Best and Worst Books of 2016

     The best book I've read in 2016 would have to be Tell No One by Harlan Coben. David Beck witnessed his wife's kidnapping and murder. They were celebrating their marriage at Beck's lake, when she was killed. Years go by, and Beck still hasn't moved on from his wife. He believes her to be dead still, until he receives a suspicious email from someone. The email says things only his wife knew. It then tells him to log on to a website at a certain time, no earlier or later. He does so, and it takes him to a street camera, where his wife is standing in front of the camera, staring at it. He now believes she is alive, but is told to tell no one. He ignores this, telling the people he trusts about his findings. Beck has become hunted down, searching for his wife and being searched for.
   

     The worst book I've read in 2016 is Tinkers by Paul Harding. George is an old man dying, and is going over past events in his life. He reminisces his past growing up and his troubles with his father. It's very boring in my opinion and I didn't even finish the book, because I couldn't get through the boring stories of George's childhood. It had no plot, and was just trying to make you feel bad for George, who had troubles growing up. But don't we all? I don't want to read about an old man dying and stating his regrets, and how sad his life was. That's just down right depressing.

Top 5 To Be Read

The top five books I really want to read are:

1)Female of the Species by: Mindy McGinnis. I've heard from multiple sources to read it, and it seems like a book I would enjoy. I like reading a lot of thrillers and books similar to that, and this book has murder and secrets in it, which seems up my alley.

2)From Ashes by: Molly McAdams is another book I was recommended to. It seems like a typical teen girl book, about a girl who doesn't trust guys since her dad died, until she meets this boy. It seems alright so I figured why not read it if someone tells me it's good. I guess I'll be the judge of that.

3)Pride and Prejudice by: Jane Austen is a book I've been wanting to read for a while. It's a classic novel set in the 19th century. I don't know how much I will enjoy the writing since it's written a little while ago, but the storyline seems good, and I feel like everyone should read this book since it's so well known.

4)All the Light We Cannot See by: Anthony Doer is another book I really want to read. It's non-fiction, which I typically only read fiction, but this book seems very interesting. It's during the holocaust, which I find very interesting in history, so I feel I would enjoy this book. It reminds me of The Book Thief, which I really enjoyed reading that.

5)Go Ask Alice by: Beatrice Sparks is sort of like a diary entry. It's written from the perspective of a drug addict, who's life spirals out of control. It seems like the book The Oxygen Thief, who is an alcoholic and also writes about his life becoming out of control, and basically says how shitty his life is all the time. I didn't like the book at first, but grew to love it, so maybe the same will happen with this book.
 


 

Blog #10 Literary Heroes and Villains

Jeanine Matthews is the main villain in the Divergent series, by Veronica Roth. She is the leader of the Erudite, only because she has the highest IQ in her faction. She hates the divergent, because her medicine doesn't work on them, so she can't control them. Her main goal is to take over all the factions, to become powerful. I like her because she is so smart, and can outsmart almost anyone.

In the Immortal series, the first book Evermore by Alyson Noel has a dark character, Drina. Her goal for the entire book is to kill Ever, because Damen, Drina's ex husband is in love with Ever. She's killed all of Ever's reincarnations, and will do anything to get Damen back. I like her because she is so ruthless and just kills people without having a care in the world.

A hero that I really like is also from the Divergent series, Tris. She is a very relatable character, and does what she thinks is right all the time. She risks her life to try and better the factions, and help the other divergents that are like her.



















In the book The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan, Percy has a best friend, who's also his protector named Grover. He's a half goat, and I just really enjoyed his character in the books. He was sort of a comic relief, and would do anything for Percy.

James Patterson has an entire series dedicated to a character, Alex Cross. Alex is not a typical hero, but in the crime fighting world he is. He's a detective that risks his life every day to catch psychopaths. In the very first book, this psychopath kidnaps these famous children, and Cross does anything to try and find them before they are killed.

Book Covers

      I'm sure you've heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover." But I'm sure we've all done it. The only reason I pick up a book is because the way it looks, and a little bit because of the title. I saw this book cover and thought it was very interesting. It definitely caught my attention, which is what a cover should do. I then further looked into the book was about, and was a little disinterested, but at least the cover caught my attention.                                                                                                                                                                                  

     This cover is really cool to me. I like the coloring and the outlet and everything about it. It's so cool and makes me want to read it, but then I read the title and it didn't sound as interesting to me. Titles play a very big role in choosing a book as well, because people think the title is what the book is about. This isn't always the case. Some authors make titles of books a metaphor, or some kind of symbol in the book. For example; In the book Along Came a Spider, by James Patterson, it definitely isn't about a spider whatsoever. It's a crime novel about a detective. Most people probably wouldn't think it's actually about a spider, but you never know.                                                                                                                                                                                               

     This cover is an example of why you can't judge a book by its cover. It's the dumbest cover I have ever seen and makes me not want to read it at all. But I did read this book because the Uglies series is incredible. It was on of the first distopian society books I ever read and really enjoyed it. So this is just another example of why not to judge a book by its cover. This looks dumb but was actually a very well written, creative book. It sucks when a book has an awful book cover, because it makes people not want to read it. There's thousands of good books out there that people won't choose, just because the cover.               

                         

Reaction to "Against YA" Article

    I did not agree with this article while reading "Against YA: Read what you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you're reading was written for children." A lot of young adult books definitely aren't for children. They have sex and drugs and alcohol or a lot of other things you wouldn't want a child to hear about. I found it very annoying that they said you should feel embarrassed. Heck no you shouldn't. Young Adult books are actually entertaining and have good story lines, unlike some fancy literature that she thinks you should be reading.
     Reading is meant for you to escape from the world for a little while, and just relax and enjoy yourself. It's meant for you to relate to, and adults definitely don't want to read about boring adult lives. Most adults don't want to be old, and enjoy reading YA because being an adult down right sucks. Being responsible sucks. So if they want to read a book for teenagers, let them.
     I'm not judging if you don't read YA, and do in fact read the fancy literature. Read whatever the heck you want and have no shame in it, as long as you enjoy it. I did find it shocking to find that half of the people that buy YA books are over the age of eighteen, but I don;t see anything wrong with that, it was just shocking.

Blog #6 Top 5

     My number one favorite suspense novel I have ever read would for sure be Gone Girl. On Amy and Nick's anniversary, Amy goes missing. Nick comes home to a destroyed house and no wife to celebrate with. The cops suspect it was the husband Nick, and find Amy's journal that leads them to more suspicion. It has one of the biggest twists in a book I have ever read and I love it. Gillian Flynn is an amazing author, and definitely will cause your jaw to drop, from all the suspense and plot twists.  Gone Girl definitely increases your thinking, and was never boring. A definite must read, before you see the movie!

My second favorite suspense novel is Tell No One, by Harlan Coben. Alex Beck's wife was murdered in front of him one night while they were celebrating being together at their lake. Or so he thought. He begins to receive emails from what appears to be his wife. Then, a video clip is sent to him from a live street camera. His wife appears in it, staring at the camera, not saying anything. He now knows she's alive and would do anything to find her again. The end of this book also has sort of a twist, but what mystery novel doesn't? I would recommend to anyone that enjoys anything with suspense, and a little violence.

     My third favorite suspense novel is Along Came a Spider, by James Patterson. In this novel, two famous children are kidnapped by their teacher. He was pretending to be someone else, when really he was a psychopathic killer with a split personality. Alex Cross, homicide detective, is trying to catch this psychopath, Gary Soneji. Jezzie Flanagan is the first female supervisor of the secret service, whom Alex falls in love with, but at the wrong time. Read and find out if Alex can find this crazy killer, before the children and others die too. This is a definite must read. James Patterson is an amazing author, whose words just flow through your mind, curious as to what happens next.

  The Girl on the Train is my fourth favorite suspense novel. It's very similar to Gone Girl. Rachel, divorced drunkee takes the same train at the same time every day. She's pretending she's going to work, when really she lost her job. Every day she looks out the train window at all the houses, even her old house that her ex husband still lives in. Two houses down from there is a couple that Rachel is infatuated with. She creates lives with them, acting as if she knows them. One day, Rachel sees something she wasn't supposed to out the train window. The next day, the wife of the couple she was infatuated with goes missing.Rachel thinks she has information on what happened with her missing, and becomes more involved in the case than she should. if you've read Gone Girl and enjoyed it, I would definitely recommend this. The ending isn't as good as it could be, but still a very good, suspenseful read.
                                   


Dexter is another great suspense/thriller novel. Dexter is a blood splatter analyst for the police department, and also a serial killer. His job makes it easy for him to find the bad people, and kill them. That's the only people he kills, the bad ones who deserve it. A bunch of murders start turning up that resemble Dexter's killing style, and he gets freaked out. I recommend this book to anyone because it's very entertaining and different. It's not as much as a suspense novel as the others, but definitely a thriller. 

Book vs. Film Review: Speak

 

     After reading the book Speak and watching the movie, I can say that I didn't like either. The way the book was written was very bothersome to me. The author didn't use complete sentences ever, and it bothered me to no end. The storyline of the book was alright, and had a good message to young teen girls about rape, and how you should always speak up about things like this. I feel awful for saying that so didn't like a book about rape, but I didn't. Maybe if I was in middle school it would've been alright.

     The movie was even worse than the book. Most of the book was the girl narrating her thoughts, since she never spoke in the book. Making a movie about a girl not speaking is probably the worst idea ever. But, at least they picked Kristen Stewart to play this character. I would rather watch her walk around awkwardly all the time not talking than listen to her try and act. They shouldn't have made this book into a movie, there was no point besides spreading the message to speak up even when you don't want to. You could've read the book to get the message.

     So you don't think I'm the most negative human in the world, I will say that this book did have a good meaning like I said, and I would recommend it to girls between 6th and 8th grade. It would be a good book for them to read, and it's very easy to read. I finished it in a day, mostly because of all the incomplete sentences. It wasn't very difficult. I wouldn't recommend the movie though. It was downright awful, awful acting, and changed a very big scene from the book. The scene where she gets raped didn't happen at all how it did in the book. 

     If I were to make this movie, I wouldn't. This book was not meant to become a movie. It wasn't interesting to watch a girl mope around and not speak. The only reason they did it was to make money. Also, the fact that many kids read this book in school, they probably felt they had to make it a movie since they sold so many copies. The only reason for that was because middle school teachers forced their students to buy it. All in all, I do not advise you to read this book or see this movie. Sorry for being so negative. 

Hyperbole and a Half Book Review

 

     Hyperbole and a Half is one of the funniest, most relatable books I have ever read. It's a memoir book, but not a boring life memoir. Most of what Allie Brosh writes about never actually happened, and most of it is in her mind. A lot of her book consists of her dogs thoughts, and they're downright hilarious. The way she writes her dogs thoughts is so accurate to how you would expect a dog to think.

     This is just one funny example of her dogs thought process. She has many chapters dedicated to her dog that is insane, and has zero brain cells. My favorite chapter in her book is the one about motivation. She talks about having zero motivation to ever do anything, and just sits in her room on her laptop, allowing piles of countless dishes to add up next to her. I have done this several times, and have to have a constant battle with myself to get up and do simple tasks like the dishes. This is exactly what she does. She writes about having an alter ego constantly yelling at her to do things, and eventually guilting herself to accomplish simple tasks. Her writing is so humorous I found myself laughing very loudly, and getting weird looks since a book was making me laugh. But if you find a book that can make you laugh out loud, it's gold. Very rarely do I ever laugh out loud while reading.
     Most of the book was humorous, but there were a couple chapters dedicated to depression. They were very serious, and really spoke to me. I have dealt with some of the things she's gone through, and felt a connection in some ways to how she was describing her feelings. She's very real and honest about her life, and I very much respect her vulnerability.


   

Film Adapations

    Everyone knows that the book is almost always better than the movie. I can think of many examples where the book is better, because it's usually the case. Divergent is a very popular example of an adaptation. I've read all of the books and have only seen the first movie. I refuse to watch the other two movies, because the first movie definitely didn't do the book justice. I didn't like who they chose to portray the characters in the movie. The movie almost always ruins how I imagined someone or something looked, and it takes the fun out of the book once you see the movie. The Giver is another popular example of a great book turned into a not so great film. I didn't like the film, because the way I imagined the society to be was completely different. They also changed the ending to speed up the movie which I did not appreciate.
     There's also some examples of books where the movie is better than the book. Some is the key word. The Maze Runner was a pretty great movie, but the book not so much. I never even finished the book because I thought it was so awful, but I did enjoy the movie way better. The Notebook was an alright book, like most of Nicholas Sparks' books, but I enjoyed the movie a little better. I read the book a little while ago and have seen the movie fairly recently, so that could play a factor in my opinion, because I barely remember reading the book.
     Then we have books that should never become a movie, or have already become a movie and shouldn't have. Paper Towns is one example. I've read a lot of John Green books, famously known for The Fault in our Stars. Paper Towns is one of his worst books, especially compare to TFIOS. The movie was pointless because in the book, all that happens is a bunch of teenagers go looking for this missing girl, and they go on a road trip to find her. The book is fun to read because it goes into depth about their journey, but the movie has a hard time showing what the book does. It was pointless to make it into a film, but I at least liked the actors they chose for the movie. That's about it.

   

The Girl on the Train

     Rachel, a divorced alcoholic who recently lost her job, takes the same train at the same time every day to London. She is pretending that she's still going to work, to trick her roommate into thinking she still has her job. On this pointless train ride, Rachel sees this couple she calls "Jason" and "Jess." She adores and envies their relationship, from what she's made up just by watching them from the train window. The couple, whose real names are Megan and Scott, live just a couple houses down from her old house, that she used to live in with her now ex-husband. Suddenly, when Megan goes missing, Rachel's life takes a twist.
     Rachel witnessed Megan kissing another man, right before she went missing. She quickly becomes involved in the investigation, thinking she knows something no one else does about that mysterious kissing man she spotted with Megan from the train window.  Her involvement in this investigation to find Megan gets her in a lot more trouble than she planned. She's dealing with trying to figure out whether Megan ran away, was kidnapped, or possibly even murdered,  all while dealing with her addiction to alcohol, and current memory loss.
     This thriller is a great read, one that is hard to put down with a great twist to the end. It's written from the point of view of three different characters. Mainly Rachel, the drunk obsessing over what happened to Megan, and getting more involved than need be. She constantly is lieing, especially to Megan's husband Scott. She tells Scott she knew Megan from her art gallery, and that they were very close. This makes her feel important, being able to get involved after that. It shows she is untrustworthy though, and later see that almost all the characters in this book are. They're all twisted liars.
     Then we have the point of view of Megan, the missing girl. Hers is written like a journal entry, before she goes missing and tells us events from her past. Then we have Anna, married to tom. Tom is Rachel's ex husband, so you can assume that Rachel and Anna don't like each other. Anna writes about how she just wants to be left alone from Rachel, and be with Tom and her child.
     The different points of view helps better understand who the characters are, and what they're like. I like reading the different points of view because it's nice to know what other characters are thinking, besides just the main protagonist. It's a nice change from other novels. I especially like how the author Paula Hawkins makes you think so many different possible outcomes of what happened to Megan. She throws out all these theories, and it really gets you thinking. It also tricks you a lot into thinking that you know what happened to Megan, but then BOOM another twist occurs. It causes it to become cloudy on what your thoughts even are on what happened, until the very end, which I like.
     The Girl on the Train is an amazing thriller, full of suspense, action, humor, and  melodram with backstabbing characters. It's a fast read that keeps you on your toes without ever wanting to put it down, because you just need to know more.

Paula Hawkins

       Paula Hawkins is a British author, commonly known for writing The Girl on the Train. Paula was born in Africa, then moved to London at the age of seventeen. She started working for The Times, as a journalist for fifteen years, and reported on busines. After that, she started writing novels under the name Amy Silver. She didn't become well known from those books and barely sold anything. She became financially unstable after writing four books, and not making any sales, and decided she needed a change. That's when she wrote The Girl on the Train, and was not going to give up on this novel. It is now a best selling novel across America.
       In her novels, her characters are all based off of people in her life in some way, which is where she got all the personalities for her characters. In her book, Girl on the Train, the main character Rachel is a hard core alcoholic. Paula explains that the reason for this is because in the UK, heavy drinking is very popular, and isn't looked at as a bad thing. She made the main character in her novel have a very tragic life. Paula realized she was much better at writing tragedies than romance novels, and was shocked when her novel started getting attention. Her novel the girl on the train was her very last attempt at writing, and was ready to give up if it didn't sell. Luckily, it started selling rapidly, and is soon to be a movie.
      She says she is very fortunate that her book has made it so big, because if it hadn't, she would've given up as a writer, and found a new career. Now that it is going to become a movie, she doesn't know how she feels about all this money coming in to her life. She grew up poor, living in Africa, and then trying to make it on her own at seventeen. She never had a lot of money in her life, so it's definitely a big change for her. She told an interviewee "I want to thank everyone for buying my book. Finally, after all these years of writing crap, people finally liked something of mine."

Me as a reader

Gelina Wiles

       I have always loved reading. When I was younger, I remember seeing my parents, laying side by side in bed, reading. My mother was the one who made me fall in love with books. She would read to me chapter books all the time, and I thought I was so cool because I didn't need those silly picture books. She taught me how to read, and I've loved it ever since I can remember. I enjoyed it growing up, because it helped me escape what was going on around me. I could get lost in a story, and not have to worry about reality for a short moment. I loved feeling a connection to a character that you can't find anywhere else.
       It also helped me become more open minded in a way. Meeting all these different characters from books, and learning about different cultures and time periods has really opened my eyes. It makes you realize how many different types of people there are, and that not everyone is going to have the same opinion as you. The thing I don't like about reading is becoming so connected to a character, and then the book ending. It sucks to finish a book and not being able to stay updated with that one character you felt connected to. But I also love that about books. The fact that little words on a page can make me feel like I truly know someone, and can make me laugh, cry, scream, throw my book because I hated the ending, etc. It's amazing how much a book can have an effect on someone.

Dumpster Diving

Gelina Wiles
English III
8, April, 2016

How does the author remove the stigma of those who are living in poverty or homeless?

     In the article "Dumpster Diving" Eighner, the author, writes about his adventures in dumpster diving, and shares his knowledge on it with us. He shares is tough times being homeless, but makes it not seem that bad. He never complains in the article about being homeless, but instead shares his knowledge on what to eat, and not to eat while dumpster diving. The stereotype on homeless people most of the time is that they're stupid, and uneducated, hence why they're homeless. Eighner seems quite educated in his writing, especially for a homeless person that has to eat out of a dumpster. He writes, "Eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principles: using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking always to answer the question "Why was this discarded?" (Eighner 714) This seems to be an educated man, on dumpsters mostly, but he's smart enough to eat things that won't kill him. Another stereotype on homeless people is that they're all into hardcore drugs and only want money for drugs. Eighner is not an alcoholic or druggie, and mentions the ones who are: "Can scroungers, then, are people who must have small amounts of cash. These are the drug addicts and winos..." Eighner beats the stereotype of being the one who just wants alcohol and drugs.

Of Mice and Men Inquiry Activity

Gelina Wiles

Parkinson bell: 4

English III

March 14, 2016

Why were people of lower intelligence rejected in the past?

            It wasn’t that the people of lower intelligence were rejected in the past, it was based more on race. People did think that if you were African American you weren’t smart, but that is not the case. In the book Of Mice and Men, there’s a character named Crooks. He is African American, but he does get rejected by everyone else he works with. It’s not because of his intelligence, but more because of his skin color. Crooks admits to Lennie in the book this and says “Why you ain’t wanted?” Lennie asked. “Cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black.” (Steinbeck, 68) Crooks admits that the men who work with him don’t let him associate with him because he’s black. He has to live isolated from everyone based on his skin color, because during this time, people saw black people as slaves and not another equal. So it wasn’t because he was dumb that they rejected him, it was because of the color of his skin. 

Harlem Rennaisance

Gelina Wiles

Parkinson bell: 4

English III

March 4, 2016

The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the “New Negro Movement” spanned during the 1920s. It took place in Harlem New York, and was a cultural center for black writers, artists, musicians, etc. It was a time for the african americans to show that they should be equal, through their art. One poet from the Harlem Renaissance was Countee Cullen. He wrote one poem in particular called “Tableau.” Reading this poem, or really anything from a Harlem writer, you read a lot about the racism. In Countee’s poem “Tableau”, he writes about a white and black boy being friends. During this time it was frowned upon, and it even says in his poem “From lowered blinds the black folk stare… Indignant that these two should dare In unison to walk.” (Cullen, 5, 7, and 8) Cullen is exemplifying the racism present. Today’s writers do the same thing, in expressing how they feel about our present society.