Poetry Corner #19

A Lament
    By: Victor Hugo

'O paths whereon wild grasses wave,
O valleys, hillsides, forests hoar!
Why are ye silent as the grave?'
'For one who came, and comes no more!' 

'Why is thy window closed of late?
And why thy garden in its sere?
O house! where doth thy master wait?'
'I only know he is not here.' 

'Good dog, thou watchest; yet no hand
Will feed thee. In the house is none.
Whom weepest thou, child?' 'My father.' 'And,
O wife! whom weepest thou?' 'The Gone.' 

'Where is he gone?' 'Into the dark.'
'O sad and ever-plaining surge!
Whence art thou?' 'From the convict-bark.'
'And why thy mournful voice?' 'A dirge.' 


DFTBA
-Jane

Book Review: Wasteland

By: Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan
Pages: 352
Release Date: March 26, 2013

Welcome to the Wasteland. Where all the adults are long gone, and now no one lives past the age of nineteen. Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan’s post-apocalyptic debut is the first of a trilogy in which everyone is forced to live under the looming threat of rampant disease and brutal attacks by the Variants —- hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin. Esther thinks there’s more to life than toiling at harvesting, gleaning, and excavating, day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day. But then Caleb, a mysterious stranger, arrives in town, and Esther begins to question who she can trust. As shady pasts unravel into the present and new romances develop, Caleb and Esther realize that they must team together to fight for their lives and for the freedom of Prin.

Rating: 3

Review: I'm not sure weather this book is a full fledged dystopia or if it is only considered post-apocalyptic. I liked this book but it wasn't my favourite. I usually really like dystopia (I don't really understand the difference between post-apocalyptic and dystopia), but this one was meh. Like all books I am sure some people will love it but it just wasn't for me.

I found parts of it confusing. It is written in third person and Ester is the main character. It kept jumping to other characters and we knew what they were thinking and it was hard to follow. In the beginning I was never sure which character we were following. I might just be me who was confused.

Ester became a stronger character as the book progress, she became more mature and brave. This all happened relatively quickly. I not sure why I didn't like the book as much, I don't know maybe it just that I couldn't relate to the characters or something.

I didn't like it as much but I'm sure some people will love it.


DFTBA
-Jane

Poetry Corner #18

So I was thinking about the poem I wanted to do and I thought I should do Shel Silverstein since I am in the mood for something fun. Some people say his poems are for kids but I think his poems are meant for any age and they are just fun.


Whatif 
     By: Shel Silverstein

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow taller?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again! 


Have a wonderful weekend! DFTBA!
-Jane

Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

By: Jenny Han
Pages: 276
Published: May 5, 2009

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along

Rating: 4

Review: This is just a really fun, short, summery read. It is a really fast read too. I thought this was a super fun book; it was nice to read a summery, happy book even though it was winter'ish' when I read this.

Belly looks forward to summer every year because she gets to go stay with close family friends like she does every summer. Plus it helps when you are staying at a house and you develop a crush on the two boys who live there. Belly was super fun and was a very normal teenager I don't like books that are about teens that are overly popular or rich. It isn't as realistic. I loved the other characters as well. they were real to life and fun. I fell in love with Conrad and Jeremiah. The two boys may be brothers but they are very different. 

It is a super fun read. I would suggest reading it during the summer, because it is such a summery read. I really enjoyed it. If your looking for a cute summer story, I would definitely recommend this. 

Sorry my reviews have been kind of short lately but I am trying to make the concise.


DFTBA
-Jane

100 Post and a Huge Thank You!

So this is now my 100th post! Hurray! 

I have now been blogging for eight month and I have the honour of being followed by so many fantastic people.

Here are some statistcs from the begining to now (my 100th post):
Posts: 100
Followers: 81
Comments: 226
All Time Pageviews: 5,256

I just want to say a huge Thank You to anyone who followers this blog. I love you all and I wouldn't be here without you! 

Hug for my superb followers:

And one more huge thank you:

DFTBA
-Jane

Book Review: Under the Never Sky

By: Veronica Rossi
Pages: 374
Published: January 3, 2012

WORLDS KEPT THEM APART. 

DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER. 

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim. 

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive. 

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

Rating: 4

Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was a different from a lot of other dystopia. It wasn't one that took place n a country that already existed (ex: America or England). It wasn't the same as our current world at all. Technology is more advanced but nothing else s even remotely the same. I'm guessing this s thousands of years n the future. My one problem with this dystopia is that we don't know how the world comes to be like this.

It was a very creative story and is very different. I really liked the characters. There is Aria, Perregrine "Perry", Roar, and others. There is romance, but I am pleased there is no love triangle and I really hope one doesn't appear in upcoming books.

I really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it if you want to read a dystopian.  

P.S. Sorry for such a short review.


DFTBA
-Jane

Poetry Corner #17

I can't believe it is already Friday! 

Dear March -- come in --
     By: Emily Dickenson

Dear March - Come in -
How glad I am - 
I hoped for you before - 
Put down your Hat -
You must have walked - 
How out of Breath you are -
Dear March, how are you, and the Rest - 
Did you leave Nature well -
Oh March, Come right upstairs with me - 
I have so much to tell - 

I got your Letter, and the Birds -
The Maples never knew that you were coming - 
I declare - how Red their Faces grew -
But March, forgive me -
And all those Hills you left for me to Hue -
There was no Purple suitable -
You took it all with you -

Who knocks? That April - 
Lock the Door - 
I will not be pursued - 
He stayed away a Year to call
When I am occupied -
But trifles look so trivial
 As soon as you have come 

That blame is just as dear as Praise
And Praise as mere as Blame -


It's another springy March poem :)
DFTBA
-Jane

Random Thoughts: When a Book Series Ends

What inspired this post was how the Delirium series just came to a close. I loved that series and the characters so much. Not that I don't still love this series whole-heartedly but now I don't have new books to look forward to. I invested like three years into loving that series. So what do you do when a book you love and have been following for a while now ends? That is the question I am trying to figure out. 

EpicReads says saying goodbye to a book series is like going through a breakup. Which I can't really say if that true not. What I do know is that when a series your very invested in ends you become very sad. EpicReads calls it a book hangover because you want to move on but your still stuck in the last books world. I think each person needs to find there own way that they get over a series. You should always still love it but you also need to find a new series to love equally for the next few years.

I've been going threw all of this this past week. For me I usually finish a series but then I try to read a new book quickly so I don't have to think about my loss. Now I'm still in emotional trauma trying to cope with the fact that there is no next book to wait for. I'm trying to find a bew series that I have read the first book in and loved. Well so far all I can think of is The Madman's Daughter. 

So how do you deal with favourite series ending?


DFTBA
-Jane

Book Review: Requiem

Note: This is the final book in the Delirium trilogy and if you have not read the first to books don't read this review. While this review will not spoil anything from this book I will bring up things that have happened in previous books. You have been warned.

By: Lauren Oliver
Pages: 391
Published: March 5, 2013

They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past. 

But we are still here. 

And there are more of us every day. 

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight. 

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. 

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings. 

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it. 

But we have chosen a different road. 

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose. 

We are even free to choose the wrong thing. 

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

Rating: 5

Review: It's the end. I have been whole-heartedly dedicated to this series for the past two and a half years. I pre-ordered Pandemonium and Requiem. I died at the end of the books because of cliffhangers and I waited out the long year between each book. When a series that you are this attached to ends you lose a bit of yourself because you have to say goodbye to the characters. I don't want to say goodbye to these characters.

Requiem is told from two point of views Lena's and Hana's. Lena is still in the wild. Alex is back. Julian is there. Then you have Hana who we haven't seen since book one. She's cured and she is preparing for her wedding, where she will marry the Fred Hargrove who became the mayor after his father died. Even though Hana is cured she still doesn't agree with everything. She's still curious and she still cares about some things. In there world she would probably be considered a sympathizer. 

The resistance is growing and becoming stronger. Lots of people die and it is horrible. Everyone has hope for a better world, even if it is the wrong world they can choose it. 

This book as is beautifully written as Delirium and Pandemonium. It is a amazing final book for a wonderful series. In the end the resistance is still fighting and the government has not yet changed. Lena chooses between Alex and Julian. Things look like they will be ok but it isn't a happily every after ending. I realize that is totally unrealistic but I want to know all the characters are happy and safe and that the government will change and that things will be ok. I'm probably just saying this because I don't want the series to end. Well now it is time to say goodbye to the characters.

This book is incredible and it really is a great end to this series. 

“And you can't love, not fully, unless you are loved in return.” 

“How can someone have the power to shatter you to dust--and also to make you feel so whole?” 

“This is the strange way of the world, that people who simply want to love are instead forced to become warriors.” 

“But maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.” 

“This is what amazes me: that people are new every day. That they are never the same. You must always invent them, and they must always invent themselves, too.” 

“We wanted the freedom to love. We wanted the freedom to choose. Now we have to fight for it.” 

“You know you can’t be happy unless you’re unhappy sometimes, right?”

DFTBA
-Jane

Book Review: Throne of Glass

By: Sarah J. Mass

Pages: 404

Published: August 7, 2012

When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King’s Champion and be released from prison. 

Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. 

And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she’d have again: a friend. 

But something evil dwells in the castle–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival–and a desperate quest to root out the source of evil before it destroys her world.

Rating: 5

Review: Everyone in Adarlan knows her name and they all know she's the best assassin  But never did they expect the best assassin Calaena Sardothien to be eighteen years old.

This story is high fantasy ans filled with action, with some romance tossed in. I loved this book. I could not put it down. It was incredible. I love fantasy but never read it, so when I come across fantasy books as amazing as this one it makes me just love the genre even more. 

The characters are all incredible. You have the kick-butt assassin Calaena Sardothein, the hansom Prince Dorian, and the captain of the guard Chaol Westfall. They are all unigue and very important to the story. Calaena hates the royal family but what will happen when she is the Crown Prince's representative in the tournament? 

I think Calaena is one of my new favourite female characters. She is one of the greatest heroins  I have read about in long time. She is an amzing fighter. She is super tough and can survive anything. She also and assassin which just makes her cooler!

This book is so engrossing. I could not put it down. Everything about this book is incredible! I look forward to the second book the Crown of Midnight SO much. If you like fantasy and epic heroines I would definitely check this out. It is incredible!

“Libraries were full of ideas–perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.” 

“You could rattle the stars," she whispered. "You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”

This book has a lot of really fun quotes and scenes.

DFTBA
-Jane

Poetry Corner #16 and an Update on My Life

First I'll do the poetry corner then I'll do the update on my life and my blog.

A Light Exists in Spring
     By: Emily Dickinson 

A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period.
When March is scarcely here

A color stands abroad
On solitary hills
That science cannot overtake,
But human naturefeels.

It waits upon the lawn;
It shows the furthest tree
Upon the furthest slope we know;
It almost speaks to me.

Then, as horizons step,
Or noons report away,
Without the formula of sound,
It passes, and we stay:

A quality of loss
Affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a sacrament. 


It is the beginning of spring so I thought this poem fit the season :)

Update Time :

1. I got two new book Requiem by Lauren Oliver and Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Requiem is the final book the Delirium trilogy, I am almost finished and I it.
2. This next week for me is spring break, yay! There are a lot of posts that I have thought about doing, so there will probably be a lot this next week. It also means I have tons of time to read and catch up on sleep.
3. I am going to be gone this weekend so I'm not sure if I can post before Sunday evening but I will if I can. 
4. Some more random stuff:
• My older brother got engaged so I'm happy for him. 
• Today at school I didn't have normal classes I had Athletic Field day, but it was inside because it was raining. I just liked seeing my and not having classes.  It was ok I guess, but my team lost most of the games, oh well.
• Hmm is there anything else I need to tell you guys... oh well I'm sure I'll come up with something later  but this is good for now.

DFTBA and have a fabulous weekend!

-Jane

Book Review: Pandemonium

By: Lauren Oliver

Pages: 375

Published: February 28, 2012

I'm pushing aside 
the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside 
thoughts of Hana 
and my old school, 
push, 
push, 
push, 
like Raven taught me to do. 
The old life is dead. 
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her. 
I left her beyond a fence, 
behind a wall of smoke.

Rating: 5

Rating: Ok so this is my second time reading this book and I still love this book. I will try to remember some of the things i felt about this book when I read it the first time when it came out in February of 2012.

So this book is written slightly differently than Delirium. Instead of just having your normal chapters you have "Now" "Then" "Now" "Then". When I read this book the first time it took a couple of these back and forth's to get used to it.The "then" part was a bit slow but the "now" part makes up for it. The "then" picks up right where Delirium. You learn a lot about how Lena changes and what she went through in her early months in the wild. The "now" part is when she is in New York City with Raven and Tack. 

The characters are not the same characters as Delirium. You have Lena but you don't have anyone else from Portland. No Hana, no Rachel, no Gracie, no Aunt Carol, and no Alex. Instead you meet a bunch of new characters. Some of them are Raven, Tack and  Julian. With the introduction of Julian the infamous love triangle enters the book, except Alex is dead so it isn't really a love triangle in the same way. 

In the beginning of the book Lena was closed of. She didn't talk about Portland at all and she not to even think of Alex. Slowly as the book progresses she opens her heart up and learns to love and care for new people, like Julian. Julian was eighteen but he was innocent like Lena was in the first book. He was clueless about love but he was ok. I kept hoping and wishing throughout the entire book that Alex would just show up.

Then you have the cliffhanger. Well I can't tell you the horribly dramatic thing that happens at the end because that would spoil the whole book. You obviously have to read the first book first. So if you've read Delirium I would definitely suggest you read Pandemonium.

“Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you - sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, then you would live forever.” 

“The flip side of freedom is this: When you're completely free, you're also completely on your own.” “If you’re smart, you care. And if you care, you love.” 

“But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins.” 

“That's the thing: We didn't really care. A world without love is also a world without stakes.” 

“But...books are so much more. Some of them are webs; you can feel your way along their threads, but just barely, into strange and dark corners. Some of them are balloons bobbing up through the sky: totally self-contained, and unreachable, but beautiful to watch. And some of them―the best ones―are doors.”

Happy Requiem Day!!!
For any fans of the Delirium Series today is the day the final book comes out! I don't want to say goodbye to the characters but the end is here.

DFTBA
-Jane

Poetry Corner #15

It's Friday hurrah! This week was super long for me and I will be spending most of my weekend studying and working on projects for next week.

So this week the poem is by Victor Hugo because he is the author of Les Misérables.

A Sunset
      By: Victor Hugo

I love the evenings, passionless and fair, I love the evens, 
Whether old manor-fronts their ray with golden fulgence leavens, 
In numerous leafage bosomed close; 
Whether the mist in reefs of fire extend its reaches sheer, 
Or a hundred sunbeams splinter in an azure atmosphere 
On cloudy archipelagos. 

Oh, gaze ye on the firmament! a hundred clouds in motion, 
Up-piled in the immense sublime beneath the winds' commotion, 
Their unimagined shapes accord: 
Under their waves at intervals flame a pale levin through, 
As if some giant of the air amid the vapors drew 
A sudden elemental sword. 

The sun at bay with splendid thrusts still keeps the sullen fold; 
And momently at distance sets, as a cupola of gold, 
The thatched roof of a cot a-glance; 
Or on the blurred horizon joins his battle with the haze; 
Or pools the blooming fields about with inter-isolate blaze, 
Great moveless meres of radiance. 

Then mark you how there hangs athwart the firmament's swept track, 
Yonder a mighty crocodile with vast irradiant back, 
A triple row of pointed teeth? 
Under its burnished belly slips a ray of eventide, 
The flickerings of a hundred glowing clouds in tenebrous side 
With scales of golden mail ensheathe. 

Then mounts a palace, then the air vibrates--the vision flees. 
Confounded to its base, the fearful cloudy edifice 
Ruins immense in mounded wrack; 
Afar the fragments strew the sky, and each envermeiled cone 
Hangeth, peak downward, overhead, like mountains overthrown 
When the earthquake heaves its hugy back. 

These vapors, with their leaden, golden, iron, bronzèd glows, 
Where the hurricane, the waterspout, thunder, and hell repose, 
Muttering hoarse dreams of destined harms,-- 
'Tis God who hangs their multitude amid the skiey deep, 
As a warrior that suspendeth from the roof-tree of his keep 
His dreadful and resounding arms! 

All vanishes! The Sun, from topmost heaven precipitated, 
Like a globe of iron which is tossed back fiery red 
Into the furnace stirred to fume, 
Shocking the cloudy surges, plashed from its impetuous ire, 
Even to the zenith spattereth in a flecking scud of fire 
The vaporous and inflamèd spaume. 

O contemplate the heavens! Whenas the vein-drawn day dies pale, 
In every season, every place, gaze through their every veil? 
With love that has not speech for need! 
Beneath their solemn beauty is a mystery infinite: 
If winter hue them like a pall, or if the summer night 
Fantasy them starre brede.


Happy Weekend! DFTBA
-Jane