beer+in+hell

Week 1: A. Dave B. Mike C. Nuge D. Joe

Week 1: describe the main characters in your text. What makes them interesting? What is their story or background? Why are you drawn to them? Conversely, are there any characters that you just cannot stand? Why not?


 * Tucker Max: The main character and author of the book. He attended Duke Law School were he met most of his friends. He gets excessively drunk and indulges in fornication at any and all opportunities.
 * Hate: He is an angry drunk who starts numerous fights when they go to bars. He also attended Duke Law with Max where they met each other. Creates several funny scenarios in the beginning of the story.
 * El Bingeroso: Has a house and is engaged. He takes part in going out with Max and the others, but he doesn't try to pick up girls every chance he gets.
 * Slingblade: Considers most if not all women whores because he high school girl friend cheated on him with numerous guys in college. He constant says terrible, disrespectful things to women. He considers himself "vaginally challenged" now.

Questions: What is our opinion on Tucker Max? One word; boss. Although he is comprised of every asshole attribute known to man, he makes for one of the most entertaining main characters ever to be written about. His sarcastic and witty persona makes Simon Cowell look like a nice guy.

On a scale of 1-10, if you were to rate how exaggerated these stories are, 10 being ridiculous 1 being truthful, what would you rate these stories? Explain. I would sa about a 7. The stories need some backbone of truth, but overall, some of this stuff seems a little ridiculous. And given we know the type of guy Tucker Max is, hot headed and an attention seeker, you can almost guarantee some of these stories aren't even close to 100% truthful.

Who is our favorite character besides Tucker? Why? SlingBlade definitely. SlingBlade, although a "debbie downer" of sorts, can bring on a lot of laughs to an otherwise predictable story. His super sarcasm and absolute loathing attitude to anything with a uterus can be very entertaining.

Do we think SlingBlade will get over his "girlphobia" by the end of the stories? I do believe so. We think he will eventually get married. There has got to be a girl out there that can put up with his BS, right? maybe....

What is our favorite story so far? The Elephant Legs story. It was a classic example of what a combo Tucker and SlingBlade can be.

Meeting 1 Review:

Well to start out the meeting we indulged in some delicious chewy chips ahoy cookies provided by the one and only Dave Gutman. With our Fearless leader Mike we started of our conversation with the raunchy antics that the author writes about. We are amazed at the way of writing and the stories. How could a man possible be this much of an ignorant drunk, get all these girls, and still being in law school at DUKE? We discussed how even though these stories are hilarious there is no way that they can all be true. We cam to the conclusion though that he did need something to base all of these stories off of. Tucker represents what guys adore and love but sometimes would never want to be like. If you stuck him in the room filled with feminists he probably would not come out alive. The conversation also went into how crazy his group of friends are. They are just as random and crazy as himself. Yeah and Joe came up with the questions. -Tom Nugent

Week 2: A. Joe B. Dave C. Mike D. Nuge

On your group's wiki page, discuss the type of language that your book contains. Is it easy to read? Conversational? "Classic"? Does it use a lot of words you don't understand? What grade level do you think the book is written at, and why?

The book is written in a conversational tone. Throughout the stories Tucker includes conversations that were had to further enhance the story. Tucker doesn't hold any language back and uses curses to retell his stories. Since Tucker went to Law School at Duke he uses a lot of big words that are sometimes hard to understand. I do think that the book is written for the high school age. However the content is very explicit.

Questions: 1)Why is this book easier to read because of the tone of writing? This style of writing is easy to comprehend because it is actually how our generation talks to each other.

2)Why does the tone in which it's written make the book more enjoyable for younger people to read? It is enjoyable to read because he does not hold anything back. It is how we would to our friends.

3) After reading this far would you enjoy spending time with Tucker? I would love to hang out with tucker but only for a couple times. His craziness would soon get to me.

4) How do Tucker's group of friends add to the crazy antics that ensue? His friends are all different which helps add to the variety of shenanigans that happen.

5) Can you believe everything that are in Tucker's Stories? There are no way that these stories are completely truthful. He must have changed them around to make them more interesting.

Meeting 2 Review:

We started the meeting with munchkins, however Joe thinking with have the appetites of 5 years old girls bought the 24 pack. We discussed the way the stories were written and the language used throughout. It was decided that the story was told definitely for the young adult male judging by the language used and the tone in which the stories were told. In addition, you could tell that he was a well educated man because he wrote using many large words that many people with a normal vocabulary would not know. After discussing the way the story was told, we asked each other about what our favorite stories were. Nuge is a big fan of Slingblade and finds all of this rude comments hilarious. Joe loved the story about Tucker not being able to find a bathroom in a hotel until it is too late. Overall, we all enjoy this book and are looking foward to reading more of the stories.

Week 3: A. Nuge B. Joe C. Dave D. Mike

Questions: 1) Would you consider the story to be written in a light or dark mood? Why? It is written in a light mood. You can tell from the language that is used and from the stories that are told.

2) What do you think is the craziest story so far? Why? The Vegas trip is by far the craziest so far. His outrageous antics at the hotel and casinos make for very entertaining stories.

3) Do you think Tucker is a respectable person? explain. Yes, however women would not think he is respectable because of the sexism that is found throughout the book. He is smart though because he attends Duke Law on a full scholarship.

4) How do you think Tucker has the time to party this much and still attend Duke Law School? It is possible that a lot of this story is made up. Also the story is written over many years so maybe most stories took place over breaks.

5) Do you think Tucker is as bad or worst than his friends? He is just as bad. Slingblade constantly makes terrible comments to women. Also some of his other friends get in a lot worse trouble than he does.

We started the meeting by Mike recounting on his weekend. His stories reminded us of something out of the book. He spent some time in the town jail. Nuge brought in Triscuts and cheese which made an awesome snack. We then found out that we could actually plant the basil seeds that came in the box. We then discussed the mood of the book and decided that it was written in a light mood. We also discussed how we think that some of the stories may be made up. How can he possibly remember what happened to him six years ago. Although he is a very smart man since he went to Duke Law School on a full scholarship. But that could also mean that he is smart enough to think up stories like this. Overall, we all are loving this book and can't wait for the sequel to come out.

Week 4: A. Mike B. Nuge C. Joe D. Dave

1) What do you think is one theme of the book? One theme of the book is Tucker gets very drunk and pulls over various stunts. This stunts are so outrageous that he has a best selling novel because of them. 2) What do you think is the sickest story so far? Why? The most disturbing conversation ever. Tucker warns his readers to not read the chapter if they don't want to hear the most disturbing thing ever. He is 100% correct. 3) Does the imagery help to imagine what Tucker is going through? Yes, Tucker goes into extreme detail to explain his stories. This makes it very easy to imagine what Tucker is going through. 4) Do you think that Tucker actually beat up the mascot at the hockey game? Yes, there is no way that you could lie about beating up a mascot in front of thousands of people. A spectator at the game sent in a picture of the fight. 5) What would you do if you ran a car into the front of a donut store? We would wait for the cops to come because if we were caught we would be in a whole lot of trouble. Tucker ran another girls car into a donut shop and ran away.

Week 5: A. Dave B. Mike C. Nuge D. Joe

1. Do you think this book should be considered for the school curriculum? I would like it to be in the curriculum, however it is far to risque to discuss in a high school classroom. Also some students could possibly be offended. 2. Would you recommend this book to your peers? Why or why not? Yes, absolutely. I would recommend it to all my guy friends and even some of of girl friends as long as they have a good sense of humor and are not easily offended. 3. What were your thoughts on the book as a whole? It was well written you could tell the author was well educated even though he wrote about such crazy topics. It was a great book. 4. Do you think there will be a sequel? Yes, it will be coming out in August. 5. How would you rate Tucker as a person after reading this? Why? He should probably calm down a little bit because he is going to get himself into a lot of trouble. However, his stories are hilarious and i hope he continues to write.

Summary: Overall this was an extremely enjoyable book to read. Since the type of writing was so different than the other books that we read in school it made it that much easier to read. This book was an escape for the mundane for us. It helped us realize that not all books are structured like Shakespeare and that reading still can be enjoyable. The book itself though should only be read by older teenagers and young adults. His humor is targeted to our age group because younger kids would not understand it (let alone inappropriate) and older adults would think that the vulgarity of this book should never see the paper in a book. It was a great read for our group. -Tom Nugent