An interview with the author of Sarah’s Key:
Site for the book Room:
Site for the book Eat, Pray, Love:
Site for Harry Potter Series:http://www.jkrowling.com/
Site for the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Book:
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Book Review that I did at the Last Minute
On March 5th 1933, Adolph Hitler began his reign of terror that would lite the fuse to start WWII. This war lasted for 6 years from 1939 till 1945. Over 60 million people were killed in this war. Many lives were impacted and forever changed. Sadly, when most people hear the phrase “Holocaust” or “Nazis” they immediately think of Germany but many people don’t realize that it wasn’t just Germany that was involved in the holocaust. One of the other countries was France.
Sarah’s Key is a tale about a young girl and the emotional and physical struggles that she suffers during the holocaust. The story follows two points of view. One of them is from Julia, an American journalist who is asked to write about one the worst days in Frances past, the Vel’d’Hiv’s, and a young girl named Sarah who is involved in the holocaust. This book written by an author named Tatiana de Rosnay and this book would be placed in the historical non-fiction genre.
Even though it was titled as a historical nonfiction genre you don’t feel like you’re reading a historical non-fiction book. You assume that it’s just going to be filled with a bunch of facts and information that happened but Tatiana de Rosnay twisted the story into an interesting and emotional novel. I think what stands out the most in her writing is Sarah’s voice. At the beginning of the book Sarah has a younger more naïve tone because she’s only 11 or 12. She’s young and doesn’t understand what’s happening in the world around her, but as the book goes on and she experiences things that no one should ever have to experience. She must grow up very quickly and as she grows up emotionally her voice must also grow up. Julia’s voice on the other hand sounds older and more responsible with a young ring to it. She’s older and has a daughter around Sarah’s age so when Julia discovers more and more about what happened at the Vel’d’Hiv’s she beings to lose that young ring that she once had.
Overall the quality of this book is above and beyond and worth reading. Tatiana de Rosnay does a wonderful job conveying the emotional struggle that Sarah and her family faces along with the issues that occur in Julia’s life. As you read through the pages you almost feel like you’re part of the story and you share the pain that Julia and Sarah have in their lives as Julia’s husband cheats on her and as Sarah watches her family torn away from her in a matter of seconds. It’s a good book to look into if you want to learn more about the holocaust without diving into all the facts. One of most upsetting scenes in the book occurs in the first chapter. “She grabbed him but he wriggled out of her grasp and slithered into the long, deep cupboard hidden in the surface of the wall of their bedroom…the girl could see her brother’s small face peeking out at her from the darkness. He had his favorite teddy bear clutched to him, he was not frightened anymore. Maybe he’d be safe there, after all. He had water and the flashlight…’Are you afraid in there?’ she said softly, as the men called out for them. ‘No…I’m not afraid. You lock me in. They wouldn’t get me.’…The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. ‘I’ll come back for you later. I promise’”. Pg. 23-24 Sarah’s Key
There is nothing that I would change about this outstanding book except for the fact that it leaves you wondering what is going to happen next. The book doesn’t leave you with a cliffhanger but it just leaves you wanting more and you aren’t satisfied with the conclusion. The book would also be slightly better if the story covered more about Sarah towards the end instead of focusing more on Julia’s emotions and struggles that occur in her life.
Overall I would rate this book 4.9/5 because no book can be perfect but there can be some pretty amazing books out there. The only issue I have with this book is that you aren’t satisfied with the ending you want to learn more.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Post #6
A book has to be mostly accurate to be considered non-fiction. What I consider mostly accurate is that it doesn’t extend the truth like the three authors: Frey, Mortenson, or Shields did. When you are retelling a story to a group of friends or retelling a story for a novel you aren’t going to 100% remember what happened and you wouldn’t the big picture of what went on because it’s only from your point of view. In memoirs you have to be mostly accurate with your writing but not extend the truth like Mortenson did in his story by saying that he built 11 schools when in reality he only built three. Another example was when Frey said that 5% of his book was lies. Well that 5% affected the other 95% because now people will view him as a liar and will not believe the other 95% of his story.
Half-truths are ok if they are a good story but they shouldn’t be considered for non-fiction or a memoir because they are nothing close to the truth. If you stretch the truth so much that the memoir/non-fiction is not even close to being true and people discover that you were lying they are going to be mad at the author and not buy their books anymore. Frey and Mortenson’s dilemma and why they caused so much grief was because they extend the truth to make them sound better which in the end ruined them. If they had just stuck to the truth then no one would be mad at them.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What should schools do?
I feel like a 21st century English class should be similar to what we currently have in place with a few exceptions. I believe that we should continue to focus on literary fiction because they tell important stories that make you think but I don’t think we should completely focus on just literary stories. We also need to focus on some genre stories. High school students get bored and lazy and will resort to just using spark notes because it’s accessible and easy to use. If students got the choice of picking one of their books or a couple of their books to read that were non-literary. I believe we need to have 30% non-literary reading and 70% literary reading.
I would agree with Laura Miller about the growing gap between the literary community and the reading public because some people don’t agree with the books being on the National Best Sellers list. Maybe they don’t understand what is going on in the story or they just don’t enjoy reading that type of genre.
I would not be ok with swapping out Twilight for Of Mice and Men because Of Mice and Men is a treasured classic with an interesting story about two migrant workers while Twilight is just about a bunch of vampires and wolves and some random depressed girl. Twilight doesn’t tell a great story and it’s quite boring. Of Mice and Men has been adapted into many cartoons and animations such as American Dad, King of the Hill, South Park and the Looney Toons. It has also been referenced in Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This book has been referenced in many popular video games and TV shows that it has to have some influence on the people who created the TV shows and video games. The only influence Twilight has had is the growing the demand and hatred of vampires.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Eat, Pray, Love: Blog #4
Some challenges that a film maker would have in adapting the book into the movie would be, following the exact storyline, and following her thought process. In order to make the book work they would have to focus primarily on the “action” scenes which are very limited in this book due to her thoughts on certain events that occurred. She also sounds somewhat “whiney” throughout the entire book where you get this view that she complains a lot making the book somewhat unbearable to read. The director would need to find a good actress that would make Liz appear less “whiney” in order for people to stick it out through the rest of the movie.
Three specific scenes that need to be kept in the book are, when her husband divorces her, when she sent the letter to David to break up with him for good and then breaks down to Giovanni, and the scene where she is eating dinner with Maria and Luca Spaghetti. I believe that these three scenes should be in the movie because; the part in the book when the husband divorces her explains why she goes on this adventure to three different places for a year. The part where she is breaking down to Giovanni after she breaks up with David is a good scene because it helps show more of her character and how she feels without going too much into her inner thoughts. This scene is hilarious and adds a funny element to the story on how they still keep the curse words up on their wall.
Three specific scenes that are unessential to be used in the movie are when whole chapter when he sister came to see her and the backstory of her sister, when she goes the sports game with Luca Spaghetti, and when she talks about how she went to Russia when she was 16 . These scenes would need to be cut out of the story because they take the focus away from the main point of the book or they are boring and unnecessary. The backstory of her sister and when her sister comes is a good part to cut out for the movie because it’s something just random and it’s a quick scene. The only thing it shows is that she is completely different from her sister. This scene doesn’t have to do with anything related to her in the book it just shows some culture of a very small group in Italy. You don’t need that scene because it doesn’t follow the storyline and completely strays from what she is talking about in the story.
-TheKillerGrapes-
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