Book Review

Whether it is classified as romantic fiction or a love story, the ever so popular genres have a place in everyone’s hearts. “Romance is a natural leader here. The genre took off in the 1980s, when it expanded from the typical dreamy or bodice-ripping historical novels to include contemporary, plot-driven stories with characters drawn from real life,” The New York Times explains it.

Two romantic fiction novels are The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks and Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen. In both there is a plot driven by the purpose of romance. Both have an interesting background that strives away from the usual love story. The Lucky One starts with him in Iraq and brings you through his journey to find love. Lock and Key starts with depicting her abusive mother and then goes on to show her difficulties with her long unseen sister. While Nicholas Sparks spends more time developing a relationship between the main characters, Sarah Dessen spends more time talking about harder things like abuse,   abandonment, and recovery.

Lock and Key and The Lucky One stick to the status quo of the genre romantic fiction. Romantic fiction has the expectation of some kind of love story that is something we live vicariously through. The love story usually starts strong and then has to overcome something, which it usually does and they are assumed to live the rest of their lives together. Lock and Key and The Lucky One are no exception to this. They both have that type of love story. Although they weren’t exactly like any other romantic fiction book because they went into a lot more depth and strayed away from the norm. Lock and Key stayed on some touchy subjects that made the story more relatable because people actually experience situations like the characters do in that book. The Lucky One was close to the regular generalization of a romantic fiction.  "'On our last day together, Victor told me that I owed a debt to the women in the photo because the photo had kept me safe-that otherwise there was no balance. It was my destiny to find her, he said'". This quote from the book shows how unrealistic it is to find a picture in Iraq that was a lucky charm. It was more unrealistic the way the whole story came about but sometimes people like a story more unrealistic so that they can escape into their own little world, instead of dealing with some more realistic topics.

Both books strike some harder, emotional topics. The Lucky One strikes on the issue of death. It is arguable that a lot of romantic fiction use death as an emotional hook to get readers to keep reading. Death is one of the only things that you can never change; it is final, which in turn creates a tear jerker. Many people believe that emotional books are the best kind of books. When you become emotionally attached to a character you want to see them be happy and that’s what a lot of authors use that to their advantage to make their books popular. Lock and Key touches on parental abuse and abandonment and the people who help you get through that. "It meant I had to brush my teeth with bottled water, and made washing my face out of the question, but these were small prices to pay to avoid Warner, who filled the house with pipe smoke and always seemed to be sweating out whatever he'd drunk the day before." These topics also make you emotionally attached to the characters. In general, people root for them to be happy in the future to make up for their sadness in the past.

 The Lucky One gets a 4 out of 5. This is because it has an original background and great love story but it is also a little unrealistic. Lock and Key gets a 4.5 out of 5 because like The Lucky One it has a creative background and love story. On top of that though, it also is pretty realistic with some relatable topics for some people. Romantic Fiction has a status quo that often authors stray away from to be original. The books can be still called romantic fiction because of the love story, but it is growing increasingly popular to create a creative background that is attention grabbing. These backgrounds are the foundation of the book and are important to the love story.

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Blog Post 7

A book has to be pretty true in my mind to be considered non-fiction. If it isn’t true in my mind then it probably wouldn’t be true in other people’s minds, which would probably mean that in general it is a lie. Non-fiction is supposed to be true, it can be allowed some leniency when it comes to thinks you can’t get exact or can’t remember correctly. In some cases though where the truth is twisted into a complete lie, that’s when it isn’t acceptable to call the book a non-fiction book. I would start to classify it as a realistic fiction book.

I don’t think half-truths are okay, even if it is a good story. I believe that maybe closer to a 75% truth is more acceptable but still looked down on. If you only tell half the truth than it isn’t non-fiction, it is fiction. Like Seth Greenland said, “You can make allowances in memoirs.” You can make allowances because you can’t remember things, but if you bend a big part of the truth too far, then it could break and it would be considered not real. I don’t think it was okay that James Frey bent the truth that much in his book. This is where I would classify that he bent the truth so much that it broke and turned into a lie.

I think it is necessary to label genres. It helps readers discover if they like certain books better than others and helps them to find books in the same categories. I think it is possible though to have a lot of different classifications of a book and different perspectives of them too. If people want to read a true story then they know exactly where to go in the library to find it. Genres label books so that it is easier for the reader.

Blog Post 6

I don't think that genre fiction is less “worthy” of our school curriculum. In our day and age our writing and style of writing has changed from the past. Just because it is different than it used to be, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong. The popular books these days are the ones that are attention grabbers and aren’t so much the ones with great writing and use of literary terms. If the popular books are the ones that get students reading than they should be used over the classics that are usually painful for the average student to read. When students are forced to read books that they don’t like, they tend to grow up not liking any book because of their bad experiences in school. Schools should be nurturing students so that later in life they will develop good habits. In forcing a student to read a book they don’t like, you are helping them develop a bad habit of not reading books. Books are important to fuel the mind and help develop creativity and imagination. Although genre fiction does have less sophisticated writing they still get the reader to use their imagination and still help to develop their minds. Literary fiction has more literary devices and doesn’t quite focus on grabbing your attention but some people tend to like the meaning behind the words. In either case I believe that the only important factor is that people like what they are reading. Whether it is a classic or a popular genre fiction, as long as it interests you and makes you want to read I see no problem in either book. So as a result, school curriculums should let you choose books off of a popular genre fiction list or a classics list. Although most people would pick off of the genre fiction list it is still good to give students the choice to expand their reading knowledge. This way, students will get to choose a book they like and can develop good reading habits early in life. This could maybe help them be more interested in classics later on in life.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Book Trailer

Adapting a Book

In the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a filmmaker would have trouble making the movie interesting. The book is really slow and you can't have that with movies because that usually gets classified as boring. There could be scenes with Oskar’s Dad where they could be remembering him. Oskar would have to be depicted as a very talkative little boy or else his character would be completely changed. They would need to get a good actress to play his grandma because she is such an important person in Oskar’s life, especially after his dad dies. The plot would have to sped up and be made more interesting and attention grabbing.

The filmmaker should definitely keep in the scene with the voicemails, I think that is important because it is very sad and it is the last words his Dad says to Oskar. Another important scene is when Oskar breaks the vase and finds the key in the envelope that says BLACK. They should also keep some of the scenes when Oskar is going around to different houses that have people with the last name BLACK on it to find out what the key opens. The scene is important because it shows all the people he encounters and takes you on the journey with him.

Two scenes I would cut out are the Hamlet Play and the storage unit scene. I would cut out the Hamlet Play because it doesn’t show much yet it is pretty long. It depicts that all the people he encounters while trying to find out what the key does come together. It shows how many people he affected but I think that they could do this in a more interesting way in the movie. I would cut out the storage unit scene because although it is sad it is boring. They could show another way to look through Oskar’s Dad’s memories and things or they could just try and make that scene more interesting. 

What is a book?

A book is an adventure. It creates a whole story in your mind. A book is something that you can jump into and let your imagination run wild. It lets you become a character in the book and lets you take journeys along with them. A book is a movie played within your head. It is even better because you use your mind and creativity while reading. You create your own version of the characters and you have your own preferences. People in their boring everyday lives can fall into a story of romance or adventure. There isn’t one book that is the same which means endless possibilities of places and people to engage in. Everything has its own back story and future in a book. Some of it is told and some you play out in your mind. Either way a book’s story can come to life and jump off of its pages and create a whole new exciting world.

On e-books v. books: I find both are very important. There is something about have a both in front of you and flipping through the pages. It is much easier to find things and there is almost a comfort to it. Many people prefer to have a book in front of them which is why I believe that although e-book sales are increasing that actual books will survive. Eventually I believe that there will be very few book stores but I don’t believe that they will go extinct because many people prefer them to electronic books. E-books have some glitches that I'm sure will improve in the future but not everyone will jump on the wagon, so to speak, as many have already.  E-books are popular because you can get them right away and for a few dollars cheaper. There will be a more constant flow of e-book supporters but there will be people who stay true to the ever original paper books.