The Longest Ride Predictions

After finishing The Lucky One, I decided to read The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks, his latest book. I am not very far into this book but I already know that it will be a good one. I already have lots of questions and predictions floating around in my head.

Ira- He is curently sitting in his torn up car, unable to move, freezing, and with many of his ones broken after a bad accident. He is 91 and on the verge of death as he waits for somebody to find him and take him to the hospital. He is bewildered by the fact that his wife that has passed away is with him at this time. He is sure that he is dying and he starts to reminise on the biggest events of his life. At this point, he is not ready to die but as soon as he remebers all the great things he has been through in his life he will realize that there is nothing he hasn't done and he is preparded to die.

Sophia- As Ira struggles with life threatening things, Sophia is struggling with her ex boyfriend who was basically stalking her and wont leave her alone. She wants nothing to do with him but he doesnt feel the same way. Of all things, he follows her to a rodeo and tries to make things good between them but when Sophia doesnt agree with him, he gets very angry and won't let go of her. This is when a "cowboy", significantly smaller than Brian, steps in and gets him away from her. I think that this will be the start of a new relationship for Sophia and the cowboy. After everything that has happened with her i believe she will tell the cowboy everythinfg and they will somehow find themselves spending a lot of time together.

Characters

I finally finished The Lucky One. Overall this was just a well written intriguing book for many reasons. One of those reasons is the characters. The characters were very well developed and relatable.

Logan Thibault- Logan is a veteran who suffers from PTSD. His PTSD and the passing of his best friend, is what i believe pushed him to find the girl in the picture he found during war that was supposedly his "good luck charm". He went on a very long journey, on foot, to find this woman. This tells you how determined Logan is. He is also very strong willed and he perseveres through many things.

Keith- Keith is the main antagonist is this book. He is very manipulative and he has many secrets that he would do anything to keep. He is also very self centred and feels as if he always needs to be in control. In the end these characteristics do him no justice and he ends up in a bad place.

Beth- Beth is overall a  very caring person. Having said this, she has troubles forgiving people and moving on from her past. When she finds out that Logan came to look for her because of the picture and his suspicions that it was the reason he is stayed alive during war, she becomes very angry and wants nothing more to do with him. This is because that picture was her brothers and was meant to keep him alive during war, not Logan, and it failed. From this she has a hard time deciding if she should continue to let Logan into her life.

Overall the characters in this book become very developed by the end and it feels as if you really know them.

Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks is by far my favorite author. He writes in a way that draws the reader’s attention in and creates a feeling of suspense. I have read many of his books including The Last Song, Safe Haven, and The Notebook. I love each one of these books all for the same reason; they are relatable and full of cliffhangers. He usually begins his books with a vague problem or journey that the character is facing. I think that this is how he draws the reader’s attention in. By portraying a "snippet" of the conflict, he creates suspense which makes the readers want to keep reading so that they can seek out the whole conflict and what the basis is for it. Another great thing about Nicholas Spark books is the ending. The ending is always my favorite because he always throws in a big plot twist that was not expected at all. To me, plot twists capture attention like no other. Once I discover the plot twist I can't stop reading.

I am currently reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Like usual he begins this book with a character who reveals conflict and foreshadows future events. What really grabbed my attention in the introduction of this book is how he introduced the character. He introduces Logan, the main character, as strong willed and calm by putting him in a situation with the police. The police officer Keith, was introduced as a troubled man that is always doing things that he shouldn't be. I knew that he was going to be the main antagonist in the story just by the way he was described. It excites me to be reading another Nicholas Sparks novel because I know that I will love it.

Blog Reflections

I believe that over the course of this trimester I have grown as a blogger.  When looking at all of my blogs one things stand out over everything else, the use of textual information. Not once in my blog post from the beginning of the year did I use actual textual evidence to support my thinking. Now, I reference the text in all my posts. I think that using textual evidence in blog posts really helps the people reading to understand what you are trying to say and helps set the tone of your post, the book itself, and the characters within the book. Another difference is the grammar. In the beginning of the year I was not the best with sentence structure and spelling in my posts and now my posts are mostly grammatically correct.

There were a few things I battled with all trimester while blogging. One of my biggest struggles was trying to figure out what about my book to blog about. I encountered this problem when I first started my book because I didn’t have enough information to blog about theme or the characters so I would settle with just posting a summary. Over the trimester I decided to broaden this and I would blog about connections and how they helped to better my understanding on my own book. One of my strengths was that I was really good at explaining and elaborating on a topic to help not only the understanding of the reader, but my own. Unfortunately I didn’t make my reading goal, but I plan to keep working it at it! I actually used goodreads.com a great amount. When I would finish a book I would go to goodreads.com and read recommendations on what I should read next. I also liked the fact that I could see what my friends were reading and how they liked their books. Over the course of the trimester I have become a very more active reader. When I read I question a lot of the choices characters make, the author’s purpose, and tone. Also, if I don’t understand what’s going on in my book I keep breaking it down or rereading it instead of just skipping over it. Overall the blog has helped me to grow as a reader and blogger.

Want to Read

After reading, The Truth About Forever, I would like to read another book by Sarah Dessen. After looking through good reads i decided to I wanted to read Along For the Ride.  I think this book drew me in because it takes place in a beachtown, which are my favorite places to take a vacation to, and because it is about a girl who is trying to find her true self, which is always interesting. Sarah Dessen writes books that seem very easy to connect to, which makes all books easier to understand. If you can't connect to a book then there is no point in reading it. Also, i like the little, but intense suspense she creates in all parts of her books. Especially the end. I can't wait to start reading this book!

Romeo and Juliet

In class we are currently reading Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Although this book is very difficult to understand at first, once you break it down it is easier to tell what is happening in the story. Right now our class is pondering on the thought of Romeo and Juliet being in love at first sight, and whether it is true. I believe that this is not true because Romeo claimed to be in love with Juliet without even speaking to her, which does not seem like you could love someone before meeting them. Also, after having the debate in class, i believe that that Romeo and Juliet have lust at first sight and infatuation. The signs for this are urgency and neediness. They fell like they have to be with eachother at all times, this is infatuation.  To be in love means something deeper than being attracted to someone, you must get to know them for who they are and not just fall in love with the looks of the person. This is why i think that Romeo and Juliet are not in love.

Book Recomendation "The Truth About Forever"

I highly recommend the book The Truth About Forever. I really enjoyed this book for one many reason. This reason is that the plot itself is very easy to relate, and easy to follow so there is barely any room for confusion. In the boook Sarah Dessen does a great job of creating cliffhangers or suspense, especially with Wes and Macy's game of "truth". In this game a person must ask the opponent a personal thought provoking question and they must answer truthfully or else they lose the game. Many times in this book Wes will hint about a queation he will ask next but then the conversation ends and he doesnt have enough time to ask it so you must wait until the next time they play truth to figure out what the question was. I love books like this. They make me want to just skip to the end of the book to find out what happens immiedialtey. In my opinion, suspense is the kep to a good book. Without suspense, it's like you are reading an ongoing book that never has any excitement. Without suspense, a book is not worth reading. Although this book is very predictable, the suspense makes up for it.

Here is some more information on Sarah Dessen's book and why she wrote it. More Information: Sarah Dessen

Characters

Macy Queen: Macy has developed and changed a great amount throughout this book so she is round and dynamic. In the beginning of the book she was very quiet about her feelings, introverted, and close-minded. Once she met and started working with Delia at Wish catering she begin to change. She slowly started opening up to each person who worked there; Wes, Kristy, Delia, and Monica. Mostly she opened up to Wes. I believe that she did this because they both lost someone that they loved and they felt like they could relate to one another. He made Macy realize that she couldn't do anything to bring her dad back, and that talking about him and remembering all the memories that they had together was a good thing. By the end of the book Macy was openly talking about her dad and all of her feelings and she didn't feel like she had to be perfect.

Predictions

I think in my book Macy will finally stand up to the girls at the library who are mean to her, then she will quit and start working more with Delia. I think this because at the end of the chapter Macy was talking about how she wasn't going to try and be perfect anymore.  I also think that she will tell Delia about her dad and then Macy will tell Delia everything that she has kept bottled up for so long. After this I feel like Delia will become close to a second mom to Macy instead of just her boss. Through both of these things I think that both of the characters will become very developed.

Theme

So far I think one of the themes in my book, The Truth About Forever, is one should not care what anyone else thinks about them and one cannot be perfect.  I think this because in my book Macy is always trying to be the perfect student, kid, employee, and she is so afraid of making mistakes and worried about what people will think of her if she does something wrong that she lets worry take over her life. On pages 112-113 Macy finally realizes that she can’t please anyone and even if she tries she will not succeed.  It says, “Then, about a year and a half too late, it hit me.  I was never going to be perfect.  And what had all my efforts gotten me, really, in the end?  A boyfriend who pushed me away the minute I cracked, making the mistake of being human.  Great grades that would still never be good enough for the girls who Knew Everything.  A quiet, still life, free of any risks, and so many sleepless nights to spend within it, my heart heavy, keeping secrets my sister had empowered herself by telling. This life was fleeting, and I was still searching for the way I wanted to spend it that would make me happy, full, okay again.” (Dessen 112-113). This passage from the book showcases how Macy realizes that she should let go of all her worries and insecurities and do what makes her happy.

Summary

In my book right now there is a lot going on. Macy is taking on two jobs, her boyfriend ended their relationship, her moms business isn't doing very well, she's beginning to have feelings for a new guy, you get the idea. It's all raining over her once so calm life.  She doesn't know how to handle it all and thats why she turns to catering with Delia, for some reason the chaos and people provide comfort for her. In hidden ways, Delia and her employees are teaching Macy many life lessons and Macy has yet to realize it. All these little lessons will eventually benefit Macy and help her move on from all her struggles.

Connections

Text to Text: On text to text connection, The Truth About Forever had a big connection to the book The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.The connection I made was that in both of these books the main characters dads both died, and they regretted their actions towards them before this happened. In the book The Truth About Forever, Macy regretted that she didn't wake up to go running with her dad, if she had, he might not have died from the heart attack he encountered while running. In the book the Last Song, Ronnie regretted how badly she treated her father and how much she ignored him. Once she found out that he was going to die she quickly changed her attitude and tried to make up for all the times she had treated him badly. Overall, both Ronnie and Macy lost someone they loved and felt like they both could have been better daughters to their fathers.

Text to Self: I connected the character Delia to myself. On page 93 of The Truth About Forever Delia says, "It's not that I believe everything happens for a reason, it's just that... I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's just the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is." I think that what Delia means by this is that if you never have anything bad happen to you or if you avoid all imperfections, you won’t know how to handle anything big that happens to you, like something bad or life changing. I agree with her when she says this because all life’s imperfection and chaos is just preparing you for the future.

 Text to World: I connected the worlds “knowing” to this book. Once Macy’s dad died, everyone knew, and Macy was no longer Macy, she was “the girl whose dad died”. In many cases this still happens today, if something tragic happens everybody knows about it so they often do things out of pity and don’t know you for who you really are.

Summary

I am currently reading the book The Truth About Forever. It is about a girl who is trapped in her inner thoughts because of the death of her father. She strongly believes that it is her fault that he dies. When he woke her up and asked her if she wanted to go running with him, like they always did, she said no and continued to sleep. After a few minutes she decided to get up and go running. She started down the usual route and found her dad suffering from a heart attack, and later to find that was what killed him.

Now that she has this heavy burden weighing her down she becomes lonely and lost in her thoughts. This is what urges her to join the catering business, chaos and all, with Delia. This made her feel like she was apart of something and she never felt alone. She also has a special connection with Wes, who also works with Delia, and after her recent break up with her boyfriend, she clicks with him even more. I am really enjoying this book and can't wait to read more.

Characters

I am reading The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen and there are two main characters so far.

One of the main characters in this book is Macy Queen. She is a very introverted person. She keeps mostly all her thoughts to herself because she doesn't really know how to express them. Part of the reason why she is this way is because her dad died, and she thought it was her fault. She was woken up by her father and he asked if she wanted to go running with her and she said no. Five minutes later she decided that she would go so she went outside to find that her dad had a heart attack and needed to be rushed to the hospital. She often feels guilty because she knew that if she had decided to go running with him right when he asked her she would have been there to help him. She also feels like she is always alone and made fun of by all the very intelligent people. This is when she decides to join a catering business with Delia who is almost the exact opposite of Macy.

Delia is a very open minded and out going person.  She runs a very chaotic beusiness and finds joy within it.  She also belives that everything happens for a reason and you shouldnt fight that reason. I believe that once Macy opens up to Delia aboaut what happend to her dad, Delia will come back to talking about this again. Delia is very nice, open, and compasionate in this book and I feel like more character traits will be revealed as i get further into the book.

Book Recomendation: "Safe Haven"

Safe Haven is about a woman named Katie who is married to an abusive man, Kevin, and doesn't know what to do.  She has tired to escape multiple times, but each time he will hunt her down and bring her home and beat her.  Katie finally comes up with a master plan to escape from Kevin and she runs away to Southport, a small town in North Carolina. She meets a man named Alex and his kids, Kristen and Josh. She begins to fall in love with whole family but in the back of her mind she knows Kevin is looking for her... but she was more worried about whether he would actually find her or not.




I highly recommend the book Safe Haven to anyone who likes realistic fiction.  This book was the most suspenseful book I have ever read, it was really hard to put down.  I find suspense very important in a book because without it there is nothing that motivates me to keep reading.  Also Nicholas Sparks leaves you with a lot of foreshadowing which makes you question and predict what is going to happen next, which makes you an active reader. I think that one of the best features this book has to offer is that it is told in many different point of views which lets you know what everyone is thinking and doing in the book.  

Room by Emma Donoghue

This summer i read the book Room by Emma Donoghue. This book was about a woman who was abducted by a man named Nick, and held "prisoner" in a shed in his backyard.  A couple years later she had a kid named Jack.  Because Jack was born in Room he had never experienced the outside world,  he thought it was all fake, or as he like to say "thats in T.V".  MA knew that this was not good for Jack's childhood so after 7 years of only living in Room she decided to try and escape although it was very risky and dangerous.  Believe it or not, thats the easy part.  The hard part is adjusting to the outside world and to the fact that there are other people than just Ma and Jack.  Thats where the real challenge lays. 

This is a video that shows you the feeling and perspective of the book.  This will help you understand what this book is about and the point of view it is written from. It also shows you the struggles and problems that are in the book and gives you a preview of what to expect if you decide to read this book.

The main theme in the book Room is change can be hard and scary.  This theme is not evident until Ma and Jack decide to try and escape from Old Nick.  The farther into the book, the more apparent the theme is. The theme applies mostly to Jack.  This is because the change he is scared of is the outside, where he has never been before and Ma has. When Jack first goes into the outside he doesnt like it because it is different from room in many ways.  When it comes to all of his routines he refuses to do them in a different order than they did in Room.  Overall Jack just does not like to encounter change.


I really enjoyed reading this book.  I loved how it was very suspenseful and hard to put down.  I also liked how it was told from the point of view from a 5 year, so you had to infer what things meant.  I recommend this book to anybody who loves realistic fiction.

This article tells you all the main ideas in Room and all the awards it has won.  It also tells you the inspiration of this book and shows you the reviews people have posted about it.
Room Article