Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The 100 TV Show

So I just finished an ARC of The 100 by Kass Morgan last week (I'll get around to posting the review eventually). On the back of the book, it said that it was currently in development for The CW for fall 2013.

I did not expect to see an article about the new tv series the next day, lol. It was in this month's special issue of Comic-Con 2013 From the Editors of TV Guide Magazine. I can't find the article online, so here's the link to its imdb page instead. :P

No official premiere date yet; they just say midseason on The CW, so, I'll give it the show a shot once I actually find time to watch it.

But here's a clip of it.


From just the two minutes alone, the show deviates a lot from the book, so I don't know how I feel about it just yet. Octavia is a teenager instead of a little girl, which will probably cause a lot of different types of drama concerning Wells and Clarke, and the whole atmosphere from their landing is totally different, which will have a completely different impact on their stay on Earth.

So yeah, not totally sure if I like the changes or not since the show deviates from the book enough that I won't be bored from already knowing what happened in the book. Also, the book's tone was much more mysterious and full of wonder, so comparing it with the clip, I'm just wondering if the show will be about a bunch of teenagers doing stupid things unsupervised on Earth until they realize that they've only got so many supplies with them... :\

Monday, August 26, 2013

Dusty Reads: The Red Necklace (French Revolution #1) by Sally Gardner

Dusty Reads is a weekly post featuring a book that has been sitting unread on my home shelf for some time.


Title: The Red Necklace (French Revolution #1)
Author: Sally Gardner
Pages: 371
Publication: October 4, 2007
Publisher: Dial Books
Summary taken from goodreads:
The story of a remarkable boy called Yann Margoza; Tetu the dwarf, his friend and mentor; Sido, unloved daughter of a foolish Marquis; and Count Kalliovski, Grand Master of a secret society, who has half the aristocracy in thrall to him, and wants Yann dead. Yann is spirited away to London but three years later, when Paris is gripped by the bloody horrors of the Revolution, he returns, charged with two missions: to find out Kalliovski's darkest deeds and to save Sido from the guillotine. With a tangle of secrets, a thread of magic and a touch of humour, the follies of the aristocracy and the sufferings of ordinary people are unfolded as their lives move relentlessly towards the tragic and horrific days of the Terror. THE RED NECKLACE is not only a tremendous adventure story but a vibrant and passionate picture of Paris in turmoil and of a large cast of memorable characters.
When I was in middle school, I read I, Coriander, which is another book by the author. I absolutely loved it. That book was just so great and awesome, and I remember rereading it at least twice because I loved it so much and didn't want to leave that world and its characters so soon--the book was that good.

When I found out that Gardner had written some other books, I immediately bought them without really looking at the summary, lol. I'm not a huge historical fan, but I am a fan of her writing, which is why I am slightly ashamed for still having not read this book and its sequel since I bought them a few years ago. -__-"

I meant to read this book some time this summer, but since it's almost over... I don't really know when I'll have the time anymore. :\

Sunday, August 25, 2013

FIRST WEEK OF CLASS IS FINALLY OVER \o/

I DID NOT THINK THAT THIS SEMESTER WOULD BE SO TIME-CONSUMING. THERE'S SO MUCH READING AND CRITICAL THINKING AND STUDYING TO DO, AND I'M POSITIVE THAT PRETTY SOON, THERE WILL BE LOTS OF WRITING TO DO, TOO. D:

ajsdflk;j

I just...


Lol, I know that I'm overreacting, but I'm just really disappointed to find out that this year won't be as easy as last year. :P Also, I think that this week really sucked because I didn't really pack lunch since there wasn't anything to pack at home, and I didn't have time to eat half of the time I was on campus anyway, so I pretty much starved everyday, which made me tired and super spacey in all of my afternoon classes. :\

Also, my cousins came down with my sis this weekend, so I didn't really get that much time to do any homework even though we set aside time to do our homework since we were all swamped in it anyway. Although, I really didn't have an excuse for not doing any today since all I did was watch Supernatural and hangout...

That's why I've got to go and read a whole bunch of articles and chapters for class tomorrow. D:

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Mini Reviews: Two-Way Street, Desires of the Dead (The Body Finder #2), & Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls #4)

Title: Two-Way Street
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Pages: 296
Publication: June 26, 2007
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Summary taken from goodreads:
There are two sides to every breakup. 
This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love. Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple. But they clicked; it worked. They're even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation. 
Then Jordan dumps Courtney -- for a girl he met on the Internet. 
It's too late to change plans, so the road trip is on. Courtney's heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days. La la la -- this is Courtney pretending not to care. 
But in a strange twist, Jordan cares. A lot. 
Turns out, he's got a secret or two that he's not telling Courtney. And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can't get back together, and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.
3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

Reading so many great reviews and remarks about this book gave me too high expectations; I was expecting a contemporary novel fit to rival Sarah Dessen, but with more angst.

The book was still good, but the characters' voices were very...immature at times for high school graduates.

Overall, TWO-WAY STREET was a good book, although every mention of MySpace made me laugh. It's crazy to think about just how a few years can change the contents of a book.




Title: Desires of the Dead (The Body Finder #2)
Author: Kimberly Derting
Pages: 355
Publication: February 15, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Summary taken from goodreads:
Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life. 
As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.
2.5 STARS - I LIKED IT ENOUGH

MY REVIEW:

Much better than the first book in terms of writing, but man, Violet was so frustrating for the majority of the book.



Title: Only the Good Spy Young (Gallagher Girls #4)
Author: Ally Carter
Pages: 265
Publication: June 29, 2010
Publisher: Hyperion
Summary taken from goodreads:
When Cammie Morgan enrolled at the Gallagher Academy, she knew she was preparing for the dangerous life of a spy. What she didn’t know was that the serious, real-life danger would start during her junior year of high school. But that’s exactly what happened two months ago when Cammie faced off against an ancient terrorist organization dead set on kidnapping her.
Now the danger follows her everywhere, and even Cammie “The Chameleon” can’t hide. 
When a terrifying encounter in London reveals that one of her most-trusted allies is actually a rogue double-agent, Cammie no longer knows if she can trust her classmates, her teachers—or even her own heart. 
In this fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series, the Gallagher Girls must hack, spy, steal, and lie their way to the truth.as they go searching for answers, recognizing that the key to Cammie’s future may lie deep in the past.
4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

What I love about this series is the fact that it doesn't take long to be completely and totally sucked into the story, and this book was no exception. 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

blurg

So, the season finale of the first half of Teen Wolf was Monday night and school started yesterday... :\

I'm really sad that I don't have anything to look forward to on Mondays anymore, especially since school started, lol. But yeah, the last episode was pretty good although now I'm wondering if Derek is not going to be in Teen Wolf anymore. D: However, they showed a sneak peak of the other half of the season, and I can't wait for January 6th to come!

Also, school started yesterday, and it kind of sucks. I have homework in all of my classes except for one, which involve a lot of reading, and my schedule does not fit with any of my friends well. We hardly have any time to hang out unless it's late, and even then I'm not sure if I'll have time since I have part-time jobs and have to commute every day. :\

And my laptop has been crapping out all day today. I've had to shut it off three times, which is really annoying, since I have to do some online reading and studying for a quiz I have tomorrow. 

So yeah, I've really got to get off here before my laptop decides that it can't connect with the internet again and completely screws me over. >:|

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

I don't have a lot for this list, but that's only because each website has a lot to offer. :P

Top Four Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier:

1. Goodreads
The site that I read awesomely hilarious reviews of books (that usually includes accurate gifs). Definitely a site that I value the opinions of people I'm friends with or follow. I also posts my book reviews on here first instead of my blog because of reasons. :P

2. Amazon
The site that I spent most of my babysitting money on buying books because of its great deals in the past. Unfortunately, Amazon has had less awesome sales and discounts for the past year or two, which is why I've stop ordering books from them lately, but it's also because I have no time and/or money to buy anymore books. I've also heard that Amazon is going to start taxing customers now... D:

3. Blogovin
This site helps keep all of my blog subscriptions in order by daily reminders in my email. I switched over to it once I heard that Google Reader was being shut down some time this year. It's very useful, although I haven't been keeping up with my subscriptions for the past few months, so there's a lot I have to sort through.

4. Google
Who doesn't rely on Google? :P I use it to look up for more info after I'm done reading a book when I want to see if there's going to be a movie adaption for it or to see if there's going to be a sequel or something equally awesome. 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Home!

Just got back home a hours ago, and I'm still not done unpacking and being responsible. :P

So many emails to make for tomorrow and stuff I need to check and do before school starts. Not to mention, I apparently sold another textbook, so I need to buy stuff for packaging and mail it by Tuesday. And I still need to read and review my two ARC's...

But yeah, my weekend was fun; I'll post the few pictures that I took later when I'm less busy. My last week--basically my vacation for all summer--was really fun and relaxing. I watched a lot of Supernatural (finally on season three!) and spent a lot of money on great food and clothes shopping for my job. 

So while I'm happy that I got to enjoy my last weeks of school having fun, I'm still dreading starting classes again. :P That's mainly because I'm going to have even less time now to do things that I like, but I think it'll be okay because I'll finally get to see my friends again. :)

Now I have to go do the laundry. :P

Friday, August 16, 2013

Going to Harry Potter World Tomorrow! :D

I'm super excited! 


I hate huge crowds, but I think I'll survive, lol.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

ACADEMY AWARD WINNING MOVIE TRAILER

I love Tumblr. I really do. You find the best videos on there. XD

Just watch the video. It's the most hilariously accurate movie trailer ever.


What's even better is the comments, lol.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books With a School Setting

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Since I mainly read YA, a lot of the books that I read take place in schools. :P

Top Ten Favorite Books With a School Setting: 




Friday, August 9, 2013

Out of Town for a While! :L

I'm leaving for Atlanta with my sis tomorrow morning/afternoon to go shopping and eating out on the way back up to my grandma's house, where I'm staying at for the next week. There's going to be so much food and chilling. :D

Don't expect many updates. I still haven't decided if I want to bring my laptop or not, lol. Don't get me wrong, tablets are great, but they're so much more trouble trying to write up posts with than on a laptop. But maybe that's just me since I'm so used to posting on a laptop. :P

Also, my cousins, sis, friend, and I are going to Harry Potter World next weekend! We're going back home the day before school starts, which I also already have plans for since I'm president of STC, so I probably won't be posting much for the next two weeks.

Anyways...

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Tumblr Pics 40

My fingers are so sore from folding so many letters yesterday and today. I have so many tiny papercuts, too, lol from not realizing that I should be folding them from behind. XD Apparently there are 2,500 letters total, and we only finished around 600 of them. O__o















Wednesday, August 7, 2013

I think I made a terrible mistake XD

During the weekend, Shanice and I decided to start a new tv series together since Teen Wolf was coming to an end. After browsing through Netflix for an inappropriately long time at Starbucks, we decided to start watching Supernatural, which, ironically was one of our first choices, lol.

Like, we weren't sure if we wanted to get into it since all of Tumblr seems to be a huge fan of it (and we didn't really want to follow the bandwagon, lol) and also because it has eight seasons out already; that's almost 150 episodes total! O__O That's a lot of time invested in a tv series, especially since every episode is around 40 minutes long.


But yeah, we watched the first episode at Starbucks and liked it enough. We decided to continue watching it at my house since Starbucks was getting pretty loud, and we ended up watching around six or seven episodes.

They were pretty interesting, but they didn't grab my attention that much because Supernatural is an episodic series, which meant that every episode ended with the mystery solved and not much else besides the brothers' need to find their dad as the overarching plot. So yeah, I wasn't that invested in the series since I knew how the episodes would end, but I decided to continue watching it, hoping that it would get better. It did.

Around the ninth or tenth episode, the series was getting so much better. They finally revealed more of their backstories, you see more of Sam and Dean's brotherly bond, and the plot and executions of each episode was becoming more intense and intriguing. And oh man, some of the episodes were actually a little scary, which made the series even greater in my opinion because I find it hard for most tv shows to be scary.

I'm only on the fifteenth episode, but I definitely know that I'm hooked onto this series. I guess I know what I'll be doing the rest of this summer and once the semester starts again, lol. 

But seriously, eight seasons?! I just--why??? If I end up being as obsessed about Supernatural as I already am about Teen Wolf, I don't even know what I'll do. XD

Although I do want to point out that I did not start watching this series because of the hot guys. I did not even think that they were that great looking in the first place, okay! Their attractiveness grew on me after the first few episodes, lol.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

Some standalone books have the most perfect endings that ties everything up beautifully and wonderfully, but you always want a sequel just for a chance to stay in that world, with those characters for a couple of hundreds of pages longer.

Top Ten Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels:




Monday, August 5, 2013

Weekly Haul (75)

So... I've kind of been in a reading slump for the past month...

On the bright side, I think these books interest me enough to try to get into them. :)

Review:
The 100 by Kass Morgan
Inheritance by Malinda Lo

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Books I Want to Read This Month

So last month was an epic failure... I've got a couple of weeks before classes start, so let's hope I can manage to get a couple of these books out of the way! :)
  1. The Dealer by Robert Muchamore
  2. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
  3. From What I Remember by Stacie Kramer & Valerie Thomas
  4. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
  5. The Boy Book by E. Lockhart
  6. Linger by Maggie Stiefvator
  7. Chime by Franny Billingsley
  8. Tiger's Curse by Collen Houck
  9. Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
  10. Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
  11. The Whole Stupid Way We Are by N. Griffin
  12. UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn
  13. Divergent by Veronica Roth
  14. Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbarb
  15. Prodigy by Marie Lu

Friday, August 2, 2013

busy being social :3

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy, lol.

Last Thursday, I found out that the dollar theater was showing "The Great Gatsby" and "Fast & Furious 6", but Shanice and I didn't have enough time to watch both of them in one day, so we split watching the movies up and inviting some of our other friends to come watch them with us on Friday and Saturday.


Mia was originally going to watch "Fast & Furious 6" with us on Friday but couldn't at the last minute because of her car, so it was just Shanice and me, which was fine. We went and got frozen yogurt at Kiwi Fruz later, which was great, because they had some new flavors that I really liked although their cheesecake is my all-time fav. XD

On Friday, Emily came with us to watch "The Great Gatsby". Jackie was planning on coming too since she's been really wanting to watch it, but she couldn't go at the last minute, which sucked. The movie was really good; I loved the soundtrack!

Afterwards, we decided to go hang out at Bare Bulb since we hadn't been there since senior year, lol. It was fun. We talked and ate desert and decided to go to open house together to visit our old teachers while our bros found their new teachers since they were upcoming freshmen. And we ran into Justin, which was funny since we didn't notice him laying on the couch behind us until we were almost about to go, lol. Apparently he was laying there even before we came in. Dude could of said a random hello, lol.

On Monday, I took my bro to Open House. I picked up Shanice and we met up with Emily and her bro, and we basically went around school finding their classes and talking to our old teachers. It was funny because we, the graduated college students seemed more excited about going back to HOCO than our brothers, lol.

But it was really fun. A lot of our teachers were relocated, so we ran into them randomly and talked for a good bit while our bros were waiting to talk to their teachers. We didn't get to stop by or find a couple of our teachers, which was a bit saddening, but it was still cool. And we even ran into Meethu's mom and her sis there; turns out that she and my bro have math together!

We stopped by the band room since both of our bros were in that class only to find Shanice's bro there, handling questions since the teacher wasn't back yet. It was so funny that all of our siblings knew it each other or were about to know each other, lol. Emily and her bro had to go home, but Shanice, Brian, and I decided to stay and chill in the band room for an hour, giving advice to the new freshmen about AP classes and teachers to avoid.


When I got home, I texted Emily, Jackie, and Mia about how I wanted to surprise Shanice on Wednesday too since her birthday was the day after we had our surprise get together for Meethu. It was going to be a double surprise, lol. :D

The next day, Emily and I went around town looking for a suitable birthday card and kiddy tiara for Shanice while Jackie was planning on bringing a cupcake with a candle for Shanice the day of the get together. We planned it so that she would arrive later than everyone else and after Luke and Meethu arrived so that Shanice would definitely not notice anything too out of the ordinary since Jackie was usually late anyway. XD

For the past two weeks, we've been planning on having a surprise get together after Luke texted me saying that Meethu felt lonely since she hasn't hung out with anyone but him this summer. I felt kind of bad for not really trying to get make time to hang out with anyone other than Shanice this summer since everyone but her had summer classes and a job keeping them busy, so I thought that it was a good idea for all of us to hang out at least one last time before summer was over and we all had to go back to different parts of Georgia.

So yeah, I sent a mass text to our friends trying to arrange a time for all of us to be able to meet up and kept Luke in the loop so that he would see when Meethu was free, and we finally agreed to have the surprise on Wednesday after I got off from work at four. There was some bumps in the plan, but everything turned out fine.

Lol, I told Luke to blindfold Meethu when he drove her over so that she wouldn't know where they were going since we were all meeting up at my house. Unfortunately, she took off her blindfold when he stopped at my house so she knew that we were all there before we could fully surprise her by yelling "SURPRISE!" once she stepped inside. :P

But it was still fun. Emily brought Collin and a bunch of oreos with her first before Shanice came, and Mia texted and said that she was going to be 30 minutes late because she had to take her sister home first. Then Luke and Meethu came, and we talked and goofed off for a bit before Jackie and Michael came with the cupcake and we surprised Shanice. Then Mia and Devon finally came, and my room was definitely crowded, lol.

Originally, I thought that it was just going to be a girls gathering as they usually were, but Emily asked if she could bring Collin since she hadn't seen him all summer, and I realized Luke would probably hang out with us too since he was driving Meethu over, and I didn't want them to feel too alienated with so many girls around, lol. That, and Luke's best friend is Devon, who is Mia's boyfriend, so I figured that I might as well have everyone bring their boyfriends, too, and make it one huge gathering, lol.

Not gonna lie, not everyone was friends with each other or even knew each other, so there were a couple of awkward silences throughout the whole night, but it wasn't like they were that bad. It was still entertaining even though I felt a little bad for Jackie and Michael since they didn't really talk much except with each other.

But yeah, we hung out in my room for a while until we were all starving and then headed out to eat at Cheddar's, our usual restaurant whenever we have get togethers. I thought that since it was the middle of the week, there wouldn't have been that long of a wait to seat all of us, but I was wrong. The wait for a table of eight (Collin and Luke had to leave for work or their parents' mandatory dinner) was 30-45 minutes. :\ We tried thinking of other places, but their waits were around the same time, so we decided to stay at Cheddar's since we liked it the best anyway. In the end, we were seated after waiting for only 20 minutes, so yay for that. :P


The wait for our food was pretty long, but that was expected. And it turned out that Collin didn't need to work that night so Emily left and picked him up, and Luke finished eating dinner with his family pretty quickly, so they both came back before our food arrived.

After we finished stuffing ourselves, we walked over to Target since it was nearby, and goofed off there like we usually do, lol. It was funny how well we stuck to tradition even though we had the guys with us. XD We raided the dollar aisle first like usual before heading over to the hats/scarves section and being super goofy while the boys hung out in the aisle outside, with Luke holding Meethu's purse in his hands like some type of box, lol.

Then we let the guys go where they had wanted to go first: the movie aisle. We spent an inordinate amount of time talking about too many movies, lol. It was funny since Collin had an opinion about almost all of the movies we saw because he watched the majority of them since he works at a movie theater.

Then, we had to go to the toy aisle, of course. XD It really felt like old times, pretending that Disney dresses looked great on everyone and playing with the pool noodles and skateboards. :) Really, it didn't feel any different than senior year.

We were just rounding the last corner of the store when there was an announcement that the store was closing in half an hour, so we hung out in the closed dining area as people used the bathroom and tried to figure out where to go next. I wanted to go to Rigby's and play laser tag, but Emily didn't want to go. Someone else suggested bowling, but two others and I didn't want to, and we decided that we wanted to play boardgames, especially Pictionary, lol.

So we walked back to the cars and stood around for a while trying to decided where to go since we couldn't go to my house like usual since my bro started school the next day, so my mom would not like a bunch of loud teenagers hanging around while they tried to sleep.

Devon said that his place was fine since he didn't have any younger siblings who had school the next day, so we went over there and ended up playing Charades on an app on Meethu's phone since the Pictionary app was crap, and she didn't want to get her game at her house since she was afraid that if she went home, her parents wouldn't let her leave again, lol.

I forgot how fun playing Charades was. Probably because the last time I played it, I was with my sis and bro and some other strangers when I was in elementary school, lol. But yeah, it was hilarious how Luke would always look at and expect Devon to figure out his topic because they're such close friends that they were practically brothers. And it actually worked really well when Luke was pantomiming for "A Tale of Two Cities", lol.


Unfortunately, we didn't play for too long since Emily's mom texted her saying that she expected her home by 11, and since it was already 10:45, we had to leave almost immediately. My mom had called me on the way to Devon's house saying that she wanted me home early, too, so I left with Shance and Collin, who were both going home with Emily.

But yeah, that's the first time I've had such a huge get together. It was definitely interesting, but I definitely want to have a girls only get together like how we usually do it to before everyone goes away to college again. I'm thinking of trying that next Wednesday I think.

But next Monday, Shanice, Jackie, and I are going to spazz out about the second to last episode of Teen Wolf's first half of the season, lol. Shanice and I found out that Jackie had finally caught up on Teen Wolf on Wednesday, lol. If we had known that she had finished watching the first two seasons on Netflix and kept up with this season this summer, we would have brought her over and spazzed with her every Monday night!