Lovely Bones..again!

In the last post, Mr. Salmon leaves off at the Singh's claiming Ray to be a suspect, however, clearly this was not the case. During the summer though, Lindsey and Susie's school brings their honor students to a camp with other smart kids from other schools. Through the three week time period, each student is there to learn and become adventurous--with each other. Lindsey and her boyfriend, Samuel choose to explore the sexual aspects of being in a relationship. Though very young at 14, this does not stop them. At first, Lindsey showed to be very shy towards him because of the loss of her sister, however, at camp, she was free of the drama at her home and wanted to rebel! No surprise, they have sex, and they cannot get off each other through the whole duration of camp. It just comes to show that stepping out of a depressed environment can change your whole perspective on the world because you haven't seen it. All you would want to do is be free and do whatever you want because you can--nobody would worry about you--especially in the Salmon house. At the last week of camp, they have a project to come up with, a problem to fix, so to speak. Lindsey, attending this camp for the second time, thought it would be the mouse trap car again. Unfortunately, it was not--the scenario was, "Plan a perfect murder".

Lovely Bones

Well, I have not posted in a very long time. Anyway, I have still been reading Lovely Bones, hopefully to finish it this coming week. Where I last left off, Mr. Salmon had just left Mr. Harvey's house with suspicion that he could possibly be the creepy murderer of Susie Salmon. Even though the Salmon's cannot find Susie's body, they still have a memorial service for her at a funeral home where all of her friends and family come to mourn and show support. Lindsey is finally being hit with the loss of her sister, and I always seem to find her in Susie's room looking at old pictures, laying on her bed etc. However, Mrs. Salmon's mother shows up--who has not been very "close" to the family" and suggests that Lindsey needs a makeover and a pretty outfit for the service. So, Mrs. Salmon puts Lindsey's make up on, and picked out a dress from Susie's closet. At the end of the night, Lindsey feels pretty about herself and ends up sleeping with her full make up on, laying back on the mattress the whole night in Susie's bed, in Susie's dress. The next morning, was the service; Ruth was there, however, Ray was not there because he could not stand the grief. Creepily, Mr. Harvey stood in the graveyard feeling anxious to whoever who could possibly find out about his crime. Next, since Mr. Salmon noticed that Ray was not there, he went over to his house to see how he was doing as well as claim him as a suspect to Susie's murder. Ray was not there the time Mr. Salmon was at his house, however, Mrs. Singh thought this to be absurd and told Mr. Salmon that Ray adored Susie and would never do anything like that to her; as obsessive as he was..

Continuing with Lovely Bones

There are absolutely no happy pages in this book to read, not even the very first one. As I continue with The Lovely Bones, the Salmon family starts to feel the effect of Susie being gone. Of course, when a family member passes away that is well known around your community, you get treated and looked at differently in school. When Lindsey gets called down to the principal's office to have the "talk" about loss, she doesn't even know what she's lost! She's oblivious until Mr. Caden basically threw all of the "Salmon girls" business on her. He deliberately put her on the spot and then immediately went on to another subject. He could of easily went a different way, but he didn't. Then, Lindsey breaks down hard and hysterically cries until that part of the chapter is over. In chapter 4, Mr. Salmon meets Mr. Harvey-the killer--without even knowing he was the killer! Weird. However, Mr. Salmon does become suspicious of where Mr. Harvey builds their tent, and how he responds to "You know something". Mr. Harvey says, "Go home, I can't help you". After becoming extremely suspicious, he calls Len, the detective, and asks him to get on the case. That's all I have gotten to this week. Hopefully it gets happier :)!!

Back to Lovely Bones!

Oh my, it's been a while. Anyway, I was totally right-Susie was definitely raped by that creepy old guy who lives in her neighborhood. Reading the several pages that described her rape was extremely grotesque (vocab word!!) because it went into such great detail. However, when the chapter ends, she is finally dead and talks about going to heaven and having "different heavens" than anybody else. Meaning, that if you desire the same thing as a certain person, like reading, you all will go to a library and read while others may be playing volleyball in a different heaven. It's very cool, and Susie can observe the living whenever she wants (not like another book I read called Elsewhere). Throughout the tidbits of heaven, Sebold goes back and forth with Earth as well and the investigation of Susie's body. Slowly but surely, cops continue to show up at the Salmon's household. Her mother in utter disbelief, her father being the peacekeeper in the house, and her sister slowly taking it all in. Her sister is dead, and there is investigation to find her body. They get word her elbow shows up in a field somewhere, her notes from "To Kill a Mockingbird". Meanwhile, Susie's crush Ray Singh is devastated as well immediately returning home right after school everyday, social suicide. Hopefully, the investigation continues! Maybe she'll find a way to communicate with her family? I really have no idea. I'm really excited to read the rest of this book.

Prep

After taking a break from Lovely Bones, I started a new book called Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld to begin our women author unit. I don't really know if I like it yet because it started out extremely chilche about a new girl arriving to a new school, so I have yet to see if I will stick with it.

The book begins getting right into school and the "new girl" scene where Lee Fiora is in the middle of Ancient History and misread the topic she had, doing the same exact one as the presentation before her. She ends up stuttering, choking up, and running in the bathroom to cry only to find Gates Medkowski-a prefect in school aka, the most popular and prettiest girls in school. However, Sittenfeld did not characterize her as the popular mean girl, but the popular NICE girl. Not entirely what you expect at Ault private school. After her incident, Lee arrives back at her dorm to find her roommate Dede, who comes across as the stuck up, preppy type. Dede has her money stolen, and alerts her whole dorm level to confess who found it. Gates who is also in their dorm asks "If somebody can keep their pubic hair out of the sink, that would be thoughtful", which was completely uncalled for.

Lee soon discovers Little Washington, probably the only black girl that went to Ault. Lee found her to start becoming her friend. (At first, Lee did not even want to go to this school, but because she was academically gifted, her parents made her). For the rest of what I've read, her and Little talk about their lives, and how Little and Gates play varsity basketball. Then going to the bathroom, Lee finds that it's Little head hairs that are in the sink and she feels really embarrased.

I feel like I just wrote a bunch of nothing. I pretty much have no idea what is going on, or where this story is going. But if it doesn't show a plot by the next couple of pages, I'll probably end up switching books. I need an interesting read for me to enjoy reading..

With their Eyes (end)/The Lovely Bones (chapter 1)

Yay, I finished a book!!! With their Eyes, there are so many words that I can say to describe that book. But there is one that really stands out, inspire. That book touched me in so many ways; I literally laughed, cried, smiled, felt a pit in my stomach, everything. The kids who spoke those words made me feel like I could actually be there and feel what they felt 8 years ago--despite the fact I was 8 years old when the towers collapsed. When reading it, I don't know if this is strange or not, but it really bothered me when people came up and told me their "problems" because these people and students went through so much more than that. Like, when people say "Oh, you're all stuck in your little bubble called Ardsley", like we don't know any better in the "outside world". That's completely false, especially reading this book--it opened me up to real problems, like unable to live in your own home because it was destroyed by the soot from the buildings, or unable to go to your own school, it's really breathtaking and allows you to step back and just look, with your eyes instead of theirs.

The new book called The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, I haven't got very far but it starts out with fourteen year old Susie Salmon, where it begins as she is telling us about her memorial service when she died..creepy!! However, it goes in to exactly the night when she dies. She comes off as a nice, innocent and obedient child (how cliche), taking a shortcut on the way home from school and spotting Mr. Harvey, a old man who lives in their neighborhood. He asks her to come inside because it is snowing--but instead of bringing her into a house, he brings her into a "cave" type of hideout. She continues to go back and forth with before she died memories, and back to the hole in where she died. That's pretty much where I got up to, but I can easily predict that he rapes her no question. However, how he kills her, that's the question I really want answered!

With Their Eyes

Ironically this past September 11th, I was introduced to a book called, With Their Eyes by Annie Thoms. It's a very true story about how high school students of Stuyvesant High School witnessed the horror of September 11 right through their windows. They all saw the buildings collapse, people forced out windows to fall to the ground, and the soot and dust stampede through the city; normally high school students would not witness, or want to witness this at all, however, they did.

It's hard to write about this considering the circumstances, and how there are no chapters, but I'll do the best I can. Annie Thoms was directed to be the faculty advisor for their high school theater department. Her and two other students got together to think about the "play" for the winter show, but with their unfortunate experiences, they chose to do a documentary, sort of. Each of the 10 students, all varied throughout grades, interviewed and videotaped two or three people about their reactions and what they did on the day/days following the attacks. After finishing their jobs, they would have to act out each person they interviewed, however, they resembled them down to the steps they take and the way they move their hands when speaking; so precise, so perfect, but yet necessary since it was so personal.

Through reading, they've interviewed all kinds of students-of different grades, and cliques-teachers and even an "anonymous lunch lady"; many different views, all terrified. Although I wasn't there, or even old enough to understand the pain felt throughout people who have lost loved ones, or anything along those lines, reading this is very heartwarming and allows me to see a different point of view very easily, considering the fact their kids just like us and the language comes too natural for me. Out of 223 pages, I'm up to 78, it's an easy read, just hard to get through.