Reading Response #5

   I recently started a new book from Ms. James collection in her room, this one is called The Bitter End by Jennifer Brown. The reader is introduced to three main characters: Alex, Bethany and Zack. They have all been friend since they were itty bitty and are really close friends. The novel is told from the perspective of Alex, a girl who's parents had their share of hard times. Alex's mom was drunken and angry one night and told Alex's dad that she was going to Colorado, and next thing you know the police have stopped by their house to tell them Alex's mom had died in a car accident and "her brains had to be washed off the road". These words haunt a six year old Alex and cause her to have nightmares about her mom. Alex gets therapy and her dad gives her a dream catcher necklace that her mom had with her when she passed away.Since this horrific accident, the group has all been planning to travel to Colorado to find out what's Alex's mom could have been searching for. Because Alex has had such  distress over her mom's death, she wrote an award winning poem about her mom.
   Alex is a tutor in school for Zach for an English class, but when a new student arrives, Alex's teacher wants her to be his tutor instead.  The new student's name is Cole and he is extremely athletic and such a gentleman. Alex senses something different about him from the moment she meets him. As their friendship grows, Alex shows Cole her poem and she feels embarrassed about it, but Cole really appreciates it, and wonders why it is untitled. Cole isn't at school for a few days and Alex thinks nothing of it. While she is at work one day, she sees Cole studying there. On her break he takes her outside to his car and sings her the poem that she wrote. Soon, their mutual attraction results in them going on their first date where Cole says he'll teach her guitar.

   Cole picks Alex up from her house and Zack is over there. Zack acts protective over Alex, but she brushes him off and she and Cole leave. Soon they end up at a park by the lake. They are already cuddling, looking at the stars together, and playing football. Then he takes her to the spillway where a girl died before. Alex feels like it is dangerous and starts to object, but she just "feels so safe when he's around" so she goes with him up and over the fence to the edge of the spillway. Cole has her sit between his legs while he teaches her guitar.
  You can tell by the way things are progressing so quickly in the book that because of this, someone is going to get hurt from acting too fast. Already Alex and Cole's "relationship" is speedy and unexpected. While this seems good, the way the relationship starts is the way that it will end. What you put into a relationship determines how much hurt it will cause in the end too. I can already tell that this book is foreshadowing a death because the book started off explaining the mother's death. Also, the title is called the Bitter End, kind of a dead give away (no pun intended). So far, it's a fantastic book, the only negative I have is that it's hard to know how much time has past in between chapters. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Article 1 Response

   Is Google making us stupid? This is the question; we so easily blame others for our own doing. While Google may be altering our thought process, it is also altering our world. Technology is expanding as is the demand for it. The more dependent we are on it, the more distracted we become. Our reliance turns to these technological devises rather than relying on our memory. The author in this article says that they "feel like someone, or something has been tinkering with my brain, reprogramming my memory. My mind isn't going but it's changing. My concentration starts to drift... the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle." Google supplies us with limitless answers to all our limitless questions."Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes".When we turn our reliance to Google, our brains are not doing any of the work, therefore, we lose our muscle memory (so to speak). The next time we go to do research, our brains go towards what is easiest for it to do; get on the internet, type it in and use those easy resources. 

  Information is so easily given to us, that we have began to get used to being spoon fed this info. We see it everyday: in the news, through social networking, calling, texting, there are thousands of ways. "Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the shape and the process of thought. My mind now expects to take in information in a swift moving stream of particles." We used to go low and slow, doing our own work and putting the time and effort into it. Now days, all it takes is a click to do what we need to. Our attention span for things is dwindling. "The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print.We may well be in the midst of a sea of change in the way we read and think, rarely returning to any source they'd already visited. We 'power browse', and avoid reading in the traditional sense. We are how we read, weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading." While I strongly believe this is true, the school system is pushing us to use more and more technology. 

   This article was a lengthy one, and I think it was honestly a test. The author was probably testing his ideas out on his own work. My friends complained about reading this article, but I didn't have a problem with it. This may have been because I printed off the article. It was 15 pages, but as I went through the article and attacked it with a highlighter. These Technics are things that help me stay focused and make reading fun. Google is not making us stupid, we have lost the ability to challenge ourselves. We are the ones who train our minds and make ourselves stronger. 

Reading Response #4 SPOILER ALERT

  I finished Picture Perfect, and each time the story wraps up I never want it to end. It's one of those books that you can see you're coming to an end just because the pages are dwindling, but the story doesn't quite wrap up like you think that it should. Continuing from where I left off; Cassie begins to learn who she was, and who she is becoming. As she falls into a pattern with her, new to her, life, she sees why she ran away to forget it all. The past can be such a hardship and reminds her of how she has grown into the person she now is. Cassie is going through her enormous closet one day when she discovers a secret storage spot. Inside are little things from her past like pictures of she and Conner, a jacket from her prom night, etc. In the bottom of the little spot were multiple pregnancy tests, all of which were positive. The memories flood back, she is in the bathroom with a building anxiety praying it's not true. Alex is now out of control and unintentionally beats her. Cassie feels like she has to get away; everything she does is constantly under Alex's watchful eye. So, Cassie runs from the truth, and runs from the hurt, going to the place where her mother is buried.
  When Cassie remembers this, she can no longer think. Alex must know, but not be saying anything. He isn't fit to be a father, not yet. When Cassie confronts him about this, he puts his emotions aside and drinks, becoming everything he said he would never become. Alex's temper becomes more and more bipolar, due to the drinking and Alex puts more bruises on Cassie. She willingly lets this happens and blames herself, then she attempts to fix the broken pieces in their relationship. Eventually it's too much for her to take, Cassie calls Will and she goes to him; Will has gone back to where his roots are and is now living on the reservation. Cassie learns so much while she is there; she learns to love without bounds, she learns the value of family, she relearns herself. Cassie has the baby at the reservation and after a month decides that it's time for her to go home to Alex.
  When she is back, the paparazzi is waiting for her, and waiting for answers. Cassie still has bruises from where Alex has beaten her months ago. Cassie approaches the paparazzi and tells them that she "filed for divorce from Alex Rivers on the grounds of extreme cruelty." The book pretty much ends after this, which is kind of a bummer. I personally do not care for books that leave you hanging at the end, but not all stories can be a happily ever after story. The reason I love this book is because of the battles that the characters face and how they over come obstacles.

Reading Response #3

 Cassie recalls a memory as she is sleeping; it’s of she and Connor again, they are about 14 or so. Its Halloween night and Cassie is planning to prank one of the old cemeteries, even if it is a pet cemetery. Connor is unsure if it’s a good idea or not, but Cassie keeps pushing him on it and calls him a sissy. Connor doesn’t want to lose his pride, so he decides that he has no other choice but to go with Cassie; once her mind is made up, there’s no going around it. They trudge to the cemetery and find a tombstone of a dog that used to belong to their neighbor until she passed away a few weeks before. Cassie says it’s a safe bet because no one will be missing it. They begin to dig, for hours it seems; they are just about to give up when Cassie hits something. It’s the remains of the dog. Cassie pulls it up, while Connor pukes off to the side. Right away Cassie is fascinated by this skeleton of the dog and her eyes dart back and forth seeing where all the bones fit together. Cassie teased Connor about being scared of the remains since he threw up and Connor shot back with “I am not scared.” Connor never treated her like this, he was the only one who didn’t hurt her. Tears burned in her eyes and she hissed out the word “coward,” under her breath so he would hurt the same as her. They stayed like that for some time, until Connor held her and wiped her tears away and planted a gentle kiss on her. He tastes the same as me is all she could think; she realized that he was her other half.

                When Cassie wakes up the next morning and she immediately asks Alex where Connor is. He pauses for a few seconds and tells Cassie that she never really talks about him, other than that they were friends when they were younger. He leaves her with that and gets a call from his assistant, Michaela. Michaela insists that Alex go to the hospital and visits some patients for good publicity (since that previous night he had been in a fight). Alex reluctantly agrees, after all he wants to win another Oscar. While Alex and Cassie begin to get ready there’s a knock on the door and a Hispanic woman enters the room with a steaming cart of breakfast foods. Instantly the name comes to Cassie’s mind, “Mrs. Alvarez?” Alex is jealous that Cassie can so easily remember their maid with one hot meal, but in the days that she has been with him, can’t remember anything.

                Alex decides to go for a morning run down on the beach before he visits the hospital and Cassie stays in bed reading the paper. She catches an article saying there will be a premier of Alex River’s movies at a cinema. Cassie jumps out of bed, showers, and bribes the driver to keep quiet about where she’s off to. Once she arrives at the theater, they are playing the movie Desperato, a western film. As the movie is about to begin she hears all the chatter about Alex Rivers and how wonderful he is. Cassie can’t believe that she’s married to him and wants to scream it out for the world to hear, but she resists and smiles. As Cassie is at the theater, we flash to Will (the Native American who saved her) and he has just gotten all new furniture in his house and is about to enjoy some TV. Of course, his cable is down so he walks to a movie store and asks for a popular movie that’s decent and the worker hands him Deperato. After a while of watching it, he pulled the tape out and sat in the silence. He pried open one of the boxes Cassie had used to decorate his living room, before he took it down. Will wished that she was there with him, that she was his wife… The readers soon find out more Alex as the story continues to progress and things overlap more and more.