take a look! it's in a book!

first off, gold stars to everyone who knows what this ^ is all about.
second, several months ago you may have noticed a new "library" tab at the top of my blog. it's now partially updated. i've listed the books i currently have with me and a few of the ones i have at home. i'll try to finish it over spring break.
if you ever want to borrow a book, just send me an email or a facebook message or a text or leave a comment here! if you're in georgia and want to borrow a book that's in utah, or vice versa, it might take a few weeks to get to you but i'll do my best (with the help of my lovely parents)
now, get reading!

the help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

i'm still not sure how i feel about this book. it was decent but it definitely was not as earth-shattering as some seem to think. it is definitely NOT on the level of "to kill a mockingbird." i feel like the author wanted to write a book about every controversial issue during the time period. what she managed to do was to touch on a lot of things but none of them very deeply. the ending felt abrupt and too convenient. i was honestly expecting this to be a tragedy that would have me crying but that definitely did not happen. i think my review of this book would have been better if i had not had such high expectations from the start. as just a work of fiction it is good enough but not as some great social commentary.

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the demon girl

Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


i'm torn on what to give this book. for starters, the concept is AMAZING and for the most part the storyline and characters are intriguing. you start off thinking it's going to be the same old love triangle with the girl whining about how hard it is to have two boys love you and blah blah blah but rae is actually a really strong character and you can see her feelings for both boys, making her seem more sincere. one of the smaller details i thought was really interesting was how fletcher mentions in passing that since humans were almost wiped out, they've had to set religions and races aside and band together, leading to one "religion" and a community where everyone has a similar skin tone with small variations. thinking about it, it's true that this would likely happen. i've never read anything like this in any other apocalyptic/dystopian novels.
okay, now for the bad stuff. as amazing as the story is, it's really frustrating to be in the middle of a good part and have to go back and re-read a sentence several times due to a grammatical/spelling error. i don't think fletcher had anyone edit this and if she did, she needs to fire them and find someone else for her next books. here are a couple of examples that really bothered me:
"There were few people wandering around who were not emancipated looking, and it was usually a sure sign the person was a Priest or related to one. Only they could afford to eat enough to be anything other than thin."
the word she means to use is EMACIATED. emancipated means a sort of freedom, no longer being constrained by custom or tradition.
"The class divided up into little clicks and Ro came over."
clicks are noises. cliques are groups of people who share common interests or personalities.
i'm not quite ready to give up on her and i'm hoping the next novel shows drastic improvements in her spelling and grammar, although the preview chapter at the end of this book doesn't seem promising.



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fourth, photo, fiction

first things first, let's start off this post with a catch up from last week's photo theme thursday. part of the reason i put it off is also because i didn't have a good picture but i got one that i like tonight!

curved

i think this is the turtle firework that ended up getting flipped on its back.

i hope everyone had a safe and happy fourth of july. i had fun with my parents and sistah. there are more pictures and videos on my facebook page and also on my new google+ page (though i'm still trying to figure that out. side note: if you want an invite, send me your gmail address).

there is a tertiary reason for this post. i finished reading a pretty interesting book last week and thought i'd give it a little review.

blame

by Michelle Huneven

"Patsy MacLemoore, a twenty-eight-year-old history professor with a brand-new Ph.D. and a wild streak, wakes up in jail—yet again—after another epic alcoholic blackout. This time, though, a mother and daughter are dead, run over in Patsy's driveway. Patsy will the next decades of her life atoning for this unpardonable act. She goes to prison, sobers up, marries a much older man she meets in AA, and makes ongoing amends to her victims' family. Then, another piece of news turns up, casting her crime, and her life, in a different and unexpected light. Brilliant, morally complex, and often funny, Blame is a breathtaking story of contrition and what it takes to rebuild a life from the bottom up."

i wasn't really sure to think about this book when i first marked it "to-read." occasionally i do like to read something a little heavier, a little tragic (last year it was The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty) but alcoholism is a tough subject for me to read about or discuss without getting emotionally involved. i saw it at borders during their "going out of business" sale and got it for a bargain.

the first couple of chapters confused the heck out of me. first, i didn't realize that the point of view had changed from the girl, Joey, to the woman who Joey had met briefly, Patsy. second, it takes a little while to get used to Huneven's writing style. she doesn't use quotes or really any conventional markers when her characters speak. at the same time, though, once i got into the groove of things, i found i liked this style better. it allowed the words to flow more smoothly; it made the dialogue feel more natural.

after the first few chapters, i kept waiting for a BIG DRAMATIC MOMENT. guess what? it doesn't ever really come. you can tell what the "big surprise" basically is from the first of the book and it presents itself slowly. it doesn't slam into your face.

it wasn't until after i had finished the second to the last chapter that i understood what Blame was really about. it's not about an alcoholic, a drunk driver, a murdered family torn apart, it's none of those things that it appears to be on the outside. instead, it's really just a book about handling whatever life throws at us and about taking responsibility for our own actions. i think that's why i really liked this book in the end. it's not that it has some big happy ending - it's that patsy always takes responsibility for what she has done and learns from her past mistakes. she doesn't spend her time feeling sorry for herself or blaming others, although it is hard for her not to do so at times. it's also about learning to forgive ourselves and accept our own imperfections. every past experience has brought us to where we are today and we have the ability to change where we are in the future by the choices we make now. pardon the cliche, but it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey that gets you there. this life is all about learning and living to our fullest extent and i think patsy shows us how to do just that marvelously.

catching up & more

i believe i promised a blog entry and so here i am to deliver.
a lot has changed in the year since i last wrote.

• i haven't had a kidney stone surgery in over a year
  
• i graduated from the u with a b.s. in chemistry
• i got accepted to UGA pharmacy school and leave in august
• i'm planning on helping UGA start up a pharmD/phD program so i'll get 2 doctorates while there
• i'm actually feeling pretty healthy lately :)

probably the biggest downer was when i had a colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago. they found and removed 2 polyps and took a sample of some inflamed tissue. the polyps were not cancerous but they are the type that most often turns into cancer so i now have to go back every 2 years. oh joy.



enough of that for now. ages ago, my friend sarah gave me the "irresistably sweet" award. in exchange for receiving the award, i'm supposed to list 5 guilty pleasures. oh boy. here we go.



1. shoes. you can ask my mom about this one as she's usually the one picking up all the shoes i leave lying around. recently i saw a nate birkus tv show where they said one of the signs of being a shopaholic is that you own more than one of the same thing - ex. the same shoe, just different colors. i argue that that is *not* shopaholicism, just good sense. if you find a shoe you like, buy it in a couple different colors so you can wear it more often! i'm trying to convince lisa that she really doesn't *need* the raise she'll get this year and therefore she should donate that extra money to a shoe fund for me. :)



2. books. i am never happy reading just one book at a time. right now i'm on 5 books with another 20 waiting on my bookshelf to be read and well over 100 more that i want to read at some point in my life. i blame my mom for starting my addiction to books. she used to make me read 30 minutes every day during summer breaks from school. at some point, i realized i could spend those 30 minutes reading things i actually *liked* and it all went downhill from there. i practically inhale books although i do try to read something serious that takes a while every now and then. to see the list of books i've read, am reading, or want to read, go check out my goodreads page.



3. disney channel/disney movies/anything cinderella. i know i'm supposed to be too old to enjoy any of that stuff but there is nothing better to me than watching the disney channel while doing homework to help you unwind or putting on a favorite disney movie to help you fall to sleep. i think i watched wall-e almost every night last summer and i regret none of it.

4. the big bang theory. not a thursday goes by that i'm not either watching this show or recording it to watch later...sometimes both. i think it's partly that this show has made me feel cool to be the nerd that i am. my favorite times are when they make some random science joke and not only do i laugh, i understand it and go "hey! we just talked about that in lecture this week!" i freaking love sheldon. and i love watching the new penny/bernadette/amyfarahfowler trio. especially when amy tries to fit into the normal "girly girl" role. and, yes, i own all of the seasons that have so far been released on dvd.



5. doctor who. yes, another geekish show but i dare anyone to watch an episode with david tennant and NOT love it. i'm still coming around to the new doctor but i think he'll do just fine. still, david tennant will literally have me laughing out loud every episode...which is why i usually watch it later at night in my basement room with the door shut. otherwise, my parents would probably think i'm even more insane than i usually am. okay, and i don't want to be interrupted while watching david tennant, either.

now i guess is the part where i'm supposed to nominate 3 other people for this award.

1. kelly at highly caffeinated and sometimes funny. though, really, i think she's always funny. plus she's adorable. i really don't think i've ever seen her angry. upset maybe but never actually angry. she's the other half of team #kelra.

2. kelsey at the adventures of an eclectic scientist. we went to the u together for a little while and also worked in the housing department for a year when i was a host and she was an ra. we didn't talk too often but i always admired her. she was one of those female science majors that i would look at and think "why can't we all be like that?" she's funny, smart, kind, and never seems afraid to stick up for her beliefs.

3. dan & amanda at team damanda. formally known as just dan and amanda, these two incredible individuals have become one seriously awesome couple. i was in access with amanda and i always love to be around her. she has the best ability for making me laugh. i remember sitting at the access lunch table in the union and she told two jokes: "what's green and goes through walls? a frog if you throw it hard enough." and "why did the monkey fall out of the tree? because it died." while the rest of the girls went "ohhh! that's so sad!" i was laughing my head off. i'm pretty sure i was laughing so hard i cried. dan is a pretty awesome guy, too. he did come to my 22nd birthday party, after all. and he and amanda gave me a ben franklin action figure. oh yes. i still have it. now if only we lived in the same state again.

i think that's good enough for you people for tonight. right now, i'm going to go eat my dinner then go off to the gym. oh yeah, i'm doing that again now that i actually feel well enough to do it :)

perfect day

so i decided to start a more personal blog. i already have one that i vent on about work/school stuff, but because of the line of work i'm in and privacy issues i can't really reveal my true identity. not that i ever talk about patients by name, but if anyone were to stumble upon it and figure out who was writing it, well, it wouldn't be too difficult to put two and two together.
i've basically been having a fabulous day. it started out with sleeping in super late (1:30 p.m. but give me a break because i was up until 3 a.m. the night before working on homework!) then after i finally rolled out of bed, i went to the grocery store. that's not very exciting. but it was raining! and autumn is coming! i'm so excited. i love living up at the U because the mountains are gorgeous during the fall. the tress are starting to change color around campus. and i just love rain in general. i even started singing that primary song to myself, the one that starts "i like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain." i don't think i've sang that song since i was 8 and getting baptized.
after grocery shopping, i really should have gone back home and started working on homework, but i figured i was already out, i could do some shopping first. i stopped by barnes and noble and managed to walk out with only one book instead of the usual eight or so. i got "brisingr," the third in the "inheritance" trilogy by christopher paolini. then i stopped by old navy to look for a homecoming dress and i found one! i can't believe i actually found it on the first try! i'm really excited to go to the dance on friday night. p.s. if anyone knows of any cute, single boys out there, i'm willing to be set up on a blind date for the dance!
after all that excitement i went to dinner with the parental unit then came back to my apartment to do some homework. that's not very exciting either. but it's not going so bad. i actually seem to know what i'm talking about on my organic lab writeup. yay!
speaking of homework, sometimes i get super proud of assignments that i've done really well, so i'm going to try and figure out how i can post them up here in pdf form or something so you can see what sort of stuff i'm currently working on. well, i'm only about halfway done with my report so i should get back to it. i just needed to take a quick break but i really want to get it done asap!