Dedicated to Mrs. E. Miller of Thermopolis, Wyoming, who first taught me how to write a book report.
During my summer vacation I read 7 books. The first book was Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I snickered out loud several times because it was v. funny and I think Bertie Wooster uses the best slang of anyone ever.
My second book was French Dirt by Richard Goodman. I picked it because I like gardening and France. I wish the book would have been more intimately written and given more details about the author's year in St. Sebastien. It was okay, not great.
My third book was Run by Ann Patchett. Without giving away much, I have to report that she wove in a "running" metaphor in creative ways and the characters she wrote about were involving and memorable. If I was Ann's teacher, I'd give her an A+.
My fourth book was 8 Sandpiper Way by Debbie Macomber. It was shoddy, lame and predictable. I much prefer Jan Karon as a writer of this genre and I figure that American readers have horrible taste because Debbie's books are bestsellers. She told instead of showed all the characters. Her character development, plot development and back story were written so badly that I think my little sister could do a better job of it. I'd give this book a generous D-.
My fifth book was Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. I knew I'd like it because 7 years ago I taught his book Into the Wild and our class had great discussions about it. This book was about the Mormon faith and history and examined the fundamentalist offshoots of the faith that have led to some violent crimes. I learned a lot about how Mormons influenced history, for example, I did not know Abraham Lincoln signed a law making polygamy illegal in all America's states and territories, specifically Utah. I give this book a B+ because it was good, but there were a lot of names to keep track of which made it confusing.
My sixth book was Good Grief by Lolly Winston. It was about a woman grieving her husband after he died of cancer and it showed all the different stages of grief as she experienced them. There were a few funny parts and my favorite character was a teenaged girl who the main character mentored. The story also was about a bakery and I love bakeries. I think everyone should read this book.
My seventh book was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It was awesome and I think everyone should read this book too because it teaches you a lot about history and makes you appreciate all we have in America and Greg Mortenson is an inpsiring man who made life a lot better for many many people. A+.
My seventh book was You Can't Get There from Here by Leonard Nash. I actually started this book a while ago, but I finished it on vacation. It was a collection of short stories and I can tell that Leonard went to graduate school because he writes really artsy descriptions and not a lot happens in his stories because they're mostly character sketches and experiments with tone and mood. I wouldn't recommend it to most readers. I guess his professors would give him an A, but I give him a C.
This concludes my book report from summer vacation. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope I get to read many more books in the future.
What do you think? Would Mrs. E. Miller be impressed with how I mastered paragraphs and punctuation? Would she swoon over my mix of information sprinkled with opinion? Would she grant me the coveted A+ on this assignment? Would she cringe at my excessive use of passive voice and subject/verb sentence structure?
More importantly, what great book would you recommend to ME, reader?
0 comments:
Posting Komentar