Reading Blog Post 15 - A Series of Mostly Unfortunate Events

Okay, okay, okay. Boy, do I have a lot to tell you guys. I haven't written about the actual plot of the book and an excruciatingly long time, so I have a lot to share. I think where we last left off is right where everything started to get all over the place. I mean the whole book is a roller coaster of emotions every second, but these things are big things and they're happening.  

Okay, so I thought I wrote about this already, however looking back at my recent posts I realized I have not! So. Let me tell you about what happened to Eleanor in gym class a couple of weeks ago. Tina stole her gym clothes! Well she didn't steal them, really, just tried to flush them down the toilet. That's all. I am beyond angry if you can tell. Seriously, who does that? I mean I get that Tina is one of the antagonists. Maybe she's just jealous of Eleanor and Park, but that's horrible. Especially, since Eleanor has almost no clothes, period. Now she has to go with one less whole outfit. You know what makes me angrier than anything? She flushed her strawberry vans down the toilet. Eleanor loved them, more than anything. Well not Park, but still. It makes me so angry. That's the first dilemma, especially since she had to walk all the way from the gym to the guidance office, in a red  and white striped polyester gym suit like thing that they have to wear for gym class. Ugh.

Okay, let's get a little happier. The next thing that happens is that Park gets his driver's license! Very exciting, right? It is! It is because Eleanor and him finally get to go on a date! They go downtown to all of Park's favorite record stores and comic shops. one line that struck me as super funny in this little scenerio was, "He kept pretending that they were on a real date, and then he'd remembered that they were" (Rowell, 269). That's so cute! They are on a real date! Go them.

I love this picture to the left. It totally sets up what Eleanor and Park's styles and vibes are. For example, Eleanor looks super annoyed and kind of insecure. That's exactly what I would use to describe her. Park looks kind of chill and protective of her in a nonchalant way; just kind of there. Which is how they are protrayed! It's a bit funny because when I think of them, I think of Eleanor as this big character that has a lot of emotions and feelings and personality everywhere and Park is kind of a nobody, but in a big way. Well I shouldn't say that. He is so charming and just has a smirking personality, if you get what I'm saying. Anywho, I love this picture because it really gives the vibe that they are together and yeah, they aren't perfect, but they're going to stick it out.

Okay, ready to feel a lot of stress and panic? Well get yourself ready. When Eleanor comes home that night, she crawls up into her top bunk and tries to fall asleep when she notices a torn up comic book at her feet. She automatically blames Ben, her brother, for the mess, but then her eyes adjust and she realizes that what has actually happened is that her stuff is just thrown everywhere, ripped to shreads. All of her comics books, her makeup, her books, and her box is empty. The box she keeps everything worth keeping, is empty. On the lip of it is written, do you think you can make a fool of me? this is my house do you think you can hore around my neighborhood right under my nose and i'm not going to find out is that what you think? i know what you are and its over (Rowell, 268). That came from Richie, Eleanor's horribly ugly hearted step father. You guys don't get it I don't think. Eleanor and Park just came home from their first real date. Everything is happy and I'm on cloud nine reading it, and then this happens. I feel like it's me in that position! Eleanor runs out of her house and you know what is just a little weird, but sort of hopeful?

Eleanor runs into Tina. Tina helps Eleanor. Plot Twist. Tina lets Eleanor stay at her place until her step dad cools down. Now I really hate Tina, but you have to admit at that point there is some good in her, and I think this will be kind of an understanding between them. I think it's kind of sweet. I don't know, well that's all for today, but i will have more next week, probably better things too! I can't wait.

Here's another blog I found on blogspot that gave a review on eleanor and Park that I think pretty much sums up the excitement for this book. I will link it here: http://asthecrowefliesandreads.blogspot.com/2012/11/book-preview-eleanor-park-by-rainbow.html

Reading Blog Post 14 - Book reviews for Eleanor & Park

While in class this week, we have been doing a lot involving columnists and column writing. This is what got me to thinking that I should probably find a column about Eleanor & Park and respond to it. So that's what I'm doing! I found one article on Eleanor & Park right away when i saw on nytimes.com. I will link it to the bottom of this page so you can read what I have left out of this post.

What I love about this article is that the author of it happens to be John Green, which as anybody knows these days has grabbed the hearts of almost everyone -except me. Not saying that he's a bad author, I just don't understand how a book like The Fault In Our Stars can get so much praise and i blame this on a bunch of teenagers that have never read anything better, but I am looking forward to reading Looking for Alaska, which is the next book I will read, also by John Green. In this article John Green says, and I quote, "Park’s parents — two of the best-drawn adults I can remember in a young adult novel — serve as evidence that sometimes love conquers the world, and Eleanor’s family is a reminder that sometimes it doesn't." I really like that he points out that Park's parents are really well portrayed because I really do agree and I wish more books that I read did this. You get to know Park's parents better than Eleanor and Park's friends and i think that this is something that Rainbow Rowell, the author of Eleanor & Park, does extraordinarily well.

Another thing I'd like to point out during this article is this quote: "It is. “Eleanor & Park” reminded me not just what it’s like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book." I like this quote, because even though I am not a grown adult and cannot relate to how it is to be young because I am young, I still think it's a really great thing for a person to read and it reminds me of how in love you can be with just one book. You fall in love with all of the characters except the ones that are the enemy, and to them you just want to do bad things, because the protagonists are your friends now and even though they don't know you, you are in love with them and want to fight for them. Right? That's how I feel. Well I hope you take the time to click the link and read the article because maybe you will be more interested in reading Eleanor & Park. It really is such a good book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/eleanor-park-by-rainbow-rowell.html?_r=0

Reading Blog Post 13 - Relating Eleanor and Park to Fahrenheit 451

I assume that many of you came to this post and just kept scrolling. I know, Fahrenheit 451, a lot of people hated it, some loved it, I have a little love and hate for it. Today I'm going to show you some similarities and differences between the two books. They are total different plots and characters, but to my surprise I did find a lot that was similar.

The whole point,, I think, to Fahrenheit 451 is breaking away from the norm and doing what you believe is right. The same is true for Eleanor and Park. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag is frusterated with the people. He doesn't understand the blunt uninterest that everyone has for everything important to him, but he also does not know quite what he's doing either. Either way, he's out of his comfort zone. In Eleanor and Park, Park and Eleanor are going out of their comfort zones. They are finding love in each others individuality and their pure longing for one another no matter what anybody thinks about them. This is how all three characters are similar. Sure, Montag is definitely more of a stick, while Eleanor and Park are moe causal about it, but I believe that if the author's writing style was not involved, they could all be friends, striving towards the same thing!

Reading Blog Post 12 - About the Author

So I feel like lately I have just been dragging on and on about the book. Not in a bad way, but that may get a little boring for some readers so this week I'm going to give you all a little background information and also give some information about the author's view of the story.

First I'm going to start with a Q&A session on publishersweekly.com (I will link the exact page at the very bottom of my post if anybody wants to read the whole thing for themselves.) One question on this question and answer interview that was also a burning question in my mind is: "Emotions run high in this novel. Is it realistic?" And i really can't say that Rainbow could have answered the question any better. She replies with: "I feel like it’s realistic. I feel things very intensely. And I also think that real life is more romantic if you allow it to be, if you don’t act like it’s immature to get excited. I want to consume love stories, but 90% of them feel totally inauthentic. When I watch a romantic comedy, I feel like they’re selling something that doesn't exist. Two beautiful, but extremely unpleasant, people are terrible to each other for an hour, accidentally kiss, then decide to like each other during an extremely vague montage. That isn't how people fall in love." I absolutely love that she says that she doesn't act like it's immature to get excited because with this book that's exactly how I feel writing it down for you guys. I feel extremely immature talking about it, but when I read it, it's really quite authentic, so I really like how she includes that you shouldn't think it's immature because it is real. 

Now about that name that the author has. Rainbow Rowell. Most people think that she's picked it for herself, when in reality she's found it more of an obstacle than anything. She says that in her early stages she was a columnist for a newspaper and it was a real struggle for her to be taken seriously, especially when she started writing fiction, people thought it was childlike. Now she thinks of it more as a statement for herself. It's definitely a statement name.

Here's the link: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/55711-q-a-with-rainbow-rowell.html

Reading Blog Post 11 - Crazy Things Happening

The book I'm reading is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. This book has only improved since I've started to read it and I really just can't put it down when I'm reading it! I'm so glad that this book is more interesting than the one I had to abandon in my previous blog postings.

This week I didn't get the chance to read a lot of this book which is upsetting, but it only made the pages that I did read that much more interesting. What really interested me this week during my read is the fact that Park's mother, whom hates Eleanor just by default because of the way she looks, dresses and carries herself, actually turns around and starts to care more towards Eleanor. The reason to this being that his mother grew up in a very poor household with loads of siblings and she thinks she understands why Eleanor is the way she is because they do have this in common. She realizes this and feels so terrible for the way she has just assumed things about Eleanor. This shows how people can change and why not to always judge a book by it's cover, in this case, Eleanor. Park's mother brings this to his attention and even buys Eleanor a Christmas present to apologize. I think that this is so sweet just because we haven't seen this side to her.

Another thing that happened in the book this week is that Park went and snuck out to see Eleanor. This is CRAZY. Not just sneaking out, but sneaking out to a girl house with a drunk father living inside, known to hurt people just for fun. He sent Eleanor away for more than a year just to teach her a lesson about obeying his rules. Park jumps up to the window where Eleanor sleeps and knocks gently on the window. When Eleanor turns around she is excited to see park, but is truly terrified for his safety. Nobody knows how bad Eleanor's family really is.

HOLD UP. I just literally read something at some point after i left class and before now that made me almost bawl my eyes out. So if I tell you, you may think it sounds childish- well maybe. But it's not! It's so great that people can be this heart warming without trying and it was just so sweet. In this scene Eleanor runs out of Park's house right before dinner because she doesn't like having dinner there. She feels like she's invading Park's family's privacy, but this probably too long quote may change her mind.(This is from Park's dad to Eleanor, just an FYI) "'Look,' he said, "I'm getting tired of asking you to  stay for diner.' 'Okay...' she said. 'What I mean is, I want to feel like you have a standing invitation. You're just...welcome, okay?' He seemed uncomfortable, and it was making her uncomfortable. Way more uncomfortable than she usually felt around him. 'Okay...' she said. 'Look, Eleanor... I know your stepdad.' This could go a million different ways, she thought. All of them awful. Park's dad kept talking, one hand on his truck, the other on the back of his neck, like he was in pain. 'We grew up together. I'm older than Richie, but this is a small neighborhood, and I've put in my time at the Rail...' The sun was too far gone to see his face. Eleanor still wasn't sure what he was getting at. 'I know your stepdad isn't an easy man to be around,' Park's dad said finally, stepping towards her. 'And I'm just saying, you know, that if it's easier to be over here, then you should just be here. That would make Mindy and me feel a lot better, okay?' 'Okay she said. 'So this is the last time I'm going to ask you to stay for dinner.' Eleanor smiled, and he smiled back." (Rowell, 209) I understand that this was super duper long, but I think it's worth it because this quote just hits you in all the right spots and makes you feel good inside and if it doesn't, well, maybe I didn't do a good enough job of explaining the situation. But it is a nice moment. I think. Has anybody had any experiences with this type of feeling in a book before?

Reading Blog Post 10 - Eleanor is the Cutest

The book that I am currently reading is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. Nothing has happened that drastically since I wrote my last post, but I do feel more tension in Eleanor and Park than before. I'm thinking this is because Eleanor has had someone writing nasty things in her textbooks and on her folders, Park was upset, and she tells him it's this horrible... thing, named Tina. Park takes Tina's side and asks Eleanor if she's been writing those things herself to get attention. Eleanor goes crazy and is a little dramatic (like always and leaves Park's house. Now this seems like a small, stupid thing that I even felt a little immature writing, but it is well written in the book and makes me really feel for Eleanor. Park didn't mean to defend Tina over Eleanor or make her feels so bad, but he did. When she leaves he wonders about why he would say something like that and why he would even defend Tina and I think this whole situation is just bad news, but hopefully all goes well and they learn to find themselves and grow from things because it seems like they're the kind of people that want to learn from each other, whether they know it or not!

Now that I've shared my thoughts on that I'm going to take a look at the quotes I didn't mention last week. I found myself highlighting all over this book because almost every page has a line that makes me want to laugh or cry. I think that that is what makes it a really really god book. Just making you feel something different every page, and at any second the mood could go from being happy to sad and i feel like a lot of people could relate to it. It's not cliche though, don't even worry about that. If that were the case I would have put this book down the moment i started reading it. So one quote i'm going to share with you, I think is really funny, "Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself. It's disturbing and needy and never happens in situation comedies or movies that end with big kisses. 'I'm sorry about yesterday," she said. He hung onto his straps and shrugged. "Yesterday happens." God, it was like he wanted her to eat his face clean off."(Rowell, 158) This quote is so funny to me. It's so true and funny and she's thinking what she would think, not some cliche, that's how she chooses to feel love and it's hilarious and adorable. Actually I'm only going to show you funny, cute quotes because this book is filled with them, so deal with it.

Another funny quote that i'd like to mention is from page 93 and it says, "He put his pen in his pocket, then took her hand and held it to his chest for a minute. It was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys." Isn't that funny? I don't know. Maybe it's just me or maybe you just have to know the characters, but it hilarious to me. I mean who just thinks that up? Haha! Anyway i think that this book as a whole is just full of things that make me want to keep reading, broad I know, but it's true!

Reading Blog Post 9 - So Interesting

I have been reading the book, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and so far it's one of my favorite books. The story in itself is literally just like any other book that I've read about two people falling in love, but this one is better and I will tell you why. Eleanor and Park is not about two ordinary people and it's not like they are perfect people and just have devestating things going on around them, they are imperfect beings and have imperfect lives and real feelings that I can relate to big time. As i recall, my last post about this book I had said that Park had been in denial for his feelings for Eleanor, since she was not ordinary. But he finally stepped up and the book had been a world wind of facsination since that point.

I have learned that Eleanor is pretty stable with her surroundings and I think she knows herself more than she thinks. Her family is so out of control and she doesn't want anybody to know how bad it is, which i think is part of her character. Eleanor is also not a nice person, in fact, Park tells his thoughts about this in the book. About how he does't think his family will like her because she isn't a "nice" girl. Eleanor is brutally honest. She doesn't stray from her comfort zone and she is confident in her decisions. I think this is because she's scared for the future. The future of her relationship with Park scared her and I know this because she keeps trying to find reasons to be upset with him or stray from him and that, to me, sounds like she is just trying to shield her feelings.

Park is a different story. Park has it all together and I think he did when he met Eleanor. He was content with his life. He has a good family, okay friends, and a future ahead of him, but I don't think he was interested in a life like that, and he was bored. Eleanor was totally not what he was expecting, but in some ways I think he needed a push in the right direction from Eleanor, to see things more clearly. Now he sees things for what they really are, not as how he had sugar coated it before. He says all the time that he doesn't even like Eleanor, he just wants to be with her. I don't know if that's a compliment or a negative comment, butI think it's true. I think he just has a soft spot for Eleanor.

This whole connection started with  Eleanor reading his comics over his shoulder. I think he was interested in her. I don't have my book with me right now, but I wish I did because the quotes inside of it to describe their interest for each other is never ending.