Don't Know Much About American History by Kenneth C. Davis is a book that I believe is meant for adults who want to refresh their memories on what they learned about American history in high school in college. After all, since my parents got out of college I feel as though the text books have changed a lot or they've a least gotten  newer, updated ones. And ironic as it sounds history changes everyday...

Anyways, each chapter of the book deals with a certain era, for example, the first is explorers and first settlements. So it deals with who discovered America? How did the Indians get here? Why is America named America? What about Pocohantas and James Smith? What happened to the Lost Colony? etc.

Davis is very matter-of-fact in his writing and he's always quick to take a bite at any inaccuracy that history books, or stereotypes have stayed true to for years. For example, the big deal about Colombus, who necessarily didn't "discover" the Americas. Who really did is under debate, but, we know for sure that people were definitely here before Colombus, the Vikings and even maybe the Chinese.

One thing that Davis said that I took note of was, "Winners write the history books..." which is the reason why he claims that we hear so much about the English colonization, settlement and discovery of the United States mainland. People like de Soto, Ponce de Leon etc. from Spain could consider themselves played down as soon as Queen Elizabeth's "sea dogs" like Francis Drake. Which relates to the Queen Elizabeth biography that I read at the beginning of the year.

Things that stand out so far:
> Universities were founded in Lima, Peru and Mexico City, Mexico in 1551 (almost 100 years before Harvard)
> The Algonquian Indians inhabited the area of Virginia along with Powhatan and Pocahontas. The name of that tribe just reminded me of the Algonquin Hotel in NYC which reminded of me of the Algonquin Round Table in the early 1900s.

Getting In by Karen Stabiner is a novel about kids that go to a lovely college prepatory school in California and are bound for greatness no matter where they go.  In it's first 100 pages I've already met four kids:

Lauren: The girl who's trying so hard to get into the school of her desires, Northwestern, but won't get it because of her averageness and lack of connection

Bradley Preston IV: Basically the poor little rich boy who's a shoe-in for Harvard, but would rather pursue his architectural dreams.

Katie: The girls who's parents have worked their behinds off to get both her and her brother the best education at Williams, but she'd rather go to Yale.

Chloe: Lauren's best friend who used to go to prep school with the three above, but now goes to Oceanview Heights public high school because of her parents divorce.

Liz: Chloe's math tutor at Oceanview Heights who is bound to be the one public school kid who kids into one of the Ivy's.

Finally, the college counselor Ted, who's the top man at getting all of these prep school kids into college and their acceptances to the Ivies along with other grreat schools like Northwestern and Williams are what he controls.

So getting through the first 100 pages of this book was difficult. Not the reading itself, but the content is constantly reminding me of stuff I need to get done. Higher score on the SAT, subject tests, APs, National Merit, etc. And it just stresses me out along with the characters in that sense.

So far, it's looking good. It's one of those books where the point of view switches in between a whole bunch of characters, which is normally alright and easy to keep track of, except this time for me it's hard for me to remember which girl is which. Because they're all whiny in a sense and they all want to be annoying apparently.

Brad is driving me nuts. It's so annoying when people say: "UGH. I can't believe I'm good enough to practically walk into Harvard University anytime I want to enroll. I don't want to go there." He's really hard for me to sympathize with at the moment. However, I feel Lauren's pain. She's being prevented from where she wants to go by one point in what seems to be in every score, SAT, National Merit, etc. And she won't get into schools because of legacies like Brad, who've had their names down for these school since birth. Katie I also understand because my parents think that UGA is the perfect option for me, which in a sense it is, like Williams seems to be for her, but I want a challenge, I want to get out of my comfort zone and so does Katie. (Also I think her name is Katherine.) But that's all at the moment.

 Stuff White People Like has acutally begun to scare me. Sorry to interupt the previous scheduled blog with this different topic, but my copy of the book has gone amiss with my spring break luggage, which still remains unpacked. So instead of continuing like I did in the previous two posts for this book, I've decided to blog on the conclusion that I've come too.

The thing is that I don't know if Landers is being serious or not. Obviously there are white people that like coffee, music festivals, and traveling abroad, etc. But I'm really wondering if he's just having a laugh or criticizing white people for this, if that makes sense. It's making me question the white people that I know and what they do and why they do it. Do they do it because they're white? Do they do it to immulate white people that they know?

I even question my own motives because I find myself liking with many of the 150 things listed in the book. It makes me feel as if I'm a conformist or something which I don't necessarily want to be, especially if Landers is criticizing such people. How could so many people have so much in common? Even though I know for a fact, that not all white like all the 150 things in that book, I know that some like most. And the other white people like Sarah Pailin, Tea Parties, etc. the I doubt would even be mentioned in this book.

I'm just not really getting what Landers is going at, from his picture and biographical information he seems to be writing about himself. He's a white man from Canada who seems to be the kind of guy to like all the things he mentions. And that just baffles my mind. Is it a critique of white people or not? Is it a good thing to be one of these white people? What is Landers getting at???

In Jenny Woolfe's book, The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, the mystery is definitely left unsolved. Sure, you learn a lot about Carroll himself, his likes and dislikes recorded by him in his diaries and journals, accounts of what his contemporaries thought of him, and the author's speculation along with that of many more she references in her biography of him. Woolfe also brings you into the time that he was in, the Victorian era, where little children could not go out without a chaperone, and ankles could not be shown. Woolfe also shows how little bits that people said can become so blown out of proportion.

 I picked out this book looking for answers. One of them being: Was Lewis Carroll a pedophile or not?  I'm not sure where I first got wind of this idea. It was most likely posted on an AOL or Yahoo News link that I clicked a while back, and had not forgotten since. According to Woolfe when Alice Liddel was still alive and was asked to be interviewed, she was too sick to be interviewed, so her older sister, Lorina or Ina, was interviewed instead. When asked why Carroll stopped coming around to visit the Liddel's, Lorina answered something along the lines of  "Mother thought that Alice was to young to be thinking of such things." Making any reader of the interview or quote infer that Alice, who was VERY young at the time perhaps between 10 and 14, I cannot quite remember, that Alice was thinking of marrying Carroll or vice versa. Along with this interview for a 1930 biography came suspicions of things not common to be speculated upon in the Victorian age, like pedophilia.

Anyways, though all of the papers of the Liddells regarding Carroll were for the most part destroyed and the diaries of Carroll during this time have been censored or gone missing, I think that Woolfe does a good job of crediting Carroll as a good, wholesome gentleman who would never hurt any little girl in any little way.

I ended this biography on a nice note. It was tied up in a nice neat package, although it would be amazing to read Carroll's own diaries, especially the missing ones. Woolfe has struck a chord of curiosity in me with Carroll and I'm very interested in reading other works of his other than Alice.  I actually saw the complete collection of Carroll's works in the library the other day, which I'd love to read, but am afraid that I will not have time this year, so perhaps over the summer, or next year.

Things White People Like 51-100

According to Landers white people like to be trendy and seem a lot cooler than they really are. Some of the things he lists that apply to this claim I think doesn't really apply for all white people, but perhaps his generation until my generation because I just don't see my parents like this or my grandparents. But I guess making such generalizations about one people, even though you are one doesn't make you and expert.


Indie Music - I see this almost everyday in school. Kids claiming to have found the new band before it hits stores, but once it does, no one likes it. And people are constantly on the search for that song or that band, but once certain people have heard of it or if it is played on a certain commercial then it's done.


Not owning a TV - Landers argues that white people who don't own TVs do so just so they can say that they don't and show that their brains aren't rotting away. This gives white people lots of spare time to do other intelligible things. However I really don't think today that if you've got a computer you do not need a TV. You can watch TV on the computer along with movies etc. Bigger screens are nice, but I know some families that use projectors to watch movies in their living rooms. It's really cool. But I do agree with Landers that when people who say I don't own a TV or I don't watch much TV it just sounds pretentious because I feel as though whether or not it's a TV in your living room or a channel's full video player online your still watching TV.


Other cool things white people do include Veganism/Vegatarianism, Yoga, Whole Foods etc. 


For 101-150 I think I'll keep a list of the most true ones in the book along with a couple featured ones.

The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions

Stuff White People Like by Christian Landers is truly my funniest non-fiction read of the year. There are 150 things that white people like and I'm dividing them into three blogs. This is the blog for 1-50. 


Out of the 50 things so far that I have read so far the following are linked together:
# 4 Assists ( like in sports, or just assisting in general.)
# 8 Barack Obama
# (I can't remember and left my book elsewhere) Appologizing

These all have to do with white people feeling bad about the past and trying to make amends for slavery, colonization, the crusades etc. White people like apologizing because they are not only apologizing for what they've done, but what was done by their race. White people like Barack Obama because if they don't they are afraid they'll be considered racist. I found that interesting because in Decatur everyone was so pro-Obama but when I'd ask out of Decatur they'd say I like Obama, he's great but I'm voting for John McCain so he doesn't get shot. White people like to assist in sports because in games like basketball etc. there really isn't much they can do. White men can't jump, can't dunk, but they can pass the ball as an apology.

Landers segments are quick and simple to read and always leave a smile on my face after reading it because it is so funny.

As Alice would say, Lewis Carroll just becomes "Curious and curiouser."

He's a man of many interests, that is for sure. Working as in the clergy, and as a math teacher, not including his own personal studies and habits, I don't know how he does it all. It's quite overwhelming.

The author however writes to calmly for such and eccentric person she is writing about. It's also kind of dry, not much extra to it. Although I find Carroll very intriguing, I cannot say I can find the way he is told about engaging. Perhaps it is because the books is not written chronologically which I am used to in biography. It's more that each chapter is about a subject like math, or his writing, his family, his social life etc. But all seem to weave in and out without a cohesive feeling. I don't know if that makes since.

When I was little I had three favorite biographies that I read, one on Clara Barton, one on Eleanor Roosevelt, and one on Amelia Earhart. Perhaps I found those more engaging because there lives were more public than that of Carroll and none of their papers went missing, leaving gaps for writers to speculate about.  I guess I want to read more about a persons' life and not speculation.

But alas, I will continue to plow through, probably over Spring Break when I can sit with it for an hour or two and just keep my focus.

Little Altars Everywhere (finished)

I've come to the conclusion that all of the members of the Walker family from Thorton, Lousiana are to self concerned. My favorite characters in this are Willetta and Chaney. Chaney was born into the business of helping out the Walker men. Willetta, Chaney's wife helps Vivi Walker lots.

While things in the Walker household may not always be alright due to parental problems or only one parent being there, Willetta and Chaney were always just down the road a bit to help out, even though they had enough problems of their own, like the two daughters they raised.

I guess what's so interesting to me about Willetta and Chaney are their thoughts. Their dialect shines through, but they truly are more reasonable than Big Shep and Vivi combined. It's also interesting to see their perceptions of things versus Vivi and Shep's perceptions of things. They prevent Vivi from beating her children to death. Chaney is there for Shep when his father dies. They're there to keep the Walkers in check.
I have enjoyed the book more when it was told by or about one or the other. The two are just ideal people, very forgiving and they put up with everything. And it's a very positive light that is shown on two African-American characters in a southern novel.

I just finished Little Altars Everywhere and decided that I liked it very much. I'm looking for a copy of Ya-Ya's in Bloom at the moment.

Tallulah Walker

Tallulah Walker steals things. She steals make up for her sister. Gun pellets for her brother Little Shep, nail polish for her mama and a cowboy hat for her daddy.

Stealing the cowboy hat for her daddy was probably her most difficult heist yet. It wasn't an item that you could easily pocket at a drug store. Instead she had to wait until the right moment when no one was looking and that she did. But as she swiped the hat and turned to leave, the two ladies working at the counter quickly caught on to her and caught up to her and hauled her back to the counter, threatening to call the sheriff.

Lulu began to cry, not because she was guilty though, because all of a sudden she got into character. She was no longer Tallulah Walker of Thorton, Louisiana, daughter of Vivi and Shephard Walker, sister of Siddalee, Baylor and Shephard Jr., she was now Corina Axel. She has no parents, they died in a car crash. (A CAR CRASH?!) And she was trying to get her brother, Bucky a hat because he works in the fields to earn their keep and raise her.

The ladies of the store calm Corina down. Let her have an Orange Crush and eventually, she gets to keep the cowboy hat that she was going to steal. And she leaves, and gets way with it.

I have no idea how Lulu could even stomach stealing things, or why she would want to. Her family is pretty well off, they aren't poor, but they aren't filthy rich either. Her Mama and Daddy pay her an allowance, but she insists to steal to get what she-- well she doesn't necessarily want the stuff and she doesn't need it. It's all a game to her really. Just to see what she can get away with. And she does get away with it.

I did some Wikipedia background reading earlier and it said something like "People insist that what Wells writes is autobiographic." And I wonder for what, for Little Altars Everywhere or The Divine Secrets. Or is it all in some sense like that, or not at all. It was just very unnerving to listen into a little girls thoughts and the ability to live with what she was doing. Though, in the end she decided she was done with being Gimmee Gimmee Gimmee.

Little Altars Everywhere

After finishing The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I managed to find Little Altars Everywhere, also by Rebecca Wells. I actually didn't expect it at all to be about Thorton, Louisianna still, but it was nice to go back into the world of the Ya-Yas.

I believe Little Altars Everywhere was written before The Divine Secrets but, I'm not sure. It's not like you need to read one before to understand the other. You're kind of thrown en medias res in the both of them.

Little Altars Everywhere is different because it's written differently. There are little vignettes from the different people in the stories. And they're each told as how old they are during that time. So Sidda in 1963 is very whiny and know-it-all instead of the struggling 40-year-old that she was in The Divine Secrets. Also, so far I've gotten to see things from Sidda's little brother Baylor and her father Big Shep. And it's really interesting to get respective on little people perspectives, but also Big Shep. He was rarely seen or heard from in the Divine Secrets, mostly because it's out of character for him to be seen or heard, but just reading his perspective on Vivi and young Sidda and the Ya-Yas was great. Even seeing what he grew up like and stuff. Ahh, so great I really do like Rebecca Wells. And I just looked on Wikipedia to see which book was published first and this one was. But there's another one, Rebbeca Wells has actually written two more books, so I'll difinitely be checking them out when I finish this one.

So far I don't see in overall plot, but we'll see what happends I guess.

Something I would have never guessed about Lewis Carroll was that he taught school, and not only that, but he taught math.

I've always associated him as being the man who wrote about Alice. Who wrote books, not solved equations. I'd heard/read rumors of drug influences and stories of pedophilia (which I haven't read about thus far in this book) but I NEVER ever knew that he taught math, or that he was good at math. I need to let it set in I guess.

Well, Lewis Carroll was a genius, I know this much so far. He loved math and all of his colleagues and former teachers found him very good at it. He had a difficult time teaching undergraduate at college though. He found teaching fun when he moved on to teach a younger set of all girl pupils who wanted to learn. He thought of easy ways for them to learn.

After a while though he became tired of math and became more interested in logic. Making him a Logician. (new favorite word? yes.) He made up riddles for magazines, friends, family, students and they all tried to solve them. I don't really understand them all. Many of the ones in The Mystery of Lewis Carroll are written as verse but, there's suppose to be some pattern that helps you figure out what exactly the riddles are. The pattern has something to do with the second word's third letter in each odd line or something along those lines and I'm really not sure. And I don't think others are, because there were about four in the book that people hadn't figured out. I wonder if there is some sort of hidden answers page or key somewhere. If there is, hopefully it wasn't lost for ever.

It's crazy how, well rounded I guess Carroll was.

Ya-Ya-No

I've finished the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. And I'd rather not be done with it. I'd rather be reading it right now. But I finished it, so I figured I might as well blog about it.

So, while most of those little bits about Vivi's childhood and teenage years were the same as the movie. The bits with Sidda and Vivi and the present were a lot different. There were awkward, frustrating phone calls and brief letters so that the mother and daughter could communicate. The Ya-Yas did come and visit dear Siddalee in Washington which was lovely.

The biggest difference I think between the book and the movie was seeing the rest of what was going on. Mainly in the movie there is a lot of emphasis put on the relationship between Sidda and Vivi. But in the book, you see Sidda and Vivi, but you also see how others helped them out, whether it was the Ya-Yas or one of the Ya-Ya husbands. You see the church and Buggie. Caro takes Sidda to the movies. Vivi gives Willetta a fur stole. You see not only Vivi's struggle over the loss of Jack, but his mother, Giniveve as well.

One thing I don't think I'll forget about this book is when Vivi's mom, Buggie sends her to reform school run by nuns. It is so terrible for Vivi, because she really hasn't done anything wrong. Her mother is just driven crazy by her husband and mother. But the nuns at the school who you would assume to be sweet, loving and caring are not. Except for the nurse nun. She saves Vivi. After her terrible time. Anyways... I think we might have another Rebecca Wells book somewhere in this house, so maybe I can find it.

YAYA

The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells is my more recent fiction read since I cannot find Deadline lately, but no worries, I will get around to finding and finishing it...eventually.

I've had this one on my stack for quite sometime. I've seen bits and pieces of the movie on TBS, and definitely remember some of the buzz about it that I heard when I was little. Even though I was four or five I think. I remember seeing it everywhere, or at least on my moms night stand. Or at the Castles house.

When I first started it a couple of days ago, it reminded me of the movie exactly. Vivi is upset with Sidda because of the NYT article that portrayed her as a terrible mother. So I was totally expecting all of the YaYas, minus Vivi to show up in Seattle (I think it's New York in the movie) and take Sidda back to Louisiana and explain to her everything.

But alas, that has not happen yet? Perhaps it will. Though so far I can still see bits of the movie weaving in while I read. Mostly its from Vivi's perspective, because in the book, Sidda's in Washington state.

So far, I am really liking it. Which is interesting because my mom says that it's not something that sticks out in her mind as being a GREAT book. She did admit though that she and her friend, Leisel did fashion their Thursdays at the pool with drinks after the YaYa summers at Spring Creek. So I guess she liked it enough for that.

If I could do anything that I wanted to, it would probably to find a way to travel back in time and see how things were, meet people who existed in the past etc.

So many things that happened, no one knows about now. Which is strange if you think about how much we're able to know about pretty much ANYONE nowadays. And everything today is documented.

In Jenny Woolf's The Mystery of Lewis Carroll she notes that not much is known about him simply because it either wasn't written down, and if it was, then the record was lost. Several of his diaries from his teenage years are noted as having "disappeared." UGH.If only I could go back and figure out things and witness what life was like for Lewis Carroll. Woolf does her best to make assumptions based on what she has, so I've got a decent picture of what his family like.

Lewis Carroll was the eldest son and third child of his parents' eleven. He and his siblings were very close. Three of them got married, two of those were boys. His father worked as a clergyman and did the best he could to properly support his family. Carroll loved his mother and was not quite fond of nurses. At school it was likely that he was bullied, because bullying went on in public schools like Rugby where he attended. And it was only at last minute when the professors intervened. He did not like his time at Rugby, but enjoyed learning and was thought of highly by his teachers. But other than that there's not much that Woolf has managed to find out.

She did surprise me though. She found his bank account records, which I thought was ingenious. That definitely points her in a direction...

Mr. Patton every once in a while will give us an excerpt from some book and we read them and it's interesting because usually it's usually one little occurrence that happened to no one special, but based on what happened to that person or in that occurrence is dependent on what the historian who wrote it used as information. And reading this biography reminds me a lot of those articles.

Matthew 20 1-16

This parable is kind of bothering me. We're working on it for my church's Youth Sunday. And luckily I get to write a homilies on it... (note the sarcasm in my words please) Normally it is the seniors who write the sermons, which I would be fine with for next year when I am a senior, but this year, I am not a senior, so it's just stressing me out...

Anyways, the story goes that "The kingdom of heaven is like this:..." And then Jesus goes on to tell a story of a vineyard owner who hires these people at the beginning of the day and agrees to give them a days wages for their work, at midday he hires more hands and then again and again later on. Then at the end of the day he pays the people he hired last first and the people he hired first last, and they all get one silver coin. The people who began working first are enraged. The owner of the vineyard basically tells them to shut up, it's his money and he can pay everyone equally if he wants right? And then Jesus comes back and says the first shall be last and the last shall be first and then it's done.

So hmm... what does this mean? Why is everything so equal, but yet still seems unfair? What do I write my sermon on??? It is an interesting passage though, is it not?

It's such and interesting story I think, but it's so difficult to understand. Writing about this will be a challenge for sure. The Bible is filled with parables that seem SO SIMPLE in Sunday school when you're five. And they mean what they're written as, but know we have to read between the lines and figure it out for real. Hmm, but I guess that's the same in all I read.

Charles Dodgson

Today I visited Borders because I had $5 in Border's Bucks that were about to expire at the end of January. I browsed several bookshelves, fiction, nonfiction, stationary, bargain books, calendars etc. But one that I found appealing just from the cover and title was The Mystery of Lewis Carol by Jenny Woolf. The problem was it was a brand new hard back that would ring up at about $30. (UGH. The price of books.) So I decided to see if my mother was interested in getting it. "Oh, I was looking at that and it looks good," she said. She decided that we'd pick it up at Barnes & Noble on our way home because she had a gift certificate there... ASIDE: There was a shooting at Edgewood's Retail District and I was walking into the store when I heard the gun shots. SCARY.

So, alas I've got a Lewis Carroll biography which is GRRREAT!!!! Last semester I remember going to Wikipedia one night and reading about him there, but the book is proving to be a better experience for me, and less straining on my eyes. On Wikipedia there are not reference of Lewis Carroll's journals and all of those fun things.

So far, so good. I trust Woolf more than Wikipedia and more than Crutcher (Deadline). Carroll grew up as a clergyman's son. It's funny because their church in Oxford is really famous, but not because it's where he went to school, but because it's where the film some of the Hogwarts scenes for Harry Potter.

Lewis Carroll is really a mystery. And I can't wait to get past the basic early life information to the good stuff like his muse for Alice etc.

(Sorry, I've been really ADHD with books lately, I just seem find something and want it, until the next thing comes around...so I've got these ones for a while.)

An American Odysey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind, a book that I picked up in the library last semester and have NOT returned yet is one that I picked up recently to read. So far so good.

It's about a Cedric Jennings, a boy who lives in a terrible environment in Washington D.C. At school fires are set in the bathrooms, there are few athletes because no one will attempt good grades because they're afraid of being bullied, there are few honor students... I think it said 73 out of about 1500 used to have their names only posted on a bulletin board, but they're just ignored. The adminstration decided that they should great an incentive for those with B averages each quarter. Each honor roll student would recieve a check for $100 at an assembly. At the assembly the kids are humiliated.

Cedric Jennings is not a run-of-the-mill student in this setting. His grade point average is a 4.02. Once after one of the assemblies a kid at school came up told him that he didn't like him and motioned to a gun in his pocket. So, Cedric doesn't go to the assemblies any more.

This story is ridiculously sad so far, not like sobbing sad, but just "THIS SUCKS SO MUCH. HOW CAN PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS?" sad. There's lots of violence in the neighborhood, for Cedric's mom it was either abort Cedric or keep her boyfriend. It's a great look into something I've not familiar with Suskind has me feeling for the characters and I'm not far in.

ALSO. This book is NONFICTION because it's based on a series in Wall Street Journal.

Deadline part two.

Great NEWS!!!!!!!! except not. Ben's doctor has made him agree to tell someone about the fact that he's dying. That person is not anyone who knows him personally, but another doctor, from another county. Because out of all of Trout, Idaho's 943 citizens none of them are psychologists, or psychiatrists . However, Trout has a big enough high school to fill a state-winning football team. For some reason this just doesn't seem like it could happen. But perhaps in Trout, Idaho there's nothing to do but play football.

So, Ben's psychologist, Marla Dawson is Ben's new confidant. She, like Ben's doctor is concerned about him not telling ANYONE. GAH!!!! Why doesn't this boy realize that he's going to hurt his mom, dad, and brother. But he is concerned about it a little, but I wish that he would just act on it.

I'm still having problems trusting this author, Chris Crutcher. I'm just not into his style at the moment... This book should be a breeze but I feel that I'm becoming too critically negative about it. I suppose I should just get over myself and push through it. Huh?

Deadline.

My uncle is a school librarian, so he reads lots of books. He is responsible for sending Deadline by Chris Crutcher to me.

So far it seems abrupt. I think it was in the first chapter that I found out, with the main character Ben that he has something medically wrong with him. Which is a red flag for me. I feel like that's a thing that happens in lots of books these days. Someone's always getting a big illness in books that I've read, or dying or something. I'm kinda yearning for a different kind of story these days.

Ben, is in his senior year of high school, he's a cross country star, a good student. But when he finds out that he's sick, he decides to join the football team. OH!!!! I remembered why this book is bothering me at the moment. Ben went to the doctor by himself when he found out by himself. His doctor insisted that his parents be there but Ben said it was fine and coerced the doctor into telling him what was wrong. He asked Ben to be sure and tell his parents. Which he hasn't yet!!!! Which is terrible, and the doctor can't do anything because Ben's pulled the whole I'm-18-card, so now that he's legally an adult the doctor isn't allowed to tell his parents because he has his own power of medical attorney. Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like for you to see your son drop dead one day and not know why and then find out that he'd been diagnosed with an illness a LONG time ago? It would kill me. Sure, I think there's something about walking welcomely into death's arms, but gosh... why can't he just tell his parents?

I try hard to trust Crutcher, he's a new author to me. So right now I just don't know. But I've seen his name on a couple of ALA lists, maybe the Georgia Peach something award list, and my uncle thinks it's really good too. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

How very peculiar is it that the person who came up with the idea of Nancy Drew, was not a woman, but a man?

I've read Nancy Drew since third grade maybe... I'm not quite sure. But like Cam Jasen, it was a mystery and about a girl, which was a big thing for me in my elementary school years. I didn't want to read a story about a dumb boy. (This was one of my reasons for not wanting to start Harry Potter one night when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. But I finally gave in and told my mom to go get it and I would TRY to listen and enjoy it. HA.)

So back in the days when there were still Harry Potter books and movies to come out I had to find other books to read, and Nancy Drew was definitely up my alley. I loved solving mysteries, if not with, before Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, and the other boys. Another thing I loved about Nancy is that my grandmother had read her too, though my mom had not. My grandma lived at my house during my elementary school years so sometimes I'd go curl up in her room and read with her.

But anyways, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her explains the mystery behind the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. I first saw this book a year or two ago at Barnes and Noble. I was quick to pick it up, but it was a hardcover, so I wasn't so quick to pull out my wallet just yet. I think it was $30. (eek. BOOKS COST WAY TOO MUCH!) So when the paperback came out, I was okay with buying it for less.

I'm not that far into it, though I started it a week ago (I got distracted.) But so far I've learned that Edward Stratemeyer was the first to come up with the idea of this girl detective. He had quite the charming rag-to-riches, American Dream story. Something that you always here from authors. "I always loved to right!" or "Ever since I can remember I've been writing!"and such. And his immigrant father was pleased with his pursuits and he sold his first story to a magazine for maybe $5.

But before Nancy becomes anyone Stratemeyer dies... and that's all I know right now. So, I'm looking forward to see who picks up the torch.

"Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure that of being Salvador Dalí. And I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, this Salvador Dalí." - Salvador Dalí.

Kind of full of it if you ask me.

Last week in Spanish, Ms. Roller assigned me a project dealing with Hispanic artists and she allowed me to go to the library to research for the class period. The library was crowded and boisterous. Mr. B had his class spread out across the room working on various projects and spare desktops were difficult to find. When I asked Ms. Nolan for a laptop she told me that all of Cart A was in use. So I went to the circulation desk to use of of those computers.

The new library interns do not understand my status in the library. Last semester I spent much of my third period doing intern-like things: checking in and out books, helping people find things, loading the empty printers with papers. I obviously knew the drill, but the interns didn't want to screw up on the first full week of the job. So as they told me to get off the computer I closed my Wikipedia page and opened Alexandria so that I might find a book that would help me. And I did.

The Essential Salvador Dalí by Robert Goff, which was helpful for me in two ways:

1. It posessed 112 pages of text and beautiful pictures for me to marvel at for my research.

2. It's nonfiction.

So I killed two birds with one stone. I researched for my Spanish project, while reading a nonfiction book that I could blog about now.

The Essential Salvador Dalí is a read that is definitely straight and to the point, though Dalí himself is not. He was very well off as a kid and adult, at least economically. But he's very confused and his paintings obviously reflect that he's a deep thinker. He was part of both of the surrealism and cubism movements, following Pablo Picasso.

My favorite thing about this book though wasn't the contents, but how they were displayed and layed out. It was kind of like a history text book. Pretty pictures, the main bits, but little side bars as well which were very interesting to see not only how Dalí was influenced by other artist, but by ideologies as well. Like Freud, who woulda know? Not I. I really like getting those extra bits.

Overall it's a good, fast read.

Cannery Row

So after reading all that Harry Potter, I was still itching to read, which I do more with books when my computer doesn't work, but at the same time when I'm on my computer I read so much on the computer and on the internet....

Anyways, my friend Cate gave me a suggestion, Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Was it good? I can't say... I definitely liked it. It was different from Harry Potter.

I loved Mack and the boys, they were all so good natured. Lee Chong always made me laugh and Doc was great as well. As were Dora and her girls.

It's so different to read about these small towns and their close communities when I live in what seems like a big town, which I do. There's no grocer down the street, there's no local doctor, and there are not cat houses that I am aware of.

Looking back at Cannery Row, the only thing that I can even think of comparing it to is Of Mice and Men because it's the only other Steinbeck I've read. I think Steinbeck does a real good job of creating believable characters and these tight-knit group of men... at least in both of his books that I've read.

Cannery Row was a good short read after Harry Potter.

Harry Potter wrap up

SO, I finally finished the Harry Potter series over break. Those books put me through such a whirlwind.

I might not have finished them over break if it wasn't for my purse getting stolen. Because it was stolen, I needed a new license, so we went to the DMV and I brought my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I probably hadn't picked up since I brought it home from school after finals. The DMV's computer system was down, and you know how that goes. So lucky for me I had my copy of Harry Potter and read it until the system was up. And again while I waited for my license to get printed and such. When I got home there wasn't much for me to do that day, my friends were out of town and my computer doesn't work so, I continued to read. I was done with Order of the Phoenix by the next day.

I continued to read Half-Blood Prince after finishing book five. And after a sped through six, I went to sleep, woke up and started Deathly Hallows. It was such a different experience from when I first read it in 2007. That summer, I had to read it over the course of one week because I was at the beach with a friend and she didn't want me to get ahead of her reading it and vice versa. Her sister, who hasn't even read the series read the last chapter. And basically, we were spoiled.

Re-reading Deathly Hallows in fourteen hours was amazing. I hoped the first time I read it, that it would be different the second time around and it truly was. I didn't remember Fred dying with his last smile etched upon his face. Or everyone being happy that Percy came back. Or Ginny having to stay in the Room of Requirement. I remembered that Tonks died but I completely forgot that she ran after Remus. I COMPLETELY forgot about Aberforth and Arianna. I remembered Snape's love for Lily, but it was nice to see his memories again. Overall, it was a good experience I think because before I looked back on the end of the series bitterly, but now I'm satisfied. It's funny because Pete Nichols and I talked in 2007 after finishing it. I remember being iffy about it, but he said that he'd read it twice all ready and he liked it. It took me way to long to read it for a second time.