I will admit that I have not finished this book yet. I am only half-way through it, and it is taking me forever to get to the ending of it. This book is one that I chose on my own, so no, I do not have a class to associate it with. The author of the novel also wrote The Devil Wears Prada. And don't get the wrong message, just because I am taking forever to finish it does not mean that I do not like it. I absolutely love the story, it is just that I do not have a lot of time to read it.

For anyone who has read The Devil Wears Prada, or has seen the movie (book is SO much better!!!), this book is very similar. The main character, Bette, starts out working for a banking company. She eventually gets so fed up with it that she quits. After taking a month hiatus, her uncle gets her a job. The job is working with a public relations company. This company is insane. Any woman who loves to gossip about celebrities, or reads tabloids, than you MUST read this book. Bette begins working for this company and gets a somewhat glamorous life. She gets to go out to all different expensive bars, and gets to party with hot guys. This book includes boys, booze, and gossip...what else could anyone else? Bette gets to plan a huge party, and a whole bunch of celebrities go to it. It's all very exciting, and of course it's the life that I want to live (I say that with every glamorous book like this).

Of course as a teenager I am in love with the book. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys reading teen novels or about the exciting life of women living in New York City. I wish I could tell you more, but I really don't have much to say. I am only half-way through the story. Once I read more I promise to update you on what happens. And if anyone does finish it before me, please do not ruin the ending of it! I am excited to see what happens with Bette and her love interests.

Maria: Or the Wrongs of Women was a great story. It too was not very long, and I read it for my Gothic class. The story is about a woman, Maria, who was put into a prison. Before she was put into prison, she was pregnant, and had her child right before being arrested. The book is a narrative of Maria telling her child that she hopes that it is not a daughter. She says how hard it is for women to survive in society, and how they will never get anywhere. However, she does tell women to continue to fight for their rights, and hopefully someday they will make an impact.

This book is a little over 150 pages, but it is really good. It is written in a very wonderful way. The first part is a third person narrative, but than the characters have their own stories that they tell. Before we learn about Maria, we learn about her guard keeper, and how she got there. Both stories are about how the women were oppressed because of their sex. The stories are very upsetting to read, however, they are very good readings. They keep the reader interested, and everyone hopes that something good will happen to the women. This book was very powerful to read, especially for women. It was painful to read the story as a woman and to see the pain that the women had to go through, and then end up in a prison/asylum.

What is interesting about the story is the ending of it. There is no real ending of the story. It was never finished, and when you get to the end, there are a few suggested endings. While reading the suggested endings, you will think that none of them fit correctly with the story. Some of them are just so absurd, that it is impossible to think of how the author could have come up with them. At least none of them were actually chosen to finish the story. If you guys read the story, I would love to know what you thought about the different endings. Also, if there are any females that read the book, I want to know your reaction to what happened to Maria.

Good Country People is a short story that I read for my U.S. Literature class. It is a really short read, only eleven pages, and I recommend everyone to read it. The story is about a mother and daughter who live on a house located on a farm. They of course are Country people and love anyone else who is Country people. One day, while the mother and daughter are home a young man comes to the house to sell bibles. When he leaves, he has a conversation with the daughter. The two of them decide to meet and hang out the next day. What happens when they are together is very upsetting. I will not tell you what happens since it is the ending, but I am sure everyone will be upset by what happens.

I really enjoyed the story because of the way it is set up. Throughout the story there were flashbacks of when the Bible selling boy came to visit the day before. There was also conversation dispersed within the writing. The conversation is between the mother and one of the women who lives on her property. This makes the story more complex and exciting. This way the story does not just have one story to it, and it's not monotone.

Another great part about the story is the character of the daughter. The daughter's name is Joy. She lost one of her legs when she was ten years old by a hunting gun. She has been unhappy ever since, and now she is a thirty-two year old who lives with her mother. Joy has a doctorate in Philosophy but does nothing with it. She is extremely unhappy because of her situation. What is interesting about her is that she legally changes her name. Since she has never been happy, she does not think that her name should be Joy. She changes it to Hulga, which she thinks is one of the ugliest names that she could choose. However, her mother never calls her Hulga. It is interesting how important Hulga's name is for her to explain how she really feels.

If anyone has a few minutes, I would suggest that you read the story. You guys will love it, and you will have true and honest feelings for Hulga or Joy. I would love to hear what you guys have to say about her and about what happens to her!

Quicksand is a short short story that I read for my U.S. Literature class. The story was around 100 pages, and it was very good. It is about a girl named Helga who is black, but her father was black and her mother white. Helga lives within a black community, Harlem, but she feels like she does not belong. She then moves to Copenhagen where she has an aunt. The location that she lives in is very white, but people do not ignore Helga because she is black. Helga becomes bored with living in Copenhagen, just like she got bored with living in Harlem. When she goes back to Harlem to visit, she realizes how much she misses living there, but she knows that she would never be happy living there for the rest of her life. She also knows that she would not be happy living back in Copenhagen. Helga finally finds a man who she decides to marry just so that she does not have to worry about her future anymore.

I loved reading about the main character Helga Crane. The story is about her trying to find where she feels comfortable and who she is comfortable with. Helga tries so hard to fit in with the people that she thinks she belongs to that she forgets to find out who she really is. Since Helga is so confused, the reader is able to relate to her.

I really enjoyed reading this story. I loved how Nella Larsen wrote it and the descriptions that she used. This story was so completely based about color and fitting in. Helga would always talk about colors of clothes that she is allowed to wear because of her skin color, and what she should not wear. Since color plays such a large role, Larsen uses a lot of colors within her writing. Whenever Helga describes something, she always writes what color it is. As I read through the story, I would circle everytime a color name was mentioned. I must have circled words on each page at least two or three times. I thought that by using the colors it made the story more colorful.

I would recommned this story to everyone. It is a quick read and I think everyone should read it. I would love to hear your comments of the story, and what you thought about Helga. I would have loved to write about the ending of the story, but I do not want to give away what happens. If you guys do read it, I would love to discuss what happens to Helga with you.

Just like most of my other books, I read The Monk for my Gothic novel class. I believe that this is my favorite book that we have read this semester. I just loved how there were so many stories going on in it, and how mysterious it was. Through the whole book I was in suspense to see what would happen. I was also worried that the ending would be horrible, like The Italian, but it was a good ending. This book is extremely messed up in so many ways. Just to sum it up in a few words, the monk becomes addicted to sex, wants to rape a girl, and there is incest. In a lot of the Gothic novels, a common theme is having family relations, however, in this book it moves up to incest.

Matthew Lewis wrote this book when he was only 19 years old. It is crazy to think that someone so young could write such an amazing novel. This book not only has what I mentioned before, but it also includes the devil, and of course, more ragging on the church.

When I first started to read the book I was not sure how much I would enjoy it. There are a lot of similar scenes in it that I saw in The Italian, and I thought that The Monk would be exactly the same. However, once I got into a few pages of it, I realized how wrong my thinking was. This book is so much better than The Italian. When I read it, it reminded me of a soap opeara. Every action that happened in the story was just so extreme.

I would love to explain the book to you guys, however there are so many stories within the novel that it is hard to sum it all up for you guys. One of the stories throughout the novel is about a monk who is loved by everyone. He is 30 years old and he has never left the monestary. He begins to think about sinning, and eventually gives in to the temptations. If you are interested in reading a story about a monk who begins to sleep around and rape girls, than this is the book for you!

Another story in the novel is of a girl who is in the convent and becomes pregnant. The monk finds out and tells the head of the convent. Of course she gets into trouble. This all begins at the beginning of the story. The rest of the story is of her brother trying to find her.

However, don't think that that is what the book is all about. There is so much stuff going on in the book that at times it is hard to keep up with everything. I really enjoyed this book because there were so many stories going on. There were also a lot of stories being told within the novel. The stories help the reader because they are all backstories, explaining what happened to the characters, and why they ended up where they are.

As you can tell by my short descriptions that the church plays a big part in the novel. However, the church is not seen as something good. Instead everyone in the church is messed up. One part that can really show the reader that Lewis was against the church was when one of the characters was lying on her death bed. She has a daughter who has no where to go. The mother, on her death bed, said that she would rather have her daughter go anywhere except entering into a convent.

I hope I have not scared anyone off from reading this book. I know it sounds messed up, and it is, however the really insane parts are not written until the end of the novel. Everything written up till the end explains what is going to happen and why. If you guys do decide to read it, I would love to hear your comments. Especially if you have read The Italian.