Train Go Sorry

I've been taking a small break from Little Women and have been reading the book Train Go Sorry religiously. Though, I do need to break that habit of starting other books in the middle of ones I am currently reading. I have since finished Train Go Sorry, and I enjoyed it a lot. It follows a four different stories during different times, who are all connected by one person. I think this book qualifies as non-fiction, though it is written through the eyes of one person, so it reads as a fiction book. The one constant through the book is the Lexington School for the Deaf, where the author of the book, Leah Hager Cohen, grew up and where her father, Oscar, is superintendent. The four stories are told in different chapters on a rotating basis. One chapter focuses on Leah's personal life; her childhood growing up in a school for the deaf when she and her family is hearing, her family's history, including the small biographies of her deaf grandparents, and her career as a sign language interpreter. The second chapter focuses on James, an inner city poor black student at Lexington, and his success at the school. There is also background on his family, including a whole chapter dedicated to his brother Joseph, who is in jail. The last chapter is of him graduating, leaving you wanting to know how his life turns out. Another story in the book follows Sofia, a deaf russian immigrant who does very well at Lexington. She struggles keeping her two lives separate, though. She wants to pursue the life of her deafness, including wanting to go to a deaf university when she graduates. However she is also present in her family life, with strict Jewish-Russian parents who are embarrassed about her deafness. The last set of chapters have to do with Lexington itself, and all of the changes it undergoes as the deaf movement in America is changing as well. Lexington used to be an oral school, meaning it taught deaf kids to speak and read lips, to better communicate in the hearing world, but with the deaf pride movement gaining steam, Lexington decides to allow, and even require, sign language classes for teachers and students. This book was really good, and very well structured. I learned a lot about the deaf world, something I am very interested in, and about the struggles deaf people face everyday. I loo

I have been continuing reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. I have really enjoyed the story so far, but I am also intrigued by the structure that Alcott uses in some chapters. In the chapter "The P.C. and P.O.", Alcott writes most of the chapter in a newspaper format. She is describing one of the favorite pastimes of the girls, writing their own newspaper under fake names, and includes some excerpts of their work, written under their pen names. However, most of the other chapters uses the same birds-eye-view where the narrator (we don't know who it is, I'm assuming it may be Alcott herself) watches in in the lives of the girls through third person. Every so often the narrator will make themselves heard with a paragraph or two in first person, usually describing how his/her lives relate to those of the girls. Sometimes a chapter will focus solely on one of the sisters, so you can never tell who is the main character. This is shown through the chapter "Meg goes to Vanity Fair". This chapter follows Meg as she spends a weekend at a rich friends house. She hears people at the parties talk about her behind her back because of her family's financial situation, and how she is poor compared to the other party guests. Because of this, she allows to let the other girls dress her up in one of their old dresses, and be paraded around the party as one of them. Even at this she hears negative remarks from party guests saying she is a fool for letting herself be subject to the girls fun. Another example would be the chapter "Amy's Valley of Humiliation." This chapter focuses on Amy in school, and how she was physically punished for having limes in her desk (limes were big for girls her age, they traded them and bought from others). Because of this Marmee pulls Amy out of school, to be tutored by her older sisters.

I have noticed that my vocabulary has increased immensely since reading this book. Because it was written in a different time, the vocabulary seems richer to me, and I have started annotating for unusual words that I didn't know before.

I have been continuing reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. I have really enjoyed the story so far, but I am also intrigued by the structure that Alcott uses in some chapters. In the chapter "The P.C. and P.O.", Alcott writes most of the chapter in a newspaper format. She is describing one of the favorite pastimes of the girls, writing their own newspaper under fake names, and includes some excerpts of their work, written under their pen names. However, most of the other chapters uses the same birds-eye-view where the narrator (we don't know who it is, I'm assuming it may be Alcott herself) watches in in the lives of the girls through third person. Every so often the narrator will make themselves heard with a paragraph or two in first person, usually describing how his/her lives relate to those of the girls. Sometimes a chapter will focus solely on one of the sisters, so you can never tell who is the main character. This is shown through the chapter "Meg goes to Vanity Fair". This chapter follows Meg as she spends a weekend at a rich friends house. She hears people at the parties talk about her behind her back because of her family's financial situation, and how she is poor compared to the other party guests. Because of this, she allows to let the other girls dress her up in one of their old dresses, and be paraded around the party as one of them. Even at this she hears negative remarks from party guests saying she is a fool for letting herself be subject to the girls fun. Another example would be the chapter "Amy's Valley of Humiliation." This chapter focuses on Amy in school, and how she was physically punished for having limes in her desk (limes were big for girls her age, they traded them and bought from others). Because of this Marmee pulls Amy out of school, to be tutored by her older sisters.

I have noticed that my vocabulary has increased immensely since reading this book. Because it was written in a different time, the vocabulary seems richer to me, and I have started annotating for unusual words that I didn't know before.