House on Mango Street: Book Review

House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Publisher: Arte Publico Press
Genre: Coming-of-age

Where I got it: It was a recommended to me by Mrs. Meadows and my classmates.
One sentence summary: Esperanza talks about one of her homes, the house in Mango Street, and shares vignettes the show her coming-of-age and hopes of a better home.
First sentence: We didn't always live on Mango Street.
First chapter review: The first chapter introduces Esperanza's meaning and importance of home and how she desires a real home for her family to be proud of.
Verdict: I enjoyed reading this novel, although it doesn't rank up there with my favorite books.
Cover comments: The cover shows three women, one of them shinning light above the one on the front.

Lord of The Flies

He saw something

big and horrid

moving in the trees.

The Beastie.

There is no Beastie...

Fear cant hurt you more than a dream.
The snake,

The fire,
The frightening Beast.

There is no Beastie...

He says the Beastie comes from the sea
the unknown indigo of infinite possibilities.

There is no Beastie...

It feels like
things don't make sense
not here,
in this island.

Where I'm From

I am from flour.

From bread and butter.

From the tree with a swing in the yard,

From the small red palm tree that refuses to grow.

I’m from my uncle’s lake house,

From my grandmothers apartment,

The only places where my family reunites.

I am from the jokesters and the pranksters,

From Juan Carlos, and Jorge, and Eduardo.

I am from my dad’s side of the family,

From long dinner tables at family trips,

From passing the salt all the way down,

And then back up.

I am from going to church on Christmas Eve,

And not returning until the following year.

From Medellin and Bogota,

From Ajiaco and Bandeja Paisa.

From moving away from our home

Into a different house.

I am from the shelves of photo albums,

Filled with colorful memories,

Waiting to be looked at and remembered.

I am from those moments.

A tree that continues to grow,

Despite not being watered often.

Terrible Catastrophe

Copious Amounts of Japanese citizens have been killed by the sequence of natural disasters. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the island country. This tremor preceded a tsunami, also in Japan, that affected the northeastern portion of the nation.
At 2:46 local time the three-minute quake began. Tsunami warnings where sent out immediately to the entire Pacific coast of the Americas, and Japan. The inevitable happened and not even an hour later the ten-meter high tsunami washed away the city.
As if it weren’t bad enough, the quakes produced malfunctions in nuclear power plants that are bound to meltdown and release lethal radiation. Adept, fastidious scientists have been working together in order to figure out how to safely contain the radiation and eventually shut down the plant in order to repair it.
Relief efforts have already been put into action by over 70 countries around the globe, deploying crucial equipment, temporary homes, clean water, clinics, and blankets, in order to facilitate the people of Japan after the fitful event.
The entire world as been moved by this incredible catastrophe, and people feel pang of sorrow for the thousands of affected citizens.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames - Book Review

Book: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Author: David Sedaris

David Sedaris's memoir, When You are Engulfed in Flames, is a comical piece that will keep you laughing every chapter. However, if you just focus on the thin, comedic meaning you will miss most of the book.

David Sedaris is a forty-year-old man that tells about his childhood, and his young adult life in a collection of short essays arranged in a non-chronological order. David lives in France with his longtime partner, Hugh.

The title of this book is derived from a chapter where David begins his efforts to quit smoking. He takes a trip to Japan and is amused by the broken english around the hotel room. One example is on a fire safety sign that says:

"When you check in the hotel room. When you find fire. When you are engulfed in flames"

The significance of the title is that sometimes there is nothing you can do about something. When you are engulfed in flames there almost nothing you can do. This could shift the focus into prevention, for him it was quitting smoking.

Numerous chapters have David speaking about death, whether it was to someone really close to him – his mother – or a complete stranger. David realizes that everyone dies sooner or later and that no one escapes it. He learns to acknowledge his mortality and accept it.

Lines I loved:

"Ive often hear cigarettes compared to friends. They can't loan you money, but they are, in a sense, there for you, these mute little comfort merchants always ready to lift your spirits. It's how I now feel about macadamia nuts, and these strange little crackers I've been buying lately."

"I was awoken at dawn by my uncle's hacking, which was mucky and painful-sounding and suggested imminent death."

What I Believe

I believe that some people can be

blinded by their pride.

I believe everyone always has something

on their mind.

I believe that people stay the same,

they pretend to change

to satisfy others.

I believe everyone has something that

they excel at, they just need

to find it.

I believe that the poor can be

some of the most

jubilant,

joyful people.

I believe in taking action,

but destiny will get us where we need to be

eventually.

And I believe that there are some mistakes

that we have to make.

If not, you always wonder...

If not, you wont know

the consequences of it.

WWL6: The Interrogation Room

"Alright, bring him in, we will begin interrogation shortly," a man called out from a small room. The room had no windows, a table, a flickering lamp that emitted a dull, yellowish light, and two plain metal chairs. On the table there was a pen, and three documents.

Three police guards, clad will bullet proof vests and with rifle in hand dragged in a man wearing ragged jeans and a torn shirt. He was of average height, had messy, unwashed hair, and sported an overgrown beard. A shackle rested on his ankle and his hands where held together behind his back by handcuffs.

"He's all yours detective," one of the officers step forward and said as he took another pair of handcuffs out and tied up the man by the wrists to a steel bar on the roof. The detective took a seat near his documents and the prisoner sat at the other chair.

The man was David Antonio Koster, he was lionized as an extremely dangerous man and was the third most wanted man on the face of the Earth. He was apprehended just five months ago at a Spanish hotel and was sent to Madrid's prison. He was going to be arraigned, but the FBI intervened and took over the case. This is the number one suspect of whom it is thought to have lead the conspiracies that are responsible for the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, and several other calamities overseas.

Ten minutes elapsed before either one of the men spoke a word. The detective was being as meticulous as he could, he knew that his presence placed him in imminent danger, and that if he made one slight mistake this opportunity could go to waste.

There was no air flowing in the room. There were no fans or air vents in the room, so the two were soon sweltered.

The long, heavy silence was at last broken. "Welcome back," the detective said with a smirk.

It was fifteen years ago, when David Koster and Seth Tomson had gone through training camp together. They were friends before a dissension split them up, they hated each other since. They became enemies. They went different ways after that, but Koster had always been looking for a way to get back at him, and now he was in the same room as him. For detective Tomson it was really bizarre to have to interrogate his enemy, but he had looked forward to it all his life.

He wanted to get the most information out of him as he could in order to be able to assimilate it, and be able to know what exactly what happened when when the bomb at Ukraine went off, killing most of the government and sending the country into a state of anarchy.