Dive into a Digtal Cline (Post 2) (Best Sellers)

New world made from the past. A vintage recreation of the places and things and memories my parents and sometimes I had interacted with. With a touching kiss of futuristic government drama and the supreme end of the world as we know it, this story represents the two halves of the polar opposite spectrum of writing.

The Utopia we all dream of living in, the freedom of spacial transportation without leaving your home, having any look, voice, or appearance one could wish. Being anonymous and being the hero or villain of your own story. Where the poor and the wealthy both had access to the same plane and world. A technology advancement for all, where the poor could become rich, the ugly could become beautiful, the plain absurd and the lonely consoled. A freedom for all. The OASIS for all the travelers of the deserted earth to find and stop and rest.

A sanctuary from the harsh life our main character lives, "I'd always had a roof over my head and more than enough food to eat. And I had the OASIS... that is what saved me" (Cline, 19). Though his past was rough and his current condition has seemed to detoriate from bad to worse he still has his virtual utopia and sanctuary to return to.

Though this sounds fantastic and world changing, the world had truly changed, and for the worst. Over population, energy crisis, rampaging disease, war of the nations with deadly bombs. Stealing, and poverty, unnecessary death and rape. Even the worse of government corruptions all lays outside the visor that people constantly wear. Their own world deteriorating around them.

It would be sad to say I would want to visit and have the Oasis, but without the consequences of the dying earth. But, who knows. maybe Ernest Cline is a really good fortune teller and saw the chances of the world going down hill as our technology advances. We already have virtual reality Vive and Oculus, we also have the possibilities of global warming and empty politics. Lets just hope we improve both ends of the scale, to have a utopia both on earth and in our virtual worlds.



http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one
The Good Reads page for this novel, with back of cover, reviews and details.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/
The page for the Movie Production information of this book!

Bright as a Star- Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli

It's been a while since I have been truly inspired, I don't mean like "inspired" but more so inspired. You know? Like inspired enough to convince myself to write a happy poem, or to wear that suit to school, or even try out for the talent show. Not giving a care in world what most people think. This is because I want to be a Star Girl. This book opened up compartments of my heart that I didn't know existed! It's a novel that takes place in mostly modern times and is realistic fiction as a new girl, a strange girl, a unique girl, arrives at a new school, a normal school, a boring school, and flip it right side up and upside down again. Bringing such confidence to the school the kids at first are shy and then come to adore her, then worship her. Until... well, something happens.

She is herself comfortably and loves herself endlessly, until she is questioned but she never looses sight herself. This is a Star Girl, a person who shines so bright and is so different that no one can understand them half the time and question them at the other times. And it's wonderful. 

It is a pretty short ready and always keeps you entranced by a wondrous prospect of a normal world, that I was confused how I was even liking it! No, loving it. Please do read, it was a good inspirational message to send with myself out to the world. And you too can be a Star Girl.



https://www.amazon.com/Stargirl-Jerry-Spinelli/dp/037582233X
Read the book yourself and get inspired!

http://www.jerryspinelli.com/newbery_002.htm
Jerry Spinelli's page to look at the many more books he has wrote.

http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/Star-Girl-Audiobook/B002UZKNEQ?mkwid=DSATitle_dc&pcrid=81800400129&pmt=b&pkw=_cat%3Akids&source_code=GO1GB907OSH060513&gclid=CjwKEAjwltC9BRDRvMfD2N66nlISJACq85912CXz5tlwLMEGTRbXSLD9EXZIdp8Lw2mQNhCzDSdCJBoCn7_w_wcB
The Audio book to listen to as you go through your day 

A New Journey, A New Year- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Post 1) (Best Sellers)

As this new year begins I will have more time to read and ever since I've started this blog there has been a book on my list that I had never gotten around to- Ready Player One. I'm sorry it took me so long, but now it's here and so am I as I take you through adventure with me, while trying to keep it as spoiler free as possible.

This is another dystonia I am to dive into, one of my favorite places to read about but have nightmares about being in them. This one takes place in 2044, only 28 years from now, where the earth and populated areas are a wreck and people escape to the Oasis, a virtual world of puzzles and promised pleasure. With a prize at the end that promises power and fortune to who that unlocks it. Though the journey is dangerous and hard, not just because of the puzzles, as groups of greedy people attempt to murder Wade Watts, a young boy living with his father in the ugly reality of their world, to get themselves closer to the end goal.

A world of both reality, the real and the virtual, or danger and puzzles and riddles. Constantly laced with pop culture references and rich era history, this book is begging to be devoured by my eyes and spit out onto my blog.

So, we begin together, once again, on another journey.

The author, Ernest Cline, is a total geek, to which his writing proves. Constantly moving around in occupations landing himself as an author for this geeky book that matches his personality. He also wrote the 2009 film "fanboys" kick starting his creative juices to bring us his first novel, Ready Player One. Including a crazy tornado attack at a young age he has always lived in a crazy Sci-Fi world of his own imagination. Witty, humorous, vintage and honest, with this authors insane background and warm personality I can only expect this book to be a high success.

 
(Left) Ready Player One Novel
(Right) Ernest Cline

https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/0307887448 
Buy the book and read it with me

http://www.ernestcline.com/
The authors bio, totally worth looking at. His dork shows and its fun to go through and look through all his stuff with the simple and vintage vibe.

Interesting Propositions on Good and Evil- Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

I swear, school is making harder and harder for me to find time to either read or write about my readings. But, since I had about an hour to two hours of free time I swung by the library to pick up a couple things to read in that small time period. So, of course knowing I need a lot of content but within a short period of time I instinctively true towards the graphic sections (Containing: Graphic Novels, Light Novels, Comics, Anime, Manga, etc.) and grab the first thing that catches my eye. Which happened to be the light novel Nimona by Noelle Stevenson.

It was a sweet, action packed and well illustrated story. With a simplified cartoon-esque style of art, using strong colors to represent the colors and keeping a rather mono-tone pallet for most backgrounds, allowing the characters to stand out. Though to keep this post as spoil free as possible I won't go into detail on the story line or events. Though the story line touches on some interesting concepts. Such as some of the following:

-What is the determination of Good and Evil?
-Can you be good and evil, or is there rarely a grey zone?
-Can one event affect your entire orientation on your stance of good/evil?
-What laws abide to each group?
-Can we be blinded by the "greatness" of the good?
-Is being truly good just being ignorant?
-Can you just be born evil/good?
-How much can you place your trust in the terms of good/evil?

As you can tell this very simple story really brings up some very deep psychological questions about the ideas of Good and Evil. I would go into more detail but I HIGHLY suggest you check it out for yourself. A fun, simple read (took about an hour for me), with deeper meanings.



Audio Track with book for first Chapter of Nimona:

First three Chapters of this light novel:
http://gingerhaze.com/nimona/comic/page-1

Good Reads review for the book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19351043-nimona

Unknown future in each chapter- Foretold by Various Arthurs (Post 1)

Hello! It has been quite a while but I have decided to come back to this blog even though the last time I blogged was for School back in the 7th grade, by my word, time really does pass quickly. As my own reading summer pleasure I decided to hopefully find lots of time to read around getting a job, sports, and other social activities. So I thought a short story filled book would be the safe test route, I got this one for my birthday and had to read it.

I am very impressed with the style this book has, each little story really catches my attention, because the idea of foretelling something is very tangent and can change between different situations and events. Just as the definition of foretell states: predict (the future or future event). 

This meaning for telling the future can be very different, each story takes on a different feeling and tone as well as manner, which shouldn't be surprising because they are all written by different authors to begin with. 

But as you would except each to be about a legend or some future you can't reach, this was only a couple of them. Others told of love, destiny, and even paranoia. Taking different time periods into consideration, the future, the past, ven some unknown time periods. Each story keeps you on your toes. 

Even if this blog sounds repetitious, I'm trying to not give anything away! It's truly a good read, I hope you all get a chance to get a sneak peek at it or even read it yourself. But as a bit of a taste, here is a couple small portions of the book. 

Misery by Heather Brewer

"Misery was a strange name for a town, and Alek wasn't at all certain that is was fitting... No one who lived here was miserable, exactly. They simply were. Nothing more. Nothing less (144)". 

This is a Mortal Wound by Micheal Grant

"What is the exact time frame of "nowadays"? And when exactly was "their day"? Why is "nowadays" plural and "their day" singular? (Pg 129). 

One True Love by Malinda Lo

"The Princess shall grow into a young woman strong and pure... But when she finds her one true love... She shall be the the downfall of the king (Pg 97)". 

Out of the Blue by Meg Cabot

"Of course, they tell you never to go anywhere with strangers, especially strangers who offer you rides in cars. But no one ever mentions anything about strangers who offer your ides in their spaceship. Obviously I said yes (Pg 71)". 

Here are some tasty bites of a couple stories in a the book, I hope to return to you all with more tid bits! I really suggest this book, like most books. Except this one is going to be a short stop read over a long time. 

The Amazon page for it:
http://www.amazon.com/Foretold-14-Tales-Prophecy-Prediction/dp/0385741308

Culture Through Pictures- DeathNote (Post 1)

Ever heard of Manga or Anime? That's like half my reading life, between all my favorite authors and the very long lists of literature I hope, but probably wont, ever complete; I always leave some time aside for my daily dose of Asian culture submitted to me by Manga and Anime.

Though most of them are made up stories of other worldly lands and beings, they actually represent the distinct type of Asian culture it gives of. With different supernatural beings and forms of  ruling like with emperors with nobles instead of kings and lords. Everything besides the translated English is immersing you in their world from their epic battle scene and weapons to the single (or many) bowl(s) of Ramen in Naruto's hand(s).

Though DeathNote is different, set in a real city in Japan around the Kanto region and actual company names it feels so much closer to us here in this world. Though with "The Other Side" evident with the use of the Japanese culture of the Shinigamis otherwise known as the "Spirits of Death" it makes it more of a story than a fairy tale.

Submerged in Asian culture, mostly Japanese, is when I feel I am traveling there myself while intertwined with the unique characters that tie me into the story, while the entire time my head is swimming with the culture. Making me a part of it. Which makes me proud to be apart of another culture, cause these books, and people, are amazing.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note
The Wikipedia page fore DeathNote with TONS of information.

http://www.viz.com/death-note
The VIZ media page with a short summary, pictures, and even streaming episodes of the Anime.

Realism: Hidden in the Pages of Books- The Fault in Our Stars (Post 6)

Re·al·ism [ree-uh-liz-uhm]
Noun

1. Interest in or concern for the actual or real, as distinguished from the abstract, speculative, etc.

2. The tendency to view or represent things as they really are.

3. Literature.
    a. a manner of treating subject matter that presents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the lower and middle classes.

    b. a theory of writing in which the ordinary, familiar, or mundane aspects of life are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner that is presumed to reflect life as it actually is. Compare naturalism.


It's there; the sense of things being real. Everything I have blogged about on The Fault in Our Stars is in the general idea of making it feel more "real". Real could be, you seeing happen, you have seen if happen, you could even imagine it happening. Or on your own playing field you relate to the topic or the character or situation. Even in fantasy or sci-fy novels its true, like you could relate to Tinkerbell for her sas and how just darn cute she is. Or you could relate to The Doctor because of his wits or good looks perhaps?

Though with the last page of The Fault in Our Stars turned and the cover shut, I just knew it was real, to me. With not just how the story was told in a real place with normal people characters, but how the story was written. With all the aspects of: dialogue, humor, character traits, diction, imagery and figurative language, format and reliability. Yet, these are just the points that I touched on through my blog posts not to mention: pace, syntax, chapter lengths, secondary characters, plot twists, an basically everything down to the period.

This was an amazing, existential crisis causing, book, that i enjoyed every moment reading. Every tear, every laugh, every flip of the page, every breath i took while reading this book was worth it. Do you know those books have have a personal affect on how you live your life? For me, this was the book, that changed me, without me realizing it til I reached the end.

For a shout out to the author, John Green, if he every find this small blog of mine; Thank you, for writing.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+fault+in+our+stars&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jMlvU5riKoaTyATVioCIBA&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=880
The Google images search page for The Fault in Our Stars with the book cover, movie shots, and fan-based art work.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/05/09/ed-sheeran-fault-in-our-stars-all-of-the-stars-video/
Ed Sheeran's new song and music video for The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack coming out May 19th.