"What Happened to Goodbye"

S- “What Happened to Goodbye” by Sarah Dessen is a touching book about a girls struggle to find her true personality throughout all the moving she is forced to do with her dad.  When entering a new school Mclean, the main character, chooses a persona she wishes to be during her short time in the town.  On Mclean and her fathers fourth move, Mclean decides she is going to try being herself and not make a persona to follow.  After a few weeks she begins to make some really close friends and even has a new love interest, the next door neighbor.  But not to her surprise her dad soon gets a new assignment in Hawaii and she attempts to cope with the thought of leaving her new found friends and boyfriend.  Her mother decides that it isn’t fair to make her move again and says she can live there with a friend for her senior year.  Throughout the book , Mclean finds her true personality and finally accepts that who she is is good enough.

O- This story takes place in the present day.  Many people are struggling to keep jobs and many businesses are going out of business because of the economy.  Since Mclean’s dad is a restaurant consultant, he tries to rebuild a restaurant in their new town but it soon has to be sold and once again they are forced to move.  During this time teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.  Mclean is facing this struggle in the story because she has to finally figure out who she is.

A- This story is written for teenagers.  It involves many aspects of a teenagers life.  It involves moving to new towns, making new friends, and even boyfriends.  A huge part of teenagers lives is finding out who they are and making decisions that will effect the rest of their life.

P- The purpose of this book is to show teenagers they aren’t alone in the daily struggles of a teenagers life and trying to grow up and become independent.  This book includes family issues, friend issues, and boy issues.  “What Happened to Goodbye” does an incredible job relating to the vast majority of teenagers.

S- This book was written in first person.  Writing a story in first person makes the story seem much more personal and making it easier to relate to.  Many different figurative devices were used throughout the book.  Dessen used many different styles of sentences to keep the text exciting and to avoid it getting boring. Using many different figurative devices keeps the book from getting repetitive and bland.

Tone- This book is written in first person with a very questioning tone.  Mclean questions many decisions made by herself and others.  She questions her life and her personality and who she truly is.

I would give this book a 4 out of 5 suitcases.  It was a good book but at times I wish there was more conflict to keep the book interesting.

The Glass Castle

By: Jeanette Walls

The Glass Castle is a book that makes you feel fortunate about your life.  It is a story about one family’s struggles to support themselves due to the fathers lack of motivation.    He was a man who could fix almost anything and had the potential to make himself successful if he could stop running from things.  He made his family move constantly because he couldn’t hold a job.  Problems only got worse when he become an alcoholic after the death of his 9 month old daughter.  

Education isn’t something we think of as a luxury.  Actually I think its fair to say we have all called school “hell” at one point in our lives.  But for this family, they longed for it.  The children wished they could go to school and get an education.  Their parents tried to provide educational experiences, like having their 6 year old daughter proof read a book the mother had written.  But its not still not the same.  This all could have been possible if the dad had been move motivated to turn his talents into a career to support his family.  

Speaker: The speaker is Jeanette Walls, the author of the book.  In the book she was strong and brave, to show her siblings it would be okay.  She never argued when they had to move and she always did what her father told her to.  During the moving around, she became more of a mother figure to her newborn little sister.  No matter the circumstances she never cried.  She stayed strong for the sake of her family.

Occasion: The setting changes throughout the book because of all the moving the family does throughout the book.  They go from living in a tent in the desert to living in big towns and even living with family members.  The time period is during the early years of Jeanette Walls and her siblings life.

Audience:  This book is for young adults to adults.  Adults can relate to the hardship of trying to support a family, hold a good job, and give your children a good life full of opportunities.  While reading this book, teenagers can imagine what their life would be like if they didn’t have all the luxuries.  For example, an education, cars, clothes, cell phones, and so much more.  It really makes you look at your life and realize how fortunate you are.

Purpose:  The purpose is to tell people her story and to prove you don’t always need money growing up to become successful.  She grew up with little to no school education but wrote a book that was on the best sellers life for over two years, and is now being made into a motion picture.  She wanted to prove that you don’t need an ivy league school to become successful. 

Style:  The book begins with a story about her finding her mom in a dumpster.  It leaves you wanting to read more.  She tells stories casually.  She is not very dramatic about her writing but more just telling the story how it is and accepting that that is what happened.  The author interesting syntax.  She would have some very long sentences and then very short ones.  It kept the book interesting to read.  She uses very descriptive diction to create an image in your head of some of the hardships she went through while growing up.

Tone:  Throughout the book she uses a very calm casual tone.  She is very descriptive but doesn’t over do it.  She tells the stories how they are. 

I liked the book because it opens your eyes to a world that when living in Park City you don’t really think about all the time.  It shows you the struggles that some families face every single day.  After reading The Glass Castle I realized how grateful I should be for the life I live, and with the education I am getting.  I never even thought about never having an education.  Or having the opportunity to experience the things my parents have had the ability to let me do.  The Glass Castle is an eye-opening book that everyone should make time to read.  It really changes how you take certain things for granted.  

I would give this 5/5 castles.  It is a well written and eye-opening book.

Avoiding risk is not much of a goal

The book Adrift by Steven Callahan is about an eye opening story about him surviving at sea for seventy six days.  Callahan was originally racing to Canary Islands solo, but he ran into a few problems along the way.  His trip across the Atlantic ocean was put on hold for a few weeks when he had to stop at a port to fix a leak that had been caused by debris hitting his boat.  

Then one night after many days of clear sailing, there was a huge crack and water rushed into the boat.  He abandoned his boat to sink and started floating on his life boat with only a few pounds of food and a small amount of water.  He was lucky to have enough resources to survive.  He had a spear and a water distilled.  Throughout the seventy six days many boats passed him not even realizing his existence.  Finally some fishermen found him, and helped him to get back to shore.  

S- Adrift is so unique because even though he was near death and had to find out a way to survive for seventy six days at the end of the book he still says that if you avoid risk it is not much of a goal.  And that every crisis in life is learning experiences and you have to see it from your prospective and someone else’s to really make a decision.

O- Clearly this was written after he got back from his horrific experience at sea but he began his voyage in 1981.  Since Callahan was stuck at sea and the event that abandoned him at sea all happened so quickly, there aren’t really any events that influence this story.

A- This book was written for anyone who likes to read about adventure.  I would say young adult would be the youngest audience anyone younger may struggle to understand some of the words used and may not find it as interesting.   

P-  This was written by Callahan to share his amazing story about how he survived at sea and what life lessons he learned from this whole experience.

S-  This book was written in first person from the perspective of Callahan which I think works really well because he is sharing his story.  It has a lot of imagery to make almost feel like you were there.  Callahan uses similes and metaphors in his writing because he is trying to compare his story to challenges the average person may face.

Tone- As I stated above the book is written in first person.  The tone in the book sounds enthusiastic in some parts when he talks about how he survived.  It can also sound very wise, because in the end and throughout the book he throws in hints of advice, or phrases that make you think about certain decisions in life.

Rating: 

Adrift gets a 7 sailboats out of 10

Obama > Romney

          With the election day coming up fast there are still many undecided voters.  These undecided voters could make or break who wins the election.  With the state of our country I think it is safe to say that the best option is to keep Obama in office and let him to continue what he is doing because the overall outcome will be much better then what Romney will do for us.

          First of all, Obama stands next to women’s rights.  He supports pro-choice, meaning a women choice to choose whether to have an abortion or keep the baby depending on their life style and how well they think they can raise a child.  Obama sees that abortion is a private choice and the government should have no involvement in the decision.  He shows the understanding by standing next to keeping abortion legal.  Obama also pushed for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) offering women free birth control to promote protected intercourse and hopefully minimize the number of abortions each year. 

         Obama supports gay marriage, understanding once again that it is a personal decision as to which gender you choose to spend the rest of your life with.  Love is love whether it is between a man and a women, a man and a man, or a women and a women.  Gay marriage effects no one but the two people in the relationship.  Gay marriage does not negativley impact the government in anyways, therefore there is no reason they should not be allowed to marry.

         Obama informed a group called Best Friends and saying that they could not promote marriage as an option to avoid poverty to girls who were at risk.  Obama said that they need to educate in a neutral state.  If only abstinence is taught about in schools, a  girl will not know what to do when something like an unexpected pregnancy does happen and she doesn’t know her options or where to go.  If the organizations providing the education about intercourse, they should show both sides.  Where to go when you become pregnant unexpectedly and what the benefits are of being abstinent.

         In conclusion, Obama is a much better choice for the greater good of America.  He supports women’s rights and recognizes that abortion and gay marriage are personal decisions that should not involve the government.  He believes in non censored education about intercourse, meaning they education organizations to stay neutral.  Obama has done many things right in the last four years and there is not reason he shouldn’t be reelected for the next four.

"Nothing stays the same and nothing is inherently connected, or everything stays the same and everything is completely connected, even if we don't realize it."

           The non-fiction book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman is a book full of essays about pop culture in America.  From writing about the reality TV show Real World to the Sims computer game, Klosterman shares his opinions and theories about how they connect to real lives and the world today.

           This book is written in first person and Chuck Klosterman has more defined opinions about more subjects then I have ever seen before.  I would compare him to one of those students in class that will make an opinion about every single topic and talk about it incessantly until you just want to turn and punch them in the face.  The kind of person who is so single minded and so unwilling to change what they don’t like about their life, so they just make excuses.  I see this a lot in the book when Klosterman keeps bringing back past relationships and why he will never fall in love, and his reasoning seems to have a pretty easy solution.  It’s just he has to care enough to make a few small changes. 

          Klosterman’s essays were written for young adults to late twenties.  To understand some of the references, or artists he is talking about you would need to be at least around the age of fifteen, but I would say thats even a little young when it talks about certain bands/artists, like Billy Joel and the Beatles.  Or the first episodes of the TV show Real World.

          Klosterman is very clear about how he views things in life.  He uses a wide range of vocabulary from swearwords to higher level vocabulary words to express himself.  He uses a lot of comparison in his writing.  The comparison is usually between something in pop culture and his life experiences. Klosterman wrote this book to show people how many things we mindlessly watch, listen to, or participate in and never realize how directly is affects our life.  The whole time I read this book, I felt like Klosterman wrote this book with a very angry and bitter tone.  

          Overall this book is a hit or miss book, depending on if you like feeling like someone is trying to drill their opinion into your head.  I think the way he looks at life is very interesting and how he finds ways to connect things such as Sims to real life is something not many people can do.  If the approach had been different, and the essays hadn’t all been separate I would have enjoyed this book more.  This book is five Teen Vogues out of 10.   

Lock and Key

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen is a book about a girl, Ruby, who tries to raise herself on her own after her mother abandons her.  It doesn't take long for her long lost sister to swoop in and take her under her wing.  Introducing her to a life she never even imagined.  Her sister was wealthy, and sent Ruby to a private school where Ruby had to learn a new social life.  Things were very different, and she had to adjust to working hard in school and making new friends.

Lock and Key was so appealing to me, because it was a story that left you very in the dark for the beginning part and then half way through in one chapter the entire book makes sense.  Thats what I loved about it, is it kept you wondering about how and when the author, Sarah Dessen, would you bring the story full circle.  Lock and Key was a realistic story which is one of my favorite types of stories, because it's like you can almost imagine it happening to you.  It's a teenage girl, having to adjust to a new setting, and make new friends, which almost any teenager would encounter.  But the twist is that her background is so dramatic and you want to know more about it that it keeps you interested.

Teenagers would take out of Lock and Key, that life sometimes throws us unexpected turns.  You have to try to see the best in them and where they could take you rather then having a bad attitude and "hating life" until the situation goes away.  At some point we are going to find out that somethings are not going to change, and we are going to have to get used to change.  This book would not really affect an adults life but it could affect how they reflect back on their life.  Make them realize what they took for granted like having parents, a house, and a good education.  After having to support a household, this book could show them how hard Ruby worked to try and raise herself, and that there are kids out there doing that now.  Lock and Key definitely has more of an effect on teenagers then adults as far as life lessons go.

This book will not be one that is well know in 10 years.  It is not a popular book even within the Young Adult genre, and it doesn't have a big enough underlying lesson.  But it is nice for just light reading about a story that keeps you interested along they way.  I found myself a lot of the time having emotions toward the characters which never happens to me.  Thats why this book is so fond in my memory, and considered my favorite.