THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

Temp season is active and it seems like everybody is learning how to drive. This includes me. So I tried to balance studying for my test with independent reading. But anyway Counting sevens is getting easier to read. Willow was staying with her friend Mai after Willow's parents died. But then a social worker came and took Willow to take her to a foster home of some sort. But when she was waiting in the home she saw for the first time a newspaper of her parents death with an actual picture of her parents totaled van. She passed out like any normal human would do and hit her "glabella"(you need to read the book to get the reference). It was a pretty serious injury and Willow was rushed to the hospital, where after getting nine, not seven, stitches, she ran away. Willow's old counselor Dell Duke in notified and he asks Mai if she would have any idea where Willow is. This part surprised me because Mai didn't seem the least bit concerned about Willow running away as if she knew that's what she needed. It was kind of strange. Right now the goal is the find some type of climax or turning point because it almost feels as if the death of Willow's parents was rushed and it doesn't get anymore dramatic than that. I try to come up with criteria of what makes something a good book, or what I like about books but I can't seem to make a rubric. I know what I like and I'll enjoy it when I see it. It's been a long time since I've found a book that I would hold on my lap and read during class. A book that I was so desperate to get back to that I would try to finish my classwork early. I haven't found that book yet. The last book that made me feel like that was Divergent.

Keeping it Short & Simple...

I realized that I didn't conclude Salvage The Bones. It ended simply and sweetly and shortly, which is how I'm trying to write this post. Short and simple. It was a good read. I dragged it out a little larger than I would have liked to but I wasn't a bad book. It was an on-and-off kind of book. Some parts were interesting and moved fast, others were slow and dragged on. In the end Esch and her family are on a life threatening adventure. Their house floods to the ceiling and they have to escape from to the roof through the attic. They some how have to jump from roof to roof with glass and wind and debris whipping them around. They carry their dog China and her puppies but ultimately the puppies are lost and when they finally get to safety, China leaves in the storm to find her puppy. Esch's brother Skeetah who is China's true owner goes after her.

The storm dies and the family observe the aftermath. That's pretty much how the book ends. They find Skeetah at their house which is now  ruined. China is still lost but he has hope. I guess the book is about hope.
Oh yeah, while they're fighting for their lives, they find out Esch is pregnant. The father at first is stunned and almost seems angry. But after the storm he shows he cares more about Esch and her brothers and will take care of her. It's an a'ight book. I like open-minded things.
I am continuing COUNTING SEVENS. I want to read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Be part of the controversy.

Counting by SEVENS..

Unable to make a choice on my next quick read by myself, I've resorted to recommendations. So here's basically a quick summary of what I've read so far. It's so far about an ambiguously racial genius who has to attend counseling for being so misunderstood. Tragedy strikes  very early in the book and right now my character, Willow Chance, is dealing with it.
Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan seems like a mid-sized book, but is actually a easy read. Me, a very slow reader, is moving through it pretty fast. It has a fairly small amount of words on a page. Sloan clearly is going for a more of an artistic approach in her writing. She often changes perspective, ignores chronological order, and has a poetic-like way of speaking through her characters. It almost feels like sort of overly forced artistry, but I sometimes use the same techniques when I write, and I try to avoid hypocrisy. It's an easy read, but characters sometimes annoy me as usual. Especially Willow's so-called counselor, Dell Duke.
SPOILER ALERT: the tragedy is that Willow's parents die in a car crash after finding out the mother has cancer. They were returning from the hospital when a emergency vehicle & their car collided. The IRONY. It's painful.
Anyway.one thing that always bothered me in stories is that authors can't seem to reach or describe the deepest and realest and painful-est emotions. Like who can put into words what it feels like to lose a loved one?Cliche phrases used are, "My world came crashing down". We have to use metaphors and similes and hyperboles to describe the rawest parts of the human experience. Some things are too real to be recorded maybe.
As an observer of the human society I have realized that people are of afraid of real life. The moment real life enters television or books or music, it has to be censored. We have to protect the children from real life. Maybe books are supposed to be cheery and easy escapes from a dark and evil world. But I don't want to use books as an escape. I want the dark and evil and real stuff from the world personified and made easier to understand. I want to learn from the evil to understand human nature and see things the way they're supposed to be seen. Well it's easy for me to say cause I've never really been censored. I remember my favorite childhood author was Judy Blume. I read through all her books from Fudge to Iggie's House and even Are You There God, It's me Margret. I read all her kid books by the time I hit fourth grade. Then one day I discovered something called the YA section and Judy Blume had books there... Let's just say things went over my head. One thing about kids who have parents that make them read a lot is that you plow through books pretty fast. And soon all the young popular books get old and go exploring into different sections of the library. I taught myself a lot of things growing up.
But that's because the books I read were about real life. I can now look back on them and understand what they meant.

DOVER BEACH... Extension

Keeping her head down, eyes running along the sidewalk, vision moving faster than her own feet Mrs.Phelps shuffled home. Foreign tears curled around her face, they were children. She the motherland, them the citizens unable to build civilization. Crying was a strange thing. Only occurring in the privacy of one's own home. And even then you can distract yourself. Don't think, don't think don't think. The family,the shells , the pills, the family, the shells, the...Mrs. Phelps's mantra. Crying originated from the eyes, invaded the throat. It swelled and muffled, sometimes escaping in desperate bursts of hiccups and gasps.  It was late. Every blink was like a light switch, homes becoming dark, silent. The sidewalk seemed to glow in the dark. Mrs. Phelps paid unusually close attention to the sidewalk. Eyes tracing the cracks. She found herself moving along the path of the small fractures.
"I wonder how those got there," Mrs. Phelps thought. She shook herself.
"I doesn't matter. Cracks in the sidewalk. Doesn't matter. Has no value to me. A waste of time. Being happy, that's not a waste of time. What silly thoughts. Must be those books. Making me think unnecessary thoughts. Moon looks pretty. Against the sidewalk. Almost moon-blanched, the sidewalk. NO. Stop thinking, stop thinking. Stop thing about thinking. Stop thinking about stop thinking about thinking." Mrs. Phelps's internal struggle. Her feet moved faster into the night, up her steps, hands moving swiftly along the fingerprints scanner. She waved once,twice, so frantic to get in the house. Feeling as if her thoughts were outside and they wouldn't follow her in her safe book free home. She eventually got in. But her own mind followed her in. Overwhelmed with racing thoughts she tried leaned against her walls trying to support herself. While simultaneously trying to escape her self. The family, an escape, the family. She half sprinted to the family. Must distract herself. Colors crawled up the walls creating a new world. Something Mrs. Phelps could be a part of without being mentally a part of. Her family looked happy. They were happy. Unlike that family in Montag's blasphemous poem. They weren't happy. They were loved, newly wed and yet unhappy. She and Pete were happy. Right? His face replaced the family. No matter how much she tried to engage herself in her family's life, trying to forget her own,Pete is all she saw. Sweeping over her like waves of sadness. Her throat began to swell again.Darkness. The Family disappeared with Pete's face. She Retreated to her bedroom, crashing into the bathroom, trying to forget sadness the only way she can. She shuffled the smooth white tablets in her palms. They quickly disappeared. A gulp and 2 more disappeared. They weren't working fast enough. Mrs. Phelps soon lost track. She ran out. The suffocating crying made it hard to breathe.Trying to regain her breath, she leaned in to the sink, back hunched over, hyperventilating. Refusing to look at herself in the mirror. Mrs. Phelps wanted for the pills to take her away, drift her off. But not fast enough.
Draws were pulled out in a desperate attempt to find the shells. she plugged her ears an fell into bed. She needed to escape sadness, which she is. She needed to leave herself. Mrs. Phelps fell into her bed and closed her eyes. She tried to morph the waves of depression into tides of sleepiness. Shells,waves and sand being swept away. She wanted to be swept away. But thoughts move in paths. Shells to beach to ocean to wave to Dover's Beach to sadness. Family to real family to Pete to love to Dover's beach to sadness. She rolled over in the covers sleep not coming to her. Her mind rebelliously wondered. Using hands to press the plugs deeper, Mrs. Phelps broke. She screamed.
"Get out of my head!" A tsunami of white smooth pebbles broke off the cliffs and crashed and drowned her finally. Productively and swiftly. She got what she wanted. She slept, she slept, she slept. She never had to think again.
(sorry for it being so dark)

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.