Things I Have Found

And thought you'd like. Until next time, Cheerio

Over & Out,

Rachel

When Book Lovers Go Mad

As the title suggests, every so often, there comes a time in my life when I go a little...crazy.

I don't scream or throw things. Or disrupt my life or anyone else's. No, when I go crazy, it's usually with...books. The library system is usually to blame for it. I go to the New Teen Materials section, as is my wont, and I just see all the books I want to read (but don't want to buy just yet) and I go a little...crazy.

Right now I've got five books lined up in my request queue, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Fox & Phoenix by Beth Bernobich, Unspoken: the Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan and finally, The Brides of Rockroll Island by Margo Lanagan.

All in all, quite a load. I just can't help it, they're free books. Just for the taking (or reading)! What sort of book-loving girl like myself is supposed to resist that?

The  first one on my list is Maggie Stiefvater's latest release, one I'm looking forward to greatly. I wasn't too crazy about her The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, but I adored The Scorpio Races to an unhealthy degree. Sean Kendrick's kind of my favorite monster tamer, ever. Seraphina has dragons who can turn into humans, and the uneasy alliance between them and full-blooded humans. Any thing with dragons, I'm pretty good. Fox & Phoenix has cool Chinese steampunk setting mixed with magic, and a snarky first-person narrator (courtesy of Amazon first looks).  Most of the books I see in the library system that I want to read, I go to Amazon, check out any previews they can give me. That's how I sift through the unlikely ones. That's why I decided to get Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, a sassy take on the classic Gothic manor story line (yes, sassy and Gothic are joined together), and just from what I've seen, I think I'm going to adore it inordinately. How does the main character's best friend describe her? "Your soul is like the soul of a thousand monkeys on crack, all smushed together."

I was sold on that line alone. Seriously, it's awesome.

And finally, The Brides of Rockroll Island, a melancholy, darkly fairy-tale look on the selkie myths, a current fascination of mine. I've yet to find any really good modern interpretations of selkie legends, so I've got high hopes for this one.

And there you have it; my current reading list. Reviews are nigh. Stay tuned!

Over & Out,
Rachel

Darn It All!

Taylor, why is everything you do so dang cute?

Now I need to go to Paris more than ever.

How A Book Interests Me

Now, I should come right out and say two things:

One: I am a creature of impulse and instinct. So far, when it comes to books, my gut has only failed me a couple of times. I'll get to that in a minute. For the most part, it's lead me to pretty straight to all kinds of wonderful books.

Two: I'll read almost anything. When I start a brand new book, one I've never read before, I look for a few essential elements.

1) A engaging lead character, with well-drawn secondary characters. It's the mark of a good writer who can handle a sizable cast and make every person distinct and clear-cut or have someone inexplicably fade into the background.

2) Some kind of interesting element that leads to the conflict.

3) A compelling and urgent conflict that leads the characters to a better understanding of themselves and the world around them.

Now, that being said, my book senses usually do not lead me wrong. I will invariably pick out something that satisfies one if not all of these criteria. Case in point: one of my dear friends Mary gave me a twenty-five dollar gift card to Amazon for my birthday. As a treat to myself, I bought two books that I really liked the look of and the reviews were overall positive and glowing. Defiance by C.J. Redwine and For the Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund.

Pretty cool, no? I could go on and on about how much I adored these books, but for now, I'll stick to Defiance by C.J. Redwine. This is her first ever novel, and she's done a fantastic job. Rachel (pure coincidence, I tell you!) and Logan, our heroes, are intelligent, strong, and real. They react to the situations they're put in like real people would. They have strengths and weaknesses. In this world, there is a Cursed One, a huge, terrifying beast that comes to the surface without warning and summoned by vibrations in the ground. The best description is a dsytopian future, though that puts the book in one small genre and it stretches across many. Rachel's father goes missing on a courier mission, assumed dead, and she is assigned to her childhood friend Logan's care, the boy who broke her heart at fourteen. Rachel is independent and fiery, taught by her father who to defend herself in a world where women are assigned "Protectors" and forbidden to go anywhere without them. Logan is rational, logical, a genius inventor who can hold his own in a fight. They go through all the spectrum of emotions and take the reader with them. That's what good storytelling does. It's the first book in a trilogy, so I await with bated breath for the next few installments.

Now, on a trip to the library this weekend, I picked up a new book, Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White. It had a key element that I look for: an unusual, original element, the Victorian language of flowers, something I've always been fascinated with. I thought, Oh this could be interesting. And I checked it out.

I tore through Forget-Her-Not pretty quickly, but to be completely honest, I wasn't all that enthused. I found the main character Laurel flat and somewhat uninteresting, despite the sudden loss of her mother to cancer and the awakening of a strange new gift in a unfamiliar setting: a boarding school. She doesn't react very well in a crisis, and the main male lead, her love interest, got almost next to no face time. He just drifted in and out of the story without purpose. The secondary characters were also flat, one-dimensional. The bullying mean girl trying to take advantage of Laurel's gift, Laurel's snarky logical cousin, the back-and-forth friend who can't make up her mind to be on Laurel's side or not.  This is not the say the book doesn't have its good points. There's some lovely descriptions of flowers and the renewing, healing power of gardens. So there is that.

Keep in mind, this is just my opinion. I'm sure they are people out there who want to disagree with me. But I like to have a certain kind of standard when I read books, what I expect and what I want from a book that makes me happy. And if I find a book that does that, I'll be its friend for life.

Over & Out,
Rachel

Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul

A milestone, you say? You mean besides actually writing something for almost two months?

Yes, besides that. I know, I know, epic fail on my part. But for some strange reason, I'm better at doing this blog of mine while I'm in school, maybe because summer is when my brain decides that there's been enough work and it's time to take a break. School is when I'm productive and my brain is firing on all synapses. But yes--back to the milestone. It is pretty important, I promise. Today is my twenty-first birthday.

Ah, the big twenty-first. Truthfully, it feels no different than being twenty, only now, I can go out and buy alcohol or drink it if I wanted to! A somewhat useless privilege, since I have no intention of doing it, unless I'm cooking and I need to make, I don't know, tiramisu or something. Or creme brulee. What other dish requires alcohol in the recipe? That's all that comes to mind at the moment.

It's been a quiet day today. Both my brothers are back at school, my parents are at work and my sister is in school. So I've had the day to myself. Honestly, I'm enjoying it more than you might think. I got to make a chocolate cake, which is currently in the oven baking and filling the house with the smell, which is no bad thing. We may go out to dinner tonight, but I haven't decided where to go yet. So it's still up in the air.

I'd like to say a few things I've learned in the twenty-one years I've been on this earth.

First: I am a strange, unique creature, but not so unique there aren't others like me. But it's always a pleasure and surprised delight to find them.

Second: my family is my anchor. Always. All of them, not just my adored brothers or my beloved mother, but my father and my sister and my uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces and grandparents.

Third: I have great friends. Truly, really great friends. I'm never going take them for granted. How can I, when I didn't have them for so many years?

And (I think this is the last one, or the only one that comes to mind at the moment) fourth: I can never, ever take this life of mine for granted. I can't, because "do not resent growing older, it is a privilege denied to many."  This privilege is one of God's many gifts to me, so I will remember not to resent it.

Over & Out,
Rachel

My Mind Just Exploded

WHAT?

I'm sorry, but...WHAT????

WHY DOES THIS LOOK SO AWESOME????????????

No, seriously. Why?

And also...GUILLIMERO DEL TORO AND WILLIAM JOYCE ARE IN ON THIS.

I just, I can't even. I CAN'T EVEN.

Ahem. I'm going to see this movie. There is no question. That is all.

Over & Out,
Rachel

Hello! Rachel Here

With some pretty exciting news!

Besides me actually WRITING something after being gone for a month.

*hears the crickets chirp*

I was busy. And unmotivated. This is no excuse, but there it is. Alas.

So, my news!

My church's youth group always does a big trip during the summer. We call it an "X-Tour," and I've been going on them since 2007. That was my first ever X-Tour, and it was a pretty awesome one. We got to walk fifteen miles in Death Valley, whitewater raft on the Colorado River, horseback ride in Red Rock Canyon, Utah, hike the Narrows in Zion National Park, and a whole host of other awesome activities.

This year, 2012, marks the ten-year anniversary of the very first X-Tour. So this year is is X-Tour X, where not only current youth group members can come, but also alumni, namely my brothers and I! We're looking forward to it like nobody's business, let me tell you.

For more information about our tour (which begins June 20), click here. That will tell you everything you need to know about where we're going, what we're doing, and who we're doing it for.

And now, MY NEWS.

Our pastor, Ron Hunt, knows that my brothers and I are really looking forward to going on this X-Tour X, and us being older and wiser (well, marginally) we would also be in capacity of chaperons. But for yours truly, Ron had a different task in mind. He is, in fact, a follower of this little blog right here, and asked me if I would consent to be their resident blogger for this trip. This would be the first time there has ever been someone actually recording the impressions and day-to-day experiences while on the trip itself. So I won't be writing just for my own personal journalistic pleasure, I'll be writing for everyone, what they think and how they're feeling and how they're doing.

All in all, somewhat intimidating for a girl whose main pleasure is writing for herself.  To be perfectly honest with all, I am not accustomed to receiving compliments on my writing, unless they're from my own family who knows me and is honest with me. If some random Joe off the street says, "Hey, I read your blog and I like it!" I tend to get nervous. Very nervous. And somewhat unnerved. So this whole resident blogger thing will be putting me out of my comfort zone, and I await it with considerable trepidation.

But the thing that makes me feel like hiding under the bed is that those as-of-yet unwritten blogs of mine will be shared on other social networking sites, like Facebook or Twitter. They will be read by seven hundred other youth group leaders and pastors, looking for ideas and inspiration on what to do with their own youth ministry. Aaron tells me my writing it acceptable (his words are "brilliant," but he is deeply biased), but to have my pastor tell me my writing is good, good enough to be read by seven hundred followers, well, it's a bit of daunting prospect. As I said before, I wanted to hide under the nearest convenient bed when Ron mentioned that little piece of information. This might come as a shock to you all, but I am not used to other people reading my writing.  Unless it's something like this, then I'm okay with it. But this newest venture scares me, and I hate being scared. But I've been scared before and I will not let that deter me.

We of the Flores Family do not flinch.

 So now, all that remains is for me to write it out, send it out and hope it works. Strangely, this tactic has worked plenty of times before in the past, so I have hopes for it.

Be on the lookout, all of you, for my posts from the Wild Lands! I send them out with hope and fear and something like joy.

Over & Out,
Rachel