Tribute

Well I started reading Tribute by Nora Roberts tonight. I'm hoping she can keep it PG because the last one was a little much. I read the first couple chapters and I really have no idea what its going to be about. Basically there's this myth that this girls grandma and this guy had a one night affair and then they committed suicide? I don't really get it yet. I stopped reading so I could go to Zumba and see Paranormal Activity 3. Now let me tell you, that movie is FREAKY! I have seen the other two and they were crap compared to this new one! There is so much more scary stuff that happens and its much more hands on than a stupid door slamming. This includes hair pulling, creepy grandma huddles, and playing ghost behind the babysitter's back. A little too much for me. But hey, it was a memory my best friend and I made, we've seen all 3 together. And it was totally worth the 9 bucks!

Close Reading Bingo

The best blog about diction that I came across was A Scrap of Parchment. My favorite sentence was "Furthermore, sentence fragments, such as, "One of those little English jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour," destroy any last vestige of formality, further developing the aura of simply telling a story to a friend."

The blog Underwater has a #6 weakness in the following quote:"Therefore, the author uses tone to show the criticism."

The blog Peanut Butter without the Jelly has a #7 weakness in the following quote:"With the use of his realistic descriptions, the promt was easily visualized."

The blog New Zealander has a #9 weakness in the following quote: "They too convey the narrator's "crumby" perspective on others' lives and successes. " But instead of this, the person uses they, but its basically the same thing.

The blog T-Rex has a #2 weakness in the following quote: ""Turned toward the escalators, carrying a black Penguin paperback and a small white CVS bag, its receipt stapled over the top," describes the harsh clattering of the setting."

Summary

I finished reading The Atonement Child this weekend and I loved it. It is so much shorter than any of Francine Rivers's other books, which makes it a perfect choice for any readers new to her. The main girl roams free. She decides to move out of her house because her father wants to force her to have an abortion, calling the baby an "abomination." Her mother tries to voice her opinion that she needs to make her own decision, which splits her parents deeper than they have ever split before. They both try to undergo counseling, but the mother truly needs to be able to accept that she has had abortion herself and all the feelings that come with it. She has never been able to do so. The husband has never quite forgiven her for having a relationship with another man, much less another possible child. Luckily, the abused daughter finds someone who is truly on her side no matter what.

Response to the Catcher and Rye Excerpt

In the excerpt from "The Catcher and the Rye," Salinger's noisy, comical banter highlights his childish gullibility. Although he is a teenager, he makes no effort to compose in impressive vocabulary. He describes his childhood with the word "lousy" and a general introduction as "stuff that bores me." On the subject of his parents, he says "they're touchy as hell." Salinger has no boundaries as to what can be said; he lets Holden say what he wants about everything in life. Writing with such a low, familiar diction emphasizes how some teenagers truly feel about their home life and their story.

Currently

This week I read Love INC and The Atonement Child for a total of 615 pages, making my new semester total 3121 pages. I liked the style mapping of the following blogs: Intrusion of the Soul, Twilight, and Look Up... (Now). Look Up.. (Now) was definitely the most impressive of the class blogs I read because I felt like she actually got the point of the assignment. Most people didn't really compare the words, and if they did, they only used the words Mr. Hill wrote on the board. Or they just didn't do it at all.. Way to go guys. Look Up... (Now) used the phrase "devil-may-care" and "tangible" and I just loved what he/she had to say about the literary works he/she read.

Yet another book!

Last night, I began yet another Francine Rivers book, this one called the Atonement Child. Despite many books that slowly take off, with nothing really happening in the first few chapters except for the boring exposition, this one shoots off like a rocket! She gets raped within the first few pages. As if that isn't bad enough, her fiance has an awful attitude about how she isn't pure anymore, and makes her feel as if this whole rape thing was her fault. She just wants to forget it ever happened. But when she finds out she is pregnant with the rapist's baby, she struggles to decide if she should keep this ill-conceived child, or try to eliminate the fetus in an attempt to forget it ever happened. Such an awful position to be put in, and I feel for the people who actually have to deal with this sort of thing. Plus, she doesn't have a supportive fiance which makes it even more heart wrenching.

Style Mapping

The three novels I am observing are Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Shadowland by Meg Cabot and Chosen by P.C. Cast. Dostoevsky's course, grating diction highlights his wrathful Russian background. He refers to an apartment as a "garret in which he lodged" and transitions with phrases like "quite the contrary." Cabot's straightforward, colloquial diction displays her lighthearted attitude towards life which intrigues her more with every new case she faces. The main character openly speaks to the reader, telling him "I guess I should explain. I'm not exactly your typical sixteen-year-old girl." The use of first person narration, in addition to a lack of non-elevated words makes Shadowland an easy read. P.C. Cast's blunt, blog-esque diction of Chosen simplifies the mystical, bloodsucking plot of the vampires. On the opening pages, Cast introduces Nala, the cat, by saying one would think "she hung on my every word , which is soooo not the case." The main character has experienced many "sucky December twenty-fourth birthdays." Writing with such words brings the make believe world of vampires down to a level that an outsider can easily understand and relate to. The differences in diction for each of the novels epitomizes the story they have to tell.