A Face in Every Window by Han Nolan
You know how they say never to judge a book by its cover? Well, that is what I find myself doing before most books I read. Whether it is an assigned book as a class, or a choice book we have to read on our own. I usually look forward to books with a catchy cover or an interesting title, and those are the books I look forward to reading. Books with a boring cover or a title I don't find interesting are usually the books I dread reading the most. I don't know why I do this, I guess I just can't really help myself, but most of the time my opinion and views on the book change before I finish it. This happened to be the case for A Face in Every Window by Han Nolan.
First off the title didn't really catch my attention too well. Secondly, the cover seems to be a bunch of pieces of abstract art put together, which also didn't really appeal to me. However, at the very top it says, "author of the National Book Award winner Dancing on the Edge." This was the tiebreaker between the books I had picked out to choose from. I figured if she has won a national book award that this book has to be somewhat decent, and thus my journey began.
When I first started reading the book I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It showed a functional family in their daily routine. The story starts out with Mam, Pap, Grandma Mary, and JP (James Patrick) all living in a home. Grandma Mary was the one who kept everything in line. Pap is mentally challenged but seems to catch a grasp of a few things. Mam seems to be antisocial, while her son, JP, strives for good grades. His main reason for this is not to fall into the shadows of his father. However, this all changes when Grandma Mary dies. Now that the backbone of their family has passed away, they have to start over from scratch and hope that their family doesn't get ruined. It doesn't help that Mam makes them move while doing many other crazy things. She lets people come and go as they please at their new house. She also leaves with Dr. Mike to Switzerland for vacation.
As the book progressed I found myself more and more interested in it.
Darryl’s life is worth fighting for. “You can’t buy what I’ve got.” ‘The Castle’ directed by Rob Sitch, about one man, his family and neighbours on the verge of being homeless. Darryl Kerrigan, the “backbone of the family” won’t stand for that. Of course no one can buy what he has. He’s spent almost his entire lifetime building what he has, why should he give it up? Darryl’s way of life is simple yet filled with family values. 3 Highview Crescent is the home to Darryl, his wife Sal and their 3 children: Wayne, Steve, Tracy and Dale. (Wayne currently being in jail.) The house is made up of love, and simple family values. Darryl’s also added bits and pieces to it. He’s added on so much to the house, his own personal touch. His neighbours, also in the same bout are almost family to the Kerrigans. Jack and Farouk are another reason why Darryl’s ready to take matters into his own hands.
In the article Skin Deep written by Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin, they discuss and look deeper into the diverse differences in skin color. Our skin color has developed over the years to be dark enough to prevent the damaging sunlight that has been harming our skin and the nutrient folate that it carries. At the same time out skin is light enough to receive vitamin D.
Grace has never had a real home her whole life. For Grace and her mom, “there was always a better job or place to live, better schools or less crime” (15). A second theme of the story is give people second chances. Lacey and Grace had a secret plan, Plan B, in which they would drive Grace’s grandma crazy enough that Grace could go back to living with Mrs.Greene and Lacey. Grace should have given Grandma another chance because she might not understand everything she's lost such as “waiting for her daughter to come home” but years later dead (196). Another theme of the story is spend the most time with loved ones while they’re here. Grace finally realized her grandma isn’t so bad. They both want “to find a way to get them back”, they’re loved ones, and that’s through each other (196). Grace has lost her dad, grandpa, and mom, but doesn’t realize that her grandma lost them too and could be
Each person has a place that calls to them, a house, plot of land, town, a place that one can call home. It fundamentally changes a person, becoming a part of who they are. The old summer cabins, the bedroom that was always comfortable, the library that always had a good book ready. The places that inspire a sense of nostalgic happiness, a place where nothing can go wrong.
They always say to never judge a book by its cover, but my first impression I got when I looked at this book was that people gathered around a bus waiting for their family members to get off. After reading The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang I then realized that the people on the cover weren't just waiting around for their family but finding their loved ones they once lost. When I first started reading this book I was a little nervous because I never read that many books and I feel that the reason why I don’t is because not many books stand out to me. In school I would have to read books for the class or for a book report but get bored or my attention couldn’t stay focused. Just a few pages into this book and I seemed interested in what was
Sidewalk is a book written by Mitchell Duneier, an American sociology professor at Princeton University, in 1999; where the book has gained a lot of favorable reviews, leading its winning the Los Angeles Times Book prize and C. Wright Mills Award. Similarly, the book had become a classic in urban studies, especially due to the interesting methodology, which was used by Duneier while he was conducting his research. The book is based on observations, participant observation and interviews, which gave the author the ability to live and interact with the book and magazine vendors on daily bases. Although, this gave him an insight into the life of the sidewalk, many methodological issues have concerned scholars and students of sociology since the day this book was published. Duneier had admitted during the book that he couldn’t be completely subjective while conducting his research and writing his book due to his involvement and personal relationship with people who work and live at the sidewalk, which raise the question, whether the research is still relevant if the researcher is only giving us an objective outcome?
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
After a basketball game, four kids, Andrew Jackson, Tyrone Mills, Robert Washington and B.J. Carson, celebrate a win by going out drinking and driving. Andrew lost control of his car and crashed into a retaining wall on I-75. Andy, Tyrone, and B.J. escaped from the four-door Chevy right after the accident. Teen basketball star and Hazelwood high team captain was sitting in the passenger's side with his feet on the dashboard. When the crash happened, his feet went through the windshield and he was unable to escape. The gas tank then exploded and burned Robbie to death while the three unharmed kids tried to save him.
Alexander Stowe is a twin, his brother is Aaron Stowe. Alex is an Unwanted, Aaron is a Wanted, and their parents are Necessaries. Alex is creative in a world where you can’t even see the entire sky, and military is the dream job for everyone and anyone. He should have been eliminated, just like all the unwanteds should have been. He instead comes upon Artimè, where he trains as a magical warrior- after a while. When he was still in basic training, and his friends were not, he got upset, he wants to be the leader, the one everyone looks up to.
According to Frederick Asals, the first half of the story serves a significant purpose as it informs the audience that the family’s journey to Florida is only a “mere empty movement through space” (42). Prior to the car accident, the family acts out of vanity and disobedience despite believing they are devote Christians. Through their actions and behaviors, O’Connor reveals that they are heading down a path of destruction. T.W. Hendricks examines the structure of the family and their relationships with each other, he comments that “the structure of the family is in disarray” (203). The patriarch of the family, Bailey, despises his mother and prefers to overlook her presence by participating in self-absorption. In comparison, his wife does not pay attention to her external surroundings, but simply puts sole focus on her infant child. Furthermore, she and her husbands are parents t...
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
In this text Mohanty argues that contemporary western feminist writing on Third World women contributes to the reproduction of colonial discourses where women in the South are represented as an undifferentiated “other”. Mohanty examines how liberal and socialist feminist scholarship use analytics strategies that creates an essentialist construction of the category woman, universalist assumptions of sexist oppression and how this contributes to the perpetuation of colonialist relations between the north and south(Mohanty 1991:55). She criticises Western feminist discourse for constructing “the third world woman” as a homogeneous “powerless” and vulnerable group, while women in the North still represent the modern and liberated woman (Mohanty 1991:56).
The study of these elements of the cover - each book's signs and the images/ideas they signify- is particularly appropriate in the case of bestsellers. This is not to say that the covers of bestsellers hold a monopoly on sign/signifier possibilities - nothing could be farther from the truth - its just that in the case of bestsellers, the effect these signs and signifiers have on the aura of a book are just more interesting. Proof of this all but surrounds us. Take a look at almost any other section in the brown bookstore: almost all books, with the exception of bestsellers and the very new releases, are presented on shelves with their binding pointing out. The only thing one can really ascertain when gazing upon these books is the title and color on the cover. Such elements are important, but don't grab the eye. Unless you're looking for a specific title or author, what you see on these shelves doesn't really effect one's eyes.
The main characters in this story were Zach Wahhsted, Alan Mender, and Joey Mender. Zach Wahhsted was a schizophrenic sixteen year. He often hallucinates voices and people; but when ever he would forget to take his medication, he would hear two voices that would tell him to kill himself. Zach had a hard time understanding what was real and what was in his head. Alan Mender was a seventeen year old who grew up in a rough neighborhood with his little brother and their mom, who was diagnosed with cancer. He has a kind disposition, but lives in rough circumstances. Joey Mender was a fourteen year old younger brother of Alan Mender, who also lived with his mother, he is temperamental and thought zach was just a retard.