Brighten Up

So behind on my reviews. I’m over tired and staring at a pile of books that have been read but need to be reviewed (Divergent by Veronica Roth, Eve by Anna Carey, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, etc, etc). Tiredness is winning however, so I’ll post a review tomorrow.

Instead of a review, here’s a few awesome things that are brightening my day.

Black and White Cookie

I have a delicious Black and White cookie, some of my wonderful friends brought this back from their trip to New York. I have never seen these types of cookies in Ontario, so I was very excited to receive this!

This adorable video called “Church Giggles” via Girls Gone Child. How can you watch a laughing baby without at least cracking a smile?

And last but certainly not least- today I’m on the receiving end of a Spotlight Attack from my Treasury Island team mates on Etsy. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, a spotlight attack is when a team member is picked (for today, me!) and the other members of the team make an Etsy treasury featuring an item from their store. It’s fun, exciting to be picked and it leads to higher views and sometimes even sales Here’s a couple of the Spotlight Attack treasuries so far:

Whimsical by Meredith from Patchworkcrafters, and What Katy Did Next by Pamela Bates from Bates Mercantile Co.

What have you found to brighten your day today?

 

 

Movie Monday- Why I Won’t Be Watching The Descendants

via Tribute

Welcome to Movie Monday, where I review a book that has spawned a movie, or a movie that is based on a book. Some weeks it won’t be a full review, it may just be news or photos of a book based movie. Last week on Movie Monday I wondered what was up with all of the hype for The Hunger Games.

This week I’ll be talking about a movie that I haven’t seen, based on a book that I haven’t read- The Descendants. My intention was to review a different book today, a book that I’ve actually read   but I thought that this was more important.

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of people tossing the word “retard” around so casually, like it doesn’t mean anything. People will use that word to describe friends, people they dislike, even themselves. I hear people using the word frequently, and I see it used online too but I don’t usually say anything about it. Today I saw it used on Twitter and I just had to speak up. I was looking around online for the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign and I stumbled upon a review of The Descendants, the movie I was supposed to be seeing tonight. This review was written by Jennifer Dawn at Cowgirl Up!, she’s a mom with two kids, one of whom has Down Syndrome. I also found another great review of the movie here. After reading those reviews I definitely won’t be going to see that movie tonight, or any other night. I’m letting my money talk, and I just can’t support a movie that gratuitously used that word.

I would love to believe that most people who use the r-word just aren’t thinking. Maybe they don’t understand how hateful and hurtful that word is. Maybe they’ve never been around anyone with Down Syndrome, or Autism, etc and have no one to picture when that word is used. But I do. I have worked with several children who have Down Syndrome, Autism, etc and I have had wonderful experiences taking care of those sweet, loving children. Every time I hear the r-word uses I picture them, and I feel hurt for them.

This post is dragging on and I feel like I’m just spinning in circles. here’s some posts from people who weigh in on this subject far better than I ever could.

Rob Rummel-Hudson from Schuyler’s Monster: Just a Word

What Happens When You Ask People Not to Say the Word “Retard” via BlogHer

Check out the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign here.

The “toaster” is toast, and other links.

Apparently this generation has dropped the ball on the Edgar Allan Poe “toaster” tradition. Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum has declared that the tradition of a mysterious visitor leaving a half empty bottle of cognac on Poe’s grave on his birthday is officially over. Hopefully in the future someone else will pick up the torch (or the cognac, in this case) and restart it.

I can’t find a Canadian link for this, but for any Americans who want to vote in the mtv.com Movie Brawl 2012, it’s down to Cosmopolis vs. The Hunger Games. Vote here.

I created this fun Etsy treasury called Birds on a Wire

And I was included in this very creative treasury called Bikes, Bananas and Beards.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Book Review: Bunheads by Sophie Flack

19 year old Hannah Ward dances with the Manhattan Ballet Company. She has devoted her life to dancing, even moving to New York without her parents at the young age of 14. Bunheads follows Sophie through classes, rehearsals and performances, as well as through some non-ballet outings with an awful boy named Jacob.

Sophie Flack started dancing at a young age as well, and danced professionally with the New York City Ballet. Her experience shows in her writing, the ballet scenes in Bunheads are well detailed and show a behind the scenes view at the ballet world. Her experience makes Bunheads feel very authentic and realistic.

It’s fascinating to get to see inside a world so different than mine (I can not imagine putting in the amount of mental and physical work that Hannah puts into her dancing!). During the novel Hannah struggles with her decision to dance, wondering if it is time to move on to something new when all she knows is ballet.

The tension between Hannah and her friends as they hang out and dance together, because they are working towards the same goals and the same roles in the ballets is well written and adds to the quick pace of the novel.

The plot doesn’t drag and it’s a pretty quick read, which my short attention span really appreciated. Aside from most of the scenes with Jacob (I felt he was a loser that Hannah should have kicked to the curb within 5 seconds of meeting him) I really enjoyed reading Bunheads.

Whether you’re a diehard balletomane or you’re never seen a single ballet, Bunheads is interesting enough to draw you in. 4.5/5.

New Photos from the Hunger Games Movie: What’s with the Hype?

Lionsgate has released a new photo from The Hunger Games movie:

Movie Web has a gallery of photos from The Hunger Games, and I’m sure that everyone has already seen the teaser trailer and the official trailer. There’s also the Taylor Swift song that was made for the movie and various scenes already online. Honestly, there’s so much content from the movie already out that I feel like I’ve seen most of the movie, and so far I’m not liking what I see.

I loved the first two books in The Hunger Games trilogy (hated the last one) but I’m just not understanding the hype for the movie. They don’t seem to have captured the essence of the books either with their casting choices or the plot. I also have to wonder why they are pushing out so much content in advance of the movie- they seem to be desperate to create hype. I know that fans of The Hunger Games will probably be lining up to see it on opening weekend but what about other people? Hopefully the movie will turn out to be better than the hype.

Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers

After the King rules that the streets of Paris will be emptied of beggars, Laure Beausejour is found on the streets with her poor parents. She is taken away from them and brought to the Enfant-Jésus dormitory at the Salpêtrière Hospital to be raised. The Salpêtrière Hospital is the dumping ground for any orphans, women who are mentally or physically ill and too poor and unlucky enough to have nowhere else to go.

Laure stays in the Enfant-Jésus dormitory until she is 10, when a rich woman comes looking for a servant girl. Madame D’Aulnay takes Laure in and treats her like a daughter, even teaching her how to read. When Madame D’Aulnay dies, Laure must return to the Salpêtrière Hospital. This time she is a little luckier- she is placed in the Sainte Claire dormitory where the girls are taught to make beautiful lace and can expect a job in a milliner’s shop when they are older if they behave and work hard.

Instead, Laure and her best friend are sent on a ship to New France as Filles du Roi, to help populate the new country by marrying one of the rough traders already living there.

I went to French Immersion in grades 7 and 8 and Quebec’s history was heavily focused on in history and social studies. Of course, the history that was taught was a highly sanitized and glamorized version of events- where the Filles du Roi were rich girls from France who chose to come to the new country because it was such a wonderful opportunity. Not in this book (and probably not in real life either!). Laure has a very long and tough journey by boat- rough waters, sickness and poor food and the hardships don’t end when they reach land.

This book was very dramatic and very powerful- Laure is such a strong character and goes through so many trials. I really loved Suzanne Desrochers writing- her bio says she grew up in a French-Canadian village and her passion and knowledge for that culture comes through in her writing. I give this book a 5/5 and would definitely recommend it.

Link Up Love

I’m participating in a few shop and blog link ups today- if you have an Etsy shop (or if you sell handmade goods elsewhere online) or a blog you’d like to add to the link up, check out these great blogs:

I’ve also made a treasury featuring a few of my favourite items from shops participating in the shop hops and link ups. There’s something for everyone so I hope you enjoy my newest treasury, Link Up Love!

Crossed by Ally Condie

Crossed by Ally Condie is the sequel to Matched. In Matched we learned about the Society that Cassia lives in that controls every aspect of her life- what she eats, what she wears, her education and eventual career- even who she will be Matched to.

In Crossed Cassia has left her family and Xander behind and has made her way to the Outer Provinces to look for Ky. She has some help from Xander, although his gifts are not necessarily beneficial. Xander’s part in this book is smaller than Ky’s, which is unfortunate because I definitely like Xander’s character better than Ky’s- he’s  written in a way that makes me feel more compassion for him, and more interest in him. Ky has led a much more interesting life but his character comes across as a little flat in comparison to Xander.

I didn’t like Crossed nearly as much as Matched (I loved Matched!)- it just didn’t catch my interest as much as Matched did. There are some great characters (I want to adopt Eli to be my little brother!) and plot twists, but a few of them are very obvious far in advance of when they are revealed. I’m not sure if they are really supposed to be plot twists or if the readers are supposed to be clued in to some things before Cassia is. Ally Condie’s writing continues to shine- she writes very descriptively and makes you feel like you’re part of the book- I love books like that.

Crossed is definitely a worthwhile read, especially if you loved Matched and are interested in following Cassia’s journey. Can’t wait until the next book in the trilogy comes out!

Variant by Robison Wells

It’s so hard to review a book like Variant. I want to give enough information on the book to pique your interest but not so much information that it ruins the book for you.

The copy of Variant that I read has a quote by James Dashner, author of The Mazerunner, on the front cover that pretty much sums it up: “I loved it! The twist behind it all is my favorite since Ender’s Game.

Benson Fisher is a boy that bounces around from foster home to foster home. When he lands in a foster home where he’s basically just free labour, working in the gas station his foster family owns weekends, before school and after school he applies for a scholarship to Maxfield Academy, which he thinks is a boarding school. He starts to realize what he’s in for when he gets to the school and finds out that there are no adults at all on the school property, there are cameras everywhere and there’s a giant wall all the way around the property to prevent escapes. Not your typical boarding school.

I went most of the way though the book with a theory as to what was going on in my mind- I was completely wrong and the twist was much better than what I had been thinking. The book ends in a complete cliff hanger and I’m absolutely desperate for the next book to come out. Hopefully Robison Wells writes quickly!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I absolutely loved the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I’m a bit of a sucker for blogs and books where someone commits to doing a certain task for a year (the woman who fanatically followed Oprah’s advice for a year? Crazy but awesome) In the Happiness Project Gretchen Rubin spends a year finding happiness and records the results. She focused on a different aspect of her life each month ( January was Boost Energy, February was Remember Love, etc) and made the last month a “boot camp” where she followed every goal from the previous months.

Honestly, just reading the book was a bit exhausting. I can not imagine doing what she did (the studying, the classes, acting on all the advice she was following, the constant improvements in every area of her life) and not falling into a month long coma at the end of the project. As is said in the book however, everyone’s happiness project will look different so if I was to create my own project it might look a bit more low key than Rubin’s. (Maybe I should re-read the Boost Energy chapter…)

This isn’t your typical self help book- it flows like a novel so it’s fun and interesting to read and Rubin manages to impart a lot of lessons learned without sounding preachy or full of herself.

I’ve found myself thinking this book over since I read it. One of the things mentioned in the book is spending forward, not hoarding new stuff while you use the broken, worn out stuff. I have adorable tape with brightly coloured animals all over it. It was a random purchase made a couple of years ago and I love the tape- the bright colours and silly animals bring a smile to my face whenever I see it. And yet it lives in the drawer while I use boring clear tape for everything. After reading the Happiness Project I remembered the tape, and the next time I needed tape I chose the happy animal tape instead of the clear tape. Such a small thing but it made me smile

Not everything in this book will matter or make sense to everyone but there’s such a broad range of information and advice in this book that there’s something for everyone. Even if you’re not planning on creating your own Happiness Project this book is still an enjoyable and worthwhile read. 5/5.