Sunday, November 18, 2012

Misery, by Stephen King

This book was fantastic, and even that isn't good enough to explain how amazing this book is! Misery, by Stephen King does an excellent job telling the story of a psycho woman named Annie Wilkes who obsesses over Paul Sheldon, a famous author that writes books about historical romances. His most popular book is about a girl named Misery. When he is on vacation, he passes out and is crippled. He wakes up in Annie Wilke's house. He is at first very grateful for her, but he soon begins to realize that he is dealing with a maniac . He is put in a wheelchair so that he can't escape. Annie does not want him to regain his health and leave her. She is devastated with the fact that Misery dies in the end, and she wants him to re-write the book. Sounds crazy, right? It gets even better than that, but I don't want to spoil anymore. Stephen King is very successful at establishing characters with completely different personalities. The book was very enjoyable for me, and I know some people that didn't enjoy it any less than I did. As the book goes on, you begin to notice how crazy Annie actually is. I promised that I wouldn't spoil anymore, though, so you will have to see for yourself. It's definitely worth the read, and Stephen King has many other books that are equally as good as Misery. Annie is one of the most interesting characters that I have ever seen in a book. I didn't know that someone could be so crazy to take an author hostage just to change the ending of a book! This just shows that everyone has their reasons and their motives, regardless of how crazy or how unreasonable they are. With that said, Misery is an outstanding book with an amazing story, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I'll be completely honest: I don't really enjoy non-fiction books, but I think you know that by now. This book, "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote, is a non-fiction mystery book that talks about the killing of a very successful farmer in Holcomb, Kansas. This book was probably my least favorite because of the way it was written. It is pretty difficult to follow and characters seem to pop out of no where. The chapters end abruptly, and it jumps from place to place. There is also a lot of filler that is irrelevant to the story, I bet that if the filler wasn't added, the story would have flowed so much better. I think that's enough about the cons... I'll get to the positives now. The setting was great and it really set up the time period, the location and it gave us an idea of what was going on in Holcomb, Kansas. The characters are introduced at good times, however, there are so many names to remember! It seems more like a chore to remember who each character is and what they did or do. I honestly don't have much to say about this book because I didn't enjoy it too much. My favorite part was when they figured out who killed the farmer. However, it was kind of obvious and I figured it out prior to reading the last few pages. The book did do a good job with creating suspense and dragging out the moment of truth, though. Like I said, I don't really like non-fiction books, but I kinda wanted to try one out, and this is what happened. I did read the whole book through, but it didn't pique my satisfaction. I guess I'll just stick to my fantasy books!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Road by Cormac Mcarthy

The book "The Road" by Cormac Mcarthy was my very first selection for reading in the beginning of the school year. Cormac Mcarthy is a famous author and he is known for his other book named "No Country for Old Men". His writing style is very unique, and can sometimes be very difficult to follow. For example, in "The Road" there are no quotation marks and the paragraphs don't flow very well, so it can be difficult to follow transitions. Before I get into my thoughts of the book, I will provide a brief summary. This book is about A man and his son that are in what seems like a post-apocalyptic world in which there are little to no survivors and people that are hunting the survivors. Now, this book was really touching and emotional to me. There were many parts in the book that showed the connection between the father and the son; they would always be sticking together and trying to find their way across the world. However, there were also many scary and terrifying parts. One of the scariest parts of the book is when they find their selves in the cellar of a torture chamber. They are then greeted with suffering tortured people who beg them for help. The son is disturbed and the hunters are alerted with their interference. This scene I feel completely transitions the book because it shows that the world they are on is destroyed and contains people that are suffering, and people that are causing the suffering. It also brings up a question, what is going on and why is this happening? It also makes us feel bad for the man and the child. The author does a good job setting up the scene in which the characters go through extreme terror, and at the same time makes us feel horrible and sympathetic for the characters. While this isn't my favorite book by far, I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in the story of the world of the future, a post apocalyptic universe and the sad story of two people who travel a destroyed world.