Currently

This week I read The Search by Nora Roberts, for a weekly total of 488 pages. That makes my semester total 2027 pages.

1. "She doesn't like me to put her down outside. Especially when... other d-o-g-s are around."
This quote just makes me laugh to think of how much people love to coddle their dogs. This lady in particular has brought her dog to training school because she is so aggressive, yet the owner is completely oblivious to why she would act in such a way. DUH! She's a dog, not a child. She is perfectly capable of standing on her own four legs.

2. "He strode to the window, slapped the palm of his hand against the sparkling glass. 'Leave it,' he ordered, pointing to the smudged print he left behind." Simon, the boyfriend, gets so angry that his live-in girlfriend Fiona is cleaning his house. In order to make a point that he cannot be trained, he makes this print on the window and makes sure that she does not clean it off.

3. "I have the name and number of the vet who's covering for Mai, I have your number -- hotel, cell, Mai's cell, Sylvia's cell. So does James. We have everything. In triplicate. Between us, I think we can handle anything short of a nuclear holocaust or alien invasion."
This is the part of Simon's personality that I love the most. He makes everything into sarcasm, and that is exactly what uptight Fiona needs. She doesn't even have any kids, just three dogs who run her life, and she has done months of planning for one 3 day spa vacation with her friends.

TMI

Staying up until midnight, I finally finished The Search by Nora Roberts. As the serial killer drew closer, I was expecting some big shindig of a showdown between the victim and her killer. I didn't get what I expected and that greatly disappointed me. Usually in a scary movie, the best part is the confrontation at the end where the victim is in disarray and the predator is pausing to chat before he finishes her off. However, almost all movies end with the victim alive, which makes it pretty predictable.
I've decided not to do this book for my book talk solely because there is so much sexual content, my rating has changed to R. If I was the author, I wouldn't have chosen to add all of that unneeded information, but apparently Nora Roberts thinks it adds to the story line. It just makes me feel uncomfortable to read so I normally try to just skip over it.
I will probably give Nora Roberts another try in the future because I really liked the story line and the topics that it talked about. I just hope I can find one that isn't R status.

Searching

I was hunting through the library for another Francine Rivers book, and I turned around and saw shelf after shelf of Nora Roberts books. I had heard of her books before, but never tried one. Interested, I picked a few up and looked at them and decided why not branch out and try some random new author? She's won numerous awards, so hopefully she doesn't disappoint. I decided on the book, "The Search" because it's cover looked the most intriguing and foreboding of mystery because it has a dog barely visible through the fog. Everyone knows that you actually do judge a book by its cover. Whoever came up with the saying "don't judge a book by its cover" was obviously not an inventive person and his cover sucked, so he wanted people to read his book anyway. Sorry sucker, I wouldn't read it.

I've gotten into a good chunk of it, and i've decided that the title "The Search" really umbrellas 3 different searches that are intermixed into one completely awesome novel. First, there is a woman who trains dogs to find missing people in the woods, and really any weather or nature related element. You grow to love the dogs and their successful missions. Another search involves a convicted serial killer who has passed on his secrets of the trade to another prospect, who has been released, and is following in his master's footsteps for one reason and one reason only. To correct his most deeply upsetting mistake. And this mistake? Letting his thirteenth victim escape. So obviously, the search is out to find this woman and finish off what his master couldn't. A third search is the search for love. Now, I would have to give this book a PG-13 rating. There are quite a few moments of sexual content, that really the reader could go on without reading, but apparently Roberts feels the need to include them. However, despite the random spurts of romance, the reader grows to love and feel compassion for the two lonely souls and their unexpected need for each other.

I'm thinking about doing this book for my book talk. I had thought about doing a book called "Au Pairs" by Melissa De LaCruz, but I don't think the Jersey Shore meets New York genre would make that good of an impression on our class.

More later as I get farther into the book

Currently

This week I finished Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to watch a change inside a person's heart. My weekly total was 375 and my semester total is 1539 pages.

1) "My job description was twofold: 1) Save lives and 2) Take lives. Not necessarily in that order."

This sentence from Joker One just makes me think of things I can’t comprehend myself doing. Killing other people as job.

2) "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as i'd thought."

I love this line from the Help. Finally, she makes the statement that skin color does not change what goes on inside a person.

3) "We called him 'The Ghost'."

I really like the simplicity of this sentence and the fact that I can identify with how she feels when her father isn’t home very often.

Honorable Mentions

In Pride of Cincinnati's Summer of Love, the guard's vibrant, chaotic sound, complimentary choreography, and explosive, passionate expression create a scene of colorful eccentricity. -The World is Ours

In the album art for United Paper People‘s Kisschasy, the foreboding colors, overwhelming space, and perilous actions reflect a sense of destructive loneliness and irrational wonder. -Intrusion of the Soul

The painting's gritty texture, balanced use of space, selective use of colour, and dark tone leave the viewer a sense of depressing realization leading to a climactic finish. -JimmehFTW-

My favorite was the one done by Bookworm Days. I loved the right side of the claim the most and I think her gymnastics cool to observe. " During her routine, Shawn Johnson displays powerful tumbling, gracefully swift dance, intense expression, and representative attire; which sets forth a confidently energetic, yet cheerful routine. "

Love Will Keep Us Together?

As i've gotten further and further into Francine Rivers's novel Redeeming Love, I have gotten further sucked into the story line. I feel the character's presence and actions as if I was watching it all unfold in front of me, a quality of a well-written novel. The main character, Sarah, or Angel, or Mara, or anything else that she is called by her "customers" thinks she has absolutely no purpose in the world but to give men what they want. She was introduced to prostitution early on, like when she was 8 years old, and she heard her father tell her mother that he left because he didn't want her. He doesn't understand why her mother couldn't have just gotten rid of her. And even when she is 8, her father's mind hasn't changed about her. From there, she is sold into a brothel by a "family" member and when she tries to get out, she is just forced back. No one, except people in her hometown, know what her true name is. While the whole circumstance of this book is depressing, the part that really gets to the reader, well to me at least, is the fact that she doesn't think she deserves more. She thinks that love is a joke, and her father, and all the men that have said they love her during their brief 30 minutes with her, have allowed her to make this assumption.

While I think that prostitution is wrong and demeaning to a woman's self confidence and self worth, this girl, Sarah, has never known any different. She never got a choice to choose a better life for herself. She truly believes that she was made to sell her body. And she's not living the luxurious life by any means! This lady, the Dutchess, is in charge of her and takes 100% of the money while Sarah is locked up in a tall tower. If she tries to fight back, the hunchman, Magowen, beats her near to death.

However, one man sees Sarah in a completely different light. He thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and he wants nothing more than to marry her and make her fall in love with him, for real. Sex isn't his motive, which he makes clear to her almost every single day. Lead by God in all of his ways and thoughts, this man is dedicated to helping her love and respect herself.

I know how I hope this book will end, with her changing her idea about herself, and loving this man back, and them having children together who she loves more than anything in the world. But in this book, Sarah is just so damaged and concrete in her beliefs that this truly seems impossible. Her only hope, and I strongly believe this as well, is that God will transform her heart and make her into a person she will be happy to be!

If I were this man, that feels God leading him to do this, I don't know if I would have the courage. To chase and dedicate my life for a woman who is respected by no one? Who is so broken and only knows how to please someone one way? Who tries so hard to make him like her, but can never truly be happy herself? I'm frustrated for him just reading about all of it! Why God would have anyone suffer through all of this I have no idea, I truly don't. I guess it is just a result of the free will he gave people, and unfortunately, her mother and people she has been handed off to over the years have greatly abused the privilege! Heck i'm only halfway done and so eager to finish, if only I didn't have to read the Grapes of Wrath for novels :( Its awful people, don't read it if you don't have to.

Individual Response to A SAND CASTLE!

I chose to evaluate the
Shape : arched, curved, hollow, church-like, sloped

Color : vibrant, enhancing, scattered

Design: stacked, open, majestic, consistent

My overall claim:

The hollow, church-like presentation of the sandcastle highlights the convincing superiority over typical sand creations.

Poet of the Month

I tried searching for Jim Moore, but the only other poem I saw off Google had like 6 LONG paragraphs. So i skipped that one and moved on to a different poet. I chose Mary Oliver instead. She wrote the Wild Geese poem that we read in class. I loved that poem. I felt like she was really talking to me with the use of the word "you" over and over and over. I chose another poem by her, Breakage, to copy into my moleskine and I like it quite a bit too. Especially the ending line "Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story."

Currently

This week I read "River, Cross my Heart" and part of "Redeeming Love." This makes my etymology total 1164 pages.

Favorite Sentences:
1) "The girls' raucous laughter as not muted by the shrubbery that lined the C&O canal towpath, and the seven pairs of bare feet simply walked westward toward the Three Sisters." This sentence creates a wonderful, relatable picture in my head of me and my friends laughs carrying through the neighborhood while our bare feet leave footprints in the dirt. Sounds like such a fun night.

2) "The heart-shaped head ducked beneath the surface and boiling water closed over it. " I feel like this one needs some explaining. Johnnie Mae is cooking on the stove and she sees her sister inside of it, with her hands outstretched, trying to get Johnnie Mae to save her. I feel like this could come right out of a scary movie! Love it.

3) "Johnnie Mae knew she had at least a split second to leap onto the coat and burrow her face down into it. " I can clearly see a little girl sticking her face into this enormous fur coat just to be able to feel the warmth and comfort of it around her face.

Parallels

After reading the Help, I got into a sort of book depression. Nothing else matched up to the greatness of it, and I didn't know what to do. At this point, I was reading My Antonia for novels class, which was an extremely boring book, and was just bummed out. Then I chose to read "River, Cross My Heart." It is a book written during the same time as the Help, but from a much different circumstance. In this one, a little girl dies in a river under her older sister's watch. The story tells about how the older sister, mother, and rest of the town are struck by her sudden death. The older sister, her name is Johnnie Mae, falls into a deep depression where she doesn't even want to move. She is so overcome with nightmares and dreams that her neighbor gets the town herbal remedy provider to make her a "concoction" to help her get sleep.

I can't imagine having my brother die when I was supposed to be watching him. I don't often have to take him along when I go and hang out with my friends. But that is what Johnnie Mae has to do all day, everyday. Johnnie Mae sees her sister drowning in the river and tries to dive over and over and over to find her sister's body and pull her to the surface, but she cannot find it. This river is said to be haunted in a way. The town refers to it as the Three Sisters because 3 sisters, nuns, were said to have drowned in the river and now take prisoners by their ankles whenever someone goes swimming. Most know not to swim in the river, and so does Clara, the youngest sister. However, when standing on a log over the river, the log breaks and she falls in. This seems to always happen in movies! Someone walks a little too close to a steep edge hanging over a 500 foot drop, and suddenly the rocks break beneath them. Or maybe a person is walking backwards and doesn't see the drop-off behind them and falls to their death. Who knows. I just know that it happens a lot and its very predictable.

Speaking of predictability, I was sitting watching Parenthood the other night on NBC, AMAZING show for any of you who don't watch it. Well one daughter on the show is around 17 and she is dating a guy who is about 22, but is a recovering alcoholic. Sweet, sweet guy. He has totally turned his life around. Anyways, Hattie, the 17 year old, wants to go to this high school party and she wants her boyfriend to come along, but her little brother suggests that Alex shouldn't go because if there is going to be alcohol there, that would be bad for him. The little brother's name is Max and he has Aspergers and is crazy intelligent and lacks a filter to tell him what is appropriate to say to others. Ok, the application is coming, I promise! So Alex decides that he isn't going to go, but he will pick Hattie up at the party and they can hang out afterwards. OF COURSE the rest of the story line is predictable. Hattie gets totally wasted, Alex comes in to get her, and has to punch a drunk guy who won't let Hattie leave. You just know that if something is telling you that something is bad, bad, bad, that someway, somehow, someone is going to get tangled up in that mess.

Anyways, its just interesting to see how different story lines overlap, but go in completely different directs with the rest of the story line, but also how one incident can connect to so many others in other types of entertainment.

Currently

For this 100 pages only, I am reading Joker One. Makes my total 906 pages.

1) "My job description was twofold: 1) Save lives and 2) Take lives. Not necessarily in that order." I can't imagine being in a job where my performance, which was measured by the men i killed, affected the lives of so many others.

2,3) "You can't think of home, you can't miss your wife, and you can't wonder how it would feel to take a round through your neck. You can only pretend that you're already dead and thus free yourself up to focus on three things: 1) finding and killing the enemy, 2) communicating the situation and resulting actions to adjacent units and higher headquarters, and 3) triaging and treating your wounded. If you love your men, you naturally think about number three first, but if you do, you're wrong. The grim logic of combat dictates that numbers one and two take precedence." I just can't see myself ever getting into that mindset. Ever. I couldn't imagine getting shot, but if I was in war, thats all I would think about. 24-7. 365.

BLAH!

This week I started reading Joker One. I'm not really a nonfiction type person; I eat up all the romance novels and comedies and such so a book on the military is really not my favorite. I really can't stand it so far and since I've read my 100 pages, I think I am just going to stop! The story line really isnt that bad. Its the accounts of a Marine as he becomes a platoon leader and about the struggles and memories he has of his men in battle. I thought it sounded good, but I don't understand about 75% of what he is talking about, which makes it a REALLY REALLY slow read... At the beginning, I was hopeful. The Marine gave a short reason why he wanted to write this book and he felt that his men had a story that deserved to be told. He kept saying how proud he was of them, and that he knows there are other Marines out there worthy of a story, but this book is about his men.

One interesting part, but also kind of cruel and gruesome, was one of the exercises they had to do in training. There are two platoons involved per round and one platoon goes and lies in a trench at the bottom of the hill. The other platoon has to manage to get over this double sided razor wire to get to the hill so they can climb it and have a mock attack on the "enemy." Being as smart as he is, the platoon leader decides to have his men go around through the nearby forest and stage a side attack on the unsuspecting trench waiters. They throw fake grenades that don't actually detonate to show the explosions that would go on. However, the main corporal in charge of all the platoons, nicknamed Ox, decides that this was not the route the men should have taken and makes them do it over again, this time going through the barbed wire. To cross the wire, 3 men have to sacrifice themselves as "flying squirrels" and lay across the wire so that the other men can walk on their backs! They get real gashes and awful wounds from being the sacrifice, but they have to do it anyways. And the corporal enjoys watching it!

How terrible. I would never do such a thing for guys that I barely know. Especially just in training. Anyways, the guy's home life stinks. He's been married for a year and his wife works all the time to keep her mind off the fact that her husband is never home. So they are both workaholics. Good thing they don't have kids yet or they would be growing up without either parent!

On that topic. I really feel bad for kids who are raised by nannies and babysitting or stay at daycare all day everyday. The point of having kids is to be able to enjoy them and spend time with them! When two workaholics have kids, no one but the child suffers! Sure they make big bucks to buy the kid whatever he wants, but what he wants most, he can't have. Before I have a family, I am going to make sure I can actually support them while being able to take time off and enjoy their young ages! They are only young once! Or if I can't, make sure that my husband is home often. My children will not be raised by a nanny. What's the point of even having kids if you aren't the one that raises them? Are they just supposed to cooperate when you feel like being with them? And all the times you don't, the times you choose work instead, they are supposed to be OK with that too?

Currently

This week I began and finished the Help. With a whopping total of 530 pages, I loved every second of it. That makes my etymology reading total 806 pages. This book has much more meaningful sentences than last week and here are my top three:

1) "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as i'd thought."
I love this quote because this is exactly what i got out of the book. I knew that there was no difference between races, but for the white women in this book to begin realizing these facts, it was an enormous breakthrough.

2) "The date is Friday, January 17, 1964. I have on a black A-line dress. My fingernails are all bitten off. I will remember every detail of this day." This is the day Miss Skeeter finally hears back from the publishing company with the wonderful news that they will publish her book. What a huge moment!

3) "Taking care of white babies, thats what I do, along with all the cooking and cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime." While Aibileen never gets any thanks for the work she does with the white women's babies, she takes pride of the job she does in her heart.

Helpless in Mississippi

Yeah, I heard about the civil rights movement in U.S. History last year and it made me feel awful about how African Americans used to be treated. All the violence towards them and they really didn't have to do anything to provoke white people, except exist. As I have been reading "The Help" I have found a better understanding of what really went on in Mississippi. These women, the hired help, basically raised white women's children for them but received none of the credit. White women wanted their baby to show off at first, but at the first stinky diaper, heck, they couldn't run away fast enough. They would punish the children not only physically, but emotionally as well. One dad would whip his 6 year old with a garden hose and they it was the job of the help to bandage, and ice his wounds only so the father could do it yet again. They were helpless to stop any of the cruelty. I love the humor that the African American women use. Although they were treated worse than anything I have ever witnessed, they still found ways to have jokes with the other help. One servant, Minny, has the attitude of a typical rich white woman trapped inside an African American body. At one point, a white man discovers that she is in his house after his wife had hired her to do the chores without telling him, she stands at the door and yells at him. He just happens to be holding an axe and she is convinced he is going to chop her into pieces. In other part, one white woman, who starts to become friends with the help, sabotages her snooty white friend who loudly declares her opinion that the help should have their own bathrooms to use outside of the house so that the whites don't catch diseases from the sharing of toilets. She edits the friends article that is to be published in the newspaper and has everyone bring their old toilets and put them all in the snobby rich white woman's front lawn. At one point, there is a count of 30 toilets just scattered all over. While this book makes you laugh out loud, it also tears at your heart strings when the women get honest about what exactly goes on behind closed doors at their work. One woman took in her grandson Robert because he had nowhere else to go. After he accidentally used a white man's public restroom because it was not displayed which was which, men attacked him and as a result, he lost his sight in both eyes. He was only a teenager. One maid steals a piece of unused jewelry from her employer so that she can pay for both of her twin boys to go to college. She has been saving for years to support them both but realized that she only had the money for one. She couldn't bear the thought of having to tell one of her boys that he is not going to college but his brother is instead. Even when she asks for a loan from her boss, that she promises she will attempt to pay back with each of her week's pay, the woman would not hear of it. In fact, she told her it was even more Christian for her to let the woman suffer than it would be to help her out. Snotty people just bug the heck out of me and its awful to see one human being treat another like the women in this book do. Its definitely one of the best books I have read in my life and I 100% suggest it to anyone that needs something to read.