Vicarious

Many of you know that I am in love with books.  Not only the stories, but the actual books themselves.  I love leafing through the pages of a new book, smelling it, and hearing the soft cracking when the cover of a brand new hard back is being opened for the first time.  Never do I allow my books to get wet in the stormy weather, and I never read in the bathtub because I'm terrified that I will drop the book in and it will forever be ruined.  So, because I treasure my books so much, I also want to make sure the stories are worth my money.  I will research a book before I ever purchase it.  If I know nothing about it, I will read the synopsis, editorial reviews, customer reviews, and put it on my wish list for a while until I'm sure it's a book I want.  I stew and stew about a book for a ridiculous amount of time before it's ever purchased.

Right now all of you probably think that I'm a total nerd, and I'd have to agree with you.  I never understood why I do this.  I understand that it's important to use money for good things and not buy something that I don't even want.  Originally, I thought this was why I research for so long.  But, books are the one thing that I continue to purchase even when I don't have a steady stream of income.  So, obviously, frugality is not the reason.

It occurred to me the other day, just how much I live my life through fiction.  So, if I live my life through every book I happen to be reading at that particular time, it's important that I live my life right, don't you think?  In essence, I'm saying that I not only research the stories I want to read, but I research the life I want to live.  The good news in all of this is I'm rarely disappointed with the books I buy.  Young adult literature has so many excellent stories with turmoil, love troubles, joy, and usually happy endings.  I think that's maybe the reason I read so many of them.

In short, I have a love affair with the written word, and I'm glad to share that love with all of you!
Happy Reading!

Scorching!

Whew!  I really liked this book.  It was so exciting, entertaining, and I hardly had a moment to take a breath.  This book was hard to put down.  I love those books where you literally can feel yourself holding your breath right along with the characters. 
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner is the second book in the Maze Runner series.  (If you haven't read the Maze Runner you can refer to one of my very first book posts.)  Thomas finds himself in another trial, only this time it's not a maze and the task at hand seems easier than the first.  But, when WICKED is involved, nothing is ever easy.  He finds himself in worse situations than he could have imagined for himself, all the while still trying to remember why all of this is happening and what he had to do with it.  His memories are starting to come back, but what do they mean?  Like it says on the back cover, "the maze was only the beginning."
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the first and I really can't wait until the last one comes out in November.   This is one of the most unique stories I've ever read and one of those that keeps you reading to find out how it can possibly all play out.  I guess that's the curse of the main character whose memory has been erased.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Happy reading!

Didn't Love It

I recently had to read Papa Hemingway for my Biographical writing class and I must admit that I didn't love it.  There were some redeeming qualities and some interesting moments, but overall, it didn't do it for me.  The biggest problem I saw was that the writing didn't match that of Hemingway.  Ernest had a very interesting life and that show by all the places he lived and all the books he wrote and the people he knew, but the writing felt stiff to me.  I realize that the book was written in the 50s and that can account for some of the stiffness but, apparently Hotchner's writing style hasn't really transcended time.  There were multiple people in my class that felt this way.  It's not that the book was bad because it wasn't, it just didn't capture my attention.

I Don't Get It

I have yet to understand why it's so complicated for employers to work with students.  This is the second time I've been told that "it's just not working."  It wasn't said in exactly those same words this time, but it was essentially the same.  Because I refuse to dwell on the fact that I've lost my job again because I'm a faithful student and school will come first until I'm done, I'm not going to talk any more about my job.  Instead, I'm going to focus on the fact that now I have a lot of time to get some reading and writing done.  And, honestly, those are the areas of my life that I seem to be succeeding in.
Right now I'm a supplemental instructor for one of my professors in the technical writing department and I never expected that I would get such an amazing experience.  Apparently someone has seen that I can do something that is worth while and I get great data to put on my resume.  I think someone's just trying to tell me something.  And I think that something is the same something that I thought when I lost my job the last time.  "You need to write."  So, that's what I'm going to do with this free time I've got.  I'm going to write!
For all of you out there to suffer with the pressures of trying to be a good student and then getting no money to be one... I dedicate this post to you.  Sometimes life sucks, but it will be sweet in the end.  I know that an education is worth more than most of the jobs we have trying to earn one and I hope the best for all of you. 

Be Ugly, Not a Bubble Head

The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld

Yesterday, my friend, Selina, asked if I had read the Uglies series.  Because I have and really enjoyed them, I thought I would do a post about them.  I read this series (all three books) in five days.  (Notice there are four.)  They were an entirely new twist on the dystopian world.

In this series everyone starts out "Ugly."  This is when everyone goes to school and learns about life and about the society they need to know... or, of course, what governmental powers want everyone to know about life and society.  I believe it's the age of 16 that each person becomes "Pretty" and they get to move to the house where everyone has a good time and everyone is "Pretty."  Never again do they have to associate with the little "Uglies."

Tally can't wait to become pretty and has watched many of her friends and people older than her turn pretty.  Though it's a series of plastic surgeries, she can't wait.  As an "Ugly" (meaning she's simply natural and real) she's treated as more of an outcast than the "pretties" seem to be treated.  One day she meets a girl named Shay.  She has an entirely new outlook on life and may be the only person Tally knows who doesn't want to be pretty.  Is "pretty" all it's supposed to be?  or are there secrets and mysteries she must solve before she can decide what she really wants?

You might notice that there are four books rather than the three I talked about above.  Extras is also good but it's about a different character.  It's the same type of society but it takes place on the other side of the globe.  I read it about a year later and understood everything just fine.  And check out the beautiful new cover art for Specials and Extras!


This is a fun series and one that I tend to think about quite often.  It made me think about what real beauty really is and the pressures of "doing what's right."  Hope you enjoy!  Happy reading!

Biographically Speaking

So, I signed up for a biographical writing class this semester because I'm primarily a fiction writer and love stories about people and those who overcome their struggles and what not.  I thought biographical writing would be the best way to continue on about learning the "realness" of people and that would in turn help me craft fictional characters.  I don't know how anyone does it!  Biographical writing is hard.  The pressure to find the very essence of an actual person is stressful.  Fiction writing is so much easier because you're actually creating the person in your mind and then letting it flow out onto the page.  In biographical writing the person is already created, and it's not someone that you created.  You might know their thoughts and dreams and feelings but to put those on a page in your words instead of theirs is not as easy as I thought it would be.  Should've taken poetry.

Personal Narrative

I started out with this personal narrative for my biographical writing class and I was quite happy with the introduction.  As it went on it really fell flat.  Unfortunately, I found myself unable to keep up with the style and I'm not quite sure why.  Nevertheless, I've decided to share a little piece of it here with you.

I remember brown, orange, wet.  I remember the dirt, the mud on their feet and under their nails.  Their dark skin and children without shoes.  The tarp that was blue, rabbits and chickens meant for dinner.  I still hear the language I didn’t understand and the words that I did.  Our white skin we thought was tan dipping into the muddy wet that would make a brick.  Clumsy pale hands attempting to smooth the mold and the brown steady fingers quick to do the work.  The work we thought would be easy.  I remember my hesitation, my fear, my badge that said I was there to help.  Trying to hide my tears when only two of us squeezed into the hut meant for four.  Averting my eyes when I realized I was staring.  I remember the village I saw later: square, brown, dry.

 

Have I Told You How Much I Love This Book?

My mom and I hosted our book club meeting this month and of course I wanted to talk about a young adult novel because, as you all know, I love them!  It was a great meeting with good food and I think we had a pretty good discussion.  Any chance I get to talk about books is a good time for me.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about one of my very favorite books.  The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.  I read this book about three years ago and loved it.  It's such a great book with a very human main character to overcomes her own personal challenges and in finds that her greatest triumph comes by staying true to herself.  I had the opportunity to read, nay, devour, this book again thanks to our book club.  I believe I loved it even more the second time. 
Not only is it a great book but the author is another LDS woman who has made it in the writing world and written a story that is absolutely worth reading.  Thank you Shannon!
I highly recommend this book.  As my mom says, "I think every girl should read this book."  And I would have to agree.

Matched

In the midst of all the writing I've been doing I've also been reading quite a bit.  I just finished Matched by Ally Condie.  I was first drawn to this book by a reader on Shelfari.  She said she simply couldn't wait for this book because she loves Ally Condie.  I couldn't remember having heard about her.  The cover is beautiful and intriguing and the synopsis were enough to make me buy the book. 
This book is about a dystopian society (yeah, I know, Mal read another dystopian book) that is unlike any other I've read.  The people in this society are matched with their significant other when they are 16 and court each other until they are able to marry at the age of 21.  Everything goes perfectly until the main character, Cassia, finds out that maybe her match was not the only person that she could be matched with.  She begins to discover how to think for herself and realizes that "they" might not always know what's best for everyone.
It was a good book, and of course the first in a series that I will be anxiously awaiting to read the next.  More than anything I'm so excited that Ally Condie is another LDS writer who has written a great book.  Another woman who is making it with a great book that is worth reading without all the junk that's in today's world.

This semester started out as a rather depressing one.  I thought I was going to get all this time to write over the Christmas break and I don't think I wrote more than a sticky note's worth.  However, this semester I've actually had some inspiration.  Thanks to Jernae, I decided that I would just start writing a scene that I've been wanting to write.  So, that's what I did.  In the process I've had another realization: I'm a slow writer.  I've tried to forget about my perfectionism while I write so I could simply get the story on paper and tweak later.  But, I always find myself thinking too carefully about every word.  I've just decided that's going to have to be okay for now.  Someday I will learn to write faster.  Because that piece is still in progress I'm not going to post anything about it yet.  Not to worry though, here's the prologue.  :)

Prologue

Isaac walked into the dark room where his mother stood in front of a large, glass projection screen.  She stood with her arms folded and hip cocked to one side.  The heels on her four-inch stilettos looked more like knives than shoes, but people seemed to pay more attention to her fitted lab coat than what she wore on her feet.    By her stance, he knew that she had discovered something.

Images and videos of a young woman illuminated the screen.  She couldn’t have been more than seventeen.  She and another boy with the same emerald eyes and dark hair laughed while they played cards.  In another she was young and had been crying.  One image showed her gazing out at something he couldn’t see.  Her eyes concentrated on something distant, while the curve of her jaw was relaxed.

On a video screen labeled September 19, 2057, today’s date, she was running through a forest.  The forest looked wet and challenging, but her slender frame gracefully moved between the trees, avoiding branches and rocks.  Her eyes always looked forward in unwavering determination.

He stood next to his mother to watch the screen more closely.  “Are you sure she’s the one?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, still looking at the screen.

“But how can you be sure?” 

“I suppose there’s really no way to tell.”  Still, somehow he knew that she’d found the right girl.

She’s beautiful, he thought.  “Who is she?”

“She’s the one that will try to overthrow us.  We must make sure that she succeeds.”

“Succeeds?”

“Isaac,” his mother said condescendingly, “we must make her think that she will succeed.”

“What do you want me for?”

She turned to look at him directly.  Her eyes flashed as a smile crept up the side of her face.  “We have a mission for you.”

The Circus

A couple of days ago I finished reading Water For Elephants.  I must say that I quite enjoyed it.  It gives the reader and inside view of what a circus was really like in the 1930s.  The story was kind of told in an almost fairytale-like way.  It switches back and forth between the 90 (or 93) and 23 year old versions of the main character and you get his days when he hopped aboard the circus train contrasting with the circus coming to town while he sits in a nearby nursing home.
While I liked this book there were a few things that I didn't like so well.  First, as Natalie mentioned, there were several sexual references or scenes that I wish weren't there.  Second, in the main character's older years when he's 90 (or 93) he looks back on the circus with such fondness and he can't wait to see this circus that's come to town, but his days in the circus were not happy.  I didn't understand why he would want to go back so badly.  He obviously grew more fond of it later, but that's not the happy part that this book is about.
I will say that I liked this book well enough that I'm excited for the movie to come out.  I would recommend it, but with a work of caution because of a few scenes of "adult content."

Great Book!

I've only just started reading Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, but so far it is excellent!  The writing is so fantastic and I can't wait to read more.  There will, of course, be more about this book later.  :)

Meh... Could've Been Better

I finally finished Charlie St. Cloud.  In all honesty it started slow and I had trouble diving into it at first.  While I was really searching for some easy brain candy to dive into for this Christmas break I think I was really looking for something that took me out of life for a while and a book that was impossible to put down.  That's not quite what I got out of this book... at first.  Yesterday, at work, I took the book with me and if I had time, I was going to read it.  Turns out I had a lot of time and it got to the point where I didn't want to put the book down.  I had to find out what was going to happen.  So, I must say the book was quite enjoyable and a good love story.  It was unique and original.  I don't think I've read anything else like it.
The biggest reason I had trouble getting into this book was because the author simply told the story he didn't show it.  I kept waiting to experience what the character was and it never really got there.  I liked the characters and the story, the writing just seemed to lack.  It started out great and interesting and then sort of died off.  During the climax the tension increased and I think that's really the reason the book was enjoyable to read.  If you are looking for a unique love story that you are able to walk away from on occasion, this is good brain candy for you.
Now, I think I need to go watch the movie!

I always knew dystopia was scary but...

This book was crazy!  I really don't know how Margaret Atwood imagined this one up, but it's certainly original.  Even though it was written about 20 years ago it still makes perfect sense today and actually still felt very modern.  The Handmaid's Tale is the story of a woman living in a world where everything has been changed.  She's one of the first generation in this society and therefore still knows how to read and write even though these things are forbidden for women.  In this world women are used specifically to replenish the earth.  Men are either in charge of a household of women dedicated to giving he and his wife a child or they are sent to the armed forces never to love a woman.  It's a society of duty.  Pleasure is essentially forbidden, but what happens when the people are smarter than government gives them credit for?

The story was not only original, but the writing was spectacular.  If the story doesn't draw you in the writing will.  Atwood writes the way the main character is really thinking and you, as the reader, can't help but picture everything she sees with brilliant clarity.  Disclaimer: Because this story is largely based on the fact that the main character is used only for her fertile organs, there are scenes that can be potentially disturbing to some readers.  They are not long, it's the exactness of the language that may be disturbing.

My advisor had a list of books to read for my writer's workshop class.  I had to choose one that was most like the style I read and write.  Because I work a lot with dystopia (the opposite of utopia, for those of you who don't know) this book was the one I wanted to read.  It really made me think a lot about the factors in an unstable society and it really made me think about my own writing.  I've found another author whose writing I can aspire to.

Torment

I finally got the chance to read Torment by Lauren Kate.  (it seems like I'm saying "finally got to read" a lot lately.)  It was pretty good and I'd say it was a worthy sequel of Fallen.  I dove right in and just read and read and enjoyed it the whole way through.  One thing that has always bothered me in books like these is the fact that the simple actions of honesty and forgiveness are sometimes the best way to solve a problem with someone you love.  That was really the only problem I had with this book is that the main character, Luce, is tormented by the fact that she doesn't know all the answers because the love of her life can't tell her.  She, like many other women and girls I know, has a tendency to blame everything on the man she loves instead of just trusting him and what he's doing.  However, that's the torment she feels and I can't blame her for how she feels.  She just does things different than I would... or hope that I would.  That aside, I still liked this book and if you are in the mood for an entertaining love story I recommend this series.  There were some very unique and original ideas that I thoroughly enjoyed in this book as well, but you're gonna have to read it to know what they are.