angelas ashes

This week I read Angela's Ashes. Even though I have only read about 60 pages I can still tell that it will be a sad book that includes many difficulties of living in poverty. The book started out with Frankie and his family of four living in Brooklyn, NY in the 1930's. He is about 4 years old and has a brother who's 2. His father was born in the northern part of Ireland and is an alcoholic that gets drunk almost every night and doesnt have a job. His mother, Angela is a beautiful young woman also from Ireland who came here and got pregnant with Frankie and was forced to marry his father, Malachy. From the start, Malachy had an "odd manner" (according to Angela's cousins) and was a mean young man, that couldn't have turned into anything good. And Angela's cousins were right, because by the time his second son was born he had turned into a complete drunk. Not long after Malachy was born (their second son) Angela gave birth to 2 twin boys, Eugene and Oliver. The father now had to support 5 other people. Realizing he needs to shape up, Frankies father gets a job, and for about a month, every week on Friday he comes home with wages and Angela is able to finally pay the Italian grocer, and feed her kids. But on the 4th week, he doesnt come home at all. He is out drinking and once again he is back to his old habits.
        For the nest couple weeks Malachy continues to get drunk almost every night and sings Kevin Barry all night. Soon, Angela gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, Margaret and Malachy cannot let go of her. He gets a job again and for about 7 weeks he is sober and instead of singing Kevin Barry every night he sings the Leprechaun Song to Margaret. For those 7 weeks the family is happy again but at the end of the month Margaret passes. Both parents are shocked, their baby girl was the best thing that ever happened to them, and a couple weeks later Angela's cousins come visit again. They see the trouble they are in, and suggest that Angela and her family go back to Ireland. So Angela, Malachy and the 4 boys get on a boat to Ireland and go visit Malachy's parents. However, the poverty in Ireland is just as bad as America and they are forced to go find a place of their own, only to realize that they have no money and are stranded in Ireland.
     Angelas Ashes has been very good so far, and I am excited to see what happens next in the memoir.

lookign for alaska

Today, I continued to read Looking for Alaska by John Green. This week, I got up to the part in the book where it says "after". John Green organizes his book in two sections, after Alaska dies and befire. Every new day, it either says blank days before, or blank days after instead of dates. Green organzied this so the reader can have suspense leading up to a certain point, instead of just having random dates and a big event happening suddenly. In the book, Alaskas death is very sudden, and if the reader didnt already know that something massive was going to happen, it wouldnt be a good idea.

John Green, is known for kiling off his amin characters, which is what he did in Looking For Alaska. The night before it happened, or the night of, a major thing happens for the main character. Miles, or Pudge finally gets together with Alaska. Throughtout most of the book, the reader is waitinf for Pudge and Alaska to get together. Eventually, Pudge goes out with a charming, nice girl named Lara. However, right after they start dating, Alaska and aPudge get together. The whole book, the reader has been waiting for this, however that is when "after" starts.

The next morning, Chip and Pudge awake to the eagle knocking on their door telling them to come to the gym. Instead of being yelled at like they were expecting, they find Mr Barnes with tears in his eyes telling the whoke school that Alaska Young has died in a car crash the night before. So far, Pudge and The Colonel are having a hard time accepting that Alaska, the smart, funny, beautiful girl is dead. I am eager to see how they deal with it, and if they are ever going to accept the truth.