Read a new book:
That's right, two books this month! I honestly could have gotten three in BUT I'm watching my money - between my trip this weekend and the holidays coming up and blah blah. I'm just happy I read more than one. I would high five myself but that would be weird, right?
I'm clearly on a John Green kick. The first book I ever read by him was 'The Fault In Our Stars' back in March. So my Kindle suggested some of his other books. And I figured why not!
Paper Towns by John Green - I started with Paper Towns and by the first page I was FREAKING OUT. Why? Because of this:
"Our subdivision, Jefferson Park, used to be a navy base. But then the navy didn't need it anymore, so it returned the land to the citizens of Orlando, Florida, who decided to build a massive subdivision, because that's what Florida does with land."
I'll get to the whole Orlando thing in a minute but my first freak out was when I read the part about a subdivision that used to be a navy base. I immediately knew what he was referring to. I used to take swimming lessons at that navy base. I used to watch the navy base's firework show on the 4th of July from my Grandparent's backyard. I remember the construction of the subdivision. And once built, I went to open houses of these beautiful homes, not because we were planning on moving, but just because we wanted to see what the inside looked like. You can see what is now Baldwin Park from across the lake while in the backyard of my grandparent's old house (still hard grasping that it's not theirs anymore). The buildings are the backdrop to all of our wedding photos. That side of town means a little more to me.
And so, the majority of the book is set in my hometown, Orlando, which is beyond fantastic. I have NEVER read a book set here. EVER. It's so cool reading his descriptions of downtown, I-4, and various neighborhoods. It's weird (and also awesome) reading a book where I can see the place he's talking about in my mind because I've been there too. I don't have to imagine it, I already know it. It's a fun way to experience a book.
Side note: According to Wikipedia, John Green was born in Indiana but his parents moved soon after he was born to Orlando.
The whole Orlando thing was awesome but I was really happy that it wasn't the only good thing about the book. The book started out fast and kept on chugging along. I was just as curious as Q to figure out where Margo had run off to. As I read the last part of the book I was disappointed at first but by the time I finished it I realized I had already changed my mind. The ending wasn't what I had pictured but I liked it after giving it some thought.
Synopsis below taken from John Green's website.
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge–he follows.
After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues–and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.
Fave quotes:"If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years."
"It's a penis," Margo said, "in the same sense that Rhode Island is a state: it may have an illustrious history, but it sure isn't big. "
"You see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town."
"The last time I was scared," Radar says, "I actually had to face a Dark Lord in order to make the world safe for wizards."
"Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are."
"Like, each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen - these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open in places. And I mean, yeah, once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable…But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it's only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs."
Looking For Alaska by John Green - This book reminded me a lot of 'Paper Towns' but not so much that I was bored with it. Q and Miles seem a lot alike and so do Margo and Alaska. In fact, I didn't like the girls (Margo and Alaska) very much. I didn't get what each boy saw in them but I don't think they knew either. Another similarity with 'Paper Towns' were the pranks. Both books have so many awesome pranks. So awesome that it made me want to go back to high school and try them myself on some people. I enjoyed the little quirks of the characters, especially Miles' love for famous last words. The book has a 'before' section and an 'after' section. Each chapter counts down (Ex: 100 days before…) which made me super anxious to find out what the author was referring to. All in all I enjoyed the book in pieces. As a whole it wasn't my favorite and I feel like there were slow parts but there were also some pretty great parts as well.
Again, synopsis taken from John Green's website:
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Fave quotes:
"You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present."
"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."
Give or help out in some way: I read this post a few weeks ago and my heart just sunk for this little girl and her family. At the end of the post there was an address and a list of things she liked. So I went out and bought her HelloKitty stuffed animal, HelloKitty coloring book and crayons. Dustin took it to the post office for me earlier this week. I have kept up with her story through Instagram and blog posts and I believe she just went home from the hopsital this week. I hope our little package makes her happy. Here's to a fast recovery!
Bake a new recipe: Check! I made pumpkin cupcakes with homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I made these for our Halloween party and although I think they were a hit, we had so many left over. The recipe made SO many. I was pretty happy with how they turned out. You really can't go wrong with pumpkin.
Write a handwritten letter: Check!
Save: I did so good with saving this past month. I've noticed I am able to save a lot more the fewer trips to Target I make. I love me some Target but damn does it take all my money. Ha!
Travel: Fail. I went no where!
Outside: It's only just begun to cool off here in Florida and I've been loving every second of it. But even before that, I spent TWO nights outside in the muggy weather for my high school reunion. And last Friday, when it was GORGEOUS out, I sat in my car and ate lunch with the window open. I realize this isn't completely outside but I was close enough by letting the outside in! It's a good start.
