Category: Class

Reading Update 1/20/23

On By A CASSIn Book Update, Class, Coming of Age, Music2 Comments

Book: Daisy Jones & The Six

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid (Author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)

Current page: 90

To start I’d like to say that the book Daisy Jones is an incredibly well put together novel. The Author, Reid, collected a wide variety of anecdotes and memories from the Six and Daisy Jones herself. Reid has organized these events in perfect order and spacing between perspectives. Daisy and the Six are incredibly relatable and honest to Reid. The way the so-called characters tell the stories makes it feel like you were right there with them in those memories. I fell in love with Daisy and Camilla right when they were introduced, and I think part of that is because Reid doesn’t cut out the dark and bad parts of their stories and let’s them exist as they were. Taylor Jenkins Reid has (so far, at least) done an amazing job bringing these people out of memories and turning their life into a fantasy, without any lies.

Their Eyes Were Watching God- Reading update

On By OLIVE TEPFERIn Book Update, Class, Race2 Comments

Their Eyes Were Watching god by Zora Neale Hurston is so far a really interesting book. The main character is a women named Janie living in the early 20th century. She was orphaned as a child so she was raised by her grandmother who had traditional idea’s. Janie has to deal with the struggles of not only being an orphan but being a African American women in a difficult time period.

So far I think Janie is having trouble finding her identity. So far a lot of her life has been controlled by someone. First, it was her grandma then two different men. It is hard for her to find her voice when she is in the shadow of powerful men. Especially considering the roles women are forced into specifically in this time period.

I’m looking forward to see how Janie will grow as a character. I’m also excited to see what part Janies husband will play. If he will end up supporting her or holding her back. So far I would recommend this book it is interesting and also a little challenging of a read.

The Shining-Second Reading Update

On By FINN L.In Book Update, Class, Film, Highly Recommended1 Comment

The Shining is a horror novel written by Steven King. I have not finished this book yet, but I am deeply invested in it. Previously, I stated how the book goes into much more depth into the backgrounds of the characters than the movie did which I something I really enjoy. The more I read, the harder it is for me to see Jack start going to a murderous mindset because the book tells us how much of a terrible life he has had and makes us sympathize with him. Because the book is much longer than the film, we only at first see little signs of him going insane, which progressively get worse over time. This makes us fear for Jack’s wife and son, Danny and Wendy. Danny is also progressively getting more haunted by the hotel, luring him closer to his demise. Wendy is also starting to see the dark side of the hotel too, which the film did not cover that much. Overall, it is a very suspenseful but intriguing read.

The Heavy Song of a Heavy Heart

On By Elliot S.In Class, Course Stuff, Highly Recommended, Music, Music Poetry, PoetryLeave a comment

The song is “Brutus” by The Buttress, from the album “My Name Means Heavy (demo version)”. It is inspired by the play “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare, in which the character Brutus, a friend of Caesar, conspires to kill him with others. The lyrics portray the thoughts of Brutus, his inner turmoil about what he is plotting. One of the overarching, subtle themes in the song is the concept of heavy. The beat is heavy, and the words seem to flow with it, emphasizing in lines like “I hate the air he breathes,” “This death will be art,” “I don’t want what you had, I wanna be you,”. It also ties into the heaviness of Brutus’ thoughts, of murdering his life long friend and his own raw desperation, as in the line “so with a heavy heart I’ll guide this dagger into the heart of my enemy,”. And it all comes together with his name, Brutus, which he states means heavy. This feeling of heavy is intensified by the slow rise in volume over the course of the song.

Did he jump.. or was he pushed..?

On By Kaliyah. EIn Book Review, Class, Highly Recommended, NovelsLeave a comment

Harry Dolan, the author of Bad things happen, completely hooks you from the start with the first scene being the main character buying items from a store to conceal a MURDER. You are introduced to a cunning and calculated killing pair who will stop at nothing to not get caught. This is a very interesting book so far but takes a while to get into the plot because it starts out very messy and complicated. Although, this book definitely introduces you to a new world because it takes you into a perspective that many people never consider. The mind of a killer. These characters explore every single outcome until something sinister happens….

More Class Blogs

On By Bernie H.In Class, Comedy/Satire, Comics, Course Stuff, Cultural Criticism, Feminism, Film, Gender, Gender Identity, Music, Novels, Poetry, Race, Short Stories, Spoken Word, TV, Video GamesLeave a comment

For many years, we used the Blogger platform for my classes. Since it is owned by Google, it integrates pretty seamlessly with your Google accounts — which made it easy to use, in some respects — but it is a very limited and bug-ridden platform. So we have decided to construct a new class blog from scratch using the most more powerful and stable WordPress platform.

If you are interested, though, in seeing what past American Studies students have been thinking and writing about, feel free to wander over to Take Control of Your Culture.

You can also check out my senior AP Lit students who are presently blogging over at Story Power.