The Best and the Worst of Down Around Midnight.

I love that the book is about airplanes and survival.  The story is a true which I like.  The story is like a potboiler style of writing.  The book I last read, Airport, was also a potboiler and I liked it so I am looking forward to reading Down Around Midnight.  There are no big points or events that stand out to me as a great scene or a terrible scene.  There isn't much action as I thought there would be.  You do have to consider that this book is a memoir written by Robert Sabbag.  I would rate this a C+ and not recommend this book to most people.  I will keep reading this book because I need to finish it for Best Sellers.

Was there a book that wasn't as good as you thought it would be?

Describing the Setting

On  June 17th, 1979, there was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport in New York bound for Barnstable Airport on the cape in Massachusetts.  The flight was to depart near midnight.  There were 8 passengers and 2 pilots on board the DHC-6 Twin Otter.  The crash occurred during a low visibility, 2.5 miles out from the threshold of the runway.  They crashed in Camp Greenough, a Boy Scouts claimed area.  Since it is the Boy Scouts area, it is heavily wooded because of their activities and the nearest road from the crash site is over a mile away.  That is the first obstacle the survivors must overcome.  So far in the crash, the co-pilot was killed upon impact and everyone else manages to get out by themselves or with the assistance of brave souls.  One woman, about mid-20's, goes out into the 'wild' to go and rescue the survivors.  The woman is very brave to just go into the unknown right after an airplane crash.  That is how far I have gotten into the book.

Analyzing the Impact of Setting

The book, Airport, the airport that the most of the action takes place is Lincoln International Airport.  It is a fictional airport in Chicago, Illinois that is supposed to mimick Chicago O'Hare International Airport.  The weather conditions are terrible.  The winds are gusting over 50 mph crosswind and the snow makes the visiblity less than a mile.  The wind is highlighted with the closure of Runway 30.  Runway 30 is the longest runway at the airport and the only runway that goes into the wind on this particular night.  The airport must use an interescting runway, 25.  There is also a Boeing 707 stuck in the mud right off of Runway 30.  All I have just said was written by the author very descriptively.  I could picture the airport and the surrounding area. 

There is a Trans America flight 2 to Rome that was delayed by weather.  On board was an important stowaway, Ada Quonsett, who would prove critical in the moments before the bombing.  The suicide bomber, D.O. Guerro was sitting next to her.  As most people expect, the bomb did go off in the lavartory, not killing anyone but D.O.  It critically injures a flight attendant that was trying to confiscate the bomb.  At the airport, the airport crew got the stuck B707 out of the mud that was adjacent to Runway 30.  The weather conditions are the worst for an emergeny landing with a broken fuselage.  It is suspensful because you do not know what is going to happen.  The plane could break up in mid air, crash upon landing, land perfectly or what.  Your heart will race and your muscles will get tense when you get to here.

How did your book's setting affect the plot?

An explosive decompression similar to the book.

What I Plan to Read Next

I plan to read whatever unit we will be on in the Mason High School class, Best Sellers or read another aviation related book.  Aviation really interests me more than anything else.  I can easily connect to the book and the characters.  That is what I love about the books I have been choosing this year.  On another note, I have heard about this movie that came out.  Lone Survivor just came out yesterday, 1/10/14, and I looked it up and it was a book.  There was so much hype about it on Facebook and by Mr. Whitney.  He was talking about how good the book was and how he wanted to be in the military.  He said he was emotional and how teamwork was a huge thing in the military.  That made me look into the book on Amazon and read the reviews.  I looked at one review today, 1/11/14, about how the good the book was.  They said the first 60-70 pages or so was uninteresting and boring and got into the good, hard training of the Navy SEALS and was interesting by then.  The book Lone Survivor is the book I will probably read next.  If you have read this book, what do you have to say about it?

Letter to the Author

I finished the book I was reading, Airport, over the winter break.  I liked the book a lot.  The events in the book were really interesting to read.  I wish the bomb was set off over the Atlantic Ocean because the stowaway, Ada Quonsett, deserved to die in my opinion.  She did 'take' over tens of thousands of dollars from multiple airlines.  I did not like her at all.  If she had been taken off the plane before the departure or been sent back to Los Angeles (her origin), I don't think the bomb had been disturbed.  I am happy the plane came back safely.  The scenario was very close to Chicago O'Hare Airport today (1/5/14).  It was very snowy and with that, a huge backlog of flights waiting to get their destination.  This type of situation could possibly happen but with the beefed up security, I don't think it will happen.  Overall, I rate this book 9.5/10.  I could picture everything happening on the tarmac, terminal and in the air.  How was your last book?

Boeing 707-320B in the film

Why I Chose my Book

The second book I am reading this trimester is Airport by Aurthur Hailey.  I am on page 31 out of 440 pages.  First, I chose this book because of the topic.  I did not put the page number as the top consideration because I WANT to read this book.  The title of the book and the graphic on the cover looks simple but the summary on the flaps sounded interesting.  I looked up this book on Goodreads and Wikipedia before I checked it out to see if it would be a book I would enjoy reading.  Second, I chose this book because it was made into a movie.  In Bestsellers, our second project must be a book that was made into a movie.  I searched the book and found out it was made into the Airport series.  How do you chose your books?

Text to Self Connection

"The top of the tail is sixteen feet off the ground.  The plane's fifty-five feet long" (Coonts 350).  I can easily relate to this quote because I say this type of information all the time.  I am obsessed about airplanes and research and read the fun facts about airplanes.  Most of the people don't care about the information but hope to impress someone like the pilot did in the story.  I think the facts are interesting just like the A-6 Intruder pilot thinks.  Plane Obsession  What are your obsessions?  Here is mine