Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

1.29.2013

You Are What You Read

Someone was giving a really nice thought at FHE stating that you are culmination of who you hang out with and what you listen to, watch, and read.

Oh good. That makes me British. 

Obviously since my mission wardrobe consists of some of my favorite literary/cinematic ladies.




And let's not forget my favorite detective.



12.16.2012

Happiest of Birthdays

It is a very special birthday today.
It is that of Miss Jane Austen.

She is one of my absolute favorite authors.
Think of all the amazing characters and plots that were created on this little desk:


This is why I believe Jane and I would get along smashingly:

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” 

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” 

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” 

“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!” 

“but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.” 

11.02.2012

ESA- Authors

WB Yeats: Poet: Ireland

"Cloths of Heaven" written outside the graveyard


Modern art portrayal of Yeats. I thought he might be offended by this, but as I learned more about him I realized, this actually suits him quite nicely

William Wordsworth: Poet: England

Beautiful house (and gardens which I showed in another post) and his grave below

What you don't hear about is his sister Dorothy and how he received much of his inspiration from her personal journal.

Bronte Parsonage: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne: England


I love their stories so it was fascinating to learn about their lives. I even saw the sofa where Emily died. 


Just had to throw in some Sherlock Holmes



Jane Austen: Author (and one of the best in my opinion): England



Once again, I loved learning about Jane and her family. The house was full of their clothes and trinkets.


This is Jane's writing desk. So many characters such as Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley came to life on that small desk. She would write every day after breakfast and whenever inspiration struck.


The graves of her mother and sister. She was incredibly close to her sister which is why you see so many sisterly bonds in her novels. 


My favorite part: her piano!

They only allowed us to play songs from that time period so I opened the book and there was the song I slaved over during my senior year of high school. My performance definitely wasn't the best, but since the piano was old, you couldn't tell as much. Also the piano had only one pedal. 
You can listen to a professional recording of the song I played here unless you're my family. Then you would have heard that song one too many times.

Stratford-upon-Avon: William Shakespeare's hometown: England

His "courting chair" at Anne Hathway's cottage


The Hash home where his daughter and her family lived


Actors outside the location of Shakespeare's birthplace.
They would do scenes from any requested Shakespeare plays. 



Cool fact: I have ancestors from this town. What if they were Shakespeare's friends?


Probably not. 

9.13.2012

Austen in the Gym



This was my creative project for my English 332 class.
After seeing this, my teacher will probably never say "the sky is the limit" ever, ever again.

8.25.2012

A Shakespeare Play a Day, Keeps Your Sanity Away

One of my courses for my England Study Abroad is a Shakespeare class so I've been reading my share of Elizabethean English.

Just so you don't miss out on the fun, this comedian does "The Three Little Pigs" in Shakespeare style.



This video is of an impressionist combining celebrities with some of Will's lines.

8.24.2012

Princesses Never Grow Up

While I was slaving away like Cinderella, I came up with a brilliant idea.
Build a fort and read a book like Belle.
So I piled on the fluffy blankets fit for the Princess and the Pea,


grabbed a book* and some sour gummies,


and enjoyed the quiet evening until it was time to sleep like Aurora.


Sadly, no dwarves, mermaids, or magic carpets made an appearance.

*The iPad is my mom's. I'm not that much of a princess.

7.16.2012

Read, Run, Rain

 READ:
I finished my last Young Adult Lit book today.
That's 25 books, folks.
It was easily my favorite homework.

RUN:
Beautiful run today. 
Mostly because of the....

RAIN:
Thunderstorm!
I ran right through it and then played in
the puddles with my roommates.

Rain makes my heart yearn for Seattle.
I was reminded of this run a couple of years ago.

Dad,
Vacation maybe?

I guess I'll just have to settle for England in a couple of months.




3.28.2012

Hungry?

Thursday begged me and Alex to drive down to Provo.
At midnight.
For the premier of the Hunger Games!

Shirts were in order:

Decca's I (shop) at the Hob
Neener's Boy with bread + Girl on Fire = Great Toast
Alex's Tengo Hambre

 Lots of girls had the signature Katniss braid so I tried my own rendition on Decca's hair


Sorry if you didn't get half the post because you're not on the same nerdy level as me.
I even have my own Nerd board on Pinterest.

Thoughts on the movie: They did a good job with it. It was a bit rushed and lacked some emotion. It is a bit graphic- not for children or anyone sensitive. My view on this whole plot is to look at it as thought provoking and not as an entertaining game. Overall, the book is always better. Always. Even a non-English major will tell you that.

The most entertaining part of the evening was our run to iHop afterwards. Not only was there delicious food, but entertaining customers including Joe over there discussing the politics of Dungeons and Dragons and predators of vampires with his date. Bless her soul.

Oh how I love my midnight premiers.

8.31.2011

Summer Readings

College has a funny way of making me read a lot without the feeling of actually reading.
With that said, in true summer fashion I buried myself within the pages of various adventures.
Quite easy to do when one does not have a job nor a social life.
 We'll proceed to the reviews:

a. My first book club meeting took me to the book ROOM by Emma Donogue. The 5 year-old narration gave me a headache at first, but came out with a different perspective on not only the story, but what a little one might be thinking on a day-to-day basis. It was capped with suspense and prodded my thoughts. Not your happy-go-lucky book.
4.7 out of 6.8

b. The second book for the book club was the classic Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson. Yes, a classic, but none of the book club members have read it making it a good choice to finish off the summer and lighten up after ROOM. It is a perfect escape for a youngish male looking for adventure he is forced to take through ink. And Long John Silver reminds me of yet another mischevious pirate who carried a compass with him.
2.6 out of 3.3

c. I love Gail Carson Levine's novels (what can I say, I love my fairytales) and notice a new one on the shelf titled A Tale of Two Castles. And a pun on a classic so I couldn't resist. It was charm, mystery, and really no romance. I guess the heroine was only 12. Expanding my knowledge of mystical creatures, which will come in handy some day I'm sure, it was a fun read. The Two Princesses of Bamarre will forever be my favorite of Levine's works.
76.2 out of 91.9

d. I read three from the Once Upon a Time series which are all kind of the same. Read one, you read them all. Yet, I still grab one if I don't recall exploring it before. Another bonus is that they are a pretty short read. If you have a hankering for overcoming evil, discovering your other half, magical happenings, or all of the above, you'll enjoy these books. And I can guarantee a happily ever after.
15.5 out of 17.3

e. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Not my first time reading it (my sister introduced me to them when they recently came out), but my first time listening to it. I was craving me some Peeta Mellark and they only had CDs, but I was able to finish my eternity scarf.
Amazing out of Amazing

f. I traveled across the globe through Three Cups of Tea by Relin and Mortensen. I actually started it during the winter, but put it on hold during Spring semester. A wise choice on my part because I appreciated it a lot more after my Middle East class. One message I really enjoyed in the book was that to change a village, you need to educate a woman. The value of a good, balanced education was deeply promoted in this book. If you're looking for page turner, this isn't it.
10 out of 14

g. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is simply a book about running with an emphasis on ultrarunning and barefoot running. And while I think 26.2 miles is going to kill me and I don't have to the money to mess with minimalist shoes, this book captivated me with a superhuman running tribe in South America to some of the crazies in North America. A year ago I probably wouldn't have given a book about running a second glance, but I suprisingly enjoyed this read. Warning: the swearing is a bit overboard in my opinion.
267 out of 291

Other than a cheesy LDS romance novel (hey sometimes I just need one), scriptures and Ensign (10 out of 10), and my daily perusing of blogs, that should cover my reading materials from over the past 7 weekish.

A Party's Not a Party Without Rum

Being the sophisticated lady that I am, I hosted Magic Valley's elite book club.
The Menu:




The Book:


Complete with Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, but sadly no eye patches.
The most insightful comment of the evening:
"Pirates have treasure."

8.09.2011

Set the Wheels in Motion

Since I'm typing this before our actual trip....

If all goes well we should be biking this trail today.
In honor, this post is about bicycles!!

Story
I love to ride my bike. Or my mom's bike since its beyond chic. However exactly 10 years ago, I wouldn't tell you the same thing. Well, other than the obvious reason of riding my mom's bike. No, 10 years ago, I didn't know how to ride a bike. Or rather, I didn't really want to learn how to ride a bike. Maybe because I was shy and didn't like adventure in my youth. (Up to this day I still have not rollerbladed/skated. I'll go one day, just with the right date. Wink, wink.) That all changed the next summer. While causing mischief in our backyard with my sister, we grabbed and bike and off I went. I remember the look of amazement and joy in my sister's face that was mirrored in my face as soon as I rode a stretch in our yard. I jumped off the bike and ran towards her laughing with delight. Soon after I took my first official bike ride to a friends house about 1 mile away. I've been riding ever since.

Song
Lenka's The Show is the cutest music video ever. She's riding a bike of course. Not to mention that I LOVE this song. You can find it here.

Picture
Perfection achieved with books in the basket.

Video
Best bike video ever! We use to rewind the movie over and over again for this scene.

Food
Shoutout to local restaurant:
I love the bicycles for decor and the sweet potatoe chips.

6.21.2011

Harry Potter + Clothes = Love

Basically I'm known around campus as:
1.Sweaty running girl
2.Barbie (thank you roomies)
3. Crazy (thank you roomies)
4.Spandex girl (thank you roomies again)
5.Harry Potter Nerd
The last one led to this website:
I went crazy looking at all the t-shirts.
I could never choose just one, but some of my favorites:
Minimal Harry Potter by HRLambertLeviosa by infomofoFreedom is an old sock. by MeteorMuseDumbledore's Army - Harry Potter Shirt by spacemonkeydr
Nerd Girls: Set Phasers to Stunning by thegestianpoetNational Quidditch Association (NQA) Harry Potter by jcalvindedavadakedavra!white by Sharleen Ermisenda Gonzalez Alvarezthreewishes by Sharleen Ermisenda Gonzalez Alvarez

4.29.2011

My Head is Across the Seas

At 3:55 I rolled out of bed just in time to watch the ceremony.
I was like a little girl watching a princess movie with eyes glued to the TV and head dreaming of a life in a castle and marrying a guy with a British accent.
I guess watching Jane Austen films and Harry Potter will have to suffice.
My curtsy:
 My scarf all cleverly tied up in a bow.
 My London t-shirt:
I love, love, love hats so I was going crazy at the royal ceremony which was filled with the pretty, the daring, and the umm...?

Let's not forget the main feature, Catherine's dress.
Gorgeous. 


What's England without some Harry Potter reference?
I came across this trailer and was practically screaming:



I'm thinking I'm going to read and watch all the books and movies to lead up to the finale of all finales.
Can you believe that this is almost the end?
I challenge anyone else to join me.