Fourth Quarter!!

        For fourth quarter I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I wanted to read a classic for one of my books over the year. I have heard great things about this book and so I went for it. I loved it. It was definitely my favorite book out of the four I read this year. I really didn't know much about the plot before I read it, despite its infamous position in literature, so I was happy I actually got a surprise while reading it. The other books I read were completely predictable or there was no big ending, therefore making them boring. All I knew about the book is that there was some sort of love story throughout the plot. But there was so much more to it!
       The book is narrated by a sort of third-party witness- Nick Carraway. He is involved right in the middle of everything that happens in the story. He is Daisy Buchanan's cousin. He is Jay Gatsby's neighbor. He knew Tom Buchanan from college. So he is tied to all main characters in the entire book. He tells the story through his point of view. The book takes place in the 1920's in different places in and around New York City, New York. Daisy and Tom are married and live on East Egg- the glamorous "egg" while West Egg, where Gatsby and Carraway reside, is less glamorous except for Jay Gatsby--with his marvelous mansion that hosts extravagant parties almost daily. Daisy and Gatsby are past loves. They were madly in love until Gatsby left for the war, in which in that five year time frame, the pressure became to much to handle and she fell in love and married Tom. Gatsby came back from the war still deeply in love with Daisy and lived his life in accordance to winning her back and in ways that would please her. He bought the huge house and had fun, classy parties in hopes she would wander in one of those days. She never did. Gatsby was fully aware that she was married and also knew that she lived in East Egg. He could see a green light that was on every night at the end of the Buchanan's deck and he would look at it every night, longing for her. A friend of both Daisy and Gatsby- Jordan Baker- first meets Carraway at a tea at the Buchanan house. Soon enough Gatsby found out that Carraway was Daisy's cousin and used him to get to Daisy again. Later in the story, he finally asks Carraway to have a tea and invite both Daisy and Gatsby only. He did, and that's when their love rekindles. Before you know it, Daisy and Gatsby usually with Carraway are inseparable. Tom eventually picks up on what is going on. However, Tom has a mistress- Myrtle Wilson. He has been with her for quite a while now and Daisy is fully aware. But, Tom is not the sort of man to let his wife be stolen away from him...so he is very upset. Jordan, Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, and Carraway take a day trip to New York soon after Tom realizes what is going on. Confrontation begins and everything is out on the table. Daisy is incredibly distressed and doesn't know what to do. Gatsby doesn't realize that Daisy did actually love Tom. Tom doesn't realize Gatsby and Daisy's past. So she is faced with a choice that she can't decide on. Daisy and Gatsby leave together from the city in a seperate car from Tom. On their way back, Daisy wants to drive to try to calm her nerves. As she was driving through a town, she hits Myrtle Wilson, Tom's mistress, on total accident. She hits and she runs. She is terribly distraught. Tom drives through the town later to see the scene and finds out it was Myrtle who was hit. He soon figures out it was Gatsby's car who hit her and tells Mr. Wilson this. Mr. Wilson seeks revenge and shots Gatsby a few days later at his home. Carraway is left with the load of Gatsby's life--which is a lot. He holds a funeral for him but only his father shows up--a father Carraway understood to be dead. After all the people who appeared in his life through his parties, none of them showed. Tom took Daisy away after the incident and was never heard from again. I really loved this book.

Animoto :)

http://animoto.com/play/CiRo3w7nGOXiwNhjbQX1mA

     This animoto was meant to be sort of a trailer for the book. I absolutely love seeing movie trailers because they almost always make me want to see the movie. I just made this to get the general point across that the book is about two best friends who grew apart and one ends up dying and the other one is left distraught and heart broken. Although Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King is so much more than just that plot line. As I have already said, I highly, HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone really. I think boys would enjoy this book just as much as I did. The thing that keeps you tied into the book is the mystery behind Charlie's death. Hint lie throughout the novel as to what could have possibly happened and Vera hides herself from the truth all the time. Finally though, at the end she comes clean and clears Charlie's name. In addition she comes to peace with Charlie's death and with Charlie through a very unique was that was really really touching. It really makes you open up your eyes to the realities of the world.
     Now this is what really made me think throughout the whole book: What would I have done if this would have happened to me? In my Vlog I mentioned how I know quite a few people who have changed since we got into High School. What would happen if something happened to one of them? What if that happened to you? It's not fair when things happen to us, things like losing someone with no answers and no real absolution. Recently I have been going through a similar thing with a friend of mine. Him and I have been best friends for a year now and once he got into High School, about the end of first semester, things started changing. It was really hard to deal with it because he just wasn't who I grew so close to anymore. He started hanging out with new people, not bad people, but new people who seemed to have an influence on him that I didn't appreciate. He started lying to me and saying hurtful things all to often. It's devastating and heartbreaking when anything like that happens to anyone.We ended up getting in many fights and stopped talking to each other for awhile. If something happened to him in that time--the worst time of our friendship--I have no idea what I would have done. I didn't hate him at all, I missed his friendship everyday when we weren't talking and if suddenly he was dead, never to be talked to again, I would have had some serious grieving and therapy sessions in my future. However, we worked out our differences and are now best friends again like we used to be. We both came around and I believe that if Charlie wouldn't have died, that is what would have happened with Vera and Charlie. The sad truth is that young people die all the time. People lose best friends and loved ones all the time. It's incredibly tragic. The lesson that Please Ignore Vera Dietz taught me was to appreciate the people who you love and who love you back more than anything in the world. They could be gone any second.

Vlog talking about Please Ignore Vera Dietz

This is me just talking about how great my book was. I also talked about the plot as well as relate to some of the themes throughout the novel!

Should Teenagers have Jobs?

         In my third quarter book Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Vera has a job at Padago Pizza as a pizza deliverer. Quite a few times throughout the novel, Vera talks about her feelings about having a job and how her and her dad have pretty different opinions on it. Vera's dad forces her to have a job because he is just that kind of dad. He says he wants her to have responsibility and be able to take care of herself. Vera was very annoyed with her dad for a long time about this. He pushed jobs on her by picking up applications for her all the time. He gave her lectures often about the importance of having a job in a bad economy. Vera was in love with a pet shop in her town. She loved the family who owned it and taking care of the animals. All she wanted to do was volunteer there--she didn't care about the money. Her dad just always said that volunteering won't teach you anything and that she needs to learn the value of a dollar. Finally, however, Vera gave in. Her dad promised her a car if she got a job. Every teenager wants a car, so she found one. Another reason Vera decided to get a job was because she didn't want to end up like her mother--leaving her family to marry someone rich just for security financially. Her mother also stripped for a few months to make ends meet and all Vera knew is she NEVER wanted to end up like that. Throughout the novel,  Vera never really complained about her job. She liked it and met a lot of people with it. It also got her minds off Charlie when he died which ended up helping her a lot.
       I know that teenagers having jobs is a very controversial issue for many reasons. I, myself, have a job. I balance a job, school, sports, extracurriculars, and social life and I have yet to have too much of a real struggle at all. I enjoy the extra money and I enjoy my job itself. On the other hand, a friend of mine's dad WILL NOT let her have a job. He says now is the time for studying and schoolwork for your future--you will work the rest of your life. On the third hand, I know people who need a job to make ends meet with themselves or even for their families. So it's all a very debatable topic. I know some people think that teenagers having jobs ends up with unreliable service and their workplace. What do you think? Do you think schoolwork is more important in high school especially? Do you think teenagers are unreliable employees? Do jobs at a young age teach lessons or just hinder the "good life" of being a teenager?  Here are a few links discussing this topic:
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/education/entries/2006/04/28/when_teens_have.html


http://voices.yahoo.com/5-reasons-why-teenagers-after-school-331714.html

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2005-04-06-teen-work-usat_x.htm

Quotes relating to Please Ignore Vera Dietz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-nKUpZPOo
This is a link to the song You Are Goodbye by Holly Conlan. I believe this song is a great representation of how Vera could have been feeling about Charlie at any given moment.

Not to many people know this about me but I love quotes. I have a huge notebook filled with them. They come from movies, songs, famous people...but mostly they are just from the internet somewhere and I see them, like them, and write them down. This blog post is going to contain quotes from this notebook of mine that somehow relate to my third quarter novel: Please Excuse Vera Dietz.

"They didn't agree on much, in fact they rarely agreed on anything. They fought all the time, and they challenged each other everyday, but despite their differences-they had one important thing in common. They were crazy about each other."-The Notebook
        This quote from this famous movie describes, I think, how Charlie and Vera's relationship was. They did fight very often mostly because Charlie did some mean things to Vera. But no matter what, they always found their way back to each other. They never really lost each other throughout the entire High School change.

"You wonder why I don't talk to you anymore and please believe me it's not because I don't want you, it's just that everything I want to say I can't tell you anymore" -unknown
     This quote is something I believe Vera would have been extremely relatable to. Charlie hurt her in so many ways and eventually she had the strength to rise above and move on. Even when she made that decision, however, he still crossed her mind constantly. The part about "everything I want to say I can't tell you anymore", Vera had said that in one way or another many times throughout the novel. Charlie was her best friend since they were kids and he changed into a completely different person- a person Vera did not know.

"I believe in fate. That everything, every single thing happens for a reason. The wrongs and the rights, they all shape our future. I believe no matter how much we might feel regret for the things we do, no matter how sad we may be for things that happen to us, in the end what happens, happens. And there is absolutely nothing anybody can do about it. There is nothing to do but embrace the change and make the best  of what's been given to us"-unknown
        This quote reminded me of Vera's attitude almost all the time. She was never angry at the world for what went on in her life. She was mad at Charlie and her mother mostly and those are perfectly understandable. She had this amazing ability to just accept things. All that happened to her she just accpeted no problem. No questions at all, she knew she couldn't do anything to change it. That is an amazing quality I think most people wish to possess.

"Life is a roller coaster, a never ending cycle. Every person is unique and beautiful in their own way. Each individual has a beauty that's unexpressed. Beauty is within. You love a person for how they make you feel, for their courage and compassion. I believe we always go back to the people that were there in the beginning. You create so much of a history with certain people that they become a part of you. They're always in your heart"-unknown
      The part of this quote that really reminded me of the book was about how you love a person for how they make you feel and also the part saying we always go back to the people that were there in the beginning. Both of those ideas rang very true in the novel. Vera used to say often how Charlie was not perfect. He was very scraggly looking and sloppy acting. He was rude a lot. However, he was adventerous and has a fantastic spirit. That is what made Vera fall in love with him. And also, the part about how we always go back to the people who were there in the beginning reminds me how Charlie no matter who he turned into, would always keep showing up in Vera's life.

"If you want to succeed in life, remember this phrase: The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday, or all today, or a momeny ago, or for the last six months, the last sixteen years, or the last fifty years of life, doesn't mean anything. All that matters is...what are you going to do right now?"
      This reminds me of how Vera felt about her mother. She had in her mind from a young age that she was just going to turn out like her mother no matter what she did to prevent it. She drover herself crazy with this thought because she just had a lot of hatred towards her mother because of what happened.

"I think that you find your own way. You have your own rules. You have your own understanding of yourself, and that's what you're going to count on. In the end, it's what feels right to you. Not what your mother told you, not what some actress told you. Not what anybody else told you but that still, small voice"-Meryl Streep
        I believe Vera would have been able to relate to this quote in many ways. She is incredibly independent. Therefore, she has her own rules as the quote suggests. I also know her attitude was that she can change her life if she wanted to..she had the power to. She was just nervous about fate stepping in and her being able to do nothing about it. The part of this quote where it says it doesn't matter what your mother says would have really hit home to Vera Dietz.

"What they say, life goes on, is mostly true. The mail is delivered, and the Christmas lights go up and down from the houses, and the ladders get put away, and you open yet another bos of cereal. In time, the volume of my feelings would be turned down in gentle increments to near quiet, and yet the record would still spin, always spin"-unknown
     Vera lost her best friend in the entire world and the boy she loved at the exact time. It would take a long time for her to move on from something like that happening, if she ever could. That is what this quote is explaining-hurt fades but the feeling never leaves completely. Vera's hurt would disappear but Charlie will always be in her heart.

"I'm not asking for an I love you, I would settle for a simple hello"-unknown
     This quote instantly made me think about how Charlie treated Vera for so long. Vera was well aware of her feelings for Charlie and she knew she loved him. However, he completely ignored her and would have nothing to do with her for days, weeks even. And she desperately wanted to talk to him almost all the time. I think this is something Vera would say.

"You're never alone. I'll be in every beat of your heart when you face the unknown"-unknown
     Change of pace, this quote is something Charlie would say. At the end of the novel when Charlie is in heaven, he only watches Vera. He doesn't care about his old friends anymore and he hates his family. Vera is the only person he ever cared about. He makes this clear at the end of the novel in his own dead-person ways.

Personal Admiration for Ms. Vera Dietz

       A big reason why I loved Please Ignore Vera Dietz was becaue of the main character-Vera. She endured an incredibly traumatic event in her life and she just held on even when everyone would have understood if she fell apart. She inspired me in the fact that I find personal strength an extremely attractive quality and me, myself, would love to have more of. Vera suffered a few very impactive things throughout the book. The first one is that her mother left her and her father when Vera was 10. Her mother left them for a wealthier man and never really contacted them. She sent Vera $50 dollars on her birthday every year- a cheap excuse for having a girl grow up without a mother. This obviously had affected her growing up. She was left with feelings of being completely unwanted and unloved. Early in Vera's life, Vera's mother had to become a stripper in order to make finanicial ends meet. A reoccuring theme throughout the novel is how strongly Vera felt about becoming nothing like her mom. She was constantly afraid of falling into the same path her mother fell into. So there was the first one. Secondly, Charlie. Charlie gave Vera enough trouble when he was alive. He ditched her in high school and as soon as she started feeling okay about losing him in the sense of him just changing, he would show back up in her life only to let her down again almost instantly. This is hard enough for a teenage girl to deal with-losing her best friend due to high school changes and loving him in silence. He quiet frankly played with her heart. Then, of course, the big one- Charlie dying. He already hurt her enough while alive and then he decides to die-as Vera's attitude was- and leave her with all these daunting questions. He is no longer there at all to answer anything--so Vera is left with the unknown about everything Charlie was into and what Charlie was feeling and doing. Then, lastly, she develops this...condition...after Charlie dies. She hallucinates that at times, thousands of Charlie's are suffocating her asking her to clear his name. She is too mad at Charlie to do this right away, so the Charlie's don't leave her alone for a long time. They come at the same times Charlie did- right when she starts feeling better. In fact, since the novel changes narrators, some chapters include dead Charlie's opinion on things. He says he sends these things on purpose because he knows and wants Vera to clear his name since he obviously can't. But anways, Vera is very scared of these Charlie's appearing and she becomes extrememly frustrated with them.
       So that is an overview of how strong Vera Dietz HAD to be in order to overcome all these obstacles in her life. I know that I already have a heard enough time balancing my school-work-soccer-social life schedule. I recently got in a car crash and have been dealing with the consequences of that which include a lawsuit against me. And I know one of the hardest things I deal with is boys and heartache. After reading this book, it made me think about how much worse it could be. My boyfriend could be dead. I could be living only with my father with no mother figure and no siblings (I love my brother). I could be having mental problems as an after effect of all that has happened to me. I could feel like I am destined to be absolutely nothing when really, I have an incredibly bright future with much less darkness than Vera's. Therefore, I really became attached to Vera's character and how she carried herself. It made me appreciate what I do have. At for that, A.S. King, I thank you very much.

Hey 2012 how are you?

       

         2012 is finally here! That means third quarter is starting as well. That also means a new book! I really had no idea what kind of book I wanted to read, so I just went with one. A classmate told me it was good, so I chose Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King. I honestly thought I was just going to have to suffer through it, but I ended up absolutely loving it. I agreed to the book after I read the back cover because it had to do with first loves and losing someone you love, both of which I have experienced, thankfully not together. So the book did interest me, but I kind of had the impression it was just going to be another teen romance novel that would be hard to get into and enjoy. How wrong I was! I finished reading it last night, it took me about a week and a half to get through. My first quarter book was one of those sort of books, and my second quarter book was based off a true story. I am really excited that I'm getting a taste of everything by this blogging assignment. Next quarter I hope to get another book based off a true story. But anyways, my third quarter book is officially Please Ignore Vera Dietz  by A.S. King.
       The novel is set in a small Pennsylvania town. The town is a mix of run down neighborhoods, middle class neighborhoods, and rich neighborhoods. You only really know this because Vera, the main character, is a pizza delivery "technician" for a pizza place in town. The book is mostly in Vera's point of view, but transitions between four people's viewpoint: Vera, Charlie, Vera's dad, and the pagoda. Vera and Charlie grew up together. They have been best friend's virtually their whole lives and only woods separate their houses. Then when the transition to high school came, that's when everything changed. Vera stayed the same: responsible, quiet, undercover, and determined. Charlie stayed the same in the sense that he was still wild and free spirited. However, he did this the wrong way. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd. This eventually led to his death three years after high school started. The book switches from present time to a time in history--flashbacks really. So Vera is left with the unresolved feelings of losing her best friend after he continually hurt her in many ways and in some ways hating for him, all the while being in love with him and he now being dead. So throughout the whole book, you are left trying to figure out how Charlie dies and the dark secrets he left behind. It was a fantastic book that capture's your attention instantly and keeps it until the very end. I highly recommend it!