Non Required Reading

This book is geared toward high school kids who are bored with reading. I can see why this book would be used as an aid to get these people to read more, the book is light hearted, not too serious and quite entertaining to read. Most books that we are required to read in high school are drawn out and boring. They are to teach us about the history that literature has and the way that our society has progressed it our writings. But most of what we are required to read is nothing short of boring. We, as high school students, do not really care to decipher the meaning behind Romeo and Juliet or even try to understand the nothing short of eccentric language. They seek freedom and the right to figure out things as they see not as someone tells them that they should see it. High school students are force fed so much information that eventually they shut off to the idea that they have an opinion on what they are learning. If they fall behind the norm it is their job to catch up and stay on track with the rest of the students. This book allows students to reach out and develop their own thoughts and minds. I believe that it would make them more well rounded students to formulate their own opinions and have the ability to discuss them with their teachers to gain a better understanding of the book. If I would have been able to sit in class and have the ability to discuss all the interesting readings we had to do it would have helped me find a true meaning to the book and would have helped me understand how to recognize that what is hidden within the book is not necessarly whats just on the surface. I say "Go, Non Required Reading!"

Water for Elephants

I absolutely adored this book. The story of Jacob and all of the adventures he was a part of made you dive into the book and read as much as you could as quickly as you could. This is a story of finding oneself after a tragic incident takes the lives of Jacob's parents. He is in his final semester attending a very prestigeous university to become a vet just like his father and due to the car wreck both his parents are in he cannot handle being in college anymore so he leaves. What breaks this for him is that his parents have financed everything they own to keep him in college and his father had been taking payments of foods or caned goods for taking care of their animals which were in need of veterinary care. Jacob blames himself for what has happened and so he runs away. This is the beginning of one of the greatest adventures of all time. He ends up joining the circus and is treated very badly, he does all the grunt work and is not apprecaited by anyone at this point. But he soon finds his niche as someone finds out that he is actually a vet but has yet to complete his final exam. He becomes the head of care for the animals and when they acquire an elephant Jacob is very happy. He can see the love and intelligence in the elephants eyes but Rosie is mistreated by August the leader of the show. They soon find out that she understands a foreign language and that is how they communicate throughout the remainder of the book. This book is an excelent book and it shows how through trials and hardships how some things, even small, can come of it, good things in light of all the bad. It was such an excellent book that I've had my mom and sister both read it and several others as well!

My Year of Meats

My Year of Meats. This is definatley a bookt aht I would not have chosen on my own to read. However boring and depressing I found it in the beginning I found that I really enjoyed it as the book progressed toward the end. The book is filled with an array of controversies that we face on a daily basis. We have to battle with the pressures of work, try to ballence as we see fit between what our boss says and how we are going to mamage to get the job done. We also have to maintain a social life dealing with the pressures of a relationship and trying to stay in controll of our own lives. I find that Akiko has lost all sense of self in the beginning of the novel being consumed by her culture and the marriage to her husband. It has also been overtaken by her and "John's" yearning for a child and his hateful and abusive ways. The more he is abusive the greater need she finds to change her life. In the end of the novel she becomes a strong woman, leaving behind the traditions and the customs that she know for a life she wishes for. It might not be the most ideal or perfect life but it is more ideal than the one she is living. Also, Jane is a woman who is lost in herself and does not have an identity. She wants to be one of the guys but also keep a separate identity to define herself. she wants to have a child but is unable. she researches the production of meet and find that they are pumping it full of antibiotics and drugs that are fatal to humans and makes children mature at a very young age due to the hormones being pumped into the meet. The end of the novel was great because there was resolve to each situation. Not necessarly a happy or perfect ending but we were given an answer to the question of who these people were and set their lifes back on track. It was a very intreguing book.

Balto, wish it had an ending!!

Balto by T.C. Boyle is a short story which, along with many classmates, left me at a wall with no where to climb out. I found myself wondering "What the hell happens to the girl? Is she in trouble, did her dad get the wrap for this, what hapened?!?" It left me frustrated and bewildered, but as I thought about it, that is what creates this story, it's the reason that we still wonder about it. This is not the typical story, there is uaually mass conflict internal and conflict with the world round; there is also resolve at the end of the story, but not this time, now we have left everything to the imagination. I almost sympathise with the father because to me he seems lost. It feels as if his wife has left him and the burdon of being a single dad is more than he can handle, he is frustrated, hurt, torn, heartbroke, and completely alone. He tried to fill his void with another woman, Macey, but even she is not enough. He is still so hurt by everything that he turns to alcohol, he turns into a said 'sauce monster'. He completely demolishes any self hope or strength he may have left. When he gets so drunk he cannot drive he stoops to his ultimate low and requests that his daughter drives the small distance to their house and on her way clips a small boy on a bike. This all falls on the father's shoulder as they sit in the courtroom, the lawyer hounding the little Angelle making her feel more like a prisoner than a victim in her fathers deadly game. I appreciated this story and I would actually really like to see an ending damnit!!

Alternate Ending

The trek off the mountain was a doldrums of angry thoughts. How could someone be so inconsiderate? Edwin’s mind was racing, “That inconsiderate prick, you’d think that Jack would get over himself and realize that his book was promoted by me, not by his stupid tactics, the least he could do is give me some money!” Edwin was in such an empty anger his mind has wandered away from the fact that he had to go home to her. That prissy little thing of a person he called a wife. His hatred began to build as he neared their home. His stomach churned with the thought of little sticky notes scattered in a seemingly endless pattern around the whole house “clean houses promote good self images”; does anyone actually believe this crap? Evidently Jenni did and this was enough to make Edwin want to throw her out of a moving car. It was all the same when he meandered through the door of his under stimulating life. She came bouncing in to greet him, hair perfect as usual, with the latest of the weight loss videos blaring in the background. Without saying a word, she smiled and handed him a sticky note, it bluntly said “Upstairs, I’ll be waiting!” Cleverness, she was sure that she was going to get her away yet again, but what happened next would astonish her. After reading the note Edwin, in a vicious rage, shouted “NO! I don’t want to go upstairs, sex with you is well… just too perfect. I don’t like perfect, I HATE perfect! The way you strut around voicing how fat you are and expecting a rebuttal from me well I’ve had enough. The mere thought of you makes my blood run cold, my veins would rather tear them selves out of my body than see the sight of you. I hate your perfection and I hate your damn cat!” He left is an angry panic, he could not think straight and didn’t care about what he said. Jenni just stood there, awestruck by the man who just walked out of her life. Tears began to obliterate her mascara as she ran for the phone. Her next call would define the remainder of her once perfect life. Two rings and an answer, “Nigel?” she was greeted by nothing but silence.
“Can’t you go any faster?” Edwin threw yet another snide comment at the taxi driver. “Listen pal, you’ll get there soon enough, another outburst like that and I will dump you on the side of the street!” Edwin had not expected that kind of retaliation from a man of his stature. The cab driver looked depleted in every way. His thinning hair and sunken in eyes made him look as though an internal parasite was eagerly sucking out every ounce of integrity he had remaining and made him appear to have death following his every move. Deep wrinkles deceived his age and the constant coughing was enough to make Edwin’s teeth itch. The cab reeked of smoke; the smell crept into his cloths and laced itself within the stitching of his pressed jacket. Only two more blocks and Edwin would reach his new fait. The cold air slapped him in the face as he threw an over paid amount of money at the ghastly cab driver but he didn’t care, all he could see was the tattered steps that lead to May’s room. The thought of it being 3:30 in the morning didn’t matter, this was urgent, no way it could wait another three hours. He raced through door and up the stairs, hesitated to gather the hidden key May had long forgotten she had showed him, and burst through the door to her apartment. He let out a loud cry of her name and sprinted with incredible speed into her bedroom. He passed the couch where they had last been together, the magazines and papers have been cleaned up but memories still lingered around that couch. In a mad panic May was scrambling for any item to defend herself from the nameless, faceless intruder who beckoned her name. Unable to locate something suitable for defense, the man was upon her. The smell of forcefully smoked cigarettes, alcohol, and the outdoors loomed May to realize it was indeed Edwin. Stricken with shock she called to him, “Edwin, you are a mess what is wrong? Are you ok, how did you get in here?” She has more questions but they would not get a chance to be voiced; Edwin grabbed her face and even in the dark of night knew where to find her Crayola red lips and he passionately kissed them. Holding on to emotions long over due for expression, he began to weep. Apologies flooded out of him for hurtful times in the past, for neglect, and for the endless comparisons to his bitch of a wife. Unable to wrap her mind around it, May grabbed his hand and began to kiss him. “Perfect”, Edwin muttered out of breath and covered in a humid sweat. “What are you talking about,” May ask in disbelief. “It’s perfect, the sex, I’ve never felt that kind of emotion, ever. You are it May, the one who makes it all worth while, I’m sorry for not seeing it for so long, I’ll make it up to you, I swear.” For the first time May could see the sincerity in his eyes as he spoke of his feelings for her. This time she wouldn’t let him leave; neither from her apartment, nor her life.
It had been about three months since Edwin had seen the ex-wife he despised and the day he saw her would be her last day here. With the world in a certain nostalgic state he would be able to commit this distraught crime, plead his innocence and walk away a free man. The killing of Jenni was definitely premeditated, but the killing of Nigel was more for sport. There they were, he felt the acid building up in his stomach threatening to jump into his mouth in a spew of hatred and pure disgust. They were pining over each other, in the throws of passion, tangled sheets pinning them to the bed like chained monkeys. This was Edwin’s cue to act and he did. Years of taunting by Nigel flew out of Edwin’s fists, one blow landing on top of another. A loud shot pierced the once romantic atmosphere and shattered the night air like a baseball through a glass window. When he has finished with that little weasel, he turned to Jenni. He made her pay for all the times she made his imperfections real, the way he always felt inferior to her, and for keeping that damn cat around. Here it was, the future was in his hands, and he ended her future.
Case pled he walked away a free man, the jury was in touch with their emotional side that day and felt all the pain both inhumane individuals had caused him. But there was one more person to take care of, with Jack already dying of cancer time would take its toll. Mr. Mead, the words seemed like to pinch the corners of his brain and tangle them into the shape of the nasty mangled ponytail that Mead had always sported. Walking into Panderic that day was the first time Edwin had ever sported a smile and it was for just cause. He strutted through the halls, hunting down Mr. Mead like a pack of hungry wolves on the last remaining straggler in a herd of elk, and he was upon him. “Mr. Mead,” Edwin’s voice sported a sense of dominance and authority. “I’m going to make this short Mead, I hate your ponytail and you have been demoted. Hope you like pushing papers because that is all you are going to be doing for the remainders of your weed smoking life!” In one fell swoop, Edwin grabbed a pair of scissors, viciously cut off the long silver strands of mangled hair which faithlessly hung from the oily scalp of his former boss. With a smile of pure jubilance, Edwin handed the hair to Mead, pushed him down into his new cubical amongst all the other miserable editors and left. No more words were spoken, with a snide smile on his face he climbed into the drivers seat of his new Mercedes, kissed his Crayola queen on the lips and headed off to do what ever the hell he pleased.