Blog Post 9

     Reading the second part of Maps To Anywhere was very interesting and I did enjoy this particular book of essays, so they call them. There was one section that really caught my eye called "Saturday". For some reason this caught my attention because it was a lot of questions more then writing. "Can mother muster enough thrust to leave the earth in a sudden leap? Does father need words of encouragement, a rabbits foot, a running start? Will they rise above our suburb at dusk and see it studded with lights?" This is how the beginning of this small section starts. 

     It made me think maybe he is talking about his parents going to heaven, or maybe them going to a better place. The title called Saturday really doesn't fit with what he is trying to say here which is interesting. The last sentence says "Spying their children aglow on earth with a meager heat, do flying parents cry like geese." Cry like geese is a weird comparison, I think if the author is talking about death he should use nice words and use comparisons that people find happy because everyone likes to think heaven is a good place, and that everyone is happy up there. It make it seem less scary fort those down here. Maybe he wasn't even talking about death but that is what I got from this part, especially from all the questions that are unanswered. 

     There were many other parts I liked about this book, all the stories were very interesting. It wasn't certain you could tell what time of his life it was, or even who exactly was in every story. I liked the overall message of the story the whole family thing was nice. I would have liked to see a better ending, but it did give a good message and I think it was well thought out and put together. 

Blog Post 8

     Starting off with reading the first page of the book it gets you interested because it starts with a phone conversation. It is a great lead to make me want to continue reading to see why or who is calling the character. They begin to talk about names which is kind of funny but it makes the main character remember things about his name, and about other peoples names. He says "my own name was problematic" he starts remembering times where he thought his own mother couldn't remember what his name was, she remember all her other children's names but not his and he would always call him in last. Does this have anything to do with what his childhood was like? Maybe he thought he was neglected and thought his mother liked his brothers and sisters better then she liked him.
     After the name thing fades away it just starts off into another story, so far I think it is a little confusing because you don't really know anything about what the book is going to be about, but maybe thats why the title is "Maps To Anywhere" because it is going to be all over the place. There may be just a bunch of little stories in one big story, and it can go anywhere and tell a story about anything.
     There are different titles for the different stories in this one big story. I read the "Heralds" which refers to religion, and "The Miracle Chicken" which was very interesting and it made me wonder about the whole story. Each little part in the book I think is a little clip of someones real life. It makes you want to know what the next story is going to be but you don't really have an idea of the persons whole life or who the people are in the story. They don't really have any description of people there is only description of things that have happened. It is kind of like a friend telling you each of theses stories about there life. I don't really know what to think so far, I would like to keep reading so hopefully I get a better understanding of why the book was made and what it is trying to say.

Blog Post 7

     I started looking at the short essays that we are going to be working on next unit. I really like these because they are a little bit more in depth about one particular thing or object. I read the essay called Lenses which was really interesting. I think that Lenses reflects on someones life. They talk about when you look through different lenses.
     This story made me reflect on what it is like for everyone in the world and how you get used to a certain routine and everyone just does what is normal to them. The first line of the essay says "You get used to looking through lenses" this is the line that got me intrigued into reading this essay. It means that each person does what they can to get through the day and they get used to a certain way of living. This essay also makes you reminisce on the sight you take for granted.
     I think that the essays are going to be better then the short stories because of the fact they are more in detail and have a purpose to serve. I like the way everything is wording and they have a different way of writing. It is different then anything we have looked at, but mostly it is trying to tell an actual story that people can relate to.