Final Book Review of Where the Heart Is

In Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts, the main character, Novalee, goes through many struggles after she becomes pregnant and her boyfriend has to uproot them. Willy Jack Pickens, her boyfriend, decides to take a job in California to support Novalee and their unborn child. Novalee is surprised by this because it’s the first adult action he’s chosen to taken that someone has forced on him. While traveling through Oklahoma, Novalee needs to stop to use the restroom at the local Walmart. After she goes in to use the restroom and buy some house shoes for her swollen feet, she sounds out that Willy Jack has taken off without her. He left her stranded in the middle of nowhere and she only has seven dollars and seventy-seven cents. Her adventures of trying to survive continue as she becomes closer to having her child and Willy Jack’s music career takes off without Novalee by his side. The author Billie Letts makes you melt like putty when reading this heart wrenching story about a very relatable character, Novalee and her struggles. Billie Letts takes the characters through many main themes in the book.

The first theme is about continuing life no matter how hard it’s become and no matter what’s going on in it. This is an important lesson for everyone to learn because everyone’s life gets difficult and hectic. Billie Letts shows this by using all of Novalee’s struggles as examples. In chapter something on page something, Novalee says “Then Novalee Nation, seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight, slipped off her thongs and there, in the middle of the Walmart, she began to turn.” She makes it clear that it’s not easy to raise a baby and have no one to take you in and nowhere to go. This theme makes you think about how you should look at life in general and how you shouldn’t worry about everything going on. It’s this theme that makes a crowd go wild for someone that did something great. Though it may be an overused theme and continuously used by your mother, it works. It truly works to get the theme across without spelling it out for you.

The second theme throughout the book is that doing something you’ll regret isn’t worth it. This theme is hugely displayed when Willy Jack takes off at the beginning, after leaving Novalee behind, and at the end when Willy jack says in a newspaper article that he needs her and wants to find her again. He truly regret leaving her and he definitely learned his lesson. Once Novalee decides to confront him, after she is scared he will come after them and take Americus, the baby, she says “’What are you going to do, Willy Jack? Go back to the Walmart. Think I’d still be there waiting for you seven years later?’” Novalee says this on page three hundred and forty-eight. This lesson may be etched out in a strange way but it shows just how perfectly set up Billie’s characters were.

Where the Heart Is contains many life lessons that relatable events can teach you and you can learn from. This realistic fictional novel is a great read for those interested in good books and likes to relate closely to the main characters. There are a few slower areas but the story certainly does pick up quickly. Where the Heart Is makes you want to continue to devour and pour your eyes over the pages. This book is definitely an excellent choice for any teenage girl and young women looking to find a good book. This books rating would be an eight out of ten for excellent writing style and craft but taking away the slow parts it could make it a ten.

Top Five Growing Up

Blog Post #7

                A book that is non-fiction in my mind needs to be about 98% true and let me explain that. A non-fiction book needs to be factual and truthful. An author in my mind can take the 2% and rearrange dialogue, small details, and the take out a bit of the unnecessary things to keep the story rolling. If this non-fiction book is for a doctor or other professional field I would highly recommend making that 100% and keeping all of the little tidbits in. I like half-truth stories but they should go under the section of realistic fiction because only half of it actually occurred. I think the reason Frey and Mortenson changed his fictional book in to a memoir was so that it would simply get published. I could understand bending the truth a bit in a memoir just because you need to keep the reader interested but you can’t change huge details that sticks out and makes you remember it the most. What Frey did wasn’t non-fiction and it wasn’t 95% truthful because running someone down with a train is 100% different than just being as he said “affected” by it or as I say he was just upset. Minute details can’t be changed from a couple of harmless hours in jail to month after month of agony. It’s changing small details in to something big that really irritates me.  David Shield had a great idea of taking other people’s writings and making a new story. He is trying to take out that line of fiction and non-fiction. This is not a plus for me considering I go to check out books in certain sections of the library and if they come out with a whatever section then I would have problems. I think there needs to be a separation like a pizza and peanut butter where it’s very strange together, correct?   Books should be evenly and happily divided.

Schools and Reading post6

I believe that Gallagher makes a lot of true points in his book, Readicide, that schools should start to consider when teaching literary fiction to their students. Schools do certainly kill the enjoyment of reading by looking far too deep in to phrases said and sending us off on own to fend for ourselves through the heavy layers of the Shakespearian language. A teacher shouldn’t have to stop after one line and say what it means and do that for five million more; students should learn at a younger age to learn and interpret the language of literary fiction. To me we should be taught to enjoy reading and want to continue on in our lives with that want and drive to read more material. I think that schools should continue to teach literary fiction but to an extent.

Literary fiction is a part of society that needs to stick around for a really long time. Some of these stories have been kept for hundreds of years, made in to millions of copies, and taught in many schools. These classic books are starting to put a bore to reading but are very important to read. Teaching these classics can take time with many stops and tests in between paragraphs. We shouldn’t break up the books in to chunks but figure out a way to understand the language and be able to read them more ‘fluently’ and faster without constantly breaking.

I also think that we need to learn these literary fiction classics because we’ve kept them and haven’t gotten rid of them. If we stopped teaching them to the younger generations then they won’t be able to understand references from them that we have used in movies and society. I believe it’s important to keep up reading literary fiction and not let in die.

Extremely Lound and Incredibly Close Trailer post5

Blog Post #4

Adapting the book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, would be a very difficult movie to create. I know that they have already come out with the movie and I have not seen it.  The book itself is told from the perspective of a little boy named Oskar. There isn’t very much dialogue going on between characters because it’s mostly Oskar’s thoughts. A director would have a very hard time with that and would need to make more dialogue to make it more understandable. The book is also very confusing and a difficult read. Foer makes the book very jumpy like Oskar, so you have to pay close attention to little details or you’re officially lost until the next chapter. A director would have to cut out a lot of less important details and figure out what keeps the story moving and what’s less important.

A scene that would need to be kept in the movie is on page sixty-eight. This is the part where the main character Oskar is listening to his dad’s messages that he’d left on the answering machine saying that he was okay. That was a defining point in Oskar because he only replays them to hear his dad’s voice again. He ended up switching the phones so that his mom wouldn’t have to hear them. I think it is a really important part of the book that helps to keep the story moving along.

Another scene that would need to be kept in the movie would be when Oskar goes to visit Mr. Black. The part that makes this scene so special is that Oskar turns Mr. Black’s hearing aid on after ten years of having it turned off. Mr. Black ends up realizing there is a point to hear and see the world. This is a place in the book where Oskar and Mr. Black take off on their New York adventure together.  The whole movie wouldn’t make sense without it.

A last scene that would need to be kept in the movie would be after Oskar meets Mr. Black, he wants to know if he knew Thomas Schell. Oskar was searching for anyone who knew his dad. Mr. Black kept a file cabinet of names of people that he’d met in his life. The note card would say their name and how they met. Thomas Schell wasn’t in the stack which disappointed Oskar so Mr. Black decided to go out and help Oskar find the person with the last name Black that he needed. This part is another turning point in the story because Oskar is running out of options and lies as to get out of the house and solve the mysteries.  It really showed how much Mr. Black cared for people, it made his character loveable.

A scene that would certainly be cut from the film would have to be when the dad of Oskar wrote him a letter talking about how he was supposed to marry a woman named Anna. This part was very slow and it really did nothing to contribute to the book so far. He didn’t end up marrying Anna so I have to say it was irrelevant to the book and what Oskar was trying to do.

                Another scene that wasn’t moving the story forward would have to be when the Grandma wrote Oskar a letter about her mom and her husband. The mother part of that story didn’t make sense when she started writing about her husband. It just wouldn’t be portrayed easily in a movie and wouldn’t be a major scene.

Blog Post #3- What Is A Book

A book is a place where you can let your imagination run wild through the pages; metaphorically speaking. When you sit down and read a book, the author is trying to tell you and show you what they say things should look like but really your imagination is coming up with whatever you think something should look like. A book, to me, is imagination. It’s getting in to a good story and letting your brain develop a whole setting for the characters. You start to imagine different situations and different places than you’ve ever been or seen before. You get to explore new situations and a whole new world that you’ve never thought of. I like the idea of seeing another side to a similar situation. A book let’s your imagination go where regular everyday life can’t take you. And books don’t make you as crazy as that last sentence sounds.

                E-books vs. regular hard backs and what do I think? I’d have to say that overall e-books are cheaper, faster, and more convenient for on the go people. Yes, it’s not like cracking open a book and being able to see how far in you are. It’s more the cost and time efficiency that draws people to a certain side. I would have to say even though I don’t own any e-readers and my iPod screen is too small, I still prefer having a real book in my hands. It’s just what I prefer because I don’t want the strain on my eyes and I don’t want the accidental chance of dropping it and breaking it. If the e-reader crashed or you broke it, face it you are out of luck until you can go to the store or order another one online.

Book Project One post2

The book Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, takes place in a small town with the main character moving in and not knowing anyone. She’s popular and finally fits in but still has nobody to fully rely on that won’t stab her in the back sooner or later. She finally decides to commit suicide after a series of events and leave nothing behind but a small brown box of tapes. Those tapes are the last of her and her story as why she would ever consider this choice. It changes you, the story does. It makes you see how you affect others and how they affect you. In a world full of people how can nobody see that you’re in pain? That’s where all of the great ideas take place about how we can prevent this from happening and save a life.  These great ideas can save lives and generate more readers and expand the experience of the current lovers of the book. There are endless possibilities to go about this.

            A possibility is creating hot lines that respond quickly and efficiently. The people answering the hotlines phones would just be a friend with a person that is confused and upset; not a rude person simply calling the police. These hotlines could be advertised as a ‘cool’ thing to call that anyone even those who may not be as comfortable to think about suicide. This idea could eventually lead in to a TV commercial with the hotline number flashing. That commercial could advance to a website for those who just want to check out what the hotline truly means. If this idea would continue down the line there could be a movie made about it with a lot of flashbacks when Hannah is talking on her tapes of past events. The hotlines would just be the being of a whole propaganda and information galore.

            Another possibility is to create a store or a place in a bookstore with memorabilia of the book. Selling products that are key items in the book will help to keep fans involved with the book and connected. The store would consist of items such as the yellow cassette player, rocket ship key chains or play houses for children and boxes of tapes so you can hear Hannah Baker or the entire book. The reason for the yellow cassette player was used by the main character, Clay, throughout the entire book. The rocket ship key chain or play house is based off of page twenty-five, “I think that’s the reason in my dreams, my first kiss took place on the rocket ship. It reminded me of innocence.”- Hannah Baker. She and Clay had different memories on that rocket ship. The store could also sell hot chocolate in a food area. The reason for the hot chocolate is on page fifty-nine, “We both got hot chocolate. She ordered it thinking it would be funny. But me? I always order hot chocolate.” Hot chocolate becomes a main theme that will enhance the experience for current and future fans. 

Another possibility is to create a line of clothes that will have quotes about helping someone and saving lives. The hotline number will be included. The website would be used to inform and sell clothing. The apparel will enhance the experience but also become a fad for stopping teen suicide. The clothing line would also include Skye Miller’s usual apparel of baggy sweats and shirts. On page one hundred and four “She dresses in dull, loose clothing every day. Almost burying herself within them. Tonight, it’s a bulky gray sweatshirt and matching pants.”

All of these possibilities to sell the book would be excellent. These will allow new fans to come and read the book; they’ll see all of this propaganda and not want to miss out on what everyone else is in on. The fans that are already in love with the book can continue to enjoy it and help save lives by seeing all of this and realizing Jay Asher’s true intent to inform the readers that suicide is not a joke or something to brush off. People that have lost friends or are feeling lost themselves will certainly turn to this propaganda. It will be huge and help save a lot of people that are just walking through life with pain.

Here are a few items the stores could sell:

Rocket Ship Keychain                        Cassette Tapes                         Yellow Walkman Clay used



My idea of a t-shirt the store could sell:

             Never Stand Alone               All Day All Night I'm Here              1-800- SPEAK UP
                                                           Speak Up I Do Care
                                                          Call 1-800-Speak Up

Why I Read post1

Why do I read? Well, there are many answers to this question. This question is like a picture with a thousand words. So here’s a deeper look in to this question:

·         I read in my free time- I usually read books because I like stories and it’s fun to me though not for others. Books take you to another life with maybe more shy or confident people, they give you situations that you may have not handled as well.  I like to read before I go to sleep because it feels calming I guess.

·         I read the book before the movie- I love to do this because then I can compare the two. I do this because it sometimes helps you understand parts of the movie that the director got confused on.

·         I read for school- Let me just get this thought out in the open here. I usually think the books teachers assign are decent until we have to do a ‘deeper and more symbolism’ look in to it. The purpose of a book is to enjoy it and not crush it.

·         I read for a better understanding- Books can hold important lessons in them even if it wasn’t supposed to be intended. You learn even if it’s a fiction book.

·         I read to get ahead in life- Reading makes you smarter and more comprehensive. The more you read the better you’ll do. Just like reading books for school, you can get a better grade if you actually take the time to read them.

Reading has to do with a lot of things, I may have not strung my idea’s together very well  but I know that I like to read and that I like books, so that’s good enough for me. :)