Reading Log for Week of 4/20/12-4/26/12

Sunday 4/22/12 2 hours Pgs: 1-120

                                                                                                                                                                       

Overtakers: Evil Disney villians that mean to "over take" the park and destroy the world. Many of them, they only come to life at night for the most part.
                                                                                                                                                                      
" 'If the hero and heroine go off to live happily ever after, then what happens to the villains, witches, sea monsters, and evil stepmothers?'

Finn said, 'You're saying because the park makes them real, they are real?'

'I'm saying if you believe strongly enough, anything can happen...' (Pearson 71)."
                                                                                                                                                                       
In this quote, Finn is first hearing about the Overtakers from Wayne, his "mentor" on his hero's journey. Wayne is describing what the very roots of the Overtakers are.

Spring Break Tales-Saturday

Today, I played Just Dance 3 for exercise for around 2 hours. A little Jeopardy, a little Wii Fit Plus+, a little Wii Sports, and a little Wii Sports Resort. I read Betsy's Wedding and started on Home for the Holidays (the whole reason I started reading the Betsy-Tacy series). I listened to a police chase near my house, spied on the Facebook pages of people at my school because they're stupid enough to have everything public, and started Social Studies work to get ahead. Still trying to do meaningful stuff like work on my Girl Scout handbook.

Spring Break Tales-Friday

I had my blood drawn and I died. And that's really all I'm going to say about that because I don't think you really want to hear the details. I went to Starbucks and I read a ton of Betsy's Wedding while listening to the thunder and pouring rain. Then I sat around and read some more, fixed my Wii, and played Just Dance 3 and Wii Fit Plus+.

Friday was not too exciting. I'm still grieving going back to school.

My Betsy's Wedding by Maud Hart Lovelace Book Review on Goodreads

Betsy's Wedding: A Betsy-Tacy Story by Maud Hart Lovelace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh dear. I don't know what to say. *sobs with reckless abandon into tissue* I am quite...moved by the ending. Just give me a minute to compose myself. HONK! *blows tears off face and snot out of nose*

Well that was just absolutely the saddest thing I've ever read. Not that anything really sad happened, but the fact that this was the end and what you knew would happen was sad. I'm afraid I'll only be able to review the part of the book that isn't the ending. Only one little snippet about the ending later.

Well, as far as the ending goes I must say I cannot say anything. I believe that the last bit of Anne's review best sums it up. Here's a link to that: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/93168890

The little snippet about the ending: Well, at the end Betsy said somethig about how she could feel the big hill looking down at all the dancers in the chocoloate-colored house. And then I just couldn't help myself. I burst into tears. It was like the end of those movies where some protagonist you have grown close to winks at the camera and it's the sweetest ending ever. I just imagine like a cartoon personified Big Hill laughing jovially and saying, "Those kids! They grow up so fast!" with bittersweet, yet joyful tears as he watches Betsy and her husband, and Tacy and hers, all dance at the house they used to plan about visiting while on the hill for Tib's wedding. And it's just a very come-full-circle moment. Oh this makes me so sad just writing about it! Like a Disney movie would have done. Wait- WHY DIDN'T THEY MAKE MOVIES OF THESE?! That's it, I'm becoming a director. And I'm making sure that Big Hill thing is in it.

Anyways, back to the rest of the book. After a very dissapointing Betsy and the Great World (Betsy-Tacy, #9) (read my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/249835600), I was fully ready for a little Betsy and her Crowd, but especially Joe. And I think Maud realized that she had made a mistake because boy did she make up for her lack of Joe in the previous! Joe was all sweet and overzealous about their marriage, never faltering in his undying devotion to their nuptials. Then from there I was excited to see Betsy take on her domestic duties. Every time she baked and budgeted, and talked about salaries with Joe, I was just so excited. The quaintness of her life was very welcome and exciting for me I guess. Definitely not one to miss out on.

Overall, I felt like this book was just a total closer, not very eventful, but wonderful because of it. I'll never forget the three little girls from Deep Valley who stole my heart away with their antics and fun. I wish we never had to grow up too, Betsy.

RIP: MAUD HART LOVELACE

Just think about that for a minute. It's actually quite sad.

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My Betsy and the Great World by Maud Hart Lovelace Book Review on Goodreads

Betsy and the Great World by Maud Hart Lovelace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the only Betsy-Tacy book I didn't give 5 stars to. This book was definitely different than the others. I bet lots of people were definitely dissapointed by this book, but it brings a lot of reality to the series. Main point: The realism in this book will lead to dissapointment by fans.

Reality: Since this series was written closely based on Maud's real life, a lot of realistic components of life's journey went into this series. Most authors would never create a story where the protagonist becomes the only character you can recognize steadily throughout the entire book, because it creates less depth in the story when the characters are always changing. Nevertheless, Maud stuck firmly to real life and her solo tour of Europe, and I must say that this proved hard for the reader. It was definitely confusing and not very fun to go from Betsy's familiar and exciting senior year with Joe Willard to only Betsy. All the others were gone, only mentioned in letters. There were some new characters, but whenever Betsy left that city she would leave them behind and there would be new ones. In a way, this was fun after a while. At first, this approach to the plot was not very interesting, but towards the middle of the book you warmed to this approach. The end strech I found deeply unsatisfying because of the fact that Betsy spent a lot of time in England when I was simply anxious for her to get home. At this time, she wasn't doing much and I was tired of hearing about yet another inn and its inhabitants. Suddenly, the book was not fun. I liked the last two pages when she wrote to Joe, that was definitely a big "FINALLY!" moment for a lot of readers.

Setting: The book skipped 3 years of Betsy's life, which I'm sure many were unhappy about. Completely skipping Betsy's college experience and beginning when Betsy was 21, jumping from when she was eighteen in the previous book. Apparently Maud had a very uninteresting and silly college experience, because she only mentioned it in a couple of pages at the beginning. However, this was a welcome touch of reality, showing that sometimes mistakes can be made in life and there are parts we'd rather erase. Although readers would have loved what every other series would have given them in a description of her college life after reuniting with Joe and the very promising and happy ending to the previous book, Maud stuck to what truly happened.

Joe: This kind of ties into setting. At the end of Betsy and Joe (Betsy-Tacy, #8), Joe and Betsy have reunited in a loving relationship after a long separation. Joe has declared that he is looking forward to a world with Betsy. And then we flash into the next book where suddenly Betsy is at the dock on a ship sailing away to Europe when she should be in college, with some remarks about not thinking about Joe, without any explanation. This was definitely confusing. When we finally find out that we missed the breakup of Joe and Betsy, and even that it happened at all, we are angry. Even more, we are deeply hurt and shocked that Betsy was such a silly duck all through college with that strange character we only hear about in mystical accounts, Bob Barhydt. Betsy is definitely an annoying and silly character at times because she often goes and makes these resolutions, then promptly forgets them and acts like a weirdo (not very creative but I can't think of anything else). She just acts all silly, and then she'll make another resolution. It becomes quite tiring, but again brings a touch of realism about people's real character to the story. I just think that fans were definitely dissapointed in Betsy's behavior in college, and to learn that suddenly she was going off to Europe away from everyone (especially Joe!) was a betrayal of sorts. This was realistic, although not what a truly fictional book would have brought to the table.

War: The introduction of the war to Betsy's world right after she left the countries that had declared war was definitely scary. It was actually really boring and strange right in the middle of the otherwise joyous and homebound plot to introduce England and its talk of war. This was, again realistic as this is what happened to Maud in real life. I also enjoyed hearing about the opinion that Americans had that the world was too civilized for war, so there would never be another. I had not known that this was the general opinion at the time, and it was inetersting to learn that.

Overall, a very charming book. I realize I have not mentioned much about the actual story, but there's not much to say. There were so may cities and place she visited that I can't possibly remember much of any of them. If you stick it through, it gets better and interesting to read. At the end, I was just very happy to finally move on to the very pleasant and familiar Betsy's Wedding (Betsy-Tacy, #10) and Tacy's pregnancy! This book was definitely very realistic, although not what the readers may have liked.

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My Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace Book Review on Goodreads

Betsy and Joe by Maud Hart Lovelace
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, Betsy. I truly am worried about you. I did not like at all your behavior throughout this book so I think a more appropriate title would be Betsy and Tony . Oh Betsy! What went through your silly little frivolous head that seems to have been going crazy these past four years of high school.

Well, there's not really much to say besides that I hate how Betsy couldn't say no to Tony. Poor Joe! Betsy is just too much of a sucker for her Crowd! I was on edge and my heart was in knots the entire time she was with Tony. And that completely overshadowed any happiness I felt at the beginning about Betsy and Joe being together for a while, happy and romantic for ONCE. And then Tony had to destroy everything and Betsy acted like it was no big deal, so Joe was left feeling betrayed. Although I was mad at Joe at first, looking back I see that (as usual) Betsy was to blame. For the third time, oh Betsy! So sweet, yet so silly and stupid (occasionally).

The part that I really loved about this book was the first pages of the book that talked about growing up.

Quote 1: "...one was growing up so fast that one needed time to think, to correlate all the perplexing changes and try to understand them."

I, myself, can definitely relate to this because I often find myself confused with all the different things happening in my life as I grow up, and I just wish that I could stop my life for a while and make sense of all thse "perplexing changes".

Quote 2: "Betsy had clung to every phase of childhood as it passed. She always wanted to keep life from going forward too fast."

This is me. Wholly and completely. Every little bit of childhood I am concious of, and of its passing. And, unlike most people, I don't ever want to grow up. Because I see already what I will miss, what I already am missing, about happy, blissful, naive times that I would trade everything I have now for. I am so scared of life moving forward too fast. Time is my worst enemy, which is why I sympathize with Betsy when she says things like this.

Quote 3: " 'You grow older in spite of yourself,' Betsy thought resentfully..."

In spite of yourself. Oh were words ever so true. I resent time and life when, in spite of what I want and need, I grow older. And I hate that. I just don't understand why life has to bring so much that ytou don't want.

What's amazing to me is that, even back in a time when growing up didn't bring as many ocnsequences as our modern world, people still dealt with these problems and feelings, which at least makes me feel better knowing that it's not just being in the modern world that makes growing up harder. It always has been for people.

Overall, this book was bittersweet. It was wonderful when Betsy and Joe got together, terrible when for much of the book she was with Tony breaking Joe's heart, and wonderful when Betsy and Joe reunited at the end. Looking back halfway through the last book, I feel like this book was more of a transition for me in the series than anything. Writing this review now, I definitely don't remember much about this book and don't particularly care for it. Nevertheless, I loved this book because it was still, nevertheless, a Betsy-Tacy book. :)

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COMING SOON: Spring Break Tales-Thursday

Thursday was a big day, so I'm afraid I don't have time today to post everything beause it will take a long time to formulate. But do not worry! I will very slowly but surely finish every last little part of the post by Monday and you can see the beautiful post! I just have a really long to-do list for spring break, so I figured this should probably not be priority until they are done. I'll keep you in orbit (a saying from the 50's that I learned from the book Fifties Chix: Travel to Tomorrow)!

Spring Break Tales-Wednesday

Today I did a fair amount of reading. I finished Betsy and the Great World and started Betsy's Wedding as well as Fifties Chix: Travel to Tomorrow. And then I started on my great adventure.

First you should know that this summer is going to be my summer of independence and reading in which I will finish at least half of the unread bought books on my shelf and learn lots of skills to being a more independent person. And today I baked a cake.

Now normally this would not be a very tough feat. Still new and exciting, but not tough. But these were not normal circumstances. Let me start from the beginning here. I wanted to bake something today, whether it be dog biscuits for my dog or a cake. So I took out my Strawberry Shortcake cookbook from when I was really little that I have always planned on making every recipe from (maybe I'll make them this summer!) and found a recipe for Angel Food Cake's vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream frosting. After looking all over our crazy kitchen for baking powder, a flour sifter, toothpicks, and an electric mixer, I FINALLY found everything I needed (except for a few things like powdered sugr, milk, and 2 sticks of butter which I later got at the store). Then I stirred and sifted and mixed and poured until finally the cake was ready. While it was cooling I colored the frosting and decided to make it teal. It turned out sea foam green instead, which is alright with me. You know how sometimes people paint a picture or write a narrative about their adventures, such as I would about how I went to the beach. Well, instead I chose to bake a cake about it. The vanilla was the sand and the frosting was the sea foam. A visual representation of my fun day at the beach. And okay, maybe the frosting is a bit wack, but altogether it was pretty good. Here's some photos:

And then I went to dance and came back home to eat more cake. YAY!

Spring Break Tales-Tuesday

Yesterday I spent much of the day reading. And reading. And reading. Until I was almost done with Betsy and the Great World.

But then I went to the beach. The water was actually not that cold, and it just made your entire body feel weird, really numb, yet not. Just warm, almost. I know it's strange, but that was how it was. I just kept my turning my back towards the waves and my front facing the shore and falling backwards into oncoming waves.

I washed out some clothes aways down the beach, because the water near our campsite was full of sand crabs. We were literally on top of a giant breeding colony.

And then I had my genius idea. I figured I could make a pretty CC logo that intertwines at the bottom curve of the first C and the top curve of the second C on the bottom (if placed vertically) using seashells and rocks because I noticed a couple of prime seashells on the beach and figured there were probably more if I looked. Well, while I was searching for some big sandcrabs, I found that certain pocks of the shallows had natural sand made of different kinds of sediment from shells and things. And there were lots of shells in there. It wasn't the right time of day for sand dollars, but I found a fragment of one as well as abalone, clam, and mussel shells, sea glass, and some fossilized coral with fossilized animals inside. Below are some pictures of the logo which I will have outlined. If you're confused, just post your question in the comments.

Spring Break Tales-Monday

Monday was kind of a day-long vacation. I went to a pool and basically acted like it was summer. I had a ton of fun killing my cousins who were trying to steal my floatie. No one interrupts my peace and relaxation time! We also played swim-tag, which sharpened my swimming skills that hadn't been used in a year (you know in case I need to survive in the event of a disaster). Another valuable skill I can't learn at school that I got to practice at that might just save my life.

I also went out to this really historic district of Del Mar where I ate at this Mexican restaurant that was built in 1927. It was really neat and definitely an interesting dining experience. There weren't really any walls, just heaters so you were essentially outside. The general district was really historic and pleasant to walk through. See when you're in school, you don't get to actually see the history and understand it, you just get to read about it. What's the point of reading about things when there's lots to see around you! (Ask Kirsten Miller she'll tell you that there is history everywhere if only you can find it.)

Little side note: When I was walking through the streets, I definitely felt that tired feeling when you're on vacation and seeing all these new things and you kind of ache for home. You know that feeling. It always happens when you're somewhere unfamiliar and you're going on adventures and doing all new things.

Besides that, I read a whole lot Monday (but maybe not as much as Tuesday). More expanding of my intelligence.

Spring Break Tales

Okay, so I know it's a bit late since my spring break is already halfway over, but I just realized that posting my day-to-day adventures similar to what Kristen Miller does on her blog Bank St. Irregular which you can visit here would be a great idea (not to mention a lot of fun!). I will be posting my adventures in daily segmented posts. It just goes to show how much more you can learn when you don't have to go to school. There's lots of things school can't teach you, plus you get have a whole heck of a lot more fun while you're learning these things!

P.S. Review of Betsy and Joe and Betsy and the Great World coming soon. I finished them with all of my ample time to increase my intellectual level and have fun all at the same time. And with the time lying ahead I will finish reading Fifties Chix: Travel to Tomorrow and Betsy's Wedding. If I'm lucky, Mockingjay and Northanger Abbey!

My Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins Book Review on Goodreads

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I know I'm going to forget something but here goes:

WARNING: DO NOT READ WHEN BUSY!

This book was hands-down way better than The Hunger Games (at least for me). If you read my review of it, you will know that too much early exposure ruined the book for me. Luckily, I had no real knowledge of this book before starting and was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I must admit, I love it with all my heart.

Last book, I thought that it was odd that the Games were over. I mean, that was all any reader really read for (among other things)! What I did not see coming was that my strange feeling was not in vain, for there was a SECOND Games! And she staged it perfectly. She knew she had to keep the Games in to keep the readers enthralled, but how to do that without it being obvious? Collins used just the right amount of exposition at the end of the first, and then rising action in the second that it made perfect sense. The Quarter Quell idea didn't seem thrown in there just so there could be a second Games, it seemed necessary and well-thought out. If you read my review of the previous book, you will see that I was annoyed that the book didn't just end with the end of the Games. But now I understand why she went on. And it is BRILLIANT!

The whole District 13 thing was absolutely awesome! The idea that they were using old footage? Great. I think the whole rebellion thing made this book that much more exciting and I loved the ending. The Capitol is losing control. And fast.

Katniss is pretty lucky. Surviving TWO Games? That's fierce.

The mockingjay idea of Cinna's and everything else that happened as far as that goes was so exciting and made me love the book even more. And I'm just guessing here, but I think more of that will come in the next book. Oh poor Cinna! I'm going to have a hard time watching that in the movie.

Every act of rebellion that the Capitol had to black out made me so happy. It sent excitement and elation through my veins, plunging me into a reading frenzy. Because when all you read about is the terrible control the Capitol has, it's so incredible when someone finally does SOMETHING to rebel in just the teeniest, tiniest of ways.

At the end, I felt like so much time had passed since President Snow showed up on her doorstep. I strongly dislike that little guy (well maybe not so little). Stupid rigged Quarter Quell. Ahh.

Towards the end, this book just got crazier and crazier. I had a hard time doing much else so just decided to read it out.

Oh, and I am officially Team Peeta. And I think that's mostly because there's not enough of Gale in the book to convince me otherwise.

Overall, completely masterful in every possible way. Highly recommend and think that you should definitely read even if you didn't like the first. After all, there may be some ulterior reason that you didn't like it that won't apply for the second. You'll never know until you try. P.S. These Games were a lot more fun and exciting (the whole clock thing was crazy!) than the previous.

I know there's something I'm forgetting (I'm a very forgetful person) but oh well. Alas, there is not time in the world to fret over buzzing bees (my own little saying).

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