Bitter Grounds

the author is trying to convey the theme/message, generally to not sit back and let things happen, but to be active, and do what needs to be done. Directed towards women though, it has the same general meaning, but to not let any stereotype of women hold you back.

Outside Reading: Day 3

Since I began reading ahead a bit in my reading schedule, this reading was fairly short. Nevertheless, this section is full of excitement, and twist and turns. Throughout the book, one of the plots/Sam's underlying struggles is with a girl, name Naomi. In the first few chapters of the book she is introduced to Sam while running. Sam, being his clumsy self made an interesting first impression, which I will leave to you to find out for yourself by reading Jerk, California. The section that I read has to do with a run in Sam has with Naomi (Earlier in the book it establishes that these two have a thing for each other). I enjoyed this section particularly because each time Sam runs into Naomi; a quintessential mistake is made by Sam, making him look "dorky". This time, he ended up saving Naomi from a minor car accident, but it was winter, and her car was trapped in the ditch. To add to the danger of this, Naomi and her friends, being classified (by me) as a popular preppy type, weren't wearing adequate clothing, so they could have potentially gotten very sick due to the temperature. The author, Jonathan Friesen, does a good job at adding humor, while sustaining a tone appropriate for a young adult’s book. In other words, Friesen didn’t add sophomoric humor or humor that just doesn't fit our age group. He also doesn't let things progress too quickly between Sam and Naomi; this scene in the winter was going pretty well, until Sam made one of his mistakes, which he recovered from, then some school bullies came around. In the end of this situation, Sam is left with a kiss on the cheek, “warming” him up in the cold of Minnesota.

Outside Reading: Day 2

For my second "day" of reading, more like second post, I am nearing the middle of the book. In my last post I mentioned the struggles between Sam and his step-dad. These issues grow increasingly intense as the book goes on. I personally find this section intriguing because of my own struggles with family members, particularly with family member’s medical issues. Such as in the book, Sam has Tourette's Syndrome, like me, and his hypocritical step-father has OCD, like a family member of mine. Sam’s relationship with his step-dad has begun to worsen; beginning with violence, beating Sam’s mother, to the forcing Sam to pay rent. The last section I will summarize is what happens after Sam is told he has to pay rent. A man known around the town as being a crazy old coot, offers Sam a job and room & board. This is a plus because the money gained from the old coot wasn’t enough to pay for rent in Sam’s own home. I find this all interesting even though much of it was negative. Sam’s step-dad forcing him to pay rent made me wonder what was going to happen next and added action to the book. I enjoyed the progression of events throughout the book so far; Sam has a bad event occur, has a small positive thing, then even more intense bad events. At first Sam is resistant to the old coot’s offer, event though he knows its his only choice. One thing that also makes it hard for Sam is that his real father was friends with the old coot, and this old coot character, insists on calling Sam by his real name, Jack.

Outside Reading: Day 1

The book I chose to read is called Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen. The first few chapters I read were about the main character, Sam, and the city he lives in. I liked the opening of chapters of the book because I felt that it gave a solid mental image of the town to the reader. This helped give additional understanding of the town’s people negative views on Sam's "disease" as he calls it. Sam live in a smaller town, where not many people come in or out, so anything out of the ordinary is the whole towns business, making Sam's twitches and jerks something to poke fun at. I am nearing the middle of the book, and it is becoming more and more interesting; the story is beginning to take shape, and actually get exciting! An interesting detail about the story is Sam's step father; he views Sam's Tourette's as some gruesome retardation, which Sam is at fault for. This is interesting because Sam's step-father has severe OCD, and counts cans, keys and other things excessively. I found this part even more interesting because of my experiences with both OCD, and Tourette's Syndrome, some severe traits of OCD can be quite similar to tourettes. His step-father treats him like dirt; he makes him do all the work, he beats Sam's mother, and even changed Sam's name; it was originally Jack. Having many friends and family members struggle with fathers in their family, reading about this gave me even more knowledge and insight into paternal conflicts.