Blogger Reflection

Here is what I consider to be my best blog post
 It's about the theme of my first independent reading book of the trimester. I found a really great theme hidden in the story, as you can tell by reading that post and it is, "fight for what you have, or it probably will be taken from you,". I thought that quote was the best theme that I found in any of my posts, and it also has gotten the most feedback, another reason I thought it might be my best. I did include many details, such as citing specific detail from the book itself to clear up some of the plotline and show the readers how I arrived at the theme that I did. As I said before, I used important parts of the plotline to clear it up in accordance with the second and third part of the theme and summary rubric.

Prompt Two:
One thing that I thought was difficult in the beginning was setting the whole thing up. I am not that great at technology so it was a challenge for me, even with the detailed instructions. After about two weeks though, when I had it down, I found that it was an easier way to do feedback on my reading and liked that I could choose what categories I would do for that week. One way I worked through my difficult setting up process in the beginning was that I emailed Ms. Cohen, and she was pretty helpful and also my brother John is pretty good with technology so that helped. One strength that I thought I had with blogging was putting it into a flowing organization so that it made sense what I was saying and when I was saying it. Another problem during the week that I found was when I read a portion of the text that really didn't have much stuff to talk about I thought that blogging was difficult. A way that I worked through that difficulty was by making more time to read so that I would have more stuff to talk about.

Book Recommendation

In this post I'd like to talk about a book that I read a long time ago and am reading again because I recently saw the movie. It's called Jack Reacher and to give you a good idea of how action packed this book is, I'm going to tell you the main guy was played by Tom Cruise. I totally recommend this book to anyone who likes complicated and action filled stories. Basically it's about this ex-military cop who is out to get this one guy who murdered 4 people in the military but got away with it because our gov. wanted to cover it up because the war was over and they didn't want to ruin the reputation and good feeling of all of the veterans from that war. So Jack Reacher tells James Barr(the sniper who killed the four people) that if he ever steps out of line again, Jack is going to come and bring him down. Fourteen years later James Barr is accused of another killing spree and Jack comes to bring him down. But Reacher's investigations aren't digging Barr's grave, they might just be clearing his name. If you want to find out more, you can get it at the public Mason Library or I can lend you the book in person.

Reading Skills2

I've been wondering throughout the whole piece why they keep talking about Gabriel Wire and wonder if he might turn out to be a major antagonist that gets revealed later or if he's going to be a helper to Myron in whatever the big climax turns out to be. One question I do have is since Myron is an agent for Lex Ryder and used to be for Suzze, and it talked about a lawsuit where they were against each other, I wonder what he is supposed to do in that situation and what he actually did. I think that might become the whole tie together for the whole book.

Analysis 2

Ok so I noticed that there are a lot of different stories being pulled together in this book and I'd like to kind of talk about those individually here. So the main story, basically the glue that holds all of the others together, is about Myron, and another is about Lex Ryder and Gabriel Wire, two rich former songwriters and musicians. Gabriel moved onto this private island while Lex is one of Myron's clients. There's also Myron's private life, which consists of pregnant Suzze telling Myron about the post that Kitty put on her facebook saying , "Not His". Kitty's story is another thing too. And with the post, there was this pic of this weird design and apparently the exact same thing is tattoed on Gabriel's leg. When Myron goes to find out, A special security guard turns him away.

Analysis and Finishing up Links and displays

Ok so an analysis of  my book, Live Wire, is what I'm going to do today. I also have to add four links or displays so I will be adding those in here and there in this post. I realized that for some of you who might want to actually read the book, you don't know what the book looks like so I'll add one here for you. So, now for some analysis. As you might have read in some of my other posts, This dude Myron is trying to find his sister in law who he says did something really terrible, but he hasn't told us yet what she actually did. I think that the author does this to kind of keep us in suspense throughout the story. It's working quite well, actually. I am on the edge of my seat reading it. So an analysis that I've been thinking about doing is not so much about the story, but how the author presents the story and what diction and syntax he uses. In the beginning of the book It was pretty much dumping background and necessary info on you for the first few pages, and then the story starts with a bang. Oh, and I realized that the investigator looking into Suzze's death for Myron is the same detective from my other book I read. For information on that book, look way below this post at the other ones and you should see it. I think that he might use this one character, Loren Muse, as a tie for all of the stories. I also think that in the future he might write a book about her perspective on all of the things instead of her being a semi-minor character. Below and included are some other books by Harlan Coben that I might want to read.

                                                                                                                                                   

Tone and Mood Exit Slip.

The tone of my book, Live Wire, is a mysterious tone where the author doesn't want to let you know too much all at once and I know that because the antagonists in the story trying to keep Myron away from finding his sister in law lie and mislead him in order to confuse him and mess him up. A time when a character's tone impacted his persuasiveness was when this guy named Lex tries to keep Myron away from Kitty, the sister in law. He becomes all philosophical (often a good sign someone is lying or not saying everything) about meddling with other people's affairs and actually compares Myron to the US trying to solve the problems of other countries while in some cases make it worse. His philosophical tone really makes the reader think just like Myron whether what he's doing is necessary or even right.

Book review week 4 post 1

This is another update on my book, The Innocent. Well, I've finished the book so I can't really tell you that much but I will say that it was definitely worth reading. This week I am doing a book review because it seems like an appropriate time. I definitely reccommend the book to anyone who likes complicated action stories that also have a somewhat emotional aspect. I also reccommend it to anyone who likes mysteries, as you don't know who did what until the very end and it keeps you turning in circles without knowing where the story is headed or who's doing all the things. I have started a new book called Live Wire that seems interesting and in the same format. The video is about Harlan Coben becoming a writer and if you want to be an author someday I strongly suggest that you watch it.

REDO: reading skills

OK, so I didn't do very well on my first reading skills post, (four out of ten) so I'm going to redo that now. Well I have finished the book that I originally wrote reading skills on so I'm going to do it on my new book. It is called Live Wire and is by the same author, Harlan Coben. Basically, It's about this guy whose brother allegedly killed someone and ran away. The guy's sister in law, Kitty, he tells us that she did something that he hasn't forgiven her for and I predict that she did something that seriously harmed the main character's brother. One question I have is why would she be in New York, where he sees her, when she's supposed to be in Florida on vacation. I haven't gotten very far in the book, basically the author is setting up the plot which I think will be similar to setting up a string of fireworks. It seems quiet setting it up, but when you light it up you won't be able to remember the definition of quiet. I'll keep you guys posted on what goes on in mystory as major things happen. A text to text connection that I made is that his wife disappears and I found that very similar to my previous book by the same author and wonder if the same basic storyline is the same or if it's just that the writer uses a few certain "trademarks", so to speak. Thank you for reading and if you liked it please leave a comment below.

The theme of the book ( week 3 grading)

Ok, so this week I've gotten a bit farther in the book but in the plot line lots of things have been revealed. So, Matt's wife was not cheating on him. Apparently, before she met him, she lived very poor and had a kid but had to put the kid up for adoption. Her boss in the job that she used to work abused her and made all of the employees live in this tight area. She escaped from that life and married Matt and happily ever after until she goes on a "business trip". She really was blackmailed into giving the supposed caretaker of her illegitimate daughter fifty thousand dollars and was forced to put on the wig in the video sent to Matt. Then Matt and Olivia find out that the person who took her money was dead, so they decide to go to where they were supposed to meet the kid. Olivia tells Matt while she tells him her story that his life was worth fighting for. And I think that that is a major theme of the book. Fight for what you have, or someone will take it from you. I think that this is a very important theme that lots of kids in Mason should understand because we've got it so good here and lots of people take it for granted all of the time. I think that this theme emerges when Matt gets out of prison and the weight of the idea that he's free falls on him, and then grows as he realizes how good his life was with Olivia before she left. Then I think that it is starting to climax as the cops try to arrest Matt because he's an ex-felon who they think killed the people, including the person blackmailing Olivia. Since he knows that they'll convict him even though he didn't do it because he was an ex-felon, he goes on the run. Right now I am in the beginning of his period of running away, but I will tell you what happens as the story progresses more.

    If you want to know more about the author, HARLAN COBEN, click http://www.harlancoben.com/

Character Development week #2

Ok, so if you haven't kept up with my other posts, that's fine, you'll still understand this one. I'm going to be examining how all of the characters in my book, The Innocent, develop throughout the text and advance the plot. Well, in this book, The characters are the plot. The whole story is about how the main character, Matt, also an ex-felon, thinks that his wife is cheating on him during her supposed trip to Boston for work. Then he catches this guy following him and he finds out where he's staying. He goes to this guy's apartment and the guy, a flat character that totally turns round, where the narrator spends about a page on him, beats up Matt when he shows up and runs. Then the private investigator Matt hired when he found that guy following him shows up and sees his wife taking care of him. That's where I am going to leave it for now in the plotline and Segway into characters. So Matt starts out as just this guy in prison for accidentally killing a guy. Then it jumps to him getting out and having a family, showing the dynamic changes that are occurring inside of him. His wife is happy and they are about to have their first kid, when she just jumps off the ship. He is devastated by this and that shows yet another side of him. Then, he shows how he had to be in prison, confronting the guy who was following him, by just going in there to cause damage. Of course, only Matt is hurt in that confrontation. I think that the author is very cleverly making almost every character, even the more minor ones, show another side based on the events that are happening. Almost like as he's writing the story, he's piling on the different personalities all at the same time that a major event in the plot happens. That's all for now, next week I will probably examine what I am beginning to see of the plot.

Blog #2 week #2

Ok, so now I have read through Loren's conversation with Matt. Apparently, he's not a suspect. The dead nun called his sister in law's house, where he stays a lot with his nephews. His inlaw(Marsha) was out of the house on the day that the nun called and he was there on that day. He says that he didn't get a call from anyone and that he doesn't know any nun at all. Then Loren asks him if he knows a Max Darrow and she notices his jolt when she said Max Darrow in Nevada. Earlier in the book, Matt also finds in Olivia's history that she went to some newspaper from Nevada and he thinks there might be a connection. That's all for now.

Blog #1 week #2

So right now I'm just getting a head start on the posts due next week. Now in the story, Matt decided to go get drink because his wife is likely cheating on him. Then he finds this cop that doesn't like Matt, and Matt doesn't like him either. He tries to see if Matt knows anything about the murder of the nun because Matt is a suspect. The cop shouldn't be asking him the questions, since there's a detective working the case and the cops aren't supposed to get involved. Since the view of this book is third person omniscient, We know that Matt has no idea, but he just evades the question to mess with Lance(the cop). Then when he gets home, the detective that is supposed to be on the case shows up and asks him if they can talk. They know each other from high school, but her showing up just confirms to Matt that they think he might have done it. I haven't gotten any farther yet, but I'll include what Loren(the detective) asks Matt and what happens to him.

Post #2

If you haven't read my post #1 yet, it's kind of necessary to understand this one. On a seemingly unrelated story, a detective called Loren is investigating the murder of a nun and apparently the FBI is trying to quiet everything up and make the story seem like she just died in her sleep, which is what the police originally thought. We haven't gone very far into that story yet, but I think that for some reason it will be related to Matt's story.

Post #1

My new independent reading book is called The Innocent. It is by Harlan Coben, an author similar to Dean Koontz, who writes about seemingly unrelated characters and events that happen to them, and then he draws them together towards the climax. I am only about 120 pages n, so I don't know what that climax is going to be yet but I predict that it will be very surprising. Basically, This one guy named Matt has a wife who is pregnant and she goes on a trip a few hours away for her job and they bought picture phones. But during his job, he gets this video sent to him by some guy that he doesn't know and his wife in blonde wig. Then Matt gets a call from her later that says that she fell asleep during a seminar and she thought someone might have played a joke on her. Then Matt gets a call from the man that basically implies that his wife is cheating on him. That is where I am in Matt's story right now.

Practice blog

I am choosing the second prompt for my blog because I feel that I considered the theme of my summer reading book well in my summer reading project. That's not to say that I didn't like how Jennifer A. Nielsen, author of The False Prince, used and developed the characters in the story. I noticed that she uses a character's physical appearance to reflect how they interact with other characters and how they will impact the plotline. For example, Cregan, who is one of Conner's servants(I hope you've read my project before this), is this little, mean-looking guy. So towards the end of the story, he betrays the rest of the characters for personal gain.

The article is about how the director of Game of Thrones is going to make this book into a movie and gives a brief description of the book. It should be right up his alley. Read it HERE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lyabVOPSlw