Update/personal blog post :)

   Sorry for not posting for a while now,  my laptop got splashed with some water recently and has spent the last week or so drying out in a sack of rice, it has escaped unscathed thankfully and is in full working order and is what I am currently typing on. I also had some issues with my internet connection, so yeah, back on track now, I've read Hex Hall and re-read Meg Cabot's Missing You as well as a new book I read called One night for Love by Mary Balogh which was recommended to me by a friend and I'll be posting reviews for both Hex Hall and One night for Love soon. I've been delaying reading Graceling for a while now, so that'll probably be the next book I read.

  On another note, today was my first day at university! I've been itching to start for a while now and I can barely believe I've finally started! I'm starting the "Pre-Professional Program" for med students at my uni, its designed to sort us out into medicine, dentistry and pharmacy students. I'm aiming for med, hope I can make it!

I won't be too busy for the first couple of weeks so I plan on reviewing these books and testing the waters at school. To see if I'll have enough time to keep reading and reviewing or if I should take a break when it gets more challenging. Nothing for sure yet, hopefully it won't be too bad and I'll be able to post occasionally.

Well, that all for now :)

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn

I've been reading this series for, I think three years now, on and off, not in order, with many books in between. Yeah, I know its a long time to read a seven book series (they're pretty short too) but since I only have these in e-book format I kept losing track of them. First, our computer got a nasty virus, so we had to format it..it took me ages to find it again in my inbox, then my dad updated our system from windows xp to vista..so yeah..lost 'em again..and now, I've got my macbook pro, so I gathered all the one's I hadn't finished yet in one place and decided to get through them.

Now this series is purely Historical Romance..It isn't a YA book, but I love it anyways. I've read most of Julia Quinn's books during this three year period and I've loved them all. I like the rules of society in 19th century england, it reminds me of a lot of things that have been lost over the years that were just so cute :')

Julia Quinn's historical romances are better than most because she researches them better I think. I've read quite a few supposedly "historical" novels that have the characters speech so obviously modern. I don't mean that they aren't using doth and quoth and words like that (because really who would take the time to decipher that when reading a novel for pleasure?) but the lead male character swears with fuck..I'm pretty sure the profanity used back then was more along the lines of bloody hell..also the girls kept using "like" between every few words..very annoying and obviously non-historical :( In Julia's books on the other hand, every article of clothing has its own (accurate) name, she's up to date on the politics of the time period of the novel, she knows what the government was like and what was expected of both the men and the women.

I've decided to review them as a full series and not as separate books, since they're all pretty similar and I have pretty much the same thing to say about them all.

So here they are, in chronological order:

The books are about a family of eight. Named in alphabetical order, which I thought was cute. The Bridgertons are a very close knit family and all of the books mention their other siblings so its like their stories are all continuing until you finish the last book. There weren't any noticeable anachronisms, which are usually very annoying and obvious to me. Julia Quinn is usually very accurate when writing her historical novels and these are no exception. I'd suggest ANY of her books to a historical romance novel fan, but I think the Bridgerton series was the most interesting and well written of all her books.

All their stories were unique and equally gripping, although I must say that when it comes to combining other themes with the romance, Judith McNaught is the better choice. I like her action filled historical romances, but she tends to have anachronisms and unrealistic scenes.

Thats all I've got to say really, happy reading :)

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

Yay! Award! One Lovely Blog Award!

A big thank you goes out to Brooke from "Brooke's Box of Books" thanks so much for giving me this award :)

Rules:


1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.


2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.


3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.


So, this award gets passed on to the following great blogs I've recently discovered:

1)http://brazilianbookworm.blogspot.com/

2)http://shutupimreading.blogspot.com/

3)http://maidenveil.blogspot.com/

4)http://novelobsession.blogspot.com/

5)http://onemorepage.tinamats.com/

6)http://lostinstories.blogspot.com/

7)http://underastarstuddedsky.blogspot.com/

8)http://atapestryofwords.blogspot.com/

9http://www.whatbookisthat.com/

10)http://booksaremything.blogspot.com/

11)http://mywordsateme.blogspot.com/

12)http://bookcouture.blogspot.com/

13)http://animegirlsbookshelf.blogspot.com/

14)http://thespacebard.blogspot.com/

15)http://amberinblunderland.blogspot.com/
16)http://xfillingthev0idx.blogspot.com/

Enjoy everyone! and remember to Pass it forward :)

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Blogger Book Hop! Aug 27-29

Well, its friday again, time for another Blogger Book Hop!! yay!! I love hopping around, I'm looking forward to it especially this time because I expect a lot of people have put up their rants about Mockingjay by now. I've been reading other people's rants ever since I finished the book simply because I need to let off some steam :) Okay so here we go:

This weeks question is:

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

Well, no not really..I mean I usually add a verdict at the end to say whether or not I'd recommend and to who, but I don't actually rate books on any scale..mostly beause its hard to give a book a rating with such finality. I'd prefer to point out the good and bad points of a book and suggest it to lovers of the genre it most fits.

To blog hoppers coming over to my blog. First off, Welcome :)

To those who are only interested in my reviews, there is a label on the sidebar called "Reviews" so you can filter out all my randomness..also please note that my post on Mockingjay is full of spoilers and is not my actual review (although this was my aim while starting to write it..it somehow turned into a long rant...so if you havent read the book yet..feel free to completely ignore that post. If you have, I hope that you (like me) need to blow off some steam, go ahead and post your own rant as a comment :) or link to your own review of mockingjay.

So have fun! and don't forget to comment, I love hearing your opinions :)

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Mockingjay *WARNING! Spoilers!*

So I've just finished reading Mockingjay..I don't know what to think..I'll admit that I laughed out loud, cried (very noisily, with much sniffling) and stared at nothing in particular for a full minute after finishing. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I liked it but I'm sure this is one of the best written, most gripping books I've ever read.

First off, Blurb from GoodReads.com:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

My Review:

To be honest this is more of a rant than a true review....be prepared for spoilers because, honestly this book wrecked me..I don't know what to think. I'm not sure whether or not I like it and I didn't like the epilogue..I won't be able to fully express my thoughts without making comments and references to scenes in the book. Was it engrossing? Definitely. Realistic? Probably. Satisfying? I think not.

I got the book for a full day without reading any of it because I was already reading another book (which had an amazing, light, fluffy ending) So I was sort of floating on the effects of the previous novel when I started reading Mockingjay. A couple of pages in, however, and I was jolted into the intense, on-edge world of The Hunger Games. Now, something you should know about me is that I sort of whizz through reading, I read all the words and everything, I don't skip anything but I don't focus on the wording or the point of view or anything really, its like I'm watching a movie in my head (my english teacher calls this being an inactive reader :P) so at the end of a novel I don't know exactly what a character said, I don't get any sentences that stick with me afterwards or anything like that. All I have left at the end is the overall feeling I get, it affects my mood and leaves me reliving the scenes I loved over and over again in my head...I'm still fully under the emotional effects of this book and I'm feeling slightly depressed and am feeling the need to read a nice fluffy, stress-free Julia Quinn romance novel.

Onto the actual review now.

So we start out the novel at the ruins of district 12, you can tell immediately that Katniss is in shock, she's so detached, so cold, but I thought "Well, this is only the beginning, she's bound to get better eventually." Oh, boy was I ever wrong! Throughout the entire book I'm waiting for her to get better, to get well..more Katniss-like but I'm sorely disappointed :(

A lot of district 12ers are dead, including all of Peeta's family *sniff*. The district 13 lives are very spartan, every mouthful of food is calculated, to achieve maximum health, they're OCD about everything, sparse furnishings, (reminded me of Uglies OCD-ness and reminded me of the underground lives of the rebels in The Host) I'll admit her time in the district 13 catacombs was one of my absolute favorite times of the entire novel, it was the least caustic section in the novel and had a couple of galeniss support scenes. She still has a concussion from the escape from the last games and she's disoriented and sounds a lot like Tally Youngblood from Uglies here..especially around the end, in Specials. She's turned cynical and half-demented, she has to keep reminding herself who she is, where she is and how she came to be there just to keep herself sane. It was unbearable, seeing Katniss, wonderful, brave, loveable Katniss, reduced to this shell of her former self. She starts to recuperate, very, very slowly but she seems to be returning to her old self a bit (with major scarring mind you, as would be expected) but she still manages to surprise me every so often with a long crazy monologue or a nervous breakdown.

They rescue Peeta, whose memories of Katniss have been irrevocably changed, Peeta doesn't love Katniss anymore, he isn't the same Peeta anymore. Now, even I, who is an avid Galeniss supporter love the sweet lines and revelations that come from Peeta, he's a sweet guy but I don't think Katniss deserves him. Gale seems to be her equal, they've both got issues, they're perfect for each other.

The Peeta everyone loves has died forever unfortunately..he's changed, he doesnt talk the same way, he doesnt act the same way and he just isn't the same..its as though someone else is in control of Peeta's body :(

The leader of the rebels, President Coin, isn't a very likeable person, she wants power, she seems to be a female version of President Snow, which is 100% true, as we find out in the end. It was depressing that there was no true "good guy" side but I guess it IS realistic..but to be honest I'm not a fan of the "its-good-because-its-realistic" notion...hell, the entire novel is complete and utter fiction!! Why does she feel the need to be realistic in the death and/or mental breakdown of all her characters????? Why can't they resurface relatively unscathed??? Just because its a dystopian novel doesn't rule out a reasonably happy ending (I'm not against killing off characters in general but in the end I'd like to have them in peace, living their lives, recovering from the past..a happy enough ending if you know what I mean..not perfect, just happy enough to make us feel better about all the horrors that happened) Just because its a dystopian novel doesn't mean it has to be a tragedy as well..they had the whole cruel, inflexible government, they went to war, they even WON for god's sake!!! Why can't they be happy now??

I need to list the people that died in this one..just to clear it up in my mind because, honestly all I can think is "She's gone and killed or mentally handicapped all of her characters.." half of me doesn't want to believe it..but its true, the ones she left alive were all turned into nutcases :(

So:

Cinna: *wail*..why??? whats he ever done to you Collins??!!

Peeta's family: You leave the poor boy half-insane and you have the heart to destroy his family too??

Finnick: He'd just gotten married!! *sobbing* I seriously did NOT expect this..I expected the entire team that was with Katniss to die except her, Peeta and Finnick (I thought it would be the best way to finally determine who she would be with if Gale died here since she so obviously doesn't like him that way..just put us out of our misery here won't you? plus it fits that all the victors would come out alive) Prim: well..no real objections here..she's way too wise for a little kid..the few scenes she's been in during the entire series have her giving Katniss advice and acting like a grownup..It was really deep..the way this affected Katniss..I cried during the Buttercup scene near the end..where they both sit in her house in the Victors Village and cry it out together :'(

President Coin: Woot!! Serves you right you manipulative BITCH!!!!!! I HATE YOU!!!

President Snow: Choking on his own blood...very creative to say the least..I like that we get to know a bit about him before his death..through Finnick's secrets and Snow's actual actions and dialogue..to be honest I liked that Katniss didn't kill him herself. I mean he was doing what he was raised to believe in..he wasnt the one who invented the hunger games..he was raised to be evil..President Coin, however, knew exactly what she was doing when she killed all those kids :( EVIL BITCH!!!!!!!

Also, and this one doesn't count 100% since he is technically alive at the end:

Peeta: How could you kill the boy we've all come to love?? He's unrecognizable in the end..he makes an effort and ends up with Katniss, true..but he isn't ever the same...the real or not real game freaked me out a little bit..

Moving on to the epilogue:

First I'd like to dedicate this rant to Gale, who I've been cheering on for so long only to be disappointed:

I’ve always been a Galeniss supporter..but she’s made it kind of hard NOT to hate Gale at the end of this one hasn’t she? I mean he’s gone all cold and murderous and he was never even a tribute in any of the games!! And its inexcusable how he abandons Katniss at the end there! WTF ARE YOU DOUNG IN DISTRICT 2 GALE???? THAT 10 DISTRICTS AWAY FROM THE RIGHT NUMBER!! HUH?? WHY ARENT YOU GOING TO HELP KATNISS?????????? YOU ASS!!!

(rant/)

I actually like having an epilogue in a novel, it's sort of the cherry on top, but for some reason the best authors come up with the worst epilogues! Take J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket and now Suzanne Collins. Thats not to say that all epilogues are bad, on the contrary, I've read loads of books with awesome epilogues that wrapped up the story quite nicely..I don't mean turn it into a happily-ever-after but the characters are healing..they're TRYING to go back to normal, whether or not it is possible for them to be totally normal ever again. Like I said before, I spent the entire novel waiting for Katniss to start acting like Katniss again..it never happened..the epilogue is set twenty years in the future where Katniss and Peeta have two kids...Katniss is still very dead sounding, cold, detached, and not..Katniss...she isn't living life, she's waiting for it to end. AND WHY ISN'T GALE THERE????? HE NEVER CAME BACK *sobbing quietly* he never came back for her..that just about broke my heart..

WHY did her own MOTHER abandon her as well?? She should be sticking to her only living relative like GLUE!! WHY is everybody ABANDONING Katniss???? And poor Annie in the end! She had a kid to deal with along with her insanity without a husband...its like Tonks and Lupin dying and leaving Teddy alone in the world.. :'(

I don't like epilogues set too far in the future, anything over a year away is too much for me...I can't see the character I've grown familiar with in the older version...I hated that she showed us that even twenty years in the future, they'll never ever recover :( way to kill my hopes and dreams! The thing I hated the most was that Katniss still seems..broken in the epilogue..irreparable..even after 20 years and two children, she was still cold and detached and mentally unstable..and she called her children "the girl" and "the boy" which seemed really cold and..unfeeling to me. The last line, where she says there are worse games to play really gave me chills!

I think in the end, I liked the novel (please note that the above rant was all about the ending, not the actual events of the novel), it wasn't perfect and the ending sucked majorly but I can live with it..I'll just re-invent the ending so that Finnick, Cinna, Peeta's Family, Prim, Rue and Katniss' Father are all alive and well, living in district 14, Katniss and Peeta get better, Gale comes back to 12 and they're friends again, they discover district 14 and live happily ever after with all of their loved ones!! Totally unrealistic of me, I know, but hey a girl can dream can't she?

and I can't resist putting this in:

May the odds be ever in your favor

The Know-it-all

MOCKINGJAY IS HERE!!!!

Mockingjay is finally here!!!! I've got the e-book uploaded to my ipod and am having a mini-battle with myself whether to start reading it yet. I'm halfway through a book that I'm loath to put down (The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever) and I want to savor Mockingjay properly. On the other hand, My cousin, who is also a die-hard Hunger Games fan, has her copy of Mockingjay, if she finishes reading it before me there is a chance that there will be spoilers :( So..should I wait and finish my half-read book and savor Mockingjay? Or should I pick it up now and not risk getting the ending spoiled? I've extracted my cousins promise (more like she took pity on me and promised me anyways :P) not to start reading Mockingjay until tomorrow, by which time I'll have finished up my book and will be able to start Mockingjay!!!!!!!

Here's the cover (although, yes, I have posted it before) of the long awaited final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy:

Tell me if you've got your hands on a copy of this book!

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

My Hunger Games Movie Cast

I heard this week that they cast Gale for the movie version of the Hunger Games. My friend told me that the actor's name is Steve Mcqueen. Well, when I googled him, all the pics were either black and white or the blurry color photos of the 70's..I clicked on one to enlarge it and the article it was in was about his 28th death-iversary..imaginemy surprise (not) when she sheepishly admitted that she hadn't been 100% sure whether or not it was official.

So while I was surfing around looking for an actual official cast list, or really any information about the movie (which is supposedly coming out in 2011) I found out that nothing official has been announced, although loads of people have they're own cast lists. I think thats a really fun idea and I wanted to have a go at creating my own cast list, especially with the hunger games, because I have pretty well-defined images of the characters in my head. Then I saw this video casting and I totally agreed with all her choices except for Katniss, Rue and Gale.

My choices:

Katniss Everdeen:

Saoirse Ronan

Age: 16

She looks exactly like the Katniss in my head! She's been in another favorite of mine, The City of Ember. Saoirse (pronouced Seersha) is an irish actress and I absolutely love her name! I've actually read a book with a character named Saoirse in it and I loved the name, I didn't realize until today that the girl in The City of Ember was called Saoirse :P

Gale Hawthorne:

Drew Roy:

Age 23, he seems to be a popular choice and I agree, he's perfect, although just a bit shorter than I imagined..I always imagined Gale as like above 6 ft..not that it matters

Rue:

Lauryn Alisa Mcclain

Perfect face for Rue! i always imagined her as dark skinned, not latino so I couldn't agree with the choice above :P

Also choices she didn't mention:

Prim Everdeen:

Jodelle Ferland

She is tiny and fragile but still has dark hair like I imagined her..we don't really see much of prim so I doubt it matters anyways. I think she only had two scenes in the entire book, when we were introduced to the character and when she was picked for the games only to be replaced by Katniss..so yeah..

President Snow:

Patrick Stewart

He's like the best bad guy ever! I mean he is ALWAYS the bad guy and he does it sooo well. Love this guy! He's in X-men, Star Trek, Prince of Persia and soooo many more.

Effie:

Kristin Chenoweth

Her pixie like face is perfect for Effie I think :)

Tell me what you think!

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Personal Update :)

So yesterday was another orientation specific to med students, I got to see a couple of my friends from school, about 10 of my friends from various schools and summer courses were accepted (what can I say, its a small country :P) It was really fun! We got little folders with a vocab book with medical terminology and a little dangly thing that says "I'm a Dr." that you hang from the rearview mirror on a car (not that I have one, I'm hanging it on the wall facing my bed so I can stare at it before sleeping :P) I'm super excited!!!

We're a week into Ramadan, school starts a week after it ends so I'm anxiously awaiting that! I'm a nerd, yeah, but thats what 4 months of summer will do to you...we've been on vacation since the end of may and won't start school till the end of september :( too big of a gap.

Stanza for iphone is an app that lets you read your ebooks in various formats on you iphone or (as in my case) ipod touch. Most of the books I read are e-books simply because a) i'm not allowed to order books online and b) there is no other way to buy newly released books here other than online :( so I usually go for e-books wherever I can get them. I used to read them on my old PSP (years and years ago..ah, the memories), had a phase where I printed them out (4 pt font with 6 columns on landscape mode...teeny weeny font, but a whole novel on only 8 sheets of paper front and back!) Now I alternate between reading on my Blackberry and my ipod. I usually go for my BB because its easier, even though the font is horrific and the screen only fits four lines of text at a time because it was so time consuming just to upload books to my ipod and it was tricky trying to save your place if you took a break. With Stanza, however, its so much easier and more organized. You can adjust your viewing mode and change text size, screen brightness and background color with a tap of a fingertip! You can bookmark your favorite passages and annotate or comment, and even buy ebooks directly from the app! I just thought this app was awesome and wanted to share it with you guys :)

Also I've updated my shelfari to be read shelf because it had too many books that were unavailable in ebook format and are nigh on impossible for me to get in the foreseeable future :( oh, well.

On another completely unrelated note, I've been experimenting with skincare products this week, having a lot of fun :) I've always thought that I have oily skin but it turns out I have combination! Now that I know what type I am, its alot easier to get proper products and I've been getting clearer skin! Being as over-excitable as I am, I've overdone the scrubbing and soaps and now have (for the first time in my life, may I add) three dry spots on my face! But I've managed to get excited about that as well :P it beats having pimples!

Well thats all thats going on with me! Hope you guys have a great week end!

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

I've been wanting to read this book for ages but I never got around to it until now and it did not dissapoint! I loved this book, and I know I would definitely re-read it. Its earned a place in my favorites :) here's a pic of the cover:

Blurb from GoodReads.com:

For Nora Grey, romance was not part of the plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how much her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her...until Patch comes along.
With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Nora is drawn to him against her better judgment, but after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is, and to know more about her than her closest friends. She can't decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is far more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For Nora is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen - and when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life.

My Review:

Oh, my, god. This book was AMAZING. I really, really loved it. It did have a lot coincidental similarities with Twilight, but I think they were just that: coincidental, not intentional.

I loved the characters, Patch was HOT and mysterious and develops throughout the story, we get to know him really slowly and we don't know whether he's really a good guy or a bad guy until the end. He reminded me of a mixture of: Edward Cullen (mysterious, with superpowers) Fang (image of black clad winged teenager), Peeves (yeah, :P impish trickster), Rob Wilkinson from 1-800-WHERE-ARE-YOU (motorcycle, leather jacket wearing hottie) and lastly himself, he gives his own unique twist to the cliched role of non-human-hero.

Nora starts out hating Patch, but they grow closer very naturally, it didn't feel like she was crazily attracted to a bad guy who had the ability to kill her (*hint hint* Bella) No, Nora knew he was trouble and tried to avoid him in the beginning. She wasn't a perfect character, she had flaws and she acted like a normal person would. I didn't always like her, because she doubted herself a bit too much but she was okay over all.

I loved the plot, it was original and unique (it wasn't another book about vampires) and I was really pulled into the story. The first chapter or so sounded a bit forced but the rest of the book flowed nicely. It was surprising and a wonderful read in general. When I got to the end of the book I blinked and flipped the page, wishing there was more.

It did have quite a few similarities with Twilight, now I'm not sure which one came out first but it was still weirdly similar. Here's what I noticed (highlight to read, a little spoiler-ey): They were biology lab partners, there's a baseball scene, he reads minds. Also there was a point where it seemed like Vee, her best friend had turned on her. I don't consciously read a book, its more like I'm watching a movie in my head. So when I read too fast, I get mixed up which is why, at one point I honestly thought that Vee was the bad guy, until they used the word "he" to describe what the guy was doing. Then I went "huh?" and re-read :P

The Verdict:

I'd give this book 5 stars, its on my favorites and I would reread it. I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel (Crescendo, coming out october 14 2010) and I'm wishing for my very own Patch. Suffice it to say, I love this book :) I'd suggest it to anyone who likes romance or fantasy or action or drama because it has all that and more. There's another book which is supposed to be similar to this one called Fallen, they seem to be competing for the new Twilight of 2010 :P I'll probably check that out soon, for now I'm moving on to Graceling.

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Waiting On Wednesday

So for this week's waiting on wednesday I'm choosing:

Drumroll please...

Crescendo!

This is the sequel to Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick which I've only just finished reading but I'm already waiting for the next one. It was such an awesome book and I can't wait to see what happens to Patch and Nora in the next one :) It comes out on october 14 2010 and I am counting down the days eagerly!

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

BookSneeze?

While I was hopping away last friday I saw a little bumper sticker thing in the sidebar of one of the blogs I visited, it looked pretty cool so I clicked. It turned out to be about this website for book bloggers where they give you free books just so you'll review them! I think this is really cool, not sure exactly how it works yet but I'm interested. Lol, I havent done that many reviews yet so I think I'll wait till I have a little collection of book reviews to call my own before signing up. I'm starting "Graceling" which is supposed to be a really great novel. Its part of a series as I understand it but I'm not sure how many books are in the series. Seems like just the kind of book I'd love! I'm pretty optimistic about my review of this one! Posting Hush, Hush review tomorrow, hopefully so look out for that :)

Also, I added a little countdown (at the bottom of the page) for the release of Mockingjay thanks to the lovely Len of Musings of a Reader Happy so thanks! :)

August is passing by so quickly don;t you think? I mean it seems like it only just started! Only 7 days left till Mockingjay is out! Can't wait!

Waiting On Wednesday

I realize that it isn't wednesday but I'm posting this anyways because I liked the idea! So this is a weekly event at breaking the spine where you post the book you are most eagerly waiting to read and mine would have to be "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins which is set to come out later this month. I've been waiting for this, the third installment of the Hunger Games trilogy since february..so stoked for it to finally come out!! It's set for august 24th, one of the many things I'm looking forward to at the end of the month :D

Here's a pic of the cover:

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Blogger Book Hop!

Hey everyone! So I found out about this really cool weekly thing they do on crazy-for-books.com called the blogger book hop! There's this huge list of book review blogs to browse and its super cool! So every week you answer the Book Hop question. This week its:

How many books do you have on your 'to be read shelf’?

I actually have a to-be-read shelf on shelfari, you can see the first page of it on the side bar. There are exactly 53 books on my plan-to-read shelf at the moment, which is a ridiculously small amount I know, but I try to be realistic since I can rarely find these books where I am..plus once i find the book it doesn't stay on my TBR shelf for long ;P

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Ramadans here!

Hey everyone!

So the holy month of Ramadan is here and I'm fasting...feels really weird with my retainer in..very very icky feeling.

Not that I'm complaining or anything, I love Ramadan..its kinda fun to be doing something with the entire country :) also its really fun for two main reasons: A) the food is always way better (and who would complain about awesome food for a month?) and B) I feel really really proud of myself all month long because I tend to slim down a bit..if I don't splurge on the pasta :P

Other than that..yeah just another month of boring summer I have to endure before starting university (I've gotten my schedule and the first day is officially 19th of september, can't wait!!) Five subjects first semester and four subs for second. I'm secretly really happy that I'm gonna be the youngest one there (still 16..), I should be used to it by now but I really enjoy the moment I tell someone new about it..yeah..I'm snobby/selfish/narcissistic sometimes..I figure I've earned it since my mom and I went through hell and back moving from school to school. Plus I still managed a 4.0 so I don't dwell on the mean-ness of it. Its kinda fun when people think of me as the child genius (exaggeration) makes up for the years of hell being a new student.

I digress..

So I'm attempting to make pies for dessert during ramadan but I've discovered that nobody in my family like pie 0_0 yeah..shocked me. I made three pies (in retrospect I'm guessing that was a bit much for a family of six) and it was just me and my dad who were eating any of them..apple pie (a la mode mmmm..), pumpkin (which I hated), and apple peach pie (basically tastes the same as plain apple) but most of it ended up in the trash in the end...oh, well.

So the 7 days competition came to a grinding halt about five days after it started..I read the first three potter books on schedule but when it was time to crack open Goblet of Fire I just couldn't...too much reading too little time..plus the actual people who started the competition seemed to drop off the face of the earth..absolutely no tweets after the sixth day and no one seems to have started Order of the Phoenix..I guess it wasnt meant to be..It was taking up way too much of my time and I have a huge to-be-read book list on which i haven't been making much progress...going to get started on that ASAP :)

Hope you all enjoy this last month of summer as much as I plan to!

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Heroes and other Summer Activities

Hey guys! I've spent the last three or four days watching the show Heroes like a maniac..finished seasons one and two now..just waiting for season three to finish downloading so that I can continue my Heroes marathon. Its such an awesome show don't you think? I had never heard of half of the actors and actresses in it but they're all amazing! I'm really into shows like House and CSI and Numbers..where there's some sort of mystery that they figure out at the end of each episode but Heroes mashes them all together and adds super powers to the mix! Plus there's a background story going on and it takes them longer to figure out each mystery. The Ultimate show in my opinion, especially with Peter Petrelli in it (Milo Ventimiglia) he is HOT! Some character just make the show, you know, I think the main characters that do that here are Claire Bennet (Hayden Pantierre) and Peter Petrelli. He's her uncle in the show but apparently they dated for two years in real life..not sure whether thats kinda weird or not especially since he's about 10 years older than her..Gonna keep watching..I heard the show got cancelled but its halfway through season four right now so I still have alot of episodes to look forward to.

Also about the HP 7 days challenge..I kinda put that on hold. I finished the first three books on time but then I just could not pick up the fourth one..I would never have thought this possible, but it does get pretty boring reading non-stop..

Anyways, i have started reading Hush, Hush which seems pretty cool so far..gonna review that soon. Going to get my Uni schedule on wednesday, which is coincidentally the first day of Ramadan, kinda looking forward to losing weight from that, esp. just before starting school. Great timing I think :)

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all

University Orientation!

Today was my first day at university (not including going to fill out the application) in which I actually went there and got a brief little introduction the the school rules and the basics and stuff. I am still super excited and getting a kind of tomorrow's-the-first-day-of-school feeling already, even though I've got nearly two full months before I have to start. They gave us little "new student" kits with booklets and mugs and pens with the uni's logo on them, there's even a little bumper sticker (bummer, I can't drive for another year and a half). After the general intro lecture they separated us into groups in different halls depending on major. We got to talk about everything, the girls in 4th to 6th years med were there to explain, there was even one who had just graduated! Excited!!! Going there again this week and next, first for a face to face orientation-ey thing, also for questions and for helping me organize my schedule, then again next week to finalize everything and get my schedule with all the details and a full tour of the campus. So, yeah! I'm really supremely excited about everything and I'm wishing (for the first time I can remember) that summer would finish already!! I wanna get started!

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

News

Okay, so the other day I went to my orthodontist to check about the retainer thing and he said I didnt need to force the old one in, so he made me a new one that'll move my front teethback and hurt alot less :P so I've been wearing that for a week now :)

Also, I still haven't gotten around to reading Hush, Hush yet (I'm planning to read it next), although I did read "Daughter of egypt" a romance set in rome/egypt/atlantis in the time of Cleopatra.It was nice enough I suppose but I don't like books set that far back in time..the farthest I'd go is about 1400's..no farther than that. The story is nice in its variety, I like how it isn't focused on the romance, Its got a lot of action and drama too..still my fave combination is comedy and romance for light reading so this isn't one of my favorites..

Anyways, moving on to what I've been doing :) So I had a post a couple of days ago about the art course I'm taking, I've advanced, moving through the sketches and shading all the way to oil painting. I just finished my first painting and I wanted to share! So here's a pic of my painting, It's really tiny, for a painting, about the size of a postcard, a little bigger maybe but still smaller than an a4 paper.

I just realized the camera flipped it, the apple is actually on the left. Oh, well :)

On another note, I got some very good news yesterday! After waiting, in suspense, for a whole month I have finally gotten word back from the university I applied to! I got into med school!!!!! I'm so happy! School doesn't start till the end of september so I've got another two months of summer to fill up :)

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Harry Potter: 7 Books 7 Days Challenge

I am a serious HP fangirl, I've been reading and re-reading the series since I was seven and I've read all of the other books J.K.Rowling wrote, but I haven't read anything HP related since Deathly Hallows came out, I read it the day I got it, then re-read a couple of months later, but I haven't re-read the first five books since I was about 10, so when I heard about the 7 books 7 days challenge I immediately joined in! The idea is pretty obvious from the title I think, there are seven books in HP and you have seven days to finish reading them, you can do one a day or you can finish the first three books quickly and leave more time for the longer ones. It starts at 12 midnight on august first, wish you all luck if you decide to join in!

Photoshopping

My latest project is painting on photoshop, I saw this tutorial where this girl makes a "fantasy woman" completely from scratch on photoshop and she turns out looking gorgeous and (in my opinion) pretty realistic and 3d looking and oh-so-cool! She was using a tablet (which, alas, I don't have) but I wanted to try it out on my own anyways. I found a rough sketch of a womans face online and started working with that, using my laptop's trackpad and my finger in place of the tablet. I started with it on friday night and have been working on it on and off since then..not 100% done yet, just needs a few finishing touches I think, I stuck with the basic shape of the sketch but changed a few details to put my own unique touch to it.

Here's the original sketch (not mine, I found it on google) and the painting i did based on it :)

I think it looks pretty darned good for a first try, especially since I was kind of improvising my method since I dont have the same equipment. I added a base for the hand at the bottom but I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep going with that..Then I'd have to make a shirt or something and I think that'd cover up my hard work shading the shoulders (yes they still have alot to go till they look good but I'm working on that) Also a couple of people I showed this to said that her chin was a bit off, dunno how to fix that exactly but I'm gonna get to it :)

Tell me what you think of it :) what were your first impressions?

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

Whoot!

I'm super excited this week because I start my new painting and drawing summer course! It's really cool! You go in for 3 hours a session and learn how to draw professionally :D I've already gone to the first session, which was really fun, a bit backbreaking though, since I tend to crouch over the drawing pad :P Here's a couple of drawing I did that session:

I'm a long way from Picasso but I'm so proud that they're all identical to the actual pictures the teach made us copy. We had to measure the pictures we were copying with the end of the pencil :P very time consuming but the end effect is pretty cool! I know the pics aren't that clear, the teacher wouldn't let us use a lot of pressure (AKA barely any)..so these look nearly that faint in real life too, it's also partly because I took the pics with my webcam, which makes them seem even fainter than they actually are.

On another note, I finished reading the last book of The Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy which was pretty nice! The ending was a bit too short but still very cute. To be perfectly honest the main characters in this book, Darcy and Trevor, were the least likeable of the Gallagher gang..but thats a good thing I think, since it makes them seem more real and less Mary-Sue-ish. The characters with the least personality and the most perfection were Aidan and Jude, the first novel...I don't like perfect characters, and these had barely any problems that anyone can relate to (there were some, but most of the time..not). My absolute favorite set were Shawn and Brenna (book 2), they were just so CUTE! And they actually behave and talk like real people and they were still very likeable.

Anyways, I'm starting Hush, Hush now..which is supposed to be a very good book, I really hope it is..I don't always like this type of book..since it has to do with angels and probably mentions death somewhere in the novel...well I'll start tonight and we'll see if its good :)

Ever yours~

The Know-it-all

The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

I started reading this trilogy by Nora Roberts a while ago. Finished the absolutely wonderful first two books and now nearly through with the third. I came looking for a nice piece of historical fiction, action and romance are my favorite combination, lots of knights and sword fights and so on and so forth. I got the books on a friends recommendation but I didn't know that they were actually set in modern day. I started reading anyways and discovered that there was a hint of fantasy in them as well, with faeries and curses and charms, another favorite of mine! Here's my joined review of the series.

Blurbs:

Book 1: Jewels of the Sun:

GoodReads.com:

With her life in turmoil after a failed marriage and growing disappointment over her career, Jude Murray sets off on a journey to Ireland. To her grandmother's cottage on a faerie hill in Ardmore. There she hopes she will be able to find herself again.

But the mystic charm of Ardmore grows on Jude - as does the handsome and kind pub owner, Aidan Gallagher. She soon finds herself caught up in the charm and fantasy of the land and people around her, challenging her beliefs and all that she thought she wanted out of life

Book 2: Tears of the Moon:

Shelfari.com

A talented songwriter, Shawn Gallagher spends his days lost in reverie and wonder, oblivious to the wiles of women and the ways of the world. He claims that he's content with his life, but his music tells a different story--one of loneliness and desperate longing...

No one understands why Shawn doesn't put his musical gift to profitable use--least of all Brenna O'Toole, a fiercely independent tomboy who has been secretly in love with him for years. But it is only when Shawn gives in to the mysteries of magic that he gets the chance to fulfill his destiny as a man and a musician--as the song in his head keeps time with the beating of a woman's heart...

Book 3: Heart of the Sea:

Shelfari:com

Darcy Gallagher has always believed in the pull of fate, the magic of legend ... and the importance of money. She longs to find a rich man who will sweep her away--into a world filled with glamour and adventure, and the exotic life that is her destiny...

A wealthy businessman with Irish blood, Trevor Magee has come to Ardmore to build a theater--and uncover the secrets hidden in his family's past. He thought he had given up on love long ago, but Darcy Gallagher tempts him like no woman ever has. She's gorgeous, intelligent, and she knows what she wants--and he's more than willing to give i1 to her. But as their mutual attraction flares into passion, they look into their hearts-and find out what happens when you truly believe...

My Review of the Series:

The books are set in modern day Ireland, in a charming village by the sea called Ardmore. The books follow the three Gallagher siblings' stories, as they gain wisdom and fall in love... fulfilling the requirements to break a curse the prince of faeries cast upon himself and his love. Wonderfully sprinkled with little tid-bits of gaelic and historical monuments in Ireland. Very cute series :) I loved how we got to hear from both sides of the story and how the entire family changed in the end, they all became better people together and it was oh so sweet reading about how they got together..I liked it :D better than I thought I would, since I don't like modern much..but it had faeries and magic in it as well so that made it all better! I do wish that for once, the ending wasn't so predictable! I once read a historical romance called "Whitney, my love" which is one of my absolute favorites, the main character has about five suitors who she all seems to like equally, you dont find out who she'll be with at the end until the end! These books, as with most romance books, have a dusty predictability about them which I don't like :( Oh, well, onto some other, more interesting novel!

Ever yours ~

The Know-it-all

Operation Get my Retainer to fit again!

I took off my braces a couple of years ago and got a retainer..which I wore for about a week and promptly discarded because it made me talk weird and drooly and gross. its been about two years since I dumped it in a drawer somewhere and forgot about it..now my friend is getting braces and was asking for advice, when she should get them, whether they hurt, etc. and was surprised when I spoke up, because she couldn't tell that I'd had braces. :( as in my teeth had obvious spaces and my front teeth were obviously trying to fly away.

My teeth have moved a bit, not that much, and they're no where near as bad as they looked before..but it got me thinking, I've got a whole summer ahead, and lots of alone time stuck at home, so why not try to make my retainer a habit again? It hasn't fit for most of the time it's been lost, so I googled "how to make my retainer fit again" and discovered that it is, in fact, possible, if you don't mind the pain, which I don't really mind, teeth-wise. As long as I can force the thing in, it'll start to do it's job. But my front teeth have moved forward a bit, it fits in the back but the two front teeth are too far forward, I can sort of fit the wire over them and move it back, so there's pressure. I'm planning a step-by-step moulding of my teeth, first, I'll keep trying to push the front teeth back, then see if it actually fits when they're close enough, even tightly, and then continue wearing it in 30 minute intervals until my teeth move back...I just hope this works!