I Love Your Blog Award Take Two

I was nominated again!!! Twice!!! Can I get a woot, woot? (I heard you all go "woot, woot" don't deny it!!)

This time I was nominated by Lexi at http://anotherpageisused.blogspot.com/ and Ashley at http://booksaremylove.blogspot.com/ who both have awesome blogs theirselves and totally rock.

The rules:
1. Put the logo *look up!* and rules on your blog.
2. Link the person who nominated you.
3. List your seven favourite blogs.
4. Tell them they’ve been nominated!

My nominations:
1. http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/
2. http://fivestarreading.blogspot.com/
3. http://reviewabook123.blogspot.com/
4. http://booksandlove.blogspot.com/
5. http://writersblockreviews.blogspot.com/
6. http://kdslibrary.blogspot.com/
7. http://designsbymikayla.blogspot.com/

Okay, so I'm off to tell the people I nominated!!

Oh, and hope you all had a good Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas. Happy Holidays to everyone. :)

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Christmas, It's Chritmas, It's Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, that's enough of that!! I'll switch colours between paragraphs, but not letters. Just too much hassle.

Merry Christmas!! Now, to my favourite Christmas special. The Rugrats. The Santa Experience. The thing that sucks, though, is that I could only find parts two and three. Ah, well, pretend you just came in late and missed the beginning.

Well, that's all. Hope you all had/have a very Merry Christmas.
Happy Holidays,
Love, Laina

Garfield Christmas

I can draw Garfield. For an art project in 8th grade, I made a clay sculpture of his head. I bet you guys didn't know that about me, huh?

I love Garfield. The attitude. The laziness. The love of food!!! This is one of my favourite Christmas specials.







It's Christmas Eve!!! Yay!!!
Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it)
Happy Holidays,
Love, Laina

Frosty Returns!!!

I like this one. It makes me happy. Enjoy it, guys. :)








Happy Holidays, guys.
Love, Laina

Frosty!!!

Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul, with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal... oh, like you all don't know the words. I love Frosty... although, I did read this one creepy short story about it that was like an evil version of Frosty the Snowman that creeped my out to no end. I can't for the life of me remember who wrote it, though.

Anyways, let's get to the not evil version. Another three parter. :)









Hope you all enjoy it!!!
Happy Holidays,
Love, Laina

Charlie Brown Christmas

I've decided this is definitely going to be a regular feature until Christmas. Hope you all enjoy it!

This is a classic, and my mother's favourite of the all. Last year, she only got to see it once, and she felt let down about that. And it's one of my favourites, too. Again it's a three-parter. Enjoy!!








If these ones don't embed right, you can probably just click on the videos and it'll take you to the YouTube page. Wish me luck with this one!!

Happy Holidays, guys, and come back soon to see the next videos I post.
Love, Laina

Christmas stuff!!

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!!! And, Kwanza, Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate. (And I deeply apologize for any mispellings there.)

I was wondering what's your favourite holiday special, and I was thinking about Christmas books, to try to come up with a review, but I don't really have many kids or Christmas books since we moved. One I immediately thought of, though, was How The Grinch Stole Christmas. And then, for the heck of it, I seached for it on YouTube and look what I found!!! It's split up into three parts, but it's the whole thing. And if you guys missed it when it was on, or have half an hour to waste, here it is! Enjoy!








So I think I'll do a few of these, maybe one for everyday until Christmas. I'll be offline for a couple days for Christmas, but I'll see if there's a way to make the posts post themselves, you know? Don't worry if you don't, it's fine. I'm babbling a little. Anyways, happy watching and of course, happy reading. Leave a comment if you want (and thank you to the lovely friend of mine who commented before I was even done the whole post because I wanted to check to make sure I did the video right, that was really nice) and come back soon to see what the next video is!!

Happy Holidays,
Love, Laina.

Hi, everybody!!

So guess what, everyone? My birthday was on Saturday!!!! I am now 16 years old!! Cake for everybody!

And, even though it was my birthday, I have a present of sorts for you guys. A new review!

Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

Summary (from http://www.robinmckinley.com): Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world’s remaining Draco australiensis. Humans have never seen a baby dragon . . . until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has just given birth, and one of the dragonlets is still alive.

My review: Once upon a time, I thought I could maintain my dignity during my reviews. And then I read a book like this. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it, I loved it!!!!! It was so good, like the Godiva of books.

Robin McKinley is another of my favourite authors. She wrote one of the greatest vampire books of all time, in my opinion, Sunshine, which is a shivery good book.

One of the (many) things I loved about this book was how the main character, Jake, wholly and absolutely became the mother of this baby dragon (who he names Lois, because she looked like a Lois). Not father, not parent, but very much the mother. He honestly thought of himself as "Mom" to Lois. At one point, he worries about her eating habits, that she'd fallen in love with ketchup because she'd "made a dive" for his plate and got a mouthful of ketchup. He thinks,

Or about wondering what ketchup would do to dragon physiology. I spent most of my life wondering what something or other would do to dragon physiology. I hadn't realized till we got out here how much I'd left all the nutrition stuff up to Grace. But in theory I didn't let her eat anything with sugar in it, just like a good mom. Ketchup had sugar in it. (Do dragons get ADHD?)

I loved that enough to mark it with a piece of paper so I could share it with you all and that was just one of many things that had me smiling and laughing and, occasionally tearing up. I also really liked it that the author wrote like she had some idea what a teenager actually thinks and talks like, unlike some books I've come across. Jake was also a deep, interesting character with issues and quirks and wonderful to read.

Conclusion: This has definitely become one of my favourite books, and I recommend it to anyone out there looking for a good read.

Happy reading, guys, leave a comment if you want, and check in soon.

Yours, Laina

Contests!

Another link to an awesome contest, two actually!! This one's at the Story Siren's blog!
http://www.thestorysiren.com/2008/12/i-havent-had-contest-in-while-so-how.html
Good luck to everyone!! And if you enter, be sure to tell her I referred you, okay? You'll get an extra entry! Thanks!!!

And also, http://sharonlovesbooksandcats.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-holiday-giveaway.html Good luck there, too!!!

Review X is doing a TON of contests on her blog for Girl Week (woot), so I'm going to put all the links here. Extra entries. :D
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-i-wanna-be-your-joey-ramone.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-artichokes-heart.html
Interview with Melissa Walker: http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/melissa-walker-on-fashion-industry.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/random-contest-lock-key.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/random-contest-willow.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-triple-shot-bettys-in-love.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-jellicoe-road.html?showComment=1229614560000#c7384649674989609842
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-leftovers-signed.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-signed-jessica-darling-books-1.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/megan-mccafferty-on-jessica-darling.html
Interview with Libba Bray: http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/libba-bray-on-history-her-books-herself.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-signed-gemma-doyle-trilogy.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/contest-stealing-heaven.html
http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/last-contest-wintergirls-if-i-stay.html

Hey, guys

Hey people, how are you all? Hope you're good, getting ready for Christmas and all that.

So I don't have a review for you. :( My deepest apologies. But I'm fighting a cold/flu thing that's really not fun and my birthday is on Saturday (yay!!), and other things, too, and I haven't really had time to read, or honestly felt like it, even though I'm reading a really good book called Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley and loving it.

Hopefully I'll have a review up soon for you guys! But be patient with me, okay?
Love, Laina.

I Love Your Blog Award

Lookit!!! Look at that!!! I won the I Love Your Blog Award from Lexi and ...another page is used (reading is my life) http://anotherpageisused.blogspot.com/ And that's so cool because I've only had this blog for a couple months! As you can tell, I'm pretty darn excited!!

My nominees:
- Exercise Your Mind a.k.a. Read Books http://excersiseyourmind.blogspot.com/
- Just Listen Book Reviews
http://justlistenbookreviews.blogspot.com/
- The Books Room http://thebooksroom.blogspot.com/
- The Fox Reads http://thefoxreads.blogspot.com/
- YA Books Realm http://yabookrealm.blogspot.com/
- Reading is a Drug http://reviewabook123.blogspot.com/
- Books Make Great Lovers http://booksaremylove.blogspot.com/

What You Guys Have To Do Now:
After receiving the award you are supposed to pay it forward:
1) Add the logo of your award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5.) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

M Is For Magic

One of my favourite authors of all time is Neil Gaiman. I've read almost everything that he's written and if I haven't, it's on my to-read list. I recently read two books by him and loved them both. The first was M Is For Magic, a book of short stories, and the second was InterWorld, which he wrote with Michael Reaves, which I don't think I'll review even though I loved it. It's just that it was a rather complex book and I feel it would be difficult to review. And I'm lazy. So what?

M Is For Magic by Neil Gaiman

Summary (from the back of the book and I'm using @ signs for bullets, because that's the best thing I can find and for some reason, I can't make a bulleted list. It's weird): Master storyteller Neil Gaiman presents a breathtaking collection of tales for younger readers that may chill or amuse, but that always embrace the unexpected:

@ Humpty Dumpty's sister hires a private detective to investigate her brother's death.

@ A teenage boy who has trouble talking to girls finds himself at a rather unusual party.

@ A boy raised in a graveyard makes a discovery, and confronts the much more troubling world of the living.

Review: Have you ever read a book where it's so good and so realistic that even though it's fantasy, you wonder, "Did this really happen?" No? Guess you're going book shopping then, huh?

There's a certain story in this book, that's called, "The Price," where the main character is an adult male author and the way it's written, that little voice in the back of your head whispers, "This sounds like it really happened, this sounds real," despite the fact that the logical little voice in your head is saying much more loudly, "There's no way this really happened."

Something I loved about the book was that even though that particular story was serious, there were others that had funny moments. And the author can turn a phrase like no one else. There's one part where he's describing a character, whose brothers call him the Runt. He writes "The Runt was a thin ten-year-old, small, with a runny nose and a blank expression. If you were to try to pick him out of a group of boys, you'd be wrong. He'd be the other one. Over at the side. The one your eye slipped over."

I loved that, but I'm not even sure why. It just made me laugh. And, okay, I'm easily amused at times, but still. It was funny.

Conclusion: Well, this is no surprise, but I loved it. I loved that these weren't stories written for kids, even though it's an ages ten and up book. Instead, they're stories he thought younger readers would like. I've actually read some of them in other books. Like I said, Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors and a large chunk of my favourite books are by him. M Is For Magic is no exception. Ask me if I think you should read it. "Should we read this, Laina?" (I'm putting words in your mouths here.) "Well? Should we?"

Yes, people, you should read this. You should read this as soon as it's humanly possible to do so, and then go and tell your best friend about it, it's that good.

Well, I think that's about it for now, so... leave a comment if you want and come back soon to see what's happening around here. Til then, happy reading.

Contest!!

Once again, it's not mine. Check out this really cool blog http://justlistenbookreviews.blogspot.com/ for more information. Good luck!!

Monday, November 18th, 2008

Thanks for tagging me, Emily!! (Her blog is http://thatonegirlemily.blogspot.com/, in case you all are wondering. You can go check it out if you want. I'll wait. Okay, are you back yet? Good.)

The Rules: Open the closest book to you-not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment. Turn to page 56 and write out the fifth sentence as well as the next two to five sentences. Pass this on to five blogging friends.

So my book is M Is For Magic by Neil Gaiman

Then he turned and walked back to the city.
***(break here)
They were playing a game not unlike tennis with heavy-strung racquets and jeweled skulls for balls. The skulls were so satisfying in the way they thunked when hit cleanly, in the way they curved in great looping parabolas across the marble court. The skulls had never sat on human necks; they had been obtained, at great loss of life and significant expense, from a demon race in the highlands, and, afterward jeweled (emeralds and sweet rubies set in a lacy silver filigree in the eye sockets and about the jawbone) in Carthus's own workshops.

That was fun. I love Neil Gaiman's books, he's one of my all time favourite authors. I think I'll review this later.

Okay, so if you want to do this, leave a comment telling me and I'll tag you.

The Alchemist

Another review!!

The Alchemist by Donna Boyd

I'm actually not sure how I feel about this one, not entirely. I love fantasy books, it's just about my favourite genre, but I'm not sure about this one.

Summary from the back of the book: An elegant man sits in the office of Dr. Anne Kramer, confessing to a heinous murder in the highest echelons of power that has horrified the modern world. Little knowing that her own destiny is irrevocably tied to his, Anne listens to Randolf Sontime's story. "It began with the magic, you see. And so, perforce, must I." As a boy named Han at the House of Ra, an isolated oasis in the Egyptian desert of a far ancient time, Sontime was trained in the science of alchemy - sorcery and miracles. Only two other initiates were as skilled as he: Akan, a boy whose thirst for knowledge was matched only by his hunger for truth; and Nefar, a beautiful girl filled with wonder and ambition. Together they discovered theirs was a power unmatched in the physical world. That is until that fateful moment when their alliance was forever damned, their gifts horribly corrupted....

My review: I haven't read anything else by Donna Boyd, but The Alchemist was very well written, one of those books you can get lost in for hours at a time, and if it's an example of what her other works are like, I'm anxious to read more.

My only issue is some... mature content. Well, now I sound like a movie rating system. But my point is that the book itself deals with mature themes (movie rating again), the whole power struggle thing, you know? And that was handled very well, that's not my issue. Normally, I wouldn't even mention it, but it's just that they was some... well, more than PG-13 stuff in it. Personally, it didn't really bother me, but if there was a rating, I didn't see it (but I am admittedly a little unobservant) and I felt there definitely should be, because there's nothing really on the cover or back that suggests the age or maturity that it's aimed at. And that's a pet peeve of mine that you don't want to get me started on.

Conclusion: Although I had some issues with the maturity of the book, it wasn't a particularly bad thing as I believe I am a (sorta) mature reader myself and it was a good read and while it wasn't one of my favourite books, it definitely is going on my recommend list.

Contest

Well, sorry to disappoint, but it's not mine. Head over to here: http://booksaremylove.blogspot.com/ to enter.

Heck Superhero

Another review!! Oh, darn it, I need a picture. Why do I keep forgetting that? Okay, people, be right back.

Heck Superhero by Martine Leavitt

This one actually is young adult. It's rated ages 12 and up on Red Deer Press' website, which is, of course, the company that published it. It's 144 pages long and... my copy was hardcover... and... dudes and dudettes, it's a book. You all know what they look like.

Summary (reddeerpress.com because the summary on the inside flap of the dust jacket is really long and I don't want to type all that): Thirteen–year–old Heck is a pretty normal kid with some artistic talent and a hyperactive imagination. Life with his mother has been hand-to-mouth but not catastrophic. He has a modest, passive support system: his best friend and some kindly acquaintances.

When he and his mother are evicted, she assumes he's staying with his friend. Heck, confident of his own ability to get by and wanting to protect his mother from criticism, decides not to ask for help. For the next few days he brushes up against a harsher reality than he anticipated. He's hungry, broke, homeless and plagued by a toothache.

Heck has a series of encounters involving varying degrees of callousness, harshness, and risk. He sustains himself (and the reader) with his wit, imagination and optimism. As Heck faces the challenges of growing up on the streets—including drugs, pain, hunger, theft and homelessness—he must come to terms with his choices, his perceptions of himself, and his perceptions of others.

Heck Superhero is award–winning author Martine Leavitt's most recent foray into the world of today's urban teenager. Heck is as real as Martine's other troubled teenager, Tom Finder. And, like Tom Finder, Heck must find the inner strength to face the truth.

My review: Heck was not an easy character for me to like. He was gullible. He was in total denial. When things got bad, he refused to deal with the real world, choosing instead to hide in his superhero fantasies. At times he was just plain stupid.

But he was also so darn sweet I just couldn't stop reading. He loved his mom so much that he refused to tell anyone that she'd gone missing. He believed that by doing good things, Good Deeds, he called them, things would go right for him. Believed that he alone good find his mom when she disappeared and that would fix everything. It really did amaze me how innocent he was.

One thing that cracked me up was his best friend Spence, who is the total opposite of Heck. At one point, Heck calls Spence from a mall pay phone and during their conversation, Heck admits that he tried a drug called Velocity Nine because his teeth hurt so badly, and Spence yells, "What did you say?"

Heck said, "I'll never do it again."

After another silence, Spence said very calmly, "So you did the stupid thing, huh? You did Velocity Nine?"

Heck didn't answer.

"You've joined the stupid crowd, become one of the stupid."

"I know," Heck said. "I won't-"

"Didn't we talk about the Hi-Ho stupidity of that?"

Spence has some great lines like that, and I actually wish he'd been a more prominent character. And unlike some other books that I've read lately, Levitt doesn't make out teenagers doing drugs to be an everyday thing, no big deal, just all fun and games. She is clear that there are serious consequences and dangers, and I very much liked that.

Summary: While this book is somewhat similiar to others using this format, mainly Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt, it's very good, definitely worth reading, and it's going on my recommend list. It even made me cry at the end, but I'm not going to tell you why. Happy reading, people!

Second review - Strangers in Death

Ever noticed that if you spend alot of time online, and you don't read for a while, you forget how good it feels to polish off a good book? Like stretching a really relaxing, nice muscle. I don't know, maybe I'm weird (well, of course I am, but that's besides the point) but it's... nice.

Anyway. Time for my second review. Oh, shoot, I need a picture. Be right back.

Strangers in Death by J. D. Robb

I love murder mysteries. I read a lot of YA books, but I do so love a good murder mystery. I know, I'm twisted, but I guess it's that same part of me that loves vampire books.

The best of the best of murder mysteries is the In Death series by J. D. Robb. They are adult books, so I wouldn't recommend them to everybody, but they're pretty clean, except that sometimes she gets a little detailed about the murders. That's to be expected, though.

One warning. There are thirty books in this series. If you want a complete list, here's the link. CAUTION: Don't scroll up or down or you'll get a small spoiler. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Death#Books So while these books are a commitment, they are so worth it. I'm addicted to them. This last one was five hundred pages (large print) and I finished it in one night, that's how addicting they are. And because I'm just brilliant, I read it on Halloween. When I was alone in the house that wasn't mine because I was baby-sitting and my charge was out trick-or-treating, and then he almost immediately went to sleep so I was again, basically alone.

Summary (from the back of the book): Technology may be different in 2060 New York, yet the city is still a place of great divides. As ever, some murders receive more attention than others, especially when the victim is a prominent businessman, found tied to his bed and strangled with cords of black velvet. While people of the city are talking about it, those close to Thomas Anders aren't so eager to do the same. Evidence suggests that the victim didn't struggle and that the killer was someone known to the family, but everyone's alibi checks out. Was this a crime of passion or a meticulously planned execution?

My review: Ooh, I get all shivery when I think about it. This was so good. Like I said, best of the best. I always try to guess who the murderer is by around the third chapter and I'm usually never right. Never. Out of thirty books, I've maybe gotten it right twice. But still it's fun.

I also love that the main character is a woman police officer, a lieutenant, actually, and that she is in a successful marriage. Honestly, the relationship between Eve Dallas, the main character, and Roarke who as far as I know, doesn't have a first name (long story, you'll have to read the books to find out), her husband is one of the single most beautiful love stories I've ever read. At one point, when she's discussing the case with him and she says,

"So, you're dead asleep, and you get a call. Something terrible's happened, and I'm dead. What do you do?"

It took him a moment to quell the terror, to ignore the small, dark place inside him that feared getting that call every day.

I almost started crying when I read that, because it's so sweet.

Conclusion: This is a great book, definitely worth reading, and I sincerely hope there are many, many more. This is one of those books where you find yourself reading lines out loud because it's just so darn good.

And that's my review, so, until next time, happy reading, leave a comment if you want, and come back soon to see what I've done with the place.
-Yours, Laina.

Reviews

The other day, a friend of mine(Sept. 2013 edit - image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono via FreeDigitalPhotos.net) told me that I should start a book review blog because she loved my reviews. I, being the genius I am, replied, "But they're not reviews, they're just what I think about books I've read."

But she put the idea in my head, so I'm going to try it. But be warned, my reviews probably won't be like normal reviews. Is anything I do normal? Seriously, though, writing traditional reviews just won't work for me, so they'll be a little quirky, a little odd, and a lot me. Enjoy!

The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause

*Ahem. Please excuse me for a moment. I'm about to lose all dignity.

OH MY GOD!! THIS WAS AMAZING!! ABSOLUTELY FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!!!

*Okay, I'm done. I'm back. I have (some) dignity again. I'm good.

The Silver Kiss is about sixteen-year-old Zoe, whose mother is dying from bone cancer. Zoe isn't dealing so well with that, but who could blame her? Not only is her mother sick, and the doctors allowing Zoe to see her for shorter and shorter, farther and farther apart visits, but her best friend is moving away, her father has basically quit talking to her because all his energy is focused on Zoe's mother, and Zoe is feeling like she's slowly fading away, disappearing.

So one night, she goes wandering and ends up in a little park near her house, where she meets Simon. Simon is our vampire in this vampire story. (Don't worry, Ms. Klause tells you this right away, I'm not revealing anything big.) He's pale but incredibly handsome in an undead kind of way. And I'm not going to tell anymore or I'll ruin the story, so if you want to know more, you'll have to read the book.

This is the part where I tell what I thought of it, right? Huh, that might be dangerous territory. See above. No kidding, though, I honestly loved it. It's dark, creepy, sweet and Annette Curtis Klause doesn't write like she's aiming at YA readers, she writes like she's just telling the story in her head and who cares if it's not g-rated fluff. (Sore spot, don't get me started on that.) Just so you know, though, it is more PG-13, but there's really nothing inappropriate. It's just a book for mature YA readers. And I don't know about you, but I like that.

Conclusion: I loved it, even though, SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK DON'T READ THIS. SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!! WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS? I SAID STOP READING!! STOP READING!!! LOOK AWAY!!!!! LOOK AWAY!!!! THANK YOU!!! it has a really sad ending, like make you cry sad, and I like happy endings. OKAY, THAT'S ALL. YOU CAN START AGAIN READING NOW. So put this book on your to-read list, rush out, buy it, beg borrow or... er, if I tell you to steal, I'm an accomplice, aren't I? Okay, don't steal, but try to get it, because it's amazing. Happy reading.

That's about all, I think, so until next time, leave a comment if you want and come back soon.

-Yours, Laina

I hate coming up with titles

I really do. Almost nothing I've written has actually had a title. I barely manage to come up with them for other things like Book Divas and even then it's usually the first few words of my post.

It is October 15th, as of an hour and a half ago. I can't wait for Halloween! I love Halloween; it's like my favourite holiday, almost more than Christmas. I love all the scary stuff on TV, the spooky specials and horror movies they show, the awesome jewelry you can find, like skeleton earrings and all those great things. And hair dye! Coloured hair spray is so easy to find. This is the only time you can find it, in fact, at least around where I live. I love it.

Well, I should be reading (I've started reading while my Internet's loading and I have to say, I've gotten a lot read that way. But I should be going. Til next time, leave a comment if you want and come back soon.
Yours, Laina

Avatar Pictures the Epilogue/Tuesday October 7th, 2008 Part Two

So I chose a picture I like for my avatar! Something about that picture just appeals to me. What do you, the world in general, and more specifically my one and only reader, think of it?

I finished Confessions of a Teen Nanny and I have to say I wasn't impressed at all, but I don't like giving bad reviews so let's leave it at that.

Now I'm reading The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and so far it's pretty good. Published in 1970, it takes place probably a few years before that, but it hasn't been specified yet. It tells the story of a little girl, Martha, whose family has nicknamed Martha the Mouse because she is so timid and quiet, and her unlikely friendship with Ivy Carson, a very un-mousy girl. Ivy is fragile and small and at the same time wild and not afraid of anything. And so far it's sweet and well-written and I'm quite enjoying it.

Well, I think that's it for today, so leave a comment if you want and come back soon.
Yours, Laina

October 7th, 2008

Hey, people, what's up? I'm trying to decide on an avatar, so I'm going to post a bunch of pictures and if you could tell me which ones you like, it'd be greatly appreciated. I'm going to use a rose temporarily, but I want a faerie. I just can't decide which.

Well, I keep getting error messages when I try to upload my pictures, so I'll try again later.
Kay, so leave a comment if you want and come back soon!
Yours, Laina.

October 5th, 2008

My second post. Wow, time flies by so fast.

So what's happened? Well, I worked today, so I'm twenty dollars richer. That's nice, seeing as I'm still flat broke (and I mean pancake, wafer, crepe flat) broke from buying my laptop. What else? Oh, I know. I'm working on uploading more music, so we'll (ha, we'll, that's funny, like it's not just me and one other person reading this) have some new tunes around here. I switched file host services, so I think this one'll work better.

So, I'm reading a book, Confessions of a Teen Nanny by Victoria Ashton and to tell the truth, I'm not loving it. But I'm only on the third chapter, so I'll hold off on passing judgment for now.

My song's almost uploaded! Then there'll be two songs on the mini-pod! Oh, there's something I should explain. The music on the player so far is all Alexz Johnson, from the Canadian show Instant Star (remind me to post a picture of Tim Rozon to lure you into the show). Anyways, it was on for four seasons, and gave us four seasons of really good music. And the singer of most of that music is Alexz Johnson. About the songs: Another Thin Line is from season two, but the rest of what will probably be on there when this is read is from season one. Later on, I'll add more Alexz, some Skye Sweetnam, some Busted, pretty much whatever I'm listening to.

Well, this seems like a good length and I want to work on the music, plus I'm getting tired, and it's late, so I guess this is all for now. Leave a comment if you want and come back soon.
Yours, Laina

October 4th, 2008

Hi, I'm Laina, but I guess you kind of guessed that. So it's official. I have waaaay too much spare time. Hence the name, right?
Anyway, this is my blog. It's probably going to be mostly about books, but maybe with some music, some stuff I like and maybe a random recipe now and then.
Hey, sorry about the lone song in the player. I haven't uploaded more yet, but I will soon. I'm still having loads of fun with the gadgets.
So... I think that's all for now. Leave a comment if you want and come back soon to see what I've done with the place.
Yours, Laina.