The Fireside Book Chat

Zusak, Markus. I Am The Messenger. 2005. New York: Knopf/Random House. Print.

This book is about a 19-year-old cabdriver, Ed, who thinks he is worth nothing.  His mom believes he is going to turn out like his father was: a drunk and good for nothing, and that is exactly the path Ed is heading down. He has his three best friends: Audrey, Marv, and Ritchey. Ed is completely in love with his best friend Audrey, but she does not want love from anybody.  Ed, at the beginning, thinks of himself as bad at everything and the only thing he has is his 17-year-old dog that he loves to death. The book starts out with Ed and his friends at a bank and it is in the process of getting robbed.  Somehow, Ed finds the courage to stop the bank robber and the momentarily the town sees him as a hero.  From there, Ed starts to receive random playing cards in the mail, each giving either names or clues of people. The people, as it turns out, are the ones that need help in some sort of way.  The way that Ed helps them is either good or bad and does not only have an impact on those individuals but it also has an effect on how Ed thinks of himself and where he is going in life.  The things in the book are either very emotional and it grips the reader or it is just plain hilarious and makes one laugh. The topics that are covered are helping others, love, and having confidence.  The question is: Who is sending him these cards/“messages”?

Out of all the books that I have read, this one is my favorite.  I have read it at least three or four times already and enjoy it more and more every time I read it.  The first time that I read it, I did not like the beginning because it just starts out of nowhere at a bank and it is being robbed.  I had to reread it five times before I could grasp what was going on and the importance of it.  The whole point of the book comes back to the bank robbery at the beginning, and it is so awesome how it plays out.  The book draws you in emotionally because it shows you how Ed puts up with so much crap throughout his life starting when he was a child.  His father was a drunk and his mom always treated him bad emotionally.  Ed works long hours illegally cab-driving with his best friend Audrey, who he is hopelessly in love with, but she has a hard time loving people and therefore dates guys for only one reason: sex.  Somebody unknown knows Ed.  They know almost everything about him.  They start sending him playing cards in the mail and he has to “deliver” some sort of message to that person.  The whole idea of that and the people he helps in the book and how he helps them really drew me into the story and into Ed’s life.  I would rate this book a 10 out of 10 no doubt.

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Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York City: Norton, 2005. Print.

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Berit Haahr. The Minstrel’s Tale. New York. Random House Children’s Books. 2000. Print.

Summary

The story takes place during the Middle Ages, in the 14^th century. Thirteen year old Judith of Nesscliff is betrothed to the old, disgusting, Lord Norbert by her Step-Father, Lord Walter. At her betrothal feast, she meets Robin, a Minstrel from the King’s Minstrels. The duo have a wonderful conversation about music but is interrupted by Lord Norbert. The next day, her step-father produces a pair of pipes the minstrel left for her wedding present. Later on that day she plays it and discovers it doesn’t sound right and discovers a slip of paper in one of the pipes reading, “If you see a boy with musical talent, send him to me and we (the Minstrels) will take care of him.” Judith decides to run away, much to the despair of her sister, Elinor. Elinor finally relents and cuts Judith’s hair, finds clothes, and food for Judith’s journey. She also gives her some jewelry to sell and a few pennies. Judith then renames herself Jude, after the nickname her Father gave her, “my little merry Jude”. She takes one of Lord Norbert’s horses, Sheba, and leaves. During her run, she meets a woman named Goodwife Middy, who immediately knows Jude is a girl, and stays a t her home. Middy produces three packages of herbs Jude will need on her journey; a powder to clean water, a powder to keep her well, and powder to give her advantage over a foe of Jude’s which won’t kill the person, but weaken them. Jude promises to use them. On her way out she sees her Uncle’s falcon and brings it down with a stone and wipes up the blood and cares for the injured bird. She hears her uncle call for the bird more than her. She remembers the birds name is Percival. She sends Sheba back with a bloodied cloth signifying she was “dead”.

She finally stays at a tavern/boarding house one night and meets Smithy, the local blacksmith. That night she sees someone trying to get into her room. She leaves at dawn the next morning and is attacked by Smithy. She pulls out a knife she brought along and attempts to protect herself but Percival tries to kill Smithy like any piece of prey. Smithy knocks Jude unconscious and steals her extra pair of breeches, the garnet bracelet Elinor gave Jude, and the coins. A local farmer finds Jude after the robbery and helps her onto his cart and takes him to the village he lives in. When Jude comes to, the farmer, William Langley reveals that he works for Lionel and Lady Gwynna, who is a good friend of Jude’s from her days in the abby she attended. Jude then sends a letter to Lionel and his wife saying she is Lord Stephan, sister of Lady Judith. Gwynna knows this is impossible because she knows Stephan is dead, but does not tell her husband. The couple invites Jude into their home and introduces her to Christina, sister of Lionel. Christina is extremely attached to Stephan because he is younger than she (Stephan says he’s eleven and she is fifteen). Stephen knows that Christina is in love with her character and acts uninterested in her, making Christina even more attached to Jude. Christina finally purchases a love potion from Agnes, daughter of a local witch, and gives it to Stephan. What Christina doesn’t know is that it won’t work as Agnes’s mother refused to make the potion and so Agnes made a counterfeit potion. The potion doesn’t work and so Christina tries to seduce him, but finds out that Stephan is a girl. She leaves horrified. Stephan quickly dresses and wakens Gwynna and informs her of Christina’s discovery. Gwynna sends Stephan to the pantry and tells her to leave at dawn when the drawbridge is lowered. She leaves with one of the abbots and stays at an abby and reunites with Smithy and dumps the potion for weakening an opponent in his ale. Smithy falls ill and she leaves.

Jude finally arrives at the King’s Minstrels Palace and is quickly deemed worthy to be taught. She is the teacher’s pet she is that good. One boy is extremely jealous of Jude and constantly picks on her. His name is Gilbert. She reunites with Robin who quickly recognizes Judith. During her stay Robin leaves and returns to announce his leave of the Minstrels. His oldest brother died and now he needs to run his family’s manor. She wishes him well late that night and admits that she also is leaving because it is hard to conceal she is a girl. Robin invites her to live with him and his family instead of being a barmaid of something. She accepts and then he proposes to her. She also accepts and the duo leaves in the morning.

Reader’s Response to the Book

I really enjoyed this book, but it seemed geared more toward middle schoolers due to the length and the fact that is was fairly easy to read. I picked this book because the cover caught my eye; a girl with a short haircut with a pair of pipes and a falcon on her shoulder. The book was very suspenseful and made the reader want to continue reading. There were times I was thinking, “Marriage at thirteen? That’s so wrong!” but then I remembered this was during the Middle Ages. Everything was weird back then. Judith was very courageous for abandoning her betrothed in order to pursue her love of music. My favorite part of the entire book was when Christina was pursuing “Stephen” using her feminine charm in music, looks, and her dresses, but to no avail. During the chapters I was wondering how in the world Judith was going to escape the persistent beauty. I knew Christina was insane in trying to seduce “Stephen” but finally she crawled into his bed and learned the truth; her ‘love interest’ was a female.

Ironically, my favorite character would have to be Judith’s love interest, Robin. He knew that girls were only used for having children and to entertain their husbands, yet he persuaded her to leave her home and come to a Palace of only men in order to learn music from the best musicians in England. When Judith arrived he immediately recognized her through her men’s clothes and short haircut and seemed very pleased she had decided to pursue her love of music. When he has to leave to take on the position of Lord at his parents estate, he is sadden to hear Judith was debating to leave because it was getting hard for her to cover her sex. At that time, he was already smitten as he admitted that to Judith after he proposed to her, “I’ve loved you since I first saw you, at that awful betrothal banquet. I could barely contain myself from slaying that disgusting old man you were supposed to wed,” (243).

As stated earlier, this book is more likely geared for grades 6-8, so I don’t know why it was shelved in our high school library. This book is not geared for elementary students because of some PG-13 content. It would also not be the best book for high schoolers because of the fact that is an easy read.

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Chamberlain, Diane. Her Mother’s Shadow. Ontario: Mira, 2004. Print.

This book starts off telling about Lacy’s past and the murder of her mother. Lacy is a young women who has encountered many struggles throughout her life. She is thrown another obstacle when her childhood friend is killed in a drunk driving accident. Her best friend leaves her 11 year old daughter in Lacy’s custody. After Lacy and Mackenzie spend a few more days in Phoenix, Mackenzie moves back to Kiss River, North Carolina with Lacy. Lacy tries very hard to play in the role of motherhood but at first things are very rocky with Mackenzie. Lacy and Mackenzie live in the “keeper’s house,” which use to be the light house keepers house, with Lacy’s brother, Clay, Clay’s wife, Gina, and their daughter, Rani. Although Lacy has a boyfriend, the man she believes to be Mackenzie’s father, Bobby, moves into the keeper’s house and she falls in love with him. Lacy eventually discovers that Rick, her boyfriend, is actually her mother’s murder’s son. Rick was just trying to get Lacy to forgive his father because Zachary is up for parole. After finding all of this out, Mackenzie gets attacked by one of the dogs that Clay is training. Lacy risks her life to save the poor girl. Bobby comes just as Lacy begins to pass out, the dog still attacking her. Bobby kills  the dog and saves Lacy’s life. As Lacy heals, Bobby and her figure out Mackenzie is actually Clay’s daughter. Bobby agrees to still act like Mackenzie’s father until she is older. As the book ends, Lacy and Mackenzie are moving into a townhouse and Bobby is moving into the other half. Clay, Gina, and Rani are moving too so the keeper’s house can be made into a museum.

This book was overall a very good book. It had a very fast past setting and kept you on your toes most of the time. I found it very interesting how alike Lacy and her mother were since normally girls do turn into their mom. I felt as though I could relate to Lacy in a way which helped to draw me into the book. It was sad to see all these different things happen to Lacy, after she had already gone through so much. It was hard to believe that Rick really wasn’t the genuine guy he acted like he was, which caused me to dislike him. It was a very big suprise to learn he was gay though since he was so romantic towards Lacy. When Gina was telling Lacy about how Lacy and Rick are good together, I had to laugh since he turned out to be worst the bad-boy Bobby. I enjoyed seeing how much Bobby and Lacy changed from childhood until now and also seeing the similarities. It was fun to see how much Bobby had changed and watch as his love for Mackenzie and Lacy grew. As soon as Mackenzie asked to go into the dog pen, I knew she was going to get hurt but Lacy rescuing her was definitely a turning point in their relationship. The end seemed to come very fast after that but the beginning kind of drug on. The book was a very easy fun book to read and it could probably keep any girl or women entertained.

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Myers, Jason. The Mission. N.p.: Simon Pulse, 2009. Print.

Kaden Norris, a 15-year old from Dysart, Iowa, has his life flipped upside down when his older brother and role model, Kenny, is brutally murdered while serving as a marine in Iraq.  Not long after Kenny’s death, Kaden receives a pre-written letter from him.  In the letter, Kenny shares several secrets about the war, and explains to Kaden that he had been reading the book Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, and that it had helped him to get through the war emotionally.  Kenny described how amazing of an author Chuck was and recommended that Kaden should go out to San Francisco to visit their cousin James, a semi-famous author, for a week, and then go to a reading by Chuck at the end of the week.  Kaden felt it was a necessity to go out and fulfill his brother’s dream of seeing Chuck read.  So, Kaden packed his bags and left his gorgeous girlfriend, dysfunctional family, and morals and home, and headed out to San Francisco to the insane party that his cousin called life.  In San Francisco, Kaden is introduced to beautiful girls, amazing music, drugs, sex, and a whole different kind of living.  He is appalled by the way that James treats his beautiful girlfriend, Caralie, and everyone else that he comes in contact with.  Throughout the insane week, Kaden learns several secrets about his family that will change his life forever.  The end of the book will have the reader wondering what happens next.

I, personally, loved this book, and would recommend it to anyone at least 16 years or older.  I would recommend this book to an older, more mature audience, because there is a lot of talk about drug use, sex, and has a lot of vulgar language.  The whole story and everything that happened in the story was very detailed, and it was very easy to picture every event that took place throughout the book.  I loved how the author explained everything so vividly, and made it possible to apply all five senses to the story.  I can’t really say that I have a favorite character, just because I like pretty much all of them.  I didn’t necessarily like how they acted, but I loved how the author made each character have a distinct sense of confidence in everything they did.  My favorite part in the whole book is when Kaden describes his last night before he went out to San Francisco.  He explained the whole entire evening in as much detail as possible, and the emotion poured out of the page.  One thing that I didn’t like all that much, was how the author repeated a lot of words.  The word “rad” was used a lot, and I found it almost annoying.  I wish that the author would come out with a sequel to The Mission, because he leaves the reader hanging at the end, and its hard to tell what happens.  If the Jason Myers doesn’t come out with a sequel, I hope he continues to write books, because he is an amazing author.

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Noel, Alyson. Blue Moon. New York: St. Martin’s Griffen. 2009. Print.

Ever and her family were in a car accident, and they all were killed.  A boy named Damen discovered Ever and brought her back to life by making her an immortal.  She later found out that Damen was hundreds of years old, and they had met and fallen in love in several of her other lives, but each time she was killed.  The person that kept killing her was Damen’s ex-wife, Drina.  Finally, Ever killed Drina for good. When Ever and Damen went to school one day, they met a new student named Roman.  Almost everybody, including Damen, liked him.  Despite his appealing personality and good looks, Ever knew there was something off about him.  Damen did not notice though because he started to act very strange.  Immortals never get headaches, clammy, or sweaty, and Damen started to show all of those symptoms.  Ever knew Damen’s strange behavior had to do with Roman, but she did not have any evidence to prove it.  One night, after a play that Ever, Damen, and the rest of their friends had to attend because their one friend, Miles, was the star, Ever and Damen were supposed to hang out.  But Damen left, and Ever had no idea why.  The next day he did not acknowledge her, and he started to flirt with Ever’s enemy, Stacia.  Ever finally found that the only possible cause for his strange behavior was the red drink he always had in his hand had to have been poisoned; the one drink they both needed.  Damen never taught her how to make the drink, but she knew she had to switch all of the bottles he currently had with new ones.  She went to an old friend for help.  Their solution was to go to summerland, the place where the dead and the immortals can go to and manifest anything they want.  When she was there, she met very odd twins that said they would help her find answers.  She finally found an old building that held records.  She first looked into Damen’s past, which he would never share with her.  She did discover the recipe for the red drink, but she also found that she could go back in time and be with her family again. When she gathered all of the ingredients she needed for the drink, she made her friend in charge of finishing it because it would take about three days since they needed the light of a blue moon.  Ever knew she wanted to go back with her family, but she still had to make sure Damen would survive which seemed hard because he was getting weaker every second.  When Ever went back in time, she did not remember anything about Damen or the life she had.  She was with her family again for sometime, but all of a sudden she was told she had to go back.  When she returned, she found Roman in the house where Damen was supposed to be with her friend.  Ever found that Roman was a rogue immortal after all, and he told her that he wanted to destroy Damen because he destroyed Drina who he loved.  Ever told him the truth, and they rushed to save Damen.  However, when they arrived, Ever found one of the twins in the room with Damen, and she had put a spell around them so Roman could not get to Damen and hurt him.  Roman tried to make Ever believe that he wanted to help, and she had to put her blood in the drink he had to cure Damen.  She did, and she broke the circle.  The twin screamed in horror because Roman had tricked Ever.  The drink he gave her to give to Damen had actually made it so that they could never touch again.  Damen woke up and was fine, but she could not bare to tell him that she made a mistake, and they would not be able to touch each other for the rest of their lives which was all eternity.

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Sparks, Nicholas. Dear John. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2006. Print.

Nicholas Sparks takes readers on a romance roller coaster in his novel, Dear John. John Tyree was a rebel teenager who went into the military right after high school. This book takes place in North Carolina during one of John’s military leaves. John happens to stumble across a girl named Savannah who will be in North Carolina building homes until John’s leave is up. A romance starts between the two, with John going into the romance thinking it will be a summer fling. John falls in love with Savannah, and the two decide to continue the relationship until John is out of the military with Savannah vowing to wait for him. The long distance is hard for the two, but letters to each other make it bearable. September 11, 2001 happens and John feels obligated to be loyal to his country and re-enlists. Savannah is upset that John re-enlisted, but supports his decision and vows again to wait for him. Then, a letter comes to John that ends his and Savannah’s relationship since she had fallen in love with someone else. This book was written about a man who falls in love for the very first time, and even after his relationship with Savannah is over, he is still madly in love with her and learns to cope with the fact that they are not together anymore. As an avid reader, I have fallen in love with Nicholas Spark’s books and writings. He does an amazing job as reeling his readers in within the first chapter and keeping them hooked until the very last word of the book. Dear John, was a book I could relate to, as I was in Savannah’s position once, and I have friends who have gone through the same thing. My favorite character would be John Tyree, because in his heart he is a great guy who just needs to find himself, and he does this with the help of Savannah. He is a character that no matter who you are, you can relate to because everyone knows what it feels like to lose something or someone that you love so much. This book could be read by teens or adults, especially adults who love romance novels. Although not all good books have happy endings, I did not like the way that it ended. I honestly wished and hoped that Savannah would leave her husband for John because you could tell that she was still in love with John too. I would recommend this book to anyone who in search of a great romance novel about two young people who fall in love for the very first time.

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“Tripping Over the Luch Lady and Other Short Stories.” Schoolastic Inc. New York: USA, 2004.

All these short stories in the book Tripping Over The Lunch Lady and other short stories were a great book to read. It did have easier dialogue and text through out the book. I would say it was a 6th grade reading level or so. This book had great stories in each chapter. The unique idea of this book is about a couple of kids stories that all relate to each other because they go to the same school. Most of the children’s stories in this book were some original and some were quit unpredictable. One that was original was called, “Tripping Over the lunch lady”, which was the just chapter to one story in the book. It was about a boy named Spot Jinx. He had an inspiration to be a professional square dancer like his mother. So in this story he introduces square dancing to gym class instead of dodge ball. So with a little bit of bumps and bruises and breaking his best friend, Victoria’s arm, he made it optional to take it in gym. Everyone in school loved it and loved him for being the maker of such a fun sport. Another example of how this book had unpredictable stories was a story called, “How I Got My English-A.” This story has quite interesting dialogue because the words on the pages are incorrect spelling and most are words that sound like the word but is not spelled right. I really loved this story because of the different text and the story had more realistic feelings to it. In this story the girl named Pokey is a favorite student of an English teacher named, Miss. Michelle. Pokey is not her real name but through out the story they just refer to her as Pokey. Everyday she stayed after school, and a robber broke into the elementary school and held Pokey and Miss. Michelle hostage. The robber wanted Pokey to write a letter to the public and tell them that they were in danger and the robber wanted 1 million dollars. So Pokey writes a letter, but it was hilarious because the letter she wrote didn’t look like a lugit letter. So the robber was going to kill them until Miss. Michelle convinced him not to make a sin like this because of the young children. Unpredictably the robber and Miss. Michelle got married! Then Pokey would have to keep their secret.

Over all, this book is recommendable to anyone that likes to read a simple story that likes to have some twists but not completely excitable. It is kind of kiddish so be prepared. It had a different out looks in children and their own experiences in school that fascinated me. The only thing I did not really care for was how short it was. I really wish it had more children to tell about their stories. Also, I rather have the grades a little high up, like in Middle School or even High School. So it keeps me more interested through out the book.

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Walter, Myers, Dean. Lockdown. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2010. Print

This story is about a kid named Maurice “ Reese” Anderson.

He is in a juvenile facility called Progress. He got stuck there for trying to steal some prescription pads from a doctor’s office for a drug dealer. In Progress, Reese befriends an off centered boy that goes by the name Toon, “ … he didn’t look like a regular kid – he had a round face and big glasses like cartoon character,” (Myers 13). Reese is involved with a work program so he can try and be released earlier than his set due date. While Reese helps out at a retirement home called Evergreen; Reese finds and old man (Mr. Hooft) who he finds interesting and talks, helps out when he’s there. He has to go to Evergreen 10 times a month and over that time Reese and Mr. Hooft become close friends and share there life stories together. Reese actually learns a lot more about life from Mr. Hooft than he thought His only thought is not to screw up and get out of Progress. But when gang members are thrown into the jail, Reese ends up defending his friend Toon and gets a strike and cut a break at the same time. His warden, Mr. Cintron, blames the whole fight on the gang member that goes by the name Cobo. Reese then continues to try to stay off the radar and do good to get out while in juvi.  While on under and close eye, a new inmate called “ King Kong” is put into Progress. Once again Reese ends up defending a friend from the violent life within a jail. After his fight with King Kong, Reese is yet again lectured and yelled at by his warden by how the he continuously tries to help Reese but he keeps screwing up. Then one day Reese is taken into the city and is questioned by two detectives. They are trying to pin a man’s death on him and put 20 extra years onto his sentence. Also Willis, Reese’s younger brother, is starting to get into the thug life. Over a weekend, Reese had time to think about what the detectives had talk to him about and they would come for him Monday. Monday rolls on by and Reese is freaking out on when the detectives will come for him ad then his corrupt prison guard, Mr. Pugh then tells him that they are not going to take him or bother him anymore. That he was not a suspect in the case anymore. Eventually with good behavior Reese gets out of Progress and goes back to his family. He plan on working to help pay for his sister, Icy to go to college when she graduates from high school.

Personally I liked the book. The plot of an inner city kid in juvi is very realistic. And all the problems and issues Reese has to deal with while he is in the jail. His motivation is to just help his younger sister which I find honorable and noble. I really enjoyed reading the parts when Reese went to the retirement home and had his talks with Mr. Hooft. I thought Mr. Hooft taught Reese a lot about life how Reese should act when he gets out. I found all the characters in the book to be very real. I enjoyed the one character called “ Toon”. He is an Indonesian kid and his parents are always disappointed with him and always consider him a failure compared to his older brother. He even tried to kill himself the night before he was going to be let out cause he did want to deal with his parents. But at the same time I found the book to be stereotypical about inner city kids and getting into trouble with the law. The author even wrote the characters dialogue in slang. I like the struggles the main character went through and how he progressed in life through it all. I would give the book a 4 out of 5 because of the story line and how the author makes the story seem like it could be real.

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Paulson, Gary. Shelf Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. 173. Print.

Gary Paulson edited this book “Shelf Life” to give readers a wide variety of short stories. Through out this book there is ten short stories about witches, people living on Mars, two best friends that argue, etc. In one of the stories Gary Paulson writes about how a little boy gets a mowing job at an old ladies house and turns out that she is a witch. Also that the witch helps the boy with the problem he has at school and that is studying. Another story is about a small little girl who lives with her mom while her dad is in jail. The little girl then finds out was that the mom was sending the dad clues that made an escape plan to get him out of jail.

I thought that this book was all right. Some of the stories I didn’t get into because they where boring. It didn’t really hook me in and I could care less about them. I don’t like reading about the same stuff that happens every day. One of the stories is about two girls get into a fight and then become friends again. When I read I wont to read something that is different. There is some stories in this book o liked because they where different from the others. The way the stories were written was really good. The text was not too hard and it wasn’t too easy. Any one could pick this book up and read it. There was hardly any big words in the text that would make you stop and think what they are trying say.

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