First Quarter ORB Review

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central Publishing, 2009. Genre: Fiction

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is about 17 year old Ronnie who is sent from New York, by her mother, to spend the summer in North Carolina with her Father. Ronnie’s parents were divorced when she was younger and she hasn’t talked to her father ever since. She plans on spending her summer avoiding her father and talking to him the least she can. But somehow she finds herself falling for a boy that is not her type and reconnecting with her dad that she hasn’t talked to in four years. This story is about first loves and love between parent and child.

The publisher raves “The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels—first love, love between parents and children — that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.”
The story is told from four different points of view: Ronnie's, Steve's, Marcus', and Will's. Each person's stories comes together to tell the story of what happens to Ronnie that summer. The Last Song reminded me a lot of My Sister’s Keeper. Not that the topics are a little similar, but the way both are written. Picoult is known for her novels being told from different points of view and in Spark’s newest novel, he does the same. I enjoyed this because it is different than Sparks’ other pieces that I have read. Although this novel is similar to his other pieces because of his very descriptive writing, and his subject of love.

“Life, he realized, was much like a song. In the beginning there is a mystery, in the end there is conformation, but it’s in the middle where all emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile” (376)

I became interested in Sparks’ work after seeing the movie The Notebook. I read The Notebook within a few days and decided the novel was much better than the movie. Over the summer I found out that Sparks’ was working on a new book, so I had my dad preorder it for me. It came in the second week of September and I read the whole book within a week. I don’t enjoy reading that much, but there’s something about Sparks’ novels that doesn’t allow me to put them down.

Value Essay

Lean on Me by Bill Withers

In this world of hustle and bustle; do we ever take the time to realize what we value? Not our shiny BMW sitting in the drive way, or our brand new iPod that holds a million songs, not the things that hold financial value. But the time we spend with loved ones, those warm summer days on the beach, the first snow fall of the winter. Aren’t these the things that we should value the most? In this day and age it seems as though it takes a death or a tragedy to make us realize what we truly value. And why is this? Do those material objects really have more value than those priceless moments? Are these really the things that matter most in life?

I run downstairs to retrieve the snowman chip and dip tray for mom. The doorbell rings, a sound that will be constant throughout the next hour or so. I run back up the stairs and to the door to welcome in my grandparents from the cold snowy night. I take their jackets and hang them in the coat closet. For the next hour people arrive, bringing gifts to stick under the glowing evergreen, they also bare crock pots and tins full of delicious food that we will feast on later in the evening.
Everyone has arrived and food is set out on the table, unlike most families we don’t have a giant turkey dinner but everyone brings a dish. There are meatballs in a crock pot, a big pan of ziti, a pan of kabushka, a large bowl of salad prepared by me and my mother, and a tray of chicken wings. Everyone grabs one of the holiday themed paper plates my mother has bought from the store. I wait in line until it is my turn to help myself to the delicious food. I take my plate, after I’ve served myself, and head into the family room to eat with my cousins and dad.
When finished eating I take my plate and my younger cousin’s plate into the kitchen. At this point my mom is already beginning to clean up. I offer to help with the dishes, only being nice, and of course she accepts my offer. I spend the next 20 minutes scraping the unfinished food off of people’s plates into the garbage disposal. As gross as this task is, I enjoy it because all the girls are in the kitchen talking and catching up, while the guys and the kids began gathering around the Christmas tree.
After my last plate is scraped I make way into the living room, where everyone is sitting around the tree waiting for their gift, the adults just as eager as the little ones, including myself. The next few hours are spent receiving and giving gifts, and enjoying one another’s time. I watch as each person opens their gift, looking for the fake-I really hate this gift-smile, or the genuine-thank you so much-smile.

Click! I pull the seatbelt over my chest and buckle in for the 40 minute drive to Greenfield. I take the bluish green iPod out of my soccer bag and put the white ear buds in my ear. I shuffle through my songs and find an upbeat song to get pumped up for the game. The notes flow through the wires into my ears, raising my adrenalin before the big game. I raise the volume until my mother yells at me to turn in down. I look out the window; it’s a cool, fall, Sunday afternoon. The foliage covers the valley with different shades of reds, oranges, and yellows, what a beautiful site. As my mind begins to wander off, my tunes bring me back to the thoughts of the big game. I began searching through my songs to find a new song to keep me in the zone, as we arrive at our destination.
This wonderful electronic that I am so lucky to possess is a 3rd generation, mint green, 8GB iPod. It can hold about 2,000 songs, 7,000 pictures, or 8 hours of video. My iPod is almost always with me. There’s nothing better than those soothing tunes when I’m upset or those happy jams when I can’t wipe the smile off my face.

Both spending Christmas Eve with family and my iPod mean a lot to me but I value both for different reasons. I value Christmas Eve because it’s the one time in the whole year where my entire family is all together. I love seeing how much my little cousins grow over the year, and how different (or similar) everyone looks. I love Christmas morning and getting all my presents from Santa, but I truly get more excited for the night before, when I get to spend time with my loved ones. I value my iPod because it does have financial value costing around $180. I also value my iPod because it no matter what mood I’m in I can always find a good song to match how I feel, which is important when I’m really upset or stressing out.
To compare these two totally different things might sound crazy to some people, but there is actually one thing that they both have in common: they are both always there for me. This Monday my 38 year old cousin passed. It was unexpected and it’s been very hard for everyone in my family, including myself. However, we are making it through this tough time because of each other. When one of us needs a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen we’ve been there to console and comfort. My iPod has also helped me get through this rough time because when I need to get it off my mind, or when I need some cheering up I can just turn it on and every care in the world seems to melt away. Without my family and my iPod, I don’t know how I’d make it through these tough times.