The Lovely Bones Annotation

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Boston: Little Brown and, 2002. Print. (328 Pages)

                The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was yet another new reading experience and differed from some the the books I have previously read. My previously read books centered on deep and moving concepts. For instance The Help was about the struggles of African American maids facing discrimination during the 1960s and A Thousand Splendid Suns was centered on a woman’s struggles. I hate to say that The Lovely Bones had a “lighter” theme because there were very deep parts, but the overall theme did not have as great of an impact than some of the other books.

The Lovely Bones was also an entirely new and interesting concept; a murder mystery written by the victim that was trying to help her family discover the killer for themselves. I think that this was a brilliant writing approach taken by the author. It set the book apart from the others and gave readers a fresh perspective on murder mysteries.

The author developed the characters with such depth and different personalities that it elevated the status of the book in my opinion. I felt myself becoming attached to the lives of Susie’s family because she cared so deeply about them. The book obviously included the aftermath of the murder which caused me, as a reader, to feel the emotions of the family and understand their actions.

I think that the book was fantastic. I have never read any “thrilling” books before. I figured that because the author disclosed the facts of the murder in the very beginning of the book there would be no suspense and that it would be a bit boring but I was proved completely wrong. I was on the “edge of my chair” for the majority of this book and found myself reading it for hours on end. (317)

Slutty Brownies - Part 3

            DO NOT stop whisking the ingredients until the brownie mix is finished. I know it sucks, and you may need to recruit other chumps, I mean people, to take over the whisking for you. After the cocoa powder, sugar, and butter is combined and the pan is far away from its heat source, add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. I assume that I don’t need to remind you to keep whisking. After those ingredients are mixed in, add the flour. Alas! Once the flour is added, you can stop whisking. Just go ahead and put the batter somewhere else when you are done.

            Next, you can make the cookie dough for the cookie layer. Luckily for you, there is no need for a whisk and you should obtain an electric mixer. In the mixer, cream the butter and the sugars. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix these ingredients together on a low speed until everything is good and combined. Finally you get to take the mix away from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips. This type of folding is not what happens for clothes or an assortment of towels. To fold in the chocolate chips, take a spoon, I usually use a wood one, and after the chocolate chips are added on the top, put the spoon on the bottom of the bowl and bring it up and over with the cookie dough until it is completely mixed together and looks delicious. I assume that there is some warning somewhere that says not to eat the dough so I will repeat the same warning: DO NOT eat the raw cookie dough. It is definitely not good, or scrumcious, or delectable, so it would just be a waste to eat it. After you have not eaten a fair portion of the dough, set it next to your brownie batter. (343) 

Slutty Brownies - Part 2

            DO NOT stop whisking the ingredients until the brownie mix is finished. I know it sucks, and you may need to recruit other chumps, I mean people, to take over the whisking for you. After the cocoa powder, sugar, and butter is combined and the pan is far away from its heat source, add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. I assume that I don’t need to remind you to keep whisking. After those ingredients are mixed in, add the flour. Alas! Once the flour is added, you can stop whisking. Just go ahead and put the batter somewhere else when you are done.

            Next, you can make the cookie dough for the cookie layer. Luckily for you, there is no need for a whisk and you should obtain an electric mixer. In the mixer, cream the butter and the sugars. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix these ingredients together on a low speed until everything is good and combined. Finally you get to take the mix away from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips. This type of folding is not what happens for clothes or an assortment of towels. To fold in the chocolate chips, take a spoon, I usually use a wood one, and after the chocolate chips are added on the top, put the spoon on the bottom of the bowl and bring it up and over with the cookie dough until it is completely mixed together and looks delicious. I assume that there is some warning somewhere that says not to eat the dough so I will repeat the same warning: DO NOT eat the raw cookie dough. It is definitely not good, or scrumcious, or delectable, so it would just be a waste to eat it. After you have not eaten a fair portion of the dough, set it next to your brownie batter. (320) 

Slutty Brownies - Part 1

            Like the name suggests, this brownie is a bit off the wall and crazy BUT they are completely delicious. I found the recipe on http://whatsgabycooking.com and made them with some friends the other night and have decided that they are so delicious that I want to share them with you. First you need to make sure you have all of the ingredients though listed below.

For the Brownie layer:

o10 tbsp unsalted butter

o 1 1/4 cups white sugar

o    3/4 cup cocoa powder

o   1/2 tsp salt

o    2 tsp vanilla extract

o    2 large eggs

o   1/2 cup AP flour

For the Oreo layer:

o    1 package of Oreo (regular stuffed or double stuffed)

For the Cookie Dough layer:

o    1 cup unsalted butter (at room temp)

o    1/2 cup brown sugar

o    1 1/2 cup white sugar

o    2 eggs

o    2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

o    2 1/2 cup AP flour

o    1 tsp salt

o    1 tsp baking soda

o    1 tsp baking powder

o    2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

The first step of baking is to preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. The first step of preparation is to make the brownie layer. The brownie batter that we made did not taste very good however so we ended up making the brownies from a box. Our fall out was that we used bread flour instead of normal flour and left half of the ingredients all over the kitchen. So, if you find that your brownie layer doesn’t work out, the box brownies taste just as delicious.

            To start the brownies, find a medium sauce pan and melt the butter over medium high heat. Make sure the butter doesn’t burn in the pan by continually moving it around. DO NOT burn the butter. I can tell you from experience that it smells absolutely disgusting. When the butter completely melts, add the cocoa powder and sugar. Whisk the ingredients to combine them and then remove the pan from the heat. (343)

A Thousand Splendid Suns Annotation

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. (367 pages)

                I have begun to read a lot of interesting and different books this year. Each one is different than the other and there aren’t two books that are alike. This year I have read The Help, The Shack, and many others that are each based in a different time period and in a different setting or country than the last. A Thousand Splendid Suns was definitely not an exception to this trend.

                A Thousand Splendid Suns is basically a book centered on the inner strengths of women and how they deal with their struggles. This is also a first theme in the books I have read. It’s very interesting to read about the strengths of these women because I am a woman and can think from the same point of view. I think it adds to my personal experience of the book because of the female similarity.

                The setting of this book really isn’t completely different from others I have previously read. I should say time period because the location is completely different.  From what I can tell, this book is around present day, maybe later like the 1970s or 1960s or so. This time period isn’t really that different from other books because they were all written about the same approximate time. The location of the book however, is in Afghanistan. Previous books were mostly based closer to home or with the same type of culture. I find it interesting to read a book located in Afghanistan because I am not really familiar with the customs or landscape in Afghanistan.

                I found this book to be very interesting. I think that the setting change contributes to my fascination and the story is actually very moving. There were so many times I found myself awestruck by what Mariam was dealing with and it just made me glad I wasn’t in her position. (331)

ACT versus SAT - Part 2

1)      The ACT also has a bit more advanced math section that covers more math concepts than the SAT does. The SAT only covers algebra and geometry in their questions whereas the ACT add a bit of trigonometry. In my opinion, the trigonometry questions are nice to see because they are the freshest in my mind because my school teaches trigonometry to students when they are juniors and seniors.

2)     There is an essay offered for both of the tests but only the SAT requires one to be written. The ACT has a thirty minute optional writing test but obviously, students do not need to take it. The score is also not included in the final composite score. It is listed separately in student’s scores. The SAT has a required twenty five minute essay in beginning of the test in which the score is included into the writing score. The writing score is also factored in to the composite score so ultimately the writing portion does affect your score on the SAT.

3)     The SAT has more sections than the ACT and is broken up more. There are four tests in the ACT; writing, math, reading, and science. The SAT tests three areas; reading, math, and writing but is broken up into ten different sections. It is a little of everything and switches back and forth. The test taker will take some math, and then some reading, then some writing, and then a little more math, etc.

4)     The final key difference is the way that college boards view each test. The ACT is viewed for the composite score so if someone is weaker in one area than others, they could still get a pretty good score. College boards look at how a student did on each section of the SAT however so there is a possibility that the student might score lower.

ACT versus SAT - Part 1

          The ACT is the most frequently taken test by prospective college students, the SAT coming in second. To help write this blog, I relied on a list from princetonreview.com that compared the two. I stumbled upon it and thought that it was interesting so I decided to share it. Below I wrote a condensed form of the list.

          The biggest reason to take either of these tests depends on which colleges you want to go to. The ACT is required by almost any college that a student applies to. The SAT however, is only required by about one hundred in the United States. There are about seven key differences between the two tests.

         

1)     The questions on the ACT tend to be a lot more straightforward than the questions on the SAT. The questions on the SAT are generally harder to understand and take a lot more time to figure out what they are asking. Here are two examples given by the Princeton Review;

“SAT: What is in your view of the claim that something unsuccessful can still have some value?”

“ACT: In your view, should high schools be more tolerant of cheating?”

2)     The SAT focuses a lot more on vocabulary than the ACT and includes a lot more challenging words. It also has a section that actually tests vocabulary

Ex:

Alfred Schnittke's musical compositions are -------: phrases are clipped, broken into sections, and split apart by long rests.

(A)                       Garnished

(B)                      Improvisational

(C)                      Fragmented

(D)                     Cautious

(E)                      Uniform

3)     While the SAT has a vocabulary section and the ACT does not, the ACT has a science section while the SAT does not. The science section in the ACT however is not meant to test one’s knowledge of formulas, phylums, or chemical equations though; it is actually designed in a way that would test your reading and reasoning skills. They will give you an experiment or study to read and ask you questions regarding the information. (334)