App Review: Hemingway

Hemingway is an online text editor app started by two brothers Adam and Ben Long who had realized that their writing was hard to understand because of long, imprecise sentences. This text editor is said to help writers have bold and clearer writing and while bold and clearer writing - much like Hemingway's signature style which was direct and precise, with short sentences that said volumes.

You can access Hemingway App on your web browser by going to www.hemingwayapp.com. The app is also available as a desktop app or program is you are willing to pay $9.99. I would personally stick to the website since the website doesn't specify any special features for the desktop version.

Hemingway opens to a page full of writing that explains how the app works. There are color coded highlights to show you possible writing mistakes that Hemingway has found in the writing. These mistakes include: hard to read sentences (how clear what you are saying is), superfluous word choices (see what I did there? :P), adverbs (which may be place-holder words that don't add meaning to your sentences), and when you are using passive voice. The Hemingway App also tells you what grade level your writing is in. Hemingway can also be used as a tool to see if your writing level is suited to your audience.

Keep in mind that most articles in newspapers are written at a 6th - 8th grade reading level.

In order to put your text into Hemingway, just click on the writing explaining the program, delete what's there and either start typing or paste your text in. These tools are great may be helpful in some situations but not all. Here are some instances where using the Hemingway app would make sense:

1. Blog Writing
   
   This is when your writing really does need to be precise and to the point - and writing at a 6th grade reading level may be to your benefit. For the most part blog articles are expected to be short and sweet and to the point. Make it too long - and your readers don't make it to the end. Make it too short - and you might as well have just posted that on twitter. In this Hemingway will root out unnecessary words and make your writing clearer.
   
   
2. Creative Writing
   
   Now, this depends on your writing style. Hemingway was known for being the opposite of flowery so if you like long flowing sentences that sound pretty - this app will just highlight everything you write. After testing some of my own creative writing, I found that this was not really for me. I like my adjectives and adverbs and honestly, as long as you're not overdoing them, what's the harm of keeping them in your story?
   
   
3. Essay Writing (BUT only for grades 6-10)
   
   Hemingway can be used as an effective editing tool for essay writing if you know how to use it properly. For younger students, Hemingway will point out when your sentences need to be separated into smaller sentences (usually when your sentences are hard to understand) or when you are using too many unnecessary words. For younger students, this tool is extremely useful because you're still learning to communicate your ideas in writing. It will root out common mistakes like passive voice (which really shouldn't be used in essay writing) and overuse of adjectives and adverbs.
   
   As you start to get older though, you may start to outgrow the Hemingway App. I tried putting in one of my A grade college essays into Hemingway ( I was a British Literature major in college) to see what it would say and well, Hemingway was not happy with me. The overall paper was grade level 13 (which is deemed "okay" in clarity) and I had a lot of long (though grammatically correct) sentences Hemingway was more than happy to highlight. My introduction paragraph as a standalone was grade level 18 and the clarity was considered poor. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of highlights in my intro.

Honestly, I was a bit bummed. I got an A on this paper and I remember being really proud of it. And because of this, Hemingway may not be suited for college grade essay writing.

To learn more about the Long brothers and how the created the Hemingway App, check out this New Yorker article.

If you've been using the Hemingway App please let me know how and if it's been working for you. If you've never heard of it before, check it out and let me know about your experience with the app. I hope this helps some of your with your writing. Good luck with your assignments. 

Historical Fiction Literature Study Guide

With classes right around the corner for middle and high schoolers, back to school means handing in summer assignments and beginning-of-the-year in class essays. In-class essays are especially nerve-racking because you're never told what your essay question will be, and you'll be expected to make your argument in a limited amount of time. If these parameters make you nervous, you're not alone. But but if you have in-class essays in Social Studies or Humanities, here's a guide to make you an expert on your historical fiction novel so you'll be able to essay plan on the spot.


Before you read the book:
1. Research the time period the book takes place in. In historical fiction, researching the historical event that the book focuses on will help you better understand what certain characters are supposed to represent and the hardships they are facing. Also, historical fiction will reference and hint at historical events but the author may not have time to fully explain each event. Prior research will help fill in the gaps.


While you are reading the assigned novel:
1. Start an "important characters" list. You should add to this list as you continue on through the book. Each character should have a two or three sentence character summary explaining character traits and what their role is in the story.
2. After every chapter you should write 3-5 bullet points explaining important plot points (summarizing what happened in that chapter).
3. After every chapter, write a list of social or historical facts you have learned about the time period. How do these things affect the characters and the book?
4. After every chapter pick 2 quotes that you think are important in that chapter and analyze it. Why is the quote important? What does it say about the characters or events it involves? What theme/idea does it hint at and why?


After you a finished with the book:
1. What did you learn about this time period?
2. What are three themes that were repeated in the book? (draw on your quote analyses to pick these themes)
3. What do you think the author was trying to say/teach about this time period?
4. Pick two characters. How did they change and grow throughout the story? Why were these transformations important?

I hope this guide helps you in preparation for your essays. Guides like this can be used throughout the year to prepare for midterms and finals, as well as being used as "active reading" exercises for your assignments. Please let me know if you find this guide helpful and good luck with your new school year/semester. 

Eleanor and Park

Title: Eleanor and Park
By: Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 

Get It Here:
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository


Eleanor and Park has been a teen fiction phenomenon - especially for realistic teen fiction when so many of the popular teen titles have been fantasy dystopian novels. The first work published by Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park is an incredibly enjoyable read.

The book is about two teenagers in the 1980's. Eleanor has just moved into a new neighborhood and finds herself immediately at the receiving end of school bullying. This is because she is different - she dresses differently, acts differently (doesn't fit into popular 80's stereotype behavior), and is chubby. Add in the fact that Eleanor is dirt poor, living in an emotionally abusive household (where her mother gets beaten by her stepfather and she shares a small room with all four of her younger sibling), and she is the perfect target for bullying, the perfect protagonist to sympathize with. I admit that sometimes I feel like Rowell over did it with all of the obstacles that Eleanor had to go through - especially since she doesn't go as deeply into these problems as she should or could have. For such a little book, she sure has tried to pack in a lot of conflict.

Park on the other hand comes from a Leave It to Beaver family. His father is a veteran from the Korean war and his mother is a Korean woman that his father brought back to the States with him (and who no one discriminates against...). He has two very white grandparents who live just next door (he eats dinner at their house once a week) and a brother who looks more white than he does. No one picks on Park and as much as he doesn't like the popular kids, he's quasi-friends with them. For the most part, Park keeps his head down and no one bothers him while he reads his comic books on the school bus. 

The two of them hate each other at first but when they begin to share a seat on the school bus, they eventually become closer through the sharing of comic books and music. Here is where the novel is seriously rich in 80's references and while I do know my comics, I have to admit that I completely missed some of the music references (being born in 88 and growing up in the 90's...). Now, a lot of people didn't like the romantic development between the two characters. Many complain that while their friendship did have a good and realistic transition, the transition from friendship to relationship was a bit abrupt. I personally didn't find the changes in their relationship particularly disorienting but I'm fairly lenient about these things.

The book changes perspective between the two characters - some of the chapters no more than a few sentences before switching perspective. Some people didn't like this about Rowell's style and claimed that it made you feel detached from her characters. I didn't have this problem at all and didn't think the writing style took away from relating with the characters.

In terms of entertainment, I had no complaints with the novel but there are some things (like the ending - I mean, really Rainbow Rowell? Really?! and other details) that pulled the book down a bit for me.

First, I was confused by the Romeo and Juliet references in the book. Eleanor and Park are covering this Shakespearean tragedy in school and Eleanor immediately dismisses the idea that Romeo and Juliet is a love story (a great point that I learned thanks to a REALLY good 6th grade Humanities teacher). Eleanor points out that the story isn't really about love but about children thinking they're in love without knowing what love is. This is made apparent when taking into account how in love Romeo is with Rosaline in the beginning of the play and how completely he forgets her when he meets Juliet. He falls in love too easily and doesn't really understand what love is.

"Romeo and Juliet are just two rich kids who've always gotten every little thing they want. And now, they think they want each other."
"They're in love…" Mr. Stessman said, clutching his heart.
"They don't even know each other."
"It was love at first sight."
"It was 'Oh my God, he's so cute' at first sight… it's Shakespeare making fun of love."                                                                                                                          (Rowell, 41)

I liked that Rowell had her character make this observation. I agree with the observation. Now, the reference is kind of misleading. The prologue of Eleanor and Park opens in a very particular way and the fact that a Romeo and Juliet reference was made, I thought was foreshadowing for the end of the story (which I believed would be a reverse West Side Story). But alas, this was not the case. The only way I can understand the reference being made at all is if Rowell is trying to juxtapose Eleanor and Park with Romeo and Juliet. Where Romeo and Juliet were shallow, impulsive, and thought themselves in love, Eleanor and Park were deep, thoughtful, and actually were in love -  but the ending of the novel (which I won't give away just yet) made me question whether or not this comparison is true.

The other issue I had with the novel was the social/historical accuracy of the story. I don't profess to know much about the 1980's but I was a bit taken aback by how accepting everyone was of Park and his mother. I mean, for a majority of the book, everyone keeps mistaking Park for every other Asian ethnicity but Korean but that's the extent of his struggles with being ethnically diverse. This seems a bit simplistic and unrealistic to me. Especially since not many years before that the U.S was in the Korean war (like in the show MASH that they watched in Park's house) and years before that, Japanese Americans were put into internment camps because of Pearl Harbor. I live in New York, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the U.S in 2015 and there's still racism and bigotry going on but Omaha, Nebraska in the 1980's is somehow more tolerant of diversity? I doubt it.

Continuing on this track, I also found it strange that Eleanor's relationship with DeNice and Beebi was completely accepted by the community. Racial tension was still prevalent in the 80's and Eleanor's only friends are black and from a completely different community than hers (as Rowell states the kids were bused in from other neighboring towns). Eleanor eats lunch with these girls but no one from her predominately (or even completely) white town oppose this friendship, especially in the middle of Nebraska? I don't know, maybe I'm over exaggerating the tension that existed during the time because I wasn't there myself.


In response to why Park was Korean and a bit about racial tension in Nebraska during the 1980's Rowell said this in her blog:

It was a really poor, really white neighborhood, near the airport. The kids who lived there, like me, were bussed to a high school in a black part of town, for integration... It was a really poor, really white neighborhood, near the airport. The kids who lived there, like me, were bussed to a high school in a black part of town, for integration... It’s not that everyone in our neighborhood was racist, but it was the kind of place where people still flew the Confederate Flag on their porches.I couldn’t figure out how anyone who wasn’t white could even survive in our neighborhood. I could barely survive in our neighborhood. My seat mate said that this kid grew up on his block, that his dad was a Vietnam War veteran. So Paul wasn’t exactly discriminated against in any classic, horrible way – that I observed – but his race was present, always. Like, there were so few Asian people in North Omaha at that time, people would always look at him twice.

I just feel that Rowell could have done a better job of showing this issue in Park's life. He seems self-conscious about his ethnicity but it seems to come from himself and not from his community. Rowell could have delved deeper into this issue. 

Finally, I also really hated the ending of this book which wasn't really an ending at all. I feel like this is becoming a trend with Teen Fiction - authors writings endings that just taper off and leave the reader feeling like they still don't know what happens. Did the boy get the girl or not? Are they together or not? Was their love mutual or not? I hate that. It's a personal opinion and other might disagree but I feel like most novel (unless they have a sequel) should have some sort of resolution (unless it's point is that in life things don't always resolve so neatly). I feel like Eleanor and Park focused so heavily on their romance that the reader being left wondering what happens at the end doesn't give the justice. I also feel disappointed that we don't find out what happens to Eleanor's family which was a huge part of Eleanor's story. There are way too many questions left at the end of the book and honestly, I felt as though the ending was a bit lazy. 

Overall though, I did really enjoy the book. I was invested in the characters and read the book in one day. The story line was engaging and but for the few problems listed above, I felt it was a great novel for teens about feeling different, the hardships of growing up, and falling in love. 

For those of you who have liked this book, please spread the word to your friends. I was recently made aware that this book had been banned (by a parents association with nothing better to do) in Minnesota because of cursing and sexual language. Honestly,  I don't think the characters in the novel curse or use sexual language any more than real life bullies in Facebook or any other social media do. And frankly, I think it's ridiculous that kids are exposed to most of these things in television, movies, and social media but as soon as a kid reads these same things in  library book suggested to them by their local librarian, it's a problem. 

Please read about this issue here and give me your own opinion on the matter. 

Thanks so much and keep reading. 

Barnes and Noble August Book Haul

Hello! This August I was able to splurge a bit and buy these lovelies off of barnesandnoble.com. Admittedly because I had some extra time on my hands this past week, I went through BN's sales books which included 1,200+ books. I came away with these top picks. 

If you're wondering who would be crazy enough to spend all of that time to only get 7 books, well, I would - especially since The whole haul only cost me $35 for 7 new books and a Piccadilly notebook (that looks exactly like a Moleskin!). 

What I love about this haul? I only two of the seven books purchased were teen fiction novels - I really need to get back in the habit of reading some more adult fiction. Also, I absolutely LOVE Piccadilly notebooks since they're EXACTLY like Moleskin notebooks but cost a fraction of the price - especially when you get them on clearance like I did this medium sized notebook for $3.99! Get your own here. 

Why did I get them from Barnes and Noble when I can probably buy these books cheaper at places like thriftbooks, abebooks, and allibris (which are mainly used books)? Because I like supporting an actually store that I can actually go to and spend time in. I want to keep Barnes and Nobles alive, especially while so many other large bookstores have gone under. Remember Borders bookstore which closed down in 2011? Or how the Barnes and Noble in Manhattan on 68th street and Broadway closed down all of a sudden only to be replaced with a Century 21? I don't want my money to go to some online store I can't visit like Amazon (which cheats a lot of its independent publishers). So if you are thinking of buying books online from a store, please check out the Barnes and Noble bargain books. 

What I didn't like about my books?

The fact that a lot of them have these bargain price stickers. They are huge, take away from my covers, and are terribly hard to take off. There's a high chance you'll damage your books trying to get them off and even if you do, the adhesive always leaves a sticky residue. I understand if I buy a book from a store that already had the sticker on it but if I'm buying a book online and the picture of the book I'm buying doesn't have this sticker on it, I really expect for my book to arrive sans sticker. 

Other than that, these titles are lovely and I really look forward to reading them. The titles above include:

• Come to Me Quietly by A.L Jackson - An adult romance story.
• Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck - An adult novel about a nurse treating Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, which Zelda's mental problems and how that effected her relationship with her famous writer husband.
• The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson - A teen fiction version of a female Robin Hood who falls in love with the man who is commissioned to capture her.
• Dollface by Renee Rosen - An adult story set during the 1920's when a woman is caught in the middle of a feud between two mob bosses vying for her attention.
• Reluctantly Charmed by Ellie O'Neill - A modern fairy story about a woman who inherits a poem about fairies from her aunt and posts the beginning of the poem on her blog. All of Ireland goes crazy for the poem and she must decide whether or not to publish the rest.
• The Spirit Keeper by K.B Laugheed - A teen fiction novel set during the Colonial Era about a girl who is kidnapped by Native Americans and is told that she must help a tribe fulfill a prophecy.
• Landline by Rainbow Rowell - Rainbow Rowell's adult fiction novel about a time machine like phone (think the Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock but with a phone instead).

I hope you guys have a great weekend! Let me know what books you guys are excited about buying this August or what releases you are looking forward to!

Big Ideas That Are Referenced in Literature and How to Spot Them (Part 1)

Literature is a pool of ideas that are expressed through characters and scenarios that reflect our lives, the way that we feel about society, our thoughts on power struggles between social and economic groups, etc. So when we read literature, it’s these things that are referenced, over and over again. One of the skills that students are taught in order to analyze literature is to be able to find the ideas, explain how the author is demonstrating it, and flesh out why the author is trying to say what s/he is about that topic. In order to help some of the younger students (middle and high school students) in English classes, here are 6 big ideas that can be found in most literary works:

1. The Allegory of the Cave


   
   The Allegory of the Cave is a story told by Plato, a Greek philosopher, in book VII (7) of his work, The Republic, in which he muses about his ideal society. The allegory represents the rejection of reality, usually because of a fear of the unknown.
   
   Let’s take a look at the allegory itself (a translation can be found here and a video explaining the allegory can be seen below - from TEDtalks).
   
   
                                 
   
   The allegory goes as follows:
   
   A group of men are tied to up in a cave, facing away from the cave's entrance. They have lived their whole lives in this cave with a fire to keep them warm. They cannot turn their heads and have no knowledge of the outside world. From the fire, they see shadows on the walls and sometimes sounds echo through the cave (as people and things pass by the mouth of the cave). They name these shadows and sounds and this small view of the world is their reality because it is all they know.
   
   Suddenly, one of the men escapes his bonds and goes outside. He sees the world but does not believe it is real. He is told that everything he is seeing outside of the cave is indeed real and that it was the shadows that were not real but fake representations of the more complicated real things from outside the cave. For example: the shadow image of a dog was a fake representation of the complex life form that is a real dog.
   
   At first, he resists this knowledge but after continuing to experience the world, knows that what he is told is true. The man returns to the cave and feels displaced (like he doesn’t belong) from everything he had known. He tries to tell the other men inside the cave about the outside world but they do not believe him. He knows what this is like, he had gone through it too and decides he must show them so that they can understand. They must see the “real” world with their own eyes to understand how much of an illusion (fake) the world inside the cave is. But the men refuse to leave the cave, refuse to believe in anything outside of the world they have always known.
   
   And this is the key point in the allegory - that someone who has seen the truth is not believed by others who choose to remain ignorant. Another variation of the this is that people choose to close their eyes and don't see what they don’t want to believe.
   
   My favorite most recent example of this is from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The novel in a nutshell is about a society where books are illegal and firemen are paid by the government not to stop fires but to start them - specifically to burn books. The novel's protagonist Guy Montag has been compulsively collecting books for years and hiding them without ever reading them. This is problematic because he is a fireman. The reader sees him start to question his society and the values that the society pushes onto its citizens. But as he realizes the emptiness in his life and the lives of others around him, he feels responsible for helping them to see what a sham their overly simulated lives are. This is shown in his relationship with his wife who is obsessed with TV and is so unhappy with her life in the beginning of the book that she tries to commit suicide. But the more he tries to include his wife in his awakening, the more she withdraws from him, despite his discovery possibly brining her happiness. In the end, she throws his knowledge out the window (literally, in the form of books) and leaves him, acting as though she's never known him. All this because it was easier to be unhappy in her unchanged world than to struggle through a new reality and work towards her happiness.
   
   This is an AMAZING example of the allegory because it is so clear that Guy is the man from the cave who saw the real world and that his wife is symbolic of the men in the cave who refuse to see the truth.
   
   Because of this, you know that a text is referencing the allegory when a character refuses to see the truth about a person or situation, especially when his/her fear is motivated by a fear or change and a need for things to stay the same.
   
   
2. Gender Issues
   
   Now, this topic can be incredibly complex but at its core, it is generally analyzed in one of two ways:
   
   1. The way an author depicts which gender has greater power in a society (patriarchy v. matriarchy).
   2. Whether or not a character portrays his/her stereotypical gender role and what it says about this person and their society.
   
   In the first instance, a text will show a clear difference in the power that men or women have in a society. Traditionally, in literature and in history, men have had more power than women, and women were forced to rely on men economically (for money) and for social status (to have a social group to belong to). Societies where all of the power goes to men simply because they are male is known as a patriarchy (the opposite of this, matriarchy, a society that favors women with power, is seen a lost less often in literature). This is an important keyword that you'll use from the time you enter middle school until you're dead. If a book has too many male characters and not enough female ones, you can bet someone will say it is because of the patriarchal values of the writer or of the time period it was written in.
   
   My favorite example of this theme is Beowulf. In Beowulf, an epic story so old no one knows who wrote or when, a warrior named Beowulf defeats a monster name Grendel, goes on recount his life as a King (which only happens because he is able to slay Grendel), and how he killed a dragon while being King. The story is filled with men warriors who are trying to slay these beasts but the only prominent female character is Grendel's mother who doesn't even have her own name... What does that say about how the author and the society of that time feel about women? Well, a whole lot.
   
   The fact that she has no name and is mentioned in relation to a male character shows that she is not her own person but that she is an extension of Grendel. This is ridiculous because if Beowulf was a video game, Grendel's mother would a be a boss battle. In the story, Beowulf kills Grendel in a scene that is remarkably short and then has to deal with the wrath of the beast's mother. His fight with Grendel's mother lasts much longer, is filled with drama and building tension. Grendel's mother literally shows up in the castle Beowulf is staying in and start killing people in anger. Obviously, she's a lot more formidable than her son. Beowulf even cuts off her head (very big Medusa reference here) and holds it in triumph. And yet despite being the bigger opponent of these two fights, because women at the time the story was written were mothers and and wives who had to listen to their husbands, were not allowed to have money of their own, and could be punished by their husbands as though were children - or daughters who were raised to be silent and get married to whoever their fathers chose - Grendel's mother was not given a name. Instead like all of these women in history, Grendel's mother is defined in terms of the man in her life, her son Grendel. All of the other MALE side characters who barely had any effect on the plot? They all had names. And if that doesn't say something about how women were overlooked in literature at this time or during this period in history, I don't know what does.
   
   Another example of a patriarchal society can be found in Gennifer Albin's teen fiction novel Crewel. The fantasy story is set in a world where a select number of girls have the ability to weave the reality they live in. The overall idea is so fantastical it's a bit hard to explain. But basically, girls can put at the air and completely create new rivers and infrastructure through their weaving. This a great power and because of it, when a girl is found to have this ability, she is taken from her home (by force if necessary) and given to the government. These women have immense power, they can basically create whatever they want, and yet the government is made up if male figures that parade these women around in pretty dresses, threatening to hurt the people they love if they don't do as they're told. Do you see a difference in power between the male and female characters here? I think it's pretty obvious. This is an obvious portrayal of a patriarchal society. This is made even MORE obvious when we take into account the fact that the women are the ones with real powers (their ability to weave reality) and yet, the men have the most power in the society just because they are male. Can they create things out of thin air? No. But does it matter? No. Because they are men and as historically usual, they have all the power.
   
   So if a book has a lot more male characters what do you think the book is trying to say about who is seen as more important in society? If a female character does not have a name, what does that say about her identity and how the society defines her? How about the reverse situation? And if there is a clear difference between the men and women in a novel, one of the sexes being subservient to the other? Well, it's likely the author is trying to say something about who has more power in society and whether that is a good or bad thing. Try to keep your eye out for these power struggles in your readings.
   
   The second instance in which gender is analyzed in novels is when looking at whether a character conforms to gender stereotypes. For example, do the girls act feminine and do the boys masculine or vice versa. What is an author trying to say when he writes about a masculine girl and a feminine boy? A lot and all of it depends on context.
   
   This specific part of gender analysis is more geared towards classic literature since (for the most part) we've evolved past forcing women to like the color pink and cooking and putting her home life above her career and goals. And the same can be said for men. Traditionally, it was believed that men weren't supposed to cry, men were supposed to love in a detached way, and that they were the sole providers for their family. Many of us see this way of thinking as outdated, but for authors like Hemingway, whose works were written between the 1920's and 40's, an emotional male character was easily dominated by a strong female character. The female character was often broken inside (which is why she did not act feminine) and felt pleasure forsaking the weaker male character. Hemingway painted this break from gender stereotypes as toxic to relationships.
   
   This is best seen his novel The Garden of Eden, where a man has recently been married to a women. But the woman likes to dress in trousers (pants, which at the time was unheard of), cuts her hair short like a boy, and even in bed, she wants to be him and him to be here. This is a complete undoing of the accepted gender roles in their society and though he loves his wife, her weirdness forces him to look for a relationship with someone more conventional when he starts having an affair with a very feminine girl during their travels. He loves his wife but he also resents her. He considers himself weak for letting his wife shift their gender roles but does nothing to discourage her. Some would even go as far as to say that his self-serving wife is the man in the relationship and that the way he continues to put off confronting her makes him the woman. Traditionally, a lot of people would have agreed to this analysis. And on a closer analysis, why does the wife decide to look male? Hemingway suggests that she enjoys the perks of being seen like a man - the decisions making power, the respect, etc. And who wouldn't? Hemingway make us think about these roles. Are they good or bad? Is changing roles good or bad? The answers to these questions say a lot about an author and the time period during which the text was written.
   
   More contemporary literature will also go into GBTL (gay/bi-sexual/transgender/lesbian) analysis but most of the books you will be assigned in school will focus in the top to gender issues.

I hope this helps some of you with what to look for while reading a school assignment. Please let me know if you agree with any of the ideas mentioned above or if you have anything to add. Check back for the next two installments and I can't wait to hear from you.

The Infinite Moment of Us

Title: The Infinite Moment of Us
Author: Lauren Myracle
Rating: 

Get it Here:
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository

The Infinite Moment of Us is a teen fiction novel about two teenagers trying to figure our their lives the summer before they go away to college. Wren is a preppy parent pleasing girl who has never taken chances and done anything for herself. She feels oppressed by her well-meaning parents’ expectations of her and instead of going to a college nearby, finds a way to get away from them and her problems. Charlie is a foster kid with a sad past. He lives with foster parents and a foster brother that love him and yet he can’t bring himself to call his foster parents mom and dad because of a fear of abandonment. He also has never known romantic love as the only relationship he’s ever been in was with a person who wouldn’t open herself to him emotionally, initiating a sex-only relationship with Charlie. Both go to the same school and the summer before they book head off in different directions, they decide to get to know each other (as they’ve been in the same school for years, have notice and been intrigued by each other but have never approached one another).


It wasn’t a book I hated and it wasn’t a book I liked. It was just okay. And that bothered me because I usually have very strong opinions about novels. Unfortunately, while Wren and Charlie’s love story was cute, I didn’t feel the characters were fleshed out enough, the character development shoddy and the writing choppy in its themes and timing.


To begin with, i was frustrated with the fact that Wren did not act her age. The teenage characters in the books were supposed to be eighteen and the dialogue sometimes felt juvenile for the age group. Wren also read like a fifteen year old instead of an eighteen year old. I’m not saying that everyone matures at the same rate. I myself was sheltered as a teen but she read almost too childlike and it bothered me. Especially since the book was targeted at the higher end of the teen fiction age bracket.

    As a general rule, there is a correlation between the age of a novel’s main characters and the age of its readers. Readers gravitate towards characters that are close to them in age. Therefore if the main character is eighteen, it is likely the novel’s readers will be in their late teens or early twenties.

But here, I felt that Myracle completely missed the mark with her age group. Had she marketed the book towards a younger audience, it would have made more sense.


Another of my complaints about the book, is how choppy her themes are. First there is Wren’s feeling of oppression towards her parents controlling her. While the author does develop this in the beginning of the book, the theme is basically lost when Wren tells her parents that she’s renouncing their college plans for her and that she is following her own path. Her parents are disapproving but it is light in comparison to the was she sets up their controlling ways in the beginning of the book. Her problems seem a bit hollow and as her relationship with Charlie grows, making her own decisions and being her own person takes a back seat to her relationship with him. This is frustrating to me because it messing up her character arc and story line and because it makes her feel like a weak female character. She then develops a feel of abandonment - why Wren when Charlie was the one who was abandoned by her mother? There is no reason given in the book why Wren is so set on closing herself off from Charlie every time something goes wrong when Charlie is the one who would have been more prone to running from her, of being scared of being abandoned again…


I’m not sure if the author just wasn’t sure of her characters or if she let her characters dictate the story in a way that made her writing seem sloppy, but the fact that Wren’s self-discovery was halted by a boy and three chapters of that halt were dedicated to whether or not Charlie and Wren would have sex bothered me. This with the fact that Wren giggled a lot, baked brownies, and only ever wore skirts and dresses, made her seem a bit two-dimensional to me. And even her pondering if souls had trees couldn’t fix her character flaws for me.


It bothered me that the characters but aside a lot of their bigger problems to fixate on having sex. It bothered me that Charlie’s abandonment issues were glossed over with one short story about his mother leaving him. The author went more into the next girl he was involved with being emotionally unavailable than getting into how he felt about his mother. And all Charlie ever really went into was how in love he was with Wren, the deeper stuff? the harder stuff? that was glossed over as “I don’t want to talk about it” and one lined explanations he made about his childhood in passing.


Miracle did her characters a serious disservice by only skimming the surface of her characters that while nice, had little depth to them. Especially when Wren’s motivations throughout the novel kept changing. First she wanted to get away to prove to herself that she could be her own person without her parents. Then she wanted to prove to herself that she could do something big and help other people. Then she wanted to prove that she could leave town and depend on herself. Then she didn’t want to leave because she didn’t want to leave her boyfriend but then… As a character, Wren was a mess.


Finally, I absolutely HATED the ending of the book which was not really an ending at all. It was a drop off, a “fill in your ending here” ending and I hate that. Maybe if the rest of the story had been more structured, i wouldn’t feel that this ending was lazy on the author’s part but that’s how it felt to me. Lazy. And before I conclude, as a nit-picky aside, I also felt that the beginning of the novel would have read better in first person than in third. This feeling went away halfway through the book as I’d gotten used to the voice of the characters by that point but I feel the story would have benefited from the readers being closer to the characters.


So overall, it was an okay read. It was short and I finished the book in one day. And while it was enjoyable, there were glaring problems for me with this book. If you’re looking for a light summer read to pass the time while on the train, this might be something to pack in your bag. But this book will not change you life, will not make you think deeply about your relationships, or your place in the world. The cover is pretty and the characters are likable (for the most part), their romances cute and overly teenage-y.


If you do pick up The Infinite Moment of Us, please let me know what you think or what parts of the book you loved or hated! Look forward to hearing your thoughts!