The 8 Books You Meet in Heaven

   Hey, everyone! We haven't really had a book review/list on here in a while, so I figured it was jolly well time to make one. These are all awesometatious (ahem, rated awesome) books that I've just read in the past month or so, and they may be easy reads for some and hard for others. Note: I am indeed aware that many of our friends are really into fantasy and paranormal stuff (Maximum Ride, anyone?), but I'll be sorry to disappoint y'all in saying that most of these are realistic fiction. Sorry, guys! Maybe you'll assist in another more sci-fi book list centered around James Patterson next time around? Can't wait for comments! I'm going to include our current book club book on here too (5 People You Meet in Heaven) because it's really well written and makes ya think! Shout-out to Miss Giulia--grazie!
                                                             THE BOOK LIST
*Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls--the chronicles of a girl (and her 3 siblings) growing up with a tax-evading father who spends all his money on alcohol and a wishy-washy mother who would rather make detailed paintings of wildlife than care about her needy family (PLUS, it's a biography! So all this is real!), so her kids walk around cooking hot dogs on the stove at the age of three and setting themselves on fire, and getting locked in possessed playhouses, and punching their grandmas
*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini--sorry guys, but I did my book report on this just a few weeks ago and I really, REALLY do not want to make a descriptive summary on this. But it's about a boy named Amir who lives in Afghanistan whose best friend, Hassan, is also his servant. Obviously there is some sort of squabble, and Amir and Hassan are separated when Amir and his father move to California, but Amir can't stop thinking about what he made Hassan go through for the rest of his sad, sad life...
*Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling--I would hope that y'all know the basic storyline of Jungle Book from the Disney movie, but the book itself is even cooler, if you're that kind of person. Kipling has really poetic stuff, and also he places random territorial chants that you and your friend gang can adopt and scream at that certain other group when they act like the bandar-log, aka monkey people. For example:
     Here we go in a flung festoon,
     Halfway up to the jealous moon!
     Don't you envy our pranceful bands?
     Don't you wish you had extra hands?
     Wouldn't you like it if your tails were--so--
     Curved in the shape of a cupid's bow?
        Now you're angry, but--never mind,
        BROTHER, THY TAIL HANGS DOWN BEHIND!      Genius, no?
*Theater Geek by Mickey Something-or-Other--perfect for, well, theater geeks.
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak--no words can truly describe this. Just get the book, is all I'm sayin'.
*Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (?)--this is historical fiction set in 1600s-England in the lovely mountain villages where WOMEN JOLLY WELL AREN'T RESPECTED AT ALL! Now I must go read Between Shades of Gray, not to be confused with 50 Shades of That Same Colour.
*The Lorax by Dr. Seuss--I read this weekly and never get tired of it. Best message in the history of cute cartoon characters shaped like orange peanuts who despise consumerism, although I guess you can't really describe a color as a shape. Oh well.
*The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch--I must confess that I haven't actually finished reading it yet, but it's very futuristic and sort of reminds me of The Hunger Games because the world is sort of annihilated beyond repair, and there's also some forbidden romance going on... ooooh! To Amour--"A whole conversation! So proud!"
    So that's all for now, everyone! Thanks for listening and read these awesome books. Stay tuned for an extracurriculars post, a Studio Ghibli post (Taliaaa...?), and more! Yahoo! Okay, bye all.

We're Gonna (pause) Rumble, Tumble

    Today is our grade's ''cultural" field trip to go see a Spanish dancing performance (cueCA! CueCA!) and afterwards eat out at Madeleine's Petit Paris, which is supposedly a delicious French restaurant, even though us kids only got three choices of entree and dessert and appetizer, a few of which aren't even French. But they do have chocolate mousse, which is the greatest thang ever, though I doubt they could beat my mom in the making of it.*

    I'm wearing my Tier-3-in-the-handbook outfit-- pictured above... can't wait, everybody! I get to sit with PAHM and Chippy (lol) at a table! WOOT WOOT
Skirt--H&M
Sweater--No clue
Tights--Borrowed from Amour dear

News Update: Life In General

    Soooo, everyone! I don't aim to (heh! I sound so Southern--is that what they look like where you come from in the South? LOL Santana and Glee referencing! Tess, Amour, Jezebel, and PAHM) bore you with stats of the election and Hurricane Sandy aka Frankenstorm (which approx. NO% of everyone called it, by the way, so Steph--swan--was right!), but I just didn't want there to be any sort of missing link in the chronicle that is my life--hint, hint to all you aspiring biography writers out there...
    So, y'all! After Sandy came, we were out of power for a few hours shy of a whole entire week, with no generator or nothin' because my dad was on a business trip in Chicago. My days were spent working ferociously on a 1000-piece puzzle of Times Square that is positioned on the dining-room table so that everyone's all like, "Hurry it up already! We. Want. To. Eat!" but they can just eat at the kitchen island, can't they? I also stuck stickers onto index cards and tore them off again--which totally ruined the adhesive part and was extraordinarily sad--and watched Billy Elliot on the portable DVD player (curse you, grainy screen), and debated whether or not I should work on my book report, which was due today, but decided that I write better under pressure (what a lie, ha) so I waited until last week and banged it all out then. Heh. I did it on The Kite Runner, which is definitely on my favorite-books list. Y'all should read it! So that was the exciting week that I had. But THEN! My dad was our hero! He decided to rent a minivan and drive alllll the way from Chicago to our town, which I think took about 14 hours, without stopping at a hotel or anything, because his flight into La Guardia was canceled. Cue epiphany music. Or just this.
    Of course, Halloween was canceled too, so I spent this long waited-for day eating leftover Halloween candy and walking to the library to check out both volumes of Season 2 of Glee with Jezebel, where we declared we were being utterly unsocial. Also, do not be led to think that The Wiz is not a good movie, even though it has MJ in it.
    Look forward to a craft post or sumthin' soon! Au revoir. Have a lovely life. Note to Shannie-Deer: "I thought we were taking Canadian French...!" Oh, Marvin. Yes, Amour. His name is Marvin.

Look What I Made! DIY to Come Later