Teeny Bopper Summer Faves

  When I was eleven I began to develop a new taste in books. Growing up my family preferred Jane Austen to J.K Rowling. Fairytale fantasy books weren't foreign to me, but they weren't overly encouraged either. 

One day whilst at the library, I happened upon a book that caught my eye. Ella Enchanted. My mother and I first watched the movie when I was eight. I had always wondered about the book, but never actually ventured into reading it. Until that one day at the library, when it was nearing closing time and I still hadn't made a decision. I took the book. 

The first line is forever engraved in my memory, having read it probably a dozen times, "That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift." 

The story of Ella of Frell was the most prefect story in all the world to me. The moment I finished it, I started it again. Then I found more books like it. Books like these were unlike any other I had heard before. I couldn't stop myself. 

This is the point in my life where I went from Tom boy to girly. Fairy tales lead me to girly tales. I'm not sure if my particular taste in literature from ages eleven to thirteen was that great, but it was changing. I started reading things like "The Clique" and I aspired to be like shallow snobs such as Massie Block instead of bad ass Heroines like Ella of Frell. 

Then fourteen hit and I decided I was practically an adult and I needed to read more adult like books. This meant teen fiction as opposed to middle school fiction. Fairy tales didn't really have much of a place in my life anymore. I was all for "Gossip Girl" and "Georgia Nicholson". 

Then one fine day my mother brought home "The Princess Academy". I practically hurled when I saw it. I wasn't planning on opening it either, but when I ran out of new things to read I got desperate. That's when I met Shannon Hale. Shannon Hale and Gail Carson Levine had something in common: Fairytales for the not so average damsel. I fell completely in love and bought some of her other books. Then I remembered Ella and read her again. 

Fourteen is the age where I finally found balance. I loved Fantasy adventure, but I also liked Girly Fiction.

These are the books I read that summer that spoke loudest to me: 

13 Little Blue Envelopes

 Beastly

Princess Academy

Gathering Blue

Goose Girl

Inside Out and Back Again

Book of a Thousand Days

Hunger Games

  

Summer Book List

Here's frustration for you: spending a good twenty minutes of your life filming a video that you're more than happy with. It takes a few hours to edit this lovely mess, but you don't mind. Then when space starts filling up on your mobile device (iPhone more or less) you begin to delete unneeded content...but oh s***! This happens to include currently slaved over projects. There goes that fabulous video.

You stare at your phone in disbelief. You cry for a few minutes. You yell at no one in particular. You fume, but then you know what? You get over it. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I got over it.

Maybe the new video wasn't equally fabulous, but a video's a video. Which is more than I've produced in a few months.

So the new video may not have been the original idea, but I'd say it's a start. I also don't think this post would have been written had I not had that major fail. So here's to the bright sides! 

The great thing about blogs is that even if  no one ever sees them, you do. You have something to look back at in the furture, and be assured that you were doing at least one productive thing in your life.

So now to the point: The Book List

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Emma, by Jane Austen

The Art and Craft of Playwriting, by Jeffrey Hatcher

Write a Play, by Lesley Bown and Ann Gawthorpe

Paper Towns, by John Green

Simultaneously searching for the rest of the Confessions of Georgia Nichols series as well!

http://youtu.be/ZZKtnA3Jq3A

"Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

Not your average fairy tale. Not your average love story. This book isn't average anything, actually.

Gaiman's book is beyond a book. It's a masterpiece. Let's talk about why.

First of all. The book starts out in the quiet little town of Wall. We meet a young Dustan Thorn. One might think that the story was about Dustan, if they hadn't read the back of the book summary. 

Next thing you know, you're being catapulted into a mad, magical realm. What? It's brilliant. I skipped a lot of important points, but that's because I only have one necessary point to make. This book is beyond anything anyone could ever expect to imagine. Is Gaiman really man, or is he a god? Is this book just a story? Is it the "real life"? It can't possibly be fantasy. Give it a go. Most of you won't regret it.

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

So I read this book about two years ago, and recently picked it up again. I almost forgot why I loved it so much, then as I was reading through the pages I remembered. This might be the best book I've ever read aside from the Narnia series. It's very amazing, and it definately changed my life, and my view of literature. I'm reading the second one right now, (I said the third one in my video, oops) and I have to say that so far it does not disappoint. So go on and give this book a go! I think it's safe to say that few will regret it. 

http://youtu.be/3wzi4ugZR44