The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Four best friends. Lena, the shy beauty, Tibby, the cynic, Bridget, the athlete, and Carmen, the angry but lovable Puerto Rican.

The day before their first summer apart, they find a pair of pants that Carmen was planning on throwing away. The Pants fit all of them perfectly, even with all of their different body types. They decide to send the Pants back and forth between them, so they have their friends with them during their travels.

The first three books are the summers of high school. Lena goes to the Rhode Island School of Design, Tibby goes to NYU for film school, Bridget is at Brown (I think), and Carmen goes somewhere.

The fourth book is the summer after their first year in college. I have to say that Carmen has the hardest time of the four, as she really lost her way during freshman year at college. But by the end of the summer, a fragile conclusion is reached.

The last book is set ten years later. The Sisterhood has fallen out of touch, with Bridget living in California, Carmen busy being an actress, Lena a poor artist, and Tibby in Australia.

They plan to go to a Greek island where Lena is from to spend time together, but when they get there, they receive some unfortunate news.

They are lost.

By the end of the book, a real conclusion is reached. Bittersweet, but real.

These books are so sad, especially the last three. But the first two have their heart wrenching moments. I love these books so much. Definitely read them.

Leave a comment.

The Grisha Trilogy

I have seen this book many times before, but only recently have I read it. I have literally checked it out of a library and returned it without reading it. The cover always catches my eye, but then I read the description and think, Eh. But this book is definitely not "Eh."

Alina Starkov, plain cartographer in the Ravkan first army. Mal Oretsev, best friend of Alina since they were orphans together. Yes, Alina is in love with Mal. No, Mal doesn't know. Sounds cliché, but it's bearable.

Alina and Mal are traveling across the Fold, a dark, terrible place where monsters attack anything that comes near them, along with other members of their regiment. Alina is scared, and rightfully so. The volcra are dangerous, and could kill her without a thought.

When she and Mal are crossing on a sand skiff, the volcra do attack. In all the chaos, Alina throws herself on Mal to save him, and sees a bright light as she feels the volcra attack her.

Then she's out of the Fold, having not crossed due to the volcra, and people are asking her about what happened. What was that light? Apparently it came from her. Apparently, she's not so normal. Apparently, Alina is the Sun Summoner, only one of her kind. And she can help close the Fold for good.

In Ravka there are Grisha who practice the Small Science, which is essentially magic. All children are tested at a young age to see whether they are Grisha or not. Alina was not found to be a Grisha, but now she is thought to be. And not just any Grisha, but the Sun Summoner. There is only one Sun Summoner. Since the volcra live in the dark, they can't come near light, and so when Alina accidentally used her power in the Fold, she saved the skiff from the volcra.

The Grisha make up the Second Army, commanded by the Darkling, who, opposite of Alina, can summon darkness. He is also the only one of his kind.

Alina is taken to the smaller of two grand palaces, where the Grisha are trained. She meets Genya, a Grisha servant, whose job it is to make the queen beautiful. She becomes friends with Genya, but is out of place with the rest of the Grisha, who are so used to excess and a rich lifestyle.

The Darkling tells her about a special amplifier that Alina can use to enhance her power, and destroy the Fold. Alina rests all of her hope on finding this amplifier.

The rest of this is a spoiler alert, but it doesn't give away that much. Later in the series, Alina finds out that there isn't just one amplifier, there are three. Usually Grisha can only have one amplifier, but these three are meant to be combined. Alina finds two of the amplifiers, but in order to obtain the last one, she will have to do something terrible.

This book was amazing, the perfect amount of romance, fantasy, and adventure. Loved the whole thing.

Read it. Read it now.

And leave a comment.

Harry Potter Review

There was a boy who lived in number 4, Privet Drive. He was a common boy by his appearance, except for an unusual lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He got this scar from when his parents died in a car crash, or at least that's what his aunt and uncle told him.

But one day everything changes. Harry receives a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It upsets his aunt and uncle, and they don't let him read it. After continually receiving these letters, Harry's uncle takes his family to a shack in the stormy sea, and that night, Harry reads his letter. A giant man, named Hagrid, introduces himself as the groundkeeper of Hogwarts, and tells Harry he's a wizard.

Harry's not just any wizard, though. His parents weren't killed in a car crash, but by the most evil wizard known: Voldemort. Voldemort tried to kill Harry too, but failed. Harry is known as the Boy Who Lived, famous throughout the wizarding world.

Harry goes to Hogwarts, where everyone knows his name. He meets Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who become friends after an incident with a mountain troll on Halloween. Harry loves his new world, even with the mean potions teacher and strange defense against the dark arts professor.

But it turns out that Lord  Voldemort isn't dead and gone; in fact, he's still alive, and he's looking for Harry.

Events transpire. Harry ends up face to face with Voldemort, and defeats him for the time being. But Voldemort is still out there, waiting.

Throughout his years at Hogwarts, Harry defeats Voldemort many times, but Voldemort doesn't die easily. Everything comes down to Harry and Voldemort.

Harry Potter has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first books my parents read to me. I recommend this book to anyone.

I know that some people don't like this series, but really, just give it a chance. It can be a little slow at the beginning, but it is well worth it.

Not to be cliché, but I give this series 6 out of 5 stars.

If you happen to be reading this, tell me what house you would be in. I'm a Ravenclaw.

Brownies, Books, and More

So exited for winter break.

Story time.

In my drama class, we did Secret Santa. My secret Santa gave me a box of brownies. They were a little undercooked, so it was more like a brownie lump or a brownie cake than brownies. So I couldn't really tell where one brownie ended and another one began. There were quite a few brownies in the box. So I get home from school, and eat like half the box with a fork. Finished it the next day. I made myself sick a few times, but the brownies were so good.

Had brownies for breakfast this morning.

So healthy, right?

This is a list for me of books I'm planning on reviewing in the near future.

1. The Harry Potter Series
2. The Grisha Trilogy
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series

If by some force of nature or magic, you happen upon this, comment. Say hi, let me know what your favorite book is, any books you'd like a review of before you read them.

Harry Potter

Thought I cannot pick a favorite book (I really think it would be detrimental to my physical and mental well-being), I simply can't think of a series I like better than Harry Potter. So be prepared for a series of posts in the future of Harry Potter reviews, because I just started reading Harry Potter again!

By the way, if you are a potterhead you need to know about this website: pottermore.com

If you are reading this, leave me a comment. Thanks!

Grammar Thursday is Back!

I haven't posted a Grammar Thursday in a long time, but I have one today. The topic is punctuation and quotes.

The rule is simple: Punctuation always goes inside of quotes. No matter what.

If you need to know whether punctuation goes inside or outside of quotes, just remember this. PUNCTUATION ALWAYS GOES INSIDE OF QUOTES! You will never find a situation where punctuation doesn't go inside of quotes. If you do, please let me know, but I sincerely doubt you will.

Here's an example:

"I can't believe she said that," Martha said

Either way, punctuation goes inside of quotes. Sorry for being repetitive, but an astounding number of history and english teachers seemed to not know this simple rule, which is very disappointing, considering their professions.

Also, please comment if you happen upon this blog, whether it was a fortunate accident or if you actually read this because you like it.

Looking for Alaska

John Green, John Green, John Green. Ah. John Green, I have to tell you something. I know it might sound mean, but I don't really intend it to. You need to stop having main characters die in your books. You need to be able to explore character development through a different medium than death. I think that main characters dying makes things really interesting, and I usually like it, but I feel like the only real big conflicts and character change (the two points of a book) happen when Alaska dies. I know that it is much easier to write about character change when the characters are forced to go through the grieving process, but Johnny (do you like being called Johnny? Maybe Greeny is better), Johnny, sometimes the easy road isn't the best road. Here's a Dumbledore quote for you to take with you: "We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” I looked that up just for you, Greeny. Time for you to go now.

Okay. To the actual book.

This book was about a boy. He went to high school, and was forced from the sidelines onto the field, right in the middle of the main event. And the main event was Alaska Young.

Before Miles (fondly known as Pudge — for obvious reasons — by his friends at school) met Alaska, he spent his days memorizing the last words of famous people. His life was dull and without meaning. He decided to go to a boarding school in search of a Great Perhaps — his words, not mine. But instead of finding a Great Perhaps, he finds Alaska. Alaska and her maze of suffering, her beautiful but destructive life.

Immediately — and I mean in the first day — Pudge changes from a caged-in nobody to a smoking, drinking member of a high school "gang." I use gang lightly. There is a rivalry between his group of friends and the rich kids at their boarding school. They play pranks on each other. Lots and lots of pranks. That's pretty much all they do. Well, that, smoking, and almost making out with Alaska.

Though this group almost gets into trouble many times, pulls many pranks, and pretty much spends every moment of every day with each other, their group bond doesn't grow at all. Pudge's status in the group never changed from when he first met them, to when he was setting off fireworks with them.

Finally, after slugging through about half of this book, you get to the section called "After." Personally, I think calling this section "after" is kind of a misnomer, because, though it is after Alaska dies, everything else is still pretty much the same. On the back of the book, there is a long description for what happens "before," and one line to say what happens "after." Apparently, after, nothing was ever the same.

I would strongly disagree with that, as Pudge changes the most as soon as he meets Alaska, and starts drinking and smoking. After Alaska dies, almost nothing changes.

Well, not nothing. Basically, all of the characters show an amount of emotion that doesn't correlate with their character's personality. If you started reading after Alaska's death, you would assume that they weren't playing pranks on each other, but sitting around talking about feelings.

I did like the second half of the book better than the first half, though. In the second half, Pudge and co. try to discover if Alaska committed suicide, or was just in a drunken accident. That part was written fairly well. I have to admit to you, John Green, that you actually wrote a few chapters that didn't make me want to vomit.

All in all, I wouldn't suggest this book to anyone, unless they were into reading most of a book to get to the good part. This book didn't explore any character development, but used death to pretend that it did. If you want to read a book about suicidal people and philosophy, I'm sure there's something better out there than Looking for Alaska by John Green.

P.S. I know people don't really read this blog, but if you do (whether it is accidental or on purpose) please leave a comment, so I know if anyone is seeing this. Thanks.