AHHH IT'S MARCH--CHANGE IS COMING

Hey guys,

It's March! Long time no see! School has been filled with..International Baccalaureate oral exams and that's why I haven't been posting anything (I know, shame on me!).

CHANGE IS COMING!

I'm discussing with a few of my friends about teaming up with me for Scholarberry, so that you will be able to check out Scholarberry daily for new posts!

More on that later, but for now, thanks for reading!

Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic Post

What is the moral of your story?

My main character, Austin is dying of cancer. He wants those he loves to see the value of their own lives and not take it for granted, and he hopes that because of his circumstances that they will listen. He takes a weekend and visits friends and family he feels are dwelling on the past, suffering from addiction or living with abuse, and tries to convince them that life is too short to live that way. That they should live their lives to the fullest, because you only get one shot, and you never know when it will end.

Megan's blog

Buy Megan's book at Amazon!

Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan + CONTEST!!!

Read until the end, there's a signed copy for you!!! HERE is the form to enter...Just tell me what you think of my new review and you can get a chance to win a signed copy! *Contest ends November 30th!

TOTAL POINTS: 80/100 points

Storyline & Content (26/30 pts)

The book was awesome! Sometimes it was too exaggerated but it was fun and hilarious! Brooke Berlin, daughter of the famous Brick Berlin, has a new sister! The new sister--Molly--just wants to get along with everyone, but Brooke wants all the attention. Spoiled is a book about sisterhood and coming of age; it's a fun read, and it's fast-paced! Read the summary here.

Engagement Level (15/15 pts)
There were events after events, it was very engaging. I was never bored reading this book.

Author’s Language & Writing Style (6/10 pts)
Well, I liked the authors' language, but sometimes it was too dramatic--maybe some of you enjoy reading books that are super dramatic--not me. Most of the time it wasn't too much exaggeration, so I love the book overall.

Message/Moral (13/15 pts)
I think there are a lot of moral issues and ethics in this book (e.g: Should you ruin your new sister's life or not?) and I feel like Spoiled was a satire to mock teenage angst dilemma :D

But of course, there are many messages in this book, but I believe the ethics thing works out best for this 1st book in the series.

Information (5/10 pts)
It was sorta informative, I learned some things but it didn't stick out to me very much. This is a book of engagement and fun, not informative!

Characters (8/10 pts)
Molly was believable, while Brooke was unrealistic at times. I guess the people I've met aren't as crazy as Brooke, so I don't really believe that there are people like Brooke Berlin. When Brooke started being vulnerable, I think Brooke was real. When it was Molly's thoughts of Brooke, I felt like it was just too much exaggeration. And... I also don't know if there would be parents who'd name their kid 'Arugula', but hey, that's just me ;)

Originality (3/5 pts)
I think the idea of the book is pretty original. I mean, I don't really see this kind of book covering the shelves of bookstores, but there are a lot of other books where there are a couple of girls started out by disliking each other, but ended up liking each other in the end. It reminds me of Gossip Girls, too. Or just girls in high school reading magazines, really.

Movie Material (4/5 pts)
I would LOVE to see this book in theaters! I could just picture this being a movie and it would really bring everything come to life. Spoiled is a real movie material!

+ + +

Words from the authors about how they wrote Spoiled together...

JESSICA: We originally started off with Heather writing the Brooke section, while I wrote the Molly parts, but we abandoned that plan about a week into it -- basically, we both wrote each character. Because what we realized, of course, is that regardless of whose POV we were writing in, in a given chapter, the other character was also IN that chapter, so we had to master both of them. So we really both wrote the entire thing. Basically, the best way to do that for us -- I know other writing teams may do it differently -- was to put together a very, very detailed outline, and then split the work into chunks, and then trade. Because we knew what was happening in the other sections of book, we could then work concurrently and out of order -- thanks to the outline, I knew that when Heather and I traded chunks to write through and edit the other's chapters, I wouldn't get a section where, say, someone was suddenly MURDERED or something. But working with another writer is definitely not half the writing work -- it's more like twice the work. Which is not to say that I would have it any other way. I think that having two sets of eyes on the writing made it stronger, and because Heather and I write together so often and have done so for so long in our day job, we already had a natural sort of mind-meld that made it easy for us to marry our work together.

HEATHER: Being terrified of missing our deadlines was our most powerful weapon, too. The outline helped that immensely because whoever finished a chapter first could just ship it to the other person and dive into whatever the next untouched chunk was. We also realized that there wouldn't be an even 50-50 split between Brooke sections and Molly sections -- and sometimes we'd switch POV within one chapter -- so it was much faster and cleaner and more consistent to assign it by chapter rather than by character. The only problems that ever arose were if we had a bit of an accidental mind meld in terms of where we set a scene, or the type of jokes we wrote. That didn't happen often, but it did happen. We work together so much that by now we also think alike, so it's only natural. But those problems were also easily fixed. It also helps that, while both of us are incredibly possessive of the overall final product, neither of us is possessive of anything we wrote individually. Our attitude us, make the book as good as it can be. If that means changing up some sections I wrote, so be it. It's very much a Tim Gunn thing: make it work, however that may be. I could see that being a problem for writing duos in general, but after all these years -- and also just how we're wired, as people -- we know enough never to take it personally, so it's never an impediment to the writing or to the relationship. Thank God. Can you imagine?

Reviews coming up...update

Hey guys,

I am reviewing, but it's slowly done because I'm really analyzing it.

11/2/2011 - Spoiled
11/4/2011 - Deadly Cool

From now on, check on the sidebar for the reviews that are coming up! I'm posting a schedule there!

Restructuring Scholarberry

Everybody wants to be different, right? Well, you're not the only one! The hiatuses I've been taking is for the sole purpose of restructuring Scholarberry or school. I've been reading, again, but I don't want to review more books until I restructure my whole blog. I'm going to try to review it differently--I'll try to analyze it like an English book. I promise you'll read a review on Monday...and it'll be fun. :)

WHAT? Conventional Values and Literature

So I was working on my English Perfect Piece writing assignment for Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston (No. I have not read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I will). The question that I chose to answer was:

"It is the role of literature to challenge and confront the conventional values of a society." In what ways, and to what extend, have conventional values been challenged in Dust Tracks on a Road?

I finished my perfect piece while listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons*. Believe it or not, I was trying to race against a year's worth of symphony...and I won. Anyway. I'm trying to post everyday, but I'm not exactly in the mood to write a review today. So I decided to write this "WHAT?" post. Every time I post a WHAT? post, I am seeking your opinion. Think of it like philosophy class...or English class where we discuss our books, really.

The Q: What's a title of a book you read that intrigues you regarding some society's conventional values and what did you think of it?


Also...tomorrow is my school's homecoming dance. This is my senior year at high school, and I've only gone once (and that's because I had to volunteer by selling some brownies during freshman year). I witnessed grinding for the first time...and uh, disliked it. Should I go? I don't have a date and I don't like grinding.

*Vivaldi's Four Seasons lasts about 42 minutes. I finished around the 33 minutes mark. :)

P.S: Should I post my Perfect Piece? Would you be interested in reading it? :)

Music listened to while writing this post: The Story of Us by Taylor Swift

  
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What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook

Would you ever kiss your best friend's boyfriend?

Well...would you??? I wouldn't, but that's probably because my best friend doesn't have a boyfriend! Just kidding~ I wouldn't even if she has a boyfriend, really. But Emma did---she kissed Joann's boyfriend, Colin. The thing is, Colin is also Emma's childhood friend. The kiss, though...that was accidental. It just kind of happened when Colin and Emma were out shopping for Joann's Christmas present, and of course, Joann would only be mad at Emma and not Colin! <

So Emma doesn't really talk to Joann anymore, and she doesn't really have other friends. Emma also avoids Colin, which means she's on her own. Then Todd Seaver comes....(this is a downside of reading too many books: you know what's going to happen already!!! Of course another boy than Colin would show up...) and he is accused of the strange happenings of girls fainting!

Emma lives in a small town, and news travel fast. Emma doesn't like that--the whole 'small town' thing. She wants to go to big, big city. She wants to be deviant, she doesn't like anything about the town she lives in. Todd was an outsider--he was a new kid. Nobody liked Todd for that, and nobody liked Emma for hating the town so bad.

So...everybody says that Todd is kinda shady. Did he really caused all the popular girls to faint? Watch the awesome trailer below and get a copy of the book!

Rating: 6/10

A satisfying read; Good laughs, good story, memorable, but not in my all-time favorite list. It was a bit exaggerated for me, and it was also predictable. It wasn't out of ordinary, but all in all a good tale to read. GOOD READ FOR WHEN YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND (Or when you're thinking of getting one...) I might read it again someday.

307 Page/Simon Pulse/978-1-41697432-1/eilencook.com