Under the Skin

“I hope you find someone you can't live without.I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it's like to have to try and live without them.”  Here I sit, 20 minutes away from November (and NaNoWriMo!), having read a total of 20 books in the month of October.  Some of them have reviews coming forthwith.  Most don't, because I don't review books until I've read the whole series (or I've read all parts of the series released at that point in time) and most of the books I read were pieces of series.  However, I am nearing the end of some series, or I finished the series.  Such as for this one:  The Selection. I read these books at the request of and out of respect for my teenage sister who loves them.  And for her sake, I wish I could give them a good review.  But I can't.  It's okay.  There are some books that I like in spite of myself, and maybe I would have liked these better when I was fifteen.  I don't know. ...

“You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy.”  You know how there are those books that everyone else seemed to read when they were a child, but for some reason or another, you never did?  Well, Sideways Stories from Wayside School was one of those for me. As I browsed the Children's Lit section at the library today, this is one that popped out to me.  I was in for a quickie read for the afternoon, so I read it. The Wayside School was built sideways.  It was supposed to have thirty rooms on one floor, but got built as thirty floors with one room each.  But that's not all that is a little bit off about this school.  This book is the stories of the children of the thirtieth floor.  At first, I was not into it.  I just don't understand absurdist art, I guess.  I thought it was crazy when I first learned about it from Ionesco, and it's just continued.  And this book was kind of just that same thing.  I...

After yesterday's post, someone I knew told me that they'd heard of a show that I might like.  They said they hadn't watched it, but suggested it.  It's called Red Band Society .  The person told me, "You work in a children's hospital, and it's about a pediatrics ward."  Okay, so I appreciate the thought.  I watched the first episode yesterday while I worked on learning to crochet.  The show was even worse than my crocheting, and if anyone knows my crochet...yikes. Don't watch it. But there are few things that everyone who likes the show on the internet that say they like it because they work in the medical field seem to have missed: 1) If there is anything I've learned from working at a children's hospital, it's this:  I have seen the white blood cell counts/diffs of cancer kids.  I have seen the respiratory cultures of CF kids. Do not EVER put these two patient populations in the same room or let them anywhere near one another. 2...

Because of my deep and undying love of books (which seems to be getting worse, not better, as I get older), some people have asked me, "Do you even watch TV?"  Yes and no.  I don't actually own a TV.  And my parents don't actually own a TV.  So, I like movies.  I really enjoy movies a lot, to be honest.  But I don't watch much TV.  However, I do watch some on Hulu.  And when I was in college, there was a TV in my apartment.  My roommates tried to get me onto several shows.  Not many of them really stuck, to be honest.  And a lot of the shows that did stick aren't on anymore.  So, first some shows that I enjoyed while they lasted: 1) Monk 2) Psych 3) House until the third season ended and then it really jumped the shark and I stopped watching entirely after season five--which is sad because it was already in season six when I started watching it online. 4) Scrubs but not its reboot. 5) Last pre-reboot season of 24 , ...

“History is always written by the winners...By its very nature, its always a one-sided account”    Another book review.  I like reading books. What can I say? Anyhow, this one has some interesting things beyond the book to talk about.  So, at the beginning, there will be the regular book review, followed by a second section that will be called "A Mormon Girl's Take on The DaVinci Code .  Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist (a non-existent thing, but whatever), is in Paris when he is woken very rudely by the DCPJ--the French FBI. The curator of the Louvre has been murdered.  But the man left behind a vast expanse of complicated clues and codes.  What could they all possibly mean?  As the code unravels, Langdon learns that it may not be just the ravings of a dying man, and that it wasn't nonsensical, or just about his death.  It may shake the very foundations of the modern world. What follows is a fast-paced search around Europe t...

In the 1840s, Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle introduced "Great Man Theory."  This is the story of the world whereby all of history is determined by the actions of Great Men.  Martin Luther.  Napoleon.  Shakespeare.  Muhammed.  That we, as humans, direct our own  history. It's a story-based history.  It's not a popular theory today.  Herbert Spencer called it childish--that men are merely the product of their environment.  Leo Tolstoy wrote in War and Peace that kings don't make history, but are, in fact, history's slaves.  History moves and we are merely the pawns that history (or God, according to Tolstoy) uses.  I like story-based history.  Not because I believe everything that Thomas Carlyle said (though I wouldn't go so far as to say that we have no control over the fate of the world).  But because I like hearing the stories of people.  I like learning about people's choices.  And whether or not th...

"Papa," I asked, "how can you help a wish?" "Oh, there are a lot of ways," Papa said. "Hard work, faith, patience, and determination. I think prayer and really believing in your wish can help more than anything else.”  I know.  I haven't reviewed any books recently. And I'm sure that this has caused you much distress.  You don't know what to read without me there, the sensei of  all bibliophiles,  guiding your literary pursuits, I'm sure!  What could explain this lapse in direction?  Has Hannah stopped reading books?  Not hardly.  Has she stopped having opinions about them?  That'll be the day. It's simply that I have my rule.  Remember the rule about not reviewing series until I've read all of them?  That rule that I break all the time? Well, that rule is why.  I have been reading a lot of books that are parts of series.  And then, I read some that I didn't write reviews on.  I am here, today, to rem...

Sorry that I haven't posted much.  I moved and then was settling in.  Plus, we had someone quit at work and are now down a night-shift scientist.  We all take turns covering it during our seven off.   My life is starting to return to some state of normalcy.  Not quite there, but it's getting there.  However, this is a topic that came about through a couple of things that I've been thinking about.  We have ignored the beauty of silence in the world today.  And that is a sad thing. The first thing that made me think about this is color personalities.  I don't put much stock in a lot of those somewhat new-agey personality analyses, but I actually think this one might be somewhat right.  The idea is this:  There are four types of people in this world: reds, blues, yellows and white.  The colors are based on what primarily motivates that person's actions.  Reds are motivated by power.  Blues are motivated by right an...