Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Hey everyone! I am excited that I got to be the 1st cousin to post! I just got finished reading a book called Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck is an amazing author that has written alot of books, such as East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, The Red Pony, Travels With Charley, and others. The book is during the time of the Dust Bowl, and for those of you who dont know what that is, this link attached explains what it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl.

The Joad family lives in Okahoma, and none of them have jobs, so they are forced to pack up and leave there house with barely enough money, and a tiny car. The Joad techinically consists of 12 people, but an old family friend tags along. They traveled to California to find work with picking peaches, and cotton, and peas. The book goes along, the Joad family going through lots of difficulties and trials. They go through death in there family, and there family splitting apart from lack of faith and hope. The Joads try to stick together, and earn money to feed there family, and keep a job. I would definetely rate this book a 5/5. I took alot of patience, but it was so worth it. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone in Middle School-High School and beyond. You wont regret reading this book.

On your marks, get set, BLOG!

Months after I originally thought up this blog, I think we're actually ready to bring this thing to life. I was able to give Zach, Brenn, and Karly somewhat of a tutorial during our reunion. It's all pretty straight forward. Everyone will have author rights so anyone can post and edit their family pages. I'm going to try and figure out a way for everyone to be able to track their progress towards 25, 40, and 50 hours. In the meantime, keep track on your own and get reading! I'm well on my way to meeting my 2011 goal of reading 8 books (not counting the many books I read as a professor). I hope to hear about what you're reading and what you think about what you're reading. Let the blog begin!

My favorite book. . .

is Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. It was written in Spain more than 400 years ago. The book tells the adventurous story of a middle-aged man (Alonso Quijano) who loses his mind from reading too many books about knights and not getting enough sleep. The result is that he thinks he is a knight, and so he puts on some old armor, gives himself a new name (Don Quixote), jumps on his aging horse, and goes out into the world to do the kinds of things knights do. I first read the novel when I was in college at BYU and have read it a number of times over the years.

The image to the right is the original title page of the novel. You'll notice that it includes the year it was published (1605) and the full title (at the very top). Below the title is the name of the author followed by a dedication, a fancy publisher's image, where it was published, the name of the publisher, and where it is sold. Although four centuries have passed, basically the same information appears on title pages of books today. The image below is one of my favorites. As you can see, it is a picture within a picture. The windmills that you see come from the most famous adventure of the novel, when Don Quixote confuses windmills with giants. When he tries to attack the giants (which are really windmills), well, you can imagine the problems he has. What else do you see in the picture?

So why do I love this book so much? First of all, I love the characters. The protagonist, Don Quixote, is funny, crazy, inspiring, creative, heroic, and just wonderful. He makes you laugh one moment and cry the next. He has one of the best imaginations you'll ever find. His squire, Sancho Panza, is very entertaining as well. They are my favorite duo in literature. I also love how the book is written. There are stories within the story, many references to other books, multiple narrators, and so much more. You can tell that the author had a lot of fun writing the book. I consider Don Quixote required reading for life! When you feel ready to take it on (it's around a thousand pages), let me know and I'll make sure to get you your own copy.

So what's your favorite book and why? You can either comment on this post or create your own post with pictures and whatever else you may want to include.