Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray


Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Author: Libba Bray
Pages: 442
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
My Rating: 9/10


Synopsis:
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

My Thoughts:

The Gemma Doyle series is one that I absolutely love to read over, and over again. Libba Bray's characters are so fresh and alive, it really makes A Great and Terrible Beauty, the first installment of the trilogy, a fantastic read. The plot is full of twists and surprises, and I found it very difficult to put down. Wow. That was a pretty lame and cliche book review. But I'm serious. This is an awesome book. It combines the prim and proper Victorian Society with Fantasy and Magic. You can't say your not interested. Libba Bray is such a talented writer, and it really shows through out this book. You should go read it.


There's much more to life than...

...than hot, glittery, dead guys.

I think by now, most of the Twilight craze has died down a little. Ok, maybe not, especailly with the release of New Moon and such...
I think I should take this brief moment to point out that I can't stand Twilight. At all. I could go into a nice long rant about why I don't like it, but that might take way too long. And also, I know people who do like it, and they wouldn't appreciate it if I tore it apart on this blog*.
Alright. Enough of this.
So as you may or may not have already heard, Stephenie Meyer has her latest Twilight book to be released in June. "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner." (Image in the right corner.) Well good for her, I say. Looks like someone knows how to make money in this economy. Jeez.
To be honest, I have had enough vampires to last a life time.
I went into Borders last week and was afraid I had instead walked into Hot Topic by mistake**
One friend of mine described it as: "Twilight threw up."
I think I have to agree.
What is happening to YA?

Some YA Books That Fans of the Twilight Saga May Enjoy
(I'm not doing this sarcastically. These are books I reccomend to people who read Twilight.)

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
-My rating: 9/1o
-Genere: Fantasy

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Sequel to AGATB)
-My Rating: 10/10
-Genere: Fantasy

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (Sequel to RA)
-My Rating: 9/10
-Genere: Fantasy

The Blood Confession by Alisa M. Libby
-My Rating: 10/10
-Genere: Fantasy/Historical Fiction.. sorta..
(Ok. So what I think I've decided to do is write up summeries of these different books, and a few others, just because these are awesome books. And my rating and the genere isn't 103% helpful... Lol. Ok. I think that's the plan.)
Happy April,
~chase

*Your welcome, Ami and Becka. Lol. jk!
**Nothing against Hot Topic at all. They have awesome tshirts. Lol.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Dear Rain, Go away. And please, please, please don't feel the need to come back soon.

The weather! The weather! The weather! Ugh.
The basement is completley flooded, again, and we've been un-flooding it for the past few hours. I do like rain. But, seriously, I think I've had enough for now. Maybe they will cancel school... (:
Wishful thinking.


Might as well build an ark,
~Chase

Monday, March 29, 2010

........

Pretty suckish day. I'm not sure its going to get much better. The rain is reflecting my mood. The river is flooded past the big rock, ugh its rarely up that far. And I had such a good weekend too. Wow. Leave it to a Monday I suppose. At least there is Trinity Class tomarrow, thats something to look foward too. And no gym class tomarrow* either! Maybe Tuesday will turn out better. Ha. I can't see it being even worse.


When life seems jolly rotten, theres one thing you've forgotten...

~Chase


*And there was much rejoicing.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Coming Together, Slowly But Surely

I've been tinkering around with my blog layout, just because I don't really like the black thing that it was before. The blog was dark, and I guess my writing sort of reflected that in a strange way. Bleak and unfocused. Lol. Warming thoughts.
Oh, and I also have another blog now:

www.ilikecaves.blogspot.com


I like the selection of templates on www.thecutestblogontheblock.com . If you haven't been there yet, I recommend checking it out. Pretty spiffy stuff they have going on there. I don't think I'm going to keep this layout, but naboklish. Whatever works I guess. (:

So just because I haven't read anything recently (Other than the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, which I totally recommend if you love dry sarcasim, and dimwitted pigs.) I think I can't talk about books at the moment. Because I don't really have anything fresh on my mind now that I could write about...



I've had a pretty theatre-crazy weekend.
Last night, I saw the show Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim (If I'm not mistaken.) at EPH. I think that the cast did an incredible job with the acting and with the music and singing (No surprise there.). My dad has been taking me to EPH to see the plays since I was, well, probably since I was a baby I guess. I love theatre and preforming. So naturally, I look forward to seeing the school play each year. (Mr. Manchester is awesome. He has really done a brilliant job with every show I've seen there.) I liked the fun quirky-ness of Into the Woods, but I think I have to say that it wasn't exactly the same as the other shows. I think the music was all great, (Sarah, we are going to miss your incredible talent next year. You are fantastic.) and the sets were awesome! But I think it might have been harder for the ensemble this year, as apposed to past years like when they preformed West Side Story or Beauty and the Beast. There wasn't much for the ensemble to do it seemed. All the leads were, well, alone in the woods. It wasn't like they were walking through a busy New York street, while tap dancing, show tune singing, gangs fought each other. (Courtney, however, was a pretty epic tree I have to say. Lol!) But I think other than that, the show was fantastic. These high schoolers are all wicked talented. I can't wait too see them again!

Seeing Into the Woods has also inspired me to buy a cow. Matt was hilarious as Jack. Haha.

So to the cast of ITW I just have to say, amazing job guys. You have really blown me away with your absolutly awesome and entertaining preformance. Great job to everyone!


There are giants in the sky,
~chase

Friday, March 26, 2010

Hey There..

My friend started up her own blog a little while ago, and she is an amazing writer. At the moment, however, I am the only follower... But I think her blog might be something that all of you silly BN people might be interested in. Lol.

http://www.adventurethroughwonderland.blogspot.com/