Under the Skin

One of the things that I wanted to do this year was really get back into reading books.  Since going to college, it had kind of fallen by the wayside, and I was never quite as happy without books as I had been with them.  So I wanted to read more books again.  So, I did.  And this post is the list of books that I have read this year.  I have included next to them a rating out of five, and if they are links, it will take you to their full review. 1. Taran Wanderer (5) 2. The Humming Room (5) 3. The High King (5) 4. The Thief (5) 5. The Queen of Attolia  (5) 6. The King of Attolia  (4) 7. A Conspiracy of Kings  (4) 8. The Goose Girl (3) 9. Small Steps (5) 10. The Son of Neptune (5) 11. The Wishlist (3) 12. Touch Blue (3) 13. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (5) 14. Joey Pigza Loses Control (5) 15. Airman (4) 16. I am Not Joey Pigza (3) 17. What Would Joey Do? (5) 18. My Sister's Keeper (2) 19. Water for Elephants (3) 20. ...

"Some people are worth melting for." I had a private little wish that I would make it to 100 posts this year.  I had written goal, but I backspaced that, because I had never actually made it something I was actively working towards, nor anything official.  But, this happens to be the 100th post.  So, wish achieved.  And it's achieved with a movie review.  Sarah (my fourteen-year-old sister) has taken a huge liking to the movie Frozen .  In fact, she has seen it multiple times in the theatre.  So, I went to see it with her, since I hadn't seen it yet, and she needed another excuse to see it again.  So, here's my review of it: Frozen is about two princesses named Anna and Elsa.  They are sisters, but the older one, Elsa, has snow-creating powers.  Eventually, in order to protect Anna (and other people), Elsa decides to isolate herself entirely from her sister.  When Elsa accidentally freezes the kingdom on her coronation day...

I am a little bit of a Christmas fiend.  And I know that a lot of people believe that if you are a Christmas fiend, you must be a commercialized whack-job.  I even enjoy the parts of Christmas that people brand as not the true meaning of Christmas.  And I'm okay with that.  Because I think that there's nothing wrong with liking happy music and pretty lights and seeing people having a good time.  You just have to make sure that you don't let that be all that Christmas is.  And I enjoy the presents a lot.  Mostly because I love picking out presents for other people. I've gotten to the place where I know that some people don't like Christmas.  I've also gotten to the place where I know that some people act holier-than-thou because they don't like the trappings and thus must have a better understanding of Christmas and it's "teleos" as the Greeks would say.  But, even if you're one of those people, I wish you a Merry Christmas and help yourse...

"Here, young Sam. Here's a bit for you. Keep it till you die, and have it buried with you. Your own little bit of Nelson."  I officially finished my internship today, I find out tomorrow what my employment situation will look like, and tomorrow, I leave for New York for Christmas!  And I can fit in another book review before leaving, because I finished a book in celebration of my official and permanent college graduation. It's another children's book, though on my latest library trip to find books for the plane, I got only one young adult, and  two are from the adult section, and none from the juvenile or children's section, so you might get some grown-up book reviews soon.  True, I never get anything from the children's section, because the Tooele County Library (that only serves the city of Tooele for free) only has picture books in the children's section.  But we have to give credit where credit is due.  I mostly searched in the age-appropriate s...

“We are like the phoenix," said Abuelita. "Rising again, with a new life ahead of us.” Grandpa and I went outlet visiting today.  We went to Pepperidge Farms, Gossner's Cheese, and Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate Factory.  It was fun.  We also stopped by Carol and Keith's in Smithfield and Henry now believes that my name is "Spinster Aunt."  Oh well.  But I have another book review! I remember this book being all talked-up by my elementary school librarian in fourth or fifth grade.  And now, I just read Esperanza Rising .  I've read worse books, but I wasn't super impressed.  It has won a bunch of awards, but I think that has to do with the fact that it deals with a minority group in history. The story is about Esperanza Ortega, the daughter of a wealthy, Spanish-descent, Mexican rancher in the 1930s.  But when her father, Sixto Ortega, is killed by bandits, Esperanza and her mother are forced to immigrate to the United States where the...

"I can't come with you. I'm not like you.  I'll never be like you." -Peter I am so close to being done with my internship, it is not funny.  And I have read a fantastic series of books. So, I will share them with you. These books are the "prequels" to Peter Pan.  A lot of the aspects of Peter Pan are explained, and some of the characters are more fully explored. However, as well as being the prequels, they are supposed to be the "true story," of Peter Pan .  The Indians are actually Islanders named the Mollusks, and the chief's daughter is actually named Shining Pearl.  Pixie dust can't really make you fly, starstuff does, etc.  It's as though the original Peter Pan  was a corruption of these stories.  It's kind of fun in that regard. I will begin by saying that I loved these books.  They are fun, creative, inventive, funny, adventurous and engaging.  Also, the two men who wrote them seem to be little boys at heart, ...

This past week, I spent three of the five weekdays working with Festival of Trees.  One of the other days was spent in getting my brother to his mission.  I share a few thoughts about these experiences with the class. First, my brother.  I am quite close to all my siblings, but I think I may have always been the closest to Caleb.  For many years, I called him my best friend, and it still might be true.  From our days as the King and Queen of the wonderful country known as Haca, to that time I had to give him the money at the movie theater to buy our tickets to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban because they didn't believe that I was thirteen (even though he is younger than I am), I have always gotten along well with Caleb.  And this isn't to say that we never disagreed, but if we were mad at each other, we were remarkably good at walking away and then thirty-minutes later coming back and being completely happy with one another again.  I didn'...

You may be an MLS if… Most people have the shirt drawer, the pants drawer, the underwear drawer. You have these too, but you also have a drawer dedicated to scrubs At-work-discussions have led to a coworker saying, “My platelet count always runs low. I mean, I don’t have any thrombocytopenic symptoms, it’s always just hanging out down by the bottom limit.” A coworker has said you have a bruise. “Yeah, it doesn’t surprise me. My PT is about 12.7. All the time.” You know things about yourself that would usually only be tested in severe organ failure (yes, I know my K-value, my protein electrophoretic pattern, what my blood looks like under Kleihauer-Betke stain, and more) You have ever tested your own urine Discussions at work have ever gotten around to urine colors The phrase, “That was really bad streaking,” has ever been uttered by you, and you are not an exhibitionist. You have ever seriously considered making a karyotype out of gummy ...