BS: Post #9 Next 10 Books I Want to Read

1. Evernight by Claudia Gray
2. Wither by Lauren DeStefano
3. A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies 
4. Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep
5. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
6. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
7. The Heir by Kiera Cass
8. Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
9. Altered by Kimberly Montague
10. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
11. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
12. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
13. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
14. Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

     My book 5 will probably be either Shutter Island or A Beautiful Dark because I've heard great things about both of those books.

BS: Post #8 Book Talk Presentation (exam)

BS: Post #7 Book 4 Project

The most important line from a chapter is… (and explain why it is important and how the plot develops from that line)

     The book I just finished reading was Paper Towns by John Green. It is about a girl named Margo Roth Spiegelman who has peeked the interest of Quentin Jacobsen ever since they were little and discovered the body of the dead man. Margo and Q never really speak anymore, until one night when she knocks on his window. They end up have the craziest night of Q's life, running all around town and getting revenge on the people who hurt them most. All is good in his world, until Margo goes missing the next morning. But she didn't just disappear without a trace, she left clues. And those clues were left for Quentin. With the help of his friends, Q goes on a journey to find who and where Margo Roth Spiegelman is.
     The most important line from a chapter is, "Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe  she loved mysteries so much she became one," (Green, 8) This is the most important line in the chapter because it really sets the tone for how the rest of the novel is going to go. The audience knows that Margo is to be considered a mystery, and nothing more. I believe that this line is the line that develops the plot for the rest of the book because now the audience knows that she is a mystery. So you that Margo is going to be a major influence on how the characters behave and react.

BS: Post #6 Book 3 Project: Listicle

     

5 Reasons Marcus Luttrell Kicks Butt

Marcus Luttrell, member of SEAL Team 10, is telling his eyewitness account of Operation Redwing in his autobiography Lone Survivor. Throughout the book, Luttrell is faced with difficult decisions that he has to live with for the rest of his life. Some may be tragic, some may not, but either way he saves many lives while risking his own.

1. He never gave up, even when all hope seemed lost.
   There are many points within the book that any normal person would have just thrown their hand in the air and said, 'Nope, I'm out. There is no way I can do this anymore.' Not Marcus Luttrell. He just digs down deep and keeps trudging on. After his three comrades were killed in battle, he was left on his own. But did that stop him from fighting off the dozens of Taliban all by his self? No, no it did not. He was determined to live, even if it seemed impossible. As he says, "I was like a badly wounded animal, ready to fight to the end," (320). He was ready to go out, guns blazing, and defeat the enemy who took his three buddies from him, even though he was badly outnumbered.

2. He survived not for himself, but for his Team
     "'You stay alive, Marcus. And tell Cindy I love her,'" (275). Those were Matthew Axelson's last words spoken to Marcus before the bomb landed feet away, immediately blowing them apart. Danny, Mikey, and Axe were all gone, killed by the Taliban, leaving Marcus alone and the only one from his group still alive. But he wasn't safe. The Taliban were out for more blood. No American would leave the mountain alive if they had anything to say about it. Marcus was under constant fire from the enemy, constantly fearing for his life. At one point, all hope seemed lost and he knew that he was going to die by the hand of the Taliban. But he gathered up the courage and repeated to himself, "For Axe, and for Danny, and above all for Mikey, I knew I must stay alive," (288). And he did.

3. He began training to be a SEAL at age fourteen.
     At just the age of twelve, Marcus knew that he was going to grow up to become a US Navy SEAL. But it wasn't until he was fourteen that he acted and went to Billy Shelton, a former Green Beret sergeant, asking him to train him. And he agreed. "Billy did not hold an exercise class; he operated a full pre-SEAL training program for teenagers. Over the years he had us in the gym pumping iron, hauling the torture machines, the ergometer, pounding the roads, driving our bodies, sweating and straining... he showed us no mercy," (62). I know that when I was fourteen, there is no way I would ever think of training as hard as Luttrell did. And I'm sure that not many people would have either. But that is what makes his story so incredible and inspiring.

4. He survived the BUD/S and training.
     I know that when you hear the words training, you tend to think 'How bad can it be?' Let me tell you, this training was bad. Think of the toughest thing that you have ever done, and multiply it by a thousand. SEAL's have to go through that and more. One example of an"easier" thing they had to do is, "Before us was the five-point screening test:
1. A 500-yard swim, breaststroke or sidestroke in 12 minutes, 30 seconds
2. A minimum of 42 push-ups in 2 minutes
3. A minimum of 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes
4. A minimum of 6 dead-hand pull-ups
5. A 1.5 mile run in 11 minutes, 30 seconds, done while wearing boots and long pants," (99-100). And that is considered easy. A harder type of training they did was push-ups. Again, you might be asking yourself, 'Push-ups? A hard thing they had to do was push-ups?' Sure, 10 or 20 of them might be easy. But try doing 450 of them. "By 0600 I had counted out more than 450 push-ups. And there were more, I just couldn't count anymore," (129). So next time you're in gym and complain about having to do ten push-ups, just remember that SEALs consider that a walk in the park and would much rather prefer it to their 450.

5. He risked his life serving for our country.

     How can someone risk their life for you, and you not say that they kick butt? You can't. Marcus Luttrell, and everyone else in the armed forces, risk their lives for us everyday. Marcus went to another country half-way across the globe to fight the enemy so us US citizens would not have to worry about our safety. There are many times when his life was in danger, and he did not know if he was going to make it out alive. But he still fought on, vowing to protect the United States, even if as a result he ended up being killed. And this is the number one reason as to why Marcus Luttrell, and really anyone in the armed forces, totally kick butt
   

BS: Post #5 Truth in Memior

     To be considered non-fiction, I feel that a book should be about 95 percent true. If it is anything less than that, the book would be considered unreliable. You don't know which facts are true and which are false. If you needed a non-fiction book for a project you are doing on a topic you know nothing about, it is impossible for the reader to know if the information they have is correct or not. But since you are reading a non-fiction book, you believe it to be true.
     I believe that half-truths are okay if it is still a good story. People are looking too far into specific genres. Who cares if the author bends the truth a little to make their story more interesting. Their story is just that, a story. The definition of story is an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment. Nowhere in the definition does it say that it has to be totally true. In fact, it says it can be imaginary or real. The choice is up to the author on how to make their story more interesting. So, no, I do think it matters if Frey or other memoirists bent the truth to tell their stories because it is their story, and no one else's.

     I agree and disagree with David Shields. I believe that we need to have a distinct line between the two genres of fiction and non-fiction. Like I said above, if you are doing a project and need specific facts that you know are going to be true, you need to know where to look. If we didn't have a line between fiction and non-fiction, the reader would just pick a book, unsure if it is true or not. But I agree that we do not need to divide fiction and non-fiction into more specific genres, such as mystery, romance, science, etc. The book the reader picks up is not going to be judged by what genre it is considered, it is going to be judged on how well written it is. And this will keep people from judging the types of books.. If someone who does not prefer mystery novels in general does not know if a book is a mystery or not, they will pick it up and maybe read it. They would be judging the book on how good it was, and not on the specific genre it is.

The best thing about my book is… (could also be flipped to “The worst thing about my book is…”)

     The book I am reading right now is Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. It is an autobiography about Marcus Luttrell, a US SEAL. I'm only about half way through the book, but so far, he is explaining how he is coming to be a SEAL. He went through some of his childhood and how it impacted him, and the BUD/S training.
     The worst thing about my book is all the little details that are put in, explaining some of the not so exciting missions. Or going into way too much detail on a minor part of an event. I actually found the book pretty hard to get into because of that. I really like books that start off with a really good lead and keep it good throughout the whole novel. An example from the text that shows how way too much detail for a minor event is overwhelming and unneeded is, "We headed east-northeast for four hundred miles, forty-five thousand feet above the Arabian Sea. We crossed the sixty-first line of longitude in the small hours of morning. That put us due south of the Iranian border seaport of Gavater, where the Pakistan frontier runs down to the ocean," (Luttrell, 45). Even though it is a very well writing portion, I feel that it is too much detail for such a minor event. Not many people, unless they are very good at geography, would really know where the sixty-first line of longitude are. So, I felt that that detail was irrelevant. Well writing, but irrelevant.
     The best thing about my book is how action-packed it is. I knew that it was an autobiography when I picked it up, but it still amazes me how much he had to go through. I knew that training to be a SEAL is tough, but I never knew how tough. I am extremely intrigued when reading this section of his novel because I can't believe that people are actually put through this as training. I thought that conditioning for soccer was bad, but that might as well be a walk in the park compared to what he had to go through. A good example from the text that shows how action-packed the novel is is, "...a coliseum where someone was about to bring on the lions. Before us was the five-point screening test:
1. A 500-yard swim, breaststroke or sidestroke in 12 minutes, 30 seconds
2. A minimum of 42 push-ups in 2 minutes
3. A minimum of 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes
4. A minimum of 6 dead-hand pull-ups
5. A 1.5 mile run in 11 minutes, 30 seconds, done while wearing boots and long pants," (Luttrell, 99-100). I can't imagine having to do all of that. And this is considered the more mild of training that they are put through. I am extremely excited to get to the portion of the book where Marcus and his team actually go into combat.