Under the Skin

"When something matters enough to you you'll reach a make-or-break point where heart comes in. That's what pushes you to do the impossible."   I'm not completely caught up with my book reviewing, but I'm caught up enough that I can review this one that I just finished last night without too much worry. Evelyn Ronan Truelove (don't ever call him Evelyn) is a normal kid.  Mostly.  Except for the fact that his mom makes him take a lot of really seemingly ridiculous extracurriculars. And she's kind of quirky in general.  But, he doesn't mind, because you don't really feel like an outsider when you're overscheduled.  Then, one day, his mother picks him up from school.  She seems a bit frazzled to Ronan, and when he gets in the car, she immediately stunt-drives away from the school, starting into this whole story about how his father is missing, and that she is a member of the Blood Guard--a secret society sworn to protect the 36 Pure who

So, we haven't had a Falling With Style segment for awhile.  This one is what happens when Primary Secretaries have nothing to do on Sunday afternoons.  And no, primary secretaries are not screened for singing ability.  And also, I feel that I always mess up on the filmed one, not the one that I do before I film.

"Cruelty is after all cruelty, and the difference between the two men may have more to do with their degrees of power than their degrees of cruelty." We are almost caught up! Patty Bergen is a young Jewish girl living in the Southern United States during WWII.  Her mother loves Patty's younger sister more, and her father is a harsh and strict man, who doesn't seem to love either of his children.  The only person who seems to love Patty is the black nanny/housekeeper, Ruth.  Then Patty meets Anton, a German prisoner of war, who seems to understand her like no one in her turbulent home ever could.  But how could an American girl, especially a Jewish one, ever befriend a German soldier? Apparently a lot of people had to read this one in school.  I never did nor did I ever know anyone who did.  I wish that I had.  Apparently, there was a movie.  I never saw it nor heard of it. I really enjoyed this book.  I am so glad that I saw in on the shelf at the librar

“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.”   “How good and thoughtful he is; the world seems full of good men--even if there are monsters in it.”  "I want you to believe...to believe in things that you cannot."  We're catching up!  I just need to stop reading them as fast as I "catch up." I didn't get vampire literature.  The entire concept of it was fairly lost on me, especially since the myths probably come from a few highly mentally ill individuals such as Elizabeth Bathory, and people with porphyria (werewolves, too).  And I especially didn't get the whole Twilight vampire romance thing, which is becoming more and more of a thing. But, I felt the need to maybe give the whole vampire literature genre a chance.  I figured if I went to someone who loved vampire literature and asked them what book I should read to give it a chance, they would choose the apex of vampire literat

“People should have all their big adventures while they're still under the age of fourteen. If you don't, you start to lose your passion for big adventures. It just begins to fade away bit by bit and then you forget you ever wanted adventures in the first place.”  We are now reviewing books which were read this year.  This may not seem like much, but it is definitely a step in the right direction! Think back, my friends, to a time when I had just begun my obsession with reviewing books.  I reviewed on called The Humming Room, which was a Secret Garden retelling.  I loved it (even though I hate The Secret Garden ).  Well, I read another book by that author, The Kneebone Boy.   Otto, Lucia and Max Hardscrabble aren't much liked by the rest of the children in their town.  Mostly because their father probably killed their mother--or so the town says.  Mrs. Hardscrabble disappeared, and their father keeps on telling them that she'll be back.  But, he leaves th

“Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.”  I have not been very good about blogging these past two weeks or so.  I have not been very good about really anything these past two weeks or so.  I was sick for some of it, and then it all just fell apart from there.  The Renaissance Project has floundered, I haven't read very much, my apartment was a total mess (that's been resolved) and my journal probably thinks I have died.  My novels sat unwritten, my Camp Little Oak planning rested in a pile, and I barely scraped by in my calling.  I ate non-creative foods and wallowed mostly. Well, I am hopefully fixed.  And I am resolving these problems.  One of the things that must be done is a book review.  We'll catch up someday, I promise. When I was in junior high, I

“Courage is the decision to fly straight into the flame while knowing the consequences.”  Someday, I will be caught up in my book reviewing.  And it will be wonderful.  For now, I'm behind.  Way behind.  I read this book back in December while I was home for Christmas. I was extremely wary of this book for two reasons.  1) I don't like books/movies/etc that try to make the villains into non-villains.  I agree that everyone is good, and such.  In most of the books I write, I don't even really have villains.  I simply have antagonistic circumstances most of the time.  But in fairy tales and the like, villains are just bad because they are.  They don't need reasons.  2) I love Peter Pan , too, but why does only it get 1,000,001 retellings? This is a origin-story for Captain Hook.  James Matthew, or as he styles himself "Jas Matthew Bastard," is the illegitimate son of some lord--Lord B.  Doesn't clarify past that.  He shows up