The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Haddon, Mark

Publication: Random House, New York 2003

Reason, Type, & Setting: After looking through Elika's stack of books, this book caught my attention. It is a fictional book and delves into the mind of an autistic boy, although it is never mentioned by the narrator himself, thus the structural irony. Just as Huckleberry Finn, the reader may not know whether what the narrator is saying, is really true. I've noticed that recently I've taken to reading books dealing with the depth of the character and their mind. The story takes place in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Plot: After discovering the dead body of his neighbor's dog, Christopher begins to investigate as to what happened. Though later on in the book it doesn't seem to be the main plot, however, to me there seems to be many mysteries within this book related to this incident with those being his mother, the relationship between Christopher and his father, and the bigger picture of dealing with his familial problems and seeing this throughout his narration.

Character: Christopher is a very interesting character. He is in his mid-teens and attends a special needs school. Despite the reputation he may have at that school or from other neighbors, he is very skilled in math and even gets into A level mathematics which is probably equivalent to AP calculus. He cannot comprehend human emotion and is uncomfortable towards being touched or being affectionate in any way. Christopher wants a reason behind everything, which is probably why he is excellent in math since it is based on calculations, logic, and reasoning. It seems like it is the only sure thing for him whereas with comprehending human emotion there could be numerous reasons behind one facial expression which is hard for him to understand. This book, aside from being narrated by him, is actually a book that he wrote which is why the chapters are enumerated by prime numbers and contains drawings.

Evaluation: This book was very interesting to read and it was a page turner. Looking through the point of view of a boy with autism was very intriguing and it is the type of book that I've noticed myself to be reading lately of. I like to read more into a character and see how they develop within a story. I would definitely recommend this book to others and I may read other books written by the author as well.

Author/Trivia/Context: Mark Haddon is a novelist as well as a poet. Aside from writing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, he has written A Spot of Bother and his Agent Z series.

Honors Due Date: June 2nd

The Tipping Point

Title: The Tipping Point
Author: Gladwell, Malcolm
Publication: Little, Brown and Company, NY 2000

Reason, Type, & Setting: After Elika, my humanities teacher, assigned us to read an excerpt of this book, it inclined me to read more on how our society can cause a tipping point. I'd categorize this book as an informative social psychological book. It was very thought-provoking and reminded me of Freakanomics and Survival of the Sickest. I find these types of books very intriguing which is why I decided to read this book as well. I plan to read Blink, another of Malcolm Gladwell's books.

Plot: This book informs the reader of a compilation of studies that became very successful and recognizable in society, why certain trends become popular, and how the environment can affect the actions of others. These studies are broken down into philosophies such as: The Stickiness Factor (which my teacher had us read in class), The Law of the Few, and The Power of Context. The Stickiness Factor describes how little change can trigger a big result such as adding a map to a brochure talking of the importance of getting a tetanus shot at a University campus. The whole premise of this book is how certain factors affect/manipulate society.

Evaluation: This book, as I said before, was very intriguing and thought-provoking which I enjoyed very much. It is one of those books that can be a page turner. However, Gladwell seems to go into depth when it comes to these examples which is somewhat rather boring for me to read. For others, it may be a good thing. Other than that, I really enjoy reading books such as these. I'd recommend this to anyone since it really is an eye-opener.

Author/Trivia/Context: Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist and reporter for various newpapers such as The NewYorker and Washington Post. His other works include Blink.




Honors Due Date: May 12th

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Title: Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Chbosky, Stephen
Publication: Pocket Books, NY 1999

Reason, Type, & Setting: Many of my friends have read this book last year and after scanning through the book it seemed like it would be interesting to read. This story is uniquely told through letters by a boy who wants to remain anonymous. However, in his letters he refers to himself as Charlie. Throughout the novel, we do not know who these letters are being sent to or where the setting takes place, but these letters are sent during the span of 1991 - 1992. I would classify this book under teen-fiction and teen personal development, somewhat a coming of ages story.

Plot: The story starts off with a boy who identifies himself as Charlie, since he wants to remain unknown. The first page gives insight as to what kind of story it is, in my opinion. The beginning is narrated by Charlie through a compilation of letters sent to an anonymous person, or in this case, the reader. At the start of freshman year Charlie was known as the wallflower, hence the name of the book, and even his teacher noticed his lack of participation in social events and in class. Thus, the teacher gains interest in Charlie and sees something in him that other people may have not seen and starts to give Charlie extra reading material and asks for an analysis type book report of what he reads. An important event that shapes Charlie is meeting Sam and Patrick. The plot is hard to describe in this case since it is basically the life of Charlie. But the main point of this story is Charlie's personal growth through a span of one year and how your teenage years can shape you.

Character: I really like stories like this since you get a really good insight as to what the character's personality and emotions are as well as there personal development/growth. Charlie feels like he doesn't know what path to take in life and just decides to go with the flow.

Evaluation: Overall, I'd say that this book seemed more of something I would read maybe when I was about his age, 14. I thought the author's style of writing made it very enjoyable to read since it was in the form of letters but I'm not entirely sure if I really really liked this book. But the author is excellent at portraying character development. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye in a way but not at that level. However, I think I'd recommend this book to others.

Author/Trivia/Context: Stephen Chbosky was in fact heavily influenced by J.D Salinger who is the writer of The Catcher in the Rye. This is Chbosky's first novel and is a director.

The Kitchen God's Wife

Title: The Kitchen God's Wife
Author: Tan, Amy
Publication: United States, Ballantine Books 1991.

Reason, Type, & Setting: After reading The Joy Luck Club and Malinche's Children a while back I decided to read, yet again, a novel relating to culture and family relationships mostly between mother and daughter. This story revolves around the lives of Pearl Brandt, her Aunt Helen, and her mother Winnie in San Francisco and is taken place in I believe around the 80s - 90s. It is a fictional piece with narrations from both Pearl Brandt and her mother Winnie.

Plot: As said earlier it is story of secrecy and the lack of relations between mother, daughter, and aunt. The way the story starts, with Pearl's narration, her mother calls her to get her to go to San Francisco to attend her cousin Bao-Bao's engagement party. Though she doesn't really have close ties to Bao-Bao and seeing that this is about the 3rd time he is getting married, she decides to go out of her mom's willing for her to. After coming to San Francisco, there she meets up with her Aunt Helen at her flower shop where Aunt Helen wanted to talk to her. Pearl Brandt was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which many people in the family knew about, and Aunt Helen obliged her to tell her mother about her condition since she was the only one left that didn't know. Aunt Helen felt it was her duty to tell Pearl this because she herself is in a sickly state and did not want to die knowing that Pearl kept this from her mother. Now, at the same time Aunt Helen talks with her sister Winnie, who is Pearl's mother and tells Winnie that she must tell her daughter her past secrets as well, with the same excuse of her sickly condition. So in this case, Aunt Helen acts as a mediator for both the mother and daughter. With this intro to the story, secrets start to unfold as Pearl and Winnie narrate their own story and Pearl, Winnie, and including Aunt Helen began to gain a stronger bond with each other towards the end of the novel while each hearing their story.

Character: Pearl Brandt is a Chinese-American that grew up in San Jose, California without her mother around. She is married to an American, has two girls Cleo and Tessa, and is a speech therapist. As mentioned before she is not as close as she could be with her mother because of their cultural difference. This made me think of the Joy Luck Club and the mother and daughter's relationship just as Pearl's. Sometimes I can see this and feel the same with my own mother and I, since our upbringings are totally different with my mother growing up in the Philippines. In turn, these differences lead to Pearl and Winnie's lack of communication towards each other with secrets that should be told, not. Pearl's mother, Winnie, had a hard and traumatic life in China which we later find out in the story when Winnie starts her narration and I believe that Pearl would have understood her mother's ways if she had known about her past.

Evaluation: Overall if I compare this book to the novels I've read before, I enjoyed this book more so than Malinche's Children but not as much as the Joy Luck Club. This novel was more descriptive when it came to the emotions of the characters and the scenes that were going on. You could somewhat get a sense of why these characters were the way they were and why they acted that way towards each other, especially since we get both perspectives of the mother and the daughter. This novel shows that the past really shapes who you are and why things why they are now.

Author, Context, & Trivia: Amy Tan grew up in San Francisco as well and wrote many other books inspired by Chinese-American culture. Her books include: The Hundred Secret Senses (which I will read next), The Joy Luck Club, The Moon Lady, and The Chinese Siamese Cat.

The Stranger

Title: The Stranger

Author: Camus, Albert

Publication: New York, Vintage Books 1954.

Reason, Type, & Setting: Though I've already read this sophomore year, I decided to read it again since I knew it would be a quick read since I will be heading off to Japan in a few days and with spring break soon after that. The Stranger is a fictional story written in the early 1940s and is said to be the epitome of existensialism. The story takes place probably around the same time it was written and is set in Algiers.

Plot: The story starts with Mersault, the main character's, mother dead. So, Mersault travels from his home in Algiers to Marengo. Though his mother had just died he did not show any remorse or sadness from her death at the funeral. Upon his arrival back home to Algiers, Mersault meets a past co-worker of his at the beach named Marie Cardona and they end up spending that night together. A while after that he runs in with a couple of his neighbors and their issues such as Salamano and Raymond Sintes. Eventually, Raymond invites Mersault and Marie to stay at a beach house of his friends. There the gist of the story really begins and leads up to events that call for justified consequences.

Character: Mersault is the main character and is very much like the title of this book. He is like a stranger to society, someone who doesn't seem to fit in. He seems to want to be unnoticed and is very apathetic towards other people and society in general. He contains his own set of beliefs which include not being in a higher being, and that people have no purpose in the world. Towards the end of the story, Mersault starts to understand himself, the people around him, accepts the situation that he put himself in.

Evaluation:The story was interesting, but I did not enjoy it as much as I did last year. I guess it is because at the same time I read the book back then I was learning about existentialism in Ross Roemer's humanties class. The story made me question a lot of things, especially why Mersault is the way he is. Usually when I read books I tend to understand towards the end why a character is developed the way they are. This seemed more of a philosophical book, so it wasn't much to my liking. I'd have to say that though this book was interesting, I don't think I'd read it again.

Author, Context, & Trivia: Albert Camus was born in 1913 and much like Mersault's character he is a French-Algerian. He is associated with existentialism and is a philosopher and journalist. He won the Noble Peace Prize in 1957 and has written other stories such as The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus.

Cat's Cradle

Title: Cat's Cradle

Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Company: Dell Publishing

Reason, Type and Setting: As a part of our documentary project that we were assigned, our group was to read a book relating to our corresponding war. My group was assigned the Cold War. Kurt Vonnegut is known for his satirical writing and I've read a couple books of his before so Cat's Cradle really caught my eye when I saw it on the list of books to read on Elika's blog. The main happenings occur on fantasized island of San Lorenzo which is located in the Caribbean.

Plot: It's rather funny that I didn't notice that the main character was never referred to by name, or I just can't find it. Well, anyway, the book is written in first person as most of Kurt Vonnegut's books are. The book basically is somewhat an allegory you can say of the paranoia that the American's had about the Cold War, the destructive power of an atom bomb, as well as newfound ideology. It all starts when the main character is interested about the "father" of the atom bomb Dr. Franklin Hoenikker and his family, the main character later finds out that Dr. Hoenikker made the most destructive thing in the planet, Ice-9 which would cause everything to freeze. One could see the parallels between the atom bomb and this new substance ice-9. Vonnegut also touches up on religious topics, with an outlawed religion called Bokononism in the island of San Lorenzo. The plot is a bit hard to explain but this novel really makes you think as to how the Cold War relates to this book.

Character: Since the main character is a bit hard to describe, I will describe Frank Hoenikker, the son of the late Dr. Franklin Hoenikker. If I were to describe Frank I'd say that he a little bit mysterious. When he was younger many people would tease and call him Secret Agent X-9. He was very reserved and spent his days living in the basement of a colleague of his. There he built miniature replicas of cities. Later on, he somehow managed to go to the island of San Lorenzo and was appointed General because he contained a portion of ice-9 which was split up between him and his two other siblings. Further into the story, Frank is told that he is to become president since the current one was ill and Frank felt that he could not communicate well to the public and asks the main character to accept the position. In this way, Frank is just like his father.

Evaluation: I'd say that Kurt Vonnegut's books are sometimes a bit complicating to read and it was somewhat easier to find the correlation of the Cold War to this book than his other novels. I plan to read another book written by him for my Honors Outside Reading. Personally, I really like his writing style but I do not think many would find it very entertaining and may end up getting confused. If you are the type of person that enjoys satirical books such as Candide by Voltaire you'll enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's novels.

Author, Context and Trivia: Kurt Vonnegut was born on what he likes to refer as Armistice Day which is what Veteran's Day was originally called in the year of 1922 and has recently passed away on April 11th, 2007. He was known for his graphic arts in his novels as well as his writing science fiction and satire. He has written a number of books and short stories.

Eat, Pray, Love

Title: Eat Pray Love

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Company: Penguin Books, New York

Reason, Type and Setting: With my Japan trip coming very soon, I thought I'd read a nonfictional piece on traveling and this was the perfect one. Well, actually, I happened to see this book in Elika's stack of books and I thought I might as well read it. Being an avid traveler, I could relate a lot to the character and this is probably my favorite book that I've read among the books reported on here. As said before, this is a nonfictional novel and is set in New York, Italy, Indonesia, and India.

Plot: This whole story of Eat, Pray, Love starts with a woman who has an emotional breakdown after going through a nasty divorce with her husband of 8 years and with yet another relationship failing with a man named David that she just cannot forget. After a spiritual epiphany in the bathroom, she decides to travel and immerse herself in pleasure, devotion, and balance. All of these three are found respectively in Italy, India, and Indonesia where she resides for about four months each. Thus, a total of a whole year spent on traveling. In Italy, Liz finds pleasure in the foods, culture, and the language most of all. Her main goal is to learn Italian and meets interesting people and friends. There, she binges on happiness after going through a long period of depression. After her four month period of euphoria, she decides to cleanse the previous stress with longing to forget David by visiting an Ashram in India where she practices meditation and spiritual healing. In Indonesia, she visits an old man named Ketut, who is a healer. This wasn't her first time in Indonesia, and the last time Ketut predicted that she would come to Indonesia and stay with him for four months. Overall, this story is of a woman's adventure and experience of trying to regain happiness.


Character: Being that this book is a nonfictional novel based on Liz Gilbert's travel, it makes sense to focus on her. Liz Gilbert is a middle-aged woman of about 34 years old, whose physical features include being slim, fair, and blonde. As for her character, she is a strong and decisive woman who worries and thinks about the past too much. She is an adventurous woman who keeps an open mind. She is also approachable and has a friendly and outgoing personality.


Evaluation: Among all of the books I've read within the book reports found on here, I'd have to say this is a favorite among those that I have read. You can get a good insight as to Liz Gilbert's personality and adventure to these various places and how these trips affect her as a person. I think when I am able to travel more in the future I'd like to document them in sort of the same style as hers and eventually see how I have progressed as a person through these trips. I guess you could say this book has made me feeling inspired.

Author, Context and Trivia: Elizabeth Gilbert was born in 1969 to a family that lived on a Christmas Tree farm. The year 1993 debuted her literary career when her short stories became published in the magazine Esquire. She has written four books and numerous short stories.

Survival of the Sickest

Title: Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
Author: Moalem, Sharon & Prince, Jonathon
Place of Publication:

Reason, Type and Setting: Needing to find a topic to talk about for the upcoming Presentation of Learning for my Biology portion, I decided to read a book about diseases and genetics since those are what my interests lie in. The book, I think, is an informational read that would be classified under nonfiction. However, it's not like those textbooks that you'd need to read for reference for a biology class. It's an informational yet entertaining read as well. There is no specific setting.

Plot: Since there is no specific rising action, falling action, plot, & resolution I will summarize the book. It talks of the relationship between disease, environment, and lifestyle that make diseases that are very deadly and prominent today bred into our genetic code. Also, it gives an explanation as to why diseases keep being passed on and how there are good effects on these certain diseases aside from the bad. It really gives an informational insight on these diseases without making it sound uninteresting.

Evaluation: This book was really interesting and was broken down into chapters that talked about different diseases such as hemochromatosis, diabetes, cholesterol among others, which made it very easy to read. Also, the author writes it in a way that is humorous and in a very easy to read format. Also, since it is broken down into chapters you may not have to read the whole book. If anyone is looking for an informative read relating to diseases this would be a very good book.

Author, Context and Trivia: From what I've found, this is Dr. Moalem's first book, however he has published many articles concerning different fields of science. He earned his Ph.D in neurogenetics and evolutionary medicine from the University of Toronto.

The Joy Luck Club

Title: The Joy Luck Club
Author: Tan, Amy
Place of Publication: Ballantine Books June 1990

Reason, Type and Setting: After reading Malinche's Children, I wanted to try reading a book that was similar to the writing style. My cousin, however a different one, recommended this book to my mother who in turn recommended it to me. It's rather ironic seeing that this book is about the relationship between American born daughters and their mother's who all came from a foreign country. This was also something I could relate to and found the plot to seem very interesting. This novel is somewhat written in vignette style with each chapter recounting the story of a daughter and a mother interchangeably. There are various settings in this book since there are many stories being told in this book, however the constant setting would have to be the kitchen where everyone is celebrating New Years and playing Mah Johng.

Plot: There are eight characters in this book, four daughters, and four mothers however the main focus in the novel is the relationship between June and her mother Suyuan. After, Suyuan's death June is faced with the expedition of confronting her long lost sisters left in China after the Japanese invaded and Suyuan was separated from them. Her Aunts tell her of her must-visit to China to tell her twin sisters of her mothers death and to retell her mother's life to them but she finds that she doesn't have a clue what to tell them since she never really understood her mother. This book talks of the barrier between the daughters and mothers living in America and the hardships that the mothers had to face in China that shaped them today. Each mother tells their story and a lesson that is drawn from their story affects the life of the daughters who hear it.

Character: June, the main character, is the one that I found most interesting. Unlike the other daughters, she really isn't sure of what she wants to do in her life other than freelance writing for companies. She isn't married unlike the others, doesn't have children, and is the only one left at their Mah Jong meetings without a mother. She is Chinese, but was born and raised in America where, just like the other daughters, she has assimilated to the American culture. The quality that I like about June has the ability to stand her ground which is something her mother can't understand. She is outspoken when it comes to her being upset by her mother or her childhood rival Waverly. Towards the end of the novel she understands her mother and the life she had before she had her and is ready to tell her twin sisters of her mother's life.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this novel and, without exaggeration, read the entire book until I was finished. Just like Malinche's Children, it was a compilation of stories put together, however they all connected and made sense. There are some philosophies you can take out of this book as well and good quotes. I found this book interesting and entertaining. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read. Also, I read the movie after and it is very close to the story and is entertaining as well. Sometimes I see myself in June's situation with her not having such a bonding relationship with her mother as well as the other daughters.

Author, Context and Trivia: Amy Tan has written many books relating to Chinese-Americans. Another book of hers is The Kitchen God's Wife which I am currently reading now. Her books and writing style remind me of Maxine Kingston who wrote Warrior Woman and is one of my must read books. Amy Tan was also born in California same as the characters in this story. This story does remind me of Malinche's Children, which is why I read it, and it talks of being raised in two different cultures. I definitely plan to read more of Amy Tan's books.

Malinche's Children

Title: Malinche's Children
Author: Houston-Davila, David
Place of Publication: USA
Company: Association of American University Presses

Reason, Type and Setting: I selected this book after a close friend of mine referred this book to me. Her teacher is in fact the author of this book at El Camino College in Torrance and this was a book that they were assigned to read. That being said, this book is geared for more of an adult audience since there are some scenes that are a bit explicit. This novel is categorized under historical fiction. This book is a compilation of vignettes broken down into chapters with their titles being the years from 1900 to the last chapter being 1994. It deals with the lives of the Mexican-American immigrants living in Carmelas, California.

Plot: This book is an overall account of the people's lives and problems happening in the small town of Carmelas, which was named after the main character himself, Arnulfo Carmelas. Each vignette is a story of some different character's life and has it's own individual plot. Each chapter is taken place in a different time period and has it's own individual conflict happening between the years of 1900 onward to 1994. One plot story in particular that I found interesting takes place in the vignette entitled Whatever Lola Wants 1934. During that time period, Hollywood was very big and there were many stars that are considered legends today. Unlike her other neighbors in Carmelas, Lola was the only Mexican-American young girl who was able to go to an eilte school with her friend Sandy Hinton, whose parents favored Lola. So during this time, Lola is 18 and against her parents wishes, she sneaks out and ventures off with Sandy to extra in a movie. Though she does end up being a small time actress, she consequently loses the trust of her family and loses her friend Sandy.

Character: Arnulfo Carmelas in the very first chapter, Taking Root 1900, is 45 years old and is married to Gloria Peralta who is left in Mazatlan, Mexico with their children. During this time he had been working for 10 years at Norwalk under Mr. Hinton's farm. He is very hardworking, considering that his job is very laborious. Arnulfo is also very brave, when Mr. Hinton's son fell into the river Arnulfo quickly jumped into the river to save Mr. Hinton's son and in turn, Mr. Hinton gave Arnulfo a piece of land of his choice which thus became the town of Carmelas. Throughout the novel, Arnulfo is the sole founder of this town where all these people are connected in some way with each other and Arnulfo is the constant person whose always been in the town of Carmelas.

Evaluation: I liked how the novel was broken down into small short stories and was during different time periods because although it is in the same town of Carmelas the whole setting in general, with the time period is entirely different and the author gives a feel of what it was like durin those times. I'd say that the book was interesting and informed me a lot of the Mexican-American culture, but I felt a bit uncomfortable reading the book which I think should be geared more for adults and those who can understand general Spanish. The book was very explicit when it came to profanity and sexual scenes that went on, but it was a recurring theme in the book my friend who referred to me said. Also, throughout the novel, there are many phrases that are in Spanish and may be troublesome to those who do not understand basic Spanish.

Author, Context and Trivia: David Houston-Davila has not written other books aside from Malinche's Children but I do know some facts about him since my friend personally knows him as a teacher at El Camino College in Torrance and from going on his website. He is first-generation here in the US, as well as I, and comes from a Mexican mother and Scottish father. I have read a book somewhat like this named House on Mango Street which does have vignettes but it follows one character constantly rather than various peoples stories and is of Mexican-American culture. I really like this style of vignettes and I would like to read more novels like this.

The Bell Jar

Author: Plath, Sylvia

Place of Publication: 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY

Company: HarperCollins Publishers

Reason, Type, and Setting: After reading Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and having known that it was a Great American Novel, I wanted to read other novels that fitted into that title and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is considered to be one of those. This novel was written in the in the early 1960s but was later published in 1971 under Sylvia Plath's pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Although, this is not an autobiography most of the events and the personalities of the characters are based on Sylvia's life and the main character is based off of Sylvia herself. So this novel is a fictional novel. Though their is no exact date or written time period you can tell it takes place in the 1950s since the opening chapter talks about the Rosenbergs' executions.

Plot: I'd have to say there is no main plot, but it accounts of a young woman's happenings and events that take place that lead up to her insanity and could be seen as a coming-of-age novel since it somewhat reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye. Though Esther Greenwood is already an adult, it is a story about her going through her mental breakdown and eventually going out into the world, after her rehabilitation, as an adult. At the start of the novel, she attends an all women college and is on her way to New York to work as a part-time guest editor for a month. During this time, many events lead up to her mental breakdown. Esther is faced with few paths to choose from since, either marrying her childhood friend Buddy Willard and settling down or doing what she loves which is writing poetry and stories. She ends up rejecting Buddy after she goes over to his college to visit him along with his mother and decides to enroll in a writing summer program, but is not accepted. I find that the rejection from the program, since she is considered a stellar author among her peers, along with the fact that she may have to end up with Buddy and go through a life she does not want, was a reality that she could not accept and that is what led to her suicide attempt. In the following chapters, it recounts her stay in a hospital after her failed suicide attempt.

Character: Esther Greenwood seems to be an obscure character. She is very indecisive and very critical of herself and also in regards to her work, but at the same time does not give a care as to what people do, think, or say in general. As for her physicality, in the book, her peers describe her as a very pretty girl and one acquaintance mistakes her for a model on a some kind of poster or billboard. Esther is petite in frame, but later on gains weight after having to take insulin as a part of her medication. I would say that during her time period (1950s) her character would seem out of place. She wanted to have and live her own life and not be pressured into being a typical housewife with Buddy Willard. She goes to clubs/bars with her girl friends and enjoys writing poetry and short stories that have been published in many magazines. I'd say overall what Esther Greenwood would most want would be independence and she displays that desire throughout this book.

Evaluation: Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. The style that Sylvia Plath wrote this novel was very descriptive and used many instances of personification throughout the story. Just like Huckelberry Finn and The Catcher In the Rye it follows the plot of overcoming some struggle whether it is interpersonal or from society. I'd say this would be a great book to read for our bimonthly book reports.

Author, Context, and Trivia: As said earlier, this novel is based off of Sylvia Plath's experiences and character, however it is not an autobiography. Sylvia Plath initially published this book years later and under a pseudonym because she felt that it wasn't considered to be a "serious work" and she did not want people to recognize themselves in the book (for she based the other characters in this novel and events from real life people she knew). And this is her only novel written, but she has many many poems published. She went through the same exact struggle as Esther Greenwood, however she did not overcome it and ended her own life.

Obama: From Promise to Power

Author: Mendell, David
Place of Publication: 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
Company: HarperCollins Publishers

Reason, Type, and Setting: Since the presidential elections will be coming up very soon, I decided I wanted to be informed of the candidates. I have already read an autobiography of Hillary Clinton so I thought I would read a biography of Barack Obama who has been getting a lot of attention recently. This book would be categorized under biographical political science. It takes place throughout Obama’s childhood to now. His childhood took place in the island of Hawaii during the 1960s, to Harvard in Massachusetts, and eventually to Illinois where he became senator in 2004.

Plot: This book did not really have a plot, it is more of a biography. There are some accounts of Obama having some interpersonal conflicts dealing with his desire to "fit in" with his roots since he is multi-racial. This biography isn't written in a way where it is like a research paper where it starts from birth till present and gives facts, but it is written in way where you can sense the emotions of Obama and the people around him during the different times in his life.

Character: I will describe Obama's character since he is the focus in this book. Barack Obama is around six feet and of a multi-racial background with his father being from Kenya and his Caucasian mother from Kansas. He likes to keep his hair short, but during his high school days he had a fro and he made use of his tall but thin frame by playing basketball. He is a strong person who holds up to his values and is a well-spoken person who is open-minded and is very willing to listen to both sides to comes up with a fair decision.

Evaluation: I found this book of Obama's life to be very interesting the first few hundreds of pages, but 400 pages is a bit too many. It seemed to be an easy read but for someone who does not want to read about politics or political life it may be a tedious read. I really liked how this book informed me of how one's childhood can shape someone's future and that can be seen through Obama's life when you read this book. While reading this biography, I got a sense of the different events in his life that lead up to his decisions and personality. This is one thing I really like about biographies/autobiographies is that you can see why people turn out to be the way they are. I find that since the elections are coming up, even though I can't vote yet, I thought I'd read about some candidates especially Obama since I've seen how much attention he has been getting. I find this book to be more of an informative read than an important one. It's a book I would read out of curiosity and if I want to be informed of his life.

Author, Context, and Trivia: David Mendell is a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and writes articles pertaining to politics and urban issues and has written about five books with topics as those as well. One book that I have read like this biography is Hillary Clinton's autobiography. They both share the fact that they were law students who became senators with Obama in Illinois and Hillary in New York. I like the style or writing that Obama was written rather than Hillary's autobiography. I think that I'd like to go back to reading novels rather than biographies. I wanted to try reading a more varied selection of genres, which is why I read this book along with my other reasons mentioned previously.