Completed~ The Five People You Meet In Heaven

I just finished the book, The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom. It was such a good book, because the plot wasn't confusing or too extravagant. It was so simple which made it great. I think that when books have too much going on, it sucks the life out of the story.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven is about an elderly man named Eddie, who works at Ruby Pier. Ruby Pier is an amusement park. He's been working there is whole life, then one day an accident happens. A rollercoaster cart falls to the ground, almost crushing a little girl. But Eddie races and pushes her out of the way, but then he never made it.

Eddie enters Heaven and there he meets five different people who each teach him a lesson. The five people that he meets have affected his life in some way or another, because unknowningly Eddie contributed to all their deaths. The first person was this freaky blue guy who used to be an attraction at the fair. (The blue man is basically in the category of the bearded lady or the world's one ton man.) The second person is Eddie's war captain, who died in battle because Eddie left him behind, again unknowingly. The third is thee Ruby. Her husband built the original Ruby Pier. The fourth his Eddie's wife, Marguerite, who died a long time ago from cancer. Then, the fifth and final is a little girl from Vietnam who was hiding in a house during the war and Eddie absentmindedly set the house on fire, not knowing someone was in there. He only saw her shadow, but thought it was nothing.

At the end of the book, he enters his Heaven, where he will await the girl that he saved from the rollercoaster cart, since in the book everyone who comes to Heaven reacieves five people, like he did.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven was really good. I didn't want to go into too much detail about the book because it's very easy to give away. I'm so happy that I finished reading this book because it was on my To Read list.

Atonement Movie Trailer

Here is a sneak preview of Atonement. Although the movie is rated R, the trailer is rated G, so don't worry. I'll be back later this week to discuss the book's ending and talk about the next book I'll be reading: The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. He also wrote Tuesdays with Morrie.

Here's the trailer:

I think

For some odd reason, as I continue to read Atonement, I can't help but see my little sister as Briony. My sister's ten and she's the youngest in the family and so she's like the baby. Just like Briony. Except I think that Briony is a little nicer than my sister can be. But one thing that really do have in common, is that Briony is really close to her mother, Emily; just like my sister is close to our mom.

So far, Atonement is going well, but I'm kind of disappointed in myself because I'm not reading as much as I should. But I'm going to finish this book! I must! It's my current life quest. A lot of people have finished five or six and I'm still working on my first because She's Come Undone, was 500 pages and I was reading the minimum pages each week. So I spent a good chunk of reading time on it. But I'm scheduled to be finished with this book by next Sunday, which I PROMISE to myself, I will do.

Atonement...so far

I am really enjoying Atonement. I thought that I would have a problem understanding the advanced English usage in the book when I first started, but I'm not. There are a lot of vocab words being scattered throughout the entire book and the best part is I know what they mean! It's so amazing! LOL!

In the book, some new characters have been introduced such as Leon's friend Paul Marshall. He is the creator of the Amo bar. It's a chocolate bar that will be supplied in every soldier's ration bag. Everyone thinks that he's a warmonger or someone who likes to start wars because he's supplying and basically sponsoring the war, in my opinnion. Also, there's Robbie Turner. He's like Cecilia's love interest. I can see it happening, because he's like the annoying boy that is rivals with the girl and then they eventually make a strange connection and fall love. Their relationship is basically that. Plus, they've known each other since they were about seven years old.

The play that Briony and her cousins are suppossed to be performing is in ruins because they can't get it organized quick enough before dinner and Briony's really upset that she didn't get to play the lead in her own play. I found out that the cousins' parents, Briony's aunt and uncle are divorcing. They don't exactly say why, but one thing for sure is that everyone in the whole town is frowning down on it. It's in the newspaper even. Part of me wants to believe that they must've done something really bad to each other because why else would a divorce really be put in a newspaper. People divorce all the time. It's so common, it's scary. I also think that Paul Marshall is going to end up being some sort of bad guy in all this. His persona just makes me wonder about him. He seems kind of suspicious. But I don't know yet. I need more proof from the book to actually begin believing that.

Also I looked up the word 'atonement' to give me more of an idea what the book will be about and the dictionary said that it means reconcilliation or restoration. Basically to make better. Hmmm. I wonder.

Character Profile

One of the main characters in my book is Cecilia Tallis. She is in her early twenties and is Briony's older sister. She is also the middle child in the family, since her and Briony have an older brother named Leon.

I think that Cecilia is the rebellious type in some ways because in the book, she describes how her father believes that it's very impolite for a woman to smoke a cigarette unless she is offered one. Still, Cecilia has her own stash of cigarettes in her bedroom and smokes them whenever her parents aren't around.

Also, she's a little disorganized and this proven by the description that the author gave about how her room is a gigantic mess and how she can never find anything. But the author also describes her as a caring big sister because whenever Briony has a problem, she's always there to wipe away the tears and tell her sister everything will be alright.

Finally, I think that she doesn't care about the social status that women have in those times. We all know that it's very impolite for a woman in those days to argue with a man, especially in public. When Leon and his friend, Paul Marshall, come for a visit, she and Leon argue about whether it was right that Robbie Turner was invited to dinner. (Leon invited Robbie, and he's the gardener. He's very smart and might go pre-med as the story progresses. Cecilia and Leon's father sponsor Robbie's education because he's unfortunate. Cecilia and Robbie have this relationship where they are sort of rivals and don't like each other. Still, Leon invited him to dinner.)

Over all, I like Cecilia's character. She's outspoken and seems opinionated, so the story is bound to have dry humor.

ATONEMENT

Since I stopped reading She's Come Undone, I've started a new book. Remember I was deciding whether to read Atonement or Their Eyes Were Watching God? Well, I'm going to read Atonement. Atonement is a much smaller book than She's Come Undone. It's by Ian McEwan and it was written maybe seven years ago in 2001. McEwan was born in 1948 in Europe. He's written so many other novels like The Cement Garden and his most recent On Chesil Beach. The language in Atonement is very mature, where I would have to pay more attention to it than other teen novels. The reading is going good so far. It's about this thirteen year old girl named Brionry and she's an amazing writer. In the beginning of the book, she's just written her best work and will be performing it with her unfortunate cousins for her older brother who is coming home. She wanted to play the lead role because she pictured herself as the lead. But she gave it to her cousin because she knew it'd be polite since they've been having problems.

That's all I know so far, but I'll keep you posted on it. I do know from reviews and the blurb at the back that Brionry's older sister falls in love with this guy that Brionry likes also and she gets really jealous and does something so bad. I can't wait to find out what it was. Atonement is actually a movie that came out towards the end of last year. It did really well at the box office and was nominated for a couple Oscars, including best supporting actress for the young girl who played Brionry and I believe for best picture also. When I'm done reading the book, I'm going to watch the movie and compare them. I'll also show clips of the movie from YouTube.

Atonement is about 300-350 pages long and so it should take me at the most three and a half weeks to finish reading. But I wanted to finish it quickly because I really want to know what she did. I also want to read Their Eyes Were Watching God next too.

<=That's Ian McEwan

This Just in! Extra! Extra!

I have made a decision to stop reading She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I admire Wally Lamb's amazing writing skills but this book is a little too raw and in some cases irritating to read. I think that the storyline is a good idea, but I'm up to this part where something that I find to be disturbing takes place and because of my morals and convictions I'm just stopping now. I know that I still need to finish at least one book and I haven't done that because She's Come Undone is like 500 pages long and I'm reading the minimum 100 pages a week because I have lots of reading for other classes, so obviously it will take me longer. But now that I'm abandoning this book, I have to start a new one. I was thinking of Atonement by Ian McEwan because I have that book currently or Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, because I own that book. I don't know yet.

My schedule is opening up now that science fair projects are done and I'm a fast reader so I'll be able to finish my books so much faster. The only problem is that I am a very picky reader. I lose interest in a book so quickly it's not even funny. A book has to be super addictive if you want me to continue to read it. So, I'm going to reasearch some more titles and then blog later about what I decided on.

Symbolism

I think that there is a lot of hidden symbolism in She's Come Undone and even though I personally don't like Dolores but I like the book a lot. It's what you call different. I think that Dolores' weight issue is a symbol (a hidden one). She seems to have an eating disorder: binge eating or something like that. I'm not too sure what the scientific name for it is. She seems to eat a lot when she's upset or angry, but whenever she's happy which is weird, she's jumping all about and running around. I think that her battle with weight is actually a symbol of depression and low self-esteem. People with low self-esteem always think that the world is on their shoulders.

I think tha the other possible symbol in this book is one that I personally see but isn't necessarily--just know that I created it, okay? I think a good symbol is the bone and skull symbol. Why? Well, because she's dangerous to not only herself but everyone. She smokes, takes no responsibility, cares less about her health and her grades stink. Seriously, be for real. *_* You always see this symbol on tanks of deadly gas or places where no one but trained personnel can enter. That has Dolores written all over it. I think that she has the makings of great person with a great life despite the death of her mom and other sad events in her life, if she'd just care more. Dolores isn't always that bad. But she could be better.

Dolores is in college

I have not really been reading because I've been doing reading for all my other classes that are super priority and because I know that I have a little bit more time with She's Come Undone, I don't stress too much. But I got some done in class. I can honestly believe that Dolores went to school a whole week early because she misread the letter. She's in college now, surprisingly. I didn't think she'd get in.

Her roommate, Kippy, (I know, Kippy is a weird name. But I think it's short for Katherine) is angry at her because they were sending letters back and forth over the summer and Dolores lied about everything about herself completely. But I think Kippy might become a little nicer, maybe. Everybody that she meets in college don't like her because they think she's really fat. It's mean, but Dolores doesn't make it any better for herself because she wallows in her pity. Why won't she stop it! Get her life on track and if she wants, slim down heathily and be happy! The world cannot just stop turning because you want it too. It doesn't and won't ever work that way. So she needs to get over herself.

Stupidity

I did some more reading of She's Come Undone. I decided that I wanted this entry to be creative and not journals like the others. I decided to give like 2 songs that I think for some reason remind me of Dolores, the main character, because I think she's really, really, annoyingly stupid!

This song is a very popular one. It's sad, but I think one of the many reasons why Dolores does what she does is because of sadness. It's by Pink. It's one of her older songs.

If you read the lyrics and think about what I've written about Dolores in past entries, than you can see that she has issues similar to the ones that Pink discusses in the song.

Newsflash

*This'll probably be a short entry because I didn't finish this week's 100 yet because it's only Tuesday. But I was reading and something big just happened:

Oh snapple! LOL! I cannot believe that Dolores' mother died. Her mother just died! It's sad how it was the same night that they had another fight about whether or not Dolores should go to college. Her mom wants her to go, but she doesn't want to. They argue about it constantly. Finally, the night her mother died, they had another fight, and her mother angrily said that Dolores could do whatever the heck she pleased. Then, all of sudden she heard police downstairs in the living room. Wally Lamb didn't even say who it was that died. It was just a "she" in the book until a new lonely paragraph said the night my mother died...

Dolores of course is upset and keeps wondering if she'd just gone to college like her mother wanted, she'd still be here. But I think Dolores' problem is her self esteem. She's super overweight and she'd been abused and raped so there's a lot of anger and hurt there. I hope she stops smoking, goes to college and get on the good track, but knowing Wally Lamb and knowing how books go, there's a high chance that it won't be like that.

Triumph-Finished first 100 pages!

I cannot believe what just happened in the book. I knew that was gonna happen from the weird way that Jack was acting and all. Plain and simple, Jack molested Dolores. The way that Wally Lamb wrote it, you cannot help but cringe in hate and agony for her. Then again, like I said, she's annoying--annoyingly stupid though. You could tell by the way that Jack's acts--cursing at her, drinking while driving, harrassing her--that she'd honestly see the signs of something not being right. Not to mention the fact that he keeps telling her that everything that keeps going wrong is all her fault, so he's brain washing her and making her feel small at the same time. It's so disgusting! But thank goodness she told someone.

This book kind of reminds me of Things Fall Apart in a very miniscule way. I think Okonkwo and Dolores are alike in some bizarre way because they both seem to feel in several examples in both books that everything going wrong in a way has to do with them. Plus, they both get on my nerves. Okonkwo's too macho and chauvinistic. Dolores is to naive and wild-minded. Also, the beginning poem of Things Fall Apart I think could be a nice touch to She's Come Undone, because Dolores in a way is calling for help in a way that you cannot really notice, but no one is hearing her. So, things fall apart. Thus, the falcon cannot hear the falconer, things fall apart...

Another word for it

So far She's Come Undone is so good. The main character Dolores, annoys me though because she's so rude and quick to talk back to everyone. She's such a should-not-be-said and I cannot think of another word for it. But anyway not only is hse rude, but I think she's a crybaby in the sense that she cries for the smallest things instead of fighting. When she got picked on in school, instead of trying to tell the bullies to back up, she was secretly getting even. If it were me, I wouldn't try and seek revenge on them, but stop the problems from the get go. By trying to get back at them, she just starts more problems. She should use her sassy mouth to back to them.

I think that in the next chapter or so, something is going to happen with her and Jack. Jack is the new tenet that moved in upstairs with his wife. He's in twenties but he's always in a sense, flirting with her and she's about 12, so as I read, I get a little more afraid trying to figure out what's going to happen to her. Jack seems like the nice type of guy though, because he's tall, handsome and has his own radio talk show. But it's always the ones that don't look suspicious that you should be careful around.

This is a link to an interview with the amazing Wally Lamb, the author of this book. Can you believe that a dude wrote She's Come Undone? It sounds so girlish, I wouldn't think a guy could do that. I think Wally Lamb is becoming an inspiration to me because he is such a great author since I'm into writing, English and books. Anyway here's the link.

Hey check it out:

http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-lamb-wally.asp

She's Come Undone

It took forever to figure out what book I wanted read but finally, I've got it! I'm going to read one that was approved by Ms. Faughey since it wasn't on the list and everything. It's called She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb and it's on Oprah's book club list. Wally Lamb is amazing. I admire his writing skills, being a fellow English person too. I always meant to read She's Come Undone because I'm reading another book by him and OMG it's amazingly good and I don't speak that way about something unless it is all its cracked up to be. LOL! The only bad part is that this book just might make me cry because its sort of a sad story. But I think there are some happy parts. Wally Lamb is just cool like that. He used to go to Vermont College MFA's Writing Program and now he lives in Connecticut. He's gotten several honors too for this book. I can't wait to start it, but it's like 468 pages. That's not bad. If I read 100 a week it'll take about 4-5 weeks. But I expect it to be mad good so it should take a shorter time for me to read it.