Thoughts on my list...

When I started this blog I had every intention of reading all of the books on the list that I found online of all of the books Rory Gilmore mention on Gilmore Girls. I have since come to the realization thanks to my birthday present (an awesome Nook that I absolutely LOVE) and Goodreads that there are so many other books I want to read. Additionally, half of the books on that list don't even sound interesting to me. So, I have decided to abandon the list. Not completely, there are still some awesome books on there that I want to read, I just don't plan to read ones like One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch or A Passage to India (which I have tried so hard to read and just cannot get into).

The moral of this story is that life is too short and there are too many books to read that I don't want to waste my time reading boring ones just to prove that I can read every book on some silly list. From now on I'll be reviewing books I feel like reading, which will probably be a lot of plays, Young Adult lit, books about education, every book in the Wizard of Oz series, as much Stephen King as is humanly possible, perhaps some classics, and some contemporary literature as well.

Just as a side note, while on this cross-country drive to Arizona, I have stayed in a hotel for the first time since reading The Shining and I have to say it was a little freaky when we were first walking down the hall to our room. I was afraid I might get attacked by a fire hose, but then realized that was quite absurd as I don't think those have been used in hotels in a very long time and our hotel was less than a year old.

I would love to get book recommendations from anyone who reads this blog, which for all I know might be no one at all, and if that is the case at least I'll be able to look back on all of the awesome books I've read!

"I want a schedule-keeping, waking-up-early, wallet-carrying, non-Velcro-shoe-wearing man.”

I will just start out by saying that Mindy Kaling and I could be best friends if we were ever given the opportunity. I loved her on The Office and I adore The Mindy Project -- I haven't missed an episode. As I soon as I started flipping the electronic pages of her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? on my Nook, I didn't want to stop. I found myself nodding in agreement with pretty much everything she said. She is so funny and the way she writes is so real. I would say that I related to her so well, but that would make my life seem much cooler than it really is.

Some of my favorite quotes include:

"This book will take you two days to read. Did you even see the cover? It's mostly pink. If you're reading this book every night for months, something is not right." 

This just gives the reader an idea of the mildly-snarky and completely hilarious comments to expect in this book.

"Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful..."

So, so true! This is what I will tell my students when they are feeling self-conscious or even when they are starting to get a big head about "being a star." Sure, maybe I remember who the popular kids were in high school but not one person cares about that stuff now. Not anyone who matters to me anyways.

"I’m only marginally qualified to be giving advice at all. My body mass index is certainly not ideal, I frequently use my debit card to buy things that cost less than three dollars because I never have cash on me, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the Anthropologie Sale section. I’m kind of a mess.” 

Ummm, amen. Does anyone carry around cash anymore? Honestly, I'm scared that someone will steal my wallet so I don't ever have cash with me. Does that make me paranoid? Maybe. I have 26 dollars in my wallet right now because I returned something to CVS that I paid for with my debit card and they just gave me cash instead of putting it back on the card, but it has been quite a while since I've had that amount in my wallet. Also, my room is always a mess.

“It makes me cry because it means that fewer and fewer people are believing it's cool to want what I want, which is to be married and have kids and love each other in a monogamous, long-lasting relationship.” 

Thank you! It is so nice to know that there are people out there that still think marriage and having kids is important.


She also writes a chapter about a photo shoot she did for People magazine in which she arrived to find three dozen beautiful size zero dresses and one that would have been her size which was a navy blue dress that "looked like what Judi Dench might wear to the funeral she didn't care that much about." I love how honest she is about how she feels about her weight. She mentions several things about being a chubby child and being between "model skinny" and "super fat and fabulously owning her hugeness" as an adult. It was so refreshing to read about someone in Hollywood that is ok with being a normal-sized American woman. I believe all women (especially young women) need to hear things like this to let them know it's alright not to be teeny tiny and that you don't have to be a bean pole to be successful in life.

I am a crier. I don't know why, maybe I'm just an overly emotional person, but there are very few days that go by that something doesn't at least make me tear up a little bit. It can be a movie, a book, a song, or something as small as reminiscing on good (or not so good) times in my life. I've always been kind of embarrassed by it, but no longer because guess what? Mindy says she cries at least 5 times a week. This makes me feel a little more normal, or at least like there are other people in the world that are uber sensitive. 

For fans of Bossypants by Tina Fey definitely give this book a try. Some critic wrote that Mindy is Tina Fey's "cooler younger sister" and I'd have to agree. This book is excellent. I recommend it to anyone and plan to use examples from it when I have to give pep talks to my female students. Thank you Mindy for writing such a down-to-earth and real book. I hope one day we can meet and become best friends.


 

Teenagers. Everything is so apocalyptic.

I remember seeing a preview for the film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures, within a few days, the book found its way into my cart at Target. I started the book on February 12 and finished it yesterday. So, it only took me about 4 1/2 months to read it!

That intro probably makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the book at all, but I actually really liked it. The first 250 pages were ROUGH. The authors kept hinting at a plot line, but it felt like it was never going to solidify. After reading the first 200 pages and struggling to decide whether or not to even keep reading it. So, I did what I never like to do and I Redboxed the movie. I hate to watch a movie before reading the book, but in this case I did it to see if the story was going to eventually get more interesting. After watching the movie, I decided to continue to read and after several more lackluster chapters, the story finally started to get good.

This book is very much like Twilight in the fact that the two "lovers" should never be together because one is mortal and the other is a supernatural being. This series, however is told from the male lead's perspective. He still gets sappy and says things like "I kissed her because I felt like I must. It was like breathing," and "Why did I think about her every second? Why was I so much happier the instant I saw her?" That lovey stuff is not written as often as it is in Twilight.

OK, I have to preface this with the fact that I am a crier. I cry in just about any movie or TV show that could possibly tug at your heartstrings. So, you've probably guessed that I cried while reading this book. Now I'm not talking about a Harry Potter cry, but there were some parts when Ethan was explaining what it was like to lose his mother and how hard it was for him and I did have some tears.

When I first started this book, I thought to myself that I probably wouldn't read the others but since I was already 200 pages in I had to finish the first one, but now I'm already 50 pages into the sequel! If you saw the movie but have not read the book, just know that even though the movie was alright (I'd give it a B-) the book was SO MUCH better. As I was reading the book, I found myself asking why they even felt the need to change certain things. It was kind of like The Lightning Thief movie, it was fine, but so different from the book when it really didn't need to be.

Here are my last words on this one: read it if you liked Twilight because I feel like it's kind of like it, but with a much cooler story. Witches > Vampires.

At the Edge of Chaos, Unexpected Outcomes Occur

Michael Crichton's The Lost World did not disappoint! I was worried because the movie was really lame. Not lame enough that I don't ever want to watch it again, but the movie pails in comparison to the book. The book was fabulous! I think I loved it even more than Jurassic Park.


My favorite character in both books is Ian Malcolm and he is pretty much the main character in The Lost World, so that's probably why I loved it so much. It was suspenseful and gruesome and chock full of dinos, which are my favorite creatures and I wish I could actually meet one. I guess the closest I'll get to meeting one is reading these books, so I'll keep them on my shelf to enjoy every couple of years!

I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the movie. It's a little scientific, but less scientific than the first book. If you like dinosaurs, these two books are great and terrifying and overall two of my favorites out there!