This is going to be a quick post- I need to get back to COMMENTING! - but today is the Project for Awesome event. If you don't know what that is, go here and here, and then GO and RATE and COMMENT. For CHARITY. Hoo hah!
P4A!
DFTBA!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....
That title is a sigh of relief, by the way, not a scream of oh-my-god,-there's-an-axe-murderer-in-my-house.
And why oh why am I sighing? Why am I so relaxed and content and happy and such things and so forth?
Because....I finished NaNoWriMo.
What?
I finished NaNoWriMo!
What!?!?
I FINISHED NANOWRIMO!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......
You see, I just keep doing that.
I finally got to 50,000 at around ten o'clock last night. And immediately felt like taking a thirty day nap. But I didn't! I printed out my certificate, and being the dork I am, it is now hanging above my bed, and when I woke up this morning I couldn't help but grin at my little "WINNER!" paper. Victory is mine! Ha ha!
So happy December 1st, to all the Wrimos out there who aren't reading this! Congratulations, a thousand times congratulations- not for finishing, but for trying at all!
So who's ready for next year!?
Oh.
Wait. No. I'm still working on that nap...
Maybe I'll start editing tomorrow. Maybe.
And why oh why am I sighing? Why am I so relaxed and content and happy and such things and so forth?
Because....I finished NaNoWriMo.
What?
I finished NaNoWriMo!
What!?!?
I FINISHED NANOWRIMO!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......
You see, I just keep doing that.
I finally got to 50,000 at around ten o'clock last night. And immediately felt like taking a thirty day nap. But I didn't! I printed out my certificate, and being the dork I am, it is now hanging above my bed, and when I woke up this morning I couldn't help but grin at my little "WINNER!" paper. Victory is mine! Ha ha!
So happy December 1st, to all the Wrimos out there who aren't reading this! Congratulations, a thousand times congratulations- not for finishing, but for trying at all!
So who's ready for next year!?
Oh.
Wait. No. I'm still working on that nap...
Maybe I'll start editing tomorrow. Maybe.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Food of the Future
So lately I've been really interested in the expiration dates of food.
See, in the book I've been writing for NaNoWriMo- 45,737 words! - I gave my characters a storeroom of military rations and canned food, still full five years after a zombie apocalypse. And because I'm a crazy person, I only want food in there that will have stayed "fresh" in five years' time. So if you look up what I've been googling, along with other strange queries for the sake of my story, you'd mostly find "How long does canned corn last?" and "Expiration date for spam."
But today, I got a Little Debbie cupcake out of the back of my pantry. And out of my newly formed habit, I checked the expiration date on the wrapper.
It said:
DEC 05 00
I got very excited, and felt an urge to go around and show the nearest person, because in my mind, there were only four possible explanations for this:
Number One: There was a misprint.
But how boring would that be? Eliminated.
Number Two: That cupcake had been in my cupboard for almost a decade.
As tasting proved this to be false, this was eliminated.
Number Three: That cupcake was from the future, where its expiration date really was the fifth of December, year 3000.
But further exploration of my pantry, and several failed attempts at sending various snack cakes 900 years into the future, proved, sadly, that my cupboard is indeed not a functioning time machine. One could argue that it only sends things back in time, to precisely this year, but that would just be getting silly. Eliminated.
So all that was left was my final theory.
Number Four: December 5th, 3000, was the cupcake's real expiration date.
That cupcake would still be fresh and tasty in 900 years. As my scientific testing had proven all other possibilities false, then this shall be taken as the truth. I had the world's longest lasting cupcake in my hands!
Unfortunately, I was hungry, and the magical cupcake was eaten, so this will never be truly proven correct.
But neither will it be proven false! Ha ha!
So what came of this? Well, I will forever be telling my grandchildren of the time their grandma found the world's most amazing snack cake.
And it served as a worthy procrastination tool to delay the writing of my NaNoWriMo story, where, obviously, all of my main characters will now be eating Little Debbie's. Because I want my book to stay true to the facts.
I really need to get back to writing.
See, in the book I've been writing for NaNoWriMo- 45,737 words! - I gave my characters a storeroom of military rations and canned food, still full five years after a zombie apocalypse. And because I'm a crazy person, I only want food in there that will have stayed "fresh" in five years' time. So if you look up what I've been googling, along with other strange queries for the sake of my story, you'd mostly find "How long does canned corn last?" and "Expiration date for spam."
But today, I got a Little Debbie cupcake out of the back of my pantry. And out of my newly formed habit, I checked the expiration date on the wrapper.
It said:
DEC 05 00
I got very excited, and felt an urge to go around and show the nearest person, because in my mind, there were only four possible explanations for this:
Number One: There was a misprint.
But how boring would that be? Eliminated.
Number Two: That cupcake had been in my cupboard for almost a decade.
As tasting proved this to be false, this was eliminated.
Number Three: That cupcake was from the future, where its expiration date really was the fifth of December, year 3000.
But further exploration of my pantry, and several failed attempts at sending various snack cakes 900 years into the future, proved, sadly, that my cupboard is indeed not a functioning time machine. One could argue that it only sends things back in time, to precisely this year, but that would just be getting silly. Eliminated.
So all that was left was my final theory.
Number Four: December 5th, 3000, was the cupcake's real expiration date.
That cupcake would still be fresh and tasty in 900 years. As my scientific testing had proven all other possibilities false, then this shall be taken as the truth. I had the world's longest lasting cupcake in my hands!
Unfortunately, I was hungry, and the magical cupcake was eaten, so this will never be truly proven correct.
But neither will it be proven false! Ha ha!
So what came of this? Well, I will forever be telling my grandchildren of the time their grandma found the world's most amazing snack cake.
And it served as a worthy procrastination tool to delay the writing of my NaNoWriMo story, where, obviously, all of my main characters will now be eating Little Debbie's. Because I want my book to stay true to the facts.
I really need to get back to writing.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Madapple by Christina Meldrum
Or is she simply a girl faced with a unique situation?
Reading Madapple tore me up. Sometimes a good book has to do that- some have to make you fall in love, some scare you within an inch of your life- and some portray such an overwhelming story in such a way that it is at once unbelievably horrifying and remarkably beautiful. While introducing so many theories as to Aslaug's origin, covering the scientific, the religious, the supernatural, and the modern law's perspective- the author manages to leave questions unanswered in just the right way. This book keeps you guessing even after it's ended, even after the truth is revealed.
Bad things seem to follow Aslaug wherever she goes. Raised in virtual isolation by her mother, a Danish immigrant women, who some have called brilliant, and some have called insane, Aslaug holds an unusual grasp on reality and an insight into the world. She possesses her mother's love for science, nature, and myth, and can boast to a great deal of intelligence, but her social skills are limited to what her mother has taught her. After her mother's death early on in the book, Aslaug seeks out the family she has never known, secrets her mother kept hidden from her, and finds instead more questions and family scandal where she looks. Every other chapter is a piece of the transcript from Aslaug's trial- taking place four years from the time we meet her in the beginning. We learn that in four years, Aslaug's situation will change so drastically that she is being accused of murdering characters that we are simultaneously meeting for the first time. Sprinkled throughout this book are lessons in botany, paganism, English literature- and anything else that our odd heroine seems to think about- dispersed in a way that reminded me of Scott Westerfield's Peeps, with its long anecdotes on intriguing viruses and plagues and animals.
Every time you think she has found peace, the carefully built up world of Madapple begins to chip away- revealing a harsh and frightening ugliness underneath. The transcripts prove most of what Aslaug's first-person account to be wrong so thoroughly that you begin to question her self-assured innocence. There is both a mingling sense of sweetness and leftover horror even now, as I sit here, having finished this book. Madapple is an exceptionally well-written novel, and though I while reading in public I was constantly having to explain why the girl on the cover was about to eat a butterfly, I think this will be one that I treasure.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Twilight
See that title? These days, that word seems to spark either a slew of insults or a bombardment of defensive gushing. My own personal opinion is a definite middle- as Isabella Swan says, "I am Switzerland." A few years back, I was definitely a die hard twi-hard, but I fell back from the girlish, squealing fan base when I figured out what the Twilight saga really is: pretty fun to fall into, but not so great as your life's passion. I have to admit, the series is fun to make fun of, but I don't think it deserves total, immediate rebuff. You can say what you want about the flaws of Meyer's writing, or the complete lack of flaws in the main characters, but the fact remains that Twilight got people reading, people who otherwise might not have picked up a book. The series has acted, for some, like a gateway drug (in a good way!) to better novels.
Besides, Twilight never claimed to be the next great American novel: it's a overly dramatic teen love story, complete with sparkling vampires, and a public service announcement about abstinence. It's a fad like any other, whether it's acid-wash jeans or Flowers in the Attic- liking it doesn't make you stupid or a conformist, disliking it doesn't make you cool. All of the open, cynical hate against Twilight has, for one, flamed the fire and drawn even more attention to the series, and two, made people who like it feel insecure about something they enjoy. That's something I don't think reading should be about. One of the best things about books is the fact that there are so many different ways to interpret them; you should brand a story good or bad depending on whether or not you liked it, not because of the opinion of the media or other teenagers who are just as obsessed about something else.
Besides, Twilight never claimed to be the next great American novel: it's a overly dramatic teen love story, complete with sparkling vampires, and a public service announcement about abstinence. It's a fad like any other, whether it's acid-wash jeans or Flowers in the Attic- liking it doesn't make you stupid or a conformist, disliking it doesn't make you cool. All of the open, cynical hate against Twilight has, for one, flamed the fire and drawn even more attention to the series, and two, made people who like it feel insecure about something they enjoy. That's something I don't think reading should be about. One of the best things about books is the fact that there are so many different ways to interpret them; you should brand a story good or bad depending on whether or not you liked it, not because of the opinion of the media or other teenagers who are just as obsessed about something else.
"Please, go take an AP Lit class or pick up a novel by Austen or Hurston and you'll understand...or maybe you won't, Twilight Fans tend to be lacking in brain cells." - user submitted definition from urbandictionary.com
How is all that negativity and hate better than a simple trashy romance novel?
I am here to say that there is a poster with Edward Cullen's face on it on my bedroom wall, I am awaiting the finished Midnight Sun, and I will be seeing Breaking Dawn with my friends after its release. I am a literary savvy bookworm who happens to like Twilight, and I am PROUD!
p.s. And for crying out loud, people- in no way does it threaten (or in any way compare) to Harry Potter!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
NaNoWriMo
I signed up for National Novel Writing Month today. If you don't know what that is, go here. (From here on, I'll assume you know why I'm suddenly pulling my hair out in anticipation.)
Now, I'm not expecting to win, since this is my first attempt, and I have school to go to, but I'm going to try and get as far as I can. I've always liked the idea of NaNoWriMo- trying to put together a book in 30 days means, for one thing, NOT EDITING what you write. I expect that this part will be the most difficult for me: whenever I get an idea for a story, I try to start it, but I always get so caught up in making it perfect that I never get past the first few pages, until I don't like the idea anymore and give up. But not this time! I've been sitting on an idea for a while now, and I think I can roll with it all the way to 50,000 words. The basic premise is your run-of-the-mill, post-apocalyptic, a-virus-has-turned-everyone-into-(insert zombies/insane cannibals/creepy lepers here) story, except the main character has taken up refuge in a high school, using all of the supplies there available to her (think JROTC practice weapons, stale frozen pizzas, science project hand-powered generators.) Her companions may or may not be hallucinations. I'm hoping to answer some of the questions I've always wondered about post-apocalyptic stories: for instance, what happens to people who had braces? Assuming you don't want to take them off with your dad's pliers, would you walk around for the rest of your life with correctional orthodonture?
Anyway, I'm really excited for this. Even if I don't finish by November 30th, I think it will be a good exercise. Anyone want to join me?
Now, I'm not expecting to win, since this is my first attempt, and I have school to go to, but I'm going to try and get as far as I can. I've always liked the idea of NaNoWriMo- trying to put together a book in 30 days means, for one thing, NOT EDITING what you write. I expect that this part will be the most difficult for me: whenever I get an idea for a story, I try to start it, but I always get so caught up in making it perfect that I never get past the first few pages, until I don't like the idea anymore and give up. But not this time! I've been sitting on an idea for a while now, and I think I can roll with it all the way to 50,000 words. The basic premise is your run-of-the-mill, post-apocalyptic, a-virus-has-turned-everyone-into-(insert zombies/insane cannibals/creepy lepers here) story, except the main character has taken up refuge in a high school, using all of the supplies there available to her (think JROTC practice weapons, stale frozen pizzas, science project hand-powered generators.) Her companions may or may not be hallucinations. I'm hoping to answer some of the questions I've always wondered about post-apocalyptic stories: for instance, what happens to people who had braces? Assuming you don't want to take them off with your dad's pliers, would you walk around for the rest of your life with correctional orthodonture?
Anyway, I'm really excited for this. Even if I don't finish by November 30th, I think it will be a good exercise. Anyone want to join me?
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Fifty Things
Got the idea today from a trend on YouTube to write down 50 things I have done in my life. So, here goes!
1. I have read an entire book in a single sitting. A few times.
1. I have read an entire book in a single sitting. A few times.
2. I have been to Alaska.
3. I have seen over 7 Broadway musicals
4. I have kept a journal named Prudence on and off for the past three years.
5. I have read...well, I have no idea how many, but just take my word for it: I've read a lot of books.
6. I have eaten green pancakes.
7. I have been to Vancouver.
8. I have learned the same facts about the American Revolution in six consecutive grades.
9. I have bitten through my upper lip. If we went further into that story, it'd become apparent that I have a pathological fear of dolphin shows.
10. I have read a poem that I wrote in front of a crowd.
11. I have played a poppy flower in the Wizard of Oz.
12. I have read one book and loved it only to find out years later that it was part of a series. Oops.
13. I have occasionally misspelled my own name.
14. I have competed in a writing contest, and won.
15. I have successfully edited a friend’s story.
16. I have been to over a dozen funerals and unveilings.
17. I have changed my career plans over a dozen times.
18. I have made fake blood, vomit, and scars at summer camp.
19. I have created a catapult out of paper and duct tape.
20. I have overheard way too many secrets in the girls’ bathroom.
21. I have been head butted by a goat.
22. I have read the same book annually since I was eight. Chasing Redbird, by Sharon Creech.
23. I have built a castle out of Styrofoam pieces.
24. I have seen every single episode of Scrubs. At least twice.
25. I have tried to knit a square, and had it come out a circle.
26. I have attempted to ski. And failed in that attempt.
27. I have learned how to say I like hot dogs in Spanish. Me gusta los perritos calientes.
28. I have memorized Ode to Joy for the piano.
29. I have put up with something I hated to appease someone.
30. I have written a vast amount of completed stories. In my head, at least. On paper? Not so much.
31. I have done my homework in the hallway five minutes before it’s due.
32. I have loved every one of my math teachers, and hated their subjects.
33. I have been on a cruise.
34. I have petted an alpaca.
35. I have had entire conversations with people that I’ve supposedly met before, and yet can't remember them in the slightest.
36. I have been CPR certified.
37. I have let my pierced ears close up by accident.
38. I have been thrown off a horse.
39. I have edited published novels, and found a lot of mistakes.
40. I have told friends that I like something they’ve made, when truthfully, I thought it was really bad.
41. I have made friends with an 80 year old woman named Dorothy at a retirement home.
42. I have helped clean up a pond.
43. I have sang songs that I do not know the words to.
44. I have slept for three days straight.
45. I have cut my own bangs. Horribly.
46. I have seen friends move away.
47. I have taken a haunted city ghost tour.
48. I have written to Santa.
49. I have used up entire pens in one sitting.
50. I have lost over a dozen pairs of prescription glasses. Whoops.
Here's to another (better) fifty sometime soon! *Raises celebratory goblet*
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Top Ten Favorite Books
I've always been bad at narrowing down my favorite book, so I have a go-to list of favorites, which I am going to share with you, in no particular order.
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers:
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff:
How I Live Now is a wartime story told through the eyes of a young girl who, quite understandably, cares nothing about the war. Daisy, a teenage New Yorker, who is our eyes into the world of the fictitious World War III and provides the sarcasm enriched narration, has been sent to live in the English countryside with the aunt and cousins she has never known. Daisy is thrown into the strange world of homeschooling and farmlands, fourteen year olds that smoke and drive but maintain a polite innocence not seen in the city. Her cousins are mysterious but loving and seem to possess almost mystical yet unaddressed gifts. Daisy is quickly accepted as part of the family. When the only adult influence in their lives is removed, their beautiful country estate becomes a suspended safe haven- where it seems the outside world, and the war, cannot touch them, and where instances that would be unthinkable in the real world are softened, and edges between right and wrong are blurred. Issues like eating disorders and injustice and, quite frankly, incest, are minimized and told both passively and beautifully. As the war begins to affect their lives more and more, the story and the characters change before your eyes. Rosoff captured the voice of this character so perfectly and told the story so realistically, reading it is like sitting beside Daisy as she tells you her tale and whispers her secrets into your ear. I love this book.
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead is the second in the Ender's Game series. It follows Ender Wiggin, three thousand years after he defeated the Buggers, an alien race that was thought to be humankind's enemy, but was simply unable to communicate with them. Ender is on a quest to revive the species that he once destroyed.
It's really hard to briefly explain the story because of its relation to the other books in the series, but just take my word for it: it's amazing. Orson Scott Card is amazing. And if you have not yet read Ender's Game, I suggest you shut down your computer, go find the book, read it, and come back to me.
So...did you love it, or what? Only about a dozen more to go, counting the prequels, companion series, and short stories. Enjoy!
I love the entire Ender's Game series, but out of the main four books, Speaker for the Dead is my favorite. The series was my first introduction into science fiction, and the ideas and philosophy of the later books opened my mind and made me think about things I'd never thought of before. Like I said: amazing.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (or, you know, all of them...)
Does this even need an explanation?
Yes.
Oh. Okay. Well, basically, Harry Potter is made of awesome. J.K. Rowling is made of awesome. Just everything in the general area of Harry Potter is made of awesome. Okay?
Thanks- it was much obliged. Clears it right up.
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
This is a beautiful take on a classic fairy tale: filled with magic and love, it's set in a mystical world of cultural separation, worship, and war. Book of a Thousand Days is told through diary entries of a "mucker" maid Dashti in the thousand days or so that she spends locked in a high tower with Lady Saren, a girl of gentry status who refuses to marry the man her father orders her to- and he locks her away for it. Dashti and Saren are visited by the evil Lord Khasar, whom Saren is supposed to marry but knows a horrible secret about, and Khan Tegus, the man who Saren said was her betrothed but has not spoken to since childhood. After two and a half years the girls find they need to escape from the tower, as food supplies would soon run out. Saren has become practically catatonic and is afraid to leave, or to return to her family, so when Dashti finds a way out, she agrees to run with Lady Saren. They seek refuge in Khan Tegus's realm, and hide as kitchen workers. Troubles unfold as Dashti realizes her feelings for Khan Tegus, and that Lady Saren knows much more than she lets on. Dashti is forced to impersonate her mistress, and there could be dire consequences. This is an adventurous, heart wrenching story.
The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
The first time I heard about this book, someone said it was like X-Men meets Home on the Prairie. Well, how could you resist that? Piper McCloud is the somewhat ditzy but good natured heroine of this story, and she has a strange gift: she can fly. When she causes uproar in her small town, she is swept away to a government run facility for children like her. The characters of this story are lovable and complex; I won't give away anything anyway about the plot, because the best part is that your guesses as to what are happening are often wrong. Forester writes the twists so well that you aren't sure what's what, and for such a short read, the way you can so quickly switch from being completely charmed to completely terrified is amazing. If one thing can be said about this book, it's that Piper is one of the sweetest girls I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I've always had a love/hate relationship with the characters of this series, especially as you get into the later two books. My friend and I both loved the books when we read them for book club, but we also both felt like smacking Miranda and Alex upside the head. Another friend said this story was like a car wreck: it's so horrible that you just couldn't look away.
Miranda and her family witness the beginning of the end of the world: a meteor crashes into the moon, and pushes it closer to the Earth (I didn't say the science was believable; just go with it,) resulting in a snowballing catastrophe- volcanoes all over the world erupt due to the gravitational pull, tsunamis flood all coastline cities. Since the moon has blocked out the sun, crops no longer grow. Disease, starvation, and death spread across the Earth like wildfire. Told through Miranda's diary entires- accounts of the horrors she and her family have to see and experience- Life As We Knew It follows Miranda trying to grow up in a new world with no room for selfish teenagers, where plans for her future only go as far as surviving the next week. The family's conditions change constantly and drastically- and you are caught in the whirlwind with them. Enjoy this story that is about family as much as it is about survival, and give Miranda a slap from me.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Jenna Fox has just woken up from a year long coma. She has just been told her name. She has just been reintroduced to the parents that raised her, the grandmother that has always stood up for her, and can't remember a thing about them. As Jenna is hidden away from everyone outside her immediate family, and kept out of the loop of what exactly happened to her, and how she was saved, we experience her flashbacks and bizarre new life through a poetically told futuristic story. You cheer for Jenna when she triumphs and cry for her when she can't understand what she has to triumph over. A beautiful, nightmarish story.
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
HA!
If you've ever read anything by Christopher Moore, you know that there's not much else that needs to be said. I was giggling so much as I read this that my mother came over and asked what the book was about. I tried to summarize A Dirty Job and another book of Moore's, Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings. When I finished, she looked at me and said, "That guy's on some serious drugs."
Read this when you're in need of some laughs, and some victory for the little man.
For Beta Males (and females) everywhere!
Tripping by Heather Waldorf
I stumbled across this book in my school library, and fell in love with it. Rainey, who has lived with one leg since birth, signs up to go on an eight-week road trip across Canada with five other teenagers. Rainey must deal with the challenges of her disability, and the challenges of any teenager: mainly, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? And right before Rainey leaves on her trip, she finds out that the mother who abandoned her when she was a baby wants to meet her, since the group will be passing her home. On top of all of this, Rainey might just have let her guard down long enough to fall in love.
This book is refreshing; as is a teenage girl in a modern YA book that has some gumption- is it just me, or is anyone else tired of the awkward, clumsy, mumbling heroines of today's fiction? At one point in Tripping, Rainey walks into a cafe with some other campers, artificial leg in plain view. A prissy blonde at a table gasps, points it out to her friend, and stage whispers, "Look at her leg." Rainey turns around and yells, "Well at least my TITS are real!"
This book's characters are believably three dimensional, and every one of them becomes your favorite. If you search for that "bad guy" that is around there somewhere in most stories, the nemesis to our hero, the one that gets what's coming to them, you won't find one. Tripping reminds you that in real life, there are no "bad guys." Only people.
The End!
A bluebear, we're told, has 27 lives. The great Captain has decided to only reveal half of his to us in his memoir, because, well, a bear needs his privacy. The ridiculousness of the story will keep you well entertained for all of its 700 pages. (At least, I found it entertaining.) Illustrations of the bear in question, maps of his homeland, Zamonia, and excerpts from an encyclopedia bacterially imprinted on his brain frequently pop up during Captain Bluebear's detailed account of his lives. Whether the subject is Bluebear's time spent falling through dimensional hiatuses with his best friend, Qwerty Uiop, the Gelatine Prince from the 2364th dimension, or his life on the back of a Roving Reptilian Rescuer, a pterodactyl with failing eyesight, this book is just plain fun.
How I Live Now is a wartime story told through the eyes of a young girl who, quite understandably, cares nothing about the war. Daisy, a teenage New Yorker, who is our eyes into the world of the fictitious World War III and provides the sarcasm enriched narration, has been sent to live in the English countryside with the aunt and cousins she has never known. Daisy is thrown into the strange world of homeschooling and farmlands, fourteen year olds that smoke and drive but maintain a polite innocence not seen in the city. Her cousins are mysterious but loving and seem to possess almost mystical yet unaddressed gifts. Daisy is quickly accepted as part of the family. When the only adult influence in their lives is removed, their beautiful country estate becomes a suspended safe haven- where it seems the outside world, and the war, cannot touch them, and where instances that would be unthinkable in the real world are softened, and edges between right and wrong are blurred. Issues like eating disorders and injustice and, quite frankly, incest, are minimized and told both passively and beautifully. As the war begins to affect their lives more and more, the story and the characters change before your eyes. Rosoff captured the voice of this character so perfectly and told the story so realistically, reading it is like sitting beside Daisy as she tells you her tale and whispers her secrets into your ear. I love this book.
Speaker for the Dead is the second in the Ender's Game series. It follows Ender Wiggin, three thousand years after he defeated the Buggers, an alien race that was thought to be humankind's enemy, but was simply unable to communicate with them. Ender is on a quest to revive the species that he once destroyed.
It's really hard to briefly explain the story because of its relation to the other books in the series, but just take my word for it: it's amazing. Orson Scott Card is amazing. And if you have not yet read Ender's Game, I suggest you shut down your computer, go find the book, read it, and come back to me.
So...did you love it, or what? Only about a dozen more to go, counting the prequels, companion series, and short stories. Enjoy!
I love the entire Ender's Game series, but out of the main four books, Speaker for the Dead is my favorite. The series was my first introduction into science fiction, and the ideas and philosophy of the later books opened my mind and made me think about things I'd never thought of before. Like I said: amazing.
Does this even need an explanation?
Yes.
Oh. Okay. Well, basically, Harry Potter is made of awesome. J.K. Rowling is made of awesome. Just everything in the general area of Harry Potter is made of awesome. Okay?
Thanks- it was much obliged. Clears it right up.
This is a beautiful take on a classic fairy tale: filled with magic and love, it's set in a mystical world of cultural separation, worship, and war. Book of a Thousand Days is told through diary entries of a "mucker" maid Dashti in the thousand days or so that she spends locked in a high tower with Lady Saren, a girl of gentry status who refuses to marry the man her father orders her to- and he locks her away for it. Dashti and Saren are visited by the evil Lord Khasar, whom Saren is supposed to marry but knows a horrible secret about, and Khan Tegus, the man who Saren said was her betrothed but has not spoken to since childhood. After two and a half years the girls find they need to escape from the tower, as food supplies would soon run out. Saren has become practically catatonic and is afraid to leave, or to return to her family, so when Dashti finds a way out, she agrees to run with Lady Saren. They seek refuge in Khan Tegus's realm, and hide as kitchen workers. Troubles unfold as Dashti realizes her feelings for Khan Tegus, and that Lady Saren knows much more than she lets on. Dashti is forced to impersonate her mistress, and there could be dire consequences. This is an adventurous, heart wrenching story.
The first time I heard about this book, someone said it was like X-Men meets Home on the Prairie. Well, how could you resist that? Piper McCloud is the somewhat ditzy but good natured heroine of this story, and she has a strange gift: she can fly. When she causes uproar in her small town, she is swept away to a government run facility for children like her. The characters of this story are lovable and complex; I won't give away anything anyway about the plot, because the best part is that your guesses as to what are happening are often wrong. Forester writes the twists so well that you aren't sure what's what, and for such a short read, the way you can so quickly switch from being completely charmed to completely terrified is amazing. If one thing can be said about this book, it's that Piper is one of the sweetest girls I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with the characters of this series, especially as you get into the later two books. My friend and I both loved the books when we read them for book club, but we also both felt like smacking Miranda and Alex upside the head. Another friend said this story was like a car wreck: it's so horrible that you just couldn't look away.
Miranda and her family witness the beginning of the end of the world: a meteor crashes into the moon, and pushes it closer to the Earth (I didn't say the science was believable; just go with it,) resulting in a snowballing catastrophe- volcanoes all over the world erupt due to the gravitational pull, tsunamis flood all coastline cities. Since the moon has blocked out the sun, crops no longer grow. Disease, starvation, and death spread across the Earth like wildfire. Told through Miranda's diary entires- accounts of the horrors she and her family have to see and experience- Life As We Knew It follows Miranda trying to grow up in a new world with no room for selfish teenagers, where plans for her future only go as far as surviving the next week. The family's conditions change constantly and drastically- and you are caught in the whirlwind with them. Enjoy this story that is about family as much as it is about survival, and give Miranda a slap from me.
Jenna Fox has just woken up from a year long coma. She has just been told her name. She has just been reintroduced to the parents that raised her, the grandmother that has always stood up for her, and can't remember a thing about them. As Jenna is hidden away from everyone outside her immediate family, and kept out of the loop of what exactly happened to her, and how she was saved, we experience her flashbacks and bizarre new life through a poetically told futuristic story. You cheer for Jenna when she triumphs and cry for her when she can't understand what she has to triumph over. A beautiful, nightmarish story.
HA!
If you've ever read anything by Christopher Moore, you know that there's not much else that needs to be said. I was giggling so much as I read this that my mother came over and asked what the book was about. I tried to summarize A Dirty Job and another book of Moore's, Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings. When I finished, she looked at me and said, "That guy's on some serious drugs."
Read this when you're in need of some laughs, and some victory for the little man.
For Beta Males (and females) everywhere!
I stumbled across this book in my school library, and fell in love with it. Rainey, who has lived with one leg since birth, signs up to go on an eight-week road trip across Canada with five other teenagers. Rainey must deal with the challenges of her disability, and the challenges of any teenager: mainly, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? And right before Rainey leaves on her trip, she finds out that the mother who abandoned her when she was a baby wants to meet her, since the group will be passing her home. On top of all of this, Rainey might just have let her guard down long enough to fall in love.
This book is refreshing; as is a teenage girl in a modern YA book that has some gumption- is it just me, or is anyone else tired of the awkward, clumsy, mumbling heroines of today's fiction? At one point in Tripping, Rainey walks into a cafe with some other campers, artificial leg in plain view. A prissy blonde at a table gasps, points it out to her friend, and stage whispers, "Look at her leg." Rainey turns around and yells, "Well at least my TITS are real!"
This book's characters are believably three dimensional, and every one of them becomes your favorite. If you search for that "bad guy" that is around there somewhere in most stories, the nemesis to our hero, the one that gets what's coming to them, you won't find one. Tripping reminds you that in real life, there are no "bad guys." Only people.
The End!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Introductions!
Hello! I'm introducing myself!! With exclamation points!!!
Sorry. No more exclaiming.
This blog is going to be one part book reviews, one part daily life, and one part strange Doctor Who-Nerdfighterly references. Okay?
This is my first attempt at a blog- so I'm just going to be playing this by ear.
Ground Rules:
I'm a stickler for correct grammar most of the time, so if you're going to act like a decepticon on this blog, please remember how to spell "you're." Also, remember that nice is better than...not nice. So be...nice. (I need my thesaurus...)
Reading is not lame. If you believe that, you obviously have not yet found the right kind of book for you. I would be happy to make a suggestion if you'd like.
I hope you enjoy this blog, but if you don't, that's okay. It was mainly created out of a mix of procrastination and boredom. (I'm supposed to be finishing my summer break Algebra II packet. Sigh.)
Sincerely,
The Librarian
Sorry. No more exclaiming.
This blog is going to be one part book reviews, one part daily life, and one part strange Doctor Who-Nerdfighterly references. Okay?
This is my first attempt at a blog- so I'm just going to be playing this by ear.
Ground Rules:
I'm a stickler for correct grammar most of the time, so if you're going to act like a decepticon on this blog, please remember how to spell "you're." Also, remember that nice is better than...not nice. So be...nice. (I need my thesaurus...)
Reading is not lame. If you believe that, you obviously have not yet found the right kind of book for you. I would be happy to make a suggestion if you'd like.
I hope you enjoy this blog, but if you don't, that's okay. It was mainly created out of a mix of procrastination and boredom. (I'm supposed to be finishing my summer break Algebra II packet. Sigh.)
Sincerely,
The Librarian
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