A blog for school

               “You would have trouble sleeping too if you had seen what Ralph Roberts has.” The book Insomnia by Stephen King is both chilling and gripping. Stephen King is a renowned author who has written several excellent books to date. He wrote classics such as The Shining, Firestarter, and Cujo. This book keeps you guessing at the plot, it involves interesting elements not apparent in the average book, and the character depth is really well done. If you haven’t guessed already, I really enjoyed reading this book.            

            The plot development is really well done and shows how great a writer Stephen King is. At first the plot itself isn’t very apparent and almost seems like the book is about how the main character, Ralph, deals with the death of his wife. “Sometimes he thought of the places he and Carolyn used to go in the old days…”(41). Then the story completely changes directions when a local neighbor’s behavior changes completely. “He wondered if that was the smell of Ed’s madness.”(81). About halfway through the book, just about when you start to get a grip on the strange things Ralph is seeing, the story changes again by introducing three new characters. This wouldn’t be a problem except that only Ralph and the crazy Ed can see them. This leads to many questions unique to this book and those like it.

            The book has many questions that force you to keep reading as well as many other unique elements. First is a question that drives the entire story but is completely unspoken by the author. This is the question of Ralph’s sanity. He is older and has developed insomnia so his state of mind is very easily questioned. Then the way the author describes things in a third-person limited view is very interesting. Finally, how the author seeds many clues into the story but doesn’t let you know they were there until you solve the entire puzzle was really unique and gave the story a life of its own. One clue and unique point was in the character depth.

            Stephen King’s character depth was a great strength in this book. The secondary and fringe characters aren’t very developed in their own stories but rather through the main characters story and background. He is old and he has experience with almost all the members of his town. Every character is described through the eyes of a kindly neighbor who either grew up with them or watched them grow up. “Ralph recollected back to when he was fascinated by the way she glided without the aid of a cane, even at such an old age.”(347). This gives the characters a refreshingly different impression on the reader.     

            The book Insomnia is a really great read and I really enjoyed it. I would give the book a 4.5 out of 5. The only complaint I have with the book is that it starts out very slowly. It takes a few chapters to pick up steam and a few descriptions are a bit long-winded but overall the book is very well done. The plot keeps you guessing, the unique elements in the book make it a very good read, and the character book is interesting and refreshing. I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery or thriller.

The book I’m reviewing is To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. Lee never considered her book to be anything more than a simple story but it is widely regarded as a true classic. The story is a fantastic read and is great the first time or the fourth, the writing style and character depth also helped make the book the masterpiece it is, and the character diversity makes it possible for everyone to connect with the book and the characters therein. 

It is a classic tale that takes place in a small southern town. Everybody knows everybody else, for better or for worse. There’s the town bum, the gossip, and of course the town’s mysterious figure that inspires stories for the younger children. For several of their younger years, two children named Scout and Jem enjoy speculating and attempting to see this person. They soon forget, however, when their town is rocked by something far larger. Their father, Atticus, is a prominent law lawyer who is chosen to defend an African American. Most of the little town turns against him and his children who don’t understand what is happening very well. The judge tries for a fair trail but the jury was racist and didn’t agree with the judge. They lost the case but grew up through the course of it.

            I liked several things about this book, including the writing style, character depth, but I didn’t like the way characters talked. The writing style gave the reader a clear view of the town of Maycomb and all its inhabitants. It was vivid and clear. The characters themselves were as interesting as the story. They acted according to personalities set by the author and responded to situations like actual people would. That being said, the way the characters talked with their southern drawl made many sections of dialogue incredibly difficult to read and follow. Overall, the book was incredibly good despite the speech problem.

            I think I identify most with Jem out of all the characters in the book. I remember going through a lot of similar things when I was that age. For example, Scout once asked Atticus if Jem had a tapeworm due to his apetite change (115). I remember going through the exact same thing at that age. At certain points in the book I could see myself doing the same thing Jem did. The feeling that comes to mind when I think of this book would have to be that of happiness. The mood of most of the book is happy and the way Scout describes things puts them in the light of childish innocence. An example of which would be when Scout asked: “Hey, Mr. Cunningham. How’s your entailment gettin’ along?”(153). She didn’t know that he was part of a mob intent on hurting her father. This combined with the similarity to Jem gave me a good feeling when I read the book. 

            The timeless, classic tale in To Kill A Mockingbird is rightly considered an  American masterpiece. Going through the overview of the story took me back through the book, reliving the best moments. The writing style and character depth were great even though I didn’t like the way the people talked in the story. Finally, the childlike innocence, and my relatability to Jem helped make this book even better for me. Overall, I would give this book a 5 out of 5 on any scale.

When I was about 10 years old I learned how to ride a bike and became addicted to reading at the same time. I remember hating my bike because I would fall off and or scrape my leg almost every time I attempted to ride. Eventually, the bike would just bring a feeling of dread whenever it was mentioned. My parents would beg and beg but I flat out refused to ride my bike. Eventually, they resorted to bribes to get me to ride. I was a very big fan of the Harry Potter series at that age and there just happened to be a box set of the first four books at a local store that I really wanted. My parents offered that to me in exchange for riding my bike. The very next day my dad took me to the park with the dreaded bike. To my dad’s utter astonishment, and slight dismay, I hopped on the accursed machine and rode off without hesitation. My dad stood there agape while I happily rode along to the steady tick, tick, tick of the chain.

            “You hustled me!” my dad exclaimed accusatorily.

            I didn’t respond but continued to ride in circles enjoying my monumental accomplishment. True to their word, I sat on a couch a few days later as happy as a clam reading my books. It was a rather expensive set because they were all hardcover, and to this day my dad still claims I hustled him although I didn’t understand the meaning of the word at the time. However, it was a positive thing because these books were the jump off point for my like of reading. I still own these books to this day.

My first month in high school went pretty well overall. My classes are challenging but not in an impossible way. The hardest part has to be the mornings. Ironically, the hardest are mondays.Staying awake in later classes has also been somewhat of a challenge but I’ve managed so far. Another thing to add to my list of grievances are block classes. I have eight hours of school and only three classes. Sitting still for hours at a time isn’t my thing. I get restless and don’t focus as well and this results in a suffering from my grade. On the other hand I might just need more tim to get used to this shift in my schedule. Other than that its been fairly smooth sailing. I have all the routes down and no longer get lost wondering the halls. I’ve learned a great deal in my month here, both about myself and academically speaking. Educationally, I’ve learned such diverse subjects from how African-American people were treated after the Civil War in american studies to how to name and draw molecules in biology. Personally I’ve discovered feelings I never knew I had or just didn’t fell strongly enough to notice. For instance, I have no tolerance for racism of any kind of hurtful manner. A joke now and then is fine but actual racism I can’t stand. An unexpected difficulty that sort of blind sided me was surprisingly getting to class on time. My locker  is on the exact opposite side of the school from all of my classes. This proves to be incredibly annoying on those days when your just a bit off. Luckily I haven’t messed up on any tests, and hopefully never will. The hardest of these have been a biology test. We were in the unit for about a week I’d say and then we had an incredibly hard and utterly annoying test. What makes these very stressful is that they count for seventy percent of our overall grade. One slip and your grade goes into a spiral. If I could do it over again I would, just for the sake of being somewhat of a perfectionist  but the extra points would help. I’ve never been all that good at studying but I usually don’t need to. Hopefully the next last monday will see me with good again.