Author Blogs and Websites

In no particular order...
(1 ) Stephanie Meyer author of Twilight and New Moon- There's lots of fun stuff on this page. Stephanie Meyer truly made this site for the fans of her books. It's got the standard news, faq, and a biography, but it also has excerpts from upcoming projects, playlists to match the books she's already written and pictures of her and fans from her book tour. (2) Jo Rowling author of the Harry Potter Series- This website is a blast. It's visually the most creative blog I've seen. The site is an imitation of her desk, which is apparently cluttered with gum wrappers. Everything on the webpage comes straight from JKR herself, which I love. It's very personal. Not only that, but there are lots of fun hidden games. Put certain clues together from all over her site and you get rewarded with first drafts and even doodles of characters by Jo. (3) Augusten Burroughs author of Running with Scissors, Dry, Magical Thinking, Sellivision, and Possible Side Effects- Augusten Burroughs webpage mimics his books. It's hilarious. My favorite part is the blog, which, unfortunately, he only updates every couple months. (4) Meg Cabot author of the Princess Diaries Series, The Mediator Series, Avalon High, and lots more- I don't go here very often, mainly because I don't read much Meg Cabot these days, but I though I'd include it because it's a really great site. Her online diary is updated very frequently and includes pictures of Meg, which is always fun. Most of the words on the site are written by Meg- so it's a great place if your craving a laugh.

I may do a continuous series of these "Author Blogs and Websites." It's inevitable I find more authors with great sites.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Part III: Falling In Love)

Here's a few favorite quotes from A Portrait of the artist as a Young Man. There are so many more I didn't include, but I couldn't put them all on here because a) it would take forever to type, b) I don't really want to ruin the book for anybody, but I do want some quotes available if you think you'd be into it and c) I'm probably crossing some legal lines here. I hope the copyright police don't come after me.

• "But you could not have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the world you could."
• "He thought that he was sick in his heart if you could be sick in that place."
• "The scalding water burst forth from his eyes and, burning with shame and agony and fear, he drew back his shaking arm in terror and burst out into a whine of pain. His body shook with a palsy of fright and in shame and rage he felt the scalding cry come from his throat and the scalding tears falling out of his eyes and down his flaming cheeks."
• "But when he had sung his song and withdrawn into a snug corner of the room he began to taste the joy of his loneliness."
• "He saw clearly too his own futile isolation. He had not gone one step nearer the lives he had sought to approach nor bridged the restless shame and rancour that divided him from mother and brother and sister. He felt that he was hardly of the one blood with them but stood to them rather in the mystical kinship of fosterage, fosterchild and foster brother."
• "By day and by night he moved among distorted images of the outer world."
• "... and the cry that he had strangled for so long in his throat issued from his lips. It broke from him like a wail of despair from a hell of sufferers and died in a wail of furious entreaty, a cry for an iniquitous abandonment, a cry which was but the echo of an obscene scrawl which he read on the oozing wall of a urinal."
• "The words of doom cried by the angel shattered in an instant his presumptuous peace. The wind of the last day blew through his mind; his sins, the jeweleyed harlots of his imagination, fled before the hurricane, squeaking like mice in their terror and huddled under a main of hair."
• "His flesh shrank together as if it felt the approach of the ravenous tongues of flames, dried up as it felt about it the swirl of stifling air. He had died. Yes. He was judged. A wave of his brain began to glow. Another. His brain was simmering and bubbling within the cracking tenement of the skull. Flames burst forth from his skull like a corolla, shrieking little voices: Hell!"
• "One soul was lost; a tiny soul: his. It flickered once and went out, forgotten, lost. The end: black cold void waste."
• "His blood began to murmur in his veins, murmuring like a sinful city summoned from its sleep to hear its doom. Little flakes of fire fell and powdery ashes fell softly, alighting on the houses of men. They stirred, waking from sleep, troubled by the heated air."
• "His sins trickled from his lips, one by one, trickled in shameful drops from his soul festering and oozing like a sore, a squalid stream of vice. The last sins oozed forth, sluggish, filthy. There was no more to tell. He bowed his head, overcome."

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Part II: On second thought... I still love it!)

I'm not exactly sure how to do a review on a classic. Clearly it's a good book if it's being read over 100 years after it's first publication. It's also difficult to pinpoint the plot of the book. When somebody asked me what it was about, I replied, "I don't really know how to explain it," yet here I am trying to write a review. Here goes nothing...

Set in Ireland, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man follows Stephen Dedalus spiritual journey from childhood to adulthood. Stephen, attends an Irish Catholic boarding school, where he struggles with his faith. There is also, parallel to Antigone, the question of is it right for a person to love his god or love his country running in and out of the novel. James Joyce based the character and plot upon his own personality and experiences, which I found very interesting. The emotions and fears displayed through A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man were very authentic; I felt like I was in Stephen Dedalus's head. The plot was really good, but it was the words I fell in love with. My favorite part of the book was the way Joyce wrote. His sentences were the most beautiful thing I've ever read. He knew so many words! Seriously. I spent a more time flipping through the dictionary reading this book then all the other books I've read combined. Normally looking up words is a pain, but I actually enjoyed it with this book because every single word was used perfectly. I almost feel like he made them up. It was amazing. I was very impressed. What can else can I say? I think everyone should read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Although, I hope it doesn't take you as long to finish as it took me. Even though it's my new favorite book ever, it took a lot of time. It's a hard book.

In case you were curious, here are a handful of those crazy words I learned while reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

1. "A figure that had seemed to him by day demure an dinnocent came towards him by night through the winding darkness of sleep, her face transfigured by a lecherous cunning, her eyes bright with brutish joy." Lecherous- excessive indulgence in sexual activity.


2. "He cared little that he was in mortal sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuge and falsehood." Subterfuge- deceptive device.


3. "...have room to a softer languor, the image of Mercedes traversed the background of his memory." Languor- A dreamy, indolent mood or quality.


4. "The chaos in which his ardour extinguished itself was a cold indifferent knowledge of himself." Ardour- great warmth or intensity, emotion, passion, desire, strong enthusiasm or devotion.


5. "It was strange too that he found an arid pleasure in following up to the end the rigid lines of the doctrines or the curch an dpenetrating into obscure silences only to hear and feel the more deeply his own condemnation." Arid- lacking interest or spirit.

See more reviews or buy A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at Amazon.com

The photo is the Statue of James Joyce on North Earl Street, Dublin. I stole it from Wikipedia.org.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Part I: Initial Reactions)

I can't believe this day has come. Finally. I have come to choose only one... A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is my number one favorite book ever!!!! It's official. I've found it. I've never really had a favorite book before, because I can never decide which I like best. In other words, this is big for me. 'How much did I love it?' you ask. I loved it this much...

A typical page in my personal copy of the book.

Yeah, you know a book's good when you write in it this much... or maybe it's just really difficult. I suppose A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was both.

I plan on doing at least one more post about the book. A review for sure. Maybe some favorite quotes as well. I guess we'll see how much free time I'll have the next couple days.

I suggest you order it from Amazon.com immediately.

Sorry to sidetrack, but the quote of the moment (from Catcher in the Rye) has been up the majority of March. My apologies. I've been meaning to change it. I really love that quote.

The Cover Art is Here!!!

The last big Harry Potter news story is here! The cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has arrived. It's so exciting. Not only are there pictures to go along with my future book, but there's also the summery on the inside cover. It's a little more information than I wanted this early, but whatever. I can't keep pretending it's never going to come out. I should be emotionally preparing myself for the end. I just can't believe this is all happening so fast. :-(

U.S. Edition

U.K. Children's Edition

U.K. Adult Edition

I'll probably post any other favorites I have from other countries cover art. They're all different, which personally I think is a lot of fun. I want it now, but then I never want it to be published either. This is so depressing.

Spring Break

So, if you haven't noticed there's been some absence of book reviews lately. The Five People You Meet in Heaven was the only one all March. Not to make excuses or anything, but I just has spring break, which I spent in Florida and the last couple days practicing and performing for indoor drumline; before that I was buried in rehearsals for Seussical. To make it up to you, here's some pictures from my vacation at Walt Disney World.

I want to grow up to be just like Mickey Mouse!

:-)

The biggest banana split I've ever seen... or ate.

Peter Pan's flight is our favorite.

The most fun ever!

Home Sweet Home

Heaven in a to-go box.

Hope you enjoyed the photos. The reviews are coming. Pinky swear.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a fairly popular book, but I didn't really have very high expectations. Mainly because I was always told Tuesdays with Morrie was Mitch Albom's best. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie and surprisingly The Five People You Meet in Heaven was every bit as enjoyable. Although both books are focused on death, Tuesdays with Morrie was about dying while The Five People You Meet in Heaven was more centered on the afterlife. I felt it was more character driven, as opposed to the series of homilies Tuesdays with Morrie was composed with. I believe this has a lot to do with The Five People You Meet in Heaven being fictional, not a memoir. The book starts out with an elderly man, named Eddie, who works at a carnival. He dies at the park when one of the rollercoasters breaks down. The book then goes on to describe his experiences in heaven. We've all heard countless different interpretations of heaven, but this one was completely unique from anything I've read before. In heaven he meets five different people (hense the title) who explain to him what his life on earth meant, what made him who he was, why he chose the things he chose, who he loved most and all that jazz. The five Eddie met are be those who directly influenced his life most, and sometimes the characters were a bit of a surprise. With every person comes a neatly wrapped sermon echoing back to Tuesdays with Morrie. The Five People You Meet in Heaven puts meaning into everybody's life. It was sweet, but not cliche or unoriginal--more so creatively sentimental. And even though what Eddie was going through was like nothing I'd experienced before, but I felt right at home in his world. By the way, this book is perfect for vacations or out of town trips. I read it in two days over spring break in Florida between naps and walks. It truely is a beautiful book. Personally, I don't understand how any human could read The Five People You Meet in Heaven (or Tuesdays with Morrie) and not like it.

See more reviews or buy The Five People You Meet in Heaven at Amazon or go check out Mitch Albom's official website.

Pullman, Paolini, and Pierce Interview Podcast

This podcast is a series of short interviews with three of the most popular fantasy authors, Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), Chirstopher Paolni (Eragon), and Tamora Pierce (Circle of Magic books). Personally , I'm not a big Paolini fan and I've never read Pierce. My main reason for subscribing to the podcast was Philip Pullman's participation. The eposodes were very short. I actually listened to all eight shows in only one or two sittings. Most interview podcasts are created with just the interviewer and the person being questioned. This one, however, was unique because all three authors discussed their answers together and further questioned eachother. This is the first and only Pullman interview I've come across so, inevitably, I found it very informative. It was a great way to be introduced to the man behind the words I read in The Golden Compass. I'm sure Paolini's and Pierce's readers would feel the same way. This interview doesn't focus on the author's personal lives, like many podcasts do. It's focussed around the writing process of the authors so if your looking for a biography, I wouldn't recommend it. If you're looking for information about how your favorite books are composed, this podcast is perfect.

The Pullman, Paolini, and Pierce Interview Podcast can be downloaded for free directly from the iTunes store. Just enter "Pullman Paolini Pierce" in the "Search iTunes Store" box.

Page H. S. @ SEGC Independence

It's been a while. Sorry. This past week is always the busiest week of the year, thanks to our high schools spring musical. Today was the last day of the show, Seussical. I play the clarinet in the orchestra. We've had endless hours of rehearsal the past two weeks. On top of that I've been occupied with winter drum line practices (See video). I'm still somewhere in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It's a hard book. It took me an hour and a half to read about fifteen pages the other night, which is slow for any reader, particularly me, who goes through books pretty quickly. My English teacher told me it took her a whole semester of college to get through Ulysses, also written by James Joyce. Anyway, here's a video of our winter drum line performance yesterday. The video only shows me for a second or two. In case you miss it, I'm the one conducting all this.

Wikipedia, Virginia Woolf, and Lemony Snicket

I was looking up some stuff about Virgina Woolf on Wikipedia.org
and I found this in the cultural references.

"In The Reptile Room, the second novel in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, there is mention of a snake called the Virginian Wolfsnake. The only thing said about it is that it should never, ever be allowed near a typewriter."

I'm probably the only person who found this funny, but I thought I'd post about it anyway because it made me giggle. I've actually read The Reptile Room, but I wasn't familiar with Virginia Woolf at the time and didn't catch the pun.

In case you were wondering, I'm about to start reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf for my Great Books class. I'm in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (also for Great Books). It's fantastic. In the words of Molly Shannon, "I love it! I love it! I love it!" When I eventually make a list of authors I admire most, James Joyce is definitely going to be included. More on that some other time, when I've actually finished the book.

That Virginia Woolf article is actually one of the more intriguing entrees about an author I've read. She seemed to be a very interesting personality. I'm looking forward to Mrs. Dalloway. Hopefully it lives up to her biography on Wikipedia.org.