These Books Among Us

For everyone to remember as we end this year: Not every year is going to be amazing or painless, but it’s your job to find the good moments . When life starts to feel a little rough, pick up a pen and write, read a book, watch your favorite movie, put on a song and dance, talk to a friend, meet a new person, take a walk, or drink some tea. If you need to, it’s okay to cry, just don’t leave. Live in the moment and do something that makes you happy. Know this: you are stronger than you think . You can get through the tough times, but you don’t have to do it alone. You are loved and you can love. When people tell you to stop standing up for something you believe in, you stand taller. You do not need their approval. But take care of yourself first. Be selfish sometimes , it’s okay, I won’t judge. Take your emotions and create something, it’s what you’re good at .

Hey All! We made it! It's the last Friday of the 2016! Woo hoo!! I hope you 2017s are kind to you! Sorry for not posting anything last week, I kinda completely forgot about it. I was a little preoccupied reading and trying to get into the Christmas spirit. (Spoiler, I never really got into the spirit) I am still trying to complete my self appointed reading challenge, but I only have two books left! One of them only has about 160 pages left in it, the other is about 350 pages. I've got this! Okay, so there may be some changes coming up to the format of the blog again. I may go up to posting more times a week because at the moment, I am all queued up until February and I want you all to get these reviews a bit sooner! I am also planning on starting a youtube channel! So some of these reviews will not be posted as text, but as a video now! I may actually move over to youtube permanently, but I'm not quite sure yet! Like I said, I have two more books to read this year

Saga Vol 3 by My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 20 November 2016 Synopsis: From the Hugo Award-winning duo of Brian K. Vaughan (The Private Eye, Y: The Last Man) and Fiona Staples (North 40, Red Sonja), Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. Searching for their literary hero, new parents Marko and Alana travel to a cosmic lighthouse on the planet Quietus, while the couple's multiple pursuers finally close in on their targets. Collects issues 13-18. My Review: Out of the three volumes I have read of this, I think this one is my least favorite. That being said, it's still amazing. The characters are getting more complex, there are more characters, in general, to learn about, and more story lines to follow. I really enjoyed meeting the author. He was a super chill guy. Until that thing happened. Honestly, Marco's mom just can't catch a break, can she? That was a rough three weeks for her. I'm keepin

Saga Volume 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist) (168 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 19 November 2016 Synopsis: From award-winning writer BRIAN K. VAUGHAN (Pride of Baghdad, Ex Machina) and critically acclaimed artist FIONA STAPLES (Mystery Society, Done to Death), SAGA is sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the universe. Thanks to her star-crossed parents Marko and Alana, newborn baby Hazel has already survived lethal assassins, rampaging armies, and horrific monsters, but in the cold vastness of outer space, the little girl encounters her strangest adventure yet... grandparents. Collects Saga issues #7-12 My Review: Here's another review that is 4.5 stars. I love Alana's obsession with that book. I feel like that is me on the page because I do the same thing: push a book at people until they begrudgingly read it and then tell me to piss off. Well, except for Marco, he liked it, but everyone else was so

Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist) (160 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 19 November 2016 Synopsis: When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. From bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults. Collects Saga issues #1-6 My Review: I am giving this first book a 4.5 stars, because, while I really enjoyed reading it, there were a few points where if got a bit too much for me. If you have read it, you'll understand what I mean. Also, like always, this is a spoiler alert as there will most likely be a bunch of spoilers in this review. So you have been warned. I can honestly say that I loved the relationship between the two main characters. T

The Norton Anthology of Modern & Contemporary Poetry, Vol 1: Modern Poetry by Jahan Ramazani (1136 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Read: 18 November 2016 Synopsis: Thirty years later, this innovative, cover-to-cover revision renders with fresh eyes and meticulous care the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and voices in English-language poetry. The newly titled Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry now available in two paperback volumes includes 1,596 poems by 195 poets (half of the poems are new), from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late nineteenth century to Anne Carson and Sherman Alexie in the twenty-first. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry continues to be the most comprehensive collection of twentieth-century poetry in English. It richly represents the major figures, while also giving full voice to ethnic American poetries, experimental traditions, postcolonial poetry, and the long poem, eclipsing all other anthologies in sco

Hey all! It's that time of the week again! Update time! I can't remember if I said this in the last update or not, but if I did, then here's a reminder! I'm up to two review posts a week now! Along with these little updates on Fridays, that means I'm up to three total posts a week! Woo hoo!! In book news: I am trying to read a total of seventeen books this month. So far, with only fifteen days left, I have read six. Here's hoping I can get this done! I think I will, but I'm not going to make any definite promises! I am currently reading Blood and Salt by Kim Liggett. It's a book about a girl who's mom goes back to this cult she grew up in and now the main character and her twin brother have to go find her and try to stay alive. I'm quite intrigued so far, though I'm only about thirty pages in, but it's pretty cool! I'm being cautiously optimistic, mainly because I have been burned before. The first fifty pages can be good, but

Cress by Marissa Meyer (582 pages) My Rating: 5 Stars Date Read: 14 November 2016 Synopsis: Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.   My Review: There's going to be spoilers in the review, so be warned. Marissa Meyer did it again! I have to say this  series is a lot better than I

Gabriel: A Poem by Edward Hirsch (86 pages) My rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 11 November 2016 Synopsis: Never has there been a book of poems quite like Gabriel, in which a short life, a bewildering death, and the unanswerable sorrow of a father come together in such a sustained elegy. This unabashed sequence speaks directly from Hirsch’s heart to our own, without sentimentality. From its opening lines—“The funeral director opened the coffin / And there he was alone / From the waist up”—Hirsch’s account is poignantly direct and open to the strange vicissitudes and tricks of grief. In propulsive three-line stanzas, he tells the story of how a once unstoppable child, who suffered from various developmental disorders, turned into an irreverent young adult, funny, rebellious, impulsive. Hirsch mixes his tale of Gabriel with the stories of other poets through the centuries who have also lost children, and expresses his feelings through theirs. His landmark poem enters the broad stream

Hey All!! So, in case you did not notice this week, I am updating with reviews more regularly! Since I have a longer queue, I am going back up to posting a review on Monday AND Wednesday with the updates of Fridays! Woo!! Okay, so I am challenging myself to try to read sixteen books this month and so far, I have read one and three quarters. I am sure I will get it done, I just have to sit down and do it! The book I am currently reading is Winter by Marissa Meyer. I am in love with this series, mainly because of the characteristics of the women (thank you bad ass women figures) so if you have not read it yet, check it out! I have reviews posted already for three of the books, and my review for Fairest will be up soon! Other books on my to read list include: Stars Above, Shards & Ashes, The Wyrd Sisters, Shakespeare by Another Name (keeping some scholarly books in there), Blood and Salt, The Crown's Game, A Wicked Thing, Vanishing Girls, Reign of Shadows, Heartless, My La

That This by Susan Howe (112 pages) My rating: 2.5 Stars Date Read: 11 November 2016 Synopsis: “What treasures of knowledge we cluster around.” That This is a collection in three pieces. “Disappearance Approach,” an essay about the sudden death of the author’s husband (“land of darkness or darkness itself you shadow mouth”), begins the book with paintings by Poussin, an autopsy, Sarah Edwards and her sister-in-law Hannah, phantoms, elusive remnants, and snakes. “Frolic Architecture,” the second section — inspired by visits to the vast 18th-century Jonathan Edwards archives at the Beinecke and accompanied by six black-and-white photograms by James Welling — presents hauntingly lovely, oblique text-collages that Howe (with scissors and “invisible” Scotch Tape and a Canon copier) has twisted, flattened, and snipped into “inscapes of force.” The final section, “That This,” delivers beautiful short squares of verse that might look at home in a hymnal, although their orderly appear

Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein (134 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 6 November 2016 Synopsis: The MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions has awarded Tender Buttons: The Corrected Centennial Edition its seal designating it an MLA Approved Edition. 2014 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the original publication of Gertrude Stein's groundbreaking modernist classic, Tender Buttons. This centennial edition is the first and only version to incorporate Stein's own handwritten corrections—found in a first-edition copy at the University of Colorado—as well as corrections discovered among her papers at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Editor Seth Perlow has assembled a text with over one hundred emendations, resulting in the first version of Tender Buttons that truly reflects its author's intentions. These changes are detailed in Perlow's "Note on the Text," which describes the editorial process and lists the specific variants for the benefit

Hello All!! I am so sorry I haven't posted an update in a while, but I've actually been pretty busy! I went home last weekend for Thanksgiving break and had a great time visiting with my parents, brother, and puppies! I even went to go see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I actually really enjoyed. The biggest thing I have been doing recently is finals! Classes are officially over, but next week starts finals week. Being an English major, however, means I do not have in class finals, just essays. I have officially turned in two out of three, but I still have to finish that third paper. I am hoping to get the first draft done by today so I can edit and have everything done by Sunday! Then the fun begins! (By the fun I mean reading and watching Netflix and baking) Speaking of reading, this month I have a goal to read sixteen books! I hope I will be able to, but I am making no promises as I still need to work on the typed edits for my book! Well, I think that

The Tempest by William Shakespeare ( pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 4 November 2016 Synopsis: “Sources and Contexts” offers a rich collection of documents on the play’s central themes—magic and witchcraft, politics and religion, geography and travel. Writers include Ovid, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Gabriel Naudé, Michel de Montaigne, and William Strachey. “Criticism” collects eighteen responses to The Tempest, from John Dryden and Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Stephen Orgel and Leah Marcus. “Rewritings and Appropriations” includes creative reactions to The Tempest, by playwrights, filmmakers, and poets, among them H.D., Peter Greenaway, and Ted Hughes. A Selected Bibliography is also included. My Review: I had to read this play  for my Shakespeare class in college and it was the first time I had ever read it. This was an interesting play, and I'm not sure where it will fit on my scale for my favorite Shakespearean plays. While the plot was pretty straight

Nox by Anne Carson (184 pages) My Rating: 3 Stars Date Read: 4 November 2016 Synopsis: Nox is an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The poem describes coming to terms with his loss through the lens of her translation of Poem 101 by Catullus “for his brother who died in the Troad.” Nox is a work of poetry, but arrives as a fascinating and unique physical object. Carson pasted old letters, family photos, collages and sketches on pages. The poems, typed on a computer, were added to this illustrated “book” creating a visual and reading experience so amazing as to open up our concept of poetry. My Review: I had to read this book of poetry for my Modern Elegy English course at my school and I found it very interesting. This was the first elegy we had read by a female author, even though we are well over half way through our quarter. I found the poems themselves very convoluted, but they we

Hello Everyone! I hope you have all had a great week! I have been super productive in everything but what I really want to be, to be honest. I have gotten a lot of my classwork done, but I haven't started typing up my edits. Oh yeah!! I finished the written edits for my book! Woo! Super exciting, right?! I also finished Cress by Marissa Meyer, so the review for that will be coming up soon-ish! Ugh, it was so good! I highly recommend her Lunar Chronicles Series! The biggest thing that happened this week was about a sale. So on Target.com, there was a sale for the exact KitchenAid mixer that I wanted: a great 5 Quart, Professional 5 Mixer, which is normally $449.99. Now, I know what you're thinking. That's so expensive Dana! But hold on, here comes the sale part! I got it, with tax and shipping, for about half the price! I know right? Super great deal! So it came in the mail on Wednesday, but I can't actually open it until after Cyber Monday just in case that slim

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (536 pages) My Rating: 5 stars Date Read: 27 October 2016 Synopsis When you can’t beat the odds, change the game. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world. My Review: This post will 100% be full of spoilers for both the first book and this book, so if you have not read either, please leave the post now, because you need to read this series

Hey everyone, So, even though the election happened this week, I do not think I will be able to rationally explain myself and my thoughts on it, so I am going to let this be the only acknowledgement to it in this post. If you are a friend or family member, you probably already know what my thoughts are. I do not want to get into any political debates with people because I just don't need that negativity in my life. So, moving on. I have a queue again for the posts! And they will keep coming! I plan on reading about three books this weekend, two for class and one for fun, so I will be set, hopefully, until the end of the year! I am still currently reading Cress by Marissa Meyer. I know, I should have been finished up with it a while ago, and I wanted to, but I have been really busy with classes and editing that I haven't really had the time. Speaking of, I have almost finished my written edits for the book I wrote for last NaNoWriMo!!!! Woo!! It's only taken me 11 mo

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will by William Shakespeare (430 pages) My Rating: 3.5 Stars Date Read: 25 October 2016 Synopsis: This edition of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night reprints the Bevington edition of the play along with 7 sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare's play and the early modern culture out of which the play emerges. The texts include facsimiles of period documents, maps, woodcuts, descriptions of the popular customs associated with Twelfth Night, anti-theatrical tracts, royal proclamations concerning dress, laws prohibiting certain sexual acts, poems fantasizing those very acts, early modern texts on household economies, passages from Puritan conduct books, excerpts from Ovid and Montaigne, a representative range of early modern opinions about boy actors, and theories of laughter. Besides contextualizing the audience for Shakespeare's play and shedding light on

Hey Guys!! So, I meant to get this out a lot earlier than I did today, but I was super busy all day! Even though I din't have work, I was hanging out with my Aunt who came to visit for about four or so hours, doing homework, and having bonding time with my roommates for about 10 or so hours after that! This week has been crazy! I have been reading a lot for my classes, but I have also finally started a new book! I am currently reading Cress by Marissa Meyer for fun, along with The Tempest (Shakespeare), Nox (Anne Carson), and Tender Buttons (Gertrude Stein) for my classes. On top of those readings, I am also taking part in my own version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who may not have known. Instead of writing a new novel, I am finally getting around to actually editing the one I wrote last year! I'm trying to do about 15 or so pages a day for the handwritten portion which will hopefully take me to about the 18th of the month. After that, I wi

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (180 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Read: 24 October 2016 Synopsis: "Now we have an American masterpiece in its final form: the original crystal has shaped itself into the true diamond. This is the novel as Fitzgerald wished it to be, and so it is what we have dreamed of, sleeping and waking."--James Dickey This is the definitive, textually accurate edition of a classic of twentieth-century literature, The Great Gatsby. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan has been acclaimed by generations of readers. But the first edition contained a number of errors resulting from Fitzgerald's extensive revisions and a rushed production schedule. Subsequent printings introduced further departures from the author's words. This edition, based on the Cambridge critical text, restores all the language of Fitzgerald's masterpiece. Drawing on the manuscript and surviving proofs o

Hey guys! I did it! I finally have read enough books for a queue again! Woo hoo! So, yes, three of the books I have scheduled for reviews are for class, but it's fine! I finally finished Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, so that review will be coming up soon! I have been doing a lot of baking as well, so I may post some reviews of those recipes and some of the pictures I took, but I'll have to think about it some. I am taking a slight break from baking because it is getting quite expensive, which is not kind to my wallet. In school, I am about half way done with my last fall quarter! It just hit me recently that I am going to be graduating and going out into the real world! (Slightly freaking out, but it's okay, just breathe, right?) I have a midterm coming up on Wednesday, so, again, deep breaths. Life has been going pretty well in general. I'm having fun at school, work is going well, I get to read and (hopefully) write more. Oh! Speaking of writing! So inst

Mrs Dalloway by Virgina Woolf (197 pages) My Rating: 2.5 Stars Date Read: 19 October 2016 Synopsis: In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with far-away remembrances. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices she has made, hesitantly looking ahead to growing old. Undeniably triumphant, this is the inspired novelistic outline of human consciousness. My Review: I am going to start off by saying that I normally enjoy the Modernist literature. This being said, however, I did not really enjoy this book. It was long winded and very dense. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Following many different characters with no chapter breaks and no real breaks in the stream of consciousness was difficult to handle. I thought it was clever how the na

Hey Y'all! Sorry I didn't get out an update on time today or on Friday. Unfortunately, I don't have a book review again this week. I have been super busy with my classes and work! I'm almost done with reading Crooked Kingdom, so hopefully, I'll have a review up for that on either this Monday or the next. It depends on if I finish my book for class first or not! So this weekend, I got to go home for a short visit with my family! It was so much fun! I got to get a new book case and try making pretzels for a third time! This time, they were much better too!!! If you couldn't tell, I'm in a good mood this week. Hopefully it will stick for the rest of the week! I am planning on reading a book called The Cellar by Natasha Preston after I finish Crooked Kingdom! It looks really creepy, so it's a perfect read for October since it's getting closer to Halloween! So for an update on the blog itself: I still plan on doing at least one post a week some

Hey Y'all!! So, I didn't finish the book I was planning on reading this weekend, so  I thought I would give you a recipe and a review of how it turned out instead! Hopefully this is an okay substitute!! So yesterday (Sunday) I decided to try to make some soft pretzels from scratch because it's fall and pretzels are a pretty fall food! This was my first time making soft pretzels on my own, so that being said, it turned out a lot better than I  had actually expected! I'll post the recipe and some pictures below! Ingredients: 4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) 5 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1/2 cup baking soda 4 cups hot water Kosher Salt for Toppings Method: Prep 2 h Cook 10 m Ready In 2 h 20 m In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. In

Hello All!! So I thought I would update you on what I'm reading, watching, and just generally doing with my spare time at the moment! Right now for fun reading, I am reading Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I finally got it in the mail, but I didn't really have (or make) much time to read it! But now, I am just about finished with part two and oh my goodness, if I didn't have to work today, I would have stayed up all night to finish the whole book! For my classes, I am reading Hamlet (again) as well as a bunch of modernist literature and poetry, and elegies. Sounds fun, right? It actually kind of is, to be completely honest. I love getting to take these English courses and learning little hidden things in each of the works we read! Wow, I am sounding like such a book nerd right now! That's about it for what I'm reading at the moment. Now onto shows and movies! My new roommates and I have been re-watching a bunch of the Studio Ghibli films each night, so t

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (398 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 25 September 2016 Synopsis: This Norton Critical Edition of Hamlet features a newly edited text based on the Second Quarto (1604–05). It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and appendices providing important passages from both the First Quarto Hamlet (1603) and the Folio Hamlet (1623). Robert S. Miola’s thought-provoking introduction, “Imagining Hamlet,” considers this tragedy as it has taken shape in the theater, in criticism, and in various cultures. “The Actors’ Gallery” presents famous actors and actresses—among them Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Kenneth Branagh, and Jude Law—reflecting on their roles in major productions of Hamlet for stage and screen. “Contexts” includes generous selections from the Bible, Greek (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) and Roman (Seneca) tragedies, Saxo Grammaticus, Dante, Thomas More, and Thomas Kyd.

Hey guys! So I have almost officially caught up with the reviews of the books I have read this year, so I am going to be changing up the formatting of how I publish on the blog. From now on, I will be doing a review published on Mondays and an update of what I am doing on Fridays. I may post little updates throughout the week, but as of right now, there are going to be only posts on Mondays and Fridays! Classes started this last week, so I will be having less time to do fun readings, but I will try my best to read about 12 fun books this quarter! Also, I am going to start baking more soon, so I will post some pictures when I actually finish some of the recipes! I am really excited to experiment with new recipes that are a lot more challenging than what I'm used to! Okay, so  that does it for this update for now! I hope you all have an amazing month!! XO Dana

Burned by Ellen Hopkins (544 pages) My Rating: 4 Stars Date Finished: 21 September 2016 Synopsis: Raised in a religious -- yet abusive -- family, Pattyn Von Stratten starts asking questions -- about God, a woman's role, sex, love. She experiences the first stirrings of passion, but when her father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control. Pattyn is sent to live with an aunt in the wilds of Nevada to find salvation and redemption. What she finds instead is love and acceptance -- until she realizes that her old demons will not let her go. My Review: I honestly didn't know how I would feel about this book. I haven't been having the best week or so, so I didn't necessarily want to read something too heavy. While this book did have a lot of heavy themes, it wasn't too dark for me, which I was glad about. The rest of this review will have some spoilers, so read at your own peril. I didn't really know much about this book a

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas (736 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 20 September 2016 Synopsis: The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't. As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. With war looming on all horizons, the only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear. Aelin's journey from assassin to queen has entranced millions across the globe, and this fifth installment will leave fans breathless. Will Aelin succeed in keeping her world from splintering, or will it all come crashing down? My Review: This review will have a lot of spoilers for the books, so if you haven't read it, I suggest yo