Blur: Authors Background

Recently I had stopped by the library, searching for something new to read. Most of the books I've read lately have been pretty similar, mostly focusing on different dystopias which could take hold in our future society. But as I read the introduction to this book, I instantly felt intrigued to continue reading it. The authors use of suspense and thrill right at the beginning of the book really caught my attention allowing me to seize interest in the story from the very start.

I decided to do some research on the author of the book, Steven James before I continued to read any further into the book so that maybe I'll grasp a sense of his writing.

Steven James is an award winning author who's written dozens of books throughout his career as well as the well known Patrick Bowers and Jevin Banks series. He has also won several awards such as three Christy Awards, two Publishers Weekly Awards along with being the finalist for the International Thriller Award. Majority of the book that James writes are thrillers, stories which have you sitting up at the very edge of your seat, chewing your nails while anticipating what will happen next. As well as being an author James has also acquired a degree in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University. Not only does he just write all his books based of the genres of suspense and thrillers, but he also prides himself in writing inspirational nonfiction novels.

 I'm really excited to read the book Blur, because from what I've read of it so far I can tell its going to be another one of his hit thriller novels. His use of imagery throughout his writing really brings the story to life for example on page 18 when he describes what Daniel sees at Emily's funeral, "Emily was still lying there but had tilted her head and was staring at him, her eyes ghostly white, drained of color. She opened her mouth slightly and a trickle of stale water oozed out... Right before his eyes, weeds from the soft-bottomed lake appeared in her hair. Her clothes became soaked. The color of her skin changed from imitation-Caucasin-white to the bluish gray shade of death" After reading this descriptive paragraph of how Daniel claimed to see Emily's dead body at her funeral, it tends to creep the reader out. The astonishing change of her dead, harmless looking, lifeless body transforms in front of his very eyes into a breathing demon whom he thinks is trying to tell him something about her death. That the girl, Emily who no one seemed to have noticed when see was alive had not been killed by accident. The incorporation of such vivid imagery and frequent use of figurative language in the book allows it to become more interesting and enjoyable to read overall.  

Fall of Five: Characters

In the book Fall of Five there are multiple main characters, but one of the most important characters from my perspective was Sam Goode. He has been a reoccurring character in the series starting out as being Fours first friend in Ohio. Their friendship grows over time by bonding over how Four is an actual alien and how Sam's dad helped the Garde and their Cepans arrive on Earth. Over the span of the series Sam accompany's  John and the numbers on their mission as well as being on the hunt for his missing father. In the previous book, at the end Sam gets captured by the Mogadorians (who are the second alien race who have come to Earth, and are the sole enemies of the Garde). He is then imprisoned in a Mogadorian base where Four had no way of rescuing him, forcing Four to abandon Sam and run to save his own life. So at the beginning of the book Sam is a prisoner of the Mogadorians but his only thought for all the months he was imprisoned were just about escaping and finding the Garde so he could continue on to help them fight to restore Lorian. This shows what a great and loyal friend Sam is because even though he knew befriending Four would make his life more dangerous then he could even imagine, he didn't let that fact come in the way of their friendship. So finally when Sam escapes the Mogadorian base along with his father they located the Garde and return with them to their safe house in Chicago. When all the numbers plus Sam, his father and Sarah sit down at dinner to discuss further strategies Five speaks up and says, "These two were actually in contact with the Mogs, like, weeks ago. Hanging out. And you're just going to trust them?" (pg 214, Lore) and to this piece of doubt Four answers confidently, "Yes... I trust them with my life." This statement made by Four just shows what a trusting and genuine person Sam must be if Four, whos life is on line is so willing to let someone who could be potentially dangerous get so involved with the Garde when they're so close to winning this war.

The Fall of Five: Introduction

Recently I began to read the book The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore. It is the fourth book in the I am Number Four series and continues the quest of John and the Numbers trying to find Five, the only Lorite missing from their group. So the story starts out from the perspective of Sam, who at the time was being held in a Mogadorian cell and was tortured for information. Of course his loyalty towards the Garde and their "secrets" was too strong for even the Mogadorians to crack through so instead they just keep him captive for several months. When finally one day the rescue of Sam Goode arrives by none other then his known to be missing father and an apparent helpful Mogadorian. His first reaction of overwhelming joy when he sees his father after searching for him for years makes him forget about the Mogadorian, but as soon as he comes to his senses so does the idea that this could just be another trap set up by Setrakus Ra. But he knows for sure by his instincts that the man standing in front of him is his father one hundred percent and anyone his father trusts he should trust as well. So the next thing that happens surprises Sam almost as much as seeing his father allied with their apparent enemies, Adam the pro-Garde Mogadorian uses a sort of legacy (which only the Garde are supposed to have) to break Sam out of his jail. He doesn't get much time to respond to just viewing a Mog use a legacy on his run to escape his prison, neither giving him a chance to thank Adam for setting him free because the wall collapses allowing only Sam and his father to escape while leaving Adam trapped in the base. After they finally get far enough from the base and have a chance to rest Sam states, "During the the fight, he-- he made the ground shake. It was like he had a Legacy." (178, Lore). To that Sam's father replies his discovery he learned from meeting Adam, "Something happened to him during the experiment... Well I guess I'm saying... what if Adam inherited that Legacy because One wanted him to?" (179, Lore). The revelation that Garde are able to pass on their Legacy's opens new possibilities to fighting the Mogadorians and now knowing that Adam is on their side there could even be more like him who could be willing to help the Garde against Setrakus Ra to restore Lorian to its previous state.

This picture shows the cover of the book The Fall of Five, with its background being the Loriac symbol. This allows you to be able to foreshadow what might later happen in the book, such as a possible death of one of the numbers.

Krista Ramsey

Krista Ramsey:

The third aritcle I read written by Krista Ramsey was called " Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love books" which was an article on a third grade teacher who was preparing her students for the OAA's. But the article stressed how it was important for the kids to actually enjoy reading fro their own pleasure and not just do it because they have to.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/15/krista-ramsey-third-grade-reading-guarantee/6475723/


While I read this article written by Ramsey, I noticed her variety of diction and syntax used in this particular piece of writing wasn't as wide as some of her other pieces of writing that I had previously read. She used simple everyday words which helped her get straight to the point she was trying to make through her writing. One specific line I picked out from the article was, "While she knows the test is about ensuring that every student who passes to fourth grade is an able reader, she can’t help but feel it’s also about her." So this line uses simple and everyday diction, which makes the article fairly easy to read and understand. Also the sentence structure she had used throughout her piece of writing was mostly short sentences, or sentences connected together with commas. This quote from her column is a great example to demonstrate how her writing was modeled for this specific article, sentences which are short in length, and make a statement while getting to the point.

Overall, after reading these three articles I find that the writing style of Ramsey is more factual and can be backed up or proved by actual statistics rather than being completely opinionated and just backed up by her beliefs. In the first article we read called "For better vision, kids need time outdoors", Ramsey wrote about how studies support this topic. "'In his work with University of Cincinnati sports teams, Clark sees athletes who either don't register as much in their peripheral vision or don't fully trust what they see. He believes lifestyle changes may play a crucial part." This line from the article supports her use of facts to back up her topic. In the second article I read by Ramsey called "Super Bowl QBs score points for great style" talked about how dressing better and more professionally can make you appear to seem or even be more successful. "we are all part of a collective experience and that we honor each other and ourselves when we care about how we're dressed and groomed." So this specific quote from the article supports her style of writing and how she continues to use statistics to prove that her claim in legitimate. And lastly the third article I read by Ramsey was "Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love books" which was an article on how the teacher Jeni Ernsthausen wanted not only to teach her students the basics to get them to pass their tests, but go above and beyond so that she could get her kids to actually enjoy reading as well. “'I’m not going to drill and kill them with a test, because I would be bored as a teacher, and we would all lose our minds,' she says with a laugh. Then she stops laughing. 'The OAA is a big deal, but I don’t want kids to hate reading.'” This quote from the article supports how the fact is that kids can begin to hate reading if they are forced to do it, but if they have a fun and exciting teacher who would actually make reading fun then there is more of a chance that those kids would enjoy reading more as they grow up.

Some questions that I would have about Ramsey's writing would be:

1) What are some of the things that inspire you to come up with the topics you choose to write about?

2) Do you prefer writing in the same sort of writing style in all your columns that you write, or do you prefers to include different types of writing styles in each of your pieces?

3) Did you always imagine yourself to become a columnist writer, even when you were in college or high school?

Divergent Connections

Divergent Connections:

While I was reading the book Divergent, I noticed several text to text connections I could make with books that i had previously read. The main story line behind the book was that a new socitey had been created where the population is divided into five factions based on how the persons mind worked. So if they were truthful they would belong in Candor, peaceful Amity, brave Dauntless, intelligent Erudite, and selfless Abnegation. The book was based on a dystopian society just like the book I had read called Maze Runner. In this book though, the characters are placed into a Maze while having their memories taken away from them. Then the people who are placed in the maze have to learn to work together and create/rebuild a society of thier own. And the main purpose of the book was that their wasnt just one maze, but multiple maze's in which they entered the people so they could examine they abilities. So the point where I thought that these two books had some sort of connection or similar story line was when I looked back at the entire story and compared the two. In Divergent, they set up the society with factions that was separate from the rest of the world around them so that they could put the "best" and most "sane" people from the outside world in there and watch them to see what made them better than the others. The world around them was shattered and broken and dangerous to live in while the society almost provided them with a sort of "safe haven". In the The Maze Runner, its also very similar because a group of special kids who have rare traits that many people would kill to have, are placed in a Maze where they can be analyzed and studied to see what caused them to have these special traits. Then those who live outside the Maze live in a threatening and fearful environment which they were hoping to fix by developing a cure. This proves how the books have a fairly similar story line because they both are some sorts of "experiments", they are both based on a dystopian society, they both talk about how in the future the world starts to crumble to pieces and they need to come up with ways to help fix it, and they both include a main character who is aided by friends to take down those that are in control of them. Also there is a connection between the main characters in both of the books. In Divergent the main character Tris makes the choice to leave Abnegation even though, "few people who are born into Abnegation choose to leave it. When they do, we remember." (pg 34, Roth) This choice of hers was out of the norm and not what most people would. its what helped define her as brave. In the Maze Runner, Thomas the main character also has to make a difficult choice where either he has to lose all his memories and enter an experiment where he could help contribute to save the world or instead stay on the outside as he was doing and just continuing to watch the experiment progress slowly. The choice that the two of them had to make was not only life changing to them but it also had a greater impact on the world around them as well.

Divergent: Characters

The book Divergent, by Veronica Roth has been by far one of the best books I've read. The way she wrote the book so descriptively made me really enjoy the book. Also the characters she included in the books made it even better because I loved how she made it as if you could relate to the characters on some level even though their lives and the society they lived in was so different from ours today. The characters were unique and each had some sort of feature that made them stand out in a particular way.

One of the main characters in the book was Beatrice Prior. She was the daughter of one of the leaders in the Abnegation faction that she was born and raised in. Even though she had grown up for sixteen years in Abnegation, she never felt like she belonged. So when the choosing ceremony finally approaches she finds that she was right. She didn't belong in just Abnegation, but Dauntless and Erudite as well. People with this ability were called Divergents. Those who were found out to be Divergent were hunted down by the "government" in fear that they might one day rise up and overthrow the society and change the rules which would cause unorder and chaos. So to save her life Beatrice must have to hide her Divergence, but then the question becomes which faction would be best suited for her to hide her Divergence in, while still living a life she had one day hoped for. Her choice of choosing Dauntless as her new faction made me think of her as a risk-taker, someone who's not only brave but also thinks on a deeper level and provides meaning to the actions she takes. "And if my life here continues as it has been, it may soon be the least of the wedges between us. But I understand now what Tori said about her tattoo representing... a reminder of where she was, as well as a reminder of where she is now. Maybe there is a way to honor my old life as I embrace my new one." (pg 205, Roth) I find the quote to be a perfect description to show how Tris thinks, because it shows how shes brave enough to try something new, something shes been taught all her life has been wrong. To get a tattoo. To the others its seems normal but to Tris it represents her complete transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless. But not only does she get the tattoo so that she could belong in the factions shes in now, but also as a reminder of her old faction and her family that she had to leave behind.

This video linked above gives the actors perspectives and thoughts on the characters they were to play in the movie. I found it quite interesting to see how they related and connected to their roles giving me a new view on the characters which were written in the book.

Divergent: Book Review

Recently I finished reading the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. In my opinion I would say this book is by far one of the best I've ever read. The way the author vividly wrote the story by including detailed descriptions of the characters and settings really brought the book to life, and made it possible for the reader to picture the scenes in their minds. Also all the suspense and surprises in the story make the reader want to keep on reading the book, making it close to impossible to put it down.

So the book Divergent is a dystopia based on the main character Beatrice Prior. The world she lives in requires the children when they turn sixteen to take a test that will determine the rest of their lives. What the test does is determine what faction they would be best suited to. There are five factions; Amity the peaceful, Abnegation the selfless, Erudite the intelligent, Dauntless the brave and Candor the honest. Beatrice lives in the faction of Abnegation with her brother Caleb. Unlike her brother who acted selfless naturally, Beatrice always felt out of place in her own faction. When she turned sixteen and was ready to take her test she hoped that it would finally answer her questions and help her decide who she was destined to be. But when she recieves her test results, they turn out to be nothing like she expected. She finds out that not only would she fit in to one faction, but three. She learns that the people with this ability are called Divergent. And not only are they rare, but they are also considered dangerous and are hunted down by the government. Her decision to hide her divergence and remain in Abnegation with her family or choose another faction hoping to start a new life can change everything. What will she choose?