Well, Hot Damn

 It's not every day your cat runs across your keyboard and suddenly you're looking at a blog you completely forgot existed for 10+ years.

I don't know that I ever would have found my way back here without some sort of cosmic cat interference, but I'm iooooooooooooooooooowe

Sorry, cat ran across the keyboard again. I'm HAPPY to be back. Let's get some life updates going, shall we?

First, I did not major in English and, as a matter of fact, I'm still pursuing a degree. YES REALLY. I changed course a few times, took several years off in general, and now...well...I'm getting ready to apply to nursing school this upcoming year. When I was scrolling through my posts about dissecting the cat my Junior year of high school I was cackling like a mad witch. Life really comes full circle, doesn't it? Especially in regards to those pesky, type A anatomy professors who really want to make you ride the struggle bus downhill in a snowstorm. So crazy.

Something that hasn't really changed is my love of reading, though I've slowed down immensely since the days I had wildly unbelievable amounts of free time due to unemployment and general kid-less-ness. I will have read 80ish books by the end of this year, and this is the second year I've been fully back into reading. I have never fully stopped losing myself in a good book, but there were a couple unfortunate years after the birth of my first son that I did not read as much as I would have liked.

Oh, yeah, I have sons! Two of them! And what's crazier? I had them with the boy I went to homecoming and prom with and who was picking me up to go see all those scary movies way back in my posts. I may have been wishy-washy on my career path but GOD I knew I would be marrying that man back when I was covered in cystic acne and cotton candy scented body spray.

I won't let my cat's hard work go to waste. I will be updating this blog periodically, if only for myself. I can't say that it will be often or even consistent because if I've learned anything about myself from scrolling through 3 years of my teen angst is that I've never been good about holding myself accountable.

Here's a pic of little Galaxy to satisfy the cat tax

Between Shades of Gray

Hey guys! I'm back! I haven't read a whole lot since I last posted because I was busy with finals and stuff. Oh yeah, I graduated high school, by the way. It was pretty awesome. :)

Anyway, I've read a few books but I finished one today that I felt deserved it's own post. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.

I was just browsing books on Amazon and it was in the 'customers who bought ____ also bought these' section. I was iffy about it because I'd never heard of it before, but after seeing the overwhelming number of positive reviews I was sold. One person in particular stated "If there's only one book you read this year, make it this one" so I assumed that if it made that positive of an impact on someone, then I would at least like it a little bit.

I liked it a whole lot more than a little bit.

Short summary:

The book is about a 15 year old girl named Lina who lives with her parents and younger brother in Lithuania during the early 1940s. One day, her entire life is thrown into turmoil when she, her mother and her brother are thrown into a crowded train car and shipped to a work camp. She is labeled as a criminal by members of Stalin's army and is exposed to many horrors that take her life from care-free to horrifying. Lina finds solace in drawing portraits of the people she comes in contact with and attempting to discover the fate of her missing father.

Some things I learned:

I for one never recall learning in depth about Joseph Stalin's 'purges' in school. This book actually taught me a lot of things that I never learned in school. (And they told me I was wasting my time reading so many books). These purges claimed anywhere from 20 to 60 million lives, including children and infants. The majority of these deaths were of those who did not support Stalin's reign and spoke out against him. The rest of the deaths were of their families. It is argued that the majority of these deaths were not 'intentional' by Stalin's army but were a result of starvation, illness, or exposure to the elements. Only about 1 million were personally shot by officers. Regardless, the numbers are staggering and the simple fact that they don't actually know how many lives were taken is upsetting and shocking.

A Conclusion:
And so, I must say I recommend this book. It is a beautiful story about an amazing family and group of people and is an amazing way to get an in depth look at one of history's less explored events. It is very sad and often a little grotesque, and although it is recommended for 12+, I found it to be a bit graphic in describing it's scenes of death and abuse. However, it is very realistic and does not 'sugar coat' the historical events. It's a fascinating look inside of the minds of the victims of Stalin.

Next, I'm reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and I expect to be finished in the next couple of days. :) Talk to you guys soon!

LOTS OF BOOKS.

Hey there ya'll! (is that appropriate? Am I allowed to say ya'll or should I just not?)

It's almost summer and hopefully that means that I'll get to do a few more legit book reviews. I've just been really busy. That's a total lie. I guess the truth is that I've just been reading so much lately that it's really hard for me to review each and every one. But today I'm just going to run through the list of books I've read since I last posted and give you a brief compilation of my thoughts on the book. I'm just going to assume that you already know what the book is about so I don't have to go into a long summary or anything. :) Thanks for being patient to those of you who are still with me, here. :) (I'm going to start at #28 because it's the 28th book I've read this year. The first 27 can be found on my last post.) Also, rating is on a scale of five *'s.

28.) The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry- I'm a Lowry fan. I loved The Giver series and I figured The Willoughbys would be similar to the series. I figured it would be a bit dark, and I was very wrong. I found that it was insanely clever. It was disguised as an innocent parody of classic stories meant for children, but it actually carried an awful lot of adult messages. As a quick example, the middle Willoughby child, Jane, is constantly battling her brothers and other male characters in the book due to her gender. It's addressed in a funny way, but the Jane's feminist nature carried a lot of weight with me. The book is intended for children 8 and up, but I think that people of all ages could appreciate it's message, particularly those who grew up reading fairy tales about perfect families and children. It really flips those stories on their heads. (Rating: ****)

29.) Hate List by Jennifer Brown-I went into this book with very high expectations and as a book lover I really should learn my lesson with this. I figured that it would be emotional and sad, but I just thought it was annoying. Let me state one fact about the book before I continue: The book was inspired by a Nickleback song. Now, I'm not saying that's entirely bad...okay I am. The book wasn't the best, in my opinion. I didn't care much for Val. I thought that she had a desperate-to-be-different attitude that I just struggled to grasp. I did, however, appreciate the flashbacks to her relationship with Nick before the shooting. Those few moments were the only time I felt any sort of emotion at all. (Rating: **)

30-34.) The Delirium Series (including Hana and Raven) by Lauren Oliver-So this series was introduced to me by my very dear friend Sage, and I freakin' loved it. The premise of it itself sounds so cliche and silly but it is so well done. Never in a series have I had so many freakouts in such a close span of time. Luckily, I didn't have to wait between novels. If I had, I might have died. It is such an intense series. All of the characters are very dynamic which is usually hard to come across particularly in series. I fell in love with Alex, I fell in love with Julian, I hated them both and then loved them again, it's crazy guys. It's absolutely crazy. I can't even tell you how crazy it is. Please just take my word for it and read these books. The three novellas are all less than 100 pages each and add great depth to the book that came before it. (The order is Delirium-Hana, Pandemonium-Raven, Requiem-Annabel) DO NOT SKIP OUT ON THE NOVELLAS. I'm going to be honest, I didn't read Annabel. Once I finished Requiem I was in shock for quite some time and was a bit mad at Lauren Oliver, to be honest. Give it a shot. I'm serious. (Rating: *****)

35.) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell-There have only been a few books recently that I've been so excited to read that my palms literally got itchy until I got my hands on them. Unlike Hate List, Eleanor & Park did not disappoint. It was amazing. From page one, I was utterly in love with Eleanor. I felt like she was the character that most resembled my personality, possibly out of any book I've ever read. Rowell eloquently grasped what falling in love in high school is like, realistically. Without all of the ooey gooey stuff. In fact, Eleanor and Park don't even share their first kiss until the book is almost over. The author I would most compare Rowell to would be John Green which is the highest compliment that I can give to an author. It was beautiful. (Rating: *****)

36.) Just Kids by Patti Smith-I hate nonfiction with a bloody passion. However, I was forced to read this book because I really didn't want to fail english. Luckily for me it wasn't bad. Other than Patti's incessant name dropping (boastful at best) I thought the story was great. Robert and Patti's relationship was so remarkable it's almost difficult to imagine that it ever happened. I don't know that I would've chosen to read it on my own, but I really didn't think it was that bad. If you're interested in what life was like in the late 1960s, or if you're a fan of Smith, give this one a shot. (Rating: ****)

37.) Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card-So my dad gave me this book when I was about 11 and I was never able to finish it because...well, there's really no reason. I probably started it and made it halfway a dozen times and I was finally able to conquer it this week after an intense 7 year battle. And it was really good! I'm normally not a sci-fi fan. At all. But this was a sci-fi story that was almost believable. The ending was rather intense and was so worth the kind of slow pace of the first half of the book. Also, Ender was really cool and I'm feeling a bit guilty about my major crush on him because I don't believe that at any point in the book he's older than 11. (Rating: ****)

38.) Room by Emma Donoghue-This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it. I've wanted to read it for quite some time and I really liked it. Ma was such a strong character throughout the whole novel and Jack's voice narrating the novel was a really fresh idea. For those who don't know, the story is told from the perspective of 5 year old Jack. Basically what is happening is Jack's mother was kidnapped at the age of 19 and has been held in her captor's shed for 7 years. Her strength as a mother ultimately saves herself and her son's life. I highly recommend this book to just about everyone. It's rather hard to get through because of how realistic it is, but it's very much worth it. (Rating: *****)

OKAY THAT'S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW! I have a small stack of books I got from Salvation Army that I'll be reading this week so I'll let you know how that goes. :) Right now, I'm reading She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb but it may take me awhile because finals are next week and all that fun stuff.

Talk to you soon! I promise!

I'm terrible at this blog thing....

Hey guys! It's been... A long time. Why does it seem like that's how my posts always start? Oh we'll. I kind of suck. Hopefully I still have a few of my followers! My main point for this blog post is to show you a list of the books I've read so far this year. But first, I just wanted to point out how crazy it is that I'm 3/4 of the way through my senior year of high school! My graduation is in June and I am absolutely thrilled. However, I am a little nervous about what lies ahead. One step at a time, I suppose. :)

I've also been doing a lot of writing. Nothing good, but writing none the less.

Now to the best part! Books! The following is a list of everything I've read in 2013. Ready? :)

1. Matched-Ally Condie
2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas-John Boyne
3. Every Day- David Levithan
4. Beautiful Creatures-Kami Garcia
5. The book Thief-Markus Zusak
6. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist-Rachel Cohn
7-15. Series of Unfortunate Events 1-9-Lemony Snicket (don't judge me. I've never read them before.
16. Wintertown-Stephen Emond
17. If I Stay-Gayle Forman
18. Ruby's Imagine-Kim Antieau
19. How They Met and Other Stories-David Levithan
20. Girl, Interrupted-Susanna Kaysen
21. Mister Death's Blue Eyed Girls-Mary Downing Hahn
22. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time-Mark Huddon
23. The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
24. Let the Right One In-John Lindquist
25. The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold
26.Marley and Me- John Grogan
27. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan-Lisa See


That's it so far!! I've read a lot of great books and I've still got a lot of books to go. I hope to at least make it to 100 and beat my record last year! If you have any recommendations, let me know!

Warm Bodies Movie Review *MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

So my friend won tickets to an advanced screening of the upcoming movie Warm Bodies starring Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't go. Fortunately for me, she gave me the tickets! So my boyfriend and I were really excited for the opportunity to go!

As far as the theater itself went, it was not the best. Long story short they collected everyone's cell phones. Of course I understand it was for security purposes, so the movie wasn't recorded and distributed, but it was kind of snuck on us. They let us past the ticket collector and guided us to the auditorium that the movie would be in and then kind of jumped out with plastic bags and made people hand over their electronics. I was really uncomfortable with this and refused. We decided to take our electronics back to the car, except I took my cell phone back in. I felt uncomfortable about leaving it with strangers or in the car. Luckily, they took my word that I didn't have it on me and we were let in.

The second mistake on the theater's part was the fact that there was a couple with a very young toddler who was disruptive. It wasn't even the toddler that bothered me, it was his mother. She spanked him multiple times and wouldn't leave the theater. Finally, a manager came by and said something to them. Still, they didn't leave. The manager gave them multiple warnings until they finally left. At last, I could focus entirely on the movie.

The biggest thing that stood out to me were the parallels to society. 'R' has a flashback to how things were before the plague spread at the beginning of the movie: everyone was disconnected and focused on their electronic lives. (The irony of this, of course, came in the form of the smuggled cell phone in my pocket). This, to me, was like how we are turning into zombies. We are constantly plugged in. Luckily, there's a way to remedy this: love.

All in all, it was a great movie. However, the whole "tell a girl to stay put and she runs away" thing is getting old. But it helped to progress the story. 'R' was a completely lovable protagonist and the movie was funny and heartwarming. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone who's looking for an all around movie. :)

okay, that's all I have for you guys!! Go see Warm Bodies on February 1st!

Books Read in 2012

So, it's almost the end of 2012! :) I put together a list of all of the books I've read this year! I am 2 books away from 90, and so I'm going to try to read two books by 11:59 PM tomorrow! Wish me luck! And until then, check out the list!

1. Running from Solace-Nakia B. Loushaul
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini
3. The Summer I Learned to Dive-Shannon McCrimmon
4. A Long Way Gone-Ishmael Beah
5. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children-Ransom Riggs
6. Divergent- Veronica Roth
7. Insurgent- Veronica Roth
8. Where the Heart Is- Billie Letts
9. Sisterhood Everlasting- Ann Brashares
10. The Unseen-Luke Alistar
11. Drew in Blue- J.M. Kelley
12. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake- Aimee Bender
13. Remembrance- Michelle Madow
14. Vengeance- Michelle Madow
15. Timeless- Michelle Madow
16. The Hunger but Mainly Death Games- Bratniss Neverclean
17. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
18. Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins
19. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter- Seth Grahame-Smith
20. Learn Me Gooder- John Pearson
21. When I Found You- Catherine Ryan Hyde
22. Don't Shoot! I'm Just the Avon Lady!- Birdie Jaworski
23. Raising Able- Carolyn Nash
24. Elephant Girl- Jane Devin
25. Ain't No Sunshine- Leslie DuBois
26. Into the Free- Julie Cantrell
27. Ketchup is a Vegetable- Robin O'Bryant
28. Scorpio Rising- Monique Domovitch
29. Breaking Twig- Deborah Epperson
30. Anywhere but Here- Jenny Gardiner
31. The Day We Met- Dusti Bowling
32. Ten Things We Did- Sarah Mlynowski
33. The Yellow Wallpaper- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
34. The Color Purple- Alice Walker
35. Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher
36. Dream Land- Sarah Dessen
37. Gerald's Game- Stephen King
38. The Memory Keeper's Daughter- Kim Edwards
39. Okay for Now- Gary D. Schmidt
40. Please Ignore Vera Dietz- A.S. King
41. Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
42. Midnight Sun- Stephanie Meyer
43. Breaking Dawn- Stephanie Meyer
44. It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini
45. The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern
46. Snow flower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See
47. Damned- Chuck Palahniuk
48. Angel- Mary E. Kingsley
49. A Prayer for Owen Meany- John Irving
50. My Name is Mina- David Almond
51. Will Grayson, Will Grayson- John Green
52. The Knife of Never Letting Go- Patrick Ness
53. The Fault in our Stars- John Green
54. Paper Towns- John Green
55. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight- Jennifer Smith
56. We the Animals- Justin Torres
57. Wintergirls- Laurie Halse Anderson
58. White Oleander- Janet Finch
59. Playing with Matches- Carolyn Wall
60. Coraline- Neil Gaiman
61. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
62. The Notebook- Nicholas Sparks
63. The House of Scorpion- Nancy Farmer
64. Kristy and the Snobs- Ann M. Martin
65. Spirits in the Trees- Morgan McDonald
66. The Phoenix Rising- Olivia Burgess
67. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
68. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro
69. The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chbosky
70. Dr. Franklin's Island- Ann Halam
71. The Fifth Child- Doris Lessing
72. The Kingdom of Childhood- Rebecca Coleman
73. An Abundance of Katherines- John Green
74. Looking for Alaska- John Green
75. The Lover's Dictionary- David Levithan
76. The Host- Stephanie Meyer
77. The Almost Moon- Alice Sebold
78. More Tales to Chill Your Bones- Alvin Schwartz
79. The Talk Funny Girl- Roland Merullo
80. 13 1/2- Nevada Barr
81. Carrie- Stephen King
82. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood
83. The Realm of Possibility- David Levithan
84. Revoltingly Young- CD Payne
85. Wonder- RJ Palacio
86. Red Run- Rob Cornell
87. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden- Jessica Sorensen
88. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safron Foer

Short, Sweet, and to the Point!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been so long and I hope you all had a merry Christmas! I don't have much to say today, except that I got an iPad mini for Christmas (with which I am currently typing this blog post) and I love it! It's very cute and I've found lots of apps on it that have come in handy with writing and such.

Also, I used the Christmas money I received to buy 5 new lalaloopsies (did I ever tell you guys I collect them?) and I ordered a sixth which is on her way! All in all I had a fantastic Christmas, and loved spending time with my family. I hope you all did too! What did you get for Christmas? Tell me in the comments below!

I'm a failure (kind of)

So I have a quick, (and embarrassing) update for you guys.

I'm most likely not going to finish my novel by the 30th.

At this time, I'm 31,051 words in, and I only have three days left. I'm trying to be realistic with myself. I'm hoping that I'll be able to pump out a couple thousand more words tonight, but I'm having a really hard time with my plot! I know where I've been, I know where I want to go, but I have no idea how to get there!

I've made a new goal for myself though. I want to have my book absolutely and utterly finished by the end of December, and totally and completely edited by the end of January! My third and final goal will to be published (even if it's only as an ebook on Amazon) by my birthday at the end of February!

Although I'm a little upset that I won't be able to declare myself a winner, I can safely say I've accomplised quite a bit in the 26 short days that I've been at it. I'm really proud of myself, and I can't wait for next year's NaNoWriMo to work on another idea I have. However, for now, I just want to finish the book that's looming over my head.

As we speak, I can practically hear my character's groans of disapproval as I use my blog as an avoidance tactic. So, I guess I'll go continue their story before they get too unhappy.

THANKS FOR READING!

NaNoWriMo!

I'm letting you know right now that this is going to be a crazy month for blogging and I.

I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo (a totally lame way of saying Nationaly Novel Writing Month) and so I'm not going to have time to read much more than my novel over and over. I'm 8,770 words in and my goal is 50,000 by the end of the month. I'm pretty far ahead, given my word goal per day is only a little over 1,600 and right now I'm averaging about 2,923 per day. So I've had time to go back and revise and edit a little bit.

I must say, I'm on to something. I'm going to use Winter Break in December to do the rest of my heavy editing and then I'm thinking about publishing it through Amazon.
My boyfriend has helped a lot, and I have to give him credit for a lot of the most complicated concepts that are involved, but the basic plot and characters were my idea. I'm going to post the prologue here, but I want to keep the rest of the book under wraps until I get it perfected.

We mill about, shoulder to shoulder. There is nowhere we can go to be alone, because there are so many of us. The grocery store your grandma frequents so often? Yeah. We’re packed in there like sardines. The park you used to love as a child? We love it there too. Football stadiums, ballet studios, gas stations. We are everywhere. We stand where you stand and sometimes you sit where we stand. You don’t even realize we’re there. We whisper to each other, and sometimes to you.  You don’t hear us…usually. Sometimes, we get you when you’re vulnerable. When you’re almost asleep or when you’re really relaxed. We say things to you like, “Hey, how goes it?” and sometimes when we’re feeling rambunctious we are able to manipulate energy. It’s really fast, like a fissure in the space time continuum that’s able to repair itself before you even notice. And sometimes you get lucky and capture these “phenomenon” on camera and blame it on your recently deceased grandma or as a sign from angry spirits. You’re partially right, but honestly, we don’t care if we were once related to you. We’ve been watching you for so long, we feel like we know you. And we love you. Sometimes, we just want to say Hi. And we’re really not picky. We’ll talk to anyone who will listen. And as far as the angry spirit thing goes, no. That’s not how it works. We can only talk to you when we’re elated. Feeling the highest level of happiness there ever was. Strong emotions like love help too. So, when you see us, you should feel grateful. Because it means we love you. All the good things that happen in your life happen because of us.

But somehow, you don’t get that. And you run away screaming.

I considered giving you a plot summary, but I think I want that to be a surprise too. :)
There won't be anymore book reviews for November, as my number one goal is finishing this book, but I'll check back and let you guys in on my progress as often as I'm able!

THANKS FOR READING!

HOORAH FOR MICHELLE MADOW!

So guys, I finished Timeless, the final installment of the Trancend Time Saga.
I gotta say guys, after reading Vengence, I was pretty much dying to read this book. And it did NOT disappoint.

As far as my taste in books go, I'm not typically a fan of fantasy type stuff. However, every once in awhile a book or series will inch it's way into my heart. And this was one of them.

Michelle's utilization of 'common' language makes her books seem like they're being told from one friend to another without being overly complicated. There's no unnecessary information and everything is sort of straight to the point, which I ALWAYS appreciate in an author.

In regards to the whole series in general, I really enjoyed the slight romantic aspect. It's romantic without being overly cheesy and I really appreciated Lizzy as the heroine. I know that at first I thought that she was annoying and rude but once I realized that you can't fight fate, I decided she was alright.

As you know from my reviews of her last two books, the story revolves around the main character, Lizzy Davenport (who, granted, was not my favorite. But she ended up growing on me). Lizzy's seemingly uncomplicated life is thrown into chaos when Drew Carmichael transfers to her highschool. She feels connected to him deeply despite the fact that he is dating her best friend, Chelsea (formerly my favorite character of the series, but not anymore), and despite the fact that she has a long standing boyfriend.

Seems totally typical of any other YA novel, right?
Wrong.
Because Lizzy and Drew ARE meant to be. They shared a past life together...in Regency Era England! Lizzy's untimely death tore them apart then, but fate wants them back together again.

However, as we know from Vengence, Chelsea is REALLY mad about the whole "You stole my boyfriend" thing, so she accidentally puts a curse on Lizzy which she doesn't realize will eventually kill her. That's where book #2 ends.

NOW TO TIMELESS.

Lizzy and Drew are offically together now. Chelsea is still not on speaking terms with Lizzy and is being really lame about the whole situation. (Side note, ladies, holding grudges like this is NOT HEALTHY). Lizzy is under the impression that she and Drew have escaped their tragic past and therefore have escaped her untimely death. However, Chelsea has thrown a wrench into this whole situation.

Lizzy's happiness is cut short when she becomes aware of a dark energy surrounding her. She's attacked by birds, pictures of her fall off of the wall, and she has a general feeling of eerieness.
In order to put things right, Lizzy and Drew have to time travel back to Regency Era England to ensure that Lizzy does not die. The thing is....Chelsea has to go. It was a little awkward, but Chelsea was able to put her anger aside after discovering that she put her former best friend's life in danger.

All in all, the book had some pretty great twists, particularly towards the end. For something inspired by a Taylor Swift song, Michelle has really come up with a great series. I would have to rate this book as an 8/10 and the series in general an 8/10 as well. I look forward to what Michelle will produce in the future and I am SO SAD that this adventure is over. I felt as though I had to wait so long for this book to come out and now it's just done! Luckily, I can re-read them time and time again. I guess the book is just TIMELESS that way, eh guys? (I know, cheesy book puns are the worst.)

The book will not be released for purchase until November 20th, but I was lucky enough to recieve an early copy for review. I hope that you guys will give the series a shot because it is really, really great.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

CATCHING UP!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you guys! I have a couple little review/catch up things for you guys today.

 I finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood on Thursday afternoon. I had started to review it but then my boyfriend came to get me right after school so we could go see Sinister. Which, by the way, was terrifying. It wasn't so much scary as it was disturbing. But I would recommend it if you're into that sort of thing. And then I was out of town from Friday until last night at which time I began watching The Walking Dead. VERY distracting.

Anyway back to The Handmaid's Tale. It's the story of a woman named Offred (Of-Fred) and takes place in a dystopian society not too far in the future. After a (possibly staged) terrorist attack, women are forced to give up their rights and become concubines to high-society men for the purpose of reproduction. Many women at this time have become infertile due to a strain of infections and so fertile women are in high demand.

Offred is an impressive narrator. She jumps around quite a bit and it was slightly confusing towards the start so after I finished the novel I went back to review the first few chapters, just so I could be clear. Other than the confusion at first, Offred has a very honest and clear voice. The story is HER story, but it doesn't come across as conceited, if you get what I mean. It gives a clear impression of what she's feeling without seeming too whiny. I really enjoyed that. It was like she was just thinking things, and as she thought them they were put on paper. Little details were recalled and tied into her present situation. All in all, it was haunting.

I would give this book a 9/10. For it to have been a 10/10 I would have wanted to know a little bit more about Offred's past 'employers'. JUST SO YOU'RE AWARE the ending has made people unhappy in the past, however I felt it wrapped up nicely. :)

Moving on.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON I STARTED THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY BY DAVID LEVITHAN.

 

 

It was a book written in an eloquent and beautiful way. It was written in free verse poetry most of the time and it was just really unique. Every poem/chapter changed narrators, and they all tie in together. You kind of have to use context clues to see where each person/story fits in which could be confusing at times but then again, it's such a quick read that you wouldn't have too much time in between each chapter anyway. So it's quite easy to remember who is who.

 

I really liked the honesty of it. Each different poem is relatable, especially to high school students, and I really appreciated the hopeful tone of even the most depressing poems.

 

I'm a huge fan of David Levithan and would rate him a close second behind John Green on the list of my favorite authors. I would seriously beg you to give either of them a try. They're a breath of fresh air in comparison to any other YA authors.

 

 

ALSO

 

 

I re-read Revoltingly Young by CD Payne over the weekend. The Youth in Revolt series is so great. It's really funny and just so awkward that sometimes you have to just slap your forehead and cringe internally because it's just that bad. I would also recommend this series, especially the first two books. The others can sort of get repetitive but in an endearing way.

 

Anyway, that's all I have for you right now. :) Currently I'm reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

 

THANKS FOR READING!!!

Carrie

So yesterday after I posted, I read Stephen King's classic thriller, Carrie. I've wanted to read it for awhile and I've never seen the movie so I thought I'd give it a try. :)

All in all I thought it was decent. The story was sad and kind of scary. King has a way of taking normal daily things and making them very frightening. We've all been in the position of either the bully or victim. Sometimes things that seem harmless to say can really affect someone in a terrible way. It is absolutely not OK. Now, what if the girl you were picking on turned out to have telekenisis? And what if you set up a seemingly harmless prank at prom? What if that was the last straw?

That's the basis of Carrie. What I found to be the most sad part of the story was the characters of Sue and Tommy. They truly had the best intentions and unfortunately suffered for it in the end. That was senseless. And kind of sad.

What I didn't like about the book was the scientific aspect of it, I guess. How randomly King would place a paragraph or two out of a science journal that was just boring and took away from Carrie's story. I could have done with a little less of that, and a little more of Carrie's childhood. The book was an excellent idea that just fell a little short of spectacular. However, I will say that King did a pretty good job and the book left me a little disturbed.

I think I would have to give it a 7/10. It wasn't that bad, but like I said there were a few things that fell below my expectations.

Right now I'm reading a book called The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I'm sort of interested. It's a little weird and I'm not sure what it's getting at yet, but I'll let you know. :)

THANKS FOR READING!! :D

13 1/2

Hi guys! I finished a book this morning called 13 1/2 by Nevada Barr. I just wanted to let you guys know what I thought of it. :)
Basically, it's about a little boy named Dylan who is 11. He is charged with the brutal murder of his parents and baby sister although he has no recollection of the crime. His brother, Richard, was the sole survivor of the attack because he was at the neighbor's house. This part of the story takes place in the early sixties.

Now, fast forward to what I assume to be present day Louisiana. A woman named Polly who was introduced in the first chapter as an abused teenager living with her mother in a trailer park, has now made a life for herself and her two daughters. She meets a man named Marshall who is almost too good to be true. They are married and all seems well.

All through the story, there are flashbacks to Dylan living in a youth detention center. He doesn't remember anything from that night, all he knows is he loved his family very much. However, due to the fact that he was found covered in their blood with the murder weapon, an axe, in his hand, it's highly improbable that he didn't do it.

The thing I like about the story is it's such a mystery. You want Dylan to be innocent due to how young he is and how unlikely of a murderer he seems. However, right when you begin to think he WAS innocent, something in the story happens to leave you doubtful again.

I would give the book a solid 7/10. The only thing about it I wasn't so sure about was the way the story was told. It was told very shallowly. The dialect was very basic and the climactic scene at the end could have used a little more drama. All in all though, the book kept me engaged. :)

Also, last night was homecoming! It was a ton of fun! :)

That's all I have to say! I hope you guys had a great weekend! :)

Extremely Sad and Incredibly Fantastic

                So first of all, I have to confess to a sin. A horrible book related sin. I judged a book by its movie. I know, I know. I’m a horrible person. I saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in January when it came out without reading the book first. To be quite honest, I didn’t like the movie. Not in the slightest. It wasn’t successful in capturing Oskar’s unique voice and the young actor who portrayed him came off as obnoxious. The movie seemed rushed and I couldn’t understand why the book was so highly regarded.

And then on Sunday I was going through my library’s ebook collection and came across Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel and decided to give the story a second try. I fell madly in love with it. The way the story was told from the 3 perspectives of Oskar, his grandmother, and his grandfather was amazing. The language was intoxicating. And I just was completely engrossed. The use of photographs and other imagery to backup the story was also really effective. The last few pages gave me chills and there wasn’t even writing on them.

To be honest, it wasn’t Oskar’s story that had me so involved. It was the story of his grandmother and his grandfather that was even more sad than Oscar’s. Love, loss, and horrifying acts of terrorism are consistant through the novel. Even the most innocent of people can cause pain and heartache.

The book is very sad and relatable, particularly if you remember 9/11 and fully understand the sadness that came from the event. Please please PLEASE give it a shot. :)

ANYWAY THANKS FOR READING! <3

The Talk Funny Girl

Hi guys! I'm actually updating my blog! Whoot!
:)
So today I finished up a book I've been reading for a couple of days called The Talk Funny Girl by Roland Merullo. At first, I wasn't sure that I liked it. It was good, but it didn't have the WOW factor right away.
It starts out with an introduction by the narrator, a woman who grew up in the New Hampshire hills. She hints at being mistreated as a child and teenager, and how all negativity in every one's life is kept inside of themselves in a sort of museum that people pretend doesn't exist, but that she found a way to deal with those things. Then the book starts.

On the day that Marjorie Richards turns 17, her parents tell her that it was time to get a job. Right away, although this is a common and normal occurrence, you can tell that something's not quite right with her family. They talk in a sort of back-woods dialect that uses far too many prepositions and doesn't make much sense. (Which is where the title of the novel comes from). Later on in the book you find out that Marjorie and her parents belong to a very cultish church where the children are 'filled with sin' and must pay severe penance for it. It's all very scary, and the so called 'penance' that Marjorie has to pay is difficult to read about. She is starved, beaten, and doused with cold river water among other very traumatizing things. Apart from all of this, Marjorie is very intelligent even having been kept out of school until the age of 9, and seems to be very caring and sincere.

Reasonably enough, Marjorie is a little weary of adults. Not only is she mistreated by her parents and the congregation of their church, but while the story is taking place, there is a serial killer on the loose who preys on young girls who travel alone. Marjorie is constantly on edge and worried that someone will try to hurt her.

Early on in the story, Marjorie finds work with a man named Sands who is rebuilding a church and knows her (normal) aunt. She finds solace in the hard work and a friend in Sands. Their relationship is awkward because he is very shy and she has a difficulty expressing her emotions.

So, that should set up the novel pretty nice for you guys. It's very well worth reading. The novel shows that although terrible things happen TO you, they don't BECOME you. And the most beautiful things come out of dirt and neglect.

ANYWAY overall I'd give this book 9/10. I would give it a 10/10 but there was something slightly lacking in the characters, they weren't quite as dimensional as I would have liked. :)

THANKS FOR READING! Check this book out if you get the chance!

BOOKS BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS

So it has been a really long time, guys! I'm so sorry I've been gone for so long. The end of August was a rather busy time. I began my senior year of high school! And I pretty much put reading on the back-burner from the excitement of it all. Not saying that I haven't read at all. :)
I have read quite a bit. I'm not sure if I'll review the books I finished up reading towards the end of the summer or even the books I've read since then. But I will say this:

John Green is possibly the best author in the whole world.

Seriously, the man is awesome. I've read all of his novels and they are absolutely fantastic. Ranking them in order I would have to say....
1.The Fault in Our Stars
2. Looking for Alaska
3. Will Grayson, Will Grayson
4. An Abundance of Katherines
5. Paper Towns

I own 3/5 and I seriously need to finish my collection.

Also, Michelle Madow sent me a PDF copy of the final installment of her trilogy, Timeless. She's asked me to post a review during the book's release week in November. I'm halfway through and I'm trying super hard to pace myself so I can finish the ending right when I need to post my review.

On the subject of reading, my final summer reading list was as follows:
1. The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See
3. Damned- Chuck Palahniuk
4. Angel- Mary E. Kingsley
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany-John Irving
6. My Name is Mina and I Love the Night-David Almond
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson-John Green
8. The Knife of Never Letting Go-Patrick Ness
9. The Fault in Our Stars-John Green
10. Paper Towns-John Green
11. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight-Jennifer Smith
12. We the Animals-Justin Torres
13. Wintergirls-Laurie Halse Anderson
14. White Oleander-Janet Finch
15. Playing with Matches-Carolyn Wall
16. Coraline-Neil Gaiman
17. The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
18. The Notebook-Nicholas Sparks
19. The House of the Scorpion-Nancy Farmer
20. Kristy and the Snobs-Ann M. Martin (I know I'm silly)
21. Spirits in the Trees-Morgan McDonald
22. The Phoenix Rising-Olivia Burgess
23. We Need to Talk About Kevin-Lionel Shriver
24. Never Let Me Go-Kazuo Ishiguro
25. The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky
26. Dr. Franklin's Island-Ann Halam

So I was a long shot off from my goal of 60 books, but I have a new goal!! You see, I have this notebook that I started keeping February 2012. In it, I write the title and author of every book I finish. I am up to 85. So my new goal is to read 15 books by February 28th, 2013. That will be 100 books in one year!
Exciting.
Recently I've read:
The Fifth Child-Doris Lessing
The Kingdom of Childhood-Rebecca Coleman
An Abundance of Katherines-John Green
Looking for Alaska-John Green
The Lover's Dictionary-David Levithan
The Almost Moon-Alice Sebold
More Tales to Chill Your Bones-Alvin Shwartz (so 3rd grade)

I'm going to start reading a lot more in my free time and spending less time on Tumblr. I don't have much homework (Perks of only taking a few honors classes) and so I should be able to accomplish my goal. :)
Thanks for sticking around!!

-Kayla

Brain Melting Cuteness.

So I have a dog. His name is Roscoe. And I love him. Like I seriously would not hesitate to say that he is my best friend. We've had him for a little over 2 years. He is great. So, because I love my dog so much, I thought I would dedicate a whole post just for pictures of my awesome dog.

Roscoe had a great time at the beach. Except he was not a fan of the sand up his nose.

He might be slightly scared of me. But I don't care.

I don't know if he was posing for the photo op or if he was vehemently protesting bath time.

He wasn't feeling picture time that morning.

He really is this cute.

He's a 'super' dog. HAHA.

So anyway. That's all I really had to say today. I woke up with a huge appreciation for my dog so I thought I'd share his awesomeness with you guys!

Have a great day!



Never Let Me Go.

I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm....on the fence with this one guys. Usually I can say one way or another: I LOVED THE BOOK or EH.
But this time, I can't say. I was very into it in the beginning. I really liked the tone. I liked all of the characters. I thought that the whole thing was a little off (never expecting, however, how right I was) but regardless, I liked it.

It is narrarated by a woman named Kathy. She reflects on her life at a school called Hailsham. Her friends, teachers, classes. Things that amused her or stood out to her as a child.She talks a lot about a boy named Tommy who is prone to tantrums (but later she and him become close) and her best friend Ruth.
Throughout the whole thing, you just assume that the kids are at some sort of british boarding school. Until it gets to the part of the novel where the kids kind of age out of the school. They go to a place called The Cottages. And that's when you start to GET IT. These aren't normal kids.

All in all, I can say...good. Okay. But I didn't LOVE IT. And this is why. The author is Japanese, and I'm not sure if the book was translated from Japanese. Because sometimes, it got awkward. Like...The Catcher in the Rye is the closest thing I can compare it to. You know how Holden will repeat things? Like he'll say something and then in the very next sentence he repeats it? It's a lot like that. But it doesn't seem to fit the tone of the book.

Also, I'd like to call this a romance novel. I'd really like to. And if it were, I think that it would have left  larger impact on me. If Kathy and Tommy had really, REALLY, been in love, then perhaps I would have loved the book. It would have been touching. Instead it was just another sci-fi distopian...I can't even say thriller. It was very casual. And now that I think about it, that is what kind of made it so sad. Because although they know what will happen to them, they just kind of embrace it.

Overall, I'd give the book an 8/10. It really did end up being a book that makes me kind of think. But it didn't make me cry or anything.

ANYWAY. I thought I'd leave a quick review. Give it a try if you'd like to. I don't regret it. :) And I'm very excited to see the movie. Can I get a 'woot-woot' for Andrew Garfield, anyone?

Okay guys! I'm all done. Have a nice night!

I'M FINISHED WRECKING THIS JOURNAL!

GUYS I'VE FINISHED MY WRECK THIS JOURNAL! I got it back in February and I finally finished. I decided to post a few of my favorite pages for your viewing pleasure. (Note: please ignore my hideous ugly disgusting abhorable nails. Please.)

This is my cover. I like princesses. And blue paint. And my initials.

This is my coffee page. It smells like coffee.

These are the things I find. I find a lot of playing cards and random things.

This is my gum page. A page where my friends and I put our gum.

This is the page I painted. Obviously.

This is my hand.

These are things I found around my home.

I painted this picture with a penny.

This is my stain page which smells like mustard

Anyway this is what I do with my life. HAVE A NICE DAY!

We Need to Talk About Kevin...and School.

SO IT'S BEEN FOREVER...AGAIN! I know. I kind of suck at this whole 'blogging over the summer' thing. But guess what guys? SCHOOL starts here in 2 weeks. Well...15 days.
15. Tiny. Little. Days.
Which means I have to start waking up before 12:00 pm every day. Which will not be easy.
Here's the good news: I'm kind of excited. I wasn't before, but now I kind of am! I am going to be a senior! I'm absolutely thrilled. However, I haven't felt the need to make any huge deal out of things. I got one new pair of shoes and a few shirts. And then as far as supplies go, I just decided to use last year's backpack and get new notebooks. That's it.
My class schedule should be pretty easy.
I took Zoology, Personal Finance, Government Honors, English 12 Honors, and of course.....my favorite. Creative Writing. However this year it's going by the rather cheesy name: Imaginative Writing.
So in 15 days, that's what I'll be doing with my time.

But recently, I've been reading. And the book I've been reading is We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. It was basically the scariest book ever.
It's about a woman who decides she wants to have a baby. However, when she finds out she's pregnant, she kind of...doesn't want to be pregnant anymore. Call it "Mother's Intuition" because her son Kevin turns out to be psycho. Like...crazy. From the time he is born he is evil. But evil in backwards ways. So that when she would tell her husband "Oh Kevin does not stop crying from the time he wakes up to the time you get home." He's like...well yeah. He's a baby. Stop whining. But the thing is, Kevin IS JUST INSANE. I can't even describe. Eventually he goes from a crazy baby to a crazy child to a crazy teenager. And bad things just always seem to happen when Kevin is around. But it could all end up being just unfortunate coincedences...right? Well, it seems so until Kevin takes a crossbow to school...

It has an intense shocker of an ending that left me paralyzed. Like I don't want to sound overdramatic, but I couldn't move. And then the last page was even worse. I had to read it twice. Like really, lady?? Really?? If you read the book, you'll know what I mean. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. In fact, I may go read it again. It definately makes you think twice about wanting kids someday.

Anyway. What else have I read recently? I found a pretty good book on PixelOfInk.com but I can't remember the name right now. It was a romance, but it was a scary ghost book...I usually don't like either of those types of books but this one was great. Next time I blog...IF I EVER BLOG AGAIN...I'll let you know what it is called. :)

I hope everyone's summer has been great so far!

P.S: Here's the movie poster for Kevin. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't say if it's good or not.