Jessica Dees: response to Rachel Shaeffer

That book seriously sounds confusing. But what i thought when i read your post was that maybe the author was giving his perspective on history, like what he thinks went down. And it's probably not just one fixed time period but entire history in general. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not. Maybe the author was crazy himself! Alot of people back then thought women were half crazy and never amounted to anything but prostetution, and alot of the times the mental hospitals were corrupt so I'm guessing he was just giving his opinion on the hole subject.

Jessica Dees: the things they carried

I just finished reading "The things they carried" by Tim O'brian. Initially I thought I would be reading about a soldiers life in the war, and because war stories have always interested me I thought it would be a quick read. I was surprised to find out it was not a story, but something like a jumble of short war stories put together. Nothing really fit together right. The detail of the dead bodies in the book somewhat disturbed me also. When i was done with the first chapter I thought that I made a huge mistake with choosing this book, but after a while it actually started to catch my attention. It was really more interesting than the average book because it was real and people actually went through this stuff. Sometimes I had to stop and think if the part that I had just read was the truth or not becuase Tim O'brian would always contradict himself or say "now if this was true" or "see this story can make this true even if it's not." You just never knew. The characters were also very entertaining, even though most of them went crazy or died. In all it was a very good book that i will always remember and i am glad i read.

Rachel Shaeffer: One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I just finished reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, but I'm confused about where the history is. Basically the story takes place in an insane asylum and revolves around three main characters. A half Native American man named Bromden who pretends to be deaf, McMurphy a ridiculous ginger guy, and the evil Nurse Ratched. Overall it was a pretty entertaining read and compared to Catcher in the Rye which I just read, it was as easy to get through as Harry Potter. My opinion is that Nurse Ratched is the crazy one, most of the patients seem pretty normal. All except a handful had themselves admitted. I guess they did that just to escape normal life. Even so, that doesn't explain what this has to do with history, which is exactly the question I asked myself as I turned the last page. So does anyone know? I tried looking it up online but that only brought up the main themes, two of which I knew already. The top three themes I found were that mental hospitals were seriously corrupt around the 1950's, Kesey portrayed women as either blood sucking demons or prostitutes, and Bromden's fear of the "Combine". I took the combine to mean anything that limited personal freedom like the government, so to Bromden the hospital. Am I missing the point? I guess I could speculate on the historical facts the author is trying to get across: maybe the government was especially limiting at that time, maybe the women's place in society was being shaken up, maybe everyone in America was crazy? I guess what I'm trying to say is that this book left me with several questions I need answered.

Mary Roberts: The Things They Carried

So I'm reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and I was surprised to find that it's not an actual story, more like a bunch of short stories that the author wrote about/based on his past. It's actually really good book, not as boring as I thought it would be. He talks about this guy Curt Lemon, the show-off in the group, who went "trick-or-treating" basically naked with nothing but a ghost mask(which he got from who knows where because come on people, there's a war going on here!) on Halloween while his platoon was stationed in Vietnam and his partner-in-crime Rat Kiley. O'Brien also tells of when he received his draft notice and how he hadn't wanted to go because he didn't know the purpose of the war, didn't believe in it. Seriously though, this books got a little of everything; kinda gory, a little sad, had a major "wtf!?" moment in there and even a little romance. You should definitely read it(:

Mary Roberts response to Kim Rogers

Dood! I love you! I hope were in the same class next year(:
Anyway Wizard of Oz huh? Which version of the movie did you watch? I've only ever seen the one with Micheal Jackson in it. haha that was when Mrs Fitz (the lady who taught that computer class at SCMS) made us watch it and everyone got all excited cause like half of the actors/actresses were black (no offense to anyone who might not like my wording). Do you remember that? It feels like so long ago...

Kim Rogers-The Wizard of Oz

The book I'm reading for my summer reading assignment is the Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. It has always been one of my favorite movies form when I was little and my friends referred the book to me, which is why i chose to read it. I found the book to be much different from the movie. I feel as if the movie was much more kid friendly then the book was, but they were both very good. Overall the book was a great choice.