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.