After my post on Thursday about avoiding finals I gave studying on Saturday the good old college try. I got some of my paper done, but not nearly enough. This afternoon I'm going to lock myself up in the library and I won't come out until I have at least 1.5 papers done and my reading for Monday. But this morning I'm going to relax a little bit, do some reading and eat some food. Maybe after a little relaxation I'll feel better equipped to plunge into paper writing. Maybe I'll pick up a peppermint latte or something to make myself feel extra prepared.

I'm not sure how other students are, but I really have to coax myself into studying for finals. The week before finals is probably about the worst week because the end is so close. I love actual finals week because you don't have to go to class, so you can just relax and study all week! This is especially true for me this semester because I only have one big final exam (anthropology, the bane of my existence) so for the entirety of finals week I will just work, relax, and study for that stupid exam, which have to do very, very well on. Don't be surprised if I start tweeting about skulls all the time.

If you haven't yet, check out my review of Heart with Joy. I really enjoyed this book and my review doesn't do it justice. I also did a post about Gifts for English Majors you should check out for your holiday shopping. Yesterday I did an Awesome Essays post about and essay called Speaking American, which I think all of you will enjoy because you love language!

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming congratulations about my engagement. I'm obviously very excited about it! We're not planning to get married until after we graduate so it will be a year and a half, and for now I'm just excited about being engaged.

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Luxury Bar in Las Vegas

Bar in Las Vegas, work of the Japanese studio “Design Spirits Co., Ltd” became one of winners of competition The Great Indoors Awards. The Chinese restaurant is in one building with very large casino and hotel on 3,300 apartments.

Luxury Relax & Consume

The project has won a nomination “Relax and Consume”. Walls and a ceiling are covered by a white openwork pattern from a steel.

Habitual registration of an interior — division into various zones by means of various "samples". In the given premise there is one magnificent feature — an absolute openness, absence of columns. Designers have decided to use this fact and have issued all interior in uniform style. The space has turned out unique and picturesque.

VIA «The Bar Interiors»

Have you I mentioned to you all that Jason is the best guy ever? He has gotten me two bookish gifts recently. Two things I've wanted for a very long time. For Valentine's Day he got me a reading pillow. I mentioned this on my first Best Gifts for English Majors post and I never got one. I was so excited to open it on Valentine's Day and I've already gotten a lot of use out of it.

This is perfect for reading in bed at night. I don't have to hold the book up so my arms don't get tired-- a major problem with reading in bed. I just put the pillow in my lap, hold the book open and read away. You can order these Peeramid Bookrests on Amazon if you're interested. They are hard to find.

He also got me a great t-shirt from the greatest store in world, Raygun. Raygun is a local thing, they make great t-shirts about towns in Iowa because those of us who love Iowa love to show our pride. Someone else really liked Iowa, especially the girls that live there...

Yeah, that's right, Jack Kerouac. I've wanted this shirt for a long time since On the Road is one of my all time favorite books. Sigh. I'm just so happy I have this shirt. If you're not from Des Moines you'll probably find it less exciting, so thanks for humoring me.

In other news, it's midterms which means I have way too much crap going on this week. I have several books to make, a paper to write, a presentation, and an exam. Blargh. I'm really looking forward to spring break, even if I'm only dog-sitting. Lots of time to read and relax. In my lifelong attempt to make you all read essays I posted a three sentence essay yesterday! You should all go read it! I even challenged you to write your own and so far one person has taken the challenge.

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So Thursday marked my last month as a teenager. Yes, I am turning twenty. Most people aren't that excited about their 20th birthday, and I guess I'm not really either. To make things a little more exciting I've decided to do a self challenge. I've never read a lot of YA books, even when I was a teenager. I mentioned during National Novel Writing Month that this was the reason I decided to write a YA novel. When I was in high school it was the cool thing to not read YA books, but to read literature books. Sometimes I regret not reading more YA, but the truth is that I really had trouble finding YA books that interested me.

So yesterday I did some shopping, virtually and physically, and found four YA books that I would like to give a shot. The first I've already started. It's The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner. I also ordered the first three books in the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen, Sorcery and Cecelia, or the Enchanted Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Most of these are historical fiction, which to be honest I wasn't very interested in when I was in my early to mid teens. I was really interested in Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac at the time. The turning point in my reading habits was actually when I read Jane Eyre, although it wasn't an immediate change. It's taken me awhile to really become a historical fiction reader, although I've always enjoyed books set in the past.

So basically this is just a way for me to relax, read some books that I probably wouldn't read otherwise, and enjoy my last few days as a teenager. I'll be posting the reviews to these books as well as something adolescent every Saturday until January 9, which is the day before my birthday.

I bet a lot of you thought I gave up on blogging. Well psych! Midterms are over and I am back. I actually got quite a bit of reading done during my blogging hiatus, three books to be exact. You can expect upcoming review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Aurora Floyd, and Emma Volume Three. I'm part of the Creation of Eve TLC Book Tour this week though, so I will have a review of that up on Thursday. I need to read Creation of Eve right now and I'm really looking forward to it, but the evil, evil Books on the Nightstand (not really evil, love them!) has got me all interested in The Lighting Thief. From what I've heard about it, it seems like the new Harry Potter. I got the first book today and it is all I can do from tearing it open right now.

What makes not reading The Lightning Thief even more difficult is that I am leaving for New York tomorrow. Which means lots of time in the airport and lots of time on planes. One of my favorite things to do while I travel is read, which I gather is not the case for everyone. My parents always return to the story about our trip to Hawaii in which I spent the majority of the trip deeply involved with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. My favorite Harry Potter book in case you were wondering. For me, vacations are one of the few times I can really relax while I read. I don't have to think about what else I should be doing because I shouldn't really be doing anything except relaxing and enjoying the new place. For me the book or books I read on a trip is an integral part of the experience.

I love to travel and experience different cultures, but I also look at trips as a chance for me to do things I don't normally get to do. Like really lose myself in a book. Sometimes it doesn't work out and I get zero reading done on vacation, but usually I at least try to make an attempt. So how about you? Do you enjoy reading on trips, or is that one of the times you don't read? What are some of your all time favorite trip reads?

I was a very bad reader last week. Lots of things are to blame, it was the week before Thanksgiving break and I just wanted to relax. I did finish Philip Graham's The Moon, Come to Earth. I also attended his reading at Prairie Lights. Graham is very gregarious, I enjoyed his reading. He read three dispatches from the book though, which took quite a long time. I'm always more interested in hearing authors talk about their books than read from them.

The book that has taken up most of my time is George Eliot's Middlemarch, which I plan to finish tomorrow. If I haven't mentioned it before, I will mention it again: Middlemarch is a beast. It's a multi-plot novel with what seems like one thousand characters. It takes me a long time to read, but thanks to a couple 4-8 AM shifts at work I am almost finished with it. I'm really enjoying it too, but that doesn't surprise me. Eliot is a genius.

Today I plan on finishing The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James. I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, I am obsessed with Charlotte Bronte and I'm always iffy on books that make the authors the characters. I am happy to say that I have not been able to put it down. James has really done a great job researching all the Brontes and I like how she documents her research in the back of the book. There are footnotes in this, which I know have put some people off, but I kind of like them. Some are unnecessary to me because I know enough about the 19th century, but some of them are helpful and interesting. The character that has interested me most is Branwell. I knew that he was a drunkard but James creates a fully developed character out of a man that has always baffled me.

Next week I plan on reading A LOT because I will just be sitting at home anyway. Books I plan to read are The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, The White Garden by Stephanie Barron, and Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm.

Today I have an interview with Dani, the main character is the new novel The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young, set to release later this month. This has been one of my most favorite character interviews thus far because Dani is such an interesting character and my heart just went out to her. You can read my review of Dani's story here.

In the beginning of your story, it seemed to me that you spent a lot of time making sure that other people were happy. Things like, babysitting for Mrs. Alex because it was easier for her, even though you had other things you would have rather done. Do you think this had anything to do with what started happening to you?

That’s a really good observation. I try to be considerate of other people and their feelings and whether they’re being inconvenienced, and maybe I take it a little too far. My therapist said that the bad thoughts get worse when someone is under stress. Possibly the amount of stress I took on while trying to help Mrs. Alex keep her life together contributed to the flareup of the thoughts of harming Alex. To be honest, since I got back to Hawthorne I haven’t been through a time that’s stress-free enough to test out that theory. Maybe some day!

Do you wish that you had done things differently? Maybe made your mom listen that day instead of letting her redirect the conversation?

Maybe when I wanted to quit babysitting and Mrs. Alex didn’t return my phone calls, I should have left a message saying I wasn’t coming back again and just left it at that. There was probably no reason to explain why I had to quit. I thought at the time that I owed her an explanation, but I don’t think that anymore.

Whose reaction to you after the story came out most surprised you? For good or bad.

The thing that most surprised and hurt me was that when my life was in danger my best friend, Shelley, wouldn’t let me hide at her house. We both hurt each other a lot during that time. I hate thinking about it.

What do you do to relax at the end of a stressful day?

I like to do one of three things as strenuously as possible---sing, run, or play tennis. Singing and running get me to breathe when I’m too stressed out to breathe well, and tennis allows me to be as aggressive as possible without hurting anyone. In fact, the more aggressive I am on the court the better it usually is for my team.

You have been through so much recently. Things I can't imagine ever having to face from both internal and external sources. Do you have anything you'd like to say to people out there? Something you would like them to take away from your story?

I would like people to remember that if someone appears to be behaving out of character, that person is still the same person you’ve always known and loved, and they deserve to be treated that way. I also hope that people will stop accepting news stories at face value.

Thanks so much for being interested in me and my thrilling life story.

Wow Dani! Thank you, so much, for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts with us. I hope that people will learn from your story and grow because yours is definitely a story that invites growth and challenges readers. Again, thank you!

I've been thinking a lot lately about being embarrassed about reading certain books. I'm definitely guilty of it, and it seems like there are times and places where I'm okay with reading different things. When I'm at work I don't care if I'm reading The Luxe or some other hardly literary book. I don't think I would feel comfortable reading that in the English Philosophy building, although things are starting to change for me with reading. Since I've started this blog I've started to care less about only reading great literature and care more about just reading. When I was a kid I read nonstop because I loved stories, not because I wanted everyone to think I was super smart and cool. I do miss the days in elementary school when reading was the cool thing to do though.

Maybe part of the change has been my job tutoring. When I pick books for the kids I don't necessarily pick books that are going to expand their mind, but I pick books that I know they will be interested in. That's the best way to expand their minds right? So what's wrong with reading The Jane Austen Mystery series by Stephanie Barron or The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen.

I was really ashamed last year by how little I was reading. Second semester I read a lot, but they were all books for class. When I look back at the books I tried to read during the semester it doesn't surprise me that I didn't finish many. How was I supposed to pay attention to a book that took me 2 minutes per page when I was exhausted from school and work? I've definitely changed my reading habits this semester. I am reading a lot of books, and I'm interested in all of them. They might be a little silly sometimes, but I don't watch a lot of television and that is what most people do to relax from homework.

I love to do analysis of literature, I'll admit it. I love reading novels by Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf, and George Eliot. Part of me thinks that if I read only these books though my brain will just fry itself. I was so worn out after reading Middlemarch that I just had to escape into something else for awhile. Something simpler, but not bad. I can't read a bad book, I just can't do it. And plot is usually not enough to get me through a book, I have to fall in love with the characters.

I am participating in the Dewey Readathon today! My readathon mornings are always messed up. I always oversleep, and it seems like I'm always going to my parents' house for the weekend. This readathon was new different. I got started about two hours late, nine o'clock my time. I haven't wasted much time though, one and a half books finished. Jason and I made a little pit stop in Pella, Iowa on the way home to meet some of family for lunch. Now I'm at my parents' house to read for an hour before we go get our engagement pictures taken.

Time spent reading: 15/21
Pages read: 704
Hours listened: 3
Books completed: The Walking Dead Volume 2 by Robert Kirkman, Welcome to My Country by Lauren Slater, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, The Pharmacist's Mate by Amy Fusselman
Activities completed: None
Trees planted: 8

I'll be returning to update this post throughout the day. You might be wondering about trees planted. For each book I finish during the readathon I am planting two trees through Eco-Libris.

Update: My engagement pictures are complete! We had a lot of fun getting out pictures taken and I read a little Shakespeare during the photo shoot. I'm sure I'll share some of those later. For now I will just say The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a fantastic book. A really quick read too! Also, I didn't fill this out during hour one, so I'm doing it now.

1) My parents' house in Altoona, Iowa. Started at my house in Iowa City, Iowa and read on the road in between.
2) I love essays, almond macaroons are my favorite cookie, and I'm probably going camping next weekend.
3) 10
4) I don't really have any specific goals this time around, I'm just hoping to get a lot of reading done!
5) Relax and have fun. Try to get some actual reading in instead of checking up on everyone else's blogs!

Update: It's now 11:18 here. I went and got some dinner, took a nap, and started two books. I was originally planning on reading Molly Fox's Birthday, but decided it wasn't really working for today. Right now I'm reading Welcome to my Country by Lauren Slater instead. I've been working on some art projects for school while listening to Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World, which has been a nice break from reading and a good opportunity to get some work done. Now I think I'm going to get back to some real text reading for a few hours. Who is still out there? Are you hanging in there?

Update: A few hours have gone by since my last update. I'm officially starting to get tired. I've accomplished a lot more in this readathon than I thought I would. I've finished four books and made a pretty good dent in the beginning of an audiobook. I even managed to get a little homework done. In the last few hours I read a graphic novel to give my eyes a rest from all the text. In the next couple hours I think I might listen to some audio while trying to get some more homework done and then see how I feel.

Update: This will probably be my final update for the readathon. My eyes are heavy and I'm at the beginning of a book which is making it difficult for me to keep up with it. I might try to get up after a little nap to read just a little bit more-but I am basically done for this readathon. I also keep thinking about the paper I have to write tomorrow and how I should probably be a little coherent for that!

How is your readathon going? If you're not participating then how are you spending your Saturday?

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Playful: Pippa climbs back aboard as William jokingly grabs Kate; right, the sisters relax on deck, with Kate using her camera
Sunshine days: William, in red shorts, with Pippa (left), Carole, in green bikini, and other holiday guests
They show the Prince larking around with Kate and Pippa, the girls' mother Carole and their brother James on a boat belonging to Carole's brother Gary Goldsmith during a week-long sunshine holiday to Ibiza.
Pippa shows off her athletic prowess -- and her enviably toned physique -- performing a backwards dive into the sea.
Kate, who also looks stunning in her white bikini, is content to stand back and watch.
Heir in the air: Watched by Carole, Kate, James (in the patterned shorts) and Pippa, William attempts a backflip from the boat...
... but the young royal finishes with an ungainly belly-flop into the water
Making waves: The Prince failed to match Pippa's graceful aquatic display
Carole, who won admiration at the wedding for her elegant appearance, also reveals a youthfully trim figure in an emerald green bikini.
Meanwhile, in his red swimming shorts, William could be any young man eager to impress his girlfriend by performing a backflip -- which somehow turns into a belly-flop by the time he hits the water.
Her Royal Hotness: Pippa in her bridesmaid's dress at her sister's wedding
The pictures reveal the extent to which the Middletons invited William into the heart of their family.
During their week in Ibiza, they stayed at Gary's £5million villa, dubbed 'La Maison de Bang Bang'.
source: dailymail

VIA William larks around on a boat in Ibiza with Kate and the Middleton clan in never-before-seen pictures

Towels are necessary in each house

VIA «A variety of towels in our life»

I've decided to celebrate the close of finals week (Friday morning is the end for me) by reading The Cat in the Hat

to everyone. I know I've felt all semester like I'm juggling one hundred things and every once and awhile they would all come crashing down, just like the Cat in the Hat. Now I can breathe for a little while and know that I can just focus on what I want to. Sit back, relax, enjoy the Dr. Seussiness.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Today I have Leslie Dubois joining me, author of the new novel, The Queen Bee of Bridgeton. She's joined us for an interview today, but the interview is a bit different than normal. Rather than answering the questions on her own, all of her answers are direct quotes from the books! It makes for some interesting responses and has definitely made me want to move this book a little higher up the tbr pile! ___________________________________________________

Why dance?

“For me, dancing is like an elegant stream of life-giving water. It nourishes my soul. Without it, I’d shrivel up and die.”

What can we expect to see from you next? Farther in the future?

“In a few days, I’m gonna be a fat flower expert.”

Which character in Queen Bee do you most relate to, or find comes more heavily from your own experiences? Why that character?

“Because I didn’t know the slang or the words to the latest rap song apparently I wasn’t black enough.”

Do you have any writing rituals or superstitions? Things you must do or have in order to write?

“I went to my room and turned on Mozart’s Symphony number 25 in G minor in order to drown out the ghetto symphony of gunshots and sirens.”

What do you do to relax, or de-stress?

“First of all, I’ve played basketball my entire life. It’s the only think that keeps me from going completely insane.”

What are some of your favorite books? Both recent reads and long-time favorites.

“Why couldn’t I be dancing with the Russian Ballet instead?”

___________________________________________________
Thank you so much for joining us today Leslie! I love the quotes even if some of them make me more curious than before.:) Readers, if you would like to win a copy of this book for yourself — Just leave me and Leslie a comment letting us know what interests you about the book, the answers here, or why we should send you a copy. US/Canada only. Ends Monday, May 23 Include email with comment.