On my Extended Absence and Books

I have no idea where October went or my blogging. (My friend actually told me to go on and post. Thanks Jasmine, I had sort of forgotten.) I have been ridiculously busy (and lazy) which lead to the lethal combination of never ever posting.

The one particularly fun thing I did, amid all the tests and procrastination, was I got to see Lily Allen in concert (this happened on the 8th of this month, yeah it’s been a while.) But she was amazing to see and I had so much fun! This was my first concert I went to so I have very little basis to go off of on whether it was an good concert or not. But I enjoyed it.

(Side note: Lolawolf opened for Lily Allen and I have really started to enjoy her music, especially the songs Bitch and Jimmy Franco. You should definitely go check her out.)

Another reason I haven’t been posting is that I have read maybe two actual books this month. This is all of Once Upon a Time‘s fault; they don’t give me enough Rumbelle so I have to read fanfiction.Yes, I spent the last month binge-reading fanfiction and no, it isn’t healthy at all. I do have quite a few books that I am waiting for at the library so I will be actually be posting book reviews.

I’m back and only slightly worse than usual! And have a Happy Halloween! (Unless of course you don’t celebrate Halloween then have a wonderful last day of October.)

I do promise to post more often, maybe even the three times a week like I had once said.

Friday’s and Monday’s Posts

I am so sorry! I kept on meaning to post, and I kept on putting it off. And putting it off and putting it off, and look it’s Monday evening! Anywho, it actually sort of did work out with what I was going to talk about, my all time favorite Once Upon a Time. 

(There will be lots of spoilers and if you haven’t watched go and do it! Now! If you have never seen the show consider watching it. It is one of the best fairytale retellings with spins I have ever seen.)

Once Upon a Time is one of my all-time favorite televisions shows and the season 4 premiere was Sunday evening and I just exploded into fangirling. The four minutes I had to wait for it to start (I was getting ready for bed right before I watched it) were possibly the longest in my life. And then– it premiered and it was kind of disappointing. I am a huge Rumbelle shipper–they are my OTP– and there was very, very little of them. It was very upsetting, and now I have to satisfy my fangirl feels with fanfiction, which is always a bit terrifying. And if you ship Hook and Emma, yeah… more disappointment. *sigh* If only I had written the episode, it would have been… a delightful disaster, but had a lot more strings tied up from last season.

If you were excited for the Frozen part of the whole shebang, you’ll be very happy; the episode was very much focused on Anna and Elsa. It actually focuses on them after Elsa’s gone and come back and Anna froze. It’s and extension of the movie, not a complete re-telling.

The best thing in this episode was, I believe, Regina. She has very lately become one of my favorite characters and she just completes it in this episode. I also love to watch her emerging relationship with Emma, and how she is going to achieve her happy ending is very interesting is going to keep me going.

This episode, for me personally was a three and a half out of five. I want more Rumbelle! Pleeease? Oh, and make Henry important again. He hasn’t done anything useful since the hiatus in the middle of season three. C’mon guys, fix it.

Banned Books Week

It’s Wednesday! Hooray!

It’s currently really damp and sprinke-ly today, but ridiculously warm for being near rainy day. I’m not complaining because we need it and it means we are that much closer to fall. Sweater weather here I come!

If you didn’t know it is banned books week (I don’t know if it’s globally recognized but I do know it is observed in America.) Banning and censoring books,including stopping people form being literate, is one of the few issues–if not the only issue– that can get me riled up. Why would you ever stop people from discovering and connecting to a novel? To me, it doesn’t matter what your personal opinion of the material inside the novel is; you let them read it. It’s their personal experience not yours.

I do not support banning novels based on their content; it’s absolutely ridiculous. Especially in high schools, they are not innocent and don’t ever think they are. My school has never implemented a rule that certain books cannot be taught; most of the books that are taught are banned. I may not like some of the novels we read, but I have different views after I read them and they give me a new perspective on life and issues.

I challenge you to go and read a novel that is either banned or you wouldn’t pick up usually. Go discover something new, your life will be fuller because of it.

About Me: Flirting and Small Talk

Happy Monday everyone!

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on this for a while now, but I kept on having to write about other things. I cannot flirt, like at all. Well… that isn’t true; I can, but only with people I am not interested in. I am notoriously bad at flirting, and I try to be so intelligent and witty while flirting. And then every time I try to flirt or be witty, it’s like my entire brain falls out. (According to my AP Psych class, this happens because stress erodes the synapses that trigger memories. So, there is no hope for me.) I believe this is why the guy I had a crush on for the last three years, who sat next to me in my Stats class, moved. He actually switched seats in class, and is now sitting nest to his best friend’s girlfriend. Yeah, it doesn’t hurt at all. Nope. None.

It also doesn’t help that I cannot make small talk for neither love nor money. I can never think about something interesting to say; I put myself under to much pressure I think. Whoever I’m talking to passes the ball into my court, I can never return it, both literally and figuratively. (I am also quite terrible at hand-eye coordination too.) It makes for awkward classes, until I find some sort of common ground. Really, it’s amazing I have any friends.

But as my favorite shirt from Express says, Who needs a boyfriend when you have red lipstick?

Do you have issues with being a relatively normal human? Are you terribly awkward? Leave a comment and share with all of your friends or awkward compatriots!

New Information and Doctor Who

Hello Everyone!

So, super exciting news: I finally have a tumblr! Yay! It took me forever to get one, which is amazing because It fit in there so well. Anyway, you can follow me on tumblr here!

As I’ve said before, I have been watching Doctor Who with my younger brother. It’s so very exciting, because no one in my family had shown any interest in Doctor Who, and it was so great someone was watching with me! My brother started watching the newest season, and I have been showing him Matt Smith’s seasons.

Eleven is my all time favorite Doctor, maybe because he was my first (the very first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw was “The Snowmen”). Re-watching them has been so enjoyable, and I always forget how entertaining the Eleven’s adventures are. I also adore Amy and Rory; they are my favorite companions (if you adore Karen Gillian, you need to check out Selfie; it’s a modern re-telling of My Fair Lady). And there is River. I LOVE River; she is my ultimate favorite character. Everything about her makes me scream in fangirl happiness! I could write articles on River Song and how much I love her and why she is the best character ever!

Good-bye Sweeties!

Books I am Currently Reading

It has been a really slow book week and I have also been very busy, so no review today. Sorry! I picked up to different books and put them down within the first hundred pages, and I don’t see the point in writing reviews on books I don’t finish. Instead, I decided to do something a little different and post my progress on the multiple books I am currently reading. I think there may be four or so and one is for my AP English class.

1) Firelight by Kristen Callihan: Yes, it’s true I read trashy romance novels. Am I ashamed? Oh, yes. Do I still love them? My God, do I. I, especially if it’s been a particularly high-stress week, read a lot of those terrible romance novels. This one is a bit better than most because it has an actual plot around the sex. Kudos to you, Kristen Callihan

2) Rumble by Ellen Hopkins: I adore Ellen Hopkins’s novels. I have read almost all, I haven’t read the entirety of the Crank series yet. She brings up very controversial topics, and she presents them in very thought-provoking ways. She also writes all of her novels in verse, so even though they are upwards of 400 pages, they end up being a fairly quick read.

3) Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers: I am about half-way through this book, and I love Parker. She has everything I want in a main character: snarky, intelligent, a little bit broken, and very, very amusing. I am not a fan of contemporary novels, but I am going to definitely read more of Courtney Summers novels.

4) I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson: I am only ten pages in, give or take five. I read Jandy Nelson’s The Sky is Everywhere and I adored it, so I have high hopes for I’ll Give You the Sun. It sounds very good from the premise.

5) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: I am being forced to read this book for my English class, and I did not enjoy it at first. I thought they treated the patients terribly, and it made me feel really, really bad. Once I got into it though, I started to enjoy One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest much more. I do keep calling it To Kill a Mockingbird, I know that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is completely different than TKAMB, but my brain doesn’t seem to agree. Very much a book about non-conformity, thanks Beats and Hippies.

Those are the books I am currently reading. You will most likely be seeing reviews on them soon, and if not on here than on my Goodreads page–link can be found on my about page! If you enjoyed one of these books or have recommendations leave a comment. See you tomorrow!

Side note: Sorry I keep posting on Thursdays, I was watching Doctor Who with my younger brother last night (I just got him into watching it). He’s been watching Capaldi with me, and I started to show him Eleven’s adventures, and he would kept on wanting to watch the next episode. And who am I to say no?

Have a lovely Thursday (or whatever day you are reading this).

15 Things That Make Me Laugh: Part 2

I posted Things That Make Me Laugh: Part 1 last Monday, so I’m continuing on that thread with Part Two! Here you go:

6. Good Mythical Morning: I just discovered this Youtube channel, and oh my goodness it made me laugh. It’s hosted by Rhett and Link, and they are absolutely hilarious. Their video, How to Talk to Your Crush had me crying laughing; it was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. I suggest you go and watch it, as soon as you finish reading this.

7. Frasier: This show was one of the very first shows I ever fangirled over, even though the series finale was over ten years age. It still makes me crack up and brings my to tears –from laughter to feels– and I just adore this show. It makes me all sorts of happy and amusement.

8. John Green’s Novels: No matter what the novel is about, all his main characters have this dry, almost flippant, sense of humor. I love main characters who have a sense of humor, especially an intelligent sense of humor. They also just have amusing occurrences in the novels. My favorite John Green Novel is Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which was written by David Levithan, and I think is one of the funniest John Green novels. I also find An Abundance of Katherines very funny too. Go read a John Green novel, it is well worth your time.

9. Dirty Jokes: I find any sort of potty humor absolutely hilarious, and the dirtier it is the funnier it is. I exist in a set of paradoxes I believe, I look so innocent, but I can be so not at the same time. I really enjoy surprising people.

10. Fruits Basket: This is a Japanese manga and I have read this so many times, and I have cracked up over this. (There is twenty-three books and I have read them all four or five times over each time.) It also makes me sob every time I read it too, not many things can attest to that. Besides making me cry, I do laugh when I read the series, I love the humor in the series.

If you liked this post, share it with your friends and if there are things you liked or disliked please comment! Please, I would greatly appreciate it. See you on Wednesday!

Tiered Skirts and Dress Codes: Fashion Tips #1

I do not consider myself to be on top of all the current fashions; I don’t even consider myself to be an expert in fashion. I do, however, consider myself to be utterly unique when it does come to fashion though. I adore taking old and new, and mixing them together.

One of my favorite things to do, created a few years ago to escape my school’s dress code, is to wear a long skirt under a shorter skirt/dress. My favorite skirt to wear underneath things, is a white two-tiered Abercrombie and Fitch skirt, with a lace ruffle on the bottom. It is just the right length, just a bit peeks out underneath the skirts I wear over it. It brings just a bit more into your outfit, and it can pass dress code without having to wear tights, or something else heavy under your short-cut skirts and dresses.

You can also just wear it whenever, especially if you want to change a much-loved outfit up a bit. Now you have just that many more outfits.

Book Review: The Ripper Affair

The Ripper Affair

Pages: 320

Published: Aug 19, 2014

Read: Sep 6-Sep 9

Sorcery. Treason. Madness. And, of course, murder most foul…

Archibald Clare, mentath in the service of Britannia, is about his usual business–solving crimes and restoring public order until a shattering accident places him in the care of Emma Bannon, sorceress Prime, who once served…and now simply remains at home, tending her solarium in reasonably quiet contentment. What Clare needs now is time to recover, and not so incidentally, a measure of calm to repair his faculties of Logic and Reason. Without them, he is not his best. One could even say that without them, he is not even properly a mentath at all.

Unfortunately, calm and rest will not be found. There is a killer hiding in the sorcerous steam-hells of Londinium, stalking the Eastron End and unseaming poor women of a certain reputation. A handful of drabs murdered on cold autumn nights would make no difference…but the killings echo in the highest circles possible, and threaten to bring the entire edifice of Empire down in smoking ruins.

Now Emma Bannon, once more, is pressed into service and Archibald Clare, once more, is determined to aid her. The secrets between these two old friends may give an ambitious sorcerer the means to bring down the Crown. And there is still no way to reliably find a hansom when one needs it most.

Britannia is threatened. Londinium quakes. Sorcery births an unholy monster.

The game is afoot…

The reason I love this series (this is the third novel), is the same reason so may people dislike this series: you have to invest yourself in the books and figure out what the author is hinting at. Lilith Saintcrow never obviously states what the characters are truly feeling or what is exactly going on; instead, she drops hints and leaves it up to the reader to decide. I find this extremely fitting for the Victorian setting and it keeps me, as a reader, much more invested in the story. I cannot wait for the next chapter–or book–to see if my assumptions were correct. Usually they are, but I can still be slightly off.

The other reason I adore this series is the lead female character: Emma Bannon. Often, authors try to write strong female characters, and accidentally turn them into idiots. This is not the case, however, with Miss Emma Bannon. She is smart, resourceful, and completely her own character. She doesn’t need a man to prop her up and make her character “complete.” There is romance but Emma’s happiness is not based upon the love her her lover; he isn’t necessary to complete her happiness.

The two problems I do have with this book are: one) the book is slow in some parts. The plot meanders along in some parts, and sometimes you just wish Lilith Saintcrow would pick up the pace a bit. The second problem I have, as much as I praised it earlier, it would be nice, just once and a while, to be told what the characters are feeling and what is happening. I found the third novel does tell you straight what is going on but the first two are a bit more meandering.

Overall, I adored this book, and recommend it to fans of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate Series.

4.5 out of 5

 

 

 

15 Things That Make Me Laugh: Part 1

I love to be amused; I seek it out, trying to find things that make me giggle to full-body laughing. So, due to this and the fact that I have been wasting way to much time finding comedy on the internet, I have decided to make today’s blog post on the Top Fifteen Things That Amuse Me. (I believe I will be making more of these lists in the future, I’ve always really liked lists.)

Here they are listed, in no particular order (number one is not the thing I find most amusing, I find them all equally funny.)

1. Confessions of Georgia Nicholson- I adore these books. I have read each one–there are ten–at least four or five times and they still amuse me! If you ever want to read absolutely ridiculous books about a ridiculous British teenage girl, read Confessions of Georgia Nicholson. I recommend them to everyone.

2. Community- This is one of my all time favorite TV shows. This is such a funny show about a group of misfits in community college and if you haven’t watched it, you must! I have nearly cried from laughter over this show, I suggest everyone watch it.

3. The Eleventh Doctor- Eleven was my favorite Doctor, and he was also my first. I don’t think there was ever an episode with Eleven in it that I did not laugh over. Everything he did was just so silly and ridiculous, and so contrived. And Matt Smith is just so cute! 

4. Grace Helbig’s new podcast: Not Too Deep With Grace Helbig. It is a two part podcast, video and podcast, and they are absolutely hilarious. Grace is so funny and what she puts her guests through makes it so much funnier. There is a lot of potty humor and candid tales, which just makes it all the more amusing.

5. The Vlogbrothers! I adore John and Hank Green, either one can brighten my entire day. They are amusing and often educational; the humor from John Green’s novels bleed into his videos. If I can be half as talented and funny as either brother, I would have achieved quite a lot with my life

I’m going to end here. I will post the next five next Monday.

Find Grace here. 

Find the Vlogbrothers here.