An American Odysey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind, a book that I picked up in the library last semester and have NOT returned yet is one that I picked up recently to read. So far so good.

It's about a Cedric Jennings, a boy who lives in a terrible environment in Washington D.C. At school fires are set in the bathrooms, there are few athletes because no one will attempt good grades because they're afraid of being bullied, there are few honor students... I think it said 73 out of about 1500 used to have their names only posted on a bulletin board, but they're just ignored. The adminstration decided that they should great an incentive for those with B averages each quarter. Each honor roll student would recieve a check for $100 at an assembly. At the assembly the kids are humiliated.

Cedric Jennings is not a run-of-the-mill student in this setting. His grade point average is a 4.02. Once after one of the assemblies a kid at school came up told him that he didn't like him and motioned to a gun in his pocket. So, Cedric doesn't go to the assemblies any more.

This story is ridiculously sad so far, not like sobbing sad, but just "THIS SUCKS SO MUCH. HOW CAN PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS?" sad. There's lots of violence in the neighborhood, for Cedric's mom it was either abort Cedric or keep her boyfriend. It's a great look into something I've not familiar with Suskind has me feeling for the characters and I'm not far in.

ALSO. This book is NONFICTION because it's based on a series in Wall Street Journal.

Deadline part two.

Great NEWS!!!!!!!! except not. Ben's doctor has made him agree to tell someone about the fact that he's dying. That person is not anyone who knows him personally, but another doctor, from another county. Because out of all of Trout, Idaho's 943 citizens none of them are psychologists, or psychiatrists . However, Trout has a big enough high school to fill a state-winning football team. For some reason this just doesn't seem like it could happen. But perhaps in Trout, Idaho there's nothing to do but play football.

So, Ben's psychologist, Marla Dawson is Ben's new confidant. She, like Ben's doctor is concerned about him not telling ANYONE. GAH!!!! Why doesn't this boy realize that he's going to hurt his mom, dad, and brother. But he is concerned about it a little, but I wish that he would just act on it.

I'm still having problems trusting this author, Chris Crutcher. I'm just not into his style at the moment... This book should be a breeze but I feel that I'm becoming too critically negative about it. I suppose I should just get over myself and push through it. Huh?

Deadline.

My uncle is a school librarian, so he reads lots of books. He is responsible for sending Deadline by Chris Crutcher to me.

So far it seems abrupt. I think it was in the first chapter that I found out, with the main character Ben that he has something medically wrong with him. Which is a red flag for me. I feel like that's a thing that happens in lots of books these days. Someone's always getting a big illness in books that I've read, or dying or something. I'm kinda yearning for a different kind of story these days.

Ben, is in his senior year of high school, he's a cross country star, a good student. But when he finds out that he's sick, he decides to join the football team. OH!!!! I remembered why this book is bothering me at the moment. Ben went to the doctor by himself when he found out by himself. His doctor insisted that his parents be there but Ben said it was fine and coerced the doctor into telling him what was wrong. He asked Ben to be sure and tell his parents. Which he hasn't yet!!!! Which is terrible, and the doctor can't do anything because Ben's pulled the whole I'm-18-card, so now that he's legally an adult the doctor isn't allowed to tell his parents because he has his own power of medical attorney. Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like for you to see your son drop dead one day and not know why and then find out that he'd been diagnosed with an illness a LONG time ago? It would kill me. Sure, I think there's something about walking welcomely into death's arms, but gosh... why can't he just tell his parents?

I try hard to trust Crutcher, he's a new author to me. So right now I just don't know. But I've seen his name on a couple of ALA lists, maybe the Georgia Peach something award list, and my uncle thinks it's really good too. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

How very peculiar is it that the person who came up with the idea of Nancy Drew, was not a woman, but a man?

I've read Nancy Drew since third grade maybe... I'm not quite sure. But like Cam Jasen, it was a mystery and about a girl, which was a big thing for me in my elementary school years. I didn't want to read a story about a dumb boy. (This was one of my reasons for not wanting to start Harry Potter one night when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. But I finally gave in and told my mom to go get it and I would TRY to listen and enjoy it. HA.)

So back in the days when there were still Harry Potter books and movies to come out I had to find other books to read, and Nancy Drew was definitely up my alley. I loved solving mysteries, if not with, before Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, and the other boys. Another thing I loved about Nancy is that my grandmother had read her too, though my mom had not. My grandma lived at my house during my elementary school years so sometimes I'd go curl up in her room and read with her.

But anyways, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her explains the mystery behind the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. I first saw this book a year or two ago at Barnes and Noble. I was quick to pick it up, but it was a hardcover, so I wasn't so quick to pull out my wallet just yet. I think it was $30. (eek. BOOKS COST WAY TOO MUCH!) So when the paperback came out, I was okay with buying it for less.

I'm not that far into it, though I started it a week ago (I got distracted.) But so far I've learned that Edward Stratemeyer was the first to come up with the idea of this girl detective. He had quite the charming rag-to-riches, American Dream story. Something that you always here from authors. "I always loved to right!" or "Ever since I can remember I've been writing!"and such. And his immigrant father was pleased with his pursuits and he sold his first story to a magazine for maybe $5.

But before Nancy becomes anyone Stratemeyer dies... and that's all I know right now. So, I'm looking forward to see who picks up the torch.

"Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure that of being Salvador Dalí. And I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, this Salvador Dalí." - Salvador Dalí.

Kind of full of it if you ask me.

Last week in Spanish, Ms. Roller assigned me a project dealing with Hispanic artists and she allowed me to go to the library to research for the class period. The library was crowded and boisterous. Mr. B had his class spread out across the room working on various projects and spare desktops were difficult to find. When I asked Ms. Nolan for a laptop she told me that all of Cart A was in use. So I went to the circulation desk to use of of those computers.

The new library interns do not understand my status in the library. Last semester I spent much of my third period doing intern-like things: checking in and out books, helping people find things, loading the empty printers with papers. I obviously knew the drill, but the interns didn't want to screw up on the first full week of the job. So as they told me to get off the computer I closed my Wikipedia page and opened Alexandria so that I might find a book that would help me. And I did.

The Essential Salvador Dalí by Robert Goff, which was helpful for me in two ways:

1. It posessed 112 pages of text and beautiful pictures for me to marvel at for my research.

2. It's nonfiction.

So I killed two birds with one stone. I researched for my Spanish project, while reading a nonfiction book that I could blog about now.

The Essential Salvador Dalí is a read that is definitely straight and to the point, though Dalí himself is not. He was very well off as a kid and adult, at least economically. But he's very confused and his paintings obviously reflect that he's a deep thinker. He was part of both of the surrealism and cubism movements, following Pablo Picasso.

My favorite thing about this book though wasn't the contents, but how they were displayed and layed out. It was kind of like a history text book. Pretty pictures, the main bits, but little side bars as well which were very interesting to see not only how Dalí was influenced by other artist, but by ideologies as well. Like Freud, who woulda know? Not I. I really like getting those extra bits.

Overall it's a good, fast read.

Cannery Row

So after reading all that Harry Potter, I was still itching to read, which I do more with books when my computer doesn't work, but at the same time when I'm on my computer I read so much on the computer and on the internet....

Anyways, my friend Cate gave me a suggestion, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Was it good? I can't say... I definitely liked it. It was different from Harry Potter.

I loved Mack and the boys, they were all so good natured. Lee Chong always made me laugh and Doc was great as well. As were Dora and her girls.

It's so different to read about these small towns and their close communities when I live in what seems like a big town, which I do. There's no grocer down the street, there's no local doctor, and there are not cat houses that I am aware of.

Looking back at Cannery Row, the only thing that I can even think of comparing it to is Of Mice and Men because it's the only other Steinbeck I've read. I think Steinbeck does a real good job of creating believable characters and these tight-knit group of men... at least in both of his books that I've read.

Cannery Row was a good short read after Harry Potter.

Harry Potter wrap up

SO, I finally finished the Harry Potter series over break. Those books put me through such a whirlwind.

I might not have finished them over break if it wasn't for my purse getting stolen. Because it was stolen, I needed a new license, so we went to the DMV and I brought my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I probably hadn't picked up since I brought it home from school after finals. The DMV's computer system was down, and you know how that goes. So lucky for me I had my copy of Harry Potter and read it until the system was up. And again while I waited for my license to get printed and such. When I got home there wasn't much for me to do that day, my friends were out of town and my computer doesn't work so, I continued to read. I was done with Order of the Phoenix by the next day.

I continued to read Half-Blood Prince after finishing book five. And after a sped through six, I went to sleep, woke up and started Deathly Hallows. It was such a different experience from when I first read it in 2007. That summer, I had to read it over the course of one week because I was at the beach with a friend and she didn't want me to get ahead of her reading it and vice versa. Her sister, who hasn't even read the series read the last chapter. And basically, we were spoiled.

Re-reading Deathly Hallows in fourteen hours was amazing. I hoped the first time I read it, that it would be different the second time around and it truly was. I didn't remember Fred dying with his last smile etched upon his face. Or everyone being happy that Percy came back. Or Ginny having to stay in the Room of Requirement. I remembered that Tonks died but I completely forgot that she ran after Remus. I COMPLETELY forgot about Aberforth and Arianna. I remembered Snape's love for Lily, but it was nice to see his memories again. Overall, it was a good experience I think because before I looked back on the end of the series bitterly, but now I'm satisfied. It's funny because Pete Nichols and I talked in 2007 after finishing it. I remember being iffy about it, but he said that he'd read it twice all ready and he liked it. It took me way to long to read it for a second time.