Books of Note

I hope to update this every so often with the books I've been reading lately. Or re-reading as it goes sometimes.

So books of note lately...in no particular order:

Anne of the Island by L.M Montgomery -
This is one of those "childhood memory books". It is worn thin with the many times I've read it. It is the third book in the Anne of Green Gables trilogy and is my favorite. This book follows Anne as she begins college, gets several marriage proposals and finally realizes she's in love with Gilbert. I think when I was younger what drew me to this book was Anne's college life, living in "Patty's Place" with her friends and of course the cats. I can't really describe the cats very well. But suffice to say that its one of my favorite parts. Rusty, Joseph and the Sarah Cat.

And of course her finally accepting Gilbert. This takes the entire book and is so frustrating. Because you as the reader know Anne's mind and know how she feels about him even if she doesn't. And when you see her finally come to that realization, it's wonderful.

I picked this book up recently because I was thinking about Anne and how well those books were written. And I was not surprised to find it as good as I always remembered. Montgomery has a beautiful way of writing and she really captures her characters beautifully. If you've never read the Anne series, I highly recommend it!

So Yesterday - Scott Westerfeld
Tell me a book is written by Scott Westerfeld and I will read it. Without even asking what its about! "So Yesterday" is probably my second favorite Westerfeld book. This book is told from the POV of Hunter. Hunger is a "cool hunter". And least you think this is just something Scott made up, it isn't. Even Frontline did a program about cool hunters. These are people who look for the newest fad or fashion on the street and then put it into "mass production". Scott's book really captures the "art of cool" in its own way. How do things become cool? What makes them not cool? For an adult, Scott really captures the essence of teenagers and the way they relate to the cool factor as opposed to adults.

This is, as far as I remember, Scott's only non fantasy/scifi type book. But yet it almost seems to unbelievable to be real! Do people really hunt cool? Yes they do!
http://www.look-look.com

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone - JK Rowling
I'd really rather call this by its British name, Philosophers Stone, however since I have yet to acquire the Brit edition, I'll have to keep reading the American version. Cause you know us stupid Americans don't get "British-isms". Yeah right. I don't know a single Harry Potter fan who wouldn't rather have the British ed rather than the American one with words changed etc. I have the last three books in Brit editions (and all the American ones of course). And should have at least one more on the way. Yays!

Okay sorry... that was a bit off topic. It just bugs me that that was changed. ANY WAY...
I don't think Potter really needs explaining. But I will say this, re-reading the first book I really gained an appreciation for the why those books became so popular. That first book is so well written, so exciting. It captures the excitment and thrill of that first year at Hogwarts. The pace moves quickly, the characters are exciting... I think (as much as I love the last books) Jo could have cut some stuff out. Yes there was a lot of information, but wow. Sometimes it was just so long! The last book isn't even nearly as long as the fifth and sixth.

The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley
This was among my first fantasy YA books that I read. Probably after LotR. I can't exactly remember because it's been awhile. It had also been awhile since I'd read it and the other night I decided to pick it up and re-read it. This is a much older book, was published in 1984. It still has that brilliant writing of being older, and yet is still a timeless story.

The story is about Aerin, the kings daughter. But like most fantasy YA stories, she isn't happy with life in court and decides to become a Dragon Killer. In her time, Dragons however are more about the size of dogs rather than the large creatures we think about. But their is one left, Maur. Her quest to kill this dragon and to find the Hero's Crown lead her on adventures she never could have imagined.

This is one of my favorite fantasy books for it's amazing "shero", as they are more often called these days due to the negative connotation "heroine" seems to bring up. Some of today's female heroes have a tendency to be very rude in their behaviors towards their parents or those in authority over them. Aerin respects her father, and loves him. (her mother has died) She is quite an amazing role model. At least, in my opinion. She does amazing things, becomes the hero of her city and yet all the time still remains "female". I think (going of subject a bit) that's one thing I like about Buffy. To often others have this weird habit of turning strong female characters a little too male.

Anyway... Robin McKinley's books are always brilliant and well written. At least, the ones I've read. :-D I highly recommend this great book. And if you like it, then "The Outlaws of Sherwood".


Well that's all for last month, at least as far as I can remember. Because admittedly I do sometimes forget what I read. I read a lot ya know.

St. Patrick's Day... a little late

I'm sad I did not get the chance yesterday to post Happy St. Patrick's Day yesterday. Of all the holidays we have, this is one of my favorite. Though sadly too often the real reason for this day is forgotten. Patrick was (as far as can be told) probably the first Christian missionary to Ireland in the late 400's AD. He brought the truth and hope of Christ to a nation sadly dictated by the beliefs of the Druids. I was looking up Patrick on Wikipedia and there really isn't a lot known about him. But suffice to say that he did bring Christianity to Ireland and he did amazing things while he was there.

So next St. Patrick's Day... don't just blow it off as a silly holiday for drinking beer and remember the person the holiday was created for.

I was decked out yesterday in my traditional Irish wear. My green Ireland shirt with a shamrock on it... from Old Navy. HeeHee. I got that a couple years ago. It seems that Once a new year starts, I can never wear the shirt until after St. Patrick's day. You know they say "no white after Labor Day"... well I say no Ireland shirt until St. Patrick's day and after. :0) It's a silly tradition, but its fun. Its my way of making the holiday a little more special.

Because hey, somewhere in my family tree I'm Irish (yay red hair!) and I have to celebrate my heritage!!

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Thanks to those of you who are keeping up with this. I apologize for posts so few and far between. But my goal is to post at least twice a week... we'll see how that goes.
Comments are really awesome....

Coming up next.... notable books of the past month...

College

I get asked a lot, "How's college". More and more lately I'm finding it harder to answer. Why? Because the answer isn't a straightforward, "fine" or "horrible". Parts of it are fine, parts of it aren't.

Overall, I'm not a big fan of college. I had to spend two years studying things I'll never remember. Science and math mainly. I took statistics last semester and cannot even begin to tell you what I learned in that class. I don't like math and really see no point in learning statistics. Admittedly, my astronomy classes were interesting, and so was my Environmental Science class. However again, I don't remember what I learned. Not because I didn't try, but because I didn't continue to use it.

A few semesters ago I had a class on American Government that was amazing. It was probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken, and yet one of the best. I learned so much in the class and as hard as it was, I still made and A. The reason was the fact that the teacher made the subject interesting and relevant. I wish over and over I could be taking that class again right now as our country goes through such fascinating political changes. Yet still as interesting as it was, two years later I can't remember everything because I didn't use it.

Admittedly I do not have the best memory, but I still think some classes are really un-needed. If I'm pursuing a BA, why do I need so many math and science credits?

This semester I'm at a new college facing different challenges. Moving from a tiny community college to Georgia State University was a bit of a shock. From one small campus that you could see easily, to a campus spread all over downtown Atlanta. Talk about different!

I hate do say "I don't like college" and people get the idea I dislike GSU or I dislike learning. The fact is as a campus, I do like GSU. I've gotten used to it and really enjoy the environment. I have a lot of things available to me, I can walk all over downtown. I love the city.

And as for the learning bit, I enjoy learning relevant things. Ask anyone who's known me for awhile and they can tell you whenever I find something I'm interested in, I find out as much information about as possible. I check out tons of books from the library, do tons of internet research... I love finding out about my favorite places, activities and people. College sometimes provides those opportunities to find out really neat stuff. I really appreciate all the things I learned in my Features and Creative writing classes as well as my Brit Lit II and World Lit II classes. And now in my Intro to PR class. But all those others?

Especially two I'm taking at the moment. Intersections of Diversity and Mass Comm Research. The first one has a not so great teacher. I think the material is interesting, but its not fun spending time in a class where your teacher has a very obvious bias against Christianity. And no knowledge about it beyond what the media has thrown out. The latter one is all about research online etc... things I already know how to do. Made me wish there was a way to test out of it, but alas, there isn't.

So how's college? It's college. Its fun, boring, great, terrible, I hate it, I love it. Though I think most of the time I could do with out it... but every once in awhile some class comes along that makes it worth it.

I'm looking forward to next semester. (meaning fall, not summer because I'm dreading my summer classes) I get to dig more into my PR classes, and my minor classes (Event Planning) as well as electives. Though again I don't see the point of these electives. I have to take 5 extra classes that don't have to do anything with my major or minor if I don't want them too. Sometimes I really wonder, "what's the point"?. I wish there was more of a technical school for things. Just go, learn about what your doing and maybe a few extra classes, but don't spend so much time going over things you will probably never use again.

Trying

So I'm really, really, going to try and post better.

I've had that Guild Wars post saved for oh... the better part of a month now. So hopefully I can actually get better at keeping this up. I always think...oh, I should blog that. And do I? No. So know I really am going to try to.

I was going to say something about Justine Larbalestier and her blog and then as I went to look up how exactly to spell her name, I totally forgot what it was. I don't keep up with a lot of blogs, but hers is one of them and I check it daily. I believe I was going to say something about books and cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Eh.

Well that must be it for this post. Real life calls. (as opposed to the imaginary world of a book or Guild Wars.)