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.