Yesterday, I read True Letters From A Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan. It was the first book I read from the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl List this year (for anyone who isn't familiar with HRRB, its basically a club where you read around 20 books from a list and then you go to a competition against other schools in the district where you answer questions on the books you read). And yes, I actually read it in a day-it got pretty interesting and I couldn't put it down.
The book is set in Vermont and focuses on James Liddell, a Junior in high school who plays on the soccer team. In addition to being a good athlete, James is a talented writer and has developed an interest in literature. Every evening after school, he goes home and writes letters- he lets out all of his true feelings, says things he could never admit verbally, and gives advice to his family, friends, and peers- all without mailing a single letter. But lately, something has been troubling James. He wonders why hanging out with his best friend Tim Hawkin means more to him than being with his "almost girlfriend" Theresa. Suddenly, James has to face the truth, admit to himself what he's been denying for years- he's gay. He wishes so desperately that he were normal, that he could feel the way about girls that other guys do- he sees how people treat Aaron Foster, the first openly gay kid at his small-town school, and he dreads coming out. Instead, he write letters to everyone who he cares about explaining whats going on. Of course, he doesn't send them out, but when they mysteriously end up in the wrong hands, he finds himself in deeper trouble than before- because now, he has to come out to everyone he knows before the letters reach them. I'm not even gonna lie, this book was outstanding. It's such an encouraging, relatable story: at times it'll have you laughing, scared, or crying (and at one point, feeling really betrayed). I was so emotionally invested in this book, It helped me understand what it's like to have a secret that you're terrified to tell because it has the capacity to make your friends and family never want to speak to you again. I think everyone in high school should read it, because it granted me with so much understanding and acceptance, and thats exactly what the world needs right now. One thing I didn't enjoy about this book? The ending. I'm not one to spoil, so I wont elaborate, but I needed more closure!!! Aside from that, give this book a try. I started it because I had nothing else to do and I knew I would have to read it for HRRB at some point, but I finished it feeling lucky to have read it and wishing I could experience it again.
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I love The Vampire Diaries. Its possibly my favorite show ever, besides Friends. When the show ended earlier this year, I cried. Actual tears. I had always known the series was based off of books, but I never read them, which is weird for me because I always read the books first, for anything. But I never thought to read them, being too obsessed with the show. I had also heard there were some MAJOR differences between the show and the books, but I found the differences quite interesting, so I decide to give the first book a try. The books still harbor the main idea as the show- In a small town (which is called Mystic Falls on the show, but is Fell's Church in the books) a girl named Elena Gilbert, who just lost her parents in a tragic car accident, falls for a mysterious new guy who shows up at her school, called Stefan. She later finds out that he is a vampire (surprise!). Then his equally handsome but evil brother, Damon, who is also a vampire, shows up and all kinds of supernatural chaos (and a confusing love triangle) ensues. Of course there's tons more to the story than that- witches, werewolfs, blah blah, you get the idea. The first book in the series, The Awakening, was published in 1991;The books were written by L.J. Smith, (mostly; a few later books in the series were ghost written) who is a very descriptive writer. Some times I would be reading and something would happen or someone would call me and I'd feel like I had just come back into reality or woken up from a dream. I found that the books are so different they are almost an alternate turn of events to how the series plays out, so I enjoyed it a lot. But which one did I like better? I actually think I like them both equally, because they are pretty similar and both very entertaining. If you want to watch the show for yourself (which I strongly recommend you do), all eight seasons are on Netflix. As for information on the books: >>>>>>>>>>>>> I'll try my hardest not to make this a rant. As I've stated before, The Beautiful Creatures series by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia are currently my favorite books. When I finished the series back in eighth grade , I wished I could experience the books all over again-and then I heard about the movie. So I went to the library and eagerly rented it. I thought it would be great, but when I watched it I realized how wrong I was. One thing you should know about me before I get into this is that I have a very strong imagination, especially when it comes to picturing books in my head. I have a certain way that each character looks when I read a book. It makes it fun, almost like a movie playing out in your head. But this movie was nothing like the one in my head. In fact, it completely ruined the picture I had spent years reading about and building upon. For starters, there was the obvious and most common problem- the casting was off. None of the characters looked even close to how they were described in the book. This is a trend in movie adaptations of popular books that always seems to upset fans of the original work. I expected it just from looking at the cover of the DVD. Aside from that, the movie completely omitted certain characters and events- no, even worse, they meshed two completely different characters into one character. That was what really irked me. Also, it should've been longer. In the books, it takes the two main characters, Ethan and Lena, a while to really start interacting and to eventually fall for each other. In the movie, all of the events felt so rushed, it was like they fell in love in a day or something, which was so unrealistic. I could go on and on about everything that made this movie extremely bland and a waste of my time, but I think you get the idea, so I'll just let you off with a warning: Watch this movie at your own risk. Sure it looks interesting, but once you get into it and realize just how cringey it is, you'll want to turn it off halfway through and go to bed, like I did. If this review only made you want to see the movie more, it was recently added to Netflix, so have at it ; but don't say I didn't warn you. Over the summer, I read A Passage to India as a part of my summer reading assignment. I had been putting off doing the assignment for weeks, and I didn't know if I would end up having Lit first semester, so I had to read this book in a hurry.
A Passage to India is set in Imperial India in the 1920s, in the fictional city of Chandrapore. It depicts the life of Dr. Aziz, a native widower of Chandrapore, who works at the local hospital to support his three young children. At the start of the novel, Aziz and his colleagues have begun to notice that tensions are rising between the natives and the elite British residents that were sent to inhabit the country. They speculate that one of their kind could never make friends with one of the British, but Aziz argues it is possible, and accepts the challenge. Meanwhile, a young woman from Britain called Adela Quested has just arrived to India to court the City Magistrate, Ronny Heaslop (a successful Englishman), and to decide if she wants to marry him. After a series of parties and gatherings that included both natives and British citizens (held by the British as a sort of social experiment), Aziz and Adela become acquainted through a common friend. Aziz then offers to take her on a tour of the Marabar Caves, a natural wonder and perhaps the only gem in the dull city. She agrees, but while they are alone in the caves, an incident occurs and Adela believes Aziz has attempted to assault her. The rest of the book covers his trial and the aftermath. It sounds pretty interesting, and it is- sort of. It has some extremely boring moments, as well as some engaging ones. Oh, and remember how I said it was set in the 1920s? Well, it was also written in the 1920s, which causes the language to sound vapid , and all the sentences to be very wordy and proper. So while it has a strong plot, I couldn't relate to the text very much. Overall, I enjoyed its themes of breaking the "status quo" and establishing general unity over a previously divided community. Want to read A Passage to India for Yourself? ☇ |
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