Hello! It's certainly been awhile. However, I just wanted to pop in and link you to this amazing blog called Just a Blog about Books. It's really nifty, and I like it. There are a few different girls that write for the blog, and they all have such different, though insightful, things to say about the books they read. It's just a lot of book reviews, but it gets me thinking about reading something I've never heard of before. Most of the book titles and authors are some that I've never come across, so it's nice to get that kind of exposure. Check it out, if you feel so inclined. :)
Over and out,
Krista
Monday, May 23, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
Richard Castle is the mystery writer I can enjoy! Mary Higgins Clark could never keep my attention long enough, and Betsy Brannon Green was a tad too slow, but Richard Castle's writing is witty, engaging, and very exciting!
Heat Wave was a great read. I'm glad I didn't figure it out in the first ten pages--that always scares me off, fast. It kept me guessing, and was good enough for me to stay up several hours past my bedtime trying to get to a stopping place.
I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, Naked Heat! Bring it on, Castle!
.......
Haha... Yes, I'm a really big fan of the show Castle on the ABC. These books are the books published by Castle in the TV Show, but a couple of weeks ago I found out that ABC actually published books! I eagerly rushed to the Denton Public Library as soon as I got home and found the first book. I'm really glad it was good, and that it wasn't disappointing like a lot of books-from-TV tend to be. I'd really like to find out eventually who actually wrote this book, since Richard Castle is a fictional writer. I haven't been able to figure it out. Oh, well. Here's to hoping my library decies to buy Naked Heat sometime soon!
Heat Wave was a great read. I'm glad I didn't figure it out in the first ten pages--that always scares me off, fast. It kept me guessing, and was good enough for me to stay up several hours past my bedtime trying to get to a stopping place.
I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel, Naked Heat! Bring it on, Castle!
.......
Haha... Yes, I'm a really big fan of the show Castle on the ABC. These books are the books published by Castle in the TV Show, but a couple of weeks ago I found out that ABC actually published books! I eagerly rushed to the Denton Public Library as soon as I got home and found the first book. I'm really glad it was good, and that it wasn't disappointing like a lot of books-from-TV tend to be. I'd really like to find out eventually who actually wrote this book, since Richard Castle is a fictional writer. I haven't been able to figure it out. Oh, well. Here's to hoping my library decies to buy Naked Heat sometime soon!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Dear Blank, Please Blank
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this website. There are a few inappropriate ones here and there, but these things are so clever and funny! Some of them are kind of sad or weird, but whatever. It's still entertaining as heck. Here are a few samples:
Sincerely, Keith H
Dear doorknob,
Almost... just... please just... TURN... I want to get out of here!
Sincerely, just put on hand lotion.
Dear cold weather,
Thank you for making me feel like a dragon when I breathe.
Sincerely, a kid at heart.
Dear hairdresser with a neon blue and green fo-hawk,
Don't get any ideas.
Sincerely, I just want a trim.
Dear doctor,
No it is NOT ok for you to google my symptoms on your iphone.
Sincerely, what was med school for?
Dear world,
I've moved.
Sincerely, the Muffin Man.
Dear educated and skilled Titanic engineers,
Seriously?
Sincerely, Noah.
Dear Playgrounds,
Please become adult sized. Just because I'm 20 doesn't mean I wouldn't have as much fun as I did when I was 12.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
What Real Love Looks Like
Memoir for my creative writing final exam.~
If I’d thought it through, I might have spent more time sitting in my granny’s hospital room with my mom and the rest of the family instead of running through the stairwells, playing hide-and-go-seek with my cousins. I was ten years old. I knew better.
Bud, Darla, Tammy, Sandy, Rita, Kathy, Cinda, Jerry Wayne—everybody but the Utah branch of the family was there, including cousins and family friends and aunts that I’d never met. I don’t remember how many days she was there, but I do remember everyone being upset that a couple of days before, she’d been fine. She’d just been there for something routine and simple, but had gotten sick in the hospital. Adults murmured about neglectful nurses, who would take care of Papa, and who hadn’t come yet.
My mom cried and cried, and eventually made herself sick from it. I felt like I should do something to help her, but what was I supposed to do? Rub her forehead and tell her it was going to be okay like she did for me when I was sick? She had good reason to be sad. Her momma was dying. There wasn’t anything I could do for her. When I found out all the other kids my age were sitting in the lounge, I didn’t think twice about staying in the room with my granny hooked up to a bunch of machines and tubes, my sick momma sleeping on the floor, and every other empty white hospital floor tile being filled with a teary, mournful adult.
Sarah, Brandon, and I could’ve helped anyone walking in the front doors find whatever wing they were looking for in that hospital by the second day. We played around in the elevator, skipped down every hallway, and played hide and seek on the fourth floor when we got kicked out of the stairwell. We watched nurses bring newborns into the nursery, drank from the bottom of the paper cone cups we got at water machines, hurdled over bushes in the courtyard, and played “the white tiles are lava” so we had to hop from pink square to pink square all the way down the fifth floor hallway. We had an absolute blast. I’d heard of people being scared of hospitals, but at that time, I honestly couldn’t understand why. There were endless possibilities of fun for a three kids with lots of time on their hands. But then Courtney scolded her little brother.
Courtney was only four years my senior, but she was at least a foot taller, and the epitome of everything I wanted to be. She played the flute, was on the volleyball team, and nobody could ever find her when we played hide-and-go-seek at Granny and Papa’s house. She actually played with us for a little while, but after lunch, she stayed in Granny’s hospital room. Several hours later, when I saw her in the lounge, I invited her to come play with us again, but she declined. She was frowning something fierce, so I didn’t press it, and I ran off to find Sarah.
Before I was actually gone, however, I heard Brandon ask her why she wouldn’t play. Brandon and Sarah were a year older than I was, and Brandon and Courtney were brother and sister. Maybe that’s why Courtney got onto him, but didn’t say anything to me. I remember exactly what she said to him, because as soon as the words left her mouth, I felt the most debilitating sense of shame I had ever encountered.
“Don’t you understand?” she hissed at him. I peeked back around the corner to see her towering over him, her long curtain of light brown hair obscuring her face from me, but not from Brandon. He didn’t seem too concerned with what she was saying, but then, Brandon never really listened to Courtney back then. How many little brothers do? “Ni is dying, and you three are running around like a bunch of little kids. That’s not respectful.”
I knew the words weren’t meant directly for me, and had Courtney talked to me about it, she would’ve been a lot nicer to me than she had been to her brother, but I knew she was right. My granny was dying, and I was laughing and running through the halls.
When I shuffled into her hospital room to sit next to my mom, now claiming a spot on the window sill, the sad smiles and back-pats I got from a couple of cousins were probably meant to console my sorrow for my granny, evident by the tears running silently down my cheeks. I didn’t want her to die, of course. I was sad about that, but what was really eating at me was that I didn’t have the decency to sit there patiently, and just be with her in her last days. Guilt was what had an iron grip on my stomach.
It wasn’t until later, as I watched them bring my papa in and situate him in a chair that turned into a bed next to Granny that I really felt the mourning I should’ve been feeling the whole time. He cried, and muttered “Oni” as he held her hand as best as he could with his weakened ones. He’d been paralyzed for six years, and his loving wife had been taking care of him all that time, but then she was the one that was dying.
“Ni… I love you,” Papa whispered, and as I watched a tear fall helplessly from his blue eyes, I suddenly understood what real sadness looked—and felt—like.
If I’d thought it through, I might have spent more time sitting in my granny’s hospital room with my mom and the rest of the family instead of running through the stairwells, playing hide-and-go-seek with my cousins. I was ten years old. I knew better.
Bud, Darla, Tammy, Sandy, Rita, Kathy, Cinda, Jerry Wayne—everybody but the Utah branch of the family was there, including cousins and family friends and aunts that I’d never met. I don’t remember how many days she was there, but I do remember everyone being upset that a couple of days before, she’d been fine. She’d just been there for something routine and simple, but had gotten sick in the hospital. Adults murmured about neglectful nurses, who would take care of Papa, and who hadn’t come yet.
My mom cried and cried, and eventually made herself sick from it. I felt like I should do something to help her, but what was I supposed to do? Rub her forehead and tell her it was going to be okay like she did for me when I was sick? She had good reason to be sad. Her momma was dying. There wasn’t anything I could do for her. When I found out all the other kids my age were sitting in the lounge, I didn’t think twice about staying in the room with my granny hooked up to a bunch of machines and tubes, my sick momma sleeping on the floor, and every other empty white hospital floor tile being filled with a teary, mournful adult.
Sarah, Brandon, and I could’ve helped anyone walking in the front doors find whatever wing they were looking for in that hospital by the second day. We played around in the elevator, skipped down every hallway, and played hide and seek on the fourth floor when we got kicked out of the stairwell. We watched nurses bring newborns into the nursery, drank from the bottom of the paper cone cups we got at water machines, hurdled over bushes in the courtyard, and played “the white tiles are lava” so we had to hop from pink square to pink square all the way down the fifth floor hallway. We had an absolute blast. I’d heard of people being scared of hospitals, but at that time, I honestly couldn’t understand why. There were endless possibilities of fun for a three kids with lots of time on their hands. But then Courtney scolded her little brother.
Courtney was only four years my senior, but she was at least a foot taller, and the epitome of everything I wanted to be. She played the flute, was on the volleyball team, and nobody could ever find her when we played hide-and-go-seek at Granny and Papa’s house. She actually played with us for a little while, but after lunch, she stayed in Granny’s hospital room. Several hours later, when I saw her in the lounge, I invited her to come play with us again, but she declined. She was frowning something fierce, so I didn’t press it, and I ran off to find Sarah.
Before I was actually gone, however, I heard Brandon ask her why she wouldn’t play. Brandon and Sarah were a year older than I was, and Brandon and Courtney were brother and sister. Maybe that’s why Courtney got onto him, but didn’t say anything to me. I remember exactly what she said to him, because as soon as the words left her mouth, I felt the most debilitating sense of shame I had ever encountered.
“Don’t you understand?” she hissed at him. I peeked back around the corner to see her towering over him, her long curtain of light brown hair obscuring her face from me, but not from Brandon. He didn’t seem too concerned with what she was saying, but then, Brandon never really listened to Courtney back then. How many little brothers do? “Ni is dying, and you three are running around like a bunch of little kids. That’s not respectful.”
I knew the words weren’t meant directly for me, and had Courtney talked to me about it, she would’ve been a lot nicer to me than she had been to her brother, but I knew she was right. My granny was dying, and I was laughing and running through the halls.
When I shuffled into her hospital room to sit next to my mom, now claiming a spot on the window sill, the sad smiles and back-pats I got from a couple of cousins were probably meant to console my sorrow for my granny, evident by the tears running silently down my cheeks. I didn’t want her to die, of course. I was sad about that, but what was really eating at me was that I didn’t have the decency to sit there patiently, and just be with her in her last days. Guilt was what had an iron grip on my stomach.
It wasn’t until later, as I watched them bring my papa in and situate him in a chair that turned into a bed next to Granny that I really felt the mourning I should’ve been feeling the whole time. He cried, and muttered “Oni” as he held her hand as best as he could with his weakened ones. He’d been paralyzed for six years, and his loving wife had been taking care of him all that time, but then she was the one that was dying.
“Ni… I love you,” Papa whispered, and as I watched a tear fall helplessly from his blue eyes, I suddenly understood what real sadness looked—and felt—like.
Summer Reading
Summer is coming! Boy am I excited. Ten more days and I'll be lying in my queen-sized piece of heaven after a long, long, long drive. That being said, if anyone wants to suggest an audio book to me, by all means, tell me!
And on that note, I'm gearing up for my Summer reading! Oh boy. If nothing else (which there actually is plenty "else"--friends, family, Summer courses online, Texas, etc.), Summer means I have time to read. :) I definitely want to read these books:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Hero by Ron Woods (my Creative Writing professor!)
The Lost Saint by Bree Despain
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
Vampire Diaries, Return: Midnight by L.J. Smith
The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
The Work and the Glory, Vol. 1: The PIllar of Light by Gerald N. Lund
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship by J.R.R. Tolkein
Rachel and Leah by Orson Scott Card
Ava's Man by Rick Bragg
Othello by William Shakespeare
Tennis Shoes Among The Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
The Kite Runner by Khalad Hosseini
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboskey
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Yeah, okay, so I probably won't read all of these this Summer, but I intend to at least make a considerable dent in my list.
Now I want to know what you think. What are some of your favorite books? What are some books that you think I absolutely have to read? I'd also really like to find some LDS literature. I know my sister Kathy has some Betsy Brannon Green books; I think I'll look at those (I've already read Hearts in Hiding by BBG--really great book).
Any suggestions?
And on that note, I'm gearing up for my Summer reading! Oh boy. If nothing else (which there actually is plenty "else"--friends, family, Summer courses online, Texas, etc.), Summer means I have time to read. :) I definitely want to read these books:
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Hero by Ron Woods (my Creative Writing professor!)
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
Vampire Diaries, Return: Midnight by L.J. Smith
The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
The Work and the Glory, Vol. 1: The PIllar of Light by Gerald N. Lund
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship by J.R.R. Tolkein
Rachel and Leah by Orson Scott Card
Othello by William Shakespeare
Tennis Shoes Among The Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Kite Runner by Khalad Hosseini
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboskey
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Yeah, okay, so I probably won't read all of these this Summer, but I intend to at least make a considerable dent in my list.
Now I want to know what you think. What are some of your favorite books? What are some books that you think I absolutely have to read? I'd also really like to find some LDS literature. I know my sister Kathy has some Betsy Brannon Green books; I think I'll look at those (I've already read Hearts in Hiding by BBG--really great book).
Any suggestions?
Monday, April 4, 2011
Orgullo
This poem I wrote for my Creative Writing class is about people in America that celebrate their culture from other countries. Specifically, Mexican-American.
Orgullo
She flips her long black pelo forward
and brushes it nice and suave.
Two studs and one hoop in each ear,
todos de oro, and gifts from her novio.
Un crucifijo hangs from her neck,
marking her a Católica.
Everything else about ella
screaming her Mexicana American
pride.
orgullo – pride
pelo – hair
suave – smooth
todos – all
de oro – gold
novio – boyfriend
un crucifijo – a crucifix
ella – her
Mexicana – Mexican girl
Saturday, April 2, 2011
AVALANCHE!
My first semester at BYU, I took a Natural Hazards class. It was very interesting, and we learned a LOT about avalanches (so much so that by the end of the third week we were talking about them, I was really wishing we'd go back to mud slides). Anyway, I learned what avalanche damage looks like. When I went snowshoeing a few weeks ago, I pretty much spent my memory card on all of the avalanche damage I could see! It was such a big deal to me, and I couldn't believe it was that noticeable. Wow. I was just blown away. Here are a few of those pcitures:
I know I'm a dork, but you've got to admit THIS IS SO COOL!!!
*ahem* Well anyway... showshoeing was fun... :)
I know I'm a dork, but you've got to admit THIS IS SO COOL!!!
*ahem* Well anyway... showshoeing was fun... :)
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