It Begins Again

IT RETURNS

Camp NaNoWriMo Time!

More soon. With progress updates.

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour Review

“Searching, always. And yes, we all are, or soon will be, disenchanted, I still want to know it all: the heartbreak, the fear, the friendship, the anger, the love. All of it.” _

I read this book in two days, shortly after I got it from my local library. Usually, if I can't really put a book down, its fairly good. This book was a little bit of an exception. It was a different kind of book than I would normally read, more contemporary-styled than my usual preference. 

The Disenchantments tells the story of four friends traveling together, touring as a band called The Disenchantments (hence the title). Colby, Bev, Meg, and Alexa plan to drive from their homes in San Fransisco to Portland, in which they are going to drop off one of the members at their new college. Colby and Bev planned to afterwards travel and expore Europe, visiting places they've only dreamed of for many years, and to visit Colby's mother in Paris; A story of music, friendship, and self-discovery. 

First of all, lets just talk about the cover. One of my absolute favorite things are well designed covers, something I aspire to help work on later in life. The cover of The Disenchantments certainly draws you to it. It practically screams out "SUMMER FUN WITH FRIENDS", which is something most of us, young or old, want to relive or experience again. The cover of this book is definitely one of the best parts, which usually can say much about a book itself, especially if most reviews say "awesome cover", "cute front of book", and "appealing design", rather than the book itself. It kinda looks like it was just pulled off of weheartit.com though...

Front cover of book

My favorite character was Colby, who was the main character and narrator of the story, and whom I routed for for a majority of the book. It was interesting to see a story narrated by a young, male boy, especially when most of the other important characters are female. It's just not too common these days, and I liked that aspect of the story.  Colby reminded me of a very close friend of mine, which definitely was a plus when trying to understand and relate to the character. Because I am not an 18 male, I had a hard time fully grasping what the author was trying to portray through him, especially with the themes of self-discovery and romance parts.

Now, I'm not saying this book is terrible, but it really just wasn't for me. I haven't read a lot of books like this before, and who knows, maybe I'll return to this book and find myself appreciating more.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5 stars

Library Books and Summer Reading

The sun... it burns...

The time has come. SUMMER READING!

Now that the stressful school year is over, it's time to kick back and relax with a few good books and nice summer treats. I'm actually really excited for it too, lots of books to read and treats to make. I'm definitely going to to busy.

Our local library has a program to basically "promote reading and fine literature in teen and children in this illiterate world". They have drawings for prizes and everything. They go all out every year. I'm personally aiming at a $50 gift card to our local bookstore. There's a lot you could do with $50 in a bookstore...

Along with signing up for the program, I got 4 books:

A Monster Calls - by Patrick Ness
( Goodreads- Buy it here)
Grasshopper Jungle - by Andrew Smith
(Goodreads - Buy it here)
The Disenchantments - by Nina LaCour
(Goodreads - Buy it here)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews
(Goodreads - Buy it here)

The Return

I'm just not going to even bother giving an explanation...

Now, time for a change!

I'm going to be writing in here more often, (I wonder how many times I've said that...) but I'm really going to try. I really like writing on a blog, and having one truly makes me happy, even if no one even reads it.

I'm going to experiment more on this blog though, even with different types of content. I've been really into baking recently, and I'd love to share my favorite recipes and tricks, as well as recommending and promoting the sources and people I got them from.

I also have started up getting into photography, and I'd love  to share them.

I won't forget about the books too.

So, happy reading, I guess.