Blog Post # 3: Book Review

My first book for this class was In the Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Here is the summary: What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself. When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.

         It was an interesting book. The majority of the book is just about how the characters get together for the trip. Then towards the last 10 ish chapters things unravel and it gets intense. It's interesting to see the story from the past as the present and the present as the future. 
         Through flashbacks, Ware slowly unspools the mystery, setting a truly spooky scene as six relative strangers gather at the isolated Glass House, celebrating the upcoming marriage of Nora’s former friend Clare Cavendish, with whom she had lost touch 10 years before. In classic Agatha Christie fashion, the first half of the novel is masterful in the slow build of suspense. Clearly, something is very wrong, but it’s unclear whether it’s Nora, Clare, Flo, or some outside intruder who is responsible for the chills and the deepening unease. However, the success of the first half of the novel does speak to Ware’s ability to spin a good yarn. Recalling such classics as And Then There Were None, she creates a unique setting for the psychological scares, and her characters, while somewhat stock, have enough depth to fool even savvy mystery fans for a while. Like the Glass House itself, this novel is “a tiger’s enclosure, with nowhere to hide” and with a constant undercurrent of danger. Read it on a dark and stormy night—with all the lights on.

Overall I thought it was a good book that deserved its New York Times Best Sellars award. The author did a great job, keeping the readers engaged and wanting to read more. I stayed up one night and powered through, kept telling myself that this would be the last chapter for the night, but that eventually ended up me finishing the book. 

Author's Bio

Looking up my author I realized that the name the book was published under is not the name of that author. It's a pseudonym for an existing author. A well known, well established author. Robert Galbraith is what the author wants us to see as we read the book but under that name is J.K Rowling. Yes, J.K Rowling. The author of the entire Harry Potter Series. When writing the Harry Potter series she kept her name as J.K Rowling because her publishers were unsure of how her books would sell as she is a women writing with a male main character. For a long time people thought Rowling was a man but to people’s surprise, it was a women. J.K stands for Joanne Kathleen- her’s and her mother’s name.

J.K Rowling first conceived the Harry Potter story while she was traveling in a train. The idea hit her and on a napkin she drafted the entire first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Rowling received a net worth of $15 billion from the entire 7 book series. She became the top author. Each Harry Potter book selling about 50 billion to 65 billion copies worldwide.

J.K. Rowling writes under the name of Robert Galbraith to maintain the distinction from her other writings.

J.K Rowling chose Robert because it is one of her favourite men’s names, because Robert F Kennedy is her hero and because, mercifully, she hadn’t used it for any of the characters in the Potter series or The Casual Vacancy. Galbraith came about for a slightly odd reason. When she was a child, Rowling really wanted to be called ‘Ella Galbraith’. She didn’t even know how she knew that the surname existed, because she couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone with it. Be that as it may, the name had a fascination for Rowling. She considered calling herself L A Galbraith for the Strike series, but for fairly obvious reasons decided that initials were a bad idea. Odder still, there was a well-known economist called J K Galbraith, something she only remembered by the time it was far too late. Rowling was completely paranoid that people might take this as a clue and land at her real identity, but thankfully nobody was looking that deeply at the author’s name.

Blog #1: Reader Bio

        As a child, I loved going to the library with my mom and we'd just sit there during story time and listen to the stories every week. I remember always carrying home a stack almost as big as me of small short children books to read. Since then, I had always read whenever I possibly could. Reading became a part of me. There were times where I had to read for a few hours before I went to bed or I couldn't go to bed at all.
        As I got older, I never stopped reading. I was always that kid that carried a stack of books. Wherever I went, I always carried a book with me. Even to the movies or to a concert or out to dinner. I always had a book. I mean, I still do. And I mean a print, hard copy of the book not a kindle or E-book.
        Horror, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-fi are my favorite types of books. I always like to read books that keep me engaged and are suspenseful. Those make me read even more and not want to put the book down. When I read, I feel like I'm watching or playing the story in my head. Sometimes when I take a break I think "Was I reading that or watching a movie?" What I love about reading is you read something new every time. It's not always the same story even in the same genre.
         As a wonderful author, C.S. Lewis once said, "We read to know we are not alone." And I agree. When I read I feel like the characters are right there with me, telling me the story as if any of my real life friends would.
         Somethings you'll never see me read are non fiction and Twilight. Sorry all you Stephanie Myer fans, I will not read them again ever. Harry Potter all the way. Speaking of, I remember, living on the UC campus before they kicked us out, my mom and her friends would take us, kids, to the theater on campus and go see movies. Majority of the time it was the Harry Potter movies. Growing up watching and reading them, I grew a liking to that type of genre. Harry Potter became my entire world and my first official fandom.
        J.K. Rowling created this adventure from her brain while riding in a train and writing the first chapter just on a napkin. I own all the books and have been re-reading them over the years several times. Not just Rowling, but many other authors have given us the opportunity to read very good books. We'd be here all day if I were to list them all.
       Can I marry fictional characters? Can I be a fictional character?

       
<---- James Dashner author of The Maze Runner trilogy has this quote in the movie. And I think it means a lot to readers because, books are never going to stay the same. There are always going to be new authors emerging and those new authors are going to need a chance from readers to accept their work.
        So, yes there is a change, and no you can't do anything about it so you can't deny the fact there will always be a new book lurking in the shadows for one to read and maybe, just maybe one picks up a book and loves it which makes them continue reading, adding one more person into the readers world!

            So to those new people, welcome!

Reflective Reading Blog Post

http://nikkisreadingblog102.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-scorch-trials-by-james-dashner.html

In this blog post I analyzed the situation at hand of where I was reading. Using quotes from the book I talked about what was happening and added my personal thoughts and feelings to show how I reacted to the situation in the book. The first quote shows how they described the feel of what was happening and to give a visual as well as a hearing of what that character did and what the result was because of it.

Goals I have for myself is to get a deeper understanding of what the author tries to convey and
instead of reading for fun and skimming the book actually focus on what word order or diction and syntax is included. What figurative language is used to present the information given in the book to get a better meaning and understanding of why the author chose to put that specific piece of text into that area. My goals as far as continuing to read is always. I love reading. I've read since i was in Kindergarten, very night every day. My goal of reading is to read every book that was written by certain authors by the end of high school. In writing I would like to improve on my overall skills. Adding figurative language, diction, syntax more and to better give a better understanding of what I am writing about. Learning more about what I can do to improve my writing will help me broaden my skills and abilities to write papers, essays and other assignments. With my reading I want to expand and reach into different hats and pick out new genres/ books to read and try something new instead of reading the same genre and books over and over and over again.

Adventures of Hucleberry Finn by: Mark Twain

Hey guess what? I'm Back! As from the title you can tell this this post isn't on TST. I took a break on that book. I'm now reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Its a classic I know. Its a good book though. I saw the cartoon movie version and thought it was a good concept and well played out. 

I haven't gotten into the book yet but so far the book is good, except for Twain's grammar. Don't get me started with it........ The book and the movie i saw so far is very similar. Basically its about a boy, Huck Finn who is a mischievous boy caught between a confining life with his legal guardian and an abusive life under his drunkard father. He fakes his own death, teams up with a runaway slave named Jim, and take off on a raft down the Mississippi River. Now don't get confused with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer and Huck are in way over their heads when they witness a murder in a graveyard... see two different yet similar books both by the same author. The movie i saw was both ideas combined. It was well done and hope to say about the book as well!

As for TST I am still at the same place as before. Nothing much has happened. I am trying to long out the book till a month or so before the movie comes out to still have it fresh in my mind when i go to see it.










    Count down for school: 5 more weeks

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

How was y'all spring break? This week i will be talking about The Scorch Trials.. again. Last week we talked about the book itself this week i am going to talk about what is going on...

"Before anyone could move he fired, an explosion that rocked the narrow alley with a thunderous boom."
"Pure pain ripped through Thomas' left shoulder." You may be wondering what this means well.... THOMAS GETS SHOT.... that is where i am right now in the book. He gets shot, WICKED comes to his rescue (yay! not really) and he meets back with Minho and Newt and his friends who got separated from him and Brenda. Thomas still can't get a hold of Teresa and doesn't know if she is okay. He saw her once- she was alive but was acting strange. Enough of Teresa.... After Thomas got shot WICKED came and took him to the berg which is really a hospital. They fixed him up. Wondering how a loaded gun ended up in the Scorch and how Thomas being shot and all was not part of the plan. I was reading that and i was like: "WELL PLANS CHANGE.. deal with it."

They still are talking about the safe haven and that beneficial thing for them. Brenda weirdly still crushing on Thomas and he told her that she could never be Teresa. OUCH! He feels so sorry, Brenda really doesn't care.... i think she does... The last thing i read and the weird thing is that Thomas was in the berg and the lady there said "It's what you would've wanted us to do" What does that mean... I have no idea.




                                                      HAPPY EASTER!

The Scorch Trials : James Dashner

Hey I'm back! This week I will be talking about "The Scorch Trials" by James Dashner. I am about halfway into the book and its interesting but not as intriguing as "The Maze Runner". It had a slow beginning and not much "cool" things happening. Thomas lies to the Cranks which are like people badly infected by 'The Flare' and hopes not to get killed on their way to the safe haven where something is that is beneficial to them all. Won't get into more or i will spoil it.

Apparently WICKED was testing 2 maze groups. one with all boys and one girl and the other all girls with one boy. Meeting with them, Thomas, Newt, Minho and others face challenges and try to get to the safe haven. Teresa is blitz, Thomas is separated from his friends, some girl who is a crank (hasn't fully gone bonkers) is crushing on Thomas, he feels like he is betraying Teresa. Nothing seems to be making sense. The most scariest part- Thomas kills someone. Not saying who or why but he does and feels guilty. A problem though. Thomas can't get through to Teresa telepathically. When he does she makes no sense. Talks like she is crazy. Maybe she is. I don't know... yet... Hopefully they reunite and things go to how they were before.

          That's all y'all get for this week. Stay tuned for more on the scoop for "The Scorch Trials"