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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