Myspace Books

Move over Facebook.com! Myspace added a book section! It's the coolest thing ever. My favorite part is the 'featured books', reviews of new releases. You may also choose to rate or make comments about each featured book. I've read one of the reviews and I thought it was really helpful. At the bottom of each featured book's page there is a link to the author's Myspace profile, something I personally love. Myspace Books is very exciting and a complete surprise. I never expected Myspace to do something, not only for book lovers, but encouraging to those who may not do a lot of reading. It's great. Want to go check it out? Click here.

I also thought I'd mention that I'm reading Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner. So far it's pretty good. I'm not enjoying it as much as In Her Shoes, but I still can't manage to put it down. I'm mentioning this because I'm not sure if I'm going to do a review or not. I mean, I'm enjoying the book, but it's not turning out to be what I expected (not always a bad thing). If I'd read the back cover before I paid for it then maybe I would have been warned about the story I'm half way through now.

Aiko the Paper Doll

Whenever I go in the Cracker Barrel store, I'm amazed at how much junk people buy, but sometimes they have really cute junk, like this Japanese paper doll I found. Not only is it adorable, it's educational too (I have a bit of a thing for learning tools disguised as entertainment). It taught me about the 7-5-3 festival, which is a festival especially for 7, 5, and 3-year-old children, and how one would dress up for her wedding. My favorite part is how Aiko wears socks with her sandals. The wedding costume is also very pretty.

College Visit II: ETSU

This was actually more like College Visit V, but it's only my second post about it so II seems fair. I'd written this very lame synopsis about my visit to East Tennessee University earlier this evening, but after coming back and reading it a few hours after I'd published, I realized how pointless the post was. To sum up the important parts, I loved ETSU. After our tour, mom and I spent a few hours getting lost (intentionally) so we could see the area. Johnson City was a really cool place. I'm sort of high maintenance when it comes to entertainment. There seemed to be a lot to do. The residential part of town was adorable. All the houses looked something like this:



As you can see, it's perfect for me. There were lots of flowers and yard decorations. It was very easy to imagine myself reading and writing as much as I pleased in these little homes. I want one so bad, but I'll be living on campus if I end up going to school there.

I'm looking forward to college. Shopping for schools makes me really excited to finally go. When we got to our hotel in Johnson City I created a hypothetical schedule and everything. =) It'll be interesting to learn about a particular topic (my major) in such depth instead of the basic education we get in all subjects at high school. I learn a lot in all my high school classes, but I have to take everything (math, history, science) and when I go to college I'll be able to focus on what I enjoy most (English/Journalism?).

Just because I'm a complete goof, here are the classes I'm most looking forward to: Literature of the South, Descriptive Linguistics, History of Jazz, and Photo Journalism. We'll see if I don't end up changing my mind.

In case you didn't notice, I changed WRINKLED THOUGHT's layout again. Farewell juicy green blog that hurt my eyes.

I Lied

click to enlarge

I know I said no more Harry Potter posts, but I thought this comic was sort of cute. I found it while browsing the BLOGS OF NOTE in a post by The Caffeinated Librarian and I decided to steal it for the pleasure of my readers. It's a really fun blog. I suggest you go check it out.

Also, JKR just gave an interview that leads me to believe she is in fact planning on writing an encyclopedia type book about the Harry Potter world. I can't wait.

Reflections on Deathly Hallows *SPOILER*

I've been done with the book for about 36 hours now and although I'm still sort of processing, it's about time I posted some reflections. I came to the conclusion a review would just be an insult to Harry Potter fans everywhere this soon after the release. Deathly Hallows was exactly what JKR wanted it to be. Right now we're all just marveling in the book's perfection.


*SPOILER ALERT*





I KNOW IT'S TEMPTING,





BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED BOOK 7





OR IF YOU'RE ONLY HALF WAY THROUGH BOOK 5





(I'm talking to you mom)





YOU SHOULD STRAY AWAY FROM THIS POST IMMEDIATELY.





YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.




Okie Dokie. Where do I start? Some favorite points in the story (in no particular order) were...

• Sirius Black's magic mirror. I must admit I was slightly disgruntled in Half Blood Prince when there was no mention whatsoever of the walkie talkie mirrors. I was even more pleased that it turned out to be a fairly major plot point--Aberforth's reflection.

• Dudley's thanks. How poignant?

• Dobby's Death. I sobbed pretty hard, which surprised me. I couldn't imagine a better way of him going. He dominates the death eaters, gets back at the Malfoys, and tells Bellatrix off ("Dobby has no master!") without feeling the need to punish himself for bad behavior. I loved that Harry dug the grave by hand. The "Here lies Dobby, a free elf," about killed me. He's always been one of my favorite characters

• Leadership. We saw a glimpse of Harry's leadership ability in book five, but he completely took over in Deathly Hallows, which was a blast to read about. I knew he had it in him. I also enjoyed reading the subplots about Neville, Luna, and Ginny making an impact at Hogwarts. Especially Neville, but I'll get to that later.

• Lily. Learning about Lily was so much fun. The letter and the scenes in the pensieve were such treats. I have to admit, I've never been a Lily/Snape shipper so I was sort of shocked to find out the Snape loved Lily theory turned out to be accurate. I thought it fit the series perfectly and I was really excited that such a large percentage of the fandom guessed right. The Petunia/Lily relationship has also been long awaited and their story, though heartbreaking, filled up that gap of information more than I ever expected. I sort of thought that aspect of the books might remain a mystery forever and was relieved to find closure.

• Godric's Hallow. I've been waiting to see the village ever since it was first mentioned in book one. The statue of the Potters and the graffitied sign were beautiful.

• Dumbledore's imperfection. I thought I really liked Dumbledore before I read this book, but now I love him. I knew he had to of had some skeletons in his closet and learning about his past was extremely sad, but, in a weird way, thrilling.

• Godfather Harry. I thought it was really nice to see history repeat itself. The marauders are such a great subplot. It sucks that Lupin and Tonks are gone, but the Teddy/Harry relationship resembled the Harry/Sirius relationship too much not to smile at the thought and wish you could read more about it.

• The end of Bellatrix. Molly Weasley finishes off Bellatrix with quite a bang. That scene was hilarious and that line is probably going to be one of the most remembered from entire series. I've always gotten the impression Molly spends most of the time worrying about the boys and often forgets about Ginny. Seeing Mrs. Weasley stick up for her daughter was better than seeing her save any of her other children. I was rooting for Neville to be the one to kill Bellatrix, but the hilarity of that scene makes up for it.

• Ron. I've never been a big Ron fan. I mean, I guess I've always liked him okay, but it wasn't until this book I really appreciated his character. His return was so ideal. I mean, he gets to save Harry Potter. Not bad for a sidekick.

• Luna and Hagrid live. I thought they were going to die for sure, but luckily I was wrong.

• Fred. I saw that one coming since book three. One of the Weasley twins had to go. I'm glad Percy was there. Much better than George, which is what I thought was coming.

• Gringotts and the Dragon. Gringotts is one of my favorite places JKR created and we haven't been there since book one. The dragon guarding the vault was just icing on the cake. It amazes me how JKR mentioned dragons in Gringotts in the very beginning of her series because she somehow knew that it'd play a part in the far off future.

• Neville. Can we get a whoot for my favorite character (after Harry of coarse)? He shined in this book like no other character. I mean, he continued the DA, inspired other students no matter how much pain it caused him, figured out the room of requirement, risked his life to save Harry, killed Nagini--thus a part of Voldy himself, finally made his grandmother proud, and avenged his parent by fighting the Death Eaters. I love him. I love him. I love him. His success might be my favorite part of this book.

• Suits of Armor. Hogwarts fighting back is something I wanted to read so bad. I almost cried with joy when McGonagall got the armor to march down to the battlefield. It makes me get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. Having the battle at Hogwarts was also a plus. I couldn't imagine the finale of the series happening anywhere else (except maybe beyond the veil) especially with so much of the book occurring elsewhere.

• Harry wins with EXPELLIARMUS! In other words, love. It's one of the few harmless spells used for defense. I don't know what I would have done if Harry died (permanently), or worse, lost his powers. I'd've probably cried for weeks. The fact Expelliarmus is the saving spell was awesome because Harry's continually used it and more than once defended that spell as not being useless because he used it in book four and it saved his life. I thought it fit well with the theme of wands that ran throughout the book.

• King's Cross. To all the psycho extremist Christians who never read the books and claimed that Harry Potter was satanic, you could learn a lot from reading Deathly Hallows. KING'S CROSS for crying out loud! How can you actually believe these books are so evil with all the Christian values. Ugh. Ignorance kills me. The scene at King's Cross was incredible. I can't get over how beautiful it was--Dumbledore's wisdom combined with Harry's acceptance of death and Voldemort's undesirable fate was so perfect. I was really going to miss the Dumbledore explains it all chapter we get in every other book. I didn't think we'd be getting one due to a particular event in Half Blood Prince, but I was wrong. Thank goodness.

• Epilogue. The final chapter was not at all what I expected. When I realized I wouldn't be finding out about everything that happened from "I've had enough rouble for a lifetime" to Harry's death I was a little disappointed. JKR only gave us about a five minute peek into Harry's future. The truth is, that's really all we needed for closure and that's why the Epilogue was so ideal. At first I was slightly put off by all the opportunities for fanfiction, but that I realized that people were going to write fanfic whether or not she gave us all the details and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

All in all, Deathly Hallows was amazing and I can't imagine a better way of ending what's been my favorite story for the past eight years.

I'm thinking this is going to be my last Harry Potter post for a while. It's funny, seven of my twelve posts this month were related to Deathly Hallows. Somehow I'm not surprised. This is the only book that's come out since my life as a blogger began. I won't say I've overdone it, but it's probably time to move onto other literature: summer reading.

Feel free to post your own thoughts about Deathly Hallows in the comments. I'd love to hear what you all think.

Grand Hallows Ball

Originally I was planning on going to the Barnes and Noble Harry Potter party because that's where all my friends were going, but luckily the got some sense knocked into them and agreed to go to Borders (like we always do). As much I was wishing I had more time being an ignorant fan not knowing what's going to happen next, I went to the party because there was no way I was going to miss out on the fun.My buddy Robin drove. She looks a lot like Luna Lovegood if you ask me.

We got there early, but we still were some of the last to get the wrist bands that indicated the order of which people would be receiving the book. We were going to have to wait a while.

It was hard to believe in a few hours we'd be holding the book we've been waiting for for so many years. All of us reminisced about how when we read Sorcerers Stone, book seven seemed so far away.

There were lots of our friends there.

And the Borders staff gave us free glow sticks.


We met lots of fun characters from the books; this is Professor Trelawny...

and the Whomping Willow (does the Whomping Willow count as a character?)...

and a young Ron Weasley.

(Wanna know a secret? These release parties aren't really all that fun. We just go because we want to be able to get the book at midnight. We had to keep ourselves busy.) Mark worked on his summer reading.
Cassie tried to catch up on all the things she'd fogotten about in book six.

Ben and Corey discovered this... erm... interesting synopsis of the old testament.

We started to get pretty tired.

But soon enough, the sound of a drum echoed through the store. It was time.

The books were here!

Waiting in line got very boring so Robin and I decided to go pick up our copies at Wal Mart. We imagined the line would be much shorter there. We were right.

And then we got lost in the parking lot.

Catharsis

ca·thar·sis: (1) the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions (2) the feeling you get after you've just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last Harry Potter book EVER, for the first time.

Eight Hours, Thirty Two Minutes, and Twenty Six Seconds

Okay, so maybe I'm being melodramatic, but I'm seriously dreading the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's strange; I've been waiting for this day for a long time, but now that it's here I'm sort of freaking out. I even had nightmares last night that they sold out of copies before I had a chance to buy it. It's so hard to believe in a few hours I'm going to know how my favorite story ends. I've been reading these books since age nine, and the concept that after won't be anymore sequels is very difficult for me to grasp because I've spent the last eight years continually wondering 'What will happen next?' and after Deathly Hallows there won't be a 'next'. I feel like my childhood is coming to a very abrupt halt. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I can't help but associate Harry Potter with my childhood and now that one's ending so is the other. It's very depressing. The nights I spent laying in bed contemplating if Snape is good or evil, praying Harry and Hermione will get married, and wondering if Harry will survive book 7 are officially over. By tomorrow I'll know exactly how this story ends and right now I'm not quite sure I'm ready for it. I'd almost rather wait a couple years before reading Deathly Hallows, but then I'd be risking hearing about the end through somebody who's not the author. (I hate spoilers!) And as much as I'd like to savor the book, I know I'm going to devour it in one night. In case any of you were wondering how I was going to spend the eve of the release, I'll be at Barnes and Noble celebrating (?) with other fans, and probably crying my eyes out on the way home. There's been rumors a sorting hat will be at the bookstore. I hope I get Gryffindor, but in the words of Hermione, "I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."

The New York Times Spoils Deathly Hallows

The New York Times, after recieving an early copy of the newest Harry Potter book, published a review revealing plot details. I managed to avoid the review until I accidently came across some quotes through google. I'm not going to give any details, but I was very upset and closed the window as soon as I realized what I was reading. Why couldn't they had just waited till the 21st? By then all the hard core fans would have been through with the book. JKR says:

"I am staggered that American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children, who wanted to reach Harry’s final destination by themselves, in their own time. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry’s last adventure for fans."

Mission Trip

Here are some photos (courtesy of Laura Stancher's Facebook) from the mission trip I went on last week to inner city Knoxville TN. We had about 10 youth from our church, St. Andrew, along with 50 or so other ELCA Lutherans stay at St. Johns for about a week and help out serving various ministries in the area.

This is Aaron painting the Volunteer Ministry Center. We also painted the hallway. I wish I would have got a picture of that awful blue color the upstairs used to be.

This is Preston and his biggest fan. This photo was taken at the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission (aka KARM), a homeless shelter. A group went there and babysat the kiddos so the adults could have a meeting. Preston had the pleasure of being the only male coming from St. Andrew. I don't think he minded.

This is my friend Kaleigh and baby Heather at KARM. Heather is two monthes old. Kaleigh is seventeen years. =)

This is Kristen, a resident at KARM, and I. I've spent a lot of time with kids this summer so I left the babysitting up to my fellow mission workers and chatted with Kristen instead. We had fun.

The group did a scavenger hunt and part of our assignment was to take a picture representing a transformation. Our team did baptism, represented by our playing in the fountain. During the race, I had the interesting experience of being held hostage in a bathroom. I took a potty break towards the end of our little competition and found that the door wouldn't open. Another team was holding it from the other side demanding me to give them answers. You'd expect me to be angry, but I actually found the whole event to be hilarious! I about died laughing on the bathroom floor.

Elizabeth (blue shirt) and I met these two lovely ladies at Guy. B. Love, a sort of nursing home. We put on a Christmas in July pageant and then sat down with the residents for cookies. Valarie and Mary were hilarious. They told us all about their favorite Christmas memories and they even sang us their favorite song. I don't remember what it was called. They also asked us to pray that all the demons haunting Guy. B. Love go away.

Here's Emily B. trying on some of the kid ties while we hung up the baby clothes at Angelic Ministries. AM is a place where people can get clothes (for job interviews as well as pajamas), beds, toasters, shoes, strollers and other necessities. They pair each shopper with a guide who helps you find what you need and serves as a sort of spiritual mentor.

This is my youth leader, Sarah, cringing while we go through a series of trust falls.

This one was called "the wind and the willow". Elizabeth looks like she's enjoying these trust falls a lot more than Sarah.

This is me and my new buddy Gavin. He's quite a handful. I met him at the Wesley House, a summer camp for kids from lower income families.

This is a group of us and the Water Wagon.

What's a Water Wagon?

The Water Wagon crew walks around down town Knoxville and serves water to whoever is in need of a cool drink.

The Water Wagon was definitely a high point of my week.

Saint Andrew Lutheran Youth (plus Elizabeth).

WOW week 3.

J.K. Rowling on Jonathan Ross

Hilarious! (The videos I had put on here earlier in the week were deleted so they nolonger would play. Don't worry, these two work, you just have to ignore the spanish subtitles.)

part 1


part 2

Stephen King Mourns the End of HP

"When it comes to Harry, part of me — a fairly large part, actually — can hardly bear to say goodbye."

You and me both Stephen King! Entertainment Weekly published this very sad/funny/uplifting article written by Stephen King about his feelings about the end of the beloved Harry Potter series approaching so soon.

"No ending can be right, because it shouldn't be over at all."

Even though King is dissappointed Harry's story won't be able to continue on forever, he manages to wrap up his column reminding fans that there will always be other great stories.

"But there's comfort. There are always more good stories, and now and then there are great stories. They come along if you wait for them. And here's something I believe in my heart: No story can be great without closure. There must be closure, because it's the human condition. And since that's how it is, I'll be in line with my money in my hand on July 21. And, I must admit, sorrow in my heart."

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns has undoubtedly lived up to the expectations of Hosseini's fans. Just like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns was the beautiful, haunting, and powerful cultural tale of innocent people triumphing over violence. The book, set in Afghanistan, tells the story of two very different women. Mariam is the illegitimate child of Jalil Khan, the owner of multiple businesses and husband to three wives, and Nana, an ugly, bitter, and old maid who worked for Mariam's father. Laila is the child of a well respected teacher and his wife, a modern woman. Although Mariam and Laila each come from unique backgrounds, they both have experienced similar grief and loss. When the Taliban invades their city, Kabul, the two women find themselves being forced to serve the cruel Rasheed. Together Mariam and Laila suffer; the pain causing them to grow closer than ever expected. Their bond helps them overcome the violence they've faced and allows a new life to be started for their family.

Now let's compare and contrast. Is A Thousand Splendid Suns as good as The Kite Runner? I think one of the most intriguing things about reading The Kite Runner was how you feel like you're getting this very real cultural experience by simply sitting in a chair and soaking up words. Afghanistan is all over our TVs, newspapers, and computers here in the U.S., but I don't think the way of life is something many of us have a good grasp on. When I first read The Kite Runner I found that place, those people, and their customs to be so interesting because it was something I'd been exposed to continually, but didn't really understand. It was a complete different world from our own. Reading one of these books almost feels like reading a fantasy story because it takes you out of your normal environment and puts you in a place that's pretty hard to imagine without some help from your lovely narrator. That excitement, the thrill of a new place is sort of difficult to get back when you're reading about the same place you've read before. A Thousand Splendid Suns was a truly amazing book, but that world wasn't as intriguing as before because, well, I'd already been there. It you've never read The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns and you're wondering which book to read first, I suggest The Kite Runner. Unlike A Thousand Splendid Suns the book is set in Afghanistan as well as the U.S. so the contrast between the two places is very apparent. Read The Kite Runner first and then immediately run to your bookstore and buy A Thousand Splendid Suns. The $18.00 you'll spend is 100% worth it.

See more reviews or buy A Thousand Splendid Suns at Amazon.com.

Stephen Colbert "arguing" with Khaled Hosseini on BookTV

Colbert fans and Hosseini fans unite in laughter! This video is hilarious.

When I was looking up some Khaled Hosseini stuff on YouTube, I found out there's a movie being made of The Kite Runner. It should be released on November 2nd this year. The dialogue is in Dari, but there'll be English subtitles. It will be released in the USA (yes!). I think The Kite Runner would make a great film. I'm anxious to see how it'll turn out.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

Labels

I'm going to take a moment and define my labels.

Book Reviews include a brief summery of a book along with my personal opinion on whether or not the book was worth my time reading. Occasionally I'll include excerpts from the book when I can't quite capture the tone of the novel in my own words. I also usually will link to other reviews or a place to purchase the book (almost always amazon.com).

Diary posts are all about my personal life: my vacations, college visits, or stories. More than likely, a diary entree will come complete with photographs.

The Excerpts and Quotes label is pretty self explanatory. This is a place I can share my favorite lines from books, songs, poetry, movies and other art involving words.

Film Reviews are still a little unclear to me. I've only done one, so it's hard to define. I'm guessing it's exactly like the book reviews, except movies instead of literature.

Lists are pretty broad posts. Normally I do something book related, but I'm not limited to do so. Lists can be as simple as what I bought today at the book store or as elaborate as multiple book reviews about novels in a similar genre.

Podcast Reviews will be a synopsis of what typically happens on show, who the show is geared towards, and some fast facts, such as how long an average episode is, video/audio, or if the podcast is discussion based or interview based. I also usually will share my opinions about how enjoyable the podcast as a whole is.

Utterances are a way of sharing with the world advances in my vocabulary. Whenever I learn a cool new word I post. I call these entrees 'Utterances' because dictionary.com defines an utterance as "something uttered; a word or words uttered." I learn these words I'm posting about through real world context. Utterances have been, in fact, uttered in my presence.

Wrinkled Thought posts are very similar to diary posts, except these posts usually do not elaborate on my personal life. YouTube videos, news, book related school assignments, or just funny things I've picked up on are all fair game when it comes to these posts. I also usually include blog related announcements in this label, such as the post you are reading right now.

I'm glad I did this. I'm sure as time goes on this list will expand, but, for now, at least we're all clear on what to expect when you see something is stamped with any of the above labels.