Lauren Oliver Delirium

As I read the book I felt as if I was spending time with Matthew Homes. I felt his emotional journey, and at times his sleep deprivation when reading the book in wee hours of the morning. Even though I felt as if I was Matt, I also knew I was lucky. With this book I knew that mental health is such a fragile thing, and that Matt would always have a harder time than I. From this book alone, I learned so much on what it is like surviving and living with a mental illness.

In the book She’s Come Undone by author Wally Lamb, we travel on a journey with a young girl Dolores Prices, as she matures from early childhood to adulthood and all the terrible things that accompany her along her voyage. It was rather intriguing the Wally Lamb did such an excellent job of writing in a first person perceptive as a woman. He accredits his ability to his older sisters. Wally Lamb wrote this book to help emphasize one’s journey to self-discovery. This book’s theme heavily shows the loss of innocence and a coming of age story. Lamb was able to write in a way that many of us could relate to or may have found ourselves in similar situations. Regardless of Lamb’s purpose for writing this book, he was able to create a relatable

Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver are two amazing books part of a series. Delirium is the story of Lena Haloway who lives in a dystopian society where love is forbidden. It is the deadliest of all things in their world. In the begining Lena starts out a good girl who follows all the rules, is scared of love and believes everything that shes been told about love. All until she meets Alex. Once she meets Alex, everything changes. In Pandemonium Lena lived in the wilds and has been through so much hardship that it has roughened her soul like summer time roughenes your feet. She is now is living in New York City and returned from the wilds.

Before taking this course, I always looked at films and read books just as the average person does; interesting plot and how long will it hold my interest, but this course gave me an entire different perspective when watching films and reading books. Now that I have taken this course and have watched the required films, the most important thing when watching other movies and reading books, is the meaning behind each scene and how they relate and affect our world. For this paper, I will discuss a book that I read a long time ago, which is She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb and how this book relates to this course.

I was really excited when people told me there was romance, action, and adventure because they’re my favorite genres. But, I was disappointed when I read the first page. It’s 3rd person limited. I thought it would be a little harder to connect with the characters. However, as I kept rereading some lines and questioning the characters, it became easier for me to understand them. For example, Katsa, the main character of Graceling, written by Kristin Cashmore, musters up her courage to defy Randa because she could no longer tolerate him even though she was afraid to imagine what would happen next. Randa wanted others to fear him and to do that, he had Katsa torture people who didn’t listen to his orders. According to Susan Fisk, “empathy for another’s happiness and suffering depends fundamentally on recognizing that the other has a mind-that is, the same capacities for thought, emotion, desire, intention, and self-awareness as ourselves. I empathize with Bitterblue as she is strong facing hardships throughout the book.

“ The collection clip-clopping of horseshoes against the gravel synched with the rhythm of Massie’s heart-beating delivering a hint of harmony to a situation that had been stressing her out for days she took, deep cleansing breaths intthroughthenose…. aaaand…outthroughthemouth”(Harrison 8). In the book so far, Massie and her friends are at a horseback riding camp. There is a competition for jumping and Massie put leather glue on her saddle, which is against the rules. Massie got kicked out of the camp. In this journal I will be predicting and some visualizing things in the book.

The emotions I felt for this woman was overwhelming at some parts of the book. The hardest parts to read, were involving the author’s daughter. I started the book, when we watched the video about her book about her daughter’s death in class. I felt for that woman, to have loss a husband and a child within a very close time span is saddening. I was surprised she did not go crazy after her daughter died. When she writes about her memories of her husband and daughter, there is an obvious joy that exudes the pages. Knowing how much she loved and cared for her daughter was sad. She cared for her aligning daughter when she was at her sickest, her top priority was her health and wellbeing. She even postponed his funeral until she was strong enough to say goodbye. It was heartbreaking.

And that brought me in even more because she never said who did it and I wanted to know who it was. So it made me want to read it all the time. She explains what happens and what she did after it happened. It was very deep and interesting. It pulled me in so far into the book. Like i didn’t want to stop reading at all i was so into it. Reading log 5 and 6 is in here.

Her eyes had blackened. Cuts had opened up and a series of wounds were rising to the surface of her skin. All from words. From Liesel's words”(253).You can see all of the characters emotions easily. This makes the novel so astounding and beautiful.

Zadie Smith’s N, is broken up into five sections with four characters – Leah, Felix, Natalie, and Nathan. Each section is constructed in a different form that reflects a main character, with a return to Leah in the end, and how they experience time. Within these sections, words and lives intertwine across invisible boundaries.

In this passage, Jane breaks free from the bonds that hold her down and repress her, and for the first time the reader realizes Jane’s true personality and individuality (Anderson).

From page 17 the line I chose is “I let my mind wander.” This line just stood out to me because I do let my mind wander a lot of times and memories would just flow in like rivers. Just that line caught my attention and reading the line after that makes sense when Anne Lamott talks about the ideas that rushes in her mind. It makes you decide whether to do this or not, to take the risk or not, and gives me flash back on things that you have forgotten about. I feel like letting your mind wander would allow our minds to roam around the mental landscapes of past and present, or gardens of joy or anguish. It makes me think of my writing where it wanders from ideas to ideas where I can’t just stick with one topic. My life also wanders as well where

Stephanie’s first story grabbed my attention straight away by the negativity she expressed about the book: “total fiction” (165). From that point on I was eager

Volt and Taylor are electrifying. I love their connection and their friendship. They were so different, but I guess opposite attracts. Taylor is a teacher and a very simple girl, not Volt’s regular type at all. But for some reason he was drawn to her and she was to him. But he was a man whore and she didn’t want to be just one of his conquest. Instead they had an agreement and being really good friends. They were sweet and funny, I just couldn’t wait for him them to get together. As they go on to their very friends only rule, their attraction for each other they had to keep denying. I didn’t realize at first when I started reading this book, that this was a series with a bunch of books attached to it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Even though

Sarah Dessen is very good at catching the reader’s eye by making sure she lets the reader know what, when, who, where is happening at that moment. This story is also told through Halley’s first person point of view, which I think is important because I felt like I was Halley while reading this story. I know many teenagers aren’t able to relate to something like