Dear Readers,
Hey guys college just started so I am gonna be super busy with homework and classwork. I am however currently in the middle of a good book called Firecracker by David Iserson. He has written for SNL and my favorite TV show New Girl. When I have time and finish the book I will be posting a review of it. Please BTW comment below about this blog or the books you recommend I should read or whatever. I will hopefully be able to post my review of the book in a week or so but that is at the earliest.
Thanks for understanding and please comment below with questions, concerns, positivity, constructive criticism, or whatever you want.
Thanks,
-Jessica
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
College Book Haul
Dear Readers,
Ahh college...an average of four years of schooling that cost thousands of dollars and will in return provide you with a piece of paper that can hopefully help land you a job, I digress though, I am not saying all college is bad. I mean I am one of the people going to it so why would I bag on it so much. These are honestly what I believe are normal thoughts of an average kid who is going to attend college these days. This post is not to list the pros and cons of college though. It is to discuss books. College books are books that I don't actually want to buy. Now before you freak out and call me a hypocrite let me explain why and what college books I actually do want to buy. Now I am someone who rarely passes up the option to buy a book, if I am at a Barnes and Nobles or a consignment store, the chances are I will end up purchasing at least one book if I have money. College books though are different. The books have rental options and because college is expensive as it is with tuition alone and unless it is a book you really will need/want ( like for your major) or have no other option but to buy it, most people will rent their books. I did a mixture of both for my first year at community college ( I will be here a year or two before I transfer to another school to get my four year degree), I hope to be able to rent most of my books next semester to help save money.
Anyway, I want to talk about my college books and what I got. I know many of my readers may be wondering what is so interesting about college books. The answer is that the books I got are not actually all boring, dull, text books, but plays, guides, memoirs, and books I feel I can actually use in the future of my writing career. Let me first star off by saying I am a Communications/Journalism major. So I am gonna be really exited and intrigued by the writing books I purchased or rented, rather than some people may. I'd also like to get the "boring books" that I deemed not very topical or worthy of long explanations. The first was my math book. I am going to be taking Math 011 and had to purchase a new book for it. At first I didn't understand exactly why I needed a new book and why my only option was to purchase it new rather than having options to rent or purchase the book. I learned today when my books came that It was because it was a workbook that my assignments would be in. Oh and I purchased a calculator Yeah...I told you it was boring.
For my English stuff it gets a bit more interesting. I rented two books and bought the third one. The two books I rented were both novels that seem fairly interesting. The one book is Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, which I have already read and seen most of the movie. I thought it was decent when I read it. I am excited to read it again though. The only problem is if you do rent or buy used, just remember you may have to deal with pen or highlighted areas in the book. That is the issue with my copy, it has many pages with pen markings and side notes on it. While I would not mind a few pages or just highlighting throughout my book, it has at least 50% of the pages with markings on it. It will be a bit annoying, but it is not that bad considering It is a used rental that I paid way less money for compared to if I had bought the book. The second book I rented for my school was a play called The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance. Though I have not read it, the book looks interesting and as far as I can tell is about a man who has some kind of deformity and while in the hospital meets someone who tries to help them in life. That is a rough description, but a somewhat accurate one I believe. It seems to remind me of the musical My Fair Lady ( which was based on the book Pygmalion by the way). The copy I got look almost new, even though it was used which can be a fun surprise for some who are renting or purchasing used books. The final book I got for English was an English Writing reference guide. It is a spiral book I bought used that was made specifically for my school. The book is spiral bond and includes tabs that when you turn to certain pages will tell you about how to write in MLA or APA format or about researching, word choice, sentence structure,etc. I bought the book because in the future I think it will be a good reference guide for me to look at for writing, especially if I will be taking more writing courses.
My favorite books I got are definitely for my communications major. The first class I got two books. One I bought and the other I rented. The book I bought for my first Communications class was The Associated Press Stylebook. This book I recommend to anyone going into journalism or PR or some kind of news/media writing career. In the book the first is like a journalism dictionary. You can find almost any word and the description will tell you if you should capitalize it, explain it for the readers, don't have to explain it for the readers, how you should word something,etc. At first glance this stuff may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised when it comes to how certain words should be written to be professional.The book also talks about media law, terms I should know, and resources I can use in my writing or to learn more. I purchased the book because I believe it would help me not just during my college years, but after I graduate and could be used as a reference for later on in my career. The book I rented for the class was the book Writing for the Mass Media. The book is basically self explanatory, It goes over writing in all different forms from newspapers or twitter. It talks about how to write news stories and different kinds, guidelines to follow when writing, and exercises for writing practice, as well as helping you to become a better writer. For my second Communications class I just needed to rent one book entitled Key Readings in Media Today. The book again tells me the types and ways to write news stories, but also is filled with research about different news and media in the past as well as today. All the books I bought or rented for my communications classes seem fascinating and I can not wait to read them.
College is a new experience and so far I am excited about the subjects I will be learning (well except math, but at least most of the math looks algebraic which I am pretty good at). The books, I hope will help me in my journey to becoming a real writer that can hopefully one day see there name on the byline of the front page of a newspaper or byline of a magazine story (or internet news story depending on how technology and print news are in the future).
Thank you
-Jessica
Ahh college...an average of four years of schooling that cost thousands of dollars and will in return provide you with a piece of paper that can hopefully help land you a job, I digress though, I am not saying all college is bad. I mean I am one of the people going to it so why would I bag on it so much. These are honestly what I believe are normal thoughts of an average kid who is going to attend college these days. This post is not to list the pros and cons of college though. It is to discuss books. College books are books that I don't actually want to buy. Now before you freak out and call me a hypocrite let me explain why and what college books I actually do want to buy. Now I am someone who rarely passes up the option to buy a book, if I am at a Barnes and Nobles or a consignment store, the chances are I will end up purchasing at least one book if I have money. College books though are different. The books have rental options and because college is expensive as it is with tuition alone and unless it is a book you really will need/want ( like for your major) or have no other option but to buy it, most people will rent their books. I did a mixture of both for my first year at community college ( I will be here a year or two before I transfer to another school to get my four year degree), I hope to be able to rent most of my books next semester to help save money.
Anyway, I want to talk about my college books and what I got. I know many of my readers may be wondering what is so interesting about college books. The answer is that the books I got are not actually all boring, dull, text books, but plays, guides, memoirs, and books I feel I can actually use in the future of my writing career. Let me first star off by saying I am a Communications/Journalism major. So I am gonna be really exited and intrigued by the writing books I purchased or rented, rather than some people may. I'd also like to get the "boring books" that I deemed not very topical or worthy of long explanations. The first was my math book. I am going to be taking Math 011 and had to purchase a new book for it. At first I didn't understand exactly why I needed a new book and why my only option was to purchase it new rather than having options to rent or purchase the book. I learned today when my books came that It was because it was a workbook that my assignments would be in. Oh and I purchased a calculator Yeah...I told you it was boring.
For my English stuff it gets a bit more interesting. I rented two books and bought the third one. The two books I rented were both novels that seem fairly interesting. The one book is Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, which I have already read and seen most of the movie. I thought it was decent when I read it. I am excited to read it again though. The only problem is if you do rent or buy used, just remember you may have to deal with pen or highlighted areas in the book. That is the issue with my copy, it has many pages with pen markings and side notes on it. While I would not mind a few pages or just highlighting throughout my book, it has at least 50% of the pages with markings on it. It will be a bit annoying, but it is not that bad considering It is a used rental that I paid way less money for compared to if I had bought the book. The second book I rented for my school was a play called The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance. Though I have not read it, the book looks interesting and as far as I can tell is about a man who has some kind of deformity and while in the hospital meets someone who tries to help them in life. That is a rough description, but a somewhat accurate one I believe. It seems to remind me of the musical My Fair Lady ( which was based on the book Pygmalion by the way). The copy I got look almost new, even though it was used which can be a fun surprise for some who are renting or purchasing used books. The final book I got for English was an English Writing reference guide. It is a spiral book I bought used that was made specifically for my school. The book is spiral bond and includes tabs that when you turn to certain pages will tell you about how to write in MLA or APA format or about researching, word choice, sentence structure,etc. I bought the book because in the future I think it will be a good reference guide for me to look at for writing, especially if I will be taking more writing courses.
My favorite books I got are definitely for my communications major. The first class I got two books. One I bought and the other I rented. The book I bought for my first Communications class was The Associated Press Stylebook. This book I recommend to anyone going into journalism or PR or some kind of news/media writing career. In the book the first is like a journalism dictionary. You can find almost any word and the description will tell you if you should capitalize it, explain it for the readers, don't have to explain it for the readers, how you should word something,etc. At first glance this stuff may seem like common sense, but you would be surprised when it comes to how certain words should be written to be professional.The book also talks about media law, terms I should know, and resources I can use in my writing or to learn more. I purchased the book because I believe it would help me not just during my college years, but after I graduate and could be used as a reference for later on in my career. The book I rented for the class was the book Writing for the Mass Media. The book is basically self explanatory, It goes over writing in all different forms from newspapers or twitter. It talks about how to write news stories and different kinds, guidelines to follow when writing, and exercises for writing practice, as well as helping you to become a better writer. For my second Communications class I just needed to rent one book entitled Key Readings in Media Today. The book again tells me the types and ways to write news stories, but also is filled with research about different news and media in the past as well as today. All the books I bought or rented for my communications classes seem fascinating and I can not wait to read them.
College is a new experience and so far I am excited about the subjects I will be learning (well except math, but at least most of the math looks algebraic which I am pretty good at). The books, I hope will help me in my journey to becoming a real writer that can hopefully one day see there name on the byline of the front page of a newspaper or byline of a magazine story (or internet news story depending on how technology and print news are in the future).
Thank you
-Jessica
Monday, August 11, 2014
Reviews: Dangerous Girls
Dear Readers,
I'm Baaaaack!
Good morning or afternoon or night wherever or whenever you are reading this, I just got back from my vacation to Cape Cod and it was awesome. Got to see the movie Lucy (which was pretty good), went shopping, ate lots of sea food, and especially read and finished 3 books on the trip. I was able to finish Gone Girl and Prisoner of Night and Fog (please write comments below about which one I should review next), but also buy and read in about a few hours this book that was so full of twist and turns and WTH moments that I just had to write a review to tell all my readers about it. The book is Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas.
Premise: Basically, the book is about a group of teenager on spring break. Anna, the narrator, Tate, her boyfriend, and Elise her best friend are all on spring break along with their other friends. When going back to their room they find Elise killed in her room. While the others are able to go free, Anna is being held on trial for the murder of Elise. Throughout the book we are shown into the case of the murder as well as what is happening behind the scenes, flashbacks to Anna's life when she met Elise or started dating her boyfriend or during spring break before the murder,other evidence including text messages and maps of the beach house, and even into some of the news interviews on both sides about Anna on either the opinion of how she is a murderer or how she is innocent depending on the point of view of the interviewer. The book has a lot of twist with who you think the villain is, I feel that because of the fact the reader is so focused on the murderer seeming like one person or another, we as readers do not realize the biggest plot twist of all, who the murderer was all along.
This is where I leave all you spoiler free people.I will be making huge spaces in the next few lines to show that I wrote above major spoilers. If you want to see my closing arguments you can read so at the bottom next to words "closing statements:"
Anyway...SPOILER ALERT TO END OF BOOK! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Spoilers: So I want to talk about the ending of the book cause it is kinda huge. So like I said before all this time you are thinking one person or the other had committed the murder. We start to get hints of the real true murderer in the 2nd to last chapter and finally the last scene and line of the final chapter. First let me remind you the narrator of this first person book is Anna. It is being told from her perspective. So when you find out the murderer you really are shocked to discover Anna was the one who murdered Elise. This is because most people including myself didn't even think of this as a possibility. There were some clues in the book, but most reviews I have seen seem to agree that they had no idea that Anna was the murderer of Elise. The clues in the book were as I said hidden, but the biggest ones were in the last two chapters of the book. The first is when she is going to the grave to put down the necklace that Elise and her each had identical ones to. This necklace is a pentagram (which was mentioned earlier in the novel) and if that does not give you a clue, when she bends down Elise says "I win." When I read that I will admit I was a bit confused because I did not fully comprehend the fact that Anna could very well be the murderer. Then I got to the ending. And that ending...well what can I say but "What did I just read?" I honestly did not comprehend it at first when I read it. I admit I had to look up exactly if she really was the murderer because honestly it felt I was lied to. It felt like everything I had just spent the last few hours reading was a lie. Then I realized that was the point. It was supposed to show us how Anna was such a crazy and psychopathic person that she had been able to trick even the people she was telling the story to (aka us the readers) that any other possibility,besides her being the murderer, was possible. I think that is honestly brilliant on the writers part because it was creative, unique, and unexpected to the reader for the most part. I have never read a book where the murderer was the narrator and did not flat out say it. That twist still has me baffled and I can not wait to read the book again to try to see more signs of Anna actually lying to us because I am sure there are more hidden in the story I have yet to see.
Ending Statement: Alright, if you read the spoiler part thank you and if not thank you still for reading my review. This book is a sadly underrated book I really hope more and more people read This book has an interesting premise, good story line, and a twist ending you don't see coming. I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 stars. It is not the best book I have ever read or anything, but it is really good and I definitely want to re read the book.
**** 1/2 stars out of *****
- Jessica
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| Dangerous Girls Paperback book cover picture link:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX0GIRCzJXn0sGGs5pdUtjyTrcTJcS0HHvrKqWqLfBTY_Dwdsh5Z0EvSgs88lPAM7ToZD7L1fupmcO6vT1yABksnxNBUrdorYvkiYqMnDSDbCoDxWCabJZFVnk5QDOpf6HLKUKavhUxbbz/s1600/dangerous+girls+pb.jpg |
This is where I leave all you spoiler free people.I will be making huge spaces in the next few lines to show that I wrote above major spoilers. If you want to see my closing arguments you can read so at the bottom next to words "closing statements:"
Anyway...SPOILER ALERT TO END OF BOOK! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Spoilers: So I want to talk about the ending of the book cause it is kinda huge. So like I said before all this time you are thinking one person or the other had committed the murder. We start to get hints of the real true murderer in the 2nd to last chapter and finally the last scene and line of the final chapter. First let me remind you the narrator of this first person book is Anna. It is being told from her perspective. So when you find out the murderer you really are shocked to discover Anna was the one who murdered Elise. This is because most people including myself didn't even think of this as a possibility. There were some clues in the book, but most reviews I have seen seem to agree that they had no idea that Anna was the murderer of Elise. The clues in the book were as I said hidden, but the biggest ones were in the last two chapters of the book. The first is when she is going to the grave to put down the necklace that Elise and her each had identical ones to. This necklace is a pentagram (which was mentioned earlier in the novel) and if that does not give you a clue, when she bends down Elise says "I win." When I read that I will admit I was a bit confused because I did not fully comprehend the fact that Anna could very well be the murderer. Then I got to the ending. And that ending...well what can I say but "What did I just read?" I honestly did not comprehend it at first when I read it. I admit I had to look up exactly if she really was the murderer because honestly it felt I was lied to. It felt like everything I had just spent the last few hours reading was a lie. Then I realized that was the point. It was supposed to show us how Anna was such a crazy and psychopathic person that she had been able to trick even the people she was telling the story to (aka us the readers) that any other possibility,besides her being the murderer, was possible. I think that is honestly brilliant on the writers part because it was creative, unique, and unexpected to the reader for the most part. I have never read a book where the murderer was the narrator and did not flat out say it. That twist still has me baffled and I can not wait to read the book again to try to see more signs of Anna actually lying to us because I am sure there are more hidden in the story I have yet to see.
Ending Statement: Alright, if you read the spoiler part thank you and if not thank you still for reading my review. This book is a sadly underrated book I really hope more and more people read This book has an interesting premise, good story line, and a twist ending you don't see coming. I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 stars. It is not the best book I have ever read or anything, but it is really good and I definitely want to re read the book.
**** 1/2 stars out of *****
- Jessica
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