Timber!!
Yay! Summertime! I haven't been this excited since I was a kid for summer to be upon me. Grad school is insane. I'm not taking any summer classes because I don't need to and because it's too expensive. So here I am working as much as I can, trying to reconnect with everyone I've been ignoring while in school (which is all my friends that I don't go to school with) and reading as many "fun" books (as opposed to required school reading) as I can. It's absolutely wonderful.
Before I finished my spring quarter I did get to read a "fun" book at night before I went to bed. It was really good, called "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana De Rosnay. I gave it to my Mom to read too and she loved it as well. She noticed a few weeks ago that they made a movie and that it's coming out in theatres in another week. She's so excited about the movie, which is awesome because I want to see it to. We'll go see it in the next few weeks, which should be a really fun afternoon.
As you can tell by the video above, I went to Tahoe for a mini vacation after finishing my first year. Boy did I need a vacation! It was so nice. I guess some of the trees up there get a disease, I think from a beetle or bug or something. Rather than it rotting, they cut them down, I think to ensure that they will not fall. It was really riveting watching them cut down these trees. I think I sat outside with my camera for over an hour watching them cut them down and then slice them. Pretty amazing stuff. Plus the guy cutting them down was training this other guy on how to do it, so I was enthralled listening to him tell the other guy how it's done. There really is a science to it.
I also read my first Kindle book. I bought my Kindle in November as I was getting annoyed with all my school readings. I have trouble reading them on my laptop and was spending way too much money printing them, plus the bulk of all them printed was sooo much to carry around. I splurged on myself and invested in a Kindle. It's been an amazing piece of technology. I put all of my school readings on it (for free!) and then can even highlight and make notes on it. I found out that Lisa See has a new book entitled, "Dreams of Joy" (a sequel to "Shanghai Girls") and decided to buy it on my Kindle. It is really cool to read a book on it. And the book was really good. You can tell that Lisa See does a lot of research before writing her books and this one was really amazing. The story and characters are fiction, but the time and some of the events are historical. She paints a picture of everything so beautifully that you can tell that she did her homework in order to make it as realistic as possible.
Then I read the "Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Wow. They were really great. Apparently the movie is coming out next year with the girl from "Winter's Bone" as the main character. I think the movies will be just as good as the books. It was a great story. A distopian post-apocalypse futuristic society. A female teenager as the heroine. Really great.
Now I'm on a kick of girly books. I'm reading all 5 of the Emily Giffin books. I have read "Something Borrowed" and it's sequel "Something Blue", which were really good. Now I want to see that movie. I just finished yesterday, "Baby Proof" and have started "Love the One you're With". I have one more after that. I still also have a bunch of books piled up to read, so I am in no need for more, but somehow I still keep adding to my pile and book list.
And I found out that the newest and latest Haruki Murakami book comes out on October 25. I may have to pre-order that one as another gift to myself. :) I love his books and can't wait for this new one. I also really want to read the new Ann Patchett book as it's about the Amazon and I am pretty much obsessed with books about the Amazon.
I've also found a new obsession with Antarctica. For my spring quarter I had to read a book about Shackleton and the ship the Endurance, which was really great. Right before I read that I was reading a book about famous feuds through the ages and one of them was Scott vs. Amundsen. It was really fitting, finding out who got to Antarctica first and all and knowing a little bit about Scott and Amundsen before reading about Shackleton. I also watch and love a show on Animal Planet called "Whale Wars". The show documents these guys who are trying to foil the Japanese whaling ships' whaling activities. On last night's episode one of the whale war ships went out on a distress call because they were closest to where these guys were lost. There was a really crazy storm and these Norwegian guys were going out to commemorate the anniversary of Amundsen being out there. It was heart breaking as they found the life raft but with no one in it. It ended with the only 2 out of the 5 guys being found. It was so sad and the whale wars guys were so upset and hoping that they would be able to find them. I think I want to read more about missions to Antarctica. This is how it starts with me! My Amazon obsession started with Candace Millard's book "River of Doubt" about Roosevelt on the Amazon. Now that one is a really great read too! And I've read my fair share of maritime books with Nathanial Philbrick' "In the Heart of the Sea", which I'm sure I've written about before.
I'm off to Skype with my brother and niece!
Hope you are all reading great books too.
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