Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Mid-Winter Break Reading

The last time I read, I stopped after Part One. Over the break, I read Parts Two, Three, and Four. Part two is called 1969 and it is consisted of two chapters called Forbidden Zone and Invisible History (1.). Part Three is called Diagnosis and it is consisted of 19 chapters called Monkey Room, Vision, West of Babylon, Morgue, Kate, The Chief, Deeper, Union Square, Tracking, Unknown, The Ladies' Room, Invisible History (2.), A Cast of the Net, Cells, Houston Street, Island, Whirlwind, Cobra, and Knife. Part Four is called Decision and it is consisted of five chapters called Masaccio, Archimedes, Dash, Andrews, and Sioc.

Part Two is about a Captain named Gennadi Yevlikov who is on his boat a thousand miles southwest of Hawaii. He is searching for a place called Johnston Atoll. All around Yevlikov, on the deck, were the scientific men from the Ministry of Health. They were accompanying him on sea. Once they got to the beach of Johnston Atoll, they saw Lieutenant Commander Mark Littleberry, M.D., with his colleagues who were doing some trials in monkey labs. Mark Littleberry was a medical doctor in the U.S. Navy,a tall, handsome, African-American. He was a medical officer for the Johnston Atoll Field Trials. He had a degree from Harvard University and a medical degree from Tulane University.

In Part Three, there were a couple of chapters that basically gave a recap of what had happened earlier in the book. Like with the girl, Kate, it talks about her story and gives a further explanation of what happened with her and her seizure. It also talks about the Invisible History and gives a depth explanation as to what it is because inPart Two, it didn't really explain it. That's why it is called Invisible History 2. In Part Four, it talks about a guy named Frank Masaccio. he was the head of the New York Field office and an assistant director of the F.B.I. This chapter talks about him and what he does. Archimedes was this great mathematician and weaponeer who died in 212 B.C. He designed glass lenses or mirrors that focused sunlight on enemy ships and set them on fire. This chapter goes on about who he was in his time. It is a description chapter of him. The Sioc room was a windowless radio-secure chamber at the F.B.I. headquarters. Sioc is where a group of people sit down to have a meeting. The Sioc room was divided into sections that were visible to one another through glass panels.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

American Author Proposal

Richard Preston’s Great Success

For my American Author Project, I want to focus down on the author Richard Preston. Richard Preston has written three lengthy books and other important things that have really been a big contribution to his life. There is one book in particular that I like and I think represents a good example to read for this project. This book is called The Hot Zone. I don’t want to read it just because it’s a true story, but because it’s a terrifying true story. The whole book is based on science. It revolves around a virus that is deadly and it comes deep from within the central African rain forest. There is no cure for it and it turns out to be a horrifying story.

The Hot Zone is a drama related book. This is what draws me to this author. The fact that Richard Preston can write Physics but in a dramatic way. His ability to write a 422 page book on a lethal virus and make it the #1 Bestseller of the New York Times. His great skills at turning some scientific information into a heart-throbbing human story that can be expressed as a real life nightmare that stalks the human race is the true meaning to read this book.

Richard Preston meets the criteria for the American Author Proposal by being a great donor to the society and delivering books that can change people’s perspectives on life. He takes a lot of his time to express what he wants people to know and he does this through his books. I feel that my author is important because he is a big contributor to The New Yorker. He has won awards for being a good writer. Awards like the AAAS-Westinghouse Award and the McDermott Award in the Arts from M.I.T. He is not that much of a well-known writer but from the comments I’ve read, he will be known pretty soon.

The other two books that he has written are called First Light and American Steel. First Light is about astronomy and it won The American Institute of Physics Award. American Steel is about the Nucor Corporation and its project to build a revolutionary steel mill. He has also written other books like The Wild Trees, The Cobra Event, The Demon in the Freezer, and The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story.

The author Richard Preston will enable me to write a ten-page paper with his intelligent skills of creating a nonfiction thriller. He has also written other books like the ones mentioned above about fictional details but nonfictional stories. His heart-stopping dramatic books are what enable me to want to keep on going through the books and find any deep meanings to his writings. I will want to continue investigating what pushes him to want to write such creative books and why he likes talking about thinking that the books themselves will take us into the heart of a human being. Or at least just trying to experience their world from within would be good to find out about too.

Well, the titles that I plan on reading from this author are The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event. I also plan to read them in this order because I already have The Hot Zone and it catches my attention more. The Hot Zone also inspired the movie “Outbreak” which starred Dustin Hoffman and Renee Russo. The other book also catches my attention but since I don’t have that book yet, I will probably go and check it out at the library after finishing The Hot Zone. The Cobra Event is a novel that seems interesting according to the comments of people that have read it. From what Richard Preston said in an interview, President Bill Clinton received a copy of this novel. He says that Clinton spent two nights awake trying to finish the book. The first night, he spent reading it and the second night, he spent it scared to shit. The novel is based on bioterrorism. The Clinton White House later authorized billions of dollars to fund in case bioterrorism ever became real.