‘Game Seven’ Review

Game Seven tells us the story of Julio Ramírez Jr., a teenage shortstop from Cuba. His father has already defected the country by playing in an exhibition game in Baltimore and leaving the team to get signed by the Miami Marlins. Julio is given the choice to leave Cuba like his father, to find freedom in the United States or stay in Cuba with his mother and sister. It is the hardest choice that he will ever have to make.

Let’s start out with the characters. At first, Julio really annoyed me and I felt like all he did was complain. I had to remind myself that he is sixteen years old and going through crazy life changes. That really put it into perspective for me. I think the characters in this book are greatly realistic and relatable even though they are not all likeable. I really liked Luis, Julio’s cousin, though! Characters get a four out of five.

The atmosphere was like nothing I had ever read before. It was very fascinating and different. I would give it once again a four out of five.

The writing in this novel was not anything great. First off, I am not a huge fan of first person perspective, please keep it in third person. The next thing, I felt like it was very much, “I did this and then I did that.” Just telling and not showing. The writing gets a three out of five.

A story of baseball in Cuba and how difficult it is to go from there to play in the MLB in America? The perfect plot. So many of the players we love and watch have gone through quite similar situations. I just cannot imagine being in a refugee situation. I think more people need to see how hard it is to come into this country, especially from one like Cuba. The plot makes this very much worth the read. That being said the plot gets a five out of five.

There is a downfall in this book though and that is the logic. I find it unrealistic a player around the age of forty would get a contract in MLB and be one of the great pitchers. There were a few other things but I won’t go into all of them here. The logic gets a two out of five.

Intrigue, definitely important. ‘Game Seven’, had me like most baseball series, wanting to know what was going to happen next. Maybe there was a little too much intrigue though. I was not really satisfied with the ending of the book. I think there should have been maybe another thirty to forty pages. Intrigue gets a four out of five.

I did enjoy Game Seven and I think that most fans of the game will too. However, I think you should at least be a casual fan of the sport so that you have a better understanding of what you are reading and know all the calls and positions on the diamond. What is your favorite sports book?

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Into the Black: The Inside Story of Metallica Review

Metallica became the biggest band in the world in 1991. The band was already ten years into their career but the were just now releasing their self titled album, more commonly known as ‘The Black Album”. This album was produced by more of a mainstream producer, Bob Rock, who had done albums with Bon Jovi and Motley Crue in the past. That sounds like a thrash metalhead’s nightmare.

The band received loads of criticism for this album. Some saying they were selling out to Hollywood and forgetting their metal roots.The band was growing and trying different things. The album did sell well, becoming one of the top selling albums of the decade. The band had to ride off of this high and continue the momentum. That was done by touring with huge acts of the time on giant stadium tours, making music videos for MTV, and a last making more music.

The 1990s was an awkward time for rock music. Glam was getting thrown out the door and the Seattle grunge was coming in. Bubblegum pop and bands that wouldn’t last for five minutes were taking over the scene. Metal prevailed, Metallica prevailed though while all others fell.

First and foremost, I should state that Metallica are one of my favorite bands. I knew most of the facts going into this book, therefore, it was easy and fast for me to read and understand. I felt like this book did a good job compiling over twenty years into an almost three hundred page book.

This book is about the music and the industry that it is in. Don’t come to this for a juicy tell all but I really don’t think Metallica fans would be looking for that to begin with. At some points there were little personal paragraphs but only about James. I get that he is the frontman but do I really need to know that his eye sight was getting bad and he needed glasses? Just pure randomness.

As I said, I am a fan of this band, mainly their work in the eighties. I don’t think their later albums are bad, bands need to evolve and grow. I think it is important to try different sub genres. I know that Miley Cyrus gets a lot of hate but one of the awesome things about her is that every album is different, never the same. Metallica are the same and I applaud them for that. I learned a lot about that process in this book. I never realized how much criticism the band got for their more modern albums.

My few complaints are very minimum. The writers did get somethings wrong, example one being “[Lars] had flew from Los Angeles to California to see the band perform at the Woolwich Odeon in south London.” Okay, how do you fly from Los Angeles to California and I don’t think London is in California. Point number two, the paragraph is talking about Ron McGovney driving the band to San Francisco from Los Angeles.. on Interstate 95. I95, is the east coast connector and not the west coast. All these “typos” happen in the last twenty pages, I don’t know if the writers were rushing to finish or what. I thought the writers did at times sound cocky. They acted like Metallica were the only band in the world or better than everyone else. That didn’t leave a good feel with me. If you like heavy metal and want to know more, pick this book up.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Prince of Tides Review

The Prince of Tides is a tale of a family. The Wingo family from South Carolina. Heartache and almost every kind of abuse imaginable, happened to this family over their years on Melrose Island in Colleton County. It’s a tragic and unbelievable story that we go through following these characters.

Tom Wingo is told by his mother, that his twin sister, Savannah, has yet again, tried to commit suicide. The doctor would like a family member to come visit her in New York to see how they can try to help her and understand her better. Tom goes up north to the city that you have to be a special kind of person to love. (Tom isn’t one of those people.)

To help his sister, Tom meets Doctor Lowenstein, who is Savannah’s psychiatrist. Lowenstein wants to get down to the bottom of what is causing all these breakdowns in Tom’s sister. At first Tom is hesitant, in the South, he is taught to be loyal to his family and not expose to much as it will harm the family’s reputation. Eventually, Tom realizes he has to do something to help his sister and it might even help himself. Therefore, Tom tells the tale of the Wingo family. Tom starts by telling his parents’ backstories and then bringing it all to the modern day. All the twists and turns of how they became who they are and how they got into the situations that they are in now. It’s a great tale filled with sorrowful memories.

What Pat Conroy does best is writing characters. The two books, I have read by him, are very character driven. His characters are just so real, they all have their flaws and absolutely done of them are perfect. The reader can find something to relate to themselves in all of the characters. They will also feel very much an emotional bond with these characters.

Another thing that Pat Conroy is great at is making the setting of the book a character in itself. The low country setting is just beautiful and you can almost smell the salt in the air by how descriptive and lyrical the writing is.

The writing. The writing is beautiful, as stated earlier it is lyrical and descriptive. It has a nice flow to it and the reader will never have a hard time picturing the scene that is taking place. There is a catch though, with the book being so descriptive, it does seem to go on forever. I’m sorry, I do not care who you are, an almost fifty page chapter is never a good idea. I will just lose interest.

Once again, The Prince of Tides is a character driven story. There is a plot but it is not the main point. I do like the plot of Tom having to tell the doctor, the life story of the Wingo family for us to get that character development. I did predict some points, I won’t say them here as I do not spoil novels in my reviews. Some things were completely random and so out there, though. Trust me, the reader is in for a wild ride in this book.

I did struggle with the intrigue. I dreaded picking up the book at times knowing that it would be dense with the long chapters. I was even following along with the audiobook, so you would think that it would go by faster but it didn’t.

Overall, this was a good book. It did take me over a week to get through but I think it was worth it. The Prince of Tides will stick with me because of all the endurances that these characters had to go through. This was a beautiful book and it paints a picture in your head of life and the beauty of it even though we go through all sorts of times, dark and pleasant. I do recommend picking this one up.

However, do look around for trigger warnings that this book does have. There are quite a few of them.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

My Paper on Frankenstein from High School

I just finished rereading Frankenstein and gosh, my thoughts are different. When I first read the book during my senior year of high school, I felt pity for the creature but now, I HATE the creature. I feel so terrible for Victor even though it does seem like he put himself in this situation. A last, I wanted to showed a paper that I wrote in high school. I got an A+ on this paper but we will see what I think of it now. Let’s take it back to March 06, 2018.

The creature in the novel of, “Frankenstein” comes across many people who are prejudiced towards him just because of the way he looks. This leads the so called monster into becoming insecure. In today’s society, many fall insecure as well because of many things such as a beauty standard or what celebrities or other people may look like. Today most do not react as violently as the creature does but it can cause an impact on their self esteem like the creature.

“Why Did I like? Why, in the instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so want only bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.” In this quote by the creature in the novel, he wonders why Frankenstein had to create him, or why he had to make him the certain way he looks. The creature reflecting on what the villagers reaction of him was. He wanted revenge on the villagers for how they acted towards him. Stated in the quote he was filled with so much rage and anger he could destroy their homes and them and feel happy about it. This is all a result of the people of the village having shown prejudice towards the creature’s outside appearance.

In chapter twelve, the monster speaks of how he is different from the ordinary people; “I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers, their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions; but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At fire I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification.” This is similar to what we call a beauty standard, or the ideal look, the creature did not fall under what he thought was the perfect and ideal look, like the cottagers had. He was in shock when he saw his own appearance for the first time, he was sad, bitter, and insecure. Many people feel this way and people have probably felt those same feelings at some point in their lives since the start of time. The creature seeing himself made him realize why the villagers were so scared of him and acted the way that they did.

The creature wanted his creator, Victor Frankenstein, to make him a companion so he would not feel so alone in this world. In chapter seventeen, it states; “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.” He wants someone who can understand him and know how he feels and what it is like to be a “monster”. This request later leads to the downfall of both Frankenstein and his creature, Victor begins to create a companion for the creature but then feels as though this creature could harm others like the first one. The creature is enraged by this and begins to destroy Victor’s life by killing those who is close to and later killing Victor himself.

The creature faces many prejudices in his life. The old saying says to never judge a book by it’s cover, maybe if Victor would have kept the creature under his wing instead of judging it by its looks it would have not turned out violent. Throughout the novel, it shows the creature has many feelings just like humans do, he goes from feeling despair and insecure to wanting to find lover and then becoming evil because what could have been love was destroyed by his own creator. We should never judge somebody by how they look on the outside but give them a chance as they are probably like us and share the same kind of feelings.

Hey Everyone!

It’s Izzy here! Welcome to my brand new blog. I am still getting into the hang of things on here but I wanted to have a place where I could put my book reviews, including pictures and links because I have yet to find out how to do that on Good Reads.

Here I will keep you up with all things reading, such as my monthly TBR (to be read), hauls of what books I have purchased, and then of course my reviews!