Sammi’s plans on what to say

I’ve been doing some thinking about my blog and what kind of stuff I want to write about–especially with this 30-day challenge. It’s hard coming up with new stuff and I’ll admit during this challenge, I’ve used old poems and old homework assignments and have even copped out. I’m going to try to keep it to a minimum but I’ve got 17 days left in this challenge so no guarantees.

I want to do more narrative journalism/non-fiction pieces like my last one so I’m going to make it my goal to try to do one per month. I want each one to be about my experiences here in IF so hopefully this will help me get out into the community and get a life (which would accomplish one of my goals for the year).

The Book of Joe: A review

“Statistically speaking, it’s damn near impossible to write a best-seller. It’s also remarkably difficult to piss off an entire town. Overachiever that I am, I managed to accomplish both feats in one fell swoop. When it comes to alienation, I’m something of a prodigy.”

-Joe Goffman

No statement better sums up the plot of Jonathan Tropper’s second novel, “The Book of Joe”, than this.

Protagonist Joe Goffman returns from Manhattan to his small Connecticut hometown of Bush Falls after trashing its inhabitants in his bestselling novel (that’s later turned into a movie…to make matters worse) that shares its name with the town. He left right after he graduated high school and has been gone for 17 years. Joe’s estranged from his family and any friends he may have had (which weren’t that many to begin with) and the only reason he’s returned to the town he never thought he’d see again is because his father–to whom he could never relate and has always felt to be a disappointment–had a stroke and is in a coma.

The Shadow of the Wind: A review

It’s not too difficult to find a book that will make you laugh as well as make you cry; nor is it that hard to find a book that will make you angry to the point where you just want to scream and throw it against the wall (in a good way, of course). But I’ve got to be honest when I say that for me, finding a book that has left me feeling jealous yet inspired is an occurrence that has been very few and far between. However, after reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s novel, The Shadow of the Wind (translated by Lucia Graves) that’s exactly how I felt: Jealous because I wanted to write like Zafon; inspired because I wanted to write like Zafon. Okay, not exactly like Zafon, but as a writer, one can’t help but want to have the same firm grasp on language as he does.