Grad School Verdict + 4 Reviews

Well, the final tally is in with the verdict 1,029 points out of 1,030 points possible. And I was doing so well up until that last submission! Messed up on a citation - big surprise there - but was a total pro up until then. Out of the like 20 something citations, no wait it was 5 citations per book cause you had to do one for the book, one for the author's website, 2 for published reviews and then one for a book like it. So 5 per book and I read 12 books. And had a perfect score until the last one. Man. Grad school. Just... You know... One point, that's just... mean. But I'm done for the summer and I have a new summer song which surprisingly hasn't driven me nuts yet as pop-y as it is. I got sick of Whine Up about a month in.

But I'm done! Cause now I have my final grades, sent in my thank-you's, all that's left now is to write the reviews, oh wait I haven't called my mother...give me a minute.... Called my mother, she told me to celebrate so huzzah!
I'll watch the CWS, route for SC and drink something. Like a Mike's. If I have a Mike's.
*celebration ensues*
Moving on.

I told you earlier I would hit you with the book reviews once the class was finished. Then I got busy with other stuff and after that I just didn't want to do it, but now I have time. There are 12 books, but there's no way I'm reviewing all 12 now. I'm thinking 4 per day. It'll give me something to talk about for the rest of the weekend.

Okay, here we go.

So Book #1 was "Revolution" by Jennifer Donnelly.
Basically, the story is about Andi, a student about to graduate high school. Her brother is killed, her mother goes crazy so her father decides to take her to Paris. Her father, a famous geneticist, is there to test a heart that people claim to be the heart of the dauphin of France. The dauphin of France was the son of the King and Queen during the Revolution. His parents were beheaded and he was imprisoned so the people could live in a democratic world no longer ruled by royalty. While Andi is in France she discovers a diary in an old guitar case that belonged to Alex, the official companion to the dauphin. Alex took care of him, entertained him, and after he was imprisoned tried to free him. The story bounces back from Andi's life to Alex's journal entries. As Andi gets drawn in by Alex's story she notices things in her world start to overlap with Alex's. She must know whether Alex was able to save the dauphin or if it really is his heart that her father is testing.
Scale of Awesome rating: 10/10 - The book is great if you're a fan of historical fiction. Donnelly does a great job of explaining the French Revolution as she's telling the story. I actually researched it after I was done with the book because I became so interested. You learn about it without feeling like she's drowning you in it. I was very impressed.


Book #2 - "Hold Still" by Nina LaCour
Caitlin is the main character in this book. It starts right after her best friend, Ingrid, commits suicide. She doesn't understand why, she has a lot of rage, and then suddenly the summer is over and she has to go back to school and face everyone. Then one day she finds Ingrid's journal under her bed. While reading the journal she begins to understand not only about Ingrid but about herself - as cheesy as that sounds. It's a good book,
Scale of Awesome says: 7/10 - It's a really quick read and actually really different from what I'm used to reading so at first I was resistant. After she found the journal it was hard to put down.


Book #3 was "Bruiser" by Neal Shusterman
This book is told from many perspectives, it kind of bounces back and forth. Tennyson and Bronte are two siblings growing up and going to high school. The book starts just as Bronte starts dating this guy that everyone calls Bruiser. He's big and awkward and doesn't talk to anyone. After finding out that his sister is dating Bruiser, Tennyson decides to follow him home finding an uncle who beats him, a fears-nothing-cause-he's-young brother, and a dead bull. In their front yard. After helping him to dispose of the bull - so glad he only gave us the before and after of that part - he and Bruiser become closer and he begins to notice things. Like, why all of his injuries just suddenly don't exist around Bruiser. I can't really say anything more than that without giving anything away, but read this book. Because it's fantastic.
Scale of Awesome rating: 9/10 - I loved this book! It's funny, it's mysterious, and it's a quick-read. What more can I say?


Book #4 was a Golden Sower nominee "Extra Credit" by Andrew Clements
Abby is awesome at rock climbing. She is not, however, so awesome at everything else, say school. She's failing. And they're going to hold her back. Her only option: extra credit. The teacher gives her choices and puts them in a hat, she pulls out the pen-pal option aka write to a different country back and forth with a pen-pal. This is how she finds herself in contact with Sadeed who is from Afghanistan. Sadeed is the most qualified student at the school her letter was sent to. He knows English so he would be the one to write her back, except, it's improper for a young boy and a young girl to write back and forth in their society, so he writes what his sister says instead. After getting tired of being the scribe he decides to write his own letter and send it along with his sister's. Then Clements throws in some cultural differences, there's drama, and that's all I'm gonna give you cause it's a short book.
Scale of Awesome - for me I'd say 6/10 but it would be a perfect read for a younger adolescent who's wanting more to read than just basic chapter books. Super quick read with big font and not so many pages.


Cool Aunt and I are sad since Vandy is toast. They lost to Florida this afternoon. Total downer man. No more "Black! Gold" this season. Although I may continue to text her that randomly throughout the summer as it is rather amusing. Now I'm saying South Carolina. It would be cool for them to win the last game at Rosenblatt and the first game at the TD-whatever-I'm-still-going-to-call-it-Rosenblatt stadium.

Okay, I have to say I'm really enjoying these Super Cuts commercials on ESPN. I think they're fantastic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvfWUjHBNJY
and Esurance

"Raise the roof 1999." that's our victory dance at the smaller branch.
I'm all about raisin' the roof.


Songs tonight:

"Barbara Ann" The Beach Boys

gotta love it.

"That's How Country Boys Roll" Billy Currington

they love mama and jesus and jones...



and yet "Run, Joey, run, Joey, run...." is still in my head. ugh.


OUT! Go SC!

So you'll remember what I forgot to say...

Write this down!

Class today was awesome, as always. Had to stop for gas on the way. See, Maggie used to beep at me when I was running out of gas, Jarvis just has this light in the corner of the dash. And I'm soooo good at checking the dash...not. Ask my parents. "How long as that oil gage been broken?" "Um, a while?" "WHAT?!"

So, 12 books in 6 weeks. 2 down, 2 for next week. Soon it'll be an audio book, got it off Amazon.com and apprently it's really long but since I'm not driving back and forth between practice and here anymore I'll have to load it on my computer and put it on my ipod. That's always in my pocket...along with a quotebook, flashdrive with my grandpa's journals and all my camp stuff on it, chunk of concrete from junior year of college (long story), a business card and a bunch of slips of paper that seem to accumulate as the day goes on. I used to write notes on my arms and hands to remember things but it's probably unprofessional to do it in public service so I write them on paper instead.

Okay so now I can officially review them.
Book #1 = "Hold Still" by Nina LaCour
Caitlin finds her best friend's journal under her bed after she commits suicide. Story follows her journey dealing with grief and moving on with her life.
It was okay, nothing I plan on reading again because it was depressing. But it was quick read with a lot of journal entries and some cool pictures.

Book #2 = "Revolution" by Jennifer Donnelly
After her brother dies and her mother goes crazy Andi's father decides to take her to Paris where she finds this diary in an old guitar case that belonged to a girl from the French Revolution. The girl was the official companion to the Dauphin of France - the son of the King and Queen during the French Revolution.
You MUST read this book. I can't say anything more about the plot without giving things away. But you MUST read this book. If you like Historical Fiction it's the perfect read. Even if you don't like Historical Fiction it's a great way to get you interested. I rarely read it but I was hooked from the start. It's funny, it's educational - I seriously looked up facts on the French Revolution and Louis-Charles after I was finished reading it because I had to know - because it's based on a true story. Read this book.

Library Goddess-isms...wait, do I have to do citation for these too?
-"Learning lamaze" lots of deep breathing
-"They don't believe in vowels, what's with that?" roster last names
-"What color was the car?...blue..." a totally indepth question...not.
-"Ha! plus five!" pronounced a difficult last name correctly
-"Donkey Hotey" okay...I can't explain that one
-"I don't care if you have a girl middle and a boy high or a boy middle and a girl high...school! High school!" yeah...haha, gotta include school on that one.
-"Take the call but go down the hall, don't say Hey by the door. We don't care about your hey." but it was like "Hey" as in "Hey, Ho, Hey, Ho" hysterical.
-"Have your dog look at it, I don't care." there were a lot of dog references
-"You will not get a handout for your marriage." true dat.
-"iPad, uPad, we all pad" I don't remember what we were talking about but it was funny
-"There's language we use with our friends and language we don't use with our grandmother." yeah.

Songs for the day:

"Write This Down" George Strait

think I posted this one during 90s week but it's been a while

Tonight I'm going with Grandma (26-year-old-coworker) who I, from now on, will refer to as "Slim Shady" because it's shorter and funnier, are going to see a friend from work's band play. It's Slim Shady because at inservice they made the people who were working on the software transition stand up. I said Stand up Slim Shady and it was funny because that's like anti-her. I'll make it work.

Out!