Blue Highways

At first, I did not know that to expect from this book. I figured it would be purely travel and was not expecting to learn much about the author. William Least Heat-Moon actually has a great sense of humor and makes the stories a lot more appealing. He begins by talking about how is let off from his job of being a college professor, then finds out that his ex-wife that he broke up with 9 months ago, now has a new "friend." It is easy to see the struggles that this man is going through, and when he decides to take a trip across America by ways of the smallest highways he sees, the reader gets the impression that this guy is crazy. I have heard of people taking trips across the country, but never by the longest route possible. He is amused out of the names of towns, and that is one attracting element for William. Brooklyn Bridge, Kentucky; and Nameless, Tennessee are two of my favorites. He tells humorous stories, and is never afraid to go into towns and learn from the natives. His story in Nameless involves him going into a "mom and pop" store and conversing about why the name of Nameless was given to this town. Once they tell him, they then ask him to join them for lunch, and he ends up making a day out of it. It takes a lot of guts to be able to do what William is doing. Its obvious that he reached his breaking point in life and just needed something new to look forward to.

Northern Lights 2

When the novel first begins, the reader feels a great deal of remorse for Clarissa. She goes through her fathers funeral, only to be told by her fiance that it wasn't her biological father. Her fiance, Panjak, is really the only person in the world that she can trust. Clarissa has a little brother, but unfortunately he has down syndrome. It struck me as absurd when Clarissa said that she envied her brother because he probably didn't know what was really going on with the fathers funeral and his surroundings. Clarissa leaves her one true love to search for her biological father. After finding her birth certificate, she is compelled to travel from New York to above the Arctic circle. You really get to feel this character unraveling, as she sleeps with a man and leaves him the next morning. It's understandable that she does this, because I believe that she was so confused on what love actually meant, since her life seemed to be empty of it for the most part. In need to feel important, she threw herself at a man, only to leave him behind like she had been left by her family.
Throughout a long journey, Clarissa finally is able to meet her mother. One would think that when your mom has abandoned you for 19 years, and never told you the truth about your father, it would be hard, if not impossible, to gather up the courage to go see her. The comical aspect to this book, is that once Clarissa ends up meeting her mom, she turns out to be a lot like herself. The entire book Clarissa is giving people short one sentence answers, and we find out that she obtained this attribute from her mother. It's hard to read that when a daughter has traveled all around the world and left the one person she actually cares about, she is greeted with, "You have always tried to get a reaction out of me."
It is true that every daughter has a mother, and I believe that Clarissa is legitimately scared about the mother she would turn out to be based on her own. This could be a reason why she ends up blowing off the life she had back in New York, and staying over seas. Theres a possibility that she just couldn't face the thought of doing to a little girl what she had done to her. It's also ironic because Clarissa's life has revolved around the fact that she had loved ones leave her, and now she is doing the same thing to her fiance.
The mother in this movie reminds me a lot of the mother from the movie Evelyn. The mother, Charlotte Doyle, just leaves her husband and three kids behind one day. with no real notice, just like Clarissa's mom. Charlotte was also very closed off from the family before she even left, and would not make much of an effort to care for the family. Even tho one can't help but feel sorrow for this girl, you still understand, and almost forgive her for being the way she is once you get to understand her mother.

Let the northern lights erase your name 1

This book has started off a lot better then expected. This is a story about family, love, self being, and importance. The main character, Clarissa, is not the typical protagonist, and I still can't figure out why the reader is so drawn to her. Clarissa leaves her boyfriend Panjak, without even saying a word. Once she finds out that her father was not her real birth father, she secretly packs and heads over seas. A person who can just sneak out in the middle of the night leaving their loved one behind is not someone that the reader usually cares for, but the author does such a good job of making you actually feel for this character. Another aspect of Clarissa that I am not too fond of is her outook on her family. She actually says in the story that she envies her retarted brother, because he does not understand that their father passed away. This is a horribly offensive thing to say, especially about a sibling. However when finding out about all of her troubles and secrets, you still feel sympathy for her. What I do like about this book is the feeling of freedom. The narrator speaks freely and does not restrict the true feelings about any topic. In this case, I think the obscene language is actually a positive addition.
It's hard to say whether or not Clarissa overreacts to learning about the information of her dad because I have never personally been in that situation. The reader learns a lot about the protagonist once she heads on her journey, because one event that occurs is Clarissa sleeping with another man, only to sneak out after. I am very interested to see whether or not Clarissa comes to terms with her family situations and heads back to the states, or whether she lets these secrets haunt her, and stays over seas.

Reading

It took me a very long time to find out that love to read. I have always been an avid fan of movies, and believed that I could get the same excitement out of stories from watching them as reading them. The first books that I started to read were James Patterson novels. My brother was reading "The beach house" when I was in the the 7th grade, and was telling me how great it was. From that book on, I was sold to anything that Patterson put out. Reading at least 15 of his books, I attribute my interest in reading because of those books. Eventually I learned that the two things I love to read are suspense, and biographies.
My favorite places to read is either on an airplane or in my bedroom at home. I think the reason I was always turned off to reading is because in grade school, the only books that we read were boring and insignificant. The only book I can remember reading for school that I liked was The Great Gatsby. Im still hoping they make a modern day adaptation for it too. The draw to reading now is that the information you acquire after reading is long lasting.