Ask Again Later

I just finished Ask Again Later by Jill A. Davis. It was about a girl named Emily Rhode, who's father left when she was five. She is 38 when her mother developes cancer, and when she does Emily quits her job and breaks up with her boyfriend-using the cancer as an excuse to get out of everything she has going on in her life. She moves in with her mother until the cancer is removed and when her mother doesn't need her anymore she doesn't know what to do with herself. In the end she gets counselling and gets married and has a baby girl. I didn't really like the book because it was pretty boring to me and had a really slow story line.

The Hero

I'm currently reading Ask Again Later by Jill A. Davis. It isn't clear who the hero is yet but I think the emerging hero might be the main character, Emily. I think this because so far the book is in her point of view and it is talking about her life so it is obviously a path from the ego. Another hint is that in the story Emily's mother developes breast cancer and Emily immediately quits her job and breaks up with her boyfriend to be at her mother's side. It is also hinted that her mother will probably die so I definitely think that there is a lot of self sacrifice in Emily's life. The author also makes it obvious that she is an antagonist, which is also a hero character trait. I think something will happen in Emily's life soon that will somehow define her as a hero even more but I haven't come to that point yet.

In this quote you can kind of see how Emily is dealing with her mother's cancer and how it makes her a bit of a hero.

""I quit my job, walked out on Sam, and slept at my mom's house last night," I say.

Long pause. I'm actually waiting for him to shake his head in disgust, or laugh hysterically. He does neither. "All or nothing," Paul says. "All or nothing. Finding a middle ground would..."

"Be impossible, but feel like a vacation?""

-Jill A. Davis, Ask Again Later, Page 59.

The Lovely Bones

I just finished reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. The book was about a fourteen year old girl named Susie who is lured into a trap by her neighbour and is violently murdered. From there she watches her family go on through life without her from heaven. I really liked the book because things like that happen everyday and sometimes we don't realize it. The one thing I was confused about was the point of view because at first when Susie is still alive it is in first person, but when she dies and goes to heaven she is still in first person but can see inside people's heads at the same time. In my opinion it was really well thought out and really compelling.

Character Archetypes

Right now, I'm in the middle of the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I found that there were many different archetypes in the book since there are so many characters. I would classify Susie Salmon as a hero archetype because she is self sacrificed in the book. Susie is fourteen when she is raped and murdered, and the rest of the story is told by her watching from heaven. She is a reluctant hero because she has to sacrifice her life but is obviously not willing. The shadow in the book would be George Harvey, who rapes and murders Susie along with a bunch of other women. George is a shadow because he is the villian in the story- the one who killed the Salmon's daughter in the first place and he is a negative figure that we would like to eliminate. Here's a quote from the book that would classify Mr.Harvey as a shadow. "He felt a calm flood him. He kept the lights out in the bathroom and felt the warm water wash me away and he felt thoughts of me then. My muffled scream in his ear. My delicious death moan. The glorious white flesh that had never seen sun, like an infant's, and the split, so perfectly, with the blade of his knife."- Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones Page 16.  Obviously he is the villian/shadow.  If you want to learn more about the book here's a link of the trailer.

Who Is Telling The Story? What Do You Know About The Main Character?

'Mom, please talk to me. -Claire.'
'I just can't Claire. I'm sorry but I just cant. Be paitent. -Mom.' 
This quote was taken from my book, Life On The Refridgerator Door by Alice Kuipers, Page 118 and 119. Within this quote, you learn that the narrator is both the Mom and Claire, since the whole book is just notes between just them. You can also see that there is some sort of conflict between Claire and her mom, though it doesn't say in this specific quotation what it is. It is also obvious that the conflict is a big deal, since they are not talking at all about it. I've just finished the book, so I can't really make a prediction oh what happens, though it is pretty obvious when reading it since her mother has a serious form of breast cancer. For the video I picked a song that reminded me of the book.

Life On The Refrigerator Door

I read Life On The Refrigerator Door, by Alice Kuipers. In the novel, Claire is a fifteen year old girl who only lives with her mother. Both mother and daughter lead extremely busy lives and it leaves them to communicating by constantly writeing notes to eachother on the refridgerator door. So the story is ocmpletely notes from them. Throught these notes, a story developes on how Claire's mother developes breat cancer and how they carried on through the whole problem. I really liked the book because it was short and easy to read but it also had a meaning behind it. It turned out to be a really sad story, even though it was only through short notes. I really liked the way the author used the note strategy, because it made the story a lot more interesting.

The Jungle Book

I just finished reading The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. In the novel, Mogli is saved from a tiger by wolves as a baby, and the wolves raise him. However the tiger that the wolves stole from wanted revenge, and he declared that he would one day prey on Mowgli. When Mowgli is about 11 years old, the leader of the wolf pack, Akela, becomes too weak to catch his meal. For the wolves this means that the leader has to die and then they choose a new leader from there. When this happens, Shere Khan-the tiger, steps in and tries to turn the wolves against Mowgli. He succeeds and Mowgli is sent out of the pack and into the village of people. I really liked the book because it was a story I sort of knew already, but I forgot it. Also, it talked a lot in old-style type words like art, thou, thee and all that. It was a little hard to understand but aftre you went over it a couple times it made sense.

Slumming

I read Slumming by Kristen D. Randle. In this book, Alicia, Nikki and Sam are all friends and decide they should all make friends with someone who they would not normally hang out with. They call these their 'projects'. Just when they all thought the project would be harmless, it starts to take them in directions they never thought were possible. Nikki choses a class A nerd, and is surprised that she actually has fun with him. Alicia chooses Morgan, a guy who belongs to a gang and has been arrested a number of times. And Sam chooses Tia, who has an interesting dark past of her own. In the end, the project turned out to be something that they would never forget. I really liked the book because it gave viewpoints from all three characters, and it was a pretty good plot. It also dealed with real problems that happen in highschool, which made it seem more realistic.

This Reminds Me Of...

"I let go of my breath. She does that terrible ironic laugh again. "I don't have a lot of time for friends," she says. And then she goes goes ahead and tells me the kinds of things that have gone on in that house, and when she is finished, I am shaking." Tia-the girl mentioned in the quote- reminds me of Precious from the movie, Precious. In my book, Tia is being abused by her stepfather in her own home. It isn't clear what kind of abuse, but it's likely physical and/or sexual. In the movie Precious, Precious is a character who is constantly being physically, verbaly, and sexually abused by both her parents. I connected these because they are both girls in similar situations- with the abuse happening by parents in their own home.

If I Stay

I read the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman. In the book Mia is going on a drive one day with her parents and her little brother Teddy, until a truck comes along and smashes their car to pieces. Her whole family is dead in the crash. Mia is in critical care while her spirit lingers outside of her body, deciding wether to live or die. The whole book is about her making the key decision and the steps leading up to her decision. If she stays, her whole family is gone. If she goes, she misses out on her friends, boyfriend and life. I personally thought it was a really good book because it was so descriptive and realistic.

Gravity Journal

     I read the novel Gravity Journal by Gail Sidonie Sobat. In the book, Anise-a teenage anorexic- is hospitalized for the third time for being an out of control anorexic/belimic/cutter. When she finds herself there for the third time, she realizes this is the time to get better for the last time. The book follows her road to recovery, through all of her darker times and the brighter ones too. It's a true modern story originated in Ontario, so it was really easy for me to imagine this girl and and her problems. She was mostly messed up because of her family, her parents who only cared about their money and her brother, the drug addict. It made me really feel for Anise, and all in all I really liked the book.

A Good Book Has No Ending

For the optional quote, I chose "A good book has no ending" -R.D Cumming. It's a short quote, but it is so true on so many different levels. If a book is truly good, then it will be so good that it will seem just as real as your own life. Therefore, if it is a really good book, even after finishing it the story will still continue in your head for a long time afterwards. To me, this doensn't always happen because there are so few good books like that. I think usually the longer they are, the more chance the author has to make the text seem real, and the more chance that it will stay in your head for long afterwards. 
You can find this quote by clicking on this link.