Posting Fail

I've been so busy with homework and Bookworm Boulevard that I'm afraid I've kind of neglected The Word Nerd. I'm really sorry, guys! If I'm totally, bluntly honest...it's kind of a pain to keep up with two separate blogs. It's just difficult trying to make sure I keep up with all the book stuff on the other one and still find interesting things to post about and the time/motivation to post frequently here.

I'll still try to post from time to time, i.e. if I have something really interesting to post about, but I don't think it's going to be very often. I will still be updating BB frequently and you can definitely find me there.

Meanwhile, go listen to the songs "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morissette and "At Full Speed" by Jack's Mannequin. Because they're awesome.

~Bex

Why I Will Never Be An Economist

One of my summer assignments is to read a book called Naked Economics and do a double-entry journal with at least three responses per chapter (the class requiring this is AP Government and Macroeconomics, so it's not too weird). Naked Economics is not a bad book; actually, in a lot of places it's quite funny, and some of it even makes sense.

But the thing is...even the parts that make sense confuse me. The chapter I just finished contained lots of discussion about why it is good to be a mohair farmer even though there is no need for mohair. Then the author said that programs like that should not exist because they make people angry, then he said that everyone has the mohair advantage in some way.

I followed it, mostly. I understood the analogies and I understand how the stuff he's talking about fits into our economic system. But when I think about it as a whole, I still have no idea what he's talking about. I get it...but I don't get it. Which, of course, makes no sense at all.

Hopefully taking a class in economics will clear some of this up. But in the meantime, this book has taught me one very important thing: I should never be an economist.

Love,
Bex

College Searching: William & Mary and University of Richmond

Sooo over the last few days, I was in Virginia to visit colleges: the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg and the University of Richmond, which is located, predictably, in Richmond. It was a lovely trip: I really, really liked William & Mary, and UR was very nice too. So nice to have a college that I'm really excited about! I am definitely planning to apply to W&M. It felt very home-like, and the atmosphere there was just great. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and I got the sense that academics are really important there - studies do matter - but that everyone has other things that they're involved in as well. I really like that.

UR was a nice school too - just as beautiful was Williamsburg but in a totally different way. I can definitely understand why a lot of people really liked it. I probably won't end up applying there - it wasn't really me - but it's a very nice place.

In other news, my cat decided to wake me up this morning around five by throwing up on my bed. Welcome home, Becky.

Off now to get some summer work done. I can't believe there are only 18 days until school starts back. I am running out of time to get stuff done and still spend as much time as possible reading... O.o

Love,
Bex

A Movie You Simply MUST See

So, as my dear friend SP reminded me just a moment ago, I totally fail at recommending awesome things to you guys, because I didn't tell you that you absolutely HAVE to go see the new Christopher Nolan film Inception.

(Okay, so he was a bit nicer about it than that. He said "I'm surprised you didn't blog about Inception." And once he mentioned it, so was I! I think it was the fact that I was up until, uh, 6a.m. the night I saw it.)

But I digress. Inception is this totally awesome sci-fi kinda movie starring Leo DiCaprio and Ellen Page and some other very talented actors, and it's about a technology that lets you get into other people's dreams. Dom Cobb and his team, including new architect Ariadne, are on a mission that might let Cobb finally go home: they have to infiltrate the dreams of a businessman's son and plant an idea there, a process called inception. (Normally, dream invading is just used to steal secrets - extraction.) Also there are ghosts from Cobb's past, namely, his dead wife; really awesome fight scenes involving antigravity hotels and tanks in the snow; a noticeable lack of sex scenes (finally, a movie that isn't just a sham of a plot and a torrid love affair); and most of all, it makes you THINK.

I loved loved loved Inception. You totally have to see it. It is so, so, so awesome.

~Bex

Book Rec + Quotes

So, you guys, you need to read The Demon's Covenant. Because it was amazing.

HOWEVER, it is a SEQUEL. Yes, that means there is a book that comes before this one. And yes, you do need to read The Demon's Lexicon first because otherwise The Demon's Covenant will make no sense whatsoever.

But that's okay, because The Demon's Lexicon is also awesome.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from TDC:

" 'Well, that sounds ominously nonspecific,' Jamie remarked. 'How could I refuse?' "

" 'I cook better than you,' Nick corrected absently. 'I think monkeys can probably be taught to cook better than you.'
'I'd like to have a monkey that cooked for me,' said Jamie. 'I would pay him in bananas. His name would be Alphonse.' "

"That was not a shriek. It was a husky masculine cry of terror." -Jamie

" 'Don't be sad, Mae,' Jamie said. 'This will be good training for when we are ninjas.'
'Ninjas often get distracted by plants, do they?' Mae smirked."

My review of TDC is here. And you should check it out and stuff. Because guys, this series is awesome.

Assorted Things on Thursday

1. I got books in the mail today! I won a contest on Elizabeth Scott's blog and received an ARC of The Replacement (which I really really really wanna read) and a copy of Only the Good Spy Young (which is a totally awesome book).

2. Sorry I'm so slack about the blog lately! I think trying to post every day or every other day is just rather a bit much, especially in summer when there is nothing going on and I'm working on thesis and college-searching and summer homework and not doing anything. So don't look for daily posts (I'm making an effort to have a life, too - we'll see how that goes XD), but I'll still try to keep up pretty regularly.

3. I hate having to annotate books. I don't like the idea of writing in books, it feels almost sacrilegious, and also it distracts me while I'm reading. I would much rather read a thought-provoking book and then discuss it or talk about it without all the "make sure you WRITE DOWN everything you think while you're reading it!!!" And I mean, I like to write. *sigh* Stupid summer homework.

4. If you don't know the song "Lift Us Up to Fall" by Tenth Avenue North, you should go listen to it, because it's awesome.

5. I really like round numbers, so I had to add an item #5 to this list so I wouldn't drive myself crazy. Have a wonderful remainder-of-July/summer!

College Searching

I spent my first day back from Georgia sorting through piles and piles of college mail. I've been getting college letters in the mail for ages, and I never quite know what to do with it, so it's all gone into a pair of canvas bags and sat there for (days, weeks, months). Today, I sorted it all out. Well, all of it that I kept, anyway. So, here, have some random statistics:

-Number of states represented: 30, plus Washington, D.C.

-States with largest number of colleges represented: South Carolina (13), Georgia (12), and New York (12)

-State whose colleges sent me the most mail: South Carolina (45 pieces of mail)

-State whose colleges sent me the most mail, excluding SC: New York (25 pieces of mail)

-Colleges who sent me the most mail: Carleton College (10) and University of Chicago (9)

That's all I'm coming up with, statistics-wise, right now. More later.

Love,
Bex

Hello Goodbye

Hi guys, sorry to have been so mysteriously absent lately. Lots of stuff has been going on, including several "repairs" to our faulty internet service. It just got worse after the first time they tried to fix it, but it seems to be better now, so hopefully I'll be able to post without getting cut off every two minutes.

I've also been doing a lot of research about colleges, trying to find somewhere not-huge, reasonably affordable, coed, with a good English department and some film/theater production courses that look interesting, and not too far from South Carolina. Much easier said than done.

Of course, as of right now, I'm also supposed to be packing. Leaving tomorrow morning for a brief trip to Georgia, off to the Dark and Mysterious Lands of No-Wireless-Internet. So, there'll be another couple of postless days coming up. But as of Monday, I should be back and posting again.

Until then,
Bex

Linger

Hey guys, LINGER comes out today.

Yes, LINGER, as in the book by Maggie Stiefvater, the sequel to SHIVER, the second book of Grace and Sam and Isabel and Cole and the Wolves of Mercy Falls.

It comes out today.

So go to a bookstore. And get a copy. Because Maggie is awesome, and her books are AMAZING.

Ohmygosh you guys, I love this series. I love this book. Read them. They are made of awesome.

Love,

Bex

Comatose

No, I am not in a coma. No, I do not know anyone who has recently fallen into or come out of a coma. "Comatose" is the name of a very awesome song by Skillet that you should go listen to.

I started humming it to myself last night around bedtime, and I couldn't figure out what it was. And then I did figure out what it was, and then I had to go listen to it, a lot. It's great.

"I hate living without You, dead wrong to ever doubt You, but my demons lay in waiting, tempting me away. Oh, how I adore You, oh, how I thirst for You, oh, how I need You. Comatose, I'll never wake up without an overdose of You..."

Love,
Bex

Technology Strikes Again

Wanna know something that's quite irksome?

Trying to [check your Facebook, post a review to your blog/LibraryThing/Shelfari/Goodreads, find Spanish newspaper articles, have an IM conversation with your friends, read xkcd, browse baby name websites for a good character name -- take your pick] when the internet is determined not to work for more than four or five seconds at a time.

When you think about it, it's a little frightening how much stuff we entrust to technology that's so finicky.

Love,
Bex

Writing vs. Blogging

Earlier today, Jami at YA Addict posted a discussion about whether or not aspiring writers should be book blogging. The idea was that if you give someone a negative review, you're burning bridges in the publishing industry before you even get to them. I hadn't even thought about that as being an issue. Writing is a huge part of who I am, and so is reading. Most writers say that if you're going to write well, you have to read a lot - the two are related. So why would it be a problem to write and blog about books? Asking me to choose between the two would be like saying "Okay, you can cut off your right arm, or you can cut off your left arm. Ready, go."

If I had to choose between ever being a published author and continuing to blog about books, I'd choose being an author in a heartbeat. I blog about books because I love reading and I want to share the books I read with other people, but I can share books with friends even without a blog; maybe I'd only be sharing them with a few people that I talk to regularly in the "real world," but it's better than not being able to talk about them with anyone. But if I had to stop writing...that would be like cutting out a part of my soul.

What I don't get is why anyone should have to choose. I understand that no author likes seeing a negative review of his or her book, and most likely the publishers/editors/agents don't either - a huge number of people put a huge amount of time into that book, and then somebody has the nerve to go and say they didn't like it? It makes sense - I would be unhappy too. But the fact of the matter is, not everybody is going to like every single book. If everybody liked the same things, that would be...well, really weird. Very Brave New World. Scary. Not cool. If you have an opinion, there's going to be people who agree with you AND people who don't agree with you. That's how the world works.

Personally, I think that as long even the negative reviews are polite, there shouldn't be a problem. I for one don't like writing negative reviews; I wish I could enjoy every book I read and always be able to say "Yes! You should absolutely read this one too! It's excellent!" But that doesn't always happen. So my policy on that is going to be that unless I've specifically agreed to review a certain book and I end up disliking it, I won't review books that I don't like. And if I do have to post a negative review, I'll be as nice as I can about it. Just because I wasn't the biggest fan of a book doesn't mean that I can't understand why somebody else would be.

So that's my spiel for the day. It rather popped my "happy bubble" when I saw that maybe people who like to write shouldn't be blogging about books, I will admit. I was all excited because I've wanted to create something like Bookworm Boulevard for ages and ages and ages, and then somebody says "...you know that by doing this thing you love, you may be ruining your chances to do this other thing that you love." But I read something just the other day about a book blogger turned author, and I'm going to hold to the idea that the same is going to be possible for me someday.

I guess this has been rather more serious than most of my posts. But this is something that matters to me. What do y'all think?

~Bex

Insanity: A List

I have composed a list of several things that are insane. Enjoy.

1. My family. Spend an hour - no, half an hour - no, ten minutes around any of them and you'll know what I mean.

2. Summer homework. There's so much of it. There is no point.

3. Senior thesis. I've fallen behind, and I thought I'd never be able to catch up, but provided I keep up with the schedule I made the other day, I'll be able to catch up and have plenty of time for other things. (Of course, "other things" may in this case mean "struggling through the assigned summer reading books so that I can get to my very awesome stack of library books" or, more likely, "ignoring the assigned summer reading books and spending way too much time in the blogosphere.")

4. The number of books that I really really really want to read.

5. Me. Ask AF how many times a day I say something to the general effect of "I'm so weird." And "weird" only begins to cover it.

Love,
Bex

I'm an AP Student

...especially if AP stands for Advanced Procrastination. Over the next six weeks, I have to do...well, more schoolwork than I'm going to list here. I'm very behind. I have so much left to do, lots of which I was supposed to get done today but haven't yet, but am I working on schoolwork?

Absolutely not.

Instead I'm setting up my account on Goodreads and perusing reviewer blogs and author blogs. Oh, and I keep checking Bookworm Boulevard to see if I have any new comments/followers/etc., even though I realize that's probably not gonna happen until the site's been around for considerably longer than a day and a half. It's new. I'll calm down once the novelty wears off. Maybe.

It's just that books (especially fun ones) are so much more entertaining and, in my humble opinion, much more educational than schoolwork.

So three cheers for AP students. Advanced Placement AND Advanced Procrastination.

Oh, and if you need a song to listen to, check out "You Make Me Smile" by Blue October. It's a little odd at first, but it grows on you. And also, it's totally stuck in my head right now.

Love,
Bex

Bookworm Boulevard

Guysguysguys I have some really exciting news.

So, remember how I said I really wanted to make a book site? (Or, at least, I mentioned the possibility. I may not have let my enthusiasm and excitement creep through onto the internet.)

Well, it's here. And it's called Bookworm Boulevard.

The URL: http://bookwormboulevard.blogspot.com. It's still somewhat under construction; I'll be adding sidebar links and stuff like that over the next couple of days, and I hope to post the first review later on tonight. You should check it out! And if you like it, become a follower.

I hope you guys like it. I realize there's not much there to like just yet, but there will be. Soon. Promise.

Love,
Bex

P.S. Don't worry! The fact that Bookworm Boulevard is now officially in operation does not mean that I'll stop posting here. It just means that this is going to be more of a personal blog, while BB is all about books and a  lot less about me.

Some Stuff

Hello all!

I hope all of my readers in America had a great Independence Day - picnics, cookouts, fireworks, pools, all that jazz. And to my international readers (*coughcoughCHcoughcough*), I hope you had a lovely non-holiday mid-summer Sunday!

I spent most of today working on two things:

1. AP Spanish summer work. I've now done four of the requisite twelve grammar tests through StudySpanish.com. I think. Unless I did it wrong. Given the lack of precise instructions, that's entirely possible.

2. Blog design. I think I may have possibly mentioned (or not mentioned; I honestly don't remember) a blog/website thing dedicated solely to books. Reviews, interviews, etc. I'll still keep up with the Word Nerd over here as my personal blog and I'll probably post book recs here too, but once I get the other site up, it'll be a not-so-personal YA Books site.

And speaking of books, I reread Gayle Forman's IF I STAY last night. It is so, so, so good. It made me cry, it made me smile, it's just...fantastic. Basically, the premise is that Mia's family gets into a car wreck. Mia's parents are killed instantly, and a comatose Mia has a sort of out-of-body experience, watching her friends and family -- and herself -- in the hospital as she tries to decide whether or not to go on living. Such a sweet book. Definitely, definitely read it. (I especially love that Mia's relationship with her boyfriend is not perfect - it's nice but unfortunately rare to have a touch of realism in the romances anymore.)

That's it for tonight, folks. Much love,
Bex

Mini-Mini-Blog: Contest Link

Hey guys --

Alexa over at Hooked on YA Books is having a book-giveaway contest. Head over to her blog to enter and maybe win some really cool books! Click here for details.

--Bex

P.S. This doesn't count as an extra July 2 post, but I'm also not entirely sure it's going to count as the July 3 post. Depends how much I get done tomorrow. Er, today.

This Greenhouse Grows Humans

More reading material for you folks out there. A little while ago (I would've blogged sooner, but I lacked the time to write a coherent review), I read THE GARDENER by S.A. Bodeen. Science fiction + global warming + eco-cyborgs = a pretty intense mix of stuff.

The only connection Mason has ever had to is father is a DVD of the man, shoulders-down, reading The Runaway Bunny. So when a comatose girl at the hospital where his mother works suddenly wakes up when she hears the story on the DVD and begs to leave, Mason - who has a bit of a hero complex - rescues her.

The girl only remembers bits and pieces of who she is and what has happened to her, but Mason can tell that she's anything but normal. The circular scars covering her legs only add to the mystery of the girl's past. Add in that there's a tattoo on her arm that matches the one on Mason's father on the DVD and the fact that the least official police force Mason has ever encountered is chasing the girl he rescued. There's mystery and adventure brewing, and Mason may not like what he discovers.

This novel takes a real, present-day scientific crisis and gives it an impossible solution with just enough scientific backing that it just might happen. Add in two teenagers who are trying to figure out the truth behind the science and the mystery of the girl's past, and you've got THE GARDENER. I will say that I figured out the end well before I got there, but it was one of those books that was worth reading anyway. Not the best book I've ever read, but still definitely worth my time. I'm glad I read it. You should check it out too.

Love,
Bex

Happy July

As it is now July 1 (and I've been slacking on blogging again, I'm sorry), I have composed a list of exciting things that happen in July:

-July 4th celebrations. Fireworks and picnics. Yay!

-The release of LINGER, the sequel to SHIVER, by Maggie Stiefvater. I had the good fortune to get an ARC and I can tell you that it is totally amazing and you should definitely get a copy ASAP.

-Harry Potter's birthday is July 31. (Relevant because of the somewhat Harry Potter-themed sleepover I'm going to tonight. (Why yes, my friends and I are nerds, why do you ask?))

-Family vacation! Not really sure where my family is going yet, but we're going somewhere and it should be fun.

-More birthdays: two of my cousins, JR and KA, as well as my dear friend RF. 

Of course, there's also the thesis monster. But that doesn't count. Because that's not a YAY thing, that's an eekscary thing.

Anyway, I must go. Happy July, internetpeople!

Love,

Bex

Radio Silence

I would like to apologize for the unexplained, unexpected, and entirely unintentional several-day lack-of-posting. I've been busy. VBS has started at my church (and it's a lot of fun - I love working with kids - but keeping up with ten hyper second- and third-graders can be rather exhausting), so Sunday and today were both spent working VBS and catching up on sleep.

And then there's thesis. Which I'm so behind on it's not funny. I've been a lot busier than I expected and stuff has just come up - and, okay, I've been reading. Which makes it my own fault that I'm not where I'd like to be on thesis.

Oh, and there's college. Still researching all sorts of different schools. Still haven't found anywhere that really screams "come here!" But I'm looking. So we'll see.

And I know this has been a very brief post after several days of posts-so-brief-they're-really-not-there-at-all, but I do not have the energy (or the concentration) to write more right now. So, more later.

Also, I just finished watching the last episode of Firefly. It's an amazing show, you guys, everyone should watch it. Not kidding. It's spectacular. You'll love it.

Love,
Bex

Technology. Sigh.

You guys all know I'm a total bookworm. Well, that extends to the internet. I blog about books all the time, probably more often than I blog about something other than books. I follow lots of authors' blogs. I have Barnes & Noble's website bookmarked, I have Amazon bookmarked, I have my library website bookmarked...

I also have Shelfari bookmarked. Shelfari is a wonderful website that lets you create a log of what books you own, what books you've read and enjoyed, your favorite books, and a book wishlist; it lets you discuss your favorite books, share book reviews, and just in general form a community of bookworms. I love Shelfari. I spend probably way too much time on the website. It's fantastic. If you enjoy reading at all, I suggest setting up an account. It's great.

Today, I discovered LibraryThing. It's a similar sort of setup: you can catalog your books, share reviews, discuss books, and it has the added bonus of having an Early Reviewers program, which means that you can get free books as long as you write reviews about them. It seemed like a very cool thing. I signed up, started cataloging my books, and signed up for the Early Reviewers program.

I was adding books alphabetically, not by title or preference (so I hadn't gotten anywhere close to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings; I hadn't even made it to the Chronicles of Narnia) and all of a sudden a little message pops up that says "Free accounts have a maximum of 200 books. To add more, you must upgrade to a paid account."

I don't want to pay to tell the internet what books I have and what books I like. I already have a Shelfari account that lets me list all of my books, free of charge. I deleted enough books to make room for some of my favorites, left a few spaces to spare in case I get any through the ER program that I have to add and review, and quickly switched back to Shelfari. But you know, I could have saved a lot of time if LT had told me that they capped at 200 books before I started adding stuff. It would have helped.

I have heard people rant and rave about how wonderful LibraryThing is, and I do not doubt that had I not spent a lot of time adding books only to be required go back and remove them, I would enjoy it too. But really, why do I need to pay money to keep a list of books? I've been keeping lists of books for years at no cost. It just seems a little bit pointless to pay LT to do it for me, when I'd still have to go through and manually add each and every book.

So, meaning no disrespect to LibraryThing (if you like it/have a paid account/are willing to pay for an account/don't mind the 200-book limit, I really am very happy for you), here's to Shelfari.

G'night, everybody. Love,
Bex

Only the Good Spy Young

No, it's not a catchy little saying that I came up with myself. It is a catchy little saying, but I only wish I could say I came up with something that clever. No, ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG is the title of the fourth and latest Gallagher Girls book. The official release date is actually next Tuesday, but as author Ally Carter explains here, some stores have copies available before that date. And I was lucky enough to get one of those early copies.

The Gallagher Girls series is a fabulous set of books about Cammie Morgan and her best friends. They go to an exclusive private school for "exceptional young women." And in their case, "exceptional young women" really means "spies." The first book, I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU, details Cammie's experiences with the first normal person and only boy she's ever really experienced. It also introduces the mystery of Cammie's father's death.

The story in ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG is more action-packed than ever. Cammie's in the real world now. Things with Zach have gotten even weirder, and now Cammie is facing more danger than she knew she could be in. And since she's a spy, that's saying something. There's betrayal. There are near-death-experiences. There are mysteries. There is laugh-out-loud comedy and there are moments that brutally real. Oh, and there are terrorists. Don't want to say too much more that's plot-specific because if you haven't read the first three I don't wanna throw out any spoilers, but it was excellent. Probably my favorite so far in the series, actually. Readthemreadthemreadthem!

The Gallagher Girls series is written by Ally Carter, who also wrote HEIST SOCIETY (which you can read my review of here). It's probably aimed at a slightly younger audience than HS, but hey - I've just turned 17, starting my senior year of high school, and I still love them. Cammie's voice is funny, sweet, and at times painfully honest. And the stories are fun and action-packed, and they keep you wanting more. I absolutely recommend these books. Absolutely. You can find out more at Ally Carter's website and the Gallagher Girls series website.

That's all I've got for today, folks! And now I need to go work on my thesis. *sigh* Laters!

Love,
Bex

A (Late) Two-Book Post

I know I know I know, I'm terrible at remembering to blog after taking a week off. It's after 12:30 in the morning and I'm just now getting to my blog for Tuesday. It's just taking some time to get back into things. Things meaning blogging and thesis. Oh, thesis. *melodramatic sigh* I love screenwriting. I love IF I STAY, which is the novel I'm adapting for my thesis screenplay. But I have so many ideas for other things right now...i.e. totally revamped vampire stories (yes, that bad pun was mostly intentional) and screenplays that I haven't figured out that involve nightmares and nerdy best friends and death threats and scary knives.

But anyway. I have two books to tell you about.

First of all, I finished SKINNED by Robin Wasserman. It was excellent. Very science-fiction; almost a cross between Aldous Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD and Mary Pearson's THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX (both of which are excellent books, by the way, though very different from each other). It's set at some unspecified time in the future when technology basically rules everything.

The fact that technology rules everything means that Lia's car should never have crashed. It should have taken her safely to her destination without Lia having to do anything but curl up in the backseat and take a nap. But something goes wrong, and the car does crash, and suddenly, Lia's life as the beautiful, popular girl that everyone loves is over. Actually, her life is over, period.

Except for the advanced technology that allows the doctors to download her brain into an artificial body. Now she supposedly has the best thing anyone could ask for: she cannot age, she cannot die, she will never get sick, she's basically indestructible. The one thing she isn't is human. And the friends (and boyfriend) she had before cannot accept that the personality inside is still her. Lia is lost, looking for someone to show her how to live again. And she just might find it - but first, she's going to have to come to terms with who she is.

I realize the ending of that summary sounds incredibly corny and lame, but I promise, the book is anything but. You should definitely read it. It's the first in a trilogy, and I'm definitely going to have to get the second one soon. (I believe it's called CRASHED. Fortunately, my library has it. Yay library!) You can find out more about these at Robin Wasserman's website.

The other book that I absolutely have to tell you about because it was ohmygoodness-wonderful-and-fantastic is GLIMPSE by Carol Lynch Williams. I'm assuming it just came out, because I found it on the New Teen Books shelf at Barnes & Noble today. It's 484 pages long, but it's written in verse so in terms of word count it's probably pretty short. I read it over about an hour and a half while I was in B&N with CJ and AF. It's a quick read and an amazing book so please don't let the length scare you off.

Hope is 13. Her older sister Lizzie is 14. They have other friends, but ever since they were 3 and 4, they've been best friends and they've protected each other. So when Hope walks into their shared bedroom to find Lizzie pointing a gun at her own head and Lizzie gets shipped off to a mental hospital, Hope's world turns upside down. She doesn't understand why her sister would want to die. She doesn't understand what she's supposed to do now that she can't protect Lizzie anymore.

Hope's mother is not exactly a source of comfort; it seems like Lizzie has always been her favorite, but neither one of them was planned, and Momma hasn't really been there for the girls since their father died eight years ago. What Momma does have is a secret, and that secret may explain why Lizzie wanted so desperately "to leave/for good."

GLIMPSE was beautifully written and once you start reading it you just can't stop. Absolutely a must-read. So, so good. It was excellent.

And on that note, I really need to go to bed, 'cause it's now after 1am. Oops. Goodnight!

~Bex

Playing Catch-Up

There are lots of good things about Salkehatchie, and even about having a week unplugged in general, but one downside is that I've fallen out of the habit of blogging, and I'm behind on some things I ought to tell you about.

First off, GRACELING. I read this back before I left for Salkehatchie and I meant to tell you about it then, but I didn't get there. GRACELING is a novel by Kristin Cashore, and while it took me a little while to get into it and I solved the "mystery" way before Katsa and Po did, I still really really enjoyed it.

In the fictional realm where GRACELING is set, some children are born with eyes that are two different colors. These children are "Graced" with some sort of gift, from painting to fighting, even to killing. This is the Grace with which Katsa has been gifted, and she hates it. Her uncle, a king, uses her as his personal thug. Katsa hates the crimes she is forced to commit. To make matters worse, Gracelings are considered unnatural, and as such, Katsa has never really had any friends.

In a sort of retaliation effort, she has formed the Council, a group that has spread through all seven kingdoms in an effort to protect the people from the acts of the kings. One of Katsa's missions with the Council is to rescue the grandfather of the Lienid princes. Along the way, she meets Prince Po, who has set out to find his grandfather and determine why he has been captured. Po is also Graced - with fighting. He and Katsa, two outcasts, two incredible fighters, set out to determine who captured Po's grandfather and for what reason. And the stakes may be a lot higher than either of them realized.

Reminiscent of Tamora Pierce's Lioness quartet, GRACELING was an excellent story with a well-thought out plot (even though I predicted some of it, there were definitely twists that I didn't see coming) and characters that you can't help but love. Definitely read it if you get the chance.

Also, during the week while I was at Salkehatchie, I read GLASS HOUSES by Rachel Caine, the first book in the Morganville Vampires series. The premise of the story was interesting - college town secretly ruled by vampires; actually, it was way more complicated than that, but I'm being pressured by my little brother to leave my computer and go watch Firefly - but I felt like the execution wasn't spectacular. Don't get me wrong, it was an amusing (although possibly unintentionally so) and quick read and I will probably end up reading the second one, but it felt like the drama was way over the top. Yes, it helped that Shane understood being on Monica's bad side, but the fact that she burned down his house and killed his sister was pushing it a little. Or a lot.

Finally, I've just started SKINNED by Robin Wasserman, which I will tell you all about when I finish it.

And now I need to go watch Firefly, because 1) it's awesome and 2) I think Little Brother 2 might kill me if I'm not out there in the next thirty seconds or so. Catch you later,
Bex

Salkehatchie

Helloooo everybody! I'm home! Salkehatchie was a wonderful experience, as usual. I gotta say, things at the JET (Johnston-Edgefield-Trenton) camp were very different from the Columbia camp. I also gotta say, I don't think I could survive living in the middle of nowhere for very long. I need civilization.

But that's not to say that this week was bad. It definitely wasn't. I made friends with several people who I probably would not have talked to much, if at all, had I met them somewhere other than Salkehatchie, which is always nice. And I think I learned a lot about appreciating people who are not the same as you.

There were some truly hilarious moments. Somnambulatory cows, flaming o's, unicorns in space, Monty Python and string theory, vampire babies, coming up with nicknames such as "Cat-Woman" and "the Rev Lupster" (I guess that's how we'd spell it), teaching HB and EN to play hearts, defining "lightsaber," unintentional dirty jokes, very intentional fake-secret jokes, and Spiderman Jason, just to name a few. (For the sake of saving time and not boring you, I'm not gonna explain all those stories here, but I definitely can if you want to know.)

There were some "wow" moments too. Looking at the finished kitchen, marveling over the air conditioner that EN and I had so painstakingly straightened out, being able to pick up one of the kittens, seeing how happy Mrs. Ora May and Mr. Bean (because calling him Mr. Joe is just odd) were when they saw the work we had done and the smiles on their faces when they greeted all of us from their new porch. God really can do amazing things.

What did I do this week, you ask? Well, I helped tear down a porch, and I fixed an air conditioner, and I cleaned everything out of a bunch of kitchen cabinets, and I painted, and painted, and painted, and painted, and painted, and washed dishes, and painted, and washed some more dishes, and painted, and washed more dishes, and painted, and put knobs on cabinets and cleaned out a bedroom and tore out a carpet and put down Peel-and-Press linoleum, and I even got to be a kitchen wizard and put the kitchen back together. It was a busy week, and I got really sick of painting, but in the words of my dear friend HB, "None of us are too good for painting." My frustration with the work was so worth it to make Mr. and Mrs. Bean so happy.

I feel like there should be some moral here about what God can do through all kinds of different people, but I'm too tired and too desperately in need of a real shower and a good night's sleep in a real bed to phrase it coherently right now, so for now just know that God is great and people are crazy and everyone should have a Salkehatchie experience at some point.

Love,
Bex

P.S. Yes, "God is great and people are crazy" does sort of reference a country song. Yes, I left out the line about "beer is good" on purpose. No, I have never tried beer. Yes, I do think it's disgusting. No, I am not a fan of country music. Yes, I do like Taylor Swift anyway.

Oh Look a Post!

I am terribly sorry that I keep forgetting to post things. I finished Kristin Cashore's GRACELING around 3 this afternoon and I would love to tell you all about it but I really need to be packing, so when I get back I shall be sure to post about it. Don't let me forget. Please. (SH, here's looking at you, I know you loved the book too so remind me to post!)

This evening has been rather hectic, what with packing and making CDs for the road and finishing GRACELING and going on a Mad Search For Sunglasses So I Do Not Kill My Eyes On A Tin Roof and trying to find my camera and so on and so forth. So even though I've been meaning to post all day, it didn't happen. Until right now.

What am I packing for, you might ask?

Salkehatchie.

Salkehatchie is basically a mission trip/summer camp combination run through the Methodist church. Four of us from my church (three members of my youth group plus one of our adult leaders (who reads this sometimes, hello! *waves*)) are heading off to the Edgefield, SC area tomorrow morning. For the next week, we'll be doing home repair work for people in that area who need it, and worshiping God, and having fun, and doing all sorts of exciting things. I'll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back.

In the meantime, you get a week's break from reading about my life. (I know, you're hugely disappointed.) I'll see (er, write to) you all next Saturday! Have a lovely week!

Love,
Bex

Two to None...

So of course I now have the Jack's Mannequin song "Rescued" stuck in my head (very good song, by the way, if  you need something to listen to). "Two to none, roads that lead away from this, I'm following myself just this once..."

Anyway. I have not read any books today. I read the first thirty pages of GRACELING, which I'll tell you about when I finish it, and I skimmed through the sixth and seventh Harry Potter books. To be fair, I've done a reasonable amount of reading beyond just skimming, but mostly I'm skimming, so I'm not sure how to count that. But anyway.

Haven't done much today, folks. Harry Potter is awesome. Jack's Mannequin's pretty fantastic as well. Beyond that...I hope you're all having wonderful relaxing summer vacations (and CH, if you're reading this, I hope you're having a wonderful time in Germany, say hey to LD for me).

Gonna go read/skim some more and then get back to GRACELING. Catch you later, guys.

Love,
Bex

I Love These Two-Book Days

Yes, dearest readers, another one. I am sorry that I am so easily distracted and forget all about blogging and suchlike until it is 11:40 at night, but I am reading good books and I am sharing them with you, so you can't be too upset. Right?

The first book, which I read over twoish hours this morning, was HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. It was an absolutely wonderful book. I will confess that I figured out the plot twists about halfway through the book, but that's something I do a lot, and the great thing about this book: it doesn't matter, because it's still fun to read.

Sophie Mercer is a witch. She's always tried to use her powers to help people, but after a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, she gets sentenced to Hecate Hall, nicknamed "Hex Hall." It's basically a reform school for witches, shapeshifters, and faeries. Sophie has a hard time fitting in. The most popular, most beautiful, and most powerful witches on campus become her enemies almost immediately; the guy she likes is dating one of those witches; the only person who will be friends with her is Jenna Talbot. Jenna's also the only vampire on campus. And to top it off, Sophie knows next to nothing about being a witch. So, she doesn't really fit in.

When students start turning up drained of blood, Sophie's one friend is the only suspect. But Sophie doesn't think the attacks are Jenna's doing. She's convinced that there's a far more powerful enemy out there. And whoever the enemy is, Sophie is one of their biggest targets.

I was expecting something fun but girly, full of giggling and girliness and love spells and so on. What HEX HALL delivered was much more than that. The dangers Sophie faces and the situations presented are much deeper and darker than shallow, surface-level popularity crises. There are demons, there is torture, there are all manner of dark, lurking secrets. It's a fantastically woven plot. But the narrative style is light, fresh, sarcastic, witty - Sophie sounds just like a regular teenager. A very fun book. Definitely go read it. Also check out Rachel Hawkins' website. 

The other novel I read today was Holly Black's absolutely positively fantastic novel WHITE CAT. The first book in a proposed trilogy, WHITE CAT was full of amazing characters and intricate plots, and oh my goodness it was wonderful. Everyone should go read it, right now.

The novel is set in the United States, basically as we know it but with one major difference: everyone wears gloves. Always. That's because of the curse workers. About one in a thousand people can work magic with just a single touch. Each one has a different gift: changing emotions, messing with memories, changing dreams, giving luck, causing death, even transforming things (although that one's really rare).

Cassel Sharpe has always been the only member of his family not to be a worker. And since the age of fourteen, he has carried the burden of knowing that he killed the girl he loved. Now, Cassel is trying to blend in and forge a new life for himself at a boarding school. He can't quite stay away from the life of a con artist, but he's more normal than he's ever been before.

When he wakes up on the roof of the dorm building and starts seeing a mysterious white cat everywhere, even in his dreams, everything starts to change. Cassel is wrapped up in a mystery only he can solve, and the stakes are high: the lives of almost everyone he cares about.

Go read this book. Right now. And if you have any questions, visit Holly Black's website. You guys, the Curse Workers series (or at least, the first installment of it) is FANTASTIC. Readreadread.

Love,

Bex

P.S. It has just switched to midnight. I missed officially posting this on June 8 by one stinkin' minute. I'm counting it as the June 8 post. Probably.

Another Two-Book Post

Yes, indeed, dear internetfriends. I have once again read two books in two days. Well, mostly all today. I spent yesterday trying to remember all the chapter titles in the Harry Potter series, because I am a nerd and I found a quiz. (That was why the June 5 post ended up covering for June 6 as well - I was doing quizzes and realized it was after midnight.) But anyway, enough about me being a Potter-nerd, you know about that. I should tell you about these books. Because they're great.

The first, which I started yesterday and finished(/mostly read) today was MISTWOOD by Leah Cypess. It took me longer than I liked to get into it, but that was probably because it was eleven o'clock at night and I was being a Potter-nerd. It was excellent. I absolutely recommend it. Read it.

MISTWOOD is about Isabel. Isabel is the Shifter - the legendary creature formed from mist who can shift into anything and is sworn to protect the royal family. She is anything but human. Loyalty is all she knows. Her life does not matter. Only the safety of the king is important to her.

But all of a sudden, Isabel has emotions. After ten years alone in the Mistwood, not having served the previous king for a reason that Isabel cannot remember, she is called back to her duties by Prince Rokan, and this time, things are different. And when a disputed succession challenges everything she thought she knew about herself and her loyalties, Isabel has to determine what it really means to be the Shifter.

MISTWOOD was very well-crafted, and Isabel's character is so easy to relate to even though she's not human. The perspective was very different from the norm - we get the world through the eyes of someone not human - and it just makes you want to read more. Also, there's a lot of talk about the various relationships between people and what it means to love, but it is in no way a sappy romance novel. Like, at all. This is a great book, you guys. And if you'd like, after (or before) you read it, you can check out the author's website.

The other book I read today, over the course of a couple hours, was SCANDAL, the eleventh (yes, eleventh) book in Kate Brian's fantastic Private series. The covers are a bit of a deterrent, at least to me, because they scream designer labels and snooty upper-class relationship drama. And to be honest, there is a fair bit of that. But there is so much more.

There are mysteries. There are murder mysteries. There are stalkers (real-actual stalkers, not just "ooh I like him, let's watch him!"). There is danger, and drama, and death, and even a secret literary society. Which is the only hint I can give you about the most recent book without ruining a lot from the first several.

Start with the first one, PRIVATE, and just keep going. You'll want to. These books may not be heavy intellectual reading (they're what my dad would call "trash novels," honestly, but he says that about a lot of things), but they are fun quick reads and personally I enjoy them. I think they are spectacular. Even if I don't know all the brand names. You should read them. They're quite good. And you can even check out the awesome website.

That's all for tonight, you guys. I should probably work on my Eliza-story revamp (no pun intended) before KD eats me for leaving her hanging (even though she already knows what happens...). Catch ya later,
Bex

Two Books in One Post

Before I get to the books, I want to do two things. First, I'd like to apologize for not posting for the last couple of days; I've been busy doing birthday-ish things. Which leads me to the second point: Thank you thank you thank you to all of my wonderful friends who made my 17th birthday amazing. <3 Love y'all.

Now. Over the last 3 days, I have been doing some reading. And I have two books to share with you. I'm going to try to be brief about both of them, because I don't want to bore you with a super long post about two awesome books.

The first is THE LIGHT. It was written by D. J. MacHale, who also wrote the wonderful sci-fi/fantasy/adventure Pendragon series. THE LIGHT was a really strange book that took me a little bit to get into, but in the end, I really enjoyed it and I'll definitely read the second one when it comes out.

The book is about Marshall ("Marsh") Seaver, a quiet boy with one real friend who lives alone with his father because his mom died. He's planning a wonderful summer vacation, but then two strange things happen: Marsh's best friend Cooper disappears, and the scary comic-book super-villain that Marsh has been doodling everywhere starts appearing in real life. When it starts becoming clear that the two occurrences are related, Marsh has to team up with Cooper's sister Sydney to find out what happened to his best friend and put a stop to Gravedigger (the super-villain)'s dangerous behaviors.


I can't count the number of times I said "This book is so weird" while I was reading it, but in the end, I did think it was a good book and it definitely kept me reading. THE LIGHT was full of mystery and creepiness and adventure, and Marsh is a pretty well-developed character. It plays with your mind and makes you want to find out what happens. There are definitely a few plot holes that need to be addressed and hopefully will be later in the series, but it's definitely worth reading. You can find out more about stuff at D. J. MacHale's website. You can check out the Pendragon series too - it's very very very very awesome.

The second book I read over the last couple of days was MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore. It was such a good book. Beautifully written, like Jane Austen infused with sorcery, and it's so poetic and magical and it's a wonderful love story and it's so great.

Nimira is a dancing girl in a poor city, seeking her fortunes after her father's fall from grace. She gets the opportunity to go live with and work for a sorcerer, Mr. Hollin Parry, and sing with his automaton. But the automaton is more alive than anyone realizes, and Nimira may be the only one who can save him. MAGIC UNDER GLASS is a beautiful love story about a girl torn between "a man she does not love and a man she cannot have" (from the jacket cover) and it was so good and so sweet and oh my goodness everyone should read it because it was fantastic.

You can find out more about the author and the book at Jaclyn Dolamore's website. There is a sequel in the works, MAGIC UNDER STONE, but there isn't a release date available yet. Definitely read this book, you guys, it was awesome.

Must go. Lots of love,
Bex

P.S. This is the June 5 post. I started back at like 10 but then SP distracted me with Harry Potter trivia, so it didn't get posted until after midnight. It's the June 5th post anyway.

June Release Dates

Because I'm a total bookworm (which you must have noticed by now, if you've read this blog at all) and I think books are a bit more interesting to talk about than the intense room-cleaning I've done today, I have composed a list of June book releases. IT IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. There may very well be lots of other books coming out in June. I've only uncovered a few interesting ones so far - there are lots of May releases and July releases, but not so many in June. Here are the ones I know, though (the ones that aren't in a series are just ones I read about online and thought looked interesting):

June 5: THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER, Stephenie Meyer - Twilight novella
June 8: SWEET DECEIT, Kate Brian - Privilege series #4
June 8: DECEPTION, Lee Nichols
June 8: STRANDED, J.T. Dutton
June 8: WANTED, Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars series #8
June 22: DARK FLAME, Alyson Noel - Immortals series #4
June 22: SIGNAL FROM AFAR, Stella Lennon - Amanda Project series #2
June 29: ONLY THE GOOD SPY YOUNG, Ally Carter - Gallagher Girls series #4
June 29: KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY, Melissa de la Cruz - Blue Bloods short story collection

Love,
Bex

Another Book!

Today I read WAKE by Lisa McMann. I love summer. I have the time to read a book a day (provided I'm willing to slack off on thesis a little. Oops.) and it's fantastic.

WAKE is the first book in a trilogy, and it's been out for a couple of years. I've been meaning to read it for a while, and today I finally got around to it. It's about Janie Hannagan - a seventeen-year-old girl who gets sucked into people's dreams. Whenever someone has a dream around her, she is pulled into it as well, and there is nothing she can do to stop it. Unfortunately, people fall asleep in class all the time, so she's had more than enough of falling dreams, naked-in-public dreams, and sex dreams. But when someone in one of the scariest dreams she's ever been sucked into sees her there and recognizes in the real world that she was in his dream...that's when things start to change. There may be more to this strange power than Janie realizes.

The narrative style for WAKE was really different from what I'm used to, but it worked really well. It's told in little sections, based on what time it is at any given point in the story, and it's in present tense. In places I felt like that made the story a little distant and I wanted it to get more involved and complex, but I think that's more a personal preference thing than anything else. I did enjoy the novel, and I definitely recommend it. It's a pretty quick read - a couple of hours if you read fast - and it's good. You'll want to read it for the characters' sake, and to find out what's up with this whole dream thing.

The second and third books in the trilogy, FADE and GONE respectively, are already out, so you won't have to wait on anything. I'll definitely be looking for the second book next time I'm at the library. And you can find out more about the series and the author, Lisa McMann, at the website. Enjoy!

Love,
Bex

Beautiful Creatures

Today, like yesterday, I spent most of the day engrossed in a book. The book I was reading today was absolutely FANTASTIC. Like, I'd put the book down, walk by a mirror, and be like "...wait a second. That's me. Oh, right, this is the real world. Becky, not Lena and Ethan." It's that well-written. You can completely forget about the real world and just get lost in the characters and their story.

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, tells the story of Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes. The people of Gatlin, South Carolina are pretty much stereotypical Southerners. Their families have lived in Gatlin for years and years and years, and they still have Confederate flags and talk about the War of Northern Aggression or the War for Southern Independence, and nothing ever changes. Ethan Wate is the only one who seems to want to leave. So when Lena Duchannes moves to town and things start happening, Ethan can't help but be drawn to her.

A strange song called "Sixteen Moons" keeps popping up on Ethan's iPod. The weather goes crazy around Lena. And strangest of all, they have the same dreams - about each other. As their friendship grows and changes, they discover a mystery, a curse, and things that Ethan never could have dreamed he'd encounter in Gatlin. Danger, mystery, romance, magic, and a sense of something bigger coming... this novel has it all.

I know I rant and rave a lot about great books, but when I say a book is good, I mean it. And when I say a book is great, I mean it. And when I say a book is Seriously Fantastic and you Must Go Read It Right Now, I most definitely mean it. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES falls into that last category. The conflict, the mystery, and the danger are all wonderfully developed, and the story moves quickly (so don't let the length of the book scare you off). But the action does not at all take away from the characters. Ethan and Lena are two very complex, very real characters who really can make you forget about yourself for a few hours. I completely adored this book. Not an exaggeration. Read it, you guys, it is made of awesome. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is a beautiful book.

The sequel, BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, is slated for release on October 12, at which time I will most definitely need to acquire a copy. You can find out more about the authors and the book at their website.

I love finding super-mega-awesome books like this one.

Love,
Bex

Radiant Shadows

So we're gonna call this the Saturday, May 29 post, because I didn't realize it was this late.

Today, I did something that was very enjoyable. I woke up, ate breakfast, and then curled up in my room with the windows open and a lovely breeze, and I read a book. This book was Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows, the fourth volume in the Wicked Lovely series.

It was fantastic. And awesome. And all sorts of other lovely adjectives. I loved it.

The Wicked Lovely series is about faeries. There's the Summer Court, the Winter Court, the High Court, and the Dark Court. There's a great cast of characters, and so far none of the books have had the same main protagonist (Aislinn was key in both Wicked Lovely and Fragile Eternity, but FE was really more about Seth...but if you haven't read them, then you don't know what I'm talking about, and if you have, then this is an unnecessary explanation, so. Moving on).

Anyway, the fourth book, Radiant Shadows, is about Ani and Devlin. Ani's a halfling. Her mother was mortal, and her father is Gabriel, the leader of the Wild Hunt. Ani is different because she survives on both touch, like the Hounds of the Hunt, and emotion, like the Dark Court. And she can feed from both faeries and mortals, which is pretty much unheard of. She's different. And she's not supposed to be alive.

Enter Devlin. Devlin was supposed to kill Ani when she was an infant, but at the request of Rae, a dreamwalker, he didn't, thereby betraying the two faeries who created him. He watches Ani, and struggles to fend off emotions that as High Court, he shouldn't feel.

Ani and Devlin's lives become intertwined, and...well...all sorts of interesting things happen. Don't want to tell you too much more because then you'll think you don't need to read the book (and you know how I detest spoilers). Radiant Shadows can pretty much stand on its own, I think, but I say this having read the other three books - and you won't want to read just this one because they're all so good!

It's a faerie story with courts and rules and a Faerie realm, and no mention of Titania or Oberon, which is a pleasant change. And the characters are just spectacular. And there is so much more to all of it than battle scenes and dark romance. There is plot. There is intrigue. There is humor. There are characters who are absolutely unforgettable. And there is a whole fictional world that you will just want to get lost in. It's a spectacular series, you guys. I'm not just saying that.

The first book is called Wicked Lovely and you should all go read it now. Find out more about the series and the author at Melissa Marr's website and her blog. The fifth and final book, Darkest Mercy, is slated for release sometime next year. I hope I can wait that long.

Love,
Bex

Mini-Blog: Dodgeball

My father has just insisted that we watch the pilot episode of the old TV show Freaks and Geeks. It portrays the geeky kids as hating dodgeball.

Kid on TV: Dodgeball is a really stupid game.

Me: Yes. I agree.

Little Brother #2: You're a geek!

I don't see how that's a problem.

Love,
Bex

Make a Wish

It's 11:38 now. But a little while ago, it was 11:11. Which means, make a wish. In honor of 11:11, I have created a wish list to share with you:

-Air conditioning. My mother has decided that we don't need A/C until it's something like 95 degrees outside. It's in the low 80s right now. I don't want to waste energy or anything, but my room is disgustingly hot. Not sure why. I want it cool.

-Time to write/read without feeling like I should be doing thesis instead. Of course, that's not gonna happen until December of this year. And at that point, I'll feel like I should be doing college/financial aid applications instead of thesis instead of writing or reading. Guilt is something I'm gonna have to get used to.

-A solution to these story issues. Right now I feel like I'm writing a completely different story from my old one, but it's just a rewrite...the characters and the basic premise are the same. But it's so vastly different. Wow.

-More openness from people. I think there are a lot of people who are very accepting and other people just don't realize it. I wish that people didn't feel like they had to be afraid to say things because of what someone else was going to think or do.

-A strawberry or watermelon slushie. Some sort of cold, fruity drink. Have I mentioned it's like a boiler in here?

-To not have to worry about college yet. Because seriously? I don't know where I want to go, or what I want to do, or anything. And I am definitely not old enough for college yet. Am I? There's no way. Time is insane. Eek.

And those are my wishes for the night. Some of them are a bit more simply stated than others, some are rather more profound than others, I'll leave it up to you all to determine which are which. For now, I'm trying to figure out New Chapter One.

Love,
Bex

Space Cowboys!

So, since KD is already feeling all vindicated, I'ma give her one more outlet and credit her here too. Love you bunches K.

What, you may be wondering, is the mysterious and wonderful KD feeling so vindicated about, you might ask? The answer is: because I watched the pilot episode of the show Firefly and admitted that she was completely and utterly right to work so hard at convincing me to watch it.

Seriously, you guys. It is AMAZING.

Nathan Fillion, and space cowboys, and plastic dinosaurs, and legitimately funny jokes, and Wash (who is seriously the best character likeever), and ahhh it's fantastic. Watch it watch it watch it. ♥

Ahhh Firefly = awesome.

Also CH has convinced me to try Skype. I was under the impression that Skype was just for video chats, but apparently it's got regular IM too, so I've been figuring out Skype this afternoon. It'd probably more interesting if I had more contacts than just CH and KD, especially since KD's laptop is in the shop so she can't use Skype. Hmm.

Does anyone else out there use Skype? What do you think of it?

And what do you think of FIREFLY?! It's amazing, riiight? Yes. You know it is. XD ♥

Must get some sleep, I have to take a pre-cal final in the morning. Much love,
Bex

Drafts

So, remember that vampire story I've told you guys about?

Yeah. That one. The one that I kind of quit working on because I got so sick of "Good Vampires" (even though there are a lot of really awesome good-vampire stories still out there, such as the Vampire Academy series and the House of Night series and the Evernight series and the Blue Bloods series and a lot of stand-alone novels like Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, and yes, even Twilight - someone remind me to tell you about my thoughts on Twilight later). There are good ones out there and they are fun to read, but I was tired of being hit over the head by Good Vampires every time I walk into Barnes & Noble. I didn't want to write one.

But I missed Eliza. And Ben. And Greg.

Well, I had a brainstorm. And it involves Bad Vampires. YAY!

I lovelovelove this new idea. It's gonna do wonderful things for the character development and I think it's gonna make the story a lot more focused and a lot better in general and I'm really excited about writing it.

But it's gonna take some major restructuring and rewriting. There are going to be favorite scenes that I'm going to have to completely get rid of or at least alter significantly. I knew this was going to happen when I started writing. So so so many writers have said that you have to "murder your darlings" and be prepared to get rid of bits you like for the sake of the story. But it is sad.

At least now I'll have some deleted scenes to share if I ever get famous for it. XD

Also, the following entertaining videos were shared with me by my father. You should watch them. They're funny.

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls video
OSU Flash Mob: Don't Stop Believing

Now I'm gonna go figure out this new storyline. Because it's awesome. At least, I think so. G'night, all!

Love,
Bex

Spirit Bound

Okayokay so I know I have a limit of One Post Per Day, but consider this make-up for not having posted at all this weekend. I just finished reading Richelle Mead's newest Vampire Academy novel, SPIRIT BOUND, and I kind of had to post something.

I will warn you now that there will be a large part of this post that is gonna be highlighted because it contains SPOILERS. So please, if you haven't read the book and are planning to, don't highlight it, don't read it, just don't touch it. I don't believe in spoilers, but I have to get this out of my system.

SPIRIT BOUND picks up essentially where BLOOD PROMISE left off. Rose is still trying to decide between the two most important people in her life. Only now, it's a lot more intense. This right here is only a minorly spoilery synopsis, so if you've read the other four books and just haven't read this one yet, this bit should be fine. Very little that the book jacket won't tell you: So, Rose is on her Impossible Quest to save Dimitri from being a Strigoi, and they set Victor Dashkov free from prison to get information on how to do it. And when this quest puts Lissa in danger, Rose has to make some tough decisions about what matters. Meanwhile, there's all sorts of drama at the Court, not the least of which is Adrian Ivashkov. (Personally, I am now leaning toward Team Adrian, but I was a little that way to begin with.)

And THIS is where the mega-spoiler rant is gonna be (I'll keep it brief), so DON'T READ THIS unless you've finished SPIRIT BOUND: *ahem.* 1. I wanna know where Victor Dashkov has gotten off to. They kind of ditched that storyline halfway through. I want! 2. Tatiana = mystery woman. And now she's dead! What?! So, I wanna know who set Rose up. 3. I think I'm Team Adrian. But Dimitri...ooh this situation is tough. 4. Who set Rose up as the killer?!?! Oh wait - did I mention that already? >_>

*Ahem.* Okay. I think I'm done. (CJ, I'm calling you tomorrow. Expect it.) If you haven't read the Vampire Academy series, you really should. They're fantastic. And yes, they're vampire novels, but it's a totally different spin on vampires than TWILIGHT. If you're just as sick of "oh yes vampires are all lovely people!" as I am, fear not. Yes, there are good vampires in the VA series, but there are bad ones too, and there are no werewolves at all. (I don't mean to be hating on TWILIGHT. I just feel like it's overdone.)

Okay, I'm not making my point very well. Rose Hathaway, the VA protagonist, is possibly one of my favorite fictional characters ever. She's so much fun to read (she's gotta be fun to write - I should try a charrie like her sometime), and she's so real, and the stories have just the right blend of action and mystery and intrigue and romance and it's FANTASTIC. The first one is called VAMPIRE ACADEMY and they're by Richelle Mead, and you can find out more about her on her blog or her website.

Readreadread. ♥

And now I really am done blogging for today. Promise.

Love,
Bex

The End

So, I'd like to apologize for the conspicuous lack of posting over the weekend, but I was veeery busy. With thesis, with an AP Lang essay (seriously, why would you make an essay due the same day as a major thesis deadline, right before exams start?) and with thesis.

So this weekend marked the ends of lots of things. Probably the biggest "ending" was that of the academic portion of my junior year, except for the pre-calculus final on Thursday. Oh my gosh I am a rising senior now. How did that happen?! Seriously, freshman year was like yesterday.

The part of thesis that I have readily available teacher help for every other day for an hour and a half? That's over.

AND. LOST is over.

Last night was the series finale. And wow. I'ma not post any spoilers here because I don't know if CH has seen it yet and I know SH hasn't, but - ahhwow. A lot of people think that it really didn't work or that it sucked or that they wasted six years of their lives on this show, but personally, I liked it. I thought that lots of the ending stuff was really sweet, and I felt like the way they chose to wrap it up worked really well. I didn't like that Ben stayed outside (which is not a spoiler because you won't know what I mean anyway if you haven't seen it), but other than that, I felt like it worked.

I will warn those of you who haven't seen it, though - don't expect to have every question answered for you. There's a lot you won't find out. But they wrap up what matters.

It's kind of sad to see it over, but I think they ended it well.

Now I get to start FI - aghhh forget it, I give up on capitalizing show titles. I'ma start Firefly now. Tee hee mua ha ha.

Love,
Bex

The World According To Garp

...apparently consists of nothing but sex and death. So, the jacket-flap said it was a comedic novel about the son of a famous feminist struggling to become a writer in the post-WWII era. And I guess it was about that, so the jacket-flap didn't really lie...

Still, I wish I'd had a warning of some sort. At one point in the novel, Garp's editor, John Wolf, describes some of Garp's work as "an X-rated soap opera." I'd pretty much apply that to the novel as a whole. The plot in a nutshell: Jenny Fields rapes a dying soldier so she can have a kid without having to deal with a man in her life. Then she gets a job at a boarding school where her son, named Garp after his father, eventually goes to school. Beginning in his senior year of high school, Garp starts having sex with practically every other girl he meets. He eventually gets married and has children, but still has several affairs. People die. There's a lot of sex. More people die. His life sucks. There's some more affairs. Then he realizes that he still loves his wife, and instead of having sex with everyone he meets, he decides to start a campaign against the Ellen Jamesians and gets assassinated because they think he's an anti-feminist.

That said, I didn't hate the book. I thought there was entirely too much sex, and I disliked that it was always "f*** this" and "f*** that" when there was really no need for it, but on the whole it was okay. It was just...really tragic, and really X-rated. Not something I would have chosen to read, personally, but I know people who would probably like it if they picked it up on their own. (SP, you are one of them.) I also think I'd've enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn't been keeping me from the books I really wanted to read. School requirements do not do much to endear books to me.

Not my kind of book, perhaps, and not, in my humble opinion, one of the best books out there, but there were certainly parts that were laugh-out-loud funny and parts that were undeniably true. I'm going to put it out there as something that you might pick up if you don't have anything else to read and don't mind a tragedy - and I'm going to put a huge huge huge "X-RATED CONTENT" label on it.

Mostly, I'm just glad to be done because now I can read SPIRIT BOUND without feeling guilty. Too bad I won't see the wonderful and amazing CJ (who has agreed to lend it to me, which only adds to her fabulousness) until Monday. (C, dear, I love you muchably.)

And now, I'm going to go listen to "Awake and Alive." Again.

Love,
Bex

Awake and Alive

I have recently discovered (well, rediscovered, sort of) a song. Many thanks to KD, who introduced me to it. This song has been stuck in my head all day. Like, even while we were watching the very well-made documentary of a very horrible situation known as 9/11 in APUSH, my mind was playing this song.

(Incidentally, that documentary was just kind of...whoa. Like, everyone knows 9/11 was horrible, but it really kind of put you there. Wow.)

The song, as you may have deduced from the title of the post, is called "Awake and Alive." It's by a Christian rock band called Skillet, and it's quite awesome. My only warning is that it could get irreversibly stuck in your head. But guys, it's fantastic, and you should go listen to it right now.

"I'm awake, I'm alive, now I know what I believe inside. Right now, it's my time, I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life. Right here, right now, stand my ground and never back down. I know what I believe inside, I'm awake and I'm alive."

Ahhh such a good song. Listenlistenlisten.

Now, back to my thesis summer plan. Which would be MUCH EASIER to make if the other classes' summer assignments were on the website as I was told they would be. It wouldn't matter as much if they hadn't told me that they'd be there.

I mean, I'm not annoyed about this at all, nope.

Anyway. Going now. G'night, y'all.
Love,
Bex

Lack of Books

I haven't finished Garp yet.

Once I finish it, I will tell you about it.

I miss blogging about books.

But I haven't been reading anything. Except Garp. And various thesis sources. Mostly I've been avoiding reading Garp. And sleeping. And playing Paper Mario with my little brother. Oops.

Richelle Mead's new Vampire Academy book, SPIRIT BOUND, came out yesterday. I really want to read it.

Stupid Garp.

Love,
Bex

Mini-Post, Re: LOST

Someone please tell me that you watched tonight's episode maybe please?

And I wanna know where Miles is. And Jack - and Jacob - and Desmond - and Ben - and I really need to shut up because two of the people actually read this blog I know have not seen it yet (AF and CH: love you guys...). But erk. Quiero hablar con alguien sobre el programa! (Translation: I wanna talk to somebody about the show!)

Series Finale. This Sunday. 7pm. I bet it'll be right smack in the middle of Mom's birthday dinner. If I miss it, I might cry.

Love,
Bex

Spies...and Summer

The CASTLE Season 2 Finale was tonight. There were spies. There was a real-actual put-together plot for the murder case. There were authors (including James Patterson). There was comedy. There was romantic tension. There was...

...an ending that did not make me happy. I would like Season 3 now, please. September seems so far away...

...and then I think about the "summer plan" I made today for thesis (due, signed by my advisor, on Monday, along with an updated draft of my introduction, lit review, methodology, and anticipated findings), and realize that September's not so far away after all. Especially when you consider how much I'm doing this summer.

Up until now, summer was about the only time I could read and not feel guilty. Bye-bye, guiltless summer pleasure reading...

I thought this wasn't supposed to be an issue until we got to The Real World that school is always trying to prepare us for. I'm not out of high school yet! It's not time for The Real World!

Or college apps. Or possibly retaking the SAT. Or maybe taking the ACT. Or thinking about summer jobs. Or taking my driver's test. Or thinking about how to fund a college education. Or something like a car.

Ahhhhh I am being attacked by The Real World and Growing Up.

I have gotten rather sidetracked from CASTLE, it seems. You should watch it because it is awesome and I love it and I am very sad that it is gone until late September. *sigh* I shall miss you, Richard Castle and Kate Beckett...

Okay, I'm weird. And the second-to-last episode of LOST is tomorrow night as well. More eekness.

I'ma start rambling in a second, so I'll take this opportunity to bid the internet farewell for the night and maybe get some reading done before I go to bed. (School reading, of course. Not one of the Very Tempting Library Books on my floor. Sigh.)

Really shutting up now. Good night! Love,
Bex

Weekend Sans Internet

Apologies for the lack of posting, but this is really the first time I've been online all weekend. I know I know - me, all weekend, with no internet? Believe it or not, it can (and does) happen.

So, you may ask, have I suddenly gotten a life?

The answer, unfortunately, is "no." I slept. And then I took a nap. And then I played Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Paper Mario with my brother, which is the first time I've been on the Wii in a long time. And today was church, nap, youth group, blog post. Since, you know, I'm sure you're all very interested in a play-by-play of my weekend.

Seriously though, it was kind of nice going a long time without the internet. I did other things. I realized that at least one of my brothers is actually still fun to hang out with. I caught up on some sleep (ish). Didn't do much reading, although I need to - I have 600 pages to get through in the next week, and it's not a Harry Potter 600 pages, it's a Garp 600 pages, so it'll take longer. Didn't do much writing, either - one of the side effects of not being on the computer. Still, I feel like it was a good weekend. Relaxation is something that I've kind of been missing out on lately.

Try it sometime. Just shut off your computer and don't worry about it for a day or two. I bet you'll feel better.

Love,
Bex

Book Update

So, I will probably maybe finish GONE WITH THE WIND at some point, but 139 pages a day was going to be ridiculous. I have talked to my English teacher and I have switched to a long but not nearly as long book called THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP.

So far, it's a little weird. Read: a lot weird. It reminds me a little of Catch-22 but less...paradoxical. It's interesting enough to keep me reading, anyway. Which is good since I have to write an essay about it by next Monday.

I hope I finish before that, seeing as just about everything that I put on hold at the library back before they had it came in at the same time. So I have eight books lined up to read once I finish this one.

Love,
Bex

Pages and Pages and Pages

Sooo I'm reading GONE WITH THE WIND for my AP Lang class...turns out this monster of a novel is 1448 pages long.

And the first 62 pages are spent on Scarlett whining about the fact that Ashley Wilkes isn't marrying her, and explaining that Gerald O'Hara came over from Ireland.

I have another 1386 pages to get through by May 24th, because that's the day my style analysis essay about the book is due. In that time, I have to generate lots of progress on thesis for a major thesis deadline also on May 24th, the series finale of LOST airs, the season finale of CASTLE airs, I have to study for a pre-calculus exam, I take the End-Of-Course test for US History, we celebrate my mom's birthday, there's a youth group lock-in at my church, and my library books apparently sit on my bedroom floor begging me to read them even though I can't because otherwise I'll never get through GONE WITH THE WIND.

I apologize for whining. It's just that I have a stack of books that I really want to read, and I have to spend the next ten days reading this book and writing an essay about it.

Oh gosh...ten days...1386 pages...that's about 139 pages each day, assuming that I don't even start the essay until the night before it's due.

Maybe I should see if I can switch to a different book.

G'night, all. Love,
Bex

Do I Read Too Much?

The answer is a definite "maybe." I finished another book today, guys. Incidentally, it's one that I bought about a week ago for my dear friend SH's birthday (even though her birthday was back in April. Love you, S) and then borrowed when she shoved it into my hands and said "Read this." (Okay, I asked.)

It's called THE IRON KING and you should read it if you are even remotely interested in faerie tales. (Not fairy tales. I'm not talking Rumplestiltskin or Sleeping Beauty. I mean Mab and Oberon and Titania and all that. Faeries with an e.)

THE IRON KING is about Meghan Chase. On the day before her sixteenth birthday, she is thrust into the world of faerie when her four-year-old brother is replaced by a changeling. Meghan sets out to rescue Ethan, but she finds more than she bargained for in the faeryland, including a heritage she never knew she had.

Okay, so that summary was crap. But it's more than the back of the book told me, I had to discover the rest for myself, and you will too. You guys, it was awesome. Read it.

At first I was a little wary of another faerie story that was dropping names like Mab and Oberon and Titania and Puck. Something like this: "Really, you guys? Seelie and Unseelie Courts, changelings replacing children, and Puck as the merry prankster? What next, she's the faerie princess? I have heard this before." But then there were the Iron Fey. I'd never heard of those before. And the characters. Like Ash. And Puck. And Grimalkin. Oh my goodness, Grimalkin. Teehee. "I am a cat." Julie Kagawa does an excellent job of taking familiar mythology and twisting it to make it her own and mixing it with her own creations. Yes, there's stuff in here you'll recognize if you've read any faerie stories, but there's also stuff that's new and original. Which is a very nice change these days.

I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, THE IRON DAUGHER, due out this fall according to the author's website. You can also check out her blog. I will be reserving judgment on the romantic interests from the series until then. Maybe. No comment on whose team I'm on right now.

Ah, see, there I go talking about romance. Yes, there's an element of it, but guys - THE IRON KING has a PLOT. It is NOT a romance novel. You're not gonna find anything that has no romance whatsoever. This does a nice job of adding PLOT.

So, in conclusion, you should read this book, because it's awesome.

Love,
Bex

Announcements

First of all: Tenth Avenue North's new album The Light Meets the Darkness is out today. Check it out on their website or on iTunes (or Napster, or wherever it is you buy your music). It's awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. Seriously you guys. I adore that band.

Also: my final AP exam of this year is tomorrow morning. AP Lang. To all of you out there who are taking that AP exam or another one, good luck! And if you've already taken one/some, I wish you luck anyway, and I'll use my time turner to send it back in time for you?

AND(!), as if the new Tenth Ave. North CD wasn't awesome enough, Maggie Stiefvater, author of SHIVER, has posted a video trailer for the upcoming sequel, LINGER:



Very very cool, no? AND(!) she's running a contest on her website. You can win lots of cool things. You should go check it out. (The link's for her blog, not the specific post, because I copy-pasted the wrong thing and I'm too lazy to go back and change it, but the blog is awesome too.) I can say this, because I've read an ARC of LINGER: It is awesome. Maggie Stiefvater is awesome.

I think that's it in the way of announcements right now. New music! AP exams! AND a totally awesome book trailer and contest thingy! Gonna go watch LOST now. Love to you all,
Bex

It's Not Monday Yet

One of my bestest friends turns 17 today. Happy birthday, KD! I love you! ♥

And speaking of "happy," I'm almost done watching the second episode of ABC's new show, HAPPY TOWN. It's kind of weird, but I like it. Mystery and intrigue and murder and creepiness...very awesome. Check it out.

I should be doing work right now. I should be working on the illustrations for my children's book for creative writing, or maybe my precal homework, or I should be updating my thesis paper because I have a long way to go before the deadline two weeks from tomorrow and my mentor still hasn't emailed me back. Mostly I should be working on the children's book, because it's barely started and I have to turn in a finished, bound book on Tuesday.

(Incidentally, I think requiring the creation - not just the writing but the creation - of a children's book is kind of a stupid assignment. Some of us like our stories a bit too mature for five-year-olds. Some of us cannot draw worth beans. Some of us would rather be writing novels about spies than little kids' stories. Sure, I love reading children's books and I love playing with kids and I would never give anything inappropriate to a little kid, but I don't want to write a children's book. I want to write about Chelsey and Gavin and Matt.)

But anyway, my point was that I really need to be working, and I'm not. And I can work on all of that stuff after school tomorrow, but I have 3 different places to go after school tomorrow (one of which is Staples, where I will bind my children's book). Agh. Mondays. But today is not Monday. Not yet.

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow....right? Today's for worrying about it. >.<

In case you hadn't noticed, that was me acknowledging that my habit of procrastinating and worrying is a BAD IDEA. Don't try it. Please. Trust me, it does not work out well.

Random side note before I go: If you have not ever read the webcomic xkcd, you should. Go go go.

Love,
Bex

Your Body Is Here, But Not Your Soul...

I'd like to apologize for my absence over the last couple of days. What with the stress of the AP U.S. History exam (which I think went reasonably well, if you're interested) and the Combined-Late-Birthday-Party-for-SH-and-Early-Birthday-Party-for-KD-and-No-More-APUSH Party of Awesome at KD's this weekend, blogging has been not so much at the forefront of my mind.

But hopefully I can make it up to you by sharing an awesome book. It's called THE DEVOURING, it's by Simon Holt, and I don't recommend reading it after dark if you scare easily.

Regina "Reggie" Halloway is a huge fan of horror stories. Stephen King to Edgar Allen Poe, she's read it all and she loves it all. So for Reggie and her best friend Aaron, the journal about the Vours is nothing unusual. They scare themselves with chilling stories of demonic beings who possess those who are most afraid on Sorry Night - the winter solstice - and then confront their own worst fears in a joking effort to tempt the Vours to them.

But the next day, Reggie's little brother Henry starts acting weird, pulling the hair off his favorite teddy bear, lying to their father, playing with fire and avoiding the snow. When Aaron looks into Henry's eyes and sees his darkest fears, Reggie and Aaron begin to suspect that the Vours may be all too real - and that one of them may be possessing Henry. The problem? The woman who wrote the journal didn't know how to get rid of them.

I'll admit it took me a little while to get into the story, but once I did, I did not want to put the book down. It was very very good, and I will definitely be looking for the sequel (SOULSTICE) at the library as soon as I get the chance. I would absolutely recommend THE DEVOURING - but if you tend to freak yourself out easily, be careful with it. I didn't think it was that bad on the "scary" scale, but then again, I don't scare easily, so I dunno. I really really enjoyed it and I think you should go read it. :) Find out more at the series website.

I do think it would make for an excellent horror film. Not a slasher movie, because those are stupid and this is totally NOT like that. But a genuine scary movie that you wouldn't want to watch alone after dark? Oh yes. Definitely. As SH described it, I made the Becky-Happy-Writer-Pose when I mentioned the idea, so I see a potential adaptation in the works. XD Seriously, guys, it was a GOOD BOOK. You should read it.

Love,
Bex