Post #12: Reading Wishlist

Books I Want to Read:

• Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, #2) , Ransom Riggs
• Karen Kingsbury books
• Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
• The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Sean Covey
• Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George, John Schoenherr
• 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life, Don Piper, Cecil Murphey

Future Classics I Hope to Read:

• The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
• All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
• The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Post #11: Book Talk

Post #10: Book Review

Through the use of oxymorons, stream of consciousness writing, and fabricated life experiences, Ellen DeGeneres allows readers to kick back and relax with Seriously... I'm Kidding.

Ellen DeGeneres is a comedian and host of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her show features celebrities, musical performers, games, and more. It's fun and fast-paced, much like the book. Ellen is known for her distinct comedic voice. She aims to entertain her audience on the show and relieve stress and tension. This is also a goal of Seriously... I'm Kidding. 

Sarah Hann, from The Saturday Evening Post, said, "She’s as funny in her book as she is on the air (if not more so). Every page is better than the next; I raced through it, eager to see what else she had to say." This review couldn't be more accurate about the book. It keeps readers flipping the pages, and every page is packed-full with Ellen's humor. Sometimes, it felt like Ellen was right there in the room!

Describing the plot is an impossible task. There are no underdog heroes that face adversity, there isn't a guy who gets the girl in the end- it's just Ellen and her thoughts! Ellen did not craft a literary masterpiece filled with complexity and hidden meaning when she wrote this book. In fact, it was her goal to craft just the opposite! On page 3, she said, "I let my mind wander through some of the biggest moments in my life and then I realized what I needed to do. Since I don't know specific things about each and every one of you... I decided to include a little something for everyone in this book. You're going to find some short stories for adults, coloring pages for kids, and many things for all ages in between." Ellen didn't try to craft a novel that would be studied in classrooms for centuries, she just wanted to write something that everyone could enjoy.

Ellen pokes fun at things that are a part of our everyday lives. On page 17, she talked about the humor that can be found in lotion. "There's lotion for your face, lotion for your hands, lotion for your feet, lotion for your body. Why? What would happen if you put hand lotion on your feet? Would your feet get confused and start clapping? Each kind says it has something special in it for your skin- aloe, shea butter, coconut, cocoa butter, vanilla, lemon extract. That's one ingredient short of a Bundt cake." By poking fun at simple, universal items, all readers can relate to what Ellen is saying.

Ellen keeps the flow of the book moving by including short chapters after long ones. She followed a chapter ironically titled "The Longest Chapter" (only five pages long) with a 140 character Tweet. Her goal was not to tie readers down with hours and hours of reading, but to supply them with something to read while lounging by the pool, flying on an airplane, or taking their lunch break.

While the book is enjoyable and easy to read, at times, it's almost too simple. In the chapter called "The Longest Chapter", Ellen rambles on and on about how she has something important to say. She'll get close to telling the readers, then veer off on another subject, then come back to the important item, then get off topic again, then come back- almost like this sentence. In the end, Ellen tells readers that the thing that changed her life forever was the Swiffer. The chapter was pointless and somewhat obnoxious. However, there are only a few other instances in the book like this, so it's still enjoyable.

Hectic but soothing, confusing but restful, this book deserves 4.5 out of 5 stars. Readers are encouraged to "kick off their Sunday shoes" and laugh a little as they take a whirlwind tour through the brain of Ellen DeGeneres. 

Post #9: Heroes and Villains

In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, there are clearly defined heroes and villains.

The main hero, Jacob Portman, is somewhat of an Epic hero. He doesn't have superpowers, and he has to overcome his fear of the villains (the wights and the hollowgasts) to save his friends. He accidentally journeys into Miss Peregrine's time "loop" where the peculiar children live. Once he finds out that they're all in danger, he returns home feeling more courageous. He also returns home a little more sane than before because he realizes that he's not crazy and that all the things his grandfather told him are true.

The other characters in the book, the peculiar children, are also heroes. They are more Romantic heroes because they use their "peculiar" powers to fight evil. Because their powers are somewhat unusual, they have to use their own ingenuity to figure out how their powers will help them. For example, one girl named Olive can levitate. She isn't entirely sure how her power will help her fight evil, but she thinks of a creative idea. When the kids are on a boat surrounded by fog, they tie Olive to the boat, then have her levitate above the fog so that they can see what's going on around them and where land is.

The wights and the hollowgasts are the villains in this book. Hollowgasts are things that were once peculiar children that experimented to try to conquer time and make themselves immortal. However, their experiment backfired and made their lives into a living death. Now, hollowgasts try to eat peculiar children because if they do, they will transform into wights. A wight is almost like a regular person, except for the fact that they don't have pupils. Wights try to hunt down peculiar children for the hollowgasts to eat. Wights are kind of like the hollowgasts' evil minions.

Hollowgasts follow the pattern of villains very closely:
Stage 1: Injustice
The hollowgasts tried to make themselves immortal but instead, they were turned into terrible beasts.

Stage 2 & 3: Obsession and Pride
The hollowgasts are obsessed with becoming regular people again.

Stage 4: Isolation
Because they are evil, people isolate the hollowgasts.

Stage 5: Detachment
Since the hollowgasts are so obsessed with becoming normal again and because they're isolated, they begin to have no sense of worth for human life.

Stage 6: Wickedness
Detachment is what allows the hollowgasts to kill and eat people.

Post #8: The Truth About Memoirs

In my mind, there is a difference between a true story and something that is based on a true story.

A true story should be 99-100% true. As Seth Greenland said, we must make allowances for small gaps in memory. Laila Lalami also talked about how everyone remembers experiences differently. So naturally, there are going to be slight differences from one person's account of a story to another's account.

However, both of them also agreed that in non-fiction writing, there is not room for things that never actually happened. Writers can not claim to have experienced something if they never actually did.

Laila Lalami explains that there is a contract between readers and writers regarding non-fiction and fiction writing. In fiction, writers admit that the story is completely made up, and they invite readers to "come along for the ride". But in non-fiction, authors say to the readers that everything they wrote is true, even though they may have slight differences in their story than someone else's.

So, I think that if a writer is going to label something as non-fiction, it really has to be non-fiction! Writers exploit the trust of readers when they fabricate stories that are supposed to be true.

Now, to touch on David Shield's theory that we don't need lines between genres, I disagree. I think it's important to label books as "fiction" and "non-fiction" because readers need to know what's true and what's not. If there was nothing to distinguish between those things, people may begin to believe certain things happened that never actually did, and vice-versa.

The difference between fiction and non-fiction should be clear. Even if most of a story is true, if it speaks of even one fake experience, it should no longer be labeled as non-fiction. It should be labeled as being "based on a true story".




  

Post #7: The Book Thief Book Trailer

Post #6: Readicide

I do believe "Readicide" is a problem in our schools. Some students are born with a natural longing to read, while others are not. The students who don't have the desire to read on their own don't have many experiences with books until they are forced to read them for school. Often times, these books are analyzed for their literary structures, and they are not meant to be read simply for pleasure. Because some students' first experiences with books are not pleasurable, they automatically think that all books will be that way. This causes many kids to turn away from reading.

I believe schools should teach one genre fiction book for every classic book. I don't think classics should be totally eliminated- they're classics for a reason. They teach us important lessons and cause us to think on a deeper level. They also serve as a common link between people. If someone says, "That movie is like a modern version of Romeo and Juliet," everyone will automatically understand the correlation.

However, I think some books in the curriculum should be read for pleasure. Sometimes, when we overanalyze a book, we lose sight of what it's truly meant it to be- a pleasurable journey into another world. Getting lost in a book and relating to the characters is what ignites a passion for reading.

Some people look down on genre fiction books and think that they don't compare to certain literary works. While this can be true, just as classics are classics for a reason, genre fiction books are best sellers for a reason. Genre fiction books are enjoyable to the reader and well-loved. They too can create common links between people. If someone compared something to The Hunger Games or Twilight, immediately readers would identify with what they were talking about.

Genre fiction books can be just as valuable as literary works, and they may be the only way to wage war on this "Readicide".