P.S I Still Love You by Jenny Han

P.S I Still Love You picks up exactly where To All The Boys I've Loved Before left off with Lara Jean writing a letter to Peter. The book goes straight to them getting back together within the first two chapters It's great because Lara Jean and Peter are adorable. But then, things go downhill with the video scandal. As soon as the video came out, I knew who it was that posted it and so did Lara Jean.This part of the book i didn't like because Peter didn't even defend Lara Jean, instead he defended Genevieve saying that she wouldn't do that. I'm sorry what? How can you not defend your girlfriend, who you know is having a hard time with it? Not cool Peter. Peter in the book disappointed me actually, i thought he would be more romantic in his own way, and he was in the beginning, but the rest of the book not so much. I appreciated Lara Jean's growth throughout the book and you really see that especially when she starts volunteering at a hospital and taking charge of things. i enjoyed that the family was still included in the book. Now, on to the real topic:John Ambrose Mcclaren. John is the last boy that receives a letter from Lara Jean in the last book. as soon as he started writing to her, i was smiling because his letters were great and her letter to him were sweet. I liked that their letters consisted of their friendship when they were younger and how they all hung out together. I think that the break up was inevitable, it was bound to happen, i feel that it could happened towards the middle of the book instead of it being almost at the end, it makes the ending seem rushed. Not that I didn't love it, i did i just feel that it could have been paced out more.

Lara Jean and Peter break up because of Peter's constant need to be with Genevieve and help her out whenever she wants him to. This makes sense and I understood Lara Jean's frustration with Peter on this because come on no girlfriend would be comfortable with their boyfriend hanging out with their ex-girlfriend. that's common sense. Also, another thing that i noticed while reading is that Lara Jean trusted Peter a lot but he wasn't giving her much to go on. I think that if he just explained the situation to her, she would have understood, and he should be more open with his feelings. I get that his character hides his feelings, but seriously how do you expect Lara Jean to talk to you when you even say how you feel about things, Even the letters. In the cake walk, Peter said that John was writing her letters and Lara Jean is like i though you didn't care about them, then Peter says he does, after Lara jean says that he should have said something about it. Favorite scenes would have to be the 1940s party that Lara Jean and John go to, the snowglobe that John gives to Lara Jean for her birthday, when they played in the snow and sang Do you wanna build a snowman from Frozen, i was grinning from ear to ear because i love Frozen. Also, when John opens his car door and Lara Jean runs to his car, the kiss between them after the party. I guess you can tell i really liked John, their friendship was sweet, i thought they were gonna end up together at some point but then i'm like wait he's a plot device to help Lara Jean validate her feelings for Peter. I knew that they weren't going to end up together. but it was great to see Lara Jean with a new person and allow herself to be liked by another person besides Peter. i forgot to mention feminism and double standards are in this book and i love the way it's incorporated in the book involving the video because it is something that unfortunately does happen everything to young girls. Anyways, i think this review is long enough, only thing that would make it better to have Lara Jean and John have their one day just to see what it would be like for them. i think it could be in college probably her freshmen year. A girl can dream. 4 stars. :)

Taylor Swift Clean Speech- Manchester June 24,2015

“So just from this crowd alone I have seen a lot of people who I know have come from places other than Manchester, people from all over the place; I’m seeing like flags from other countries and it’s just really amazing to know that you want to travel all that way and like get out your passport so that you can come and see me play a show. That’s just incredible and it’s so cool that, like, I look out and I’m seeing all these different people from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, we all have different interests, different accents; but still, uh, we wouldn’t be in this room together if we didn’t have something in common and I think that I know what that is. I think that what we have in common is that when life gets really hard, or when we feel great amounts of pain or when you feel great amounts of joy; we turn to music and that’s why we are all here in this place. Speaking of great amounts of pain, from talking to you so much, I’ve never been so sure that it is treacherous and difficult to be happy in 2015. I think that navigating your life, navigating your self-esteem, your self-image, I think that’s harder than it’s ever been before. I think it’s because every day, and trust me; I love the internet, okay? I love the good parts of the internet, but there’s also this dark side of how we are all so, it’s so available to us to see the highlight reel of someone else’s life. All the pictures of when they look the most awesome, and when they’re on some great trip, or they’re having the best time ever at a party, and in your own life you’re getting a behind the scenes, not just the highlight reel, you’re seeing when you get out of bed in the morning and you’re like, “Oh God, this is not a good hair day. This is not gonna be good today. How are we gonna fix this?”, or you feel like you don’t know where you’re supposed to go with your life, or you just went through the most horrible sense of rejection, because someone, you know, spread a rumor about you that wasn’t true. You’re seeing all these angles of your own life, and then you compare it to other people’s lives when you don’t see what they’re going through, you just see the good parts of what they’re going through, am I right? And so, I say to you, when you start to compare yourselves to other people, please change the channel in your mind to something else, because I think that when it comes to how we see ourselves, other people are really mean, but we’re really mean to ourselves and so it’s easy to get confused, and we you do get confused and you start feeling like you’re not special, or you’re not different, or you have nothing important to say. We all feel like that sometimes, but what I want you to right now is, if there’s one thing you remember from tonight, remember what I’m about to say. You need to look into the mirror in the morning and not tell yourself that you’re not special, or you’re not good enough, you’re not pretty, or you’re not awesome. I’m gonna tell you right now the things you actually are not. These are the things you really are not. You are not the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know you. You are not damaged goods just because you made mistakes in your life. You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet. Those are the things you actually are not. Now, I want tell you what you are. You are your own definition of beautiful and worthwhile, that’s what you are. You are someone who is wiser because you made mistakes, not damaged, wiser. You are somebody who could be at this moment, right now, sitting there, there, there, there, you are going through whatever you’re going through whatever in your life that’s stressing you out, or confusing you, or making you upset. But you got out of bed and put on an awesome outfit, and you came to a concert and now we’re all having the best time ever on a Wednesday night. You know it’s not about perfection; it’s about just getting on with things sometimes. Sometimes you just get credit for getting up and going on with things, and you don’t have to do it perfectly. I think that we mistake our mistakes for damage, and we think other people judge us for them, but I want you to know the way that I see mistakes is, they don’t make you damaged, they make you clean.”

Flashlight - Bethany Mota - Pitch Perfect 2 / Jessie J Cover

Second Chance Summer By Morgan Matson

 I liked this book, At first I will admit, it was a little slow in the beginning because nothing was really happening. But, then it got better. The main character is Taylor and she has this tendency to run away from her problems, instead of confronting them. In the book, her family is going back to their lake house to spend the summer because their father has received news that he's stage 4 of his cancer. So, they decide to spend one last summer together as a family. Now, the family is interesting because they're not close with each other, Taylor and her siblings don't talk to each other or more importantly their feelings. Her siblings are her older brother Warren and her little sister Gelsey. Her brother is very intelligent while her sister is talented in ballet, meanwhile, Taylor feels that she doesn't have any special talent. Throughout the book, I was thinking that maybe she'll find something that she's interested but that didn't happen. Also, there were moments where she was frustrating because of the decisions she would make. For example, the whole betrayal thing that happened 5 years ago was over melodramatic because it could have been solved easily and they were 12. Come on, kids do stupid things and then they move on from it. If Taylor really wanted to explain to Henry and Lucy, why didn't she just write them a letter to each of them what had happened along with explaining why she left. Holding a grudge over that for 5 years is immature, that goes for Henry and Lucy too. I was cautious about them in the beginning because they were angry at her. The things that i did were the moments she had with her dad, whenever he would take her to get breakfast and learn things about each other, her friendship with Lucy and how she was there for her. Also, the little sister's friendship with Nora, the daughter of the neighbors, Her brother's relationship with his girlfriend Wendy. The romantic relationship was good, although there were times where Taylor would just not want to talk about what was happening with her dad with Henry, which is understandable but, Henry was offering her many times to talk about it. I don't get why she was stubborn about it because he would have understood. Also, the moment where she decides to not be with him anymore because she needed to focus on her family is reasonable. He understood why and still wanted to be there for her even as friends. Her reasoning behind it was logical but it's not like he would get mad for not spending time with him. This book was longer than Morgan Matson's previous books, i feel that at certain times some parts could have been cut shorter. Anyways, the book was a great read, highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a contemporary that deals with heavier topics.                                                                   

Poem: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

from New and Selected Poems, 1992
Beacon Press, Boston, MA

Copyright 1992 by Mary Oliver.
All rights reserved.

Literary Web Adaptions

 Even since I've watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a web series adaption of Pride and Prejudice, i have been hooked on web series. Besides, LBD, I have watched Nothing Much to Do, a web series adaption of Shakespeare's Much To Do About Nothing which i binge-watched in two days, it's that good. Kate The Cursed, The Misselthwaite Archives,  and Emma Approved which i am currently still watching. I wanted to make a list but I can't name every adaption from the top of my head but I have found a list on Tumblr.. The adaptions that I put on here comes from this link, credit goes to the person who created it.
http://shaelit.tumblr.com/post/107161841254/literary-web-series-master-list

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

The Jo March Vlog - Little Women

The March Family Letters - Little Women

Lil Women - Little Women

JANE AUSTEN

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries - Pride and Prejudice

Welcome To Sanditon - Sanditon (unfinished Austen MS)

Emma Approved - Emma

The Emma Project - Emma

Emma’s Journal - Emma

From Mansfield With Love - Mansfield Park

Dashwood Days - Sense and Sensibility

The Dashwood Diaries - Sense and Sensibility

Elinor and Marianne Take Barton - Sense and Sensibility

Mars & Elly - Sense and Sensibility

Project Dashwood - Sense and Sensibility (in production)

The Jane Games - All

J.M. BARRIE

The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy - Peter Pan

Or So the Story Goes - Peter Pan

CHARLOTTE BRONTE

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre

FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

The Misselthwaite Archives - The Secret Garden

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

221B - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Jamie Watson (And Sherlock Holmes) - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

The Nick Carraway Chronicles - The Great Gatsby

ELIZABETH GASKELL

East & West - North & South

SHERIDAN LE FANU

Carmilla - Carmilla (novella)

GASTON LEROUX

Notes By Christine - The Phantom of the Opera

The Private Letters of Christine Daae - The Phantom of the Opera

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN

School of Thrones - Game of Thrones

L.M. MONTGOMERY

Green Gables Fables - Anne of Green Gables

Project AoGG - Anne of Green Gables (in production)

BARONESS EMMA ORCZY

Masked - The Scarlet Pimpernel (Summer 2015)

EDGAR ALLEN POE

A Tell-Tale Vlog - Edgar Allen Poe

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Jules and Monty - Romeo and Juliet

Nothing Much To Do - Much Ado About Nothing

A Bit Much - Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About A Web Series - Much Ado About Nothing

Shakes - Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing

Kate the Cursed - The Taming of the Shrew

Lovely Little Losers - Love’s Labours Lost

A Midsemester’s Night’s Dream - A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream

Hashtag Hamet - Hamlet (in production)

MARY SHELLEY

Frankenstein, MD - Frankenstein

OSCAR WILDE

In Earnest - The Importance of Being Earnest

MYTHOLOGY/FAIRY TALES

The Further Adventures of Cupid and Eros - Cupid myth

My Name Is Mulan - Mulan

University Ever After - Disney tales

Grimm Reflections - Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Cindy - Cinderella (no videos yet)

VARIOUS

Classic Alice - Various

Kissing in the Rain - Various

Or So The Story Goes - Various

I Didn’t Write This - Various (insp. by literary quotes)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS THEMSELVES

Writing Majors - Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde

Blankverse - William Shakespeare (and others)

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

 

This story is a typical story that's been done before multiple times, boy meets girl, fall for her, they get together, something happens that causes them to break up, and in the end they either get back together or they don't. This story is about Ezra Faulkner who was once the golden boy of his high school, a jock with the popular girlfriend, friends, and admirers. Until. an accident happens that shatters his leg changes everything. Now, in his senior year, Ezra learns to become friends with different people, one of them being Cassidy Thorpe. Now, when i was first reading this book, i liked Ezra's character and the side characters too, his ex best friend, Toby, the people on his debate team. Ezra grew throughout the book from being used to doing what people expected him too to focusing on himself and what he feels he should do. However, Cassidy is by definition, the manic pixie dream girl that is full of life and inspires you with everything that she does, and then she leaves. I didn't get Cassidy's character even in the beginning because she was always moody, quoting something from a poem,book, or play, and pushing on her opinions on Ezra. We find out why she did all this in the end. But, it doesn't add up and then she says to Ezra that she's not the reason why he changed, because he decided to change before he even met her. While this is true, i couldn't really grasp this idea because it was thrown at the very end, instead of seeing it gradually happen throughout the book, then it would have gotten a better impact. Also, the jocks were one dimentional, even his ex Charlotte, she played the typical mean cheerleader who just had to be mean. While this book was ok, there were parts that i did like, Toby's one liners and his friendship with Ezra, Cooper the dog, Phoebe was a great minor character, there is mention of her being in unheathly realtionship with Luke, it's glossed over which i didn't like. It would have been great to see how she turned out even if she was minor. Finally, the ending was realistic because it shows that not all relationships work out, although i still don't understand the coincidence that the person who ran Ezra was in any way connected to Cassidy. Also, the part where Cassidy says, " I see him dead in you" does not make sense because yea he ran Ezra over but he didn't die, he died four days later. I felt more sad for Cooper, the dog at the end, then the relationship, that's saying it all. I do wish Toby and Phoebe can get their own stories, i really liked them as side characters. :)
btw  i gave this book 3 stars.

Until The End by Tracey Ward

Loved it so much. It's been a while since I read a zombie book besides the Alice in Zombieland series, highly recommend by the way.The characters of Alissa and Jordan were great. I like how it portrayed Ali's illness, it was real and it wasn't thrown in your face. I figured out what the disorder was based on hints throughout the book, also my abnormal psychology class. That being said,The world building could have been better, the revelation at the end about Uncle Syd could have been built up as well. Highly recommend this book, its a mix of comedy, and horror.
I want to thank my friend Jocedale for choosing this book for me. I don't regret reading it, it was great.

June Updates

Since, it's June, that means that Summer us here. I thought i would update since it's been a while since i posted anything. Ok, here we go! :)
 School Update 
  I finished my second semester of college, passed my classes, As in both classes, so i'm very happy about that.
Reading Update
 I went to the library two weeks ago and I went to pick up two books that I put on hold. They were The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider and Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. I figured they were a great way to start the summer with summer contemporaries. Also, i was given a book a to read and review. It's called Jump Start My Heart by Inda Herwood, so you can expect a book review of it later on along with the books from the library.
Netflix Update
Since it's summer, it's the perfect time to binge watch shows. Currently, I've been watching the Gilmore Girls series, Between, Young and Hungry  I'm also going to give The 100 a try as well as some other shows as well.
 That's all that i have for now. Hope you guys have a great summer! :)