Happy Birthday to me!

Well, another birthday has come and gone. It was so much fun; I went to school and then did homework! Yay! Now begins the one year countdown until I can get my license! :)

Inkdeath is Here!

After three long years of waiting, Inkdeath is finally here! What a great almost birthday present! I got it tonight, so that's what is probably going to occupy most of my time this weekend. I'll probably even still be reading during my birthday party on Sunday, I'll be so into it...;)

I officially love Borders! I tried to get it at Barnes and Noble, but they said it wouldn't be coming out until October 7th. But there it was right in the front at Borders...:)

Have a great weekend!

The Three Meme and Baltimore Book Festival!

First item of information, there's going to be a Baltimore Book Festival! Here's some info on it.

13th Annual Baltimore Book Festival

Where: Historic Mount Vernon Place centered on the 600 block of North Charles Street, 21201 Baltimore, MD.

When: Friday September 26 from 5-9 pm

Saturday September 27 from 11 am-7pm

Sunday September 28 from 11 am-7pm

Website: http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/

Obviously I can't make it here in Utah, but if you're in the area you should definitely check it out!
Now I'll do this cool meme Danielle tagged me for!

Rules: 3 Catagories-3 MUST read books
3 Keep your eyes on these,
3 Look for these soon.

Then I’m going to tag three bloggers. They will copy these lists, but will subtract one and add their own.
(And please keep the additions 2007-09)

MUST read books:
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen*
Undercover by Beth Kephart

Keep your eyes on these:
Identical by Ellen Hopkins*
The 13th Reality by James Dashner
Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale*

Look for these soon:
Cybele’s Secret by Juliette Marillier
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke*
The Smile by Donna Jo Napoli

* are my additions

I tag whoever wants to do this!

I'm seriously considering homeschooling...

So I'm about a week and some odd days along in my last year of junior high at the public school that I've been going to for two years. And at this point it just hasn't been going very well for me.
My sister is considering doing homeschooling, and I think that I might too. My mother is thinking about it and I just need to talk about it with my dad now.

I am just not enjoying public school. Half of it is busy work, the students and people there are aggravating, the options very limited. If I did homeschooling I could do this Electronic High School that is available in my state and take some classes that they did not offer at my school. Plus it would give me chance to get ahead and not waste so much time with unimportant assemblies and teacher advisary classes like I'm doing now. I think that it would be an okay choice academically.

My mom is worried about how I'll do socially if I do decide to drop out of public school. I personally don't care, but I don't want to do anything that I'll regret.

So some opinions would be very much appreciated (especially from you folk that are homeschooled.) So what do you think?

First Day of School

So I had my first day of school today. And truthfully it was pretty boring. And long.

I always feel discouraged the night after my first day of school too. I don't why. Even if nothing really went wrong, I still do. Huh.

Where Did Summer Go?

So what do you think of the new layout? I think it's quite refreshing. The other one served me well for a good four months, but a change was nice.

I haven't been blogging as much lately, but I'm going to start up again and do it quite a bit once school starts. I start on Monday and have been putting off getting ready for it. I pretty much have everything I need, but I need to prepare emotionally and mentally. I am not ready to let go of summer. It feels like it's just started. Today I had my last summer violin lesson. I've been quite sad to say goodbye to all the lazy summer days where I had all the time to read and go online in the world.

I talked to one of my school friends on the phone yesterday, and that was fun because I haven't talked to her all summer. I'm actually quite happy because I got into all the classes that I wanted. My sister is in five of those classes with me. I have to sign up for an online class tomorrow, which is something I've been putting off for two days.

So I'm just trying to enjoy these last few days of summer. It always ends far too quickly.

Breaking Dawn-Stephenie Meyer

*There will be spoilers in this post. If you haven't read the book yet, don't read this. It will contain major plot spoilers.*

I went to get this at midnight at Barnes and Noble, and after waiting in line for an hour and a half, we finally got the book at 1:30. I just barely finished it this evening, so I'm still kind of processing everything. I'm probably going to be rereading it within the next couple of days, because there is still a lot of stuff that I still need to take in.

Okay, so the book is divided into three books. It starts out in book one with Bella's point of view with the wedding and the honeymoon. The wedding was really not what I was expecting and I was a little disappointed. I felt that it was really rushed, and they didn't have as many details as I thought there were going to be. The honeymoon was also a huge shock. I had heard rumors that Bella was going to get pregnant in Breaking Dawn, but I couldn't even imagine that they were true. It was very surprising, and you're just thinking "Wow, this book is a lot different than I thought it was going to be."

Book two then switches to Jacob's point of view. At first I was like "No! This will be just like New Moon all over again." I didn't really like it, and it stays that way for about three hundred pages. I have to admit, Jacob is a funnier narrator than Bella and soon you get so caught up in the story, it doesn't really matter. I really liked how Jacob creates a stronger bond with the vampires in this book, especially with Edward and Carlisle. I also loved how he and Leah became better friends. Those were some of the things I really liked.

Book two ends with Bella having her baby and Edward changing her into a vampire in order to save her life. And that is not all. Jacob imprints on the baby as well. There were a few things that I didn't like about this part in the story. First, the baby's name was just weird. Renesmee? I didn't like it. Also, I hated how the only reason that Rosalie was being so kind to Bella was because she only cared about the baby. I really hoped that they would have become better friends by then, which they do later, but I still didn't like it in that aspect. And really, did Jacob have to imprint on the baby? Between him and Rosalie, you're kind of like "Okay, it is Bella's baby here. Come on guys." I also that Edward would have a deeper connection with the baby as well. I know that he resented it at first because it was killing Bella, but I hoped that he would get better afterwards. He did a little, but not as much as I would have liked.

Then it's book three with Bella as a newly born vampire. I truthfully wasn't expecting that. I almost thought for sure that Stephenie was going to leave her human. But I think that she turned out all right. I thought that it had a weak climax, and I was extremely disappointed at the end when they didn't resolve anything with the Volturi. This was the last book! It gave me a really nervous feeling at the end because you know that they're going to come back. I really wish that they could have resolved things and not just let it hang like that.

I liked the end of the story, but it didn't completely satisfy. Sure they defeated the Volturi for now, Nessie was saved, Bella's a vampire, Charlie kind of knows, Jacob is a friend again, etc. I just really didn't feel like that was it. I found myself craving for more, even though I already got 754 pages. It just didn't feel like the end. Sure, it ended the way that the books were supposed to end. Bella and Edward got to be together forever. Maybe with multiple readings the ending will feel better to me.

So overall, this was a very different book from the others in the series. I could almost say that it was a companion book and not actually part of the books. Stephenie did throw in many surprises, and in the end I liked it. I liked it better than New Moon and Eclipse at least. I'm still kind of in denial that this is really the end (even though I am kind of relieved.)

So now am I more excited for the movie? Not really. I think my excitement kind of decreased actually. But I think that the book did what it needed to do, so I'm okay with it. I'd give in about three and a half out of four stars.