tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77183951525691305062024-03-05T10:40:29.849-08:00Heart is in the Write PlaceA place to share writing tips, reading lists, suggestions for starting creative writing groups,
and anything else reading or writing related.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-22606577461112927382012-07-30T07:10:00.001-07:002012-07-30T07:10:22.861-07:00Bucket Lists<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3329750956/" target="_blank"><img alt="Pikes Peak, part of the Rocky Mountains by Beverly & Pack, on Flickr" border="0" height="213" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3546/3329750956_3062a473d7_m.jpg" title="Pikes Peak, part of the Rocky Mountains by Beverly & Pack, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/walkadog/" target="_blank"> Beverly & Pack</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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For today I'm going to go a little off topic and ask if anyone has/has ever made a bucket list? The two books I just finished reading (Gretchen Rubin's <i>The Happiness Project </i>and Noelle Hancock's <i>My Year with Eleanor</i>) are bucket list esque type memoirs and although I created my own bucket list at the start of summer, these books have inspired me to go even further with it.<br />
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So two questions for today: Do you have a bucket list? and Has a book ever inspired you to try something new/expand a project, etc?<br />
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Happy Monday readers and thank you for making this blog what it is becoming each day :)<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/56194068@N04/6782070894/" target="_blank"><img alt="Two ships passing in the..sunset. by rseidel3, on Flickr" border="0" height="212" src="http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7046/6782070894_cbafd23b36_m.jpg" title="Two ships passing in the..sunset. by rseidel3, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/56194068@N04/" target="_blank"> rseidel3</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-41415494767205744642012-07-29T07:48:00.001-07:002012-07-29T07:51:54.074-07:00Good Rereads!<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/4315232085/" target="_blank"><img alt="The sunset factory by kevin dooley, on Flickr" border="0" height="320" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2800/4315232085_7d1eb53966_m.jpg" title="The sunset factory by kevin dooley, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/pagedooley/" target="_blank"> kevin dooley</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up
at 2am clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and
hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back
to you. She'll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a
while, they always are. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You
deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable." - Rosemarie Urquico <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I love that quote. I know that online it's typically attributed to Robert Pattinson and I secretly hoped it was said by him because that would be so adorable, but after doing some digging I found that it was actually written by Rosemarie Urquico and the full version can be found here: </span><a href="http://melodygodfred.com/2011/03/01/why-you-should-date-a-girl-who-reads/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">http://melodygodfred.com/2011/03/01/why-you-should-date-a-girl-who-reads/ </span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Either way, it's just such a shareable quote and I hope you enjoy! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For today I want to ask my readers, what are some of the books you've reread (whether it's twice, several times, or twenty times)?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've already included these two books in a post, but I adore them both and currently just reread/am rereading Gretchen Rubin's </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Happiness Project </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">and Noelle Hancock's </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My Year with Eleanor</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. They are two bucket list esque/live-your-life-to-the-fullest (especially </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My Year with Eleanor</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">) books, which are right up my alley and ideal for summer. Please check these out if you haven't already! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So tell me dear readers, what are the best books to cozy up with and reread on this rainy Sunday (or at least it's rainy here)? </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And on a side note, we've reached fifty followers, a halfway mark! If you enjoy some of these posts, I'd love if you followed this blog at the end of the page or told a friend about it! Happy reading! </span></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-60849848305250652392012-07-27T07:52:00.001-07:002012-07-27T07:52:22.823-07:00Short Stories<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/3667466363/" target="_blank"><img alt="first day of summer by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="240" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3667466363_e05ef76057_m.jpg" title="first day of summer by paul bica, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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Before I start this post, I have to ask, did anyone notice the adorable background on Google today? Anyways, today I'd like to stray off the path of books for a moment to talk about some classic short stories. Unfortunately, I read a piece about how short stories are becoming less and less popular (I believe it was an essay written by Stephen King), but if you want a break from reading novels they're definitely something to take a look at. There's some wonderful books out there that house the best short stories, etc. So if you looking for a few quick reads take a look at some of these:<br />
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"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe - Yes, this story is incredibly sick as so many of Poe's stories are, but it's interesting and kept me intrigued. I promise I'm not some weirdo who craves morbid stories, but this story is a classic of Poe's, so I figured I'd share it. The story is narrated by an alcoholic (so we don't know how reliable the narrator is), but according to his story he used to love animals, but becomes so aggravated by his first cat that he takes his eye out, then hangs him. His wife still loves animals and tries to protect them. Some supernatural occurrences after the first cat is gone, including a second cat the narrator finds that looks very similar to his first cat Pluto. At first the narrator likes this cat, but notices this cat's fur is the exact shape of a noose and becomes further disconcerted and bothered by the cat. He plans to kill this cat with an ax, but is so angered by his wife trying to protect the cat that he kills her with the ax instead and hides the body in his walls. The police come and don't find anything, but the narrator opens his mouth and says something about the basement walls. When he taps on the walls, he discovers the second cat was trapped in there with his wife because it makes a tortured meowing sound.<br />
Maybe it was my hilarious professor who made me really enjoy this story with his comments such as "A little wife beating, I don't see what's wrong with that," or "Maybe the bitch deserved it." He was kidding of course, so please don't take offense!<br />
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"Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Dexter Green works on a golf course and meets a spoiled young girl named Judy who is with her nurse. Dexter quits and later goes to college in the East. Dexter then goes on to own a chain of laundries. He is invited back to the golf course he used to work at and there, Miss. Jones (the same girl who was at the golf course years ago) strikes a man in the stomach with her golf ball, but wishes to keep playing. Luckily many of the men find her beautiful. Dexter meets her again on the lake where she leaves her date on a motorboat and asks Dexter to help her water ski. Dexter has his first date with Judy, who is very wealthy, on her porch and they continue dating, but Judy dates many other men as well. When he becomes engaged to another woman, Irene, Judy tells him he should marry her instead. But within the month she ditches him and he's left with nothing. After he comes back from WWI he learns Judy married his friend, but her husband cheats on her and she isn't very attractive anymore. Dexter is deeply hurt because his dreams of her are gone.<br />
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"The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Earnest Hemingway - Francis Macomber goes on a safari with his wife. However, she is embarrassed when their tour guide has to take over because Francis was too afraid of shooting a lion and ran away. She ignores him for much of the trip and winds up sleeping with the tour guide. Francis tells her to stop her "bitchery" and admits that the reason they stay together is because his wife is beautiful and he is wealthy/it is too late for her to find someone better. After this act with the tour guide however, Francis gains his masculinity back and does an excellent job on the next day of hunting. His wife seems very disconcerted by this new confidence because before, she had him whipped. When it appears an animal is about to attack her husband, she shoots, but winds up shooting her husband Francis in the head. The tour guide thinks she did this deliberately because she couldn't handle his newfound courage, but it is left open to the reader whether she killed him or saved him.<br />
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What are some of your favorite short stories?<br />
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Also, one more follower and we've reached fifty followers (the halfway mark to getting some guest posts and contests on here!) Thank you readers!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/3996683276/" target="_blank"><img alt="sunset at peggy’s cove by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="240" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2526/3996683276_d1b463577e_m.jpg" title="sunset at peggy’s cove by paul bica, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-37262883063279996762012-07-26T07:36:00.001-07:002012-07-27T07:05:50.658-07:00Lost and Found<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy Thursday readers! Hope you're getting ready for weekend plans or some relaxation time. Today I'll be teaching another creative writing workshop for children at a local library so I'm looking forward to that, but I figured I'd share another book with you before I left. I read this one awhile ago, but really enjoyed it so I'll give you a synopsis and some thoughts.<br />
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<i>Lost and Found </i>by Carolyn Parkhurst - The book follows seven pairs of contestants who decide to go on a reality television show called <i>Lost and Found</i>. Some of the contestants include Cassie and Laura (a mother and daughter), a religious couple, two business partners, two flight attendants, two old child stars, etc. The television show chose particular contestants because they wanted people whose lives can unravel on screen. The book rotates between points of view, but Cassie knows that the show has chosen her because of a secret she holds that the producers hope will be revealed to get more views.<br />
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There is a good description of the book here: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Found-Sound-Library-Carolyn-Parkhurst/dp/0792740629">http://www.amazon.com/Found-Sound-Library-Carolyn-Parkhurst/dp/0792740629</a><br />
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Personally, I really liked this book because of the shifting points of view and its interesting setting in which characters were asked to travel the globe. It was like watching reality t.v., only so much more real because I was given a glimpse at how the characters were actually feeling, unlike most reality television. I'd definitely recommend this if you're looking for an exciting new read.<br />
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What are some books you've read a long time ago, but really enjoyed?<br />
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I'm so thrilled that we're almost halfway to reaching 100 followers. If you like some of these posts please feel free to follow this blog at the end of the page or tell a friend about it! Happy reading!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5626316429/" target="_blank"><img alt="the journey home by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="240" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/5626316429_a72073631d_m.jpg" title="the journey home by paul bica, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-48266182812653140332012-07-25T08:56:00.001-07:002012-07-25T20:42:30.237-07:00Book #20!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello wonderful readers! Hope you're enjoying your Wednesday's. I'm writing this post because I did it! Yesterday I completed my bucket list goal of reading at least twenty books by the end of summer. I started with a Jodi Picoult book (and several in between), so I figured why not end with one? Here's a little summary and some thoughts:<br />
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<i>Mercy </i>by Jodi Picoult -<br />
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Summary: This book follows police chief Cameron MacDonald who crosses paths with his cousin Jamie Macdonald. Jamie was madly in love with his wife Maggie, but she was terminally ill with cancer so Jamie killed her out of mercy. He came to Cameron for help and understanding, but now Cameron must arrest him and aid the prosecution. As the back of the book states, Cameron's wife Allie is "seduced by the idea of a man so in love with his wife that he'd grant all her wishes, even her wish to end her life." Therefore, she befriends Jamie. Meanwhile, her husband Cameron is having an affair. The book shifts between the lives of these four characters (Cameron, Jamie, Allie, and this woman) and the people who are close to them.<br />
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Thoughts: So far, there is not a Jodi Picoult book I haven't in love with including this one. However, the difference about this book is that I really hated two of the characters. I won't say who because I don't want to spoil too much, but it was hard to get through a book in which I was constantly hoping karma would slap those two characters in the face. And in some ways it does for one of the characters, but not nearly enough. Also, I sort of wanted this book to end with that contented feeling that all was right in the world again and I just didn't feel that way. Nonetheless, I couldn't put the book down and it was definitely a satisfying read so I'd still recommend that you check this one out1<br />
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A quote from the book: "You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride."<br />
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For your viewing pleasure, the pile of the twenty books I read (p.s. the clutter in the background is some of my dorm stuff)<br />
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So hopefully you guys run to the bookstore and pick up <i>Mercy </i>or any of these really :]. And I'm so psyched because we've reached 45 followers! We're almost halfway to our goal of getting 100 followers before introducing a guest blogger. So if you enjoy these posts please feel free to follow this blog at the end of the page or tell your friends about it because I'd love to meet new readers! </div>
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What are some of your favorite books? </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-69198473966857499902012-07-24T07:50:00.002-07:002012-07-24T08:22:20.456-07:00Versatile Blogger Award<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A big thanks to Stephanie at <a href="http://little-red-reads.blogspot.com/l">http://little-red-reads.blogspot.com/l</a> for nominating me and fifteen other bloggers for the versatile blogger award! I really appreciate it!<br />
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I took the rules for this award right off her site, so you can check out her post here: <a href="http://little-red-reads.blogspot.com/2012/07/versatile-blogger-award.html">http://little-red-reads.blogspot.com/2012/07/versatile-blogger-award.html</a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are a few rules one one must follow before accepting the award and they are as follows:</span></strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging.</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Let the nominated bloggers know that they have been nominated for this award.</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Share 7 random facts about yourself.</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Thank the blogger who has nominated you.</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post. </span></span></li>
</ol>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 26px;"><b>7 Random facts about me: </b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My lucky numbers are seven and thirteen. </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The only pets I have ever had are fish, but I usually cried when they died (HEY I was little and my dad would hold funerals in the back yard and bury them! It was traumatizing!)</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I love to run.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I've always disliked summer reading (sorry schools) because I feel like it's a roadblock for people who love to read anyway. I'd always focus solely on the three books assigned the whole summer so that I'd do well on the tests, which made me wind up reading less. </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm always smiling. </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One time on April Fools' Day some friends and I were walking home from school (we were in like fifth grade) & our neighbor who was a year younger told us his one month old dog died. We started cracking up and saying "Yeah right," because of the date, until his mom told us the dog actually did die. We wound up making him a ton of cards, but I still feel guilty about that. </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The t.v. show King of Queens is my favorite; I think it's hilarious. </span></li>
</ol>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Like Elizabeth I didn't necessarily nominate new blogs (they may even be several years old), but rather, blogs that are new to me. Congratulations bloggers :) </span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Crushed;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And my nominations are:</span></strong></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Prudence @ <a href="http://thelibrarymousebooktails.blogspot.com/">http://thelibrarymousebooktails.blogspot.com/</a></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">2. Lauren @ <a href="http://storybound.blogspot.com/">http://storybound.blogspot.com/</a><strong></strong></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">3. Zoe @ <a href="http://bookhi.blogspot.com/"> http://bookhi.blogspot.com/</a></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">4. Rachel @ <a href="http://onceuponabook-rachel.blogspot.com/">http://onceuponabook-rachel.blogspot.com/</a></span></div>
<div>
5. Addie @ <a href="http://addie-bookwormrecommendations.blogspot.com/">http://addie-bookwormrecommendations.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
6. Keertana @ <a href="http://ivybookbindings.blogspot.com/">http://ivybookbindings.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
7. Lili @ <a href="http://lilisreflections.blogspot.com/">http://lilisreflections.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
8. SC @ <a href="http://princessoflit.blogspot.com/">http://princessoflit.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
9. Morgan @ <a href="http://nothingbetterthanabook.blogspot.com/">http://nothingbetterthanabook.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
10. Kathryne @<a href="http://paperbackfantasies.blogspot.com/">http://paperbackfantasies.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
11. Natalie @ <a href="http://quirkygirllikesvintage.blogspot.com/">http://quirkygirllikesvintage.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
12. Kaitlin @ <a href="http://ireadwritelove.blogspot.com/">http://ireadwritelove.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
13. Samantha @ <a href="http://reading-andcoffee.blogspot.com/">http://reading-andcoffee.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
14. Suz @ <a href="http://soulunsung.blogspot.com/">http://soulunsung.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
15. Carmen @ <a href="http://shelfspaceneeded.blogspot.com/">http://shelfspaceneeded.blogspot.com/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So please check out these blogs; they deserve it :)! </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On a side note, I'm so happy we've almost reached 40 followers. If you like these posts please feel free to follow this blog at the end of the page because I'd love to get to know my new readers! Happy Tuesday :). </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-68061100377781582832012-07-23T08:23:00.001-07:002012-07-23T08:52:32.591-07:00Liebster Blog Award!<br />
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<br />
Hi all! I'd like to give a big thanks to Lauren from <a href="http://theheadlessowl.blogspot.com/">http://theheadlessowl.blogspot.com/</a>, who nominated me and ten other bloggers for the <b>Liebster Blog Award</b>, an award for new bloggers with less than 200 followers. I'm really grateful to her for passing on the award because I'm still so new at blogging and it was a nice surprise to hear about this! Also, I think this will be a cool way to meet other bloggers by passing the award on to 11 new bloggers!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Award winners share 11 facts about themselves, answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who tagged them, come up with 11 of their own questions and tag 11 more bloggers with the award." (qtd. in The Headless Owl blog).</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here are my answers to Lauren's questions, facts, new nominees, and questions for my nominees. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Answers to Lauren's questions</u></b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>If you could meet any </b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">living</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>
author, who would you choose and why?</b> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Jodi Picoult because I absolutely love
her books; I've read about ten of them so far. Besides the fact that I often reply “Hanging with Jodi” when my mom or dad asks what I’m doing and I’m
reading one of her books or that I added a Jodi Picoult bobble head into a
short story I recently wrote, I’d just like to meet her so I could congratulate her on her incredible writing. Otherwise, I’d like to meet Noelle Hancock, a new author,
who wrote a memoir called </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My Year with
Eleanor </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">because her story is awesome and she seems like such a
cool, funny person to be around.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Why Young Adult?</b> So far, my blog is a mix of adult books, some young adult books, and memoirs/nonfiction books. But I still
really love young adult books and I could say it's because I'm still in college, but I think I'll enjoy them when I'm older too since many of them remind me of what it was like to be a kid, teenager, or really, to be me just a few years ago. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What is your favorite bookstore or
library and why?</b> I love Barnes & Noble, but that’s the only major
bookstore near me. It’s a bit expensive (I get a little annoyed when I
see books for half the price at Costco), but there’s a certain feel to Barnes
& Noble and I could spend hours in there looking at books. Plus, the
Starbucks coffee venue inside the store is a plus :).</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Rank the last 5 books you read from
most enjoyed to least enjoyed. </b>Ahh, that’s a tough question! I genuinely don’t
have a favorite between the last five books I read so I’ll just list what they
were in alphabetical order: <i>Angel Falls</i> by Kristin Hannah, <i>Assholes Finish
First </i>by Tucker Max, <i>A Stolen Life</i> by Jaycee Dugard, <i>The Island</i> by Tracey
Garvis Graves, and the <i>Perks of Being A Wallflower </i>by Stephen Chbosky.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What books made you love reading?</b>
I’ve loved reading from when I was very little, but I’d have to say the books
that gave me a reading addiction were </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Walk
Two Moons </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Sharon Creech and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Flowers
in the Attic </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by V.C. Andrews.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Why and when did you start blogging?</b>
I started blogging about a two weeks ago for a few reasons: I thought it seemed
like fun and I read that it was smart for both college students and writers to begin blogging because it gives you the chance to meet a lot of cool people
interested in the same field/s as you.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>If you could go anywhere in the world
right now, where would you go and what book would you take? </b>Good question.
I’d either go back to St. Martin (I went in June with my family and we go there nearly every
year) because there's something special about that place, or to Italy or Australia
(I’ve never been to either and they’re on the top of my list). Even though I’ve
seen the movie <i>Eat, Pray, Love, </i>I want to read the book and think it's a fitting travel book.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b> </b></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Describe your dream book. </b>One that
has my name as the author ;). But seriously, I love any book I can really relate to and that has characters I fall in love with. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What's your favorite book cover(s)?
</b>Good question. I don’t really have a favorite, though I liked the ones from </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My Year with Eleanor <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">by Noelle Hancock</span> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Happiness Project <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">by Gretchen Rubin. </span></span></i></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><b>What is your favorite food? </b>Ahh I
don’t know if I can choose a favorite because eating is one of my favorite hobbies, but
I especially love Chinese buffets and the Italian buffet at Sbraro’s! </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>Are you a city person or a country person? </b>Well I live in the
suburbs, which is a middle ground, so I really enjoy both city and country. I think it’s a lot of fun going into New
York (my mom is from there) so I might have to choose that over country. However,
I think the country is so beautiful and peaceful in its own way and it’s also a
special place to visit.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><u>11 Facts About Me</u></b></span></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> When I was in sixth grade, I was riding my bike with no hands until the bike tilted off the curb, I fell, and had to get twelve stitches. Since it was only a two minute skit though, the doctor gave </span>me the okay and I still danced.</div>
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2. My friend Matt once asked me, "Since when did you become a light FM station?" Although I enjoy mostly all modern music, I love music from my parents' generation and my early years (mainly 80s and 90s music). </div>
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3. My favorite color is purple and my favorite animal is a pig. My grandparents asked me about these favorites when I was three, I copied what my mom's were, and have stuck with these ever since. Hence the GIANT pig my boyfriend just won me from a fair he was at (I'll post a picture at the end of the post). </div>
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4. GPA wise, I was eighth out of 240 students in my high school graduating class. </div>
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5. But I'm really very stupid. I once lost my phone and car keys down a jetty on the beach around 1 am. It was the day before one of my friends was leaving for Malibu and a week before my other friend and I left for our respective colleges so we thought it would be scenic to sit on a jetty at night. It was until my belongings fell down the cracks into the ocean! </div>
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6. I have never had gum in my life. I know what you're thinking: WTF? I'll eat anything, but I've just never had the desire to chew gum.</div>
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7. So far I've had four jobs: I've worked at a water park, at Hollister, as the entertainment editor at my college newspaper, and currently (except for summers) as a peer tutor at my school's writing center. I've also volunteered at an adult day care center and this summer, am teaching a couple creative writing workshops for children at local libraries. I was also hired once by Pizza Hut when I was like 16, but when I came back this other manager was there and he kept sending the new employees home (for three days) because he said he didn't need us yet, so I quit =p. But my dream job is to be a writer. </div>
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8. I have gone bungee jumping with two of my best friends. Well, it was the bungee jumping at Six Flags (aka the Daredevil's Dive), which is a cross between bungee jumping and sky diving, but because of that wrenching feeling in my gut before we dropped 157 feet I'm still counting it!</div>
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9. I don't think there is a better time of year than summer. I was/am always confused by the friends who couldn't/can't wait to go back to school. Granted, I love and miss my friends down at school, but I can visit them any time during the summer when we're all relaxing. To me, looking forward to homework, tests, and killing myself over grades again isn't worth the excitement. </div>
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10. My boyfriend and I met nearly two years ago during the first week of our freshman year of college when I was still wandering aimlessly trying to find my classes (basically I'm always lost/lacking direction) and asked him for directions. He walked me to class instead. I had the worst cold/fever I've ever had the first week of college & when I declined his invite to the football game because I was seriously going home for the weekend to recover, he didn't believe me until we hung out a week later.</div>
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11. This fact is super cliche, but I'll write it anyway because it's true. I love my family and friends more than anything and am so lucky to have them in my life. Oh, and I'm lucky to be making some new blogging friends! </div>
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<b>Questions for My Nominees</b></div>
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1. If you were stranded in a solitary room for 24 hours would you rather spend your time reading or writing?</div>
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2. If you were to write a book, what genre would you write (fiction, non-fiction, memoir, YA, self-help, psychological, horror, etc)? </div>
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3. If you were forced to choose between eating a burger and french fries for a year or pizza and french fries, which would you choose?</div>
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4. Who is someone you find really inspirational and why (it can be a relative, close friend, author, celebrity, etc)? </div>
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5. What book did you read most recently and did you enjoy it?</div>
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6. Use three words to describe your style of dress (I know one of mine would be comfortable!). </div>
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7. What are three words you think your friends would use to describe you?</div>
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8. What is your favorite part of blogging?</div>
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9. Would you rather be a famous writer, songwriter, or actor/actress?<br />
10. What is one of your funniest memories from childhood?</div>
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11. If someone asked you why you love reading so much what would you reply?</div>
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I'd just like to say that for my nominations I had a fairly loose definition of "new blogger" as long as the rule with the followers applied. Some of my nominations go to people who have had their blogs for a few years because I really liked the blogs :). Congratulations everyone!<br />
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<u>Passing the Award On To</u></div>
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1. Mirjam @<br />
<u><a href="http://abookwormstreasuretrove.blogspot.com/">http://abookwormstreasuretrove.blogspot.com/</a></u></div>
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2. Ashley @<br />
<a href="http://booknerdash.blogspot.com/">http://booknerdash.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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3. Pam @<br />
<a href="http://jellylovesbooks.blogspot.com/">http://jellylovesbooks.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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4. Amber @<br />
<a href="http://amberafterglow.blogspot.com/">http://amberafterglow.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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5. Claire @<br />
<a href="http://whnbstihwsoft.blogspot.com/">http://whnbstihwsoft.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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6. Carmen @<br />
<a href="http://booketybookbook.blogspot.com/">http://booketybookbook.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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7. Lyra @<br />
<a href="http://defiantlydeviant.blogspot.com/">http://defiantlydeviant.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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8. Cidney & Anna @<br />
<a href="http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/">http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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9. Anna @<br />
<a href="http://www.annaallegrabooks.com/">http://www.annaallegrabooks.com/</a></div>
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10. Elizabeth @<br />
<a href="http://dormroomdreamer.blogspot.com/">http://dormroomdreamer.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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11. Nikki @<br />
<a href="http://imaginativeadventure.blogspot.com/">http://imaginativeadventure.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you for the tag Lauren! I probably missed several eligible bloggers, so if I did please let me know and we'll try to pass it on to them as well :). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For your viewing pleasure, a picture of the giant pig I mentioned my boyfriend Fletch won for me. </span><br />
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</span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-74789685798241781192012-07-22T08:18:00.002-07:002012-07-22T08:20:58.780-07:00Assholes and Overachievers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let me start off by saying that I see the irony between pairing these two books together. Although they are both non-fiction, they are obviously two very different types of books. One is informative and well researched, while the other is... well just look at the title. Also, I know a lot of people were offended by Tucker Max's book and you'd have to live in a box to not see why that is. Of course I agree that the way he treats people is cruel and a bully like him shouldn't be making so much money off being an asshole. And yes, I do feel a little ridiculous for feeding into the assurance that people will buy this book because sex, alcohol, and funny stories sells. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find the book entertaining, which is why I'm introducing this book (and plus, it is book #19 on my summer reading list so I have to add it!). So in advance I apologize if I'm offending anyone by discussing this book and I welcome your criticism on it, but please don't shoot the messenger! </div>
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<i>Assholes Finish First </i>by Tucker Max - One day over spring break my car was in the shop so I decided I'd walk to my local Barnes & Noble. My mom was going to pick me up when she got home from work, which meant I had about an hour to mosey around the store. At the time, this book was sitting on the best sellers shelf and of course the title caught my eye. I had heard about the book before and figured I'd grab a coffee, then read it for entertainment until my mom arrived. I got to about page fifty and thought it was pretty funny. Then again I enjoy shows like "Family Guy," which I know a lot of people despise. I didn't buy the book until a few days ago. When I went to the counter I tried to ease the embarrassment of buying a book like this (the last book I bought there was a book on teaching children's creative writing) by saying "I'm doing some educational reading." Luckily, I don't think the cashier really looked at the book title because she simply said "Oh, that's good to hear." Basically, Tucker Max combines his sexcapades, drunken acts, and just general funny stories in one book. But as stupid as his decisions are, one thing I like about his book is you can tell from his writing that he's fairly smart (as ridiculous as that may sound). A lot of people would probably find this book repulsive and say to never buy it (I definitely wouldn't fault them for saying that), but if you're looking for an entertaining read then go ahead and pick this one up. </div>
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A quote from the book: "When a girl you meet three hours ago decides to tattoo your name on her body what is the appropriate reaction?" </div>
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<i>The Overachievers </i>by Alexandra Robbins - Obviously, this is a very different type of non-fiction account and in no way do I see any resemblance between the book discussed above and this one. I just found this to be another interesting non-fiction read and thought I'd pair the two together for that reason alone. Well... maybe I did it to redeem myself from discussing the other book or because the two books make an excellent blog post title. I read this one last summer after finding it in a pile of books in my mom's room. My grandpa gave this one to her a few years ago. As stated on the author's website the book combines "fast-paced storytelling and spectacular investigative journalism." The book rotates between nine high school over achievers, their stories, and their journey through the admissions process to get into college. Maybe I would've enjoyed the book more when I was in high school because it would be easier to relate to, but it was also nice reading it after I'd already been through that whole process. This is a good book to consider if you're going through/finished with the admissions process or are an overachiever/parent of an overachiever. I found some parts of this book funny because like those kids, I have recopied forty pages of a textbook into my notebook so the material would be absorbed better or studied for twelve hours to do well on a test. I liked how the author stresses that while it's okay to like a school because of its name, it isn't always the right decision and it's important to find a school that fits you, like a few of the students in her book. Although I found this to be slow at times (though maybe because I'd just read a series of fiction books), overall I found it to be both funny and real. </div>
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A quote from the book: "In one survey respondents listed Princeton as one of the country's top ten law schools. The problem? Princeton doesn't have a law school." </div>
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Hope you're enjoying your weekend and happy reading! If you like some of these blog posts please feel free to follow this blog by clicking the link at the end of the page; I'd love to meet some of my readers. </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peasap/2258578197/" target="_blank"><img alt="Disney’s California Adventure by peasap, on Flickr" border="0" height="213" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2229/2258578197_7f0e72bf94_m.jpg" title="Disney’s California Adventure by peasap, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/peasap/" target="_blank"> peasap</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-76014159282221701232012-07-21T08:45:00.001-07:002012-07-21T08:45:10.127-07:00Two Great Reads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy Saturday readers! I hope you're taking advantage of the weekend and either relaxing, heading to the beach/pool, or catching up with friends. I'd like to share two other books I really enjoyed that I read fairly recently:<br />
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<i>The Tenth Circle </i>by Jodi Picoult - I read this one over my spring break and really liked it. Daniel Stone grew up as the only white boy in an Alaskan village. Because of his isolation, he turned to drinking and stealing. Eventually he meets a girl, falls in love, and gets her pregnant. Years later he is a reformed man and father as well as a comic book artist. His wife teaches Dante's Inferno at her college and in a sense, <i>The Tenth Circle</i> reflects Dante's struggles through the nine circles of hell. Mainly, the book focuses on Daniel's teenage daughter Trixie, who accuses her ex-boyfriend of raping her. The end of the book is definitely a shocker.<br />
A quote from the novel: "What if love wasn't the act of finding what you were missing but the give-and-take that made you both match?"<br />
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<i>The Truth About Forever </i>by Sarah Dessen - I found this one sitting on my bookshelf last summer and I wish I would've picked it up sooner! I was afraid it would be too juvenile, simply because I received the book a long time ago, but I really loved it. The book is about Macy, who is getting over the recent death of her father. Her boyfriend is away at brain camp so Macy decides to get a job at the library, where her coworkers treat her like dirt. Her boyfriend says she is being dramatic and that maybe the two of them should take a break because she is distracting him. One day, Macy notices a Wish Catering van, which catered a party her mom threw. There she meets Wes, who she learns she has a lot in common with. She also meets Kristy who becomes a good friend. I liked the ending of this book because it was so uplifting.<br />
A quote from the novel: "It's just that... I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is."<br />
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I hope you take a look at the two books, dear readers, and that you enjoy your Saturday! As of today we've reached 30 followers, wohoo! I can't wait to introduce some guest bloggers soon so if you like some of these posts, please feel free to follow this blog by clicking the link at the end of the page. Happy reading!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/powi/2790342925/" target="_blank"><img alt="gul näckros ~ waterlily by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi, on Flickr" border="0" height="326" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2790342925_e8436c80c6_m.jpg" title="gul näckros ~ waterlily by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/powi/" target="_blank"> Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-15848886470511781802012-07-20T08:11:00.001-07:002012-07-20T08:14:53.707-07:00More Shakespeare!<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/3031015377/" target="_blank"><img alt="dark forest by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/3031015377_dd0bf4985e_m.jpg" title="dark forest by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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"What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote." - E.M. Forster</div>
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Hello readers! I'm hoping to purchase a few new books today, but until then I'd like to discuss a few more Shakespeare plays that I've really enjoyed. I figured I'd share these in case you want to take a walk down memory lane for a moment to think "Oh yeah, I remember when I read that one."<br />
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<i>King Lear</i> - I read this play during my senior year of high school. King Lear has three daughters and at the beginning of the play he asks the three of them to tell them how much they love him. Cordelia is the only one who doesn't use false flattery and because she is honest and dutiful to her father, she gives him a relatively plain answer. Because he loved Cordelia best and was angered by her lame profession of love he sends her out of his house and divides the kingdom between his other two daughters. He later realizes that neither of them want him around and tries to redeem himself.<br />
A quote from the play: "Nothing will come of nothing: speak again."<br />
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<i>Macbeth </i>- I typically don't like plays, stories, or movies with a lot of action and fighting scenes, but I'm a little biased toward this play as I was in it last year! I played a female Ross, which was a lot of fun because I got to wear an army fatigue outfit during the fighting scenes, got to drop my glass in surprise when Macbeth started going crazy at the banquet table, and was one of the few characters who got to stay alive throughout the entire play. Basically, Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches that he'll become king and then murders the current king to steal the title. Both he and Lady Macbeth start to become paranoid and mad as the play progresses and more murders occur up until the final battle.<br />
A quote from the play: "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it."<br />
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<i>Merchant of Venice </i>- I read this one last year for my theatre class. Shylock seeks a literal pound of flesh from Antonio, the Merchant of Venice when he fails to pay Shylock the money he owes him. Several characters defend Antonio throughout the play and in the end, Shylock curses his faith.<br />
A quote from the play: "But love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit."<br />
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I hope you're all having a wonderful summer and I'm so pleased that we're more than a quarter of the way there to my goal of getting 100 followers before introducing a guest blogger :) Oh! And after commenting on her blog, Tracey Garvis Graves, <a href="http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/">http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/</a>, author of <i>On the Island</i>, commented on my post about her book and is now following this blog *gasp*!<br />
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If you enjoy some of these posts, please feel free to subscribe to this blog by following it at the bottom of the page. Happy reading everyone!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/2669611905/" target="_blank"><img alt="casa loma by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/2669611905_2e9713eb7e_m.jpg" title="casa loma by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-17420922835998791082012-07-18T08:40:00.000-07:002012-07-18T08:40:00.671-07:00Shakespeare!<div>
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"When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life." - Christopher Morley<br />
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This fall, I'll be taking a Shakespeare class. I've been thinking about my recent posts on classics and how I haven't added any Shakespeare plays, but it's mainly because I've decided that William deserves his own post. I haven't come close to reading all of his plays yet (which is why I'm looking forward to this class), but for now, I'd like to share three favorites with you! I know it might seem a bit dull to return to Shakespeare after reading so many modern authors, but if you haven't read any of these, please take a look :)!<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>Hamlet</i> - I'm sure many of you have read this in school at one point or another, but I had to add <i>Hamlet</i> to the list! If you haven't read this one, please go back because although it's one of Shakespeare's tragedies, I still find Hamlet and some of the other characters hilarious. I first read this play during my senior year of high school, then two semesters ago in a British literature course. I find the little quirks in this play (such as the play within a play, the scene where Claudius is praying, and Polonius constantly spying on his son) adorable. The play begins with Hamlet pining over the death of his father and his mother's marriage to Hamlet's uncle Claudius. When Hamlet's father returns to Hamlet in the form of a ghost and tells Hamlet he was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet spends the rest of the play trying to get revenge, faking insanity, and trying to get Claudius to confess to the murder. A quote from <i>Hamlet</i>: "This above all; to thine own self be true." </li>
<li><i>Taming of the Shrew</i> - If you have seen the movie <i>10 Things I Hate About You</i>, you're watching a modern version of this play, which the film bases its plot on. I read this play for my theatre class freshman year, then watched an excellent production of the play on video. I'm bummed I can't remember who the performers were because they did an awesome job. The plot involves the beautiful, calm Bianca who has plenty of suitors and her sister Katharina who has none. Bianca's father tells her she cannot get married until her shrewish sister Katharina is married. Bianca's suitors pay Petruchio to suit Katharina. He brings her back to his home and tries to tame her. At a banquet Katharina shows that she is the most obedient wife. A quote from <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>: "There's small choice in rotten apples." </li>
<li><i>Twelfth Night - </i>My theatre group put this play on at my school this year and I was the publicity chair for the play. I also read this for my British literature class. Like <i>Taming of the Shrew</i>, this is another one of Shakespeare's comedies and definitely gave me some good laughs (especially when I saw it performed). A woman named Viola decides to cross dress and use the name Cesario so she can get closer to and serve Duke Orsino who is in love with Olivia. Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino. Everyone is confused when Viola's twin brother Sebastian arrives. Sir Toby Belch, the fool, and Malvolio are three other hilarious characters who live in Olivia's household. This one definitely has a feel good ending (except maybe for Malvolio). A quote from <i>Twelfth Night</i>: "Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage." </li>
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Have a wonderful day my lovely readers :). If you enjoy reading some of these posts, please feel free to subscribe to the blog by following it at the end of the page or tell some friends to! Once we reach 100 followers I'd love to get a guest blogger on here. Happy reading! </div>
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<span style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“We don't need to have just one
favorite. We keep adding favorites. Our favorite book is always the book that
speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our lives. And our lives
change. We have other favorites that give us what we most need at that
particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They're always with us.
We just sort of accumulate them.” – Llyod Alexander</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Hello lovely readers! I'd like to share four more books with you that gave me that empty feeling when I finished them, aka that "Aw man, I wish there was a sequel" feeling. So whether you're sitting on the beach with a strawberry daiquiri, relaxing on a raft in the pool, or lounging inside your air conditioned house, here are four more books that are ideal for any of those scenarios: </span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Change of Heart </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jodi Picoult - </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you've been reading some of my other posts, I'm guessing you've gathered that I absolutely love Jodi Picoult. This book is about Shay Bourne who is on death row in New Hampshire. He wants to donate his heart to a small child, but that child is his victim's sister. Shay becomes a sensation when he suddenly starts performing miracles in prison. The child's mother is conflicted between giving her daughter the heart of a man who killed her daughter's sister and saving her child's life. We later learn why Shay felt he needed to commit the crime. A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“When you're different,
sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you are.
All you notice is the person who doesn't.”</span><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One Day </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by David Nicholls - I purchased this book before watching the movie. I remember first seeing advertisements for the movie and thinking that it looked interesting. Then I went to Barnes & Noble and saw the novel toward the front of the store, which is when I realized the movie is based off this book. The book follows Dexter (Dex) and Emma (Em) who first spend the night together after they graduate from college. It then details where they are in their lives on the same date of every subsequent year from that first day. They eventually become best friends. Dexter is a player and becomes very successful, while Emma rarely dates and seems to be putting her life on hold. The ending of this book is a complete tearjerker, but I still recommend it for an awesome read. A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"I suppose the important
thing is to make some sort of difference," she said. "You know,
actually change something." (opening line)</span><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pigs in Heaven </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Barbara Kingsolver - I remember reading this book for school once and really enjoying it. Apparently it's a sequel to the book </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Bean Trees, </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">but I never read that one and it definitely wasn't necessary to understand </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pigs in Heaven</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. The book follows Turtle and her nonbiological mother, Taylor. When Turtle sees a man fall down the Hoover Dam she tells her mother and eventually, the man is rescued. Because of this rescue, Turtle and Taylor are asked to go on the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Oprah Winfrey</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> show. However, when a lawyer watches the show and notices Turtle is of Cherokee heritage she tries to return Turtle to her birth family. Turtle and Taylor go on the run and the book follows this journey. A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“Anybody can get worked up, if they
have the intention. It's peacefulness that is hard to come by on purpose.”</span></span><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Pact </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jodi Picoult - This book is about Chris and Emily, two teenagers, who have been neighbors for eighteen years. Their parents are best friends and they are too until high school, when their relationship turns into something more. When Emily dies from a gunshot wound to the head, Chris tells the police that him and Emily had a suicide pact. Rather than believing this story, the police put Chris on trial for murder. I read this one awhile ago, but I remember not being able to put it down. A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“She was all the things I wasn't.
And I was all the things she wasn't. She could paint circles around anyone; I
couldn't even draw a straight line. She was never into sports; I've always
been. Her hand, it fit mine.”</span></span><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
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</li>
</ul>
What are some of your favorite books? I'd love to hear about them!<br />
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Thank you again new readers for making this blog what it is becoming :) If you enjoy some of these posts please feel free to subscribe to this blog by following it at the end of the page!<br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-62939568613632145172012-07-16T12:26:00.003-07:002012-07-16T14:06:14.482-07:00Favorite Books<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to loose." - Neil Gaiman.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Since I just finished two new reads, I'd like to share some of my favorite books until I go on a new book buying spree. For now, here are four favorite books I'd like to share.</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Flowers in the Attic </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by V.C. Andrews - I am in love with this book. Although it's slightly sick (like many of her novels) this is still my absolute favorite. I think I've read this book at least fourteen times so I guess that says a lot. I cringed a little when Stephen King berated this book in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">On Writing.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> I first read this novel when I was fairly young (maybe too young because I don't think I fully understood what happened between Cathy and Chris) and truly think this was the book that made me say "I want to be an author someday." Yes, it is unrealistic that the main characters say things like "Golly gee," and that the bad guys' motives aren't very strong but personally, I still think V.C. Andrews is an excellent writer. I've never fallen so in love with a plot or a book's characters before. I couldn't wait to read the sequels and basically feel this way about every V.C. Andrew book I have read, which is a lot. This novel was #1 on the NY bestsellers list. It follows four children who start off with the perfect life, but eventually, are locked in an attic in their grandparent's house because of their mother's greed and grandmother's cruelty. It details their struggles, which include a grandmother who whips them, puts tar in Cathy's hair, and tells them they are the "Devil's spawn,"and a mother who buys them gifts, but visits them more and more sporadically. Chris struggles as he comes into manhood, but is isolated from the rest of the world. Anyone I meet who has read this book always says the same thing "Oh my gosh, you read that too? Wasn't it amazing?" So please add this one to your lists :) Here are the sequels if you want to check them out as well: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Petals on the Wind</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If There Be Thorns</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Seeds of Yesterday</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Garden of Shadows</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“Love doesn't always come when you want it to. Sometimes it just happens despite your will.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></li>
<li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My Sister's Keeper </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jodi Picoult - This is the first book I read that made me continue reading Jodi Picoult books from here on out. If you've already seen the movie, then reading the book may not have the same effect, but it's definitely still worth the read. I read this book before the movie came out and this is such a cliche, but I think the book was a lot better than the movie. If you haven't heard of either, the book follows Anna who has had several transfusions and shots throughout her life so that her sister Kate can battle leukemia; Anna's bone marrow matches Kate's. Eventually Anna decides she wants her body back and goes to see a lawyer, a decision that threatens to rip her family apart. Throughout the novel you discover various secrets about the main characters and their decisions. Although they didn't use this ending in the movie, the end of the book will shock you. A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></li>
<li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Plain Truth </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jodi Picoult - I loved this book. Katie, a young Amish girl, secretly gives birth in a barn, then denies that the birth ever happened. However, the next day someone finds the baby dead in the barn and a non-Amish lawyer comes to defend the girl. Ellie, the defense lawyer, must question the Amish peoples' different sense of justice, Katie's claims that she remembers nothing that happened, and Elie's own sense of morality. This novel has so many levels to it; a love story, a clash of cultures, and a surprising ending. A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“If you didn't remember something happening, was it because it never had happened? Or because you wished it hadn't?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></li>
<li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Prep </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Curtis Sittenfeld - This was Curtis Sittenfeld's first book. The novel is so funny mainly because Lee Fiora, the protagonist, is so observant. When the novel starts, Lee is fourteen and the book details all of her experiences at a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. I once read an interview with Curtis Sittenfeld in which she discusses how in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Prep, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Lee overanalyzes everything, then overanalyzes everything again. But that's what I really enjoyed this book. I've read this one twice and have heard a lot of people say that they have done the same. I almost died when my communication professor told us "I know Curtis." A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So I hope you've found some new books to add to your TBR (the book to read) piles. Thanks again to my new readers :). Yesterday I was thrilled with reaching 200 page views and today we're almost at 300. And as of today we have reached 20 followers! I hope to have my first guest blogger once we reach 100 followers so if you enjoy some of these posts please feel free to follow the blog at the bottom of the page or tell your friends about it!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What are some of your favorite books? I'd love to hear from you! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwanc/1093285535/" target="_blank"><img alt="Red Light... by Kıvanç Niş, on Flickr" border="0" height="356" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1291/1093285535_3c58daa7cc_m.jpg" title="Red Light... by Kıvanç Niş, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
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I'm definitely one of those people who walk into Barnes & Noble and rush to the best seller shelf at the front of the store. What can I say? I'm a sucker for consumerism <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">—</span> books about to become major motion pictures, books I read about in magazines, or books that reach that magic shelf in Barnes & Noble are typically the first to catch my eye. But I figure the books are on that list for a reason and they always wind up being incredible reads.<br />
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So as I walked into Barnes & Noble this Friday to find some new reads, I wandered over to that shelf and afterward, found myself purchasing two awesome books: <i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower </i>and <i>On the Island. </i>I'll be adding these books to my summer reading list (the first post on this new blog) as they contribute to my goal of reading at least 20 books this summer (these are books seventeen and eighteen). In bullet style, I'll share some facts about the books as well as things I really liked about them in the hopes that you'll add them to your reading lists!<br />
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<i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower </i>by Stephen Chbosky<br />
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<ul>
<li>Although I know this book used to be super popular, I saw it make its reappearance on the Barnes & Noble best seller shelf a few months ago and from its cover discovered it's about to becoming a "major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson." </li>
<li>I remember my friend telling me awhile ago that she really liked this book and I typically like books that are about to become movies. However, a few months ago I decided I'd wait on this one because I had some other books in mind. A few days ago a friend said "Did you see that new movie <i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower </i>that's coming out? It looks so funny." As I meandered back to that shelf I saw the book was still sitting there and decided it was time to pick it up. </li>
<li><i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i> is an easy read as its told in a series of letters written by Charlie to an anonymous friend. We never find out who this friend is, but through Charlie's letters we learn about Charlie's life and his journey through his freshman year of high school. </li>
<li>Charlie is so observant about everything. I think people who are readers will really enjoy this book because although Charlie is a little strange, we can all relate to him in some way. As his good friend says, "He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand." </li>
<li>The back cover and other readers have compared this book to <i>The Catcher in the Rye. </i>Charlie and his commentary on life did remind me a lot of Holden Caulfield. </li>
<li>Nothing major happens in the book, but Charlie does meet a new group of friends, fall in love, and experiment with sex, drugs, and alcohol. It is his comical observations that made me want to keep reading without putting the book down.</li>
<li>By the end of the book you find out why Charlie often needs to see therapists and he tells the friend he is writing to that if he doesn't hear from him it is a good thing because sophomore year Charlie hopes to "participate" more in life as his English teacher suggested, rather than stand on the sidelines. </li>
<li>I definitely recommend this book for a simple summer read. </li>
</ul>
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<i>On the Island </i>by Tracy Garvis Graves</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Like the author of <i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i>, this is the first book Tracy Garvis Graves has written. What really attracted me to this book was both the cover and title. </li>
<li>What's neat about this novel is that it's a New York Times bestseller, but you find out from the author's letter at the end of the novel that she self-published and that this was "truly a word-of-mouth book." </li>
<li>I really enjoyed this novel, especially because it is told from two points of view, Anna Emerson's and T.J. Callahan's. </li>
<li>Anna starts off as a thirty-year old English teacher, while T.J. is a sixteen-year-old boy whose cancer is in remission. </li>
<li>Anna's relationship with her boyfriend is suffering, so she decides to tutor T.J., who needs to catch up on missed schoolwork from his illness, at his families' summer home on a tropical island in the Maldives. </li>
<li>When the private plane Anna and T.J. board crashes somewhere in the middle of the ocean, they swim to an uninhabited island and are forced to make a new life there together. </li>
<li>Nature provides them with a series of dangers such as sharks, jellyfish, bats, mosquitos, lack of rainwater, and coconuts that are hard to crack open until some of their suitcases wash up on shore. </li>
<li>Although T.J. starts off as a boy, as the novel progresses he becomes a man and the novel follows the relationship that Anna and T.J. build while on the island. I loved the tension between the two characters as they decide between their feelings and social norms. </li>
<li>This novel is definitely a great beach read and the author's letter made it seem like there was also talk of this one becoming a film. </li>
<li>Her blog can be found here: http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/</li>
</ul>
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As always, thank you to my readers; this new blog is growing each day because of you and has just reached 200 page views! I look forward to providing my readers with new opportunities (guest posts, contests, etc) when the blog gets big enough, so if you enjoy some of these posts please feel free to follow my blog at the bottom of the page or recommend it to friends. </div>
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I hope you guys add these two to your piles and happy reading :)! </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5873331637/" target="_blank"><img alt="west lake view by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5145/5873331637_68cf7f9a34_m.jpg" title="west lake view by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-52226227778105483382012-07-14T09:09:00.000-07:002012-07-14T09:09:42.749-07:00Classics<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/4158928239/" target="_blank"><img alt="last rays by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2739/4158928239_eaf8770faa_m.jpg" title="last rays by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">"A classic is something that everybody wants to have to read and nobody wants to read" - Mark Twain. </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></i><br />
For now, this will be the final post on classics as I bought two new books yesterday and am hoping to share them with you in my next post! But if you haven't read the books below yet, please add them to your TBR (the book to read) pile. I first heard this term from <a href="http://annsreadingcorner.blogspot.com/">http://annsreadingcorner.blogspot.com/</a>. Happy reading :]<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>Gentleman Prefer Blondes: the Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady </i>by Anita Loos - I read this book in my 1920s class last year. This novel is great if you're looking for an easy read and a good laugh. The entire story is told in diary style by a young blonde who travels through Europe as she shops, goes to parties, etc. Basically, Lorelei is a gold digger and her comments are so funny. I never got to read the sequel, <i>But Gentleman Marry Brunettes</i>, though on principle, I'd like to! A quote from the novel: "A kiss on the hand may feel very very good, but a diamond and sapphire bracelet lasts forever." </li>
<li><i>How to Win Friends and Influence People </i>by Dale Carnegie - At first I was reluctant to buy this one because of its stigma as a self help book, but I had been hearing from so many people that it's a great book to look into. Last summer, I noticed it was on the summer reading pile at Barnes & Noble so I finally decided to purchase it. I'm so glad I did because although Mr. Carnegie does advice, his observations on people are right on and because of this I really enjoyed his book. A quote from the book: "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The unvarnished truth is that almost all the
people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to
their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you recognize their
importance, and recognize it sincerely."</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><i>Passing </i>by Nella Larsen - This book is by a Harlem Renaissance author, but is intriguing because it focuses on a beautiful black woman whose skin is light enough to pass as white. When she meets an old friend, she tells her about her struggles trying to "pass" as white, but jealousy overtakes this friend who worries that this woman is trying to take her husband from her. A quote from the novel: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“I think being a mother is the cruelest thing in
the world." </span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><i>The Canterbury Tales </i>by Geoffrey Chaucer - I know that this one can also go either way <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">— </span>people love it or hate it. I was introduced to this book my senior year of high school by a teacher who was so enthusiastic about Chaucer and then again two semesters ago by a wonderful professor who even has a Chaucer tie. So maybe these experiences helped, but personally, I think Chaucer is hilarious and the fact that his characters are still easy to relate to after seven centuries says something. All of the characters go on a pilgrimage and each decide to share a tale along the way. A quote from <i>The Canterbury Tales</i>: "People can die of mere imagination." </li>
<li><i>The Mayor of Casterbridge </i>by Thomas Hardy - I read this novel my junior year of high school and it was my first introduction to Hardy. It's considered a tragic novel, but I think any novel by Hardy is worth a look! A quote from the novel: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“…happiness [is] but the occasional episode in a
general drama of pain.”</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">What are some of your favorite classics? I'd love to hear from my readers :]! </span></div>
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I'd like to introduce some guest bloggers and contests once we reach enough followers so if you enjoy reading these posts please subscribe to the blog by following it at the bottom of the page and tell your friends! Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5652914929/" target="_blank"><img alt="waipio by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5652914929_80691fe627_m.jpg" title="waipio by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-34942660956392216752012-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:002012-07-13T14:33:50.019-07:00I'm on a Classics Kick<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sprengben/5764568623/" target="_blank"><img alt="Hannover Rathaus by Sprengben [why not get a friend], on Flickr" border="0" height="225" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5067/5764568623_36c370fefa_m.jpg" title="Hannover Rathaus by Sprengben [why not get a friend], on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/sprengben/" target="_blank"> Sprengben [why not get a friend]</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“When you reread a classic, you do not see more
in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5444963.Cliff_Fadiman"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Cliff Fadiman</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Until I add more books to my summer reading list (I hope to buy a few new books today, so stay tuned) I'm going to continue our list and discussion of classics. So whether you're rereading some of these books or looking at them for the first time, here are five more classics I think you should read! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Adventures of Huckleberry Finn </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Mark Twain - I'm sure many of you have already read this one, but if not, please read it! I read some excerpts from the book in high school, but believe it or not the first time I read the entire book was this past semester, during my sophomore year of college for an American lit class. As my professor mentioned, Twain is excellent at using dry humor and subtle one liners. The novel follows (who else?) Huckleberry Finn and his friend Jim as they travel down the Mississippi river. Throughout the book, I was rooting for both of them! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: "You don't know about me without
you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that
ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth,
mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A Passage to India </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by E.M. Forster - This book was a summer reading book for my senior year of high school. It is set during the time when the British occupied India and India wanted independence. Like many of the classics, this novel really helps you to understand what it was like at that time and how petty people can be. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"It is easy to sympathize at a distance. I value
more the kind word that is spoken close to my ear."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Northanger Abbey </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jane Austen - As you can see from this and the last post, I'm a big Austen fan. As Jennifer, </span><a href="http://dreamreads.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">http://dreamreads.blogspot.com/</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, mentioned Austen is great at capturing human nature. I read this book this fall in my British literature course. As my professor informed us, this novel is meant to be a parody of the Gothic novel. Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland goes to visit family friends and there she meets the comical character of Isabella, Isabella's brother, Henry Tilney, and his sister. She falls in love with Henry and when she goes to visit Henry's estate she expects it to be just like the estates in her Gothic novels, but, in a humorous sense, it is different than her expectations. When Henry discovers something about Catherine, he must choose between his father's snooty opinions and his love for Catherine. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: "To
look almost pretty, is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been
looking plain the first fifteen years of her life, than a beauty from her
cradle can ever receive."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Catcher in the Rye </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by J.D. Salinger - This book can go either way. People either love this book and Holden Caulfield or they hate the book and Holden Caulfield. I fall into the former half of readers. I first read this book during my sophomore year of high school. Although you later find out that Holden is telling the story as a flashback to a psychologist in what we can assume to be a mental hospital or something similar, I still find Holden and his comments on human nature to be hilarious. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"All morons hate it when you call them a
moron."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">To Kill a Mockingbird </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Harper Lee - I first received a copy of this book from my grandma, who loved this novel. I then had to read it in high school. The book takes place during the Great Depression in Alabama and is told from the perspective of a six-year-old: Scout Finch. This novel is special and if you haven't read it yet, please add it to your list!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"When a child asks you something, answer him, for
goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but
they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles
'em."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What are some of your favorite classics? I'd love to hear from you so I can add them to my list :] </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;">I'm so pleased with the way this blog is growing and it's thanks to all of the great readers like you! Once the blog gets enough followers I'm hoping to start introducing some guest bloggers and contests, so if you enjoy some of these posts please feel free to subscribe to the blog at the bottom of the page. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;">Stay tuned for five more great classics. </span><br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/msvg/" target="_blank"> MSVG</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-36741617914726878452012-07-12T22:49:00.000-07:002012-07-12T22:52:08.252-07:00More Great Classics<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5820866907/" target="_blank"><img alt="end of the day by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2656/5820866907_336d18627e_m.jpg" title="end of the day by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things,
literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."
- Henry Miller</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As a continuation of the last post, I'd like to share more favorite classics. Although there are so many great modern books out there, there is something special about books that stand the test of time and are still easy to relate to. Here's another list of five great classics:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A Separate Peace</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> by John Knowles - Ms. Bach, </span></span><a href="http://depressioncookies.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">http://depressioncookies.blogspot.com/ </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, reminded me of this novel, which I read during my sophomore year of high school. Gene Forrester returns to his old prep school fifteen years after he graduated and looks back on the friendship he shared with his old friend Phineas (Finny) and one terrible act that changes their friendship and Gene's life forever. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for – not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry” </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pride and Prejudice </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jane Austen - Jane Austen is so good at capturing some of the pettiness that exists in human nature and at using subtle one liners. This story follows the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy (who I think I'm in love with, even if he is a fictional character). After reading the book, I also recommend watching the movie; although movies are usually never better than the book, this film still came out really well! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“For what do we live, but to make
sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Sense and Sensibility </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Jane Austen - Another comical romance (similar to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pride and Prejudice</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">) by Jane Austen. The story follows three sisters and their relationships. I thought the film for this book was pretty well done too! </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000668/"><b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Elinor Dashwood</span></span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">: I do not attempt to deny that I think very highly of him, that I...
greatly esteem him... I like him.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000701/"><b><span style="color: windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Marianne</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">:
"Esteem him?" "Like him?" Use those insipid words again and
I shall leave the room this instant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Tess of the D'Ubervilles </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by Thomas Hardy - This book is definitely heavy and the ending is shocking, but the novel is one worth reading! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“Did it never strike your mind that
what every woman says, some women may feel?”</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Great Gatsby </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I know a lot of people probably already read this book in high school, but the first time I was assigned to read it, I was in my second semester of college in a class that centered on the roaring 20s. So if you haven't read this book yet or read it a long time ago and want to reread it, it's a must! Although its sad, you will never forget the mysterious Gatsby. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #131313;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and
this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Stay tuned for the next post in which I'll add five more great classics to the list! What are some of the great classics you've read? I'd love to come up with a big list of all your suggestions :]. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dexxus/5747367650/" target="_blank"><img alt="nuances by paul bica, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2228/5747367650_ae2ef4482e_m.jpg" title="nuances by paul bica, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dexxus/" target="_blank"> paul bica</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-27135468271834689192012-07-11T21:03:00.001-07:002012-07-11T21:03:07.875-07:00Excellent Classics<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zitona/4053097146/" target="_blank"><img alt="::Books have knowledge, knowledge is pow by » Zitona «, on Flickr" border="0" height="266" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2448/4053097146_9a06e2ff0e_m.jpg" title="::Books have knowledge, knowledge is pow by » Zitona «, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/zitona/" target="_blank"> » Zitona «</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of
library" - Jorge Luis Borges. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Although the last time I was on a classics kick was this winter and recently, I've been reading a lot of modern writers, I've been thinking about some of the great classics I've read. I'm sure many of you have already read them in school or on your own, but like myself, very few people have read all of the classics. I'm posting this list because if you have missed any of these, it's time to add them to pile! For now I'm going to provide my top five list and save the rest for future blog posts as I know when I'm presented with too many books at once I get overwhelmed and never know which ones to choose from! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn </i>by Betty Smith - I read this book going into my freshman year of high school. I loved it then as did my mom and I bet that if I read it now I would appreciate it even more. The novel takes place in the first and second decades of the 20th century and is split into five episodes relating to the characters' lives. It follows an Irish-American family who live in poverty. The book starts with eleven year old Francie Nolan. This book really takes you into the world at that time and Francie, the protagonist, is easy to connect with. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: "In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won't get mixed up. It was the best advice Francie ever got."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Wuthering Heights </i>by Emily Bronte- This novel is one of my all-time favorite books. If you haven't read this novel, please do! I first read this during my junior year of high school and have read it several times since then. While the book involves two men fighting over a woman, the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is more intense than any modern romance I have read or seen in a movie. This book is definitely one that stays with you! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being." </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Sound and the Fury</i> by William Faulkner - This novel is super confusing so reading the Sparknotes version along with the book the first time might help (or at least, it helped me in high school!). But it's worth it because this novel is special. It uses four different points of view and follows the fall of a Southern family. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"I never promise a woman anything nor let her know
what I'm going to give her. That's the only way to manage them. Always keep
them guessing. If you cant think of any other way to surprise them, give them a
bust in the jaw."</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Return of the Native </i>by Thomas Hardy - Thomas Hardy's books always have this wonderful mysterious feel to them and I especially loved this novel because of that trait. Eustacia Vye is definitely a character you will remember. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Though I should like Paris, I love you for
yourself alone. To be your wife and live in Paris would be heaven to me; but I
would rather live with you in a hermitage here than not be yours at all."</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Jane Eyre </i>by Charlotte Bronte - The Bronte sisters are my idols. Personally, I feel that anything they write is a masterpiece. The book follows Jane who lives with her cruel aunt and children at the start of the book, goes away to a charity school, then becomes a governess, where she meets Mr. Rochestor. Eventually, they fall in love, but he keeps a dark secret that threatens their relationship. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A quote from the novel: "I would always rather be happy than dignified." </span><br />
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What are some of your favorite classics? I'd love to hear about them! Thank you to all my readers and for helping the new blog grow :] Once the blog gets big enough, I'm hoping to hold some fun contests! </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/67262490@N04/6169162659/" target="_blank"><img alt="Sunset Pier by Ð…am, on Flickr" border="0" height="265" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6156/6169162659_46067abe39_m.jpg" title="Sunset Pier by Ð…am, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/67262490@N04/" target="_blank"> Ð…am</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-76736700307406597962012-07-11T14:25:00.001-07:002012-07-11T14:28:17.410-07:00Children's Reading List<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandoncwarren/4236278556/" target="_blank"><img alt="Alice in Wonderland: White Rabbit - No T by Brandon Christopher Warren, on Flickr" border="0" height="266" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4236278556_cef6edb710_m.jpg" title="Alice in Wonderland: White Rabbit - No T by Brandon Christopher Warren, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/brandoncwarren/" target="_blank"> Brandon Christopher Warren</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">— Jacqueline Kennedy</span></div>
</span></span>Today I finished teaching a creative workshop for children at my local library. I'm so glad I started this workshop as the kids were so enthusiastic about writing! Before I started teaching on Monday, I decided I'd compile a list of books (and authors) that I enjoyed reading when I was between the ages of 10 and 14 (the initial age range for the group). Google helped me remember many of these books. There were seven kids in the group between ages nine and eleven. Of course, some of the books on the list are geared for kids closer to age 14, while others are better for children closer to age 10. Then again, I'm twenty and I'd probably still enjoy any of the books on this list. Because of the age gap I reminded the students to ask their parents before reading any of these books. Some of them are educational, while others are simply fun reads. Here's what I came up with:<br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Judy Blume - I remember loving all of her adorable, funny books. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Agatha Christie <i>And Then There Were None </i>- This was the first Agatha Christie book I read in seventh grade. I really enjoyed this novel and many sites online suggested that out of all her books, this one was probably best for younger (or at least, middle school aged) children. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Sharon Creech <i>Walk Two Moons </i>- This book is probably one of the best books I have ever read (or at least that's what I thought at the time). I'd definitely recommend this novel to adults as well. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Lisi Harrison <i>The Clique Series </i>- Probably not a book schools would use for educational purposes, but I started reading these books ninth grade (maybe I was late on the train because online it suggests middle school is an appropriate age for this book too) and went through all of them so quickly. I couldn't wait for the next ones to come out! </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Carolyn Keene <i>Nancy Drew Series </i>- I found these books in my grandparents basement (they used to be my mom's) and my grandparents suggested reading them. I'm so glad I did! The Nancy Drew books are great and I went through so many of them. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">C.S. Lewis <i>The Chronicles of Narnia </i>- I'm not sure if this one is for much younger kids (because I remember reading this in third grade) and I only read <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>, but the series is pretty classic (and now a movie) so I figured I'd add it to the list.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Lois Lowry <i>The Giver </i>- I remember reading this in seventh grade and loving it. I'm typically not into sci-fi type books, but this was different. Whenever I ask friends about great books they read when they were younger they always reply, "I loved <i>The Giver</i>." I recently heard talk about a movie. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">L.M. Montgomery <i>Anne of Green Gables </i>series - I adore Anne of Green Gables. I was first introduced to her when my grandparents gave me the movies, which you have to watch if you haven't already. I can't count the number of times I have watched those movies; the films are excellent for both children and adults. Although I usually don't like reading books after already seeing the movies, I remember really liking these books as well. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Marissa Moss <i>Emma's Journal: the Story of a Colonial Girl </i>- I used to love journal style books when I was younger <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;">—</span> still do. Books like these are neat because you learn something about history while reading about girls who seem just like you. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">J.K. Rowling <i>Harry Potter </i>series: So I'm super late on this one since everyone has probably already read the books or seen the movies, but I had to add Harry to the list! Need I say more?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Lemony Snicket <i>A Series of Unfortunate Events - </i>I think I first read this series in ninth grade, but again these books are good for middle schoolers as well. Although I wasn't a big fan of the movie (which I saw after I read the books so maybe that's why), I remember loving these books. They're so quirky and comical and I think young kids appreciate that. </span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I'll be teaching creative writing workshops at two other libraries this summer as well. Does anyone have any more suggestions I can add to the list? What books did you enjoy from your childhood or enjoy reading to your children? I'd love to have a big list so keep the suggestions coming :]! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The blog's still less than a week old and I'd love to hear from new readers so if you enjoy these posts please feel free to subscribe to my blog by clicking the follow link at the end of the page! Stay tuned for the next post in which I'll be discussing wonderful classics. </span></div>
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div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhilung/3634927847/" target="_blank"><img alt="Greetings from my village Majuwa :) by ` TheDreamSky, on Flickr" border="0" height="260" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/3634927847_6ca930959e_m.jpg" title="Greetings from my village Majuwa :) by ` TheDreamSky, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/dhilung/" target="_blank"> ` TheDreamSky</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-12707304349652973832012-07-10T20:56:00.001-07:002012-07-10T20:57:40.725-07:00Non-fiction Must Reads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #181818; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> - Stephen King</span></span><br />
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Sorry if it's overkill, but I love Stephen King quotes. Although I usually read a lot more fiction than non-fiction, I read some spectacular non-fiction books last summer. I want to share them here as if people don't know about these books yet, they should!<br />
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<ul>
<li><i>Bird by Bird </i>by Anne Lamott - Various blogs suggested reading this book if you are/want to become a writer so I had to check it out. It was definitely worth it! Anne Lamott is so funny and her voice really comes through in her work. Not only does she give great advice on writing, but she also provides life lessons. </li>
<li><i>The Happiness Project</i> by Gretchen Rubin - Please read this book! Maybe I'm biased because I've always found books on happiness (even Ben Franklin's autobiography, which Mrs. Rubin mentions in her book) intriguing, but her memoir is certainly worth reading. S<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ome people argue that if you're constantly measuring happiness, you'll never be happy, but reading this account is worth it. Mrs. Rubin studied a lot of different happiness scholars and her finished product shows it! The cover of her book reads <i>The Happiness Project </i>"Or, why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read, Aristotle, and generally have more fun." She reminds us why we should live life to the fullest by being content with what we have. The premise for her book is that "The days are long, but the years are short." If you're interested in learning more about her book, Mrs. Rubin keeps an awesome blog: <a href="http://happiness-project.com/">http://happiness-project.com/</a>. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><i>My Year with Eleanor </i>by Noelle Hancock - I <i>loved </i>this book! This phrase is such a cliche when it comes to book reviews, but I'll say it anyway; her book was so inspirational. Please check this one out. Ms. Hancock is hilarious and (I'm going to sound like a preteen here) she seems like such a cool person. When Ms. Hancock turns twenty-nine she decides to live by Eleanor Roosevelt's quote, "Do something every day that scares you." For 365 days she does just that: swims with sharks, takes fighter pilot, tap dancing, and trapeze lessons, interviews all of her ex-boyfriends, works at a funeral home, does a comedy show, asks her long-term boyfriend about marriage, etc. I find bucket list style books so interesting. This memoir is a great summer read! Here's the link to her blog: <a href="http://noellehancock.blogspot.com/">http://noellehancock.blogspot.com/</a>. </span></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><i>On Writing </i>by Stephen King: Another incredible book if you are/want to be a writer. Not only does Mr. King discuss the craft, but he also provides us with an autobiography in which he discusses his childhood, meeting his wife at college, his struggles with alcohol and drugs, as well as his accident (when he was hit by a car) and how this experience affected his writing. Because Mr King's writing is so vivid there is never a dull moment in this book. </span></span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Happy reading :] Stay tuned for the next post on a general list of excellent books. Since the blog's still just starting off, I'd love to meet my new readers; if you enjoyed this post please feel free to subscribe to my blog! </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncohen/55582632/" target="_blank"><img alt="Montmartre by John Althouse Cohen, on Flickr" border="0" height="400" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/55582632_0ee7885f06_m.jpg" title="Montmartre by John Althouse Cohen, on Flickr" width="300" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/johncohen/" target="_blank"> John Althouse Cohen</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-80739535482665122312012-07-09T20:27:00.001-07:002012-07-09T20:30:11.436-07:00Freerice.com<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/4762004027/" target="_blank"><img alt="The Same Parents by Tony Fischer Photography, on Flickr" border="0" height="320" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/4762004027_436bf40baf_m.jpg" title="The Same Parents by Tony Fischer Photography, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/tonythemisfit/" target="_blank"> Tony Fischer Photography</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">"What is needed is a marriage of two impulses,
a coupling of the urge to do something positive with the willingness to
constantly re-evaluate how effectively our actions lead to our goal - that of
ending world hunger..." - <a href="http://www.doonething.org/heroes/chapin.htm"><span style="color: #0400f0; text-decoration: none;">Harry Chapin</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I want to use this post to share <span style="color: #0400f0; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1360">http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1360</a> </span><span style="text-decoration: none;">with you.</span> My
high school teacher first introduced it to us and since then, I still love going on this site. If you haven't heard about it before you're probably wondering
what a website involving rice has to do with writing. As Aldous Huxley reminds
us "Words play an enormous part in our lives and are therefore deserving
of the closest study."As writers, this quote is even more applicable.
Freerice.com is special because it serves two purposes: it helps improve
vocabulary and helps feed the hungry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">There are various subjects on
Freerice.com: English Vocabulary, English Grammar, Famous Paintings,
Literature, Multiplication Table, Basic Math (Pre-Algebra), Chemical Symbols,
German, Spanish, French, Italian, World Landmarks, Identify Countries on the
Map, World Capitals, Flags of the World, Human Anatomy, and SAT test
preparation. The last two sections appear to be new, at least since I've last been on
the site. As an English major I'm partial to the first two subjects and
typically play those sections or the language sections. I'll use English Vocabulary as an example of what Freerice.com is
like. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">An example that I just took right
off <a href="http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1391"><span style="color: #0400f0; text-decoration: none;">http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1391</span></a> is this: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/11902"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; text-decoration: none;">rhabdomancy means:</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">•<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://freerice.com/"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; text-decoration: none;">divination with a rod, wand, or the like</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">•<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://freerice.com/"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; text-decoration: none;">crazy about rhubarb</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">•<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://freerice.com/"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; text-decoration: none;">divining with crystal, or the like</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">•<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://freerice.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">obsession with red</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">You would then select the answer you think is correct and if you get it right, you donate ten grains of </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">rice to hungry people. There will be a bowl at your right that shows your progress as you answer more </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">questions correctly. If you get an account, you can permanently track the amount of rice you're </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">donating. As you keep getting questions correct, the level of difficulty increases (I believe it goes up to </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">around level sixty). You can also adjust the levels on your own. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; line-height: normal;">I wanted to share this site because I'm not </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">sure if many people know about it and it's so fulfilling (no</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">pun intended) to know that you're helping </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">fight world hunger while learning new words! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">Let me know </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">if you've checked out the site and your thoughts on it! If you know any other cool sites</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">like this one </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">please share them :] </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #141414; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: normal;">Next time I'll be discussing some great non-fiction reads so stay tuned! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">If you enjoy reading, please
feel free to subscribe as this blog is just a few days old and I'd love
to get to know my new readers! </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemuelinchrist/3172886063/" target="_blank"><img alt="Color Blast - 1- Color Hunger after the by lemuelinchrist, on Flickr" border="0" height="262" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3172886063_3a09b80c35_m.jpg" title="Color Blast - 1- Color Hunger after the by lemuelinchrist, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/lemuelinchrist/" target="_blank"> lemuelinchrist</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a><br />
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This beautiful photo's caption is "Color hunger," so I figured I'd share. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-84977703378586898852012-07-09T12:46:00.001-07:002012-07-09T12:46:46.581-07:00Revision Techniques<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/2394843377/" target="_blank"><img alt="Writing by pedrosimoes7, on Flickr" border="0" height="249" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2394843377_d6b9c78a2f_m.jpg" title="Writing by pedrosimoes7, on Flickr" width="320" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/pedrosimoes7/" target="_blank"> pedrosimoes7</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent
rewriter."
- James Michener </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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As
a writing center tutor, I’m often asked about revision techniques. I published
a similar write-up on my university writing center’s tumblr page, <a href="http://udwc.tumblr.com/">http://udwc.tumblr.com/</a>, but figured it
might be helpful if I share these tips on here as well. Although this blog post
is geared toward high school and college papers, much of this advice also applies
to those of you writing academic articles or fiction. </div>
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At
some point, we have all stared at the blank hue of our Word documents for
several hours, then typed for a few more hours until 1000 words finally
materialized on our screens. After the first draft is complete, it’s
time to start the revision process. As many of my professors have told me and
various academic scholars remind us, revision is not editing. While editing is
dissecting a piece of writing line by line to look for grammatical errors,
revision is looking at the work as a whole and deleting, shifting, or adding
entire paragraphs or sentences. Revision creates organization, which leads to a powerful argument. </div>
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I am definitely guilty of looking at my paper, thinking
“Hmm, maybe the word illustrates sounds better than the word shows,” or “I
guess I should stop this paragraph here because I’ve already written seven
sentences,” and considering this thought process revision. That
was editing, not revision. With the help of my professors and through
working at the writing center, I have discovered three
revision strategies that students (myself included) find helpful: reading a
paper or piece of writing out loud, looking at each paragraph and summarizing
the paragraph’s main idea in one sentence, and finally, asking the so what? question. </div>
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Reading
your writing out loud may seem embarrassing (most people don’t want to be that
person who looks like she’s talking to herself), but it is the most useful
revision technique I have come across through my work at the center. While this
process usually helps with catching minor errors, it also reminds us of our
argument/thesis, which often becomes a blur after staring at our writing
for several days. Many students who are initially reluctant to read their
papers out loud wind up saying, “Oops, I didn’t realize I left a word out” or
“Wow, that sentence is way too long.” They also notice larger issues and will add,
“Oh, I think I repeated myself in this sentence,” or “That sentence doesn’t
really make sense so maybe I should rephrase it.” By the time they get through
their papers, their essays are significantly better.</div>
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Another
revision technique that I love (especially if your topic sentences need work)
is breaking down each paragraph and summarizing it in one sentence. A lot of
times students’ topic sentences don’t relate to what they discuss in particular
paragraphs. After writing this one sentence summary ask yourself if a). It
relates to your thesis and b). It looks like the topic sentence you have already written. If not, you need a new topic sentence! For example, a student’s topic sentence may read, “Chaucer
writes about a diverse group of people,” but the student’s one sentence summary
may focus on how all of these characters have different goals during the
pilgrimage how these goals affect the stories they tell. Thus, the introduction
sentence should read something like, “The characters in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Canterbury Tales</i> have distinct goals
that affect the tales they share and thus, the reader’s interpretation of each
character.” This introduction sentence is a lot more direct than the original
and because of this, readers will know where the essay is heading. </div>
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My final favorite revision technique involves asking the so
what? question. I first learned about this question from my freshman English
professor and there is also an excellent write up about it on the page run by
the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, <a href="http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/conclusions/">http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/conclusions/</a>.
Basically, after each sentence a writer puts down he or she should ask, “How
does this sentence support my overall argument?” and “Why does this sentence
matter in this specific paragraph?”
For example, a student’s thesis may read, “Hamlet’s anger toward his
mother, not Claudius, is what ultimately leads to his negative attitude toward
adults.” Yet a sentence in the student’s paper may read, “Hamlet was also cruel
to Ophelia.” The student should ask herself, so what? Does Hamlet’s cruel
treatment of Ophelia relate to a thesis about Hamlet’s treatment of adults? No!
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The so what? question also applies to quotes. Students
often throw in quotes because they add length to their papers or sound good.
But remember to ask, so what? and think, does this quote support my argument
and how can I expand upon it to support my thesis? As the UNC-Chapel Hill website suggests, the so what? question is
especially important for conclusions, where the reader wants to know why he or she spent time reading an entire paper or piece of writing and how it relates to
more worldly concerns.</div>
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Well, so what? Hopefully this post was helpful if you're stuck on the revision process and don't know how to go about it. Revision is an ongoing process; I cringe to use this phrase because it is a
cliché, but it’s true. Every time I undertake a new paper or short
story, I remind myself of these revision techniques. Changing the word
important to significant might not make a difference, but there are other
things we can do that will. </div>
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Let me know if you have any
other revision suggestions, whether it is for revising student papers, journal
articles, short stories, poetry, etc. I am always looking for new ideas to pass
on at the writing center and to use when revising my work.<br />
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In my next post I'll discuss one of my favorite websites that is awesome if you're looking to improve your vocabulary and to change the world at the same time. If you enjoy reading my posts, please subscribe to my blog; I'd love to talk to some of my readers :]. </div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7718395152569130506.post-60699356550934478182012-07-08T11:54:00.001-07:002012-07-25T08:58:16.553-07:00Summer Bucket/Reading List<div>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclassified/3255025717/" target="_blank"><img alt="A beautiful scenary by © Ahmed Amir, on Flickr" border="0" height="300" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3133/3255025717_49268c7c85_m.jpg" title="A beautiful scenary by © Ahmed Amir, on Flickr" width="400" /></a><br />
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Hi all! I figured I'd start off the new blog discussing summer bucket lists and the great books I've discovered this summer thanks to my list. Over the past few years I have taken great pleasure in developing bucket lists. Because it's tricky to start a bucket list when tethered down by responsibilities from school or work I usually create winter break or summer bucket lists. This summer I divided my list into sections: travel, health, activities, romance, social life, volunteering, and writing. The first item that I placed under writing is to read at least twenty books. As Stephen King reminds us in his book <i>On Writing</i>, "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or tools) to write. Simple as that." As someone who continually seeks to improve her writing, I figured it would be helpful to read as many books as possible this summer.<br />
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I haven't reached the twenty book mark yet, but thought I'd share the books I have read so far as I think every one of them makes an excellent summer read. I especially love authors like Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah who write novels using multiple points of view; I think this technique makes their books applicable to everyone. Posted below is the list in alphabetical order:<br />
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<li>Stephen Chboksky: <i>The Perks of Being a Wallflower </i>- I just added this one to the list and you can find a complete description of the book on my most recent blogpost: http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/im-sucker-for-best-sellers.html</li>
<li>Jaycee Dugard: <i>A Stolen Life - </i>I've been wanting to read Jaycee Dugard's memoir for some time now. The memoir details her experience after being kidnapped and raped when she was eleven years old and held captive for eighteen years. Ms. Dugard is such a strong young woman and she uses her story to remind us that we should never be afraid to speak out. I really respect her for choosing not to use a ghost writer; by using her own voice, Ms. Dugard helps us understand how she actually felt rather than giving us someone else's neat flowery version of a story that is anything but neat or flowery.</li>
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<li>Emily Giffin: <i>Something Borrowed </i>- This novel is an easy read about two best friends; one friend is getting married and the other is going to be her maid of honor. The twist is that the maid of honor falls in love with her best friend's fiance. </li>
<li>Tracey Garvis Graves: <i>On the Island </i>- I just added this one to the list as well and you can find a complete description on my most recent blogpost: http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/im-sucker-for-best-sellers.html</li>
<li>Kristin Hannah: <i>Angel Falls </i>- This novel is a tearjerker. After a man's wife falls into a coma he discovers that she was previously married to a famous movie star. He realizes that the movie star's return may be the only way to revive his wife and risks the life that he has built with his wife if it means he has a shot at bringing her back. <i> Firefly Lane </i>- A powerful novel that follows the lives of two best friends and the changes that happen in their lives from the 1970s through the millennium. <i>Home Front </i>- A novel about a mother who goes off to war and the sacrifices that her and her family must make.<i> Night Road </i>- A wonderful novel about three inseparable best friends who are changed forever after one night during their senior year. </li>
<li>E.L. James: <i>Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed, Fifty Shades of Grey </i>- Because these books are all part of a series, I'll group them together. Although I agree that the writing is simple and the subject matter is not something you want to discuss at country clubs, I have to say that when I went on vacation I couldn't walk several steps without seeing someone reading these books. I'm glad I looked into what all the hype was about because I couldn't put these books down. The novels follow Anna Steele and Christian Grey who begin a dominant and submissive relationship that eventually turns into more. </li>
<li>Tucker Max: <i>Assholes Finish First - </i>I just added this one to the list and you can find a complete description on my most recent blogpost: <a href="http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/assholes-and-overachievers.html">http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/assholes-and-overachievers.html</a></li>
<li>Jodi Picoult: <i>Handle with Care </i>- Another tearjerker about a young girl born with osteogenesis imperfecta (a rare bone disease) and a mother who risks her friendship<i>, </i>marriage, and relationship with her older daughter to give her little girl a better life.<i> Harvesting the Heart </i>- A novel about a woman who was left by her mother when was she was young and considers making a similar decision when she too becomes a mother. <i>Mercy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> - I just added this one to the list (book #20!) so you can see a complete description of this book on my blogpost here: http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-20.html </span></i><i>Nineteen Minutes - </i>A brilliant novel about a high school shooting.<i> Picture Perfect</i> - A novel about a woman who is married to one of the nation's most beloved movie stars; she temporarily looses her memory, but as the novel progresses she remembers what caused her head injury and realizes that sometimes it is necessary to let go of what she loves.<i> Vanishing Acts</i> - A novel about a woman, her father, and her daughter, and their struggle to stay together after her father is arrested for a secret that he has kept from his daughter for most of her life. </li>
<li>Curtis Sittenfeld: <i>American Wife - </i>A novel about a small town girl who winds up falling in love with a politician and becoming first lady; she must choose between her personal beliefs and her love for her husband. <i>The Man of My Dreams - </i>A funny novel that explores the main character's relationships with men throughout her life. <i> </i></li>
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I hope you guys enjoy these books as much as I have and if you wind up reading any of them please share your thoughts. I'd also love to hear about any good books you've read recently so I can add them to my list! </div>
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Aside from reading, if you're looking for something fun to do this summer I'd definitely watch the movie <i>The Bucket List </i>with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. My professor showed us the movie this year and although I'd already seen it, I'm glad she reminded me of the film because I found it even more inspiring to watch when I was slightly older. I'd also encourage you to make your own bucket list; you can even post it here if you'd like and let me know how you're doing with it :]. As Morgan Freeman says in the film: </div>
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"You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you." </div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pamwood707/6152423507/" target="_blank"><img alt="Bucket List: Item 3 by Woody H1, on Flickr" border="0" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6152423507_e2c0aa6c9d_m.jpg" title="Bucket List: Item 3 by Woody H1, on Flickr" /></a><br />
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" border="0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/2.0/80x15.png" title="Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License" /></a> by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/pamwood707/" target="_blank"> Woody H1</a><a href="http://www.imagecodr.org/" target="_blank"> </a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01036717346216817931noreply@blogger.com12