Black Friday

Black Friday is still a huge deal and every year there are new reports of crazy happenings on this day. People flock to outlet stores and wait in lines for hours on their Thanksgiving night. Limited stock and huge deals. Is this practice still relevant today though? In 2016 most of shopping is done online. It’s even possible to buy groceries online now. Cyber Monday has become almost as large as black friday, but it infinitely more useful and convenient. Items are stocked across the country and can be shipped anywhere without fear of missing out. There are no large crowds or lines. It is easier than spending all night shopping and there is no risk of your item being out of stock, damaged, or being harmed for it. It’s even possible to save more on the internet. There is no lines, no other people and it’s not even necessary to change out of sweat pants. You’re not left tired, out of gas, and stressed after everything is over. I find it hard to understand how Black Friday is still relevant today. It is not worth it to spend all night with people whose only care in the world is to get what they came in the store for. There are too many opportunities that do not involve this savage mentality. Ignoring the fact that black friday only plays on consumer mentality and proves year after year how materialistic humans really are. People continuously put material items over the lives of the people around them. They stop caring about who they may hurt or the people trying to help them. Black Friday is toxic and Cyber Monday is a much better solution.

I am grateful for the people in my life who have lifted me up. I am no stronger than the people who have taken care of me. Without some very key people, my life would be very different and significantly worse. I'm thankful for my brother for turning me into something of a mother. He thawed me out from the inside. He's taught me empathy and how to care for others. I appreciate him for being grateful for me. I'm grateful for my father. He was the smartest person I ever knew and I wanted to be JUST like him. I wanted to be the smartest person I could be. I challenge him constantly. He has persuaded me to work hard in my classes and be the best me I can be. He's been a guiding light in my life. Lastly, I'm thankful for my boyfriend. For listening to me when I needed it. For taking what I had to say and telling me it's valid. For picking me up when I needed it. I don't know where I would be without these people. I don't like to imagine a world without them.

Our 45th President

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. I woke up to this news on Wednesday the 9th after staying up as late as I could following where the electoral votes were falling. The only thing I felt was pure dread. Partly because all the people in my school would be overjoyed and would not hesitate to state their opinion, but also because of what our nation could become with 3 republican- controlled branches of government. Trump has a short temper and is very determined to get what he wants. Some of his views are extreme and hurtful to many people. This is not the kind of person we want to appoint president and then create a senate, house and supreme court all controlled by people who will not tell him no. No matter what president we have a system without checks and balances can not produce good. Adding on top of this Trump's extremist nature is a recipe for disaster. Half of my lifetime and the majority of what I can remember was spent with Barack Obama as our president. I don't know if this election scares me because of the idea of change and venturing into the unknown or if it's due to the claims by Trump, United States citizens and foreign nations. This is the first election I've followed closely and formed my own opinion on and the candidates were nothing like I expected. This election was nothing like I could have ever imagined. Most of it seemed like a joke and it all seemed very far away. This decision put a wrench in that and this new reality came as a slap in the face. I don't really know how to feel about any of this. Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States and I don't think I, or many other citizens have accepted that fact yet. The shock will wear off soon and hopefully Donald Trump proves he is the best thing for this country right now. I'm looking forward to see how it turns out.

Happy Halloween

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Costumes were always fun and in recent years I've learned how to do intricate and convincing face paint. I spent every 31st running around my neighborhood with my friends and eating as much candy as I could. This year a lot of that changed. My costume was last minute with little effort and I don't care much for the candy. Instead, I just enjoy the ambiance. My favorite memory on Halloween was twp years after I moved from Milford. I had been away from my friends and my old neighborhood for months, but I got to go trick-or-treating the same way I did every year with everyone I knew. I caught up with my old friends and we spent all night together. It was nice to catch up with everyone and I remember having SO MUCH CANDY. Afterward, we went to my old, abandoned house. It was condemned when we left, but we attempted to get in and the door opened. We walked around our old home. I remember all the murals we painted around the house and how familiar everything still felt. I had put my handprint on the wall with a date when the rooms first got painted and I was able to admire them. I don't have any photos from that night and I don't think I could ever repeat it and go back. It was a moment that I keep close to my heart. That place was my child home and there are so many memories and keepsakes I left behind there. Halloween is my favorite holiday and that moment made it so much more special.

Perks of Being a Wallflower

After finishing The Last Time We Say Goodbye, I have decided to switch to a shorter, easier read. I've heard about Perks of Being a Wallflower for a long time and it's been sitting on my bookshelf waiting patiently for its turn. I have finally gotten around to it. The first thing I noticed when I opened the book was the formatting. Each section is written as a letter and it is not clear who it's addressed to. It reads "dear friend", but it's often mentioned that he's sending these letters out and hoping someone will read them. It's unclear if there's another character he's writing to or if it meant for the reader. I personally imagine an older man finding these letters in his mailbox and reading them, though I have nothing to support this. I also took note of how naive the main character, Charlie, is. He often looks at very serious situations and shrugs then off or doesn't understand that weight they carry. In one case he witness his sisters boyfriend abuse her and does nothing but keep it a secret. In another he witness a girl get raped and doesn't realize what it was until he says it out loud months after the fact to his friends. Charlie is described as thinking a lot and veiny stuck in his head but he isn't thinking about what's going on around him. Instead he has his own reality. I am not very far into this book, but it's an interesting read and a new perspective. I'm excited to continue this book. 

Saying Goodbye to This Book

One thing I find most troubling about my adventures with reading is putting down the books that I don't like. I feel like (most) books deserve the chance to get better. In some cases, this works brilliantly, like my struggles with Gone Girl and the exciting, hooking climax I can't regret reading. In other cases, like Origin by Jessica Khoury, it was a waste of my time struggling through the story. I've put down two books in my life, Diary of Anne Frank and a book I've forgotten the title to because it was so bad. Unfortunately, I believe I'm going to be adding another title to this tiny list. The Last Time We Say Goodbye has turned out to be the most mind-numbing book I've attempted to trudge through. I can tell it's going to a climax, but the build is so slow. I'm constantly learning meaningless information that won't help me better understand the character or the story. Maybe I'm missing something, but from what I can tell there's no real focus. This book is not organized at all. It's random and follows no real plot. I often find myself wondering why I need the information I'm being force fed. On top of all of this, the main character is not interesting. The only characteristic she has is having lost her brother. She is defined by that. There is nothing more to Lexie Riggs than the fact that her brother committed suicide and she has to deal with it now. I am incredibly frustrated by this. This story could be executed so well, but instead, there is no story.

The Last Time We Say Goodbye

My favorite genre to read is young adult fiction. Most of these books are thick with beautiful hardcovers and simple, yet interesting writing styles. You can imagine my excitement when I found a book with an original cover and the promises of tears, smiles, and laughs. The main character even shares my name! This had no faults, it was everything I could dream of. So why am I 150 pages in and bored out of my mind? The main character, Lex, is faced with the trouble of losing her brother to suicide. This is heartbreaking and causes significant mental damage, but none of that is shown through Lex's thoughts or actions. She simply acts like a normal teenager. A lot of emphasis is put on her relationship with her friends and how quickly it has deteriorated, but we never get a taste of the relationship before her brother's death. She just seems like an introverted kid. The rest of the character don't really play a role Lex's life. It's just the internal ramblings of a hormonal teenager. This reminds me of Speak by Laura Halse Anderson. The character has had a tragic event occur and the story focuses on how they react and how it's affected their life, but there is no before. There is nothing to compare it too. As far as the reader knows the character has always been depressed and alone. These stories are from the young girl;s point of view and she complains about the things going wrong; how she has no friends, her family isn't right, she's had this huge thing happen but isn't dealing with. They never end up doing anything about it though. In Speak , another character must save Melinda and even then it doesn't show the change from depressed to happy. I don't see this book taking a much different path. I guess I'd rather watch the shift happen than witness a girl wallow by herself. I'd rather see the event that caused it and feel the same pain as the character feels. I'm hoping all of this comes together later on, but for now, I'm mostly bored. Maybe I'll stop judging books by their cover.

Into the Wild

I've been approaching the end of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. It's only a 200 -page book, but I've been excited to get to the end. Not for the normal reasons, unfortunately, but because it's not a very interesting book. I am not a non-fiction person and that may be why I don't connect with this book as much as I usually do with the books I spend time on. The book is written like an extended article. The author clearly states he is a journalist writing about the true to life events that took place to Chris McCandless. His life is clearly abnormal. He's a genius with rich parents, a happy family, and a thriving social life. What then encouraged him to donate his $25,000 college fund to charity, dump his car and begin living a vagabond lifestyle? That is the question Krakauer is trying to answer in this book. He interviews the people Chris met along his journey and connects his own adventures in life to those that Chris took. This book made me think about how little matters, but it also pointed out why so many things do. Chris detested the way Americans lived. He believed they were ungrateful and that all the luxuries in life were unnecessary. I started thinking about what living without all the little things would be like and whether that would be a better life. In the end, I realized that Chris lived a fairly unhappy life. He claimed that he was happier when he had nothing, but throughout his journal and from what he told others, he didn't enjoy living as much as he claims. Some even speculate he committed suicide in Alaska, rather than starving by mistake. The most prominent part of this book is the question: How much should material items matter to us? I found my answer in this book, but I definitely didn't enjoy the journey to discover it.

Thoughts on Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was supposed to be one of the best books I've ever read. I've heard so much about it and by the time I got it in my hands I was dying to read it! Every review I read was positive things and statements like "this was one of the best novels of the year" and "I was literally blown away by it!". This novel was set up for success in every way, but it just didn't live up to it. As I stated last week, I didn't care for the beginning. It was slow and I didn't care for the characters at all. The plot twists brought back my excitement. I thought to myself "this is when it gets good!", but after the first 50 pages of shock, I was bored again. There was enough suspense to keep me reading, but not enough to make me love it. I felt like the author came up with this really amazing twist and thought it out through every detail and then wrote the rest of the book in a short sitting. The ending seemed unfinished and I was simply unsatisfied. It felt extremely rushed and left me confused. There were lots of random events that led nowhere. This was an okay book, but definitely not the "life-changing bestseller" it was set up to be. I wouldn't really recommend this book unless you had nothing else to read. I have a bookshelf full of much more exciting, suspenseful and well thought out books.

I Wasn't Expecting That..

I've been reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn in my free time. I will admit, to begin with, I could not get into it. It may have been due to my book hangover from I Am The Messenger, but it was also just really slow. A character goes missing that you just don't care about. You don't hear much about her and the few things that are told don't make her an ideal character. I found myself groaning at the idea of reading it. I persisted anyway (mostly because I'm stubborn). Then it happened. The plot twist. What a twist it was. I found myself beginning to care for Nick, and even kind of feeling bad for him, but all of that went away when he presented his secret to the reader. I was astounded. After I read page 142, I had to stop and put the book down. I was tempted to spoil the whole thing to my friend, Paige, just to talk to someone about it!  How do you recover from such a bombshell? Well, that's simple: another, bigger twist. I didn't find myself as surprised with the discovery that Amy had planned  her death. I had suspected it throughout the story and felt more relieved than surprised to have my questions answered. This twist was a huge one, but it was expected. I would have honestly been disappointed had this not been the way the book had went. It could have been hidden a lot better than it had been. It was a wonderful addition to the book, but could have been executed better. After all of this, I'm really starting to get into this book and I've devoured over 100 pages in the last 2 hours! Flynn does a lot of show-don't-tell. She lets the reader figure everything out almost at the same pace as the characters; sometimes she won't even reveal it then. This book is incredibly suspenseful. I find myself going back again and again because I just can't wait to know what the characters are going to be doing next. I wasn't expecting this to turn into what it was, but I am glad I kept reading.

I am The Messenger Review

For the past few days, I've been reading I am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. I chose this book because of the way Book Thief was written. I absolutely fell in love with Zusak as an author. This book did not disappoint! From the very beginning I was hooked.
Ed was a guy that few liked. He didn't go out much and had a pretty simple routine. Despite this, you can't feel bad for him. He's content with his life. Not happy, but content. I felt myself appreciating that fact. What really caught my attention was the pressing issues that surrounded Ed that he chose to simply ignore. He sat with a gun to his head and his response was to make witty remarks to the gunman. Yet in situations where very few things matter he fills with anxiety and can't work out how to react. In one of his cards he's faced with a young girl who just needs some words of encouragement. His response is to avoid being seen by her at all costs and wait for "the right moment". Instead, he's thrown head first into a conversation he isn't prepared for, but how does that compare to almost dying? Ed is a very complex character and after everything, he's still hard to understand. I think those are the best characters to write. No person is truly understood, even when you're in their head.
The story is shocking and the twists are impossible to predict. My one complaint are the minor characters. Ed is introduced to the reader with his four friends: Audrey, Marv and Ritchie. They are important characters in Ed's life and influence the story, but they aren't given backgrounds or details. They are there to influence what happens to Ed, but don't exist outside of it. They're even *SPOILER ALERT* given their own card. Yet the reader never gets to know any of them. I guess this may be on purpose to add to the overall meaning of the story, but I definitely would enjoy some more information.
 I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind a book that's a little darker and makes you think. It left a huge impact on me and made me reconsider who I am as a person. I look forward to reading more of Zusak in the future.