"Good Lucky You Studied"

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET 25TH YEAR EDITION

SANDRA CISNEROS

VINTAGE BOOKS
1984, 2009

VINTAGE ISBN 978-0-679-73477-2

The House on Mango Street is a novel I’ve wanted to read for the longest time, mostly because it is set in my hometown, Chicago, and is about a Latina women growing up। The other day when I went to the library they had a good 15-20 copies so I was like whoa…I think it’s time, I no longer have an excuse! I'll admit...I did go a little overboard on this post, but this book was pretty touching and inspiring to me.

It was a real easy read, the chapters ranged from half a page to three pages long. Each chapter was like another glimpse into her life, it is as if Cisneros was telling many stories in one. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because it’s not like other books I’ve read, but I feel like I was taught a lesson; reading a book about a Latina growing up years ago in a neighborhood nearby, gives me hope, even more being that it’s the 21st century.

An interesting thing about this novel is that there is no dialogue. It’s all written from her point of view, telling us what her mother or sister said, so we are getting a firsthand look at what she was feeling at each moment – good or bad. However, I think it worked in this novel. I feel like her point wasn’t what happened, or the details, but the emotion and life experiences.

One thing she talked about was the fact that her parents moved a lot, and I can relate on that issue. I can remember living in about 8 different apartments, not houses. I know how she feels when she talks about her parents going to look at nicer houses and she didn’t like going, because she felt ashamed. She disliked staring at what she can’t have and couldn’t wait to have her own house, and well she has her own place today, and I’m glad it worked out for her. I hope to follow in her steps. Like her parents, I’m positive my parents want to own a home, but sometimes life doesn’t just work that way.

“Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared” (28). Cisneros tackles a lot of issues towards racism, but in a way I appreciate. Yeah, she states how some people drive into her neighborhood scared, may lock the doors, but when the tables are turned her or other people from her neighborhood do the same thing. I don’t know about other places, but in Chicago, every neighborhood is predominately one race, and it changes from time to time. I just wish more people can agree to get along, yeah we may get scared, but hey it’s a commonality, right? I know that doesn’t make anything better but, the families, say Hispanic families, who move into neighborhoods, say an African-American or white one, and realize they are the only Hispanics and try and move out – what is the point in that?

Another way she makes this book relatable to me is when she talks about winter in Chicago and how we have two types of snow, clean and dirty; that was so funny to me because it’s so true! Also, “back in the day” I remember my mom use to sell Avon to help out around the house; which is the same thing people she knows did. A thing that really got to me is the concept of overprotection. Hispanic families are pretty protective, but I didn’t realize how strict they were, and hopefully aren’t still. But there is a girl in the novel who’s dad didn’t really let her do anything, and one day he saw her with boys and had a fit, we are to assume she is abused and that idea is, sadly, clarified. Not only does the main character, Esperanza, witness abuse first hand from one of her friends, she witnesses a great deal of death. As a young lady she has to grow through many things I still can’t imagine, but that makes her the strong woman she is today.

Esperanza did not want to be like the other girls, and what for? Why stop having fun when it is something she likes to do to be happy. She always wrote at a young age, even shared her poems with a neighbor and told stories to her postman – so it is true, they start young. Some girls her age, would marry to “escape” (and we are talking before 8th grade here), like one of her friends did. Her friend, Sally, and her husband had to go to another state where it is legal to marry before the 8th grade, but was it really an escape? She couldn’t talk on the phone, or leave the house. It’s like another woman Esperanza knew, she would give Esperanza and her friends a dollar to even go to the store to buy her juice. Why want a life like that?

The introduction is one of my favorite parts about the whole book. It goes through how her father feels about her once she finally decides she wants her own places; his reaction was that the white people and college ruined her. But, ruin? Some immigrants who come to America just don’t assimilate, especially if they aren’t born here, so I think when there is a borderline between parents and kids like that, times can get difficult. The mother understands here her daughter is coming from, you see, her mom had a dream, to sing, and had to give that up, what mother wants her daughter to give up too? I feel for her mother. My mother had me at 18. Didn’t go to college. Began her life anew. Does she blame me? No. Did Esperanza’s mother blame her? No. Mothers like that just want their kids to be better; I know Sandra is probably now happy. I know I am now happy. I go to a great college and see every day that my mother is proud. My mother is also like Esperanza’s father, he always asks her when she is coming home, and I know my mom would love for me to come home after college, but the world is waiting for me.

In the introduction I feel like Cisneros pushes education and pushes not to be ashamed. Between her words I can feel she was ashamed of her life growing up in Chicago, but constantly found herself back here. But at the end, she shows her mother everything she has earned, and her mother is happy. Content. “Good lucky you studied,” she says. At the end of the day, life to her, and life to me, is making our family proud. Leaving Chicago was her dream, getting her own house was her dream, writing a novel was her dream, all things she accomplished. But she still finds herself coming back. Her heart is here. She may leave but will find herself back sometimes. And when you leave, when and if I leave Chicago, another important lesson, come back for those that were here for you.

Aya's BIG BIG story!

EXTRAS

SCOTT WESTERFELD

2007

SIMON PULSE PUBLISHING

The cover of this book is a little misleading. It states that this is “the thrilling fourth book in the UGLIES series,” but on his own blog (at http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/) he clearly states that this is a separate novel from the previous three. This novel is a lot bigger…

This book is centered around a 15 year old Japanese girl named Aya Fuse. Westerfeld has this book taking place after the mind-meld, that is after Tally Youngblood, in the previous trilogy cured the world (see previous posts).

The city that Aya lives in is run a little differently than before. You see..It’s all about who you are and reputation. One of my favorite things about this book is the technology; everyone in this city has a hover cam (a flying camera) that follows them anywhere. Like any camera today, it records, because that is how people gain a reputation – stories. They are called kickers and people like Aya’s brother Hiro, kick really well storied that get people talking about him. The more then the city talks about you the better, because the city interface keeps track of everyone’s “place.” It is almost a popularity contest, you see at the beginning of the novel Aya is number 451,369 and dreams of being up higher, then she’d be famous. This craving to be on top has people on wits ends, they love to surge themselves (make themselves differently); for instance, you have people whose skin is pixilated and it is moving so fast they are practically invisible , people with monkey hands for legs..and even anime looking individuals (of course the ones I mentioned are important in the novel, so heads up!)

She finally has the lead on a BIG story and has to go undercover. This 15 year old goes through so much after she kicks the story she’s been working on, I mean it is a really big deal – her reputation goes up rapidly. I don’t want to give the story away, just know it’s huge. Let’s just say be the end of the novel she earns the right into a party that is reserved for individuals in the top 1000. Can you even guess who number 1 is? Tally of course! I love that she came back in this book to do what she knows best, cause or fix trouble, and kick some butt.
This novel is quite action packed I was kept satisfied. From the descriptions of the characters after Aya’s big story goes out and all the challenges they face, is quite…in their “language…” bubbly making! They go from city, to riding trains, to finding a “mine,” all leading to her BIG STORY that lands her and her friends (including Tally who comes to save Aya after the launch of her story) in a tropical jungle. Some other new friends kind of appear as well.

This book links an old story to a present one, bringing the old world to the new world and you notice that Tally doesn’t like what is becoming of the newly expanding world – then again it is her job to save humanity whenever it needs her.

The points of view and descriptions and things of that nature haven’t changed from the 1st three books either, so it’s a nice balance, with little adjusting necessary. I didn’t find anything that I did not like in this novel; the description of the technology and buildings makes me think how realistic this novel can really be. Maybe one day we’ll get to have moving buildings, and be lucky like Aya (since she gets a high reputation from her story) just walk into a mansion and claim it yours! I would LOVE to live in these times. BUT GREAT NEWS, if you are a fan you might not have to wait too long – a possible movie for UGLIES is in the works: D a company bought the rights to make it a movie, now they just have to decide if they want to or not!

So does the novel end in happiness? Does Westerfeld leave room for another novel? Come see for yourself in, my opinion, the most action packed of the previous bunch I’ve read from him.

they're created 2 prevent war, but they go to war..

SPECIALS

SCOTT WESTERFELD

SIMON PULSE PUBLISHING

2006

“One faces the future with one’s past” – Pearl S. Buck

Okay I’m sure I say this each time, but, this was my favorite book so far. It was jam-packed with so much action, I never wanted to put it down and it upset me I couldn’t finish this book as fast as the others (no time). This book is credited being the final volume in the UGLIES trilogy, however, the author must have felt something was missing because saga is the new trilogy, yes; there is another book after this one that I cannot wait to start on either.

The narrative is the same as the other books, mainly third person omniscient mainly from our old friend Tally’s perspective. Since we get to be in her head, there were moments in this novel that I didn’t like her. I thought this book would be about redemption right from the back, Tally saving the WORLD once again, while that may have been the case, Westerfeld kind of portrays her as a “bad” person, well she is a special so she can’t help it so it is justified, because Shay has to push her and order her and well let’s just say I like Shay again.

One of the most interesting strategies that Westerfeld emplaces in this novel are twists, but this time not involving Tally – making It more interesting. It was Tally in UGLIES who went to the smoke so that she could betray them and be pretty, but we wouldn’t have expected she’d actually like it out there n find her first boyfriend. It was Tally in PRETTIES who went back to her city to be a pretty so that the Smokies had someone to test out the cure on, Tally gave consent. In SPECIALS it wasn’t Tally who started the mass incoming of the cure for thousands of Pretties; she didn’t have to betray anyone; however she does feel like she could have done more for Zane.

There are a lot of times when Tally is talking to people, like Dr. Cable, and they say things that make you think again. It’s like at times Westerfeld wants you to consider why they have the operations and not to totally think that Dr. Cable is insane for making them – but she is – but a lot of it can be justified. Tally city does have a long history of dangerous practices, other cities have butted out to prevent war, but you know Tally had to do something…a war did start all because of two people – Shay and Tally, and what you might predict happens to them, doesn’t. That’s what makes this such an interesting read!

Another city does come into the picture, called Diego. This new city accepts the runaways, in an essence it is the New Smoke – they are helping the runaways from cities like Tally’s because what they do is inappropriate. Dr. Cable doesn’t like this one bit, so she waits for something bad to happen to blame it on Diego and tries to rule – and that has to come to a stop, does Tally live up to her new Special name? Does she get cured? What about the rest of the SPECIALS? Ah, I forgot to mention, Tally and her group of SPECIALS are called, Cutters, yea CUT, as in Knife, what happens? Does the love last between Tally and Zane, I mean…It’s the whole reason why she is going through with this, so Zane can be special and they can be happy again [although Zane does it so she can become normal and happy again].

Being controlled - Is it Worth it?

PRETTIES

SCOTT WESTERFELD

SIMON PULSE PUBLISHING

2005


“What happens when perfection isn’t good enough”


Well, the second novel in this trilogy turned saga did not disappoint me one bit। I could not wait to get to the end of the novel – only to feel let down (however, it built great suspense for the 3rd novel by Scott Westerfeld Specials)। The first book did the same thing so I guess I’m not too surprised।

The narrative and suspense draws us in as readers in as a reader more। I catch myself getting dragged into the book more and more as I read on, I want to be there alongside Tall on her adventures; especially in this novel where she has a new group of friends – Pretties. Sorry, but the novel is titled Pretties so if you haven’t read it you could assume that is what happened. I hate the fact that she has returned to the city, in the first novel I think I made it clear she had to sacrifice a lot, but sacrificing herself to become pretty so that they can try and cure her – absurd.

Westerfeld has placed this teenage girl in many near death experiences and many situations where she has to make sacrifices। As you may guess she leaves out the city again, even though she is a pretty, but at what expense? Being outside the city limits with her new best friends that also want to leave, they call themselves the Crims, opens up new possibilities। Considering she fell for the “leader” of the Crims, Zane। Zane is a very interesting character because he as much of a pretty as Tally is, despite their operations; and no novel is complete without another love story right?

Shay...well I won’t give too much away but I want to like her so bad, but can’t. There is a such thing as going too far to fit in, I mean she was already a part of the Crims, she was the reason why Tally went to the Smokes in the first place, even though she was blackmailed in the first novel to go get her, Shay is part of the reason why they go back to the city to break out the Smokies, and part of the reason I wanted to throw the book at the wall when I reached the last page.

This book one of the main ideas was to stay bubbly, it helped them remember their Ugly days, especially since the Crims are tricksters and have been since they were Uglies. Bubbly I would describe as blood rush, kissing, hover boarding, etc. But we also learn a lot about the Specials, and Dr. Cable. There were a few moments where I found myself thinking that maybe the operation was legit and okay, maybe its okay that they are kind of controlling them it prevents all the bad things from happening right? (war, violence, revenge). But, in the end God gave us free will, why should a government have control of that? What gives them the right to allow some outsiders, non pretties, live in the forest, only so they can monitor their behavior for their own benefit – everyone is a person. (I don’t know if I mentioned before but the reason why there is such controversy is because this operation controls not only what they look like on the outside but the inside as well.)

As you can imagine Tally does escape in the end, but at what price? The next novel is called Specials, you know, the ones that were after her. After this one was called Pretties and she became one on page 1, I can only where Westerfeld leads us next.

Nothing is Perfect

UGLIES

SCOTT WESTERFELD

SIMON PULSE PUBLISHING

2005

FICTION

“In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.”


I’m a big fan of books in a series, like Harry Potter and Twilight, when I was informed of Westerfeld’s saga I jumped right to it; for his first New York Times best seller, I would say a superb job. Books about an alternative reality are always intriguing, especially when they confront everyday questions. For instance, have you ever thought you were ugly and that the world would be better if you were as pretty as your favorite celebrity? What if I told you in the secluded city that Westerfeld created you could get just that? Unless, however, you are Tally and your new best friend Shay decides she doesn’t want this and will run away. Then what?

The novel is almost like a slap in the face to our modern world. At sixteen, ever citizen is given an operation to be pretty; their only responsibility is to have a good time. The concept? To rid everyone of jealously, war, hatred, and all the “negative” qualities that makes us human.
Similar to our government, Tally and the citizens of Ugly and New Pretty Town have no idea what is going on and it takes running away to understand. You see, once Shay runs away the FBI of Tally’s town, called Special Circumstances, and their agents of supernatural individuals, Specials, blackmail Tally to get her friend back or she can’t change into a pretty. Imagine your dreams being crushed and of course you would do everything to get what you want, to life a life of fun. Tally risks her life on a journey to The Smokes, a city for runaways, Uglies; and she is opened up to a world of history, one her school never told her about.

It’s good to be not only educated about your history but everyone’s history. What you want might not entirely be the right thing for you, how can you decide until you know all of the details? Feelings of being trapped, complications of love, betrayal, risk, and sacrifices are just some of the occurrences Tally encounters.

A couple things did bother me though. The novel didn’t suck me in until about one hundred fifty pages in, the beginning of the story is the building friendship between two Uglies, Shay and Tally, but that gets thrown out of the window once they reunite – why have them work so hard at this friendship for it to end. Especially…the downfall of our society…to Love, Shay’s love interest, David, whose parents were runaways, begins to lose interest in her and falls for Tally.
Also, seeing as we are forced to like the protagonist, when she arrives at this new city of Uglies, we expect her to call the Specials to come get her out of there, get the job done, but no…it’s not that easy of course. The antagonist, Dr. Cable, who is pretty much in charge of the operations, is obviously crazy for trying to hold all the power and maintain balance in the world.

This page-turner will not do you wrong and keep you intrigued, it is one of the books that you tell yourself, “Just one more chapter,” as your fighting yourself out of sleep – well for me anyway. Oh, did I mention that of course there is controversy and of course everything is not perfect as the Specials want the Pretties to seem?

What’s to come: Pretties, Specials, and Extras – the complete saga. – (won’t be as much summary more pointing things out.)

Enough of Boy Meets Girl

It was at a book sale that I came across David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy, the title intrigued me, because typically one would expect Boy Meets Girl or Girl loses Boy. The fact that it was a book explaining the love of two gay teens was interesting. I’ve never gone to a school or been in a city where homosexuality was so accepted, and Levithan puts us in a time period with social acceptance – something that everyone strives for today. This is a story of how Paul meets Noah, who changes Paul’s life, but not without the complications of dealing with a Darlene, the homecoming queen and star quarterback, and losing his best friend Tony to a boy that she doesn’t belong with.

Paul is the relatable character and the reason that makes this such a perfect book. Whenever you are feeling down or feel like no one does anything as sweet as you, you’ll be able to look back at feel the emotions Paul did, because he is gay and you may be straight does not mean you cannot relate; besides Love is universal, we all encompass it. Paul goes through the fights with the best friend, struggling with another who has religious parents, and falling for someone new, as Paul’s ex (who has a complicated and interesting story of his own) realizes he wants to be with Paul again; many events that we all may experience.

Most of us who have really crushed on someone or have fallen in love know how it feels to want to spend a lot of time with that individual. Paul and Noah undergo their love in the most subtle ways that we may even relate to, like scheduling when to pass notes to each other and who’s locker to meet at during passing periods. The novel even has its “AWW” moments, when Paul struggles to keep Noah as his lover through his weeklong events to convince Noah of his feelings. One of my favorite parts would have to be Noah returning the favor through his hobby of photography, I’ll just say “WISH. YOU. WERE. HERE.”

This is quite an easy read though (I read it in less than two days). However, some of the narrative can be called into question. For instance, Paul recounts of his first and only gay-bashing experience, but luckily he was with his friends who were on the fencing team and they immediately took out their foils to help Paul. I like that the book is written in an “alternative” universe where homosexuality and the likes of that minority is accepted, on the other hand it could have been a little more realistic. Also, I can’t think of a place that would change the name of their Boy Scouts to Joy Scouts because the Boy Scouts Association do not appreciate homosexuals. I mean, did you go to school with multiple drag queens?
All in all, this novel deserves its Lambda Award, and if you’re looking to read a novel outside of your comfort zone this is for you or if this is exactly your cup of tea then you cannot go wrong here either! Perfect summer reading book, or for a day on the beach!

Purpose.

Hello internet world. This summer I plan on reading a handful of books and want to share my thoughts and opinions via this blog. Thank you to those of you that will read them, comments, be persuaded, or figure our it's actually a book you do not want to read.