Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson

     I recently read the book "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson. It is about a being named Joe on Jupiter, who is truly the mind of Ed Anglesey, a man on a space station in orbit of the planet. Ed Anglesey is crippled and does not have control over anything but his head and arms, and so he uses Joe, an experimental life form that was created to live on Jupiter, who has full use of his body.
     Ed Anglesey used Joe to escape from reality. I can relate to this in that when I play video games, I fins my own space to do as I please outside of the real world, and I don't have to think about anything else when I'm doing it. This helps me cope with real world situations, because they don't weigh down on me as much as they would if I perpetually thought about them.
     Ed doesn't exactly evolve over time throughout the book, but the reader's idea of him does. This happens throughout the narrations of someone studying why one instrument used to put Ed's mind into Joe's keeps shorting out. In the beginning, I thought that it was because Ed was scared of something on Jupiter, because the person said so. But throughout the book the ideas of Ed and what he fears and does not fear change drastically, until they are almost exactly opposite of how they started.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

     I recently read the book "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk. It is about a man who meets a movie projectionist named Tyler Durden, who helps him overcome insomnia and makes him much more relaxed by creating fight club, a way to let out pent up aggression through consensual violence. But things start to go wrong when Tyler pushes farther and farther into the domain of chaos and death and starts a group called Project Mayhem, where different groups commit crimes against everyone.
     This book is almost entirely nihilistic, especially around the middle, where many people are willing to die for Mr. Durden because they believe that they are not special and not individuals. Another philosophy that I am reminded of in this book is communitarianism, but only in the sense that there is no individual, there is only the whole. This seems like nihilistic communitarianism, in a way.
     The main character, who is not named in the book, is very seemingly depressed and maybe a little bit insane. From the beginning of the book, he spends all of his free time at support groups for different diseases, such as testicular cancer and brain parasites, because seeing those people so devoid of life and full of sorrow helps him to sleep. It may also be that he cries at these support groups during the time where people hug, and this helps him to let out his emotions in a safe place where no one can judge him.
     Marla Singer, another person who goes to support groups for diseases to feel better, is very rude throughout the story to the protagonist. But by the end of the story, Marla loves the main character. The relationship between the two evolves a lot throughout the story, but only from Marla's point of view. The main character, it seems, has no feelings for Marla other than possibly slight acquaintance, but not much, because from the beginning the protagonist just generally does not like Marla.

The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman

     I recently read the short novel "The Juvie Three" by Gordon Korman. It is about three children in juvie who get a second chance when a man named Douglas Healy offers them the option to live in an apartment in New York City with him. They take the chance, and all but one of them follow the rules to the letter. One night, the rebellious child who breaks the rules accidentally makes Douglas fall from the fire escape, making him slip into a coma. The children pretend that nothing happened.
     I believe that I can relate to some of this story, though not as extreme as it is, because I've done things I've regretted and then told no one about it. Though I never got away with these things, I know the sense of power one can get from holding things back from everyone and having secrets to themselves.
     Douglas Healy, the man who let them live with him in his apartment, is a very loving, empathetic man. He cares about the three children deeply, and can relate to them because he was in juvie for a period of his younger life. I think that he is the kindest character in the story, and it is sad that the bad things happen to him in the story. I think that the moral of the story is that bad things can happen to good people, and good things can happen to bad people, but the only thing to do is try and survive in an unfair world.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

     I have recently been reading the novel "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is a science fiction story set in Thailand, where the amount of work you can do is the currency. The Child Queen oversees everything, with strong influencers such as Akkarat that work behind the scenes. This book is a very powerful book that shows just how wrong the world can turn out if we continue to genetically engineer everything.

     One of the main characters, Emiko, a being similar to a human who was engineered in Japan and abandoned in Thailand, is tortured and belittled at the whorehouse where she has to work now if she doesn't want to die. She has many influencers who use different tactics to influence her. One, a farang (foreigner) named Anderson Lake, uses niceness where others treated her so poorly to influence her, though I believe that he truly does love her and want to help her. Another influencer, a woman at the whorehouse, uses pain and fear to get what she wants, which seems to just be the humiliation and torture of Emiko.

     I can relate to Emiko in that a lot of people influence me in life, but I have never been hurt or embarrassed for no reason at all just because someone hates me because of what I am.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

     In William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Romeo and Juliet die for their love. But is it really true love? I believe that Romeo and Juliet's love was not completely real, even if they believed it to be. Juliet wanted to rebel against her family, Romeo was lusting for a woman, and they were both immature.

    Juliet wanted to rebel because her parents were truly bad parents (Capulet to Juliet, about marrying Paris - "To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church, / Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. / Out, you green sickness carrion! Out, you baggage! / You tallow face!" [3.5.159-162]), and her parents were forcing her to marry Paris without even consulting her on the matter (Capulet, on Juliet not wanting to marry Paris - "How, will she none? Doth she not count her blessed, / Unworthy as she is, that ha have wrought / So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?" [3.5.147-152]). Juliet also wanted to rebel because she knew her mother married young to her father, whom she didn't love, and subconsciously, Juliet was afraid of being unloved, or not loving the man she married, so the first person she felt a spark with who felt the spark back (Romeo) is the man that she married.

     Romeo was lusting for a woman. First, he loved Rosaline, and he was sad because she was becoming a nun, so he couldn't get married to her (Romeo, sad about Rosaline not being able to bear children - "O, she is rich in beauty, only poor / That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store." [1.1.223-224]). Then, he throws his love for Rosaline away when he sees Juliet (Romeo, when he first sees Juliet - "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! / It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night / As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear- / Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear." [1.5.51-54]). He is jumping from woman to woman, and may not see that he is doing this, but it is happening.

     Romeo and Juliet were both rather immature. Juliet was only 13 (Capulet, on Juliet's age - "Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age." [1.3.11]), and Romeo was 18. They also both had strong influences, Romeo having Mercutio and Juliet having Romeo, and their influencers did not always do the right thing (Mercutio, picking a fight with Tybalt, Juliet's cousin - "Will you pluck your sword out of his pitcher by the ears? / Make haste, lest mine be about your / ears ere it be out." [3.1.81-83]).

     In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet's love was not exactly real, even if they thought it was, because Juliet wanted to get back at her parents, Romeo was a womanizer, and they bother were not too mature. Shakespeare was trying to tell people that young love, or as a matter of fact any love, can end badly, especially if someone is not ready for it.

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

     I recently read the book "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick, set in 1992 but written in 1969, a sci-fi story about a world where psychics, pre-cogs, and animators exist (basically magic people) and so do people who can nullify their powers. There are companies that make use of both kinds of people, and when Glen Runciter, the owner of a company for people who nullify powers, goes on a trip to Luna, where there is an explosion which causes Glen to die and put in cold-Pac (a freezer where people can talk to him using microphones) with his wife Ella, who died many years earlier. But in the "real world", Joe Chip, a tester for Runciter, and the crew who went with him to Luna are experiencing decay of objects to earlier forms and Glen Runciter's face on coins and bills.
     There is more than one protagonist in Ubik, but the one that is followed for the majority of the story is Joe Chip, the tester for Runciter's company. He is lazy, cynical, and can't even afford to open his own door (in this world, everything is coin-operated). In the middle of the story, he loses a loved one to decay. I can relate to him in that I have lost things that I love before. He lost a woman that he loved, while I have lost many pets to old age.
     There is one person who influences the protagonist throughout the story. It is Pat Conley, a woman who can change the past by thinking about minor details that she wants to change. She thinks that she is causing the decay using her ability, and pretends that she loses her ability so they don't suspect her of it. In one past that she creates, she is married to Joe Chip, and he vaguely remembers the feelings he had for her when she changes the past back. This is why she has such a big influence on him. She influences him to get away from the rest of the group so she can kill him, as she thought she had killed the others.

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett

     I recently finished the book "The Wright 3" by Blue Balliett. It is about three sixth-graders, Tommy, Calder, and Petra, who try to save the Robie House from being demolished and sent to different museums in America. Though they eventually succeed, a lot of bad things happen, which they push through together.
     Though Tommy was originally jealous of Petra because she helped Calder solve a mystery in the first book in this series, "Chasing Vermeer", Tommy and Petra are good friends in the end. I can relate to this because I have been jealous of people for doing things that I wish I had done.
     I think that the story resolved the way that it did because the author wanted to show that with enough effort, you can do anything. The audience of this book is children, so I can understand why there would be a happy ending. The theme that it reveals is perseverance through seemingly impossible odds. I did like the ending, because it fit well with the rest of the story. I did expect them to succeed in the end, but in the climax I thought that they could fail. This book teaches the reader about life in what I think is a very metaphorical sense, in that if you continue to try something, eventually you succeed, no matter the odds.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

     I recently read the book "I Am Number Four" by the author Pittacus Lore (though I don't think that this is his real name) about a group of nine survivors of a hibernating planet sent to Earth to destroy the conquerors of their planet once and for all. The individuals look like humans, but have enhanced strength and speed, along with telekinesis and special powers, called Legacies, which develop over time. The book follows Number Four, who goes by John Smith on Earth, and his Cêpan (basically a guardian who has no special powers), who goes by Henri.
    John Smith is loyal to his Cêpan, who trained him from a young age to bring his planet out of hibernation and destroy the Mogadorians (the conquerors). There are many obstacles preventing the protagonist from doing so are the Mogadorians and the fact that John is very inexperienced and doesn't know completely about the history of Lorien (his planet).
     One person that influences John greatly throughout this book is Henri. He is like a father to John, and hides him from the Mogadorians so that they cannot kill him. When Henri dies, it is a huge loss for John, who must get through the death with the help of another Loric survivor, Number Six.

The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell

     I have recently been reading the book "The Brotherhood of the Rose" by David Morrell. It is about two orphans, Chris and Saul, who are adopted by a top espionage agent and trained to be assassins. But when their adopted father, Eliot, tries to have them killed, their loyalty to each other, determination, and training are put to the test.
     There is no single protagonist in this book, as Chris and Saul are both the main characters. They are influenced by many people throughout the story, but the only person who influenced them both and influenced them the strongest was Eliot, their adopted father. When he tricked them and tried to kill them, they felt betrayed. I can understand this (but not on such an extreme level) because if I trust someone unconditionally and then they betray me, I feel hurt and angry. I think that what David Morrell wanted to portray in this scenario is how close family is, but how fragile every relationship is.
     Some obstacles preventing the protagonists from reaching their goal is that because Chris committed a global crime by killing someone in an Abelard sanction (a neutral zone), every government in the world is after him now. This affects their travel because now not only are they trying to get to Eliot, who works for the CIA in the fourth most powerful position in the agency, but they are trying to avoid all other governments.
   

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball by David A. Adler

     I recently read the short story "Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball" by David A. Adler. It is about Cam Jansen, a child with photographic (eidetic) memory who helps solve petty crimes like items being stolen. In this book, she solves a crime where a child steals a baseball that was signed by Babe Ruth that was owned by an old man who is very sad because it was signed just for him. The protagonist, Cam Jansen, eventually finds the baseball. Some obstacles that she has to overcome are that no one but Eric, her best friend, believes her that someone stole the ball, and that the boy outsmarts them by replacing the ball with one that two children were playing catch with when they went to check his baseball for the signature, and then replaced it after they left. But the story resolves itself at the end, when Cam Jansen shows off her eidetic memory at a hobby show.

     I believe that the story resolved itself the way it did because it deserved a happy ending. I don't think that there would be a book in the Cam Jansen series where she doesn't solve the mystery by the end. If there was, then the general audience of the book (children) would feel sad and not want to read the Cam Jansen series anymore, because they know that Cam Jansen always solves the mysteries.

     I don't really have an opinion on the ending. I knew who it was from the moment they saw him, because there were pretty blatant hints throughout the entire story. I feel that if it was someone else, then the story would be more interesting. Then again, that would seem weird and be too complex for younger readers to understand.

     I feel like this story doesn't really teach much about life, because only children with eidetic memory could relate to Cam Jansen. I think it was really made solely for entertainment, and no reason other than that.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

     I have recently been reading the book "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" by Philip K. Dick. It is set in a future where the Earth has heated up to the point where people need to stay indoors most of the time and can't face the sun with bare skin ever. On colonies on other planets such as Mars, people resort to an illegal drug called Can-D to look into the eyes of a doll in a "Perky Pat" layout in past Earth. But a man named Palmer Eldritch comes back with a strange lichen from the universe outside of the solar system and makes a new company called Chew-Z that sells legal Chew-Z.
     The protagonist is someone named Barney Mayerson. He is a pre-cog (someone who can glimpse into the future at future possibilities) who works for P.P. (Perky Pat) Layouts. I can relate to him because I have made the wrong decision and it has had consequences.
     Another leading character in the story is the CEO of P.P. Layouts, Leo Bulero. He lives lavishly and holds many mistresses, but everything falls apart when Eldritch becomes competition. I can relate to him because I have worked hard on something only to have someone else take the reward from right under me. It is hard to get over it.

Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick

     I recently read the book "Solar Lottery" by Philip K. Dick. It is about a system that determines who will be the next leader, or "Quizmaster", of the whole class system. The problem about this machine is due to it being similar to spinning a bottle (the author doesn't go into much detail about what actually happens to determine the Quizmaster), many randomly chosen people are very bad leaders. This is why the previous Quizmaster can send an endless stream of assassins, albeit one by one, to try and kill the new Quizmaster. This insures that only the best of the best survive.
     The book follows many main character, one of which is the new Quizmaster, named Cartwright, who is 65. He is scared about the assassins, and moves to Luna to try to get away, because everything around a resort on the planet is bleak, airless space, so no one would survive to try to get to him. The only problem about this plan is that the assassin is not human. He is a synthetic humanoid robot who can be controlled by human thoughts from very far away. This insures that people who are telepathic that are working for Cartwright will become confused, because they follow the trail of the robot, named Keith Pellig, only to have it stop suddenly. Many go crazy, or die because they can't find him and he gets to them first. I can relate to the main character, because I've been scared in my life about things that I could not control, but nothing as bad as what he is facing.

Review on Winston's Blog Post, "Eldest"

http://readingbooks2479.blogspot.com/2013/02/eldest.html

     I read Winston's blog post "Eldest" about how the book relates to real life. I feel like this is very true based on his post, about how people sometimes need to do things that they are not necessarily comfortable with doing, for the sake of themselves and/or other. I agree with this statement, because if everyone were to stay in their comfort zone, then nothing would get done. No change generally means no progress.

     I have not read this book, though the post that Winston has written has made me think that it might be a good book for me to read. It reminds me of a lot of fantasy games and movies that I've seen and played, and I can find common threads between this and fantasy books that I have read, such as the Lord of the Rings series and the Hobbit. I can connect the book to my life because I've had to step out of my comfort zone in certain things, especially academics, with the spelling bee.

     I haven't read any other posts by Winston, but this post stood out among the others because it showed a full understanding of the book, and explained very well, with good thoughts on how it ties into the real world. I feel like the post is engaging because though it is rather long, it kept me hooked for the duration of the blog post. It was almost like a story in and of itself!

First Blood by David Morrell

I recently read the book "First Blood" by David Morrell. It is about an ex-military man named John Rambo, who kills a police officer. The entire book is about the chase that ensues due to this. The second main character is a sheriff named Will Teasle who is the person who chases Rambo, and the only person who survives the initial chase. I can relate to Rambo because I've felt closed in (he originally killed the police officer because the jail cell he was supposed to go into reminded him of torture chambers in Congo) and done things that I wasn't sure why I did. I can relate to Teasle because I've wanted revenge before and not known what I was getting myself into (John Rambo, though Teasle doesn't know this until the middle of the book, was actually a Green Beret, who won the Medal of Honor, the best medal in the army).

Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

I recently read the book "Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life" by James Patterson. It is about a boy named Rafe who starts 6th grade with no friends, a nosy sister, and a mean stepfather. He gets through the year with his imaginary friend Leo, who makes up a game where Rafe tries to break every single rule in the school rule book. Many people influence Rafe throughout the book, namely Leo and Rafe's mother. Some things preventing Rafe from reaching a resolution are that though he's trying to get by, even with tutoring from a classmate he still fails classes. Many of the conflicts are internal, but there are also some external problems. A few of these are the school bully named Miller, Rafe's English teacher named Ms. Donatello, and Rafe's stepfather, who he calls Bear.

Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner

I recently read the book "Spanking Shakespeare" by Jake Wizner. It is about a senior in high school, Shakespeare Shapiro, and his struggles. The protagonist is influenced by almost everyone in the book. Some influences are good, while others are bad. For instance, Danny, a student at his school, gets Shakespeare to do drugs for the first time in his life, and he goes home high and his parents get angry, so it does not go his way. One character relationship that developed throughout the book is the relationship between Shakespeare and Charlotte. At first, Shakespeare doesn't ever talk to Charlotte, but then they slowly become friends, and in the end they are dating. The internal conflicts in this book are  that Shakespeare always cuts himself down, and the external conflicts stem from this inner hatred towards himself.

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

I recently read the book "Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have" by Allen Zadoff. It is about a 307 pound sophomore named Andrew Zansky. He falls in love with a girl named April at a wedding that his mother set up, who turns out to come to his school for sophomore year. During the first day, the bully that Andrew has been bullied by since middle school bullies him, but Andrew is saved by O. Douglas, the football star. O. is very nice to Andrew, and helps him join the football team. Andrew gets in after trying out in practice as center and feels good about himself for the first time in a long time. But things go wrong when he discovers that O. and the entire team were using him to win a game. The author wants me to feel bad for Andrew, but also understand the side of the team. I think that the author wants me to choose a side on my own.

For Us, The Living by Robert Heinlein

I have recently been reading a book called "For Us, The Living" by Robert Heinlein. It is about a man named Perry Nelson from the year 1939 who died from his car being driven off of a cliff, and wakes up in the year 2086. He nearly dies from frostbite until a woman named Diana finds him and brings him into her home. Her and her friends proceed to explain the ways of the world in 2086 and all history from 1939 to then of relevance to him. I think that this book is interesting because Robert Heinlein made a lot of assumptions which aren't true. It's cool to see what people thought the 21st century would be like in the early 1900's.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

I have recently been reading "Dune Messiah" by Frank Herbert. it is the second out of six books in the series "Dune". Paul Atreides, the main character in the book, has aged significantly since the previous book, but the book does not give a specific age. His sister, Alia of the Knife, however, is 16. As an embryo in her mother's womb, she was given the memories of all of the former Reverend Mothers, along with her mother's memories up to that point. A Reverend Mother is a teacher and a High Priestess of the Bene Gesserit (Mainly girls, because Paul is the only boy Bene Gesserit that has ever existed). Bene Gesserits are people trained from birth to have the ability to persuade people to do what they want among other things. There are many conflicts in this story, some external but many internal. External problems include the schemes of the Princess Irulan, daughter of the previous Emperor (before Paul took over) along with the (former) Emperor's old Truth-sayer (a Reverend Mother who can hear when the truth is said), a Guildmember (basically the transportation in the Dune universe) named Edric, and the Tleilaxu Face Dancers (Bene Gesserit trained to shape their faces any way they please, mimicking other peoples faces). Some internal problems are the fact that Paul's prescience is waning, and the only way he can see into the future is using massive amounts of a drug called melange, and Alia being attracted to the ghola (a servant made from dead flesh by the Tleilaxa) made from Duncan Idaho's flesh. Duncan Idaho was a friend and mentor of Paul's who died in the battle against the former Emperor's army.

Muad'Dib by Frank Herbert

I recently read the third book of the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert. The main character, Paul, has acquired prescient powers that he could never imagine he would have. The Baron of the Harkonnens has allied with the Emperor to overcome Arrakis by force and kill off the Atreides bloodline for good. Paul wins and becomes the Emperor. This reminds me of justice in the real world in that the Emperor and the Baron are bad people, who take advantage of the less fortunate unfairly to gain power, and Paul, who is righteous and helps who deserves it, wins the battle and earns justice for the people.