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).

Word of the day

About a week ago I saw that Thesaurus.com is having a word of the day challenge. It started at the beginning of the year (so i'm a bit late getting into it) but basically what it is is a challenge for yourself to see if you can learn 365 new words, a new word every day. I thought this sounded interesting and also very helpful. I thought it would be a very good way to boost my vocabulary, which is good for writing and a good way to make you sound smarter in every day conversations.

I decided to try out the challenge, I started writing down the words and definitions and putting them on the walls of my closet so i could look at them when I was getting dressed or something, a good way to study. That didn't last long though, my laziness shone through and now I am writing the words and definitions in my phone and saving them for a time i feel motivated to post them on the wall. The first word I learned was agnize (v); To acknowledge, recognize or own. I am proud to say that I didn't even have to look at my wall to check the definition. I definitely encourage others to try the challenge and learn a new word every day and see how much their vocabulary increases by the end of the year.

A Million Little Pieces or A Million Little Lies?

 A Million Little pieces, more like A Million Little LIES. A book that was supposedly a memoir about James Frey's stay in a rehab center turns out to be a lie! The book was in Oprah's book club in 2005 and was quickly kicked out after hearing it was a fake. Everybody thought it was a bit weird for an autobiography to be written in the style it was but nobody suspected it was a lie. Although, it wasnt all lies. James was a drug and alcohol addict, he says he just embellished and twisted the truth about the events he encountered.

 

James very much feels that his book is an acurate representation of what life was like back then, even if he drastically twisted the truth. He says his thoughts were real, everything he was thinking in the book were his real thoughts. In the book he says he was in jail for months but in real life it was only a few hours, in the book he portays himself way worse off than he actually was. I dont see how someone could fake a horrible experience like that just to sell more copies of the book. Also it probably offends a lot of people who have actually gone through something like that because he is pretending to know what it was like for them.

Locking into the magic of Legos- Krista Ramsey

Once a month at exactly 5 p.m. kids are lined up outside the Lego store at Kenwood Towne Center to build the themed object of the month. Parents are supporting the Lego habit because they see the calm focus of building as a better alternative than playing violent video games. My favorite line from the article is "Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of." It makes the reader really understand how important Legos are in a child's life. I like this line because it is a simile and it is comparing sparklers and hugs, to Lego toys, saying the three are imperative to a child. The diction used is low/informal because there aren't any big words in the sentence.

The average sentence length in this piece was long because there were more than six words in each sentence. Although in other pieces there were shorter sentences used, like in the first article: For better vision, kids need time outdoors "Keep bothering." Her writing style is kind of serious but she adds little jokes in her pieces every now and then. Three questions I have are, have you always preferred column writing rather than fiction writing? Another question I have is when did you first get into writing? Lastly who inspires you, or has the most impact on your writing career?

About the author- Ned Vizzini

Ned Vizzini, age 32 was an author of novels mainly with themes of anxiety and depression. Author of Be More Chill, Teen Angst? Naaah, It's Kind of a Funny Story and more. Ned has struggled with depression and anxiety practically his whole life and It's Kind of a Funny Story is pretty much the story of the ime he checked himself into the hospital due to suicidal thoughts at the age of 15.


After the publication of his book Be More Chill he recieved a contract to write two more books but fell back into a depression in the process.Last December 19th 2013 Ned took his life, jumping off the roof of the building where his parents lived, leaving behind his wife and son, along with the rest of his family.

Predictions

I am just starting to book It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. Right now i am at the part where Craig checks himself into the hospital after he almost commits suicide. He gets shown around the hospital. Unfortunatley Craig checks himself in thinking he would just get some medicine and get out but what he didnt know was that his planned one day visit will quickly turn in to a 1 week stay, that is if the doctor thinks he's ready to leave at the weeks end.

On his tour with Bobby Craig runs into a girl named Noelle. I suspect that further into the book a romance will form between them because I feel like this is the type of book to have a little splash of romance. I think him having Noelle will mae it easier for him to get over his crush on his best friend's girlfriend Nia. Personally i think the book could use a good romance, it's really sad so far and could use a happy twist.

A Million Little Pieces- Summary so far

I just started reading the book A million Little Pieces by James Frey. The setting of the book is in a  drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Minnesota. The Main Character, James is admited by his family after he overdoses and almost dies. James is seriously addicted to alcohol and hardcore drugs and he has been ever since he was 14. They try to help him get better but with his bad attitude and grudge held against the AA program he's not getting anywhere. Even though it's against the rules to say anything except hello to the female patients James finds himself falling for Lilly. James finally lets Lilly into his life and tells her about what he's gone through to make him end up here and she does the same. The book so far is mainly about James struggle to overcome his addiction and finally be able to look himself in the eyes.

what I plan to read next

I am so close to being finished with Bossypants which I am both happy and sad about. I want to see the end but at the same time i just want it to keep going. The book i plan to read next is Insurgent by Diana Roth, the second Book in the Divergent series. I got Divergent for Christmas and finished that a few weeks ago and I can't wait to get lost,yet again in this Utopian world. I keep trying to figure out which faction i would fit into if we lived in that situation.I am not selfless enough for abnegation, not honest enough for Candor, not peaceful enough for Amity, not brave enough for Dauntless and not smart enough for Erudite. I would probably be divergent because i don't fit well enough into any of the factions but i still have no idea where i would go. What faction would you fit into?

What i like/ dislike about my book

What i like about the Book Bossypants is that it is absolutely hilarious since it is written by a comedian (Tina Fey). Also it's an easy read, the vocab isn't too terribly challenging which makes it easy to comprehend. In a different post i talked about how it was easy to relate to and i still agree with that. I think it's easy to relate to because it was written about her life, not a fictional characters life. The fact that it is about her life also makes it more interesting because she is a real person and this stuff isn't made up, it's real. What i don't like about the book is that it's kind of hard to blog about the actual story because it's a story about her life from beginning to now so it's constantly changing. Other than that i don't really dislike anything else about it. Tina is an amazing person and she has an amazing life.

Why did Tina write the book?

I think the author, Tina Fey, wrote the book Bossypants not just as a memoir but she wrote it to make people laugh every page they read. Tina is a comedian so obviously her book is going to be hilarious (at least I had hoped when I picked the book) and It is. In the beginning she talked a lot about her awkward teenage years (which I can completely relate to because I'm going through them right now). She wrote the book in a way people of pretty much all ages can relate to and I thought that was really neat because I can relate to some of the stuff now and I'll probably still be able to relate to it as I get older. Of course you want people to be able to relate to you because that just makes it all the more interesting to read. Also she probably wanted to get her story out there, so people who loved her movies could get to know her on a more personal level, because having a book about someone's life makes it way easier to get to know them, rather than watching hours of interviews. In part of her book she has fan/ hate mail that she answers (sarcastically) and it really shows you that she doesn't really care anymore and that writing horrible stuff about her on the internet (Perez Hilton) doesn't affect her, which is good because way too many people care way too much about what people say about them. This book is really just a confidence booster for women because it shows that even celebrities aren't perfect, that when the award show is over they just go home, put on pajamas and shove their face with potato chips.

vocab post

This post is about the challenging vocab words I found in my book. The first challenging word I found was egomania. When I first saw this word and was trying to decipher it I tried breaking it down a bit. The first part was ego and I know that having a big ego means you're kind of full of your self, or something like that. The second part was mania, which I was pretty sure meant something along the lines of crazy or intense. the word egomania came from this sentence in my book, "This requires a level of delusion/egomania usually reserved for popes and drag queens, but you can do it" (Fey, 154). Using my context clues I decided that it had to be somewhat close to delusion which means a firm belief, since it was describing posing for a photo shoot as delusional/egomania. I then concluded that it must mean to have a crazy big ego. When I looked up egomania I discovered that the literal definition was "Obsessive egotism or self-centeredness," so I was pretty close.