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

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Summer Reading Post
Part A

Even though someone close to you was attacked violently, a way to get back the attacker is not with more violence. That is exactly what Joe did to the rapist. In the book, The Round House, Joe was thinking," I had to do what I had to do. This act was before me. In the uncanny light a sense of dread so overwhelmed me that tears started in my eyes and a single choking sound, a sob maybe, a wrench of hurt, burst from my chest"(Erdrich 264). This supports my central idea of the story because Joe knows it is wrong to kill or to do revenge at all. He knew there would be no prosecution for the rapist of his mom. He stole the gun from his friend's dad, a .22 caliber rifle, and shot the free man on the golf course where he was golfing.

Joe's mom, Geraldine was coming home when she was taken to a scared, worshiped "Round House" and raped along with another woman.  Joe got angry that there was no investigation in this because there was too much fuss over whose land the crime happened on.  The investigation never went on so Joe did it himself.  He found out all the information he needed to know about the rapist and to kill him.  Once he killed him, he gathered his friends up and drove across the country trying to escape from his life. 

The Round House Article