Cassandra Clare is the author of The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Bane Chronicles. All of her literary works surround the world of Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, which are a race of beings born with angelic blood. Cassandra’s first book, City of Bones, was released in 2004. Since then, she has released over ten books and she has plans to release more. Cassandra Clare is an influential author of the 20th century because of her unique books, widespread fan base, and successful publications.
One thing that might stand out to a reader of Cassandra’s books is that they are unlike any other. The plot itself in her books may not be original, but the world she created is. Most young adult books are about vampires, werewolves, zombies or another mythical creature. All of those subjects have been seen before in literature. What is unique about Cassandra’s books is that they are about a race of beings called Shadowhunters, mythical beings Cassandra created on her own.
When asked how she got the idea for her novels, Cassandra said:
The idea for the Mortal Instruments came to me one afternoon in the East Village. I was with a good friend of mine, who was taking me to see the tattoo shop where she used to work. She wanted to show me that her footprints were on the ceiling in black paint — in fact the footprints of everyone who’d worked there were on the ceiling, crisscrossing each other and making patterns. To me it looked like some fabulous supernatural battle had been fought there by beings who’d left their footprints behind. I started thinking about a magical battle in a New York tattoo shop and the idea of a secret society of demon-hunters whose magic was based on an elaborate system of tattooed runes just sprang into my mind (cassandraclare).
When writing young adult books, it is much more difficult to capture the interest of adults, considering most young adult books are meant for teenagers. However, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal devices have attracted fans of all ages. Many of Cassandra’s older fans have said that they shied away from The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices at first because most of the main characters are teenagers (robbingtheromancecradle). What made many people fall in love with her books could be the complex relationships between the characters, the mature subject matter, the romance, the action, or the overall story in general.
Understanding That point, It may make them want to read even more but it’s that the setting took place in a house of an old man that was killed of his eye. I think that more our age group won’t understand that this could possibly happen. This book grabs your attention but knowing that you could do this in a way to “get rid of something” that bothers you. It’s simple, and most people don’t feel bad in a way that their conscance don’t affect them in a way.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Zora plays an important role for the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the titans of twentieth-century African American literature. Despite that she would later fall into disgrace because of her firm views of civil rights, her lyrical writing which praise southern black culture has influenced generations of black American literary figures. Hurston’s work also had an impact on later black American authors such as Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.
Nicholas Sparks was born on December 31, 1965, in Omaha, Nebraska (Jessica Estremera). He was the second of three children born to Patrick Sparks, a college professor, and his wife Jill. Nicholas spent the early part of his childhood moving around with his family as his father finished up his graduate work (Biography Channel website). "Because my father was a student until I was 9 years old and my mother didn't work, we weren't exactly living the high life when I was little. I grew up on powdered milk and ate tons of potatoes, though to be honest, I never noticed how poor we really were until I was old enough to take an honest appraisal of things. Even then, it didn't matter. For the most part, I had a wonderful childhood and wouldn't change a thing.," Nicholas stated in an interview. The University of Notre Dame had offered Sparks a full track scholarship. In 1985, during his freshman year, Sparks was part of a relay team that set a school track record that still stands. But the season did not end on a good note for the future author: An Achilles tendon injury slowed things down for Sparks, and forced him to spend the summer recuperating. In the year 1988 Sparks graduated with honors and also met Catherine Cote, his future wife, who soon later married (Jessica Estremera). The day after he and his bride got married, Sparks heard the story which inspired The Notebook. Cathy’s grandparents were too ill to travel to the ceremony the day before, so the Sparks’ decided they would bring the wedding to them, redressing in tuxedo and gown and taking pictures at Cathy’s grandparents' home. Nicholas observed how Cathy’s grandfather treated his wife with great respect and admiration. The story of their love was recited to Sp...
Born to a decaying marriage and unstable household, Maya Angelou thrills her poetic intentions through her dominant and eloquent words. Maya Angelou, center of mysterious and descendants of the broken, like a champion, she rose out of the ashes and into the lights of the stage. An American author and artist who has been called “America’s most visible black female autobiographer” by dozens of people, has made remarkable recognitions all around the word. She is best known for her sequence of six autobiographical stories, focusing on her childhood and early adulthood. Her writing, through the eyes and experiences of a black woman, can lend a structure to the study of racial relations and culture in the 20th century America. Angelou’s work is then, a presentation of the life of a black woman who has lived in the South and in the urban North, who has lived in Africa, and has traveled Europe. She has gone through poverty and despair and she has been granted high honors. Her work is the expression of those experiences and sensations through the eyes of a black woman. Due to specific events in Maya Angelou’s life, her style of writing was exceedingly pretentious.
A recent young adult novel has stirred up a lot of controversy in the world of writing literature. The issue is that current young adult literature is too dark for teen readers, or is merely more realistic than previous works for teens. In early June 2011, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial written by book critic Meghan Cox Gurdon says how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from ages of 12 to 18. As I write rhetorically about this argument meaning the understanding of or approach to human interaction or based on their purpose and motivation.
“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life” (Samuel Ullman). As teens go along in life, they learn through the things they read, hear, and see; in particular, when one reads a book, they can connect with the connotations and it can alter someone or influence. Being able to connect to something that another is feeling can really draw people in like bugs to a light. As more and more people can connect to books it becomes more popular so that they may feel a sense of security. Anthem by Ayn Rand and The Giver by Lois Lowry are two very great examples
A book that provides entertainment as well as life lessons is hard to come by in this day in age. The kind of books that should be on the summer reading list must have a large population appeal and deep character development that makes you feel like you are in the story. Veronica Roth’s book Divergent, which provides you with all the factors that make up good literature, should stay on the summer reading list. This book offers all these and more throughout its twists and turns. Divergent should stay on the summer reading list because of the life lessons taught in the story, the large population appeal and deep character development.
Julio Cortázar is a famous novelist from Argentina. He was born August 26, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium and died February 12, 1984 at the age of 70 years young. Otherness is the foundation of translation in almost every sense of the word. The translator must become the author's other, his Doppelganger, what Julio Cortázar called his paredros, using a Greek term for an old Egyptian concept of otherness. At the same time the translator must turn the author into another possibility of his own existence. The writer stays himself but is now writing in another language and therefore at least partially in another culture. Also, there will be more than one translation of a classic, meaning that even in its otherness the classic has other possibilities. Mandelbaum, Singleton, Sayers, and Ciardi are all partially Dante in that they are his others, yet they are not clones, not even identical twins, and usually not even close enough to be fraternal ones. Theirs is anotherness within the same language, different variations on the same theme as it were.
Stephen King is known as one of the greatest horror and gothic writers of our time. The reason for this is his ability to fuse the gothic elements created by stories such as Dracula or Frankenstein and todays horror. King has written hundreds of short stories but two in-particular “The Night Flier” and “Popsy” show his unique ability to combined gothic elements from the old literature with realistic settings and people of our era. One of his greater talents is being able to use gothic element like vampires and make us see them in a different light. Kings unique way of writing with his old gothic ideals, new horror ideas, and use of realistic settings help to put a new spin on what we conceive as gothic story.
Jane Austen’s novels still remain relevant to this day, despite being written more than 200 years ago. This decade, from 2011-2017, celebrates the bicentennial publishing of her six novels. Her novels are classics, and still on many a required college reading list, yet her works are also read by ordinary people who just enjoy a good story. During her lifetime, her books were well received, but quickly forgotten after her death (Harman 65). Considered one of Britain’s most revered authors, her legacy is now passed from generation to generation and has become entrenched in popular culture (Swisher 13).
Fifty Shades of Grey, is one of UK’s best-selling novels, and is written by the famously known author E.L James. E.L James was not a prominent writer until the release of the Fifty Shades trilogy, which, she claimed to have written during her mid-life crisis. This novel has taken female audiences all over the world by storm. It is set mainly in Seattle, and is the first book of the Fifty Shades trilogy (Fifty Shades Darker is the second book, and Fifty Shades Freed is the third book) (Gilman, 2013).
“Percy Jackson connects with his readers on a personal level. He is the character who overcomes disabilities, his family dysfunctions, and the pang of teen angst” (Follos). Most teens reading the book will enjoy its content, due to their close relation to Percy, and their daily life struggles as a teenager. Although directed toward a younger audience, the novel can be be entertaining for adults as well. Even though Percy Jackson was his biggest success, Rick Riordan still wrote many other novels.
One of the major reasons why such a strong connection was made with the fans is the fact that they literally were able to grow with Harry Potter. The books were released gradually, some having up to two years in between releases, so the readers grew up quite a lot across the series of the book; because of this, the book had to maintain its appeal right through teenage years. Rowling’s writing style managed to do this by starting off simple enough for a child embarking on their first novels, and developed into something much more adult and complex, which was compelling enough for both teenagers and adults. Anthony Gierzynski states that “Those 10-year-olds going to the first movie, holding the hands of their parents, ended up driving to the last midnight shows.” By having the series grow along with the fans, both literally and metaphorically, this generation has been able to claim Harry Potter as its own. Furthermore, the values and beliefs of this generation have been greatly impacted by the connection to the Harry Potter series. In his essay “How 'Harry Potter ' shaped the political culture of a generation”, Gierzynski goes on to assert that “Reading the books correlated with greater levels of acceptance for
"And the lady of the house was seen only as she appears in each room, according to the nature of the lord of the room. None saw the whole of her, none but herself. For the light which she was was both her mirror and her body. None could tell the whole of her, none but herself" (Laura Riding qtd. by Gilbert & Gubar, 3).