The Museum of Extraordinary Things

I don't usually use the title of the book as the title of my post, but man I love this title too much not to use it.

I borrowed The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman a little by accident. I was shelving at the library (basically if ever I borrow a book, assume that I found it while I was shelving) while I was going through the new books. The cover of this one caught my eye, as did the title. I read the description and I was sold. I quietly put it back on my cart and kept it for myself. 

This is a fantastic story that takes place over the course of a few years, but is mostly set in 1911. It is the story of Coralie Sardie, the daughter of Professor Sardie, owner of The Museum of Extraordinary Things on Coney Island. The Professor, as the museum's curator, prides himself in that all that he presents is science. The people he finds are all wonders of nature, men covered in hair, girls with no arms, and a tortoise that is over a hundred years old. His daughter has her own disability, and over her lifetime he has been training her to swim in the freezing Hudson River, teaching her essentially to become a mermaid. She has barely had any contact with the outside world, and as she grows older, the pull of the city becomes stronger as her life deteriorates.

Meanwhile, in the Jewish neighborhoods of New York, a young immigrant boy named Ezekiel is growing furious at the treatment the working class must live with. He eventually slips away from his religious father and community, renames himself Eddie and becomes the apprentice of a Jewish mystic who specializes in finding people. When he gets tired of that, he becomes the apprentice of a photographer and eventually photographs the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and leaves it with a changed, darker view of the world. One night as he is night fishing by the Hudson, he spots a mermaid climbing up on shore. 

I loved this book. It was sad, and raw, and just a great read. I couldn't put it down. There were times when I genuinely felt sorry and empathic towards the characters. I almost cried on the bus at one point as I was reading the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire chapter.

It was nice to have a book that I liked enough that I felt that I could sit down by the fireplace and read for an hour. I would recommend this if you like historical novels, because there was a lot of historical details, but I would also recommend it if you liked Water for Elephants because it reminded me a lot of it. 

I should probably read On the Road now, so I won't borrow another book until I've read that one. 

Have a nice week!

Knitterly

Hello!

So remember when I made a schedule for the books I would have to read? Well, we all know how I am with schedules.

I finished Eat, Pray, Love so that is something that I did manage to achieve.
I finished Gatsby as well, because apparently we were supposed to finish it two weeks ago, so I finished it the day it was due (not good, I know, but I remembered enough of it that I was able to keep an intelligent discussion going in class, so it all worked out).
However, I didn't read half of On The Road before started The Friday Night Knitting Club.
I don't know, I feel like I really have to be in the mood for On The Road because it's my dad's favorite book and I feel like it deserves more attention than I've been able to give it these last few weeks.

So, I read TFKC in about four or five days. It's such an easy, feel good book that I didn't want to stop reading it.

It's the story of many different people whose lives are all connected by the Friday Night Knitting Club, a group of people who gather in the knitting shop, Walker and Daughter, managed by Georgia Walker and her twelve-year-old daughter Dakota. It's full of little stories, and past issues that resurface, and basically it's the kind of book that is just right to read while knitting by the fire (which I did, thank you very much, I made a good portion of a scarf while reading this book). I just really liked this book. The writing isn't amazing, but it isn't bad either. It's easy to read. It's lighthearted (I feel like it shouldn't be, but I read it as such) and quirky and personable. There are some sad things that do happen (it wouldn't be very interesting if nothing bad happened), but everything works itself out somehow. 

I don't have much to say, this is a very short review, but you should read this book, it's a good fall book in my opinion. There's also a sequel and a Christmas story one, which I'm going to wait to read because I absolutely have to read On The Road.

That is all, have a great week!

Eat, Pray, Love

I finally finished Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I say finally not because it was bad, but because it took so long. I also think that I didn't read it at the right time. I'm a firm believer that there are books that deserve to be read at certain times, be it seasons, or vacations, or even places. This book was not a "hectic, back-to-school" autumnal kind of book. This is more of a summer vacation book. The fact that I had so little time and that the book was so content heavy is probably why it took me so long. 

A word about the story: this is an autobiography about Elizabeth Gilbert, known as Liz. She lived in New York as a writer for several years, but then realized that she desperately needed a change of life. So she got a divorce, and ended up traveling to Italy, India, and Indonesia for several months. In Italy, she learned about pleasure. In India, she learned about prayer. In Indonesia, she sought balance and ended up learning about love. This book is an account of those months spent traveling and re-discovering herself. 

That was something I liked about it though: not a word was wasted. This book is well written, thought out and planned but not constricted. I liked the format, the 180 chapters or beads, relating to the beaded prayer necklace. 

Honestly I began reading it because under the pressure of school the only thing I wanted to do was pack my bag and travel somewhere far away from standardized tests and college fairs. When I began reading it, the Italy section of the book really spoke to me. But once she hit India it became heavier and much more personal, as is to expected from the section of the book dedicated to prayer. However, I find self-discovery to be a fascinating idea, so I enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed reading the whole thing, but I wish I had had more focus than I did.

I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but when I re-read it, I'm going to buy my own copy and write things down in it, and underline passages because there were so many that I really liked and couldn't highlight because it was a library book. 

So, in conclusion to my mess of thoughts, I do recommend this book, but I recommend it if you know you will have chunks of time to dedicate to it, because it is a thought-provoking book and it deserves to be explored to the fullest. 

I realize this was not really a review, but I hope it convinced you to read it.

Have a great week!

So many books

Do you ever stop and think about all the books that there are in the world?

There's so many books that I have yet to read and I wish I had time to read all of them!

The main reason for this thought process is that I work in a library twice a week and I am surrounded by books that I wish I had time to read. I keep telling myself that one day I'll just go to the library on one of my days off and just sit down and read something I picked up off the shelf. Maybe I'll do that next week on my day off from school...

In any case, I tend to carry around little bits of paper as I shelve so that I can write down book titles that seem interesting.

Right now, I am pushing through Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's really good, I genuinely enjoy reading it, but man, it's taking forever. I've had to renew it twice I think. I just don't have the time or concentration to focus on it. I do want to read it again at some point, but if I do, I will buy my own copy so that I can underline passages and write things in the margin because it's the kind of book that deserves to have underlined passages.


I also have to read the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for my English class. However, as I read it last year I can get away with skimming through the chapters. It's still good, I still like it. A lot of people in my class don't, but I think it's one of those books that you have to read outside of a school context first, and then read with guidance from a teacher so that you can appreciate its full value.

I'm also reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac for an independent read this semester. I don't know when the semester ends, but I've only read about five chapters so far. It's good, but I am withholding further judgements. Maybe next week when I go to the library I'll just read that.

In addition to all that, as I was working last week, I think it was, I came across a book that I couldn't just leave. It was called The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I'm not too sure what it's about, but I discreetly put it on my cart and checked it out. I haven't even had time to open it yet.

Okay, so maybe the goal for the reading over the next few weeks is this:
- Finish Eat Pray Love this weekend (which I can definitely do, I'm not too far from the end)
- Go to the library on Tuesday, do homework and read On The Road
- Read Gatsby as the teacher assigns
- Read The Friday Night Knitting Club when I'm done Eat Pray Love and when I'm through half of On the Road

So that's what I've been up to over the past few weeks!
What books have you been reading?

Books books and a movie

I am currently re-reading The Princess Bride. I'm on the second chapter currently because I started late last night and didn't feel up to staying late reading, so I didn't get far. Anyway, before I started reading it, I decided to do a little bit of research on it. There is an aspect of that book that amazes me, and that is William Goldman himself.

I liked this picture better than the book cover, even if it's from the movie

If you don't want the illusion of The Princess Bride to be shattered, don't read this next paragraph.

William Goldman wrote the book. That sounds so dumb when I say it like that, but let me reiterate. It was William Goldman who wrote the whole thing, not S. Morgenstern, as he states throughout the book. He wrote The Princess Bride as though it were an abridged version of S. Morgenstern's work of the same name. S. Morgenstern does not exist. He is made up to the same extent as Buttercup and Westley. Maybe you knew this already, but I found it amazing. Even more amazing, William Goldman invented a whole identity for himself. His wife is not a psychiatrist and he has two daughters, not a son. He made up a whole new identity to write that book. I love it. Honestly, that makes the book even better. I don't know, when I researched it I spent a few minutes just grinning at the whole situation. Also, I discovered that when I typed "who wrote" into Google, the first suggested sentence was "who wrote the princess bride" so clearly I'm not the only one who was wondering.

So yes, The Princess Bride is my current read. I finished Landlines by Rainbow Rowell as while ago, but not enough happened in it or in my brain as I read for me to write a whole review on it. It was okay, not stellar, not horrible. It was my brain-cleansing book when I had knocked out an hour of studying in the school library and had another free hour before my next class. Unfortunately, now I just spend those two hours studying and I don't have time to read.

I think I should mention here that my school library has a room called the Silent Study room. I'd never been in there since the beginning of high school, but I spend all my free time there this year. The library is easily the second loudest room in the school (after the cafeteria) despite our librarian's best efforts, but this one room is completely silent and more or less soundproof. You're not allowed to talk or play loud music or anything. I just go there, plug in my headphones with quiet music to drown out the ambient sounds of other people studying and I can get through at least 1.5 hours of work in under an hour. It's amazing.

Since this whole post is a train wreck of random thoughts, I also have to pick a book to read in English class as independent reading this semester and I have yet to decide. My top three are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I think I'm going to go with the last one, but I have to talk to my teacher about it first.

That is all for now, I am in between books, but as I have gotten many books and book suggestions in the last week, I will hopefully be reading more.

Have a great week!

Some kind of classic

I feel like numerous people will be offended if I say that I consider The Fault In Our Stars a classic. But there is such thing as a modern classic, something that feels right when you read it. Something that makes you feel, that makes you think. In my mind that defines a classic, because if the book didn't matter, why did it linger so long? Modern classics haven't had time to linger yet, but the feeling is still there. 

I can't believe I haven't talked about TFIOS yet. 

I have no doubts that you've heard about this story before. I say story because I know that people will have gone to see the movie without reading the book. I hold no judgments against these people, but honestly, read the book. I read it for the first time in one sitting, ending in tears at about midnight. 

In case you don't know the story, I will give you the basic premise. This is a love story. A doomed love story, as it is a love story between two teenagers with cancer. Hazel Grace Lancaster was diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer that has metastasized in her lungs, causing her to depend on oxygen delivered through a canula in her nose, and forcing her to attend a weekly support group of teenagers with cancer. Augustus Waters had osteosarcoma, causing him to lose his leg, and become friends with Isaac, a boy with eye cancer who also attends the weekly support group. Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters meet and the sparks fly. Favorite books and phone numbers are exchanged and the story begins. But a love story with a cancer and post-cancer pair is full of emotions, high highs and low lows. You will get emotional. I'm not going to guarantee that you will cry because so far no one else in my family has cried over it. I sobbed. The two times that I read it. I have no shame in admitting this.

I also cried in the movie theatre. Which is why I'm not going to give you a movie review, because I would not have anything to say about it other than "It was good" which isn't much of a review. Once I see it again, maybe I'll write an actual review. 

For now, I will discuss the book, because I absolutely love it. I honestly do. I think it's clever, funny, witty, absolutely devastating but beautiful at the same time. However, I hear a lot of criticism about it (especially since it became one of a the staple reads for teenage girls). One of the main criticisms I hear is concerning how pretentious and arrogant Augusts is. Yes. He is. That's his character flaw. He's far from perfect. He's arrogant, full of his own self-worth. He wants to be remembered by everyone, he wants to make headlines. I don't deny that because that's what his character is, that's the point. 

I've also heard that he is "too mature for his age" and that I don't deny. No 17-year-old is as good a flirt as Augustus Waters. I'm not even going to try to deny that, he is unrealistically romantic. Which is undoubtedly why we love him so much. 

And even if you don't like the story, or John Green, you cannot deny that there are some fantastic lines in that book. There is one I absolutely adore:

"My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations."

Think about it. If you are a teenager, you know that sometimes you have all these thoughts buzzing inside your brain and none of them make sense but somehow you understand all of them and some are brighter than others, but putting them together is nearly impossible. If you are no longer a teenager, I hope you will remember such thoughts. 

But honestly, my favorite line is this.

"You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible things that you cannot even imagine yet!"

On that note, happy Sunday and I hope you have a great week.

Side note for those who may be confused

Hello,

Last time I posted I forgot to mention that I changed my blog title and my background, but have no fear it is still me.

I temporarily changed the URL and then realized that that meant you couldn't find it which, dear reader, would kind of suck. So, here I am again.

Sorry for any confusion.

The story of the fans behind the stories

Hello!

In a list I compiled a few months ago I mentioned the books that I wanted to read. I've already discussed the Great Gatsby and Water for Elephants, and now I'm going to talk to you about Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Before you make any hasty assumptions, you should know these three books have absolutely nothing in common aside from the fact that I wanted to read them and I did.

Okay, so, Fangirl.

I picked this book up for a few reasons. First of all, I liked the title. To anyone who is unfamiliar with the term "fangirl" and its connotation, it basically designates a (generally teenaged) girl who is passionate about a TV show or a series of books or movies. Think Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Marvel… All that good stuff. It generally implies girls who don't go outside very much and spend a lot of time on the internet. As I consider myself a fangirl of many things, I was curious. I also like the idea behind the story.

This is the story of a girl named Cath who enjoys writing fan fiction (the continuation of a story/movie/TV show, using characters but creating new scenarios than what the author wrote) and is just starting college. She has a twin sister, Wren, with whom she is incredibly close, and her father. However, Cath and Wren are very different and whereas Wren is very excited to start college with new friends and a new roommate, Cath is terrified and lonely. Things get better, then worse, then the story goes on as stories do. 

That's all you need to know now.

I really liked it. I liked it when I read it before summer, in that lovely sunshine time of the year when it's not too hot, but it's nice enough to have the windows open. I liked it again when I re-read it on the beach this summer. I think I'll like it again this winter if I choose to read it once more. It's a feel-good book, it really is, it's cute and hopeful. It's not fantastic or transcending literature, but then again if everything was, nothing would be transcendent or fantastic, would it? I liked it, because it's easy and I can get lost in the characters and the story. I can picture the campus and the people. I can imagine myself besides Cath. I like books that either make me think or that make me travel. This one made me travel. 

I suggest getting this as a present to someone, because that's what I'm going to be doing for my best friend. If you have a teenage daughter/friend/other family member or person you want to give a book to, who enjoys stories such as Harry Potter or Doctor Who or Supernatural or even Sherlock and spends a lot of time writing or reading fan fiction, or even just being on Tumblr, someone who is, in short, a fangirl, this is a good book to choose. It's the story of the fans, not the characters. 

Quick recap before the year starts

Hello my friends,

As you can see, I gave the blog a little face-lift before the new school year. If I like it, I'll keep it, if not, I will change it again. But for now, change is good.

Before I start filling your brains with my endless ramblings, I will do a quick recap of several probably unrelated things. Honestly, I'm just making this up as I go along.

1. I read a lot this summer, which was good.

2. I re-read a lot of stuff, which isn't great, but all I had was my Kindle, so I just re-read the books that were already there.

3. I wrote a lot for about two weeks and then I stopped. I don't like where the story went (the characters always seem to get away from me, they should stop, it's very frustrating) so I'm letting it stew for a while.

4. I discovered a new love for poetry. Reading it, and occasionally writing it.

5. I saw several good movies, and I will share them with you at some point, because I like talking about movies.

6. I have also been listening to my usual eclectic array of music, a lot of which is new to me and was suggested by my friends.

Have no fear, I will elaborate on all of these topics at some point or another.

For now, you know that I have returned, and you know that I have things to say and that, as beginnings  of the year go, is a pretty good one, I think.

I hope you all had a lovely summer and I am looking forward to discussing all of these things and more with you in this upcoming year.

On a more serious note

I wrote a poem in honor of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandie on June 6, 1914, one hundred years ago.

In honor of the soldiers of the Normandie beaches and all others besides

The old man walks

onto the beach

where the sea still surges

and the wind still stings 

just as it did on that day.

he sees the sand

and smells the blood

that stains it

he sees the waves

and hears the men

that drown

he closes his eyes

and remembers

he sits

down

besides the fallen

besides his friends

and thinks

about the madness

at world's end

on that day

he sees the shots

fired

he sees the sands

burst

he sees the men

fall

he sees himself

cursed

to be borne to war

blessed

to live to see it end

to come back 

to make amends

for that day. 

when the flags failed and 

the men fell

when this place on earth

turned to hell

he turns to the sea

and remembers

he turns to the sea

and weeps.

for the soldiers

for the friends

for the families

for those whose memories

we keep. 

As usual, please be considerate and don't steal my writing. (Feel free to use it, but please give me credit!)

Perks of being a high school student

So the other day I was working at the library and I came  to the DVD shelving part of the evening. I like shelving DVDs incidentally, because they're all the same size and in both alphabetical and numerical order, which makes shelving a piece of cake. Anyway, I was shelving the feature films and out of nowhere, I see Steven Chobsky's movie Perks of Being a Wallflower which I had previously seen last year. I thought "It's spring break, I have nothing planned today or tomorrow or the day after, I'll have time to watch this." So I took it and borrowed it before putting it back on the shelf at the risk of someone else wanting to see it before me. Perks of being a library page. (That is such a glorious pun, I'm so glad my title is a pun, it makes me happy.)

I watched it that night, in the best way possible, curled under my covers with my cat at my feet and the laptop warming my lap.

As previously stated, I had watched Perks last year with a friend at her house, and I had liked it, mostly because I liked it better than the book. This time however, I loved it. Which brings me to my title.

Perks of being a high school student. There are many downsides to being a high school student, mostly regarding the weird in-between-ness that you tend to feel. However, so far I have quite enjoyed my time in high school. I especially like the self-discovery. I just find it really cool that I have now reached the age where I can truly begin to define myself, and I can do that in the way that I dress, in the books that I read, the movies I watch, the people I spend time with and the after school activities I choose to do instead of homework. I just think that that is very cool. I also like that it is very acceptable for your tastes to change in such a short period of time, and how much you grow in a year. Last year, the book and movie Perks of Being a Wallflower (both written and directed by Steven Chobsky) didn't really affect me that much. I thought it was too graphic and I don't know, it just didn't touch me that much. I still think the book is a little graphic, but that's just me, and this time it didn't distract me from the plot as much as it had before. I understood the characters better, and in some cases I could relate to them in ways that I couldn't have last year.

I feel like before I continue I should probably give you a brief overview of the book before continuing on. I won't spoil the ending don't worry.

This book is from the point of view of Charlie. He is about to start high school after a traumatic eighth grade year, during which his best friend committed suicide. Charlie is shy, and likes to write. He doesn't have friends and he has mental and emotional issues that he learning to control. But he wants to make high school a good thing. He wants to make friends. The first few days are rough, until he meets a pair of seniors, step-siblings Sam and Patrick. They immediately include him in their group of senior friends, which includes photographers, indie-music lovers, Rocky Horror Picture show actors and incredibly complex and beautiful people. Charlie begins to take part in life, learning about relationships, love, high school and the complexities of human emotion. The book is written as a series of letters to an unknown friend.

So as I was saying, I could relate to the characters better than I ever could have last year. There was especially one scene at the very end, when the seniors all leave to go to their new lives at college where I could not help but feel very, very sad. Saying good-bye to my senior friends is something that I had to go through last year and that I will once again have to go through that painful process in a few months. That is something that I had just never experienced before the end of last year, and that I could not relate to when I read Perks for the first time. I'm so glad I read it again. It genuinely brought a tear to my eyes this time around.

I guess I should probably go back to the movie, cause that's what this post was supposed to be about. So, yes, I watched the movie again. I really liked it when I watched it the first time, but this time it had a whole new meaning for me. It was much more powerful than it had been for me last year. This time I really appreciated not only the depth of the characters but also the way that the film was shot and and the overall mood that it transmits to the audience. It's a sad movie, but beautifully so.

I don't know if that counts as a review or if it was too much of a brain dump to qualify. In any case, I hope that this little monologue has made you want to read the book or see the movie.

Movie night(s)

Recently I've been getting back into watching movies. Sounds a bit weird, but the reality of my last few months has been that I don't have a lot of time to watch movies without being distracted. However, in the last few days that I've been on break and even a bit before that I've been watching a lot of different kinds of movies. So I was thinking I would plan a bit of series for you guys that would talk about each movie that I've seen.

First up is going to be Moonrise Kingdom directed by Wes Anderson.

This was a great movie suggested to me a while ago and I was working at the library when I saw it, so I thought, I have time, I can watch it. 

This is a recent movie, from 2012 I think, but it's meant to look like it's something from the 60s, saturated and a little grainy. The soundtrack is really great too, I especially recommend Le Temps de L'Amour by Françoise Hardy (click on the title). 

So this is the story of a little boy named Sam and a girl named Suzy, both of whom are twelve years old and growing up on a little island off the coast of New England. They meet and fall in love, exchanging letters as they plan to run away together. Which they do, causing the whole island to panic. He escapes from his Scout camp and she runs away from her slightly crazy family. It's a very cute story, with great characters that all seem as far from perfect as possible. The cinematography was gorgeous, it's a great component to why I loved this movie so much. 

It's hard to explain, but there's something about this movie that makes it a gem. The writing is clever and funny, the characters are attaching and quirky, the soundtrack is great, and the setting is very scenic too, but it's still got a dark quality about it, especially Suzy. Also, the costumes are wonderful, not gonna lie, but I really wish I could dress like Suzy.

I highly recommend this movie.

Not just about water and elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

This book was a gem. My friend Addie over at a Functionally Messy Blog recommended it to me a while ago when she was reading it and I decided to get it at the library. She just told me there were elephants and a circus and I thought "Hey I like elephants and I love the circus, why not?"

But it was so much more than that. 

Jacob Jankowski is a second-generation Polish immigrant born in the late 1920s. He is now an old man, virtually dependent on others for movement and food. But Jacob remembers. He remembers a long-gone past that he has never told anyone in the nursing home about. No longer able to do much else, Jacob sits and remembers.

It's the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, and Jacob is at Cornell, very close to his final exam after years of veterinary studies. He plans on following his father's lead and taking over the family vet clinic. Only, tragedy strikes and Jacob can no longer see himself living casually at Cornell and puttering about in a normal life. So he runs away, not sure to where, but far away. He jumps a train as a second thought, and finds that his life will never be the same again. He has jumped onto the train of the Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth. After ensuring that he will not be thrown off the train, he begins to meet the workers of the circus, who show him around the back of the stage and the glamour. Eventually, Jacob becomes an official part of the show as the circus vet. He meets the performers, ranging from the freaks, the side-show attractions, and the lovely Marlena, who is the equestrian performer and the wife of the intimidating equestrian director, August. As time passes, Jacob learns many things from life on the train, from the distinct lines between performers and workers, the harshness of life on the rails and passionate one night stands. He encounters a spectacular elephant named Rosie with which he forms an unbreakable bond.

Set during the Prohibition era, Water for Elephants is a book that strips the circus of its glamour and sparkles, and still manages to show the adventure of moving from one city to the next, the thrill of calling the entire country your home and the horror behind the caramel-corn facade. It shows the alcohol behind the smiles, the sleepless nights and the knives hidden under pillows, the malnourished animals and even less well-fed workmen. It's raw and hard, yet still seems romantic and adventurous.

I adored this book, I could not put it down. It was the kind of book that I would read before going to bed and tell myself I'll only read a chapter and six chapters later I realize I only have a few more hours left to sleep. It was very well written, in my opinion, funny when it should be, sarcastic and sharp, but dark when it needed to be. 

I would recommend it to everyone, but this time I really do have to set an age limit. I'd say 14-15, because there are some... eh, racy scenes. Yes. Okay, and also some things are pretty gruesome, I'm not going to lie, and there is language. Other than that, you should definitely read it. I adored it. 

Old sport

I read the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzergald a week or two ago.

This book was not a school assignment, let me start off by saying that. I'll be reading it in class next year, I think. However, there were several reasons for which I wanted to read it.

First, I do feel like this is one of the pillars of American literature. I feel like I owe it to myself to read it as a real book, not as a school assignment. I wanted to make an opinion of it for myself before analyzing it in school. 

Secondly, and this is a legitimate reason, I want to see the movie because they won the Oscar for Best Costumes. But I didn't want to watch the movie without having read the book first. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio. Come on.

Thirdly, honestly, I was curious. I didn't know the story at all, so I wanted to find out.

Before I start blurting my opinions, I will warn you, this will be short because I haven't really made up my mind about it. This is a book that needs to be read analytically, and while I did understand some of the underlying themes, I want to go over it in class (you will never hear me saying this again) before I make up my mind about it. Basically, I will be talking about the story, not the themes.

So Nicholas Carraway moves to West Egg near New York. His next door neighbor is a mysterious, wealthy man named Jay Gatsby, who is known far and wide for his lavish parties. Every night, a crowd of strangers and friends show up at his door and uphold the reputation of the roaring twenties. Despite all the people who show up every night, nobody really knows who Gatsby is. Some say he is an Oxford alumni, some say he's killed a man. Eventually, Nicholas Carraway and Jay Gatsby become friends. Nicholas discovers that they have a mutual acquaintance, the lovely Daisy Buchanan. Turns out, there is a long history between Daisy and Gatsby, a tale of romance, of war-torn lovers. But Daisy is married, and Gatsby cannot let go of the love they once had.

This story is heavily character based, and there are only a few named characters, so I will make a list that will hopefully be complete.

Jay Gatsby - rich bachelor, still in love with Daisy after she got married while he was at war

Daisy Buchanan - lovely young woman, Gatsby's love

Tom Buchanan - Daisy's husband, has a mistress

Myrtle Wilson - Tom's mistress, wife of the local mechanic

Mr. Wilson - the local mechanic

Jordan Baker - tennis player, Nicholas's love interest, friend of the Buchanans

Nicholas Carraway - narrator, friend of Gatsby and Daisy

I'm pretty sure that that's the essential cast of characters... There are a few more family members and acquaintances but these are the main characters.

Like I said, this is short because I don't want to sound illiterate if I start rambling off about themes that I've only half-grasped. That said, I did like the story. I really want to go to a Gatsby party, not gonna lie. 

Let me know what you thought of the Great Gatsby down in the comment section below! Opinions on the book as well as the movie are welcome.

Future Reads and Current Listenings

Alaska Young in the book Looking for Alaska by John Green (which you should definitely read if you haven't, go read it now...) has a library. She has a Life Library in fact, filled with books that she has not yet read, filled with books that she picked up at garage sales because they looked interesting. I do not have a Life Library, mostly because I do not have the space in my humble abode, but I do love the concept. I like the idea that there is an infinite choice of books in the world, enough for three lifetimes in one language, and millions as soon as you master other languages. It's a concept that blows my mind. It also makes me a little bittersweet because no matter how hard I try or how much I read, I will never read all the books in the world and some stories will remain unknown to me.

But I can sure give it a shot.

So here is my list of books to read next, as it stands now. It is often subject to change, and is entirely based off of books that I have been told I need to read and books that sounded cool.

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I just started this one)
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

So there you are. I think I'm covered for a while more.

Since this turning out to be a lists post, have some music (click on the title to listen to the song):

• Happy by Pharell Williams
• Piazza, New York Catcher by Belle and Sebastian
• Flaws by Bastille (listen to this version too)
• Bad Blood by Bastille (the video is a bit weird)
• All The Right Moves by OneRepublic
• Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Ray
• Bar On A by Greg Holden

P.S. You know what's great? Wednesday is over. Finally.

The most important people

Remember how I said I went on vacation last week?

Remember how I said I had bought two books on my Kindle for said vacation and that one of them was Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and the other was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams?

Yeah, well I actually bought a third and read that one instead of Hitchhiker. As I was mindlessly browsing through YouTube videos (a favorite pastime of mine) I found a video talking about a book called The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Alborn.

Just to clarify, I don't exactly know why I got this book. I wanted another book to read and I wasn't really in the mood for Hitchhiker. I read the blurb for this one and I liked it, so I got the free preview of the book that you can get on Amazon. Basically they give you just enough of a book to decide if you like it or not, and then before a major plot point happens they ask you if you want to buy it. Well obviously now I do! I want to know what happens!

So anyway, I read about the first chapter and a half of this book, was intrigued, bought it, and then didn't put it down. I was hooked. However, whenever I explain this book to others I feel as if it loses its magic. That doesn't usually happen with other books, I can babble on about them for hours, but this one I don't talk about very much. Except to you, because I like you.

Basically, this is the story of a man named Eddie. 

Eddie dies.

That isn't a spoiler, that is the story.

Eddie is a maintenance man at Ruby Pier. He has lived there since he was a little boy and his father was head of maintenance before him. Although a war and a marriage has happened between little boy Eddie and old man Eddie, there he is, fixing and maintaining the machinery and making sure that everything still works. But Eddie is lonely. And Eddie hurts all over. And Eddie is old. And one day, the unthinkable happens and Eddie is no longer there to be lonely and hurt and old. Because Eddie has died. From his death onwards, he goes on a journey, beginning once again as a boy, at the pier the way he remembers it was in the 1930s. As Eddie journeys once again through his life, he meets five people. Five people that he impacted somehow in his life, even if he wasn't aware of it and even if the impact wasn't a good one. Someway or another, he changed their lives. And they are there to tell him exactly how he did it. Once he has met all of them, he can go and wait for the person who changed his life to tell them their story. Only after can he move on.

This book was very touching. It was a bit of an unexpected pearl. I am not a very religious person, which once again brings up the question of why I bought this book. However, I do really like imagining what happens after death. Now you could see that as morbid, or you could view it as Dumbledore does, as the "next great adventure". I don't know why, but I think it's very interesting. Anyway, this book was not very religious. Sure, Eddie goes to Heaven and he does pray and he does mention God a few times, but even if that isn't your cup of tea, it really isn't the core of the story. The core of the book is Eddie, and his five people. 

Another thing I liked about this book was how true I felt it was. I'm not talking about life after death, or Heaven, I am talking about the everyday occurrences that shape a life. I'm talking about accidents and the inevitability of everything and dealing with it in a normal human way, which I find most book characters do not. I won't spoil anything, but this is a sad book. It is a .... I think melancholy is the word here. It is a melancholic book. There are some happy parts and there are some sad parts and the whole of the two is beautiful. 

I highly recommend this book to basically anyone, although, I'm going to put an age marker of eh, say 13, because there are some very sad, very real topics in there, but nothing obscene. The age limit I've placed is on emotional maturity, not because of language (although there is some, but not a lot) or racy scenes/subjects. As I said, there are many thought provoking themes and events, so it's not a light-hearted beach read, but it's also very easy to read as it is quite well written. It's a quick read, I finished it in under 24 hours because I couldn't put it down. 

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did! Leave your thoughts in the comments below and meanwhile I will get to work on finished A Cuckoo's Calling, which I still have not finished. Shame on me, I know. 

A Box of Memories

This book is called Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler. Here is the cover. Following the cover are my thoughts. Enjoy. Why is this so sarcastic?

So I just came back from vacation and while I was there I needed a chick lit book to read. Don't we all? Especially when going somewhere warm and sunny, like I was. As per usual when I needed inspiration for what to read, I went to consult my friends. By which I mean I went on Youtube and looked up some of my favorite BookTubers. Let me step back and explain who these people are. 

BookTubers are people who film videos and talk about books. So basically, if instead of writing this blog, I filmed myself speaking, I would be a BookTuber. I personally like Carrie H Fletcher, who also does other styles of videos, not just books, and Sanne, who primarily talks about books and whose videos I really like. I will link them below.

Anyway, Carrie made a video a while back listing books she wanted to read for an online book club and Why We Broke Up was among them, I believe. It sounded intriguing and a good vacation book, so I got it on my Kindle. I started reading on the plane and finished within the next two days. 

The book is the story of Min (short for Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, as she will explain whenever she introduces herself), a junior in high school who enjoys classic movies and good coffee. She has a group of cool, hipster friends (I mean that in the least negative light). Then one day, Ed and his group of popular-jock-basketball-playing friends crash her friend Al's birthday party. The Ed. The handsome, popular, envied Ed. And who should catch his eye but Min. Thus begins a doomed love story between a popular jock who secretly really likes math, and an arty (she hates the term) aspiring movie director who do not have much in common but a mutual attraction. The book is the letter than Min is going to leave in the box of things that remind her of Ed that she is going to leave on his doorstep as final good-bye.

I enjoyed this book a lot because it deals with the very real boundaries between different social groups. Min's friends are taken aback that she is dating a jock, and Ed's friends just don't understand why he is suddenly dating a girl who has no interest in sports and wild parties on the football field. I know that, and I feel like I say this a lot, adults like to believe that there are no cliques in high school. Well, let me tell you, there are, and while the rules aren't written, they are very much present. This book transcended those boundaries and ultimately showed what happens when two worlds collide. The way I say it makes it sound depressing and upsetting, but it's very well handled and truthful. 

I also like the characters. Min is whimsical. She can self-lament a lot, but I really do like her. She's funny, sarcastic and despite how smart she is, can be clueless. Ed however doesn't have very much depth, but then again, he was written in a perfect light, as Min saw him. Which was interesting if not very realistic. 

And now possibly my favorite part of the book. It was written by Daniel Handler. I did not know until I read the author's biography (I usually do, okay, I think it's interesting) that he is in fact Lemony Snicket, the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lemony Snicket is his pseudonym, but Daniel Handler is his real name. I suppose if I read it again, Why We Broke Up would have a similar (maybe less child-ish) style than A Series of Unfortunate Events did. I loved that series, and I loved the writing in this book. I know some people get very annoyed with run-on sentences, which Min does tend to use, but hey, I like them a lot. 

In conclusion, very good book. I recommend this as a good beach/poolside read. Not too much thinking is involved. However, I would say maybe 14 and up. If you've read Perks of Being A Wallflower you should be fine, but just so you know... stuff happens. Not in detail, but it is heavily implied. 

As for the BookTubers, here they are:

Carrie is here.

Sanne is here.

It has been too long

Fancy seeing you here...

Okay, these last few weeks have been insane. First there was the week leading up to exams (which is possibly more stressful than the exams themselves), then there was the week of exams, then there was the week of the play, then there was an insane week of snow days, then another, but this time with the added bonus of downed power lines.... It has been slightly chaotic. As much as I love theatre and snow days, I wish I could get back into my little routine.

I haven't had much time to read or write, or even watch TV (gasp!), so here is a hodgepodge of the few things that I have been able to do.

1. I finally watched (500) Day of Summer! I really liked it. Several people had said that I should definitely watch it, and I'd already fallen in love with the soundtrack. I had a free Sunday afternoon, so I thought why not? It was very cute and bittersweet, I didn't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. It's a boy meets girl story, but it's not a love story. If there is ever a rainy Saturday where you don't know what to do (as if that ever happens, right?) this is a great movie for such an occasion.

2. I watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) and Jude Law (John Watson). I liked it enough. I mean, I like anything Sherlock Holmes, let's be real here. But - and this may be biased - I think I like Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock better. Disregarding the setting (modern in Sherlock BBC and Victorian in A Game of Shadows), I always pictured Sherlock Holmes as a really distinguished gentleman when I was reading the books. While RDJ has the fighting element and the sort of "addict" side of Holmes down pat, I think that Cumberbatch delivers the gentlemanly aspect better. His Holmes has a nearly regal presence, while RDJ's Holmes was a lot scruffier. However, the tables turn when it comes to Watson. John Watson is easily one of my favorite literary characters, and I'm very picky about how he's played. Jude Law's Watson was great. Unlike Martin Freeman's Watson in Sherlock BBC, he doesn't let Sherlock walk all over him, and he puts him in his place. I feel like he's a better balance to the insane Holmes scale. As much as I love Freeman, and I think his John Watson is great, I just thought Jude Law better captured the soldier and doctor aspect of the character, and his exasperation at dealing with such a childlike genius. I don't even know what I think about Irene Adler in A Game of Shadows. She was American. She was all over the plot line. What? Why? I didn't like her nearly as much as I like Lara Pulver's Irene Adler in Sherlock BBC. That's just my opinion. And D.I.  Lestrade is just a great character no matter how you slice it.

3. I am currently reading A Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith. Robert Galbraith is actually J.K. Rowling's pen name, and this is her first crime novel. I haven't gotten very far into it, but I like it so far. I'll keep you updated.

4. I am going on a trip tomorrow, so I got two books on my Kindle for the journey. I got Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, which is totally chick lit, but what can you do? When I'm on vacation, I don't need thought provoking books. I just need an easy, enjoyable read, and chick lit fills the requirements. I also got a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Why not? I don't know what the story really is, but I read the first few pages and I like Arthur Dent already.

That's about it. Make of that what you will, and I will be posting a review of the books I read during my break as soon (well, sometime after) I finish them.

Happy Wednesday and stay warm if you're about to be invaded by snow like I am.

The temperature at which books burn

So I read Fahrenheit 451.

By myself, not because of school.

This won't be very much of a review, more of a truckload of my reaction to the book.

• I loved it.
• You should definitely read it.
• Let me elaborate.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a very powerful book. The plot itself isn't... remarkable, let's say. It's a sci-fi, dystopian book just like I like them, but it's really the message that the book conveys that is what makes it amazing. Nothing in the book is literal. Everything should be looked at from a different angle, thought about and examined. 

Guy Montag is a firefighter. Except that the term firefighter no longer applies to the men who extinguish fires, but rather to those who light them. In this new and improved society, books are illegal and those who own them are pursued. Montag's job is to burn libraries and more often than not, their owners. Montag enjoys his job, until one night upon his return to his house, he meets his young neighbor, Clarisse, who is a very peculiar girl. Because Clarisse looks at the stars. She looks at the sky and at the ground, not just at the TV screens that have replaced people's lives and families. Clarisse is aware of the world around her, and it makes Montag both uncomfortable and fascinated. When he returns home however, he suddenly isn't thinking about the sky and the stars and the strange girl next door, because going into his room he trips on an empty jar of pills. His wife is lying motionless, staring at the ceiling. He calls the hospital who sends two men to help her. As it turns out, they are little more than mechanics emptying a tank of faulty oil as they empty Mildred Montag's stomach before driving off and performing the same operation on someone else in the city. 

Mildred does not remember the incident. Montag does, only too well. 

Everything changes.

In this book, television screens have replaced people's social lives. People don't sit around and talk anymore. They sit and watch their screens, which stretch to all the walls in the room. The people on the screens, the talk show hosts and presenters are called "the family". 

But what if everything couldn't be found out from the screens? What if there is something more important, like the war brewing overhead, and the people who burn with their books? Montag begins to question his world. And as with anyone who does, he must be silenced. 

This book was very powerful to me. It wasn't an easy read. The words were simple, it was the meaning they held that was more difficult to grasp. I read most of it when I finished my exams, while waiting for the bell to ring. I recommend a quiet environment to fully grasp what is happening. The writing was beautiful too, I really liked Bradbury's style. 

So there you are, in conclusion, you should read this book. I think it helped that I didn't read it in a classroom setting, because I'm always resentful towards books we read in class. I read it at my own pace and came to my own conclusions, which is infinitely better than writing a bunch of essays about the teacher's opinions on the book.

Have a nice day!

Resolution Ramblings

So it's that time of year again, the resolutions, the "do more exercise, eat healthier" time of year again. If you're anything like me, you will do none of those two things. Especially in January. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make midterm exams the second to last week of January needs to seriously reconsider their life decisions.

The result of these exams and the teachers' last minute scramble to get a bunch of grades in is that I have not had time to do very much.

Even so, I think that 2014 is already shaping up to be a really good year. Here is why.

1. The 3rd series of Sherlock. If you haven't seen it: you must. If you don't watch Sherlock: you must. End of discussion.

2. I have fulfilled something of a childhood aspiration and now work in a library. That's right, I am librarian extraordinaire! Just kidding, I shelve books, but it's a start. I enjoy it. I can tell you that college selection books are in the 378. 93 part of the Dewey decimal system because I had to shelve at least 10 books there and they were all huge and heavy. And that 391 is the costumes-historical fashion part of the system. The more you know, eh?

3. I have raised my grade in both of my hardest classes (this matters, okay?).

4. I don't know, it just feels good.

So anyway, resolutions. I have a few. Okay, I have one, so far.

I want to read 100 books in 2014. That's a lot. I didn't realize how much that was until I realized that I barely have time to read a chapter every night, but that makes it an even more exciting challenge!

So far I have read Ask the Passengers by A.S King and I am nearly done Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which I am loving so far.

So there you are, a little update on what's been going on and why not much has been going on in this little part of the Internet.

What are your New Year's resolutions? (Be creative, I'm expecting more from you than the exercise, healthy eating and whatever else people decided to feel bad about not doing.)

What books are you looking forward to reading this year?

As always, leave your comments/opinions/answers in the comments below!

P.S. Did I mention that I have an Etsy? It's a little bare at the moment, but I will be restocking very soon! Click (here) to see it, or on the button at the right.

Good start to the new year

The first book that I read this year was Ask the Passengers by A.S King, who is an author that I am starting to really like.

I adored this book. 

I read it in one afternoon, in under 6 hours, because I just could not put it down. 

Astrid Jones is a seventeen year old high school senior growing up in the Middle Of Nowhere Small Town USA. Otherwise known as Unity Valley. She was born in New York and simply does not fit in Unity Valley, as she is very shy and reserved. Her family is very dysfunctional, with a father who secretly smokes pot in the garage, a slightly crazy mother who is much too involved in Astrid's personal affairs, and a sister who has basically rejected Astrid to side with their mother. As a way of coping with her problems and when she wants to clear her head, Astrid lies on the picnic table in the backyard and sends love to the passengers in the airplanes passing by. Because Astrid does not fit in with her town, her family or society in general. Because there is someone who has taken her heart. Someone that she met at work. Someone named Dee Roberts. Someone who is a girl. 

Astrid does not know if she is gay. She just knows that she has fallen in love with a girl. And that she can't tell anyone in Unity Valley, because that just isn't done. It's not as if no one is gay; her friends Kristina and Justin are, even though they pretend to be a couple for the benefit of their close-minded peers. 

This book follows Astrid and her journey to self-discovery, as cheesy as that sounds. She learns who she is, what she believes and what she wants from life. She learns that having a reputation, or being sneered at in a high school in a small town in the middle of the country does not last forever. Which is why I love this book.

My dad said something to me at the beginning of last year when I started high school. "It's only four years of your life." That doesn't seem like very much of an inspirational quote, but that is what's kept me level headed and sane for the last year and a half. Four years of high school. That's nothing. So what if people don't like your clothes, or your hair, or whatever? It really doesn't matter. It may hurt a bit at the time, but there's so much more to life than the four years that you're stuck with a whole mess of people who probably won't remember you by the time you turn 20. 

That's why I related to Astrid. She's realizing that in the grand scheme of things, what matters isn't making others - that you don't necessarily like you - happy: it's making yourself happy, and living the life you want to live. If that means that you want to marry your girlfriend and go against society's rules, so be it. Why should it matter to other people? You're not impeding on their happiness by having yours.

Other than that very powerful message, the book was just very well written. It's a strangely uplifting book, in a way. There are parts where you genuinely smile because of the way that Astrid sees the world. After I finished it, I closed it and kept it in my hands, because I didn't want it to end. It was just a very powerful and thought-provoking book. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Well, maybe stick an age limit there, like 14 maybe. It's a teen book, not a kid's book. There are very real issues in there that require a certain degree of maturity. 

Overall, a wonderful read.