Literature Extravaganza

By Florence Lin Recently, I have been reading The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter. This young adult fiction was strongly recommended to me by Benjamin Chang and has received excellent reviews online as well. As I read through the novel, I realize more and more why it is so well-liked: simply put, it is beautifully written. Told in the first person, The First Time She Drowned is a story about an 18-year-old girl, Cassie O'Malley. Cassie grew up idolizing and craving attention from her mother but being neglected by her. Her entire family is under the control of her mother, and aim only to please her. At age 15, under the instruction of Cassie’s mother, Cassie is placed into a mental institution. The novel mainly begins near the end of her stay at the institution and follows Cassie through her journey in the outside world, but frequently flashes back to Cassie’s past. By joining Cassie as she navigates and reflects on her life, readers empathize with her and f...

            Recently I finished reading Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance. It is a biography about Elon Musk and it really gives me a perception into more of his life than what the media offers. I enjoyed reading it much more than I usually do when reading, and I think Vance did a great job emphasizing interesting parts of Musk’s history. Vance also helped me realize why Elon Musk is so successful which is what this post will focus on.      The first reason Elon Musk is so successful is his willingness to take risks. This applies to almost all successful people, but his risks are unlike anyone else’s. There is one strong example that Vance highlights in his work. This example is when musk risks all his money on starting new companies. After Musk’s left his first two companies, Zip2 and PayPal, his net worth was approximately 250 million dollars. At this point h...

I found Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck a very enjoyable book, and here are 3 reasons why: 1. The complex character dynamic between Lennie and George: Lennie and George, the main characters, have a complicated relationship. Especially how George feels about it. Lennie is a nice guy and good-natured, but is not very smart and doesn't realize how strong he really is. He accidentally kills little animals, which are his favorite to pet, and hurts a few humans too. He never means to, he is just too strong. George is just a normal, kindhearted guy. He befriended Lennie and stuck with him through all of his life. He dedicates a lot to keeping Lennie out of trouble. However, this sort of ruins George's life. He could have a nice job, but has to take care of Lennie. He sacrifices a lot of things for his friend, almost everything. But George realizes that sometimes he has to live for himself too. But his kindness conflicts with this feeling which creates an interesti...

Emily Chen After reading Purple Hibiscus in class, which I found very interesting, I saw another book written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Written in 2013, Americanah is a novel that follows Ifemelu through her journey as she moves to America after growing up in Nigeria. There, she attended University and struggled to make a living despite her academic success, all while half a world away from her high school boyfriend, Obinze. The two parted before Ifemelu left for America, but hope to get together again. Their dreams are dampened when the two drift apart after years without the two seeing each other. Obinze later gets married to a beautiful, but quiet, unintelligent, and submissive woman, who is the exact opposite of Ifemelu, who is bold and always speaks her mind. Americanah depicts Ifemelu’s life as she struggles with new ideas surrounding race and, for the first time, finds out what it means to be black in America. Americanah is told in an unusual format; the novel ...

By Florence Lin You may have heard some negative comments about Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I for one, often hear it described as “trashy,” or “poorly-written.” However, there are many people that disagree with these belittling comments. Twilight tells the story of a teen romance between the new girl in town, Bella Swan, and a vampire, Edward Cullen. It may sound like it has a low potential, but there are many aspects of this novel to like. I decided to read this book after not one, but two of my classmates recommended it to me. After reading this book, I have to say, I have come to understand why this iconic fantasy-romance is part of a multi-million dollar franchise. Here are three reasons why you should read this book too: 1. Depiction of the supernatural. Put in simplest terms, Twilight is a love story about a human and a vampire. The way an author chooses to frame a fantastical creature such as a vampire is a huge deal in the case of this book, and Meyer does it perfectl...

  A Northern Light is a story set in 1906, about 16-year-old Mattie, who lives with her father and three younger sisters on their family farm. After her mother died and her brother left their home, Mattie’s dreams of graduating high school and attending college are dampened. Not only can she not afford to leave the town, her family relies on her for cooking, cleaning, and helping out around the farm. She later meets Royal Loomis, who she begins to fall for. After he proposes to her, Mattie has to make the difficult choice of going to college or marrying Royal.            The book is told in both the present and the past. The book starts out in the past, telling the story of Mattie’s life on the farm. Every few chapters, it returns to the present, where Mattie is working at a hotel. The present is centered around a murder that actually happened—that of Grace Brown, who was drowned by Chester Gillette, her boyfriend. In A North...

Recently, I read Will Smith's favorite story,  The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The book is about a boy named Santiago who wants to find his purpose in life. He talks to a magical and wise king who guides him and advises him to try to reach his 'Personal Legend" in life, and to not care about other things and really just strive for this thing he wants in life. So, Santiago goes on multiple adventures and travels across Spain and Egypt to reach his goal of finding the treasure he sees in his dreams in the Great Pyramids of Egypt. This book is very unique in a lot of ways, so I'll try to cover the ones that I think are the most important. This book is extremely unique in the way it is structured, which I really like. The book is basically a whole bunch of smaller stories chained together, all tied around this idea of Santiago trying to find this treasure in the Pyramids and to find his purpose in life. In the beginning of the book he is a Shepherd, who is spurred by his...