Monthly Archives: tammikuu 2014

Slam is a novel written by Nick Hornby. It tells a story about a young, troubled 16-year-old boy called Sam. The book is written from his point of view. Sam’s passion is skateboarding, and Tony Hawk is his huge idol.  He has a poster of him to whom he talks about skate tricks and his life and Tony responds him with a quote from his book. It gives him comfort as he faces struggles in his life. Sam and his mother are happy enough, but they’re barely getting by. Sam isn’t optimistic about what awaits him in the future. The biggest struggles start when he meets a girl named Alicia at her mother’s birthday party. Their relationship get off to an awkward start because of Sam’s obvious flirting, but soon they start dating. After a while Sam gets bored of this relationship and they break up. A while later Alicia calls him to meet her so they can talk. Alicia tells Sam that she’s pregnant and refuses to make an abortion. Now he and Alicia must find a way to cooperate with each other, their families and a child.

Sam keeps having flashes into the future. It makes this book interesting. It is somewhat relatable to déjà vous. There are a few instances in which Sam wakes up in the future, which he explains that Tony Hawk has sent him to the future. In these instances everyone around him knows exactly what is going on while he is clueless. These glimpses into the future are not simply dreams, but they are actual events that will take place.

The best thing about this book is that it has the potential to be moving and relatable for any teen or young adult. Though it’s not the main point of this book, but it also teaches a very important lesson for teenagers. Hornby respects the seriousness of this subject, but he manages to deal them with humor and in a heartfelt style. There are issues which are real and dramatic and he describes them honestly.

Lord of the flies (1954) is a novel by William Golding. It tells about a british boys stuck on an uninhabitated island. They tried to create their own rules, but it didn’t work out and they became savages. Eventually human nature leads to disastrous results.

I liked this book a lot. The story is  good and it teaches much about life. Civilized persons can easily become monsters, when they need to survive in bad conditions and finally they need to survive from eachother. Lord of the flies is a great example of this.

Ralph, Jack, Piggy and Simon counts to the main characters. Ralph represents sophistication and is voted to the leader. The opposite of Ralph is Jack, who is an antagonist. Piggy is the wise guy. He thinks like an adult and isn’t very popular. The last main character is Simon, who is very thoughtful person and understands the evilness that lives inside humans.

Different personalities can’t stand each others surviving methods and it causes horrible things to happen in this island. People just loses their temper and start behaving like an animal.

I suggest this book to everybody, who likes excitement and wants to read a different kind of surviving story.

Well, everybody knows Harry Potter. Everybody also knows J.K. Rowling, the plot and the characters. What is there left to tell about this book? Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first book in the Harry Potter series, followed by six others. It was published in 1997, and immediately became a bestseller.

Harry Potters are traditional fantasy books for children and pre-teens. They are filled with witches, wizards, magic and mythical creatures such as unicorns and hippogriffs. The books are written skillfully, and every detail is carefully thought. I think this is the key to their huge success.

The main character is, -of course, Harry Potter. He’s an eleven-year-old boy living with the Dursleys, the family of his mother’s sister. His parents are dead, and the Dursleys seem to dislike him more than anything. Harry’s journey begins when he gets a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (delivered by a giant called Hagrid).  At Hogwarts Harry becomes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron’s whole family are wizards, whereas Hermione’s parents are muggles like the Dursleys, meaning that they cannot use magic. The principal of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore is portrayed as a stereotypical wizard; wise, old, tall man with a long, grey hair and beard, the leader of the good ones. All proper stories need a bad guy, too. Lord Voldemort is the most powerful dark wizard of all times, and Harry is the only known survivor of his attacks. Voldemort killed Harry’s parents when he was just a baby, but wasn’t able to kill him. Voldemort disappeared, leaving Harry alive and called ”the boy who lived”. The omniscient narrator also introduces the reader to many other characters, like students and teachers from Hogwarts.

The language in the Philosopher’s Stone is easy to read and understand. The style is kind of ”old-fashioned” and sophisticated, using constructions and vocabulary that don’t occur in the places where I usually read English (schoolbooks, social media and magazines). Although I know the book is written by J.K. Rowling, in my mind the narrator is a British man in his late sixties, sitting in an armchair by the fireplace and sipping a cup of tea with his little finger up.

Picking up a book by Dan Brown is pretty much like social suicide. It will consume your every free minute with its compelling plot twists and intelligent dialogue. I would recommend starting this book during a holiday or a week when you can happily abandon all contact to the outside world. It will keep your face buried in it until the very last sentences.
Inferno (2013) is a fairly new book that topped many best-seller lists last year. A symbologist Robert Langdon (also in The Da Vinci Code) finds himself in Florence with an ancient mystery to solve, except the threat is very up-to-date. A genius billionaire is going to release a virus that will offer a “solution” to the overpopulation problem. Langdon, with the help of a British doctor Sienna Brooks, holds the key to preventing the virus from spreading. The time is running out and he has no idea what he really is facing.
Brown’s signature style is to mix old mysteries with modern ideas and scenes. The formula is as convincing as before. This time it is Dante Alighieri’s epic and ominous poem “The Divine Comedy” that provides the basis for the novel. The name Inferno is straight from the poem itself. It is the name of the first part of the poem, Dante’s journey through hell. The Divine Comedy is a crucial factor throughout the novel and sets a dark theme in the background.
The novel is easily one of the most thought-provoking pieces I have ever read. It is definitely not something you can read and then finish without ever pondering about the message. I found myself questioning many facts in society after reading the book. The conflicting thoughts haunted me for days. Nevertheless, I have to recommend this book for anyone who can stand a few menacing thoughts creeping into mind. Behind the addictive storyline and thrilling action there is a powerful message that everybody should consider.

Finn Family Moomintroll
Hats off to the adventures of spring – Tove Jansson
English translation 1958
– January 21, 2014
The Characters

Main characters is Moomintroll, Sniff, Snufkin, Snork Maiden, The Hemulens, Muskrat, Hattifatteners, Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Thingumy and Bob, Groke and Hobgoblin. They all live in Moominhouse, except the Hattifatteners and Groke. Snufkin is the wanderer and goes to the South every winter. The characters in the Moomins-books are fictional but kinda the better variation of real people. Moomins are always same- they don’t grown or change. They are lovely, honestly and lenient. Moominmamma is the stereotypically mom: gentle, solicitous, good chef and she never get angry. Moominpappa is like typically old man; wise but scatterbrained. Snork Maiden is so traditional princess as is possible. She want always be little more beautiful and like a lady.

The plot

In the books happens a lot. Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin discover the Magician’s Hat and bring it away to the Moominhouse. Moominpappa try to keep it, but it is too big. They decide to use it like a wastebasket. When they trash an egg shell into the hat tem becomes five clouds the children ride and play with. At the next day the clouds are not there and family Moomintroll is so confused. Moomintroll hides inside the hat during a game of hide-and-seek and is temporarily transformed to a tarsier . He didn’t change back, until Moominmamma reconize that the tarsier is Moomintroll. When Moominmamma and Moominpappa understand the magic powers of the Hat, they throw it into the river. But Moomintroll and Snufkin find it and hide it in the cave by the sea.
Muskrat come to the cave and set his denture into the Hat. The denture transformers something, but nobody know what.
The Moomin Family find a boat and name it ”Adventure.” On that boat they travel to the Island of the Hattifatteners. The Hattifatteners bully The Hemulens and by way of vengeance The Hemulens steals The Hattifatteners barometer. The childrens live a moment into Sniff’s cave. When the Moomin Family come back to the Moominhouse it is transformed into a jungle.

The setting is Moominvalley, a fictional place, where the Moomins live. The story involved three times of year: spring, summer and autumn.

Narration
The narrator of the story is know-it-all narrator.
Theme and message
The main theme of this novel was tolerance, like almost all Moomins-books. Tove Jansson wants to creative a world, where everything is good and beautiful. She makes the Moomins dear and pedagocic, them teach to the children sympathetic and kindness.
My opinion

I liked most part of the book when Moomins rides with clouds, because it was my favorite episode of Moomin tv-programme.
Reading an Englis was difficult because my vocabulary was sometimes too concise so that I understood all.

I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner book. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner written by Stephenie Meyer and she published it on year 2010. Stephenie Meyer is best known for her vampire romance series Twilight. In addition to this book, twilight series consists of four books and five films and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner related to the book Eclipse which is the third book in a series.

Riley and Victoria decides to create as many new-born vampires as is possible because they want to make an attack on Cullen. Cullens are a vampire family who drink only the blood of animals and one of them killed the boyfriend of Victoria. Victoria is lying to all other vampires the reason why they attack on Cullen. She just wants to get revenge. The main character is Bree Tanner. She is almost sixteen years old when vampire whose name is Riley change her. She join the herd of vampire and live with others in fear and distress because they don’t know anything about being vampire. At the end of the book the vampire army is attacking towards Cullens but not so good consequences.

I have been read the book earlier many times and I thought that the book was really good. But nowadays I think it is little silly. But definitely, I think that Stephenie Meyer is a really good writer and not at all overrated. The book is a good addition to the twilight series but you need to read at least the first three books before this otherwise you will not be able to understand.

And did you know that when the book was published in the United States every sold book was donated to a little bit of the American Red Cross. The money helped the people in Haiti and Chile.