The book that I chose to read independently is The Revenge of Seven.The Revenge of Seven is the fifth book in the Lorien Legacies series. This book follows the main character, John, and his journey to find other people of his kind. John is an "alien" who was sent to Earth to protect it from Mogadorians. These Mogadorians had attacked John's home planet which caused him and nine other people to be sent to Earth so they could keep their culture alive. They had a spell cast on them that if the Mogadorians were to find them, they had to kill each person in number order. Each was split up around the world and had a number. #1, #2, and #3 have all been killed by the Mogadorians. John is #4. Throughout this series, John has been trying to find other "numbers" and successfully finds some of them. Some go off to hide in different places so they break apart. Each of these people have Legacies, meaning they have special powers. For example, John can talk to animals, heal things, and his hands can become lit up. Each has different powers but they all look like humans. They only way to tell them apart is if you see them use their Legacies or their scars.
Right now, in The Revenge of Seven, John is hiding in an old textile factory with Sam, a human friend, and Sarah, his girlfriend (also a human). This textile factory is described excellently with the quote I found. "We follow Sam down a rusty spiral staircase and onto the floor of the factory proper. The place must've been closed down in a hurry because there are still racks of musty, eighties-style men's suits pushed up against the walls and half-full boxes of raincoats abandoned on conveyor belts." This quote shows how old the factory is and how there is still clothes in the factory. This could mean that the people occupying the space before had to leave in a hurry because of a disaster. The line that says "eighties-style men's suits pushed up against the walls" really gave me a clear understanding of how old it was and how it was probably abandoned during the 80's. This means that no one has probably been in there forever which could lead to maybe someone living in there that could be bad. Possibly a Mogadorian.
Below is a picture of an old textile factory, which could show what it looked like in John's point of view.
The second memoir that I chose to read for this assignment was A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone is about Ishmael, a child soldier, and his life in the army. He experiences lots of violence and deaths during his time as as soldier. This leads up to him eventually becoming violent also and having violent thoughts. The central idea in A Long Way Gone is: War and/or violence can change a person's life greatly.
This affects Ishmael because he used to be a normal kid who loved to play games with his friends. After he is forced to become a soldier, he is very violent and starts to think that this is the best thing for him. A quote to support this is, "When the young muscular rebel was captured, the lieutenant slit his neck with his bayonet. The rebel ran up and down the village before he fell to the ground and stopped moving. We cheered again, raising our guns in the air, shouting and whistling" (Beah 122).
The central idea that war and/or violence can change a person's life greatly can be seen throughout this world today. An example of this in the world right now is in Ferguson, Missouri. If you don't know about Ferguson, long story short, a white police officer shot a black 18-year old who was unarmed. This has caused many controversies over why the police officer shot him. Because of this, violence has broken out in Ferguson. An article by USA Today gives a timeline of what had happened after he was shot. One of these events highlighted in the timeline was that police had to fire tear gas because of violent protests. This supports the central idea because after Michael Brown's death (the one who was shot), the city of Ferguson, Missouri resorted to violent protests which changed their lives from peaceful to being violent.
Below is a photo from the USA Today article that shows police officers firing tear gas into the crowd. This shows the police officers also resorting to being violent because of the violent protests. Also, the link to the USA Today article is below.
James McBride, the author of The Color of Water, is very talented in many different topics. One of those being a music composer. Yes, I said music composer. Not an author, all though that is one of his talents. James was raised in Brooklyn. His dad was Rev. Andrew D. McBride, who was African-American and dies at 45 because of cancer. His mom had many different names, her most recent one being Ruth McBride Jordan. He is Jewish but also notes that his mom is converted to Christianity. A quote from him describing this is, "I'm proud of my Jewish history....Technically I guess you could say I'm Jewish since my mother was Jewish...but she converted (to Christianity). So the question is for theologians to answer. ... I just get up in the morning happy to be living" James is the 8th child out of 12. Two of his brothers, Dennis and Billy both have doctorates in medicine. James has a master's degree in journalism.
James McBride is also talented in music, not just being an author of books. James plays the saxophone for the Rock Bottom Remainders. The Rock Bottom Remainders are considered an American Rock and Roll band. The members of the band are all authors of books, newspapers, etc.
According to Wikipedia, "
The band's members have included Dave Barry, Stephen King,
Amy Tan, Cynthia Heimel, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin,
James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert
Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, Aron Ralston and honorary
member Maya Angelou." James also writes songs for artists including Grammy winning Anita Baker. James McBride also has won many awards including: the 1997 American Music Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award and the 1996 American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award.
Researching James McBride allowed me to know many things about him. Some things were already known because of the book. Some things were surprising to me like him writing songs for a Grammy winning artist. Overall, James McBride is talented in many ways and has been very successful in his life.
Below is a picture of some of the members in the Rock Bottom Remainders.
Setting can really affect a plot of a story, especially in Full Black. With what I have read, there are two main settings. One is an apartment complex in Sweden where the terrorists reside. Sean Chase gets into the apartments because the terrorists think he is Mansoor. One of the rooms in the complex is described clearly enough to make it seem like you are there. "In the first room, Chase found multiple mattresses, only one of which was covered by a sheet. There was a milk crate for a nightstand and atop it a table lamp with an exposed bulb and no shade. A small TV, DVD player, and cushions scattered across the floor completed the makeshift dormitory cum rec room... he made his way across the room. The closet was partially open and he stole a quick glance inside. Nothing. Only shirts, trousers, and a row of cheap shoes" (pgs. 106-107). This quote describes the room well and how Chase was observing all of the details until he gets to the closet where there could be guns. The suspension is built by saying, "the closet was partially open". This makes it intriguing for him but also scared if there could be guns in the closet. When he looks inside, he finds no weapons. Only clothes.
The other main setting is Larry Salomon's house in Hollywood. When Ralston enters the house, it is described as being grand but being bad for Ralston. "To get there, he had to pass through the entry hall with its wide double staircase. There was nothing for cover and Ralston used the darkness and shadows as best as he could. The living room, with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows and ambient moonlight spilling from outside, was even worse, but he made it through both without incident" (pg. 21-22). This quote shows that since the house was big, there could be many places people could be and he could get spotted because of the light shining in on him. The suspense is built when the rooms are described and the conflict of him being clearly visible are described. It makes you think about what could happen to him if he is seen by anyone. He could be killed, captured, tortured. Anything could happen to him if he is seen.
Overall, setting can impact the suspense and plot of a story greatly. This was only two different paragraphs but the setting had still greatly affected each one by creating suspense for the reader and characters.
Below is a video of Brad Thor describing how he came up with the idea of Full Black.
Full Black is a thriller novel by Brad Thor. Brad Thor is also known as "The Master of Thrillers," according to Bookreporter.com. I chose to read this book because one of my friends recommended it to me because he knew I liked these kinds of books. When I first read the summary on the inside of the page, I was instantly hooked. An ex-Navy SEAL is trying to stop a terrorist group while at the same time, a movie producer's house in the hills of Hollywood is broken into. The book starts with Scot Harvath (the Navy SEAL) making a car full of terrorists run into a tree. Scot replaces Mansoor (one of the terrorists) with an American, Sean Chase, that looks like an Arab to Arabs but also looks American to Americans. He answers a phone call for Mansoor and gets told to meet up at a gas station.
The book then switches over to Hollywood. Luke Ralston pulls up to Larry Salomon's house and drops a drunk Larry off. Luke is a "technical consultant", meaning that he shows the actors in Larry's films how to properly use weapons in action scenes. Luke starts to pull out of his driveway but notices tire tracks leading to the service drive of Larry's house. He turns the headlights of his car off and goes down the road. When he gets to the end of the drive, there is a car with its headlights on. He tries to call Larry but his phone was disconnected. Luke goes into the house and sees a group of dead people that have been shot. He hears a creak from the floor and turns around. A man is standing there with a pistol pointing at him.
