SALVAGE the BONES....(continued)....(again).....

I hate taking forever on a book. I feel like every week I'm writing about the same thing. I know my blog post are sometimes painful to read because they're sometimes really long so I'll try to keep this one short. Once again I'm reading Salvage The Bones. I only have about thirty pages left and Hurricane Katrina finally hit. I'm really trying to hurry up and finish because the book is already two days late from the library and I hate fines. I was hoping that most of the book would consist of the hurricane and the family trying to survive in harsh conditions (no matter how terrible that sounds) but It was an okay book. I kind of wish it was a longer book because I want to see what happens to Esch and her baby. One of the only new things that happened was that Manny found out Esch was pregnant and she, after attacking him, confessed her love for him. But Manny being the jerk-face he is, clear;y let his opinions known and I honestly hope I don't have to encounter him ever again in the remainder of the story. I do blame Esch greatly for the situation because I wish she would have some self respect. I know her mother died so she doesn't have a role model but still, pull it together.

As of now, the father is still bed-ridden from his recent injury resulting in the removal of three fingers. Being an alcoholic, Esch's father often consumes his pain meds with beer causing him to grow more ill. Because of their father's handicap, the children are forced to prepare for the hurricane themselves. Like boarding up the windows, making sure they have food, water, etc. In the exact part where I'm reading, Esch and her brothers are huddled in the dark house as the hurricane smashes around them outside. Where I stopped yesterday, a tree has fell into their roof creating a house in their sickly father's bedroom. All in all a pretty miserable situation.

SALVAGE the BONES.... (continued)

I actually got pretty far in Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones. It kind of feels like a diary-like story, where the story follows the character's day to day lives with no real definite plot or rising action, climax or resolution. Sometimes this can make something a little painful to read because it feels so unproductive, like you're not getting anywhere. This is how I started to feel, but I'm a little more than half way through the book and things are starting to move along. But the book covers 14 days and I guess not a lot can happen in that amount of time. But now finally things got "saucy". China (the dog) is getting sick, the father got three of fingers cut of in an accident involving a tractor and chicken pen (don't ask), and Hurricane Katrina has finally been referenced.
Esch, the main character who is newly pregnant, is still desperately trying to gain the affection of the much older Manny who got her pregnant in the first place. Manny has another girlfriend but sees Esch in secret. Well they don't really "see" each other anymore because Manny is just taking advantage of Esch and doesn't show her any affection and once she shows her affection he pushes her away. Wow, I just realized that this really isn't a school book. Anyway, as a reader you really want to shake Esch, and show her the reality of her relationship with Manny, because she somehow thinks they will be together. She hasn't told him she's pregnant. She hasn't told anyone. I can't stand female characters who mope over guys that clearly don't care for them in return, or weak female characters in general. But I've learnt to give some characters a pass depending on the setting, especially time period and country. Esch often compares herself to the Mythology character Medea. And after researching the story, I'm able to understand the book better. She compares Jason to Manny. In the Story of Jason and the Golden Fleece I'm pretty sure Jason ultimately leaves Medea for another wife despite all Medea has done for him. I'm not sure if Esch gets that if her life and the Golden Fleece are running parallel, that Manny will not be with her in the end.
Some parts of this book is really graphic and some a little bloody. But the description literally pulls the readers into the story and allows you to feel the raw emotions of the characters. Even though half the time Esch annoys me half-to-death, I can't  help feeling bad for her. In the book the fear she projects everyday she wakes up because of her pregnancy, wishing it was just a bad dream. But she just can't wake up from her nightmare (excuse the cliche). I'm the same age and I would absolutely freak out if I was in that situation. I think I would be more afraid of the wrath of my parents than anything. But she doesn't really have the tradition family system like I do. And I'm sure how her alcoholic father would react. But her dread to accept her predicament is really painful to read.
If this book interests you, other books you might like are Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon which is a little less graphic than STB. There is a book called Bronxwood by Coe Booth. I read that in seventh grade which probably wasn't a good idea. It's far worse than STB, and covers more gang violence and how the selling of drugs work. It also follows independent teens who are pretty much raising themselves. Again, NOT recommended. Sometimes I think I shouldn't look too deeply in the dark sketchy corners of the library.

SALVAGE the BONES/ INFINITE Jest

SALVAGE the BONES/INFINITE JEST

Salvage the Bones is probably one of the most avant-garde books I've read in a long time. I haven't gotten very far in it yet but what I got out of it so far is that It's about a fourteen year old girl whose motherless and lives with her alcoholic father father and three brothers, in Mississippi along the Gulf of Mexico. The beginning consists of the birth of China's(their dog) puppies, preparing for a hurricane Katrina, and Esch( the 14 year old girl) getting pregnant. That's as far as I've gotten so far.

My first impression of the book was it's extremely descriptive. And the figurative language is far from cliche and makes you look as things in a different way. Like when Esch's brother Skeetah was holding China."He curled around China like a fingernail around flesh"(Ward 3). I wouldn't really recommend this book for everybody, but it's really good so far. The way I rate books is I compare them so my most favorite book of all time so far. THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. By far the most awesome book every. Salvage the Bones, subject wise, isn't my favorite, but I can see potential. But still it's no HELP. One thing that stands out is that Salvage the bones is the epitome of TMI ( too much information. But not in a bad way, it adds character to the book and sets it apart. But if you're not open-minded it's probably not the book for you. It does have some p-13 content, for warning. And follows a African American family.

I'm still reading Infinite Jest but since it's a really long book, I'm going to read different smaller books in between it. Salvage the bones is an fairly easy book but there is some in between lines thinking and if you skim too much you'll miss something important. In the book Esch compares herself to a character in mythology, which I have to look up to understand what she means in certain situations. Infinite Jest feels like a Forest Gump kind of story the way there's so much going on and there are like three completely different stories going on and they somehow they come together and make sense. Like I thought that it would be a simple book about a struggling tennis prodigy, Hal, trying to get into college.  But then you find out there's something about drug abuse and a rehabilitation center. And then there's family issues and affairs. And not to mention the most important part of the book, The Entertainment, which is a filmed made by Hal's father. The Entertainment also known as Infinite Jest (hint,hint) is a deadly movie because it's so seductive (excuse my word choice) that people watch it until they die. It stars Hal's Brother Orin's girlfriend, Joelle, who is supposed to be very beautiful and might have had a relationship with their father. Hint, the family issues. So somehow author David Foster connected drugs ,tennis and film. Regardless of the length of the book, I'm really excited to dig deeper into it.

REflection...

REflection...

This semester I definitely challenged myself with my reading choices this year. I read books where you'd probably have to reread a page multiple times to understand what happened. Like my new book, Infinite Jest  by David Foster Wallace which contains 980 pages. It's a book set in the future North America and is about a tennis prodigy trying to get into a prestigious college. But since he lacks the academic ability he might not be able to get in. That's literally what I was able to get out of the first 11 pages. It's almost like reading Romeo and Juliet except slightly worse because you almost underestimate it when you first pick it up but when you open it, it almost looks like a textbook. "Ok, that's a lot of words," you think," But it must be easy language. No, It's extremely complex but I'm able to fight through it. Romeo and Juliet was hard at first but you were able to catch on eventually and from there it's pretty straight forward. I'm not even to page 20 yet and I'm still not catching on, but I am going to stick with it. 
Overall my blog keeping wasn't the best I wrote the posts but often forgot to publish them, and then lagged behind on blog five and six. I want to work on my reading speed. I've always been and very thoughtful and slow reader or maybe it's my book choices, but next semester I want to get through books faster. So in the future I want to increase quantity and quality of my independent reading and... let's see what else... Oh maybe try some classics. Like this summer I read the Great Gatsby which I think is considered a classic, and it was really good in the way it got a reaction out of the audience. Like how I was angry at the characters and frustrated at their fickleness, like the character daisy. I know she acts weak and almost childlike because that was how most women were in the 1920's and a girl in the twenty first century would scream at the book , encouraging her that she doesn't need a man to be complete and .."'that all a girl can be is a beautiful fool'" isn't true. ( that line made me cringe.#feminist4life#). Anyway I'll try reading classics or just famous books, like those posters Mrs. Leitsch has on her wall like Animal Farm, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451 , or To Kill a Mockingbird. Books like that.

TWOC Inspired

TCOW Inspired

The Color of Water was a really interesting book to read. It was straight forward but gave an interesting perspective on the social problems in the civil  rights era. James McBride was clueless f his family history on his mother's side so he spent a good portion of his life trying to squeeze the information out of his old mother who spent a good portion of her life trying to forget her past. Well like all good books, you tend to see yourself in characters. I saw myself in James, the way he just wanted to get to know his mother. As kids we don't see parents as actual people with wants and needs and it's often uncomfortable for us to see them vulnerable. But still I wanted to get to know my parents especially on my mother's side. My family is Jamaican, I'm born in Boston though o I'm Jamaican -American. I know a lot about my Dad's side because it's really traditional and there's not a lot of drama but my mom's is a lot more complex. Some things have to to with race and being biracial and other problems.

In class we discussed whether or not James was justified in interrogating his mother about her family history or if kids in general had the right to know their parent's past. Majority of my peers thought kids didn't , but I actually did to a certain degree. You should know who you are and where you come from but if the past is to painful to bring up, I wouldn't push. Today I think I want to find out my past because of curiosity and jealousy. It's frustrating when you can't go on ancestry.com and people have pictures of ancestors from hundreds of years ago with stories past down from generations.

So what does any of this have to do with reading? Well I have decides to start from the very beginning of Jamaican history and read a Jamaican History Textbook. Hopefully its not as painful as it sounds but that'll be one of my next reading endeavors.

(Not this history book specifically)

UPstate- Kalisha Buckhanon

UPSTATE-Kalisha Buckhanon

 Upstate by Kalsiha Buckhanon was my first choice for the summer reading assignment but I ended up changing it to the Fault in our stars for multiple reasons including the fact that according to my peers it was a really good book and I could read it and get homework done at the same time. I took that opportunity. It wasn't that Upstate wasn't interesting but it was a little to simple for me and could be described as an "artsy" book which I'm usually into. Upstate is about a teenager named Antonio who lives in 1990s Harlem and is going through the Prison system in Upstate New York for killing his father in order to protect his mother. His girlfriend Natasha still stands by him but will their relationship be able to survive the distance as Natasha becomes more and more successful in school, and Antonio is struggling to stay alive in prison? 

I wouldn't recommend this book  because of the unnecessary "foul" language which makes the characters sound almost stupid. Also I feel as if the book reinforces stereotypes of African Americans of that time. Besides that it's a very simple read. Easy language and no between-the-lines analysis. But the book is written in an interesting way. The story is told through letters sent back and forth from Antonio  to Natasha. It was probably put on the summer's reading list because of the "raw emotion" (whatever that means) that are present in the letters. It's not a bad book and I'll definitely try to pick it up again later. But for now I'll try to pick up a book on the opposite side of the book spectrum. Something a little more complex and insightful, but still artsy.

                                                 The House Girl (Continued)...

              It usually doesn't take that long for me to read a book, but I feel like this book is really intermittent in pace, the way some parts are really action-packed, exciting and make you want to read really fast, but other parts are kinda slow, which makes it hard to move through. But overall the plot is moving along. Lina, the 21st century lawyer, is finally getting closer to proving Josephine, the slave, is the true owner and creator of the famous Lu Anne Bell paintings. The author writes to book in way where one chapter is told in the perspective of Lina and others in the point of view of Josephine. But now in the book, there is a new character named Dorothea who lives in the same time period as Josephine, except she's white and her father is a conductor on the underground railroad. Dorothea is a key character because I think she will somehow connect Josephine to Lina because there are documents of letters written by Dorothea to her sister, telling her about every day life, almost like a diary. And I predict that Josephine will eventually meet Dorothea and it will be recorded in Dorothea's letters.