Rachel Livingston

[doylecasey]

Finals are all next week and I am freaking out to the max!!! I am personally so very thankful that for this Lit class we get a basic “guide” in a sense! It is so funny to me what questions I feel like I can answer super quick and what questions I desperately needed group help on!! I am still...

[rachellivingston21]

I am SO STRESSED! I feel your pain, girl. Luckily out lit test is pretty straight forward and we have a study guide to really help us out on it. I am so glad that we were able to answer the questions about The Goon Squad when we were in class last Monday, cause I would have been seriously lost if we hadn't! If I run into any trouble on the study guide when reviewing The Road you can expect a text from me asking for your help! Good luck studying, be sure to drink a ton of caffeine!!

[rachellivingston21]

Finished!

Happy to say that everything is finished and the last thing to do is study for finals! This week has been extremely stressful, as two of my hardest classes had exams before next week. But now that they are finished, I can fully focus on getting a good grade on my finals next week! I am extremely glad that we were all able to have a couple of days for final review until the weather ruined our last review day! Luckily the group I am in finished the section of AVFTGS questions, since that seemed to be the most difficult to recall and answer! I'm glad that The Road is seemingly easier to remember compared to AVFTGS! Good luck to everyone this weekend; be sure to drink a ton of coffee and study!!

[mikmc12-deactivated20150303]

Due to my lack of memory skills I will take these nice little tumblr post back in time through out class . Lets start with “A Visit From the Goon Squad” and how it took all the will power in me to read this book. To even get through the first chapter was hard enough. Which made I add the first...

[rachellivingston21]

I seriously feel your pain! I just looked and realized I need to post a few more before this Friday! A Visit From the Goon Squad was seriously the hardest novel for me to get through this semester. When I read the first chapter, I already knew I was going to have a beyond difficult time getting into it. As far as the final goes, I think this will be the novel I really need to focus on as far as studying. The Road is very to the point, so that one shouldn't be too bad on the final! Lets study this weekend

[rachellivingston21]

The Road

I cant lie, I need to hurry my butt up and finish this book by Monday! I'm more than half way through, but for some reason when I try to read at night (which is typically my only free time), it makes me so tired! It is a very slow paced novel, and I feel like it actually lets the reader get a sense of how long the man and boy have been traveling on the road. This novel is definitely way easier to follow compared to A Visit From the Goon Squad, especially since there are only two characters to keep up with rather than a dozen. However, the boy in this novel really gets on my nerves. I know that I should be more sympathetic, since they are in the post apocalyptic world, but he really needs to man up and start walking for himself! The man is always carrying him and he is just as weak as the boy. It's very frustrating, so I am really hoping by the end of this book the boy gets a little more brave. 

#04/18/2014 

[natashabailey910]

This book was awful. The weaknesses definitely outnumbered the stregnths. The weaknesses I found in this book were switching point of views each chapter, bouncing back and forth time periods, thousands of characters to keep up with, the book does not really give you closing, and there are probably...

[rachellivingston21]

I completely agree with you! This was hands down one of the worst books I have had to read. I know that may sound negative of me, but I think it is mainly because of my personal preference of novels. I enjoy a more linear story line, along with continuous characters and minimal jumping around from topic to topic. And I also agree with how you said the ending does not exactly give the reader any sense of closure. We just read over 200 pages about some of these characters and then hardly get any sense of what happened to each one! The Road so far is much better!

[rachellivingston21]

FINISHED!

I have never been so excited to have completed a novel! I am so happy that A Visit From The Goon Squad is finally over, along with being confused on which character is which. It was nice that we got to go into depth in class on a couple of the last chapters though, especially since they were both a bit obscure and hard to grasp some underlying symbolism. I think the best thing about being done with this novel is now focusing on the next novel, that of which I have been anticipating all semester long! I just bought the novel today, and since it is apparently an easy read, I should be all caught up by Monday. Happy reading, everyone!

#04112014

[natashabailey910]

The Road

Has anyone started reading The Road yet?? I started reading it yesterday and I had to keep reading. I finished the whole novel in one day. I have to say it was the best book I have read all semester! It was not confusing and didn’t have a billion points of views or characters to remember! I just do not know how it relates to post modernism. Hope when you start reading it you enjoy it as much as I did. I think it was a great novel to save for the last reading. 

[rachellivingston21]

I have not starting reading the novel yet, but I plan to start reading it tonight! I have to say I am extremely excited to start, and I am even more excited to watch the movie at some point once I have completed the novel. These past few books have been pretty hard for me to get through, especially the last one we read! I can't wait to get started on this book and begin discussing it in class!

[rachellivingston21]

Goon Squad

One more chapter to go! I should be done with the novel already, but by the end of tonight I will complete the reading assignment. It's been an interesting novel, and although this so far has been my least favorite, i'm sure it could have been much worse! What I liked about this novel the is the foreshadowing seen in many chapters, especially the chapter "Safari". I liked how the author let the reader know what would happen to a certain character in the years that follow. What I disliked about the novel was the over abundance of characters! It drove me crazy, trying to constantly keep up with who is who and remembering who was in a relationship and who was not. I am extremely happy to be close to finishing the novel and begin reading The Road. 

#04032014

[natashabailey910]

I started reading our new novel and so far i have only made it to chapter 2&1/2 :). So far the story seems to be interesting. Out of what I have read so far it is about a woman who finds joy in stealing things from people. She is an assistant to some music producer maybe? I think the story kinds of flashbacks a little but I am not certain yet. I am looking forward to discussing these first few chapter so I can get a better understanding as I continue to read on. Has anyone found any POMO in it yet?

I think that what stood out to me as far as POMO is how in each chapter, the narrator discusses different characters, mainly focusing on one's individual story. For instance, the first chapter was the story of Sasha, and the second about Bennie. I also think that another element of POMO is how the author brings up the subject of sex and drugs throughout the chapters. 

#03/30/14

[rachellivingston21]

Am I the only one

Treading through this novel so far? It's not that it is necessarily boring, I just feel like I am having a hard time getting completely into it. I feel like I'm pretty behind as far as the reading goes, and I think it's because I have to keep going back and checking on which characters are which. I'm sure that the more I continue to read, it'll get a bit easier. So far I think Bennie is a pretty strange character, especially since he has almost a dependency on his "gold flakes". It'll be interesting to see where this character goes and who he develops into!

#3/30/14 

[rachellivingston21]

SB 2014

It is FINALLY spring break and midterms are officially over! The midterm was not worth getting so much anxiety over, and I am definitely hoping I did well on it. On another note, I'm so grateful to have this week to catch up on some school work, relax, and go to Tampa for a mini getaway. I hope that everyone has a safe, fun, and exciting spring break while staying responsible and safe! 

03152014

[kkesther]

I am going to do my critical thinking essay on The Things They Carried and I’m focusing on the theme of love for it. I really enjoyed the concept of finding love in that novel that is focused on so much on hurt and pain. It has been interesting thus far digging into the story and finding love in...

[rachellivingston21]

I just finished revising my critical response on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and the theme that I chose was also love! I think its awesome how in both of the novels love is such a prominent theme, especially because like you said, it is very focused on hurt or pain. I had a hard time choosing my theme at first, but after thinking about it, I realized how many circumstances revolve around love in the novel. I think it's awesome the theme you chose for your novel was love too!

[rachellivingston21]

Extremely Stressed and Incredibly Panicked

I just finished revising my paper tonight, which I can only hope I did decently on. As far as the midterm for this course goes, I can't say I feel 100% prepared! I somehow lost my PAF novel, so I am hoping that I can remember most of what we read. I'm very grateful for tomorrow's class, especially since we will get to discuss any material we do not understand. We've got one more week until we are released for spring break, which makes this week extremely tough to get through! I'm ready for midterms to be over and for next week to begin! 

#03092014

[rachellivingston21]

Almost finished with book #2!

I will be finishing up Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close this weekend, and I honestly cannot wait to see what the ending is. I have become a little more fond of this novel as I continue to read, and I am truly enjoying reading the chapters involving Oskar's Grandfather. I know that many people dislike his character, but my heart honestly goes out to him when I read the chapters that he wrote. It's so sad that the decisions the grandfather made resulted in missing out on his own son's life, hurting the woman who loved him unconditionally, and missing out of most of Oskar's childhood. What the grandfather went through in Dresdin I believe changed him forever, causing him to detach himself from anyone or anything that he truly cared about in fear of losing them. These last few chapters in the book have been hard to read; not as far as the context, but as far as the emotional aspect of the story goes. 

#02282014

[doylecasey]

I am all over the place with this book. I am having slight troubles focusing on the different chapters with how they jump.

On the plus side of things, I enjoy the mixed media. I feel like it helps me see what exactly what the author wanted me to see. The notebook pages, the folder, the random key...

[rachellivingston21]

I have to agree with you on the topic about elephants. I love elephants to begin with, they have always been a favorite animal of mine. I recently read an article about how elephants are extremely emotional creatures, and that they too mourn over deaths of a loved one-such as humans do. I found this section in the novel to be extremely interesting, and almost necessary to bring about a certain emotion during this chapter. 

[rachellivingston21]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I'm not going to lie, this has been a tough novel for me to get interested in. There are parts that are intriguing to me, but oftentimes, I find myself  getting bored with the character Oskar. He can be quite redundant at times, and it's hard for me to fully get into what he is saying or talking about. I think that the overall idea of the story is heartwarming though, especially since the novel is based on Oskar trying to gain a sense of closeness to his dad who passed away on 9/11 through a key he found in his closet. I'm hoping that as the story progresses I'll find the novel a little more exciting! 

#022014

[doylecasey]

I actually remembered we are suppose to be talking about the passage “Shiloh”. If it was way I found this article to fit the category of post modernism, it was the idea how the passage was about a relationship; a marriage. I did not think this was very traditional. Also, because of this point I...

[rachellivingston21]

I completely agree with you as far as how this story portrayed postmodernism, especially with the traditional roles of the wife and husband in a marriage. Instead of Leroy going to work each day or building the log house he was always thinking about, the stayed home and didn't do much. I think you’re right in that his ideas were great, but sitting around wasn't going to get him very far! And yes, as far as the mother goes that was pretty funny, as she was the typical definition of an annoying in-law.