New and Improved (Kinda)

So I've been a very bad blogger...not updating in nearly four months. How irresponsible of me! 

I've decided I want to get back into blogging, and I will, I promise. I just have to wait until the end of this quarter (March 19th), and then I will actually have the time to write down all my random thoughts that go through my head on a daily basis. 

But until then, I decided to redo the blog and make it not only about books, but everything going on, yo. I gave the blog a new name, but I'm still not sure if I like it, so that might change as time goes on...I hope anyone and everyone who reads (if anyone actually does) enjoys!

Peace out!

I'm famous, so obviously I can write amazing novels

So I know I'm not the first critic of these celebrities turned writers, but I just had to say my part. Hilary Duff, Nicole Richie, Lauren Conrad, Pamela Anderson, and now SNOOKI from the Jersey Shore, are all "writers." Well, we all know what that means. They maybe say a few sentences in a meeting, then a ghost writer takes it from there. And these books end up on bestseller lists, maybe not at the top, but they are still there. Sometimes I hate people. Who is buying these books?

I can bitch and moan all I want about these people becoming writers and nothing will happen, but it still really bothers me. These are people who probably never grew up wanting to be writers, they just had the opportunity handed to them along with their "fame". I mean, SNOOKI? Seriously? She's famous for being on a shitty reality show on which all she does is get drunk and hook up with greasy guys. And she gets a book contract? NO. I could go off on tangents about every single one of these women, but I will not, at the risk of looking petty and immature.

I don't think I'm some amazing writer, but there are plenty of people out there who are and deserve a chance. Not Lauren Conrad, not Hilary Duff, not Nicole Richie, not Pamela Anderson, and not Snooki. They don't need the income from a book that they didn't write. Especially books with plots that are so cliche and writing that is barely a step up from high school or the Twilight series.

Come on people, skip these manufactured novels and read something worthwhile and interesting.

Bret Easton Ellis

I don't know why I haven't been posting...too much going on I guess. School, work, life in general. I also don't have anything to say right now...

Read Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis. So amazing. Also very graphic and kind of depressing, but I love his writing, because it's so distinctive. He describes certain horrible things so flippant and kind of detached, that it makes them seem more real...I don't know if I'm describing his writing accurately, but he definitely has a way of keeping me hooked and continually thinking about certain points in the novel.  

Imperial Bedrooms is a sequel to his 1985 novel Less Than Zero, which is one of my favorite books. It is narrated by Clay, the main character from the first novel, and and takes place twenty five years later. Ellis uses a post modern literary device, in that Less Than Zero was an actual novel written by a friend of Clay's in the eighties, but did not necessarily portray Clay in an entirely truthful light. This allows Clay in the present to be more fully developed and we learn more about his narcissism, sadistic and masochistic tendencies, as well as his exploitative personality that I didn't necessarily get from Less Than Zero. This Clay is extremely unlikeable, but at the same time utterly fascinating. It was a great book, but definitely not for everyone.

I just started reading The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and it's very, very absorbing, so I'll make sure to post about it soon as well.

Ta ta for now...I must go study some francais!

Oops!

So I'm still reading all the books that I mentioned last time...I've been distracted. It's summer, I have no school and I've just been hanging out with my friends, stress free for the first time in...months. There's also other things that have come up, in my personal life, that are NOT to be discussed on this blog, but trust, they are good, very, very good. I'm all smiles right now and excited about the days and weeks to come.

It's been hot as hell here in Davis, I'm escaping back to Marin this weekend and I can't wait, because no matter how hot it is there, it's never as bad as it is in Davis. Today was 107!

So, this is all for now, my friends, but a detailed update to follow soon!

A little summer reading

Okay. Update time. It's taken me over a week to get back on my usual sleeping and eating schedule and it's been crazy. But now, onto my favorite: BOOKS!

While in China, I didn't exactly have much time to read, so despite being there a month, I only made it through two books: The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell.

The Secret History is an extremely beautiful and complex novel centered around a group of six classics students at a small New Hampshire college. One of the six, Richard, is the narrator and he is reflecting on the events that led to the murder of another member of the group. The author uses a format in which she introduces the murder and the murderers in the prologue, then the rest of the novel recounts how the characters actually came to commit the crime, kind a murder mystery in reverse. Other than tell the story of these six characters, the book also has, thanks to lots of literary and classic references and allusions, wider reaching themes and ideas about beauty: literary beauty versus the beauty of reality, social constraints and one's desire to be free, and the relationships between people. All in all, it's an AMAZING book, one that I want to go back and read again, because even though I understood it, I feel like it is a book that I can learn something from additional readings.

The next book is The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell, which is a prequel to Sex and the City, following the life of Carrie Bradshaw during her senior year of high school in a small New England town. It's a young adult novel and it was okay. I don't know, I've read a few of Candace Bushnell's books, and I really want to like them because I love Sex and the City, but I never do. Maybe it's because I didn't read it, I listened to it on my iPod, and whoever was reading it had an annoying voice and made ALL the characters sounds so, well, annoying. And the Carrie in the book did not seem like the Carrie of the show that I love. I don't recommend it.

For good young adult, John Green all the way. I already recommended Looking for Alaska, and I just read An Abundance of Katherines. So funny and real. To explain the plot is confusing: washed up child prodigy, pudgy Judge Judy loving best friend, a road trip, and 19 ex girlfriends all named Katherine. Oh and somehow they end up in Tennessee hunting feral hogs at one point. Totally off the wall yet totally real at the same time. A great read!

Now I'm attempting to read Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. One of my favorite stories on film, so I owe it to Miss Mitchell to read her epic novel.  I'm 300 pages into the 1000 page monster and I do love it. Especially the scenes between Scarlett and Rhett Butler. Utterly gripping. Also, there is sooooooooooooo much description I really honestly feel like I am in Civil War Atlanta. More updates as I work my way through.

I'm also planning on reading Bret Easton Ellis's Imperial Bedrooms. It's the sequel to Less Than Zero and features all the characters 25 years later. I loved Less Than Zero so much. I love Bret Easton Ellis. I want to write like him sometimes, because what he write is just....amazing His books are messed up, strange, haunting, yet always leave me wanting to read more.

 That's all for now folks! Happy reading!

Home again

Unfortunately, I could not post in China. Stupid censorship laws. But I'm home now, back in California and very happy. China was quite an adventure, and a better update to follow, as well as posts on The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell. For now, sleep, shower, laundry, and (not Chinese!) food.

CHINA HERE I COME!!!!

Going to China tomorrow!!! SO EXCITED!! Can't think straight!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Anyway, since this IS a blog about books, I will speak briefly about a book I just finished called Looking for Alaska by John Green. Very good, very well written, makes the reader think, oh and it's a young adult novel. But it is about something that I think readers of all ages can relate to: life, death, loss, suffering, and how we move on. It is also laugh out loud hilarious at some parts. I highly recommend it to you all, especially as a good summer read.

I will do my best to post updates on this blog while I'm in China, maybe not about books, since I will be in school there, but about everything amazing that is happening while I'm gone.

Happy reading!!

Sweet Summertime

Summer...beaches, swimming, blockbusters, sailing, BBQs, shots, novels, travel.

School is out, finished the finals, papers, quizzes, all of it. And I am very happy. Elated and relaxed. I have two weeks until China and I am counting down the days. It's pretty much all I think about and I just keep getting more and more excited. I've been watching documentaries about China and reading my guidebook nonstop. I can't wait for this adventure!

Not much on the schedule for now, work, reading, cleaning, preparing. Still working on the last books I posted about, thanks to finals...more to come as this lovely summer unfolds...