Culture in the English-speaking world

I red a book called Slam witch is written by Nick Hornby. Slam is published in 2007. Slam tell about a boy called Sam. The story is written Sam’s perspective. Sam is sixteen and he loves skate. The other significant characters in this book were Alicia and Sam’s mother. Alicia was Sam’s mother’s co-worker’s daughter. Sam got know Alicia through his mother and very quickly they started dating.         Let’s open the plot little bit. So Sam and Alicia started dating. All went well in the beginning until something irreversible happened. Alicia became pregnant. Sam went into a panic and he run away. In the end Sam returned and took responsibility of his actions. The book focuses on Sam’s thoughts in this difficult situation.                                                                                                                                                                       At the same time i liked the book and i did not like. The book theme was good but the method of storytelling was not my favorite one. The book tells only Sam’s thoughts in this hard situation. The book did not tell how Alicia feel. The second thing that i did not like was that sometimes Sam saw his own future. Easily i was left wondering whether the things happened or not because the things could be Sam’s future that he foresaw.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Frankly i did not like any of the characters in the book. Sam was a coward because he did not took any responsibility for his action. Moreover he ran away and got everybody else to be worried about him. Alicia seemed little stubborn. She did not  really understand how big of an undertaking is was to have a baby.  Especially if you are teenager. Sam’s father seemed very indifferent when he heard that he son was about to become a father. It annoyed me. After all i was glad about one thing. Sam grow up during the book and ultimately took responsibility from what he had done.                                                                                                                                                                               Although i did not like the characters of the book the theme was great. It got me wondering about how much having a baby would change normal everyday life.

Skellig is a fantasy book written by British author David Almond. It was published in 1998. Skellig was Almond’s first book for young people and probably the best known. The book has won some prizes for example The Michael L. Printz Award. There is also a film based on it. Film was released in 2009.

The main character of the novel is Michael a ten years old boy. Mina and Skellig also have a quite big roles in the story. Other characters are Michael’s mom, dad and baby sister, Mina’s mom, Dr. Death, Leakey, Coot and Mrs. Dando. The author has described the characters and their personalities well. Story is told from Michael’s point of view.

The book tells a story about Michael. He and his family move into a new house and Michael doesn’t like it. His baby sister is ill and everybody are worried about her. At the new house’s yard there is a dilapidated garage. Michael is told not to go there but when others are inside the house he defies the proscription and goes in the garage. Inside he finds a lots of dust, old items, dead bugs and something strange in the corner. It looks like a human but it can’t be. At first Michael thinks that he doesn’t tell anybody about what he saw but when he gets to know Mina, a girl from next door, he decides to tell her. Here begins Michael and Mina’s adventure.

Skellig is a great story about friendship, curiousness and the healing power of love. I think that the book was pretty good and I would like to watch the film too. I haven’t read any books in English before so Skellig was perfect for me because it was easy to read and the plot was clear and compelling. I can recommend this book especially for those who haven’t read much in English but also for others who like this kind of books.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a fantasy novel published in 1937. It’s written by J.R.R. Tolkien whom most of us know as the author behind the well-known trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Actually, the events of the trilogy date back to The Hobbit for the unexpected journey of Bilbo Baggins’ takes place exactly 60 years before Bilbo’s adopted son, Frodo, is driven to another adventure of which The Lord of the Rings is about.

The Hobbit has always been described as a classic of fantasy literature and it also fits with the category of children’s literature. It’s been said that Tolkien was the one to pioneer the genre of modern fantasy with The Hobbit and its influence on literature has been significant. There would be no Harry Potter or other illustrious book series if Tolkien had not invented the mighty world of Middle-earth as a bedtime story for his children.

The plot of The Hobbit is presumably familiar to everyone for the film version of the book has just been brought to an end. ”In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”, is the very first sentence of the novel, which introduces us a hobbit, a creature so small that many other inhabitants of Middle-earth have never even heard of them but who will in the long run turn out to be very important, brave and loyal little fellows. The idea of both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings is how surprisingly wary and tiny hobbits who are often regarded as inconsequential creatures by men, elves and dwarves, are the ones to save Middle-earth from destruction. The major theme of The Hobbit is the quest, one of the oldest themes in literature. The main character, Bilbo, embarks on a quest and so the unexpected journey among twelve dwarves shall start. They aim at conquering the Lonely Mountain guarded by Smaug the dragon and taking back the kingdom that once was dwarves’. The journey allows Bilbo to encounter various characters and circumstances that are unfamiliar and even threatening to him.Through the course of his life he hadn’t experienced any adventures and now he suddenly had ended up in one. Bilbo encounters goblins, elves, Gollum and Smaug, for example, during his task to help the dwarves to retrieve their treasure, and he travels well beyond the hobbit-lands through Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains to the Lonely Mountain. The group including the hobbit, the dwarves and Gandalf the wizard faces many dangers and challenges on their path and especially in the thrilling end of the novel. After defeating Smaug and taking back Erebor the old enemies confront and thereby starts ”The Battle of the Five Armies”, which is the name of the last Hobbit-movie premiered two months ago.

Bilbo Baggins, the burglar, is one of the most essential characters as well as the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the entourage and the reightful heir of the Lonely Mountain, and Gandalf, the mysterious wizard who helps the group on their dangerous path. Bilbo is that wary and comfort-loving type of hobbit who wouldn’t have the heart to leave his dear home. As a matter of fact, not a single hobbit would do such a thing, after all, the freedom from care and ignorance of the rest of the world’s problems belongs to the true nature of the species. Unlike others, Bilbo, however, has a thirst for an adventure deep inside of him, which the dwarves and Gandalf raise by appearing behind Bilbo’s door. Most of the time on their journey Bilbo still dreams of his warm and comfy home but in the end returns to Hobbiton as a changed hobbit,as a more adventurous and experienced one. Thorin on the other hand is a bit grim and proud dwarf. After Smaug is defeated he’s the one to become the king of the mountain. Greed possesses his mind and for a while he forgets the true order of importance; family and friends before power or wealth, which is actually the novel’s deeper lesson too. Thorin doesn’t really like Bilbo at first, to his mind Bilbo is just a useless burden on their task whom Gandalf insisted to take along. But eventually, the hobbit turns out to be useful as he saves the dwarves from many tricky situations. Towards the end of the book a human called Bard is also introduced to the reader. He’s the one to slay the dragon after it has already caused destruction in Lake-town.

The language in the Hobbit is a bit archaic, word order differs from modern language repeatedly. It doesn’t complicate reading but it did affect my writing after finishing the novel. I had that odd obsession to write like Tolkien did. The narrator telling about the incidents happening in Middle-earth is omniscient.

The Hobbit as a fantasy novel belongs to the elite of the genre. It’s an amazing reading experience and every one should familiarize oneself with it at least because it’s one of those must-read classics. It’s a lot lighter to read than The Lord of the Rings was and even in English it didn’t require an incessant need for a dictionary. I love how the stories in the Hobbit and in the Lord of the Rings merge into, how Bilbo finds the One Ring by accident and doesn’t understand its real power. This ring will take Frodo for even a bigger and more dangerous adventure sixty years later. Tolkien owned the most incredible imagination ever and the Hobbit is only the beginning of the great story of Middle-earth and its amazing inhabitants.

The 13 treasures is a novel written by Michelle Harriston, the novel is published in 2009 and it was her first novel. This novel is the first part of her trilogy which following parts are The 13 curses and The 13 secrets. Michelle Harriston is a 28 years old editorial assistant in children’s publishing and a former bookseller.
The 13 treasures is a fantasy novel and the theme of the novel is a detective story and it fits in its genre very well because fantasy novels often includes secrets and mysteries which are meant to be solved.

Main characters in the novel are Tanya, her grandmother Florence, Florence’s groundskeeper Warwick and his son Fabian. Tanya’s relationship to Florence has always been quite distant and it still is, Tanya has never felt herself welcome to visit her.  And what comes to Fabian he and Tanya had never actually been friends and Tanya had never really enjoyed his company. Tanya is a normal teenage girl except she has a second sight which means that she is able to see fairies. Her grandmother Florence is pretty distant and old-fashioned. Fabian is the same age as Tanya and he is a spindly nerd boy with messy hair and eyeglasses who likes to read about science and explore nature. His father Warwick is a grumpy and scary man who spends most of his days hunting in the forest. Tanya has always been a bit afraid of Warwick and avoided him.

 
The book begins when Tanya has an argument with her mom because of her bad behavior, which is a result of the tricks that the fairies have done to her and of course Tanya hasn’t told anyone about the fairies. Tanya’s mother sends her to live with her grandmother in a manor for a couple of weeks, where she founds a 50 years old newspaper cutting that says a young girl named Morwenna Bloom has disappeared in the woods near the manor. Later when Tanya’s dog Oberon runs into the woods Tanya and Fabian sees a girl there who looks just like Morwenna Bloom. After that Fabian tells Tanya that her grandmother had been best friends with Morwenna and Fabian’s grandfather Amos was the last person who saw Morwenna and because of that, the police and the village people suspected him of murdering Morwenna even Amos was in love with her. All the rumors about Amos being a murderer had ruined his life so Fabian and Tanya decided to go to the woods again to find out what really happened to Morwenna and to prove that Amos is innocent. One night Tanya saw an intruder in the manor and followed her into the secret passage. The intruder’s name is Red and she has a second sight too. One day Tanya receives an anonymous letter which says that when Morwenna disappeared she was caught to the fairy world so Tanya and Fabian went to the forest to rescue her. In the forest Morwenna tells them that Tanya’s grandmother Florence had also the second sight and she and Morwenna had made a deal 50 years ago to go to the fairy world together but Florence had betrayed her so now Morwenna was angry and intend to switch places with Tanya. Red came to rescue Tanya by taking her place in the switch and Morwenna died suddenly aging all those 50 years after the switch.

At the end of the book when Tanya realizes that her grandmother’s rejecting and distant behavior has been the result of her trying to protect Tanya, she starts to understand her grandmother better and they become more closer. Also Tanya’s relationship with Fabian gets better and they realizes that they care about each other and actually are friends and have a good time together. Tanya also got more information and experience about the fairies during her time in the manor and now knows better how to deal with them so she won’t get in trouble so easily.
I really liked the book and the plot was great even though at first I was skeptical because of the fairy things. The plot really was riveting and I read the novel surprisingly fast and in some parts the novel was even a bit scary so it was exiting to read it. I also think that it was easy to read a novel in English and the language of the novel was pretty easy so I understood the meanings of the sentences easily.

The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green was published in 2012. It is his sixth novel and hopefully there will be many more to come. It is a joy to read his intelligent writing and dive into the different worlds created by him.

The Fault in Our Stars is not an original love story. Hazel is a cancer patient and her life feels quite empty until Augustus, a boy with incredible charm, appears into her life. These two teenagers have something in common; cancer. She feels a special connection to him since they both have pretty visible faults in their bodies. Augustus has his other leg amputated and Hazel needs to have an oxygen machine to help her breath no matter where she goes. Cancer darkens every step Hazel takes, but now she has something new to live for. Something that feels more permanent than she is used to.

Hazel has a really deep view of life. She thinks everything has a purpose in this universe and the title of this novel is probably inspired by her thoughts. The story is written from Hazel’s perspective. It is easy to see that she has gone through a lot more than an average sixteen-year-old has. Since she knows almost for sure that she will never grow old with Augustus she tries to live the life to the fullest with him.

This is a really touching novel. It takes you into the world of cancer. The story is realistic and makes you appreciate your own health a lot more. The story shows how unfair the world can be. From the very first page of this novel I truly loved it. This is one of those books you just want to keep reading and never stop. It just takes you with it. It was nice to read this book in English. It is hard to translate everything like the author has meant it to be. From the bottom of my heart I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see life differently. This book gives you a whole new perspective to life.

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens and was first published in short parts from December 1860 to August 1861. It’s widely considered to be the masterpiece of Dickens’ work and has been adapted in to several movies and at least a few tv series.

Great Expectations tells the story of Philip Pirrip, commonly referred to as Pip, from his childhood through to his thirties. The story focuses on Pip’s growth both physically and mentally. It’s a very typical coming-of-age book as it not only shows the better parts of Pip’s life, but explores the downsides of his great expectations as well. The title, Great Expectations, is a reference to Pip suddenly becoming wealthy and therefore having greater expectations than he would have had without the money.

The book’s main character and narrator is, as said before, Pip. In the beginning of the book Pip is an orphan living with his sister and his sister’s husband. The book has a very interesting set of characters who all have their own motives that are expertly woven in to the fabric of the story. As the story is told from Pip’s perspective the difficult relationships he has with some characters are painfully clear. The two very constant relationships throughout the book from Pip’s youth to the very end of the story are the ones with his brother-in-law Joe and the unattainable love of his life, Estella. Estella is an interesting character as she is shown to be awfully cold to Pip and yet, Pip never lets go of her. One might question whether or not that’s healthy, but in the true fashion of literature, Pip’s love for Estella is portrayed as almost undying. But of course, one must not look past the character of Joe. Throughout the book Pip mentions feeling that he has let Joe down by not visiting him or sending him letters as regularly as he should have. This might describe the fact that after coming in to wealth, people often disregard their previous friends and family. Indeed, Pip even specifically mentions being ashamed of Joe as Pip watches Estella. Thus, Estella and Joe, in an odd way, represent the two sides of Pip’s life.

Great Expectations was written in the 1860s and that is very obvious in the style that it is written. The English used in it is somewhat old and Dickens uses several words that are no longer common. However, the thing that makes Great Expectations a little difficult to read is Dickens’ way of writing the characers’ speech. In the first chapter Magwitch demands Pip to bring him ’wittles’. For a person whose native language isn’t English, it may be difficult to comprehend that Magwitch is trying to say ’vittles’ which is another form of the word ’victuals’. In other words, Magwitch is asking Pip to bring him food. Many of the characters use these type of words that would perhaps not be difficult to understand when spoken aloud but are terrible to read. You have to repeat the words in your head and try to figure out what vowels may have been left out in order to make clear that the character’s dialect isn’t exactly polished.

Out of all the English books I have read, I think Great Expectations was the hardest. As a reader I usually look for stories that are easily relatable and as Great Expectations is set in an entirely different era with its own manners and style, it was hard to get a hold of it, so to speak, at first. However, I did enjoy reading it and finding out what happened to Pip and Joe and Estella as well as Pip’s amusingly named best friend, Herbert Pocket. The thing that truly drew me in to the story was how real it all was. There was no attempt by Dickens to mask Pip’s poorness or his misery. And in the end I think that’s what I appreciated the most.