Random Renaissance Revolution Ramblings

Ten points for alliteration.

Okay, so recently in my social studies class we have been studying the Renaissance, which is a fascinating period in time.

I don't particularly care for the whole religious aspect of it (mostly because of the many hours of notes I had to write on it) but what I really like are the artists, the writers and the scientists.

Learning about the people who let go of everything that they had been taught, everything that was considered to be true and to doubt it, to rethink it, to question the limits of knowledge just makes me really proud, in a strange way.

It makes me proud that at a time of impossible dreams (think Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel), there were humans who transcended the limits of their world and discovered amazing things.

Just think about it: today, when we drop something, we know that it's because of gravity. Even children know that. But hundreds of years ago, Newton established that law, and consequently deduced how planets orbited the sun. It took him twenty years to fine tune it. Imagine what his amazement would be at the word "gravity" coming out of a child's mouth today!

Then there are people like Descartes who thought about thinking (which is a really cool yet confusing thing to do) and thought about how thinking cannot start with an answer, but with a question. Only at the end fo your thinking do you have an answer.

My friend Addie (whose blog you should definitely read by clicking here) has been learning a lot about Vincent Van Gogh for a while now, reading biographies and the letters he wrote, etc. It seems like a really good idea, to just pick someone whom you admire and learn all that you can about them (please don't stalk people that are still alive, I'm talking dead geniuses). As much as I like Van Gogh, I think I'd rather focus on the writers and thinkers of the Renaissance. Here are a few of my possible choices of study:

- Sir Thomas More: he wrote the book Utopia about a perfect society during a time where the Catholic Church was trying to establish their idea of a perfect society. He was later killed, then posthumously recognized as a saint (Canonized, by the way, is the proper term. New vocab word of the day.) I find him to be a very interesting person, from what I've read so far, which is to say, my textbook.

- Galileo: discovered that the four moons of Jupiter orbited Jupiter in the same was that the Earth orbited the sun. His discoveries rocked the entire human perception of the physical world. He was threatened by death if he did not publicly admit that the Earth was motionless. As he left the trial, he muttered: "Nevertheless, it does move." (Again, this is from my textbook, so don't quote me on it.)

- René Descartes: a french thinker who discarded all traditional ways of thinking on his quest to seek "probable knowledge". He believed that human reasoning was the best road to understanding. Eventually, he was left only with doubt, and deduced that the doubter must then exist. He's the guy who said "I think, therefore I am." Although, I imagine he said it in french, considering that's where he was from. "Je pense, donc je suis", I suppose.

Leonardo Da Vinci: of course. He was an amazing man, I find it mind-blowing to see everything that he had imagined, created, drawn, and to discover that today we use some of the things that he invented. He was one of the first to dissect a human body to see how it worked (as gross as that is, it is pretty incredible and let's ask ourselves, where would we be if he hadn't?). He was a genius, there's no other word for it. I think he's an incredibly important and interesting person. (That's another ten points for alliteration.)

There are probably others, but those are the ones that really stuck with me. Feel free to suggests others in the comments below!

I'm thinking I'll maybe research them and write an essay or something about them. It's mostly for my personal knowledge and curiosity, but I'm a very goal oriented person, so the goal here is going to be to write an essay eventually.

Paper Towns Ad Placement (just kidding)

Paper Towns 

by John Green

I had particularly high expectations for this book, because I absolutely loved The Fault in Our Stars and because John Green is such an amazing person in general. I also knew that the main character and I have something in common (take a wild guess as to what it is). All that to say, I unwittingly set the bar pretty high. And I must say that as much as I love John Green and the way that he writes, this book fell a little flat.

Let me explain.

First, a brief description. Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman have been friends since they were little. However, high school happened and we all know that high school is that dreadful time where people change and friendships split. Luckily, both were pretty well off: he had his solid group of friends and she was the most popular, drop-dead gorgeous girl in the school. But Margo Roth Spiegelman is very different from all the popular girls. Because this isn't her element; high school isn't her world. So one day, she vanishes. Not for the first time, but at the very end of senior year, it's a critical moment in all their lives. 

Here are my pros and cons (by now you know that I love lists):

Pros:

- Well written

- Very different from traditional coming-of-age stories

- Well-rounded characters

- A very interesting perspective on Orlando, Florida

- I liked the way the book ended (no spoilers, have no fear)

Cons:

- The characters (as they usually do in John's books) sound and act a lot older than they are

- The ending sort of... happened. Does that make sense? It was good, but it didn't quite live up to the build-up

- Not as interesting as it could have been

Okay, let me dissect my criticism for you. First, the characters in John's books usually sound older than they are (yes Augustus Waters, I'm talking to you). It's an easy mistake to forgive, but being in high school myself, I don't know anyone who acts like his characters do.

Second, I liked the ending itself, I guess. I liked that it was non-traditional. If you've read it, hopefully you'll know what I'm talking about. However, there was a lot of tension, a lot of anticipation building up to it and it fell short of the expectation that we were given. That may have been the point, which is something to consider.

Lastly, the idea was very interesting, the descriptions were as well, but there were some passages that just dragged on and on and on and you were left pushing through to the next chapter, which is never good. Again, though, that may have been the point. 

In conclusion, it was okay, not his best, but if you love John Green's style, you'll probably like it.

Leave your opinions on Paper Towns in the comments below!

Also, in case you didn't know, John Green and his brother Hank run a channel on YouTube (as well as a million others, but this is their main). You can check it out by clicking here.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society

by Trenton Lee Stewart

Okay, so this is a series that is near and dear to my heart for several reasons. 

First of all, I find it pretty ageless. Sure, the main characters are all about 12 years old, but the story and the way it's written is enjoyable for all age groups (well, I'd say maybe starting at 8-10 years old, just because it's a little complicated). Secondly: the writing. The writing in these books is brilliant. It's clever, it's witty without being sarcastic. The plot is well thought out, the characters are human with flaws and imperfections. The villain isn't just bad, the protagonist isn't just good, the characters have secrets. There is the main plot, plot twists for seemingly unrelated plots and then bam! It's all connected in the end. I love it.

The characters are my babies. I love them: Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance. Of course, I love Nicholas Benedict as well, he'd make a great grandfather, but the four main characters are my favorite. They make a good team because they're so dysfunctional on their own that they really all need each other. I have always admired Kate the most, because she is exactly what I wanted to be like when I was younger: smart, adventurous, friendly and funny, surrounded by friends. She just incarnated my idea of a perfect person. So there will always be a special place in my heart for Kate. 

To give you the basic premise of the story. Four children answer a strange newspaper ad to pass tests. They don't know what these tests are or what they mean, only that they are for gifted children. As it turns out, these tests were their acceptance letter into a secret society that is combatting a man who wants to take over the world thanks to radio waves. These four children become best friends and name themselves The Mysterious Benedict Society in honor of the man who originally created the test, the head of the secret society: Mr. Nicholas Benedict. The Mysterious Benedict Society have many adventures: they travel, have to solve riddles and puzzles and outsmart the bad guys. 

I suggest you read this series, even if it is a kid's series. They're very... smart books. Yes, that's a good way to put it.

If you've already read this series and you loved it, may I suggest The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. It's the prequel to TMBS. I got it as a present for my brother and ended up keeping it for myself because it was so good. I was a little iffy about it at first, but it met my high expectations. 

Before I go, I'd like to point out that I made it! I wrote the September series series before the end of September. Two days before the end, but still! It counts. 

Indecisions, talented people and emo-pop

So here is the explanation for the title.

I have many things to say.

I have had no time to say any of them.

So because I can't decide, here is a brief summary of all of them.

1. First and not relevant to anything, I got a Pandora station (a free custom radio station, which is awesome) and it keeps describing the music I listen to as "emo-pop" and I don't know how to feel about it. I also have Owl City and Taylor Swift (that I turned off, so that's not the emo-pop). Yeah, I have a wide range of taste in music.

2. I have managed to read two books in the last two weeks. You don't know how much of an achievement this is considering how awfully busy I have been! More on that later, but I read Paper Towns by John Green and The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi.

3. My friend Addie over at A Functionally Messy blog introduced me to a website called Figment that you can discover by clicking here. I absolutely love it.

4. I have joined an after-school literary magazine and my god, you wouldn't believe the level of writing talent that some people have! We had about 45 minutes to write something, anything, using at least six of the words that we had all written up on the board (our favorite word, in any language we wanted and of course, someone wrote a beautiful word in Icelandic and we just kept pestering him to know how it was pronounced). I wrote a short story (that I had to read out loud, which meant that I stressed myself out so much I couldn't breathe. I have trouble sharing what I write, let alone reading it out loud!) A few people wrote poems that just left us all breathless. They were absolutely fantastic, well written and powerful. It was a great moment.

5. I'm sure I have something else to say... Maybe not. You may have noticed that I like lists. There are lists posted everywhere in my room, my notebooks, everywhere. My brain just works by lists.

As for the books I read, I will be posting reviews soon! And the series series I promised.

Guide to having a good day when the rest of the week has been bleh

1. Do yoga - Okay, so my bleh week started on Saturday when my horse decided to be an ass, and I hit myself on the head several times by running into things because I'm a hopeless klutz. So, on Sunday, my friend and I went to a yoga class and it was wonderful. I'd taken classes before but it wasn't really my thing because I'd always gone hoping to get steel abs (which sadly never happened). This time, I really felt the mental benefits of it, which was very much appreciated.

2. Listen to this song. Even if you don't like Oreos. Watch the video. Several times in a row. Like I did.

3. Drink orange juice or hot chocolate (not together). It all depends on the weather. And your mood.

4. Run. Now hear me out! I am not an athletic person at all as you may have understood from 1. I've been trying to get into running, but no matter how many times I did it, I felt like I had wasted my time and not accomplished anything other than a pair of really sore legs and a hurt pride. But today, today I wanted to run. I needed to run. So I put on my brand new running shoes (school gym class required) and plugged in my music and ran. I didn't run very much, but here's the thing: running to clear your head is not at all the same as running to get fit. When you run to clear your head, you can run as long or a short as you want. I was proud of myself, I ran for two songs and a half, up and down a hill. I followed the sidewalk to see where it would take me, even though I usually end up at the same intersection. It felt good. I'm glad I went running, because it's something that I wanted to do, not something that I felt I had to do to get fit. (For those of you who are curious, I listened to Imagine Dragons' Night Vision album, which is possibly my favorite album ever.) Also, it was a gorgeous autumn day and those are one of nature's many gifts to humanity, it would have been a shame to waste it.

5. Read a book. Doesn't have to be a good book. Just read. Not a screen. That doesn't count.

6. Watch Doctor Who. 

7. Knit or crochet or sew. Or paint. Just do something creative.

8. Finish everything that you have to do, because that is one of the best feelings ever.

9. Laugh. A lot. But genuinely. 

10. Decide that you are going to have a good day. You can wake up and tell yourself "Well today sucks already and it's only 6 in the morning." Or you can be ridiculously optimistic like me and think about the good things of today. It's become a habit of mine to do that every morning. Except Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I wake up and go "God, I hate Wednesdays."

Hope this helped you in some way if you've been experiencing the mid-September blues. If you haven't, feel free to leave your secret in the comments below!

I will most likely be doing a book review shortly and a series series post. Get excited!

Forever and always

This is it! The last French book review thing! That's still not a catchy title...

Théa pour l'éternité

by Florence Hinckel

(Théa for eternity)

This book was not what I expected. I was skeptical when I read the summary, but being the addicted reader that I am, I borrowed it anyway. 

It started off as a really stereotypical giggly-angsty teenage novel. "I love him, but I've never told him, so he doesn't know, so he's kissing another girl, so I'm sad" kind of thing. We've seen and read that a million times. I would've dropped the book if Théa hadn't jumped her friend's girlfriend in front of the whole school. Let me explain.

Théa and Théo are best friends, have been forever. They're neighbors and are very close. Of course, Théa falls head over heels in love with him and wants to be more than friends, but he falls in love with another girl. At the same time, Théa dealing with her parents' divorce and her mother's obsession with being too old. This is all a bit much for the poor girl. What Théa would want more than anything would be to stop time, to sort everything out. She's afraid of growing old. 

Back to the attack on Théo's girlfriend. During the fight, Théa yells "I wish I could stop time!". (Which is clearly what you yell when you're attacking your best friend's girlfriend.) She then gets called to the principal's office and instead of getting in trouble, meets a scientist who is as fascinated as she is with time and age. He offers her a most bizarre proposition. 

He can help her stay young forever. He can stop her time.

Here is where we enter into the very blurry lines of science fiction written by someone who has just about as much knowledge of biology as I do (which is to say, not very much). 

Théa (being a selfish idiot) accepts and through a series of really simple tests (she takes pills) she stops aging. And then it all goes right before hitting rock-bottom as we expected.

Okay, you can pretty much tell how I feel about this book. 

First: I liked that the book is not what it seems in the first few lines. You start reading it, expecting a typical teenage girl novel, but then you fall into science fiction.

Second: It would probably have been better if we hadn't fallen into the science fiction. I mean, sure the author used the words "telomere" and "chromosome" and that's impressive and all, but when you write a science fiction story, couldn't you at least do a little more research about your topic than the average ninth grade bio class?

Third: I didn't like the main character, I thought she was really selfish, but at the same time, it really makes you think. How many teenagers, in our modern-day society that prizes youth and beauty, would do the unthinkable to feel better about themselves?

And that's the point I want to get at. This isn't a remarkably well-written book, nor is it very deep or new in its basic idea. It was written to get a thought going. A "what if"? 

What if we could buy eternal youth? What then? 

There are those who would take it, without question. But there are those who would cringe and refuse. Can you imagine what a wreck our world would be? It's very interesting to think about. 

That is the reason why I did like this book. Because it made me step back and think. What would I do? How would our world be if this happened? Is it such an insane idea? I like books that make me think. So, conclusion: not a great book concerning the way the words were put down on paper, but worth a read if you have two days to spare (it's not long at all and a very quick read). 

So that's it then. My thoughts on French YA books. I hope at least some of it made sense. 

This means I have to find more books to read, because I haven't been doing any reading for the last two weeks. 

A long title for a small book

And I'm back in the second episode of reviews and opinions about french YA books!

Que deviennent les enfants quand la nuit tombe?

by Jean-Paul Nozière

(basically accurate translation: What happens to children after nightfall?)

This wasn't a very long book, but as always, I liked the cover. Then when I borrowed it, the librarian told me she'd heard really good things about it. 

I think I know why people really liked it. It was very different, unexpected. To quote cliché book reviewers:  a breath of fresh air. The story wasn't very complex: two periods in time that eventually become connected by a series of strange and tragic events.

It starts with the story of a modern-age teenage girl who just moved to an abandoned farmhouse lost in the middle of nowhere. Her father is something of an oddity, has long black hair and an online degree in detective inspection. He has plans to renovate the house and barn into a livable space and has dragged his complacent wife and less complacent daughter into helping him. Until a terrifying discovery is made. The skeleton of a long dead teenage girl is found under the floor of the barn with a green stone necklace around her neck.

Across the sea and the years, two children live on a French island near South America. The boy is trouble and the girl decides to become his best friend, whether he wants her to or not. So they become best friends. Until the girl suddenly doesn't show up. She has been sent to a children's home on the other side of the island: there were simply too many mouths to feed in her family and not enough money to feed them all. The boy decides to get sent to the children's home as well (which was going to happen to him anyway) to find her. Eventually, they get sent to France together because they're too much trouble. Life in the home is hell, especially for two black children in a white world. But one thing keeps them connected: two matching green stone necklaces. 

You could tell that the two stories would become intertwined, but it wasn't until the end that you realized how. I don't like endings in general, but this one was unexpected and piqued your curiosity for the last few chapters so that when the book ends, you don't want to let go.

I liked this book because it was well written, the way that the characters spoke felt natural and normal, and I loved the powerful bond of friendship that united the two children from the island. In the end, it shows us that nothing can overcome such a true bond, not even death. It was a beautiful morale, beautifully written.

Read this book, even if the cover may look a bit silly, and the book itself isn't very long. 

The one thing I didn't understand about the book is the title. I like it, but I don't see how it connects to the story.