Readers Response 3 + Vocab

 Vocab:

1.Moratory-

authorizing delay of payment.

2. Caveat-

a warning or caution; admonition.

3.  Portend-

to indicate in advance; to foreshadow or presage, as an omen does.

Twilight

Stephenie Meyer

p.382-p.498

30 min.

Rating: 6.5/10.0

     

     Twilight continues, and it's in these last 100 or so pages where the action finally starts to kick in. Of course, it's all just as well, because the action and suspense are by no means the highlights to this book. The actual climax is much too short to be interesting, and there are no moments where you're actually eager to find out what happens next. The only part of the climax I actually liked was the part where James tortured Bella while making the video that he was going to leave for Edward. No, this is not because I hate Bella and love cruel, painful scenes of people slowly dying. It's because this is one rare part of the book where Meyer successfully uses great description to create true emotion, which is in this case, fear. Having read the whole series, the only emotions that she seems to be able to convey are horror and obsessive love. OK, I've been somewhat harsh so far in the previous RR and this one, but there are actually some pretty good things about this book.The biggest thing is the complexity of the world that Meyer has created. I mean, fantasy books have some pretty great worlds nowadays. The Hunger Games' post-apocalyptic atmosphere, Rick Riordan's Greek demigods and God's, and finally, the best fantasy world of all time, Harry Potter's world of witch's and wizards. Twilight doesn't hold a candle to HP's world(nothing ever will), but it's really interesting hearing about the world of vampires and werewolves. HP and Twilight both have great worlds, but but the difference is that Hp actually has an epic story to go along with the epic world. Whew, I'm all energetic, even though it's like ten(not that late but still), because I just listened to a bunch of AC/DC while writing this RR. So, before I end this, I wanted to ask one last question, would you want to become a twilight vampire if there were no pain involved? I, personally wouldn't, because I would hate to be immortal, and I can't really understand Bella's point of view yet. Answer in the poll, and leave your comments below!

Readers Response 2

Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
p.1-p.382
1hr. 30 min.
Rating: N/A

      OMG, a guy reading twilight! I'm actually re-reading it, but whatever. I'm not a hater but by no means am I a twi-hard fan. I actually think of myself as one of the very few people that don't love or hate this book. The summary so far: Bella moves to live with her father in Forks, Washington, where she meets a dazzling vampire named Edward who she falls in love with. She proceeds to meet his family and deals with her social life as she learns more about vampires. Whoa, hold up. Read the first sentence of the summary again. Falls in love with a vampire? I, personally think Twilight got way more attention than it deserved, but if it had to be famous, it should've been for the creativeness and originality of the plot, not for the Taylor "hot"ner. I know the whole story about her dreaming about this and writing it down, but still, this is a pretty good plot. Unfortunately, the good plot is ruined by terrible characters, which makes the narration really annoying. I would've liked this book a lot more if it was written in 3rd person, mainly because I absolutely hate Bella. She's very whiny and depressing and incredibly naive. It's annoying when you're always hearing her point of view on things. I know she switches to Jacob narrating in parts of eclipse and Breaking Dawn, but that doesn't help because I hate Jacob almost as much. He's very rude and way too arrogant. Edward is probably my favorite of all the characters, but he can be very stalkerish at times. Also, he says the absolute worst line in the book: "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb." I wanted to puke when I read that. It's incredibly childish and it does a terrible job at creating the romantic atmosphere the author wanted to create. There's a lot of times where the author fails at creating the intended mood, but the book remains bearable.

Readers Response 1

A Tale Dark of Grimm
Adam Gidwitz

p.1-p.256(end)
45. min
Rating: 7.0/10.0

     A Tale Dark of Grimm is the story of Hansel and Gretel, but not just the regular old kiddie version that everyone's heard. This is a series of short stories, most made up that tell an elongated, dark tale of Hansel and Gretel. It tells the stories of Hansel and Gretel, how they ran away from place to place to find "new" parents that always mistreat them, and finally, and encounter with the devil leading to a finale with a dragon. The most distinct thing about this authors style is that he constantly talks to you. He even tells you what the book is going to be about at the beginning,the very thing that we were told not to do in our writing in 4th grade. The book constantly switches from a first-person view that tells the authors opinions on what's happening in the story, which he narrates in 3rd person. It's almost as if the author wrote the story, read it, and every time he had an opinion, which is every 2 or 3 pages, he put in the book in a bold typeface. This could mess up the book a million different ways, but it actually makes the book really interesting because the author is pretty funny and witty. When you read, it feels like normal typeface stands for dark and scary, and bold typeface means funny. The story is decent, but it can get boring at times, and it sometimes gets gory and bloody without any reason. It's full of cliches, but I suppose it's excusable since it's supposed to be a fairy tale, and fairy tales are the origin of cliches( Hero fighting a dragon, anybody?)I'd say the Author's side commentary is the only thing that saves this book.

Readers Response 3

Imagine Song Lyrics
John Lennon
5 paragraphs
it took me about 30 secs to read but much longer to analyze, I'm splitting my analysis into 2 RR's because it's really long
Rating: 10/10- possibly the best song ever written

(Con. from last RR)

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

     As you can see, I'm really into this song. I would never have guessed when I started that so much could come out a 5 simple paragraphs. The truth is, I haven't even begun to reflect on this song. There's still so much to talk about. But, since I'm limited on time, I'll begin starting where I left off... third paragraph. This is the best part in my opinion. It basically epitomizes the song. This is the message that John Lennon tries to spread. I might not understand what some of the song means, and maybe I never will, but it's summed up neatly for me in this one paragraph. The world united. May his dream never die. The fourth paragraph is the one that makes the second most sense to me. I'm ashamed to say that I can't imagine no possessions. I know this makes me a selfish human being and everything, but I'd rather tell the truth than lie and tell everyone I'm completely selfless, because I'm not. A brotherhood of man. No hunger. No greed. It's all a wonderful, amazing dream of John Lennon's, and I'm glad to say I'm a dreamer too. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure our imagination can only go so far, and it's hard to imagine this dream becoming reality anytime soon. Speaking from present tense, most of the things in this song seem sadly out of reach. It's getting harder and harder to imagine all the people living life in peace. I'm starting to sound like a wacky philosopher, so i'm going to end this response by stating a few quotes from John Lennon:

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. - John Lennon

All we are saying is give peace a chance. - John Lennon

All you need is love. - John Lennon

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_lennon.html#ixzz1IzcBvdFV

Readers Response 1

The Green Glass Sea
Ellen Klages
p.1-p.318(end)
1.5 hrs, even though I probably shouldn't have stayed up that late reading.
rating: 8.5/10.0

       Following the popular subject of WWII, that we seem to focusing on a lot in school this year, I read a historical fiction story that is is set in WWII called the Green Glass Sea. I've actually read this before, about 2 years ago, and liked it, but I've found that when you re-read a book after a long time, you find new things and like it even better the second time.
     The Green Glass Sea is about two girls named Dewey and Suze who (the book switches point of view from one to other) initially don't get along but get closer as the book goes on Their parents(or one parent in Dewey's case)are involved in the making of the Atomic bomb. They live in a secret town called Los Alamos in New Mexico, where they deal with life during the war. Dewey eventually loses her father in an accident(This isn't a big spoiler because this book isn't very suspenseful) and life goes on harder than ever.
     The Green Glass Sea is different from other world war 2 novels because instead of being about a heroic battle in Germany, the story is simply about what it would have been like living at home in dark times. This helps me relate to WWII better, because what the characters go through in this book would be similar to what I would go through if lived in those times. The writing style is crisp, and there are no action sequences at all even though this is a WWII novel. The book is actually pretty interesting considering the fact that there is absolutely no physical action sequences. The author does a good job 
of portraying the characters emotions. It's nice to see that despite all the other stuff that was going on those times, the author chose to write about something as simple as two girls that start off hating each other forming a social relationship. This was a great WWII novel that gave a side of the war that isn't often heard.

Readers Response 2+Vocab

Vocab:
1. Futz-To pass time in idleness (usually followed by around).

2.Canorous- Richly melodious; pleasant sounding; musical.

3.Irascible- Prone to anger; easily provoked to anger; hot-tempered.
  
Imagine Song Lyrics
John Lennon
5 paragraphs
it took me about 30 secs to read but much longer to analyze, I'm splitting my analysis into 2 RR;s because it's really long
Rating: 10/10- possibly the best song ever written
 
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

     Link to the actual music video(there's nothing inappropriate except the mention of "hell" in a religious context.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7qaSxuZUg


    Imagine has been named the best song ever by many people and John Lennon is definitely one of the most brilliant musicians ever. This song was written by Lennon himself and is accompanied with a piano also played by Lennon. Warning: From this point on, I'm going to get little into my own personal beliefs, which I feel is necessary to respond to this beautiful song. I am in no way asking you to agree with me, and I respect your personal opinions and beliefs. In the first paragraph, the song actually sounds pretty atheistic, telling you to imagine that there's no heaven or hell. He also tells us that "it's easy if you try," which is pretty hard for me to believe, because imagining there's no heaven would be impossible for me. Most religions have some form of heaven, which is basically defined as a blissful place where you go after you die if you do good deeds in your life. Of course, this is all hypothetical, but if our brains were wiped of the belief in heaven, would we act the same? What's to stop us from doing bad deeds? Of course, everybody has their own definition of a good deed, and radical terrorist actions are usually done in the name of God. So if all these bad things(The holocaust, terrorism, etc.) still happen when most of the world believes in some form of heaven, then what happens when they don't, I can't imagine(no pun intended).
     Onto the second verse. Now he's asking us to imagine there aren't any countries, and saying it isn't hard to do, which I agree with. This completely goes with his anti-war image. A place without countries, like Pangaea, only not one giant landmass. If you think about it, war usually has only two apart, then most wars wouldn't happen. Germany couldn't invade Poland because neither reasons: A fight over land, or a fight over beliefs/ Race. It seems funny that if Pangaea hadn't split would exist. No invasions. No need for border patrol. I can imagine it, but it would never happen. The previous sentences pretty much explain "nothing to kill or die for," but then the song says "no religion too, saying it would make people live life in peace. I've already explained the cons of the "no heaven thing," but "no religion" concept is entirely different. Would the world function better if it was entirely atheistic? I believe the answer is no, but it's an interesting question. If there was nothing beyond life, if our time on earth was it, then what would people do? I believe this question is best illustrated in a Calvin and Hobbes strip:   



I've mentioned atheism being a big part in this song a lot, but I want to clarify that I don't think that John Lennon wasn't really atheistic, he was raised by the church of England, but had trouble with Religion. It's unclear on my internet searches whether he was actually atheistic. I don't think this song is atheistic, it's just asking you to imagine, and he never actually says that what he tells you to imagine is good. 

To be continued...