Book Report: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Characters and Characterization:

• ·         Charlie ~ the youngest among the three, a fifteen year-old boy. He’s the one who writes and shares his story to us through his diary. Charlie’s diary holds every important event that happened to him on his freshmen year in high school, the ups and downs of his life included.
• ·          Charlie’s brother ~ he is the oldest of the three siblings. He plays football.   
• ·          Charlie’s sister ~ she was often described by Charlie as a very pretty girl, mean to boys, bratty and a straight A’s student. She’s very secretive to her parents, in terms of boys. She doesn’t have a good relationship with Charlie, but events happened and she’s got no one to turn to, except her brother. That’s the part where they start to have interactions, like sister-and-brother moments.  
• ·          Charlie’s mom and dad ~ parents who were always there for their kids.
• ·          Aunt Helen ~ deceased aunt of Charlie. She is Charlie’s favorite person in the world.
• ·      Patrick (a.k.a Nothing) ~ classmate of Charlie in shop class. He is very hilarious, does impersonating and other stuffs that makes people laugh. It was revealed in the story that Patrick is gay and he is with Brad (on the football team), but they’re keeping their relationship as a secret to avoid everything that may possibly happen if this news blows up.
• ·       Sam ~ she’s Patrick’s sister. Charlie’s really in love with her. In the book, she’s described by Charlie as “smart and fun” and “very very pretty and nice”. Charlie even wrote in his diary, “…she was the first girl I ever wanted to ask on a date someday when I can drive”. In the most part of the book, she was dating Craig.
• ·    Mary Elizabeth ~ she’s part of Charlie’s circle of friends. As Charlie describes her in the book, “very interesting person” and “really smart and pretty person”, she’s in-charge of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There was also a time in the story that Mary Elizabeth and Charlie dated.
• ·          Alice, Bob, Susan, Craig, Peter, Bill ~ these are the people whom Charlie also spends time too. They are also part of what Charlie has become in the whole story.

Setting: UNKNOWN.

Plot:

            The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about growing up. It will open our minds and hearts and make us see life in the eyes of a fifteen year-old boy, through his diary. Charlie, a freshman student, thrown into the real world and faces different kinds of issues a teenager in his age would have. From the first group of friends he has, to his first crush, first date, first kiss, first love, first time to experience drugs and every first that is imaginable is explored and introduced to us in his diary. The story was just basically a narration of his life, his experiences as a child, as a brother, as a student, as a friend, as a boyfriend and as an ordinary boy who blames himself for the death of his Aunt Helen. The ups and downs of his life were written in his diary, and he also shared how he overcomes his problems in life.

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them”, Charlie writes this down in the diary. 

Book Report: Cosmopolis by Don Delilo

Book Title: Cosmopolis

Author: Don Delilo

Characters:
• Eric Packer ~ Eric is the main character of the book. A 28 year old “self-made” multi-billionaire, who owns Packer Capital. He considers himself as the center of the universe; every single thing must revolve around him. He’s a risk taker; he simply doesn’t passes up with whatever opportunity comes his way. Even if this opportunity might cause his downfall in the business.
• Elise Shifrin ~ Elise is Eric’s wife of twenty two days. She is in her mid-twenties, a poet on her own right and the heiress for the Shrifin banking fortune of Europe and the world.
• Torval ~ Torval is one of the bodyguards of Eric. As a bodyguard, he does every single thing that is needed to secure the safety of Eric.
• Didi Fancher and Kendra Hays ~ Didi is Eric’s longtime lover while Kendra is his bodyguard and at the same time lover.
• Michael Chin, Jane Melman and Vija Kinski ~ They are the Business Advisers of Eric. The currency analyst, chief of finance and chief of theory, respectively.
• Richard Sheets ~ The man who wants to kill him.

Setting: Set in April 2000, on the streets of Manhattan. Traffic jam was all over the place, which means loads of cars and plenty of busy and stressed out people are in the streets.

Summary: (The story covers one whole day of Eric Packer’s life.)

Eric Packer along with his bodyguards embarks on a trip to midtown Manhattan to get his haircut done. A Presidential visit to the city, a funeral procession for the rapper, Brutha Fez and a major global protest, was in its full swing; resulting to a traffic jam and delaying his visit to the barber shop. During his trip, he came across his wife, Elise Shifrin; it was while she was riding a taxi, hiding herself away in an underground bookshop and taking part in the shooting of a movie. Eric and Elise also had breakfast, lunch and dinner together. It was their first time to do things like that; they’ve never interacted with each other after they got married. For their relationship was just based on what was right.

While trapped in the limo, he was met by his doctor and his business advisers; giving him advices regarding on the bet he made regarding the rising of yen. Nobody can stop him, he follows what he thinks is right; risking everything he has. It is also known that there is a person who wants to kill him, so every single bodyguard he has are always on the move and protecting him.

He then eventually arrived at the barber shop and got a ½ haircut, for he decided he doesn’t want his haircut done. Leaving the barber shop, he joined the naked bodies on the street in the shooting of a movie along with his wife. It was then revealed that he lost all his and his wife’s money because he lost the bet. And lastly it came to part where he came face to face with Richard Sheets, the person who wants to kill him.

Book: Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen

Jacob Jankowski, is what every old person is in the nursing facility, forgets his real age “ninety or ninety-three years old” as he says and other bits of his life. But one important part of his life that he doesn’t forget is when he accidentally joins a circus and makes his life out of it. He then reminisces and tells his story.

At twenty-three years old, Jacob was a veterinary student at Cornell University and has his adult life planned out. Study, graduate and be a licensed veterinarian just like his dad. But everything changes when his parents met a car accident and suddenly turning his whole world upside-down. With no home, no family, no money, he decides to leave his town and tried to never look back.

Then he basically jumps on a train and it was not just an ordinary one; but it was the train for the “Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth”. He then joins the circus as its official “veterinarian” as appointed by Uncle Al. He met August, the head trainer who mistreat the animals on the circus; Marlena, the star performer and the wife of August and Rosie, the elephant that he trains and works with most of the time. There was instant connection between the three of them, Jacob, Marlena and Rosie. So, somewhere along the way the lines went blurry, Jacob and Marlena fell in love with each other.

With August sensing of what’s happening between the two, he comes and warns Jacob. Marlena left the circus and stayed at a certain hotel. With Marlena out of the picture, Uncle Al comes forward and tells Jacob that August is mentally ill and threatens him to reunite the couple or else somebody from the workers will be red-lighted.
Uncle Al’s threat didn’t work. Jacob then visits Marlena at the hotel and slept with her. Declaration of their love for each other soon followed. Right after that, Marlena returns at the circus but doesn’t want to be near August, which makes Uncle Al angry.

Jacob planned to kill August but suddenly backs out and returns to their room, only seeing an empty one. He realizes that those workers occupying the room were red-lighted and he was supposed to be joining that bunch. Seeking revenge, those workers returns the circus. They released the animals from the cages which caused a stampede and making this the “Greatest Disaster of All Time”. August was killed during the stampede, because of Rosie, who plunges the stake that’s attached to her, and directly hitting him into his head.
With that, the circus was shut down. Jacob, Marlena and together with some of the animals from the circus began their life together.

Back to the present, Jacob is waiting for his children. They were supposed to be taking him to the circus show but it seems like there isn’t anybody coming for him. Jacob decides to go to circus alone and there he met Charlie, the manager. He begged Charlie to let him buy the ticket and watch the show. And being there and watching the show, Jacob just felt that he’s back to his home.

~ mandalovesrobsten