Starting Fresh

Time for a new semester to begin... and for me to buy over 20 books : / Oh well, if I like them, I'll post on them. I am very much looking forward to reading Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" all the way through for once : ). It's going to be a rather busy semester though. I'm sorry I haven't gotten up the "Shadowland" review yet. I'm halfway through and hope to finish it by the end of next week, if not I suck... Anyway for now I'll leave you with a poem from yours truly and hope that you can all forgive me. Good luck to the rest of you beginning new semesters as well!!

Becoming

Without beauty,

I am nothing

The world will never--

Value my mind.

Rude glances come my way,

From strangers on the street

Those I love--

Ignore my thoughts.

I am nothing,

For today I am not beautiful

What will I do--

When my curse leaves me forever?

-written on February 4th, 2009

I'll try to add some more recent work after getting the "Shadowland" review up finally.

AHH the end of another semester

Hey all,

Hope you're doing well, I'm doing pretty great. However, it's that time of year again where all of my professors give me tons of work to do all at once.... yayy. So as I may be slightly busy this week, I won't be able to get to a new book review until later in the week, but don't worry there WILL be one. Hope everyone else is doing well and not going as crazy as I am with work : /

First Blog Post : )

So I feel as though my first post should be explaining a bit about myself and also what the point of this blog will be. Hm well me, I love to read of course and am also trying my hand at writing a bit. I'm still in college at a school in Wisconsin, where I'm majoring in English and plan on continuing on to get my PhD and hopefully eventually teaching mythology at a university. This blog will mostly be focusing on young adult books and a lot of times specifically young adult fantasy books, but I like to change it up a bit so there will be other books that I just thought were good thrown in. Each week (hopefully) I will be reviewing two books and basically writing about what I thought of each. The title of the blog indicates that I will be telling you not to read one book and read the other but I like to think of it more like telling you which book I found to be better of the two.I'm in no way trying to tell you "don't read that book." So I may believe that it would be great to read both of the books for the week but which one I found to be more exciting. Please understand also that I am no professional critic and these are simply my musings and thoughts on the many, many books that I read and maybe a bit of other tidbits about random things I'm thinking about : ) I also would love to hear what other people thought of the books I will be posting on; it's a great way to start discussions. So for this week I have only one book for you because it is one of my favorites. It's a popular book and is sometimes considered a young adult book and sometimes considered an adult book with a teenage protagonist. It has been banned in many schools for its subject matter and I would recommend readers to be at least 16 for this one. The book is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. The book has certainly made it into my all time favorite list. The character of Charlie is so deeply emotional and perfectly written. Almost anyone can find a peice of themselves in his character or at least a situation he's been in. The plot and ending are so strong that that this story will stay in my heart forever. This book truly gives a voice to the voiceless and helps people like Charlie or who see themselves in him (as I did) to know that they are not alone. This is a book that is there for you when you have no one else and truly gives many people out there hope. The storyline is captivating and you will want to keep reading it (even if it was forced on you as it was me in school : ) ). Please give it a try and I'm telling you that you will not be disappointed, it truly changed my perspective on life. If anyone has any thoughts or comments on the book as well (good or bad) I would love to hear them. Happy reading and have a great week.

Oh one more thing, Michelle Zink, the author of another great book by the name of "The Prophecy of the Sisters" (which I will be reviewing on a later date) is holding a contest for some holiday swag if any of you are interested... here is the link:

http://michellezinkbooks.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/happy-holiday-swag/