Close Reading Corsair

by Marshal Mathers

I am making my claim about the book Corsair by Clive Cussler.

In this book, the main character, Juan Cabrillo, hates pirates and terrorists. The evidence supporting this claim is, it it mentioned in the book many times, Juan shoots a group of terrorists eating lunch, and Juan shoots and kills a Somali pirate leader’s guards and then, against orders, try’s to strangle the leader.

Close Reading The Truman Show

by Mickey

I recently watched the movie the Truman Show starring Jim Carrie as Truman Burbank, the main character. Truman is living in a sheltered world, everything he knows is fake, and he is completely unaware of it. To him this life is normal there is nothing suspicious going on. Strange things start  to happen in Seahaven, a set that is man made and big enough to hold a population of a small country. Truman comes in contact with weird things, including a light fixture falling from the sky. He starts to freak out and is convinced that no one is trustworthy (he is correct). Everyone convinces him otherwise and tells him he is crazy.

This movie is a great example of control and also the importance of human rights. Lots of people feel as though Truman was trapped, or in a jail cell. Other people thought that this is what hes comfortable with, why change it? The actors are being paid to tell him that this is how life is, yet something inside of him tells him they are wrong. The producer at the end trys to control him by saying, the world out there is terrible, unlike this world. But Truman feels as though living a "normal" life is more important, and goes out into the world.

Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog

by Emma

Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog by Mark Twain was very interesting. It starts off with a man, whose name you never find out, complaining to a friend in a letter. He humorously describes the events that happen when he goes to Simon Wheeler’s house to ask about Leonidas W. Smiley. When the man inquires about Leonidas, Simon immediately is reminded of Jim Smiley and begins to regale the man with stories of Jim. Jim is best known for gambling, it is said that he would go so far as to bet on which pigeon would fly away first. One time Jim trained a frog, he trained this frog to jump far and high. He sat by a pond for three months nudging the frog to jump higher and higher until he knew that the frog could out jump any other. Jim won bet after bet after bet on his frog it truly was the best jumping frog. One day a stranger saw Jim and his frog, who is kept in a lattice box, and inquired as to what was inside. Jim replied saying that his frog can out jump any other frog the man was intrigued saying that he would take him up on his bet if only he had a frog. At hearing this Jim promptly left the frog in the strangers care and went off to find another frog. While Jim was doing this, the stranger took out Jim’s frog and filled him up with quail shot. When Jim returned with the other frog the set them both down to race, but when Jim nudged his frog he couldn’t move while the other frog leaped away. Jim handed over the money, and just when the stranger was about to leave Jim’s frog coughed up two quail-shots. At this Jim raced off to catch the stranger but never succeeded. 

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

by KitKat

So, I am reading Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. There is this girl, Karou, which means hope. And she is destined to be the savior of the entire Chimaera race. She is the new ressurectionist for the fallen Chimaera soldiers, who are fighting a thousand year war with the Angels of Astrae. It’s crazy good, being the third and final book in the trilogy. Can’t wait to finish it.

Read the series… if you dare ;)

Literature of choice: Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan

by HissyFit

Heyheyhey! Today, for this post, I would like to tell you about my favorite book. If you wonder if our book interests match, well, I like chillers and mysteries. Who doesn’t? This book is a vampire-based novel, but please don’t relate it to twilight already, LOL.

This is a story about a young man named Darren Shan, who is friends with the widely known “wild child”, Steve Leonard. One day, word spreads that there is a freak circus in town, and Darren and Steve decide to go. They see acts starring a wolf man, contortionists, and much more, but their favorite act was the vampire Larten Crepsley and his performing spider, madam octa! That night, while Darren was supposed to be headed home, he stumbled upon Steve asking Mr. Crepsley to turn him into a vampire; but Larten refused, saying that Steve had evil blood in his veins. Darren is not interested in vampires, but rather Mr. Crepsleys’ spider! So he takes an unthinkable risk and steals madam octa.

A few weeks later, while playing with madam octa and Steve, Steve is bitten and injected with a venom that would have him paralyzed and in a coma for a week, then kill him. Desperate to save his best friend, Darren finds Mr. Crepsley in search of an antidote. But the vile is rare and precious, and has a heavy price: Darren becoming Crepsleys’ half-vampire assistant! Darren resents the idea, but he has no other choice.

After a painful procedure, Darren is a half vampire, and Steve, with the help of the vile, will be okay. Now that he got what he wanted, Darren escapes from Mr. Crepsley, though it doesn’t really work out for him. He ends up taking blood from his injured friend, and almost biting his sister! Desperate, Darren seeks help from Mr. Crepsley, who reveals that the only way to escape would be to fake his death. But his troubles would not end there.

Something I found interesting was when Darren throws away home as he knows it to save Steve, but is that really the only reason he becomes Mr. Crepsley’s assistant? The answer is no. In the book, Darren begs his sister not to tell on him for having the spider because he doesn’t want to go to jail. If your friend was in trouble, would you throw away home and security as you know it to save him or her? Maybe not. But now say if you didn’t save them, somebody would find out it was your fault and bust you for it! That would make the decision a little easier to make. So, clearly, saving Steve was not the only reason Darren became a half vampire. He also had saving his own butt in mind.

Now, back to that other question, if your friend was in trouble, would you throw away home and security as you know it to save him or her? Let’s have a better look at that. Identify what your home feels like. Now recognize your family, and how it feels to be around them. Even if you live in emptiness or perhaps isolated from your family, doesn’t your go-to place feel whole to you? It is your definition of ‘home’. Now say your good friend was kidnapped, and you are the ransom price. Of course, you won’t have your family to go to or your home to shelter yourself anymore. Are you willing to save your friend if it means losing everything that comforts you?

As you may have already guessed, this is my favorite book. It is a 12 volume long series, and I only summarized volume 1. I was not much of a vampire fan until reading this. I like it for how well written it is, its plot, and its characters. My favorite character is Mr. Crepsley for his overall attitude. Also, I am very much interested in the graphic novel version. Because I like the book so much, I was excited to see the movie. DON’T EVER WHATCH IT. The movie enraged me because it was unrecognizable compared to the book. For instance, Steve and Darren were older, and all of the action scenes were WAY out of order! AAAAARUGH! Unless you want to ruin your vision of Cirque Du Freak, never watch the movie. If you do get around to reading the book or the manga, I hope you enjoy it!

Peace, me out! –HissyFit