The Longest Ride: A Review

One would think that an English teacher would read a ton over her spring break.  And I had high hopes to do just that.  But three small children kind of got in the way.  I normally get a decent amount of independent reading done at school while my students are reading and I lost that time over the break.  My kids also wore. me. out.  Literally.  So by the end of each day, I was lucky to read for five minutes before falling asleep each night.

Regardless, I finally finished The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks.  It was a nice, easy read.   It would have been a perfect beach read…had I been at the beach :)

Here is a short summary: It follows two parallel plots that intertwine at the end.  One plot line involves a couple, Ira and Ruth who were married for many years.  Ira is in a car accident when he goes off the side of a hill in the middle of a snowstorm and his entire plot line is memories of his lifetime with Ruth, starting from when they first met, to his time fighting in the war, to their time as career people, and their lifelong journey of collecting artwork.  The second parallel plot involves a young couple, Luke, a bullridin' cowboy from North Carolina, and Sophia, a senior student studying art history at Wake Forest.  They meet at a country bar and quickly fall in love.  I won't spoil the ending as to how it ends, so I'll stop here.

Though each of these parallel plots was somewhat predictable as a basic story line, I was surprised by how the stories connected at the very end.  Nicholas Sparks had set up the connection so well so I wasn't shocked with the connection; in fact, it made perfect sense.  I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Nicholas Sparks books.  They are somewhat unrealistic and predictable, and not really like normal relationships.  But that's probably why most girls like them.  We want the unexpected, the romance, that love of a lifetime.  And he certainly captures that.

It actually reminded me of last week's proposal on Suburgatory.  I seriously got teary eyed when watching this with my husband, who responded, "No guy really does this."  Probably true, but it was sweet all the same!

Seriously…watch this video.  It is so cute!

100 Books to Read in a Lifetime

Mrs. Bross (Fellow freshmen English teacher) found a great list on Amazon called "100 Books Everyone Should Read in a Lifetime."  That list can be found here.  She is challenging her students to take a look at the list and pick a book from the list that they have not already read and choose that for independent reading this tri. 

So I checked out the list.  I guess I have to give a shout-out to Ursuline Academy and my high school English teachers, as they more than helped in crossing a number of these off the list for me.  I made it to 34 on the Amazon list and 49 on the Goodreads list (there are two separate lists).  Pretty proud of myself, but would have been happier with a solid 50.  I guess I have a challenge for myself too.

All of you have at least one you can cross off the list:  Fahrenheit 451!

There are a lot of great suggestions for reading and I urge you to at least look at the list and see how many you've read and see if there are any you might want to read.  Some of my personal faves from the list include: The Book Thief, The Giver (soon to be a movie if you didn't know), and Gone Girl.  All are extremely well-written and grab you in as a reader.  Have a wonderful spring break!

The Trials and Tribulations of Starting a New Book

I have had a rough go at finding a new book.  See, even English teachers have that experience.  I started with An Abundance of Katherines but I just couldn't get past all the foul language.  Literally, every page.  I know he is trying to create edgy characters.  I get that.  But it was just annoying.  Then I tried starting The Cuckoo's Calling for the second time but was just having a hard time getting into it.  Exact same reason I stopped it the first time.  So I was thrilled when I got an email from the public library that the Nicholas Spark's The Longest Ride was now available on my Kindle.  Hooray!  I always love a good Nicholas Sparks book…and it is perfect spring break reading!

The book (so far) is about a man who gets in a car crash in severe winter weather.  He is 93 years old and keeps having flashbacks to moments with his wife (who died nine years earlier but he feels like she is in the car with him keeping him alive).  He keeps recalling vivid memories and reflecting on when and how they met, their dating relationship, and then their marriage.  It's all told really sweetly, without being sappy or unconvincing.

One of the best lines from the book so far came from Ira (the elderly man) remembering some advice from his father, "He believed most people, when given the choice, would do what was right, even when it was hard, and he believed that good almost always triumphed over evil.  He wasn't naive though. 'Trust people,' he would tell me, 'until they give you a reason not.  And then never turn your back.'"  I love the beginning part about most people being inherently good.  I really believe that and feel that way, but I love the realistic punch at the end about trusting people and not being naive.  I was extremely naive when I was younger and was fortunate that I was never taken advantage of in a major way.  So far, I like this book.  It is an easy read and interesting.  From the book description, I know another relationship between two completely new characters will be revealed, but perhaps that will be the focus of another post because I'm not there yet!

Questions to Ask Yourself in the Lab

Each Tuesday while we are blogging in the lab, ask yourself the following questions to ensure you are on track:

• Did you fill out your Blogger Chart?
• Did you achieve your blogging goal this past week? If not, what can you do this upcoming week to achieve your goal?
• Did you title your post according to the topic of your post and the book you are currently reading?
• Did you pose an open-ended discussion question in your post to invite comments?
• Is your post AT LEAST 10 sentences long?
• Did you include at least one link, picture, or video related to your blog post?

While we work in the lab each Tuesday, you may:

• craft your post and/or comments
• update Goodreads with current book and page number
• use Goodreads to find new books
• browse and download electronic books from the Mason Schools library
• update your Blogger Chart
• read your independent novel

Watch this tutorial to learn how to download electronic books from the Mason Public Library:

Characterization in "Looking for Alaska"

John Green is known for his writing.  He has some fantastic one-liners in all the books I've read by him and I constantly find myself highlighting golden lines that I may use in my blog posts.  And today will be no different!   I loved the way John Green organized the book.  The first vignettes were labeled things such as "one-hundred seventeen days before" and "ninety days before" and the later vignettes were labeled "one day after," "seventeen days after" and so on.  Great organizational structure and he also builds suspense because you are not sure what major event he is discussing in his "before" and "after."  

But I'm getting off track.  Today, I want to focus on John Green's amazing ability to create round characters.  To start, we'll look at Dr. Hyde, one of the professors at the boarding school Miles, the main character, attends.  Here is Dr. Hyde's introduction to the class: "'My name,' he said, 'is Dr. Hyde. I have a first name of course.  So far as you are concerned, it is Doctor.  Your parents pay a great deal of money so that you can attend school here, and I expect that you will offer them some return on their investment by reading what I tell you to read when I tell you to read it and consistently attending this class.  And when you are here, you will listen to what I say.'"  A few paragraphs later, he continues, "'And in my classes, I will talk most of the time, and you will listen most of the time.  Because you may be smart, but I've been smarter longer.'"  What an introduction, right?  Would you like a teacher like this?

He may come off as mean and demanding, but I think that is how John Green wanted the character of Dr. Hyde to be.  And I think he pulled it off fabulously.  I can't imagine introducing myself to a class that way, but then again, mean and demanding is not my personality.  I can tell you one thing - if he had been one of my teachers in high school, I would have been scared to death!

Miles was the narrator of the novel, though he was nicknamed and called "Pudge" most of the book, even though he is skinny.  Towards the end of the book, this line was in his inner thoughts (which is one of the methods of characterization we discussed in the 1A trimester), "When adults say, 'Teenagers think they are invincible' with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.” I think this quote says a lot about Miles and how he feels throughout the novel.  And I think John Green is trying to make Miles "Pudge" relatable to most teenagers, especially teenage boys.  I think most teens do go through a period where they think they are invincible and that adults don't know anything.  And I think that is just a phase of life.  I was the same way when I was in high school and thought my parents were clueless.  Turns out, I was wrong and they were right.  But you can't tell teenagers that...

Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir

"I spent the next 1,427 nights in prison for a crime I did not commit."  This is how Amanda Knox ends the intro chapter to her book Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir.  She starts by telling the story of the night her roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered and how she found her the following day, and then backtracks to tell that entire "chapter" of her life.

I've always been somewhat interested in this story.  I followed the news clippings about the trial and the  investigation and really felt badly for her.  Even more so now that I have read her memoir.  To me, it appears that she was mistreated so many times in the investigation and the judicial system in Italy does not follow the American saying of "Innocent until proven guilty."  Quite the opposite actually.  Poor Amanda was put in prison just for being a suspect and held there throughout the investigation.

I felt like her story was one of those awful ones that could happen to virtually anyone who shows up at the wrong place and wrong time.  I know that this has happened to students of mine in the past and they end up getting in trouble for association or walking in on a situation that they shouldn't be a part of (and maybe even didn't know anything about).  Has this every happened to you?

Amanda's experience living in a women's prison in Italy changed her.  It would change anybody.  One of the most impactful lines that I highlighted while reading was said to her by one of her many, many roommates at prison when Amanda started to remain silent the majority of the time: "If you're always hiding inside yourself, you won't ever be able to find your way back."  Obviously it applies specifically to her situation, but I can see this really being universal advice.  I see it with those students that are so quiet and shy who just want to blend into the classroom and never be heard.  In a way, they are hiding, and probably not getting as much out of class as those who are engaged and vocal.

Another impactful line was one spoken by Amanda several years into her prison term.  She said, "And I understand how you could feel so locked inside your own life that you could be desperate to escape, even if it meant that you'd no longer exist."  I personally have never felt this, but I can imagine this is something prison could do to a person.  Could make them change.

I raced through this book in about four days.  I thought it was a quick read, engaging, and honestly…I couldn't put it down.  I am going to continue to follow Amanda's story.  (If you didn't know, the Italian courts are still trying Amanda in the case and are trying to reverse the acquittal).  I, for one, am Team Amanda.