Book 3 : Book Review



                           

                       

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=zZ0CTcU0Fd0&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active 

 book trailer for The Art Of Racing In The Rain

The two books I have read this last month are Love is a Mix Tape and The Art Of Racing In The Rain. Both of these books have different types of genres but at the same time they relate and have so many similarities and themes within their stories. Love is a Mix Tape would go under the genre of an autobiography and humor. The Art Of Racing In The Rain would go under the genre of fiction.

The first book, Love is a Mix Tape is about Rob Sheffield and his life. He talks about his love and passion for music. The story continues with the description of how he meets his wife and how music can bring people together. Throughout the book, it talks about Rob’s life and the events he has gone through.  The book tells of a major event that happens in his life and how it changed him forever. You see Rob go through the ups and downs in his life.  He struggles trying to get over a lost family member. You can tell that he is really sad and depressed from his loss. Throughout the book, you see how the Rob (main character), music, and time go by. The book shows how “America is a different place than it was in the nineties, when peace and prosperity and freedom were here to stay.” (216)  During the course of the story, you see how Rob grows and develops as a person.

The second book I read this trimester was The Art Of Racing In The Rain. This book is written in a dog’s view. The narrator of the book is Enzo, the dog of the Swift family. Denny is Enzo’s master who is married to Eve and they have a daughter named Zöe. Denny is constantly traveling because of his job being a professional race car driver. Enzo is an intelligent and wise dog. He sees and hears everything that goes on in his family’s life that no one else sees or hears. Denny’s life changes dramatically when a family member passes away unexpectedly. He is going through pain and depression from losing his loved one. He has to stop his professional driving car and work locally to take care of his daughter, Zöe. After the horrible loss of his family member, he accused of allegations and is taken to court for multiple things. His daughter is taken away and he is fighting to get  Zöe back.

Both these books are heart felt books where anyone can relate and feel the emotions of what the characters are going through. Each book is unique and different but in a weird way.  Both books are also so much alike because both characters have to go through a journey of trying to help themselves and family members to overcome obstacles. The common themes of both of these books are death and family. Each book has a different view on death and trying to get over a lost family member. For example, in the book Love is a Mix Tape, Rob goes into a depressed stage in life where he just wants to be by himself. He smokes and walks by himself. While in the book, The Art Of Racing In The Rain, Denny will have go back to work and deal with the court case as well as the loss. Love is a Mix Tape and The Art Of Racing In The Rain both have main characters trying to deal with the loss of a loved one and both characters handle it differently but at the same time, they have similar actions. These two books talk about deep and serious topics, I would recommend these books for teens or adults to read.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading these two books and I would recommend these books to other people to read. I would rate the book Love is a Mix Tape 4 stars out of 5 stars because there were certain things I liked and other things I didn’t care for. I like the writing style of the book and how it had fun elements.  Before each chapter, you read a play list of different songs that relate to it and the artist who sang the songs. For example, the play list would have Aerosmith, R.E.M, Foo fighters, Prince, U2 and many more artists. I thought that the playlists were entertaining and fun and I really liked the author’s writing style.   The author has a long history with music and he appreciated how it helped him throughout his life. For example, Rob misses cassette tapes as evident by this statement, “You hear something you like, and you press rewind to go back to it. But you can’t rewind the tape to the same place again. So you start fresh.” (219)  This quote also is metaphor about how you can’t always stay in one spot or one moment in life and how you can always start over. I thought the book was funny and even had moments when the main character Rob was going through a hard time in his life that he could bring humor to. The negative side of the book is that it was sometimes hard to relate to because the author wrote about the 80’s and 90’s music time period. Sometimes the book would be talking about a certain singer or song and I had no clue who it was or what they were talking about. The plus side of that was that it was fun looking up certain songs and listening to the music that the book talked about. So, I would recommend this book if you like music and want to learn about 80’s and 90’s music time period. If you like to read books with humor, good character development, and easy reading, this book is for you.

The Art Of Racing In The Rain is an excellent book that I truly liked. I would rate this book 5 star out of 5 stars because it was so good. The Art Of Racing In The Rain is a deep and wonderful story to read. This book is so different from the typical book because it is written from a dog’s view.  As you read this book, you can imagine what dogs really think and what they see on a daily basis. Enzo (the dog) is a fun character and is so wise. Enzo helps his family through the rough times and would do anything to protect his family. Enzo is sweet and funny dog who talks about how much he loves his master, Denny and race cars. Enzo relates “but a racer should not be afraid of rain; a racer should embrace the rain. I, alone, could manifest a change in that which was around me.” (44) Enzo also has a funny personality that will make you laugh, like in the book Enzo said “Those monkey-thumbs were meant for dogs.” (17)  The author does a really good job writing this book.  The book has an interesting view about the afterlife for dogs and for life in general.  Anyone who likes dogs, racing, cars, and family should read this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humor, sad books, well written books, interesting characters, and plot development.

Post 6

Literary Fiction V. Genre Fiction

In my opinion, I feel like genre fiction is not less “worthy” than literary fiction because many people enjoy reading both genre and literary fiction. I feel like both types of fiction are equally valuable to read. I do not think that genre fiction is less worthy to teach in a school’s curriculum. In fact, I feel that some popular books that are genre fiction like The Hunger Games, Water for Elephants, The Road, and many other contemporary books could be beneficial to students and help students become more interested in reading.  Just reading literary fiction focuses on classic novels like Of Mice and Men or Lord of the Flies and these may not appeal to all readers. I feel that there is a difference between genre fiction and literary fiction because genre fiction is usually easier reading and appeals to a wider audience. I do not feel that their popularity shows less artistic value therefore, I do feel that genre fiction can be a great work.

What should Schools do?

I agree with Readicide and think that schools are ruining reading for kids in schools. Schools take some of the greatest and historically famous books that people have been reading for generations in schools like Romeo and Juliet, The Cather in the Rye, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and The Scarlet Letter and tarnish the value of the story by having students memorize characters, storylines, and test on the novel in preparation for standardized exams.  A lot of people might think the books in high school are boring and pointless to read, but in reality, it may be our school systems that are responsible for teaching these classic books in a boring way. The schools should teach the students to enjoy reading and discussing the book instead of just giving kids pop quizzes after the chapters so they can quickly get through the book. A lot of teachers focus on teaching students how to take tests and they don’t really focus on the classic itself. I am not opposed to adding more genre fiction to the curriculum because teachers need to make it fun for the students to read and if this means adding a variety of novels, then I feel this will benefit the students.  I feel that if the classic books like Macbeth or the Great Gatsby were taught in a more interesting manner, then students would appreciate these classics and enjoy reading. Shakespeare‘s Macbeth or Hamlet may be more fun to read in school it students were acting the play out and explaining the book instead of just reading and taking a test. I think that schools could make some of these classic books more exciting to read and also swap out some of the classics and add a few popular books from the best seller list to make reading more stimulating. If schools did add some books from the best sellers list like The Help, the Cinderella Man, or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close then more students would be engrossed in reading and this would ultimately improve reading skills, grammar and literary interest. Schools could teach different writing styles, character development, talk about why these books are on the best seller list, and discuss the uniqueness of these books. A balance of literary fiction and genre fiction would probably suit most of the students better than focusing on one specific type of fiction.

The Lucky One Book Trailer

Book Post 4 - Adapting your book

Presently, I am reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Adapting the book into a movie won’t be too challenging for the story line of The Lucky One because it is like most love stories. The movie needs to make sure that they have some important characters in the book such as Logan Thibault, Victor (Logan’s best friend from the military), Zeus (Logan’s dog), Beth, Nana (Beth’s grandma), Clayton (Beth’s ex-husband), and Ben (Beth’s son). Some of the challenges the filmmakers will have is making sure that the movie has the correct settings for important scenes that shouldn’t be cut or the story line will be wrong. The movie needs to make sure the first setting looks like Logan Thibault is Iraq and is fighting in the war. One major scene the producers will have to make sure the movie has in it is when Logan Thibault (the main character) is in Iraq fighting the war and finds a picture of a woman, the then carries this picture around with him and it eventually becomes his good luck charm. The next scene the movie needs to include is that of a small, southern town and that has a similar look to the Hamptons. It is important that the filmmakers make sure that Nana’s house/dog kennel is on an open land surrounded by trees. It truly needs to feel like they are in the country and this location is in the south.  The movie needs to show Logan Thibault with his dog, Zeus hitchhiking. When Logan first reaches the Hamptons, he encounters a police officer, Clayton who is Beth’s ex-husband.  The movie needs to demonstrate the initial encounter, and the development of an increasingly difficult relationship which becomes more complicated throughout the rest of the movie. The final scene that is critical to have in the movie is when Logan Thibault goes looking for the women in the picture and ends up finding Beth (the woman in the picture). Logan works at Beth’s grandmother’s dog kennel. This will set up their relationship and he will have to earn Beth’s trust so they can fall in love.  An important aspect that the movie needs to depict is that Logan Thibualt is hiding the secret of why he actually came to find Beth. The secret is that Logan found Beth’s picture in Iraq and kept it for good luck. Along with falling in love, comes drama.  For one thing, the filmmakers need to make sure the movie is more interesting than the book.

There are two minor parts from the book that the movie could cut out. First, is when Logan and Victor are on a boat and they get into an accident which then kills Victor. I feel like this part is not very important and it wouldn’t make a huge difference if they did cut this part out of the film. The second part the filmmakers could cut out is when Logan, Beth, and Ben all go to a pizza place to go out to dinner. This part just shows that Logan and Beth are dating and they just went out to eat with Ben.  Now, the townspeople can start talking about Beth dating a new man since her divorce. I feel like if they cut these two minor parts of the movie it wouldn’t make a big difference and then the movie could focus on more of the drama and love developing in Logan and Beth’s relationship.

Book 1 Project

Hunger Games is a sci-fi book which is about a futuristic nation which holds annual Hunger Games between twelve districts in which there is a fight to the death on live TV. Katniss and Peeta are originally from district 12 and when they get called to go to the games. They had to go to Capitol first. I think it would be really cool if there was a restaurant based off of the Capitol and the 12 districts. When you first walk in the restaurant, it would be like walking into the future. It would be so different compared to the usual restaurants most people eat at in the U.S. The waitress would be dressed in an extreme costume, as if they are from Capitol. For example, some of the waitresses can look like Effie Trinket or others can dress like Caesar. When people first walk in they are greeted with “Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!”(19)  Then, your waitress will give you a seat and you will be placed at a table were you find out what district you are assigned to.The restaurant will be split up into the twelve different districts. So, the tables you sit at is the district you are part of.  The table will have your district’s number on it. When you sit down to eat you will be able to order unique food that the main characters ate in the book. You could order one of Katniss’ meals from the book “A thick carrot soup, green salad, lamb chops and mashed potatoes, cheese and fruit, a chocolate cake.” (44)  Also, you would be able to order bread and sweets since Peeta came from district 12 and it had a bakery.  There will be many different food selections to eat. There will be crazy music playing and there will be TV screens all over with the in restaurant showing clips from the Hunger Games.  Also, on the TV screen you will see the game maker randomly talking to you.  The game maker might say something random like, “There’s been a rule change in the Games. A rule change… Under the new rule change, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive.” (244)  You will literally feel like you are at the Capitol and part of district where you are watching the Hunger Games. There will be one big gift shop where you can purchase all kinds of Hunger Games products. The districts will be decorated with the futuristic look of the Capitol within the store. You will be able to purchase certain products from each district. An example is if you are seated in district 12, then you can go into the gift shop and be able to buy unusual rocks and coal because that district is known for mining. Also, from district 12 you could get a mockingjay pen just like Katniss had in the book. Another example of items from the gift shop would be in district 11, where you could find fresh fruit and vegetables because district 11 is known for farming. Additionally, you will be able to purchase t-shirts from all of the 12 different districts to cheer for your favorite district. Also, t-shirts with some of your favorite characters from the book like Peeta, Katniss, Gale, Rue, Cato, and many more would be available.  In addition, the gift shop would sell any of the three books from the Hunger Games Series. I feel like this would be a good idea because this is something new and different. A lot of people who don’t read could still enjoy the story line of the Hunger Games series and once they come to this restaurant, they could get interested in reading the book series. It will bring a new experience to all of the current fans as well as create new future fans.

 

A book is...

A book is a lifestyle, when it comes to reading. Currently, the biggest controversy in the book world is the usage of a Kindle vs. old school, paper books.  Readers have the personal decision to buy either a paper book or a Kindle. There are pros and cons to each. You save money if you buy a Kindle, one person might say. While other people say, books are real and you get more into the story when read and turn each page vs. reading a computer screen. Books give you satisfaction of closing the cover once you finish the book vs. reading a book on a Kindle. So, obviously there are many opinions and preferences to reading an actual book rather than reading off of the screen of a Kindle, Ipad, or electronic device.

 What is my opinion on reading a Book or Kindle???

Well, my personal opinion is that I like to reading paper books rather than using a Kindle or on a screen. I like how you get to flip the pages and to see how much you have read since you first started the book, and see how much is left until the end of the book. I feel accomplished when I finish a book and then, I can put it in my book pile with the rest of the books that I have already read. I love going to book stores and picking out the next book I will read. That is something you miss out on when buying a book off of a Kindle or an Ipad. One thing I love about reading is that when you get into an intense part of the story, you can’t put the book down because you want to continue to see what will happen next in the story. That’s when you know it is a good book because you completely forget about what is going on around you and the rest of the world.  Sometimes, when I read a lot of different books I feel like a bookworm.  I think a lot of people do this when they read and they don’t even realize it. In my opinion, I feel like people who read off of a Kindle might lose some of that experience but, I could be completely wrong. The important thing is that we still have people reading for the fun and enjoyment in our society. (:

Why I Read :)

Hi Everyone! I like to read for a variety of reasons. To begin, there are so many different types of books to read that once you start reading a good book that gets your attention, you just can’t stop. There are so many different genres of books to read. The variety of books available include, but are not limited to, mystery, humor, romance, drama, sci-fi, history, fiction, and non-fiction. I am always reading different types of books. Some books that I have found interesting to read are The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Beastly, and Dear John. Presently, I am in the process of reading The Hunger Games Series and it is awesome so far. I like to read books before they become movies because it makes the experience so much more fun. I saw the trailer for The Hunger Games and it makes me more excited to read the rest of the book and then to see the actual movie. Usually, I find that the book ends up being much better than the movie. I think I first started to love reading was when I was little and read the book, Holes. I read the book before it became a movie and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  It was such an interesting story and then I saw the movie. The movie was good but I just liked the experience of being able to read the book first and then see what was put into the movie and what was cut out. I would suggest to anyone who is a movie watcher but not a reader, try reading a book before seeing the movie version and you might find out that reading is just as fun as going to the movies. These are some of the reasons I love to read.