My non-fiction book choice

The book I decided to choose for my non-fiction project is "Band of Brothers" by Steven Ambrose. One reason for my selection is that I enjoy reading war stories and events during WWII. Also because of the reviews I have heard about. With many positive responses, this must be an interesting book.

"Why I Write: Gary Giddins Riffs on Jazz" Response

Reading Gary Giddins essay on how jazz has become an unknown art in the United States, I was informed on the basis of the jazz music style. Giddins starts off his essay by summarizing a musical track called "Concerto for Billy the Kid." He explains that even many people who love jazz have never heard of this track. He explains the backbone of the track and how each individual instrument is able to combine to make one collective sound. Giddins then transitions into his reasoning on becoming a writer, which was started at the age of eight. He centers his writing around the form of criticism, in the sense that it is everywhere and in everything.

Link to the essay is below;
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3682

"Why I Write" Response

Upon reading "Why I Write" by Terry Tempest Williams, I was most interested in the personification that the author used. It seemed that the author started to just state reasons of why she wrote at random, but then most reasons had a great sense of personification. For example "I write knowing I can be killed by my own words, stabbed by syntax, crucified by both understanding and misunderstanding." The author gave the reasons for her writing human-like characteristics in a dark sense. Not every example throughout this reading has a light side to it, for example "It doesn't matter, words are always a gamble, words are splinters from cut glass." She gives the reader an insight in that her writing at points can become a source of pain.