Rooming with Independent Reading

My re-designed book cover for Evicted Okay... this was a struggle. I originally tried to create this on paper and after an hour and a half I had destroyed anything resembling a moderately good book cover. The trashiest attempt at art So... after the long period of struggling to maintain and gain back some dignity I decided to create my cover via the internet. I knew from the beginning that I wanted big block letters to give a powerful message. On the current book cover: (Reference) The letters stand out against the plain background and since my background involved other colors and many different buildings, I decided to put the letters in big BOLD letters. I chose to have the city skyline in the back colored a light blue for two reasons.  1. It stands out from the basic black/white/light gray that are the only other colors (I have reasons for that I promise). 2. Blue and purple are stereotyped as "royal" colors and I wanted to make sure that the back cit...

We made it! I decided to dedicate this final mini-blog to Matthew Desmond, the author of Evicted. While reading this book I couldn't help but think about all the research that went into it. Yes, all nonfiction books require research, but this one... wow. I've never read a nonfiction book that contains so many tidbits of information (both statistics and interviews). Danielle Shaw and her relatives after being evicted Matthew Desmond, a Harvard sociologist, studied the evictions of poor families in Milwaukee. He was drawn to study this because " It brings together poor and non poor people—tenants, their families, landlords, social workers, lawyers, judges, sheriffs—in relationships of mutual dependence and struggle" (2014). The interest in poor society is something that Desmond's sister also pursues as well. In his acknowledgments, Desmond writes "This book is dedicated to my sister, Michelle, who continues to inspire me with her pure curiosity and hear...

Aghhhh. Today is the last day of break... and the last day of freedom. The worst eight days of the Jewish calendar - Passover - have begun... let's just say I could definitely be in a better mood. As for Evicted....  Frustration. Yes... I am frustrated. As my fifth mini-blog encapsulated, I am not a fan of nonfiction. This book is 341 pages of writing (and 70+ pages of notes, acknowledgments, etc.) and I have struggled to advance. Evicted ... she is thicc. Most of the book is made up of information about the eight different families and the people they know. Basically, it has A LOT of information that is useless to the actual plot. I cannot skim along the book, as I will always miss an actual important bit of information. However, reading it so closely takes very much time... and patience. I am planning on doing a recreation of the book cover because, well, look at it. While relating very well to the book, this cover lacks in artistic expression... which I will attempt to cr...