Honors Book Review: The Beautiful and the Damned

Honors Book Review: Bread Givers

Last week was a roller coaster of "up's" and "down's". My first up started on Monday when I figured out how I can make some code that I'm working on more compact and more likely to succeed. It was followed by the down of me learning that over One World Week, I wouldn't be able to work on the robot that I've been coding as I had planned. A later up happened on Friday when I got a good laugh out of the TAP Poetry session, but was followed by a down when I realized that since I shared all of my poems, I have nothing original to read at the class reading. On Saturday, there was a tractor accident that occurred on the way to the robotics competition in LA that I was going to. The traffic practically came to a stop as 5 lanes had to merge into 1. The two hour car ride turned into a 5 hour car ride and we were a bit late to the competition. On the upside, this gave me time to finish Bread Givers.

Bread Givers was an interesting read, and while I was getting bored of the whole poverty thing since this has been the third book about poverty in a row that I have read, I give it props. The book seemed to be tied up a bit nicer than in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Angela's Ashes, but it wasn't tied too nicely. It kept some ends open to leave to the reader's imagination, but it also ended on a somewhat happy note with the main character, Sara, marrying the man that she wants to marry, and her father becoming accepting of her marriage in spite of his past disapproval of it.

There were a lot of themes that I have seen that happen in Angela's Ashes and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn that connected to this book such as coming of age, children becoming responsible and taking care of the family, and fathers impeding the progress of the family.

Of all the parts of the book, there was one quote that stood out to me for some strange reason:

"Like a drowning person clinging to a rope, my tired body edged up to that door and clung to it. My hands clutched the knob. This door was life. It was air. The bottom starting-point of becoming a person. I simply must have this room with the shut door. And I must make this woman rent it to me. If I failed to get it, I'd drop dead at her feet."

This was the turning point of the book, so it makes some sense as to why I remembered it so well, but it goes quite a bit deeper than that. It was one of the first times I was able to understand the deeper meaning of  a quote the first time I read it. As if it all made perfect sense and the meaning of it was written in the next paragraph. When she says that the door is life, she is referring to her new life - the one she wants to start. When she says that the door was air, she was referring to a space for herself. A space where she can breathe without a family member telling her how she should live her life. At the surface level, this door was a place for her to study and start living a happier life, but underneath the surface, the door was a way for her to discover herself outside of what her parents forced her to be.

In the end of the book, when her father accepts the new her and her new lifestyle (far different than the person he wanted to raise her to become), it does tie up the story in a nice bow, but there were still many unfortunate problems like her sisters whom were all unhappy with their lives and marriages and of course the passing of her mother. I think that if you like happy endings, then this book is for you. If you don't like happy endings, I still think you will find satisfaction in this book. It was very well written and in spite of my fatigue towards the topic of poverty in the 1920's, I still would give this book a 4.5/5 rating.

New York City - 1920: An image expidition

Honors book review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

"Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better."

Those were the first three sentences of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Having not known what either Serene or Somber meant, I had a feeling that this book was going to be a difficult read.

I found it to be very similar to Angela's Ashes in many ways and thought it was kind of interesting to read both of them at the same time. In both books, the main characters belong to catholic families that are poor, although I would argue that Frank's family (from Angela's Ashes) is considerably worse off than Francie's (from a Tree Grows in Brooklyn). Both books are about Irish families, although Frank's family left America for Ireland while Francie's family left Ireland two generations prior for America, and haven't left since. The fathers of both families have drinking problems, sing songs, and generally have a lack of a job; although the details on the drinking problem are heavier and more frequent in Angela's Ashes than in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I thought it was interesting that in Limerick, people from northern Ireland were commonly discriminated against and people from America were called "Yanks" while in America, the same was true towards the Irish. Irish people were called "Potato Poachers" in America. Consumption was also a big deal in New York during the early 1900's apparently, as it was also something that occurred frequently in the book. In both books, the family moved due to the mother not wanting to remember/deal with/look back upon past events. In Angela's ashes, these events are deaths of family members. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, this event is Johnny's drinking problem.

Similarities aside, I really enjoyed how the ending of the book tied back to the beginning where Florry Wendy, who was 10 years old, was watching Francie from the fire escape, just like Francie would watch others from the fire escape when she was 11.

When I read the first two sentences from this book, I guessed that it was going to be a hard read and therefore, most likely, a boring read. I couldn't have been more wrong. I guess that really puts the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" into perspective.

All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot. Perhaps it was because I could compare it to Angela's Ashes as I read it. Or perhaps it had the realism of a biography, while having the symbolism and feel that generally only comes with fictional stories. Nonetheless, I would give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed it a lot.

Honors Assignment: Map of New York City in 1920's

Here is a map that I found that cover most of New York City in the 1920's (Fun fact: New York City is the world's largest city in terms of land area at 8,683 square kilometers).

The map was rather easy to find. I remembered copying down a map of Long Island in Randy's class as it would have been in the 1920's based on The Great Gatsby, but after searching for an hour and a half, I couldn't find it. So this map will replace the map that I failed to find.

• Edith Wharton lived in Manhattan (see just to the right of the compass in the map).
• F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in Long Island for most of his life (Closer to the middle of the right edge of the map)
• Claude McKay lived in Manhattan (Only found one source stating this. The others just said New York, which could mean the metropolis or the state.)

CPR Post Reading Blog: Book #1 - To Kill a Mockingbird

When I asked people about To Kill a Mockingbird, most, if not all of them told me that it was about a court case. Naturally, I imagined other court case stories that I have seen as movies (I don't read much) such as A Few Good Men or My Cousin Vinny. This made the book to be quite a big surprise for me and after reading it, I wouldn't describe To Kill a Mockingbird as a story about a court case at all. I would consider describing the story as "being about a court case" the equivalent of putting a clown mask over a man's face and saying his face is that of a clown. It just simply isn't so.

After reading the first 50 pages of To Kill a Mockingbird, I was confused. I still hadn't seen a court case in the book. All I had seen was this little girl named scout and what would be a day in the life during her younger years. This did not, however, discourage me from reading the book. I hadn't found it that enjoyable to read at that time, but I kept reading anyways in the hopes that I hadn't just wasted 50 pages of my life.

I kept reading on and over time came to enjoy the book. It pointed out some things to me which helped me discover what the book was about as a whole. In my opinion, To Kill a Mockingbird isn't about a court case. It's a coming-of-age story about a little girl and the important life lessons she learned while growing up. I believe those lessons to be:

1. Don't take advantage of someone who cannot defend themselves or has done no harm to you. This lesson is mentioned multiple times and is brought up near the beginning of the book in the words: "Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
2. Try to see the situation from somone else's perspective. This is something that Scout Finch doesn't grasp until much later in the book.
3. Don't give up even if you know you will lose. This is shown throughout the court case that happens in the second half of the book. This is a concept that even I have trouble grasping, but believe that I understand a bit better from this book.

Overall, I found the book to be very interesting by the end. The lessons that I took away from the book also gave it more value to me than something purely for entertainment purposes. I would rate the book with a 3.5 out of 5 star rating, mostly because I simply wasn't interested in the book until later on when all the small things started to come together like a french braid. While the slow beginning helped to make the ending and the lessons more memorable for me, it still didn't make up for the fact that I didn't enjoy reading it until I got farther in.

Soundblog Post 6

Soundblog Post 5

My So-Called Lungs:

Girlfriend:

Soundblog Post 4

A Change of Plans:

Tim King, a soon to be president, became a teacher in hopes for it to further push his career plan of becoming president. He became friends with a student named Keith and they developed a close relationship. Keith's mother died later, and one thing led to another. Eventually, Tim became Keith's father. Now Tim runs a charter schooling organization to help "all the Keith's of the world" live a good life and be loved. Keith works in that organization and still considers Tim as family. This story as well as the one below it is from The Moth, however requires iTunes to listen to. It should be noted, however, that the story below this one can be viewed without iTunes. Five questions I might have asked to make this story work would be:

• Could you briefly explain your childhood and career plans?
• What stopped you from becoming president?
• Could you tell me about your relationship with Keith when you and Keith first met?
• Could you tell me about how you and Keith became family?
• Where is Keith now? How is he doing?

The six major points I could find from this story that help make the story as good as it is are: the part where Keith says "Why can't you be my dad?", because it was a very shocking question that is hard to answer; Tim's thoughts afterwords such as how this would ruin his plans of becoming the first black president of the US, because it gave some very good insight to Tim and who he was prior to adopting Keith; the point when Tim said "yes", because he only said that word, and it seemed that because it was one word, it described a very sharp turning point in his life (the entire story changes here); the part where he describes how Keith had to live like an adult and now was able to live like a kid again, and how Tim was living like a kid with a bank account, and now has to live like an adult; how Keith is now grown up, went to college, and became a teacher for the organization that Tim leads, which specializes in changing the lives of people like Keith; and finally the text message at the end of the story which read: "Our family is at the basketball game. Where are you? You should be here.". At the end of the story, Tim gets teary eyed because he reads the text again and the beginning of the text reads "Our family".

Beyond My Viewmaster Dream:

CPR Blog 1

The book I want to read is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. My brother spoke well of the book, and I would consider this book to be a classic. I have not read it yet, and so I decided to give it a shot. The book is apparently about a court case and I have never been disappointed by court case stories and have actually found them to be quite interesting. It also deals with racism and from what my brother has told me,brings up deep-thinking questions about humanity. I always like books like that. I often find those books to be the most memorable.

A lot of my family loves reading classics, and I have grown up around classics all my life. I am the only one in my family who hasn't read this book, and I figured that it was about time. Naturally, since my family loves reading classics, this book was readily available and I didn't have to go out and spend my own money on the book. This definitely helped in persuading me to pic this book as my first choice. I look forward to reading it.

Soundblog Post 3

Split a Gut:

Julian McCullough, a comedian, tells a story about his ruptured appendix. Although the injury is serious, being a comedian, he manages to make you laugh throughout the entire story. However, there are still parts that put that knot in your stomach that comes with hearing others' pain. This blog posts' stories are from This American Life. If this was an interview and I had to ask some questions to get the answers that would make this story, I would ask:

• Where did you start feeling pain? When did you start feeling it?
• Did you have healthcare? What did you do?
• Did you feel any addicting sensations from the morphine shot?
• Since you didn't have healthcare, how much did you have to pay for a bill?
• Did your friends help you out?

This story was very funny. I think this helped to make it successful as it put me at great ease on a subject that would normally be something to become queasy over. He still added details that would from time to time make me sick, but he also put jokes on it that made me laugh so loud the rest of the house heard me. Those details were: That his family's cure for problems was to "wait a few weeks", that he described the doctor as "the man who decides who gets to live" which I found to be hilarious in spite of the issue in the story, the complication with his past drug addiction problem in relations to the morphine shot, his description of how doctors should send the hospital bill in comparison to how they do now, his friends' solution to the money problem, and his solution that he came up with: $20 at a time.

Don't Make Me Separate You:

Steve and Dorris Darst divorced when one of their daughters, Jeanne, was 16. For a very long time, even though they were divorced, they didn't live together, but always near each other and joined each other for various occasions. They practically dated each other. This story is Jeanne's description of their relationship. If I could ask some questions to make this story what it is now, they would probably be:

• Can you describe your dad for me?
• How would you describe your parents' relationship?
• Did your mom ever go far away from your dad or vice-versa?
• Can you tell me some stories about your parents being together after they divorced?
• What do you think caused your fathers' asthma attack?

This story is kind of funny as well, but in a more dry sort of way. The details that make this story work are: the Christmas story in where she provides character to her mother and father as individuals so that we can see how they might have broken up based on their personalities and quirks; the Birthday story, where we see one of their fights in more detail; the part where she describes her mother's trip to Florida, which shows that the parents are incapable of leaving each other; The scene describing various fights they had in detail including the one time when they decided to live together for a short while, including the mention of how long they had done this fiasco; and finally, the part where her father says that their divorce "just didn't work out", which is a slight joke on the saying because it is usually used to describe a failed relationship rather than describe a failed divorce.

SoundBlog Post 2

Wake Up and Dream:

Steve Volkis a reporter who has been having a recurring dream for 20 years. This dream would happen when he has been under a lot of stress or anxiety and would show up 6 or so times a year for the 20 years that he has had them. He consults the studies of Stephen LaBerge, a scientist who scientifically explained the evidence behind lucid dreaming - the ability to be consciously aware of your dream and manipulate what happens in them. This story is about his studies and the results in his recurring dream. Questions I might ask regarding this story to reproduce answers similar to what is told in the podcast are:

•  How often did you have this dream? For how long?
• What might have caused you to have this dream?
• What is lucid dreaming?
• What happened when the guy walked in the door?
• How did you feel after waking up from your lucid dream?

I think the thing that made this podcast so interesting was the dream itself. The history on lucid dreaming was useful to keep track of the story, but the dream itself was where all the crazy interesting things happened. The details that I think made this story work were: When he said that he had it 6 times a year for 20 years, which showed just how big of a problem this nightmare was and gave the viewer a reason to care; when he mentioned that he was angry enough to feel sick and punch the air, it became an even bigger issue to me as I have never felt that angry and began to wonder what could cause such a thing; when in the dream, he decided to open the door, it created a whole new story from the one we were used to, which kept me personally interested to find out what happens next with this new twist; when the stranger pulled the gun on him and when the bullets didn't affect him; and finally when after the dream, he still felt like superman and had a newborn confidence to go with the lack of nightmares.

As a side note  I was thinking about what I said in my last blog post. I mentioned that I would be switching from StoryCorps to another source. I noticed that including StoryCorps, there are seven sources on Rachel's DP. These two are from RadioLab. I think I will try to visit each of the remaining 5 sites over the next 5 blog posts.

A 4-Track Mind:

Bob Milne, a ragtime pianist (and as proclaimed by the library of congress, a national treasure), is able to "play in his head", 4 symphonies at the same time. He was prompted at arbitrarily different times to imagine 4 different symphonies. When prompted to, he would have to sing out loud the next string of notes from any arbitrarily chosen symphony. They tested his accuracy by playing a cd of all the symphonies into different headphones for the scientists to follow in sync with the timings to which he should be imagining the symphonies. This means that his tempo and notes would have to be perfectly accurate. They were. I had a hard time coming up with questions for this one, but I think they would be:

• What happened at the facility? What did you do in the tests?
• Did any of the symphonies clash?
• How does Bob handle this musical feat?
• What emotions do you affiliate with different keys?
• Do you imagine yourself in the symphony? What do you picture when you hear these symphonies side by side?

I think the major thing that made this podcast interesting to me, is that Bob is a much more extreme version of myself. I too associate emotion with different keys, but not nearly to the extreme that he does. I too visualize my passion (which is more math rather than music), but not nearly as detailed or extravagant as what he visualizes. I also hated playing piano when I was younger, except my mom didn't make me play it so I don't currently. I definitely couldn't keep track of four symphonies simultaneously (however I am confident that with enough time working at it, I could be able to keep track of two). The details that made this podcast work in my opinion were: the description of the experiment itself as well as the fact that he was completely accurate; his associations of emotions with each key, such as the C key; his description of how he can see even the wrinkles on the tuxedos of each musician in the orchestra in his head; and of course the ending where the people who run the podcast say their gratitude at the same time. I had to go back through it a second time to catch all of it.

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I just hugged the man who murdered my son:

Mary Johnson's son was murdered in a gang fight by Oshea Israel when Oshea was 16. He was sent to prison until he was released at the age of 34. Mary met Oshea as he was released from prison. Now Mary and Oshea have a very good relationship. This story is about their relationship and their meeting at Stillwater Prison. This story is from storycorps, and so no questions were asked. If I had interviewed both Mary and Oshea, I would ask the following questions to get the information that would make the sound clip that is on the site:

Mary:

• How did you feel when you saw Oshea when he got out of prison?
• What happened to put you and Oshea in such a good relationship?
• Do you see Oshea as a member of your family?

Oshea:

• What happened when Mary met you at Stillwater Prison?
• Mary says she has forgiven you. How does this make you feel?
• Do you guys have conversations? Can you give me an example of one?

One thing that made this story so captivating is this bizarre concept that instead of having an eternal hatred for the man who murdered her son, Mary has a very good relationship with Oshea. It seems like every detail that helps to keep the story interesting is the details that explain how such a relationship was formed and details of the relationship itself. 

These details would be: the explanation of the story at stillwater, the hug that followed, that she treats Oshea as she would treat her son, the conversations that she and Oshea have, that she looks forward to seeing Oshea graduate and get married, just as any mother would with her own son; and finally, the most important detail (and my favorite part of the story), when Oshea says "I love you lady." and she replies with "I love you too son."

As a sidenote, I found it to be very difficult to find interesting stories that met the length requirements in StoryCorps, so I think next time I will look on another site.

There's a form we fill out and it's called 'On My Death.':

Father Mychal Judge was the first official victim of the World Trade Center incident on September 11th. On Mychal's "On My Death" form, he requested that Michael Duffy, a close friend of Mychal's, do the homily at his funeral. This story is Michael's description of various events following the incident (such as the funeral) as well as audio tape recordings of Michael speaking as the homilist. like the previous story, this one was from StoryCorps and so no questions were asked. If I were to ask 5 questions to get what was said in the interview (not the recordings), they would be:

• What is the 'On My Death' form?
• How did you feel when you learned that Mychal Judge wanted you to be the homolist? How did you react?
• What events lead to you becoming the homily?
• In the audio recordings of the funeral, you said that you felt "that the homolist at Mother Teresa's funeral had it easier" than you did. What made you feel that way?
• Many people were at Mychal Judge's funeral. Why was he so popular?

There were many things in this story that kept me interested. Most of them had to do with the tape recordings. It was in those recordings where you saw true emotion. The story starts off with an explanation of the 'On my Death' form, but right after, jumps to some comic relief as if to brace the viewer for the sadness that will follow. He says when he sees Mychal again, he is going to kill him, which is light humored joke that helps to prepare the viewer for sadness and the recording that follows talks about how the homolist form Mother Teresa had it easier than he did. One important detail that follows later is that he said he couldnt put on his glasses to read what he prepared, which means his speech came from the heart and was not pre-composed.

The next detail that I think is important is the story of Mychal Judge not wanting a thing in the world. That he was the happiest man alive. This gave off the impression to the viewers who didn't know him, that he lead a very happy life. Another important detail was when Michael talked about how Mychal Judge was liked by everyone for how kind he was. This tells the viewer that his death was one that many people took very seriously. Finally, the most important detail in my opinion is when Michael says that "We come to bury his heart, but not his love. Never his love." That was the moment in which I cried for Mychal Judge and all the people that knew him.