The Secret Life of Bees

I finished it and it was amazing. Lily finds out a bunch of things about her mother and it's not the predictable "she didn't shoot her mother, it was actually her father would murdered her". Lily really did shoot her mother, on accident, because sometimes life just happens like that. You mess up and you hate yourself and you feel so stupid but nothing can change it. You want to play the victim, you want somebody to blame, to put all your anger and shame upon, but sometimes you've got nobody but yourself. I think that's one of the worst feelings in the world.
May killed herself because their friend went to jail for no good reason and it broke her without repair. She was tired of carrying the weight of the world around.
One major theme of the book was feminism and the symbol for that was Mary, the Madonna. They worshipped a wooden carving of a black Mary that, as the story goes, came to the slaves and helped them. She was chained up, but every night she unchained herself, even though she was just a wooden statue. They were Catholic, I think, or well it was a lot of catholicism and a lot of feminism. I'm protestant, so I don't know how I feel about it. Everything they talked about Mary doing for them, that's what Jesus does for me, so I could see it in that light, but I don't worship Mary so it was different in that way, too. Even though Lily's mom died, in this book she found other mothers. August, the Queen Bee, June, May, Rosaleen, and Mary.
I treated myself with the movie and the book is ten times as good. One of my favorite books.

9/27

I got a little messed up because we didn't have school on Friday so this is meant for Thursday which means I will have had two responses that week. Okay well I started the secret life of bees by sue monk kidd and let me tell you I was so happy to have found it. Its the best I've read in a really long time. It has the perfect balance of elevated diction and good conflict. So its set in south carolina in 1964 where racism runs rampant. The protagonist is white though and she lives with the fact that when she was four years old she accidently shot her mother. Her father is horrible to her so one day she runs away with her black housekeeper to a city where she thinks her mother had been. There they find 3 black sisters and live with them. One of the sisters (may) used to have a twin (april). May and april felt eachothers pain equally and then one day april killed herself. After that day, everything in the world became may's twin sister. She takes on the pain of strangers on the news, burnt pancakes and cockroaches. So she cries all the time so she built a wall like the wailing wall in Jerusalem and whenever she feels sad she goes out to the wall and slips her prayer into it. That was pretty interesting and I'm also learning a lot about the behavior of bees in this book. Its soooo goood!

"Close Reading Bingo"

1. Use of a long quotation: such as, "One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour," destroy any last vestige of formality, further developing the aura of simply telling a story to a friend.- http://ascrapofparchment.blogspot.com/
2. Use of the word "use" and calling the author by his first name:J.D. uses common words to describe his past, such as "crap" and "lousy". -http://maddie17-booklover.blogspot.com/
3. Disscussing the effects of the passage on the reader: With the use of his realistic descriptions, the promt was easily visualized.-http://addie-line.blogspot.com/
4. No puntuation in the quote, and way too long as the subject. "On sunny days like this one, a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight, formed by intersections of the lobby's towering volumes of marble and glass, met the real escalators just above their middle point, spreading into a needly area of shine where it fell against their brushed-steel side-pannels, and adding long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails" -http://theycallmefreshmoney.blogspot.com/

Favorite: http://rivers-thenewzealander.blogspot.com/

Maybe I Missed it

Slaughterhouse five has as much balance as a meth addict. It jumps around and around to different times and different planets. When he dies, nothing happens except a few seconds and then he transports back in time to a random place in his life. As far as the whole antiwar message was, was it just a novel illustrating the heartbreaking effects and damages that a war thrusts upon the world? Was his reasoning the artistry of an awful tone, life's dreary aftermath and the hardships that a soldier must face even after he has "won" or been "saved" from the war? Or was there an economical reasoning with mathematical equations of why we should stand aside from the war when the innocent suffer, or when our freedom is attacked? Maybe I missed it, but it seems like this book is about color. The color grey and not a greater concept. and how the color grey, a continuing grey with no escape, and the bettering of human emotions should be based ahead of war. Sad subject, war is. And no one wins, but what is prevented is the subject matter. And no one can examine what is prevented because it never happens. What is prevented doesn't exist.
Billy Pilgrim never told his wife who he didn't like what tormented him from the war. He couldn't get over the pathetic realness of the war.  
WE don't have to be sad, though. The aliens engage in war just like us.

"Practice Diction Analysis"

In this excerpt from his novel "Catcher in the Rye", J. D. Salinger's common and vulgar diction expresses the irksome discontent the protagonist has for the world. He excessively uses expletives and demonstrates the only implication of a simile is when something is compared to "as hell". This and his irritation of his current situation and Hollywood convey his resentful irritation of the artificiality which lies heavily in society. His employment of the hyperbole that his "parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them" underscore his hostile attitude toward their preoccupied parenting style and dark secrets they want kept hidden. The easily readable syntax invites the reader into Holden's world of aggravation.

Currently 10/21

Pages this week: 196
Books this week: Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut

Friends Style mapping sentences!:
1. In Neil Gaiman's Stardust, Gaiman writes poetically with colloquial language, using words that are neither dissonant nor melodious, in order to describe the setting. -http://academiczengerine.blogspot.com/
2. On the other hand, McCarthy’s Blood Meridian holds a musical quality to the words, as well as descriptive and distinct linguistics.-http://bookworm-days.blogspot.com/
3. In comparison, Annie Phoulx's The Mud Below, the author makes use of a much lower style, a coloquial and vulgar kind of speech, with a picturesque and figurative language.-http://weber-files.blogspot.com/
4. The narrator describes the houses of Wall with conversational, blunt language such as "square" and "old."-http://estella-havisham.blogspot.com/
5. Dissimilar to Stardust, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian demonstrates a thorough understanding of classy, picturesque language.-http://star-bellysneetch.blogspot.com/

I really liked these sentences because of their scholarly way of evaluating the diction. They used the graph/chart to analyze where the diction. They also imcluded a vocab word into their posts.

Trudging through

Right now I'm enjoying my book for ap lit better than my recreational reading book. That's kinda sad. Slaughterhouse five is just everywhere, and I just realized that its not the author that's transporting the reader back and forth in time, the actual narrator is capable of time travel and is moving to different times. It tells the story of his encounters with the people from a different planet but obviously that's not happening, right? I guess its really not a confusing as I make it out to be but I just want to be done with it so I can move on to other books that I've been wanting to read. Yeah and it kills me, absolutely kills me to stop a book en medias res. It really does. (Added a vocab word and sounded like holden caulfied. Boom. Roasted.) So anyway this guy has seen awful things in war so he doesn't mind being held captive in a zoo because he hates life so much. That's because he married a fat woman that he doesn't like and has hallucinations and depression. They reference a lot of books in here but I haven't read any of them so I'm not sure what the author is trying to imply when he alludes to them. That kills me. The protagonist has a fascination with sci fi books so that could explain why he has weird hallucinations about time travel and other planets. to those who have read the book you're probably thinking I'm an idiot and not getting it, so sorry. I'm just not interested so I get distracted and then miss abunch of things that tell what's happened. Ill try to give it my utmost attention.

Style Mapping

An excerpt on page 49 of Cather in the Rye's diction is blunt as he casually creates labels for people. It  is also vulgar and common making the story relate to the reader. This contrasts with an excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, which is elevated, intricate and fancy. The connotation is figurative and lyrical while the sound melodious as it flows along, defying many grammatical laws. The elevation from an excerpt from Neil Gaiman's Stardust is scholarly but not too advanced, so it is mostly unnoticeable. This is also the same with the connotation because it is higher than journalistic, yet less than lyrical, making it almost invisible to the reader.

Slaughterhouse-five

To be honest I chose this book knowing I wouldn't like it. But Kurt Vonnegut is a pretty big writer and I'm tired of people talking about his books and not knowing what they are talking about. So, for cultural literacy, I guess. The book is kind of confusing so far. It starts out as the author just talking about writing the book. Then he gets to the story and talks about this guy and it starts to sound like a real story but then Vonnegut jumps around his life and tells little parts at a time. And it's not like a chapter from here and a chapter from then, its like 2 paragraphs and then it switches to another spot on the timeline and tells something that happened then. So yeah it's really confusing. Also, it talks about weird torture devices that this one guy collects which is really creepy. Oh yeah, and whenever someone dies or something tragic like that, the narrator always says "So it goes" like dying in the world [(of war) is vonnegut's message, I suppose)] is a common thing.  In the beginning someone said when he heard that vonnegut was writing an anti-war book that he might as well write an anti-glacier book because war will always be here. I thought that was kind of funny. Yeah, well sorry I'm rambling. I just don't like the book that much and I don't really know how to talk about it in an organized fashion. Maybe or hopefully it will start getting better.

Quarterly

I'm a little dissapointed in myself for reading so many not-challenging books. The msot challenging so far was The Big Short, and I didn't even finish that. I'm hoping to read better books the next nine weeks and I hope one of those will be 100 Years of Solitude. I think the most pleaurable book I've read so far this nine weeks was The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette. I've noticed in the past couple weeks that I really enjoy reading in the morning. I kind of got in that habit because my friends would be still sleeping in the morning of a sleepover and I would be bored, so I'd read. And then I just got to doing it all the time because my mind is fresh and it can take being challenged because it has just gotten so much rest. I'll read anywhere, mostly. My bed is obviously the most comfortable place to read but when my litttle brother is playing a video game I'll sit beside him on the couch and read so I can spend time with him.

Poetry Out Loud

Check this out, folks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snNB1yS3IE
                                Really good and really inspiring ^

The Execution

Everyone's stomachs are bloated and glistening from starvation. Isn't it interesting how people's bodies do that? The protagonist in the story is chosen to be a soldier begins her training. She is away from all her family but one day she has an epiphany that she needs to see her mother and baby sister, but she doesn’t know why. When she gets to her old village where her father was killed a woman tells her that her mother and sister were last seen being lead off by a Khmer Rouge officer into the woods. That’s the same way her father was killed, and many others. The communist reign is so wide that you can’t even catch an animal and eat it, because no one can own private property. I used to think that we shouldn’t go to war with other countries to protect their own people but honestly I would feel so bad that this was happening I would probably be in favor of it now. 

There is a chapter in the book that talks about when the Vietnamese soldiers catch a Khmer Rouge solider and the Cambodian people in the nearby village attack the prison because they want to execute the prisoner. The soldier is released into the villagers’ custody and they debate on the most painful way to kill the soldier. It reminded me of how when an animal or bug like a spider bites you, and you want to make it feel the pain you felt, but then once you get it and it’s all vulnerable and helpless, you kind of feel bad when you kill it. When reading the book I wanted all the Khmer Rouge soldiers to die but once he was totally helpless, I felt bad for him.

In the end, the Loung Ung is saved by the Vietnamese soldiers and reunites with her family (the ones who are still alive).  She and her brother are sent to America because of American church organizations. The plan is to make money for her family to come over to, but they never do it. Really good book.

First They Killed My Father

So I found this really good book at Goodwill called First They Killed My Father. It's about this little girl starting from age 5 to 9 during the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. She is in the middle class before the communist takeover and she is happy. Then, the Angkar takes over and everyone's lives turn to Hell. Everyone is moved to labor camps where they are treated "equally" . Which means that everyone's possessions are burned, their religions are burned, and they all have to work all the time. No time off because that would be unequal. Everyone who worked for the previous governemnt, along with his families are killed. Eventually, everyone who had any skill or intelligence is killed, until onl.y the farmer/peasants are left. When they go to the infirmary, there are fake doctors because all the real ones have been killed. 25% of the population is killed during the Khmer Rouge-  2 million people.
The victims of this government have to worship those who are directly causing them all the pain, which is the worst part about it. It's disgusting how the Pol Pot killed and tortured so many in the name of Morality and Equality.

Currently

This week I read The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.
Pages this week: 240


Favorite lines:
1. "Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it."- The Road

2. "Happy is the distanc

e between public and private!"-How to be Alone

3. "The details of death are the fabric nightmares are sewn from."-Perfect

I like number 3 the best because its an ode to about all of Ellen Hopkin's sentences. Every line of hers is a work of poetry.

First Kiss Scenes

The Notebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnhZxj6UWRw&feature=BFa&list=HL1318192355&lf=mh_lolz
Dear John: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGAC2R52GSg
The Titanic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MDPeL8lpzo

The Maudlin Nicholas Sparks

I read the prologue when I was 191 pages into the book. It would have ruined it for me (or maybe not because the book is so predictable anyway) but it also probably would have made me not want to read the book. I thought it was just going be some feel-good nice uncomplicated love story but it had to take a nicholas-sparks-turn to a mushy maudlin story. Turns out the title "the choice" didn't refer to the girl choosing between two men, but a husband choosing to abide by his wife's wishes and let her die after she has been in a coma for three months. I should have known it would take a turn for the worse when everything was fine and dandy and there was still 100 pages left in the book. But see, I never read the backs of books or a small summary of what a book is about because I feel like it ruins the whole book. My friends think I'm a little psychotic about it because I don't even watch the trailers for movies. And believe me, its really hard to guard your eyes from the many trailers that happen so often when Harry Potter is coming out. But anyway, I cried in this book, and dang-it, I didn't want to. I just wanted to be happy. Maybe this is a lesson to read the prologues, but honestly I don't think I will.
I should really read something with substance.

A Last Resort

Don't judge me, but I'm reading a Nicholas Sparks book. I like to read a book a week and i was behind on this week's reading because I couldnt get into any of the books I started. I started 5 and and read approx 20 pages in each but it wasn't flowing and in order for me to finish a week it has to be flowin'. Anyway, the book is called "The choice" and it's kind of stupid and predictable, but I can read it for a long time because I don't get bored, and I'm excited about getting time to read it. It's obviously a romance, and the time frame is very short. I'm at 160 right now and it's only been 4 days. That's because Sparks doesn't want to infuse a question into the reader's mind, or an argument about society, he just wants to write a story that will make women all over the country go maudlin (proper usage?) over. In the story this girl met her attractive nieghbor and she likes him but she has a boyfriend, and bam! theres the big choice.
I really hope it's a happy ending, just because if I'm going to read an easy book, I want a happy ending.
Loves like magic. And it's just nice to read and by doing so, put yourself in love.