Cara's Best Sellers Blog
Friday, February 28, 2014
Reading Wishlist
1. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
2. The Fault In Our Stars - John Green
3. Room - Emma Donoghue
4. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Post #10 book 3 review
When you have a jail filled with people of all races that
come from all different backgrounds and you add a white suburban newly engaged
lady named Piper, you get a pretty hilarious outcome. Orange is the New Black
about a woman name Piper Kerman who is sent to jail after smuggling heroin
across borders. She must leave the life she has now being a producer in New
York City to live in a jail called Danbury for 11 months.
The book was published in 2010 and became an instant hit.
The book was then made into a Netflix TV series which is out right now. The
base of the book is about Piper who has to leave her husband Larry and her
family, you see the journey she takes and the people she meets and how maybe
jail isn’t so bad after all. “Do you have
to find the evil in yourself in order to truly recognize it in the world?” pg
242. This quote is later on in the book
towards the end and I think that it shows how far she has come and how her
thoughts at the beginning of the book were very weak but now she is showing that
she is strong and maybe that there is so good in bad things.
At the beginning of the book you see Piper struggle with
jail and the people she meets. The plot itself is very interesting and it makes
you keep reading more and more. Nothing
is going her way and she is a newbie and is harassed by the other inmates.
Piper is special to Danbury because as said in the book, you don’t see a lot of
white suburban lady’s in the jail. Piper is called hot and is picked on while
trying to shower, sleep and eat in the cafeteria. Piper told Pop who is the
head chef that her food wasn’t too good and Piper got reprimanded. Even though
you see Piper go through hard stuff you get to see her thoughts written down
and you know that inside she is really strong and she can battle anything. “I knew that I would have to be brave. Not
foolhardy, not in love with risk and danger, not making ridiculous exhibitions
of myself to prove that I wasn't terrified--really genuinely brave. Brave
enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before
flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when
someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn't want to go,
brave enough to stand my ground quietly.” Pg35. I like this quote because
at the beginning of the book Piper like I said before is really weak minded and
this was a really bold statement for her at the time because around this time
in the book she is still considered a newbie in the jail world.
There are a lot of characters in the book but there are a
few that Pipers actually becomes good friends with. Something great about this
book is how the women in jail do not judge what each of them has done to get
there. They are overall really accepting and are willing to do anything for
their other jail mates. One thing Piper does is that she gives out books and
magazines to people who want to read them. She also bakes a cheesecake and
brings it to the parties whenever and inmate is leaving. Overall the inmates
get along and they have each other’s back no matter what race they are and no
matter where they have come from. It shows that you can be friends with anyone
if you just give them a chance and it shows that everyone had a background and
history but if you look past all of the bad there may eventually be good in
everyone.
The style of writing is very detailed in a bad way. You have
to understand how preppy and proper Piper is and then you will understand the
things she says because she mentions things that are more upper class. When
Piper is talking about her emotions she is just normal English grammar but when
she describes the people around her or something unusual at the jail she uses
slang as if she were African American or Latino. I think the slang in the book helps
because sometimes the book can be a little boring and too detailed so whenever
Piper comes in contact with another character it is funny to see the way they
behave and act.
Being that the book is about a lady going through jail and
the 11 months she spends there, the book isn’t all too entertaining. Yeah, the
characters and the plot idea are good but overall it got really boring and it
just wasn’t anything exciting happening for me to really be wowed by it. I
probably wouldn’t recommend the book especially if you have watched the Netflix
series. Some life lessons of themes are
that you get to see a women not only accomplishing something unique but also
meeting some very loyal friends no matter where they come from and that was a
good life lesson that many people could gain from Piper. I would give this book
3 out of 5 it is mostly aimed towards female readers. For females it should be
empowering and maybe even a motivational push towards the idea that “you can
overcome any obstacle”. “In my travels I had encountered all kinds
of people whose dignity seemed to have a price -- widely variable -- and I thought
that next time I had better set my price higher than anyone would pay.” This quote does describe the personality of
Piper very well and she would want women who would read this book to get
something out of her book and that hopefully her struggle can be uplifting to
others.
This is a picture of Piper Kerman the author on the right and the actress who portays Piper in the netflix series on the left.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Post #6
I think a 21st century English reading list
should look like just what we have in school. I think the books mold us into
the people we become. As a senior I can say that yes some books we read in
school are boring but it wouldn’t be right if I decided not to read them
because I wouldn’t be up to date with the rest of the seniors in America. I
think in school it is nice that we read classics because it makes us more well-rounded
people and knowing history and classics is something I find important. I think
schools give us freedom to also explore books we like, for example when we do
an independent book project. You usually get to choose the book and it gives
yourself a sense of what you like.
Kids today should read book because without reading we would
get nowhere. To the average kid reading is boring and meticulous but they often
forget that every day we read, if it is street signs or a text message on your
phone. I personally love reading and it kind of upsets name how selfish people
are when it comes to taking reading for granted.
With the curriculum I think that they should forever force
kids to read classics because it makes us mature and they are called “classics”
for a reason. We shouldn’t be reading Hunger Games or Twilight because not
everyone thinks those are good literary books. We need to realize that we are
reading the books in school for a reason, not just because they are boring.
Post #9
Likability: The narrator along with the main character is Piper. She is a forty year old suburban wife who is charged with an international drug deal that she did in college. She is now having to face the time of what she did in her past. I think Piper is really likable because she is new to the environment of being in a jail and the fact that she is wealthy and has a nice life kind of makes things in jail harder for her because people start to realize it. The genre of the book is memoir and I think Piper does a good job at telling us as the reader the details of jail and how most people haven’t been to jail so the way she describes it really helps me get a visual of what it would be like to live in jail. I also like how you can look at someone like Piper and think "You went to jail?!”. I think the whole thing is pretty shocking and I like how it is told by Piper and how you can get a feel for what she goes through. I think if it wasn’t told by her and it wasn’t a memoir it wouldn’t be as believable and I don’t think many people would have chosen to read the book. Since it is told in first person you almost feel like you are Piper and you get to go through the same feelings and emotions as she is going through.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Post #8
In my mind I think that a book should be all facts if it is
considered non-fiction. When I am looking for a non-fiction book I expect it to
be all true because that is why I am looking in that genre. If a non-fiction
book was only partially true I would expect it to be in the fiction section. I
think that a story can be half-truthful if it is put in the right genre. I
think that some stories are really good and after I found that it wasn't true
but I was okay with it. I think that Frey messed up because you can stretch the
truth and call it a memoir because thinking back on a memory and be exactly truthful is impossible
but going so far as Frey did is wrong. I also think that the fact that he knew
his book wasn't a memoir but he called it one was a big indicator that he even
wouldn't consider it truthful. I think personally that we need to have a line
between fiction and non-fiction because how we to know as people what is facts
and not facts. When I am supposed to do
a research paper I am going to go to the non-fiction section because I know
that those are reliable and factual books that I can site in my paper. When I
want to read an exciting and thrilling mystery I will go to the fiction
section. It would honestly make me so nervous if one day we didn’t have any
genres.
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