A Review of 'Life as we Knew it' by Susan Beth Pfeffer

“When Miranda first hears the warnings that a meteor is headed on a collision path wit the moon, they just sound like an excuse for extra homework assignments. But her disbelief turns to fear in a split second as the entire world witnesses a lunar impact that knocks the moon closer in orbit, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate.

Everything else in Miranda’s life fades away as supermarkets run out of food, gas goes up to more than ten dollars a gallon, and school is closed indefinitely.

But what Miranda and her family don’t realize is that the worst is yet to come.

Told in Miranda’s diary entries, this is a heart-pounding account of her struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar time.”

Let’s get it out now… TEN DOLLARS A GALLON?!?!?!

Are we better?

Okay. Moving on…

One of my favorites! I have read this book three or four times at least. It’s a survival story, it’s science fiction, it’s heartfelt… it’s amazing! I have read other books that were in diary entry form (I think they were called the Young America Series? It was something like that…) but this is totally different than the other diary-form books that I’ve read. Miranda’s perspective was awesome. She’s just your average teenage girl who just needs to get her thoughts on paper.

I liked that the parts were split up by season. As I read, I felt like it gave me a better scope, or rather, something to compare to what was happening in the story. It was very interesting how Miranda and her family survived. They basically changed up their houses, utilized the wood burning stove that they had in their sun room, and rationed their food. I guess it was sort of like Y2K with everyone freaking out and buying back-up generators (I was too young to remember this time). The only difference is something actually happened in this work of fiction.

‘Life as we Knew it’ is part of a trilogy called The Moon Series. I have read each one of them. The others are entitled ‘The Dead and the Gone’ and ‘This World We Live In.’ The second one, ‘The Dead and the Gone,’ is narrated by a boy named Alex who lives in New York. Same circumstances; a meteor crashes into the moon, so now their family must survive. The difference is, they live in an apartment, their parents are gone, and there are three people. Maybe four. Because of the gravitational pull that the moon controls, New York starts to flood. So Alex’s family has different problems. Miranda and Alex both return in ‘This World We Live In’ and continue their adventures when they come together.

This is a truly amazing series. I really do recommend it.

I do have a warning for younger readers: there are suicides in this book and some mild language. Be wary.

On top of this, the author, Susan Beth Pfeffer (I’m still not sure how to pronounce her last name) is a blogger. Who knew? Any way, I’m following her (a slightly creepy way of saying I read her blog as she updates it) and what she writes is humorous and witty. Check it out it you have the chance! All you have to do is click her name in this paragraph and you should be taken to her page.

Thank you for reading! Have a great week!

--Jude

Update: You just take the "P" off and you have the pronunciation of her last name; "FEFF-er." Thank you Google language tools!

A Review of 'Beastly' by Alex Flinn

“I am a beast.

A beast. Not quite a wolf or a bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright.—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I’m talking about fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It’s no deformity, no disease. And I’ll stay this way forever—ruined—unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I’ll tell you how I became perfectly… beastly.”

I haven’t read this recently. In fact, I’ve read it once. But do you want to know something? It was so good that I remember it pretty vividly even though I read it maybe a year ago.

Originally, I borrowed it from the library (which is what I usually do. I hate buying books and then finding out that I don’t like them). I picked it up one freezing cold winter day and just started reading. I devoted probably six or seven hours to it. Maybe more… I finished it that day because I simply couldn’t put it down. I only stopped for bathroom breaks and the occasional snack.

I think it’s very interesting when you take a traditional fairy tale (in this case ‘Beauty and the Beast’) and give it a twist. This book (if you can’t tell from the description that I got from the back of the book, which you can read above) is from the perspective of the Beast. Alex Flinn uses a chat room called the Unexpected Changes Chat Group where we meet other familiar characters like the Little Mermaid and the Frog from ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ I thought that was very cool to make it as modern as possible.

You start out hating Kyle Kingsbury (who later changes his name to Adrian) because he’s conceited, rude, and just a horrible child. Unfortunately, there’s always going to be someone like him in every high school. I was so glad he was turned into a beast.

Because he is turned into a beast, his father puts him in solitary confinement—an apartment where the doors are locked and the windows blocked so that no one can see him. He is given a collection of DVDs, a blind tutor, and a computer with internet, among other things. Throughout his confinement, he takes up botany—roses being his flower of choice.

If you know how the original story goes (even if you’ve only seen the Disney movie version, it’s very similar to that) then you know how this will turn out… minus the part where he and the girl he chooses (her name is Lindy) get married. They just become an item (was that a horrible way to say that?)

What I liked is how Kyle (Adrian) became his own person throughout the book; turned into that guy you wouldn’t mind hanging out with or the character that you can actually like and appreciate. I like the modern twist on an old story. This whole book is beautifully written.

I can’t say there’s anything I need to warn you about.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend picking this book up at your local library or borrowing it from your friend, co-worker, newspaper salesman, shoe shiner… You won’t regret it. If you like this one, read Alex Flinn’s other books (I read one of her books called ‘Nothing To Lose’ a few months ago and it was quite excellent).

I have found that I can not read nearly as fast as I would like to, so I may do more reviews of books I’ve read in the past and liked. Why not review books I hated? Because if I read them a while ago and I hated them, chances are I returned them to the library and did not buy them. Sorry I can’t throw you a warning beacon…

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

RetroFit Follow-Up

YouTube is a wonderful thing. It's way better than the blogger video uploader.

If I remember correctly, I promised that I would upload the videos that I captured at the Beatles thing I went to (if you're interested in reading about it, the post is entitled 'RetroFit.'

"Here Comes the Sun." I think? I can't remember which songs go with which videos. If it's wrong, I'll edit this little description thingy... no big deal! Did I mention that I love my sister to death? :D She's the Jumper towards the end of the video.

"With a Little Help From My Friends." Personally, I love this song. It's a 30 second video, so I can't really remember if this was one of the better ones we heard.

The people that attended this event were definitely the best part! I wouldn't be surprised to find that there were old hippies there. Great fun!

A Review of 'That Summer' by Sarah Dessen

"For fifteen-year-old Haven, there's just too much going on. First, there's her father's wedding to Lorna Queen, the local television 'Weather Pet.' Then, her sister Ashley's wedding to boring Lewis Warsher, who doesn't seem to suit Ashley at all. And Haven can't ignore the fact that she's nearly six feet tall and still growing. Haven can barely figure out who she is anymore, or where she fits in. Then Ashley's old boyfriend, Sumner Lee, shows up and sparks Haven's memories of the summer where her parents were happy, her sister was plucky and carefree, and everything was perfect... or so it seemed."

Another surprise review! I know for a fact that I warned you about these, so I'm not lying to you this time!

I thought this book was okay. Not my favorite novel, but certainly not the worst one on the face of the earth. I enjoyed the book overall, but it was the characters that really got to me.

Haven was a good character (but I suppose she had to be, seeing as she's the narrator/POV). She had hang-ups that were real and I'm sure a good number of people could relate to. It was fun to get in her head. I liked Haven's mother too. She was charming and sweet, even after a tricky divorce. Haven's father didn't know what he had. I am not a big fan of Lorna Queen or Mac McPhail (Haven's father and step-mother). Not because I'm completely on Haven's side, though. Every time one of her father's friends would come up to them in a restaurant on one of their evenings out, he would immediately shift his attention away from his daughter and focus solely on them. Haven is just left hanging while her father tells the other person how great they are (which he tells everyone, no matter how well he knows them) and then talks about sports. It's like he's trying to connect with his daughter, but only because he has to. To me, that's kind of sick. Lorna is just stupid. Sarah Dessen even goes so far as to get Haven to talk about how stupid or insensitive Lorna was in the beginning of the book. Casey was okay, but she was your stereotypical teenage girl; falling head-over-heels over every other boy she laid eyes on, smoking up a storm in her bedroom... that just didn't really click well with me. She was fine once she snapped out of it, but she was never promoted to favorite character. Sumner was awesome. I'll say no more, because you'll just have to read the book to find out! Ha!

I've only read 'This Lullaby' (which was amazing, by the way) and that gave me high hopes for this one, but I wasn't completely impressed. I will say that this book is different because even though there is romance, it wasn't the main character that fell in love this time (even though I really thought she would).

I plan on reading more Sarah Dessen novels in the future, because I like a good romance thrown in here and there. I'm not going to lie.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer

View more presentations from JudeRosenberg.

Alright everyone. Some of you may have picked up on the fact that I am in summer school for the month of July. One of the assignments that was required of me was to make a slide-show (PowerPoint) about a non-communicable disease of my choosing. So enjoy learning about breast cancer! I hope you become as enlightened as I have.

RetroFit

I lied to you again. This post is quite obviously not a review of 'Mirror, Mirror.'

No... instead, I'm getting ready for the Beatles tonight!

Sure, I wasn't fortunate to be born when they were first becoming popular, which is why I must settle for pictures, recordings, and cover-bands like RetroFit. By clicking upon the word 'RetroFit' you will land on the website I just found while going on Safari through the wonderful land of Google. I tried to play the samples, but it turns out you have to buy them... since I'm kind of lazy (and quite honestly, I don't know what they look like or sound like) you should search for them on YouTube, and then I'll come back to this post with an update about tonight.

I have a mission for you: if someone could build a fully functional time-machine, then we can all go back in time, see the Beatles and scream like obsessed fan girls when we see them in person. It'll be great fun!

I might have another review or two before I actually get to 'Mirror, Mirror,' but I will eventually get to it! In the meantime, have a great week everyone!

--Jude

EDIT: Okay, what a fun night! It was fun to see all of these old hippies just dancing the night away (at least until 8:30 when it was time to go home). One of these days (perhaps on a Friday, when I don't have summer school) I'll try and upload some videos for your enjoyment. I'll do it through YouTube though, because the Blogger Video thing is nearly impossible.

As for RetroFit... umm... I was less than satisfied. They were quite disappointing. They couldn't sing very well (my ears started bleeding whenever they had to hit a high note in the chorus... ugh blah...), they played a crap-ton of obscure Beatles songs (they probably played a set of ten or fifteen and I recognized like... four. Epic. Fail. They didn't really get into the music, which made this gig seem like a job. You're in the music business! Your job is cool! Enjoy it!

So the people who attended were a lot more interesting than the band. If I had known that, I wouldn't have put so much emphasis on the cover band like I did (above). Oh well, it was a free concert.

It was still quite fun though :)

Teacher! She's Passing Notes...

I feel as though I must post something. This whole blogging thing is so much fun! ^^

Note 1: I have submitted 5 poems to Literal Latté! I really wanted to give them six, which was the maximum number of poems I could send them for ten dollars. Actually, I think I had six written, but I looked at one of them again, and it… I don’t know, it just wasn’t right.

I take that back.

It was horrible! I hate that everything I write regarding love or romance is too sappy/gooey/bleh/whatever you want to call it even though as I’m writing it, it feels like it’s coming from the bottom of my heart. Maybe this problem will amend itself. I’ll leave it alone for now. Maybe my version of poetry isn’t meant to mix with that subject. I’ll wait until I get better to try that again (you know this promise won’t be kept, right?)

Note 2: My family and I are taking or exchange student to a cabin for the weekend! I’m really excited. We’ll have access to the kayak and I’m able to take it out by myself and everything :D This weekend will also be a chance for me to sit down and take a big chunk out of my book (it’s in the sidebar, if you’re interested in knowing what that is). The faster I read the book, the quicker I can review it and pass on my judgment to you fine people. It really gives me something to look forward to. This weekend will also be a chance to prepare a little for NaNoWriMo. I’m not one of those brave people that signs up for that and tells themselves, ‘I’ll just wing it.’ No… I try to put a lot of thought into what I write. If I get the planning out of the way, then I’ll have something to follow and I can put more thought in and write my one-thousand-something words a day throughout the month of November.

Note 3: I really do need to write something… I have a writing buddy correspondence going and I really hate to leave any correspondent hanging. It’s like one big game of hot-potato with me. When I have to do something, I get this internal pressure put on me until I do it and then when it’s the next person’s turn, that pressure disappears. It’s so strange. I hate that feeling…

Note 4: I am half-way done with summer school. It’s definitely not as horrible as I thought it would be. I know I’m going to have to do it next summer. Next summer, I’m going to put so much effort into getting into that stupid online health and gym class so I don’t have to get up at 6:30 Monday through Thursday. I’m sick of it. I’m really tired in the morning, I’m exhausted at night. I’m typing this at 11:19 (not my brightest idea, considering I have to get up early tomorrow too) and my eyelids are burning and their heavy with tiredness. As soon as I’m done preparing for my weekend getaway, I’ll attempt to read another chapter and then I promise I’ll go to sleep.

Note 5: I plan to attempt my driver’s test in early August! I still have to get an appointment and then practice my parking and back-ups and stuff, but at least I have a time-frame to shoot for!

Note 6: I go to “Architecture Camp” (that’s not really what it’s called, but for all intents and purposes, we’ll roll with it) in August! I go to the University’s art museum and hang out there building miniature things for a week! I did a fall session similar to this, and I really enjoyed it. August will also be a less busy time, because I won’t have summer school any more. I’ll need to get school supplies because… because… (insert sob here) I START SCHOOL ON AUGUST 31^ST!

Yeah, yeah… “Quit your crying, Jude, lots of people start school in August!” Maybe, but I’ve always started after labor day, because the school system I’m part of is just that cool… mmmm, debatable. I’m still not on very good terms with them. They just don’t know it.

Okay, I’m sorry to take you away from life and civilization. Enjoy your weekend! My next post should be my review of “Mirror, Mirror,” unless something totally awesome comes up and I absolutely need to share it with you.

--Jude

A Review of 'Twisted' by Laurie Halse Anderson

‘Everybody told me to be a man.

No one told me how.’

That’s all it says on the inside cover of the book. You know, where the description normally goes? I don’t know if there’s a scientific term for it… In case that didn’t tell you much about what this is about and you don’t have enough time or just really don’t want to read my review, I went to her website and I found a description for you. Here it is…

“In her latest New York Times bestseller, Anderson tackles a controversial subject—what it means to be a man today—as a string of events and changes has high school senior Tyler Miller questioning his place in school, in his family, and in the world.”

--Indiebound

Okay, now that you kind of know what it’s about, let’s mosey…

I love Laurie Halse Anderson. I’m determined to read all of her books. Well, the young adult books, any way… I think I missed the boat on the children’s… I started out with ‘Speak,’ which I’m sure a lot of you have as well. Because I was impressed by ‘Speak’ and ‘Wintergirls,’ I moved on to ‘Twisted.’

I couldn’t put it down. In the back of my mind, I knew I had to get up at 6:30 and go to summer school, but I still stayed up until eleven almost every night until I had it read in it’s entirety. Even after I reluctantly put it down for the night, my mind was reeling just chewing over what I had just read and I thought about what could possibly happen to Tyler now? I grew so attached to all of the characters (except for Chip… he’s such a wuss... if you read the book, you’ll know why).

I couldn’t stand looking at the page and “watching” as Tyler slipped into a state of depression and he was this close to losing it completely (if you know what I mean). It was painful to read his thought process towards the end. I didn’t want him to do what he planned to do.

This was Laurie Halse Anderson’s first male protagonist (at least that’s my understanding). Now, I’m not a guy, but I thought Tyler’s perspective was well written. Guys, you’ll have to read this and tell me what you thought.

I highly recommend this book! No one is paying me to say/write that, this is my honest opinion.

The only warnings I have to give you before you actually pick up this book are that there is talk of suicide in this book and there is some bad language as well as teen drinking (although I found Tyler to be very admirable in that scene, quite honestly). If any of these things bother you, don’t pick it up because I strongly recommended it to you. I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable. Especially if it’s joy reading.

Well, I had better get writing. I still have two poems to write and they have to be postmarked by July 15. The problem is, I want to write, but writer's block has built its wall higher and I've just reached the bottom of that last wall. I'll get better at wall-climbing someday.

Happy reading, everyone!

--Jude

AVPM

Okay, I cannot promote/strongly recommend watching ‘A Very Potter Musical’ enough. It’s simply not humanly possible.

Being a Harry Potter nerd, I got every single one of those puns, was able to laugh at the original character’s parodies, and have started to memorize the songs that are in that musical.

Tonight’s blog is going to be based around their video update that they made on July 3 (yeah, I know that was over a week ago… roll with me on this for now…).

1^st: T-SHIRTS!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am now that there are shirts for that musical. Can you tell what is going to make up my Christmas/birthday requests? By clicking on the word ‘T-SHIRTS!!!’ a couple lines above, you will be taken to the website where you can see those shirts. They’re ‘Totally awesome!’ Now, if you have watched as far as ‘Going back to Hogwarts,’ you will have gotten that pun. It’s the very first part in Act 1.

2^nd: Now, if you were super cool and watched ‘A Very Potter Musical,’ and you liked it as much as I did, you will be excited to hear that there is a sequel coming out! Usually, sequels aren’t that great, but if it’s anything like Toy Story, it will be good. So the sequel is coming out on July 22^nd, 2010 at 8pm EST. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to watch it and start to memorize those songs as quickly as possible :D Don’t judge me…

Since I don’t own anything created to ‘A Very Potter Musical’ or ‘A Very Potter Sequel,’ could you tell me if this Blog entry is in violation of anything? I don’t want to get in trouble and go to jail for the rest of my life… so if it is, please (pretty please!) leave a comment below and I will remove it as soon as possible.

To give credit to the creators, here is the original video and their YouTube Channel (just click on the words that show up in different colors). The t-shirt website is on the original video that I’m basing this blog around, so it’ll be there again.

Have a great week and thanks for reading!

P.S. If you're going to Infinitus, I'm jealous. You'll just have to tell me all about it so I can live vicariously through you.

I'm Going to be a Host Sister!

This is really exciting! We get to pick up our foreign guest in about four hours! She’s from France and she’ll live with my family and I for three weeks (so until the end of July). I don’t really know where all that time went (here I’m going to go really nostalgic on you). It seems like it was just April (I think that was the month) and we were discussing whether we wanted to host another French student again or not. A few days ago, it was mid-April or early May and we were getting confirmation letters telling us that we had gotten our first choice of the students we wanted to host and we had started sending emails back and forth so she would know what she was going to do while she was here and what kind of things she needed to pack. And now… the day is finally here!

We’ll pick her up at the train station by the air port and then we’ll take her to her new temporary home. I hope she’s excited to be here. It’s kind of weird to think that at 5pm yesterday, we were in the same city.

I remember reading messages from her in French (“Une semaine!!!! J’ai trop hâte! Demain!!!”) and I was really excited

Tomorrow, we whisk her away to our family reunion. Three hours in the car and then we spend the night at my cousin’s house. So that’ll be adventure numero un!

Well, I had better go eat lunch, shower, and all of the things one should normally do in a day. Enjoy your day, bambinis!

(Oh! Did I just throw a little Italian in there? I do believe I might have).

A Review of 'Between Mom and Jo' by Julie Anne Peters

“How can you choose between two parents?

Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two moms who think he’s the greatest kid ever. And he happens to think he has the greatest Moms ever, but everything changes when his birth mom and her wife, Jo, start having marital problems. Suddenly, Nick is in the middle, and instead of having two Moms to turn to for advice, he has no one.

Nick’s emotional struggle to redefine his relationships with his parents will remind readers that a family’s love can survive even the most difficult times.”

That’s what the dust jacket says.

I thought this was a great read. I liked that Nick was actually in touch with his feelings to a point where he could talk about them (which is a good thing, because not only is he one of the main characters, he is also the narrator/POV). It’s nice to see that in a male character, because in most of the literature I get my hands on, it’s the female character that is weepy and an emotional wreck. So way to turn the table on us… kudos!

This novel also took place in a unique situation. I’m sure at least a handful of us has picked up at least one book at the local bookstore/library where a divorce or separation was occurring. I have, quite honestly, never come across a book where two women were having problems with their marriage. It gave me something to think about. It made me realize (or make clearer) that these women could have easily been your typical married couple having problems. So it made me solidify my opinion that just because your gender preference is different, doesn’t mean you yourself are completely different and are therefore unable to experience problems everyone else is familiar with. No, that’s not the case at all. For this, it made me appreciate this novel all the more.

I’ll be honest, it took me about two tries to get into the story. I can’t really put my finger on why that is, but it’s not that important I guess. After that little stumbling block there, I simply couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it!

I would like to warn you, future readers of this book, there is some language in it, so it’s up to you if you think you can handle it. But other than that, there really isn’t anything graphic going on. Enjoy!

--Jude

Inspiration

I'm part of a writing group on Shelfari called Young Writers Group. One really cool thing that they do in that group is something called Picture Prompts. This means that the admins change the group picture (because there aren't any other places to put pictures that we've discovered at this time) and anyone in the group can post a story or a poem relating to that picture. It's really a lot of fun!

I think I've told some people that I would put excerpts of stories and poems on this site, but I haven't gotten around to doing that just yet.

"So... why are you bringing up picture prompts?" Well, I thought I'd give it a try here. You should too! I don't care how great or horrible you are when it comes to writing. It's just fun! And you don't even have to use the picture up there. All I did was go into Google Images and typed the word 'Inspiration' into the search box. Very easy :) It's choosing your picture that may or may not be the hard part.

Catching the Sun

Jump up and catch it

Grasped in your hands

Casts its glow

Holds your gaze

Lights up your eyes

Feeling lighter than air

Light up the town

Warm every house

When darkness comes

Shadows the day

Toss it into the air

And chase the phantoms away

Your compass

Your guidance

Your peace

Hardly a chance

It's really meant to be

It's yours to keep or share at will

Your anxiety

Your nervousness

Your burden

Think you can write a better poem than this? I think you could too. So if you are willing to share a poem/story that you wrote about the above picture, I'd love to read it.

Thank you for reading this entry! Enjoy life, have a good summer (or winter, if you're in a different hemisphere) and be sure to take plenty of dance breaks throughout the day :D

--Jude

Independence Day!

(This is not my picture)