this sort if books. Now this book is a much older book, and that means that the movie, made in 1996 is... How do I put this nicely... very cheesy. The trailer, from my glimpse seemed to keep the general storyline of the novel, however it seems it must have sidetracked a little bit from the main plot. Over of the things I noticed that was different format the trailer and the book is that the romance, that rally occurred in the novel! seemed to be played out more. They also exaggerated some of the characters in my opinion. Like Clarisse, for example, she had absolutely no romantic connection with Montag in the novel, however in the trailer for Fahrenheit 451, it is shown to be two girls fighting over Montag, and he must choose between the two.

Now, if I was trying to sound like a good student I would say that the book is great, and the elevated vocabulary used throughout the novel grabs the attention of the audience, and so on and so on. But, in reality, the book is just plain awful.  In my opinion, I know it's a piece of satire and I know what they have to teach it, but they couldn't pick any book with... better and more exciting characters?!?! In conclusion, this book is literally so boring.

The characters on the other a hand, relate pretty closely to what I imagined in my head. Mildred looks the same as she did in my head, a selfish blonde, and Clarisse was relatively close to what I imagined in my head, although while reading, I pictured Clarisse with brown hair. May I mention though! That the same actor that plays Clarisse, is also the same actor that plays Mildred? If you have onto read this dreadful novel before I would like you to know that these characters are the most contrasting characters with contrasting personalities in the novel. Overall, I am not looking forward to watching the movie because of everything I stated above.