Category: Uncategorized

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

India

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is such an amazing, amazing book. With all the hype that is going on with the movie, it was on my list of must reads. Also every last one of my friends who has read the book has absolutely loved it as well.  In The Hunger Games North America has been ruined through war and other causes and from it a new era and nation was made. From it 13 Districts and a Capitol were made, each district were given a different specialty to produce goods for the Capitol. Through the unfairness of the Capitol, District 13 decided to rebel against the Capitol. It is because of this rebellion that District 13 was destroyed and the Hunger Games were created. The Hunger Games were created to show the rest of the districts that the Capitol is in charge of their lives. Every year 2 children from age 12 – 18 have their names put into a drawing to be apart of them. One male, and one female will be chosen and are made to fight to the death of the last child for the whole nation to see. From these Hunger Games, Prim and Peeta were chosen from District 12, but Katniss Everdeen was not going to allow her little sister to fight to the death, and she volunteered as tribute.

It is because of these events Katniss and Peeta are taken away from their family and are forced to go to the Capitol and be nothing but a show for them. Luckily for them though they have a wonderful team who is able to gain the Capitol’s attention through their fiery wardrobe that Katniss’ fast friend, Cinna made for them. Through some stories of untold love, volunteering your life for the ones you love, and doing some very unexpected things that may or may not insight a rebellion. Katniss and Peeta enter into the ring where they literally have to fight to the death against 22 other kids like them.

I’m trying not to give a lot of the story away because it is an amazing story written by Suzanne Collins, I can see how it has taken the world by storm. I loved reading this story so much that it only took me a day to do so. I highly recommend reading this book, and I’m even going to the movie on Friday after my exams that is hahaha. Look for a post from me about the second and third books!!!!
Until Next Time
Keep Turning the Page
90s Born Reader

Bookish, Uncategorized

The pains of not being an English Major

India

Of course we all know that everyone in college has to take a basic English class, and a writing intensive course, but then what do you do later after you finish those requirements? Well if you’re like me you need to fulfill 3 credits in some type of way, that also fits into the busy schedule that you have, so I picked an English class that can’t be too hard can it?

Well in comparison to my required classes of science and math, no it’s not as hard, but it has its downfall for us non English minded folk. I enjoy taking lit classes because I like being forced to read different novels and books that I would not have chosen otherwise, but when it comes to me doing an analysis I would pick me last on the kickball team. I always have my opinion on what I read it as, but in the end I seem to always have the wrong opinion. How that is possible I will never understand because I thought an opinion was an opinion… is it not?

Also as a person of math and science I’m not the best writer (I don’t know if you can tell by this post), but I’m always getting better! Writing 5 page papers to me is a fate worse than death, anything longer than that… I’m not sure if it’s going to happen. Sometimes even a one pager paper is difficult because those are always the ones where you have to make comparisons, or look deeply in the meaning, or throw the book into flames without catching it on fire. Okay… that last one might be a little bit hyperbole, but you get my point of doing things to me that are really hard or close to impossible.

Of course I recommend people who are like me to take more English classes just to get comfortable of thinking out of the box and looking deeper into what is going with what they’re reading. Also to work on writing is pretty important too. To me those are the pains of not being an English major in a higher level English course, but I will always try to do my best

Until next time
Keep Turning the Pages
90s Born Reader

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

India

As part of my English class for this semester I was required to read Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. I never thought in my life I would read a whole book of poems, mainly because of my attention span, but I got through it. The interesting part about this collection is that Hughes himself put this collection together, and decided what poems should be in the book. In the book he divides the section up into different categories of poems. The most interesting section to me was the “Montage of a Dream Deferred” section. What I did not know about the section is that the whole section is to be read as one big poem. When it is actually read like that it makes sense with how it flows, and the overall theme of the poems.

What I liked about Hughes’s work is that he brought up a lot of topics that were being addressed and pushed under the rug all at the same time. The topics of segregation in America. Through out his poems it can be seen that he talks about the ways that black people are being used socially and economically. It is from these threats to society that the motif of dreams comes through in the black population in Hughes’ work.

For someone like me who is not very good at reading between the lines of poetry, I really enjoyed reading his. Hughes does a great job of talking about the issues in ways that people can understand on the surface, but talking about so much more underneath. If you don’t want to read the whole body of Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, I highly recommend reading a few of them and really thinking about what he is trying to say in this poem.

Until Next Time,
Keep Turning the Pages

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Cane by Jean Toomer

India

This year I’m taking an English Literature class called, Modernism in Black Literature. Let’s all remember that I am not English major, and I have finished my English requirements, so I’m truly taking this class for fun and out of an interest. The first novel that we read this semester was Cane by Jean Toomer. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Cane was very interesting in the fact that Toomer breaks it up first in big chunks, of the southern portion and the northern portion, and then goes on to make the “chapters” of the book individual stories. In the southern portion of the book the individual stories takes a look into the lives of different black individuals and what they go through being black in the south. He tells about the highs and the lows, what it’s like to be part of race that is feared and hated, and what it’s like to be part of the southern injustices.

When the second half of the novel starts the location has shifted to the north where the treatment of blacks is a little bit different. There’s not as many injustices or problems, but there is always the feeling of being different than the rest of the world. The feel of the north comes through as the characters experience different clubs and also there is some integration.
In a lot of the stories Toomer uses the view point of women, which is also very different in the fact that women at this time still don’t get much of a say.Not only are women telling the stories, but they are also the object of many of the stories when a man is telling the story.

This book to me was sometimes hard to get through. It had high points and low points, but I do believe that it is worth reading. It’s not something that I would have picked up on my own, but I’m glad that I had to read it.

Until Next Time,

Keep Turning the Pages

90s Born Reader

Bookish, Uncategorized

30 books to read before you die

India

Being a college student having a computer to take noes on in class is not always the best. Sometimes you might get distracted and end up stumbling. One day I was stumbling and found myself landing on a web page that showed me 30 books that you need to read before you die. I was looking at the book list I noticed a few of them I had already read and was cutting down on the list. Books like

  • Too Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Sallinger
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau

The fact that I haven’t read more of them really surprised me, but it also gives me a goal on certain books to read like War and Peace and The Lord of The Rings (even though I can quote the movies). It’s great to set a reading goal and I think everyone should have a goal in mind so that there is always something else on the book list.

Until Next Time

Keep Turning the Pages

90s Born Reader