What I Saw And How I Lied: Book Report

The title gives off a mystery novel. It evidently was a mystery story; one more along the lines of clues and hints building some kind of road to conclusion. The author acts as a narrator; I didn’t exactly get a general characteristic of the tone, but it does sound like one who’s experienced a lot and feels mature, or one who is about to explain something unexpected, or one who is trying to justify some kind of unmoral deed.

The introducing pages to the novel show a scene where Evye and her mother are escaping, which appears again nearing the end of the book. This clue shows that there are going to be drastic changes, because the “beginning”  of the story actually takes place in a small, tranquil town near Manhattan, little after WWII, where Evye is just a regular girl who lives with her mom,  her mom’s husband (who is just like her dad), and her stepdad’s mom. The contrast between the two scenes already creates the tone, I think; and gives some sort of clue that matches the title: crime and mystery.

There are many scenes that give the air of mystery, which could be the general tone: for example, how Evye’s mom keeps hanging around her and Peter, even though Peter is supposed to be secretly in love with Evye, and yet mom’s intention doesn’t seem protective when she’s around, but even a little flirty. This attitude is suspicious. The real intention is revealed in the end. But the truth is never confessed, and Evye saves her family.

The book wasn’t exactly a heavy lecture filled with hidden meanings or a secret bias towards a strange conspiracy, and I feel it doesn’t pinch upon a theme repeatedly or meaningfully. But the book mentions several times the gap of beauty between bomb-shell Beverly and small, plain Evye. Everyone seems to notice it (particularly Evye and her parents- probably because they are the people who surround her). This is mentioned pretty much throughout the story, wether it is when she looks at her self in the mirror, or when people mention her mother, or when Joe is trying to compliment her by telling her that she came from her mother. This feeling or inferior looks goes on until, also boarding the end of the story, Evye wears a beautiful “grown up” dress, courtesy of the wife of the wealthy Jew,  to a dinner with the hotel guests. In this scene she is aware of her beauty, and feels confident that she’ll make an entrance as soon as she slides down the stairs; which seems to come true telling from the expressions of the faces of all those who were waiting for her. This scene is interesting because you expect things will change and Evye will feel confident about herself now that she understands her beauty, but this is not the case. As she analyzes the perplex faces of her admirers, she discovers that two of them, even though equally amazed, did not posses that gazing charm that the others had; these two were Joe and Barb; angry at her, disappointed at her… but above all, frightened for her.

Later we find out that Evye’s beauty was always ignored and shadowed because Beverly wanted to protect her from making the same mistakes she did as some one aware of her looks. It seemed to her that if Evye did not know she was pretty, she would be safe from the dangers of men…and the obvious consequences.

As I said before, it’s not a really strong theme of anything difficult to figure out, but…it is something touched upon and later revealed.

I don’t think this book observes or comments on life; I think it’s just a catchy novel with a touch of noire film. I did enjoy it.

New Moon: Book Report

The main character is the narrator of the book;  this means that the story already has some kind of bias, and that many scenes of the story will alter depending on her mood.

I think its good to explore the attitudes of Bella (the main character) in order to understand the tone of the book. Let’s begin. Bella is dramatic, exaggerated, depressive, dependent, gullible, and weak. Because she is dramatic, every time the story presents a situation where she is involved (specially directly, like the time of her birth-day), she will describe a horrible picture where she is helpless and hopeless, and we should really understand her, because she is right. Because she is exaggerated, the situation gets even worse; for example, when Edward leaves her, and she expands the drama, she also mentions, in a plain way, how when she was asleep in the arms of a nice wolf boy, she screamed “he’s gone, he’s gone” repeated times. Things like these, where the reader is forced to feel sorry for this girl who even in sub conscience is haunted by the memory of beloved vampire, make me wanna close the book and send Bella a telepathic message, telling her to be quiet and get a grip.

Her exaggerated, dramatic scenes make her depressive and anti-social: she mentions that she only ate a granola bar whenever she needed to ingest some thing (which is terrible because thousands of teenage girls are reading this stuff and will want to become anorexic every time they’re sad), she also tells how numbness was the solution to forgetting Edward, which emphazises her dependance and makes her needy (which also sets a standard for “twilighter” girls… who are many people) and decides to go for isolation.

These being traits of a main character of such a best-selling series is a big issue, I think. Stephanie Mayer set a new stereotype, this new “Bella look” isn’t good, it’s not of a girl who strives for better, it’s not a girl with positive energy or flow anymore, just this little, condescending girl who obsesses over this vampire guy who only likes her because he smells nice (to him). She sets a standard of weakness, depression and overall negativity… The reading got personal at some point, and obviously detracted me from my enjoyment of the book.

The book keeps talking about Bella’s emotional crisis and her existential dilemma between a new beginning with Jacob, or to keep lingering in a memory of Edward. Who could ever go through such a challenging task? Seriously, if someone leaving her is going to kill her, then this girl is definitely not prepared for any real life situation to come (and what’s ironic is that she’s all excited about graduation and getting to stand in her own two feet…to join Edward).

The book (Bella) also talks about the determination to become a vampire to join Edward for eternity. Edward’s excuse to this is that he does not want Bella to loose her soul just for him; some kind of hope he claims to have about a heaven and hell. I personally think he just wants to keep her around so he can satisfy his blood lust with her smell, but doesn’t want her around forever because she’s too annoying for eternity, plus, that would take away the reason why he “fell in love” with her in the first place. But that’s just me.

Bella keeps describing scenes where there is this overwhelming sexual tension between her and Edward (in the few scenes they try to kiss, not as many as in the last book), I think this gives some kind of weird message. Seriously, tension is never that strong, and also promotes something bad in teen girls.

Once upon a time, Stephanie Mayer decided she wanted to be rich (she’s studied psychology…she’s smart), so she sat down and wrote Twilight. Nothing wrong with that… it’s just that I think it’s getting into the system of too many innocent girls.

Wicked: Book Report

1. I enjoyed this book a lot, it was really entertaining. The general tone throughout the book is plain and narrative even though interestingly morbid situations are presented with certain frequency. The author explains events with a calm tone, emotion is given through the excitement or feeling of the character that is being described, the author does not put exaggerated adjectives for scenes, rather a thorough description of them and the characters involved. For example, supposedly climatic events like Elphaba’s birth or death (slightly unclear because of the hint of a sequel) are described like any other scene. I think that the actual events and narration count for the tone of the book, I find the stories within the book so interesting that even in plain narration they have the ability to maintain my focus and attention. The book has an interesting, rich vocabulary. I found myself searching the dictionary even 5 times for new words on a same page. I think this adds to the narration because you can read a more specific name to each emotion the author is trying to convey in a plain manner. The “directness” contrasting with the fantastic events made reading this book an enjoyable experience. This book covers many taboos like sex, homosexuality and bisexuality, along with surreal political issues that might have a reflection in society today. I think that if the author had exaggerated with the narration and details and description, the story would have been unpleasantly morbid. In this issues the author gives subtile hints that feed curiosity but don’t come out disgusting or awkward.
2. About the themes, the book repeatedly touches upon the Animal rights, where Elphaba even becomes a formal defendant, making this cause a priority in her life (until the death of Nessa, where the story ties with the Wizard of Oz we all once came to love, and the story kind of changes course). It also touches upon sexual orientation. I think we can contrast both of these themes with issues that govern the society we live in today. Both of these could reflect certain offenses to human rights. In the story, Animals are basically animals that have all the human characteristics (they have thoughs, they are capable of thinking, learning, speaking, feeling, reasoning, etc), but they are denied certain positions and rights despite the evidence of their intellectual abilities. There was also this huge deal about figuring out when and what caused that dividing line between animals and Animals, but this is off course. They were seen as inferior. This is a contrasting issue with an existing problem in our own, real society: racism. In the book at least they had the excuse about Animals being a different “species”, but here the reality is that humans are the same, and when some one starts denying the mental capacities and values of another person, then something’s really messed up. I think the author is trying to present this complaint to humanity. The other issue (homosexuality, bisexuality)  is not a main concern in the book per say, but it is touched upon in several events with many important characters (Turtleheart, Frex, etc). I think this could be regarded as an introduction to seeing this issue as something normal, or accepted, because it doesn’t present any type of conflict in the book, rather just a course of the story. I think the author is trying to call us to be tolerant and to accept different people, and always treat people like people.

The House of the Scorpions: Book Report

I think the book had an overall tone of expecting something to happen. I think that the author writes so that the reader is eager to find out what the conclussion will be. But I couldn’t exactly put a finger on one specific tone, you see, it’s a third person narration, I think since this person does not seem to have any relation with the main character, then she doesn’t have any sort of bias… I think it’s just a narration, a telling of events.

However, if I had to put a title to the tone, I’d say that maybe the tone is passive, but has implications of dark things to happen, maybe even tragic. This doesn’t mean that the book lacks of excitment, because, when required, the author puts a lot of feeling and detail to certain scenes where there’s some climaxic action about to take place.

For example, when Matt is running away or feeling tormented by someone, there is more focus on his feelings and not so much on the environment. The author isn’t really thorough at describing places, but I think she conveys emotions when she narrates how Matt is feeling when she describes certain positions he is in, like the way he moves his body to indicate protection or helplessness. 

The narrator has the special quiality of “omnisient”, so I think it could also add to the tone since the reader is aware of not only the main character’s thoughts, but also the rest of the cast’s. The intentions or attitudes of the rest of the characters are no secret, so you are aware of their natures at all times.

The tone was just right for the book I suppose, I can’t name it as a specific kind of tone, but it did not deprive me from enjoying the reading, it was actually correct for the kind of lecture it is. I don’t think I could suggest a change for the better.

The story constantly touches upon the fact that Matt is a clone, and the attitudes of peole towards this nature of his. This is a futuristic book, I think the author is submiting us with some kind of fear of horrible things to happen, since by all means they could.

I think the author sort of plants that question to our brains: What would we do if the reality of Matt’s world would become ours eventualy?

This is a science fiction book, the events are not something that you would think are completily irrational or totally out of the possibilities of technology today, on the contrary, technology now is advancing such that it could lead to this precise future.

Would it be moral to have a clone? Would it be more humane to let it live for a while or inject it with some kind of drug that would numb it to the point of sucking the humanity out of it.

The author also continually presents religion, maybe in subtile ways (the Virgin Mary is throughout a comfort for Matt). This theme would also be tremendously controversial if clones would be born. They’re not a creation from God, but here’s what I think: Clones are made from human DNA.What is DNA composed of? Is it only body parts? Does it have a soul? Would it have a spirit? The Bible says that the reason we live is because God brethes the breath of life into us. If clones would be able to live, wouldn’t that also mean that God breathes life into them?

Those are the thems that strike me the most, because of the awful possibility of them becoming a reality.

I really enjoyed this book.

The Stranger: Book Report

The general tone throughout the book is indifferent and objective, the narration doesn’t dwell too much on describing landscapes or places; it extends on the narrator’s feelings only when they are strong, out of the ordinary, or relevant, otherwise, Meursalt will just say “…and I wanted her”.

In contrast, when he feels something that affects him in a particular way, like the annoying sun at the beach when the “incident” with Raymond’s Arab happened; he described how the heat was unbearable, the drops of sweat were blinding him, and how the rays were penetrating and burning his skin. This description stands out, because he usually has an objective narration, and he extends this one with more adjectives (the story has a rich vocabulary throughout), but he remains in this scene, shows a special focus, and then, with few words and almost no poetical description, he tells how he shot the man 4 times.

Something that also contributes to the tone of the book is the fact that the one who’s telling the story is the main character himself. You see, without him necessarily describing himself, what a detached character he is, and the irony of the situation is that he thinks that his actions or attitudes are perfectly normal, he doesn’t notice that people think he is strangely indiferent.  This contribtes to the tone in a way that it makes it stronger, more firm. If the author was a third person, then maybe him describing this detached character and his attitudes would take away that tone from the book, because he would be describing the person, and even if he wasn’t biased with an opinion of him, it would remove that level of indifference, because he (the hypothetical third person), is not Meursalt… I don’t really know how to arrange these thoughts, but what I basically mean is that the fact that Meursalt is telling his own story makes the book a Meursalt, it makes the whole book indifferent, it adds and spreads that tone.

I really liked the tone. It made me feel like I don’t understand the character at all, and that he is bizarre and unexplicable, and there’s no explanation that will make me figure out why he acts the way he does. He simply doesn’t care, and that’s the tone throughout the lecture. “The Stranger” is unlike any book I’ve read before.

I don’t really know where to put my finger in the “themes” this book touches, because it’s just narrating some events on a strange man’s life. A repeated theme though, appart from Meursalt’s evident indifference is religion. There are some deaths in the book where people try to confort the characters with the idea of heaven (involving religion). For example with Madame Meursalt, the person incharge of the home tries to confort Meursalt by saying that she’s in a better place. To this he doesn’t show hostility, he simply lets it slip his mind, but says thank you anyway. Another death (possible death) was the old man’s dog. He tries to speak about this to Meursalt, and asks him if he believes wether there is a heaven for dogs. To this Meursalt says no, because he doesn’t believe in heaven. Meursalt is polite, but doesn’t really think too much about people’s feelings, he’s straight forward, but not offensive. 

At the end, when Meursalt’s sentence is revealed, a kindof preacher is sent to him to convert him and “sooth his soul” before his death. Meursalt is clear about his unelief, but when the preacher shows persistance to convince him of his faith, Meursalt explodes for the first time in the book. I don’t know if this attitude is a result of  an explosion of concentrated nerves, nausea and depression, or maybe the author was making a point of his opinion about religion.

I think that the author is an atheist. If a man cannot be persuaded to religion even at the verge of death, then either there is no such thing as salvation, or this man is completily extraordinary. (Like, completily out of the ordinary, not necessarily in a good way). This was to me the most extraordinary pointing of the theme, because it is also the climax of the book.

Overall I did enjoy The Stranger, I’m looking forward to reading more Camus books.

Book Report: The Illustrated Man

The general tone throughout the book is pretty dark, mantaining a strange air of mystery and depression at the same time. The tone the author uses makes the reading a little obscure, you can see this quality along the lecture as no story in the Illustrated Man’s body has a happy ending. It also keeps that tone of mystery when it happens that the story does not literally end in tragedy, the way it is narrated (because of the tone the author uses) appeals to the darker side of the reader’s imagination. Another way the author creates this tone is using the wide field of “future” where he can expand on his macabresque ideas of termination because of the uncertainty the reader has about this theme (the future).

I’d say the author’s main tool in creating this dense air evident in the whole book is the fact that all the stories involve some one (usually innocent) dying a strange death we wouldn’t expect presently. It is that or him hinting that someone will die, and it is precisely bacause of the tone the author uses that the reader is drawn to expect the characters in the small stories to suffer or die in the end.

I personaly enjoy mysterious endings, sad, unwanted endings. I think that other wise they’re too cliché. The way Ray Bradbury wrote this book really appealed to me, the thick air of uncertainty, yet with assurance of tragedy was something I enjoyed. Plus, every story was different within the range of future, so it was interesting to read.

There was a common theme throughout the book: eventual destruction. Every character in the different short stories (illustrations) presented very different attitudes, backgrounds, opinions, and was placed on a different situation, but all had a common destiny: death or destruction.

I think the attitude of the story towards this theme is that death is as inevitable today as it will be in the future. I also see that the author is a little pessimistic about what waits for us later, because all of the problems that he sees us facing in the future lead the world to destruction, or are a result of our bad decisions now (wars, taking too much confort in technology, etc).

I think the author is more interested in commenting on life rather than observing it; because this is a fufturistic, fictional book, he’s already telling us the results of his observation of life, per se, so all of the short stories are probably a comment, or an opinion on his conclusion of life today (or his time).

Since the story goes around one comment, which flows around tragic ends of people in the future, I’d say the strongest image is that the future is a scary place, and people were not meant to see what is comming their way. At the end, the narrator (the one who’s watching the Ilustrated Man’s illustrations) finishes watching the stories, and then places his look upon what was going to be his story, his end, and sees how the Illustrated Man is strangling him to death, so he walks away and leaves the rest untold. This image pretty much sumarizes the whole tone of the story, making it a very powerful part of the book (I think). You are more likely to imagine that his fate is in fact dying in the hands of the Illustrated man even though you are allowed to imagine that he just walks away to the safety of a nearby town.

Overall I enjoyed this reading a lot, all the stories were varied and interesting, and I liked the tone the author used.

Invisible Cities

This book is mainly about aVenecian adventurer, Marco Polo, who tells his journeys to an aging Mongol King, Kublai Khan, who fears his empire is comming to an end.

I’m not sure wether there is a single question that th author is trying to answer, but there is a main feeling throughout the book, which is the magic inside the silent, invisible cities (scilent and invisible to Kublai Khan), and how if the empire is eventually going to die, the memory and the stories of the cities will remain forever.

I think the author is very passionate about his topic, because he describes the sould of each city with so much detail and feeling and flavour. I think this is probably due to his own love for his background and roots.

I’ve never been to those parts of Europe, but because of the detail and passion, and the credible descriptions of the visited cities, I do believe what the author is saying about his topic.

This book was very interesting to me because of the way it was written, how each chapter was more like a poetic narration rather than an adventure, as I first thought it would be. It was also very appealing because I really liked the way I HAD to pay attention to every detail (which I probably would have not done were it another book) in order to experience the full taste of the different spices in each city, and how I had to use all of my senses and imagination to read this book.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy poetry.

Tunnels

This book is about a boy (Will Burrows, and his friend Chester) who goes on a quest initially intended to search for his fatherwho disappeared in some strange tunnels, in which he eventually finds an underground Colony inhabited by strange and cynical beings called the Styx.

This makes it a man vs. society conflict (although this society is a particular one, sinister and fanatic of their ways and rules).

The plot itself is really interesting, and there are many original characters involved, but it took long for the book to become page turning and exciting, which was rather unappealing. Also, I think there were too many gory scenes, too much murder and blood (which at first excited me, but then I was like…”right…enough…please”.

The plot was not resolved, Tam (Will’s uncle, and the only hope there was at a point) was murdered, and things just ended tragically. Actually no, it didn’t really end, because the book ends with “She wasn’t done yet” (referring to Rebecca’s song, which she sang oddly at times…which gave it a touch of macabre, which I really liked).

If I hadn’t known that this book was the first of a trilogy, I’d gone and returned it, saying it was missing some pages.

Will is brave, courageous and strong as well as wise. It would sound as if I were describing Harry Potter, because he also is the sort of perfect friend type, noble, etc.

You can see this as he endures troubles caused by the Styx, and how he shows to be resistant and brave with Cal (his younger brother, in order to keep his hopes up, and not letting him know how weak he really is).

Rebecca is my favourite character, I think she was the one who put that special spice of sinister and dark that I really like. Her, being a sister, but really a fake one who above family values the virtue of duty. But maquabre duty, as she wants Will to become one of them, either that or terminate him..

I think I did enjoy the book, but it took long before it got interesting. I’d recommend this book mainly to teens who enjoy Harry Potter (but don’t get your hopes too up, it’s not THE next Harry Potter sequel, just another cool book with a brave kid).

The climax takes place when Chester is about

Book Report: Twilight

This book is about an avarage girl who falls in love with a vampire, who in turn falls in love with her, and has to fight his own self and nature in order not to end her life, for he was not only in love with her, but was also enormously attracted to the smell of her blood. I don’t really know how to describe this plot, the best way I can think about it would be as a man vs. man vs. self.

I did find this conflict very interesting, because the typical vampire story ends up with Dracula sucking on some beautiful woman’s neck, using all his charm and hability to draw the prey towards himself without the need to fight her or force her to do anything. Instead, in this book, the main vampire’s struggle is to keep himself from using his natural gifts to seduce the victim, and try to love and be with her despite his thirst.

I think the climax of the book really is at the end, where Bella (the main character) tells Edward (the vampire) that she is ready to spend the rest of eternity with him, and that she really wants to become like him, aka, she asks Edward to turn her into a vampire.

Edward instead just gives her a kiss, and tells her “not this time”, (but of course there was a huge wave of suspense between Bella’s thoughts and what Edward was about to do).

I think I would have been really excited if Bella was turned into a vampire, but if she was, then there would have to bee a whole other story to be told, and that wouldn’t have made such a good ending. I suppose she will be turned into one eventually, so I think I’m glad with how this ended (the resolution).

The main characters of this book are Bella and Edward. Bella thinks she’s a shy, normal, completily unfabulous 17 year old. She’s not very tall, her mom is part albino and therefore she’s really pale. People around her, however, think she is very attractive (she gets asked out by all the guys at school, which makes Edward a little jealous), but she doesn’t seem to see why. 

Edward, on the other hand, is a vampire. He’s beautiful, strong, graceful, and very self-controlled. He struggles a lot between his thirst and love for Bella in the begining, but learns how to controll his hunger for her neck eventually, at about the middle of the book.

The character I find most interesting is Alice Cullen, one of Edward’s “siblings”. I think she’s interesting because she’s a mistery, no one knows where she came from, and I can’t really tell why Edward is so fond of her, nor can I tell when she’s making a joke or is causal about things frightening. For example, there is a scene in the book where Bella tells Edward she’s not afraid of him, at this Edward jumps at her violently, but he’s really just joking, protecting her with her arms. Since Alice could see the future (subjectively), she probably just saw the scene where Edward attacked Bella, so when she entered the room she said something like “I was wondering if you would share”.

Over all I did enjoy the book a lot, it’s the typical kind of theme particularly teen age girls are into reading, a vampire romance… I’d recommend it to any girl and romantic guys.

Book Report: Coraline

This book is mainly about a girl who encounters a parallel world behind the door of her house where she must face her parallel mother who is ruler of that strange land and has a dangerous obsession with her.

I think the conflict of Coraline is girl vs. odd woman, since most of the action takes place when she tries to escape from her weird, sick other mom, or trying to rescue others as well from her claws (or long, red nails) .

I found this plot interesting and engaging, it was a different story. I particularly liked how Coraline had to constantly change “heroic tasks”, like when she went from trying to escape evil mom, to saving souls from evil mom, to saving her parents from evil mom, to saving strange dad from evil mom, etc.

As I mentioned before, I particularly enjoyed the drawings, I think they contributed greatly to the whole idea of the story, they added some shadow to the dark, odd, mysterious adventure…They were kind of the cherry on top of this maquabre ice-cream of story.

The book was also pretty interesting as well. The characters were pretty new to the kind of characters in books I read before.

The climax of “Coraline” happens when she tricks her other mom into opening the door of the corridor so she could run away; she made her other mom think that she knew where she had hidden her parents, knowing that if her other mother opened that one door she would have one only chance to escape.

This scene involves quite some action; Coraline throws the black cat at her other mother’s face, distracting her from what she was about to do, then, once she was on the other side trying to shut the door, she feels the prescence of other human beings (her parents and the children), who were just there for moral support I think, because they didn’t really do anything else.

The conflict was resolved, because in the end Coraline returns home to find her parents acting as if nothing ever happened. I found this resolution pretty satisfying, because I would have been a little depressed if she would have stayed caught in the other world with her other mom for ever.

Coraline, the main character is brave, young but matture (I d0n’t exactly know her age, but it says she is older than she looks) and kinda bored. Brave because it takes guts to face a freakish woman who’s obsessed with having you as a daughter, mature because she is able to listen to adults, understand their point, but not necessarily agree with them (for instance with people like Mrs. Spink and Mrs. Forcible, or the crazy old man or her parents), and bored because you can see throughout the first chapters of the book how she constantly looks for things to do, but ends up with just a hunger for exploring.

Coraline was pretty interesting, but Other Mother was the one the most interesting because of the buttons and the power and the obsession.

Overall I enjoyed the reading. I think I’d recommend it from ages 11 and up, because it may be odd and kind of scary, but I think it’s sort of a kid’s book at the same time.