|
|
Post by rachle on Sept 8, 2007 19:20:25 GMT -5
Hey Y'all  So there's this book, The Lovely Bones, and it's amazing. I'm pretty sure that most schools in the United States have to read it in their JR. year of High School, but still it is one of the most amazing books I've ever read, and I really suggest you go check it out of the library right now and read it. The Plot:(It sounds detailed and giving away, but really it's not since all this is told on the first few pages) Susie Salmon was R&M'ed at the age of 14; no one knows who did it, and thoes who have a good idea no one believes them. She watches from heaven (even if you don't believe in heaven it is a good book because there isn't alot of religion involved in it) as he family, and friends, and the murder cope with her death. This sounds weird but I think this book is art put on paper. Soo.... GO READ IT!  Oh, and if you don't like the book please don't come and eat me out about it; becuase my love for it is just an oppinion on how good it is. If you don't like it... then just don't listen to me when I suggest to read something. |
|
|
|
Post by limbowoman on Sept 8, 2007 22:02:51 GMT -5
Sorry... I found that book really boring... but I think that's more my personal taste than the book itself...
|
|
|
|
Post by rachle on Sept 8, 2007 22:50:22 GMT -5
Oh that's ok. I guess it is I just like the ideas of the book. IDK, I'm a very weird kid. |
|
|
|
Post by limbowoman on Sept 8, 2007 23:52:43 GMT -5
Don't worry, so am I... *Crunches an apple*
|
|
|
|
Post by Clover on Sept 10, 2007 15:53:02 GMT -5
To be honest, I didn't know it was mandatory reading down in the states. I think its listed as an option for essays and book reports up here, but as mandatory reading?
I don't think so up here at least.
Hmm, interesting.
I also read it a while ago--- grade nine or ten, I suppose, and enjoyed it for the most part... though my biggest problem with the book was that, after all these years of her watching her family and her life move on, when she finally gets a body, the first thing she does is bump uglies with her childhood crush.
No phone call to her mom to tell her, "I'm happy and I'm okay and I'm safe and Heaven is okay." No call to the police to place an anonymous tip RIGHT AWAY.
Nah. She goes and finds the boy. =__=
I was like, "duuuuur? I don't geeeeet it."
But other then that, I thought it was a pretty novel idea.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Star Fox on Sept 10, 2007 16:07:59 GMT -5
Not mandatory where I teach.... and They teach Ap English and English 101/102
|
|
|
|
Post by limbowoman on Sept 10, 2007 22:21:43 GMT -5
I think if I got a phone call from someone dead saying that heaven was okay I'd either think ti was a prank or be really freaked out... but yeah, I'd at least go and make sure everyone was okay... then I'd move on... but I usually get sick of all that lovey-dovey crap in books... so I'm always looking for alternatives in that area...
|
|
|
|
Post by Clover on Sept 11, 2007 10:46:13 GMT -5
Well, I considered that--- but you always hear the ghost stories about people getting calls from dead relatives; doubtless her parents would recognize her voice, and she could have been like, "Mama, it's me. I tried to fly when I was four and landed on the dog, my favourite colour is purple, I hate ice cream... It really is me. And I'm okay."
*sigh*
I like my romance in my romance novels, which I purchase specifically for the lovey-dovey crap.
But wierd teenish romances sketch me out a bit.
Dunno why.
|
|
|
|
Post by AndrogynousMelon on Sept 11, 2007 12:59:09 GMT -5
The only mandatory book in my school that I enjoyed (and I do enjoy reading quite a bit- but generally I find the "classics" to suck and suck hard) was Speak. I think I read it in my sophomore year, so it's been a little bit.
The Lovely Bones was one of those books people kept telling me to read, but I refused simply because I am a jackass.
|
|
|
|
Post by Aindel on Sept 11, 2007 13:47:37 GMT -5
I've had a hit-and-miss experience with mandatory books in high school. Grade 9 was The Dark is Rising, which I loved. i'd read all five of them by that point, anyway. The teacher liked me because I was one of the few people who really enjoyed the book.
Grade 10 was.... The Hobbit! Also thoroughly enjoyable, particularly because my teacher for that year was a 64-year old, 4'9", human-sewing-machine Tolkienite. NOTHING beat my Grade 10 English class. It rocked so hardcore.
Grade 11 was Frankenstein. Not bad, a bit dry in places. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't been smarter than the teacher attempting to run the class. Total zone-out time in that class is probably equal to three-quarters of total class time.
Grade 12 we did The Great Gatsby. I -hate- that book. I have nothing but severe loathing for that book, and would probably scream and run if you held up a copy in front of me. And this time, it wasn't just because my teacher was a moron (again. Two years in a row of idiotic English teachers... Must have been to balance out the awesomeness of the first two years). But I made up for it by choosing The Picture of Dorian Gray out of the list given to us for our final projects.
|
|
|
|
Post by AndrogynousMelon on Sept 11, 2007 14:56:23 GMT -5
Ugggh god I'd almost forgotten about the Great Gatsby.
Terrible as it is, there is a book that trumps it.
The Old Man and the Sea.
|
|
|
|
Post by limbowoman on Sept 12, 2007 0:20:06 GMT -5
Yay for Dorian Grey... I'm sure I had a crush on that fictional character when I was in year eight... one of my most favorite character of all time... as for school books... if I didn't like the book i simply refused to read it... I was always reading though, so I don't think my Enlish teacher minded much...
|
|
|
|
Post by rachle on Sept 12, 2007 6:41:14 GMT -5
At my school we have quite a few of required reading books; I only know them for Grade 9&10, but here they are.
Grade 9:
Great Expectations
Romeo and Juliett [IDK, I already read this in 7th grade so it was kinda boring]
Jeckle and Hyde
The Oddisy
Night [No comment. This one we're reading later on in the year]
Grade 10:
The Lovely Bones
Troy
The Dark is Rising
(there are 3 more, but I can't remember them)
IDK, but we have to read alot of books. Also throught out the year we have to write 9 book reports, and read every heffing story in our litature book (400 stories) and write an essay on them.
I'm in AP the normal class only reads one book a year....
|
|
|
|
Post by Aindel on Sept 13, 2007 12:17:59 GMT -5
We skipped doing R+J in Grade 9, because my teacher hated it. For which I was truly thankful, because I also hate it. I'd read it back in Grade 5 (for fun, no less), and it was stupid then. I read it last year for a design project, and it's still stupid now.
Jekyll and Hyde I didn't read until about Grade 11, I think, just because it was so hard to find a copy in my area. The Odyssey I'd read in Grade 8 (again, for fun), and didn't pick up the Iliad until Grade 10. A lot of people read The Odyssey first, though I don't know why either. I suppose it didn't matter much to me, since I already knew the story anyway. I didn't like it nearly as much.
Starting Grade 10, though, we -did- do Shakespeare every year. Macbeth (<3 <3 <3), Twelfth Night (amusing, but much better performed than read in a classroom), and Hamlet (so good, but -so- overdone). I think Macbeth is my favourite Shakespearean play. It's not my favourite play overall by a longshot (I'm not actually a huge fan of Shakespeare, oddly enough), but it's got this... weird intensity that a lot of his other plays lack.
|
|
|
|
Post by bubbles on Sept 13, 2007 13:10:12 GMT -5
The Little Prince and Fight Club should both be mandatory, but not for high school. More like, if you don't read them, you fail LIFE.
|
|
