Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for old school] 

Okay I have recently received a lot of awards, and unfortunately have not been on top of award posts. This means that I have gotten a few awards that I am not quite sure where they came from. Also, since I have gotten so many awards at once I'm not going to be passing them onto 30 gagillion blogs because that would mean I would have to go out and find blogs I don't actually read, and then give them awards. Since I don't want to do that I will just pass on these awards to blogs I truly love and feel deserve them. So the list...

I received the Silver Lining Award from my good friend Jade at Chasing Empty Pavements. As I understand from her post, this award means that I always try to look at the upside of things. It's pretty amazing I got this award, because I was known as the resident debbie downer at my high school when I was about 15. But hey, what can you expect from a 15 year old? I have five more years of wisdom now! Thanks for this award!

I am now going to pass this award on to Displaced English Major, Southern City Mysteries, Helen Loves Books, and Confessions and Ramblings of a Muse in the Fog.

The next award I received was from a blog I truly respect (not that I don't respect the others), A Guy's Moleskine Notebook. This reading journal is a daily go to for me and I know I can always depend on it for honest reviews and musings that have a lot of heart.

I am going to give this award to Dyxie Land: Gay/Straight Take on Nothing, Books and Movies, and Laura's Reviews. I realize some of you have probably gotten this award before, it circulates quite a bit (this is my second time) so sorry about that. But I wanted to give you all something!

Laura at Reading and Rooibos gave me the Kreativ Blogger award. I only recently discovered her blog but it has quickly become a favorite of mine. For this award I am supposed to list seven things about myself... but more on that later. Thanks Laura!

I am giving this award to A Guy's Moleskine Notebook, The Book Whisperer, Bookmarked!, and A Bookish Way of Life.

And last but not least, I received the Sugar Doll award from Michele at Southern City Mysteries. Hers is a wonderful writer's blog that I urge you to check out. She also has a new weekly meme called Writing Prompt Wednesdays, be sure to join in on that! This award requires to me say ten things about myself...

And I am giving this award to Stuck in a Book, Boarding in My Forties and Chasing Empty Pavements.

So what I'm going to do is tell you fifteen things about myself. I think that's fair. I think I should get some kind of theme going though. So maybe I will tell you fifteen things about since college.

1. I only applied to one school, the University of Iowa. I knew I would get in, I knew it was where I wanted to go, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on application fees when I knew I was only going to consider Iowa.
2. When I first came to Iowa I was a Journalism and English double major. At the end of first semester my freshman year I quit Journalism, even though that is what I thought I really wanted to do. My roommate and I had a very lengthy discussion the night I decided to quit Journalism. She was a Journalism major too.
3. Since quitting Journalism I have considered French, Communication Studies, Linguistics, American Studies, and History as possible second major or minors. Right now I am interested in History and Museum Studies. That seems to be where life is taking me.
4. My freshman year my boyfriend and I were attending different schools. He was at Kansas State and I was obviously at Iowa. He decided to transfer to Iowa this year and it has made a world of difference in both of our lives, but I am thankful we had that time apart because it makes us appreciate each day together even more.
5. A couple other people joined me at Iowa this year. My best friend from high school, Katharyne, and my other good friend from high school Benjamin. Having both of them with me makes school quite the trip!
6. I asked for a coffee pot my senior year so I could have coffee in my dorm room. I rarely make coffee now, just like my family told me I wouldn't. I just don't have time.
7. Last semester I took all English classes. A hint for everyone else: Never, ever do that.
8. Going on a year and a half now I have worked at the lovely Currier-Stanley Residence Halls Front Desk. I steal pens (But don't tell Barb!)
9. The first English class I took at Iowa was a class on Virginia and Leonard Woolf taught by the lovely Lara Trubowitz. It was a fascinating class and sparked my interest in Victorian literature, mostly because Virginia hated those Victorians so much.
10. In my Victorian Lit class last semester there were two males. And about thirty students. It was an interesting class, and my prof brought Christmas cookies to our final!
11. I have started four (I think?) blogs since I came to college. This is the only one that has stuck. Why that is I do not know. I think I had a different attitude with this one, and an actual purpose.
12. I had season tickets to Iowa football games my freshman year. Yeah, that was a waste of my parents' money. I rarely went to football games in high school.
13. My class was supposed to be the last class to graduate from out old high school, but they didn't get the new high school finished in time so we were the second to last class to graduate from our old high school. I will lie to my children about this because second to last sounds stupid.
14. Last year I saw Ben Folds twice. I also saw Jack's Mannequin twice. I geek out for pianos.
15. Since coming to college I have found out that I love to read literary criticism. So sue me.

Thanks everyone who gave me an award! Sorry this was such a sloppy post, it'll teach to be more on top of this in future!

Meg Cabot's Mediator Series has been out for about six years, but even though I love Meg Cabot I never tried them out. Once I got my nook I decided to download the first book, Shadowland

since it was fairly cheap and I was looking for a good escapist book and I know Meg Cabot always delivers that. And I was write, because I could not put Shadowland down. Suze just moved to California from her home of sixteen years, New York. She is not enthused about the move at all, to say the least. She has to live with her mom and her mom's boyfriend as well as his three sons. But they're not so bad, the worst part is Jesse, the dead cowboy that is haunting her new bedroom. Except, well, he is a little cute. Oh but then there is the dead high school girl haunting her new Catholic high school, and she is looking for revenge. How can Suze see all of this stuff? Because she's a mediator, a communicator between the living and the dead.

I've always thought mediators were kind of fascinating and I think Cabot does a great job of really showing some of the problems that might arise if you were sixteen years old and saw dead people. Like, how would you tell your mom? And if you decided not to tell her, how would you hide something like that? I feel like Meg Cabot always puts herself into the situations she is writing about and imagines going through a normal life with whatever problems the characters have. She becomes her characters, and that makes for YA books that I can never put down. This was the perfect summer read for me, a little creepy and a little awesome. Suze is pretty badass too, which anyone who reads my blog knows I love. She's got her leather jacket that she wears to death even though her mom hates it and she sneaks out of her room in the middle of the night to go kick some ghost butt.

But the book also deals with normal teenage stuff, like fitting in. Obviously being a mediator doesn't make Suze the most popular girl in school, that is until she gets to her new school where everyone is amazed that she can save so many people from falling beams. And Suze speaks her mind. She flat out tells the most popular girl in school that she thinks she is totally rude. She basically says and does everything you wish you had said and done in high school- but she's still insecure, and she's still a normal teenage girl. She's still pining away for a boy that is way out of her league. Let's just say this book took me back a couple of years to my own high school days. My biggest gripe with this book was that the plot was too rushed towards the end, and I felt like an important character fell out of the story for awhile so it was little jarring when he came back. I fully plan on reading the next book in the series though.

Shadowland gets a C.

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VIA «Old School Graphics»

The Queen Bee of Bridgeton by Leslie DuBois is the story of 15 year old Sonya who wants nothing more out of life than to be able to dance. She understands that homework is important, but it would always take a back seat to her dancing, if her older sister didn't push her so hard to make something better for herself. She attends the prestigious Bridgeton Academy and for years she been anonymous. But she attracts the attention of Will, one of the most popular and notorious boys on campus and suddenly, everything starts to change. People start noticing her, and not all of the attention she starts getting is good. She somehow attracts the attention of the schools group of 'mean girls' and she's shown a side to people she's never seen before.

Sonya doesn't really understand cruelty. She doesn't understand why people do things deliberately with the intention to hurt or harm. It's not in her nature. So when the mean girls in school start popping up, Sonya doesn't really understand what's going on, or why people could be like this, but she definitely wants to help those who have been harmed by this group of mean girls. But, the mean girls have a system worked out, a system where they rule the school and they really don't like this girl getting in their way.

I really liked Sonya's character. She was just a genuinely nice person who looked for the good in everyone. She is both observant and blind, seeing a lot that most people overlook, but missing out on a lot of details that are right in front of her. She's fairly innocent without being completely naive and I found her to be completely believable. That's about the way I'd expect a 15 year old with a good heart who only cares about dancing to react. But, Sonya was the only character I completely believed in. Most of the other characters in the novel were well written, well rounded and well developed, but they were somehow missing that solid ring of authenticity I got from Sonya.

I liked Will. Mostly. I found the game he played with his jock buddies to be absolutely and completely reprehensible, which gave me a bad taste for this kid from the beginning. I don't know if high school kids really play games where they get points for sexual acts. Some probably do. I don't want to think about it. (Not in a, let me stay naive-stick my head in the sand way, but in a — if I spend to much time thinking about this I might hit something-way). It disgusts me. Completely and totally. So, I knew I'd struggle with Will when the only thing Sonya knows about him is that she thinks he has sad eyes and that every time she sees him, he's leaving some dark and semi-public place with a half naked, very disheveled girl. So, when he approaches her (wait, me?! Are you talking to me?!) she's a little confused, somewhat concerned, and a lot not interested. And I loved that. I loved that Sonya told him no the first time he asked her out, and that Sonya wasn't afraid to be true to herself.

I will admit that while I didn't guess every single plot detail, I did see a lot of the big stuff coming. Which is okay. Every book doesn't have to be a complete and total surprise, but a lot of the stuff I'm assuming was supposed to be shocking, wasn't. Sometimes this bothers me, but it didn't this time. Which is, of course, a very good thing.

I thought that the book was very well written and it had a great pace. The character development was wonderful, both individually and in relationships and interactions and I loved the speed at which DuBois had Will and Sonya's relationship progress. And, while I was initially very put off by Will, he really wanted to do right by Sonya and he tried, hard. You could see that. It was clear that he was unsure of himself for the first time around a girl and I found that very endearing and very believable. When you are completely confident in your ability to make a conquest and have never tried to have a relationship, it's going to be hard and it's going to get awkward sometimes.

I was explaining this book to someone, mentioning what the book was about and things and they mentioned that it sounded like a cross between Mean Girls and Step Up. And, ya... I'd have to agree with them. The school itself isn't an artistic school, and Sonya is the only one who dances or anything in the story but elements from both movies are present in the book, and I can easily see how you would enjoy this book if either (or both) of those movies are ones that you enjoy watching.

The book also offers a sneak peek at the beginning of book two in the series. While I genuinely liked this one and thought it was well written with well developed characters, I don't really feel like it needs to be a series. I felt like the characters stories were finished. Obviously, there is the possibility for more to tell, because people continue to live, but I thought this book was perfectly complete. So, I don't know if I'm going to pick up the sequel(s) to this one yet. I haven't decided. I might be happy to just let these characters rest in my mind, leave them with their (mostly) happy endings.

*Disclaimer — I received a copy of this book from the author as part of a Teen Book Scene Tour.

At the time, he was serving as the British High Commissioner during the Second Opium War when he ordered the advancement of the army. In retaliation for the imprisonment, torture and execution of almost twenty European and Indian prisoners he ordered the destruction of the palace and reduced it to smithereens. Known as China’s Ground zero, every Chinese school child is taught that the site once held the most beautiful collection of architecture and art.

Initially, the army’s intent was to plunder the palace. Fragments of the collection at the exquisite palace were “saved” as they were looted by troops that helped themselves to the porcelain, silks and ancient books. But mostly, they destroyed what they found. One witness wrote: “In body and soul they were absorbed in one pursuit which was blunder, blunder, plunder.”

Even Lord Elgin recorded the very horror he had ordered in his diary, when he wrote: “War is a hateful business. The more one sees of it, the more one detests it.”

That could have been the end of the cultural destruction, but What Lord Elgin hadn’t counted on was retaliation. The 20-membered delegation that had gone to negotiate Chinese surrender were taken prisoners and died an excrutiatingly painful death.

Had this not happened, the palace would still exist in half its glory, much like the Parthenon exists today following the 7th Earl’s passage through Athens. Instead, the 8th Lord Elgin responded to the executions by ordering the absolute cultural destruction of the palace. It took days and days of hard work to destroy the magnificent buildings that were part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese people.

27-year-old captain Charles George Gordon wrote: “We went out, and, after pillaging it, burned the whole place, destroying in a vandal-like manner most valuable property which [could] not be replaced for four millions. We got upward of £48 apiece prize money…I have done well. The [local] people are very civil, but I think the grandees hate us, as they must after what we did the Palace. You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them; in fact, these places were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were burnt, considered as brass. It was wretchedly demoralising work for an army.”

Victor Hugo in his “Expedition de Chine” says: “Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.”

He helped organize an auction where the spoils were sold to raise money for the families of dead or wounded soldiers. These days, many of these works sit in all kinds of private and public collections. The Chinese feel resentment, much like the Greeks feel when considering the theft of the Parthenon Marbles.

For instance, seven of the zodiac heads that were part of the palace’s collection are in China, whereas the other five are sitting in foreign collections. The National Treasures Fund, affiliated to the Chinese Ministry of Culture, is seeking ways to track down the artworks and take them back to China, however the British museums show the same arrogance that their earls showed when destroying other culture’s heritage.

These days, Lord Elgin tells the BBC that it’s better to look forward than back all the time regarding the events of 1860, and the same could be insinuated for the Parthenon Marbles. It seems that arrogance and disregard for other culture’s can be considered the Elgin legacy.

Watch the dosumentary 'The Destruction of China's Yuanming Yuan (The Old Summer Palace)' on ArchaeoTube.

Source: Protothema [February 03, 2015]

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities
2. On affectionate relationships
3. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boetie

Favorite Quotations:
"How many of the things which constantly come into our purview must be deemed monstrous or miraculous if we apply such terms to anything which outstrips our reason! If we consider that we have to grope through a fog even to understand the very things we hold in our hands, then we will certainly find that it is not knowledge but habit which takes away their strangeness." (That it is madness to judge the true and the false)

"And in truth what are these Essays if not monstrosities and grotesques botched together from a variety of limbs having no defined shape, with an order sequence and proportion which are purely fortuitous?" (On affectionate relationships)

General Thoughts:
I can't decide if the order of Montaigne's essays just happen to line up with my thoughts this year or if I'm just reading too much of my own thoughts into his writing, but over the past several weeks it's seemed like Montaigne and I have just been on the same page.

This week I read On affectionate relationships, which was fitting because I've been thinking a lot about friendship. When I went home over spring break I had a strong desire to get back together with old friends. I did get together with a couple of friends I've stayed in touch with since high school, but I didn't see either of the people who were really my best friends in high school. I did run into some people who were good friends of mine, and it was just like seeing a stranger. The loss of old friendships has been painful for me. In On affectionate relationships Montaigne describes a kind of friendship in which the friends will do anything for each and other and are really a part of each other.

"Moreover what we normally call friends and friendships are no more than acquaintances and familiar relationships bound by some change or some suitability, by means of which our souls support each other. In the friendship which I am talking about, souls are mingled and confounded in so universal a blending that they efface the seam which joins them together so that it cannot be found. If you press me to say why I loved him, I that it cannot be expressed except by replying: 'Because it was him: because it was me.'"

I just really loved that quote because I think it perfectly sums up my ideas on friendship. The majority of my friends now are really just familiar relations. We have parties, go out for coffee, and so on, but I don't feel like I know them that well or like they know me that well. It's crazy to think about now, but the only people who I feel really know me are my friends from high school who are still my friends today. I never thought I would stay in touch with so many people from high school, the whole point of college is to branch out and meet new people right? But I've found that friendships are largely disappointing, and the only people who really have my back are the people who watched me through my awkward teenage years.


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Today for our Memory Monday guest, I have Gale! She's an author with a really interesting back story! Check out her bio and hear her talk about childhood favorites!:) Here is a link to her blog- http://www.galeminchew.bravejournal.com

My Bio:

Gale Minchew is a licensed psychologist who resides in East Texas with her husband and two children. In her professional practice, Dr. Minchew specializes in issues related to children and families. However, over the past couple of years, she has consulted with adults and children who have experienced a broad range of paranormal phenomena, as well.

Over the past 14 years, Dr. Minchew has written several works of fiction, in addition to completing a dissertation. While she has become adept at technical writing through her professional practice, Dr. Minchew’s heart is with young adult fiction. She strives to provide a cross-over experience that engenders the creativity and interest the adult population craves while upholding some of the core values that are so lacking in many of the current works of young adult fiction on the market. Shadows of Destiny is Dr. Minchew’s first published fiction novel.

The Sidewalk Ends Here…

I don’t remember any books from my childhood. At least, that’s what I thought. When I first tried to conger up memories of reading, I drew a complete blank. Yes, I couldn’t think of one single book! So, I decided to delve a little further into my mind and came up with the cute teddy bear board book my mom read to me as a toddler, Cinderella, and The Princess and the Pea. I still have that little teddy bear book and will always cherish it. But, can that really be all I remember reading as a child? Pulling those memories from the frayed edges of my mind soon buried me under a wave of book covers and authors. Oh! What about the Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal? I read that series incessantly during my teen years. I remember spending so much money on those books…and it became a challenge…buying, reading, and arranging all those books on my shelf in chronological order. Then, a little further back I remembered some required reading from middle school…Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume and the life and writings of Edgar Allen Poe. I admit, I didn’t care for Judy Blume, but I was fascinated with Edgar Allen Poe…The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and so on. But, I still wonder why they had Poe as required reading for a 13 year old! It was probably my fascination with Poe that led to my interest in crime/suspense/mystery novels. So, it was only logical that by high school, I had moved on to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Anne Rice.

I continued to ponder the books I read as a child and found that with all the authors, titles, and genres flowing through my mind, I continuously returned to fourth grade. It was a magical year, I suppose…a time for trading stickers with my friends, staying out of the clutches of boys chasing girls on the playground, and my first introduction to poetry. Now, I admit I would have done almost anything to not go outside for recess, as you can imagine! Quite coincidentally, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Joyce Sigler, had an exciting project for me and a friend in lieu of play time. At recess, she would tape a large sheet of white paper on the wall and place the overhead projector in just the right spot for maximum size. She would then place a transparency on the overhead glass, and my friend and I would carefully trace the letters and drawings onto the plain white paper. That simple job made me feel important! And, unbeknownst to me at the time, I learned about poetry and how to make that funny little lower case ‘a’. I mean, who really writes an ‘a’ like that? Ultimately, I ended up reading the entire book from which the transparencies were made. What an exciting experience at such an impressionable time in my young life!

You may wonder what poetry could possibly fill a fourth grader with so much excitement. This poetry was magical, complete with funny drawings…a book filled of stories such as Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who would not take the garbage out, a crocodile who went to the dentist, and little Peggy Ann McKay who was so sick she could not go to school today! Yes, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein became my favorite book that year. That year became one of my most memorable years in school and, by my estimation, served as a catalyst for my growing love of books.

I now share Mr. Silverstein’s books with my own children. Not only Where the Sidewalk Ends, but A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree, as well. Will my fourth grader have the same memories about reading these books as I have? Probably not, but I hope to make an impression as great as that given to me all those years ago by one very special fourth grade teacher and Shel Silverstein!

What a fun post Gale!! I'm pretty much the only person I know who didn't love Shel Silverstein growing up, and I tried to read him a while ago and... eh. Still don't love. But I loved hearing your story! And even though I don't love Shel, his are definitely books I'll have for my future kids! Thanks so much for guesting for me today!

Today, our Memory Monday guest is Jennifer Sommersby. I've been chatting with Jenn on Twitter for a while now, I absolutely love reading her blog and she is just so much fun to talk to. I was so excited when she told me that she liked my Memory Monday posts and that she would be willing to participate! So, her she is folks! Here's Jenn!

Bio: Jennifer Sommersby's first book, a YA urban fantasy about a circus-dwelling, 17-year-old girl who learns that she is heir to a 3000-year-old magical book, is called Sleight: Book One of the AVRA-K. An American ex-pat, she lives in the Great White North (western Canada) with her family and collection of pets.
Memories: When Ashley so graciously invited me to write a piece for Memory Mondays, my mind was set aflutter. Talk about a book that made an impact on me as a kid? There were so many! I decided, rather than to break it down to just one, that I would cover a few with relating anecdotes to illuminate the joy that books brought to me as a wee, word-hungry ankle biter.

We all love Dr. Seuss (and if you don’t, you might want to see someone about that). Who doesn’t have a special place for the man who was first credited with use of the word nerd? I mean, GENIUS, people! Despite the fact that Seuss had a decades-long affair outside of his marriage, a tryst that eventually led to his wife’s suicide and his nuptials to his lover a year following his wife’s death, Seuss was a wordsmith of unmatched prowess. He understood words and sounds in a way that has revolutionized the learning-to-read process for generations of kids. My favorites? The Lorax and The Sneetches. And for my thirty-eighth birthday, my BFF bought me Oh! The Places You’ll Go. Perfect present for ALL occasions, especially for
high school and college graduates. Oh, and people turning thirty-eight. It’s so inspiring, though be warned—it can trigger wanderlust.

My mom bought me the coolest set of science books (nerd alert!), the series called “Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science.” Did you guys have those? I don’t know how many were published, but I had at least a dozen—and I still have them on the shelf in my son’s bedroom. Titles such as A Drop of Blood, Flash Crash Rumble and Roll, and Your Skin and Mine survived through my childhood, that of my little sister (who is now twenty-seven), and all of my kids, inviting us to investigate topics that aren’t otherwise covered in novels or TV shows or, nowadays, video games. I spent endless hours going through these books, feeling very smart because I learned how a scab formed and about the mechanics of thunderstorms and why some kids had darker skin than me (not tough considering I have had a sickly pall to my skin pretty much my entire life). I was a know-it-all as a kid. That continues until today, thanks to these books.

And on to fiction. I seem to have an affinity for it. But it’s sort of funny how it started, beyond my obsession with my sister’s sky-blue Smith-Corona electric typewriter. (“Clickity-clicky — click!” went the keys…). I had this thing for small books. Not the page count, necessarily, but the actual physical size of the book. The smaller, the better. I liked small things: closets that could be made into hideouts, picnic tables covered in blankets to make my own house, that cabin Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer stays in with Yukon Cornelius and the elf who wants to be a dentist. The Audubon Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region, while not fiction, was narrow and thin and fit in a pocket, perfect for field work. Did I read it? No. Did the size make me happy? Yes. Well, that and its awesome orange vinyl cover.

Sorry. Digressing again. My mom—she was never stingy with buying me books—picked up a series of classics in paperback form, and the dimensions of the books themselves couldn’t have been more than 4x4 inches. They were these little squares of literary history, and I read them because…I liked their shape. Around the World in Eighty Days was my favorite, although Little Women came in close second. (Oh, don’t even get me started on how my BFF Beth Ann and I would act out the parts from Louisa May Alcott’s ageless tale—she was Meg, the well-mannered, polite, always proper young lady; I was, and am to this day, Jo—feisty, word — loving, dreamy Jo.) I read Gulliver’s Travels and Treasure Island and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and all as a side effect of my attachment to the shape of the books. Weird, I know. If anyone’s good with past-life regression or Jungian psychology, perhaps you have a theory about my affection for small things.

No discussion of influential childhood books would be complete without a shout-out to Beverly Cleary. The elementary school I went to, Alameda Grade, in Portland, Oregon, was situated in the very neighborhood where some of Cleary’s stories were set. I used to ride my bike and roller skate up and down Klickitat Street, just like Henry Huggins, as my house was only a few blocks away. I must’ve been nine or ten when Cleary visited our school for Literacy Day (Ezra Jack Keats of The Snowy Day fame visited one year, as well). The whole school dressed up as characters from any one of Cleary’s novels and marched through the
neighborhood with Mrs. Cleary our Mistress of Ceremonies for the day’s events. It was a big to-do, obviously. Thirty-odd years later, I’m still talking about it. Thank you, Beverly, for being such a big part of my childhood!

And my last mention for Memory Monday—I would feel disloyal if I didn’t pay homage— Judy Blume. Need I say more? For those of you born in the late ’80s or the ’90s, maybe you haven’t discovered Blume’s genius. She wrote whimsical, fun stories for younger readers: Superfudge, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Freckle Juice. Her books for older readers (Deenie, Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret, Blubber, Forever) told stories in which the characters asked and answered questions I was too embarrassed or afraid to address. Her protagonists faced real-world hardships that were engrossing and often heartrending. I read and re-read many of her titles as I went from that tomboy climbing trees and riding BMX bikes to the pre-teen and teenager who cared about Guess jeans and what Mickey S. thought of her new haircut.

It is still amazing to me, the influence that books have had on my life. They’re like a good friend, always there waiting to be called upon, and as cliché as that sounds, books don’t care how bitchy I am or if my hair is a mess and in need of a color, or if I’ve filed the taxes for the year or unloaded the dishwasher. Books don’t judge if I didn’t donate enough to the food drive or if I screamed at that stupid woman in traffic (she totally deserved it…just sayin’). The consumption of books, and now the creation of my own books, are constants in a life that is forever in a state of flux. Life won’t be nearly long enough for me to get my fill of good
stories. I’m guessing you feel the same way, or you wouldn’t be here visiting Ashley’s terrific blog. Thanks for the chat. Now, go READ something!
Thank you so much Jenn! I loved this post! So much! If any of you readers are interested in guest posting for Memory Monday, in my blog!

I thought it fitting that my first Memory Monday during the month of November would be a look back at the Contemporary books I read as a young kid that really influenced me and had made me a lover of Contemporary YA from a very young age.

When I was younger, I loved Willo Davis Roberts. She wrote these awesome mystery/thriller type novels where the protagonists were my own age and they were awesome. They were the reason that my mom was terrified to leave ten year old Ashley alone because when she told me I was not allowed to open the front door to people I didn't know while she was gone, I informed her that it wasn't a big deal, because if they were bad, I could just shut the door really fast. O_o Instead, the rule was that I was just not allowed to answer a knock while mom was gone, period. (I have a whole Memory Monday talking about just Willo Davis Roberts here. And for realz... it's a rather funny story).

But in the course of reading about these young kids totally outsmarting the bad guys, I also read a book by WDR called Sugar Isn't Everything. It's about a young girl, maybe 10 or 11 if I remember right, who develops diabetes. At first she doesn't know what's going on. She has very little energy, craves juices and candies and feels miserable and sick and run down. Her parents take her to the doctor and she is no longer allowed to eat sweet things, and I don't remember for sure (I read this in 4th or 5th grade, so...) but I think she needs insulin shots. There is a scene in the book where she is at a football game with her two best girl friends, and she leaves for a few minutes. When she's on her way back, she hears her friends giggling and she watches a snickers bar wrapper float down from where they were sitting. Ashley's little girl heart = broken.

Then, I found Cynthia Voigt. I don't remember exactly how I discovered Cynthia Voigt (although I strongly suspect it was a book stolen borrowed from my sister's library pile, who, incidentally is also named Cynthia [and come to think about it, might also have been the reason I was so keen to read these books]) However... I digress. While I don't remember the details of the finding, I do remember the first time I read Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Saga. It was one of my first experiences with a mental illness and it completely changed the way I viewed life, reading, books, stories, people, and myself. In Homecoming, Dicey's mom packs up her four kids, leaves their little shack on the beach and starts to drive to her cousin's house because she recognizes that she desperately needs help in every way. But on the way, Mama stops at a mall, tells the kids she'll be back shortly and then disappears. This leaves young Dicey (somewhere between 11 and 13) in a terrible position. They have almost no money, very little food and a long way to go. So they walk. This young, young girl gets her three younger siblings motivated and they walk. They walk across states to get to their aunt or cousins house. And they make it. THEY MAKE IT. But things still aren't good there. The person who takes them in wants to civilize Dicey, turn James into a priest, play Barbie doll with Maybell and send Sammie off to reform school (who, by the way is only like 5 or 6). Splitting up the family is unacceptable to Dicey, and the others so she begins to formulate a plan, once again, to keep the family they have left safe and together.

The Saga continues, continuing over seven books and telling the stories of not only Dicey and her siblings, but also other characters we meet or who are referenced along the way. And let me tell you, it is a powerful set of stories. The stuff these characters face, the things they go through it painful and raw and so full of emotional truths that it took my breath away. I didn't know writing could be like this. And I devoured these books. All seven of them, more than once.

Sharon Creech was also a huge part of my early reading and I just absolutely loved her. Still do actually. I just finished a reread of my favorite Creech, Walk Two Moons and I love it just as much now as I did then. The experience reading this would have been vastly different had I read it for the first time when I was older, (mostly that I would have seen things coming that caught me completely by surprise as a kid) but I still loved it this time around, I still cried, still ached for Sal, wondering why she wasn't enough to keep her mother around, still cringed at the awkwardly embarrassing things Phoebe and Sal did together, groaned at Ben's awkwardly endearing attempts to kiss Sal, laughed myself silly at the crazy antics of Gramps and Gran and just fell in love with the book all over again. But Creech has other wonderful books, and other favorites included Chasing Redbird and Bloomability and The Wanderer with Absolutely Normal Choas being pretty awesome too. I've read more of her recent stories now that I'm older and I gotta tell you — Creech is still made of WIN. (Read my Memory Monday post all about Sharon Creech here)

I also loved The Babysitter's Club. I've already posted about that in a Memory Monday as well, but once again, I loved that this could be real. My girlfriends and I decided that once we were old enough to babysit, we would form our own Babysitter's Club, and it would be great. (It never happened, since I moved before I was really old enough to babysit and I wasn't really interested in the series anymore when I was old enough.)

And then, one of my largest reading phases was Mary Higgins Clark. Oh how I loved Mary Higgins Clark. I know that technically her genre is mystery/thriller, but it's also very definitely realistic fiction and I was obsessed. I inhaled her books, all of them and just buzzed with the reality of serial killers, the potential to be buried alive (which has always been one of my personal nightmares and only got worse after reading Moonlight Becomes You) and the knowledge that anyone out there could have a hidden side to themselves.

I could go on and on. Contemporary Fiction has always been a huge part of what I read. I have always loved it and gravitated toward it. There is something about reading about people who could be me, or who I could meet on the street that just calls to me, just really gets to me. I love it. And even as a young kid, I was drawn to Contemporary and a lot of the time, even when I was young, I was really drawn to those heartbreakingly real and achy stories.

So yes. Contemporary is my genre, now and forever. There are other genres that I love but nothing will ever replace Contemporary.

It always happens..I have all these wonderful plans for the long weekend. I have a stack of books on my bedside, just waiting to be read. Instead...I spent the entire weekend in bed, sick. My hubby and nine year old son had symptoms of a cold earlier in the week. My hubby had gone out the night before his symptoms appeared and I blamed it on a hangover (sorry baby!). Ok, I can admit it...I was wrong. Unless hangovers are contagious, he really was sick that day.

Ok, back to me :). The symptoms started Friday while I was at work. Tingly nose, itchy throat. We'd done a lot of cleaning around the office so I assumed that my allergies were just reacting. At lunch that day, I took my son to his school's Open House. I put on a happy face, but my head was throbbing. Luckily the powers that be decided to close the office early that day in honor of the Labor Day weekend.

I get home around 3:30 and I can barely see to drive, my headache is so bad. The normal allergy/sinus meds weren't kicking in. I drank some coffee, and that seemed to alleviate the pain for the time being.

Hubby and I had plans to take our nine year old to the mall to do some final back to school shopping. I was able to get through that relatively easily, but by the time we got home it hit me. I lost all energy and crashed.

I woke up the next morning at 6 am, thanks to our three year old son. That's when the coughing began. I coughed so much I thought my ribs would crack. The coughing lasted all weekend, and finally, after an entire 3 day weekend of drinking the all-powerful, cure-all Robitussin, I'm finally starting to feel normal again.

The downside of the meds was waking up, wide awake, at 3 am. I got a lot of quality reading done in those early hours! I finished Inside Out Girl

, Sweetsmoke

, and Chelsea Cain's newest, Sweetheart

. I've started Woman of a Thousand Secrets

and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

(for the Sci-Fi Lit class I'm taking). Look for my reviews of these books (ok maybe not Frankenstein) later this week.

Ok, this was meant to be a short little message explaining my absence but as usual I started rambling :). I hope everyone has a good week, and I'm sending out a special prayer to all those affected by Gustav. Also, there's still time to enter the giveaway for a Tess Gerritsen book!

A Season of Eden by Jennifer Laurens is not my normal read. While contemporary has long been my favorite genre, I don'r really read a lot of romantic fiction. A love story alongside my plot is nice, but I don't generally read books where the main plot revolves around a love story. But, I had really been in the mood for a nice YA Contemporary Romance, and I had won a copy of Laurens Overprotected. I read it, and it was exactly what I had wanted in a book at the time. Absolutely perfect. So, when I was given the opportunity to read Eden, I took it.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to what I had hoped it to be. That's not to say it was a bad book, but it just... didn't quite work for me. Eden is an 18 year old, (hot) senior in high school who develops a crush on her young, handsome, 22 year old music teacher, James, and the feelings are mutual. Eden is used to getting whatever and whoever she wants, although she's an awful lot nicer than the 'mean girls' she's stereotyped as. She wants James and so she goes after him. She's a little uncertain, which is definitely a new feeling for her, and she is very aware of the potential consequences of being caught in a compromising situation with a teacher.

For the most part, the growing interest between these two characters really worked for me. Eden quickly becomes infatuated with James, and she wants to know more about it. So, she gets a little teenage creepy and does a little undercover stalking (like following him home from school, so she can figure out where he lives) and tries to make sure he is aware of her. She offers to help out in class, stops by at lunch, etc. James was a bit of a nerd in high school and doesn't have a lot of experience with women. He's fresh out of college, concerned about his job and still lives with his mom. I totally get that being right out of college is hard, that sometimes you don't have anywhere else to go, other than home. But if I were a student, and I found out my teacher still lived with his or her parents?! It would have seriously undermined any respect I had for them, and I can't imagine it being different for very many teenagers.

The biggest problem I had with this novel is that every single relationship seemed to ring flat and false. Eden pretty much completely drops her group of friends, now that she is spending more time with James, (although in her defense here, they were also pretty harsh after she dumped her boyfriend), her relationship with her dad and his much younger wife is incredibly strained and, well... really non-existent, but worst of all, Eden and James are awkward together. I don't mean that cute awkward where you are trying to learn how to move and interact together, I mean that awkward that makes any of those 'swoon' or 'sigh' moments impossible because you can't stop thinking about the fact that no one talks like that, no one reacts like that, eye roll here, did she really just say that?! etc. It's... awkward and if you want me to believe in or care about a relationship, don't make it painfully awkward.

Going hand in hand with the awkward interactions between Eden and James is their big 'confrontation/conflict' toward the end of the story. I don't want to give spoilers away here, but both of the characters crossed some lines. One of the characters (who should have known better) shifted all the blame to the other character, who accepted this as truth and let it really get to them, let it really hurt them. Because, the relationship is now going to disappear because I couldn't manage to (blablabla spoiler). Now, I'm all for making someone apologize when they are in the wrong. But when both people are clearly in the wrong, or worse, when no one is actually in the wrong but through misunderstandings and what have you people get hurt, one party should not be shifting or shoving the guilt and blame onto the other. That is wrong.

I spent a lot of the novel feeling like their relationship is one sided. And they don't seem to really communicate well. Eden is struggling with the fact that she is more sexually experienced than James, and this makes her feel dirty and unworthy. But, instead of telling him this, trying to talk to him about it, she avoids the subject, and redirects the conversation, and answers just enough of James' question that he stops asking, but doesn't actually give him the information he's looking for. And James doesn't really know what to do with or about Eden. It's a little bit sad, actually...

Even though this book wasn't quite what I had hoped for, and there were certain resolutions that felt forced and out of character (specifically what ends up happening between Eden and her dad) I did enjoy the read. I had a long Twitter conversation about this book with someone who absolutely loved it (read her review here) and while I'm not going to replay that conversation for you, we talked about a lot of things that made me see the characters in a slightly different light, which did ultimately leave me with a more positive feeling about the book in general.

I'll be honest here. While I did enjoy this story, it isn't my favorite, and it's not one that I would recommend to people who aren't normally fans of YA Contemporary Romance. If this is a genre you read and enjoy regularly, then this might be a great book for you. But, if it's not, I think starting somewhere else could be a better option. I am glad I read this book. It gave me an opportunity to get to know someone I hadn't really talked to before, to share and discuss different thoughts and attitudes we noticed within the story and to grow and change. The story wasn't perfect. There were things I would have changed if I could. But I'm not the writer here, and I understand (mostly) why Laurens took her characters where she did. Have you read this one? Please, let me know what you think!

*Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair review through the Teen Book Scene tour site.

Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala is a powerful Contemporary novel. Miranda lives every day with the memory of her beloved older sister's death. Alexandra (Xanda) was the bad-girl, the rebel and Miranda worshiped her. But, after her sister's death, Miranda became what her parents most wanted, what she thought they needed, and she was the good girl who always followed the rules, never rebelled and did as she was asked. Until, of course, one unplanned night changes everything and leaves Miranda pregnant.

When Miranda gets back from her summer job as a camp counselor, she finds her world completely changed, totally pulled upside down. She's pregnant, there seems to be something wrong with her relationship with her boyfriend and turns out, the new best friend that she ditched her old best friend for is not a great friend at all (something that Miranda knew intellectually, but ignored because Delaney reminds her of Xanda). The whole school ends up finding out she's pregnant, which means her mom finds out and life gets really hard for Miranda, very quickly. Her mother disapproves and her father is (as he has been since the death of her sister) physically there, but emotionally absent, allowing the mom to be the leader in almost all things, and her aforementioned bad best friend abandons her for bigger and better things.

My heart went out to Miranda. Oh did my heart go out to her. It would be so incredibly hard to be pregnant in high school, but even harder to have everyone you know also shutting you out. Needing someone to talk to leads Miranda to find an online message board of women also pregnant at the same time and she creates this fantasy Miranda — in college, still with her boyfriend, maybe getting married etc and finds the love, acceptance and support through these women she isn't getting in her real life.

Everything happening in Miranda's life forces her to start taking stock of her life, her actions and her beliefs. She has to come to terms with what really happened the night her sister died, realize and accept who Xanda really was and what she wasn't and prepare to take care of something greater than herself. She grows so much during this book and I was so proud of her! The growth and maturity she shows towards the end of the novel vs the beginning is amazing.

The supporting characters are also incredibly well developed. All of them, from five-years-dead older sister Xanda, to boyfriend (or not) Kamran, Delaney, the terrible new friend, her parents, the old best friend and the huge community and religious network, all the characters were done so well. Some I loved, some I hated, some I pitied and others made me angry. Delaney was such a great foil character — she's not evil, but she definitely thinks she is above everyone else. She uses people, goes after what she wants anyway she can, regardless of who is hurt in the process and finds a way to make every situation about her. At first, I loved Kamran and the idea of him. Miranda's memories of the two of them are everything a high school romance should be. But after he finds out Miranda's pregnant, he reacts horribly. Not all of it is entirely his fault (a lot of people whispering in his ear) but he treats her abominably and steps away from his responsibility. He isn't the focus of the story, but he grows as a person as well, and by the end of the novel, I had stopped making angry faces when his name was mentioned. But for a lot of the book, he really is kind of a stupid jerk.

(Ahem — I just gotta say — If you aren't ready to be a parent, don't have sex. If you DO end up fathering a child — suck it up, man up and get your act together NOW or Ashley will think you suck... And, same goes for the girls. Grow up. It's not the baby's fault.)

The one weakness to this story is the resolution. The epilogue gives us a glimpse of how everyone is doing and it was just a little bit too... neat. It wasn't so tidy as to be unbelievable, and I'll admit that I do like the idea of things getting better, but it didn't fit in as well with the rest of the story. I like resolution in my books, but sometimes, especially in a Contemporary novel that has felt so incredibly real up to this point, there needs to be a little real left over, which means it should reflect that life doesn't usually come with a bow.

But that small grievance aside, this was an incredibly real and powerful story. The story itself is amazing and well told, but the real strength to the story is how much Miranda grows as a person and how much she learns about herself, about others and about life. This is a book that I highly, highly recommend.

My guest poster today is Jacinda, one of the sisters that runs the blog The Reading Housewives of Indiana. Jacinda is such a fun blogger to chat with and she's amazing. Seriously. She's pretty much amazing! I'm thrilled that she wanted to share a guest post, so here she is — talking about her favorite Contemporary novels EVER!

Picking my favorite contemporary novels of all time…that’s a difficult task. I decided to go with my
favorite contemporary novels I think aren’t as popular, at least at the moment…which pretty much
means I had to leave off Lola and Anna…I almost cried! Many of these might have been popular when
they were published, but they are somewhat new to me and aren’t talked about so much right now. Or
maybe I’m the only one who has one of these on my favorites list..I’m okay with that!
My Favorite Young Adult Contemporary Novels Which Need More Loving in 2011 and
Beyond!

Sea by Heidi R. Kling

I’d been wanting to
read this book for the longest time. My library didn’t have it and for some reason I’d never bought it.
As soon as someone offered this book up to me for trade I jumped at it! I’m so glad I did! As you can
tell it has become one of my favorites! I felt so many different emotions about this one! I love being
able to travel to foreign lands in books and Sea has that. I’m looking forward to reading anything Heidi
writes! I’m reviewing Sea sometime during Just Contemporary! I’ve been sitting on this review for a few months!

I Now
Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
This is a contemporary book I don’t think has gotten enough buzz. I read this before I started reviewing
and before I started my blog. I wish I would have read it afterwards to push it at people! It’s been a very
long time since I’ve read it, but I remember wanting to hug this book after I read it! Just thinking about it
has me wanting to re-read it!

Summer Sisters by Judy
Blume
Summer Sisters was one of the first contemporary books I’ve ever read. It was a book club pick and I was
pleasantly surprised by it! I HATED a few different characters in this one. I was screaming at them on the
inside that they were acting stupid and being totally selfish. I loved following these characters through
numerous years because you get to see so much growth and change.
You should also check out Forever by Judy Blume

Sign Language by Amy Ackley

This book set a record for me. I cried the most during Sign Language than any other book I’ve ever
read. Prior to this one, The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa held that title because of the brutal ending to
the story that had me crying for about the last ten percent. Sign Language had me using tissues during
the entire first half. It was a horrible feeling having to cry that often while reading it, but it shows how
well the author told the story. I normally shy away from stories having main characters in the 12-15
year-old range, but I’m so happy I didn’t pass this one up! Sign Language has a certain quote/life lesson
that will always stick with me and it is one of only a few books I can remember quotes from.

Rich and Mad by William
Nicholson
I think many people didn’t like this one. I completely fell in love with it! I want to re-read it one of these
days to see if my love for it is still there and I really hope it is! I will probably cry if I feel different about it
the second time. It’s a story about a guy and girl chasing and looking for the wrong person to fall in love
with. I don’t remember exactly what had me falling all over this one, I just know I felt wonderful while
reading it. There is a point/part in this book people hated, I seemed to not care or I overlooked it, either
way, I loved this one! For some reason, I see myself constantly defending my love for this one…maybe
that’s because I’ve seen a couple of people tear it apart. Oh well, I loved it!

Sixteenth Summer by
Michelle Dalton

Sixteenth Summer is the cutest and most adorable book I’ve ever read! I catch myself thinking about
it on occasion! This book had me craving ice cream and sweet tea! If you need a book to put you in a
good mood or to read in the summertime, Sixteenth Summer is the book for you! It will give you warm
fuzzies!

My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsesessions by Becca Wilhite
Ever have a perfect book come to you at the perfect time?! My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions
was that book for me. I remember feeling down about everything, but after reading this, I felt 100%
better…even though I cried a bit. The protagonist is college-aged which I love in young adult! She’s
obsessed with romance novels and refers to them in every aspect of her life. Such a great fast read
which will always be a favorite of mine!

The North of Beautiful
by Justina Chen Headley
The theme for many favorites of mine is my lack for reasons as to why I love them…my memory is
horrible! North of Beautiful is one of those books! It’s a book teaching us to look inside of ourselves for
beauty because beauty isn’t on the outside. I just remember enjoying the struggle the main character
has with herself and the general theme of the book is unique and it stands out.

The Disreputable History of Frankie
Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
I’m thankful for the Award Winning Reads Challenge Ashley hosted with me because I might not
have picked this one up! Frankie was so strong! I loved her! It was a book based not on romance, but
Frankie’s struggle with wanting to be accepted in something she feels like she has a right to be a part
of and challenging it. I love romance in my books and this one has a bit, but I found myself not
caring if the romance was there or not…that means this book is fantastic coming from me!

The Chosen One by Carol
Lynch Williams
This is one of those “tough issues” books. Kyra is one of 21 children of her father’s from his three wives.
Kyra lives in a very religious community. She decides after she is to be wed to her uncle that she needs
to get away. I loved getting a glimpse, even if fictional, into a community like this especially from a 13
year-olds point of view. The ending of this one is very fitting for the story.

I’m a 26 year-old Hoosier. Currently I’m a SAHM to a 4 year-old boy
and a 3 year-old girl. I’ve been married to my hubby, Seth, for 6 years and I’ve known him since I was
senior in high school. I have two dogs and a cat which I love dearly even though they can make my
life more hectic than it needs to be. Besides my love of reading which is obvious, I love my Keurig,
crafting, and football. I’m afraid of heights to the point where I will not stay in a hotel

room above the 7^{th floor or drive in mountains unless it’s at night. I dislike milk and anything banana or coconut
flavored, so I’m limited on my cocktail choices. I’m a big young adult reader, but I do read an occasional
adult book. My favorite types of books would have to be contemporary and historical fiction, but it used
to be paranormal before I became more of an avid reader.}

He says it is unfair that girls can change into skirts during the hot weather, while boys have to swelter in long trousers.
Skirting around the issue: Chris, who is in Year 8, said he wearing long trousers in summer affects boys' ability to concentrate
This, he says, affects their concentration and ability to learn.
The schoolboy is taking advantage of a ‘silly loophole’ in the uniform policy at Impington Village College, near Cambridge, that means boys can wear skirts as the school would be guilty of discrimination if it tried to stop them.
‘In the summer months, girl students are allowed to wear skirts but boys are not allowed to wear shorts,’ Chris explained yesterday before his protest.
source :dailymail

VIA Schoolboy in a skirt: Pupil protests at rule forcing boys to wear trousers during hot weather

Ten years ago, Margaret Quinn lost her only daughter, Erica. Erica ran away with her high school boyfriend, set on joining the Angels of Destruction, a radical student group. She hasn't heard from or spoken to Erica in all this time.

One night, Margaret is startled when a nine year old orphan shows up on her doorstep one cold winter night. Mrs. Quinn takes in the child, and comes up with a plan to pass her off as Norah Quinn, her granddaughter and the daughter of her long-missing Erica.

Mrs. Quinn introduces Nora to Sean Fallon, a lonely neighborhood boy, and requests that he escort Nora to and from school each day. The community seems to accept the story of Nora's past, until she starts proclaiming she is an angel. The school and the community are in an uproar after Nora puts the lives of several children at risk in order to prove that she has divine powers. Who is this little girl, and where has she come from? And who is this mysterious man that seems to lurk in her shadow?

The secondary storyline revolves around Erica. Donohue uses flashbacks to inform the reader of her terrifying trek to what she believes is her salvation, but in actuality it almost brings upon her destruction.

ANGELS OF DESTRUCTION is a powerful and unforgettable tale about love, trust, and heartbreak. I find Donohue's writing to be mesmerizing, and his character development is astounding. I listened to the audio version of this book and it felt as thought the characters and the writing was so detailed that it felt as though the characters and storyline were developing around me. Highly recommended! One of my favorite books so far for 2009!

Astrid is British. She plays bass. She's seventeen with one year left of high school. She fights with her parents. She has a sweet hairdo. She is dreaming about her imaginary friends.

When I picked up Suburban Glamour

I thought it would just be about a punk high school girl, which it is, but it's also a fantasy story which I wasn't expecting at all. Astrid's dreams are becoming reality, and it seems like the creatures from her dreams are dangerous. The only thing distracting her from them is this new store in town run by a punk New Yorker named Aubrey who Astrid wants to be like in every possible way. Well there is that, and the fact that everyone around her is telling her what to do, telling her to figure out what she wants to be, and telling her to stop concentrating so much on her music and focus more reality (Wow I've never experienced anything like that before!).

I might be a little biased in my love of this comic book. After all, Astrid reminds me a lot of myself in high school, and actually a lot like myself right now. But then again I'm not a huge fan of fantasy and still loved the fantasy aspect of this book. Whenever life gets hard we wish for something else, thinking it would be easier, and this is precisely what Astrid experiences except she is actually offered a different life and has to decide if she wants to take it or not. Truly fitting for a story about a seventeen-year-old, because that is the age when you have to make so many choices. Where you will go to college, what you want to do with your life, and who you want to be.

The artwork kinds of harkens back to the Blondie comic strip. Not exactly, but the way things are placed and outlined kind of reminds me of that. The images are cleaner than the comic strip though, and light is played with a lot in this book. It seems to be moving in order of morning to night, but that actually threw me off a little bit with time. I thought all of this was happening in consecutive days, but towards the end of the book I realized this was not the case.

I'm going to give Suburban Glamour an A.

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I officially declared my history major this week and so far I have received fairly negative reactions to it. I'm not surprised really, because I never thought I would become a history major until I started getting interested in history through my English classes. The reason I never though I would become a history major is because I hated history in elementary school. I remember my mom trying to help me study for tests and I just could not figure it out. I was excellent at understanding concepts, but I wasn't good a memorizing dates and I have never been good at multiple choice tests. That was pretty much what history was like all through high school. I did enjoy my history classes in high school though, I was a big fan of Government even though most people hated it.

It old my mom I declared my history major this week and she said "You didn't get that from me!" It's true, my mom is not a fan of history because it is boring. She says she doesn't care about what has happened already, but instead she's more concerned with what is going on now. I kind of wish I was more like that sometimes, because I think my interest in history is related to my obsession with reanalyzing my own past. I told a guy I work with about my history paper as well and he asked what class it was for. When I said American history he said, "Eh, I hate American history." I just laughed but... how could you hate American history! It's like the best reality tv show ever!

My favorite thing about the history classes I've taken so far is the many mediums my professors use to convey information. I've read comic books, novels, autobiographies, short stories, and textbooks and also listened to music, watched movies, and looked at propaganda posters and artwork form the time period. This has given me a greater interest in learning on my own through different mediums. I've actually purchased nonfiction books about historical movements, something I'd never considered before, and bought documentaries and movies to watch in my spare time. I mean, what is up with that?

So why do we hate history? I think it all goes back to what I said at the beginning of this post. It's a preconceived idea that history is boring, when really history is anything but. I'm not very interested in war itself, but the movements that surround wars are fascinating and usual more interesting than the war itself. So do you hate history? Or do you love it? Why do you think you feel the way you do about history?

Welcome to Robinson Wells today, author of Variant who is here to share with us some memories of the teenage years.:)

So, I’m not sure if I understand this correctly: If I was selling all of this stuff at a garage sale, that would mean that I don’t like it, right? If there was something I was selling as a teenager, then it wouldn’t matter much, so I’m going to change the rules: this isn’t a teenage garage sale; it’s a museum of my teenage years.

A collection of Supertramp CDs: No I’m not old enough that I was into Supertramp when they first came out (in the seventies), but for whatever reason I latched onto them as a teenager. I think it first was because of the kitsch of it—I mean, they have an album called “Breakfast In America”—but they started growing on me to the point where I owned all their albums and listened to them constantly. (I’m mostly over them now. Mostly.)

A fishing tackle box full of oil paints: Long before I ever thought about writing, my creative outlet was in the visual arts. My mom signed me up for an oil painting class when I was about eleven, and I really fell in love with it. (I don’t mean to brag, but I once took fourth place in the Utah State Fair. I’m kind of a big deal.) Sadly, writing has taken all my painting time away, and I haven’t done anything in years.

A road sign: In typical teenage fashion, my friends and I went through a phase when we would try to acquire (steal) the best signs we could find. We made a rule that we’d never do anything unsafe—no stealing STOP signs, or anything like that—but we got a lot of awesome ones. And, fortunately, one of our friends had a bus stop in front of his house, and we’d re-hang our stolen signs in front of his place: my favorite was a sign from the cemetery directing hearses toward the correct entrance. As you can imagine, my friend’s dad was not happy about this kind of thing.

A drafting table: In addition to painting, I briefly worked as a teenager drawing houses for real estate advertisements. I’m not great at drawing other things, but I can draw the heck out of a tract home.

My student government sweater: I think I ran for office every single year of junior high and high school, and never won, and then my senior year came around and I ran and lost AGAIN. But then they created a new position, held a special election, and I finally won! I was the Assembly Coordinator, which was a horrible job that I never would have taken had I not so desperately wanted to be in student government.

A 1972 Chevy Impala: This was my first car (and, since you don’t know how old I am, it was more than twenty years old when I had it). My dad bought it from someone for $300, and it ran about as well as you’d expect for a $300 car. The main benefit of the car was that it was indestructible—it was made of solid steel. More than once, as I was backing into the driveway, I hit the concrete side stairs and heard horrible scraping only to jump out and see the car was completely unscathed—not even a scratch in the paint.

Playbills from numerous shows: I came from a singing and dancing family, and we (all of us, Mom and Dad included) ended up heavily involved in community theater. Although I did my share of acting and singing (I could NEVER figure out how to dance), I ended up falling in love with the backstage stuff, and eventually worked for years doing set design.

How fun! I come from a theater family too! I love that you guys all got involved together. I can't tell you how many times I get that look when family members ask me why I'm not involved with a show.: P Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

It's been a while since I did an update on my summer internship at the State Historical Society of Iowa. This is for a few reasons. 1. I've worked kind of irregularly the past few weeks due to a dentist appointment and a scrape with a cold. 2. It didn't even seem like there was enough to write a whole post about. So now I'm going to write about the past three weeks at my internship. If you haven't read any of these posts until now I'll let you know what I'm doing. I work in the archives at the state historical society and go through personal papers of a former governor and then put them into the computer. I also take death certificates from the 1920's and enter them into the computer.

Awhile ago I mentioned I had found death certificates from 1928 where a man had shot his wife and three-year-old child. Well a couple weeks after that I was going through death certificates again, still in 1928 and saw a name I thought looked familiar. "It's the husband," I thought, and started to enter everything in. Then I looked at the dates and realized it couldn't possibly be the husband, because this person was only five years old. I was right though, he had been shot by his father (the same man from the first set of death certificates). I went to the next one and saw a girl with the same last name. A three-month-old girl shot by her father. And then finally, the man himself. Killed himself. Why wasn't this man in jail? How did he manage to pull this off? What provoked him to shoot his wife, three children, and then himself? It's a horrible story, but I have to know what happened so I'm thinking about going to the State Historical Library and seeing if there is anything about in the microfilm. I have to satisfy my curiosity!

The closer I get to 1930, the more suicides I see. It's depressing, but incredibly interesting from a historical standpoint. Most of the deaths are see are just "normal" deaths, but lately it's seemed like 1/15 have been suicides... and this is in a small town. I'm almost done with the 20's in this county and I'm amazed that I've gone through about ten years of history for this place in just seven weeks. If I had it my way, I would probably spend all of my time indexing death certificates, but the other project I'm working on is huge and they really need help with it. One of the state archivists teased me last week though. She said, "You know you've been here too long when death certificates become a nice break."

I really am amazed that I've been working in this place for almost two months. I've enjoyed my time in the archives, but I want to try out several other forms of library science before I go to library school. In the fall I start a job in the preservation department at the University of Iowa, which will be sort of related to what I do now. I'd like to get a job in a public library next summer.

Hey everyone! Help me welcome Maureen McGowan today! She's the author of the Twisted Fairy Tale series, which so far includes Cinderella, Ninja Warrior (read my review here!) and Sleeping Beauty, Vampire Slayer (read Misty of The Book Rat's review here) . She also participated a little during Fairy Tale Fortnight (you can read that here) and it's great to have her back!

Hi Ashley and thank you so much for inviting me to guest post on your blog.

While I’ve always loved the romantic aspects of traditional fairy tales, I wanted to write stories in which the heroines were strong and capable—not waiting around for a prince to save them.

One of my aims in writing Cinderella: Ninja Warrior and Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer was to “fix” some of the story elements that bothered me in the traditional versions of these classic tales. Both of my stories include the tried and true fairy tale themes of finding true love and good triumphing over evil, but there are twists, too.

The traditional Cinderella character was too much of a victim for my taste, and I never liked the idea that the prince needed a shoe to recognize her the day after supposedly falling in love. Plus, he falls in love at first sight—presumably because of her beauty— but then doesn’t recognize her the next day when she’s out of her fancy dress? What kind of message does any of that send to modern young readers about love or self-worth?

Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer probably has fewer similarities to the traditional tale. (There were no vampires in the original? An oversight, I’m sure.) When I first started the book, I thought it was about prejudice—humans’ misconceptions about vampires and vice versa. But as soon as I started writing, it became more of a child of divorce story. Sleeping Beauty has to learn that her parents’ and kingdom’s problems aren’t her fault— even if she’s cursed. This theme popped out at me as soon as I started thinking about how parents might react if they knew their daughter carried a curse. And what it would feel like to grow up with this huge weight hanging over you.

But, although I think the stories do have positive messages for girls and an overall theme of empowerment, they are by no means “issue books”. They’re meant to be fun, fast — paced, exciting and most of all—entertaining.

When I began to explore adding reader interaction to updated fairy tales, I had no idea how to pull it off, but I knew what I didn’t want to do: I didn’t want to include “wrong” paths or unhappy endings. (Even thought I know this has disappointed a few readers.)

Fairy tales by their nature promise happy endings—and pretty specific happy endings in some cases—so, I decided that each book in the series should have a single ending. As I started to write, I did look at a few choose-your-own-adventure stories, hoping for hints or clues as to how to structure my books, but I didn’t like the “bad choice—you die!” aspects of some of those “old school” stories.

The way I see things, each day we face choices, and the alternatives aren’t necessarily right or wrong—just different. Smart heroines (and smart readers) will make smart choices, so I wanted to present reasonable alternatives at each decision point without making it obvious which choice was better. Also, a capable heroine—even if she makes a mistake—should be able to face whatever challenges her chosen path places in her way.

When I decided on the structure, I didn’t realize what a difficult path I was laying out for myself! My choice created challenges for me—almost as tough as those facing Cinderella in her magic competition, or Lucette when she’s the only one awake and facing vampires in the night.

There were times while writing these books when my head was spinning so badly I didn't know which end was up!

But ultimately, I had as much fun writing them as I hope readers will have reading them.