A Little Hope

Hope is a seed. It plants itself in your mind and grows until suddenly...hope is a tree. This metaphor never made much sense to her. She was much more inclined to believe that hope was a flame, burning brighter and brighter 'till the fear -- in the form of choking, paralyzing blackness -- was consumed by the blaze.

Then again, hope could be that story on the news she'd seen yesterday. The one where people were pitching in to help orphans get adopted. Or maybe hope is simply everywhere, and she just has to know how to look for it.

But no matter what form hope takes, she's absolutely certain of one thing: however dire the situation may seem, she can get by with a little hope.

NOTE:

*And on that hopeful note, I leave you for the next three weeks. I'm going on an outdoor expedition in Washington (State). My next post will be on Saturday, August 7. Have an awesome three weeks!!*

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Sheinmel is a wonderfully written story examining the lives of those touched by leukemia. Connelly Sternin, the moderately cool, self-proclaimed Rapunzel of the story, suddenly finds herself seated next to Prince Charming. She has no idea why Jeremy Cole would want to sit next to her, much less talk to her and ask her for help studying the SAT vocab section.

Jeremy, it turns out, wants to talk to Connelly because her father died of leukemia -- which is what Jeremy's twelve-year-old sister, Kate, is sick with. Only, Connelly doesn't know how her father died. No one will tell her, not even her mother.

The story is told in first person by Connelly, and her lovely fairy-tale comparisons add description while staying true to the hierarchy of modern day high school. As much as I enjoyed Connelly's perspective, I would have liked a couple of the chapters to have been told from Jeremy's point of view. I think a fresh perspective would have added a lot to the story.

Still, the plot was realistic and moving, with dialogue that flowed naturally between characters. Kate, in my opinion, was the best speaker, and I would've liked more scenes to include her.At the end of the book, there were still things I wish had been resolved, such as why Marcy MacDonald dumped Jeremy.

All in all, though, The Beautiful Between was an amazing book. I definitely recommend this to everyone!

AWOL

I'm very sorry that I didn't post on Saturday. It was a hectic travel day for me and my family, and I didn't get a chance. It was unplanned, and I'm very sorry about that. On Sunday, I got caught up reading a really good book. I realize that this is a very poor excuse, and I apologize for that too. It won't happen again. I will tell you next time I can't post, unless it's for an unforseeable reason, such as I'm sick and can't get out of bed. And I will make sure to post the very next day -- it will be the very first thing I do. I'm very, very sorry.

Big Sky

She lay in the hammock, staring out at the trees, wishing she could see all the way to Montana.

Kayla missed Montana. The way she could see for hundreds of miles, till her gaze met with the unmovable force of the mountains. The quiet summer evenings spent on Juliet's creaky old porch, sucking on popsicles and watching the sun sink below the flat line that was the horizon. The soft whisper of the grass as it shivered in the breeze.

The sky was just as big here, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But instead of mountains, her gaze hit...nothing. Nothing waited for her on the other side, as far as she could see. The sea and the sky just went on forever. A lonely kind of big sky.

Descisions

So, I have decided to post book reviews every other week, with short little fiction posts in between. This week is a fiction week, so I'm going to tell you about my short fiction posts.

All of the main characters are girls, and all are told in third person. Most characters will not have names, and all stories are fiction. The stories will be no more than three to four paragraphs long, and on random topics.

The first story is the one above. I hope you enjoy!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

First, let me just say that parts of this book went right over my head. I didn't understand most of the math problems or his explanation of the human mind. I also realize that this book is not meant for young adult readers such as myself, and so I will not criticize Mark Haddon for this.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon stars Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15 year-, 3 month-, and 3 day-old genius with some behavioral issues. I believe Christopher has a syndrome, but the book does not state exactly what the syndrome is. I wish this had been a bit clearer. The novel begins in Swindon, England at 7 minutes after midnight, when Christopher spots his neighbor's dog lying dead on the ground, a garden fork in its side.

The story was beautifully written, with little interludes of explanation in between the plot. The interludes were like backstories, explaining Chrisopher himself as well as the aformentioned math problems and the human mind.

Christopher tells the story in first person. He does not speak with contractions, which makes it (usually) very easy to understand precisely what he means. When it comes to math and the human mind, or explaining why Christopher doesn't understand the constellation Orion, the explanations tend to be either over-explained or the pace is too fast, as with the math problem titled Conway's Soldiers. Also, the chapters are numbered uncoventionally -- using prime numbers only -- which gives a nice change from your standard cardinal numbers.

The plot twists, turns, and thickens as the story goes on. Because Christopher's feelings are moderately easy to empathize with, it's hard not to become entangled in Christopher's world. The dialogue sounds very real (though I could do with less swearing), and while descriptions of places are few and far between, diagrams allow the reader to get a clear idea of the setting.

My favorite part is when Christopher explains a newspaper column featuring a math problem. While most of the math problems were complicated, this one had me trying to figure out what I would have done. It's also a bit funny, because a 15-year-old boy can prove that the columnist is right when all these professors with fancy degrees say the columnist is wrong.

I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys math and mystery -- just make sure you brush up on your math skills!

My First Review

My first review will feature The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and will be appearing on Saturday June 19.