i am currently reading the coldest winter ever and i will start the help once i finish it.
i figured i would go ahead and start writing this entry, since i committed to write once a week by saturday.
the coldest winter ever is a really good book. i know i know, i'm late. but! to my credit, i am really picky about reading books and watching movies. it's hard for me to get into a book that starts too slowly or doesn't give enough detail.
*becomes nostalgic*
i remember being assigned to read ordinary people in my senior year of high school by one of my favorite teachers to date, mrs. reickel. she was such a good teacher. this book, however, sucked. i may have read 3 total chapters--the first one, the last one, and maybe a random chapter in the middle.
because i have shiesty ways, i knew i would need to find a pinch-hit way to read this book. sparknotes was the thing back then when you were trying to avoid the above and beyond stuff, and there were none on this book. shows you how great it is, right there.
i ended up finding the 1980 version of the film. score, right? not so much. it was such a bad depiction of the book because it showcased parts of the book that weren't written in detail. so there i was, thinking i was doing the book justice by writing so passionately about the movie, that i ended up stepping in my own trap.
mrs. reickel--because she is awesome--graded my paper an A because of how well written it was (i used caps back then because i had to). but she wrote an extra note stating the A wouldn't stand because the part of the *ahem* "book" that i chose to write about, wasn't a big deal or a chapter's worth of writing in the book. she even mentioned that the scene i chose to write about, was actually much bigger in the movie. then she asked if i had read the book. i felt, maybe, 2 inches tall at that point.
she did give me a chance to rewrite the paper on the same horrible, god-forsaken book, but the book was so bad that i declined. she gave me 50 points out of the 100 possible, which i thought was generous, and i took it. i still got an A in that class. that's how i knew i wanted to write.
or embellish.
same thing.
so i said all that to say i am a picky reader, and this book is totally worth the effort. it's a bit raunchier than the books i typically read, but it has this amazing sense of reality.
it's about this druglord princess, winter santiaga. her father is big time in their area for his quality drugs. he employs many people in this business and is looted down. at the onset of the book, winter, her parents, and her 3 younger sisters are still living in the projects in brooklyn. her father eventually moves them to long island to this huge mansion.
winter's a young girl; she's under 18 and doing a lot more than i could imagine doing at her age. she's very street smart and could probably be book smart if she tried at all in school.
the book is actually pretty sad. i haven't finished it just yet, but i'm almost done. it seems like things will turn out good for winter, but i almost feel like she is doing everything she wants to do now and even with an epiphanic moment, she won't be rewarded or allowed to prosper off good works. something about the book just gives me that feeling, but i could be wrong.
she has done everything from drinking excessively to having sex, getting in fights and stepping on people to get ahead. using men for sex and money, stealing money...and she brags a lot about the things her father has done for her with illegal money (did i mention that their long island home eventually gets raided by the fbi and her father is sent to prison for tax evasion and purchasing items with illegally gained funds? i didn't...oh).
so yeah, in a nutshell, it's a good read that will make you want to keep reading. if i could, i would sit and finish the book today, but i don't have enough free time! i should be done by the weekend, though, and i will update.
next: the help (and i've already seen the movie and heard rave reviews of the book, so i could not be more excited. just waiting on it to be delivered from amazon!)
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