Post 11

 For Post 11, I'm talking about my new book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I started it around 6 days ago and just finished it, and it was great. I'm not going to spoil the book right now though. I'm doing that in the next paragraph.

 The main character is Louie Zamperini, the son of Italian immigrants to the United States. he grows up in Torrance, California, and is a total delinquent. He steals from people, beats other kids up, and smokes and drinks all throughout his childhood. This is during the Great Depression era, so he can get away with all of it. Eventually, his brother Peter gets him into running. Louie gets really into it and is soon the fastest runner in Southern California.

 He is soon accepted to USC on a track scholarship and sets several records there (he gets close to a 4 minute mile) and goes onto Olympic trials for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He gets 5th place and starts training for the 1940 Olympics, but World War 2 soon starts and Louie has to join the military. I'm not going to spoil anything else... for now. Anyway, thanks for reading and see you guys next week.

Post 10

For my Post 10, I am going to  write a letter to the authors of Donnie Brasco, written by Richard Woodley and Joe Pistone. This contains spoilers, so stop reading in about 3 seconds. Besides that, I have a post coming next week that will be one of YOUR ideas, but I'll explain later. Now for that letter:


 Dear Authors,

It seems like only one of you did all the work. Joe Pistone was away from his family for 6 years and live a double life under a different name. He risked his life several times and was almost found out, which is basically death, several times. He met some of the most powerful Mafia bosses in the country, and exposed their schemes to the public. He also was brave enough to testify in court against most of these guys, and get most convicted. After that, he had to go into the Witness Protection Program for 3 years to keep the Mafia from killing him, until he could finally go by his real name without a Mafia hitman killing him. Richard Woodley co-authored a book. I hope to God that you aren't splitting the profits 50-50.

 So that was a 30-45 second vent about how dangerous it was for Joe Pistone while he was an undercover agent inside the Mafia for the FBI. I'm done with this book, so I need a new one. Please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments or tell me in class. Thanks for reading, and see you next week.

Post 9

For this post 9, I'm going to talk about Donnie Brasco again. Last week I went over the setting and summarized the book, so if at any point you have no clue what I'm talking about you can refer back to that post. This week I'm going to talk about real life relations to the book.


 One text to reality relation the book has is that the Mafia actually exist. They were powerful in America up until the mid-90's thanks to law enforcement taking them down. However in Italy, where the Mafia originated from, they are still very powerful in the 21st century and have even been known to carry out political assassinations there.


 Another text to reality relation the book has is the law enforcement aspects. Joe Pistone, the agent who infiltrated the Mafia in Donnie Brasco, is a real person. He started as a New York policeman, worked his way into the FBI, and took an assignment to infiltrate. The evidence he gathered and his testimonies in court helped to convict many Mafia bosses. He and his family had to go into hiding for many years to protect themselves from Mafia retribution, but he can now go public.

 You can comment if you want your ideas to be featured. Thanks for viewing and see you next week.

Post 8

I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on these, considering this is Post 8. I mean I'm only like 2 or 3 weeks late, but still, my time management is awful. For this week's post, I'm going to talk about my new book, Donnie Brasco by Richard Woodley. Anyway, I'm going to do a short description of the plot first.


 Basically, Joe Pistone, an FBI agent, is given the task of infiltrating the Mafia, who are very powerful in the 70's, when this story takes place. He takes the name Donnie Brasco as a cover. He thinks that he'll stay a little while, get some basic info, and leave. But instead the operation turns into a huge 6-year quest to take the Mafia down from the inside out. It sounds awesome.


 Because Donnie Brasco is a mob book, the settings are mainly in places where Mafia operations, such as racketeering and extortion are going. Throughout the book Joe Pistone, an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates the Mafia, travels on Mafia business around the country. Most of the story takes place in New York, the "headquarters" of the Mafia, but chapters also take place in Milwaukee, Miami, San Diego, and Las Angeles.


 That's all for now. If you have any feedback please leave a comment and I'll try to incorporate it into the next post. Thanks for reading!