Final Blog

Safe Haven Book Review

Another loving, mushy romance novel? I don’t think so! This suspenseful, thrilling escape story is one that is unique to its genre with a touch of romance along with a splash of love without that being the main focus. This books makes Nicholas Sparks stand out from not only other romance writers but all authors as a whole. Unique doesn’t begin to describe Sparks actions while writing this book. This novel is one that draws you in, gets you to stay and treats you kindly in the end.

When Katie runs away from her abusive, drunken, detective husband she knows that she needs to go far and fast. When he arrives home from his long weekend business trip he will take drastic measures to find her and real her back into his web of disaster. He will immediate lung to his car and drive with certain speed to the train station, which is the only way out of town. And the hunt will begin. Having been caught escaping once before Katie takes every unthinkable precautionary measures in order to make this escape a success, even stealing a dead neighbors identification. Once away, she never getting content with her location and drops never her guard. Katie explains, “Because being comfortable, meant she might lower her guard, and she couldn’t let that happen.” When she gets the sick to her stomach feel, she flees the city to pick up her life in another unknown destination. At least until she meets Alex…

Trying to distance herself from all relationship Katie can’t help but stop by the grocery store more frequently than usual to visit the owner, Alex. With a growing relationship between Alex and Katie, their pasts start to catch up with them. Katie is forced to share her horrible past husband with Alex, whom she was still married too. While at the same time, Alex has to find a way to add Katie to his life without forgetting his deceased wife. Growing in the future while remembering the past but not living in the past is a lesson to be learned in everyone’s life.

With a theme of defining yourself and overcoming, Katie says, “I want to be defined by the person I am. Not the things that I do.” In order to live a filling and enjoyable life Katie had to leave her past and live with the lies she told to her husband, friends and the stealing. “Deep in her heart, she wasn’t exactly sure she deserved to be happy, nor she believed to be worthy of someone like him,” Katie lets her true feelings out. The abuse from the past might be too much for Katie to handle. With constant reminders running through her head it might be impossible to cover come. Am I good enough? Am I a sinner? Should I leave again? Will she be able to start over and feel worthy of happiness and love or will she continue to distance herself?

The writing style creates an even more intriguing past. Like an object being covered by a blanket, slowly gets pulled back. But the blanket can’t be ripped off; it is like you are scared to see what’s underneath. The drama of what will be revealed keeps you dancing your eyes across the page and fingers flipping for more.

This book provides the perfect dash of suspense right when we become hungry for more action. Love when you heart mourns for Katie. Drama when your mouth wants to spill some gossip. This book is like a perfect blend in your mouth. Like the warmth of your favorite food. Like that recipe that has the homey touch of goodness. All the ingredients right when the recipe needs it, but only the good foods are going in this bowl.

  

What is a book?

For me, a book is something that is inspiring and exciting. It is something you hold in your hand and don’t want to put down. A book is thrilling and needed. But also emotional and make believe. I think a book can be anything and everything you want it to be. And that’s different for everyone. That is why books are so exciting and so necessary. A book is one of the only things that help you use your imagination as you get other. I love the feeling of sitting by the pool with that great book in your hand soaking up the sun or sitting in your bed reading before going to bed. I don’t believe books are the same on a Kindle or other reading devices. I don’t think there’s a good reasoning behind it besides just the feeling of a book. I think it’s different when you have the physical book in your hand.

Why I read...

Personally, I read because I like it. I enjoy sitting down and reading I find it very relaxing. When I have a book I want to read I find time to read it and that means I have time to relax. Reading lets you escape from reality for a while, which I think everyone needs. I never liked reading when I was young because it was always people forcing me to read, whether it was my teachers or parents. This made it less enjoyable for me. But as I got older I realize how important reading is so slowly I have forced myself to read it. Recently I started reading more for fun rather that a chore. What’s hard for me is when I have to read school books because I don’t like reading on a set schedule. I like reading whenever I feel like it and sometimes I am busy and go a week without reading. Also I don’t like reading two books at a time. It gets me confused sometimes.

Blog Post 6

I think Gallagher has very good points behind the causes of schools killing reading for kids. But the solution is tricky. You have to teach students the material necessary for the class but you want the students to actually soak up the information at the same time. So what do you do? I think the solution is reading more of the genre fiction books. For example in my senior English class we get to read one book that has to do with our research topic, which is most of the time genre fiction. The second book we read is The Kite Runner. For the people in my class that actually read the book they found that they really enjoyed it for the most part. This made the class so much more fun and exciting because we read a book that wasn’t painful to talk about. While we liked it, there was also got valuable lessons out of the novel as well. Since it is Multicultural English we of course looked at the usual symbolism, irony and other literary devices. But for this book we also got to talk about how we felt during certain scenes. We got to explore an emotional side of the book along with the controversies in the book. I have never read a school book like that before. This book kept the whole class interested and class time was more valuable I thought. We would still have to read some more literally books though because there are probably some things that you can’t get out of genre fiction books that you can get out of more literally books. But if schools showed students that there is more to books than just literary devices then maybe more students would read more outside of school.

The Help Trailer

Blog Four

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

To make this book into a movie I think it would be hard to find the right actresses to fit these roles. Each character has such a destinct personality that makes the book so good. I have not seen the movie but I have heard they have chosen a very good actors for these roles.

One scene you can get rid of is the scene you find out what Minnie did to Miss Hilly when she got fired. Minnie is one of the main characters and that shows a lot about her and why it was so hard to find a new job. Another scene that you can get rid of is when Skeeter and her mother are talking on the porch. Skeeter's mother is so worried that Skeeter won't get married and that is all she is worried about. The mother wants Skeeter to change her appearance and find a man rather than focus on her journalist career. This shows you howe Skeeter became the person she is. She isn't the typical southern bell but she has a great future. Additionally, I wouldn't leave out the scene where Miss Leefolt hires people to builded a colored person bathroom in the yard out back. The only reason Miss Leefolt does this is because her friends talk her into it. This scene buildes Miss Leefolt and Aibileen, the servant, as character in the book.

On the other hand, a scene that couls be left out is when Miss Skeeter's mom asks Skeeter if she is a lesbian. She doesn't come right out and ask but she is beating around the bush when she asks. Another part that I dont find very important is Skeeter is talking about a guy she kissed in college but then he married someone else.

Book One Project: House Rules

“House Rules”

This book is filled with crime scenes and mysteries that leave you on the edge of your seat. We would set open the crime scenes just like the ones in the book to see if anyone could figure them out.

Case One:

You walk in a house and there are signs of struggle everywhere. A stake of mail is knocked on the kitchen floor along with an overturned stool. The phone was off the table and the battery pack hanging loose. A single faded foot print was at the entrance of the living room in the direction of the dead body. The body is in front of the fireplace with blood on his temples and hands.

Explanation: ‘“There was a confrontation in the kitchen,” Jacob explained. “It ended with the phone being thrown in defense, and me being chased into the living room, where Theo clocked me.” (4).

Case Two:

A jogger found a dead body on the side of the road ejected from the car. The road was covered with ice and snow. The body is male. When found lying on his back with his pants was pulled down around his ankles but his underwear still pulled up. There was blood all over his body. Only footprints from the jogger are around the crime scene but he was ruled out as a suspect.

Explanation: “On episode twenty-six of Season Two, the whole Crimebusters team got hauled up to Mount Washington to investigate a naked guy who was found at the summit. No one could figure out what a naked guy was doing on top of a mountain, but it turned out to be hypothermia. The same thing happened to this man” Jacob explained to the officer.

Case Three:

Jess Ogilvy when missing for three days before her body was found outside her home, wrapped in a blanket fully clothed. After autopsy it was found that Jess had a broken nose and a crashed skull also with a missing tooth. Jess’s boyfriend, Mark was the person who reported her missing. The last person the as admitted to seeing her was Theo Hunt after sneaking into her house not knowing she was there. Jacob Hunt was supposed to meet her at her house the day she went missing but no one knows if he saw her. It is though that she wasn’t killed at the location the body was found. Mark was taken in as a suspect after finding her foot prints in the scene but was later released after there was solid evidence that Jacob Hunt was the murder. But is Jacob actually responsible for this crime?

Explanation: Theo thought the house was empty so he went in expecting an empty house but when he when upstairs he found Jess getting out of the shower. “Ogilvy reached for a towel and exited the stall, but she struggled to her feet again, Theo Hunt ran—overturning the CD rack, several stools, and the mail on the counter during his speedy exit” explained in the final verdict. Then Jacob just hours later arrived at the house for his tutoring session to find Jess lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom. She tried to run after Theo but slipped and fell in the bathroom crashing her skull and breaking her nose. Later we find that “Jacob proceeded to alter the crime scene so that it would point away from Theo. He cleaned up and dressed the body and moved it downstairs.” Jacob struggled moving her body so in the process he knocked out her tooth. This was all for his brother. Although it wasn’t right to do this Jacob said, “I’d do it all over again.”

The idea would work because you get to experience what the main character, Jacob had to go through. Also Jacob is very hard to relate to so this makes him more interesting and personable. The crime scenes would be exactly like the book. This would give you a visual to help you understand the book more. Also we could set up scenes that aren’t in the book as well so that the readers that have read the book would come as well. Since Jacob is autistic it’s hard to put yourself in his shoes so we could walk you through what Jacob would be thinking at each point in the investigation.