Madmen Underground II

I am currently reading the book Madmen Under ground as i was last week (bit of a beefy book). To recap, the book is about a boy, tiger, that lives in Lightsburg Pennsylvania which he cannot wait to leave. His dada died when he was ten and his mom has been suck an abusive alcoholic and druggie ever since his father's death that he often tries but fails to recall her before the terminal cancer. He is part of a society of misfits like himself, the Madmen Underground that is technically a group of messed up kids in a counseling class but the counselors never stay for more than a few months at a time. And besides, this is supposedly Tiger's big year. The year where he hopes to become normal and not get his ticket to the group so when his veteran, crew cut, muscular, hard ass ELA teacher offers him a letter that will excuse him from the group, he jumps to the opportunity.


Now I should make it clear that this group of kids have serious bonds connecting back to elementary school. And is group has a diversity ranging from popular to gay kids all made fun of for there "membership" even if some are made fun of less and more jokingly. 


This books talks about how sometimes in high school you have to let go of friends. And maybe at times you wish you could have them back but for the better and security of your own life you have to let go of the things you hold so dear.

Mad Men Underground

I am currently reading the book Mad Men underground  by John Barnes. The book is about a boy who lives in the shadow of his dead father who he lost from cancer. His mother struggling to recover from the events has become an alcoholic, thieve, and even swindles money from her own son. She has literally tens of cats that roam the house in search of food and  use the bathroom all over the property. The woman was once a good person, however, and was supposedly one of the best mayor's wife in the history of the town. Because of his troubled life Karl Shoemaker is called into a club of  people with similar and not so similar family struggles. The club is in school and is run by a shrink that come through the town before they score deals at university and other jobs. But this year is different. Karl is trying to act as normal as possible with no help to his alchoholic, pot-smoking, mother that takes businessmen in suits home to "sleep over" with them. So the books takes us through the mind of a kid struggling just to keep up with his 5 jobs and ever shifting task to be the "mother" of one.

Let the great world spin

I'm currently reading the book Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. The book, so far, is a bunch of short stories that take place at the same time of the famous stunt where Philipe petit walked the distance between the two Twin Towers in the air on a tight-rope. It describes the situation and how a bunch a people in different places experienced the event. I don't think it is literally about the story of the the man on wire but more about New York. For example, one story is about an Irish immigrant that moves to New York only to be met with the poverty of the Bronx projects.


The story talks about the kind heart and the generosity of the man who takes in a and shelters the local hookers. It talks about how this man gets known for his generosity only to get shot at the end of the story right after the towers are crossed by way of tight rope. He Doesnt get shot in a fight. He doesnt get shot because he angered someone. He gets shot because a pimp didnt like the way he was being nice to one of the hookers he helped.


Then a second story. This time taking place in the exact opposite conditions. This one about a woman and her tattered relationship with a man while living in the wealth and cleanliness of Parc Avenue on the east side of new york. It talks about her struggle to get in touch and socialize with a group of girls that come from a totally different lifestyle, all the way trying to impress and get the girls to like her.


And then the man walks from tower to tower grasping the breath of the girls and the Irish man. Somehow bringing them together. And that is what the book is about.

Godless, resolved

So i just finished reading godless and i feel as though i had it all wrong, so i am writing to redeem. Godless is not so much about a religion as it is about the effect of it on modern day society. The book takes place in the St. Andrea valley that is still supplied by a fully functional water tower. Fed up wit his parents boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-athiest Jason Bock invents a new religion and god. One that revolves around the local water. He starts the religion as a joke but soon realizes that it's a lot more than a religion to lots of other people. I guess that that is what the book is really about.

In one scene Jason and his high priest, Henry, climb the water tower all the way to the top. The actually break into the water source and swim in it polluting all of the county's water supply. I always imagined that i wish i could do this. They are obviously being illegal but to the reader its not anything near illegal. Its more adventurous and skilled, not to mention impressive. I think that this is one of the most important scenes in the story because it shows why they worship the tower. Its big, massive, and overpowering. But they know what they are worshipping. They know that they can actually swim and splash around in it. They don't have to play a guessing game like some of the other religions. 

To conclude, i believe that this book isn't so much about religion but more about the fact that religion has an affect that can spread and be important to others even if you think it solely affects you.

Godless

This book is not corny. It isn't crass, offensive, weird to read or awkward. It's merely a book that evolves around the idea of a religion: Chutengodianism is the worship of the ten-legged-beast (the local water tower). This religion is practiced by Jason Bock, Shin, Henry Stagg, and hotshot Magda Price. The four find ways to get to the top of the water tower and create rules for their "religion." I'm not very far into this book and i have no reason or authority to judge what will happen, but there is something interesting about the fact that they choose to worship a water-tower. Why do they even choose to leave Catholicism? I mean there is always the idea "why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own religion?" But i think it has something to do with the fact that they are all outsiders.

The main character/storyteller Jason Bock is almost 6 feet 6 and weighs almost 250 pounds with a highly visible uni-brow that shaves regularly. Shin is a skinny, blond boy that isn't found without a textbook or notepad in his hand.Maybe when these boys feel like they should start a new religion it's not because they don't believe in the same beliefs as christians its because they feel like Christianity hasn't necessarily been good to them. There's even a part where everyone is going up to the preacher to talk and he decides to stay in his seat.

So when i read this book i don't feel wierd about religion or god or what ever. I feel like this is a book about misfits and how they use starting their own religion to cope with their problems.

Shooter

I'm reading Shooter by Walter Dean Myers. The book is a retelling and elaboration that focuses on a school shooting and is told in interviews recorded in a script-like format. So far there have been five interviews between interviewers and two teenagers, a boy named Cameron Porter who is seventeen and a girl named Carla Evens who is eighteen. The two had interesting relationships between the shooter and themselves. Cameron was very close friends with the shooter, Len. He often went to Len's dad's shooting range and fired off ammunition with Len. Carla was slightly into both Len and Cameron and therefor hung out with them a lot. On the day of the shooting Cameron and Carla showed up early like Len had asked them to knot knowing what they were doing. Len then gave them arms and told them to hold off a crowd while he wrote stop the violence on the wall hundreds of times with his own blood. Cameron and carla immediately ran but where still arrested due to the fact that they forgot to get rid of the gun Len gave them and still had it in their hand.


I think that a big part of the reason Len did this was because he was constantly being exposed to violence. Whether he was at the shooting range or at home with his parents and their guns he was almost always exposed to it. This idea would also support the signs written on wall with blood. I think that this is what the author is trying to tell us is that kids, no matter how old, should not be exposed to things above their age or they can do terrible things and inflect terrible things as well.

Alex's Post on Paper Towns

I just read Alex's Blog Post on Paper Towns. I read it because i have recently read the book myself and actually thought that it was a compelling and good book to begin with and I even wrote a blogpost about it myself. So while filling through the archive of many 8th grade blogs i realized that i could write about Alex's with complexity.


Now Alex wrote this post while still reading the book so i can guess that she feels differently about the book now, but in a nutshell she is basically summing up all of the different parts in the story while leaving all of the components in to leave and interesting blog post. She talks about Quentin, this insecure, troubled, semi-lonely high school senior who has sort of given up on having a fun high school career. He re-meets up with his neighbor Margo who brings his life back up to standard and changes it permanently.


Margo is popular at high school and sort of the opposite of Quentin, the main character. When Margo talks people actually listen and choose o follow her and her beauty. One night margo decides to take Quentin on the adventure of a lifetime that includes breaking into Sea World and waxing a bully's eyebrows . It forces Quentin enjoy what he has while he still has it. 


The next day Margo runs away for the fourth time and leaves a series of small but visible clues that Quentin is forced to follow. Alex Does a nice job of pointing out how each of Quentin's friends help him eventually find Margo. She does a goo job of describing them and their personalities.


Overall i think that Alex does a good job of showing the different characteristics and traits of the story and the characters.