Post #9: Final Project: Listicle

In Gone Girl there were many elements that surprised me and I thought there were two things that I thought were interesting:

1- The set up:

In the book the whole story was told by diary entries. I read an article to go along with this story and I found out that the author Gillian Flynn actually does this type of book quite frequently. The way she sets up her story is told from multiple perspectives. One from Nick the husband of Amy. Anther by the fake diary that any writes and another by the real Amy. I think that you get a feel for all the characters by doing it like this. In the book it starts off with Nick talking about his wife, in the present day, and he talks about his wife Amy, whose parents have a famous children's book based on "Amazing Amy". There is a chapter difference that flip flop from Nick's perspective, to Amy's perspective. In Amy's part of the story she is writing in a journal and it is all from the past. So we are getting a glimpse into her and Nick's relationship from before she was lost.

2- How crazy Amy Is:

In this book you start out thinking that she is the sweetest person in the whole world. She has some comlications, I will give her that, but it is her diary that she writes to trick the cops into thinking that she was nice and sweet. So that was the intention. I was very surprised by her actual plan to frame Nick but I think that it is awesome. Amy had to plan for over a year after she got him cheating. This causes some serious devotion and some hard work. I think that it is ingenious in her plan. Even when things go away from her original plan she calls her weird ex boyfriend Desi and he works into her plan. I just think that she is one crazy lady but she really captures how evil all women can be. In the first half of the book I started to love Amy, because she just seems like a normal human. And I HATE Nick, because he is a dirty cheater. Like, he leaves Amy for a girl like half his age named Andie. I think that is so sleazy and gross. So typical. The search for Amy goes on, and on the second part of the book my world gets turned upside down. Amy is CRAZY. She is legitimately crazy… She tricks people into thinking she’s fun, and when she reveals her true colors and they don’t like her she freaks out! I am just like flabbergasted. So after she freaks out she frames them for something and ultimately ruins their life in some aspect.

Also I found out that Gillian Flynn’s name is pronounced like Jillian. Like that changed my outlook on a lot of things.

Mr. Coates this class was amazing! Over the years of highschool I started out reading a lot but as the years went on I started to lose track of my reading. Thank you for helping me refocus my love for books. Hopefully I never get off track again. Thanks for always having an interesting topic to learn about. This was one of my favorite classes of the year and I am happy that my last bell of high school is this one. Stay golden pony boy.

Post #8: Check In Two

I am currently at the ending of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, and all I can say is WhAt? The plot twist got me good.

In the first half of the book I started to love Amy, because she just seems like a normal human. And I HATE Nick, because he is a dirty cheater. Like, he leaves Amy for a girl like half his age named Andie. I think that is so sleazy and gross. So typical. The search for Amy goes on, and on the second part of the book my world gets turned upside down.

Amy is CRAZY. She is legitimately crazy… She tricks people into thinking she’s fun, and when she reveals her true colors and they don’t like her she freaks out! I am just like flabbergasted. So after she freaks out she frames them for something and ultimately ruins their life in some aspect.

Amy finds out about Nick cheating on her with the little hoe, and she plans this master plan to get back at him. She is a crazy woman. She plans her fake murder and frames it on Nick. She sets up a treasure hunt like she does every year and she puts clues out like she is trying to save their marriage, but in the end he figures out that she is Satan and she’s actually taking a stab at him. All of the places on the treasure hunt are places where him and Andie hooked up. I sense somebody is salty.

Even though Amy is a crazy lady I love her still. She is a great dynamic character and I feel like everybody can relate to her in some aspect. The things that she does are things that I would want to do if I were her, but I probably never would because I am not as courageous as her. Or do I mean crazy.

Post #7: Check In One

Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl

I have started reading this book, and for me at least it was pretty hard to get in to. But, I think I feel that way about any book, I'm not the kind of person who loves intros, just the meat and potatoes of the book. About a couple days into reading this book, I actually found out that the author's first name is pronounced like Jillian... It changed my outlook on things.

In the book it starts off with Nick talking about his wife, in the present day, and he talks about his wife Amy, whose parents have a famous children's book based on "Amazing Amy". There is a chapter difference that flip flop from Nick's perspective, to Amy's perspective. In Amy's part of the story she is writing in a journal and it is all from the past. So we are getting a glimpse into her and Nick's relationship from before she was lost.

It kind of frustrates me because one second I think that they are the cutest and most perfect couple in the world, and then the next second I think they are the worst. It makes me irritated. They do all of these cute things for each other and I think, like, hey, I hope I run my future relationships like that, then one of them is RIDICULOUS. Oh well.

I get the feeling that before Amy disappeared Nick was planning on breaking up with her. They didn't have a happy marriage by the end of their relationship, and I think that Nick isn't as worried as he should be when she goes missing. It makes me wonder and curious about what isn't being mentioned in their marriage and maybe that them being unhappy is the purpose for her going missing.

I am not too sure how this will all pan out, I still have half of the book to read, but each time that she speaks I feel like I find something out about them that changes the way I think about them. Like at first I thought Nick was like the greatest guy ever, but now I think that he is kind of a scum bag.

Currently in the book Nick is at an abandoned mall and he is speaking to homeless people, and one of them says that she came there to buy a gun before. So exciting things are about to happen I think!

For right now I just want something major to happen on their search for Amy, and I guess I will find out!!

Post #6: Book 3 Listicle

5 Reasons Why Tina Fey is a Legend

Tina Fey has been famous for a long time. Most people know her by the movies that she is in like Mean Girls, or Baby Mama. Fey has actually worked for SNL and written her own TV show. In addition to her awesome camera roles she has actually written a book called Bossypants where she explains how she got where she is. Fey is not just a normal celebrity she is a gold mine of comedic genius. 

1- Tina Fey doesn't just act in movies and shows, she creates them:

Writing things is just as hard as preforming them. When Tina started her carrer she had no intention of ever being in front of the camera. She was a improv actor in her earlier days which helped her get her writing gig at Saturday Night Live. SNL is an extremely funny show and Fey flourished at writing in this atmosphere. There was one day around election time that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton were in politics and they thought that Fey had an uncanny resemblance to Palin. They made her do a live skit with Amy Poehler and it was a hit. Fey was now in front of the camera and extended on her career.

2- Fey definitely had humble beginnings:

Just like you and me, Fey was definitely an awkward teenager. She was into drama and helped out in many plays. She had lots of gay friends and she was a quirky human. (Her gay friend Damion was her inspiration for the character Damion she created in Mean Girls). She once climbed to the top of a mountain wearing wrestling shoes because a boy wanted her to. Weird. But just like us all we all got through our awkward phase, and look where she is now! She's awesome! 

3- She is a normal Human just like all the rest of us:

Even though Fey is famous, she still has a home life. She has a daughter and she tries to teach her moral values. Fey doesn't sugar coat her famous life, she tells it like it is. She is well-known but hey, shes still human, and she still does human things. Like a normal mom she takes care of her baby and trims her nails. She has a nanny, but she is afraid of talking to her nanny like any normal person would be. I think shes a really cool person because she makes a point that even though shes famous, it might not be all that great all the time.

4- She deals with hate mail like a boss:

In her book Bossypants, she has a whole chapter where she responds to hate mail that is sent to her. I think this is one of my favorite chapters in the book because she does it so classy and she still burns them to a crisp. 

5- She is hilarious:

She is one of my favorite famous people because of how funny she is. She is a very sarcastic person and I think that sarcasm is the funniest thing out there so when she speaks it automatically makes me laugh. In her book i"m pretty sure there is not one page where it is not riddled with sarcasm and jokes. 

Post #5: Truth in Memior

The Truth in Memoir:

Many books today are a work of fiction, not depending on if it is labeled non-fiction. A lot of people fabricate their stories and embellish them and it doesn’t stay true to the actual storyline of their tale. I think that if a book says that it is non-fiction it should be all the way true, no exaggerations, no gimmicks. If it is not all the way true than why would they label it that way? I would not want to be lied to and tricked into thinking that somebody’s life is different than what they wrote. If it was mostly true people could say something like “based on a true story” or “based on actual events in my life”. I think that lying to get your story published is a way a diminishing your credibility and betraying many people’s trust. If something is ‘half- true’- it could still be an amazing story, no doubt. The fact that they could say it is true is something that I do not like. I will still read a good story no matter what, but I don’t want to respect somebody for their memoir that is not true. It’s like saying I won the gold medal in the Olympics and I get tons of recognition for it when it turns out I only won my knothole league in baseball when I was 12. It is irritating. I don’t think that we necessarily need to label books as non-ficiton or fiction, but when I am choosing a nice novel to read I usually pick it out based on the genre first. If I pick out a non-fiction and find out its fiction, okay whatever. It would still be a good book but it is not what I signed up for when I started reading it. It matters to me because I am kind of picky about any book that I choose to read, and I am usually a very harsh judge. If I find out a story is not true when it says it is, I’m not going to be a happy camper. 

Post #4: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Individual blog post (30 points)

Post 4: Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Imagine that you are tasked by a major studio with adapting your book.  What are the 3 most

important decisions you would need to make as director in order to create a successful

adaptation?  Explain what the decision is, then explain why it is so important.  Options you

could consider:

In adapting the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close one of the most important decisions that you would have to make is choosing what adaptation makes the most sense. I think the one that makes the most sense is a movie. Not just because it has already been made into a movie and I think that since they picked it I should too. I think that it should because it is the one that makes the most sense. I personally have not seen the movie so I don't have anything to bias my decision. Although a musical or TV show would be cool I don't think it is logical because of how he travels all throughout New York, you wouldn't be able to put that on a stage. You could adapt it but it would be hard because of the immensity of New York and how far he travels. I also don't think a TV show would be logical because there isn't enough of the book to make it into a TV show. Its not a series, and its not over 1,000 pages long. There is an idea to where ever he went there could be a new episode but even though that is a good idea there is not enough information in the book to make it happen. At most it would just be a chapter and even then there would have to be a lot of information substituted in and I really don't like when people make things up about books that don't belong. That is why I think movie is the best choice because it keeps true to the book and it easily captures all of New York.

Another important decision that would need to be made in the adaptation of this book in to a film is keeping essential scenes. I think that all of the scenes where Oskar is traveling New York should be kept. Another important scene that I think should be kept are all of the scenes with his grandma and grandpa. As much as the story is about Oskar and his journey the story of his grandma and grandpa are just as important. They tell the story that make Oskar's dad and eventually Oskar and I think that is very important.

The last important decision that I would make in adapting this book into a movie is that the whole time that the grandpa and grandma are telling their stories, it is all in writing and you can't really do that on a screen so you would have to figure out how you would change the written stories of his family into film. I think that you could focus on the grandma/grandpa writing and then zoom into their writing but it turns into film. And they could act out their stories and things like that.

Post #3: Book Project #1: Fan Experience

Blog Post #3: Book Project #1: Fan Experience

Room

By Emma Donoghue

For all the people who love the new bestselling book Room by Emma Donoghue are sure going to flip when they see what has just came out to accompany the book. The majority of the story is told in “Room” and to help better understand what room looked like and felt like there is now a website that lets you interact and actually look around Room! I guarantee that it will make your reading experience ten times better by using this fantastic tool that has just come out!

Using this website it is truly the easiest thing you will do all day. Go to www.VisitRoom/interact.org, and create a new account so you can enjoy the magic! Don’t worry it is FREE! When you get to the website you will see an overview of Room, “Three four nine Washington, shed in the rear, lit skylight”. When you get to this you will see the dimensions for room and it will let you visualize how tiny the living space that Ma and Jack live in. On the side of the Room it shows common objects to compare size for example it shows a row of dollar bills for size comparison.

All of these objects in this interactive visual have a specific meaning in the book. Like the wardrobe that Jack sleeps in or the table that is used for many different reasons. Or the TV that is an old type of TV that has "bunny ears" and how he likes to watch Dora the Explorer. All of these objects that you will find have a reason for being in Room so click on them and figure out how they are special!

When you click on the door of room you will have to put in a special code which will be your username and password for this website. In the book Old Nick was the only one who knew the password so by typing it in on the keypad you will get an actual feel and hear the beeping that they always heard. After you type in the correct username and password it will take you into room and you can use your computer cursor to move around Room. You will be able to see every object in room and click on it and it will bring up a list of quotes from the book about this specific object. For example when you scroll through Room and find the table and click on it you will see a list of quotes like; “I stroke Table’s scratches to make them better, she’s a circle all white except gray in the scratches from chopping foods”, and “I look for her now but there’s only a web between Table’s leg and her flat”.

By using this interactive and visual addition to the book it will generate a greater understanding and make reading Room that much more exciting! If you have NOT yet read Room you can choose to put in the chapter that you are currently reading and it will have an audio-book and the room will change layouts for what you are reading.

When Jack and Ma make their great escape you will have to play a game to escape from Old Nick. Once you complete this game it will have a series of places you will be able to click on and look at from Jack’s perspective. This is important because the book is told from Jack’s perspective and so it will show you all of the places that he visited and it will be interactive just like Room was.