Post # 6 Book Three Book Review

Marked by P.C Cast and Kristin Cast is a different kind of Vampire novel. Zoey Redbird is your typical teenage girl going to public school with a love affair that has been going on since elementary school, when her life gets changed drastically. Zoey gets “marked” as you would say and is sent to the House of Night to go through the change into a Vampire. When Zoey arrives she is thrown into a whole different world than she is use too. She must find where she fits in, who her real friends are, and who is good and who is evil. But is evil always as it seems? “You are old beyond your years Zoeybird. Believe in yourself and you will find a way. But remember darkness does not equate to evil, just like light does not always bring you good.” How will you find out what good and evil is when you have to consider that bad might bring you good, and good might bring you bad. That’s not the only thing Zoey has to get use too, she has to get use to the fact that moving to the House of Night may create a love triangle she never asked for;  deciding who she can’t live without and who she can.

At the House of Night, all vampires have a best friend too, a cat. You don’t get to choose what cat you want though, they choose you. It’s an odd phenomenon that you would never expect, but cats have it in good with the vampires goddess, Nyx. They are protectors and the most loyal animals alive. Although, I think it is a bit odd. In the book cats are described as describing your character, “I’ve found that the way a person feels about cats – and the way they feel about him or her in return – is usually a gauge by which to measure a person’s character…” I personally think this is an unnecessary part in the book that Cast fits into the plot of it in a weird and unique way.

The plot of the novel starts to take shape when Zoey and he group of friends, “The Gang”, notice some misgivings happening in one of the schools top leading groups, and it is their job to fix it and get rid of the wrong. As they all discover new abilities about them self as they go through this challenge. The book itself is a good read if you love the paranormal world of vampires and the god gifted powers. If you don’t, well then don’t even bother picking the book up.

The language in the book could be more sophisticated, it is more surrounded by slang and how teenagers talk, so I suggest if you are older than 20, don’t even bother picking it up because it won’t appeal to you. I think it is more appealing to the younger generation also because of the way the story is formatted, it’s an easy read. The plus side to the book though, is the visuals of everything. They go into great detail about what the characters look like and their personality traits so you can actually visualize what they look like in your head. Not to mention they have created a rather “hip” website that goes along with the book that has a yearbook of all the main characters in it.

Overall the book is worth the read if you love twisted love stories, with some darkness, magic, and the unexpected. The main plot throughout the series of the House of Night is, will they survive the change into a vampire, or will they die fighting for it? It may seem like a burden when you first get marked, but in the end it turns into more of a blessing than you could ever imagine.

Click to go to House of Night Yearbook

Post # 5 Lines Between Genres

I think for a book to be considered non-fiction it needs to be all the way true. I think this, because people learn from books, we use them to study, and to collect knowledge. How are we supposed to know which books are giving us the full truth and which ones are giving us half-truths? Professionals also use books to learn and what if one of our doctors learned from a book that we thought was the whole truth, but was really not? I don’t agree with Shields on how they need to obliterate the lines between non-fiction and fiction because how are we supposed to know the truth when we need it?

                I also don’t agree with “half-truths”. If you are going to write something down on paper and say it is a true story, half-truths don’t count as a true story. I don’t understand why it is so hard for people to tell the truth, the whole truth, now- a-days. If it doesn’t make a good story when you tell the whole truth, then don’t write a non-fiction story. Write a fiction story if that is what you are good at, don’t label it as something it isn’t just to get onto the best sellers list. It’s pathetic.

              I think we do need lines between genres. If we don’t have lines then how are we supposed to know what we can count on as the truth? What if we want to learn something from a book, but we never know if it is an actual experience or not? I think it is important to have lines because from my own personal experience, I love reading. When I was growing up I liked reading true stories about someone else’s life or encounters because it gives you advice when you aren’t really looking for it. It helps you develop your views. I also loved reading fiction because you still learn from it, but in a different way.

Post #4 Adapting Safe Haven

I think the challenges of making the novel Safe Haven into a movie would have to be the characters personalities and insecurities. The settings of the novel would be pretty easy to capture because they are all almost the same and pretty basic settings. The hardest thing to capture with Katie would be her constant fear and worry, like she always has to be looking over her shoulder. She has a very closed off personality also, in the beginning. Also, I think the scene of the festival would be hard to capture because it’s very crowded and they are all having fun but Katie has this constant feeling of being watched and I think that would be a hard emotion to capture. The plot of the story might be hard because of how it constantly goes back and forth from the past to the present with “Erin” and Kevin’s relationship. It has to be done really well so everyone knows and can distinct the difference. I really don’t like how they changed the appearance of the characters in the novel in the movie because the ways the characters are described have crucial meaning behind it, especially the color of Katie’s hair. It’s supposed to be brown because she dyed it and cut it so she wouldn’t look like “Erin” her true self, so Kevin can’t find her, but in the movie they keep it blonde? Also Alex is supposed to have gray hair in the movie but he doesn’t, it shows the troubles he has had to go through in his past to create the life he has made for himself and his kids.

The three main scenes you have to keep in this novel would be the story telling about Kevin and Katie’s past, when Katie and Alex fall in love, and the big fight with Kevin and Katie where he burns the house and Katie has to save the kids and at the end she ends up killing Kevin. Those are very crucial to the book because that is basically the three scenes the book is based off of. I hate the fact that they cut out in the movie how Kevin almost found Katie right after she left, it shows how afraid she really has to be and why she has that reason to be afraid and careful.

If I could cut out two scenes to make the book better adapted into a movie, I would cut out the scene where it is solely based on Katie fixing up the house, it honestly isn’t that important of a scene. I would also cut out some of the scenes where Katie walks to the store, not all of those scenes where crucial to the story line, only some were. I wouldn’t cut out any side characters because none were mentioned except for the ones that play a role in how they got to where they are and those are crucial to the story or else it wouldn’t end how it was suppose too.  

post # 3 Book Project One

     What we are offering here is the one in a lifetime chance to experience the world within the famous Nicholas Spark novels. Starting in New Bern, North Carolina we would travel for a total of 16 days to each location in all the Nicholas Spark Novels. We will be starting at the famous house of Allie and Noah, based off of the novel The Notebook and the novel The Wedding, involving Allie and Noah’s daughter Jane’s life. We will be staying a total of 2 days in each location, with a total of 8 locations, so you can explore the settings from the novels and look at all the landmarks that Sparks has mentioned in his novels. Our most famous spot is the new museum we created within the home of Noah and Allie! It’s a fun and exciting adventure that no Nicholas Spark fan would want to miss!

  In the novel The wedding, Jane and Wilson are having marriage issues; their love is drifting away. Wilson realizes what is happening and gets set on track to rekindle the love they once held so dearly. This two week tour applies to Sparks’ novel because its main focus point is Noah and Allies house where Wilson and Jane’s daughter, Anna, “had planned to get married”. It was chosen to make this a museum the only “big monument” in the tour because the wedding is basically the main focus of the whole book. The beginning of the book is Wilson talking about how he needs to find a way to get Jane to fall in love with him again, and that's when he plans to surprise Jane with the wedding she never had. Also, the wedding is at Noah and Allies home, that is why we chose to have it because it will be an exact replica from the books (also The Notebook). “ ‘Jane?’ I said. / ‘Mmm?’ she answered automatically. / ‘I have an idea.’ / ‘About what?’ She continued staring at the page. / ‘Where we should hold the wedding.’ / My words finally registered and she looked up. ‘It might not be perfect, but I’m sure it would be available,’ I said. ‘ It’s outside and there’s plenty of parking. And there’re flowers, too. Thousands of flowers.’ ‘Where?’ / I hesitated. / ‘At Noah’s house,’ I said. ‘Under all the trellis by the roses.’ Jane’s mouth opened and closed; she blinked rapidly, as if clearing her sight. But then, ever so slowly, she began to smile” (Sparks 89). This is a really good demonstration of how much the house means to them. It is a beautiful house that has been in Jane’s family for a long time and it is where Wilson realized he was in love with Jane.You can tell by Jane's reaction at the end of the quote that she was surprised by the idea but it always meant a lot to her by how the scene was described with her smiling slowly, that means that she was extremely pleased by the idea and that it would mean a lot to her. “ ‘I love you, Jane, and I’m the luckiest man in the world to have you.’ Though she didn’t say a word, the way she leaned further against me was all the response I needed” (195). This is a part in the novel , The Wedding, where it is a two days before the wedding and it’s the first time in a couple years that he has expressed his feelings to her. He realized as his daughter, Anna , told Noah about the wedding that he couldn’t have been more proud of the life he has lived and how lucky he is to have it all. You can tell as the wedding gets closer so do Jane and Wilson.

      Wilson all along has planned for this wedding, he got his whole family involved. Anna was suppose to say that she was getting married, but really it was a surprise wedding for Jane and Wilson, the wedding she never had. Wilson became a changed man who cherished every second he had with his wife and family. “ I hold right to the lessons that Noah taught me about love and keeping it alive, and even if I never become a true romantic like Noah, it doesn't mean that I’m ever going to stop trying” (263). Wilson learned that you have to constantly show your love to keep it alive, he achieved something many others struggle to do, to keep love alive.

     This idea will be a great one because there are so many Nicholas Spark fans out there and all of his stories take place within hours of each other, it will be an easy journey to travel to all the settings and towns from the book. It will help all the audiences of the books because they will be able to physically get the experiences from the book themselves because they can place themselves in the atmospheres in which the books took place. It will help you stay connected because there will be many more tours and attractions added as Sparks releases more novels. 

      To see the home click here: http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/movie/notebook/24.jpg

Post # 1 What is a book?

A book is an escape.  Books consist of another world and dimension. Physically holding a book gives you the thrill of being in the novel. The old book smell, the weight of it being in your hands, and the physical movement of turning the page; you’re on edge waiting to find out what is going to happen next. Sliding your finger across a screen to me isn’t as if I’m reading a book, I feel like I’m doing school work. Technologies make me feel like I am doing some kind of work for school even if it is just reading a book; I’ve always turned to technology when I have needed to do an assignment, so for me reading a book on a kindle isn’t nearly as enjoyable as actually reading a book. A book is when the author puts their heart and soul into the world they are creating, they pour over the pages to make sure every detail is right. A book is a mystical place that you go to another world in. I agree With Tom Piazza that a computer is neutral, you get no emotion from it, will always stay the same. Books have character they age with the passing years. You can see how much you love a book by how easily the spine creaks open, how worn the pages are as you turn. You can sense the age of a book by the cover and the smell. With kindles and Ipads you don’t have that, it will always be the same, and it will never have character. With a kindle you can’t just flip to a page and write down thoughts, you have to scroll and scroll until you get to a page you know; but how will you know because you can’t even see page numbers? A book is a physical necessity we need to be able to feel alive within the pages.

Post # 2: Why I Read

When I was younger I use to hate reading, I use to be awful at it and would have to be in classes to become better at it. Now though, I can hardly ever put a book down. I love reading because it is a way to escape all the drama and chaos of your life around you. It is like i'm entering a new world when I read. You get to experience something new and you can gather new perspectives of everything from reading. I love reading because I love being wrapped up into a novel I can never put down. I feel like i'm one of the characters when I read and I love being able to get into an atmosphere like that, it's fun and interesting to read a new story everyday.