ClarePitcher

Recently, as a class we have been reading the book Catcher in the Rye. So far, Holden has gotten kicked out of Pency, his most recent boarding school, and has taken a solo trip to New York. His parents still don't know he was kicked out, so he has to keep his mini vacation on the down low. While he is in New York, he gets bored with just sitting in his hotel room so he tries to go to the night club in the lobby of his hotel. The waiter knows he is not 21 so he gets denied any drinks. After dancing with a few ladies, he heads back up to his room. The next day he calls up his old friend Sally and they plan a date for that night. Long story short, the date ends up going horrifically and he ends up making Sally s mad she won't even talk to him. Holden still has a few more days left in The Big Apple before he can go home for Christmas break and I'm eager to see how he will spend them. 

The book i am reading now is called  The Wild Things. This book is the prequel to the children's book Where the Wild Things Are and also a sort of second book. It is basically just a novel version of the kid's book. In the story, Max explores the land that he becomes king of and gets closer to the creatures he's ruling. It goes in depth of everything that happened in his home life and why he left his home in the first place and discovered the land. This book tells a more in depth look at where Max is at and what life is also like when he returns home. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes adventures and has a childish imagination.

I am currently reading the book “Why I Climb” by our very own Steve Gardiner, my old English II teacher. In this book, Mr. Gardiner interviews several world-renowned climbers and explorers, telling about their journeys and what led up to their experience. He interviews the first American to climb Everest, first person ever to climb K2, and many other big-name climbers. Gardiner himself has even attempted to summit Everest, having to turn back because of the sudden change of weather Everest is known for. Many of the climbers Gardiner interviews are known for their first ascents of many mountains. Just one of the many men he interviews, Richard “Dick” Bass stands out to me. His Climbing highlights include: Matterhorn,Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, Kosciusko,McKinley,and Everest; first person to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents. Oldest man, at fifty-five, to climb everest. This is just one example of the many climbers Gardiner has interviewed.

Recently in the story The Last Breath by Peter Stark, he explains the journey of two twenty year old boys named Jason and Zach in their travels across the world. They are currently in Sumatra, spending their nights camping out on secluded beaches and running into other explorers. One day they bump into a group of three cute girls and decide to hang out with them. Zach falls for a girl named Chloe and, like always, Jason is left in the dust. Zach takes Chloe out to a nice dinner up in the forest at a small cafe that has a small stream by it. Little does he know, he gets stung by a malaria infected mosquito but is too distracted by his date. Two days later, he is kept up at night unable to sleep because of restless chills followed by huge heat waves, finally breaking down and pouring sweat. This breakdown occurs every 48 hours and by the third day, he can’t take it any longer. Jason and Zach come to the conclusion that they need to pack up camp and head back to Singapore to the nearest decent hospital. They gather up their stuff and Zach is not only carrying all of his bags along with all of Zack's, but helping Zach walk the short trek to the ferry station. The Ferry ride alone takes twelve hours and the train ride takes another four hours. By the time they get to the hospital, Zach is completely unconscious. He gets taken to the ICU and is currently in a coma. A few long hours later, Jason is informed that Zach has died. The malaria has overrun 30% of his total red blood cells and could not recover. Every story Stark tells gets more and more exciting, I also only have one short story left in the book.

        Now in the book The Last Breath, Stark has told about a bunch of different life threatening scenarios. In one, a group of snowboarders head up to the back country to drop in on some fresh powder. Once to the top of the mountain, they can see truly how much snow there is and how far down they have to go. Excited about it, the waste no time motivating each other to be the first one down. As the first kid is about halfway down the mountain, he feels his feet start to shake and turns his head to see a massive avalanche racing towards him. He takes all precautions he has learned in classes he has previously taken, but still finds himself trapped under hundreds of pounds of snow. His friends race down the mountain to see if he is visable and finally locate them with their tracking devices they had put on before the ascent up the mountain. After digging for hours, they finally find a barely conscience boy and rush him off to the nearest hospital. He turns out to live with no lasting damage, but does have two cracked ribs. Throughout the story he tells what you should or shouldn't do if ever found in situations like these.   

The book I am now reading is called Last Breath by Peter Stark. In this exciting story, Stark uses personal experience along with medical expertise to tell what happens to your body if it were to go through traumatic experiences. In one instance, he tells about a young man that wants to conquer a huge mark in kayaking: The Tiger’s Leap Gorge in southwest China. He feels he is prepared for the journey, until he is sucked into a 20 foot wide rapid for up to 5 minutes at a time. Trying to escape the overwhelming urge to swim up, he tells himself to swim down and wait to get pushed out of the current by the treacherous waters. While a part of his group goes and tries to contact help, the other group loses his friend in the roaring waters and is still no where to be found. Only a few short stories into the novel, I am already convinced this is a great book that keeps getting more and more exciting with every tale.

I have finally come to the end of this book. Patti has moved into a new house with her husband Frank in New Jersey and she is now carrying her second child. One day she gets a phone call from Robert and he tells her that Sam has contracted AIDS and is in very poor condition. She packs up her son Jackson and her husband and head down to New York and visits Sam. It is then that Robert shows up at Sams, looking awful, and tells Patti that he has also gotten AIDS. Patti and her crew head back home and she has a beautiful baby girl, Jesse. A few short days later, she receives the news of Sams death. She heads back down to New York and attends Sams funeral with Robert. They feel as they did years before when they were living together in the crummy Hotel Chelsea. Robert holds Patti while she uncontrollably cries, realizing that the end is near for Robert and there is nothing she can do about it. She soon heads back the Jersey, needing to care for her two kids and her band. A few days later, she gets a much expected call, the news of Robert's passing. She takes her kids and Frank down to New York for the memorial service, held in the art gallery they used to go to when they first met. She wrote him a song and sang it at his service, later recording it to go along with her second album. Robert made Patti promise to write about them, the tale of two kids falling in love in the Big City and how art got them through the hard times. She took a couple of years to write the story but she perfected it. Just Kids is now one of my favorite books, along with Patti Smith being one of my favorite musical artists.  

My book is almost coming to an end. Robert is seriously starting to pursue his photography carer and take things pretty seriously with his new guy Sam. He has been offered many gallery showings and many artists are attempting to get his work. Robert has recently moved in with Sam and has gotten many new cameras to further his work. Patti on the other hand is starting to further her poetry and art carer by going through Sam and getting poetry readings and art showings. She just got three more people to join in with her and her band and and attempting to record and album. Their first album is titled "Horses" and was recorded at Electric Lady Recording Studio, which her former friend Jimi Hendrix used to record at. For the cover photo, Patti asked Robert to use his amazing photography skills to create the perfect cover. Patti now has a percussionist, another guitarist, and a wonderful pianist. Her most recent opportunity is an art show that she has asked if Robert could join along with her and show off his pictures. Robert and Patti are no longer together, but have kept their pact of being lifelong friends and supporting each other every step of the way of their fast growing occupations.

Quite a bit of things have changed in my book since last time. Patti and Robert aren't technically dating anymore but they are still really good friends. Robert has recently started going out of his comfort zone and is now seeing a boy named David. David knows some special people at an art museum and got Robert some showcases to present art to the public. In one showcase that he holds at the Chelsea hotel, he ends up selling a couple pieces of art and a few famous artists phone numbers. Patti also has things working in her favor. She meets a guy names Slim and starts to really fall for him. Patti then finds out that his real name is Sam and is married with children, but she is surprisingly okay with it. Sam turns out to be famous and gets Patti a poetry reading in front of hundreds of people, opening for one of the most famous poets in New York. The reading goes smooth and turns out great, coming out with a lot of offerings from poet publishers and record labels. This part of the book makes me happy for her and for Robert but I feel like something bad is bound to happen to them with their luck.

A lot of things have recently happened in my book. Robert and Patti have moved out of their old home and and searching the city for a new house and new jobs. Word on the street is there is an old apartment building that's super cheep and has open rooms. They eventually find this place and its disgusting and run down. After saving up for a long time they finally leave the old apartment and move into the famous Chelsea Hotel for half the price as regular tenants. There, Patti and Robert really start to get intact with their art and poetry. Pretty soon they run out of space in their little one room "house" and decide to save up and move across the street to the owners old storage space. It is almost triple the size of their current room and has floor to ceiling windows on two walls. They soon are creating masterpieces and more art then they ever had before. 

9/19/14

So far the book that I'm reading, Just Kids by Patti Smith, is about her in her early twenty's when she gets bored with her life in Jersey, and moves to New York to explore the world in 1960. For weeks she is homeless. living on the street without a job. Soon after, she finds a part time job at a small jewelry store. After working there for a couple weeks, a charming boy in his mid twenty's comes into the shop and buys the Persian necklace she has been eyeballing for a while. Days later Patti gets asked out to dinner by her much older, creepy boss. Not wanting to lose her job and being starved from living off scraps, she hesitantly accepts his request. After dinner, her and her boss are walking through Central Park when he asks to go back to his place and have a drink and really get to know each other. Panicking, she looks around for an answer. She looks up and by the fountain is the boy from the jewelry shop who bought the Persian necklace is walking through with groceries. She hurries over to him and grabs his arm, not knowing his name and says "This is my boyfriend John, he stopped by the store to grab groceries and now I think we should be headed home. Thanks for dinner!" She then finds out the boys name is Bob but she chooses to call him Robert. They start spending time together, both being homeless in New York, and they then rent an apartment together. The rest of the story is how they fall in love and how life in the 60's is.