Please Ignore Vera Dietz- Summer reading assignment 4

What drew my attention and made me want to choose this book for my summer reading project was the title. The title Please Ignore Vera Dietz intrigued me. I was wondering if she wanted people to ignore her at school because she was shy or if someone else wanted people to ignore her. I really wanted to know why she should be ignored. I also read the description on Goodreads and it was a bit mysterious and I like books that keep you guessing.

Although I do not have a personal connection to the book it can relate to people who have experienced the loss of a close friend like Vera goes through with losing Charlie. It also relates to people who have experienced their parents divorcing or leaving and experiencing the loss of that family member.

 

I would definitely recommend this book for people who enjoy the realistic fiction genre. It is also good for people who like a little bit of mystery in their books and like to be kept guessing, it isn’t a straight up mystery book though. If you want a real mystery book you should look elsewhere. I did like this book and I would recommend it to anyone who is into the same genre. 

Please Ignore Vera Dietz- Summer Reading Assignment 3

"So I make him say what I want him to say. He doesn't even know he's doing it, but Vera will understand.

She knows I am her pickle. 

I am the pizza box and the light switch. 

I am the note from James dissolving in her gastric acid, unread. One thing about the other side is that you find out the truth. 

If Vera were to die right now, she'd know everything that's in the cigar box i left her. She'd find out that Jenny Flick always hated her because she's classy without having to try. She's see how it all played out-how Jenny fought when I tried to break up with her. How she took my dad's old gas can from the garage and took it to Zimmerman's. How she stole my Zippo lighter, too.She's see how I drank a bottle of tequila and ate the worm later on to forget and feel better about the whole thing. How John gave me a handful of pills while we drove around in his car, and how I'm not really sure how many I took.

She's see that her mother loves her but never wanted children, and feels so guilty about it, she's paralyzed. She's see that her father is just about to face his stuff and get on with his life. (He's going to start by asking Hannah at the bank out to dinner.) 

On one hand, it's nice on the other side. Secrets don't exist. There's nothing to ignore, and no destiny. On the other hand, the same thing is possible in life, if only we'd start paying attention to the right stuff." 

I think this passage really hooks the reader because it really just explains the whole book, it shows how alike Vera and Charlie are, like where it talks about Vera eating James' note. It pulls them in because they are wondering why Jenny would take the gas and lighter, what is she going to do with it? Also the last paragraph goes with the theme I talked about in my last post, talking about how you shouldn't ignore things and start paying attention to the world. The reader might feel worried after they hear that charlie chased a bunch of pills with tequila because they know that must have killed him. By the end of the passage they might feel optimistic that Mr. Dietz is finally getting his life in order.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz- Summer Assignment 2

Vera is the main character and also the most complex character. She has so many things on her plate but she still manages to balance it all. With the stress to not become her parents, her dad and ex-alcoholic and her mom and ex-stripper are enforced greatly by her dad. Also she balances a full time high school career while also working full time at Pagoda’s pizza. Not to mention that her ex-best friend Charlie Khan mysteriously died last year and she is one of the only people who knows the whole truth of what happened. The only thing Vera wants is for people to leave her alone, especially the imaginary Charlies that keep suffocating her in the most inconvenient times. Some rising themes in the book are forgiveness; Vera needs to learn to forgive Charlie in order to be able to clear his name for him. Another possible theme is don’t ignore things, ignoring situations won’t make them go away it may even elevate and become even worse than before.

This book is split into 5 different parts and in each of those parts there are different chapters. 

There are chapters in other characters points of view although most of them are written from Vera’s perspective. There are flash back chapters narrated by Vera. There are also chapters titled A Brief Word from the Dead kid and A Brief Word from the Pagoda. 

Please Ignore Vera Dietz- Summer Reading Assignment

The main characters in the book Please Ignore Vera Dietz are Vera, Charlie and Ken, Vera’s dad. Vera is a full time high school senior and full time pizza delivery girl at Pagoda’s Pizza. Charlie, although he is dead plays a big part in the book. There are many flash back moments and the occasional Brief word from the dead guy. Ken Dietz is a recovered alcoholic who has been trying his best to raise Vera as a single parent ever since her mother left when she was 12. The setting of the book is set in eastern Pennsylvania and at the Pagoda, a place that kids like to hang out and where Vera and Charlie used to throw paper airplanes they make out of their homework. Vera has kept all of Charlie’s secrets, even after he betrayed her. When Charlie dies under mysterious circumstances and is framed for something he didn't do it’s up to Vera to clear his name, but does she even want to? The previous is the conflict of the book, Vera must decide whether she wants to clear Charlie’s name even though he betrayed her. A prediction I have for this book is that she will forgive Charlie and maybe even clear his name in the end.

This is how you lose her

I just started reading the book This is how you lose her by Junot Diaz. I am kind of confused with the book at the moment and for two reasons. One because the characters speak Spanish, as well as English and there are a lot of Spanish words in the book. "This is the end game and instead of pulling out all the stops, instead of pongadome mas chivo que un chivo, I'm feeling sorry for myself como un pariguayo sin surete."  I myself know practically no Spanish, even though I took Spanish classes for the past 3 school years (I finally dropped it this year) and I get really confused over the Spanish words and I feel like it effects my full understanding of the book because I don't want to stop and look up every Spanish word I see because I would be looking up like two words per page.


The second reason I am confused with the book is it keeps switching between past and present tense and between different characters and sometimes I'm not quite sure what tense it is in or who is speaking. For most of it the book is in past tense but sometimes it switches back to present tense and I get a bit confused. I wish it would give you a warning of when it is switching tense or it would only switch tense every chapter.

This is how you lose her. About the Author: Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz, age 39, was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New Jersey with his parents when he was six. He has written other books besides This is How You Lose Her. His other books are The Breif Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and critically acclaimed Drown. He is also the cofounder of the VONA workshop, which is the only multi-genre workshop for writers of color in the nation. Currently he is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has won numerous awards such as the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The Movie

I recently saw the movie version for It's Kind of a Funny Story and let me tell you I was not very impressed. Don't get me wrong, the movie was good except for the fact that it was nothing like the book. A pet peeve of mine is when they change movies and put things that didn't happen in the book in the movie, also when they leave big, important pieces out. That happened a lot in this movie and it kind of aggitated me. If someone who hadn't read the book watched the movie they would probably enjoy it but I found myself shaking my head and saying "nonono that didn't happen, this is all wrong" throughout the book. I really wish they would have stayed more true to the book at some parts, but it is what it is. The characters were what I expected them to be like and I enjoyed that a lot. Overall it was a good movie (minus the few parts that were different from the book).